Sermon

Front Door Happiness vs. Back Door Happiness | Bishop McGee

First Apostolic Church

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  1. How many is glad that he rescued you?

  2. He didn't have to, but because his love for us, he did it.

  3. I'm so glad of that tonight. I feel the presence of the Lord

  4. in this place. Amen.

  5. I got just really a thinking, just a little bit of gold was

  6. talking about Sister Sharon. My wife and I were talking the

  7. other night and I want you all to think about this when you

  8. think about helping. We was talking the other night

  9. and you'd see Sister Sharon in the kitchen working.

  10. She was washing dishes and whatever else.

  11. There was anytime there was a church function, and it don't

  12. stop there. But I remember church camps when

  13. it was our day in the kitchen. Sister Sharon was there also.

  14. She was a helper. She was somebody that worked a

  15. man. So I'm telling you, we owe it to

  16. her to help her. Amen.

  17. The last time we can help her, we deserve to help her.

  18. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.

  19. Well, I tell you, I'm planning on preaching different than I've

  20. preached for a while. I appreciate the minister of

  21. this church. I appreciate Brother Mason.

  22. He may be my son-in-law and he's just like a son, but I

  23. appreciate him. He's walked a many a mile with

  24. us up through the years. I thank God for my pastor.

  25. I was once his pastor. Now he's my pastor and I'm glad.

  26. I'm glad that to call him my pastor.

  27. We're blessed, Amen. So glad for brother Alex Mason.

  28. We are blessed, Amen. Hallelujah in this church.

  29. Hallelujah, Brother Zach McGee, we're so happy, Amen.

  30. Brother James that's in here. And God's just blessed us, Amen.

  31. With men to help. And ladies, praise the Lord.

  32. I needed church camp this year and before I even got there, I

  33. I'd already been asked if I'd leave prayer one night.

  34. The last time we had fellowship rally at this church, Brother

  35. Gil come to me and he said, I hear that you're going to try to

  36. come to camp this year. And I said, yes, Sir, I am.

  37. He said, well, I want to just let you know early and these

  38. bottles are he said I would like to use you

  39. and your son. I would like you as elder and

  40. Bishop to start the service in prayer and I would and brother

  41. Pastor McGee that he would end that.

  42. Could you do that? I said yes Sir, not knowing that

  43. that was the start of something God had laid out for me.

  44. Been struggling for a while, but you know what?

  45. God always comes through and he came through and some things

  46. that I needed and sought for he come on the scene and give me

  47. back some things that I felt it slacking and I thank God for

  48. that. I'm going to let you know that

  49. this this message that I'm going to preach tonight.

  50. I can't tell you how long I've been working on it because it's

  51. been a while that I had read a book and it stirred me up and I

  52. began, you know how you'll do. I don't know how everybody else

  53. does, but when I'm reading, I'm I'm underlining things and write

  54. little notes and all of that. And this just somehow I wrote

  55. some notes out and put it down there and and then little bit

  56. little God would just add a little to it.

  57. And then when this come up, I felt like God, you was speaking

  58. to me to do this tonight. So if you'll help me minister

  59. tonight, we're going to have church Hallelujah, all of you

  60. online. God bless you, Hope God reaches

  61. down and touches you tonight because there's there's no

  62. shortness in God's arm. I don't care where you're

  63. watching from. He can still, he can still get

  64. your attention. I'm thankful for that tonight.

  65. Hallelujah. I'm going to turn to Matthew

  66. chapter #7 and I'm going to just read 2 verses and then we'll see

  67. what God wants. This is about him.

  68. It's not about me. Matthew Chapter 7 verse #13 and

    Matthew 7 chapter mention

  69. 14 very familiar scripture. We've probably all used it

  70. ministry or used it time after time.

  71. Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate, and

  72. broad is the way that leadeth the destruction.

  73. And many there be which go in there at, because Strait is the

  74. gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life.

  75. And few hereby said few there be that find it.

  76. Heavenly Father, I ask you tonight I need your help, Lord,

  77. to minister tonight. Lord, I ask for your anointing.

