Homecoming 2022

[4:41] There you go. Got it? Yeah. All right. While you're doing that, do you want me to move the mic?

[4:46] Stand and plug it back up here.

[6:20] Doing good.

[8:08] Well, good morning. Hi. Don't think you are awake. Good morning. That's better.

[8:14] Good to have you with us this morning. And we're starting a little bit early and we're going to go right into it with our dove Cortez is here to bless us and song and worship. We're looking forward to that. So we'll do that till about 11:00, then we'll give you a break. Stand up, stretch.

[8:31] But you can't leave. You can just stand up, stretch. All right, stand up, stretch. We'll have our offering and some announcements things at that time and then they'll sing some more for us. And then brother Wayne Jenkins, our Western bachelor's association of missionary, is here to bless us through the word.

[8:52] Looking forward to that. Good to have you with us, Brother. I just want to give you a highlight of what you can expect today. Everybody doing good. Praise the Lord.

[9:04] All right, let's open it. A word of prayer. Father, we just thank you that we can come into Your house today to worship you. Father. We just thank you for your blessings to us and your goodness to us for all that have come this way today, Father.

[9:16] And for those that aren't with us for whatever reason or traveling or sick. Pray, Father, that you just bless them to be with us. Those who have been with us for so many years and can't be with us this morning, probably I prayed your special blessing on them today. Just lead and guide us in your perfect will, Father. Get all the honor, praise and glory out of every song that's sung and every word that's spoken, in Jesus name I pray.

[9:42] Amen. I'm going to ask Dove Cortez. Come on. And you all just do your thing. All right?

[10:03] Is this our first time up in this neck of the woods? And we hope that it won't be the last time. We've enjoyed talking with your pastor and we just sort of hit it off and everything. How many are glad to be here? How many come looking for a blessing?

[10:21] Now, we didn't come here to put on a show for you. We came to worship with you. And if you feel the need of coming now, we might have things blocked out. I don't see you can make an order of front bench or you can make an order anywhere that you need to. But whenever we're seeing if you feel the need coming, you come.

[10:42] If you want to sit there and just hopefully enjoy when you sit there, if you want to shout, you shout. Main thing is follow the leadership of the Holy Ghost. All right. Are we hooked up and everything? Almost.

[10:54] Not yet. I'm running out of stuff to say, so we had some technical difficulties and this morning. We're trying to get that ironed out and you all got some nice bathrooms back here. It was pretty big until we had ten people in there and it had a tendency to shrink and it went down half inside. When your pastor come in, I'm not saying anything, but there was five in there whenever he came in and then sort of come back on there.

[11:33] All right, we're good. All right. You pray for us. We'll do exactly what God wants us to do.

[15:10] Way and to have another gold.

[16:21] I can never forget I can hardly wait till Jesus comes again preacher, I can say that from the bottom of my heart. Sincerely can hardly wait surely, Lord, come quickly I tell you, I ain't cut out for this world the way that it is today. People don't want nothing to do with God. That second song talked about, I remember the day, December the 14th, 19th, 58th is whenever I got saved. Hadn't lived a perfect life since then.

[19:00] If I was to tell you that I had what my wife would tell you that I'm thankful that you was there to pick me up, dust me off, put me on straightway I'm thankful for us being able to be here with you today. Dana is going to sing. I'm not going to take a lot of time today to introduce if you want to know who we are, come up and ask us when we're eating out there. But this is mine and Dora, by the way. August the 18th.

[19:26] We will be married 53 years. 53 on August 18. Yeah, she deserves applause just for that. But this is our youngest daughter. Her name is Dana Strickland.

[19:42] She wrote this song and she's got a strong testimony behind it. I don't know what you got going on in your life, but if you will do what this next song says, you'll be better off. You listen as she sings. Give it to God search for direction nothing to do I brought little whisper from God now I haven't let me put your life in my head desperation is bad trouble feels your best so many questions give me the answer to God let me interrupt you let God be your guide to a light give it to God if all of us would do that. We'd be a lot better off.

[23:36] We want to sing a song that we were singing at a church, and the pastor at that church asked us if we knew this song, and we didn't. We knew of it and knew a little bit of it, and he wanted to do what we could of it, and we went ahead and did it. It turned out pretty good. We started doing it about everywhere we go. Now.

[23:58] He's no longer with us. He's already gone on to be with God, be with the Lord. So he's hearing it firsthand. I hope that you enjoy this song a little roof over on Sand Mountain made this song popper. Hope you enjoy.

[24:13] Well, it wouldn't take nothing for my journey now, that's next song is one that you all ever heard of, kobe. Whenever Kobe come around. A couple of years ago, of course, like everything just shut down. And Dora and Dana said we ought to start putting something out on Facebook or whatever. I don't know nothing about that technology stuff, but they said we need to start doing something and try to help people out.

[27:05] So we started singing some on Sunday morning and putting it out over the airways or the internet or whatever you do. And somebody called in or text in, I guess, and wanted us to start singing this next song. And I've never heard of this song, but this is another one that we started doing and most people like it. Of course, you all might be different, I don't know, but I hope that you like it. But listen to song the afterlame I can't stay here soon I'll be known we're going to sing one more song and then we'll turn it back over.

[30:52] Brother kitty, this is one that dana is a new song she started singing. She does a real good job on it. Hope you enjoy it.

[31:24] Now, I've never seen it, but I keep on believing it'll be everywhere.

[34:40] I like to put people on the spot. Right. Are you enjoying this so far? Praise the lord. Thank you for coming and sharing the gospel and song.

