Florida District Men's Conference 2004 - Scott Graham - 3/13/04

[Music] oh [Music] he's [Music] nobody [Music] [Applause] one more time well he healed my body [Music] [Music] nobody [Music] he's my [Music] yes i've got a reason to shout i've got a reason to lift my hands i've got a reason to praise god anybody here today that god's blessed already anybody got a miracle today anybody feel loosed in jesus [Music] oh yes god is great hallelujah great is the lawyer is the lord for great is the father great is the son great is the holy ghost these three are one jesus jesus jesus is his name i've come to tell you great is the lord who grieve is the lord for great is the father great is the sun great is the holy ghost [Music] [Applause] jesus [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] great as a father great is the son great is the holy ghost [Music] jesus [Music] jesus jesus jesus is his name praise him hallelujah praise him right now worship the lord one day we're gonna walk on streets of gold we'll be able to look the savior in the face the one who saved us by his grace hallelujah praise god have to see loved ones who've gone on before me and my friends who've been gone [Music] for so long [Music] and they're on streets of gold king jesus i'll be home and what a day our first day will be the weary shall lay down all their burdens and the sick they're gonna give up hold their pain and god's own hand he'll wipe away every tear from my rise and death death itself shall die oh what a day our first day in heaven when we finish the story untold i'm gonna sit down with my [Music] blessed savior and what a day our first day will be oh what a day our first day the story untold i'm gonna sit down with my [Music] blessed savior and what a day our first day will be and what a day our first day will be [Music] [Applause] we're bringing to this pulpit brother scott graham not a stranger to any one of us served our organization as our general youth president a great preacher of the gospel pastoring in florescent missouri now we're happy you're here brother graham come preach to us [Applause] praise god it's a wonderful place to be today amen i've been richly fed by being here i told somebody yesterday if that's just a little talk from brother mooney i want to be around someday when he pins his ears back and preaches just a little talk he gave us yesterday and what brother john shared with us last night i need to check on plane tickets to fly him to st louis it'd be a good thing for our congregation to hear amen thank you brother williams and the district board for allowing me the privilege of being here this district has been very kind to me i was thinking on the plane on the way down here um other other perhaps than than illinois where i grew up or missouri where i have lived and held my license for the last 10 years or so i doubt that there's another district anywhere in this fellowship that i have been in as many pulpits and been there as often my sister uh she called me the other night since i've been here on my cell and she said something about you know what's going on and so i'm in florida she said do you pay taxes down there or something and she said you have a second residence she said every other time i talk to you it seems like you're down there i said well i don't know they've been kind to me i married a floridian and you all have been sweet to me ever since uh everybody except perhaps brother easton has been bitter about it ever since because i moved her up north but it's always a treat to come and i i'm honored to be here i i for the big part of the last several years a great portion of the preaching that i've done has been to our young people uh by virtue of the role that i've filled i preached a lot of youth youth stuff and youth meetings and youth things and and i'm i'm having this this like generational something happen to me here it's a little sobering and a little scary somehow i um i'll turn 40 this year and i'm okay with that i it i'm too ignorant to be bothered by it i guess i'm all right i got a phone call the other day i was at my office at the church and i took this call and this gentleman on the other end said hi i'm i'm so-and-so and i'm the youth pastor at such and such and church and he said um he said we've got this this youth uh meeting a week and a youth convention thing coming up and uh he said i it's very important to my youth group very important our church big thing on our youth calendar he said i really need to get somebody here that can connect with my kids he said you know a lot of guys can preach we got a lot of great preachers but he said i need somebody that can really minister to my young people i need somebody to connect with them it's very important to me and he said that's the reason i'm calling and so in my vanity i start reaching for my calendar to which he then says so that's why i called i thought maybe you could give me some names of some young guys that could um that could connect well with my kids i laid my calendar down i said i certainly can and then i took a geritol and went to bed so i'm coming to grips with this thing you know of not staring into teenagers faces quite as much but i'm delighted to uh to be here and to attempt to minister to you here today now um the lord does all things well and and he um