All right, a blonde has sharp
pains in her side, so she goes to the hospital. The doctor examines
her and says, you have acute appendicitis. The blonde says,
that's sweet, doc, but I came here to get medical help. Acute appendicitis. All right. What an exciting time to be alive. What exciting things are happening. I've always wanted to live a
few days when it was very clear, black or white. We're living
in that day. Selling baby parts is black. keeping children alive, blessing
the newborns, helping kids whole life together. That's white. That's holy. That's precious. It's very clear our government
has no idea what they're doing, but we know what we're doing.
We do. And we're doing it right. We're
preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, and people are being
changed from the inside out. And we're having better neighborhoods,
better communities, better state, and better country because of
the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you stay around here long
enough, you're going to see some of the most awesome things, things
that could not happen unless God were here. The text that
I have chosen, and I would encourage you this afternoon when you get
home to go online to Sermon Audio and listen to the message that
I delivered to you from these two texts on July the 12th, 2009. I listened to it three times
because I was absolutely amazed not with the preacher, but amazed
at what I said God was going to do and what he has done. God's got a plan. And every day
for me, I kind of say this to God, who, me? You talking to
me? About my fitting into that plan. I'll soon be 71, the 24th of
October. I've never been more excited.
I've never been more thrilled. I've never believed anymore that
God has raised me up and I'm not taking any glory for the
kingdom hour such as this. that God is going to use the
voice of this church and this preacher as Greg prayed today. And I thought that was right
on, not only here locally in Pontiac, but across this country
that so desperately needs awakening. God has done such marvelous things
for us. If you've been around here any
time at all, you cannot help but say, God has done great things
for us. The next three or four months
are what we would call, with regard to fundraising, as critical
months. Over $3 million, or near that,
must be raised in the next four months. And it will. I just don't know how, I know
who. And he's able to do exceedingly
abundantly above all that we ask. I have chosen for our development
people at Grace Centers of Hope that we take this message the
next four months, America the Beautiful, that we contrast where
people are saying to themselves, what happened to that America? What happened to the America,
the beautiful? Actually, America is not so beautiful,
not now, but it can be again. And I personally believe that
we are ripe for revival and awakening. I don't think there's been a
better time in our history for God to show off, to show that
he can turn a nation back to himself, that he's a mighty God
and that he's sovereign. So while at times from Sunday
to Sunday, you will hear me talk about tragic events that are
happening. Do not be discouraged. I've read
the end of the book. We win. We're more than conquerors. I've
been thinking a lot about children, and we're going to be saying
a lot about children in our fundraising as we go on. We not only must
uh... pay for the little over five
million dollars for the women and children shelter where we're
about two million plus short of raising the funds completely
uh... to have that five point whatever it is million that we
need what's a few points right when we're talking about five
million i never thought i'd be talking about five million dollars
25 years ago, we were talking about our budget being $650,000. And now we have grown and God
is blessed in such a mighty way. But I believe God is going to
take care of that. But we're going to talk about
children. I wanted to show you one of the films Kyle did for
us that we've got running along with our appeal letter. And many
of you who do not get our appeal letter, like to get on the mailing
list. We'll put you on there. You'll
get the mailing list and you'll be hearing about America the
Beautiful. We're going to be pretty bold
about some things in those appeal letters as well. Lots of things
in this country going the wrong way. Abortion and selling baby
parts. That's not the America I know.
That's not the America I want to know. We are, for the most
part, a godless nation, and I'm praying that God will send a
great awakening in our individual lives and hearts. The Lord has
done great things for us, whereof we're glad. I believe this, I
know this, we've got to double the size of our daycare to take
more moms that are coming, coming to the new Women and Children's
Shelter. And as those new moms come with
children, we need room for them. Our daycare is filled with 42
children, I believe. And so the upstairs needs to
be totally renovated. So if you're here and you have
$300,000, you'd like to write your check today. You can make it out to Grace
Gospel Fellowship or Grace Centers of Hope, either one will be fine. You say, Pastor, why would you
say that? Because I believe God can raise
somebody up like that. And they might just be here.
