"Willing to Play Hurt" Rev Martyn Ballestero

[Music] when you wake when you woke up this morning you didn't say clouds come near the clouds were already there because that's a reflection of god's faithfulness and if you don't see that i feel sorry for you god's been good to me god's been faithful to me the least that i can do is raise my hands and lift my voice and give him a little dance because god is so good can we praise him for just a moment is that all right on a sunday morning can we lift our hands for just a moment is that okay for just a moment oh come on that's your church let's lift her voices he is still on the throne he is still able to do exceedingly abundantly above all you can ask or think oh someone magnify him someone praised his holy name [Music] [Applause] [Music] uh [Music] [Music] worthy cry out in my place [Music] is [Music] he's worthy [Music] my [Music] [Applause] [Music] the love [Music] [Applause] magnify your name i've come to lift you up i've come to lift my voice to you because you're worthy moving on [Applause] [Music] don't [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] put it on [Music] is is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] he won't work [Music] it born again [Music] [Applause] [Music] we [Music] can we take just a moment to magnify him it doesn't matter what kind of weapon it is it's still not gonna prosper oh there's somebody feel what i feel i feel the holy ghost beginning to come down when my praise goes up the glory comes down when worship goes up the glory comes down oh that's the church i think some of us are starting to feel it now our help is on the way our help is coming in [Music] hallelujah hallelujah it feels good to be in the house of the lord does somebody feel good to be in the house of god i know some of us may got some effects of appalling but the pollen is not going to stop me from praising god i know some of us a little stuffed up that's just unfortunately that just that's what happens around this time but i'm still going to lift my hands [Music] even if i don't have a voice brother buxton really gave me a good whooping at spanish church when i had interpreted i'm still trying to recover pastor that's all right i'm still going to lift my voice the little that i got i'm going to lift it praise god someone give the lord a handclap of thanksgiving [Music] praise god i'm glad i serve a miracle-working god this morning i'd like for the church to help us pray for a few needs that we have let's pray for sister nina up church who needs a healing from god and let's also pray for sister linda jones who's sick this morning listen there are other requests that may not be here that i think we ought to pray for this past tuesday we we prayed for uh the hand family brother han who's believe his sister or brother andrew han's aunt who's currently battling stage four colon cancer so let's pray for that family let's pray that god will help them and shrink them god god can still do a miracle so if you're in this place right now and you need a healing in your body i want you to lift your hands and if you don't have a need i want you to look around and i want you to focus on someone whose hand is raised and i want you to pray as though that was your need god in the name of jesus we pray right now lord you're a healer this morning you're still the healer you're still the deliverer you're able to touch someone's sick body god anyone who's watching this service online lord extend forth your healing virtue and rest upon them god do a mighty work lord you're gonna get all of the glory oh lord we give you praise we give you the glory we give you the honor god thank you for all that you're gonna do god somebody thank him somebody thank you thank you jesus for your healing virtue thank you for your mighty power god [Music] we give him all the glory and all the honor you may have a seat as brother comes and worship the lord with this song do this but i want to say thank you to everyone in church for your prayers your cards gift cards everything during the passion of my father but uh i i'm really thankful it's uh the doctors gave him two months excuse me two weeks to live back in may and we got nine months so god god is good when i when i sing a song i try to try to sing something new because it's supposed to be a special song but i heard i battled with this and i turned in a song but after hearing the first two songs i thank them this is what i'm supposed [Music] [Music] i have nothing but praise for you lord nothing but praise for you [Music] when i see you all the beauty in this world you created i have nothing but praise for you [Music] you gave me a home you gave me a family you gave me two hands lord to lift up and praise you you gave me two feet more to walk in your footsteps i have nothing but praise for you oh i [Music] nothing but praise [Music] when i see all the beauty in this world you create have nothing but [Applause] [Music] [Music] praise [Music] i have nothing but praise for you you you gave me life and that life more abundantly [Music] or when you feel me away your spirit law is priceless and can i be purchased with [Applause] nothing but praise [Music] when i see all the beauty in this world you created [Music] [Applause] [Music] when i see all the beauty in this [Music] [Applause] for when i see all the beauty in this world you created i have nothing but praise nothing but praise for you come on why don't you give that praise to the lord today hallelujah hallelujah oh god's been good to me god's been good to me hallelujah he's my closest friend today i'm glad that we can come into his presence and lift up his name amen i'm glad to be in the house of god i'm glad to be with the people of god one more time just clap your hands to the lord thank you jesus thank you jesus amen amen we're so glad that you're in the house of the lord with us as you are seated turn to someone and greet them thank them for being here in god's house amen in in first pentecostal church can we make all of our guests feel very welcome today amen amen we're so glad to have each of you if it is your first time the first pentecostal church we have a special gift for you and we want to make sure that we can give you that so if you've not already filled out an information card in the foyer on your way in you can text this number text the word welcome to 919-364-5236-919-364-5236 if it's your first time text the word welcome and we have a special gift for you there's several events coming up and uh in a moment we're going to take our offering as we go over these events if you need an envelope for ties or offering just slip your hand up and an usher will come to you and see you quickly there is a young ladies event coming up called proverbs 31 it's an evening designed for a youth in college and career young ladies ages 12 through 26. it's friday night april 30th at 7 30 p.m in the ladies prayer room registration opens tonight please see sister christian martinez in the foyer after tonight's service the cost will be ten dollars and dinner will be served and the speaker will be sister cheyenne urschen so we're looking forward to that this is a formal event also um there is a baby shower area that is still available through tonight for clark benjamin tunstall this is the newborn son of brother chris and sister alicia tunstall tomorrow night april 19th from 7 00 pm to 8 pm we'll be having family prayer here in the sanctuary how many of you love family prayer it's always