15 Year Anniversary - April 6, 2025

Amen.

And before we get in the message, we've got some fellas that's going to do a little setup for us.

And never mind them, never mind the hand the man behind the curtain.

They're going to set some things up.

We got some tables and it's going to go as a kind of a prop for the message this morning of what we're going to try to emphasize.

And we're looking at a 15-year anniversary.

And I told Brother Jason, I said, wow, this is amazing.

I said, where we come from, where I'm from in the south and those mountains, we wouldn't call it an anniversary.

So I need you to work with me.

We're going to have to use our imagination a little bit.

Never mind the men behind the curtain.

They're just going to set things up for us.

But we would call it a homecoming.

When we have our anniversary service for our churches, we call it a homecoming.

And we might even invite a former pastor or something of that nature, and there'll be folks who come from the families.

They may even uh because of work or because of other situations, may not even be part of the church, but because at one time they were part of our family, they'll come back and they'll maybe give a testimony or be a part of our homecoming.

And there's always food at the homecoming.

So I'm thinking, okay, I'm seeing everything we do at our church at Mountain State.

Our homecoming, our anniversary service, is the third Sunday of October every year.

And there's tons of food, and we eat ourselves into a coma after we've had a service, and everybody's involved, our bus kids, there's no difference in our bus kids than anybody else.

We feed them just like everybody else.

Then while we, the adults are eating, we take them to, put them on the buses, and we take them to a park, and they're able to run out some energy and get some things while the adults eat.

Then we have an afternoon service, and Lord help the man who has to preach in that afternoon service because everybody now is eating.

There's never any preaching on gluttony that day.

Because we all eat like a bunch of fattening hogs.

And then the guy has to try to keep everybody's attention, Brother Finch, to keep them awake after they've eaten like that.

And trust me, that's a chore.

To the point, sometimes they threaten to throw a songbook at us.

So I'm going to be on the realms of preaching about a homecoming, a future homecoming that's going to happen one day.

And I hope you're going to be a part of that.

I say I hope you're going to be a part of that, because unless you've been saved by the mercies and grace of God, unless you've come to Jesus Christ to be born again, you're not going to be at this homecoming.

Now, many things have happened for this to take place.

You may have come because you got a handout.

You were invited.

Hey, come, come to the homecoming.

We're having a big homecoming, having a big celebration.

You may have come because you heard there's going to be food after the service.

Praise the Lord.

Thank God you're here.

Even if it's come to eat, you're going to get fed.

But first, we hope you get fed spiritually.

Amen.

Are we almost done, guys?

Oh, they're working on it.

Jason's leading the charge.

Amen.

That's what a pastor does.

In that, I'm going to set an introduction before we get in the scriptures.

Are we okay?

This is a little out of the normal, right?

Fits right in with your pastor.

He's not the normal preacher.

A lot of things he does is outside the box.

Huh?

We got a little taste of that in the morning message.

Amen?

He's not, he doesn't conform.

He just tries to mind the Spirit of God and find the leadership of the Holy Ghost in what he's doing.

Amen?

That's what we all should be doing.

When I was a child growing up in the mountains of East Tennessee, my mother came from a very large family, the Morrows, M-O-R-R-O-W.

And once a year, all the Maara clan would come home for homecoming.

And to give you a hint of how big this family is, my grandma, great-grandmother, and grandfather raised 12 children in their home, and then nine more that they kind of took in off the streets that were children of their brothers or sisters, and there's financial problems, they couldn't take care of them.

And my grandma and grandpa would take them in.

They raised 21 kids in their farmhouse on their farm.

So you can imagine years later, when we have homecoming, there's hundreds of us now.

And I lived about a quarter of a mile from my grandmother's house.

Grandpa's in heaven by now.

And I would look forward to that first weekend in September, or the first week in September, because all of those 12 kids and all their kids and even some of their grandkids, they would all come to grandma's house and they'd bring tents and campers and buses, and it was just a big holiday.

And I looked forward to that because all my cousins would come, and it was one time in the year that there was no restraints on time limit for bed.

I got to stay up with my cousins and we'd play Monopoly or we'd play Rook or we'd be doing something.

At midnight, we'd take off to go walk on the railroad tracks in the middle of the night, in the dark, no flashlight.

It's a wonder we didn't get rattlesnake bit.

But before they got there, me and my dad and some of my uncles would go to my Uncle Fate's home.

