Well, we're so glad you're here
today. Thank you for coming and being with us. Look, our scripture
reading was from First Kings. Chapter 18, verses 41 through
46. I want to just challenge you today. With the question, that Elijah
asked the young servant that he sent to look up into the heavens
and tell him what he saw. I want to challenge you with
the same question. What do you see? What do you
see? Seven times in the scriptures,
this question is asked. What do you see? If you back
up a few chapters here, you'll find that God told Elijah and
Elijah told the king, it's not going to rain in chapter 17 and
verse one. And Elijah the Chishbite, who
was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God
of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew
nor rain these years, but according to my word. And then many of
you who have read this story know that Elijah and Ahab just
did not get along. The king called Elijah the man
that troubled Israel. You're causing all the trouble.
We've heard that a few times around here in 29 years. But God only comes to do good
and not evil. And we're looking for God to
turn this city upside down. And I'm challenging you today. What do you see? God said it's
not going to rain. And so what happened was that
Elijah, after he delivered the message, he got out of town.
God told him, you're going to get killed. I want you to go
to the brook and there you will be able to drink, in verse 4,
and I've commanded the ravens to feed you. Now, this is an
absolute wonder and marvel that God hid his man out. down by
the brook where there was water. And then he said, I'm going to
cause buzzards, scavengers, to bring you food. Now, if you know anything at
all, a scavenger is very stingy and very greedy. It doesn't give
up food. In fact, Isaiah makes mention
of this very instance when he's describing the God of the Bible
in Isaiah 46. He said He's the God who declares
the end from the beginning in Isaiah 46, 10. From ancient times, the things
that are not yet done, saying, My counsel, My purpose shall
stand and I will do all My pleasure. I'll do everything I want to
do. That's called the sovereignty of God. He's a big God. You can't thwart Him. None can
stay His hand. nor saying to him, What doest
thou? If God intends to bless you,
and He does as His child, you shall be blessed. You are an
undefeated people. You are more than conquerors.
in Christ Jesus. And verse 11 says, this God who
declares the end from the beginning calls a ravenous bird from the
east, the man that executes my counsel from a far country. Yea, I have spoken it. I will
also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also
do it. That's the God of the child of God. The God of the
Bible. And so, then in the text reading,
we have today. God told Elijah, go tell Ahab
now it's going to rain. It's going to rain now. And Elijah
said unto Ahab, get thee up, eat and drink, for there is a
sound of abundance of rain. There is a sound of abundance
of rain. Not only might I ask, what do
you see? What do you hear? Do you hear
the sound of abundance? Abundant rain? Do you hear that? That all things work together
for good to them that love the Lord? Do you hear it? I mean,
do you really hear it? Then what you ought to do is
this. Get your umbrella out. There's a sound of abundance. When I was a kid, By the way,
notice it's a hummer. There's a sound of abundance.
See, I believe that with all my heart. What's that I hear? Oh, it's the sound of rain. It's
abundance what God is going to do. You know, when I was a young
kid growing up in church, we used to hear, there shall be
showers of blessings. There shall be showers of blessings.
And I couldn't have been over 16 years old. I said, I've heard
that for years and years. When is it going to rain? When
is there going to be showers of blessings? I'm telling you
today, getting ridiculous, this is the first time I have ever
opened an umbrella. And by the way, this is not bad
luck. This is seven years of blessing. At least seven years of blessing. It's going to rain. God promised that. And so Elijah
believed it so much, he said to his servant, you know, the
prophet Elijah, the Bible says he had his head down between
his legs. He wasn't looking up. He said,
you go see what you see and come back and tell me what do you
see? And the servant came back and said, I don't see anything.
But Elijah saw something. What do you see? Maybe other
people don't see it. But I see it. I'm glad for things
I see. Sometimes I don't tell everybody. I just find a few folks that
have eyes to see and I share it with them. Because some people
think you're crazy, you know. Did you hear what he said? Did
you hear what he said is going to happen? I think, maybe I told this last
Sunday. I don't remember. I'm 70 years
old. You know, on Thursday, was that
last Thursday, Michelle? Was that last Thursday? This
didn't happen before Sunday. So I haven't told this, or have
I? Was there a Sunday in between? Anyway, let me tell it. You know,
we had applied for a $500,000 grant. I told you, right? On Thursday, they called us and
said, there is no way you're going to get this grant unless
you compromise the gospel. That was the essence of it. And
I said, no, I have my umbrella. I didn't say that, but I thought
that. Actually, what I thought was,
got along without you before I met you, going to get along
without you now. Our God is able to do exceedingly
abundantly above all that we ask for things. And the next
morning, Michelle called me in her office and there it was.
