Herb Reavis "The Power of God" 3-21-17 PM

your Bibles tonight and turn with me to the Book of Luke the Book of Luke chapter 3 the Book of Luke chapter 3 and tonight I'm preaching on this subject the power of God the power of God from the Book of Luke chapter 3 and I'll begin to read in verse 21 the Bible says in the Book of Luke chapter 3 and verse 21 when all the people were baptized it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized and while he prayed the heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon him in a voice came from heaven which said you are my beloved son in you I am well pleased God ask for what I cannot borrow what I cannot buy what I do not deserve I ask for the touch of your grace that would enable me to preach is a dying man to a dying world Lord fill my mouth with your words in my mind with your thoughts and Lord again we ask that we decrease in you increase and I pray this prayer Lord in Jesus name Amen when I graduated from high school I had decided that the Holy Spirit was leading me to attend the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago never visited the campus never much been out of the little town in Texas where I was raised but I had in my heart a burning desire to preach the gospel the Lord called me to preach when I was 17 and I felt in the beginning that maybe the Lord wanted me to be an evangelist and I bought me a white suit because in those days in Texas in the summer all evangelist wore white suits men I had white shoes a white suit I even teased my hair up my hair's kind of flat I use baby shampoo I wanted to have that evangelist hair man I teased my hair up man and so I read about that great evangelist dry del Moody and they had a school named after him that he founded in the eighteen hundreds up in Chicago so my dad loaded me up drove me up to Chicago unloaded me and I began my studies for the ministry there I used to pass by a building that had an unusual plaque on the side of it few years ago it took my oldest son his wife on a vacation up there and we went back he took a picture of it it's still there a plaque on the side of a building there Moody Bible Institute and this is what it says near this place Dwight L Moody knelt and asked God for a school and that amazed me when I would stand and look at that that this humble man back in the 1800's knelt near this place and asked God to raise up a school that continues to this very day to prepare people for ministry it amazed me that a man who never went beyond grade school in his education never attended a Bible College never had a seminary class never was formally ordained to the gospel ministry that this man Dwight L moody church historians say took two continents and shook them for God when he preached he would say ain't and he would say Kate he was preaching in a big crusade mispronounce steward and after the service was confronted by a haka falutin woman who said mr. moody you mispronounced a word he said ma'am what did I say before that word she said I don't remember he said ma'am what does say after that word she said I don't remember he said lady if I hadn't said that word you wouldn't remember nothing would you a man who preached before princes and presidents and shook the world of his day and continues to influence people to the cross of Jesus Christ as I stand and look at that plaque I'd ask myself in my heart how do you explain that and it just hit me one day it's the power of God he had the power of God I used to go up into the library and I'd said it a study table and I would pull off the shelves all the great biographies of all the great preachers and Christians and all the great histories of all the great revivals and I would read that and I would say God I want to be a part of something like that and I read there about Jonathan Edwards the great New England preacher a man who was the opposite of Moody he was an intellectual not very emotional in his preaching read his sermons word-for-word from a manuscript had bad eyesight would squint read no monotone voice sometimes hold a lamp or a candle when it was dark outside and one day and that sophisticated New England pulpit he's reading that sermon centers in the hands of an angry god and the people begin to jump up out of the pews and run over to the marble pillars that held up the roof of the church they wrapped their arms and legs around the pillars they said lest they fall headlong into hell and I thought how do you explain that when I read that it hit me it's the power of God I read about oratory the great evangelists and pastors stood in the pulpit of the moody church 4,000 theater seats horseshoe balcony you stand in the pulpit area there you're nearly eyeball to eyeball with those in the balcony and he's preaching and he asked a rhetorical question not expecting anyone to answer he said is there not someone here who would trust Jesus as their Savior and before he could continue a wealthy businessman in the balcony with a diamond dick put in his lapel stood to his feet and shouted sir I will and a lady over here stood up said sir I will and somebody over here stunned said sir I will and the sermon was over and the revival was on that had to explain something like that and I thought minutes the power of God let me tell you something from my heart today we have the best facilities that any generation of Christians have ever had we got the greatest technology to use for the spread of the gospel that any