And my grandpa Dillard, years ago, had drugg three huge hemlock logs out of the Hiawassee River and had them saw milled, had them cut.

And Uncle Fate kept these tables in his basement of his house.

And these were not just your run-of-the-mill boards.

These hemlocks were huge.

And each board was 20, about 20 foot long, and they were 22 to 24 inches wide.

And there was nine of them.

And we had sawhorses built where we could lay those boards, three wide, three long, and one of them was 25 foot long, and on the end of that is where the old igloo coolers.

How many of you remember the old igloo coolers that was uh uh metal, had the red riding and had the little push thing to get your drink?

That, the tea and the lemonade and all that set on the end.

And all those Mar women would bring food from their home and the in-laws, and that 60-plus foot table, Brother Finch, you couldn't set a cup on it.

You couldn't find a place.

It was full of every kind of food you could imagine.

We had bear meat, deer meat, fresh trout, roast, biscuits, cornbread, brown beans, green beans, gravy, mashed potatoes, boiled potatoes, baked potatoes, and desserts.

Whoa.

Sixty plus foot of table full of nothing but food.

Why did you do that?

Because it was homecoming.

And there was a time of fellowship.

That one time a year, the whole family came together.

Grandma was the, she was kind of the patriarch of the family, and they all came for her, and we come for each other, and it was a glorious time.

And it's one of my greatest memories of growing up in the mountains of East Tennessee, is when our family would come together.

And you know the Bible speaks of several different places about a homecoming.

There's going to be a great homecoming one day.

And there's going to be a feast at this homecoming.

So let's get in the Bible and let's see what the Word of God has to say.

And again, I want to remind you: not everybody's going to be at this supper.

Not everybody's going to be at this homecoming.

Not everybody's going to partake of this supper.

So as we get in the scripture and we get in the message, if you're here this morning and listen to me, look up here and listen.

If you know in the depth of your heart, and you know without a shadow of a doubt, you're truly not born again.

You maybe just be visiting the first time and you go, I don't even know what he's saying, this born-again thing.

That's okay.

We'll we'll explain it a little bit.

But there are some of you sitting here on pews, you've been in church most of your life, but you still playing a game.

God don't play games.

God plays for eternity.

We talk about when we played baseball, we played football, I'm playing for keeps.

Well, God goes beyond that.

He's playing for eternity.

Amen.

So where are you going to spend eternity?

Is your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life?

Do you know that you know that you know that you've been saved by the grace of God?

My old pastor up in Lafalte, Tennessee, he used to put it like this.

He said, There's going to be all kinds of people wake up one day in the pits of hell and realize they missed heaven by 18 inches.

And he'd say, Do you know the distance from your heart to your brain is 18 inches?

And he says, millions of people have head knowledge of the Bible.

They have head knowledge about God.

They can tell you about Jesus, but they've never made a heart decision to accept Christ as their personal Savior.

That's the key.

If he's not your personal savior, who is he?

Is he just a prophet?

Like a lot of people claim.

Oh, he was a prophet, but he's more than that.

He's the Son of God.

He's a Lamb of the world.

Amen?

He's a prince of peace.

He's the great I am.

He's the Alpha and the Omega.

He's the beginning and the end.

Amen?

Take your Bibles, and we're going to go to three or four places in the scripture.

I want you to mark Revelation 19 to start with, because that's where we'll end up.

And once you mark that, I want you to go to Matthew chapter 13, where we'll begin.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

And while you're going there, I'm going to pray and we'll get into the message.

And I know Jason's hungry, so we're going to try to be brief, but to the point.

Amen?

He's always hungry.

That's why I know that.

Amen.

God in heaven, we thank you for your goodness, your mercy, and your grace.

I thank you for Victory Baptist Church.

I thank you for 15 years of faithfulness, of winning souls, and preaching the word of God and being faithful to the call of God on their lives and the ministry here.

Lord, we pray even now that you're working to expand their borders, that souls can be saved, that there'd be a great draw of fishes brought in.

Lord, you've made us fishers of men.

So Lord, I pray you'd use Brother Jason this church mightily, Lord, where you've planted them.

Then Lord, I need you just now.

God, we've traveled all the miles.

Lord, we've prayed.

We've sought the will of God for the message this morning.

But God, if you don't show up, it'll all be in vain.

Lord, I need you more than the breath of my lungs and the blood that pumps through my vein, for without you there is no life.

