Rev. Scott Shelton - Little Foxes

stand together we have several needs to take before the throne of grace today knowing that god is so able to meet our needs let's continue to pray for sister loretta smith she's doing a lot better but needs our prayers let's pray for daryl jeans and and then also for sister hensley she is still in the hospital and is in desperate need of our prayers and a healing touch let's all um pray for that family as well as brother george smith is smith's sister passed away so let's pray for that family as well god is so able to meet every need and not just that to help us to be a part of his plan for reaching this city and making an impact in this area let's lift our voices and talk to god god thank you for this day i thank you for the privilege to be in your house god i thank you that you care for us god we pray for sister smith darrell jeans we pray for sister hensley god heal all of their bodies strengthen them god we need your we need your healing power god i pray for comfort for uh the families connected with the passing of brother philip and sister doreen's uncle god as well as brother george smith god that you will wrap your arms of love and comfort around that family god today we want you to speak to us in a powerful way we so desperately want to be the people that you want us to be you've put us not just on this planet but here in memphis to be your people and to um see great things before the rapture of the church and we give you praise and honor for the privilege to be a part of your plan and the end of time god we give you thanks for what you are going to do in this session and also the two o'clock service we give you praise and honor and glory come on magnify him in your own way today god i thank you we open our hearts we open our minds we open our spirits to you we want to hear from you today we want to be connected with your plan and and and your will for our lives and for this church god we give you glory in the name of jesus we pray everybody said amen you may be seated let's worship together as we see you were the word at the beginning one with god the most high [Music] now revealed in you our cries what a beautiful name it is what a beautiful name it is the name of jesus christ what a beautiful name it is nothing compares to this what a beautiful name it is the name of jesus you didn't want heaven without us [Music] jesus [Music] what a wonderful name it is what a wonderful name it is the name of jesus christ what a wonderful name it is nothing compares to this what a wonderful name it is [Music] the praise of your glory for you are raised [Music] yours is the glory [Music] what a powerful name it is the name of jesus christ what a powerful name it is nothing can stand dance what a powerful name it is the name of jesus what a powerful name it is the name of jesus what a powerful name come on why don't you praise that great name there is no name like the name of jesus what a powerful name it is hallelujah what a great week we had last week so thrilled to have brother osborne with us and what an impact he made upon this church and then yesterday i'm told a great ladies a cup of wisdom uh very thankful for our ladies to be able to get together and have that kind of event together this week uh tuesday night is family night at six o'clock there'll be nacho tuesday for eight dollars for adults six dollars for seniors and kids and then prayer at seven family night at 7 30. it's going to be a great time looking forward we have community prayer on the 13th saturday the 13th also we have the senior saints will be having a time of fellowship at noon on the 13th as well and then don't forget to set your clocks forward on march the 14th something else you need to remember is that our annual business meeting will be on tuesday the 23rd and we will have several things to discuss including the election of a few new board members the addition of some new members and the possible discussion of a piece of property so you do not want to miss that business meeting it will be a great time for us to take care of the business of the church i am thrilled i was messing with somebody early today i don't know what's going to happen next week we had jay charles burn last weekend we've got scott shelton this weekend next sunday it'll just be little on me i am thrilled to have brother shelton here he is in demand all over the country and indeed the world he has used the gifts of the spirit and it won't take you long to know he um he is very gifted um to help us and and god's gonna use him why don't you put your hands together as brother shelton comes he's gonna minister at one o'clock and then he'll be preaching at two o'clock as well we're thrilled that you're here brother shelton don't you love your pastor [Music] don't you love your pastor don't you love your pastor don't you love your pastor you can't be saved without one i'm gonna tell you i have a few rules we'll go ahead and cover rule number one you can never welcome a guest preacher to your pulpit with more passion than you honor your own pastor because guys like me come and go but he he will be around for a long time and when the hounds of hell are on the front porch it's not me you call it's him and um i'm going to tell you something i haven't known him long less than 24 hours and everything i've ever heard about him is true and pure spirit pure motive love for the kingdom love for the things of god and um i honor all of that the american medical association a few years ago i was sitting in an airport and this is how bored i was one of their journals was laying there and i picked it up and read it and do you know what the ama said was the worst job in the world anybody want to guess huh all right everybody that believes it was pastor say aye all opposed by the same sign you're all wrong it's pastor's wife according to the ama your wife has the worst job in the world and then of course he had the second worst job in the world and i am i am thankful i give honor to my bishop bishop wright and i do that so you'll know who i'm submitted to in case you need to call somebody you know who to call and if bishop wright gets a phone call about me i can assure you i'm going to get a phone call about me i hadn't always liked my pastor and and no need you acting sanctified um but when i don't like him it's because he's right and i'm wrong and i know he's right and i know i'm wrong and i know i'm rebellious and i don't want to submit and but i've always loved him i've always respected him and i've always submitted to him and i am thankful for godly men and women of god in our lives that care enough about us to help us be saved i am i've had a lot of encounters along the way brother smith where i'm going to leave it up to you whether you want to melodiously carry on or go rest your arms because you got to do this again in a minute so if you're tired and you keep playing don't blame it on me but i've had a lot of situations um in my life personally that i know the lord would have seen me through anyway i know he would have but the thought of having to do it without that hand of a man of god in my life i just can't of course the culture we live in today is kind of a burger king culture your way right away every day at burger king and i think somehow another in the church we have drafted that as our mantra to a degree because we don't really submission is kind of like a cuss word to apostolic people or pentecostal people it's a great word to abstain people but a lot of us don't like submission because submission interprets oftentimes to the human mind as i'm making myself vulnerable to somebody and i don't want to do that because i don't want to get hurt well a good marriage requires submission and brethren just to bust all of our bubbles it's not always her submitting to us scripture