Blessing or Curse? Choose to Trust the Lord

Welcome to the Southwest Apostolic Church podcast.

This podcast is brought to you by the Southwest Apostolic Church,

located at 3161 South Rowena Street in Indianapolis, Indiana, 46241.

The podcast will feature preaching

from our pastor and from other ministers, so we hope you enjoy it.

Without further ado let's get right into it god bless.

Praise the lord all we can do is be positive you got to be positive i feel good

you know forgive me but i'm pretty full we went to service we had service here

wednesday we went to service friday we went to service saturday we had service this morning Amen.

We haven't serviced a night. Amen. And I'm pretty full.

Amen. Amen. Now, you can be discouraged if you want to be, but I don't want to be.

Amen. You can be down if you want to be, but I don't want to be.

Amen. I want to feel good in God.

Amen. And we can feel good in God because our circumstances don't dictate what

the brother said while he was preaching.

Amen. We don't serve God because of our circumstances. We serve God because

of revelation of who He is. Amen.

So we clap our hands for who He is. Amen.

We clap our hands because He is wonderful. We praise Him because He's wonderful.

Amen. We shout hallelujah because He's wonderful.

Amen, amen, amen. We glorify Him because He's worthy. Praise the Lord.

Oh, hallelujah. You know, if we just praised God when we felt like it,

a lot of times we wouldn't praise God because we don't feel like it sometimes.

Our flesh doesn't feel like it. And, you know, sometimes I think we're a little spoiled in church.

Sometimes if we don't have it just right, if the air condition is not just right,

you know, if we got the temperatures not just right, you know,

then somebody will think about it. All they can think about during the service

is how hot they are or how cold they are.

You know, you can't satisfy everybody. Amen.

I remember we drove the church van. We'd have people on the church van.

I'd be driving the van, and they'd say, Brother Young, it's hot in this van.

And then somebody else in the back would say, I'm cold back here in this van.

All you do is just keep driving. Go on. Praise the Lord. Amen.

Do the best you can. Amen. I'm going to go.

The brother read a scripture the other night, and I looked at my phone today

to look up the Bible scripture, look up some scriptures, and it popped up where

I had it. was looking at it.

So I'm going to preach from Jeremiah 17. I'm not going to preach the message.

I'll tell you what, if you get a chance to go on Facebook and hear those messages

that they've been hearing at that tent revival, Elder Harris can really preach. Everybody say amen.

The Lord really used him. I told him that. He preached, Brother Danny,

that Brother Harris that preached, preached at the West Side, oh, 30 years ago.

Had to be 30 years ago or more. And he was just a young man.

He went to his father's church, Victory Tabernacle, and he went to Enon Bible

College over at Meadows, which is the PAW Bible College.

And he was the class president of the Bible College.

And Sister Haven was going to college there. So she had him come and had him

wear the robe and everything, you know.

And he just preached. Man, when he preached at the west side,

it happened just about like it did last night and the other night because he

was on fire from God and he was anointed.

So it was good to see him again. I hadn't seen him in years.

But let's go to Jeremiah 17.

Amen. The question I'm going to ask you tonight is, do you want a blessing or a curse?

Or do you want a curse or do you want a blessing?

I don't know about you, but I'm just going to have fun here tonight.

Look at your neighbor. They said a lot of them. We looked at our neighbor a

lot last night, didn't we?

We did a lot of neighbor looking, and we did a lot of tap them on the shoulders.

Tap your neighbor on the shoulder. Praise the Lord.

Give them a high five. We've done a lot of high five. Tap your neighbor. Amen. We did. Amen.

Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. I'll tell you what, we can leave here feeling good tonight.

I said we can leave here feeling good tonight. I said we can leave here feeling good tonight.

Amen. We can leave here touch tonight. Amen. We can leave here blessed tonight. Praise the Lord.

Hallelujah. Glory to God. Glory to God.

Amen. Amen. Amen.

Hallelujah. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Clap your hands for the Lord.

I feel good right now in the Holy Ghost. Glory, glory, glory,

glory, glory, glory, glory.