he what i'm about to say they told us in bible school and preacher classes to never say sorry i was probably not the first class i didn't listen well in um i came down there had a set of notes already i thought it was pretty good sermon the lord didn't seem to impress but i thought it was pretty good uh i had these notes all written out and thought you know and over the course of yesterday uh in service yesterday morning the lord began to whisper to me a little bit and and you say what did he just then make up his mind no it wasn't his fault i just didn't listen very good ahead of time now you sit there and look sanctimonious like you've never not heard him the first time he spoke to you go ahead give me that religious look very good give me that thing like you know you're so holy you can't take a bath because the water parts every time you start to get in i understand that i know you're perfect i understand i know however i on the other hand the lord has to speak to me repeatedly sometimes and so god began to talk to me yesterday about something i just i've not preached this anywhere i did not see the notes to this message i typed them out late last night and i didn't even see them in print so i got here and the computer wizard lj harry had them printed out for me and uh so the first time i saw these notes is about 30 minutes ago lord i hope there's some good stuff in here somewhere i'm not sure it made more sense at two o'clock this morning than some of it did a little while ago when i looked at it just now so if ever a man was dependent on the help of the lord you're looking at him this morning but i have something to say to you i'm real comfortable with that um and i don't know exactly i just feel like god's gonna help us here today and minister to us i want to i want to direct your attention to micah chapter six and verse number six and because we have varied customs why don't we all stand because some men feel more comfortable doing that and so i want you all to be comfortable micah chapter six and verse number six and it's probably up here behind me at lj harry something else isn't he guys the real deal i got very tickled standing over here though next to him while the singing was going on brother you do a fantastic job but you changed songs at the drop of a hat and every time you do that he was picking up your hat trying to find it you know and get it up there and just about the time you started one he that wasn't in his list so he started typing to put the words in here real quick and just about the time he got it ready hit the button you changed songs again and he never did get it up there his stress level is he's just odin over here on stress micah chapter six and verse number six the bible says wherewith shall i come before the lord and bow myself before the high god shall i come before him with burnt offerings with calves of a year old will the lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oil shall i give my firstborn for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul no those are all kind of rhetorical questions here's the answer he hath showed thee o man what is good and what does the lord require of thee but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy god now i wonder if you just put your bibles down and lift your hands and your voice to heaven and ask the holy ghost to speak to you here today whatever he wants to say to you would you open your heart right now to receive it oh father do something sovereign among us here today everything you wish to accomplish among us jesus that's what we want to hear everything you want to say to me let it start in this man today everything you want to say to me help me to hear it in jesus name in jesus name you can be seated today we are definitively and unquestioningly called to walk with the lord much has been written and spoken about this topic i myself have on different occasions preached about the importance of walking with him if you read through the pages of scripture you will find places that we are charged to walk uprightly we are charged to walk worthy we are told to walk humbly first thessalonians 4 and 1 paul left these words with the church at thessalonica when he said furthermore then we beseech you brethren and exhort you by the lord jesus that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please god so you would abound more and more paul said i want you to do one thing i want you to get better and better and better at walking with the lord men you need i need to have a personal walk with god oh yes i want you to be committed to your church but you can be committed to your church without walking with god yes i want you to be tied to your family but there are some good dads that don't walk with god yes i want you to be loyal to your pastor but you can be loyal to your pastor and not walk with god paul said if we get one thing straight the others will all follow get your hand in the hand of jesus christ and every day when you get up walk with him jesus looked at some folks one time they said herod is looking for you he's going to kill you the lord said i've got to get to jerusalem because i got to get there before anything happens to me and so he said you go tell herod that my agenda is set go tell herod that i know what i'm doing tell him that today i do miracles