The Cost of Following Jesus

Glad to be back in church. Hallelujah. Amen. Hadn't been feeling well the last week or so, but the Lord has brought us. And thank God for those of you that know us, that pray for us.

And so the Lord is doing good. And I honor our pastor. And I just thank you, Pastor J, Always for an opportunity to stand and Pastor Steph and just everybody that's involved in this and the opportunity to be able to stand and just share a few things. Hopefully that will give you hope to go on. We are living in dark times.

Can more than one person agree with that? We're living in dark times. And I think that in nights like this and every time we come to church now, it's more than just coming to church to feel good. We are in the battle for our lives. And I sat down with a good friend of mine yesterday who is a high political person, and we just talked about.

He told me one time, he says, if you know the things that you don't know, you will probably be afraid to come out your house. But our help is in the name of the Lord. I know that God is in control of everything. And so I just think that anytime that we come together now, especially as we go into next year, I think that it's time to really grab hold of not only praying and seeking God, but I think it's very, very important that we build community with each other and not let what's happening out there happen in here.

I'll try that one more time. That went over like a rock and water. I expect the world to be going crazy. I expect the world to be going crazy. I expect all of the chaos and stuff that's happening in the world.

What I'm most concerned about is the chaos that it seems to be in the body of Christ. And I think that what. And let me tell you something. I'm going to talk to you about tonight. When I was a kid, it's not like now that, you know, your kids walk in the house when grown people are talking and just start talking and saying what they want.

When I was a kid, my mama used to say, boy, shut up, grown people is talking. Anybody like that. Okay, you young, you young people, you don't understand what that's about. Yeah, so. So when I was a kid, Pastor, if you walked in and you wanted a peanut butter jelly sandwich, you.

You had to wait and be stuck starving until the grown people got finished talking. And so tonight we're going to talk some grown folks talk. Hey, how about that? We're going to have some grown folk conversation tonight. Is that okay?

Is that okay? We're going to have some grown people conversation. Because I think that the world is trying to dictate what the church is. And I don't think that a lot of people understand the power of this, the power of the refuge today, because there's so many people that have drawn lines in the sand that said, this is us. So when you come into a place like this where everybody is represented, the enemy would like to destroy this.

And if he knows that he can't stop the power of Jesus, but he can stop the flow of God if he stops our love for each other, Grown people conversation tonight. That's what we're going to talk about. Talk about grown folks conversation. And so if you. If you will, I would like for you to turn to St. Luke, the 14th chapter.

And I want to dive right into this, because. Say grown people conversation. Come on, say grown. I'm trying not to give you the slang that we used to say we as a kid. So I'm trying to appease everybody.

But. But. Okay, let's try it. Say grown folk stuff. How about that?

All right, all right. Most of y' all didn't. Your face is too much. Okay, let's try it again. Say, and you gotta do it with a kind of attitude.

Say, that's grown people's stuff. That's. That's grown folks stuff.

Y' all working me real hard tonight. All right. All right. I've been sick for five days. Work with me a little bit.

So I'm gonna try. For those of y' all that you still can't get it, get a little slang in you tonight. Just a little slang. You don't have to take it home with you. But.

But say grown folk stuff. Come on. Yeah, all right, all right. Okay. That was better.

All right, all right. So, 14th chapter of St. Luke, and starting at the 25th verse, it says, a large crowd. This is the new living translation. A large crowd was following Jesus. He turned around and said to them, if you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else.

Your father, your mother, your wife, your children, brothers and sisters, yes, even your own life. Otherwise you cannot be my disciple. If you do not carry your own cross and follow me, cannot be my disciple. But don't begin until you count the cost for who will construct a building without first calculating the cost to see. To see if there's enough money to finish it.

Otherwise you might completely.

The foundation before running out of money. And then everyone else will Laugh at you.

They will say, this person who started the building couldn't afford to finish it. So my aim tonight is to have grown people conversation. Because what I am seeing as I crisscross the country and I go to different places, I'm seeing that it seems like the church is paralyzed because they're afraid to talk about the obvious.

They're afraid to talk about the obvious. And so there's a segment of the church world that's afraid to talk about the real issues that's going on that's keeping us divided.

When you go to different countries and they're having mass revival, they don't pray for revival. They pray for unity. And as we go into next year, you, into this election period, what we need to be praying for is unity. The answer is not in Washington. The answer is what's in this house?

