R.B Ouellette: You Can Take My Well, But You Can't Take My Water

you don't mind stand with me as I read from Genesis chapter 26 in verse 15 the Bible says for all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father the Philistines had stopped them and filled them with earth think about that for a minute why would anybody fill up a well what value comes from taking a place where there's fresh clean wholesome life-giving water and stopping it up with earth a lot of people are in the well filling business who ought to be in the well digging business a lot of people want to discourage those who are trying to serve God a lot of you want to get a young preacher aside and tell them how his dreams will never come to reality and how the burdens are going to be heavier than he can imagine and how tough it's going to be out there they're kind of like the people that when somebody gets engaged some old krumin says to the young man well you need two rings one for her finger and one for your nose some old biddy says to the young lady all men are beasts those people aren't prophesying they're just testifying I was single for 20 years I've been married for 44 married is better you're not telling you how bad your marriage will be they're just telling you how bad theirs is a lot of well filler uppers a lot of people devote their ministry to telling everybody else what's wrong with everybody else I don't know why the Philistines did that but I do know that it was a Philistine behavior to stop up wells and Abimelech said unto Isaac verse 16 go from us for thou art much mightier than we at Isaac departed thence and pitched his tent and the valley of Guerard and dwelt there and Isaac dig again the wells of water which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham and he called their names after thus the names by which his father had called them that Isaac servants digged in the valley and found their well of springing water and the herd men of Guerard did strive with Isaac's herdsmen saying the water is ours well then why'd you fill it up why'd you just show up after Isaac did all that work and he called the name of the well ESIC because they strove with and they digged another well and strove for that also and he called the name of it sit 'no and he removed from thence and digged another well and for that they strove not and they he called the name of it Reba for he said for now the Lord have made room for us Heavenly Father I pray that you guide me by your spirit that I would say just what you want said and just what is needed by those who hear this message to me Lord best I know I'll be happy to leave out things to add things I present myself as an instrument in your hand unworthy but yielded and asked that you would fill me may this be a time where there's refreshing and encouragement and a principle in the truth given to us that we can use for the rest of our lives thank you that you love us thank you for this great meeting help us tonight what's the preaching bless the invitation buying the devil and his demons don't let them snatch away from our hearts the seed of your perfect word in Jesus name Amen there was a famine in the land so Isaac went back to the land of the Philistines his father had been there almost a century before 97 years earlier and while he was there he digged some wells in order to provide water for his flocks and for his herds and Isaac comes back and he finds that the land is still available but the wells have been stopped up he settles there he prospers he does exceedingly well and he needs water I want you to notice a few things about these wells tonight about the story that we have before us the first thing I'm intrigued by the titles they were significant titles they meant something he didn't just pick a name for to name the first one ESIC which means contention because the Philistines came and said no that's our well you can't have it they named the second one Cigna which means enmity because they came and they strove for that well also and he named the third well rear Baath which means plenty of room because he said they didn't fight for that one and there's now room for us in the land the the titles were significant I remember a day when if you said something it meant something you're in a time when it seems to be condoned to not tell the truth we had a president a while back who talked to us about what the definition of is is his wife seemed to take his ability to abuse Kate and not particularly tell the whole story to a new level now it's quite common I heard somebody on a news program and he was a liberal he was defending President Obama's health-care program they said well did he lie when he said if you want like your doctor you can keep your doctor and he said yes but it was a political lie that's okay the Bible says let your yea be yea and your nay nay but not only these significant titles they're the same titles he called them after the names by which his father had called them you know I I kind of like Bible terms ah I don't like to try to improve on God you know I'm a Baptist that's a Bible term independent is the word some people have used to describe the government and the affiliation of their church other people use the word autonomous I don't care which one you use fundamental is a good word it means that you adhere to the fundamentals of the faith and take us to n for truth and and I like that word and other