[34:50] Yes, ma'am. I'm glad you'd be at this time every month, first month, we do birthdays and anniversaries, so we're going to do it this week, too. I know it's homecoming. You are not in any bigger hurry today than I am. So the food's out there.

[35:10] You don't have to wait in line at a restaurant. You don't have anything else to do the rest of the day, so just sit back and enjoy. I mean, just so you know that. I'll go and tell you. Robin's birthday is the 18th of this month.

[35:27] Our anniversary is the 20th. Tonight at midnight, we'll be in San Francisco. So you're not in any bigger hurry today than we are. Okay.

[35:38] We have been blessed. We're going to take a cruise to Alaska and we leave tomorrow on our ship. So you're not in a big hurry. We're going to stay here and let the lord bless us and song and have a good time. So how many other birthdays do we have in August birthdays?

[35:59] How many of you don't know? Hey, come here, brother. I want everybody to show them boots to everybody then. Boots are sharp right there. He said he got them for his birthday.

[36:13] We got one back here. Anybody? I see a little handbag here, right? Got a handbag here. Robin, raise your hand.

[36:21] Be embarrassed like everybody else. Winford. Colton. All right. We got a lot of birthdays.

[36:31] All right, david, do you want to lead us or can you want me to do? Come on, lead us. And happy birthday. They leave if I start singing. I've heard you sing before.

[36:40] It ain't that bad.

[36:44] Any key. You like me, right?

[36:49] Happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday god bless you happy birthday to you all right, how about Anniversaries? Got an anniversary. How many years, brother? 30. And you're?

[37:14] 49.

[37:18] I was talking about your age. I'm sorry. We got another one. We got an anniversary. Anniversary.

[37:25] Mine. Robin were 39 this year. Anybody else?

[37:32] Paul? Are you sure you don't have one this month? I need to check with Stacey. All right, let's sing Happy Anniversary to these david. Happy anniversary to you happy anniversary to you thank you, David.

[38:06] Just a few quick announcements to tell you where we're going. You see the building back here a year ago this time, did we have the slab port or we just dirt? We had the slab port. We've got the building up now. The sheet rocks up, the walls are primed, the electrical is done, the heat and air is well, roughed in the heat and air is rough.

[38:27] We all have done all that in a year's time and we don't owe one dime.

[38:35] We're praising the Lord for that. About four years ago we began do I?

[38:45] About four years ago, we decided the Lord would want us to go into a building program. We begin to save money. We said when we got halfway, we would start construction. So that's where we're at today. So I want to thank all who have given and Lord has blessed so greatly that we're this far and don't know anything.

[39:04] For a little church like us, that's nothing short of God. That's a mirror. I give him all the praise and glory for that. But thank you for all his work and put that together and made this possible. So that's where we're at on that.

[39:19] There's many of them that can't be a miss Kitty. I miss her this year. That can't be with us. Miss Elinor couldn't be with us. Ms.

[39:27] Carlene, I thought where are you at? Ms. Carlene? Some of our charter members back we started in 1829. That was little bit after you, right?

[39:36] Or before you miss Carlin. Right. So what is that 193 years that we've been around? So Lord is blessed and we're just thankful for that at homecoming here. Anything else?

[39:55] Announcements wise? We're going to have a little more singing, a lot more preaching. Then we're going to go out and down to the Baptistry and baptize and we're shooting for around 01:00 is when we'll go eat. So, like, for everybody to join us down there and support these ones that have come and given their life to the Lord and now they want a public profession of their faith in them. That is what it's all about.

[40:18] I'll be honest with you, I could care less if we eat. I'm getting spiritual food when I see people give their life to the Lord. But we'll eat later, okay? I promise. Just bear with us, all right, man.

[40:32] Sir. Wednesday night Bible study. We're going to postpone. I'm not going to be here unless you want to do it soon from Alaska.

[40:45] Let's postpone it, okay? All right. Sorry, we're a little scatterbrained on that. It wasn't on my list to do. All right.

[40:54] Thank everybody for being any first time visitors here. First time you've ever been here. Good to have you with us this morning. I hope you come back. Yeah.

[41:02] All you are. First time visiting. I think we'll have you back. What do you all think at this time? We're going to have an offering if our deacons can come forward.

[41:16] And I think we got some little plates here, they're going to start playing for us, and we'll let them keep playing after the offering. And when you all get through, brother Wayne, our association missionary, he's going to come up and bless us. And when the Lord gets done with him, we'll go out and close the service.

[41:43] Let's pray. Father, we just thank you once again for your blessings to us and for all that you've given. We thank you for this wonderful time we're having to go. Lord, it's good to just come together and to enjoy fellowship one another, to laugh, to seem praises to your name. Father, we just thank you for that this morning.

[42:03] Father, we thank you for the blessings that you have blessed us with. And as we take this time now to give back to you a portion of what you've given to us, father, we just pray that you would bless those who give blessed through the rest of the service today and praise you. Bless Brother Wayne as he comes and speaks for us, that your Holy Spirit would just speak through him this morning, be honored and glorified and all that we say and do here. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

[43:34] You all help us out. Let's sing that chorus.

[46:15] Oh, my God.

[47:45] I said I wasn't going to take a lot of time to introduce the group, but we've got somebody with us, a newest member of our group, and today is his first day that he's ever played with us. We hadn't had no practice. He'll find out we don't ever practice. It's pretty much out here, but Brother Matt Lacey back here on this guitar, he's doing a fantastic job. Our other guitar player had to leave.

