The title of my message tonight
is Prayer, Preaching, and Power. And that will be the three points
of the message. If you want to follow with me, we'll be looking
at Luke chapter six, verses 12 through 19. May God the Holy
Spirit be our teacher as we seek to understand the things here
recorded. In this paragraph, We have the
Holy Spirit's description of our Lord's calling and ordination
of the first 12 of his preachers, the 12 apostles. Now, though
the apostolic office ceased with the apostles, and this can't
be emphasized too often, there are no apostles today. Those
who pretend to be apostles are satanic apostles, not the apostles
of Christ. The apostles died when all the
apostles died. There aren't any more. And yet
those things that are written concerning the apostles and the
things here recorded concerning the calling of these 12 apostles
are in every way applicable to God's servants today and very
instructive to us concerning the work of the gospel ministry. Now in this passage of scripture,
we have what is properly called the beginning of the Christian
ministry. Without question, All the prophets of the Old Testament,
that is all God's prophets, preached the same gospel that these men
preached. John the Baptist came preaching the same message of
repentance that these men were sent to preach. God's servants
today preach that same message. All gospel preachers of every
age preach the same thing. We have but one message and that
message is Jesus Christ and him crucified. We are sent of God
to preach Christ to men. The message of scripture is Jesus
Christ and him crucified. This word is by the gospel preached
unto you. Now, I keep emphasizing that
because I want you to understand that gospel preaching is the
declaration of God's glorious justice in the saving of sinners
by the sacrifice of his son. I've heard so many sermons through
my life. When I get done listening to
them, I think to myself, they've taken away my Lord and I know
not where they've laid him. I listen to preachers preach
sometimes and never mention the name of Christ or barely mention
his name. I hear them talk to folks about
doctrines and this doctrine or that. I've heard folks preach
on what's called the five points of Calvinism, total depravity,
unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace,
perseverance of the saints. And I'm thinking particularly
of one series of messages. I heard a renowned theologian
preach at a seminary, actually a Bible college, wasn't even
a Bible college, just a religious college, a Calvin college several
years ago, on those five points. And I listened to them carefully
twice, each of them. And I thought to myself, if anybody
walked into that place, not knowing the gospel of God's grace, not
knowing Christ, not knowing the way of life and salvation in
Christ that are walked out just as ignorant as when they came
in. Bobby, that ought never to be. That ought never to be. That
ought never to be. The gospel of Christ is the message
of this book. I'm preaching to you tonight
about the ordination of these 12 apostles, but my message is
Christ crucified. preach about those apostles would
be meaningless if God did not give me some grace and wisdom
and understanding to declare to you the message that those
men preached. The subject of scripture is Christ,
always Christ. Don't ever, don't ever, ever,
ever imagine that there's something else, something more important,
something more practical. The only way anything is of importance,
the only way anything is practical, the only way anything is beneficial
to a man's soul is if first he knows Christ. Otherwise, religion's
a deception. His religion's a mockery. Brother
Scott Richardson said years ago, any sermon that does not have
Christ for its beginning, its middle, and its end, is a mistake
in conception and a crime in its execution. And he was right. The message of this book is Jesus
Christ crucified. I know folks think, well, that's
redundant. And the people who don't understand
the gospel think, well, you're talking about standing up here
saying Jesus died for sinners, Jesus died for sinners. You who
know God know better. We're talking about the whole
glorious person and work of God's darling son. You men who preach
and teach, when you stand here to speak to eternity bound men
and women, presume, presume every time you open your mouth, I'm
talking to Ron, Lindsay, and Larry right now, presume every
time you open your mouth that everybody sitting here is gonna
meet God right now. Just presume that. presume that
and preach with that kind of intensity, teach with that kind
of intensity, with that kind of burden. As we look at this
passage of scripture, we see this ordination of these men,
and we recognize at the outset that the ordination of a man
to the work of the gospel is the work of God himself. If a
man is called and sent of God to preach the gospel, his call
by God is ordination enough. It's ordination. Our service
of ordination, what we do when we ordain a man to the work of
the ministry, is simply a local church recognizing God's gifts
and God's call upon a man. You will observe that here, we
don't go through that little ritual of laying our hands on
a man's head as though we, Mr. Spurgeon said, lay my empty hands
on your empty head, won't do you any good. It's not going
to help any. We can't confer grace upon me. We can't confer gifts upon me.