a great time to come into god's house we want you to be there amen amen after family prayer there will be a leadership training session and coming up this summer we're excited about it and we're in the process of beginning to plan for peak conference peak conference is always a great time for our young people our young adults and youth and so we're opening up um our local registration and getting names for those that are interested in attending peak conference the dates are july 19th through july 24th and if you're interested in attending see sister christian martinez after our next uh our our services this morning tonight tuesday night the deadline for our number is next sunday night april 24th along with a non-refundable deposit of fifty dollars per attendee so if you're interested in attending if you're a young person you want to make sure to see sister christian martinez after service i was i was told to emphasize that don't see her as she's walking onto the platform see her after service amen and also we're looking for chaperones and if you're interested in chaperoning we're going to be looking at a list of those that are interested in figuring out how many chaperones that we need so if you're interested in doing that please see sister christian before next sunday night she will be in the foyer um collecting names and monday and money our adult singles the salt group is going to be at the beach on saturday may the 1st if you would like to go you need to register with brother ben or sister darlene ridge by april 27th it sounds like it'll be a good time for all of our singles um and and also for all of our couples there's an event for you as well as brother jeff newton announced on tuesday we have a new group for our married couples from the time they're married through age 54. the kickoff activity will be on saturday night may the first please see brother jeff or sister um or or sister newton um to register there will be door prizes and babysitting will be provided there's a lot of exciting things going on and and a lot of things that we want you to remember but i'm glad you're in the house of god today and and this is the main event if you've come needing something from god you can receive it right here in this house amen amen we're looking forward to the word of god coming in a few moments let's pray over this service and this offering lord we thank you for another opportunity to come into your house we thank you for the way that you're already moving in this room and the way that you've met us here god we've come to give you glory we've come to lift you up and we ask that you would move upon each of us speak to our hearts lord we praise you we glorify your holy name and ask that you would touch us in this place in jesus name [Music] how many know we're standing on holy ground this morning doesn't it feel good in the house of the lord whatever you need is in this place this morning help us sing we are [Music] standing unholy [Music] and i know i know that there are angels all around [Music] let us oh jesus now jesus now for we are standing [Music] oh you know this old course this morning help us sing we are standing [Music] oh yes and i know [Music] [Music] the one that it's all really about today jesus now [Music] unholy holy ground and i know i know all around [Music] oh let us praise [Music] let us praise jesus [Music] for we are standing and we are standing in his presence how many believe that today oh how many believe that today [Music] [Applause] [Music] let's lift our hands across this sanctuary this morning oh let's bless the name of the lord together hallelujah from the front to the back let's praise the name that's above every name hallelujah hallelujah jehovah sid canoe [Music] jehovah rapha jehovah kept but when he came to this earth he said my name will be jehovah is become my salvation or as we like to say jesus [Music] somebody say that name today jesus speak that name in this house if you need healing speak that name if you need provision speak that name if you need renewal in the holy ghost [Music] speak the name of jesus the angel said you're going to call his name jesus and the reason he told mary was because he shall save his people from their sins ladies and gentlemen it's a it's a reference to isaiah chapter 12 where the writer said the lord jehovah he is my strength because they knew him as their strength they knew him as their strength when they came out of egypt and they knew him as their strength when they took over the promised land and then isaiah said he also is my song and they knew him as the song when david danced before the lord with all his might so he's my strength and he's my song but then they said with joy you shall draw water out of the wells of salvation and he has become that means he wasn't yet but he's gonna be he has become i'm gonna know him in a new administration i'm gonna know him in a new dimension he has become my salvation jesus jesus praise god praise god doesn't it feel good in the house of the lord this morning [Music] thank you jesus thank you jesus god bless you you can be seated we want to welcome our visitors if you're visiting with us we want you to know that you're with friends today and we want you to join in and worship god with us it's good to have jennifer mccain back with us god bless you glad you can be in the house of the lord diane washington i believe she's here for the first time is here with james howard geraldine crabtree is back again she was here this last tuesday night and we're glad that she can be with us josie is here again with her son ollie and i believe they're from the wilmington church so god bless you all good to have you visiting with us we love the wilmington church rochelle huey is here and charlene allen james martin brother and sister carlos blandon from denver colorado are visiting with us and i believe brother carlos was here as a teenager so welcome back to fpc we're glad you came to worship god with us and if you're visiting with us online and you are um tuning in we welcome you to fpc and and we're glad you're here to worship the lord with us there's nothing like the people of god and you can you got two choices today you can sit back with your arms folded and just kind of observe but that's no fun and that's not how this is designed we want you to do this with us that your bible says to do this with us magnify the lord he could have said all by myself but that's not what he wanted he said magnify the lord with me clap your hands with me lift your voice with me hey how about we do this together let us exalt him let us exalt his name together i want somebody over to here to help me praise him somebody over here and here somebody up there on the balcony ah let's give god a little prize on a sunday morning i'm talking about a tongue-talking praise i'm talking about a one god phrase [Music] thank you jesus amen amen so many good things are happening you can remain standing with us i'm excited about the presence of the lord that we're feeling i'm excited about all the new people being baptized new bible studies that are being taught i just right before i got up here i just did a quick run through we have something like 50 bible studies that have started in the last two weeks of new people and watch this watch this there are multitudes of young adults that are the grandchildren of people that are or were connected to fpc whose parents lost out with god or or perhaps grew lukewarm and they have hit this