You never know who's here. In the book of Isaiah, in the
scripture that Greg has read, I think these verses in both
texts are so right on and so meaningful and so right on with
regard to what we can see and I think we're going to see. Isaiah
said this, in the glory, in their glory, that is the heathen, in
their glory shall you boast yourselves. I looked at that and I thought,
well, what does that mean? We're not supposed to be doing
any boasting. Here's what it does mean. It
means that even the heathen say, God has done great things for
you. Even the heathen are amazed.
I love for people who don't know the Lord to say to me, I can't
believe this place. I can't believe this place. And
I say, me neither. Only God could do this. When people point to us, the
Apostle Paul said something like this in the Galatian letter of
the first chapter. He said, they, the church, glorifies
God in me. You know, he was Saul of Tarsus
before he was converted on the Damascus Road. He was a Christ-hater,
a Christ-rejecter, and he was persecuting Christians, even
killing them, and God saved him. God struck him down on the Damascus
road and enshrined in his heart the very name of Jesus Christ.
And the church said, praise God. This God is able to take even
the chief of sinners, the worst of our enemies. You know, I had
some thoughts the other day. You know, I'm not an Obama fan. I know you didn't know that,
but I'm not. And I don't mind who knows that.
This really is no time for little preachers to get in their pulpit
and kind of play with some kind of religious message. This is
a time for preachers, ministers of God, to blow the trumpet in
Zion. But I will say this, I pray for
the man. And what I pray is that God will
save him. Wouldn't that be something? You
know, our God's able to do that. He's able to do that. In their
glory shall you boast yourselves. Well, it gives me great joy to
have the heathen brag about when that big sign went up on the
Women and Children's Center this week. I said, praise God. I had tears running down my cheeks.
Look what God is doing. And then we're right in your
face if you go down Woodward. We're right in their face. You
can't help but see it. Somebody said, why did you do
that? Why did you make it so big? I said, so everybody can
see. We want people to see what God
is doing. You know, the sole purpose of
the Christian, the sole purpose of the Christian is to give God
glory. That's the purpose for which
he saved you, to give him glory. If you're a Christian, That's
your desire, to give him praise. It's as natural for the Christian
to lift his hands, maybe not literally, but in his soul and
heart and say, praise God. My chains fell off. I've been
set free. In fact, whether you eat or drink
or whatsoever you do, you do to the glory of God. Isaiah said,
the spirit of the Lord is upon me and has anointed me to preach
good tidings, good news. And notice this, Isaiah 61, who's
the good tidings for? It's for the meek. Maybe you're here today and you're
hurting so bad. Life has kicked you around. You're
just unsure, lacking confidence, almost suicidal, just meek. I've got some good news for you.
The gospel is for you. God has anointed me as a preacher
of God to bind up the brokenhearted. I know this morning there are
some of you that are brokenhearted. You know, only God can heal a
broken heart. God's the only one that can do
that. You can put a cast on a broken arm, but on a broken heart, it
takes a miracle of almighty God to heal a broken heart. But even
that is possible with our God, is it not? Your heart is broken. To proclaim liberty to captives. Oh, I know we have captives here.
I know we have captives here today who have as not yet been
set free. You're a captive to crack, or
captive to heroin, or captive to pornography, or captive to
money, or something has holding you. You know, Jesus Christ is
able to set you free. If the Son sets you free, you're
free indeed. Some of you are in prisons and
you are bound up. I love the words of Jesus after
he raised Lazarus from the dead. He called Lazarus out of the
tomb. He said, Lazarus come forth. And you know, Lazarus didn't
come forth waving his arms saying, praise God. He came forth like
a mummy. He was bound head to foot. And you know what Jesus said?
