Hand Me Downs

Psalm 145. For just a moment, I'll give you a

couple of other places that you can look to later

today or this week. Deuteronomy 6, 6 and 7. 2

Timothy 2, 2. We're getting ready to... Approach

the throne of grace. Remember Brother John Austin

received a message this morning. They were taking

him back over to Erlanger to do some chest x

-rays. He's on that roller coaster of recovery

from a massive stroke. It's like one good day,

a couple, two, three. Struggling days is just

a long road for recovery. But we know the Lord

is able. Amen. And had it not been for the Lord,

he may have prayed him back from being in the

presence of the Lord. But I know God is more

than capable. Amen. So we want to remember Brother

John. this morning as we get ready to pray in

just a moment. Remember Sister Carolyn, Sister

Chrissy, and the boys. You know the toll that

this can pay. Traveling back and forth in the

hospital and stays. The lack of rest, amen? So

we just pray the Lord's hand on them all. Psalm

145. We'll go ahead and start at verse 1. I will

extol thee, or I will praise thee. My God, O

King, and I will bless thy name forever and ever.

Every day will I bless thee, and I will praise

thy name forever and ever. Great is the Lord,

and greatly to be praised, and his greatness

is unsearchable. One generation shall praise

thy works to another, and shall declare thy name.

mighty acts I will speak of the glorious honor

of thy majesty and of thy wondrous works men

shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts

awesome acts and I will declare thy greatness

on who with the help of the Lord this morning

I want to speak on the thought. Hand -me -downs.

Hand -me -downs. Giving to the next generation.

Amen. In the future, in our near future, we've

got some housekeeping stuff we're going to make

all of us aware of, some good changes and some

things that we're doing, putting forth effort

to... greater serve you, amen, to be of service

and do our due diligence over the household of

faith, amen. Knowing all too well that as you

grow, there's pains in growing, amen. There's

growing pains. Sometimes it hurts a little, amen.

But we'll be getting us up to date here before

long and seeing all the good things the Lord

is doing. And God is at work. The Lord is at

work in our midst. How many of you actually recognize

the depth of the stirring and the presence of

the Holy Ghost these last few months? We're at

a reservoir level that in my seven years we haven't

reached, and we're getting there. There's a depth

of the presence of the Lord. Showing up in this

place. God is coming to meet you, to meet me,

to meet us in life. Amen? And so I, for one,

am excited about it. Amen? I was kind of stirred

a little deeply this morning with this message.

Hand -me -downs. Giving to the next generation.

I'll pray for you, and you definitely need to

pray for me. To keep us short, if somebody would

want to hold the last two pages, I won't even

try to get on them. And we wouldn't have to worry

about going there. And I'm going to try to restrain

from that today. Father, I love you. Thank you

for your goodness and your mercy. I thank you

for your presence in this house. And I ask, oh

God, that your will truly be done in this place.

For we surrender our will to yours. Lord, we

surrender ourselves as vessels. I ask God that

you use me. And I know what you've placed in

my heart. So just help me relay it to your people.

As you speak to us together. Because you are

ever mindful. Ever are you mindful of us, oh

God. And truly your eye, your eye is upon the

earth. Your ear is ever stretched earthward to

hear and to see. So be with us this morning and

we'll be quick to praise you for it all. In Christ's

lovely and mighty name. And the church said,

amen and amen. You can be seated. Hand -me -downs.

If I've picked up on a theme, if you will, from...

Camp meeting this summer, and from what I've

got to see and to hear concerning the General

Assembly, which concluded Friday in Orlando,

the thing that seems to stand out to me, normally

I like to come back with the General Overseer's

address. Because I have always felt like that

he is my pastor. And if the Lord speaks to him

a word for the church, it's just like sending

a letter to the Galatians. And Paul said, don't

just read it to them. Take it on down the road.

Let it be heard. I want everybody to know. And

so that's kind of the way I feel when... When

my pastor speaks, I like to hear from the Spirit

of the Lord as far as direction toward the church.