We got the $500,000 grant and didn't compromise the gospel
of Jesus Christ. What do you see? I'll tell you
what I saw on Thursday when I was talking to that person. I saw
God is going to give us millions and we don't need you and he
doesn't need you. But then God did something. He
worked on somebody's thinking and we got that grant. It's going
to rain. I want you to see it in your
life and not just raindrops, but abundance. Oh, no, Pastor,
you're not going to be one of those healthy, wealthy, wise
guys, are you? I'm going to trust God. You see, every morning when
I get up, I need $35,000 to keep the mission rolling, right? How
would you like to get up? Thinking you needed $35,000 every
day when you get up. You better have a big God. But
God will supply all of our needs according to His riches in Christ
Jesus. And without faith, it's impossible to please God. Without
faith. There's not going to be rain
without faith. And before it rains, God's going
to show you something and you're going to believe it's going to
happen. Because that's the way God does things. And faith is
substance. Do you believe that? If I believe
it and God gave me the faith, it must be going to happen. Because
God doesn't do things to mock us. I dare you to dream. Dream. Well, I'm just, you know,
I'm one of those people, you know, I'm a former mission person. Well, what does that mean? I challenge you to quit talking
like that. I thought you got saved. I thought you got born
again. I thought you got filled with the Spirit of God. I thought
you became a new creature. I thought God was working in
you, both the will and to do of His good pleasure. I thought
old things passed away, and behold, all things become new. It's going
to rain! You know, I heard Joe hit a home
run Wednesday. And when I think about leaving
this world, I think about what Elisha said to Elijah. I want a double portion of what
you got. And when I think about this,
not for the next 20 years, but when I think about leaving this
church, I want the next pastor to have a double portion. I don't
want him to be thinking small. We're going to see God outdo
what he did with Prophet Clark. We're going to see much more
than that. Amen. And that's the way we ought
to be thinking here. Not same old, same old. You know,
I live that kind of life most of my most of my life in negativity of religion. The
Charismatics were wrong because they spoke in tongue. Nobody
ought to be that happy and be saved. And of course, you know, a lot
of that stuff I don't agree with. But I'm telling you this. Christ
came that we might have life and have it more abundantly.
Isn't that right? Something ought to happen. I
mean, there ought to be joy that passes all understanding. There
ought to be peace and hope. Hope. How do you live without
hope? And God intends us to have hope.
And it's not, I hope, I hope, I hope. I had hope that we would
get this building, but I knew we were going to get the building.
I knew it. A lot of folks didn't. That's all right. They didn't
see it yet. But I saw it. I saw this years ago. There are
many things. What do you see? Well, I saw
a little cloud. You know, when I saw a little
cloud about this building, I said to Amir, who owned this building,
I said to him, now, I understand you air conditioned the building.
I wish you'd put more heat in, but anyway. And he said, yes,
we did. We air conditioned the building.
I said, well, keep fixing it up because it's going to be mine
one day. And you know what Amir said to me? I promise you, Pastor,
when I get ready to sell it, you will be the first person
I come to. That was like 10 years ago. One
day I came out and raised my hand toward this building. Just
me and God. No cars were coming by on Mill
Street. Just me and the Lord. I said,
Lord, give me that building. You know what he said? I will. You say, oh, you didn't hear
that. I didn't hear any audible voices. But you know, God and
I talk a lot. I came over here praying, Lord,
don't let them think I'm crazy if I take that umbrella in there. See, y'all are still smiling.
I really have your attention. I know you're thinking, when's
he going to put that thing down? I may not. What do you see? Through your
spiritual eyes, what do you see? I'm telling you, people who can't
see are really blind. And there is so much joy when
you're able to say, I see it! Do you know all truth is revealed
truth? You know what makes some people
mad? What makes us glad when we see
it? That God elected a people before
the foundation of the world. We find no argument there. We
don't want to fuss about it. We just go, that's great! I'm
not an accident. I'm on purpose. God loves me
and has loved me with an everlasting love and chosen me. Has God revealed
that to you? Then quit frowning. I see it. You think about this. You know,
I think about this often, listening to television pastors, that Christ
wants to save you. Let me tell you, His name shall
be called Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.