generation has ever had we have the most gifted trained personalities that the church has ever been blessed with the one thing we're missing is the power of God there is an absence of the power of God in the church in the ministry in the individual Christian so if you want to have the power of God on your life I want to show you in these scriptures that you've got to make three things a priority number one you got to make the act of obedience a priority the act of obedience of priority now the Bible says in verse 21 when all the people were baptized it came that Jesus also was baptized John the Baptist was way out there in the boonies he was out there in the middle of nowhere he was out there in the wilderness of Judea and the Bible says that throngs of people were leaving the city and coming out there he had no building he had a terrible location he's out there in the middle of nowhere there are no subdivisions there's no shopping center there are no schools just one little man out there preaching hell's hot heaven sweet and Jesus Saves and when the sophisticated religious delegation showed up he said to those Pharisees you are a bunch of snakes and you smell like a newly open grave and they ran back to their sophisticated pulpits like scolded Oh because this manner God wasn't interested in the approval of a lost and dying world he was interested in a display of the mighty power of God in his life in preaching truth as if there is no tomorrow because there may be no tomorrow in one man out there just shucking the corn and shelling the peas and preaching the word and people were coming by the thousands out there because people will go where the power of God is and the people are out there and they're getting saved and he says if you really mean it that I want you to be baptized to show forth that you have truly repented and man they are lining up to be baptized and the Bible says Jesus was baptized now some commentators say Jesus sort of held back and let everybody else get baptized and when they were finished he sort of stepped in the spotlight but that's not what the word says the Bible says in Luke 3 verse 21 when all the people are baptized it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized his saying there he just got in lying and you're Matthew's Gospel says that when Jesus got to the water John the Baptist said you need to baptize me I don't need to baptize you but Jesus said no he said you got to baptize me because I must fulfill all the righteous demands of God's holy word and will Jesus made the acts of obedience a priority is life now this won't ask you if Jesus Christ made the act of obedience a priority in his life and therefore experience the power of God on his earthly life as he walked in a human body do you think you can have the power of God on your life if you have no spiritual discipline no spiritual commitment no spiritual surrender if you're reckless half-hearted uncommitted up and down in and out one day for Christ the next day sitting on the sidelines every man and woman that we read about in the Bible and through history that had a display of the power of God on their life had a passion and a desire to obey God in every way every day Oh baby not legalistically to earn something but obeying out of a grateful heart that Jesus saved them and they don't have enough lifetimes to pour out their life in Christian service you know when I joined the church I wasn't saved and I had to decide whether or not I was gonna make the act of obedience a priority in my life I walk down an aisle and I signed a card I had in my head this idea God's got a big set of scales and on one side you put all the bad you do on another side all the good you're doing if you get enough good that way the bad you might squeeze your way into heaven I was lost and in those days it was assumed if you walk down now you're getting saved so preachers sound like auctioneers they'd stand up there and say some things like this herbes come for baptism we have emotional accepting the church got a motion got a second all opposed the same sign of course there's a nun they sell that one breath I mean nobody take you out to a counseling room with an open Bible nobody take you to an altar with an open Bible making sure you you got the gospel straight and so I came into the church thinking that I've got to do the best I can and I'm grateful that the Spirit of God broke through that spirit of religion as a teenager and I turned to Christ I laid aside religion I entered into a relationship with Jesus Christ and I've never been the same because salvation is a gift you receive it's not a wage you earn well I've been put under the water and after I got saved the Spirit of God began to deal with me and you know and that still small voice say you need to get baptized and I'd argue if the Lord's already been baptized in fact I sprinkle because the Reavis is our Methodist in my grandmother ever so won't you know to please her I was I was christened even though my dad had joined my mom the Baptist Church that was that was the church she was a member of so I've been sprinkled on my head and then I've been immersed in that Baptist Church and the Spirit of God kept dealing with me saying you need you need to be baptized see baptism doesn't come before you're saved it comes after you're safe and you say well that's kind of nitpicking that's why you'll never have the power of God on your life you got to decide man if you're gonna