Lord, you are the way, the truth, and the life.

And Lord, we come to you just now.

Cleanse us of fresh and anew.

Illuminate our heart, our mind, guard our mouth, our motive, and the message.

And Lord, we'll be careful to give you praise, honor, and glory in all that's done.

In Jesus' name, amen and amen.

And Matthew chapter 13, we see a passage here.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

It's a little peculiar.

If I remember right, I think it's the only time you see this parable in the scriptures.

It's about the wheat and the tares.

And we'll look at verse 24 of chapter 13.

He says, And another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened to a man which sowed good seed in his field.

But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.

But when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.

So the servants of the household came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in that in thy field?

From whence then hath it tares?

He said unto them, An enemy hath done this.

The servant said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?

And he said, Nay, lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.

Let both grow together until the harvest.

In the time of harvest, I will say to the reapers, gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles and burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.

This is a parable of reaping and sowing.

It's about the saved and the lost.

And if you're not careful, a lot of people misquote or misinterpret this of a general resurrection that will all be resurrected at the same time.

That ain't what the Bible teaches.

The church will be raptured away, then later, uh the lost, the ungodly, uh, there'll be a judgment on them.

There'll be a resurrection of them.

In Revelation chapter 20, amen.

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

The great white throne judgment.

So don't let that uh mess with your theology.

I know a lot of people believe in that general resurrection.

That's that's not what the Bible teaches.

But we're talking about one day the wheat's going to be gathered.

There's going to be a homecoming.

We're going home to be with Jesus.

And if you go on through the scripture, you'll see he explains this parable.

The disciples come to him and they say, What does this mean, the wheats and the tares?

And he describes how all that is that uh the enemies, the devil, and the tares are the ungodly, the evil, and the wheat are the saved, the born again.

So we see this uh parable of teaching about the kingdom of God and about one day there's going to be a homecoming.

We're going, he says here, put it in my barn.

But it's more than a barn, hallelujah.

Amen.

It is a parable, it's a tool to teach with.

Take your Bibles now and go to John chapter 14.

John 14 · chapter mention

Very familiar passage.

And again, it's dealing with a homecoming.

A lot of times uh we'll hear this uh uh quoted at funerals or when someone is in uh dire need or they're in a desperate uh need of help.

We'll use this as a verse to encourage them to help them.

But as I'm going through my Bible and I'm looking at scriptures of and I'm thinking, you know, he's telling us that he's going to prepare a place and he's coming back to get us one day for a homecoming.

Amen.

He says, Let not your heart be troubled.

You believe in God, believe also in me, and my father's house are many mansions.

If it were not so, I would have told you.

I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again.

I thank God he's not sending one of the angels, he's not sending one of the uh servants, he's coming himself.

Amen.

We've got the promises in the word of God that Jesus said, if I go and prepare a place, one day I will come again.

I will come again.

Recess and make laps around the building.

Jesus is coming, amen.

He went to prepare a place for you, and he's coming to get you one day, whether it be in the grave or through the rapture.

You're gonna have to help me preach this morning, or we'll be here all day.

In Kenya, we'll just be getting started.

So I can preach till 5 o'clock in the afternoon.

So you better help me.

We're gonna be here a while, amen.

We'll say, hold the truck, we'll be there when we get there.

Amen.

No, I'm kidding, I'd never do that.

Amen.

I'll mind the time because of this pastor.

Now, if you were in Kenya, you'd just go hungry for a while, amen.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also.

And whether I go, you know, and the way you know.

Do you know the way?

Huh?

Are you dependent on the Lord Jesus Christ, the blood that He shed on the cross of Calvary?

Are you dependent on a baptism, a church membership, uh, your good works, uh, the money you drop in the offering plate?

None of that'll get your big toe in the portals of glory.

If that's what you're dependent on, to hell you will go.

If you're not covered in the blood of Jesus, if your name's not written in the Lamb's Book of Life, if there's never been a place in your life that you've come to realize personally that Jesus died for your sins.

My salvation is very personal.

Amen.

I gave a testimony earlier in the pastor's office.

As a 12-year-old boy, I got on a church bus for vacation Bible school, and I've been in church my whole life, raised in church my whole life.

I'm gonna mess with you, cameramen, because I'm a stroller, amen.

I preach and walk.

You say, why do you do that?

I don't know.

That's just what I do.

Amen.