decadent degenerate world and they are saying wait a minute hold on hold on a second and and what they think is happening is we're growing a little more interested in this apostolic thing that we thought we knew all about but i don't i know what's really going on there's prayers of saints that are going up and have gone up for a long time prayers that said save my baby [Music] in the name of jesus put your hand on my child put your hand on my grandchild don't let the devil have them don't let hell get its claws into my grandbaby in the name of jesus my bible tells me that there are vials in heaven where the prayers of the saints are stored up and god opens those vials praise god so don't stop praying don't stop believing god's doing great things god's doing great things thank you jesus [Music] very quickly i will announce that we had a a music music training seminar set up for the next week we have to cancel unfortunately sister joy norris is not able to make it she's had a tragedy in her family a terrible terrible tragedy for privacy reasons i won't speak about it publicly but just keep their family in your prayers that god would help them and be with him during a time of great difficulty we will reschedule with her but just lift up the norris family and lift them up before the lord amen so i am glad i'm glad this morning to get to this point of the service i've been looking forward to this for a good while the man i'm going to bring to this pulpit is not he's [Laughter] he's no stranger to fpc and he's no stranger to pentecost and i i knew the the name balostero from from my youth my grandfather would talk about the ballisteros my my parents would i i developed a friendship with his son anthony in florida when we pastored not far from one another in south florida and then i got to know elder balostero for myself and i learned quickly there's only one of them only one of them and he loves the things of god and he's not ashamed of the gospel of jesus christ now and i'm just going to say this real quick he has taken stands for the things of god through the years and faced withering persecution because of it and he just smiles and just bounces off of him and and he just loves god and keeps on keeping on and i love that and we love the ball of steroids brother ballast oh come preach to us this morning we love and appreciate you give the lord a hand clap for praise thank you jesus praise the lord everyone i greet you in the name of jesus which is still ain't never going to change the only name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved aren't you glad you've been baptized in jesus name ain't she purty [Applause] every time i look at that face i got to say no it's a it's a great honor to be here do you all know you you're just so easy to like and you don't fool around when it comes to having church and as they say in parts of east texas that's the meanest thing if my english professors would hear me now they'd roll over in their graves i'm sure i want to say thank you for our lovely accommodations the gift baskets the warm welcomes you know what visitors don't know what you preach necessarily when they come but they know how you made them feel and if you go out of your way to shake their hand and welcome them and connect with them if a visitor can connect with as many as nine people they'll never leave you doesn't matter what denomination it is people think you can't have a big church because you preach a conservative gospel has nothing to do with it how you treat your people your members one another that makes all the difference i want to say that the ballast arrows and the walker family connected back in the 50s in a little place called national city california suburb of san diego and i was about 14 i was grown already and there was a cute little girl about eight years old named paula walker they call her paula luke now but it's good to see lifelong friends and uh i miss your man i i would like to tell you that my wife loves you all but she's going to leave you just give you a heads up she's going to leave before i do i'm tougher than she is actually she received an injury in both of her shins in december and by january it looked like two gunshot wounds and a silver dollar wouldn't cover the center part where it was down at least an eighth of an inch deep in her shin area she's been going to the wound center every week and this past week is the first time since december that skin is starting to cover the top so we can't mess that up i'm going to let you be seated because i'm going to talk about an hour then i'm going to read my text and then i am most happy to see some precious familiar faces that i've seen on the apostolics that see cruises and that's where pastor and i had a chance to get more gooder connected there was a backslider on the ship that used to go to the church i pastored in south bend he when he started coming to church he was the head of the swat team and became one of the chiefs of our police department south bend and then he backslid and then on the cruise he gets to talking to the head of security and a backslider invited the head of security to hear you preach and that was the day my friend that you stood up and you began to preach from the old testament about jesus and he sat there he's got he had a beautiful haircut it was like bald and i mean that in a good christian way you understand and i watched the man cry i didn't know if pastor knew all the background of this but i'm sitting beside the backslider that invited him so he's telling me he said does the preacher know he's jewish and this jewish head of security sat there and bawled while the lord used him to reveal who jesus was that jesus of the new testament is the jehovah of the old and just manifest in the flesh jeremiah said it this way he said i will give you pastors according to mine heart he said if y'all are good boys and girls i'm gonna give you a preacher preach better billy graham is that what he said not at all god actually doesn't deal with ability he deals with a heart and to understand that passage you got to understand what kind of heart god has loving merciful long-suffering holy truthful despise sin righteous just faithful kind sacrificial giving himself for others if you think about that and you look at this man right here you see all those traits manifested in diversity god has given you a pastor according to his heart amen i've been in management of some form for over 50 years whether it was electronics wholesaler i'm not going to start naming stuff amazing what you'll do to survive in life but one thing people like is continuity if you go to a restaurant and they have roasted chicken come on now and coconut cream pie and you eat there for 27 years and all of a sudden they sell the place you're going to go back when it's under new management to see if the chicken tastes the same and see if the pie tastes the same if it don't truly do what i'm saying is what gives people confidence is continuity backsliders want to come back i give brother let me just say it this way bishop godair is a pentecostal treasure when backsliders come back to visit knowing that bishop godaire is not the pasta no more they want to say they want to see do the chicken taste the same do the coconut cream pie still got that high meringue on the top is the worship like it used to be is holiness like it used to be i say it is thank you pastor ursin [Applause] but i can't brag on him without bragging on her it's common knowledge in