line up your life with the will of God pay the price there's a price to pay for the power of God I heard a great preacher say recently you will never have the mighty power of God on your life without moral purity you can't bring garbage into your mind sitting there looking at that computer screen looking at that iPhone you can fill your hearts with hate and bitterness and anger and grudges and have the power of God in your life and man I tell you what I'd argue with the Lord pride takes over you know and then the Lord called me to preach as a young preacher man you know man there I am here at this young budding evangelist man I've got my white suit man I'm I'm evangelizing and in God's opening doors and in the Lord saying you need to be baptized I said well Lord now I'm a preacher man I can't I can't admit that I need to be baptized and I was preaching a revival meeting I must have been I don't know about 21 years old in a church in Memphis Tennessee I was laying across a bed in a Ramada Inn and I was reading a book barri Tory on the fullness of the Holy Spirit and he said if you want to be full of the Holy Spirit then you've got to obey God in the first step of obedience is to follow the Lord in believers baptism and I said lord I give up I went to the pastor that church and I said I know I'm the Evangelist but I got a father Lord in believers baptism my baptism is not right you say why didn't you wait to get home because the time to get right with God is the moment God puts his finger on the place where you need to get right with God I said I'm not living another day out of the will of God and I said preacher I need you to baptize me so I went to the revival meeting that night I so excited because we're gonna have at least one profession of faith and that was me I got up there man I preached my heart out I gave the invitation then I responded to my own invitation let me tell you you you talk about getting your money's worth with your love offering brother they got it with me that night they got the whole load I said pastor I need to follow the Lord in believers baptism we went up there in that baptistry baptized me in the name of the Father Son the Holy Spirit and when I came up I want you to know that load lifted off of me and God brought a freedom in my life and some of you are you're burdened and you're tied down and you're paralyzed spiritually because there's something in your life that you need to nail to the cross there's some place in your life where you need to get right with God and until you get it right you're not going to have the power of God in your life so you got to make the active obedience a priority but there's a second thing you got to make a priority in your life and that's the anointing of the Holy Spirit the anointing of the Holy Spirit now the Bible says that while the Lord was praying in verse 21 that the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form like a dove upon him now I just think it's an amazing thing that Jesus was God in human flesh when he was on this earth functioned under the anointing of the Holy Spirit bore spiritual fruits in ministry because he was under the control of the Holy Spirit it's a divine mystery now I want to ask you this if the Lord Jesus Christ would point that his success in ministry and his fruitfulness in everyday living on this earth was due to the fact that a function and ministered and lived under the anointing of the Holy Spirit do you think that you're gonna have fruit and success in serving Jesus without the anointing of the Holy Spirit now listen of this when the Bible says over in the Book of Luke chapter 4 that when the Lord Jesus went to the synagogue in Nazareth to preach he takes the the copy of scriptures and this is where he puts his finger and this is where he preaches he's talking about himself he says the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel in the book of Acts chapter 10 when Simon Peter was explaining to Cornelius the Ministry of Jesus it says in acts 10:38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power you don't have to be afraid of the Holy Spirit don't allow people who are confused about the Holy Spirit to rob you of the blessing of being anointed by the Holy Spirit let me just tell you something right here that'll keep you straight as far as the Holy Spirit is concerned it'll keep you from confusion getting off on tangents and just generally getting messed up in your doctrine when you get saved you get all the Holy Spirit you're gonna get in fact Romans 8 says if you don't have the Holy Spirit you've never been saved the Holy Spirit is a person he's called a he not in it he's not a power you can control he's a person that has all power because he's the third person of the Divine Trinity God without body Simon Peter said Ananias you haven't lied when you lied to the Holy Spirit you had lied to man you lied to God so when you get saved you get all the Holy Spirit you don't get the Holy Spirit drew you to Christ when you got saved the Holy Spirit came inside you and raised you from the dead and gave you a new nature and the Holy Spirit has made your heart his home you were in do it with the Holy Spirit you don't get pieces of a person you don't get his kneecaps at this retreat you don't get his ankles at this revival and get his toes over here either you've got the Holy Spirit or you don't have the Holy Spirit and you say I don't have the Holy Spirit then get on down here when