Amen. In this scripture, now he used the same scripture and he taught,

he preached a whole different subject, but I'm just going to read the scripture.

Let the scripture speak for itself tonight.

Let's go to Jeremiah 17 and five.

Thus saith the Lord, cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh

his arm, whose heart departeth from the Lord.

Thank you, Bishad. for he shall be like a heath in the desert and shall not

see when good cometh, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness

in a salt land and not inhabited.

Amen. But, but blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord,

whose hope the Lord is, for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters. Amen.

That spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh,

but her leaf shall be green, and shall not be careful in the year of drought,

neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

I'm going to ask you tonight, do you want a cursing, or do you want a blessing?

Amen. And I want a blessing, don't you? Let's pray one more time.

Jesus, we love you tonight.

We ask you, God, amen, to help us with this word. We ask you,

Lord, thank you for what we feel. Thank you for the charge.

Thank you for the anointing we've heard from our brother over at the services,

and thank you for the church having tent revival and allowing us to be a part of it.

We ask you, oh Lord, to bless us here tonight. We pray,

God, that you'd restore here tonight, that you'd fill somebody with the Holy

Ghost tonight, and let us have a breakthrough, and let somebody come running

to the altar and say, I want to be blessed.

I don't want to be cursed. I want to be blessed. Amen. I don't want to curse. I want the blessing.

He said, I don't want to. Tap your neighbor and say, I want the blessing. Hallelujah.

Woo-hoo-hoo. Hallelujah. You may be seated if you want to.

Anybody else wants to run, you're welcome. Anybody else wants to praise the

Lord, you're welcome. I said, you're welcome.

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. There's power in praise now.

Amen. I noticed, I noticed when we were in those services, I kind of watched, and I got to get ideas.

When I go to church, when we were getting ready to build this place and working

here, I looked around. we'd go to a church and I'd look and see,

because we didn't know how to build our platform.

So when I'd go to church, I'd tell Sister Young, she said, what are you doing?

I said, I'm looking at the platform.

I want to see how their platform looks. I want to see what it looks like.

And we went to a wedding down in Evansville. My friend's son got married in

Evansville church, and we went

down there and we took pictures of that one because I really liked it.

And this one is kind of, we kind of stole their ideas, praise the Lord.

We tried to get the same carpet, but we couldn't get it because it was discontinued.

But I think the Lord helped us with what we did, don't you? Amen.

Praise the Lord. But I, so I'm kind of taking the scriptures that that brother

preached from last night, but I don't want to be cursed. I want to be blessed.

Matter of fact, I don't want just a blessing. I've said it before and I'll say

it again. I want the blessing.

Amen. I want that blessing that comes from God, not just a monetary blessing,

not just a physical blessing, but I want that spiritual blessing.

I want to have it all the time.

He said, blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord.

Can I tell you tonight, if you want to be blessed, you need to trust in the Lord tonight.

The blessing comes from the Lord. The Lord sends down the blessings.

And that word blessed there means it's that to kneel by implication to bless God.

Amen. I want to bless God. I don't want to be cursed.

I want to be blessed by God. I want to be adored by God. I want to be saluted by God.

I want God to praise what I'm doing. Praise the Lord.

I want God to be mindful of me and be with me everywhere I go.

Praise the Lord. I don't want to go anywhere that he don't go.

Amen. I don't want to do anything that he's not in.

I want to have the abiding blessing of God. Praise the Lord.

I want the presence of the Lord.

Oh, let's raise our hands and say, God, we need your presence. We need your presence.

But as we were listening to the brother preach last night, and two nights we

heard him Friday night and Saturday night, I noticed.

I don't know, just figure, you know, now I know Bishop Harris,

I know of him and he preaches all over the country, all over the world, actually.

But I noticed what he did. He didn't, and he said it over and over,

he's not dependent on him.

He was depending on people responding to God and depending on God to respond

to the praises of the people.

And that was kind of, and if you noticed, Brother Chad, if you probably did,

that's what he did. He'd say, come on now, we've got to get up to this level.

He'd say, come on, let's worship God. We need you to get up here to worship

God. so God, amen, can move in our midst.