But the way the services went this year, the

theme seemed to be the next generation, preparing

the next generation. Unless you're an only child,

and probably not even then, Unless you're an

only child or the only boy or girl in your family,

you probably have been given some type of a hand

-me -down through the course of your life. If

you're the middle child and your older sibling

was of same gender, yeah, you know exactly what

I'm talking about. But most likely every one

of us in this room has at one point, sometime

or another, been giving something from a previous

owner that was still good. No sense in throwing

it out. Still good. If we kindly bring this across

spiritually, spiritually speaking, every generation

has a responsibility. That responsibility being

not only are they to experience God for themselves,

but it's even that we've been mandated to hand

it down, to pass it on. We are responsible to

pass on more than buildings. Amen? We are responsible

for more than just programs. We are responsible

for more than just traditions or denominations.

Hopefully we're responsible for more than that.

But we must hand down the distinctives. We hand

down distinctives that ensure a continued experience

with the God of all creation and glory. Amen?

And in the emphasis that our state bishop brought,

that advancing beyond limits, you remember, and

it's part of behold, I do a new thing that we

have as our yearly emphasis. In advancing beyond

the limits, there is a portion of that designated

to advancing in generational relevance. Advancing

in generational relevance. meaning it is rooted

in God's plan for the church, where every generation

is valued and engaged, creating a vibrant, unified

body, honoring heritage and molding for tomorrow.

When we stop and think back, we have... We span

the generations of all that are alive today.

We have a representative from every living generation

in our church. I'm not going to have you oldest

to stand, but you know the generation that you're

in. The boomers. We still have some boomers booming

and kicking. And what is this new one? We've

done past Z. What is this new generation? since

2020. We've got them all. We've got them spanned.

We've got every generation bridged within our

congregation. And it's important that each generation

model for the one following it the distinctives

which make us the body of Christ. And through

the course of this week, on Friday night, Bishop

Lewis had Dr. Arrington pass a torch, a baton,

to pass it on to a young teenage evangelist to

symbolize that the next generation, the following

generation, has the torch and ready to bear it.

And so when we begin to think about hand -me

-downs, we chuckle a little bit because you remember

some article of clothing or something that you

had handed down to you. But I want to call your

memory to be stirred to your spiritual attributes

and the distinctives of your faith. And I have,

man, been stirred and challenged this week in

my own thinking and the processing of my own

mind young ministers that are being called, young

people being called by God into the ministry.

And I begin to think within myself, okay, I've

got to pass down some distinctives. I need to

pass some things on. I need to instill in this

generation that is coming up, they need to know

the distinctives that what make us who we are.

Amen? And when we begin to think about who we

are as the church of God, that's been a big emphasis,

amen, who we are as the church of God. We go,

we preach, amen, we teach, we go about, we evangelize,

we do all these things. That's who we are. It's

part of our distinctive. But the main distinctive

of the church of God is that we are a Pentecostal

group of people. In other words, we believe in

the whole counsel of the word of God, the old

and the new. We don't take any of it out. We

don't leave any of it aside. We believe God said

what he said and meant what he said, and he's

offered to all what he has made available in

his word, and it is available. We believe him

from the glossary in the back all the way through

the maps to the first page in your Bible where

you write your name in it. It's all in there,

and all between those pages are what God has

in store for his people, and that is the distinctives

that we believe. We believe. in the whole counsel

of God. We believe in the word of God rightly

divided. Amen? And we take the words of God and

we apply them to the heart of our own being and

that we let those distinctives come forward when

we begin to think about how each generation that

follows must be motivated by the distinctives

which are about receiving and encountering the

presence of God and that we are filled and ready

to fulfill the purpose of God on the face of

this earth. It's not about our will. It's not

about what we desire. My God church is not about

you. Amen. You are the church and we have to

understand the distinguishing markers there.