  78. Halobasha Talaba, ha ha ha. Lord, let this spirit God sweep

  79. over this sanctuary tonight, God, for that there's many or

  80. few. God, you're in our midst.

  81. I know this from years gone by, Lord, that you've anointed and

  82. helped us, Lord God, and I'm dependent on you tonight.

  83. Lord, as we minister, anoint the lips of clay God, and speak to

  84. this congregation to encourage and strengthen.

  85. Lord, I pray in Jesus name and you may be seated.

  86. Thank you Jesus. In a book that I'd read quite a

  87. while back I'd come across something that stirred my soul.

  88. I want to say I thank God for my wife.

  89. She's still with us. Could have been much worse When

  90. you come home and see blood every place and splattered over

  91. the trailer and all over the rocking chair that's sitting out

  92. there and all over the porch and a lap full.

  93. And but God was with her too. And I thank God for her.

  94. Amen. She has been my help meet pretty

  95. close to 59 years and I thank God for her that she has stood

  96. by my side and she's been my encouragement and my strength so

  97. many times. And I'm glad she's here still

  98. with me tonight, man, I want to minister on this subject.

  99. And maybe maybe at first you won't get it, but you will

  100. before I get through this book began to talk about front door

  101. happiness versus back door happiness, front door happiness

  102. verse versus front door happiness versus back door

  103. happiness. And there was some things that

  104. began to unravel and my spirit picked up on some of this.

  105. And I want to minister tonight to you because there is a

  106. difference. You know, the front door is

  107. usually the most used door. I, I don't know, there's maybe a

  108. few people that I've ever seen that use the back door all the

  109. time, but most people use the front door.

  110. You know, it's, it's, it's, it's a custom, we, we just kind of do

  111. it. So, you know, and, and I began

  112. to study it out and began to grab a hold of things and, and

  113. began to study about it. And, and it is said that when

  114. you look and, and people's doors, that custom front doors

  115. can run from 5000 to 20,000 installed.

  116. That's crazy, but that's what they say.

  117. Amen. And I want you to notice

  118. something about the wide door, the the front door.

  119. I'm going to call it the the front door, the wide door, all

  120. right. And what is attributed to it?

  121. Is there as many that goes there in and it's a wide door.

  122. Everybody said why? And everybody say many, you

  123. know, in the world today, they would say, all right, that must

  124. be the right door to go in because it's many and it's wide.

  125. It's easy to get through. But then there's a narrow door

  126. that I'm going to call the back door.

  127. And it says that the normal back door will cost you 300 to $1000

  128. to install. Hey, man, that sounds like a lot

  129. and I but there's some attributes that go with that

  130. door that I want you to pick up on.

  131. It's attributed to those are few.

  132. There's just a few that goes in at that door, but it's straight

  133. and it's narrow. It's maybe not that you have to

  134. turn sideways to get through it, but there's not many people that

  135. goes through it. It's not the chosen door if you

  136. please. Hallelujah.

  137. And in our world today, there is many people that spend big bucks

  138. on the front door entrance because it's what draws the

  139. attention of people and it's a it's the curb appeal to your

  140. house, all right? It's it's what people notice

  141. first. Amen.

  142. It's your front door, so that's the one that you choose for

  143. people to walk through because when they start walking up your

  144. sidewalk, if you've got one and they start walking up your

  145. sidewalk and they see the beauty of this front door, they can

  146. almost imagine what's going on inside.

  147. It looks like this is just an excellent.

  148. This is a good place to walk in. It's the front door.

  149. Hey man, Hallelujah. It's got it's got appeal.

  150. It's, you know, this is the important door, so it must look

  151. good. And I want the church to look

  152. good, don't you? I want it to look good.

  153. I want it to look better than my house.

  154. I want it to, I want it to be a place that people and joys

  155. coming to and then they think it looks good.