[48:11] He just retired from the military and he's a preacher. And then they wanted to start a sun school class at our church. So Matt just fell right in and he's fitting right in. And I've been sitting up there and he's doing some picking today. You feel free to branch out and do what you want to on that.

[48:37] This is an old song that give me just a little bit more over here. My throat is just about gone.

[48:45] This is an old song and we were singing the city Auditorium at Rome, Georgia, one night, and place was packed out. And I just felt so down that night and just felt like that I was the only one that loved God.

[49:07] And I don't know, like I said, the way that this world is now, I don't see how the Lord can just keep from saying, son, go get your children.

[49:22] Well, the words in this song can say it better than I can. Hope you enjoy the lighthouse.

[49:48] When I am called it sin in the line here it was the light don't tell this way for there no use I've been standing around was that where was his ship be? He had shown the line around me that all right. We're going to sing one more song. If you'll allow us to let Dana sing this and then we'll turn it over to the preacher. This is one that has got a special message to her.

[53:34] I don't know if she wants to share any of her testimony with you or not, but she's got a strong testimony. This is one of our most requested songs. It's entitled Four Days Late.

[54:08] Please come back.

[54:14] Let's release it. And if without your help he will not let Mary anymore and they wondered why the dead watch was over buried for a day but somebody said he'll still be here my Lord don't hear lord. If you had been here. You could have healed him. Still be alive but you're born angels I don't know if you all allow people to testify or not.

[56:34] But I feel like somebody needs to hear my story. Just a piece of it. Don't worry, I'm not going to go into a lot of detail. But, you know, God always answers your prayers. Sometimes the answer is yes, sometimes it's no.

[56:50] And a lot of times, for me, anyway, it's late.

[56:58] My son, who's not feeling wealthy, I don't get to hear him saying today he's laying here, but he's not supposed to be here in more than a few weeks. From the time I was 13, I was told, you'll never have kids. Nothing. I had surgery right when I graduated college. I had another surgery in 2007.

[57:19] And that's it. There's nothing you can do.

[57:29] But in 2010, God bless me.

[57:43] And it was at a time when my husband had just had surgery and they make the spinal cord. Long story short, he didn't remember most things. We didn't think that he would get out of hospital. We thought he would be in a nursing home. And I thought my world was over.

[58:04] So I got to the point where all hope was gone.

[58:09] I thought my husband, who had never been raised in church, his parents or Jehovah's Witness, and I know I will freely admit that I did something I'm not supposed to do. I married somebody that wasn't a Christian, but he was going to church with us. He would go to our singing. He was in Sunday school, and he was there. And then one day it was gone.

[58:36] But my point was, if God had given me my son in 2007 or years before, I wouldn't have realized what the blessing was. But I also wouldn't have that light whenever everything else around me was falling apart. So he's my miracle.

[58:58] But I want you to know something. As much as he's my miracle and as much as he was my light, you better remember who your true light is, and you better remember who to put first. And I say that because I looked to Him for my joy. Now, we were still singing. I was still going to church.

[59:16] I didn't fall by the way, like that. But I didn't put God first.

[59:23] And right before his second birthday, god almost took him from me because he let me know real quick. He gave Him to me to help me. But I still better have Him as number one.

[59:40] I'm still waiting for another miracle. I'm still waiting for my husband to be stasing you all. He's better than he was. We went through ten years of bad times, but he's still not coming to church again. And that was a hard blow.

[59:56] So the devil's always going to be after you. He's always going to pick at what's good in your life. But as long as you keep God first, as long as you give your problems to God, which is kind of hard for me, even though I wrote that song, because I would come down here and pray about it, and then I would pick them back up and take them back. How many has done that? Anybody else do that?

[60:18] But if you can get out of the way, and as weird as it sounds, if you can get to that point where all hope is gone, where you have nothing left that you can do, and you really turn it over to Him, he will bless you in ways that you have never known before. So whatever you're going through, if you're waiting for somebody to be healed, and I will say this, I said, long story short, I'm sorry, this really is the short version. Ten years worth of stuff. Three years ago, my mother, who made sure that we're all going, had a heart attack. She's never had the first problem.

[60:58] She played tennis three times a week, did everything the daughter said. It was the strangest thing he had ever seen. But we didn't know if she was going to make it. And that was the first time that I was scared to pray for God's will. You know why I was scared?

[61:12] That he would take her off almost a year to the day. Within two weeks, my husband had a heart attack. He was found by a neighbor in the driveway, and they said, we don't know if he's going to make it. And then last year, we found out my dad's got cancer. But you know what?

[61:31] We're still here, all of us. We're still going strong. God's still giving me a chance my husband to get saved. He's still giving us a chance to bless people. And he's given me a chance to tell you all whatever you're going through, I can say.

[61:46] And if you all knew the big story, you'd be like, how can you say that? I am the most person in this room. I am the most less person in this room. You may not know it by the house I live in or the car drive or the job I have, but my blessings aren't heaven. And I know where I'm going.

[62:05] And I also know that we're not supposed to have it easy here. We're not supposed to be at home here. So whatever you've got going on and in your way or if you think I just can't do it another day, you're right. You can't do it another day. But if you will get out of the way and give it to God, he will show you that you can make it until he's done with you.

[62:35] You may be fighting, abandoned you, cried to the voice, I need you now. But he has not appealed.

[65:04] Wow. What a powerful testimony. Amen.

[65:08] It reminds me that I really have no idea what you're going through. People can wonderful music group like this be able to play the drums and play the guitars and sing and do all of this and looks great. Looks like the world's fine going on with them. You'd never dream that she's going through all this kind of stuff. I don't know what you're going through, but you're here for homecoming, right?