Not He might, not perhaps, not per adventure, but He shall.
When Jesus died on the cross, He saved somebody. Redemption's not a feeding trough
for freewillism. Some of you don't get that. Some
of you do. That's alright. But when Jesus died, He paid
the payment in full. Redeemed, bought, purchased. I'll tell you what, that'll give
you a lot of hope and take away a lot of doubt. If you know this,
he shall not fail nor be frustrated, the Old Testament says. He shall
accomplish that. Father, the hour has come, Jesus
prayed in John 17. I pray not for the world, but
for them which Thou hast given Me out of the world. Thine they
were and Thou gavest them Me. Father, You have loved them as
You have loved Me. And You love Me with an everlasting
love. That's what we're talking about
here. Get your umbrella out. You're blessed. And then, think
about it. You, down there in Lodi Bar,
bought and purposed and loved. You didn't have a clue. Didn't
have a clue. Just wandering around, smoking
weed. Just wandering around. And then
the weed wouldn't do it, so you had to add a little alcohol.
Lost! Ended up down in Lodibar. Place
of no bread. In your rags. Lost everything. And then Jesus came calling in
the power of the Spirit of God and sought you out of your Lodibar. That means I'm getting happy. You ever thought about this?
Mary, the angel of the Lord said, Mary, you're going to have a
baby. Huh? She said, how can that be? I
don't know a man. I've never known a man. How can
that be? Oh, it's going to rain. You're going to have a baby.
And this is how it's going to happen. The Spirit of the Most
High God shall come upon thee. Conceived of the Spirit of God.
You see, these blessings are not by your might or your power. The sovereignty of God and the
grace of God. You know, I was thinking this
week. I was thinking this week. Is there something greater than
grace? And I said there must be. Because God's God. And I said to myself, what could
it be? I said, I don't know. Think about God's unmerited favor.
I mean, that's great that God just sovereignly loved you because
he loves you. But there's something beyond
that, because God is God. I don't know what that is. In
fact, the Scripture says this. I have not seen. I have not seen. nor entered into
the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that
love Him." You know, I've read that thousands
of times in 50 years. And this week I said, what is
it that I haven't seen yet? But you've already prepared. You've prepared. You bought them. You paid for them. For me, I
want to see them. Do you want to see them? Don't
you get tired of religion? I'm so weary. Listen, if I wasn't
saved and filled with the Spirit of God, I'd go to the bar too. Because this world is not my
home. There's nothing here. You think
about how long you use looking and went down and down. He was
like Jonah in the belly of the whale. Down, down, down. That must have been a horrible
experience. All those gastric juices in that belly of that
whale. You know, the Apostle Paul said,
I saw some things I can't even tell. I was taken up into the
third heaven. I want to go too. While I'm walking
through this life, I don't want to live any longer in that attitude. Another day, another dollar. I want to live in this kind of
day. This is the day the Lord's made. I'll rejoice and be glad
in it. I spoke at Orchard Lake Presbyterian
Church yesterday morning. And it's always interesting to
open the audience up for questions and at any rate. Sometimes you
can feel negativity and sometimes you feel awesome things going
on in people's mind. But anyway, this guy came up
to me after it was over and he said, My God is big. He said, I'm not
going to live any longer in this small God stuff. I said, Hallelujah. Another guy came up to me and
he said, I've never heard about you, really. But here's my card. We have a family foundation.
I want to give toward your women and children shelter. I got his card for you, Michelle,
in the morning. Here's what King Uzziah said.
Or Uzziah. When King Uzziah died, here's
what Isaiah said. When King Uzziah died, I saw
the Lord. Now, does that mean that Isaiah
was saved right then? Or was he already saved? Of course,
he was already converted. But he said, I saw the Lord.