At 12 years old, I got on a church bus one morning to go to church, and uh I started going back.

They had vacation Bible school, and I wound up going to that vacation Bible school, and on that first night, for the first time in my life, been raised in church my whole life, brought up under a goodly, godly heritage on both sides of my family, my mom's family, my dad's family.

We uh all went to church, and matter of fact, one Sunday we go to my grandma Ma's for Sunday dinner, and then we go to my grandma Collins's the next Sunday.

It was just what we did.

We was brought up under the authority of the scriptures in the house of God, but that was the first time in my life I realized I was a lost, hellbound sinner without Jesus.

The Holy Ghost of God came to where I was sitting in the middle of all my hoodlin' buddies, and he sought me out, Jason, and he pricked my heart for the first time.

And I said that I should have gone and got saved that night.

But I did not go because, Miss Victoria, I was afraid of what my friends was going to say.

I wanted my friendships more than I wanted Jesus.

And it was like that every night.

Monday night, Tuesday night, by Wednesday afternoon, Wednesday night, I'm so miserable.

I can't eat, I can't sleep.

We lived in a little 30-foot uh, they called it a mobile home, now you would call it a camper or an RV.

That's what we lived in.

And I had a top bunk in the middle of that trailer, and in July uh in uh East Tennessee, trust me, it's hotter in the hubs of Hades.

And we're in that little metal box, and I there's a little dog box window about this wide and about this tall, and I'd crank it out, and I would lay with my nose up to that window just to get fresh air.

And I was laying there that night and I remember it just like it was yesterday.

The sweat is pouring off my body, and that preacher's words is going through my mind and through my heart, and I said, Oh God, if hell's anything like this, I don't want to go.

And I went back the next day, Thursday.

I'm a 12-year-old boy, I've done unbathed, I'm dressed for church by three o'clock, and I'm sitting by the side of the road waiting for the bus.

Yes, I was messed up.

12-year-old, bathed, Sunday clothes, sitting by the road, waiting on a bus.

But I didn't get saved that night.

Friday.

Last night.

He preached to me like I was the only one in the building, Carlos.

Revelation 3.20.

And he said, Somebody, God's been knocking on your heart's door all week, but you won't open the door and let him in.

And he said, God's a perfect gentleman.

He's not going to kick the door down.

He's not going to force you to open the door, but he will only knock for a certain amount of time.

He's not going to stand there and beat his knuckles bloody.

He already shed his blood for you.

He said, But today's the day of salvation.

You've got to open that door and invite him into your life.

And in the middle of the second verse of Just As I Am, I stood up in the middle of all them hoodlum friends, and I decided I needed Jesus more than I needed my friends.

He saved me right there.

We're saved by grace through faith, and that not of yourselves.

Huh?

Yes, I came to an altar.

Yes, there was sorrowful repentance.

But God saved me because I put my faith and trust in Him.

Amen?

Amen.

He's prepared a place for us.

Go with us to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1.

1 Thessalonians 1 · chapter mention

We're almost there.

Hang on.

Alright?

You still with me?

Huh?

Yes?

Thank God they brought the food to us.

Amen?

I don't know if is there a clock in this building?

No?

Maybe somewhere?

Huh?

Oh! It's right there with the scripture.

I'm looking.

Okay.

Amen.

That means absolutely nothing, but I know there's a clock back there.

Amen?

1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 13.

1 Thessalonians 4:13

This has given us more insight about a homecoming, about a rapture, about the church.

We're leaving here one day.

Amen.

To spend eternity with the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians chapter 4, verse 13.

1 Thessalonians 4:13

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren.

He said, and you need to wise up now.

It was a lot of false teaching about soul sleep and all this, that there was no eternity, that once you die, that's it.

And uh uh Apostle Paul is straightening some things out.

He said, now, boys, don't be ignorant, don't be foolish.

Listen to what I'm gonna tell you.

Amen.

They must have been a bunch of Baptists, amen.

He said, Don't be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

I'm glad I've got a hope in the Lord Jesus Christ.

If if in this world this is the only hope we have, Paul said, we are most miserable.

Ain't you glad this is not all there is?

We're gonna go to a place one day there'll be no more cancer, there'll be no more glasses, there'll be, hey, there'll be no more terminal illness.

Hmm.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

You ready?

I'm ready.

Amen.

Let's get out of here, amen.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep, those who are dead.