Loose him and let him go. Have you been bound for years
and years? Maybe you're an old timer in
here. And you've been bound all of your life. Do you know that
the mighty God that we serve here can set you free? That you can die enjoying life
and saying, praise God. That can happen for you. The
gospel is here that those who mourn in Zion, God has sent the
gospel to give beauty for ashes. Is that your life? Has it been
nothing but ashes all the days since you were a tiny tot, just
ashes? The gospel is to give you beauty. Beauty about yourself. I'm not
what I used to be. I'm a child of God. I'm a joint
heir with Jesus Christ. Now, I often tell you that we're
nothing but sinners. And in our flesh dwells no good
thing. The truth is I am a sinner saved
by grace. I'm bound for the promised land. Nothing can stop me. The garment of praise for the
spirit of heaviness. Are some of you here depressed?
I mean, there's such a spirit of heaviness every day. I can
see it in your face. There's no need for that. The
glad tidings will set you free. The joy of the Lord will fill
every crack and crevice of your soul. And you can be happy indeed. All of this, that the Lord might
be glorified and we give him glory. I read Isaiah 61 again
this week, and I read this passage, and I saw something I don't think
I have ever seen. In 61.4, it says, the desolations
of many generations. The desolation of many generations. That's going to change. That
can change. Many here today suffer from generational
curses. Your grandfather was a drunk,
your dad was a drunk, and you're a drunk. Do you know all of that
can change today? All of that can change this morning. Your family tree is hard to track
because there's been so many splits and splinters. You hardly
know what family it is. You hardly know what it is to
have a loving father, a mother, a loving mother. Some of you have a father vacuum
and a mother vacuum. I got a letter just yesterday,
I got a phone call yesterday and then got an email from a young man who wrote me,
and I'm still praying for him, but he was here for many years.
And he wrote me this, you showed me how to live as a man of my
word by example. Every day I had the pleasure
of spending time with you. I speak my mind nowadays more
easily because of you. I saw every day how it was to
be a man passionate about what he believes. I'm glad that's
happened for him. Every Christian, it's not so
much what you say, but how you live. You know, I smile a lot. I had somebody say to me this
week, why are you always smiling? And I haven't got caps on my
teeth yet, so it's not to show my teeth. It's because I'm happy. And you
know, if you've had a miserable life, there is joy in Christ. There is peace in Christ. Some of you have been molested.
There's been sexual abuse in your life, and it has followed
you all these years. And some of you have almost lost
your sexual identity because of that, because of what happened
as a child. That need not hold you captive
anymore. Read the word of God. If you're
a male, be a male in Christ. If you're a female, be a female
in Christ. Amen. I'm not saying that there
are not battles because of what has happened to us, but I do
know this, God is able to work in you both to will and to do
of His good pleasure, and you can have a great, great life. I'm here to tell you that there
is hope. Grace centers of hope. We named
it that on purpose. Grace, gospel fellowship. Grace, unmerited favor. Undeserved favor. Hope. Grace gives hope. Tremendous
hope. You don't have to be good enough.
In fact, you're not good enough. In fact, there's nobody good
enough. It's unmerited favor. What tremendous
hope when I see myself the blackest and when my flesh is acting up
and it crosses my mind, can you really be His? And then I say
to myself, it's not by works of righteousness which we have
done, but by His grace and mercy He has saved us. Restoration for you. Are you depressed over past failures? Are you depressed over your mess?
There's no one in here that doesn't have mess. There is salvation,
hope, and grace in the time of need. Why don't you this morning
just seal the deal? I think this is a great deal.
Why don't you make the trade? Let's see what the trade is.
It's beauty for ashes. Don't you think that's a great
deal? The oil of joy for mourning. The garment of praise for the
spirit of heaviness. You don't have to walk around
this way, Elijah. Yeah, I think I'm saved. Really
and truly, this ought to be the way it is with you. Hallelujah! Thank you, Lord, for saving my
soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me
whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me salvation so rich and free. Isaiah said with Zechariah, the
wasted cities shall be repaired and restored. You know what I
believe? I believe, listen to that message
six years ago. I said, and by the way, six years
ago, Pontiac was a bankrupt city. We were $10 million in debt here
in the city of Pontiac. The only bright light in Pontiac
was Grace Centers of Hope. It's very, very true. We had
two police officers patrolling a city of 65,000 people. Bad place. We kept preaching
the gospel. Go over on Seneca Street, where
we bought our first house. And we just kept buying houses.