I give the invitation and get saved and the Holy Spirit is going to come in and dwell your body forever so when you get saved you get all the Holy Spirit that you're ever going to get you say when there wait a minute what about the book of Acts well what about the Kovacs see the book of Acts illustrates in regard to the Holy Spirit what Paul taught in 1st Corinthians chapter 12 verses 12 and 13 in Acts chapter 2 day of Pentecost a hundred and twenty full-blooded Jews all of them Jews got indwelt by the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter eight the Samaritans received the Holy Spirit they're half Jews and half Gentiles in Acts chapter 10 Cornelius who's a Gentile hundred percent non Jew and his Gentile family they received the Holy Spirit and in acts 19 you've got a group of folks that are unique to the New Testament they were a generation in transition they lived under the Old Covenant now they're living under the New Covenant they're disciples that John the Baptist and when they talk to them about the Holy Spirit they said we've never even heard of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit fell on them and while all that means is this when you trust Jesus Christ as your Savior you get all of the Holy Spirit whether you are a Jew whether you are a half Jew whether you are a non Jew or somebody falling through the cracks Oh God's people first Corinthians chapter 12 all have been baptized by the spirit into one body so when you got saved you got all the Holy Spirit's you ever gonna get so you said well what is the anointing of the Holy Spirit well listen print when you allow the Holy Spirit who is in you to have all of you that's what it means to be filled with the spirit he has all of you when you allow the Holy Spirit who's living in you to have all of you listen this he will manifest on you the power of God that will energize you to do whatever it is that God's called you to do that's the anointing of the Holy Spirit now how how do you know if your fielder control with the holy spirit well it uses the image of a dove here says the Holy Spirit came in the form of a dove so the first thing the Holy Spirit's going to do is he's going to beautify you the doves a beautiful bird now our church is right next it's a it's a strategic location really because sometimes you can't tell the difference we we are located right by the Jacksonville Zoo I mean we're exactly there's a fence between us the Jacksonville Zoo and I'll tell you my grandkids over there sometime and I'm saying there's some ugly birds man there's some ugly but but the doves a beautiful bird and when the Holy Spirit is in you he's going to beautify your character and you're gonna see on your countenance whether or not you are filled with the Holy Spirit you can't tell me if you're sour and mad and angry and fret nobody has to beg me to smile even when I try to smile I can't help but smile because I'm just I'm just so happy because the Holy Spirit's didn't mean the further spirits love and joy and Joy's not controlling my circumstances or my happenings joy is a result of Jesus just being himself in me and overflowing in my life man I got unction in my gumption so I can function function function you know I'm talking about and there's a lot of angry people in the church and you say what y'all keep talking about that it's just the way it is and because it number one either they're not saved or they're saved but the spirits grieved because they're so mad it's mad about all kinds of stuff didn't take much I was preaching one night in another state just there one night and I got a little icebreaker stories I tell cuz you know you guys that are preaching you know when you go to a place for the first time it can be awkward you don't you're kind of getting the feel of thing and they're kind of looking at you who is this guy the preachers drug in you know and so I have little stories to tell every once in a while and I got this little story I tell I told it that night before I preached I said I got it my said well folks I'm glad to be here you know never been here before just gonna be here tonight glad to be here feel like the young man wanted to kiss his girlfriend for the first time went to his preacher and said preacher can I kiss him a girlfriend the preacher said you need to ask God about that not me so early the next Sunday morning he went by his girlfriend's house took her by the hand they walked down the old country lane to kneel under the oak tree and for the old country church to pray over whether or not that they ought to kiss now what they didn't know for they got to that church that morning a little boy had got there first had crawled up in the top of that tree was sitting in the top of that tree and they couldn't see him but he could hear everything that was happening down there that young man when he got there took his girlfriend's hand in his knelt at the base of that tree looked up at the top of that tree of the heavens and that young man began to pass we pray Lord Lord up above can I kiss the one I love and a voice answered him at the top of the tree said sinner sinner down below tuck her up and let her go well all I said was I'm just gonna pick her up and let her go here and preach the word you know that's all I said you know that night I still remember it I preached about the second coming of Jesus and gave an evangelistic invitation and lots of people got saved in fact I turned it over to the