We are the body of Christ. We are the bride.

Amen. We are those called separated and not for

our own will whim but for his purpose and for

his divine directive that whosoever believeth

on him should have everlasting life. It's that

we prepare the next generation for the reception

of the gospel. And the gospel is the good news

that God loved the world and he sent his son

and his son surrendered his life but the power

of the spirit raised him up again. Amen. Amen.

Knowing that we are able to come through full

pardon because of his sacrifice of his death.

his burial, his resurrection, and we come into

full pardon that the world may know that. There

are some distinctives. There's no way to cover

them all, but there's some things that has to

be passed down to the next generation. The generations

that are coming after and follow must know how

to pray. We think we needed to know how to pray

with what this bunch is having to face. They'd

better know how to get a hold of God in an hour

of need. Amen. Used to, you could call a neighbor

or two or a church member or two, and you'd have

a prayer chain going like that. And the bells

of heaven would be ringing with the voices of

the intercession of the saints. Amen. And we've

got to pass on to the generation. that are following

us that nothing is accomplished in God's kingdom

without the power and the purpose of prayer.

Oh, Lord, help us today. Help me this morning,

Lord. We have to find ourselves driven. Now,

this is going to be a very pastoral, probably

not a big shouty thing, but we have to get back

to the roots of the distinctives of being the

people of God. I'm not just talking about being

a denomination. I'm talking about being the people

of God. The people of God ought to have a desire

to pray. If you do not have a desire to pray,

check yourself in an altar and don't get up until

you do. Because if there's no desire to talk

to God, then there's definitely no desire to

read his word. The distinctive of prayer, the

next distinctive that we'll hopefully get to

at some point over the next hour or weeks. is

the distinctive of praise. Amen. One of the distinctives

of the church of God is that they are a praising

people. Not only are we a praying people, I remember

growing up knowing people would not step foot

in our church door because of what we believe

in the power of God that was present. But you

let hell break loose in their family. You let

a diagnosis come down that their church don't

have the power to stir up a healing touch for.

They begin to call upon people. who attended

the church of God and say, would you please pray?

Why? Because they knew that a distinctive of

our church was that somebody would get in a prayer

room and not come out until they had touched

heaven. My God, I've seen my pastor come home,

my brother running 104 fever, laying in the bed,

scalding and burning up, and you couldn't even

touch him. I've seen pastor come home. Mama called

him about 10 o 'clock on a Sunday night. Pastor

came in, and in about 10 minutes, When heaven

began to ring, out come my little brother running,

cool as a cucumber. Why? Because of the power

of prayer in a powerful God. Amen. It's not simply

the act of prayer, but it's the one in whom is

being entreated. Praise is a distinctive. Worship

is a distinctive that cannot be lost. We're getting

caught up in our culture today. People want to

praise and worship a God they no longer serve.

And that don't mesh up. We're in a culture that

wants everything set for the ambiance. I got

to get in the mood. No, you don't. The very instant.

We insert that personal pronoun I into anything

that has to do with praise or worship. It's already

tainted and turned to idolatry because, honey,

it ain't about you or I. It's not whether I like

the song. It's not whether I like the rhythm.

It's not whether I like the genre or the words

edifying and glorifying to God. Then it's to

him and not to us anyway. Get our hearts purified

and motivate ourselves in a distinct way. of

worship because we praise him and then we're

going to go through this distinctive of worshiping

him and the fourth dimension of this would be

faith. We must pass along the dimension of faith.

The distinctive of faith to generations that

are following us. Faith is like a well. It's

so deep you'll never get to the bottom of it.

So this distinctive of prayer, that first hand

-me -down has got to be prayer. Billy Graham

said prayer is the Christian's greatest weapon.

And before prayer changes others, it first changes

us. The very moment that you and I resist The

changing hand and the humbling hand of God on

our life. The very moment we resist it, we are

standing in direct opposition and are quenching

the power of life that is able to convert us

and change us and mold us and put us in the position.