does say something about husbands submit unto your wives too and um now my wife will tell you here's my here's me and i repent to you i'm just gonna be honest for the first few minutes so y'all can just go ahead and draw your own conclusions about me up front one night my wife said would you get me some more tea while you're up sure baby and i know how she likes to drink tea she'll drink her first glass of diet coke or tea or whatever she's going to drink that pretty quick and she wants a second glass about half full and she's just going to sip on it for the rest of the meal well i know this about it i've been watching i'm smart enough to know to pay attention well i get poor in that second little deviate she wanted and she said that's enough well she said it around a bite of food and she wasn't being harsh about it but there was just something in me you know how we are brother and then there was just something in me that thought you're not going to tell me you and i'm going to tell you something whoever come up with the first gps was a woman they put a woman's voice on it and they've been telling us don't so i changed siri's voice on my phone to a man's voice and just to give my wife something to think about but she said that's enough well there was something in me that thought well bless god i'll decide when it's enough and i'm thinking i know how much tea you want in this second glass i just kept just a little dribble of tea going and she looked up at me she said i said that's enough i said i heard you and i thought to myself you're gonna make a mess here because i know where this is going and just stop and i couldn't stop i couldn't do it and in a minute she said scott that's enough i said i'll tell you when it's enough bless god and i just kept pouring in a minute there's t-run and she started laughing she's like you've got it bad son you got it bad submission is one of those words that just good not a living you you got to do a lot of gethsemane dying to submit but the benefit of submission is incalculable and when we are submitted one to another to spiritual authority in our lives then we're able to easily submit to the word of god and the will of god and the kingdom of god i think in the end time we're going to find out there are little things that we've we've let crawl in among us and creep in among us that if we don't get the house cleaned out it's going to be very difficult for us to follow the leading of the holy ghost the scripture talks if y'all don't mind i'm going to sit right here you're sitting so i'm going to see it my back hurts the scripture leaves us little nuggets along the way that a lot of times they are seemingly so inconsequential that we overlook them we don't think about them we don't think in terms of this is something that i need this is something that i really ought to implement my lord i thought i was under attack thank you sir y'all don't mind me sitting down a minute do you um oh this is comfortable and there these little principles that if we're not careful they'll just go in one ear my grandma used to say one in one ear and out the other and when god's ready to do something beyond that we can't we're not prepared for it because we've allowed little things to come in now we're great at keeping monstrosities of sin out of our personal lives and out of the church but it's those little things and of course the scripture talks about that it's little foxes that spoil the vine uh my children none of them i've got three of them love each one of them and none of them have a toy that weighs more than other than little kitchens that the girls have out in the playhouse or something i don't think we've got one toy in that house that would weigh more than six or seven pounds yet if you take your eyes off of them for 20 minutes all that entire house the upstairs and the downstairs is so cluttered with little things that walking from the den through the living room to my bedroom is somewhat treacherous because you have no idea what it is you about to put your foot on and thank god my wife likes little soft lamps burning throughout the house at night and and she's pretty diligent about making the kids clean up at night before bedtime for which i give thanks to god but uh it's not like i'm worried about walking out and hitting a cedar chest with my shin bone or tripping over the couch it's little things it's it's a little piece of plastic about like this it's a a little piece of something out of a game that'll take a 265 pound man and put him on his knees it's little things that will render you incapable of finishing what you started i can't tell you how many times now i've broken several bones and i've had a lot of injuries in my life that have sidelined me over the over the years but i've i can tell you for a fact the smallest toe on your foot can sideline you as fast as a broken shin bone you catch that bad boy just right on a piece of furniture and you will stop whatever it is you're doing and just give thanks to god that it's not even worse than it is is that toe sticking out there to the side but the scripture talks about that it's little things that spoil the vine the little foxes then jesus said and i guess for that scripture to really be important or significant to us we've got to figure out what's what's the vine jesus said i'm the vine so when you break that scripture down he's basically telling us you need to be paying attention to the little stuff because it's the little things that will distort your view of me and your life and i think to a point if we're not careful we'll fall victim to the same spirit that's attacked humanity i guess since the beginning of time i think some people have this utopian idea that once you get the holy ghost everything gets perfect i got news for you once you receive the holy ghost you better dig in because hell is not going to take that laying down and the minute you get up from the altar or walk out of a baptistery dripping wet the enemy is going to start attacking you and he's going to do every but the place he starts first is right up here and he'll make you i think one of the enemies biggest tactics is to make me question what i've got to make me question who he is well then he uses real life situations real life circumstances and starts saying stuff like well if god was really what you guys say he is then this wouldn't have happened and that wouldn't have happened and this wouldn't have happened and that wouldn't have happened and and yet we and then we want to pass the buck and we want to put all of the responsibility for every negative thing in the world that happens on god well why did you let this happen yet the scripture answers that for us too uh i've got it written in my phone but um the scripture jesus said the lord said i i the lord created evil and man led it in the world he had to create a choice there had to be a choice for humanity and yet we know that it's our choice i know if i drive out there in that street today and have a road rage issue i know that the outcome of that is not god's fault it's on me i made a decision to do what i'm going to do now sometime calvary will cover our decisions and sometimes it doesn't and the ones that it doesn't cover are the scripture says there remaineth therefore no more sacrifice for willful sin if i know what i'm about to do i'm gonna go i'm gonna go buy a case of beer and i'm gonna sit out here on the side of the highway and drink it then i'm gonna take off driving according to scripture calvary is not obligated to extend to me mercy and grace he may or he may not but he's not obligated to because i've made a decision that's pulled me out from under the protective covering of the blood and i've watched us over the years we get real indignant with god when stuff isn't going just like we want it to and we look around and