people like to use the word Orthodox those are not Bible words but the word Baptist is a Bible word they see the Bible says in Luke chapter 16 and verse 16 that the law and the prophets were until John but since that time the kingdom of God is preached and every man presses into it the Lord Jesus made a distinction between the old and the New Covenant in the person and the Ministry of John the Baptist Bob Jones jr. who is the head of a non-denominational institution said about this if he believes anything believes the church goes back to John the Baptist and if that argument doesn't persuade you maybe this will help you we were getting ready for our big day some years ago on our people going out everywhere knocking on doors we were getting calls from police officers and the public schools were telling us we couldn't go across the street and pass out flyers for our bus ministry and I had a guy call me up and he said I have a question I'm sorry he he said did Jesus have any brothers I said well he had brothers they had the same mother but they had a different father he said where do you get that so I read him from the scripture about his brothers and he read me from some encyclopedia and it said that Mary was a perpetual virgin and those earliest spiritual brothers and they weren't real flesh-and-blood brothers and and he said what are you going to do about that I said nothing what are you going to do about the Bible that I could discern he wasn't really looking for information he had a different agenda and I say hey why'd you call even called for that he said I called because you got people going all over town and they're telling people they can get to heaven without going through the one true church guilty that may be a part of the reason a little while later we designed the tract that says our church can't get you to heaven and open up says we can tell you who can and he said well you just tell me what is the one true church let's see what I'm going to help my thought of might as well enjoy myself I said the Baptist Church it was before the days of video phones and I couldn't see him but it sounded like he was turning purple and he spit me sputtered and I said well you tell me I said I went down to the Presbyterian Church and I was baptized there that make me a Presbyterian if I went to the Methodist Church in that lady baptized me making me a Methodist if I went to the Catholic Church and I was sprinkled by the priests it made me a bath Catholic I said you tell me was Jesus baptized by john mcafee liquor John the Baptist I'm a Baptist I pastor a Baptist Church I like that word Church we do fellowship at our church we run out of fellowship we're a church we operate several different ministries but we're not First Baptist ministries are First Baptist Church Jesus died for the church you may do a lot of stuff in your life but you'll never be involved in anything more significant or important or biblical than an old-fashioned independent fundamental New Testament Bible believing soul-winning preaching church I like the same titles I like that word preacher I just confess you you probably won't want to listen to the rest of the sermon I have never been ordained I went to some ordination councils and these guys are asked in the poor candidate all kind of questions and trying to embarrass them and trying to promote their pet theological positions and members a young man thinking who do you think you are he supposed to not preach if you don't vote for him and then if I've assigns that you don't ordain anybody Church sends people out not you bunch of pastors from somewhere else and then I did a little more study and I'm not fussing after your date I tell the oh man Oh church you want to get ordained well or Danya you'll be ordained by a nun or a pastor but it's all right I found the word reverence only use one time in the Bible and it's a name of God holy and Reverend is his name you be a reverend if you want to but Noah was not a reverend of righteousness he was a preacher of righteousness and Paul was not appointed a reverend to the Gentiles he was appointed a preacher to the gen cezzah I just like Bible names and by the way the highest title that you can call anybody is is not doctor or the most esteemed or the right reverend it is brother or sister any old pagan can be a doctor only a child of God can be a brother I like those Bible terms I think people have a problem with alcohol are not afflicted with the disease of alcoholism I think they're drunkards I think men want to marry men are not gay or queer or any of the rest of the things that they don't mind calling themselves I think the Bible says that they're sodomites now they come to our church were nice to them we treat them like any other sooner we shake their hand we say we're glad you're here and we hope they get saved we just never say it's okay saying titles significant titles and then I'm intrigued by Isaac's tendency now you won't like this next part of the message ray well I don't much like it either he had a tendency toward deference deference is defined as being willing to give in to the wants and wishes of others when I was in college you may remember dr. Matthews I had a psychology class from him and we took a personality test I failed they had 10 questions I think it was that they asked twice and they would rate the validity of your response by how many of those questions you got the same both