Amen. The very moment that you're stepping up

and you refuse to bow a knee, my God, and we

refuse to pray, it changes you. Amen. I don't

know that prayer has ever changed God's mind,

but what it does for the one who is on their

face is it causes their heart to be surrendered

and conditioned to accept the will of the one

to whom they are praying. We like to think that

we can manipulate God with prayer. No, that's

not the way it works. Because if you're like

me, you've prayed more that you didn't get what

you asked for than you did. Oh, way more. He

said no way more than he ever said yes. But what

prayer does is it causes me to be surrendered

to his will because after all, Father knows best.

Huh? Corrie Ten Boom said this, any concern too

small to be turned into a prayer, oh, I love

this, is too small to be made into a burden.

Mic drop, we all ought to just shout glory, thank

God, and walk out the door knowing we've been

ministered to by the Spirit of God today. Anything

that is too small to turn into a prayer is too

small to let be made into a burden. My God, if

you can't take it to the Lord in prayer because

you don't want to bother him, then honey, don't

let whatever that is bother you because you and

I are masters at making mountains out of molehills.

Amen? We make larger things and larger issues

out of things that we won't even go to God in

prayer about. Why? Because you know. You know

good and well when you get to God in prayer and

you finally humble yourself and you stay down

there long enough to you pray into his presence,

he begins to melt your heart. And that thing

you've turned into a burden isn't really supposed

to be a bother. If you knew much about her testimony,

my Lord, that statement right there, you just

write her name down and go. Do your interweb

search on Corrie Ten Boom and see her story.

And then remind yourself of this statement that

I just made to you. Anything, quote, any concern

too small to be turned into a prayer is too small

to be made into a burden. You go read her story.

You go look into her life and her trust and her

confidence in God. Matter of fact. I watched

another, just a testimony. She was sitting in

an interview with, of all people, Catherine Kuhlman.

She's interviewing Corrie ten Boom. And she's

talking to her. And they're talking about forgiveness.

And she's talking about, she's testifying when

she encountered one of those German guards who

just terribly mistreated her sister. So much

so that her sister ended up dying. And she's

telling Catherine Kuhlman right there in this

interview that she had to forgive this man. Why?

This man approached her and asked for forgiveness.

He said, I have found a Bible, and I have come

to know the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. And

here's this humble woman, a woman of prayer,

a woman of power, saying how much she struggled

with being able to release this man. Finally,

when she tells this testimony, it's so powerful.

In prayer, the Lord touched her heart. And she

said, I stuck my hand out and said, brother,

my Lord, I want you to know something today.

If someone can be humbled by the hand and the

power of God through prayer, it's because she

prayed and God changed her before every others

are changed. He changed her heart. And she accepted

the hand of a man who asked for forgiveness and

called him. brother. That's the power. Look,

my God, we live in a society today with feelings

so readily offended that people are so hurt.

And my God, for any and everything. That's why

they call this the snowflake generation. We got

to pass down. Look, it's not your feelings that

matter. They crucified Christ. Look in the mirror

and say to yourself, well, who are you to be

offended? Wow. Prayer will get you there. E .M.

bounds on the topic of prayer. No learning can

make up for the failure to pray. No learning.

Can make up for the failure to pray. You can't

learn enough about God's word. To make up for

the failure in prayer. You can't try to know

enough. Because knowing. You know what knowledge

does. According to the word. Knowledge puffs

up. Prayer humbles down. My Lord. Prayer will

put you on your face. Prayer will put you humbled

before the almighty of heaven, the creator of

all things, amen, the author, the finisher, everything.

Prayer will put you in your own perspective.

Spurgeon said, groaning which cannot be uttered,

groanings which cannot be uttered are often prayers

which cannot be refused. Let that sink in a minute.

When's the last time you prayed long enough till

you groaned in the Spirit? Huh? Well, I don't

know that ever happened. You're missing something.