We can't make anyone a preacher. God alone does that. What we
do is simply publicly recognize and acknowledge God's gifts in
a man. Identify ourselves with that
man and commend him to the hearing of eternity bound sinners. Now,
how far we have degenerated from the pattern of the New Testament
is seen clearly in this ordination. In our old nation services today,
things are a bit different. Here, everything was utterly
simple. So simple that it was sublime,
majestic. The Lord, after a night of prayer,
came down from the mountain and called his disciples, and he
named 12 men. And it didn't matter to any of
them which ones they were. He named 12 men and said, you
men are my messengers. And that was it. That was it. There were no ceremonies, no
robes, no religious costumes, no burning candles, no signs,
no rituals of any kind, no pageantry, and no theological quizzes so
preachers could make everybody know how much they know and how
little the other fellows know. None of that nonsense. I want you
to see this evening that in all things relating to the church
and kingdom of God, Everything concerning the work of the gospel
ministry, everything concerning the work of this congregation
and all other gospel churches depends upon and is determined
by the Lord Jesus Christ alone. All right, now let's read the
passage before us. Luke chapter six, we'll begin at verse 12.
And it came to pass in those days that he went out into a
mountain to pray. and continued all night in prayer
to God. And when it was day, he called
unto him his disciples and out of them, he chose 12 whom he
named apostles. Now let me begin by saying a
little something to you about prayer. When the Lord Jesus ordained
these first 12 preachers, he did so after spending time, much
time in prayer. He went out to the mountain,
probably to a specific place. Some suggest to a prayer house,
one of those places that was common around Jerusalem. But
he went out into the mountain specifically to pray concerning
this business, not because he needed to pray. He's God Almighty.
Not because he needed some direction. He is himself God. He went out
and spent the night in prayer as a man, as our mediator, but
he also did so to be an example to us, teaching us something
about the importance of prayer. Now, I don't pretend to know
a great deal about prayer. I can probably count on one hand
and not use all the fingers, all the sermons I've ever preached
on prayer. I don't pretend to know those things. This fact
is recorded here, though, to teach us the great place and
importance of prayer in all aspects of divine service. It is particularly
designed to show us that God's servants are always to be the
objects of his people's prayers. The most important thing for
a congregation to do when seeking a pastor is pray. You know what
I've discovered? That's the smallest of what they
do. That's the most minuscule of things they do. They call fellas and they have
one candidate come in and another candidate come in and ask him
if he's interested. No, another one, no, another one, no, another
one, no. Well, we're down to you. How about you? Yeah, buddy,
I'll take it. That's not the way you seek a
pastor. Should I drop dead tonight and
you seek a man to speak to you for God? Seek God's face first
and foremost. Seek the counsel and direction
of other men who are faithful and dedicated and have proven
faithfulness and dedication to the gospel. Don't be so foolish
as to presume you can do this thing on your own, but seek first
and foremost the counsel and direction of God. Pray for God
to send a pastor after his own heart. It doesn't matter where
he goes to school or didn't. It doesn't matter what it looks
like or doesn't. It doesn't matter whether he's a fellow who's real
eloquent or whether he's not. Find God's will to send you a
man after his own heart of whom he promised he will feed you
with knowledge and understanding. Knowledge of you and of God.
knowledge of his word and his ways, and understanding, understanding
that only God can give to a man. And if God sends such a man,
that church is blessed of God. The most important thing for
a man to do before he takes up the work of the gospel ministry
is pray, pray. Moses, when he was about to lead
the children of Israel out of Egypt, having had that tremendous
revelation of God in the burning bush, having God display to him
something of his greatness and glory, Moses said to the Lord,
God, show me now thy way. If I'm going to lead your people,
God, I've got to be led of you. Show me your way. your way in
the world, your way of redemption and grace, your way in this word,
your way in providence, show me your way. And if thy presence
go not with us, Lord God, if you're not in this thing, don't
let me go. Don't let me go. Carry us not
up hence. Now I won't attempt to say who
is or who is not called of God to preach the gospel. I have
learned a long time ago that only young folks who don't know
much dare presume to make such statements. I hear fellas, you
know, hardly wet in the waters of baptism, and they can tell
you right now who's God's servant and who's not. They can tell
you right now who's preaching and who's not. But don't be so arrogant. God
alone, God alone knows the hearts of men. But this I do know. If God calls a man to preach
the gospel, that man will be a man whom God has specifically
chosen for the work. He said to Jeremiah, before I
formed thee in the belly, I knew you. Before you came forth from
the womb, I sanctified you to be a prophet. The apostle Paul
said that God separated me from my mother's womb to go preach
this gospel. Our Lord came down from the mountain
and of his disciples, that multitude of disciples who called on his
name, who believed him, who followed him, he chose 12. It is God's
business and God's business alone whom he chooses. God calls and
gifts whom he will for this work. God will also grant to that man,
by the special operation of his spirit, gifts for the work of
the ministry. He will give him understanding
in the world. So he understands what the book
teaches. He knows what the book teaches. A man who is called
of God to the work of the gospel, preaches with confidence. Not
with crass boldness, but with confident boldness. Not with
an arrogant, have my way boldness, but with a confident boldness.