Praise the Lord. It's not about my anointing. It's about let's praise God.

Amen. It's about God responding to our praise. Hallelujah.

So I thought that was very interesting, but I noticed that.

But the Bible says, now notice God gives us a choice.

We talked about this morning. We talked about the edemic covenant,

the covenant God made with Adam and Eve, and God gave them the garden.

He gave them paradise. He gave them everything they needed, and all he asked

them to do was just obey him.

Amen. Can I tell you it's a blessing for a man to obey the Lord?

Amen. All they had to do was obey the Lord. He gave them a choice.

I believe we have a choice.

I don't believe that somebody's born, and there's just no way they'll ever be saved.

Even if they wanted to, they won't be saved because they're predestined to not

be saved. I don't believe that.

I believe God gives us a choice. And I believe anybody that chooses to serve God can serve God.

Amen. Whosoever will, let him come. Let him come and drink from the water of life freely.

Anybody that wants to drink can get to drink. Amen.

Okay. So, but the Lord that was talking about that this morning,

when you read that, that lets you have an understanding that God,

when he said, don't do that, that implies that he was giving them a choice.

And we all have a choice.

Everybody in this room tonight has a choice. You can either choose the blessing

or you can choose being cursed.

Because let me say, if you're not living for God, you need to be.

Amen. And let me say, if you're not serving God, you're serving the devil.

There is no middle ground. You know, that's kind of hard, but you know,

when you really think about it, that's the truth.

But you're either on God's side or you're either on the devil's side.

I don't want to be on the devil's side. I don't want to be involved in anything

the devil's got anything to do with. I want to be on God's side.

Amen. I said, I want to be on God's side. I want the blessing.

I don't want to have anything to do with anything that's got a curse on it.

So God gives us a choice. We can choose either to serve God or not.

Now, notice this says, thus saith the Lord. This is not my commandment.

This is not something that a preacher makes up.

This is not something that somebody's telling you to scare you.

This is something that the Lord's telling. He was using Jeremiah to tell Israel

back at the time when this was written that, hey, Israel, you need to serve the Lord.

Amen. And the bottom line was Israel was having a hard time because they did not serve the Lord.

Let's look at this tonight. He said, cursed is the man, and that word cursed

means, oh, let's see, what does it mean?

In this manner, okay?

Meanwhile, if you're not serving God, in other words, thus saith the Lord.

Meanwhile, I'm talking to the man that's not serving God, and he's saying,

meanwhile, while you're not serving God,

amen, And the guy that's not serving God and trusts us in man,

and he makes flesh his arm, what he's saying, some people, they trust their own humanity.

Our world's full of scientists. They don't believe God. They don't believe there

is a God. You know what they're doing? They're trusting in their own arm of flesh.

They're trusting in their own abilities. We don't need God. We don't have to

have God. There's no need for a God.

We understand how atoms work. We understand how things work,

and there's no need for God.

But I'm here to tell you tonight, they're going down the wrong road. Amen.

Because they're missing out on the blessing of God. Hallelujah.

All right. So, okay. So the person that trusts us in man, the person that puts

their confidence in man, the person to is confident in man, the person that

is bold and secure in man.

Amen. The Bible tells me that they're putting their trust in the wrong thing because he says,

he said, he trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord.

Let's look at that tonight in the Bible in basic English and just put it down to our level.

He said, amen.

He said, let's see, what scripture was that? Let's see. Let me find that real

quick. I'm punching the button here. Hallelujah.

17. What was that? Oh, blessed is the man.

Technology is good when it works, ain't it? Hallelujah. All right.

Who was paying attention? Huh?

Thank you. See, I'm glad somebody's paying attention. I was in the right chapter.

I just couldn't find it. Praise the Lord.

Five and eight. Thank you very much. All right. Let's look at it.

Let's bring it down to our level. Amen, what it says.

This is what the Lord has said. Cursed is the man who puts his faith in man

and makes flesh his arm and whose heart is turned away from the Lord.

The contemporary English verse says like this.

He says, O Lord, the Lord said, I, the Lord, have put a curse on those who turn

from me and trust in human strength.