You're missing something. You're not going to

get there in two minutes. I'm sorry. If you're

like me, about five minutes, my bony knees begin

to hurt on a hard surface. And then the devil

begins to remind me of my physical discomfort

and say, well, you just need to get up. You got

this and this and this and that to do. Hello,

come on, somebody. You think you're the only

one that's not challenged to pray? No, I am challenged

every single day to pray. Amen. I'll kneel down

here on Saturdays, and in order to keep my knees

from hurting on that concrete, I end up going

prostate before God. I just stretch, plumb out

on my face, and I stay there a while. Amen. And

sometimes, in the peacefulness of his presence,

I might take me a little slobber mouth nap down

here. And that's all right too because there's

no greater peace than in his presence. And prayer

puts you in his presence. Oh, the devil's going

to remind you of every discomfort and everything

that you've put off for six months and all of

a sudden it's urgent because you've got down

to pray. Now you tell me I don't know what I'm

talking about. I know what he says. He says to

me what he says to you. But what I have learned,

the one thing that I have learned is that if

I will carry on through and stay down there,

Amen. And get my heart set on God's face and

beyond his hand and just begin to love on God

and tell him how much I appreciate him and give

him glory and honor. Amen. Jesus had it right

in Luke 11 when the disciples, you go read Luke

11 and 1 and 2 down through there. And when Jesus

had finished praying, his disciples came to him

and said, Lord, Lord, would you not teach us

how to pray? Evidently. They were just in awe

of his prayer life. Amen. They were just sitting

over there. I want you to listen to him pray.

So much that they could ask the Lord to give

us power to do miracles. Put power in our hand

to cast out evil. That's not what they ask him.

Would you teach us to pray like that? Why? Because

when you understand what happens in prayer, in

you, it's not what turns out in others. It's

what happens in us in prayer. It's what happens

for me. It's the transformation of my own faith

and my own life. When I pray, I understand that

God is greater. sits up above and his ways are

not my ways and they are higher than mine and

I learn not to lean onto my own understanding

because it seems so foolish in his presence.

Man, this is ringing me like a dish rag. How

many know what I'm talking about? Ringing me

like a wash rag. I remember as a kid, we had

the washer outside. Some of you have no clue.

You might see one if you go antiquing or you

get out in the country. You'll see that old white

tub, porcelain tub washer with a ring of rollers

up on top. You say, well, what's that for? It's

to wring it out. You crank it through. You squeeze

all of the moisture out of it right before you

pop it three or four times and pin it to the

line. My God, if there's not imagery there, I

don't know where I can preach to you this morning.

Let yourself go through the ringer of prayer.

Let the Holy Spirit pop you and snap you once

or twice and pin you to the line. And then let

the glory rays of God shine on you. I'm glad

we got some of them. I'm glad I got some of you

baby boomers in here. You know what I'm talking

about this morning. You've been wrung out and

hung on the line to radiate in his glory until

you have been dried. I hung one of the bedspreads

out the other day across the porch railing in

the sun. I mean, remember when it's spring cleaning

when you was kids, you drug every mattress and

every box spring in the house outside. Your hands

got burnt because mother had a warm bowl of Clorox

bleach water sitting right there. What's that

for? Kill the germs from the winter. Clorox,

that's the reason mattresses ended up eating

up, but that's side of the point. The germs were

killed. You scrubbed it. You wiped it down with

Clorox. You let that side dry, and you flipped

it over, and you didn't have your water poured

out yet. You went out and done the other side.

And then, never forgetting, that night, that

first night when you laid down to go to sleep,

because not only were the mattresses out there,

but the pillows were out there. Hello? The pillowcases,

you had to get them off the line too. And the

sheets and the bedspreads. And that night, as

I'm standing right here in front of you, I can

smell the aroma. Pulling those sheets up and

burying my face in a clean, sun -dried pillow.