Because he understands what the book teaches. He understands
it. Now, I don't pretend to know all of the ins and outs of theological
intricacies. I quit a long time ago concerning
myself with those things that baffle men's minds. I don't pretend
to know. I don't pretend to know what's
going on in the political world, the economic world, the social
world around me. I don't even pretend to know. Ask somebody
else who keeps up with it. I'm not even terribly interested
anymore. Thank God I've gotten over that. But I'll tell you
what I do know. I know this book. I know what
it teaches. I know the message of God's free
grace. And that man who is called of
God to preach the gospel knows this book. He knows what God
declares to sinners in his word. Not universally. Well, I'll take
that back. He does know it universally.
He doesn't know it completely. He knows what the whole book's
all about. There are many things in here, mysteries. I don't know. Somebody asked me a question
the other day concerning something I don't know. But what difference
does it make? The question was, was Ananias
and Sapphira really lost or really saved? I have an opinion, I've
got a pretty good idea, but what difference does it make? Why
bother with that? I know who the Savior is, and I know you
must trust Him. And I'm not going to wrap myself
up concerned about things about which God does not specifically
speak when I can wrap myself up by things He does speak. That
man who's called of God will be given not only understanding
in the book, but ability to communicate truth to others. Ability to communicate
the gospel to other men. The ability to stand before men
and declare God's truth in such a way that people understand
what he's saying. They understand it. They might
not like it, but they understand it. He preaches with knowledge
and therefore he preaches with clarity. With clarity. Gospel
preaching ought never to be, ought never to be, gospel preaching
is not, shouldn't say it ought not be, it is not a display of
learning and wisdom on the part of the preacher. Gospel preaching
is a display of knowledge. It's a display of the knowledge
of the things of God. It's a display of what God has
taught me and inscribed upon my heart. If God calls a man
to preach the gospel, he'll give him a burden for the work. Not just an ambition to preach. Oh no. Oh no. Not just an ambition
to stand before men and talk about things of God. Oh no. A continually life consuming
burden for many women to know God. A continually life-consuming
burden for men and women to behold the glory of God. A continually
life-consuming burden to make known the glory of God in the
generation in which he lives. If God calls a man to preach,
he'll choose him for the work, he'll gift him for it. He'll
burden him for the work. And God's people want to hear
him. They want to hear him. When can you come preach to me
again? When can we gather again? They want to hear Him because
He's got a message from God. And there's all the difference
in the world and sitting and listening to a man talk to you
for 30, 45 minutes or an hour about religion and theology and
doctrine and hearing a man stand before you and talk to you about
the burden of the Word of the Lord burning in his heart about
Christ and Him crucified. God calls a man to preach. He'll
put him in the work. He'll put him in it. He'll put
him in it. No man has ever been called of God to be a missionary
who's not one. No man's ever been called of
God to preach who's not preaching. No man's ever been called of
God to be a pastor who's not a pastor. If God calls a man
to the work, he's doing the work. Religious folks do things just
backwards. We tell fellas that you ought to surrender to preach.
You ought to surrender to be a missionary. You ought to surrender
to full-time Christian service. You, you, you, you, you, you,
you, we, we, we, we, we. And so we set fellas up, now
we gotta find a place for them. Now we gotta do something for
them. We gotta get this thing to work. So we run heavy in there
and do things, make things work. If God calls James Jordan to
preach the gospel, he'll put him in a pulpit. And he ain't
called till God puts him in a pulpit. That's just all there is to it.
When God calls a man to the work of the gospel, he'll make him
love it. Love it. I recall years ago,
preaching for a man who hadn't been pastoring too long, standing
outside his front door of the church building where he pastored.
After everybody had gone, he said to me, he said, Don, I hate
to study. I said, what? He said, I hate
to study. He said, I like to work, but
I hate to study. I hate to study. And I said to him, just as plain
as I could speak, I looked him right square in the eye, Merle,
just like I'm looking at you. Face to face, eyeball to eyeball.