I said the answer is not in Washington. The answer is in this house. Yes, we need to vote. Yes, we need to be good civic, civic people. But we need to understand that as a body of Christ, our help is in the name of the Lord.

Our help is in the name of the Lord. We are the same. Through the blood of Jesus, we are the same. When it comes to the blood of Christ, there is no black, white, red, yellow Christians. We are all racial culture in so many different ways in this world.

But guess what? When it comes to the cross, we're the same.

No matter where you come from, no matter how you look on the outside, when it comes to the cross, we're the same. And what the world is trying to do is to divide us by what should be strengthened in us. I personally believe that. That diversity is amazing. Amen.

I said, I believe the diversity is amazing. I remember one time a pastor asked me to write a book. I'm gonna write a book in a couple of years called the Lessons Learned in the Storm. And so I remember about 30 years ago, my son was acting crazy, crazy teenager. Can I just lift my hands and thank God that all my kids are grown?

Just give me one second. I won't take long to do it. Thank you. Thank you.

Now, every time I do that, somebody gets offended. So take off your offense clothes now because I'm glad my kids are grown. All the way grown. My kids are almost in their 50s now. Let me just.

Thank you, Jesus. So at this time, my son was acting up. Yeah. And so I was trying to give him a lesson that all of us are the same. You know, at that time, in my 30s, I grew up in the black Baptist church.

Then I got into the Pentecostal Church. And I'm a musician, so I know our chords. I know our. I know our chords. I know how the chords are constructed.

And I thought I was pretty good. I got my first praise and worship gig when I was 19. And I was. My goal was to get into the big conventions, to play the big conventions. But you need to be careful what you tell God what you want to do, because God seems to just laugh at you.

So God, here I am, got all my plans, and I got all these cores, and I was training choirs, and then God dropped me right in the middle of an organization where nobody looked like me.

One person got it, okay? And so all of the stuff that I learned, all the stuff that I knew, it was worth nothing now because I'm in a. In a group of a. Of people that didn't look like me, right? So.

So I want to teach my son. He's like 15, 16 years old, teaching him that we're all the same. So let's do this right now. If. If you.

If you. If you're kind of easily offended. Come on, shake it off right now, because I'm about to. Come on, I need you to shake it. Come on.

Okay. Not enough of y' all shaking because I don't want y'. All. All right, so there's a state up in the great northwest, or south northwest. And so they invited me.

My name was getting around the country. And so I went to one of those churches where nobody looked like us. But I'm telling my son, my 16 year old son, you know, all of us are the same. You know, there's no difference in us. And so when we got to this church up in this.

In the great northwest here. And so we had. Flew all. Flew all day, got there. And so the pastor's wife got up and says, oh, brother Halter's gonna be blessed because I made him some of my favorite soup.

I'm like, dang, really? This is gonna be awesome. And everybody's clapping. Oh, my God, that's awesome. Oh, my God.

Oh, he's gonna love it. And I'm sitting up there in a pulpit looking at these people, and I said, man, I'm hungry too. And by then I was like £300. So there was a lot of me to feed. And, you know, and we had been flying and I was hungry.

Amen. So I can't wait for the end of church. So we get out of church that night and. And she's just bragging on this soup. Amen.

I know how my wife made soup.

Maybe I shouldn't tell the story. I'm just. Let me. Let me get a second thinking about this. So.

So, Pastor. I mean, she's bragging. I mean, she's talking about this soup. And. And every preacher that comes, I make this soup.

And. And they just love this soup. And I can't wait for Brother hall to have the soup. And I'm hungry, too. And again, I'm like £300 back then.

And I was in my 30s, and, you know, there's a lot of me to feed. So then we get to the house, and these kids are tearing up the joint. In my house, in my culture, in my diversity, kids don't tear up the house. So I'm sitting in there, and these little raccoons. Let me see.

Let me see. Can I say, let me see? Maybe not raccoon. That's a little bit too weird. Anyway, these little monsters.

Monsters is probably more comfortable. They're 10 at the joint. And so she invites us over to the table. So I come to the table to eat, and then she comes in and she's happy, she's excited. So she brings in this pot of soup.