Amen. Just think about the savor in the nostrils

of God. When we come before him after we've been

through the ringer of prayer and then we've been

dried by his glory and our prayers are offered

up as incense according to the word of God. They

go before him as incense. It becomes a sweet

smelling savor in the nostrils. Would somebody

be willing to offer up some incense? Oh Lord.

Somebody just praise him a minute. Let me take

a moment. Love on him like you love him today.

Oh, God, ring us. Put yourself through the ringer

of prayer. Let the residue of life be squeezed

out of you so that you're prepared to be dried

by His glory. Modern convenience is... Taken

away a lot of the good things of life. This generation

today will probably never know the aroma of a

sun -dried pillowcase and sheet. It wasn't so

fun when I was having to do all that. I wasn't

feeling as nostalgic as I am right now. Probably

having borne the stripes on the back of my calves

to make sure I bleached the mattress. I wasn't

a very compliant youth. But mother had the alignment

tool. Prayer. This generation over here, scattered

all across the house, who's going to teach them

to pray? Huh? Who's going to teach them to pray?

Here's what your culture and our culture is teaching

them. Run to a psychologist. I'm not saying that

they don't have their place. There are those

places. But they would be a lot less full on

their calendar if we would go to the Lord in

prayer. Old songwriter had it right. Oh, what

the peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless

pain and grief we bear. All because. We do not

carry everything, everything to the Lord in prayer.

You'd be amazed what the devil would do with

just a small, minute issue in your life and how

he'll make you worry over it. He don't have to

create mountains for you to fret over. You'll

fret over anything that puts you at dis -ease.

We are just that way naturally. It's our nature.

That's the reason our nature must be transformed.

And so long as we live and breathe in this flesh,

we will always struggle with the shortcomings

of our flesh. Your flesh doesn't want to pray.

You don't have time to pray. I'm just going to

slide something in here about half sideways.

Do with it what you want. Some of you are way

too busy for your own good. How do you know that,

Pastor? How can you tell? Because I've been that

busy, and now looking back, I see where I lost

out a lot with God. You, Pastor, yes, busy doing

the things of the church. Busy. Now we don't

have to get you to sin. He just got to get you

occupied. All he's got to do is get you distracted

enough so that you don't pray. And like I told

you earlier, if you don't pray, you will not

read. Why? Because our spirit gets a little haughty.

Prayer keeps us humble before God. Humble yourselves

under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt

you in due season. We won't exalt it without

the humbling. The psalmist said in our text,

I extol thee, I praise thee. For four verses,

he is just reminding God that he knows who God

is. How many of us have truly remembered and

remind ourselves daily who the God of heaven

is that we claim to serve? We've got to call

ourselves back. Too busy running after the cares

of life and the riches of this world. And where

does it get you? Tennessee Ernie Ford said, Oh,

my soul to the company store. Don't you know

that the more that you try to acquire, you don't

save it. You try to figure out another way to

spend it. And end up being worse off than you

were before you got the raise. Oh, I'm going

to go buy another new car. Prayer keeps us humble

before God. Mindful of the priorities of life.

I'm just trying to challenge you. Slow down.

Slow. Renew your relationship with God. Echoing

in my mind is always those words where Jesus

said when they came to him and he said, you will

come to me saying, Lord, Lord. Did we not cast

out? devils in your name did we not this and

did we not that and didn't we this and did we

that yeah you were being very busy but may I

share with you what he declares is the most important

to which I will respond depart from me I never

knew you I just want to know you. Look it up.

Do the word study. It's an in -depth, it's an

intimate relationship that God is desiring to

have with you. And you can't do that passing

yourself on the highway and high -hatting your

own self. Busy. And the whole time, the devil's

sitting off over here in the shade laughing.

Because all he's got to do is wait. He don't

have to do or cause any type of effect. All he

has to do is sit by and watch life run its course.