  156. But the important thing is that all that you put in that front

  157. door, the 5000, the 20, whatever you've put in that front door

  158. does not make, even though that is a house, that does not make

  159. that house a home. Because I'm going to tell you

  160. church, it's what's on the inside of the house that counts

  161. and not just the front door. Oh my, I'm feeling this.

  162. Hallelujah. Thank you Jesus.

  163. It doesn't make it a home even though it looks good.

  164. Hallelujah. It's what people see first.

  165. The front door may have bragging rights while the rear door, the

  166. back door may not be so excellent and exquisite.

  167. It may not look as beautiful, advertising companies say.

  168. In advertising, they say, acquire and aspire to drive

  169. faster, the dress trendier, drink more.

  170. Happiness depends on what's in your closet, what's parked in

  171. your garage, what's in the bank, what's on your ring finger or

  172. what's served at your table. It's the wide door if you please

  173. and it aspires to some things. I want to tell you I don't

  174. believe there's ever a time that we have seen aspiration in homes

  175. like we have now. They are building bigger and

  176. better. They can only.

  177. They may only have two that lives in it, but they build 5

  178. bedrooms homes. Tell me why.

  179. Why do you need five bedroom home when there's only two of

  180. you in it? It's because we have got to have

  181. great rooms and we got to have this and we've got to have that.

  182. But I'm going to tell you, that doesn't make it a home.

  183. It does not make it an inspiring place to be or to go, but it's

  184. the feeling inside. It's what's inside that counts.

  185. It's the inside that inspires you.

  186. It's the feeling when you walk through that door that inspires

  187. you. It's not the front door, but

  188. it's what's on the inside. The house.

  189. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Jesus, Hallelujah, Hallelujah,

  190. Hallelujah. It's what's served on your

  191. table. This is the world talking.

  192. It's the advertising. It's a wide door.

  193. It's what you serve at your table.

  194. But I'm here to tell you as well as I do.

  195. You know this. We have all seen happy peasants

  196. and miserable millionaires. Many a millionaires took their

  197. life and had everything that life could offer except for

  198. what's inside the house. No wonder it says that a rich

  199. man can hardly enter the Kingdom of God.

  200. Because if we've got all of these things and aspire to the

  201. look and to everything that the world looks at, the first thing,

  202. I believe this has slipped itself into the church

  203. sometimes, that we get to aspire for things that really doesn't

  204. matter. Sister Sheila, it's not the

  205. front door that matters, but it's what's inside the house

  206. that matters. It's the God that I serve that's

  207. inside my house that you can feel when you walk through the

  208. door. Hallelujah, Praise your name,

  209. Jesus. The front door happiness says

  210. this. Listen to me carefully, stay

  211. with me. The front door happiness has

  212. this saying. Happiness happens when you get.

  213. Everybody said get, get. You receive what you receive

  214. what you get. It's all about you.

  215. Come on. I'm talking about what the front

  216. door aspirations are. It's what I can get.

  217. There is people that come to church today.

  218. It's not what I can do for the church, but what can the church

  219. do for me? Come on.

  220. And it's not about money, but the blessings of the Lord

  221. surpass all the money that you can get.

  222. Come on, I'm telling you that we aspire when we walk through the

  223. doors of this church. I don't know how you aspire, but

  224. when I walk through the doors I wanted to aspire to of God.

  225. I want the power and the anointing.

  226. I want, I want the worship to come over me.

  227. And I want to worship God for all that's in me, to do it with

  228. my might. Come on, I I'm going to, I'm

  229. going to just be open with you. I haven't been doing it with all

  230. of my mind. And God got onto me.

  231. It's time to worship. It's time to get out of business

  232. again. We've got a world on the outside

  233. of these front doors that need us lol.

  234. They need us, they need us. Hallelujah.

  235. Whoo I aspire the souls. How about you?

  236. Hallelujah, Oh glory. Hallelujah, Jesus.

  237. I want you to notice and I want you to listen to the

  238. characteristics of the front door.