times I got them all the same both times so mine was a very valid response I scored very low in deference I scored very high in autonomy the teacher did not know the results of individual tests we were going through them at our seats and he said now if you happen to score high in autonomy and low in deference you won't be here very long it's not a natural tendency I want my way I want my stuff I I want you to treat my things the way I want him treated our daughter Carissa was 5 before Katie was born and it's hard to teach an only child to share we practice she has twins nieces that their cousins are nieces they live across town and when the twins are coming over he'd seen on Chrissa katrina and christina gonna come tonight and want you to share with them and we practice so who would say okay I'm I'm Katrina hi can I have that down and Christa was so great she'd smile she'd hand the doll over to her mother me and she'd say you can have it she did wonderful in practice and then the twins came over I heard from the other room no it's mine I went back to Chris him and we practice she said you can have it sad thing is a lot of grown-ups haven't matured any more than my five-year-old daughter had fight over silly stuff somebody took my parking place those bus kids messed up my classroom husbands and wives get irritated at each other is something about the female gender I haven't understood the reason for but I've just observed the results of it and they they have I don't know if they're nesting instinct or what but I have the idea that every little pocket and space in a car ought to be filled with trash the door handle and little cupholders and everything and they leave stuff in the car for weeks and if you straighten out a garage and leave one space on the shelf had put tied in it I don't know it's wrong these women they there's something crazy about it they treat the garage and the car just like we treat the rest of the house people fuss over that no all right not the garage I mean you mess it up and I don't know I always put money feet on my clean floor you can't remember to wipe your feet up before you come in I just got a little thought how long do those arguments last how long does it take to pull the junk out of the car or mop up the floor fight about dumb stuff it's pre genius Church in Virginia I met an evangelist I'd never met before and he just started talking to me before the service it's kind of funny what he talked about he sure you guys preaching to church every day I was going to preach in the 11 o'clock hour not in Sunday school he said I was sitting in the auditorium and came up and he said you're sitting in my seat and he said I told him I don't see your name on it he said well I always sit there and he said I told him you're not sitting there today and then the Evangelist said to me you should have seen his face when I got up to preach yeah I bet he got right with God I said to him Wow imagine what his response would have been if you just graciously moved and allowed him to have that seat and I'll never get what he said he said I never thought of that most church buses are about that significant most staff issues somebody got more attention or somebody got a little better raised or somebody's kid got a bigger part in the Christmas program somebody doesn't like the color that they painted the auditorium I got a verse where the Bible says let nothing be done through strife or vainglory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others you you ought to be a Christian is willing to give in willing to let the other person have their way that is deferential to them Isaac did not give up those Wells because he was weak no Abimelech had said come on deliberately read the verse go out from us for thou art much mightier than we are but he said it's not worth fighting over you can have it heard Paul Harvey story years ago about an older lady was trying to find a parking spot she waited patiently while somebody came out with their card and all their packages and put all the stuff in the car and moved the cart back and then got they give away for somebody get out of a parking spot and they get in the car you think they're going to move through there like for three hours what are you doing in there it's not an airplane you don't go through 72 items on the checklist just put the key in and get out of there you can put the belt on later but she waited and waiting in her Mercedes and this car finally pulled out and she was just starting to edge in and this young kid in the Corvette came in and zipped into the spots she'd been waiting for for so long does he get out of the car was walking toward the store she opened her window and she said hey you can't do that that's my spot he looked at her and said sorry lady that's how it is when you're young and fast he hadn't taken two three more steps and he heard this place and she had deliberately smashed her Mercedes into his Corvette Corvettes are usually made a fiberglass Mercedes are made of sterner stuff his automobile didn't fare well in that encounter he was mortified he said you can't do that that's my car miss she drove away she said sorry Sonny that's how it is when you're old and rich but the thing about that story is that I like it and you like it because it appeals to our flesh I'll go get them flash I mean all kind of stories the the whole story of Cinderella is the bad guys get it in the end all