And my son is sitting across from me. I'm sitting there, and I kind of looked over in the soup because I'm thinking it's going to be vegetables and potatoes and everything like that. It looked like the reason why I didn't say what city it's in or state it's in, because it would be my luck that somebody here is related to these people. So I'm not. I'm.

I'm taking it to my grave.

It looked like water with cat. Cat food in it. It really did. I'm like, oh, okay. Well, she said it was great.

So. And then she says, well, we gotta feed our guests first. So she filled up my bowl. Pastor. And I'm hungry.

So we bless the food. I get my spoon, get a teaspoon of it, and immediately my stomach start cursing in tongues.

I mean, it was cussing. It was saying horrible things. It was saying horrible. I was sitting there repenting for my stomach because. And then I ran immediately to the first scoop, immediately to the bathroom.

I'm running, if y' all get what I'm saying. This grown folks conversation, y'. All. This grown folks conversation. Immediately my stomach is just going crazy.

And. And I'm. And so diarrhea just jumps on me. And so when I come out the bathroom. When I come out the bathroom, they just slopping it up, man.

They eating that stuff. Mmm. And I'm in egg wrong. And I listen, I couldn't eat anymore because I couldn't hold it down or hold it in, whatever. So she says, listen, I want to send some of this back with you to the hotel.

I said, no, no, no, we're fasting tonight. We're believing God for these next two nights to have a move of God. No, no, no, Let these kids have this stuff. Let them eat it and stuff like that. So went to the.

Went to the. Went to the Walgreens, got some KO Pate, and they said, take a teaspoon. I'm guggling it down like it's. Like it's. Like it's a pop.

Didn't stop it then. And so the next two nights, I had to preach on that Sunday. Sour stomach and that run. So I'm really adamant when I'm teaching. And so because of what I was afraid that was gonna happen, I had to stand there like I'm standing tonight and be very calm.

And so guess what, What I learned by that. And I asked my son the other day, I called my son and said, how come you didn't get sick? He said, because when I saw your face when you first tasted it, he said, I wasn't eating none of that stuff.

And so you see how we gotta laugh out of that. Because, listen, what I have learned is that our diversity is also our power.

Our diversity is also our power. That's the reason why the enemy wants to separate us with our diversity. Everything that you know, there's a lot of gifts in this room that other people need.

But if we listen to the enemy, we would think that our diversity is what should separate us. Here's my point, Jesus, and let me take responsibility for it. I used to be very vague at what I needed and what I wanted. So now when people invite me to come somewhere, I am very specific at what I want and what I don't want. Now, don't none of you come bringing me a bunch of soup on Sundays.

I'm very specific. And Jesus, he's very specific. And I think that what we're living is in a day. We're living in a day where people are very vague. They're vague on marriage.

They're vague on sin. They're vague on what's right and what's wrong. They're vague on how to have a great marriage. As somebody who counsels and coaches marriages, one of the things that's destroying marriages is people. Very vague.

The word of God is the Word of God is what is what we stand on. The standard has to be the word of God, not your feelings or triggers.

In our boot camp, we don't let people talk about my feelings. Because your feelings don't matter when it comes to the standard. The standard is the word of God and not your feelings.

The reason why a lot of people can't get the victory is because they base things on feelings and not on faith. My faith is in God. I don't care what the enemy throws at me. My faith is in God. What has brought me these 50 years of living for God is not my feelings.

Growing up in a home where nobody was saved but me being cursed at, talked about the reason why I'm still in here is because I have a faith in God. I have a fear of God, not scared of God, but I reverence God. I reverence God. When I come to the house of God, this is not a circus. This is a place that when I come in and I come into the presence of God, I reverence his presence.

Not vague. I think that what we, as we go into the end times, as we are facing the end times, we have to be very clear on who we are. You are my brother and sister. I don't care how you are raised. I don't care what the color of your skin is.

You are my brother and my sister if you are in Christ.

And we need to be very clear on that. Because if not, the enemy would destroy us. The enemy would destroy us when you lead by the color of your skin. We don't lead by the color of our skin. We lead that.

We're brothers and sisters in Christ. Say Amen. Somebody here in our text tonight, Jesus turns and look at them and says, listen, there's a cost to be a disciple. We don't talk much about that anymore. There's a cost to be a disciple.

I look at these great leaders that we have at this church. There's a cost to being them. That's why we have to pray for our leaders. That's why we have to pray for anybody that's in leadership. Because the battle is raging now.