we're saying well i'm not doing this and i'm not doing that and i hadn't robbed a bank today and i haven't committed all these horrible sins and i haven't done these crimes and i have so why am i suffering well the scripture said that we'd be persecuted because we've taken his name on to start with if you think you're going to escape through this world without some persecution you need to get back in that book and figure out that taking his name on made you a candidate right that minute for the enemy to come after you yet it's not all doom and gloom everything is not that bad there are going to be challenges that are going but i'm going to tell you something else about this holy ghost business just because you received the holy ghost on sunday don't mean you're going to like everybody on monday bad breath on sunday pre-holy ghost still smells the same on monday post holy ghost can i get a witness you know how it is and i know you all saved and sanctified washed by the blood of the lamb bless his name but if you be honest with me for about two seconds there are people in your life that get on your last nerve let me just sit there and let you get honest with yourself a minute you know goodness well there's some people you do not want sitting by your happy self in church and if it looks like they coming you may very well have to move a pew up or a pew back b.o smells the same with or without the holy ghost it'll make any difference that's right people that have a tendency to lie before they get the holy ghost got the same tendency to lie after they get the holy ghost the holy ghost don't make you perfect people that are gossips before they receive the holy ghost are going to have that same tendency to gossip after they've received the holy ghost and if you want to know the proof of all this then most of the instructions that were left in the epistles by paul peter john and the rest of them if you look at all those letters they're not written to the lost they're written to the church and they're all telling us hey there's some little things in your world that you better be paying attention to because the minute you take your eye off of it the house is going to get filled up with junk that's going to restrict the flow of the spirit one of the greatest new testament indicators of sonship is is this one little verse for they that are led by the spirit of god they are the sons of god it's impossible for us to biblically claim sonship when i don't know come here from sicum about what god's trying to do in a church service if our focus of a church service is we start at this time we end at this time and we're going to do these 18 things between point a and point b then that sin that's the lack of faith that's no expectation and we're not making room for god to do one thing while we're gathered up together well brother shelton you're a little harsh it gets better i won't tell you which way it's going to go but it'll get better somewhere along the way you and i have got to get sick and tired of church as usual and i'm not saying you have church as usual i'm talking about in our own individual selves i'm not talking about just collectively somewhere along the way i've got to get done with just living my life sunday to sunday as patty pentecost or andy apostolic and just expect the same old things well i'm just going to trust the lord to keep it no i'm not trusting the lord to just keep his hand on me i'm looking for somewhere to let the anointing of god flow out of me and lay hands on the sick and see the sick recovered you want to spread the news about the kingdom do miracles outside this building too don't just wait to do them in here lay hands on your neighbors lay hands on the lady at the cash register speak a word of prophecy over somebody in the grocery store let god talk to you whenever wherever and to whomever he wants to and there won't be a billboard in the county big enough to tell all that god's done in this place but the reason we don't see all of i mean my god when was the last time when was the last time somebody that i know me included starting with me was so anointed and had such a flow of the holy ghost that my shadow followed on somebody brought about a miracle i would like to think that i'm somewhat spiritually contagious but i hadn't got to that point yet apparently moves of god do not happen because god responds to us if you're going to have a move of god in this church it's not going to be because god responds to you if that's the case then this is technically and literally a performance-oriented process i do good enough and god responds to me a move of god will never happen because god responded to us and when they get up here singing and worshiping and doing all they do with praise and worship they're not creating a flow they're not supposed to create an atmosphere we should be doing that on a daily basis seven days a week we we we used to come into church praying my mama took we went in the building we didn't wait till we got to the prayer room to pray mama was praying in the car on the way to the house of god we were the second family in there every time three times a week and the last bunch out every service they done song one or two songs sometime before mama could get broke loose from praying to get us on into the sanctuary and that's where i learned how to pray i learned you can't take anything for granted and just expect things are going to happen if you want something from god you're going to have to invest something back into this deal my mom will be 82 on next tuesday a week from tuesday and she still prays just like that i can call her and tell her now her house is six miles from mine and she's between mine and my sister's house my sister lives down in el dorado and i can call her and check on her and mama how are you fine and i can tell she she's just she's chomping at the wanting to talk about something but i'm needing to find out how mama's doing hadn't talked to her in a couple of days and she'll be kind enough most the time to give me about oh i don't know 10 minutes and then when i take a breath to ask another question about her she's launched off into something about jesus something about the bible something she saw in the word that she's never seen before there was something in my mother that got emptied out a long time ago and she filled every available spot she had in her mind in her emotions in her spirit and in her life pursuits with being in the pursuit of god brother barnes said to me one day he said now i have never preached against and he told the topic he said you've never heard me preach against that have you i know sir he said i'm going to tell you why he said i don't know how it is for everybody else god has not told me to preach this as a consecration as an apostolic discipline as a separation issue but for me i had to say no to this because i know tom and he said i knew that if i ever let this in my life it would consume me and that and then i look back at all the room that god had occupied in my life and i wasn't willing to give up one square centimeter of that for anything else over the years we've let terminology define us like liberals and conservatives and whatever it's not about being liberal or conservative for me for me it's about being a preservationist what i have with god i will do or not do anything to preserve the relationship that i've got with god and of having friends if if this person being my friend is going to impede on me being his friend you getting cut loose i ain't looking to to lengthen facebook friends and all that nonsense on social media for god's sake i'll tell you what i've done come to a conclusion i know why the elders preach again so much because they learned the secret brother barnes was talking about no it's not all heaven or hell but when it starts crowding god