I don't want to trust in human strength, do you? I'm not trusting in human strength tonight.

I'm not trusting in my ability. When I pray before the Lord and think about

this church and think about you and think about all the things that need,

the last thing I do is I don't even just think about putting,

amen, my trust in my flesh or anybody's flesh.

The trust, when I talk to God, I tell God, God, we need you.

Praise the Lord. We need you to move on every situation.

We need you to fill somebody with the Holy Ghost. We

need you to save souls we need you to help

us at southwest apostolic church we need your presence

lord i'm not trusting in our abilities but thank god for whatever abilities

we have and whatever we try to do for god but my trust is in the lord amen david

said some trust in chariots and some in horses but we will remember the name.

Music.

Of the lord our god amen tap your neighbor and say do you know his name tonight?

I told you we're going to do a lot of tapping and fiving and hallelujah.

Amen. But you see, but here's the thing. You got a choice.

So what he's saying is those that put their trust and confidence in themselves,

some people try to figure it out. They try to do it.

They try to do it their way. All they do is think about it.

Now they sit back and think about everything and say, now this one's going to

do that and this is going to happen.

And if this one does that and that happens, here's what I got to do.

So I got to figure them out and I got to figure me out and I got to,

how about letting the Lord figure it out?

I said, how about bringing it to the Lord and say, Lord, work this out. Hallelujah.

How about bringing it to God and say, I can't work it out. God,

I need you to work it out. Amen. So, okay, here we go.

He says, so here it is, the person that trusts, that puts their own confidence

in man and the flesh and your heart.

You see what happened. I like the Bible. Don't you like the Bible?

Now, what happens is he lets us know that is a sign of something.

And he says, whose heart departeth from the Lord.

When people start putting their confidence in human flesh, and they start putting

their confidence in man, and they start putting their confidence over here away

from God, the Bible tells me in this scripture that their heart is departing from God.

Amen. You know, the Bible is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart.

Amen. The word of God tells us the state of people's hearts and the state of mankind.

Amen. Like example, love not the world, neither of the things that are in the world.

Now, the Bible tells me that if a man loves the world, somebody finish that for me.

The love of the father is not in him.

That tells me that somebody that's going after the world is not loving God like they should.

I don't know about you, but I want to love him like I should.

Hey man, I'm not interested in what the cults are doing. I'm not interested

in what's going on in the world.

I'm interested in what Jesus is doing and what I can do to get that blessing

that we're preaching about tonight?

What can I do to have the abiding presence of the Lord in my life? Hallelujah.

Woo. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. It's you guys' fault.

You had me go to the tent meeting.

Oh yeah. Praise the Lord.

It's your fault. Praise the Lord. But he says, okay, he lets us know who this is.

And he says, for the person that does this will be like, this is I looked this up earlier.

He shall be like the heath.

Where's that at verse? He shall be like the heath. And I thought, what is that?

A heath is just a little juniper tree.

And that word means stripped, naked, and destitute.

So it's a tree or a bush that's just a little naked bush in the desert.

It don't have no flower and it don't have no fruit. It don't have no bud.

It's not a pretty rose. It's not a beautiful mum.

It's nothing. It's just a, just like a, just a bush out in the wilderness.

It has no attraction. It is naked.

It's stripped and it's destitute.

So the Lord says, if you put your confidence in man, you're going to be like a heath in the desert.

You're going to be like a little shrub out in the desert, out in a place that is wilderness.

You're just going to be like a little bush out in the wilderness that's out

there, and he don't have no blood. He don't have no fruit.

Nobody thinks nothing about him. They don't think he's pretty.

He's just an old bush that's out there in the desert, and everybody walks by

and doesn't think a thing about him.

And he said, you shall not see when good cometh.

You won't be able to understand. You won't be able to perceive when the goodness of God comes.

You won't be able to observe it. you won't be able to consider it.

You see, there's a lot of people that don't understand what's happening with humanity.

They are getting away from God. It's just the opposite of the scripture that

says, without holiness, no man shall see the Lord.

What that means is, if you want to know God, you got to separate yourself from all this other junk.