The battle is worse than I've ever seen it before.

Because the enemy know if he can destroy the leadership.

All across the country there's a civil war now in different places where we have ministered, because everything is vague now. The Word of God is still the word of God. Whether I live up to the word or not. It's my job to come up to the standard. Not the standard to come down to me.

So Jesus looked at his disciples and said, there's a cost to be my disciple. First thing he says, the cost is, is you have to put in perspective who you love.

I love my beautiful wife. But the reason why we made it almost 47 years now is because the night before we got married, we were 18 years old. So I think that women are smarter than men.

All right, y' all have a good night. Yeah, okay. It's good to see y'. All. Good to see y'.

All. So the night before we got married, Pastor. So we're going to pick up her grandmother and we're terrified. We're 18 years old, she's pregnant. You know, it's a big scandal in our church.

It's a mess. Her parents are saying, you're not gonna make it. My parents are saying, you ain't gonna make it. Our pastor say, you're not gonna make it. We had nobody on our side but her grandmother.

So we go to pick her grandmother up from the airport and my little, cute, little beautiful wife looks at me, girlfriend looks at me and says this to me, let me tell you something, brother. I don't know if she said brother, negro, something like that, but she, she, she says something in between there. She, she says, I think she said, oh, okay, all right.

She said, let me tell you something. She said, I'm going to love God more than you.

Well, I'm a dumb little 18 year old kid. What, what am I going to say?

So I said to her, I'mma love God more than I love you. All I was trying to do was get to the next night, the wedding night. That's what I'm trying to get to. And so I just thought that I had to say it. And the thing that has kept us this year, 20, 24, will be 47 years, is that we have a love for God more than each other.

And if you love God more than you love each other, it's not going to be a problem with loving each other.

If I just tried to love her and not love God, it would have been over a long time ago. But it's because of our love for God. I'm not talking about love on paper. I'm talking about love and behavior. Oh, that was really good.

So I'll say it again. I'm not talking about love and paper. I'm talking about love and behavior. We have to behave ourselves that we love God more than each other. Because if I love God, God is not going to let me go out and do something stupid.

If I love God, so Jesus put it out there to him. If you're going to be my disciple, first thing you do by comparison, you have to hate everybody else. He's not talking about hate as far as a heart situation. He says, you got to put everything in perspective. You love your kids more than you love God, that's why you're frustrated.

If you love your spouse more than you love God, that's why you're frustrated. If you love your job or your money or your stuff or your house or your cars more than you love God, that's why you're frustrated. Jesus said, you got to put everything in perspective. Everything. You got to put it in perspective.

And what has helped us to go, not because we were perfect, Pastor Terry. What helped us to get through is because we put God first. See, when I got saved, they used to talk about fearing God, having a fear and a reverence of God. We're living in a generation that has no fear of anything.

We respected old people when we got saved. Now I happen to be them old people. All right, all right. That's another story. But we got to put things in perspective.

The next thing he says is, you have to carry your own cross. Uh oh. Because guess what? Every one of us in there have a cross.

Every one of us in here. My good friend up in Maine told me, tony, nobody has a maid. Everybody has something, they battle. Everybody has something, they battle. You may have money, but a sickness.

You may have a sickness and no money. You may have a troubled child, you may have a troubled childhood. Maybe you came up in a horrible time.

We have problems that I could spend the rest of the night. All the things that we've been through in our lives. Jesus said, you're going to be my disciple. You gonna have to pick up your own cross and follow me. Because everyone in here has a cross.

Everybody here. Everybody. And if you're gonna follow Jesus, you're gonna have to pick up your own cross. And it has to come to a time where we stop being victims and understand that. I have a cross.

I have a cross. We have a cross. God has been good to us. The favor that we walk in, the things that God is doing in our lives, it's just every day we just can't believe. Just the favor that God has placed on our life.

But even in all of that, once you scope all that stuff back, there's still crosses that we have to bury. We have grandkids. That's crazy. Some of our kids that are crazy. Excuse me.

Let me Just, Lord, I just thank you that my kids are grown. Lord. Thank you, Jesus.

There's sicknesses in our body. Sickness in my body. Almost died three times. Two heart attacks, a lot of stuff. But guess what?