I said, either you better learn to love it, or quit doing what
you're doing. Learn to love it. May God give
you a love for it. If he doesn't, get out. And the
sooner the better. The sooner the better. If God
calls a man to the work, he loves him. Talking about the Tom Harding,
Wednesday evening, after the services, before service, was
sitting on his porch, and I was commending him for his faithfulness
and staying with the work. The folks there seem to be doing
great. He seems to be doing great. And I thank God you're here.
He says, me too. He says, I love it. I love it. I love being here. I love being
with these people. God's servants look upon this
as the greatest gift bestowed upon them outside the grace of
God itself. In fact, it is a grace. Paul
said unto me, is this grace given? that I should preach among the
Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. If God calls a man
to preach, God will see to it his work goes on. He'll see to
it. He'll give him success. Not as
the world views, but God's servants don't look on success as the
world does. God's servants don't look on success by counting noses. God's servants don't look on
success by the applause of men. God's servants look upon success
in doing the will of God and God opening the way and God keeping
the way open. That's it. That's it. God's word
goes forth by his power and never returns to him void. But if God
calls a man to the work, if God puts Don Martin in the work,
he will cause the word to go forth from your mouth and nobody
can stop it. Nobody can stop it. An ego trip
is not a call of God. Let no man run who hasn't been
called and sent of God with the message of grace burning in his
soul. Preachers who are not sent of God, now listen to me, preachers
who are not sent of God, no matter how sincere they are, no matter
how properly motivated they are, preachers who are not sent of
God are a detriment and a hindrance to the work of the gospel, not
an asset. If you would be helpful to the
cause of Christ, children of God, pray for his servants. I ask you to do so for me, but
as I speak concerning myself, I ask you to do so for every
man you know who faithfully preaches God's free grace in Christ. I want you to know him. I want
you to hear him. I want them to be friends. I
want you to pray for them. The apostle said, brethren, pray
for, Turn to 2 Thessalonians 3. Frequently when I leave here,
if I leave a note for one of the men, usually for Lindsay,
our faithful, faithful brother. Not many fellows step in and
do things so unnoticed, so gladly. I thank God for it. But I frequently
will leave the note. with this passage of scripture
written somewhere on it. 2 Thessalonians 3. Brethren,
pray for us. And this is what I ask you to
pray for. That the word of the Lord may have free course. I often hear Brother Murrow pray,
Lord calls your word to run swiftly. That's it. Pray that the word
of the Lord may have free course and be glorified. glorified in
men hearing and believing it, even as it is with you. And that
we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, that God will
open the door despite opposition, that God will make his word successful
in spite of those who oppose it. For all men have not faith. Over in 2 Thessalonians chapter
five, the apostle writes in verse 12 and says, we beseech you brethren,
To know them which labor among you, labor among you. Gary, every faithful gospel preacher
labors in the word of God. He labors at it. Just like any
man goes about and labors at his work. If he works at a job,
he labors in his work. He gives himself to it. God's
servants labor in the word and in doctrine and are over you,
not superior to you, over you and God's arrangement of things
in the Lord. and admonish you. Now listen
to them, listen to them, they admonish you by the spirit of
God. And to esteem them very highly,
not because they're somebody, they know better than that, but
in love for their work's sake. And thereby, he says, be at peace
among yourselves. J.C. Ryle made this statement.
The progress of the gospel under God will always depend much upon
the character and conduct of those who preach it. And he was
exactly right. The progress of the gospel under
God, under God's purpose, God's will, God's decree, will always
depend much upon the character and conduct of those who profess
to preach it. If your pastor is to be useful
in God's hands, he needs your prayers. It's my responsibility to faithfully
give myself to prayer, study, to the word, to the doctrine,
to faithfully set an example before you in behavior and conduct.
But you too have a responsibility. Pray for me, for our missionaries,
our brethren everywhere. Those you haven't seen yet, you
hear about them, read about them, pray, pray for them. The work's
heavy. There the old prophets used to
talk about the burden of the word of the Lord. Burden of it. We have a burden for family and
friends. I've observed over the years,
sometimes preachers get a little extra Spears are raped when they're
preaching to their own sons and daughters. Being called of God carries the
burden of preaching to eternity bound men and women, the word
of God. Knowing that if God speaks, David
Peterson, if God speaks through me to your heart, you can't hear
me indifferently. It'll either harden or melt one
of the two. Who's sufficient for these things?