ministry that a man's ministry can rise no higher than his wife's life will allow if that's true sir the sky is the limit for you she's a christian she's a praying woman she's a godly woman she lives a holy life she submitted to her pastor and her husband both of them she's a tremendous example come on now she's the best kind of mama got an awesome spirit and if you'll cut me a little slack sir she's easy to look at too thank god for our pastor and his precious wife well i've come to the part that gets got all the commercials out of the way now we got to get to the i'm going to read one verse of scripture this be your last chance to stand for several hours matthew chapter 24 chapter about the end time matthew 24 verse 13 matthew 24 13. i always announce my text twice because men don't get it the first time if he happens to be doing something when i announce that he didn't actually hear me and he'll say to the lady beside him what did he say and she might have been talking to the children when i announced it but she heard me god even knows that there's a problem that's why he said adam adam noah noah samuel samuel all saul men don't get it the first time women do where would we be without women probably still in the garden of eden and now that everybody's mad at me i'm going to try to help me jesus it may be too late i don't know verse 13 matthew 24 but he that shall endure until the end this ain't the end yet the same shall be saved anybody want to make it all the way home god bless you you may be seated my wife does not like to feed me on sunday mornings she wants me to get hungry like everybody else she's afraid i'll turn into a duck old battery just last and last and last in just a minute i'm going to be turning to deuteronomy 33 24 and 25. i look at the scripture that said to him that endureth he that shall endure unto the end the same shall be saved let me say it this way anybody can get their praise on when they get a raise on the job they get a nice house a new car or their mother-in-law actually smiles at them but what happens when you lose your job and the roof caves in and the bottom drops out no wonder the lord uses the word joy more than you see the word happiness in the bible because happiness is comes from the same word as happenings and if you don't have good happenings you ain't got no happiness but i've seen folks lose their job and still shout when they come to church i like what uh so i i like how job said this in chapter 13 verse 15 we quote though he slayed me yet will i trust him but the last portion is what i'm focusing on right now but i will maintain my ways before him in other words i'm going to keep on doing what i've always been doing what do you do when things go bad what do you do when you get hurt what do you do with there's a problem you keep on coming to church you keep on singing you keep on praising the lord you keep on standing at your feet with a smile on your face he's still a good god oh you know that's right i uh had a lifelong friend named john mcdonald his sisters married people like von morton and nate wilson and carol magruder we went to bible school together we was tight we even got put on probation together one time i mean we was tight lord i apologize hadn't seen him in 41 years and while i was there a brother steve brother sister steve wilson from potts camp mississippi showed up their daughter married by the mcdonald's son and there was a new grandbaby so i'm preaching a revival and so i get acquainted with his sister wilson actually my daughter and her husband had gone to bible school with their son patrick and i knew that he had died three or four years prior and i got invited to potts camp to preach for brother wilson and so i went not really knowing how this was gonna you know when someone's grieving and you know they're grieving he had told me that he goes to his son's grave which is right across the street from his house and cries one to four hours a day for four years we all grieve differently and it's kind of cliche to say well i know how you feel when actually you really don't so i get to potts camp which is not really where the church is potts camp has about 400 people and the church is seven miles away a little community called bethlehem got about 12 houses around it i get all my mess unloaded put it in evangelistic orders and quarters rather we get in the car with them to go down the hill to flicks flicks is a mom-and-pop truck stop got half a dozen tables in it greasy spoon at best but it's the only game in town so it's a yes or no thing so we're gonna get a sandwich and some soup or something we sit down the table and brother wilson starts crying tell me about his son drowning you see patrick was the associate pastor and he drowned in five feet of water at the age of 24. he was a tremendous swimmer an athlete basketball football baseball he could do it all if you're crying and you need a shoulder lean on you've got a pastor a pastor's wife that sometimes you connect with but who does a preacher go to and so i i've seen this grown man my age crying i just pulled out my hank and cried with him the bible said rejoice with them that rejoice i'm supposed to cry right along with those that are crying and every day for the next two weeks i get his pickup and he put a cd in this is patrick preaching this is patrick her song patrick wrote this is him playing at the national quartet convention this is him singing with the wilson brothers at the national quartet convention this is patrick doing this this is i got to where i carried two hankies because one wasn't enough because here was a man that was hurting and he had he was general superintendent of the aljc at the time who's he going to cry whose shoulder he gonna cry on and i just happened to be there and i was willing to cry with him there's a thing in psychology 101 referred to as catastrophic bonding people who've been through something together they survived 9 11 world war ii submarine time they have reunions every year because they went through something to get there and so every year when we get together i bring up patrick whether he brings it up first or not i come back the next year and they had a memorial service for honoring five years patrick's life and they give brother sister wilson a memento of some kind and we're going out to eat as sister wilson says from the backseat she said brother balostero i don't know if i read about it in a magazine or in a newspaper but i read where a group of sports writers got together to honor a hockey player not because he was good not because he made a lot of points not because he was a crowd favorite but because with cuts and broken bones and injuries he wouldn't sit on the bench they honored him for being willing to play hurt and that friends is my subject today god's not looking for somebody that's just breezing on through life just with a shout going on but even if you're hurting what do you do you keep on singing you keep on praising the lord you're not going to solve any problems staying home here's where the solutions are here's where the answer is here's where help is right here in god's house can i get a witness to somebody david said it this way the lines have fallen unto me in pleasant places in other words when the surveyor came out and he showed me where my inheritance was man i got me a good deal it's going to get better brother i got me a good deal but not everybody got a good deal have you seen some pictures of israel it's not palm trees