I'm not a victim. I grew up in the 60s. I could be a racist, but the reason why I'm not a racist is because I thank God that he let me. He allowed me to live in a time where I could come across to say, I'm not a victim, but I'm a victor. And until you begin to take off the victim clothes and put on the victor clothes, then you have victory out of everything that you've been through.

I thank God for everything that I've been through.

I had a guy ask me a few years ago. I saw him at a football game here in China Grove, and he says, bishop, knowing everything that you've been through since you've been here in North Carolina, I bet you wish you never came. I said, knowing everything that I know now, I do it all again.

That's why the enemy can't hold me. Bondage to being a victim. Because all of us have a cross. And some of you dear people, you going through challenges right now. But guess what you need to do?

You need to pick up your cross. Because Jesus says, if you're going to be my disciple, you have to pick up your cross.

And all of us have a cross. If you're going to follow me, you got to pick up your cross. All of us have a cross. And I just. I want you to understand that is what a blessing it is for you to be in the house of God tonight, even though you're facing challenges and you're facing difficulties, because it's a cross.

The great thing about a cross is that Jesus will help you carry your cross, but he's not going to carry it for you.

He's not going to carry it for you. You got to pick up your cross. When we look back over our life and all the things that we suffered and been through, I'm glad that we didn't live in this day where everybody's a victim, because Tony and Denise hall could be a victim. If you. If you.

If you just want to hear. If you want to hear a miracle, sit down sometime and hear my wife's story. You get a chance to hear some of my stories. You talking about somebody who could be a prostitute or a junkie or a crackhead. That woman right there, the stuff that she's been through as a child.

It's amazing. We were In Orlando, Florida a couple of weeks ago. And we got there, flew in, finally got to bed that night and we sat and Talked till like 2:30 in the morning. We talked about things we never talked about in our 46 years of marriage. And I was amazed to hear what this woman went through, even though I've been married to her for all these years.

But the reason why God has blessed us to touch the world now is because we picked up our cross.

We picked up our cross. We didn't ask anybody to help us take it. We said, God, you have to help us. And he's helping us today. Say amen.

He's helping us today because he says, listen, no man can be. If you're going to build a tower, he doesn't do it unless he cut off the cost first. And there's a cost, there's a price to be paid to live in this time. We've lost a lot of people this year. We've lost a lot of people this year.

And, and sometime I get jealous of them because they don't have to face the stuff that's constantly going on. But I just think that it's a cross that we have to bear. What we need is, we need a revival of truth.

We need a revival of truth because truth will change convictions to freedom. Truth will bring back marriages from the dead to powerful homes.

Truth is based on what God said and not what Satan said to make you feel and believe. Truth that sets altars on fire, where people come to the altar and the power of God transforms their lives into the moment when they leave the altar. When I was young and on drugs, I got on drugs when I was 12 years old and alcohol. I was a screwed up kid. Got in gangs.

On March 28, 1973, I went to a little bitty church. It wasn't fancy like this, it wasn't beautiful like this little bitty hole in the wall. Church had an upright piano, right? Little Radio Shack microphone. But those people called on Jesus.

I was strung out. I'd never been to a church like that. In our church we sang three hymns. Preacher preach. We're out of there an hour and a half.

This church, they were calling on the name of the Lord, the power of God. The kid that was sitting in the back, my brother in law, tricked me to go to church because he said, there's pretty girls in that church.

Amen. So I went to my brother and I got some, some of his bell bottoms. Y' all know about bell bottoms? Don't worry about it. Lime green Bell bottoms?

Yeah. Lime. Lime green. And we had platform shoes. Y' all don't know about those.

Some of y' all do, right? Platform shoes, yeah. Had a black shirt on that had the kind of bell bottoms, arms. And it came down to about my navel. Now, you have to imagine this because I weighed probably 100 pounds wet.

Never been to a church like that. Then I went and got me some Afro sheen to put on my head to try to give me a little fro going there because I was going to see some pretty girls. Oh, I can't be honest with y' all tonight. I thought, okay, I thought we was being honest. So I went to Woolworth.

You'll know. Five a dime. Got me a 25 cent pair of sunglasses because I want to be cool to the girls. But what they didn't tell me about that church was they called on the name of the Lord and the glory of God showed up. And that little troubled kid that was sitting in the back, the power of God hit me on the back row and I hit the ground and began to roll.