the cowboy stories are you get to kill the bad guy or at least beat the daylights out of when it's over I still watch a program when I was young called kung foo or that grasshopper when you can take the pebble from my hand you'll be ready to leave the Shaolin Temple now I didn't really care about the story I just wanted to see the fight at the end after I won Chuck Norris came I never watched Walker Texas Ranger just watch the last five minutes I like see some bad guy get beat up that's our flesh that's our nature but it's not God's nature and it's not the result of the Spirit of God enabling us and it is not a demonstration of grace and Isaac's show deference he didn't fight him he didn't use the superior power and ability he didn't use the fact that he was much mightier than they are he just went somewhere else and dug another well but he had another tendency that I think is even more significant he had a tendency toward deference he had a tendency toward determination see what Isaac didn't do is get discouraged and go home well they stole all my bus kids that other church I'm just not working Buster anymore I'm so tired of winning people to Christ and then some megachurch gets him to come because they got a fancy band and a bunch of music that appeals to their flesh I just think I'm not even to go after anymore you know what Isaac said Isaac said I'm not fighting over the well but I'm not giving up on getting the water Isaac understood other places that he could get the water and he had a determination to get what was necessary for the maintenance of his flocks and his herds and for the perpetuation of his family and the provision of their needs and I want you to see a truth and here's the application of the story they can take our well a lot of things happen that take our wells you come to a conference like this man you get all excited I was sitting next to a preacher in the session this morning with the chapel I was so impressed he kept taking his phone out and I looked over and he was writing down the things he was going to do because of what you said making plans and and and I looked over I was nosy enough to see in there he was going to do this and he was going to do that and there's all things related with brother Chapel say it was decisions he made because of being at the spiritual leadership conference at Lancaster Baptist Church it you go home excited man you're going to use one of those songs you heard the choir sing you're going to print tracks like they have you're going to start at the cycle ship program you're going to get a bus route going you're going to start knocking on doors you're going to train some soul winners and about five minutes after you walk into the office we'll give you a pink slip so and so wants you to call them there'll be a text from somebody want to meet if you write after church yeah probably they want to give you money your wife will say oh honey I'm so glad you're home oh sweet oh I'm glad to see you too and you're ready to tell what happened and she said the refrigerator stopped working and the children did such insights and the neighbor's dog tore up the rose garden and all your excitement in all your enthusiasm and all the emotional high that you had just dissipates in a moment went to First Baptist Church of Ridge Ford October 18th 1975 Saginaw then head over a hundred thousand people now has less than 50,000 they had a Welcome Wagon back in those days and they'd come out of new move-ins and give them some little gifts from the merchants in the area that we don't have one now we just wave goodbye to people and she Welcome Wagon lady came by and she called me about oh I don't know maybe a week a week and a half later and she said I'm really not supposed to do this but there's this family that just moved in I just went to visit them and they're Baptist and they're just Morgantown and you just moved into town and you're Baptist and I thought you might want to go see him I said yeah she gave me the names Don and Dee workman lived over I think on Amelia Drive and I went over there went to the house they weren't even they weren't just Baptist they were independent fundamental Baptist say they were that my kind of badness when I say oh this is great they were still unpacking the boxes in the garage and I got there first and I said hey would you come to our church he said no we've already decided where we're going to church I said you have yeah where are you going we start going to such-and-such a church I said that's a good church oh I hope they get there first - so how'd you hear about that church oh they said we called the sword of the Lord we tell them moving to Saginaw we asked him for a good church this church pastor buy the son-in-law of one of their board members I say that's good church I went home and cancelled my subscription to the sword of the Lord burned every book in my library by John rice I was there first I got there before they unpacked the boxes somebody else already got him in there Church came in May of 75 somebody had said the Lord was going to return in October of 75 now we were showing if I'm I probably wouldn't show today but it was called thief in the night and it happened we're going to show it to Knights Friday and Saturday one of those was the exact day that guy said the Lord was to return case you're wondering he didn't you didn't miss it you alright and I called the news stations and let