and tomorrow i perform healings and the third day i'll be perfect but then he said but tell him nevertheless i must walk today and tomorrow and the next day you know what he was saying i may be doing miracles i may be performing healings but more than all that nevertheless all the time i'm doing it write it down nevertheless i shall walk now you be as spiritual as you want to be give me that sanctimonious thing you can shout with a choir you can jump to your head bangs on the lights up there but in the middle of all those religious activities i want to know are you walking with god you tell herod i'm doing miracles but i'm walking you tell herod i'm doing feelings but i'm walking you know what i'd like to know i'm glad you're paying ties are you walking i'm glad you could shout at men's conference but are you walking but that's not really where i'm going because i've preached that elsewhere but if walking with god is that important to him and can we agree that the lord would like all of us to be walking with him daily it's important folks i think god puts more value on it probably than we do if we listed it out see and maybe i'll get there in a minute if we listed it out we we would have this scenario like this you walk and then you run and then you fly finally you get spiritual enough that your relationship with god takes on wings and you fly with them and god does it all in the other order they that wait upon the lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as eagles they shall run and not be weary and then finally if they serve me long enough and get enough things straight they'll finally arrive at the point of spiritual maturity where they walk with me because anybody can fly the night they get the holy ghost big deal anybody can run for the first month but when the attack comes and the feeling's gone can you learn to walk with him and so if walking with god is that important that it kind of stands to reason that it must be high on the devil's to-do list to do anything to us that could stop us from walking i am convinced the enemy would love to make you quit walking he would delight in destroying your walk he would be thrilled in so strategically attacking you that you would stop walking he'll let you keep giving if you won't walk he'll laugh at your holiness standards if you're not walking he'll even endure your sunday night shout if he knows there's no walking on monday and so the question then is what is it that stops a man from walking i don't guess there are many folks around i can get down without a chair the task may be getting back up or without ripping the seat of my britches or something and now there's nobody in this house going to get me a chair because you all want to laugh when my britches rip i know i don't guess there's many folks around that know a whole lot more about walking than peter jenkins no not peter jennings peter jenkins peter jenkins was a product of the 60s somewhat a wild-eyed radical liberal the anti-war movement of the 60s attempting as he left that decade in the early 70s to find himself and he wanted to kind of discover who he was he had been part of the flag burning protests and all that so sort of thing and he kind of wanted to find out about this america that he had grown up loving and then somehow kind of come to hate and his story is quite fascinating and so in order to discover this country he decided to walk across it now he didn't ever study geography i mean i'm sorry uh geometry he didn't know that the shortest distance three two points is a straight line so he left new york state with his toes in the water of new york harbor and he walked down through new york state down the appalachian trail all the way down across the smokies the blue ridge mountains and all the way down through the carolinas across georgia and alabama and new orleans and then headed west went across louisiana across all the way across texas which is yeah and eternity out of texas into new mexico and turned north and went up through utah and all the way up through colorado and wyoming over the rockies up into montana turned west and went across idaho and oregon to the pacific ocean five years five thousand miles of walking he'd walk till he ran out of money and he'd stop and get a job earn up money to finance a little more of his trip and he accumulated along the way the most amazing set of stories of incidents that happened to him phenomenal i mean he did he did just wild stuff he he was all he worked on our offshore drilling rig for a while and he hunted alligators professionally for a while and he he he went on a cattle round up in montana and he he spent a year i mean one one of the winters up above 13 000 feet in the rockies in a one-room cabin in lake city colorado and he wrote two books and he made a fortune and i've read them both they're fascinated first was called walk across america and the second one's called the walk west an amazing collection of stories of people he met he started in 1973 finished in 78 people he just walked down the road people take him into their house for three or four days amazing stories it's fascinating reading however the thing that is most intriguing to me was that in a magazine interview now it wasn't in the book itself but in an interview that i read with him in a magazine when these books