Amen. Now, I know we don't do that, and we're not encouraging you to do that here. I began to roll, but by the time I hit that altar, it wasn't a long way, but I was speaking in a language that nobody taught me. And from that night on March 28, 1973, to December 6, I think today is 2023, I never used drugs again, alcohol again, drinks again. I fired the gang.

Because there was a transformation in my life.

There was transformation because as I was rolling, God was cleaning.

And that's the generation that I grew up in.

And we need a revival of truth where people fall under the conviction of God that transformed their lives.

We need truth that helps homes come together. So here's what I'm going to do. Here's what I feel like we need to do. Here's what my convictions are.

I'm not going to be conformed to this world.

I'm not going to be bending to every changing whims of this world. But I'm going to be transformed by the renewing of my mind.

I'm not going to be like this world. I'm going to be transformed by the renewing of my mind.

I don't care what they say on tv. I don't care what the media says. I don't care what these politicians say. I'm going to be transformed by the renewing of my mind.

Number two, I'm going to let my light shine in this world that they will see Jesus in me. Not a black Jesus or a red Jesus, a yellow Jesus or a white Jesus. I'm talking about Jesus that changed the world, that saved the world. I want the world to see the power of God in me by how I treat humanity.

Number three. I'm gonna love my brothers and sisters, regardless of our differences.

I'll see our diversities as a blessing and not a curse.

I'll see our diversities as a blessing and not a curse.

Because as soon as we start seeing our diversities as a curse, then we curse God because God made us the way we are.

I'm kind of caught up on praise and worship from different parts of the world. And I don't know what they're saying, but it's just so sweet and so amazing. Right now, I'm kind of caught up on South African worship, Zulu worship. It's Christians that sing Zulu. It's so amazing.

And so I am. I am. I am. I'm gonna. I'm gonna let my light shine in this world.

I'm gonna see the diversity as a blessing and not a curse. I'm going to love my brothers and sisters. Number four. I'm going to stand for the word of God.

It's going to be tough these days because this world is trying to convince us that God is not real.

They just had a funeral last week of a guy. We used to be in his ministry when we were 25 years old.

And this guy was powerful. This guy was doing things, bringing people together. And then somewhere there was a seed planted.

And while we were sitting out there shouting and dancing, he began to talk about this doctrine. I call it the doctrine of devils.

And we're shouting and dancing. We didn't even hear what he was saying.

And he turned it into a doctrine that even Satan is going to be saved and there is no hell and we're all just points of light. We were in that ministry.

Matter of fact, that was the guy who released us to start our first church at 25 years old.

And to his dying day, he stood on that doctrine of devils.

And there's a lot of preachers in this country that is making up excuses for him because they don't believe the word of God.

And that's where we are now. So I'm going to stand for the word of God, not going to stand on feelings. I'm not going to stand on people like me. I'm going to stand on the word of God. And I thank God that we're in a church where we stand on the word of God.

I'm going to stand on the word of God. The Bible says righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to anybody. I'm going to stand for the word of God. I'm going to stand on what God say, even if it's uncomfortable for me. I'm a stand on what the word of God says.

I've come too far now to turn around. I've come too far now to change my stand.

Last thing I'm going to do.

I would not fight my brothers and sisters because you're not my enemy.

You're not my enemy. Here's what the Bible says in Ephesians 6, 12, 17, the Amplified Bible for our struggle is not against flesh and blood contending only with physical opponents. Here's where our battle is. It's against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly supernatural places. Therefore, put on the complete armor of God so that you will be able to successfully resist and stand your ground in the evil day of danger, having done everything that the Christ that the crisis demands, to stand firm in your place, fully prepared, immovable, victorious.

So stand firm and hold your ground. Having a tighten the wide band of truth, personal integrity and moral courage around your waist, having on the breastplate of righteousness an upright heart, and having strapped your feet with the gospel of peace and preparation to face the enemy with firm footed stability and the readiness produced by good news.

Above all, lift up the protective shield of faith with which you extinguish all the flaring arrows of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. Stand with me, please.

I often think, Pastor, I often think how I was impacted as a young kid, as a young saint of God. I was always very impacted. Come on, Pastor Trent. I was always very impacted in services because I knew that God's hand was on me.

And I think that the strength of the refuge is. I look at these young people around here, I look. We have a lot of young people, a lot of young couples.