me again make a little play on that and I said hey this guy says that the Lord's supposed to return this day were showing this film about the return of Lord and they put me on the new news on I think it was the CBS affiliate in Saginaw now I didn't notice but the guy thought he had a live one the pastor something very special supposed to occur while this films being shown right toes about that oh no I said we're not saying that's going to happen this guy said it's gonna have we don't know when the Lord's coming back we just I was interesting we're showing the sill about the Lord coming back and it's on the same day that this guy said the Lord would come back and and and man alive we packed out the building Friday night we packed out the building Saturday night we had a bunch of people saved there was one guy guys saved them Friday night and I talked about baptism he and his wife and his kids they were all excited and they were going to come on Sunday and get baptized I was thrilled about it and on Sunday he didn't come I called him up said hey man I missed you oh he said you don't want to work Saturday he said I work with a guy who goes to First Assembly I told him that I gotten saved at your church and he said that just were good at giving people the gospel but they didn't have all the Holy Spirit so I said I went to his church and I got baptized there and I joined that church I didn't say well that's a good church now that couldn't I they had a big beautiful building they're running the several hundred people and I thought I showed the film I went on TV and looked like an idiot I gave him the gospel I got him lined up to get baptized and somebody went and stole my well I greatly respect and admire my preacher brethren there will be people way ahead in line of the judgement seat of many that you've heard about his name's you've never heard mentioned we've labored in difficult places and in distant lands and who have borne burdens and taken care of problems in endured trials that you and I don't even imagine I know the people are always taking shops edge I know that somebody is always upset with you I know that your children live under a microscope like they're in a fishbowl I understand that you have all kinds of burdens and trials and I recognize that when you get focused on those and you think about those it's really easy for somebody to take your well wait a minute Isaac Newsome there's still some place to get water he did believe it on me about Jesus every man thirst let him come and drag and he that believed in me as the scripture said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water this spake he of the Spirit did you know that you're refreshing and your joy and your power are totally unrelated to the circumstances of your life did you know that people can rob you of momentary excitement and they can take the wind out of your sails for a little bit and they can discourage you now but if you learn like David did to encourage yourself in the Lord your God when everybody else is talking about stoning you and go to God himself you can find out that no matter how many times they take you well you can always find some more water Gary Wilkins went out of our church to Bible College and then he founded the Standish Baptist Church outside of Portland Maine he was seven years before he had his own property and sometime after that I think before he got his first building up first year he was there no one came to an evening service except him his wife and there were three boys people came in the morning nobody came Sunday night nobody came Wednesday night I would never have done what he did I'd have had family devotions and gone on home but the Wilkins had the full service sang the songs didn't have a piano player didn't have a piano got our piano player to record some songs and he put him on a little cassette reporter recorder and played the music he led the sing and his wife and boy sang he took the offering his sons passed the plate and his wife gave he preached the sermon he would have preached if he'd had a house full of people and finally he got some property and finally he got a beautiful building up it then they got a couple of buses they were so excited somebody who hated the bus ministry burned both his bosses just a week or two after they bought they took as well if you understand anything about New England you know how amazing this is the superintendent of the school board called him up they said we heard about your buses we got some we're getting rid of we'd like to give them to me I don't think we can do that would you mind buying these two buses for a dollar each and even our buses are worth that and then the insurance company game I think $1700 and what seemed like a terrible discouragement turned into a wonderful blessing yeah they took as well but they weren't able to take his water there was a church in Findlay Ohio the Calvary Baptist Church Nick's name there was the pastor they were growing they were seeing people saved it was an exciting place and somebody who hated that Church in Haiti what was happening there when instead and set the whole church building on fire damaged the building so that they could not even use it to meet for church and go to Snavely made arrangements to meet in the gymnasium of a local high school and he put a big ad in the paper and it said buildings churches don't burn buildings burn Calvary Baptist Church