No man, but our sufficiencies of God. The work requires wisdom,
but we're ignorant. The work requires strength, but
we're weak. The work requires kindness and patience, but is
contrary to our nature. Therefore pray, pray that God
may be pleased to maintain, uphold, strengthen you and keep his servant
as he would have him useful in his hands. All right, now briefly,
let me talk to you a little bit about preaching. Verses 14, 15,
and 16, our Lord names these 12 apostles. Look at them carefully. In this list of these 12 men,
four were fishermen. One was a publican. They were,
at least for the most part, Galileans. So far as we know from scripture,
not one of them was wealthy, but rather they were rather poor.
Not one of them was politically connected. Not one of them was
powerful. Not one of them was influential.
They were obviously, at least in the esteem of the world, and
I stress in the esteem of the world, ignorant and unlearned
men. We're told that in Acts chapter
four. The world looked at them and said, well, you're an unlearned
and ignorant man. You don't know anything. Where did you go to
school? What's your credentials? What did you learn? How did you
learn it? Where did you learn it from? What degree do you have? What do we learn from these facts?
Why are these things written? To teach us that the church and
kingdom of God is entirely independent of this world and of man. Did
you hear me? It is not built by might nor
by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord. And God is pleased
to choose those things which are nothing to bring to nothing
the things that are. He's pleased for the glory of
his name to take nobodies and use them for the furtherance
of the gospel to make from the sons of men, sons of God. The
weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual. Turn to
2 Corinthians chapter 10. Paul says, for though we walk,
verse three, in the flesh, we don't war after the flesh. We don't use the sword. We don't
depend on that to build God's kingdom. And we don't depend
on philosophy. And we don't depend on logic.
And we don't depend on all things that motivate men otherwise.
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty. Mighty. The word of God, the gospel is
power, the power of God to salvation. Mighty through God to the pulling
down of strongholds. Pulling down. He's a rebel. Standing
with both fists clenched, shed square in God's face. How on
earth are you going to get a rebel to surrender to the God of glory
and cause him to bow to his son? How are you going to do that?
Just preach the gospel. Just preach the gospel. Just
preach the gospel. That's all. Just preach the gospel.
Pull down the strongholds. Cash down imaginations. and bring
every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge
of God, bringing it into captivity, bringing into captivity every
thought to the obedience of Christ. That doesn't mean, Rex, that
we somehow entice men to start... acting in obedience to Christ.
That's not it. But rather we bring everything
in man's rebellious heart, his proud, self-righteous will by
the gospel down to the obedience of Christ as the only basis of
acceptance before God. That's it. Christ obedience,
not yours. Christ doing, not yours. I must
not fail to call your attention to the fact also that one of
the first 12 preachers was Judas Iscariot, a devil and a betrayer. Now I've often wondered why did
the Lord put Judas among these fellows? I wouldn't have, because
I'm smart. I wouldn't have because I know
good things myself. The master knew that Judas was
graceless. He knew he was a rotten man at
the heart. He knew that he had no grace
in his heart, that he was a deceiver and a hypocrite and a traitor
from the beginning. Yet he put him among his apostles,
named him as one of them and brought bread with him at the
Lord's table. Judas was there when the Lord established this
ordinance we're about to take up tonight. Why did he do it? He did it to teach every gospel
preacher. the necessity of constant personal
self-examination. He did it to say to Don Fortner,
you be careful, man. Let him that thinketh he standeth
take heed lest he fall. You constantly bring yourself
to the foot of the cross, a naked, helpless, bankrupt sinner trusting
Christ alone. He did it to teach us that preachers
must not be idolized. I'm of Paul, I'm of Cephas, I'm
of Apollos. Oh, what horrible, horrible,
horrible strife there is over the names of men. Over the names
of men. Esteem God's servants highly.
Pray for them faithfully. Follow their faith, their doctrine,
and their example of faith. But don't make an idol out of
any man. Let no man glory in men. These men were all brethren,
brethren with their disciples. They were all the disciples of
the Lord, both the apostles and those other disciples. They were
all Christ's servants. Bobby Esther said right there,
just as much Christ's servant as Don Fortner, and your wife
is too. Just as fully. If we're his,
we're his servants. It doesn't matter who does what
or where. If we're his, we're his servants.