everywhere it's not little bubbling brooks everywhere it's not green grass everywhere pardon me everywhere you gotta leave the v out once a while it's easy to compare yourself with your neighbor lord you gave her a good looking husband look what you gave me they living in a mountain my house got wheels and stuff on it they drive at a lincoln continental and i'm driving a poj piece of junk i don't care what you're driving where you're living or who you're married to he's still a good god we need to focus on what we do have so with that in mind deuteronomy chapter 33 verse number 24 and of asher he said let asher be blessed with children let me tell you something durham it's god's will that revival happened right here that you'd be blessed with children born right here in these altars let him be acceptable to his brethren that speaks to me of unity i've preached almost 1200 revivals and i'll say it this way i've never seen a lasting revival without a spirit of unity and you can't have unity and you won't have unity till you start overlooking each other's little idiosyncrasies and forgiving each other's past well her grandma said something to my grandma in 1951 well get over it how long are you going to let the war go on you know why we're here not just for you we're here because there's a city full of souls that need the holy ghost this is a lighthouse we're here for a common cause and a common purpose let him dip his foot in oil god wants your walk to be anointed he wants your worship to be anointed [Applause] and here's my focus thy shoes shall be iron and brass how many y'all got some brass shoes that don't even sound comfy my wife was laughing at somebody wearing big old slippers this big around into the store last night i said well honey we know somebody got i was with them when they bought six of them i ain't wearing them out there i ain't even wearing them in the house but snow where i live i might need him from a set of snowshoes but that's about all thy shoes shall be iron and brass and you remember this as long as you live and as thy day so shall thy strength be the same god that helped you through yesterday going to help you through today and the same god helping you through today going to help you through tomorrow you might as well get a good night's rest how many y'all ever been to a shoe store 15 20 of you okay so i'm just going to talk to you moccasin makers and let me tell you what happens when you go to shoe store excuse me do you have this in a 12 d in a black or brown or burgundy you are large and in charge you tell them what you want what color what style and what size but god don't do business not business business that way you're walking down the street with a little tune or something you can put your shoes on like that when you pay for them yourself and the lord's leaned up against the door jamb at his shoe store he said hey bowstera your shoes came in my shoes lord i didn't order those jews i know you didn't i ordered them for you you walk in and you sit down and he says put a pair of shoes i said i call these peace you know when god puts a pair of shoes on you they fit the first time there's no break-in period required peace lord you're getting ready to walk down turmoil boulevard turmoil in your health maybe maybe it's turmoil in your finances your marriage on the job come here stand face that way if you would please pretend that this is my understanding and in life you can go no further than your understanding will allow my understanding is very reluctant right now and wisely so and like you can't go any further than your understanding will allow you to go but somehow god is able to give you peace that passeth understanding and somebody say how in the world did you ever get through that you have to say i don't know that no flesh your glory in his presence god is able to help you now just a minute he don't change the surroundings but he will give you shoes for the road he'll give you shoes where you don't feel what everybody else is feeling oh come on somebody give my man a hand it's not long after that the lord stops you i got some more shoes for you you try them on he said i call these grace grace lord you get ready to walk down rumor alley and folk going to talk about you and i'm going to help help you hold your head up and keep a song in your heart and a smile on your face and then one day he catches you again he said your boots came in today my boots uh-huh you try on them boots he said i call these worship you get ready to walk through the valley of despair and these boots are the only thing going to come out the other side did you know you can worship your way out of whatever you're going through i don't know if you sing it for all to call here or not but when i was a teenager sister nancy is saying these boots are made for walking and walking is what they'll do and one of these days these boots are gonna most of your carnal people sit over here sir god's looking for somebody even if you're hurting you're still having church even if you're hurting so i my wife and i started a church in oklahoma city was there a couple years my father got sick so we resigned and went south bend to help him we pastored there 28 years and the people there they knew that i wasn't quite right in my mind and they they understood they tried to be nice yes my brother-in-law brother david trammell called me one day i think i had about 7 500 books at the time in my library didn't seem to help me much but i had them and he called me said hey man have you read that new book i'm okay you're okay i said well i got it i just don't plan to read it he said well why not i said i went through the index i saw where the guy was going just saved me 200 pages evidently i'm lazy i said there's some folks that's honest they don't even lock their house they don't lock the car they they live in a community where they pull up the little mini market gas station they leave the car running while they go inside because everybody around here is honest then there's other people that are as my youngest son would say sheisty they steal from the boss and they feel like everybody else steals from the boss and after we hung up i got to studying about that i decided to go to church that night without a bible i said with apologies to the author i would like to speak tonight on this subject i'm not okay you're not okay as a faith builder you understand so how many of you knew that i had pain right here they looked at me kind of funny i took my tithe over my shoulder unbuttoned my shirt and i had taken a sharpie written the word pain on my undershirt and i got a sympathy response kind of like you just gave me here and i kicked off my shoes and i had the toe big toe area cut off both of them my big toe was wiggling at everybody grossed my wife out but i said how many all knew i had to live like this i unbuttoned my coat and had the side of my shirt both sides grease on it how many of you guys this is how i have to live i took off my coat and i had my sleeves from my cuff to just below the elbow shredded front and in the back it looked like my undershirt was in jail back there i had so many stripes and cuts i put my tie back in place but my shirt put my shoes back on but my coat up and you couldn't tell i said you come to church you got stuff you have to deal with nobody can see nobody knows and you're sitting there wishing somebody cut you some slack and pray for you and bear your burdens when your brother's got the same thing