pastor and that place was just jammed with people and people just kept getting saved it was wonderful so I'm just standing down there minding my own business down from the Lord supper table under stay standing down there minding my own business and I could see this guy coming through the crowd and when you've been in this a while there's a certain body language when somebody's been out of shape and you can see it coming so I could submit it's like jaw splitting the water brother here he comes and as he got closer I'm just gonna tell you this don't get mad at me he had about two quarts all and his hair his eyes was dancing sideways had teeth going everywhere you say you shouldn't talk like that let me tell you this you give me a hard time after church you become a sermon illustration I'll talk about you all over America so you know I started you ever done this I was a reviewing my sermon what did I say what did I say so he came down there he stood in front of me man teeth going everywhere eyes going crazy frothing at the mouth crazy looking guy and he said you offended me tonight and he was mad I said did he said yes he said that story you told at the beginning that offended me said it did he said yeah you're advocating immorality among our youth group you are encouraging our youth to go out and kiss and then he got real wound up he said I'll have you know I've got a 19 year old daughter and she's never been kissed and what I wanted to say but if she looks like you you are safe you're safe now let me just say right here somebody right now saying I don't agree with all this laughing let me tell you something my friend people have a hard life and they walk through tremendous difficulty and there's somebody that needed to come to the house of God tonight and they needed to laugh and they needed their spiritual lifted and I want to tell you no matter how beds you're hurt tonight and your hearts broken tonight and I want you to know you've lost your song and you say I'll never laugh again I just want to tell you tonight my friend that the Sun is going to come up that there's an end of the valley that God's gonna break through that the joys going to come back don't give up child of God rather I'll tell you what when the Spirit of God is anoint you and he's and you're full of the Spirit of God you're not you're flexible and you don't get them head all the time you got a sweet disposition I taste something else when the Holy Spirit's controlling you he'll purify you now the Bible says it's a dove doves were used in Old Testament sacrifices it's a clean bird and you know what doves aren't they don't eat roadkill you know I've never been driving down a country road out there and rural Florida and said hey look at that look at that devil with their dis ripping that old dead doll or all the pieces look at that no a devil won't do that and I want to tell you when you got sin in your life the Holy Spirit is grieved and he's quenched and he backs off and you lose that touch of God and he'll put his finger let me tell you if you're saved you can't you can't sin joyfully let me just tell you that right now make you miserable you know and I'm just gonna confess this too while I'm here years ago I really wanted a car with power door locks and windows you say that's whirly I can't help it I just some TV preachers won't Learjets I just wanted a car with power door locks and power windows I'd see people in front of me at the Dairy Queen man they just punching a button and the windows coming down there kids are getting in the car they're punching a button and the things locking and unlocking I got me a vehicle man power door locks power windows it's driving through Jacksonville man just punching buttons windows going up and down just thinking how good god is man he's blessed my life took it in on a Friday for preventative maintenance get the friend in line they all changed Friday's my day off I got a call from one of the secretaries at the church it's happened several years ago she said preacher said you one of the policemen from the church called said your car's been in an accident it's just been wrecked said Sharon I'm not even driving my car I took it to get the front-end line all change she said well here's his pager number I called officer ager and he says pastured they're towing your car off I'm telling the whole Front's crushed man the airbags have been deployed so what on earth happened said well the guy changing it all supposedly it's lunch but he said he was test driving your car he's caused a four car pileup there's ambulance here's here caught hauling people off I thought that's my new car man that's my power door lock Testament power windows then I began to haggle with that insurance company man they gave me trouble finally got down they weren't gonna pay a fifteen hundred dollar bill let me go ahead and tell you right now folks the end of this story because some of you arrived in I'll tell this whole story and this is not the point and this is all somebody will care about and they'll actually have the service did they finally pay the 50 they paid the $1500 okay so let's get that out of that that's not the point of the story they said they weren't gonna pay it now when I when that thing happened I went to church and I was telling the folks at church you know I was saying telling about my car getting wrecked and they said things like this being good Baptists they said well you know that the things depreciated