Some of you are next in line.

A lot of us are older. And what we're going to need to fight this next major battle, you could be it.

Who would have thought that little troubled kid who got his girlfriend pregnant at 18 years old will grow to be a world changer? And what I'm so excited about, about the Refuge, I believe that this is training ground. I believe the Refuge is a training ground. I believe that some of you that's listening to me tonight, I believe the hand of God is on you.

And the reason why you're so blessed is because as I grew in God, we didn't have the exposure to all the ministry that you have at the refuge because exposure is very important. And you get a chance to sit under a heavy anointing and great teaching and great preachers and you get a chance to sit under thoughts of what God says.

You need to pray. Because I believe that world changers are sitting in these walls.

I believe the time will come that some of us real old people are going to be sitting back looking at some of you that was just here. What I was going to teach about, I was going to teach about, about, you know, I, I, I am always blessed every Sunday when I see young people taking garbage cans out and taking garbage to the garbage cans and, and these young people that's walking around here escorting cars and, and stuff like that in, they could be the next world changers.

It's not always people that have the microphone in their hand, but sometimes just serving in insignificant places. God will bring you up to the front. God is using us right now to touch the world. But we were just very insignificant kids. Nobody thought we were doing anything.

We vacuumed the churches after church, cleaned the bathrooms. I went to my pastor one time and I just had a burning message. I just, I felt like I had to preach. And there were 68 preachers in our church. Yeah.

So I went to my pastor and said, pastor Ellis, I just really feel like God has given me a word. You know what he told me? He said, good, the women's toilet just got stopped up. Go in there and mop that floor and clean that bathroom. And I was in there with that plunger.

In Jesus name, in Jesus name.

Don't despise the day of small beginnings. If you want to be user of God, if you feel like God hands on you, let me tell you the best thing you could do. Serve wherever you can serve. Do the things that other people won't do. Seeing that those are preparing grounds, we need to come against the spirit of being vague.

We need to stand our ground. Stand your ground in your house.

Stand your house. Stand your ground in your house. Stand in your house and say this house will be called the house of prayer. Thank God we pray at church, but we pray in this house. Amen.

Certain things are not coming in this house because this house is going to be a place where we pray at, say man, my kids are gonna be mad at you. So what? Tell them to get over themselves, because this house is gonna be called the house of prayer. And one day, when they grow up, they'll thank you for standing your ground. I never want to be my kid's friend.

My kids are in their 40s, almost 50, and I still don't want to be their friends. No, I don't want to be their friend. I want to be their father. Because guess what?

When you have a father, you have somebody that has a word in your life. I'm glad to be a part of the Refuge Church. Red, yellow. The first thing that I learned when I was a little kid in Sunday school. Red, yellow, black or white, they're precious in this sight.

And no matter where you at on your journey right now with God, you stand your ground. If you're going through the worst times in your life, you can't give up. Last point, and then I finish. Pastor Steph. When I was 19 years old, I was a very depressed little kid.

We got married and we moved to San Antonio, 1600 miles away from Detroit, to get away from a bunch of crazy stuff. And I was always very discouraged. I was always just very discouraged. And we were away from our families. And my wife used to rub my back every night.

That's what she used to say. She said, you can't quit. The world is waiting on you.

She wasn't loud. You just feel her rub my back, say, you can't quit. The world is waiting on.

There was no Internet then. You couldn't imagine going all over the world preaching. I wasn't even really a preacher then. She rubbed my back, saying, you can't quit. And when I would preach in those little churches where there would be two or three people, my wife would be sitting on the front row screaming, preach, baby.

Preach, man.

The power of your voice.

Those of you that's married the power of your voice, be careful what your voice is saying. Thank you, Pastor. For. For the sacrifice, for the Refuge being what it is. We're in our 60s now.

We don't know who we're raising up out here, because we can't do this forever, man. So when I look at these young people, I'm so blessed by these young people, the Refuge. I'm so blessed by you. I know that there's only a certain amount of time that I could continue doing what I'm doing, but I'm glad that when my time is up, I'm not talking about death. I'm talking about my time is up of doing what I'm doing.

I'm glad to be in a strong church where there's going to be some of you that's maybe sitting out here right now and not thinking, man, you know I can't do anything. The hand of God is on you because he brought you to a place where his hand can meet you.