You got to come out from among them and be separate and separate yourself to

God. You got to make some dedication.

You got to make some consecration. If you want to know God and you really want

to feel God, you got to make some choices. Amen.

Amen. You got to, you get that through holiness, consecration,

dedication, and separation under God.

Then you're in a position to know God.

Then you're in a position to understand God. You're not in a position when you're

worldly and all you think about is Hollywood and television and movies and all

this stuff that's in the world, and that's constantly all you think about and what you read about,

and you're in a position you will not know.

That's why people can go through life, living their life, following after the

world, and think that they know God, but they don't know God.

They don't. That's why people can go through life and be a man that loves another

man and has sex with another man and think that it's okay, because they are

walking away from the knowledge of God.

Amen. And I want to tell you, that scares me to death, because I don't want to be away from God.

I want to be like the Bible says, oh, Lord, be not far from me.

Amen. Raise your hand, say, Lord, be not far from me tonight.

Be not far from me, Lord. Hallelujah.

Okay, so now listen, those of you that are trusting in your flesh,

trusting in man, trusting in the government, trusting in this and trusting in that.

You're setting yourself up just to be this little bush in the desert.

And you won't perceive when good cometh. You won't perceive when pleasant things come around.

You won't understand things of a higher nature.

You won't understand excellence. You won't understand things that are rich and

things that are valuable.

That's why when you live for God and God starts cleaning you up and dressing

you up that's why the world looks at you and say what are you a lawyer or something.

You know, when you go to church and you dress nice for church and you, I think we should.

Now, if you don't have something, I'm not trying to run nobody down,

but I'm just saying, if you can, you ought to show God that you appreciate him

and that you love him and that you respect him.

You know, you go in the Oval Office, George Bush was president,

and you didn't come into the Oval Office without a tie and a jacket on.

Amen. Because he had, that's the same place that, you know, what,

Teddy Roosevelt was in there, or Theodore Roosevelt used to have this office.

Man, this is a, for our country, this is a sacred place.

This is a place where old Ronald Reagan sat in here, you know,

and we want to respect it. Well, hey, let me tell you, this is the place where Jesus comes.

This is the place that Jesus shows up in. Amen. This is a place where we feel

the presence of God. Amen.

Why shouldn't we give God our best? Because we know that Jesus shows up in this

place. Amen. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. So they that don't know God and they like a bush, a heath in the desert.

And when good comes, they don't see it.

That's why the world says you go to church three times a week.

How can you go to church that much, dude?

There they go again. Hey, there's three inches of snow on the ground. Why don't you stay home.

Well, you know, Brother Young said we're having service, so we're going to service. Amen.

Praise the Lord, Brother White and Danny or Earl. One of them's been over here

and plowed a lot, so we're going to church. Praise the Lord.

And the world doesn't see it. They don't understand it.

They don't know why you go when you go.

But I'll tell you, we know why we go when we go, because we know that when we

come to his house, we're going to get the blessing of God.

Praise the Lord. We're following after God.

We're trusting God, no matter if it's 20 degrees or 90 degrees. Amen.

We're trusting the Lord. Praise the Lord.

But if not, if not, now you could, you see, you make a choice tonight.

We're all making a choice, don't we? I don't want to be like that little desert

plant that doesn't grow and doesn't perceive good when it comes,

the blessing things, but he said, they shall inhabit the parched places.

You're going to abide in a place.

You're going to settle down and you're going to abide and dwell in a place.

You're going to lay down in a place.

Parched places. You're going to abide in the parched places. That is a dry region.

You see, you're not going to be where the water of life is.

You're not going to feel the well of water springing up in your life.

And you're not going to understand that scripture or experience that scripture

that says, out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water. Amen.

I don't know about you, but I want that living water. I don't want a parched

place. I don't want to go to church services that are dry, start at seven o'clock

sharp and end at nine o'clock dead. Hallelujah.

I want to go to a place where the well of water is springing up.

You get a 70-year-old man comes up out of his seat and takes a lap around the

church. You got somebody praising God.

You got somebody talking in tongues.