out it's becoming a heaven or hell issue you can't we can't i can't be saved without god consuming my world and the minute i try to get from here to his world without him i have lost the battle the race is over i'm not going to make it it's not going to be successful i'm a preservationist whatever i've got to do to preserve my relationship with god that's what i'm going to do thereby i don't need somebody telling me every eye to dot never t to cross i don't i don't have bishop don't call me every day and say now scott now remember you need to do this and this and this it's not about that i fell in love with him a long long long time ago and if you decide you want to go to hell hap have a happy trip going but i'm not going with you and i'm not going because of you you you didn't save me and you can't make me be lost if i go to hell it's going to be because i wanted to the only people in heaven are the ones that want to be there and the only people that's going to hell are the ones that want to go there well i don't believe anybody wants to go to hell yes they do because if they didn't they'd find a better way and why in the wide world would somebody walk away from the altar and go to hell if they didn't really want to go do you think i've already covered it do you think i like everybody i know no that's why i don't you don't answer everybody's phone call we can't be saved or we're not honest my god let's be honest on sunday afternoon i got people in my life that got to be there god told me to let them be there but i don't like them is that bad you feel the same way don't you i don't even like people i don't know what i'm doing in the ministry i tried to get out of it i had a plan that didn't include this i'm not i'm not one of these extroverted people i don't get on an elevator just so happy been eating chat grass all day and just want to talk to everybody i get on the elevator and strangers get on there i'm looking at the floor looking at the ceiling looking at the wall anything but them because i get tongue-tied half the time i don't like talking to people i don't know i feel stupid i don't know what do you say to them hey man how are you and half of them don't want to talk to you so it's not i can do the job but it don't come easy for me you know how some of these social butterflies are they talk to that wall and have a great conversation and convert the thing before they're done with it i can't do it and i know that about myself but i also know that i've got a job to do in the kingdom and there are kingdom expectations on me so i don't have the right not the luxury to say well it's not my personality type i don't like this and i don't like that so i'm not going to do this job and no no i've got some stuff in here i've got to keep out so it don't get between me and the will of god in my life which then happens to interpret into i'm stopping up the flow of the holy ghost out of me to somebody else do you know why god chose noah to build the heart it wasn't because i had a friend call me one day and he said hey i'm he was fixing to move across the country he said i really need you to pray for me that i'll have uh wisdom and be able to make a good solid decision well i sounded like a logical prayer request i said okay when when what we got a time frame here he said i'm going to have to make a decision in the next couple of days so the next day i was cutting my grass and i cut my front yard with my little push mower because i'm a little bit keyed up about tractor tracks in my front yard on that bermuda and well all of it really but i can live with it in the backyard and so i'm out there i'm a little mower grooming that front yard a little uptight about my yard and uh um pray for me and and i'm praying for my friend and i said lord would you give him wisdom to be able to make the right decision and i kid you not out of nowhere the lord thundered down am i not god well i just let the little handle and the self-propelled go let my little mower die and i stood there and i said out loud well yes you are he said then what gives you the right to think it's your decision to make it wasn't you on that cross it was me it was not your blood on that cross it was mine you don't make decisions in your life i make them for you and you submit to my will and you obey what i tell you to do and then what i have designed to happen will happen and the fruit and the harvest that this move will make will be born and reaped and everything will be great but you don't have a right to make that decision and so and i'm sure you all would be in the same place i just very meekly said yes sir i'm sorry and then the lord asked me that question he said what did i have before i had a boat now some things the lord i'll ask you rhetorical questions and you know that going into it so my advice is don't even try to answer the brother just tell them i don't know so i did that i said lord i don't know he said i had a man i said roger that he said you know what i had before i had that man i said lord i have no id he said i had a plan then he said do you know why i chose noah of all the people maybe that had some particular skill sets do you know why i chose noah no sir i don't he said i did not choose noah because of what he could do i chose noah because of what he would do we got a lot of able people in the kingdom that aren't willing to do one thing and in ministry all too often we spend our time trying to talk people that we see potential in to get it on board we we do everything we can we we wind them and dine them we take them to lunch we we uh figuratively speak and we don't want them we we do everything we can we brag on them we call and check on them we try to entice them come on get on board because we see in them potential yet if we were to get honest with ourselves a lot of the ones that we see such great potential in that we're trying to get to commit and do whatever if we had to be just totally straight up honest we know good and well they have no interest or desire in doing anything we're trying to talk them into doing and somewhere along the way somebody decided that ministry was our job in ministry was to talk people into going to heaven i'm not trying to talk you into going to heaven if you want to go to hell go to hell that's i'm going to go home and sleep well that's your call my job is to tell you what god wants me to tell you give you the option to respond to that and whether you do or don't that's on you but we think we're selling insurance we'll preach for an hour and give a 45-minute altar call i'm not doing it the waters are troubled from the moment you walk in that door and if this man of god's preaching or somebody else is preaching the waters are being troubled and whatever it is god's saying he wants to do if you'll a man that get involved with that then that thing will produce it's not just the written word anymore now it becomes the living word we are not god didn't call us because of what we're able to do we got dime a dozen preachers i mean they they can they can preach the pain off the wall but wouldn't know a move of god if it dropped kicked them right in the front teeth what good are you if you don't know what god's doing what good is all of our pulpit eloquence if if we don't know what the holy ghost is wanting to do and of course we you know we teach stuff like well you got to have a thought and you got to stay with that thought and you got to okay so whatever you want to do but what i want to know is what if your little thought is going this direction and it has nothing to do with suicide but over on this side of the building there's two people that have made their mind up that if i don't get help today when i walk out of this place this afternoon i'm going to blow my brains out and i said it to him last night if if you won't talk about pandemics