now that's a wrecked car well that's that that they they've got that in computers man you that thing's depreciated you'll never get your money out of it and the frames probably bent they'll all they'll fix it you know cosmetically but it's never gonna hold in alignment and I've never seen I've never seen it fail when there's all that damage in the front that air conditioners never going to work right oh thank you man I appreciate that encouragement there man I got the brooding on this one day they're not gonna pay this $1500 bill they're not gonna pay that I thought you know I've been too nice that's a problem you're nice they know thing take advantage of you treat you like a doormat I can't take this anymore and I'll tell you what you got to stand up for yourself can't let people push you around I picked up that phone I call the manager at that tire place and I said I want to tell you something right now Betty y'all are I'm gonna I think I'm gonna get a lawyer and sue you and y'all ought to give me a brand-new luxury automobile to replace what happened to mine because of the emotional damage that I've gone through and and then all that stuff the church told me that hell I said the frames probably bent the air-condition is not going to work right it's depreciating it's a pile of junk and I said I'll tell you what I'm gonna do I'm calling Ken Ameri who works for one of the TV stations he's the consumer complaint reporter and I'm gonna stand on television here in Jacksonville with Ken Tamara and I'm gonna say right to the TV camera in front of your business if you want your car to look like this piece of junk take it to that place and get your oil change and I hung up and man when I hung up the Spirit of God put his finger on me said mister spirit-filled preacher of the gospel mister go the extra mile mister turned the other cheek mister filled with the Holy Spirit love joy peace patience kindness self-control and I mope around for a couple hours until the other Holy Spirit in my life my wife said would you just call the guy so we can all get some relief here and I called him and I said I said to this guy said let me tell you something I want to apologize I said I was ugly and rude and wrong and I'm sorry I want to tell you I didn't do that because I'm a nice guy I did that because the Spirit of God is in me and he is gonna he listen he is gonna put pressure on me until I got right with God and I'll tell you this my friend I want the Holy Spirit to keep me on a short leash and every time I start straying I want him to jerk a knot in me without holiness the Bible says no man will see the Lord so you got to make the act of obedience a priority and then you got to make the anointing of the Holy Spirit a priority but there's a third thing you gonna make a priority it's right here you got to make the approval of God a priority the approval of God verse 22 says that a voice came from heaven and said it's the voice of the Father you are my beloved son in you I am well pleased it an amazing thing that our Lord Jesus Christ fixed his eyes on the cross and no one could deter him from that Satan tried to tempt him said I'll give you all these kingdoms out here tried to try to distract him from the cross and Jesus refused that Pharisees and Sadducees trying to trip him up along the way he just kept on his own family his own disciples said no no no don't talk about dying he just kept he just kept going because he had ringing is here the word of the Father this is the person he had to please this is the approval he wanted I don't need the approval of my family I don't need the approval of the Pharisees of the Sadducees God says I approve you dying I approve you being buried I approve of you being resurrected so Jesus fixes his eyes on the cross let me tell you this you'll never have the power of God in your life if you're a people pleaser let me tell you right now you can't please them all I'm telling you I pastored a rural Church in South Georgia and you never done rural until you done rural in South Georgia I pastored a small Church in the county seat rural area i pastored in a beach resort community and for 26 years I pastored in a metropolitan area that's grown to be about a million people and it's the same place every where you can't make everybody happy the students want you to do one thing and the senior adults wants you to do something else and the softball team a bunch of middle-aged guys with knee braces and coach coaching shorts that they should have retired man about 20 years I guess I've worn these since I was 29 that's cause it's got that elastic you just push it down push it down I gotta make the singles happy they're Mary's happy you can't do it you can't do it gotta make God happy 26 years ago that's when everything started working for me to come be pastor nor Jax I was pastoring a church way up there above Jacksonville in Northeast Florida a church that was three and a half miles down a road that dead-ended into a salt marsh I lived in the past or iam that budded right up to the parking lot of that church and right behind the past story was the church cemetery I asked the leaders could you my boys were real little I said could you uh put a privacy fence back there we're barbecuing out there having a look at tombstones it takes the edge off of family gatherings they put me up a privacy fence back there so I couldn't see the cemetery when a barbecue let me tell you something the pulpit