Are you saying that the devil is not the cause

of everything that happens in my life? That's

exactly what I'm telling you. Oh, he gets all

the blame. But sometimes you and I are our own

worst enemies. It's your fault. It was my fault.

And there are those times that God, hello, God

himself will allow our faith to be challenged.

It's just life. Sometimes it actually stinks.

Anybody care to prove me wrong? Life isn't fair.

Well, whoever said it's supposed to be fair?

Equality went out when sin entered the garden,

the first bite. And we got people arguing about,

well, it wasn't an apple. Who cares? A banana,

a plum, a rutabaga, whatever that thing is. We

get hung up on semantics. God's scratching his

head, you're still not getting this thing. Where'd

Cain's wife come from? Who cares? Well, don't

you want to know? Really, no, I don't. Well,

who's Antichrist? I really don't care. I'm not

planning on staying around long enough to know

him personally. Well, who's that harlot on the

beast? I don't want to know her either. We'll

not be exchanging contacts. Some of you are probably

offended I've not accepted your friend request

on Facebook. They're there, I just don't. No

offense. Please don't take one. I love you. It's

got nothing to do with all that. We get so caught

up in the things of this world, Jesus is going

to say, you're going to miss out on the most

important thing, knowing me. That's the reason

he said, consider the lilies of the field. They

toil not, nor do they spin. Some of you are spinning

like a top, just trying to make ends meet in

life because you got yourself head over heels.

What do I do? Start getting rid of some stuff.

Here's another novel way to find rest and peace

in your life. Look at me right here. I'm going

to try to enunciate really well. Is that light?

Yeah, it's right here. No. Try that with me.

Try that with me. No. It doesn't hurt like you

think it will. You don't have to say yes to everything

and everybody. Your children come up and want

to run all over Tarnation. Look here, look here,

look here. No. Stand home. Let them kick and

scream for about 10 feet. If they go 15, reach

and get them. And look at them and say, no. D

.L. Moody said about prayer, I'd rather be able

to pray. You've got to take this from who it's

coming from. He said, I'd rather be able to pray.

than to be a great preacher. That right there,

forever preacher in the house, that means a lot.

It did to me when I jotted it down. For the fact

of it sounding the way it's about to sound because

we like to pride ourselves in being decent orators

anyway. Don't we? We like it when people like

what we've had to say or how we've had to say

it. Until you get to the point you say things

how I say them and it really don't matter. But

we want to be known as good preachers. Why? Because

that's what God's called us to do. We want to

hone our craft. Amen? And that's a distinctive

to these younger preachers. If you're going to

be a Pentecostal preacher, come up around me.

You're going to preach in the power of the Holy

Ghost. You're going to learn to pray. So get

ready. Because I've received the mandate to hand

you some things down. I want the generation,

best I see it, I ain't got too many more years

to go. So I figure, I've made this determination.

I'm going to try with all the strength that's

in me to go out as hot as I came in. Preachers,

that's my goal. I don't know what yours were

when you were getting ready and thinking about.

People about ready to hang you up. I just want

to go out as hot as I came in. My passion for

His Word and His presence hasn't changed other

than increased over almost 30 years. I just want

more of Him. They didn't know what I was preaching

this morning when they were setting their song

list up. They didn't know all that until after

they got here and knew what I was preaching.

I called on the God of Jacob. Those generations.

To understand the distinctives. Everything we

have we acquire through prayer. Luke 18 and 1.

The directive is that men ought always to pray.

And not to faint. We faint. We falter. We halt.

Because we don't pray. You'll not have a fervent

praise which we'll talk about. Not today. Somebody

say thank you Lord. You won't have a depth in

your worship. You won't have enough faith to

tie your shoes. If you don't pray. Men ought

always to pray. In Luke 11, Jesus gave them that

example, not the exact prayer. He just wanted

them to hear the illustration. Our Father who

art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Right? And

then begin to invoke his will. That's what prayer

does. We talked about it earlier. That's why

the model prayer is there. Thy will be done on

earth. As it is in heaven. Then it talks about

transgressions. Forgiving others as we have been

forgiven. Dependence is demonstrated. Give us

this day our daily bread. It's all exemplified

in that model of prayer. But we adapt the model

to our own unique situations. Every one of us.