were kind of big they asked him the question out of all the things you endured what came the closest to making you stop they said we read your books you suffered temperature extremes from 120 degrees plus in new mexico to more than 30 below as you went over the cascades in oregon he was hit by a car his dog cooper is malamute that was his his best friend was hit and killed on the journey he was mugged at knifepoint in new mexico he suffered thirst until he drank out of cattle troughs and puddles along the side of the road he didn't die and very didn't fare sumptuously as the scripture said he was hungry he was sore he carried 70 pounds on his back for five years and they asked him what came closest to making you stop walking was it the heat was it the cold was it when you got hit by the car was it the loneliness was it what was it what drove you to the point of almost stopping what came closest and he said i'll tell you what was the closest to making me stop it was the sand in my shoe he said see before i ever set out from home i expected to get hot before i ever started my journey i knew i'd be cold before i ever set out on my way i knew that i'd get tired and lonely but i tell you what i couldn't anticipate it was that everyday little stuff that got down in my shoes and no matter what i did i couldn't get rid of it and it rubbed me today and it wore on me tomorrow and i knew that the next day it would still be working on me and i knew when i got up next week it would still be there and i tried to clean it out and i tried to rub it clean and i got blister after blister because sir when you're walking i couldn't find an answer for the sand in my shoes and i believe that the devil kind of operates the same way have never now maybe you have i don't think i've ever seen anybody stop walking when the doctor said it's cancer in fact if anything they get more faithful they don't miss monday night prayer meeting during that season of life i've never seen anybody that backslides and walks away when the vicious attack of the enemy comes but i'll tell you what i've seen men do i've seen them stop walking because of the sand in their shoes it's not the big thing that gets them it's that day-to-day wearing down it's that day-to-day grind it is that hurt that will not go away it is that little frustration that keeps working on you day after day after day after day i'm preaching to somebody here today that better hear what i'm telling you if you're going to keep walking we're going to have to find an answer for the sand in your shoes no matter how you try to get it out it's still there no matter how many times you come to the altar it's still there and every step you take it hurts more than the last one and you have only hope of tomorrow another day of sand in your shoes you hear me today it's not the huge assaults that get us we expect those we anticipate those before i ever set out on this journey i knew there'd be days of sickness before i ever set out on this journey i knew there'd be days of loneliness before i ever set out on this journey i knew there'd be days at the graveside of loved ones i don't enjoy it but i came prepared for that but it is those little nagging daily attacks those little small words that get down inside of me and they hurt and they fester and they wear on me it is that daily temptation that the devil brings and i say no and then he comes back the next day and i say no and he comes back the next day and i say no until finally he wears me down until i say i can't walk any longer and i give in it's okay sit there and look tough big and bad i don't care but if you keep flirting with that lady long enough if you keep playing around with that stuff long enough there's going to come a day that the sand will wear away at you until you can't say no it's not the big attack it's the sand in your shoes it is those daily weary grains of sand in our spiritual shoes that convince us not to pray today we'll pray tomorrow it is those nagging weary pressures of the job that bring you home so tired that we'll catch up on the bread chart tomorrow it's not the boulders thrown at us but it is the small otherwise insignificant grains of sand oh but the sand has amazing power that was my brother barnum's church on thursday and i came by there during the day and here's a good man i don't know if he's here today is that gentleman here that was working on the outside of the church there he is he was up there with scaffolding tools not quite that clean and he had this big gaping hole in the side of the church not clear to the inside but down to the rebar everything was concrete and that section was missing i said what are you doing he said oh we had a little crack i cleaned it out i guess you did glad you're not a dentist i said what'd you do he said i got a sandblaster and the concrete was worn away inch by inch by the persistent unending attack of a series of grains of sand see we don't have a lot of sand in missouri but i married a floridian i remember coming down here we were engaged we went out to dinner visiting her family and we left her family we went out to dinner and and the sun was setting and she said we you just got to go watch the sunset over the ocean you just got to see it you know because where i'm at they make a big thing out of the mississippi river