High and lifted up. And I said, woe is me. I'm undone. And the Lord took hot coals and
touched his tongue, touched his heart, touched his life. That's
what I want to see. I want to go to church and sense
and feel the Spirit of God. I was raised under negativity,
as I've said. A young preacher, very confused
about life. Very confused. Lived under guilt
Condemnation and this kind of thing. Oh, that's not going to
happen. Oh, that's hopeless. And got that way myself. I'm glad the Lord's delivered
me from that. I believe God is a God who does great things. Have you seen it, God, at work
in your life? I mean, really, in your life? Do you see it clearly? that He's working in you both
to will and to do of His good pleasure. Are you happy about
being born of the Spirit of God? Out of your belly, does it flow
living water? That's the way it is to be. God
says, behold, I will do a new thing. That's what God said. Behold, I will do a new thing.
I like new things, don't you? I'm excited about tomorrow. OK,
what what new thing are you going to do? One new thing I know he's going
to do eventually, we're going to get those steps out front.
I'm telling you, I'm telling you, if you know a concrete worker
person company, tell them we got the cash. It has been most
difficult and we have. Listen, I knew it was going to
heat up in here. They said $60,000 to $90,000.
I'm sweating right now. It was 28 degrees last night.
Oh, it's going to rain. I sense there's abundance of
rain in the air here. You know, don't be stuck in a
rut as a Christian, as a child of God. As long as you can't
see it, it'll never happen. In fact, listen, You can't soar
like an eagle when you're hanging out with the chickens. If you're negative, don't get
near me. And I'm positive of this. If
you're negative around me, I won't get near you. Because I'm positive
about my God. And He's blessing. Your relationship
can be better. Your marriage can heal. You are
not a nobody. You're somebody. And Wanda, I
want you to dream your dreams. 3.80 in college. Dream your dreams. I want you to dream your dreams. Darryl, that deep, rich, bass
voice, get on radio, man. You got it. Where's Dwayne the songwriter?
All right, man, let's go. Right. Abundance. Abundance. I'm just telling you, Satan's
greatest ploy is you can't, you won't. Nothing to it. You've
reached the end of the row. You've done all you can. You're
not going to be successful. After all, you were an addict
for 20 years. God is most likely to take an old starry drunk,
save him by his grace, turn his life totally around, and then
go to the top. Negative. In fact, our negativity
Satan uses to sabotage us. Oh, I don't deserve this. You
got that right. You don't. But you can't dwell
there. It ought to make you happy even
though I didn't deserve it. Look what God's doing. And what
God is able to do for me. What about hope? Hope. You know, we spent some
time choosing the name for the center over there. Grace Centers
of Hope. How many in your lifetime in
here, there was a time when you lost all hope? Amen. No hope. And the Bible talks
about hope in Romans 5. The Apostle Paul said we have
a hope. And this hope... And Paul is
struggling with telling how great our God is and the blessings
that are coming our way. He talks about moreover. But
here's what he says, and hope makes us not ashamed. In other
words, this is not, I hope, I hope, I hope. I hope I get a new bicycle
for Christmas. I may not, but I hope I do. That's not that kind of hope.
The Bible hope is a sure and a steadfast hope. That'll make
you get up in the morning with a smile on your face. I know
it's going to happen because I see it. Right now it's just
a little cloud about the size of a hand. But I know it's coming. And this hope that I have will
not put me to shame. God does not give you hope to
mock you. Let me tell you this. Satan is
an accuser. And I've learned this. And I'm
determined to teach this. That Romans 7 is a comfort to
us who are the children of God. Romans 7, I used to skip and
worry about how could I be the Lord's? How could I be His? How
could He bless me when I had all this garbage going on? Oh,
it's all clear now. It's all clear now. It's all
by grace. He wants to bless me. He does
bless me. And I'll tell you this, God inhabits
the praise of His people. The more you trust Him... That's
why I ask for more faith all the time. Give me more faith.
The more you trust Him, the more you praise Him, the more the blessings come down. He inhabits the praise of His
people. Do you think... I heard somebody
on radio say this, either this morning or yesterday. Have you
ever thought about where your praise goes? Well, it's got to
go up through here. Now that we're sitting in here,
it's got to go through the roof, right? It's got to leave this world.