  239. It's wide. The Bible said it leads.

  240. It's a Broadway. We know all about Broadway.

  241. Turn off your TV. Pick up your Bible lately,

  242. Sister McGee and I has has has inspired in our home to plug in

  243. some some video DVDSVHS. Oh, I know some of you don't

  244. remember them maybe, but the VH s s and the Goodmans and this

  245. and that. We thank God for brother Pat

  246. Brother Pat, if you're listening, thank you for the

  247. thank you for the tapes. Appreciate them.

  248. Hey, man, the BHSS, man, we had a box of them.

  249. Brother Freddie, he brought give to me.

  250. So we started way back, you know, kind of as far back as we

  251. could go. And we began to plug them in.

  252. We started watching one or two of them at night.

  253. And I'm going to tell you the truth, Church, I ain't sure that

  254. the others aren't better than the newer ones.

  255. You know why? Because people have changed.

  256. You could watch sister, Sister Angie Cruz, you could watch as

  257. as people, they started changing over the years and not for the

  258. good. It was for the bad.

  259. You know what? The anointing kind of started to

  260. wane in a little bit. Hey, man, you didn't feel the

  261. anointing like you used to. Hey, they, they had church

  262. almost back then people began, Hey, there was people shouting,

  263. hey man, there was tears running down faces.

  264. There was people getting up and telling what God had done for

  265. them, what God had done in their home.

  266. Let me tell you, it's not the front door that matters, but

  267. it's what's on inside that front door.

  268. It's what you meet when you go inside.

  269. There been a home that when you walked through the door, you

  270. felt and loved. We had teenagers used to come

  271. through our home in Princeton. We didn't have a beautiful home,

  272. just had an ordinary home. But my kids brought kids from

  273. school through the doors of that, and they had money.

  274. They had white rooms with the grand piano sitting in it.

  275. Nobody was allowed in. It couldn't walk.

  276. You know what's used to have a room like that and nobody can

  277. use it? Well, what's it for?

  278. You know what it's for? It's for just like the same

  279. thing of the front door that's so exquisite and expensive.

  280. You know, it's a show off room. God, I tell you, my show off

  281. room is any place in my house that I can feel the presence of

  282. God. Come on, when we get a good

  283. report, Hallelujah through the prayer request and and the

  284. prayer band. When we get a when we get a good

  285. report of it, The Sister McGinn, I does this little happy dance.

  286. We get up and we dance around a little bit, start thanking God

  287. for it. You know what, we'd be better

  288. off if we'd all doing that in our home.

  289. When there comes something good that God has done, we ought to

  290. do a little happy dance. Say, oh, thank you, God.

  291. Thank you, God. I don't think we celebrated near

  292. enough. Hallelujah.

  293. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.

  294. Hallelujah. It's a wide, it's a wide gate

  295. and it, it leads to a, it leads to a Broadway that leads you to

  296. destruction. That that wide door.

  297. I don't care how beautiful it is, if you're following that

  298. just because of looks, if you're following things in the world,

  299. because let me tell you, they got a lot of bright lights, they

  300. got things to draw your attention.

  301. Every commercial comes on is going to draw your attention to

  302. something, whether it's good or whether it's bad.

  303. But I found out, brother Freddie, that I can drown it out

  304. by turning some good gospel music on.

  305. I don't need the TV only just plug the the tape in and.

  306. And we sit there and sometimes the tears is rolling down our

  307. face. Sometimes we got our hand in the

  308. air. Hallelujah.

  309. You know what? I decided I needed that more

  310. than I needed anything on TV. There's nothing but junk on

  311. there. Yeah, when it gets, when it gets

  312. spring and summer at our house, we can't get 14.

  313. Like I just got ATV antenna up there, just a regular one.

  314. I don't pay for it. It just you know and it don't,

  315. it don't cost me every month and I plug it in, I usually get by

  316. 29 channels. But guess what, when it comes,

  317. when it comes to the spring of the year and all those trees

  318. grow up down there in that hollow, you can't get nothing.

  319. That's all that's left is 7. That's about it.

  320. So we decided this year we're not going to just sit there and

  321. do this. We're going to plug in something

  322. and we're going to fill our house full of gospel singing.