ugly as sin you know but they go the river and so we went out there and decided we would kind of stroll you know hand in hand up the up the beach there at sunset and it was pretty and all that so she but the wind started to blow i don't know if that happens much of sun down around here you know not no beach here i know but you know i don't know if that's common or not can't speak to any of your normal weather patterns i only know one thing pretty as she was i was ready to go home because the wind began to pick up the sand how painful can a stupid little grain of sand be very i'm a grown man i sat in your class i'm as much man as the next one of you except that time i had a kidney stone and then there were questions but this six-foot fella was reduced to a whimpering pup by sand that pounded on me and fretted at me and i couldn't deal with it i was looking for a way out i was looking for somebody to let me go now mind you by itself that one grain of sand might not amount to much but when it's teamed up with 20 others and 200 others and 20 000 others and they hit me today and tomorrow and the next day he wears away in my joy until there's no praise left and he corrodes my faithfulness until missing a wednesday night that's not such a big deal after all i'm getting sandblasted and it hurts to walk i'm trying but every step it's still there it is the sand in my shoe and i believe the bible teaches me some things about the validity of this truth look if you would at psalm 42 and verse 10 where the psalmist said as with a sword in my bones mine enemies reproach me while they say daily unto me where is thy god it's not just that my enemy says it but he says it every day oh my enemy walked up to me once and said where's your god i'd say right here and he came up tomorrow and said where's your god i'd say right there but after the 478th day of that enemy hitting me with that question it becomes like a sword down in my bones until i finally get up one day and say i don't know where he is i know it's just words but they reproach me every day paul what is it that wears you paul what is it that beats you down well he told us in ii corinthians now you get a load of this are they ministers of christ i speak as a fool don't anybody say amen right now i am more and laborers more abundant in stripes above measure in prisons more frequent in deaths oft of the jews five times received i 40 stripes save one that's 39 for those of you mathematically challenged thrice was i beaten with rods once was i stoned thrice i suffered shipwreck a night in the day i've been in the deep in journeys often in perils of water and perils of robbers and perils of my own countrymen in perils by the heat that in perils in the city it perils in the wilderness and barrels in the sea and you turn it before i finish reading it in perils among false brethren in weariness and painfulness and watchings often in hunger and thirst and fasting's often encoded naked to stop paul i can understand why you'd quit walking my god look what he's been through paul said no before i started i was ready for all that so what almost got you paul look at the next verse besides those things that are without that which cometh upon me daily it's not a beating every six months that gets me it's that thing that hits me daily i'm telling you i'm in the spirit right now you better hear me it's not going to be that crisis every six months that'll make you backslide it's that that hits you daily you'll not quit walking because the doctor gives you a bad diagnosis you won't quit walking because you get a pink slip you won't get walking because quit walking because somebody turns their back on you but it's that everyday everyday battle it's the sand in your shoes that's systematically and methodically and maliciously wears and grinds at us it wears away at my footing that's biblical language look at exodus 18 18 when jethro looks at moses and says you're taking too much you can't handle all this thou wilt surely wear away it's just it it's not an amputation the devil doesn't ever come up and just cut your legs out from under you he just wears your feet away david knew about this psalm 73 and verse 2 when he said this as for me my feet were almost gone what happened david did the devil come up with a machete and cut him off no i just kept looking at the prosperity of the wicked and every day when he pulled out of his parking lot in that lexus and i was driving my 1972 fiat it wore away at my walk a little more every day when i looked out and saw how he was prospering it wore away at my feet a little more and a blister turned into an ulcer and the ulcer turned into an amputation until finally i didn't have anything left to stand on the preacher said walk with god and he said but look what life has done to me day after day the old testament tells me that it is the little foxes that spoil the vine the vine is not ruined by ravenous grizzly bears howling wolves and roaring lions in fact if i understand the tenor of scripture right god has a mechanism in place to deal with lions and bears he's got a shepherd that quite often will interpose himself between the lion and the flock and kill that rascal but i don't ever find david saying there was a fox that came out against us and i went out and grabbed him and just slapped that rascal upside