[65:34] Amen. And I know that Bethel is glad you came past was glad you came, and I'm looking forward to some good food. Amen. I love being saved. Do you love being saved?

[65:50] You love being a Christian, love knowing you're going home.

[65:57] I've been saying this in just about every church I preach at lately. For a preacher, that means the last three years. And it's important that you know what you need to say to God when you stand in front of him one day. I ask people all the time, if you come to get near our building on our parking lot, I can tell you about Jesus. Amen.

[66:28] You pull into my parking lot, I'm going to find out whether you know about Jesus. And this is the way I do it. I look at them and I say, well, let me give you an example. Not too long ago, the Amazon Prime truck showed up at our building and guy got out and had a couple of books. We ordered books for our preachers, given to our preachers, this kind of stuff.

[66:48] And he brought a couple big old fella and I took them and I said, well now let me walk with you back to your truck, because I know you Amazon people, you deliver people. You're always in a hurry. He said, that's right. I don't want to hold you up. And I said, Let me ask you, what's your name?

[67:04] He had a mask on. I didn't have a mask on, but he did because they have to let me ask him, what's your name? He says, Dwayne. I said, my name is Wayne. How old are you?

[67:19] 21 years old. I thought, I've got shoes that are 21 years old. And I said, well, let me ask you something. You're driving along in your Amazon Prime truck and you're going down the road down bullsborough here and somebody texting while they're driving. It's against the law.

[67:37] And we all know if it's against the law, you don't do it right? I'm not going to ask for a show of hands, all right? I will not ask for a show of hands, all right? And I'm also not going to ask how many of you all exceed the speed limit on I 85 with all the crazy people from Alabama trying to get to Atlanta. I'm not going to ask that.

[67:54] We just all in need of Jesus this morning. Amen. Because we ought to go to hell just for speed on it. 85, imagine that. Well, you did good, Sam, but you broke the speed limit.

[68:06] What? They were all doing it. Yeah, they're all going to hell anyway. And so I said, Junior, Amazon Prime truck and you're going down the road. Somebody texting, runs you off the road, out through the bushes, and your prime truck hit the pine tree and your head goes through the windshield.

[68:21] And I'm saying, this, this guy on my parking lot from our building there, and your head goes through the windshield and you're dead. Could it happen? He says, yeah. Could it happen? Could it happen?

[68:34] Yeah. Okay. This ain't just about eating chicken, folks, and listen to good music, okay? This is about real stuff here. That's why they built this building long time ago.

[68:45] Anyway, I looked at him, I said, well, let me tell you. Let me ask you this, Wayne. You're dead and you stand in front of God. And God, you hear this voice. God's invisible.

[68:58] Hear this voice. Why should I let you into heaven? Why should I give you eternal life? So what are you going to say, Dwayne? He just looked at me.

[69:10] He just looked at me. I've gotten nicer at my old age, but I let people cook just a little bit. I said, Would you like to know what I'm going to say? Would you like to know what I'm going to say when it's my turn?

[69:29] Let me tell you something. I know you think you got an answer, sugar. I'm here to tell you what I'm going to say when it's my turn when I'm dead and I'm standing here or I've died and I'm standing in front of God in front of the throne. It's my turn. Let me tell you something.

[69:44] Everybody in this room, I don't care how old you are, your time is coming. You got to know what you say before God. This is your shot, okay? And here's the thing. Whatever's in your heart is going to come out your mouth.

[70:01] So whatever's in your heart listen to me. That's going to come out your mouth, because the Bible says, whatever is in your heart is going to come out your mouth. So your answer is going to reveal what's in your heart.

[70:17] It's my turn, and I'm standing in front of God. He says, Why should I let you into my heaven? Why shall I give you eternal life? This is what I'm going to say, and this is all I'm going to say, because this is all I want to say. I'm going to say, Jesus died for me.

[70:34] Say that with me. Jesus died for me. Listen, let the first word out of your mouth when it's your turn, be the name of Jesus. Now, if you said, well, you know, when I was young wow. Okay.

[70:54] Show his DVD, right? Now they got your DVD in heaven, and now it's got sound and smell and everything.

[71:06] Show his DVD. Let's see what he did in life. Anybody? Any hands? Now let's see what you did.

[71:20] Is what I've done all the good I've done? Is it worth one drop of the blood of Jesus? No, ma'am. No, sir. There's your song.

[71:29] Write your song. Not worth one drop of Jesus blood, and y'all can sing it and have fun. Let me tell you something. Jesus is the Savior. You know why?

[71:40] Because we desperately need saving. I said that to him. I said. Come on, Dwayne. Say Jesus died for me.

[71:48] He says, Jesus died for me. And Kenny, tears shot out of that boy's eyes. He says, that's it, isn't it? I said, that's it. That's it.

[71:58] He said, oh, I can't believe it. I said, you went to churcheschool. Mama and Grandmama took you to churches Sunday school, didn't it? Yes, sir. But hadn't been there anymore.

[72:09] No, sir. I said. You know why? Because the first thing out of your mouth was going to be I. Listen to me.

[72:17] Somebody asked you that question. The first word out of your mouth is I. That's why you don't share Jesus. It's because you're first in your mouth, in your heart, not Jesus. Christianity is.

[72:28] Jesus is first in our heart, and he's first in our mouth. He is our Savior. We share our Savior. Now, let me explain stuff to you folks, okay? You think this world's in a mess?

[72:41] You think it's rough in the States? Now listen to me. If Christians will simply share Jesus, we can turn this thing around in a month. In a month. Get.