You got somebody, something going on in the Holy Ghost where the water's flowing. Amen.

You hear the sound of the Spirit. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Amen. But you can choose, see,

parched places in the wilderness, not only parched, but in a place of uninhabited

land, large tracts of wilderness, a pasture, a wilderness place of nothingness.

Our world is in a place of nothingness. They're in a place where there's no fruit.

Nothing. Man is subject to vanity, and they follow after things that are empty,

and they have no value in them.

There's no value in sitting down and watching a movie for an hour and a half

where people are cutting each other's heads off. Come on, somebody.

Tap your neighbor and say, oh, Lord.

You see what I mean? And our world goes after stuff that has no intrinsic value at all.

It's empty. There's nothing there. Come on, somebody.

Amen. And saints aren't watching that stuff anyway. Come on, somebody.

That's not something saints are watching. I thought I'd get some shouts on that.

I thought I'd get something on that. Praise the Lord.

Amen. Hallelujah.

But parts of places in the wilderness, in a salt land, okay, a salted place.

That's another way of saying barrenness, saltiness. You ever had something too salty?

It ain't no good. You know, you put too much. Now, you got to have some salt,

but when you put too much salt on something, it ain't no good.

You say, oh, there's too much salt in that. I can't handle it.

So it's another way, it's another implication of desert, barren land,

or a salt land, they call it. Praise the Lord.

Oh, and not inhabited. There's nothing there.

There's nobody there. You're out there in this world and it's not where the blessing is.

It's not where the fruit is.

It's out there in a dry, you're just a little twig out there in the wilderness of this world.

Our little saying for our mission over on 10th street, our mission,

let me say it's our mission. It's not just mine.

Amen. Anybody wants to get involved. We want to, it's a ministry of Southwest Apostolic Church.

That's the way it's set up. And let me say our little phrase is apostolic inner city ministries.

And we have a little phrase. It's an apostolic voice crying in the inner city wilderness. Amen.

Praise. How many knows the inner city's a wilderness? I said,

the inner city's a wilderness. Praise the Lord.

You got all kinds of stuff going around there, but it's a dry place.

It's an empty place. You don't have nothing but tumbleweeds like a desert.

The old cowboy town, you'd see the wind blow and they'd roll the tumbleweeds down the street.

And that's, you know, so if you don't want to trust God and you want to trust

your own flesh and your own way of doing things, that's what you're going to reap.

And I'm not making that up. That's what the Bible says.

So you can choose a cursing if you want to, but amen.

Look at your neighbor and say, there's another side to that coin.

I'm having fun doing that. You all forgive me. Hey, man, you guys made me go,

so I had to go, and I enjoyed that. That was fun.

Matter of fact, let's just do a high five. Praise the Lord. Do a high five,

and say there's another side to that coin. Woo! Hallelujah!

Woo, hallelujah. Amen, amen, amen, hallelujah.

Amen, but blessed is the man, hallelujah. Blessed is the man, amen.

Blessed is the man that bows before God. Blessed is the man that trusteth in

the Lord, the man that is confident in God, the man that is sure in God.

Anybody sure in God tonight?

Anybody bold in God tonight? Anybody, amen, praise the Lord,

Let's trust in the Lord tonight.

Have confidence in, praise the Lord. You're secure in God tonight.

And that man is a blessed man. Amen. It's just the opposite.

He going to be like a tree.

This is a pine or a tree, a timber, a stock, a plank, a stalk,

a tree, a real tree, a cedar tree. Somebody know what I'm talking about now?

I'm talking about a real. I know I got some tree. I heard a root give over on

the tree side. Hallelujah.

Those guys know what a real tree is. They've been up in them. They've felled some.

It was one of Brother Earl's relatives. Right over, let's see, where am I?

Let's see, about right, be right over about that corner of that door right there.

There used to be a cottonwood tree out there.

And that tree was bigger around than this.

That tree was probably like a big circle like that.

I'm talking about a real tree. You see, I'm not talking about trusting in flesh

and being like a little twig in the wilderness.

I'm talking about being a big cottonwood. Hallelujah.

I'm talking about being a real oak tree. Praise the Lord. A real pine tree. Praise God.