his pointy little snout davis i was too busy fighting lions to deal with foxes i was too busy chasing off bears to deal with foxes pastor can't keep all the foxes off of you they're gonna run in and nip at the flock they're going to run up behind you and snatch a little tuft of wool out of your hindquarters they're going to come up and nip and yap and bother you and pester you day after day after day until finally a little blood begins to flow there and another little blood begins to flow there it's just the slightest wound at first but it goes down into your innermost bee and then it's another and another and another and tomorrow it's another hurt and the next day it's another suspicion and the next day it's another question and the next day it's another doubt it is nothing more than the sand in your shoes now i found out something when i married a floridian found out several things most of which are not specific to florida i just found out a lot of things when i got married you did too and we're still finding out but you don't understand now i grew up in the midwest i grew up in southern illinois and uh things are different i don't know but fellows here i i had a young man in his church come up and tell me one time i preached down here in orlando and rolled back to your church you remember that with your church van some of these young people were telling me about the best places to go scuba diving to run into a shark you'll have to excuse me as a midwesterner it seems to me the best place to scuba dive is that point at which you will not run into a shark they began to tell me about now you think i'm kidding they told me about the best place to go out to throw rocks at alligators okay i don't get that he told me about going down and scuba diving and little barracudas would be asleep in the water they said you can run up yeah with your kid he is genetically responsible for this well these little barracudas that you could run up and you could they fall asleep in the water he said you can run up just touch their tail and they they dart forward so what's fun is to put your hand right in front of them and then touch their tail and they bounce off your hand i said and how do you tell they're asleep a little z's coming out in bubbles i mean how do you know that things asleep i just things are different the baddest animals we got in illinois missouri are bunny rabbits so we shoot those at a distance with shotguns i don't get what y'all do down here i just i don't understand but one thing i discovered very quickly is it is just about nigh on to impossible to get all the sand off your feet we took that walk up that beach while we were engaged on our 10th anniversary i was going it's pervasive it's intrusive it just you can't get rid of it now the little shower things there you know when you go out and and then you get your feet good and wet so what's that do it makes the sand stick your feet you walk back your car and i know you all sitting there you got all kinds of tips everybody's going to come up and have church you know spray it with teflon or something i don't want to hear about it pam you know all i can tell you is that i'd work and work and work and thought i got it all off and then as soon as i took two or three more steps it was rubbing at me again now if it had been on my hands i probably could have done better with it i can get that much nigh closer to my eyeballs and i can inspect and i can rub and i can i can cleanse more thoroughly my feet are a long way down there getting farther every year i'm not exceptionally good at inspecting my feet i only know when they hurt i only know when the sand of life is rubbing on them but it's hard for me to get close enough to my own feet to get all the sand out of my shoes gratefully i've come to understand something in his kingdom god never intended for me to wash my own feet because jesus told them by example he riseth from supper and he laid aside his garments and he took a towel and he girded himself and after that he poureth water into a basin and he began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with a towel wherewith he was girded the lord looked at them and said i understand there's some stuff got on you that you can't get loose from and i don't expect you to do it by yourself i'm going to get on my knees and i'm going to take the sand off of your feet [Applause] and so later in the chapter he said this if you know these things happy are ye if you do them he said if i wash your feet you ought to wash one another's feet no i'm not talking about whether or not you have foot washing service on new year's eve i'm not talking about bringing in basins with literal water if you do that god love you that's wonderful i am talking about every time we get together we need men of light precious faith that'll come up to somebody that's hurting and say i know life is working on you i know the devil's after you but i'm going to get on my knees in the prayer room and i'm going to get some sand out of your shoes i beg of you gentlemen i know what the holy ghost has commissioned me to say we're in this place together and the guy next to you has a shoe full of sand and the guy next to you his feet are about worn away and if somebody doesn't get down and get that sand off his feet by next year he's going to be crippled