if suicide was a disease it would be the number one pandemic in the world and in the church do you know how many people in the church are toying with and being tormented with thoughts of suicide every single day but we can't get past some of the clutter in our church services to minister to the hurting we're so fixated with our agendas and okay they practice and all that's precious and hopefully to god we'll get to hear from them but what if in a few minutes as people begin to come in and you're back there shaking hands with somebody as a greeter and a front line a first defender a first responder to crisis that's what greeters are in the church they're first responders you're the first ones that are responding to broken homes abused children all kind of issues out of out of wedlock pregnancies drug addiction alcoholism that's what greeters are in the church greeters are the first line of ministry that the lost come in contact with coming into our buildings and what if while somebody's walking in one of the greeters that gift begins to operate and a little discernment picks up a little bit of hurt here and you just begin to speak to him and you hold that hand just a couple seconds longer and they began to weep out there in the foyer are we going to put everything that we've got planned for any given service on hold to let god do what he wants to do in the foyer i pray to god we are because when that one begins to move there may be 13 others saved and lost that say you know what i'm struggling to and before you know it the place has erupted in an outpouring of the holy ghost ministries going on for as many as are led by the spirit of god they are the sons of god the true indicator of sonship is our ability to be led by the spirit of god not to mind-numbingly go through some predetermined routines and i said it a minute ago i want to come back and circle around say it again if we can come to church without any supernatural expectation that is sin on my part i if if i have no expectations of god doing something awesome today that means i have no faith that god not not belief and conviction that he's able being able be believing he's able and me believing he's going to are two entirely different things if i can walk in this building and put my problems aside and my struggles aside and my worries aside and begin to magnify god and worship god from the moment the first note is played if not before begin to exalt him lord i give you thanks right now for all that you are going to do but i feel foolish brother shelton well thank god he didn't feel foolish when he was doing what he did because by his word the worlds were framed before there was one he spoke about them as though they were he speaks of things that are not as though they were you and i have got to begin to live prophetically and not pathetically we've got to begin to look at yesterday and say thank god for that wilderness but i'm moving on to a mountain i'm going to take it we're about to have revival and i'm going to prophesy about it every single moment i'm not waiting on somebody to do my job for me i'm not waiting on you to have faith for my family i got three kids i have faith for my three kids whether you like them or not i believe god's gonna use my three children i give god thanks for my babies and if the lord should tarry i'm not asking the lord to hurry up and come so my kids have a chance of being saved i'm telling the lord if you decide to hold off a while longer than i think you're going to i thank you for that because this one's going to be a prayer warrior that one may very well be a prophetess he's going to be a prophet i can already feel it on him so lord i see what you've already put on my babies and for those of you that have lost children stop asking god to just save them get up and move your faith beyond just saving my children start thanking god get the doubt the fear the unbelief the carnal expectations out of your brain and begin to thank god tell hell every single day i know you're trying to destroy her i know you want to ruin him but i see something that i'm going to begin to talk about i've been silent long enough i've been quiet long enough my son's coming back into the kingdom and god's going to use him when he gets back just like he would have if he had never left but it's little stuff that gets in the way we got people with daughters who are intercessors that need to be in the kingdom soul winners bible study teachers handmaidens of god and while i'm on it i'll just stay on it a minute feel like i should quit asking god to save them you got promises that supersede their current circumstances train up a child where was rizzba when her boys were taken the bible doesn't say but she wasn't there she obviously wasn't there because when she got home and found out her kids were gone which means she wasn't there when they got taken she got home and she said where are my boys well risbo you know they they came and got them because you know they wanted revenge and they they wanted to you know bring pain and hurt and and uh well where are they at where they hung them out there in that field rizpah's attitude was different than ours i'm gonna tell you something this you know there's a lot of stuff going on in the in the in the natural world today about non-violence and and i know you can all think well he's a conspiracy theorist and uh he's he's a whack job and that'll be fine but why do you think there are tones that become so prevalent out there because there are scriptures in the word of god that the enemy is trying to suppress one of them being the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force we don't want to say that out loud because it's not politically correct to make statements about violence oh and especially if you're online i got a text not long ago from somebody in the government asking me questions it was none of their business and my wife said well what'd you think was going to happen with all the stuff you're preaching online do you think they're not watching do you think they're not listening the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force and somebody in this building needs to hear the holy ghost talking to you when you stop feeling bad about it and saying well if i'd have been a better mom if i'd have been a better dad if we'd had a better home life if this had been different or if that hey rizpah had a choice she could either say if i'd have been here this wouldn't have happened oh god no uh that mama got mad about what happened while she was gone and her attitude was how dare you come in my house and drag my children out and string them up out here in the field if you think i'm gonna take that laying down you've lost your mind i'm waiting on the apostolic church to step up and say you know what i got children that are not serving god right now and they almost cuss me out every time i ask them to come so i'm going to quit asking them to come and just start bringing them to church with me i'm going to write their name on a piece of paper and bring it and sit it on the pew and i'm going to dance and shout and thank god because they are in the house of god with me whether you can see them with the natural eye or not i can see them in the spirit and god is working on them whose report are we going to believe who's reporter i know a man that was told not long ago by by leaders you're preaching faith on too high level what are you talking about well you're talking about this many people receiving the holy ghost our brethren have a problem believing that they they can't receive that they can't even think about terms of numbers like that well that's the problem with us we've gotten into a maintenance mode in the church and if we get one a month we're happy you ought to be happy if you've got one a minute not one a month but