Something that really grows. And let me say something that can stand the test of time.

A tree. He'd be like a real tree, the Bible says. The Lord says he will be like a tree that's planted.

A tree that is planted is a tree, praise the Lord, that has roots to it.

It's not going anywhere, and it's planted, not just planted,

but it's by the waters, praise the Lord. I said it's by the water.

You know, I didn't know that when you plant a willow tree. You're supposed to plant it by water.

I didn't know that. So I planted one out in my backyard way out there by himself.

And he just, I tried to water it and it just didn't work.

And somebody said, uh, you're supposed to plant a willow tree by a Creek or

by a river or something by a lake or something where he can draw water.

I don't know about you, but I want to draw water.

Hey man, I want to be where the water is. I'm going to say it again.

I want to be where the water is. Hallelujah.

I want to be where that Holy Ghost is springing up. Praise the Lord.

I want to be where the Spirit's moving. I want to be where the water of God is. Hallelujah.

I want to be where that water's flowing from the throne of God. Amen. Hallelujah.

Woo! Praise the Lord. Y'all forgive me tonight, but I feel like preaching.

Hallelujah. Woo! Hallelujah.

I want to be by the water. Amen. I want that blessing.

I want to be like that tree that's planted. He got roots down by the waters.

And the Bible says that he spreads out. Praise the Lord.

He grows, he stretches out. Praise God. He extends.

Amen. He lets loose. Praise the Lord. His leaves come out. Praise the Lord.

We got Ruthie, Sister Ruthie, Sister Young bought some, what are them things called, Ruthie?

Knockout roses. I want to be like a knockout rose. You ever seen a knockout?

She got, we got these things. You can get knockout roses on Amazon.

We got knockout roses on Amazon, and she got a red one.

And that thing was only about that tall when we got it from Amazon.

Just a little thing was in a box.

And I planted that thing. And that thing, it just this summer has this tall.

That thing is just spread out and just little buds coming up everywhere,

all kind of pretty little roses. Praise the Lord.

That's what I want to be. I want to be like that bush. Praise the Lord that's

planted. I feel like running. Hallelujah.

I want to be like that bush that's planted by the water and he just spreads out. Hallelujah.

He just grows. Praise God. He just multiplies, praise the Lord. Hallelujah.

I want to be like that tree that's planted by the water, that knockout rose.

I want to be a knockout saint, praise the Lord.

I want to be a knockout rose, hallelujah. When people walk by,

I want them to see all them beautiful red flowers.

Whoo, hallelujah. Man, I feel like there's 600 people in here tonight.

Whoo, hallelujah. I want to be that spreads out.

I want to be that tree that's got roots by the waters and that spreads out her

roots by the river. Amen.

And shall not see when the heat comes.

That means you won't consider when the heat comes.

You won't give attention to, and this is kind of what our brother preached about the other night.

You know, it doesn't matter. To a tree that's planted by the water,

if it gets a little dry, it doesn't matter.

They're still going to praise God anyhow.

Amen. It doesn't matter. Things going good or bad, they're still going to praise God anyhow.

Hallelujah. They're still going to have life when everything else is dying. Praise the Lord.

They're going to go forward. Hallelujah.

And he spread out his roots by the river and shall not consider when the heat cometh.

In other words, when the heat enters.

Amen. man, when the heat falls or when an attack comes from the enemy or when

you're led into a bad place or you feel like you're going into a bad place or

you're gathered, it seems like,

in life in a bad place or you're brought into a bad place, praise the Lord.

But the Bible says that you will not consider that.

You will realize that you, praise the Lord, you will not be careful.

You won't be worrying in the year of drought you

won't cease from yielding fruit amen you're

planted by the water you're serving god you're

trusting god whether the good times or whether the bad times your roots stay

in the ground hallelujah and god takes you through the bad times god gives you

good times and god takes you through the bad times hallelujah and when it's

all said and done You're still standing, praise the Lord.

You got roots that are down. You're drawing from the water that never shall run dry. Hallelujah.

Woo. And you're drawing from the well, hallelujah, of living water.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the blessing of God.