  323. I want something that inspires. I want something in my home that

  324. inspires me. I want something that'll inspire

  325. people that walks through my doors that they can say, hey,

  326. there's been something going on in here.

  327. Like the little old prayer warrior lady.

  328. You know, you've seen the movie. Yeah.

  329. Yeah. War Room.

  330. You know, that little old lady Betty, she had her a special

  331. room. She cleaned the closet out and

  332. she had her a prayer room built in there.

  333. And isn't it amazing that that the old minister comes in and he

  334. walks in that room. He walks through that door and

  335. he goes and he backs back out and he walks back in that door

  336. and he backs back out and his wife says, what's wrong, dear?

  337. He said there's nothing wrong. We're buying this house.

  338. He said, you know what? When I walk in there, I feel

  339. something. There's been prayer going on in

  340. there. Let me tell you something,

  341. Church, when people walk through their door, your doors, if your

  342. house is right and it's anointed like it should be, they're going

  343. to feel something. You don't have to tell them

  344. you're a Christian. Come on, they're going to feel

  345. something extraordinary. You know why?

  346. Because he's the God of your house.

  347. And I tell you, I want him to be the God of this church.

  348. When people walks through the doors, in fact, before they ever

  349. get to the door, I want them to feel the presence of God.

  350. Brother Mason, you'll probably remember some of you older ones

  351. that come from Second Church. I remember Brother Elkins, we

  352. had a, the first rally, I think we'd ever had a second our

  353. church and we had church full. It was, it was, it was packed

  354. out solid. Amen.

  355. And that usually happened on a Saturday, I think it was man, it

  356. was people drove in from every place.

  357. Some of them we had to help them get there because our van kind

  358. of broke down. Somebody had to take them go, go

  359. with our van and bring them on in.

  360. But I will not forget a few weeks later I received this

  361. letter through the mail from both the Elkins and he wrote,

  362. Brother McGee, when we drove into the parking lot of your

  363. church, he said it just looked like an old country church.

  364. He said, but man, when we got out of that van, he started, he

  365. said I could feel something from the outside, said there was some

  366. shouting going on inside. God was moving inside that he

  367. said when I walked through the doors, I thought this reminds me

  368. of a home mission church. But I'm going to tell you what

  369. he said they're doing it. God is in that place.

  370. God is doing things. Come on.

  371. It may not look the greatest on the outside.

  372. We may have had some problems with it, but I'm going to tell

  373. you something. It wasn't the God of the front

  374. door, if you please. It wasn't.

  375. Just because it had double doors didn't mean nothing.

  376. It wasn't fancy, but when you walked inside, it was fancy.

  377. Oh, it felt like heaven on the inside.

  378. You know why we was worshipping and praising our God, and there

  379. was a feeling in that place. Hallelujah.

  380. Thank you, Jesus. I'm talking about front door

  381. happiness and back door happiness.

  382. There's a difference, you know. Hallelujah.

  383. Yeah, you know the front door, you know, you, you take a look

  384. and it, it describes this, you know, that front door or that.

  385. Yeah, that front door. It describes it as many, it it

  386. says many there be that find it. It says you don't have to feel

  387. around for it. Come on.

  388. It's the truth is if you come of the night that that big old door

  389. on the outside has probably got lights.

  390. You know, I didn't see the I didn't know where they something

  391. up there earlier or not. Maybe it was I missed it, I

  392. guess. Oh, yeah.

  393. Look, front door. Yeah.

  394. Hey, it may not look like that on the outside, but there was a

  395. feeling inside our little home on 137 N Brown.

  396. Maybe it didn't look great on the outside.

  397. We kept it painted up. We hey, come on.

  398. We tried to take care of it. It wasn't ugly.

  399. It it it was it was just home. You walked in, you felt homey.

  400. People wanted to sit down and enjoy their self.

  401. They won't sit down on their table and eat because Sister

  402. McGee could cook, still can. She's not up to it much anymore,

  403. but she's, she can cook. She was a cook.