he's going through your sister got the same thing she's going through she wishes somebody pray for it because i'm not okay and you're not okay but what do you do when you're not okay you keep on coming to church you came up praying to the lord you keep on shouting you keep on dancing you don't read very far in the bible before you find out about a guy named naaman he was the general of the syrian army captain of the host what they called now here's what messes my thick skull up he had a little servant girl slave girl if you will an israelite girl in his household where was her mom and him where was her daddy i you're not gonna find an answer either so don't don't even save yourself some time there's still a king sitting on the throne elisha is having church on friday nights how come she's over there let me just tell you my wife when i proposed she informed me she wanted 12 children and i was willing to accept the challenge [Applause] but because of preeclampsia and toxemia we decided five was a good number we have four sons and one daughter and she's cuter in a bug's eyelash see this is what guys do they marry a good-looking woman so their kids will have a chance that's how that works i might be ugly but i'm not stupid marisa was about three she had on a little martha miniature dress and everything 19 canned cans a little lacy socks and white patent leather shoes and little patent leather purse hole about two quarters and her hair was done as my wife called it the shirley temple curls so we're going to the mall i don't want to tell you where because i don't want to bring natchez mississippi into the story but we're there and there is no one in the mall except two guys on the third level of scaffolding working on the interior ceiling or the roof of the mall sister arlene cavenist was with us and she's looking over here in a window the little two horsey merry-go-round that my daughter wanted to ride was right here and my wife was about this far away looking in the window on the other side i walked down the hallway almost 100 feet i might say here that i went to 26 schools growing up lived in 33 houses i broke records in every school i went to and running i'm an old geezer now bumping 80 in the head don't push me still okay but they would get i would never compete school against school in gym class i even broke the the four minute mile in in gym class and that's not official but they would give me honorary letters or sweaters and chevrons and that kind of stuff at this time i'm about 30 something i'm out of shape but i ain't that far gone i'm far gone now but i wasn't in and i heard a scream and sister arlene kavanagh said bless you that guster baby and i turned around to see two men running out the door with my girl i did a quick look and there's no one else in the mall but us i look down on the ground i'm standing by the scaffolding there's a lead pipe about that long and the devil said pick it up and sometimes i don't care what preachers say sometimes the devil has good ideas [Applause] lord i apologize for that i picked up that lead pipe and i let out a scream that would have made the whole cherokee indian nation proud of me and i began to double clutch a flat trailer truck because i'm going for my girl brother balostero you're a preacher i plumb for god i'm sorry pastor but if you're not going to defend your babies don't have none i hit the door they swung out like this i hit the frame of the door shoulder high my wife is a party pooper at this point in her life she won't let me do karate kicks she won't let me jump up and kick my heels she has forbidden me to stand on top of pulpits she don't like me jumping off of them i said babe i can die in a lazy boy's hair let me go happy she's afraid i'll throw my back out of place she wasn't worried about it then when i hit that door frame i won't bore you with details but i got my girl back yeah i did i didn't get arrested an ambulance driver didn't have far to go so my point is where was this girl's daddy you're not getting my girl without taking me too but notice one thing about this little girl she could have said if there's a god how could he have let this happen to me don't be a fool and talk like that to god she didn't lose her testimony even though she was going through what she was going through you got heaven watching you you got hell watching you you got friends watching you got enemies watching you don't lose your testimony my father died with parkinson's and alzheimer's at the age of 74. i was 50. i'm walking through the ontario mills mall with my dad on my arm got my shoulders squared this is a man preached general conference with his notes on the back of a cleaner's receipt takes me 99 pages single space to me he was my hero he was my pastor he was my dad he was my best friend and here's a man i won't go into all his past but he fought 22 professional fights i didn't know that till i was 47. he was a gang leader he wasn't a wimp and here he is now tottering and i got my shoulder squared i'm there and someone looked at me crossways that's my dad and i see this guy about look like he's 85 that's judgmental so deal with it he's got this young blonde honey on his arm and he's got what looked like a foot long cigar in his mouth it ain't lit but he got it in his mouth it gets worse he's cussing so bad he would take a half a dozen sailors to keep up with him he's loud and he's wearing flip-flops and a tank top and a speedo get that out your mind he crossed in front of me about 10 15 feet in front of me and i said god why are you letting that old buzzer live and i meant that in a good christian way i said if my daddy had that much strength there's no limit to what he could do for your kingdom and immediately john 21 came to my mind where peter's on the seashore he's divvying up the catch one for you two for me and one for you and three for me dividing the catch that's all churches don't fish much anymore they just divide up the catch that's the sermon for another day that's all the announcements you may be seated and jesus said love us thou me more than these yeah lord you mean we we tie it man you me be good feed my sheep feed my lambs three times he said it each time he used the word for love that was more powerful more cogent than the time before peter's getting a little nervous and then the lord flipped the record over and he said when i was young you went with us so ever thou would us but when thou art oh you shall stretch forth your hands another she'll lead the dress the leading where the wooden snot in other words you got enough strength to stand you can't put your own clothes on you can walk but your gps is broken somebody got to lead you around and peter freaks out he said jesus said but follow thou me he said well what about him he said if i let him live come again what's that to thee follow thou me the point being that for the first time with my dad hanging on my arm you look at life it's not fair that's not fair but all god required of you and me is to be faithful and keep on following him so what do you do when you hurt him you keep on following him maintaining your ways before him am i making sense to anybody in the house about 1963 i was in port arthur texas by the pews church there's a conference of sorts and a missionary named ben and sister larson we're going to columbia and i'm 19. i i loved flying i even took lessons and load and did all that other kind of stuff i never did get a license but i just had an interest in aviation and