somewhere along the way we've let little foxes get in our lives and we no longer believe that god really will do all the stuff he said he would do we no longer believe the bible said when joshua will command the scripture says joshua commanded god to make the son stand still and then the scripture goes on to say that never since that day has another man ever again commanded god to do anything well i've been thinking about that been praying about it and if it fits his will and his purpose i'm changing the way i pray i'm changing the way i talk to god lord you said you'd do it now i'm telling you come in here and do it the words been preached you said you would confirm with signs and wonders the word that was preached so get in here and do what you want to do we release you it's your church that your people do what you that don't work yes it does last sunday night in illinois i stood and watched a man's hand as the fingers on his right hand were that much too short as he held them together i watched them as they began to grow and and equaled out to the length of the other ones another man whose face was half covered in tumors god began to do a work in him and by the next morning many centimeters have shrunken off of those tumors i hadn't heard back to see where it said don't you tell me god won't do it i've been watching him do it [Applause] but it's not going to just happen i mean you're going to have to be bold the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by forth well what is the kingdom of heaven well it's righteousness peace joy and all this stuff but it's also healing it's also miracles it's also deliverance it's also people being brought out of bondage it's also revelation of the marvelous truth of the mighty god in christ and the death burial and the resurrection it's all of those things but what happens to us is we come in to church with an expected norm or an accepted norm the accepted norm is this is typically how it goes and these high octane services are the rule or the exception to the rule and not the rule somewhere along the way we're going to have to get to the place that we we don't care if they're receiving an offering right now somewhere along the way we're going to have to be able to say you know what i know y'all making announcements but i i can't contain this i'm fixing to have to run these aisles i'm about to go to hucking and bucking and talking in tongues my god i i just feel like i need to intercede right now and y'all just do what you want to do but we don't because some of those little foxes are well if i do this people will think i'm strange well if i do this i'll interrupt the move of the holy ghost how can following the holy ghost interrupt the holy ghost well brother shelton i think we need to do things decently in an order according to who it's an indictment on us when we let little foxes get into our life so badly that when we do have an extraordinarily powerful service we say crazy stuff like well the lord interrupted our service last night really the brother had to interrupt what we were doing to do what he wanted to do oh i'm telling what we just had a blowout last night why isn't that the norm there was a time there was a time in my life had the holy ghost since i was eight years old and there was time in my life i remember people sitting around like a mew looking at a new gate with the oddballs now it's the dude running the aisles that's out when was the last time you saw a victory march i don't even know what those are for i never did know either but my god stuff broke loose when they my old elders got out and started marching around the house i don't know what that was all about the closest i could come to it was the walls of jericho and if they got out and walked around that joint and that place fell down my god there might be some strong holes in here if we'd get up and start marching do something extraordinary we might actually have an extraordinary move of god i remember some of them oh saints in the church you know how it is too in the sanctified church it's always the women that come around the front there's velcro on every man's rear end and the back wall and it's like a magnet just pulls us right back to the wall on that wall that well and we're going to let the women come up here and do that little worshiping and doing whatever but we breath them oh no i'm talking about little foxes like i don't know pride i'm strong i don't act like that you would if your life was on the line but sheldon i don't like you i don't like you either it's little things and we've looked around and we've we've really prided ourselves on the fact that we're not compromising doctrine you know we still believe in repentance and baptism in jesus name and the infilling of the holy ghost and we've we're holding on to separation and we better but those aren't the things that stop the flow of the holy ghost jesus said to one bunch he said boy on the outside you guys got it all figured out look like whited sepulchers but on the inside full of dead men's bones in the end times which i personally believe we have entered into a matter of fact i'll go a step further and tell you everybody in this room under the age of 70 you probably are going to be alive when jesus comes well shelton i've been hearing that my whole life i don't care i'm telling you again mayberry's not coming back the good old days are gone it don't matter who's in the white house it wouldn't matter if trump was in the white house again which i was you know i've been fine with me but somebody whoever's in that white house when the time comes and the plan of god says these things are going to have to happen whoever that is and whatever political party that is that but we've let the little fox of politics come into the church we've let prejudice come into the church a few years ago several years ago there was a wave of revival in this country for the muslims but because barack obama was our president and he let refugees come in here from the middle east we all got married okay believe me let them come into this country yeah but jesus can't come until the gospels preach to the whole world and we can't get into most of their countries so if the gospel is going to be preached to the whole world and there's places we can't get to do you think it might have been the hand of god saying hey i'm going to send them to a country where it is still possible to tell the truth on any street corner at any address in any house any time of the day and i need you to indoctrinate them with the truth and then i'll see to it they get back to their countries and when they go back to their countries we'll now have people in those countries bringing but we can't we can't love the lost enough to get past the foxes of prejudice that we've led in our own lives white prejudice everybody's got some prejudice the holy ghost didn't make you perfect everybody has preferences read the book of james everybody has some preferences but a few years ago we had another thing come through this country and god began to speak to our leaders and and pastors around the country began to put a lot of emphasis on spanish ministry and and then all of a sudden the 2016 presidential cycle comes around and one of the hot topics was what our border and so now all of a sudden one of those little foxes comes in and says hey this is a patriotic issue these people are coming in taking our jobs i got news for the church whoever's coming in this country and taking whoever's jobs is not our problem to worry about this we see we used to sing songs that conditioned us so that we had the right mindset along with scripture this world is not my home i'm just a passing through you you can't we can't risk and afford getting caught up in the political mess going on in the world and if you think fox news is the the arm bearer