  404. She, hey, you know what? When the evangelist come, we had

  405. the Parsonage. They stayed in the Parsonage and

  406. we, we fed them and all the people could get in there, would

  407. come out to church and we'd eat come on church.

  408. I'm talking about the big wide door and the narrow door and how

  409. exquisite Lord the wide door is and how kind of shabby maybe if

  410. you compare it to the front. Didn't look so well, but when

  411. God's in the house, everything changes.

  412. Lord, see backdoor happiness says happiness happens when you

  413. give. Let's let's let's move the back

  414. door a little bit. Backdoor happiness is when you

  415. give it happens. Backdoor happiness is when you

  416. give the front door happiness is when you get you receive.

  417. It's all about me. Look at me, look at my house,

  418. look at what I've got. And people get their self in a

  419. mess that they can't get out of because of that old bills for

  420. the rest of their life because they've got a $20,000 front.

  421. And I got you hear me? I said it's a $20,000 front.

  422. They're dead head over heels. They can't even enjoy it.

  423. I don't know about you, but I'd rather have a door that's just a

  424. single and looks a plain old door and have my debts paid.

  425. Come on. I'd I'd rather owe no man

  426. nothing. Come on.

  427. Hallelujah, oh Jesus, Hallelujah, glory, Hallelujah.

  428. Let's turn to Acts chapter 20. Amen.

    Acts 20 chapter mention

  429. Acts chapter 20 and verse #35 said I have shewed you all

    Acts 20 chapter mention

  430. things. How that's so laboring.

  431. You ought to support the weak and to remember the words of the

  432. Lord Jesus, how he said It is more everybody said blessed to

  433. give than to receive. You get more of a blessing out

  434. of given than you do receiving. Oh, glory, when you come into

  435. the door of the church, I'm going to tell you early that

  436. you'll get more of a blessing by giving.

  437. I'm not talking about money now, but when you come into the House

  438. of God, you ought to give your all to God.

  439. Come on, He deserves our worship.

  440. He deserves the praise of His people.

  441. That's why He made us his people, so we could praise Him,

  442. so we could worship Him. It was his desire in the Garden

  443. of Eden to walk with Adam and Eve.

  444. He liked that little daytime thing when he, I can almost see

  445. it, that God come to walk with him.

  446. I, I don't know how they did it, but I've got the feeling,

  447. Brother Mason, that, that he might have just put one on the

  448. one side and 1:00 on the other and went through there with arm

  449. in arm. Oh, Jesus, Hallelujah, man, what

  450. a good feeling. Can you even I, I don't know

  451. whether you can think about it or even today, but it it feel

  452. pretty good with Jesus on ones, you know, Jesus on this side,

  453. Jesus on this side, you know, Hey, hey, I'm going to walk arm

  454. in arm with this couple. Come on.

  455. Does he not walk arm in arm with you every day?

  456. Come on. How many times have you felt him

  457. and knew he was there but you couldn't see him but you could

  458. feel him? Come on.

  459. People may not see the fanciness of your home, but what they will

  460. do, they'll see Jesus before they leave there because things

  461. are happening in your house that happens no place else.

  462. Glory Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus, the back door

  463. many times. I want to, I want to bring this

  464. in because I think this is right.

  465. Many times the back door is a place that's used to slip in,

  466. hoping nobody will see you. I ain't going to tell you where

  467. we live. No matter don't don't matter

  468. where we lived. I remember somebody, Sister

  469. McGee and I, we lived and these people would come in and we got

  470. to noticing that one of them, they don't really pay a lot

  471. attention, but one of them when they got out, we're all careful,

  472. look around and slam the door and they run as hard as they

  473. could for the house. You know what?

  474. Because they knew about Pentecost and they wouldn't

  475. dress like Pentecost. All right?

  476. I felt that. Go.

  477. Come on, holiness, without which no man shall see God.

  478. You're not even going to see him if you're not holy.

  479. He said to be a holy, for I am holy.

  480. I preach holiness. The Bible teaches holiness.

  481. I don't think we need to veer from that.

  482. I don't care how fancy your door gets on the front end, don't

  483. change your dress for the door. Oh, Jesus, I know I'm stepping

  484. on thin ice. That's all right.