I tell everybody, God loves me more than he does

you. I am his favorite. It leans this way. God

loves me. And the very moment I don't think and

I begin to allow the enemy to say he doesn't

love me the most. It leaves a chink in my faith

and my trust. But I'm getting close to what David

said. Stand. I'm quitting. Stand. He said, I

was young, but now I'm old. And I've never seen

the righteous forsaken. I've seen the righteous

have to fast because there wasn't enough money

to buy groceries. I've seen the righteous have

to light candles because they turn the power

off. I've seen the righteous have to haul water

because they cut the meter off, put a padlock

at the meter. But I've never seen the righteous

forsaken. See, we, we, we. We get it all wrong.

We think God forsakes us because we don't have

all the amenities of life. You know what would

make me feel like God has forsaken me? Not have

all of that stuff and not encounter Him. Oh,

and there's countless people in this world that

have everything. Everything. Mountains of money.

They've got more money on paper because there

ain't enough printed. If they called in all the

cash, they can't get it to them. But yet, live

in misery. That's what David's saying. I was

a shepherd boy. The youngest, by the way. Mistreated

by all the older brothers. That's just the way

that goes. Mama's boy. Anointed, the prophet

of God, Samuel, the man of God, uncorked a horn

of oil. I can hear David. He poured it over my

head. There must have been a gallon in that horn.

That was the biggest goat horn I'd ever seen.

He poured so much oil over me, it got in my eyes,

it got in my mouth. I spit in this stuff, it's

in my ears. My clothes got soaked. I was actually,

by the time it was over, was standing in a puddle

of oil. Took me weeks to get this stuff off of

me, but he never got it off of me. Why, Pastor?

Because the Bible says that the Spirit of the

Lord came upon him from that place. Moment forward.

Anointed king, but running for his life. Look,

don't equate trouble and hardship with God forsaking

you. Pray, and you'll realize God's right there.

It's true, wisdom is wasted on age. I needed

this stuff 35 years ago. I needed to know 35

years ago about God, what I know about God now,

and what I'm trying to tell you, you don't have

to live through to know it. And there's others

in here, that boomer generation. They can tell

you some things about God that you've been sweating

over life about that you really don't have to

panic about. The generations that are following,

look here, guys. Nobody's going to believe it

for you. It's going to be a day where Pastor

Brian, myself, and others. are not going to be

around to lay hands on you and pray for you.

Life is going to come by and the next thing you

know, you're the one that's supposed to be doing

the hand laying. You. I know you're young and

you think, well, that's a long time, is it? No,

it's not. It's now. That's why how you live matters.

Hello? The distinctive to this church, you need

to learn how to pray and practice it. That's

the reason people say, well, we'll pray for you.

I say, well, good. We need to pray and you need

to practice. Practice prayer like you lift weights,

like you condition for a competition. Practice

prayer, fellas, like you do on Thursday when

you go out to hit 9 or 18, whatever you get.

Practice. Practice prayer like you do any and

everything else, like some with the intensity

you sit down at a table to eat with. Pray like

that. I'm about to do some damage to some groceries.

Whatever your thing is, you follow me. Get on

the interweb and look up a video about an old

-timey ringer washer. Watch it so you know what

pastor's been trying to tell you. And you're

going to say, oh, I get it now. That's a problem

being hung between the generations. Prayer is

not simply a ritual or exercise. It's our lifeline.

And the distinctive of Pentecostal people is

that we have always been known as people of prayer.

Prayer ushers the power of God into your life.

I know we pray for others, but it's not about

others. It's about what God does in you. We intercede

on behalf of others to see that God put his power

in their life and on their life. But it's about

you and I experiencing God.