of truth you've lost your mind too we found that out already you can't trust nobody out there talking about what's going on in the world the only thing we've got left really the only thing we've ever had that we had a sure foundation in was the kingdom of god but the enemy sends little foxes along the way the cares of life look at it this way what was one of the things scripture says you got to notice sequential order in scripture is important not just what he says but the order he says it in lay aside every what what was the other word what came first weights it's almost as though the sin issue is like an afterthought it's almost like he's saying lay aside every weight and sin too that easily besets you but the fact that he put weights first of sequential importance that's something we got to think about what was it about those weights that was so dangerous that he made that a first mention there are little things that we let get in our life that we don't like this we don't like that i'm upset with this i've been hurt by that i've been offended by this they betrayed me they turned their back on me he left me she left me they lied on me they gossiped well that's never going to change you are going to look hurt in the face every day of your life and people are going to hurt you tomorrow and next week and next year and i got news for you you're going to hurt people too but somewhere along the way what we've been through and i've been through some stuff it'd take a month to tell you some of the mess i've been through but that's not going to define me i've made my mind up a long time what i've been through was necessary to be what i am today who i am today and where i am today and i'm not letting the little fox of yesterday have a nest in my current moment nor that time to come we can't let fear i mean look at us we're so what time i got three minutes we so sanctified we use words we should never use what what is one of the go-to single word expressions that we use to describe powerful services unbelievable incredible unreal and we're conditioning our brain when somebody's diagnosed with a disease we never how many people in this room have ever heard a phone call comes so-and-so's just got the doctor's report they just called me and they got staged through cancer who in here in the last year to 10 years has thrown the phone down on the floor and went to stomping on it talk about the devil is alive they ain't got no cancer i don't receive that no our first response to that negative health report is well how much time do they have how bad is they got cancer well how bad is it well i don't know they're they're gonna have to do some oh my god i hope it's not terminal we have no problem receiving a negative word because again one of the little foxes of our life is against sequential order jesus let us know some stuff about us he said death and life in that order now we've i've misquoted it for decades this the power of life and death are in the tongue that's not that that's not how that scripture reads the scripture says death and life are in the power of the tongue in other words death and life have no power until the tongue gives it to them so when we hear a negative word the first impulse that we have our propensity of flesh is to be negative oh my god how bad is it so-and-so was just in a wreck are they are they hurt did it kill them nobody says my god thank the lord for seeing them through well brother shalom we can't say that till we know if they made it no but we will accept the most negative outcome before we've heard that either doubt that little fox of doubt and then we don't we're fearful because if i accept and profess a positive thing and it doesn't turn out that way how stupid am i going to look death and life are in the power of the tongue somebody tells a miracle uh you know hey last night at church you you wouldn't and and we say you just wouldn't believe well if that's really how you feel about it stop telling me if you think i'm not going to believe it quit telling me the story but don't tell me a story about what god did unless you expect me to believe it and if you expect me to believe it and you're okay with me believing what god did be okay with me talking in tongues while you on the phone trying to yet tell me what god did but the problem with us is we're not really comfortable talking in tongues anywhere but in here that's another one of them little foxes i just don't believe we can talk in terms like that you ought to be talking in tongues every day of your life all day long well so-and-so was healed last night man that's incredible do you know what incredible means literally it means without any credibility so when somebody tells you a good report and i say that's incredible what i'm literally saying to them is i hear what you're saying but that story has no credible information i just it's not credible i can't believe that unbelievable that what you just told me is is beyond my ability to believe that that cannot be believed unreal also and so was healed of i'm telling y'all last sunday night that brother came down front because when i got through preaching all i said was lord you said you'd confirm it with signs and wonders now do it everybody in here that needs a miracle come to the front you got 18 seconds that's what i told them you got 18 seconds here they come because problem is we beg people to come and the ones that had faith to do it have to wait and then that door closes and it lifts and so this brother came down and his left pinky could fold over the top of his right when it was that much too short bishop joe herrod from springfield illinois put the brothers hands together like this took them and all he said was grow he'd look at that hand grow in jesus name grow grow and his left hand was in his pocket most of the time i told the pastor's son that was standing i said watch him fingers that that middle one was the first one that started growing then these two and then that pinky that pinky went from way down here in a minute it was up there and that little brother that got healed just fell right out on the floor we we ought to be shocked when the miracles don't happen rather than incredulous when they do happen it's not always going to be the gross horrible sins that keep us from fulfilling the will of god and doing what god's called us to do it's going to be little things like a negative attitude griping and murmuring and complaining and well brother you don't know how bad things are do you know that scholars consider the book of philippians to be the happiest book of the bible that's what it's called by scholars the happiest book of the bible and philippians was written from three of the worst places in the entire world one prison in rome and i believe two in caesarea and that con it is considered to be paul's happiest letter ever written you can find a way to be happy and overcome what we're dealing with it don't matter what it is but it's a choice if we're going to have an apostolic church it's going to be because we as individuals choose for that to be so don't put all that on him and say okay well brother smith if you want this church to grow and you want this church to do whatever you want you better make no no no baby that ain't how this works the promises of god are yea and amen and the amen is me saying i receive that as a word from god and i'm going to put it to practice in my life i am going to live by that word that's the way the church grows when what the word being preached is becomes what i live by and until it does it's just it's going to come across that pulpit and get out to about oh right here and just fall to the ground and then you're going to look around and you're going to see people who are being blessed and let me let you in on that too jesus plays favorites it sure does i don't care