  485. I'll swim if I have to. Glory.

  486. Hallelujah. It's the last used door, so

  487. everybody runs for it. Well, think about it.

  488. That was the back door, too, wasn't it, dear?

  489. Oh, I didn't think of that. That wasn't.

  490. That wasn't. I didn't write no notes on that.

  491. Oh, Glory. See, it's the less used door.

  492. It's a, it's kind of out of the way brother Mason.

  493. It's it's nobody. Nobody aspires to the back door.

  494. Nobody, nobody just parks in your yard, goes around just to

  495. get a glance at your back door. But they may be people that come

  496. and look at your 20,000 door up front, your $20,000 door.

  497. They said, man, isn't that beautiful?

  498. But if you got to have beauty to go to hell, why go that way?

  499. I'll just use the back door. Come on.

  500. If that's what it's going to cost me, Sister Milan, I'm not

  501. going to have a a front door that's so exquisite.

  502. I'm not just just let it be a plain door with maybe a little

  503. wind in it where I can peep out it.

  504. Don't it don't Come on. It don't have to be fancy.

  505. Come on. It don't have to have double

  506. doors and and and brass door knobs and and and windows out

  507. from it. You know, all all this garnished

  508. and and looking so pretty and only used for visitors so

  509. everybody sees what's out front. Oh God, Hallelujah, Hallelujah.

  510. See it's it's the last used door.

  511. It's, it's kind of out of the way and so, so to speak.

  512. It's, it's, it's not crowded. You, you know, nobody's standing

  513. in line at the back door. It's, it's, it's just a common

  514. door. It's not fancy.

  515. It's just kind of normal door looks like every other home.

  516. Maybe just just just, you know, just common, ordinary, everybody

  517. said ordinary. But you know what?

  518. We're not ordinary. He has set us apart as a royal

  519. priesthood, a holy nation. He has, he has set us apart as

  520. something different. In fact, I, I just yesterday I,

  521. I had mowed and I was, I was hot.

  522. So I, I went in and sat down at the table.

  523. Sister McGee was visiting her family and I went in there and

  524. sat down and got me a Gatorade and sat down there.

  525. And Brother Mason, for some reason I had pulled out my

  526. little MP3. You remember them?

  527. It's old hills. It still works.

  528. It's got 100 preaching messages on it.

  529. I plugged that in and sat down at the table.

  530. Sister Sheila and and I didn't, I didn't look through it to see

  531. what I was going to listen to. I just punched it.

  532. And guess what? It was all at once a voice that

  533. I recognized so clearly. And guess who?

  534. But Brother Sizemore, senior preaching it because of the

  535. times. And he started preaching about

  536. the high priest garment. He said in his church, and I

  537. bring it to he, he said in his church, he had a lady that was

  538. good at sewing and said she began to read up on that.

  539. And he said, I, I told her, I want one of those.

  540. And she made me one with all the little stones on it.

  541. And he brought something that that was so simple yet so great.

  542. They was talking about that that high priest garment, that when

  543. the garment was put on him, he become a high priest.

  544. Before the garment he was a normal person, but when the

  545. garment was put on him, he became a high priest.

  546. You know why? Because the anointing was in the

  547. garment. That was before the Holy Ghost,

  548. man, I could about sit at my kitchen table and her dining

  549. room table and then and it just, I felt the Holy Ghost all over

  550. me. And he, then he went in and took

  551. it a step farther. Brother Mason, he was talking

  552. about going when the high priest went into the holiest of holies.

  553. And you know well as I do, there's no light in there.

  554. But you got to notice that the priest put on the garment before

  555. he went in. And when that high priest walked

  556. through the doors, he said the lights came on.

  557. All those little 12, come on, tribes of Israel, those little

  558. stones lit up. Come on.

  559. I'm telling you. I began to think about it.

  560. He was talking about that, that God has called us all to be high

  561. priest. And he said we're not living up

  562. to it like we should. There needs to be light in us.