to be meeting it's such and such a high school auditorium and the church went on and grew better there than they had in their own building yeah they took as well but nobody could take his water but Ric Finley's here pastor Fellowship Baptist in Durham North Carolina two of our young people work in his ministry there's not a man whose integrity and faithfulness I admire any more than brother Finley's I suppose it was 25 years ago he had become the pastor and taken over from the founding pastor and a faction in the church including his pastor and his pastor's wife rose up against him he asked me if I'd come and moderate the business being if I remember right there were six uniformed police officers there it was recorded on video was recorded on audio is stenographic the report recorded the reporters are there trying to get their cameras in to take pictures but fortunately didn't any windows in the auditorium he won the vote by a large margin and they were vicious and silly in their arguments and there was a lot of tension in the room and and the people that supported the preacher were pretty upset with some of the things that were said by the people that were against him and and it was a very very strong vote in favor of him and I'll never forget watching brother Finley up afterwards he said all my life all I wanted to do is make my preacher proud of me he said wanna plead with you folks who voted against me to stay and I wanna ask you folks who voted for me to love these people and to be good to them but nothing be done through strife or vainglory in lowliness of mind that each esteem other better than themselves and one of the most marvelous examples of grace that I know is that as time went on and brother Finlay stayed sweet and kind and generous in his spirit that rift was healed and that pastor came back and he died a happy and active member of the church where it once supposed the preacher somebody took as well but nobody could take his water bill Swain was our school principal for 28 years came in 1978 left in 2006 I think still a good friend of me and of our ministry had a granddaughter graduating from our high school on June 4th came up from Tennessee where he ministers with his son Aaron Swain his wife been having some migraine headaches they gave her some medicine and she was a little unsteady they thought because of the medicine and she got so bad on that Saturday before the graduation he took in the hospital somebody there looked at her in just a minute said you need an MRI or a CT scan just a few minutes later that a CT scan to discovered she had a large brain tumor that was Saturday night she came to the graduation Sunday on the arm of her husband watched her granddaughter graduate and as I was going around of the little reception afterwards that Sunday afternoon she said pastor I want to tell you my story how about you can tell me where the brain tumor was and was all about she said you know what I needed a haircut and how I'm going to get one free they found out the tumors far worse than they first imagined there's some problem with other places tumors other places they don't know yet if they're malignant or benign they do know the tumor would be in operable they no way they could get all of it out and she said to her husband I just talked to him yesterday afternoon she said you know if it's cancer I I'm not going to do anything I don't want to hang around as an invalid she said after all I'm not scared to go into heaven brain tumors can take your well but they can't take your water one ship drives East and another West or the self-same gales that blows is the set of the sails and not the gales that decide the way we go like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate as we voyage along through life tis the will of the soul that decides its goal and not the calm or the strife I'm glad you came here hope you learn a lot of things I hope you get some details about organization and I hope you learned some good curriculum you can use in the sunday-school and get hold of a discipleship program that you can use it build the new conference and learn how to organize the soul-winning program and get some ideas about maintaining beautiful facilities and being a good testimony to the community but more than that I hope you learned that you can access the power of the Spirit of God anytime I hope you learned that when the trials and difficulties come and discourage you and they take your well that you can dig down and find there is a well of water springing up and return alive and you can deep drink deeply of that everybody out there is trying to hurt us and harm us and discourage this to seem they can take her well but nobody can take your water remember first time you got to lead somebody to Christ it was a kid probably but you today was just a kid the unit's there's just a bus kid you were I couldn't believe it I came the gospel they prayed they trusted Jesus as their Savior ruin he'd be so excited just to see how many people would come and if you'd have enough to fill one pew on a Sunday maybe the first time you got to preach remember the first time somebody actually responded positively when you've reached and after all we've been then we've done that and we've seen it all and we still love God and we still read our Bible and we still pray but but i prayers you're a little bit more like our catholic friends got a little routine say