and he won't be walking with god when he gets here i beg of you men watch for somebody that's limping in their walk watch for somebody that slowed down in their journey get the towel of prayer get that intercession and wrap it around you humble yourself and get on your knees and wash the sand off their feet when you see somebody limping don't just stand off to the side and hope they recover don't just say god let the pastor preach a good one tonight no i beg of you get down there and say i can see it better than you here let me get that one off of you let me pray that one off of you we need more foot washers in the church to this we are called there is a danger in this self-sufficient i can make it i don't need anyone pull myself up by my own bootstraps mentality no you can do a lot of things but you can't wash your own feet there are two verses in scripture in very close proximity which would seem on the surface to contradict one another the first of those is galatians 6 and 5 where the scripture says for every man shall bear his own burden but three verses later in verse two it says this bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of christ the key is found in the fact of the word that has translated burden there the the the one that says letting him bear his own burden that word burden just means his workload everybody ought to do their own workload everybody ought to take their share of the work everybody ought to shoulder their part of the load of what it takes to move the church on down the tracks everybody ought to bear their own burden and you are not leave your soul winning for somebody else to do and you ought not leave you're praying for somebody else to do and you ought not leave your work in the kingdom for somebody else to do but that's not what galatians 6 2 is talking about galatians 6 2 that word is burden talks about a weighty load you see but brother graham it's just sand he ought to be a man he ought to be able to deal with sand oh did you know that in proverbs 27 and 3 and i didn't give you this one lj i'm sorry in proverbs 27 and 3 it says that sand is weighty it's not a light thing he's carrying oh it would be if it only hit him one day but day after day after day after day that man sitting down the pew from you is having his walk with god worn away by the burden of the sand and so i tell you this today as i finish in order to have your feet washed you've got to be willing to let somebody know they're sandy you got to be willing to be man enough to admit that you're not man enough what is it in the male psyche that compels us to try to act like we're not hurt when we're hurt a couple of years ago the night before youth congress four years ago when i was fix to go to youth congress in atlanta and and on that on that sunday morning i was leaving town on monday on sunday morning i got up and walked down my hallway about four in the morning i got him in the bathroom i went down to check on my daughter uh to be sure she was covered up because she never stays that way and so i went walking down the hallway and it was dark it's four in the morning of course and i'm not awake anyway and as i'm strolling down there i had forgotten that my wife had already packed her suitcase and left it laying in the hall and as i walked along the little toe on my right foot where nothing harsher than a washcloth has been for 10 years caught the wheel on that thing and i i buckled and it was dark i knew it hurt and i got over to my daughter's doorway she's got a little nightlight in there and i i stuck my foot out like that take a look at it and my little toe my little toe as todd gaddy told me later he said it strikes me brother graham that toes and right angles do not belong in the same conversation gentlemen when i look down at that my wife said i bet that hurt she's very very perceptive that lady i'm married has a keen grasp of the obvious i said no i thought it hurt it didn't hurt when i grabbed that rascal and pointed it back north that's when it hurt she said i didn't hear you scream i said no i quoted scripture when you look down at four in the morning and see four your toes pointing north and one i'm pointing east a verse in the book of james comes to mind that says brethren these things ought not so to be telling you what now i have youth congress coming up that week and then the following week we're going on vacation in orlando and doing all the disney scene not like i'm doing any walk in the next couple of weeks so i straightened that thing out i took a roll of tape his doctor's not gonna do anything to it if you go they're just gonna tape it up so i taped it up myself and paid myself a thousand dollars i wrapped that thing all up and you know it's hard to feel terribly heroic about dropkipping drop kicking samsonite i mean if it had been a war wound i'd have taken crutches to church that sunday morning what happened to you a little child was on the railroad tracks and i dove across there and rescued her you know but it's hard to sound real tough kicked a suitcase so you know what i did don't you pop down three extra drink tylenol six extra trunk tylenol taped that thing up put on the widest pair of shoes i had and i went to church and bless god ain't nobody gonna know there's nothing wrong with my feet i had sweat breaking out across my