For the Lord Himself, here it is again, just like it was in John chapter 14, for the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with a voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, then which we which were alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

John 14 · chapter mention

So shall we ever be with the Lord.

And he says, Wherefore comfort ye one another with these words?

If you're ever discouraged, just go read that passage.

There's a better day coming.

Revelation 19.

And we're going to look at that homecoming.

And I've always marveled at this passage of scripture because it's right in between two chapters, a couple of chapters, of great judgment.

And chapters uh 17 and 18, uh, God is dealing with uh the great harlot, uh, that uh false church, all the hypocrisy all uh that takes place there.

He brings judgment on that great harlot, the Bible says there in Revelation chapter uh 18.

And then in Revelation 19, after the marriage supper of the Lamb, after this great homecoming, then we all mount up on them white uh Tennessee walkers.

That may not be exactly biblical, but we're gonna mount up on them white horses and we're coming with him.

What are we doing?

Well, we're going for another judgment.

Because in Revelation chapter 20, that old serpent, the devil, he's finally come to his end of his days.

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

And he's under the judgment of God, and he's sent into that lake of fire for all eternity.

And all those, that's this is where there's another resurrection.

The resurrection of the dead, the damned, the lost, the undone.

And you stand there and listen to me, children of God.

We're gonna be wherever Jesus is, that's where we'll be.

We just read that's only chapter four.

We will forever be with him.

We're gonna be there at the great white throne judgment.

You say, oh, and I go to heaven, all the tears are gonna be wiped.

No, no, no.

That's that's another chapter over.

We're not there yet.

And we're gonna stand there as these people are reading the final judgment.

And they're gonna be cast into that lake of fire, and it'll be that second death.

Some of them died physically the first time.

Now they're eternally lost without God, and that spiritual death is pronounced on them to be separated from God for eternity.

And we'll be there.

Brother Jason, I'm figuring some of those folks that we've known might even be family, might be friends, co-workers, classmates.

As they're being bound and cast into the lake of fire, that judgment's been brought to them, they're going to look at you in the eye and say, Why didn't you tell me?

Why didn't you tell me?

Why didn't you knock on my door?

Why didn't you give me a track?

Why didn't you tell me how to come to Jesus?

Or they'll be weeping there.

But in between these two judgments, there's one of the greatest events in history, of all history, of all time, of heaven and earth, is gonna take place.

Are you ready to hear about it?

So I've read about it.

Well, we're gonna look at it a little different today.

You're gonna have to use your imagination just a little bit.

Is that okay?

Gonna have to be like Brother Joe's boy.

He talked about teaching those sessions, said he had a vivid imagination.

You're gonna have to use your imagination a little bit, okay?

I'm gonna give you some things that God's put in my heart.

I don't know what it's gonna be exactly like, like it is.

The Bible doesn't give great details.

It gives us some details.

You don't know either.

But I know from where I've been in uh coronations and where people have been called out and been given great elaborate rewards and these kinds of things.

I know when I played sports, especially uh when I was in school, every year we'd have a sports banquet.

It'd be set up something like this, and we'd have names set at the table, and they'd call us out, they'd introduce the football team a name by name, and we had a place to set.

Gonna be the same way one day when we get to that marriage supper of the Lamb.

Let's look at Revelation chapter 19.

Revelation 19 · chapter mention

Now, y'all help me here because I'm gonna ask you to help me read some things.

And if you don't get excited about this, I might question your salvation.

Because we're going to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

And it's only for those of us who are redeemed, who've been saved by the grace of God.

Verse 1.

And after these things, what?

The judgment of the great harlot.

After these things I heard a great voice from uh of much people in heaven saying, Hallelujah, salvation and glory and honor and power unto the Lord our God.

For true and righteous are his judgments, for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.

And again they said, What's the word?

Oh, come on, you're in heaven.

That's a little better.

We might get there, amen.

Mmm.

And again they said, Hallelujah, and her smoke rose up forever and ever.

And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshiped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen.

Oh, you're getting it.

That's good.

Amen.

See, this is just practice because we're gonna be doing it one day in his presence.

Amen.

See, I don't like all this.

You ain't gonna like God's people shouting one day?

Hallelujah.

Praises to the Lamb?

Come on, dude.

Seriously?

Hmm, you need to go to Kenya with me.

Them people will worship.

They may not have it all just right, but they'll worship.

They'll give him praise.

Amen.