here's a man that was a pilot and missionary when i proposed a sugar booger i i told her i wanted to be a missionary in case you're wondering when it's just this two in the room i don't call her sugar booger i got other nicer names than that if you'd rather i just sister honey if that would be better for you regardless i fell in love with the larsons and then what happened wrenched my guts because he gets to colombia and buys a house and when the local religious authorities find out he wants to have church and they forbid anyone to rent lease or sell him a building to have any kind of church services in she was expecting their first child and no doctor was allowed to care for her when it came time for delivery no hospital was allowed to admit her she died in childbirth and no funeral home was allowed to embalm her and no graveyard was allowed to enter her there brother larson said he felt like the lord said don't cry they're watching you he had 24 hours to get her in the ground he had property so he dug a hole in his backyard built his own casket dressed his wife as pretty dresses he could put on her the neighbors leaned over the walls and they watched silently as he was doing this what's this man from america going to do how's he going to handle this what happened was when he finally got done and he put her in the coffin and he nailed it down put on his suit picked up the baby brought it outside talked to the crowd for just a minute laid the baby down on the blanket sang prayed preached prayed again lord his wife down into the ground covered her up with the dirt and laid some flowers he picked on top of that picked his baby up and he thanked everyone for coming i wish i could have heard that sermon that day all i know is that one moment in time was a catalyst for hundreds of thousands of people to be baptized in jesus name and received the holy ghost all god wanted was someone willing to play hurt you can cry over your pain and we'll cry right along with you but in spite of your pain in spite of your problems you got to keep on keeping on you keep on coming to church you keep on being faithful even if you're hurting you keep on singing even if you're hurting you keep on worshiping even if you're hurting you keep on praying even if you're hurting you keep on loving even if you're hurting you keep on coming to church the good news is i'm getting closer to being done i got i got more wood cut down and i can haul off in this one service i was invited to preach in hopkinsville kentucky for brother gerald adams a wednesday through friday about 2 000. and there was a woman named mary galley who prayed 25 people through the holy ghost by herself wednesday through friday they asked me to stay for sunday and by sunday she had prayed 42 people through by herself not counting what the others did you see what was different about mary galley she was a sweet catholic girl had twin seven-year-olds and she's standing on the front porch waiting for the school bus to stop and let her babies get out with a flag out on the bus watching babies walk across the street and come to her open arms but this one particular day a drunk driver ignored the sign and hit her two baby girls and killed him in front of her eyes and mary went to such a deep dark place no counseling would help her no visits with the priest seemed to help her she turned to alcohol and for one year she drowned out her pain with alcohol and somebody invited her to life tabernacle in hopkinsville kentucky they came up on the second row they sit right where you're sitting sister that's where mary galley would sit because that's where she said the first night she came somebody gave her a bible gave her a notepad and a pencil that she wrote down every scripture every reference she got baptized and got the holy ghost the first night she signed up for every home bible study class they had every new convert class that they had she wanted to know more about this amazing life she was got so thrilled with the gospel that they invited her to be his teachers substitute or assistant rather in sunday school class so she did that for a while and then after a year or so she said brother adams i don't want to sound presumptuous but if there's ever an opening for the teacher of the seven-year-olds i would like for you to consider my name i have an affinity with seven-year-olds and she became the teacher of the seven-year-olds i was at a conference where they called mary galle to the front up on the stage and they honored her as teacher of the year because for two years in a row in her own sunday school classroom she had prayed each year over 77 year olds through to the holy ghost she took her pain and turned it around and used it for the glory of god what i'm saying to you is don't waste your tears don't waste your sorrow don't waste your pain use it for the glory of god give the devil a black eye for over 20 years i've ridden four wheelers cross country through parts of kentucky west virginia and virginia every now and then we ease on over to north carolina we may get in at six o'clock at night first night load up ride to six in the morning we go through the mud and the blood if you want to wimp out just stay at the motel there may be 15 or 20 of us we used to ride horseback did that for 30 years i've ridden almost 10 000 miles cross country on horses and i'm not a horseman i just know which end i'm supposed to be facing when i get on okay i'm a member of the sba which is a sore behind association this is coal mining country where we ride four-wheelers and one of the guys goes with us his brother-in-law owns all the strip mines in west virginia so he has the keys to the gates can i get us so there's nowhere we can't go unless it's you know private property we're up i don't know 1600 feet maybe 18 something like that we're stopped one of the guys did something and he burnt the inside of his leg with a muffler on a four-wheeler and a good old baptist boy very respectful call me brother balostero is one of our guides so we were talking about burns he said brother battle sterile when i was three weeks old we had a hot water or steam humidifiers you all remember them you got to have gray hair to know about them or no hair he said my daddy was carrying a pan of boiling water they had me in a bassinet on the floor and my father tripped over a throw rug and spilt that boiling water on my right leg and i received third degree burns from my knee down i said rick that's horrible i said how many operations did you have to have he said they lost count i said did the scars still go to your knee today he said no he said they only come up to my ankle bone i said your ankle bone and he looked at me like i'm the biggest goober in the whole world he said brother balostero when you're a baby from your foot to your knee ain't but that far and then he said something that made my blood go cold he said scars don't grow he said i got bigger than my scar and if you haven't gotten bigger than your scars it's a sign you're not growing in the holy ghost it's god's will that your scars don't overwhelm you all your life singers musicians if you would come the year was 1992. the place was the land of my father's people barcelona spain the event was the olympics actually the 440 in the olympics the pride of all of great britain was a runner by the name of derrick redmon he was the pride of great britain it seemed like nobody in the world could beat derrick redmon at running this particular day if i remember