brow everybody in their dog walking up to me what's wrong with you touch rheumatism maybe i don't know all right why was i so embarrassed to admit that something little was affecting how i could walk why are you so ashamed to admit that a grain of sand is working on your walk i ought to be able to handle it no god never ordained in the church for you to wash your own feet might not it be that's why the scripture says confess your faults one to another brother i've got this thing i can't get off of me would you pray for that yes i will and i've got this little frustration that's working on me would you pray for that and two men can go to their knees and get the sand out of each other's shoes that they can't ever get out of their own and you know what happens no sooner is that thing gone then the pain leaves and you kind of start walking different you might be amazed at how somebody could walk if you just get down and get the sand out of their shoes don't sit back and criticize get in the prayer room and get the sand don't sit back and point fingers get down on your knees and get the sand out of his life i want you to stand i beg somebody today don't stand there and hide your limp don't raise your hands and go through motions and go back home with the same herd in your soul that you've carried since you were a kid close your eyes right now because we're too intimidated with each other's looking do you understand that under the sound of my voice right now there are grown men that were sexually molested as children and it has worn on you for 40 years it affects your walk and you can't get rid of it somebody whose daddy walked out on them and left your mama to try to raise you and your siblings and never sent any money and never sent you a birthday card and it's hurt ever since oh but i'm a man and that's a stupid little grain of sand yeah and you can't wash your own feet god there's a lady at my office that continues to flirt with me and i've told her no and i've turned away and i've but every day got this pornography addiction every day i've got this bitterness of somebody hurt me and i've carried it every day i've got this little fight that a guy in the church and i had 15 years ago every service when i see him in the choir it rubs at me and it wears at me and it's it's not even a big thing anymore it's not a big bowl i'm not worried about a landslide it's just sand in my shoes we need some foot washers in this place today you know what my my call today is really even less for somebody that's hurting for somebody that would help somebody that's hurting my call today is really not so much for you to get the sand out of your shoes as much as i'm just asking for somebody to be willing to take the sand out of somebody else's life you know your church you know the men you worship with it's not that they're backslidden it's just that their feet are sore and they're trying to have a walk with god and something is working on them you know what i'd love to have it all over this place i would love for somebody to just start taking some sand out of somebody's life i'd love for somebody here right now to just turn around and lay hands on somebody and begin to minister to them i wish all over this place some of you would i know it's just symbolic but i think it'd be so good if some of you get down on your knees and lay your hands on somebody's feet and say my brother i'm gonna help you walk for god i'm gonna you walk with god i'm not gonna leave you suffering i'm not gonna leave you hurting i promise you this i'm going to be your brother i'm going to take care of you i'm going to minister to you come on we need an altar service all over this house today oh i can't eat [Music] you could get out of your pew lay your hands on their feet and say i'm gonna take some sand out of your shoes [Music] pray for somebody in this house you don't know what's working on them today how close he is to quitting his journey you don't know how tired he don't know how bad he's hurt please please please take some sand out of his shoes [Music] come on folks all over this place pray for somebody get out and move a little bit don't just stand there get out walk over to somebody across the way lay hands on their feet and pray for their love with god [Music] you don't know how long it's been since the sand first got [Music] he's been hurting for years he's been wounded for years [Music] [Music] it's been hurting for so long [Music] it's affected how he can raise his kids cause that herd has worked on him for years and years and you have the power to get it out of his walls you can wash it you can wash it you can wash it you can wash it without you holding my hand oh yes i can't even walk without you holding my [Music] is [Music] without you holding without you holding my hand oh [Applause] [Music] down on my knees [Music] without you holding my hand [Music] [Music] high [Music] [Music] [Music] without you holding my hand i can't even walk without you holding my hand oh the mountains [Music] [Music] knees [Music] i can't walk they that way upon the lord shall renew [Music] strengths

Channel: Florida District United Pentecostal Church

Views: 314

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: VyfP9pI9sak

Length: 67min 18sec (4038 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 17 2020