And a voice came out of the throne saying, Praise our God, all his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great.

See, the ground at the cross is level.

It matters not poor, rich, it matters not your background, where you come from.

God said, Come unto me.

Come unto me.

Matters not.

Matters not where you come from.

Walking the street, shooting dope, drunkard.

Matters not.

Amen, Scotty.

Hallelujah.

Remember the night he got saved.

Amen.

God says, Come.

Come unto me.

Come to Jesus.

Amen.

Small and great.

Matters not.

And I heard, as it were, a voice of a great multitude, and as a voice of many waters, and as this voice of mighty thundering, saying, For the Lord God in the reigneth.

Now we're going to go back and we're going to do hallelujah and we're going to say the end of that verse altogether.

Can we do that?

Okay, we're going to do it on three.

You ready?

One, two, three.

Hallelujah.

For the Lord God in theigneth.

Some of you didn't get in on it.

Come on now.

We're going to be saying this one day.

Let's try it again.

On three.

One, two, three.

Hallelujah.

For the Lord God aimetent reigneth.

I'm beginning to think you believe that.

Amen.

Verse 7 says, Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him.

For the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

Who's their wife?

Oh, it's the church.

We're the bride of Christ.

And we don't have all the props.

Miss Shell, she was going to, last night she was going to order some white robes and some crowns and all that.

And I said, we'll just improvise.

We'll have to use their imagination.

It's okay.

Alright?

But we will be wearing white robes and there will be crowns.

But we'll lay them at his feet.

Amen?

Verse 8 says, And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.

You know, this amazes me, Brother Jason.

He's the one that died on the cross.

He shed his blood there to save my ever-dying soul, to snatch me from the pits of hell.

And then he says, Now because of that, I'm righteous.

None are good, no, not one.

My righteousness is fifty righteousness.

But he imputes that righteousness unto us as a child of God.

And the Bible tells us it's as though we were in heaven right now.

Even though we're living in the nasty now and now, we sat in heavenly places, the Bible says.

So why don't you act like it?

Why don't you talk like it?

You're royalty.

You're a child of the king.

Sometimes we lose focus, don't we?

Because we get caught up in all these things.

Never forget who you are.

Never forget where he brought you from.

And never forget where you're going.

Amen?

We're going to have on a white robe, clean and white.

Why?

Because that's a symbol of righteousness.

His righteousness.

We're going to be robe, Carlos, we're going to be robbed in his righteousness.

Pure and white linens.

Spotless.

Why?

Because we're fixing to go to a great coronation.

We're fixing to go and be seated at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

I want you to look with me in verse 9.

And I want you to get ready.

It's going to take a few minutes to finish what we're doing right here.

And I'm going to need Brother Jason's help.

Brother Jason is going to be one of the archangels.

And he's going to start calling names.

Why?

Look at your Bible.

Verse 9.

And he saith unto me, Write, blessed are thee, they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.

And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

Again, back up.

This is my whole text verse.

I went through everything this morning to get to this particular part of verse 9.

And he says, And he saith unto me, Write, blessed are thee, they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.

You were once called unto salvation.

If you've been saved, then you're going to be called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

Are you ready for this?

Jeremy Axelson.

That's going to take a minute because they're being called out to come to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

So bear with us.

Brandy Clark.

You got to use your imagination.

He's clothed in white linen of righteousness.

And he's going to take his place at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

There's a feast like there's never been a feast.

Yeah, you got a place here, brother.

Just find it and have a seat.

Gabriella Hornby.

And do you know that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to serve the table?

Donald Enman.

Juani Rocke.

Steve Guest.

Being called to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

Pam Baker.

Talon Brown.

Isaac Torres.

Nancy On.

Tommy Molina.

Ben in Stone.

Hey man.

You made it, brother.

Taylor Mackin.

Tanya Northcutt.

Carlo Bennon.

Again, the Bible says, and he saith unto me, right, blessed are they which are called unto the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings.

Now, if you can picture this, this is in heaven.

We're in the portals of glory.

They're wearing robes of white.

Now, I don't know what's going to be served at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

I got a feeling it's whatever your favorite foods are.

Huh?

For me, and sitting in front of me is going probably going to be a ribeye, baked potato, green beans, lemon meringue pie.

That's lemon pie with the cash slobbers we call it in the South.

Maybe some pecan pie.

Chicken and dumplings.

And it's going to be a time of rejoicing.

It's going to be a time of reflection.