[72:51] All of us sharing Jesus, the reason why the world's going to hell, we're letting it. That's a homecoming. I thought, Would it be nicer than a homecoming service? Shouldn't I?

[73:03] He says, It's great. It's so great. And I said, Now, I want you to call your mama. I want you to call your grandmother. I want you to tell them Jesus died for me.

[73:14] And this Sunday, when you go to church you're going to church this Sunday, aren't you? Yes, sir. I don't ask people anymore. I just tell them, you're going to church this Sunday, okay? I said, you're going to church this Sunday.

[73:28] And when the invitation came, you're going to walk down the aisle and you're going to tell the preacher Jesus died for me. Yes, sir. I said. And you're going to do whatever he tells you to do. Yes, sir.

[73:36] You're going to baptize eight today. They all show up. Praise God. Amen. Now that I got baptized, supposed to be five.

[73:44] Show up, get baptized. I was the only one showed up. Water was clean. Amen.

[73:54] I said, Been down here now. Let me give you a hug. Let me give you a kiss. He bent over. I hugged him like this.

[74:00] I kissed him on this cheek. Kissed him on his cheek. I said, when was the last time you got kissed by a 70 year old white man? He said, Never.

[74:10] I don't doubt it. You got a clock in here. You're in trouble. All right, real quick, let's look at this. Luke, chapter 18, verses begin 35.

[74:20] And I'm just going to tell you the story, and we're going to get through this, and then we're going to go baptize some folks. Jesus is heading toward Jericho. This is in Luke. The gospel of Luke. Jesus is heading toward Jericho.

[74:31] Now, if you're going to preach this and you start out with Zacchaeus, the tiny little tax collector, you're going to miss something. Because what happened before this was he's on his way to Jericho, and he heals a man who's been blind. The crowd saying, hey, shots. Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. It's funny, that guy was blind.

[74:58] Imagine that kind of a life. And other people said, hey, hush. You're disturbing the mood here. You're disturbing the moment. I tell you something.

[75:07] I don't know what you're going through. You may need some kind of spiritual sight in your life right now. You really need Jesus to help you through whatever you're going through. And you know something? You'll get to the point where you don't care what anybody thinks.

[75:20] You're going to be hollering out to Jesus. When you get to the point where you need a savior, you'll walk down that aisle. When you get to the point in your life where you need a savior, you can't preach on the phone. Can we talk? Will you pray with me, Jesus?

[75:35] Have mercy on me. Jesus turns around and says, Bam. Heals him. Name of Jesus. Heals him.

[75:39] Right there. God can see. Oh, the crowd goes nuts. And they're shouting, and they're screaming, and they're screaming, the Messiah. Jesus is here.

[75:49] And they're hollering as they make their way into Jericho. That's what it was going on. The crowd's hollering. Praise God. Praise God.

[75:57] God is among us. We've never seen anything like this before. And they get into Jericho. Well, there's the crowd and Zacchaeus, who is this tax collector, and he's rich, but he's a little bit short guy. And he sees this crowd, he realizes, I've never seen it.

[76:11] So he runs out ahead of him. He runs out ahead of the crowd and climbs up this tree. And when the crowd is coming by there with Jesus, jesus stops and he turns around and says, hey, ZacharyA, come on down. I got to go eat with you today. I got to spend time with you today.

[76:28] And Zacchaeus comes down. He has tickled to death. Not only did he get to see Jesus, he's got to get to spend time with Jesus. And Zacchaeus is a Jew. Says later, Jesus, later, he's the son of Abraham, he is a Jew.

[76:44] But look at the situation he's in. He's a Jew. He's working for the Romans, he's collecting taxes. And just like a lot of politicians, they start out good, but they get corrupt. Have you ever talked to the ones that work at the building in Atlanta?

[77:01] They start out all great, but then just the lure of money and power and everything and you better do it our way, boy, or you're not going to get anything done up here at the capitol. I mean, I've had representatives tell us, senators tell us that point blank, you either play ball or you ain't going to have nothing. And you know what? Almost all of them cave. They either cave or they quit.

[77:24] They wanted to have them cave. That's where they are. And this was the situation he was in. He had that opportunity. They had taken more than they should have.

[77:34] Now he's a Jew living in Jericho, and all of his friends are Jews. And you got God and you got the Ten Commandments, and you got the synagogue, and you got all that religious life around you. And Zach is well, see, he's got a job that allows him to do these things. But the people hate his guts. They all hate him.

[78:02] They all know him, and they all know what he's doing. And they got a problem in Jericho. They got a really serious problem in Jericho. Now, you know what Jesus didn't do? He didn't come in and say, okay, let's make posters and let's start a demonstration.

[78:18] Let's go down the street, hollering burn, Zakius, burn, or something like that, okay? That's not what he did. And he didn't fuss and he didn't scream at him. Holler, can I tell you something? I've realized fussing at people does no good.

[78:35] You ever fuss at somebody on the highway? It doesn't really do any good. Do I ever fuss at people on the highway, Pam? All the time. All the time.

[78:42] It doesn't do any good. She says I'm the only one who can hear you. You know what? I still do it. When you're watching television and all this going on with our country today, you ever holler at the TV?

[78:54] Come on, come on. It doesn't do any good. They can't hear you. You're going to be watching those channels anyway. All they got to do is make your blood pressure go up.

[79:06] Nobody could change the situation, not even Zacchaeus, because he had a job where he was making a lot of money and he was trapped. He was in a situation where nobody liked him, but he had a lot of money. And you know how it feels. Unfortunately, in our country, the reason why we're in the mess we're in is because we quit serving Jehovah God, and we've started serving a God of convenience. We've been doing it for 100 years.