And people kept, volunteers kept coming in and restoring those
houses. Now the police are called very
seldom on Seneca Street. And when they are called, I find
out if you're living there. Because we don't need Sheriff
Bouchard on Seneca Street, because we've been saved by the grace
of God. This was a wasted city. 26 years
ago, Saginaw Street was all boarded up. You didn't go up to Saginaw
Street to eat. You might not have made it. I can't tell you how many stories
I have heard of people being robbed between there and the
mission. This was not a safe city. But
the gospel came. And it's taken a while. But now we've got our eyes on
the state of Michigan. Now we've got our eyes on the
United States. By the way, on the 19th of November,
Ms. Pam and I are going to be in
Washington, D.C. They're in for trouble up there. What a thing it is when God's
preacher comes to town, preaching Jesus Christ. It is pleased God
through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And
what an honor it is to preach the gospel. The guidances and
myself and Ms. Pam got to hear Marvin Olasky
speak a night or so ago. And in my conversation with Marvin
Olasky, who is the editor of World Magazine, I said, you know,
I suspect that you are a believer in the sovereign grace of God.
And he said, you suspect right. Only God could have brought Marvin
Olasky and I together. Only God could have done that.
I read that book 20 some years ago that he wrote on the tragedy
of American compassion. I've desired to meet the man
for years and years and years. We win the Hope Award. He comes
to Michigan. I get invited to MC and introduce
him. Only God could do that. Only
God could do that. He said to me, Kent, if you'd
like for me to come and speak sometime at a banquet for you
or any way I can help you, please let me know. Oh, he's going to
get a call. What makes a wasted city? Let
me tell you, wasted people. Isn't it a horrible thing when
we say, we use this terminology, Oh, she got wasted. What a waste. How sad that is. He or she got
wasted. You know what it means? Damaged,
defective, empty, garbage, excrement. I didn't say that. The dictionary
says that. Sewage. That's what waste is. You got
wasted. How we try to guise all of that. When you use drugs, you don't
get high, you get low. The lowest point in your life
is gonna be when you're using. Amen. You know it's true. Let me tell you this, and you've
heard me say this thousands of times, there is no high like
the most high. You can't get any higher than
that. America has been wasted. How
did that happen? Well, first it happened because
the churches got wasted. Empty. Lost. The gospel with the Holy Ghost
sent down from heaven was not preached. I've told you this
before. Our success here can only be
contributed to one thing. We lift Him up He must increase,
we must decrease. We praise God from whom all blessings
flow. The church lost power. The gospel
is the power of God unto salvation. Amen. It's such a power that
it can change your life. It can turn you around. It changes
you from the inside out. You love what you once hated.
Isn't it kind of weird for some of you to say, oh, Sunday's coming. I can't wait to go to God's house.
And you kind of go like this. Did I say that? Because you've been changed.
You've been turned by the turner. Churches have lost the power
of Pentecost. You know, there's a three-legged
stool that we practice here. three-legged stool, family, church,
and community. You don't have a stable society
without those three. America is the land of loners. It's the land of deteriorating
family. It's the land where people don't
know their neighbors. They don't live together in community. We were not made to be loners.
Adam was not happy by himself. Even in a perfect state and perfect
environment, God saw that it was not good for man to dwell
alone and made for him a helpmeet. marriage than is of God. But at any rate, churches lost
their power. Most churches really, they probably
shouldn't even be meeting today because there's nothing going
on there. Say, pastor, you shouldn't be critical of other churches.
I'm being critical of this. If you don't have the gospel
being preached, if you don't have Christ uplifted, nothing's
going to happen there worth a hoot. Children became dysfunctional. A lot of our kids are on drugs
because things weren't right at home. Mental illness took
hold. Look what happened this week.