And we're going to watch Jesus serve us one by one.

Amen.

And wow, here you are.

You got your plate, everything's ready.

Now, in my grandma's house, big family.

She'd always cooked more than enough.

If you ever showed up at my grandma's house before you left, you were going to eat.

If you didn't eat, you were taking something with you.

It's just the nature of what we do in the South.

And if there was a family gathering, like on those Sundays when the family would come together for Sunday dinner, there was always a place, it may not always be at the table, but there would be a plate and a cup like this.

Because Grandma always wanted to be prepared that if somebody showed up unannounced, or a friend showed up, that she didn't have to be bothered with going scurrying to get another plate and another cup and all that.

So I'm thinking on that, of that homecoming of Grandma's house.

I'm thinking at the marriage supper of the Lamb, and listen, I'm using my imagination.

There's no Bible for this, so don't say Brother Colin said this.

No.

Again, bear with me.

I have a feeling the day that our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, our names have been placed at the table.

So that when we come to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, we see we've got a place.

We've got a place.

God had already prepared that place at the table.

But then I thought also, just like at Grandma's house, there may just be a place sitting there waiting for one more.

Here's the most important part of the service.

Would your name be on that?

That place that's being held.

See, God's making a way.

He made a way over 2,000 years ago when he sent his son to die on the cross.

He bled and died there because he had you on his heart and his mind when he died on the cross.

He died for the sins of the whole world.

And he's got a place for you, but you're going to have to receive that.

You're going to have to ask him to come into your heart just like I did as a 12-year-old boy.

Ask for forgiveness of his sins, be washed as white as snow in the blood of the Lamb.

To become a child of God.

To have your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life and to have your place at the table.

Miss Gabriella.

How old are you, honey?

11 years old.

You know what?

One of the things I always it just kind of galled me as a kid when we went for Sunday dinner.

We couldn't sit at the adult table.

You kids get in there by the coffee table.

The dogs are in here, we're talking.

Oh, I talk.

I can listen.

There'll be none of that here.

They're not going to send you to the kids' table, sissy.

You're going to sit right here with everybody else.

Huh?

The small and the great.

No difference.

So I'm going to ask you again.

Will your name be at the table?

Will you have a place at the marriage supper of the Lamb?

There's only one way you're going.

And that's you give your heart and your life to Jesus Christ.

That you let him make a difference for eternity.

See, that's what I said earlier.

God plays for keeps.

He plays for eternity.

He doesn't play games.

I I've been around people and I've talked to them about the Lord, and sometimes they have an excuse after Jesus, and you know what they're doing?

They're playing games.

I've talked to men, talk to ladies.

Oh, I understand what you're saying, preacher, but but not now.

Not now.

When?

Oh, I'll do it someday.

Someday may never come.

Today is the day of salvation.

Now's appointed time to come to Christ.

And if you're sitting there and the Spirit of God's dealing with you, and you know, you may not understand, but I'm telling you, the Holy Ghost brings conviction on sinners.

He brings conviction on saints.

That's the job of the Holy Ghost.

And he's here this morning.

And if he's dealing with your heart, it's time now to come to Jesus.

I loved it that they started out this morning singing, what was it, in my father's house?

God's put a whole lot of things together today.

I was hoping your brother would still be here because I was going to use him as an example.

But I'm going to use you in place of your brother.

Can we do that?

Is that okay?

Just before we come into the 10 o'clock service, actually it was exactly 10.05 because I looked at my phone.

His brother, who he hasn't seen in five years, is that right?

Bowed his heart and bowed his head and gave his life to Christ.

Family reunion.

You were saved ago.

Two weeks ago.

Now his brother comes, and he's not.

Is it okay if I say this?

I wouldn't want to embarrass you, brother.

I love you.

We're brothers in Christ.

A brother he hasn't seen in five years.

We're talking about a family reunion, a homecoming.

You come with me.

At 10.05, on this day, Jacob Herring found the place at the table.

But there's still a place for you.

But you're going to have to trust Jesus as your personal Savior.

I didn't do all this to play on your emotions.

I wanted it to be an example.

I wanted you to be able to see.

And even though it's not nothing in comparison to what it's actually going to be like, I wanted to get in your mind, your eyes mind, to understand, we're going to have a homecoming.

There's going to be a coronation.

We're going to be at the marriage supper of the Lamb.

I'm going to be there.

Will you?