[79:40] We bow down to air conditioning and electricity is what we bow down to. And oil. That's what we bow down to. And we're scared to death to lose our lifestyle. We don't care if the world goes to hell.

[79:52] We just don't want our lifestyle to lose our lifestyle. We got it pretty good in this country. People are trying to get in every which way they can, and you can make money just getting people into this country. Is that something?

[80:11] I don't know what you're going through today, but I know there's only one person who can help you. Only one person who could help me. You see, the thing is, not only does Jesus save me from hell, jesus saves me from me.

[80:27] He is a perfect savior. He saves me from me. He saves me out of the situation when I do something, and I get the point in my life. Sinning, whatever kind of sinning you're doing, you get to where you don't like yourself. You know that's the reason most people don't go to church, is because they just don't like themselves.

[80:45] It has nothing to do with God. They just like, Man, I'm just too far gone. No, you're really not. I can guarantee you that. Key is thought.

[80:54] I'm too far gone. And then one day, there's Jesus. One day you come to a homecoming, and everybody's talking about Jesus, wow.

[81:08] And then Jesus says, that kius. Come on. There. I asked a group, I said, what do you think about that? How did Jesus know his name was that kiss?

[81:18] You know what somebody said as a young person says, I think Jesus knows everybody's name. I think Jesus knows everybody's name. I think Jesus knows exactly what you're going through. I think he knows exactly what you need. Isn't that something?

[81:34] And he said, Come on, let's I'm going to go eat with it. Well, that's just bad, because everybody there, they're just like us. Well, you never catch me doing that. I thought he was a savior. I thought he was perfect.

[81:49] I thought, he's certainly not a good Jew, I'll tell you that. I've never broken the Ten Commandments, little bit of coveting. But other than that, I'm doing pretty good. He's gone to be with a sinner. What they said was true.

[82:06] Zacchaeus is a sinner. Okay? Oh, look, he's going to be with a sinner. Can I tell you something? If Jesus comes eats with you, he's eating with a sinner, right?

[82:15] Okay. Don't say amen on that. We ain't glad we're sending, right? Okay. I'm going to tell you something perfect.

[82:23] You asked my wife. She would like a perfect husband. Can I get a witness from all the women in this room? Do you want your husband to be perfect? If not, you're going to have to be quiet.

[82:32] You can't fuss no more. Okay? Hello. You say, do we want a perfect operation? When the doctor is operating on our granddaughter, do we want a perfect operation?

[82:42] Yes or no? Yes. Why? Because it's about life and death. Let me ask you something.

[82:50] Does the blood of Jesus deserve that we at least try to live right? Just try. Well, I can't do it. Well, it's like somebody said, breathe. Well, I can't do it.

[83:06] Could you try? Wow, you did one. Let's see if you can link another one. After that, man, you're on a roll. Breathe.

[83:14] Pray without ceasing. I can't. Can you try? Can you try? Just try.

[83:22] You see, we can't listen to Satan's lies.

[83:27] Living right will get you to heaven. Only the blood of Jesus will get you heaven. Amen. But see, living right will turn this thing around. Amen.

[83:36] All right, so Jesus goes, now, it's interesting, because in the text, it says he stood you look at the different translations. He stood there's. Also the idea of he stopped. But they're in his house because Jesus says salvation has come to this house later, but they're in there, so they're in his house, and they must have eaten, and Jesus must have been talking to him. I don't know what he said to him.

[83:59] This is a sermon we don't have. But he must have said something, because right then, Zacchia stops and he stands up. They must have been laying down, eating, see? Right? He stands up and he says, I tell you something.

[84:16] I'm going to give half of what I own to poor people, and if I have swindled, if I've taken too much from anybody, I'm going to pay it back four times.

[84:32] I'm almost fish with this sermon. You're glad? Yeah. We're going to go back to US, okay? And it's fine.

[84:39] Jesus says, wow. Today, right now, salvation has come to this whole house. Zacchaeus is in charge of the whole house. We don't know who all was in there. Maybe, but just been zacchius.

[84:53] But salvation has come to us. Let me tell you something. Homecoming. Do you know if you're a believer, if you come to faith in Jesus Christ, can't say you're the first one in your family come to faith in Jesus Christ. Can I tell you something?

[85:04] God has brought salvation to that house. The word of salvation is in that house. The word of hope, the word of forgiveness, the word of love, the word of eternity is in that house now. The word of God. And then he says, because also he is a child of Abraham.

[85:21] Now, this is going to be a little hard. This is going to be fun. Stay with me, okay? Paul in the book of Romans, I'm teaching New Testament survey part two. Romans, part of it.

[85:34] Paul in the book of Romans, it's really hard to understand a lot of times, but he says, listen, because Abraham was saved before he was circumcised, before he became a Jew, before he really became in that covenant relationship with God through circumcision. But he was saved before then. He says he's just like us. He got saved through faith. And what he says in Romans is, guess what?

[86:00] Christians are children of Abraham. Because Abraham is a faith. And that's what Jesus is saying here. He is a child of Abraham. See, God wants people to be saved through faith in his salvation alone, not in our salvation.

[86:15] You see what I'm saying? It's an amazing thing.

[86:20] Can you imagine what happened the next day in Jericho? Can you imagine what happened the next day? You ever thought about this? Because not only did Zacchius say he was going to do it, I believe he started doing it. When I get to heaven one day I'm going to ask him, do you start doing oh yeah, it's going to be fun to meet Jackie.