committee came from nor Jacksonville Baptist Church very imposing committee to me was a church that was much larger than the church that I was pastoring they came to the past aureum and we sit around they go ask us all them questions he's pulpit committee's ass they'll ask the same questions I'll read now the same book you say how can you say I'm not gonna get any more I'm too old man sang said whatever want to say you know I'm saying brother what are your strengths I thought I wonder what they identified I said I'm bench press 550 pounds man I don't look like much but I'm solid Betty they actually ask this and expect an answer like you're gonna tell them this what are your weaknesses like I am going to tell these people I don't even know I just about quit smoking and had a drink in six months a custom working on that well my wife and I are sitting in that room and they're asking us all them questions let me tell you something about my wife we met up at Moody Bible Institute she's been with me from day one in the ministry through it all and she she's never felt like that a church could impose on her what her ministry ought to be at different churches she's done different things and it churches for like 26 years she's done different things over those years whatever the Lord let her and she's never felt like she's the associate pastor and never felt like she's a garbage can that people just have a right to dump on and if you and listen she don't bother anybody but if you bother one of the kids growing up or you bug me attack me brother she don't back me up she's out there in front of me I remember eyes in the in a liberal Church but years ago years ago man and this guy kept giving me trouble one day I was walking over to the church and I looked over there she had him hemmed up against the wall of the educational building he was as white as a sheet I don't know I didn't even ask what she said he never bothered me again I'm gonna tear after that don't know what she said to it you don't bother her she won't bother you but if you man you pick a fight she'll take you to the mat you know because she she's gonna stand up for my ministry and so she's just sitting over there as humble as an Amish woman with a doily on her head I'm telling you brother I mean just humbled just sitting there and then they asked her mr. Rambis we've got some questions for you they asked for it she perked up yes they said what role do you play in your husband's ministry she never bet it and I she said I'm not an actress I don't play a role what you see is what you get oh well they said they mark they mark that off and looked at each other then they said this they said if your husband becomes our pastor they're gonna be hundreds of women watching you how do you feel about that she said you all need to understand something about me there's only two people I've got a police she says number one I got to please God because he's God and she said number two I got to please that man sitting across the room there because he's my husband and she said as long as God is pleased with me and my husband is pleased with me I could care less what's your women think about me I thought honey that's a good preacher I nearly got up and said honey would you sign my Bible just right brother Jerry Falwell right there just sign it right there so let me tell you who I am after all these years I've come to this place in my life I want to fix my eyes on Jesus the author and finisher of my faith I want to run this race with zeal I want to please the Lord I don't care if the southern members convince you is happy with me if the Florida builders convinced is happy with me if the Jacksonville Veterans Association is happy with me if people in my church are happy with me as long as God is happy and Mama's happy I don't give a hoot if anybody else is happy the power of God the power of God it's what we need when I was at Moody in one of the chapels a great British preacher named Alan Redpath I got many of his books in my library Alan Redpath came to speak in Chapel and in one of Alan read paths books he shares an illustration he travelled around the world when he wasn't past stringing his girls were small one was older and one was young and they had a little competition thing they did when he would come back from a meeting and he had been gone for some time they always knew that the next morning when he got back late that night he would be in his study so they had this race to see who could get to him first when they got up in the morning and one morning knowing that he was he was back home those two girls ran as fast as they could down there to the study and the older sister outran the younger sister and she wrapped her arms around the legs of dr red path and she looked back sort of kind of aggravate her little sister and she said I've got all of Daddy there is and that little girl just cried and doctor red path looked there down there and he picked the little sister up and held her in his arms and she looked back at the big sister and she said but daddy has all of me that there is you see there's the key right there you got all of Jesus that there is but does Jesus have all of you that there is let's bow our heads and close your eyes

Channel: Milldale Baptist Church

Views: 2,774

Rating: 4.652174 out of 5

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Id: UzWo6Zqh44E

Length: 44min 3sec (2643 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 06 2018