correctly he was in lane number four he looked left and right he had already beaten the other runners in previous races around the world a sports writer interviewed him 10 years after the event and he wrote an article called winning at any cost i'm sorry finishing at any cost the shot was fired [Music] if you've ever been in the blocks you know what it's like to have your head and shoulders down your knuckle's locked your hips up you're ready you're just dying to get out of there he easily pulled ahead of other runners about 120 meters into the race he blew a hamstring and went face down on the tarmac the crowds gasped and stood to its feet and all the other runners that he'd beaten before passed him on by the sports writer said what went through your mind about that time he said well after i i almost blacked out but when i my vision cleared i could see the stretcher carriers from across the field running for the stretcher he was coming to get me and i told myself i'm a runner you're not carrying me off this field and derrick redmond got up and began to hop on one foot by this time the gold had been cinched the silver had been claimed the bronze had been awarded and the other runners were turned around with their hands on their knees gasping for air looking at their fallen comrade somewhere up in section 131 road 22 c25 a big burly guy by the name of ted ted redman daddy redmond he pushed security guards out of the way jumped over barriers and got out of the field and ran towards his son he said son you don't have to do this he said yes daddy i do he said well if you're going to do it you're not going to do it without me wrap your arms around my neck son and if you look for a picture of derek redmond you'll see his daddy with his with his arm around his daddy's neck and the daddy's got his arm around his son's waist and derek said keep me in lane number four daddy the crowd stood in amazement as they watched him get closer to the finish line a few steps away daddy let go and let his boy cross the line by himself the writer said at this writing i no longer remember the one who won the gold that day i don't remember who won the silver or the bronze but everyone in that stadium remembered the man who was willing to finish at any cost and i'm here to tell somebody today if you want to make it all the way home i invite you to wrap your arms around the father today and let him wrap his arms around you and he'll take you all the way home would you join me around the altar today while we have a song lift up your voice and sing unto the lord today in jesus name come on don't leave without talking [Music] i've learned to trust through it all i've learned to depend [Music] it upon through it all i've learned [Music] [Applause] [Music] through in jesus [Music] all over this building let's lift our voices let's let's make up in our minds [Music] do it all [Music] i've jesus trusted in god [Music] one more time through it all i'm gonna trust in him through it all through it all [Music] oh let's lift our hands in this house god's speaking to somebody's heart this morning god's talking to the hearts of men and women [Music] god's talking to the hearts of young young people [Music] somebody keep going get up get up from where life has dropped you get up from where circumstances have laid you low make up in your mind i'm gonna make it [Music] in the name [Music] thank you jesus [Music] it off let's lift our hands to heaven in the name of jesus in the name of jesus in the name of jesus in the name of jesus hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah ah let's love him this morning [Music] make up in your mind this morning i'm going to make it i'm keeping on god can save me and the devil can't stop me if i'll keep on keep on going to church keep on clapping your hands keep on lifting your voice [Music] hallelujah if you took if you took the bible stories if you took joseph in his pit in his slavery in his prison if you took david at in gadi as saul is hunting for him if you took elijah hiding from jezebel and ahab in a cave and god asking what are you doing here if you if you take the little woman whose baby died whose boy died and the prophet yells to her as she comes grieving god's hidden it from him and he asks the question is it well what an opportunity to complain and and curse and grow bitter and and all the reasons why people give up and the truth is there's no good reason to backslide there's no good reason to give up you know what they did because every one of them dealt with treachery every one of them dealt with lukewarm people who betrayed them every one of them dealt with corrupt overseers that exploited and abused their authority all of them went through that and you can blame all of those circumstances if you want to but the people of god do this they do this one thing they speak to the essential that's a big deal and what that means in 30 seconds what that means is you don't speak to the actual you speak to the essential the essential is the heavenly pattern the actual is how men portray that heavenly pattern so i'm not speaking about every leader in the world when i say leadership is great i'm saying in heaven leadership is great and i speak to that you know what david said about saul when when that he found out he died i know some folks that when you find out they die you go [Music] that's not what he did there were people that when when the young man brought back saul's royal things after having killed saul he thought he was going to get a reward and there's a lot of people that live like that and that's how the world lives but david put that young man to death and asked him how is it that you were not afraid to touch the lord's anointed because i'm not talking about fallen saul who's at the witch of endor's house i'm speaking to the leadership of heaven that god has ordained and it is good and god is good and god's plan is good doesn't matter what the man does doesn't matter what the circumstances what matters is god and his plan and the plan is good they were swifter than eagles they were stronger than lions oh how the mighty are fallen publishing not in gas letting up the daughters of the philistines rejoice somebody needs to speak to the essential and you need to look at the prophets your dream is dead and you're broken and he says is it well you say it is well it is well it doesn't matter what happened it is well it is well it is well and i'm going to keep on oh let's lift our hands one last time it is well with my soul [Music] hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah speak to the essential look to heaven don't look at the problem look unto jesus the author and the finisher of our faith praise god praise god praise god thank you thank you brother balestiel for preaching to us today how many feel the presence of god in this house what a wonderful what a wonderful atmosphere [Applause] iron shoes brass shoes dipped in oil walking through the trial praise god that might be preached somewhere brother ballista i'm not sure we're going to see we love you we appreciate you tonight there's going to be a whole lot more let's come looking for the things of god six o'clock let's come ready to glorify god we love you we appreciate you take the good word of god with you you're dismissed in jesus name you

Channel: First Pentecostal Church of Durham

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Length: 104min 44sec (6284 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 18 2021