The blessing of God is not just money. The blessing of God is not just houses or lands,

but the blessing of God is the power of God working in your life and takes you

through situations that you didn't think you could go through.

Situations you never wanted to go through and you don't ever want to go through

them. You don't want to see anybody go through them.

And you wonder how you're going to make it. And you feel like you can't make it.

But God brings you through. Man, you're a blessed man. I said you're a blessed man.

You're a blessed woman. Hallelujah.

Because we know people that trust in their self, people that trust in the world.

When tragedy comes a lot of times, praise the Lord, they don't have God to turn to.

They don't have God to lean on, and they get all strung out,

and they get involved in a lot of things that are detrimental.

Amen. But I'm glad I can do opposite. I can trust in the Lord with all my heart

and lean not to my own understanding, praise the Lord, but in all my ways acknowledge

Him, and He will direct my path. Amen.

I can count on Him. He's going to be there. I'm going to be by the tree planted by the water.

And the Bible says he yields his fruit.

He's an apple tree and them apples just keep coming.

I said, the apples just keep coming. You ever go to an orchard where they got

to, where's that one? There's one down by Mooresville somewhere.

We went down there and they got all kinds of apple trees. They got more apple.

I didn't know you could get that many apples.

They got all kinds of apples. But my favorite apple is a cosmic crisp.

Praise the Lord. Cosmic, crisp apple. I love them. I like a good red apple. I like apples.

But when you notice, those trees, they're putting so many apples out.

When it gets down to the end of the year, they just leave them lay on the ground.

There are just so many apples, they can't deal with them. I'm going to tell

you, that's what God's talking about.

Amen. You want to serve man or you want to serve God. If you serve God,

you're going to have so much fruit, you won't know what to do with it.

The Bible talks about a blessing that no man can contain.

You're going to be so blessed, you're going to be driving down the road saying, God has been good to me.

I don't understand why I am where I am.

I don't understand why I have what I have, and I don't understand.

I don't deserve it. I don't trust in my own self.

I just thank God for what he's doing. Amen.

My trust is in God. The blessing I have comes from God.

My state of life, my circumstances all belong to God.

Hallelujah. Let's raise our hands right now. Hallelujah.

Look at your neighbor now and say, what are you choosing? You want that blessing

or do you want that cursing?

You want blessed or you want cursed? Hallelujah.

What do you want tonight? Amen. If you want the blessing, the altar's open.

Amen. If you want that blessing, turn to the Lord.

The Bible says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding.

So when you want to, you know, I can't figure it out. I don't know what I ought

to, you know, when people make the mistake, they say, well, I'll come to God

as soon as I get my life in order.

That's trusting in man. That's trusting in your own flesh.

What you need to do is come to God when your life's upside down and topsy-turvy.

Amen. And excuse the language, but when all hell breaking loose,

that's when you need to come to God.

Amen. You need to bring that to God and let God work it out.

I said, you need to bring that to God and let God work it out.

You need to trust in God and put yourself in a position to be blessed.

Amen. Shy away from the curse. I want to be blessed, don't you?

I want to be blessed. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Anybody want to pray tonight? You see, I'm giving a whole new meaning

to as the music comes tonight.

I'm giving a whole new meaning to that because I'm pressing in a song on my phone.

I think when other people say as the music comes, they don't punch in an app

on their phone. Hallelujah.

But we are saying as the Lord comes tonight, as the altar is open.

There's a song I'm going to play, and it's an old song. And it says,

I know who holds tomorrow.

Many things about tomorrow I don't seem to understand.

But I know who holds tomorrow, and I know who holds my hand.

Let's raise your hands one more time and say, thank you, Jesus.

God's talking to you right now. Do you want, do you want, you guys will probably know this song.

This is probably in, Brother David. I know who holds tomorrow is the name of

it. Amen. Amen. So the question tonight, do you want to bless?

Thank you for listening to our podcast. Southwest Apostolic Church is a place of refuge.

If we can help you, we'd be glad to do it. Pastor's cell number, 317-469-3100.

If we can help you, we'd be glad to do it. God bless.