Just look what happened this week. And I'm going to say to
you, Mr. Obama's wrong again. Guns are
not the problem. People are the problem. Gangs took the place of family.
I can remember when gangs here in Pontiac was a tremendous problem. And they're still here. They're
still out there, not quite as active. This nation gropes in
darkness, trying to fix social ills with worthless paper. I was gonna really wax bold today. I brought a hundred $2 bills.
And I was going to say to some of you guys sitting down here
on the second row, maybe some of you girls too, you think if
I gave you this, it would solve all your problems. You would
never use drugs again. You know what? If I thought that
were true, I'd get a whole bunch of these and I'd just start passing
them out. Raising her hand over there.
A few more raising their hand back there. I decided to keep
them because they're not going to change you. You're already getting SSI and
welfare. And what do you do with that money?
Buy more drugs. So it hasn't solved any of your
issues and any of your problems. But I'm telling you, there is
a man that has come down the stairway of heaven who can come
to you and change you. Wouldn't it be a great thing
if children could play in our streets again and not feel like
they were going to be kidnapped or molested? Wouldn't that be
an awesome thing? It's no wonder that we are a
nation of individuals, lonely, depressed, unhappy, unhealthy,
and lost. I'm happier than I've ever been
in my life. In fact, I'm happy right now. Look at government. Look at Hillary. We have a socialist running for
president of the United States. A socialist. All of you who want
to go to college, government will pay for it. And I said,
with what? We're already $22 trillion in
debt. And you know what they're going
to do next week? They're going to raise the debt limit so the
United States of America can pay its bills by turning out
more dollars. That's insane. If you would do
that, you would be bankrupt and they'd send you to jail. Some
of us have a budget. Some of us pay our bills. Some of us don't believe in borrow,
borrow, borrow, borrow, borrow, borrow, borrow. And besides, it kind of ticks
me off for you not to work and for me to pay you not to work. I think I might have gotten a
flesh there a little bit. And let me just say this while
I'm really upsetting everybody. The God of government is not
solving social ills. Government can't put your family
back together. Government can't solve the problems
that you are facing. Something like 70% of our budget
goes to entitlement, whether it's any kind of entitlement.
I was in North Carolina speaking at a church and I was waxing
a little bold about entitlements. Some old man stood up and he
said, well, you take entitlement. Why don't you give back your
Social Security? I said, I opted out of Social
Security in 1969. I don't pay Social Security. Why are you quiet? I hate to
tell you old-timers this, but Social Security's already gone.
They've already spent that money, borrowed that money, and they're
just shuffling numbers and figures. And not only that, but you can't
retire at 65. You gotta wait now till you're
67. You know why? No moolah. I know some of you are going,
that guy is so far off today. No, I'm just, thank you, I'm
just telling you what's happened to America the beautiful. And
we keep going the wrong way. I'm trying to put up the stop
sign and say to all of you, I'm your shepherd and I'm telling
you there's a better way, there's a great way, there's a happy
way, there's a joyous way. And you look at what Grace Centers
of Hope does. We want you to get a job. We
want to help you get a job. We want you to buy a house. We
want you to get off drugs. We want you to get your driver's
license back. We're going to feed you. We'll
help hold you until you can kind of get it together where you
can praise Him. There's so many in this house
today that over the 26 years I've been here, you've come to
know Christ. Your life is so changed. And I know you still
struggle. I still struggle. But I watch
you every day. Some of you, I would embarrass
you if I called you by name, so I won't. But I see you, and
you're such a blessing to me because I see in you the gospel
works. It actually works. It does. Zechariah said, this is what
can happen in a day of gospel grace. Generations of desolations
shall be repaired. All of that mess that you got
in your past, all of that mess, all of that stuff you've been
carrying around in your suitcase, all of that can go away today.