I don't know whether it meets St. Peter at the pearly gates
or not, but it's got to go past the angels, right? And it goes
right into the presence of Almighty God. He hears the praise of His people
when we give Him all the glory, all the honor. And I've told
you now for years, the most dangerous thing that could happen is for
us to stop praising and get off this central message. If we get
off this central message, to God be the glory. All of it! And we praise Him. And it can
be simplistic praise. Thank You, Lord, for saving my
soul. I don't know why You do it. I
don't know why You did it, but thank You. Thank You, God, for breakfast
this morning. Thank You, God, for the clothes
on my back. Thank You, God. for a car to
drive. Thank You, God, for a job to
work. Thank You, God, for my children. And thank You, God, that You're
in control and You bless. Praise goes up. Blessings come
down. Even in tough times. You know,
and I know you know this because I've said it enough, Because He lives, I can face
tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone. Knowing these things
will push fear out. What do you see? You say, well,
Pastor, not until this morning. I never thought about it. I want
you to think about it. And right now, there's probably
an inkling of the Spirit of God. And you're going like this. Well,
I see a teeny, tiny, About the size of a hand. Not too much
promise in that, but, oh, it's going to rain. Do not ignore
those urgings of the Spirit of God. They're for a purpose. When I was preparing this message,
I went back. Well, Pam and I were not married.
So, 45, 46 years ago, I was visiting the hospital And I went down
into the cafeteria area to eat. Now you think about this. It's
been over 46 years. I have thought about this through
my life several times. I was sitting there eating and
there was a man in the cafeteria. He was also eating. A younger
kind of guy. And the Spirit of God said to
me, go talk to him. You know, I kind of did one of
these. Who, me? Kind of things. The Lord said,
go talk to him. I didn't do it to this day. I see that man in that cafeteria.
And what I learned from that was when the Spirit of God says,
count on it. Think about how many things you've
passed by when there was that urge, that sense You know, the
Spirit of God works in us. God is sovereign, but He takes
people and blesses people to bless other people. That's right. And let me tell you, you are
here on purpose for a purpose. I will not let you sit here without
purpose. I will proclaim to you this over
and over. God's going to do a new thing.
And will you? You're 80 years old. Don't give
up. In fact, the smartest people
in the world are old people. Hands applauding. Us old folks, we've gone through
a lot. There's not an older person that
talks to me, and you have to be old to talk to me. I mean,
you know, who's older than me, except I don't care how harsh
it is, how critical it is, or how good it is, that I do not
listen. Because God places people. And
I listen. God may be sending me a message.
And I know this today. Somebody in here is hopeless. You've kind of given up. Life
has beat you up through your craziness. Amen? And today you sense the Spirit
of God through this preacher talking to you. Nothing is impossible. Not for
you. As a child of God. And all things
work together for good. Some of the most difficult things
you've given up on. Relationship. Or maybe a child. Or maybe relapse. Do you actually think that God
is not bigger than crack? Or heroin? Those are the false
gods. And by the way, Relapse is not
a new thing. God said, I'm going to do a new
thing. And the new thing is you ain't going to use any more. All right, the umbrella's coming
down, but that doesn't mean it's not going to rain. And what we're
going to do today is stand and praise him. And I just wonder,
and you don't have to do this at all, but I just wonder If
you're here, maybe you're a child of God, and maybe you're not,
I want to urge you to trust Christ. Everything changes when you know
Christ. Everything. Whole life is changed around.
It's no more condemnation. No more judgment. Entire life
is changed around. And then maybe you're here and
you've been hopeless. Hopeless. Suicidal. Giving up. Kind of, what the hell? We eat
and drink. Tomorrow we die. That kind of
attitude. That's not a good attitude. There's hope in Jesus Christ.
A plan for your life. Fulfillment. Maybe today you
sense that. And you don't have to tell me
what it is, but maybe God's talked to you. I'd like to know that.
Really? This morning? You have tremendous
hope. For the first time maybe in months
and months and months, maybe years, you felt and sensed joy today. That your life wasn't out of
control. That God was in control. And that there's hope for you.
Mom may have given up on you. Dad may have given up on you.
God never gives up. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. Him that cometh to Me, I will
in no wise cast out. I guarantee you this, if you
want to be saved, it's because God wants to save you and will.
If you want a new life, it's because God is giving you hope
in life. Maybe you just want to let us
all know. I'll rejoice with you. You've
got hope today. I'm not asking you to make any
speeches. Maybe you just want to confess
it. God's given me hope. I've been
down and down and down and down And I know my Savior lives. And
because He lives, I can face tomorrow. God is good.