Let's only be found faithfully serving him where we are, where
he's put us in his providence. Our Lord shows us that Judas
is numbered among them. Because in the church of God,
so long as we are in this world, we must expect to find the bad
mixed with the good, tares mixed with wheat, goat mixed among
sheep, unbelievers among faithful men. God will, in his time, separate
the precious from the vile. We don't have the ability to
do so. We just don't. Now, if a man preaches a false
gospel, man stands up here and preaches free will, works, religion.
By the message he preaches, he identifies himself as a false
prophet. It doesn't take much sense to recognize that. But
as long as a man faithfully preaches the gospel of God's grace and
his life is a life of uprightness, we have no ability, Larry, to
look in his heart and see what motivates him. And we dare not
presume to do so. Sometimes I hear, I have a good
friend, a while back I had to reprimand him sharply, a young
preacher, he's a false prophet. I said, man, what on earth are
you saying? You be careful what you're saying. I can't think,
I'd rather be charged as a murderer. False prophet? Don't dare. Dare presume that you know a
man's heart. You don't. God says you don't. It's not a matter of speculation.
You don't know. You don't know. If a man preaches
the gospel of God's free grace and lives accordingly, you do
not dare presume to make such a judgment. Nor do I. The Lord
God will separate the precious from the vile. In time, in time,
God will show who's his and who's not. And it's best for us to
just wait. Best for us to just wait. Isn't that right, Rob?
Just wait, God will show it. All right, thirdly, look at verses
17 and 19. 17, 18, and 19, I'm sorry. What's the power of the preached
word? What gives power to preachers?
What makes the word effectual? The great secret to the power
and efficacy of gospel preaching is the presence of Christ. See
what it says here, Lindsay? He came down with them and stood
in the plane and in the company of his disciples. In these last verses, there are
three things. I'll mention them briefly. Oh, I pray that God
will cause these three things to be found here Every time we
come together in Christ's name, you men and women pray with me
that the Lord Jesus will come down with us. Make himself known. Say, well, he promised he would.
We dare not presume on God's providences and we dare not presume
on his promises. but rather we seek him to do
as he said. Lord, you promised where two
or three gathered in your name, you'd be with them. God come
be with us. God be with us. The people who
came, came to hear the gospel, came with great needs. Let me
ask you something. Why did you come tonight? What'd you come here for? What's the reason? Well, preachers,
6.30 time to go to church. Sunday night, why did you come? Well, you know, supposed to be
here. Why did you come? These folks
came, look at the text. They came to hear Him. Did you
come to hear Him or me? I promise you, you'll get what
you came for. They came to hear Him. Not a
man, but Him. Not just the voice of these men
who were with Him, but Him. Came to hear Christ Himself.
They came to be healed. They were mixed with devils.
They had diseases. They were downcast. Their hearts
were broken. Their bodies were broken. They
came to be healed from Him. And the scripture says here,
they sought to touch Him. Did you come here for Him to
meet the need of your heart? To comfort, to reprove, to correct,
to speak to you? Did you come here seeking to
touch Him? I read in the scriptures of one
woman who said, if I could just touch Him. If I could just touch the end
of his garment, everything would be all right. Everything would
be all right. And she crept. As the scripture relates the
story, she must have had to get down on all fours and crawl through
the legs of folks pressing in the crowd. She said, I've got
to have it. I've got to have it. And she reached out the quivering
hand and touched it. But she reached out with more
than her hand. She reached out with her heart and touched him.
And immediately, she perceived that she was made whole. When
the master stopped, he said, who touched me? Who touched? I perceive that virtue is going
out of me. I promise you. I promise you. David Coleman, if right now you
can touch him, virtue is going out of him to you. Look at the
next line. And virtue went out of him and
healed them all. Oh, God, make it so here, now,
for Christ's sake. Amen. As you men come serve the Lord's
table, I've asked David to sing another one of my favorite songs.
I haven't heard it in a long time, and I think it'd be a Something
good for us to listen to while we're taking the bread and wine
as it's served to us. Earl, y'all come ahead and David,
y'all come here too. Oscar, will you assist us? I am always nearing a stranger
While traveling through this world below. There's no sickness, no joy,
no danger in that bright land to which I go. I know the clouds will gather
for me. I know my pathway where I'll
bend steady yet no fears lie out I'm going there to see my His own precious son. How soon we go weep, poor poor
children. How soon we go weep to my home. and there I'll see in concert with all my blood-washed
family. I'm going in to see my Señor, who shed
for me I'll soon be going home to Jordan. I'll soon be going to my final home with God. Hey, where are
we going to practice?