if you like that or not jesus plays favors if you seek me you'll find me the implication is if you don't come looking you're not going to find much you want me seat me you want me to open the door to knock on it you got a question you won't answer to ask and when you hear the word of god preached i don't care if it seems to apply to what you are currently going through or not grab that word and say you know what i'm going to rejoice over the day that this is going to be the day the word that i need for that moment in whatever crisis or situation i'm gonna if you'll take the word as it's preached and begin to implement it and put it to work in your life and not worry about well i wonder who that was for all of a sudden that word begins to work blessings come from the father health finds your home increase comes finances are blessed children are blessed grandchildren are blessed don't be mad if you look across the building and somebody's blessed and and they're up on their feet amen and everything that the man of god is preaching to you and and they're worshiping and they're bought into this thing and they're dialed into it and i'm sitting here like a bump on the log in the log in the hole in the hole in the bottom of the sea it's little foxes there's a little fox that says well not today i will but i don't feel like i'm just oh it's just a victory to get here i understand that but be careful of what little foxes you let get in your world because they'll begin to train your brain and you'll you'll have you'll have a when and i'm through with this but i think i am but when when that little servant come in and told the prophet he said brother we hemmed in on every side i am convinced the prophet had such a relationship with god he could have prayed for any miracle he had wanted to he could have asked god to do i mean you know lord kill them all i believe the lord would have done it what was the thing he asked god for he could have skipped the first thing and went straight to the second one but he didn't he said lord basically his prayer was lord let him see what he can't see the miracle he wanted done more than any other was that that that boy's perception would change not just for that moment but forever because he never comes back and asks another crazy question like that again so apparently he got the work done the lord could have skipped right over that and just gone straight ahead and said lord let him see that those that are for us are greater than those that are against us when nicodemus is hanging out and he comes to the lord and he said what is it that we're supposed to do and the lord says except a man be born again he can't what see the kingdom and then little nick bless his heart the little brother was a carnal he didn't know nothing and he said lord how is it that a man being grown can enter the second time into his mother's womb and the lord is just kind of like are you kidding me he said son except a man be born again of the water and the spirit he cannot what huh enter the first thing he let him know was the new birth will give you the ability to see what i'm doing in the earth but if you don't live a life that allows you to see my kingdom in the earth unfolding you will never be able to be a part of my eternal kingdom in the hereafter the holy ghost doesn't make us perfect it doesn't make us just like every personality in the world but it does give us the ability to overcome our flesh and those little foxes of of conflict and be able to get along with one you know you can have a unified house be and be filled with differences but you can't be unified and be filled with division you want to see the kingdom i want to see it for one i want to be a part of it second reason i want to see it is it's necessary to be able to see the will of god in the earth to be able to enter that eternal kingdom with him then the only thing that's going to keep us from that is little fox's perception the little foxes spoil the vine stand with me i'll give you some hope that i'm done [Music] brother smith i know i know the scripture says we he chose by the foolishness of preaching and i know what i said in the very beginning that we've got to have men of god in our lives and that's never going to change but at some point in time it's got to become my responsibility to decide what little things well this isn't hurting anything well that's not hurting anything well that's no big deal well that's no big deal and then all of a sudden all those little toys that my kids like to play with that are by themselves no big deal when you've got one every 13 centimeters you can't walk through the house the other night we had several couples over and had a meeting and there must have been 20 children under the age of 10. and anybody that had to go to the yes bathroom you you literally had to walk through the living room just doing this all the way because there was no and and not one of those toys was huge they were all small toys it's little things little things don't let the little things come in don't let the enemy tell you well this isn't a big deal it is a big deal if it's encroaching on your relationship with god it's a huge deal if it's buying into your and messing up your your prayer life um and a matter of fact and i will go to my seat but in fact i'm gonna come stand close to you if if our if prayer for us if we've let little things coming into your life will turn it into a prayer life when you get the little things out of your life you now have a life of prayer and they are different a life of prayer never stops you can stay in the spirit of prayer 24 hours a day still laugh still cut up still have fun still have kids and enjoy your life but you live a life of prayer but when you start letting little things get in the way and little foxes come in and they start spoiling your perception of him then all of a sudden you've you no longer are living a life where you're led by the spirit of god every hour and every minute of every hour but now you start putting god on the clock and it's like i'm gonna pray an hour a day okay well here's let's try this talk to you if you're married tell your wife you've got from 9 00 a.m to 10 a.m and after that i'm not talking to you and see how long home is happy god doesn't want us to have a prayer life he wants us to live a life of prayer and i don't think it's necessarily demons and devils that are always the culprit for that not being the case sometimes it's the little foxes that you can't find a verse of scripture that says that's a sin no it didn't but it's going to pile up and if you let this stuff in there then all of a sudden you've crowded god out beware the little foxes lift your hands and let's ask god to put this word deeply into our spirit today come on let's talk to god for a moment we've heard from you today god there's not one of us in this room that you've not challenged not not just in a in a general sense but in a specific sense some things that we need to make sure are out of our lives so that it doesn't block up my relationship with you the flow of the holy ghost god we want the little foxes to be out of our lives god so that you can flow in a powerful and a great way come on let's give jesus praise for what we've heard today already hallelujah we are just getting started god's going to do something incredible in the two o'clock service if you want to wave at somebody you want to fist bump and let them know how thrilled you are to see them in the house of the lord music's team's going to get ready we're going to start in just a few moments and let god lead us and guide us into what he has for us through the remainder of this day you

Channel: Faith Apostolic Church

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Length: 75min 57sec (4557 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 08 2021