our same stuff our Bible reading is like you know taking vitamins it's or eating cornflakes with no milk or sugar on them it's good for you but it's not much fun we're doing was supposed to do we're taking the right stand and we are faithful but but somewhere along the way we lost our joy and somewhere along the way we lost our personal warm devoted relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ and somewhere along the way when people kept taking our wails we decided we didn't need to dig another one and because of that we lost our water not because of them Hearne old preacher I want to say was be our lake him but I'm not sure grew up out in the country his mother did the washing a number-10 tub with a washboard and baked all the bread from scratch in a wood stove and had I think five or six children those children were active and busy and it was a chore for her to keep up with him and she kept the vegetable garden and brought in the food for the family from that and sometimes the burden seemed to press on her her spirit would seem to bend a little bit and her joy would diminish it and she'd go away for a while and when she come back she was happy and she was joyful one day that young man who became a preacher said I'm going to find out what's going on and he snuck around and saw momma take a little path out of the woods and when the burdens got heavy and the care is pressed down she went to a quiet place and she got down on her knees and she cried out to God and when she came back her spirit was lifted and the smile was back on her face and her shoulders were straighten out again she found out they could take her well but nobody could take her walk Charles tindley was a slave his son sang in meetings for John our ice free to the age of 15 I'm told was taught to read at a Baptist Church became an eloquent preacher in Philadelphia was so good that even in those days of segregation he was invited to preach at white churches Charleston Lee was a songwriter he wrote by and by when the morning comes he wrote take your burden to the Lord and leave it there one night he was preaching at a large congregation and the white congregation of the chairmen of the Deacons came up and handed him an envelope with some money they said would attend Lee this is the offering we took for he said actually you got more money than this but we decided was too much to give a black man and he wasn't that nice Charles Finley went home and he penned the words we sing sometimes as a song of invitation nothing between my soul and the Savior not of this world illusive good I have renounced all earthly pleasure keep the way clear there's nothing between mistreated abused violating Bible principles in the way they spoke to him they took as well but he didn't let him take his water golden Blount pastor to down river Baptist temple south of Detroit Michigan he built a building back and everybody was borrowing a bunch of money selling bonds and letting inflation make the payments affordable a few years later and he was just flying and doing great and he had a church split a bunch of people left they left some of the people to pay the bills all the people that incurred and they lost the building the olden blob was embarrassed humiliated they found another kind of crummy little building they took the people who were left and they met there and they were faithful and they came to his grim it was hard it was a hang until the rapture kind of deal Monday was sitting at the Detroit River by the Detroit River reading the Bible having his devotions he's reading the book of Job and he read something at the end of the story it said then God turned the captivity of job when he had prayed for his friends put the word friends in quotations the friends is a joke this is your fault Jill ghost on something bad joke we got some secrets in joke God won't have done this if it wasn't something terrible about you and you know what God said - so far and Bildad and ever fast he said I'm not even talking to you he said you want anything from me you go to Joe my servant job will pray for you and then golden Blount got a hold of that and and he made a list of those people that had bothered him and grieve doing it actually calls them to me bitter how could they do that how could they harm the cause of Christ how could they do this terrible thing to the work of God and he made a list and began to pray for them every day and it was hard but he kept praying for him and after a prayer became more sincere and he wanted God to bless them and he wanted their lives for him out to something and and the bitterness began to recede from his soul and about that time the spirit in the church began to improvement people started getting saved and a work of God started going forward Oh for a while they took as well but in the long term he found out they didn't have to take his water Tom Malone founded the Immanuel Baptist Church in Pontiac with his own hands helped build to the higher to Mason and he was the tender for the Mason would mix the mortar and bring it up on the ladder to him and the Mason said Tom along is the best tender I ever had he never finished Bob Jones College in Cleveland Tennessee and he got convicted he ought to finish and so for a good while every Sunday night after he preached at Immanuel Baptist Church he getting a car and drive through the night to go to Bob Jones College in Cleveland Tennessee before the