It can go away just like this. as you grow in grace and in the
knowledge of Jesus Christ. You know, you can start over
today. Well, you know, I've just messed up, messed up. I just
feel like it's too late. It's never too late for God's
grace. Never too late. Do you think
it can't happen? I love these verses in the book
of Zechariah. I was studying these passages,
and if you got your hand there, I'm going to read this passage. It's Zechariah 8 and verse 6. It says this, Thus saith the
Lord of hosts, If it be marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of
this people in these days, Should it also be marvelous in my eyes? Probably in your margin, if you've
got a margin in your Bible, the word marvelous there is difficult
because some of you are going, some of you are sitting here
and you're going like this, man, pastor, I kind of hope Pontiac
comes back. I kind of, you know, Pastor,
I really like, you know, I'm telling you, I would really like
my life to be turned around, but boy, it's going to be difficult. That's the way you're thinking.
And so God says this, just because you think it's difficult, God
goes like this, don't think I think it's difficult. You read that passage, and that's
exactly what it means. God is saying to the doubters, the turnaround doesn't depend
on you, it depends on Him. And he's able to do exceeding,
exceeding. Learn these words and learn this
passage as children of God. He's able to do exceeding, abundant,
above all that you ask or think. You know, I actually think that
I may be a voice to the world. I do. Not because of me, but
because of God. I believe that. I see him opening
doors. I also may get put in jail one
day. I don't know. I don't know how
this thing's going to go, but I know I win. I know you can
lock me up, but you can't take my joy away. Do you think this can't happen?
Are you here today thinking, I'll never get off drugs. I'll
never have the joy that preacher's talking about. I want you to trust God, believe
God. I know you're here today. You
think you've gone too far. You've done too much. Mom and
dad want nothing to do with you. You're all messed up yourself,
kind of confused. You don't know how to be a mom.
You don't know how to be a dad. You haven't been. I mean, life,
generations in your life have been messed up, and you're a
part of that, experiencing part of that curse. Your addiction
is so strong. Listen to what Jehovah says. here in the book of Zechariah.
Behold, I will bring them and they shall
dwell. I love the shalls of God. They
shall be my people and I will be their God. God is sovereign. God will come where you are and
turn you around. There is nothing impossible.
So I've lost my kids. I didn't see my kids. I don't
speak to my kids. They don't speak to me. You know,
it's such a mess. Quit looking at the mess and
look to God. He's a pooper scooper. God cleans up mess. I know God follows me around,
cleans up my mess. Nothing is impossible for him.
So I wanna put it straight to you. Are you really messed up
today? Did you come in here really messed
up? You've been messed up for years.
Maybe some of you are old and dirty. Today's your day. Today is your day. And here's
what I want you to do. Trust Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
See him as your savior. Hoist the white flag. Give up. Some of you have been in 15 treatment
centers. How's that working for you? Obviously,
if you've been in 15, it hasn't been working. I don't want Grace
Centers to be number 16. I want it to be the one where
Christ found you and you found him. You gave it up, you turned
it over and trusted Christ. And I'll tell you what will happen
from henceforth. When you come to know Christ,
If you have any more children, if you're a female and you have
any more babies, you're going to be a good mother. If you've already got children
and you've messed them up, if you get saved, you can turn that
around. You know, let me tell you this. Children are so forgiving. Some
of you, I could call your name. You lost your children 15, 20
years ago. And this has personally happened
between you and I. We've talked. And I have told
you, write them a letter. You haven't talked to them in
10 years? Write them a letter. Call them. Some of you have given
back to me this. Well, they'll hang up on me.
They won't take my call. Then write them a letter. Then
on their birthday, send a gift. Amen. Let them know. They would
love to know you're still there. That you're wanting back in their
life. And I don't care how old they are. I'll just quite frankly
tell you this. You know, I have a father vacuum.
I do. I never, because of certain beliefs,
my dad never let me preach for 30 some years in his church.
I mean, we talked and had some kind of communion together. But
you know, one of the great, boy, when we get to heaven, he's going
to tell me I was right on, he was wrong. Oh, he already knows that Christ
is all. He already knows that. I probably
shouldn't have said that, should I? Too late now. But I just want you to know,
I just want you to know it's not too late. Quit saying that.
Quit talking that way. Christ will make you whole. Trust
Him today, will you?