[86:38] I said heaven. Do you think people are going to wear little signs, say what their names are? We don't know what he looked like. He'll be probably one of the shortest ones there. I don't know.

[86:49] Hi, Zach is how's it going?

[86:53] You know why he did what he did? You know what? He wanted to be big. He wanted to be big. He was little.

[87:00] He won't be big. Explains a lot in our society if you're little in your eyes, you'll do everything you can to be a big guy. And he goes fell into Satan's trap. Well, I'm sure the next day he goes and knocks on door and who is it? Oh no, you guys collected last week.

[87:22] Your bunch of thieves. No, it's different today. What? See some lady. If it's about money, women are always going to be the one to open the door, right?

[87:32] Can I get a witness? Anyway, she opens the door. What do you want? I just want to talk to you a minute. What?

[87:41] Go hide the goat. What? Well, I first want to say I'm sorry. I want to beg you forgiveness. And I know y'all are having a rough time here, so I brought these things, and here's some sheep and things.

[87:57] I brought these things for you. And Court and I are books that we've kept on everybody because they aren't Jews, okay? They keep books, okay? Because of our books, we've kept on everybody. I realize that we've taken too much money from you folks over the past years.

[88:12] So here's your money back. Four times. What? How much percent is that? 400%.

[88:20] It's not bad interest, huh? I put my buddy in a bank with 400% interest. You know what the people in Jericho started saying? Why didn't he steal more?

[88:32] Why didn't he steal more?

[88:35] Lady looks at, she says, well, come on in. Okay? Wow, this is crazy. What has happened to you? Zachias looked there and he said, Jesus, what's happened to you?

[88:52] Jesus, can I tell you something? If when people ask us what's happened to you, the answer is, Jesus, God can change everything. Everything. There's not a problem humans can come up with that the blood of Jesus can't fix through us. Because we are the church.

[89:13] We are the light of the world. And that's why you're still having homecoming. That's why this church is still there after all these years, is because you're the light of the world. Right here. And there's people all around here that need to know our Lord Jesus and take a guess who he wants to tell them through you.

[89:29] And you can sing and you can shout, be happy. And whenever you come here, be happy. Amen. Because Jesus deserves you being happy for 1 hour in his name. Amen.

[89:39] So shut up all that whining and crying and fussing. If you don't fuss, do it at home. When you come here, be happy. Amen. You'd be happy for one.

[89:47] You know what? When you have a party and Daddy is paying for everything, and the kids get there and they all come there and granddad's, our daddy's there, and he's paid for everything, you ain't got to buy, and I've already paid for it. Men like that, don't they? Come on. You like it when you pay for everything, don't you?

[90:06] Yeah, y'all come on in here. You know what Daddy doesn't like with this bunch of yang yang going on? And if people start fighting sniping brothers and sisters, I mean, kids start sniping each other, you'll say, hey, hush. Cut that out. When you're here, I want to have a happy time.

[90:27] I paid for the food. I paid for all you all. It's going to be a happy time. Amen. Can I get a witness?

[90:33] Guys, shut up. That hollering be nice will keep you. Be nice for you. You owe me to be nice for 1 hour. That's church, you all come here and be nice for 1 hour, okay?

[90:46] Or 2 hours a day. All right? You can fuss on the way home, but you'll be nice while you're here, okay? Because Jesus paid for it. Amen.

[90:57] You know why? Because you're going to bust hell wide open without him. All right? But we're going to heaven. Jesus died for me.

[91:04] How hard is that? How hard is that? If he did it, if Jesus does all the saving. Amen. That's good news.

[91:16] That's good news. We got the best news. Quint worried about the bad news. She's going to remind me about that this afternoon. Good news.

[91:25] Because I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to end with this. It's only two things more powerful than sin. And I'm talking about any sin. Sin.

[91:33] The wages of sin is death. And there is a sin unto death. I say that you should not pray for it. Sin is the most powerful thing, except for two things more powerful than sin. What are they?

[91:48] Death. Jesus said, your hand leads you sin. Cut it off. Guess what, sugar? You don't throw sinning with that hand.

[91:54] It's gone. Well, I just keep looking at that stuff. You got a choice. You can either close your eyes in the image we can go blind. Everybody in this room can go blind.

[92:04] Just close your eyes. It's like a miracle. Just close your eyes. You can't see it anymore, or you can poke your eyes out with a spoon. You can dig it out with a spoon.

[92:11] It's your choice. But you can stop sending with your eyes and you stop sending with your hands. Death will stop it. Sin is the most powerful. Death will stop it.

[92:24] And the blood of Jesus is more powerful than sin. But don't you think that you can deal with it by yourself. Last statement. There will be no peace. Listen.

[92:36] There will be no peace in America. There will be no peace in this country. There will be no peace in this world until it's Jesus peace. Can I tell you that our God will not allow it. He's getting really tired of this thing and he's driving it through like a place.

[92:59] He's driving it with all of this going on. Driving it. You think it's bad now? The old demons are being unleashed. Read the book.

[93:09] The old demons are being unleashed. Tell me I never dreamed it like this. The old demons are there. He's driving us like a wedge toward the Son of God. Only Jesus is the hope.

[93:23] There is no other hope. God will not allow another hope. You can forget it.

[93:32] So therefore, aren't you glad you know Jesus? Amen. Amen. And you know what to say one day when you die, right? Jesus died for me.

[93:41] That's all I want to say. Anything else is about me. Let's pray together. Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for this day. Thank you that we can gather here, and thank you for homecoming at Bethel.