interstate days go to class Monday if you ride in Friday as soon as you got in with his task in the car and drive back and their work with the Immanuel Baptist Church and I mentioned earlier that it had grown to some 3,500 I said that in my session of Sunday great church a college scores of graduates Tom Malone had different people coming to take over and none of it worked out very well the last man that came in tried to stop the pension that the church had voted to give dr. Malone tried to force him out of the office they'd said he could keep him tried to take the college away from him and he left and they called Tom Malone back to the Immanuel Baptist Church at the age of 72 his first Sunday there there were 90 some in attendance and 60 of those came on the bus there's a preacher he want us to rope off some of those pews he said no and by the way he had theater seats in that building he started it modernistic liberal trend he said now we're going to face those seats until we fill them here was Tom Malone schedule he eat breakfast with his wife and then he go to the office and do a little work and then he go out soul-winning then he come home and have lunch at his wife and take a nap and then go back to the office for just a little bit then he go out soul-winning then he came home for supper and spend a little time with his wife and then he out soul-winning three times a day he went out soul-winning knocking on doors not a great area by that time around the Immanuel Baptist Church not a lot of nice homes but he just went out talking to anybody who'd answer the door he used to tell stories about going one place and trying to see one person lining up seeing somebody else and lead him to Christ and dr. Malone said you can never go to the wrong house with the gospel of Jesus Christ and that old man 72 years old took that church and it grew to 600 with a high day of over a thousand and there was a time the fastest growing independent Baptist Church in the state of Michigan was pastored by a 70 some dear old man they took his well but he never let him take his walk dr. Hutson preacher references earlier had cancer he's been preached at the South white Baptist Fellowship was the last big meeting that he preached that was in October he died the next March johnny stands so called me up said we want to rent a nice bus take dr. Hutson he called him the black horse take dr. Hutson from his house to in Murfreesboro to the meeting in Charlotte wonder if you like to help I said sure he said the preachers would help for inviting them to ride on the bus I said I'd love that I flew down to Nashville a big uptick to to me to dr. Hudson's house and got that nice bus just a couple of the preachers there dr. Hudson say I'm not I don't have any pain I'm just a little sore that's what he'd say and I watched him and everybody else was asleep except him and me and he thought I was asleep just to cross and uncross his legs while he lay there on that bed would cause him to draw his lips tight against his teeth grimace in pain I had to go pick up a car to get to my next preaching meeting I was a little later getting to the meeting they saved a spot for me with the family but the chapel was there dr. Hutson got up to preach he said the far preach I'm saying daughter Donna came to the piano and he's saying well I'm on the winning son no he didn't he saying well I'm on the winning side and then he preached things that are different or not the same great sermon he was on he said King James Bible not the same as the other versions Independent Baptist not the same as Southern Baptist he said fundamentalism not the same as evangelicalism he said Bob Jones senior was the first evangelist to join the National Association of Evangelicals and somebody in the crowd that wasn't really supportive dr. Hudson said a man and not sure Hudson said and when they went liberal he's the first one that leaves say Amen again he got all done he said my precious children have been so sweet oldest daughter Sherri King me today she said daddy I hate talk like this we have to talk do you die if the Lord takes you to heaven what do you want me to put on the grave marker he said on one side put the plan of salvation I'll write it for you I've been to the grave I've seen the marker there's the plan of salvation and an invitation to the sinner to pray and trust Christ as a savior he being dead yet speaketh and then he said on the other side right to put the last two verses of there is a fountain filled with blood he said I'm gonna sing him for you if I can he's saying ever since by faith I saw the stream thy flowing moon supply redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die his voice caught and we sat there weeping unashamedly and then a great man sang when this poor lisping stammering tongue lies silent in the grave then in a nobler sweeter song I'll sing thy power to save I'll sing thy power to save I'll sing thy power to save then in a nobler sweeter tongue I'll sing thy power to save and the cancer took as well but it never took his water

Channel: Lancaster Baptist Church

Views: 5,602

Rating: 4.6543212 out of 5

Keywords: preaching, sermon, Christian, God, Jesus, Lancaster Baptist Church, Lancaster Baptist, Pastor Paul Chappell, Paul Chappell, R.B. Ouellette, leadership, conference, spiritual

Id: H2oUDXSmxRM

Length: 50min 31sec (3031 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 14 2017