[93:50] Thank you for all these sweet people. And I thank you lord, that they love you. And we've heard such good singing and going to get to go see a baptism and then we're going to get to eat something. Whatever is brought out there, we're going to have a good time and we're going to act nice. They're going to be nice to each other because it's all in the name of Jesus.

[94:07] You paid for all of this with your blood, with the blood of your Son. You paid for all of this. Dear God, thank you. Thank you for loving me. And those folks here, I don't know what they're going through.

[94:21] I don't know what they're trapped in, but I know you can save them. You can help them. You can get them out of it. Yes. And you can bless them in ways they can't even imagine.

[94:30] And Lord, I do pray that and if there's somebody here who's not saved and today you said, for the first time, Jesus died for me. Welcome.

[94:41] You become a Christian by letting Jesus save you. That's how you become a Christian. And then you just live a life of gratitude like Zachi. That's it. It's not hard.

[94:50] It's just fun, Lord. Thank you. If anybody here make the way to Kennehye? He's busy. He's got to go on a trip, but he's got time for you.

[95:00] Come to me. Come to one of the deacons here. Go to somebody smiling and say, can you tell me more about Jesus?

[95:09] We love you. We pray all this in your precious holy name. Have your way, Lord Jesus. Pray in your precious, holy name. Amen.

[95:16] What do we do, Kenny?

[95:24] Ask our cortex to come up and look. And thank you for searing the gospel. And I never like to close the service without giving you the opportunity. You might be sitting here today, and I tell people all the time about God created us in his image, but there's one thing he did, is he left a hole that only he can feel. If you're sitting there, dan, you say, well, I just don't have that hope.

[95:54] There's something been missing in my life all my life. It may be God. You haven't surrendered to him. You hadn't accepted him, his son, as your personal savior. And so this is your opportunity.

[96:09] This is your opportunity to come. The most terrifying verses in scripture to me in Matthew seven, it says, you come before they came before Jesus. And he said, they'll profess to me. And he says, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity.

[96:30] What Brother Wayne's telling you is scripture. You know what they answered? Have we not prophesied in your name? Have we not done it? Let me tell you, if you've done anything but trust Jesus as your personal savior, you're on your way to hell.

[96:50] I know that's hard, and I know it's homecoming. We're supposed to be nice, but I love you enough to tell you the truth. Only did no man come to the Father but by me. None of us for all of sin and comes short of the glory of God, but the gift of God, his son, Jesus Christ, his eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. All I ask you is to believe.

[97:15] Just put your trust in him. I'm praying you do that. If you've never done that, maybe that hole is right here and you say, Brother Kenny, I want that hole filled up with Jesus. Come on, talk to if you're too shy. We had a long lady the other day.

[97:31] She couldn't walk in front of the crowd. But she was the first one at the back door to shake. Man said, I need to talk. I need to be saved. We're going to baptize her today.

[97:44] That's when you know Jesus is God. We praise the Lord for that. This is your time to respond. I'm going to ask a cortex to sing something. I'm sure they got something great.

[97:57] Y'all stand as they sing. Lord speaking to you. Come, we'll show you straight from the Bible how you can be saved to keep you from heart before the winds come your way. Look to Jesus.

[100:18] Wasted the time.

[102:31] If you have come today and want to be baptized, would you come now at this time? Come on. Tyler and Morgan, they have come this morning and Morgan got saved. She's a little girl. I was telling you she wanted Jesus to save her.

[102:51] She needs to be saved. And with that, they both were coming and want to join our church. I know it's my son, but you know, Tyler, Heinzel and Morgan have come to join the church and we'll talk with that and get their information and stuff. I want to be a part of our church family. I got all of them coming and want to be baptized and some of them scared or whatever.

[103:19] Come on, you all know it. They're coming down here. We're going to get some to help you down. We're going to let them go and be changing if you're ready. Aren't you ready?

[103:30] Amen I like them running ready? I got to get ready. And some of the others. So what we're going to do, just stand, stretch, jump. We're going to let them sing some songs with you.

[103:42] Give us two or three songs and we're going to go get changed. We'll have a bus. We got a golf cart. There's a trail if you go right where am I at? I'm right here between the fellowship hall and the activity building.

[103:57] Yeah, somebody helped me. There's a trail that goes down to the Baptistry and we're going to go down there and just worship together. And we're going to celebrate the decision of all these Mitchell and all these that come today. Ms. Debbie and Ms.

[104:13] Peggy, they're going to get baptized and they've come to say, I want to make a public profession of my faith. In Jesus Christ. Amen. That's what it's all about. So we're going to let you all go now, okay?

[104:33] All right. You can go on out now and be getting changed.

[104:40] The bus is at the end of the ramp. If you want a bus ride down there, we'll probably make two or three trips. There's some chairs down there for the elderly, for the ones that can't stand. We've got a few chairs for them. The rest of you just sort of hang off the trees or whatever.

[104:58] You all sing some song. If you all want to sit, you can sit. If you want to stand, you can stand. Just give us two or three songs. Let's close in a word of prayer today, by the way, thank you again for this blessed time that we've had together, for the good music that we've had and the word that we've heard from you, father, we just praise you for this time together.

[105:20] Be with us now as we go to our baptismal service. Lord, I pray for each and every one of them, Lord, that you would just lead and guide in their lives as they've given their lives to you, that you would just lead them in the path that you'd have to go. Use them as you see fit, father, help us as a church now for the ones that have come to join, to be a church to them and to minister them as they minister us. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

[107:42] Anybody got a request? You want us to sing while they're getting changed? Nobody? We do if our throat will let us today. We do the sun.

[111:48] Any other request?