  563. We've got the Holy Ghost inside. He's a lamp under my feet and

  564. he's a light to my path. I don't have to go anywhere in

  565. the dark because God is with me. Oh, Jesus, Oh Lord, Hallelujah,

  566. Hallelujah, glory Hallelujah. You know, it's amazing.

  567. People are lined up to get into the sports events or the

  568. concerts. You got to go early of evening

  569. if you want in, tickets be sold out for you.

  570. Get in if you don't. Come on now, stay with me.

  571. Don't get mad at me now. I'll pray for you later, but I

  572. don't see them lined up to get to the church unless.

  573. Unless there's a concert or a special event, you can't.

  574. You can't tell how church, how good church is going to be by

  575. watching the front door come on. It may look ordinary on the

  576. outside, but there's something that grabs you and walk through

  577. the door. It happened in the first church.

  578. There's a guy right sitting right there.

  579. My son-in-law, he'll tell you it happened.

  580. He who sat back on him and his son used to sit on the back row

  581. at the first church. It's been long years since

  582. Brother Mike Penrod been to church at that time.

  583. He walked through the door and his son walked through the door.

  584. They'd sat on that back row. Brother Freddie, you know what?

  585. They come for entertainment, and they got it.

  586. Man. I've known Paulie all my life,

  587. but I've never known him to act like this.

  588. Come on. Act like what?

  589. Come on. Hey, when you get the Spirit of

  590. God on you, you can act all over.

  591. My Lord, I feel the Holy Ghost in here.

  592. I don't know what's keeping you on your seat, but I'm telling

  593. you, I'm feeling it up here. That Holy Ghost is real.

  594. It'll give you the move. You don't have to seek for it.

  595. Oh, glory Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

  596. But guess what? There was the one night he

  597. couldn't sit there no longer. The next thing you know, he's

  598. down the altar praying through. You know what?

  599. If you stay around the long enough, you're going to be a

  600. part of it. I guarantee it.

  601. You know why I don't care? It don't matter about the front

  602. door, what it looks like, but it's a spirit inside that front

  603. door that can't that'll grab you.

  604. It's what's happening in there. It's a spirit of the living God

  605. that's in there. It'll stir you.

  606. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah.

  607. You can't tell how good it's going to be but just watching

  608. the front door. But you sure can at the sports

  609. event or the concert because they're all lined up out there.

  610. Some of them has probably been sitting there for hours at their

  611. own little seat. You know, they got a little

  612. something there to drink and they're waiting on time to

  613. enter. 0 God, you know what? I'm glad that God's got a door

  614. that we can enter anytime the door is open.

  615. The veil's been rent in twain, Brother Reese, I know for a fact

  616. you can just go right on through the door because you done it

  617. last Sunday. Now Holy Ghost is in there and

  618. you've got access to it. Glory Hallelujah.

  619. I want to tell you, the church is the back door.

  620. The world's the front door. Church is the back door.

  621. Few there be that find it. They're going to say it's too

  622. strict for me. You all got too many rules and

  623. regulations. Well, so is Walmart your

  624. workplace. Every other place has got their

  625. standards too. Why not the church have a

  626. standard? Don't be ashamed your standards.

  627. Don't be ashamed of how you dress.

  628. Thank God for it. At least I can tell a man from a

  629. woman and a woman from a man. It'd be all right, dear.

  630. I'm I'm preaching, but it's, it's, it's going to go out.

  631. That's all right. Let the world hear it.

  632. Oh, glory, Hallelujah, Hallelujah.

  633. See, the church is the back door because it's not crowded now.

  634. I'm I'm going, I'm going, I'm going to get down business here

  635. because hey, I'm, I'm going to do it way.

  636. The Holy Ghost let me do it. I'm, that's, I'm, I'm hold back

  637. too long. I'm going to get it.

  638. I'm going to get back to old Pastor Mcgee's preaching back

  639. years ago when I was pastor. I'm, I'm going to get back to

  640. that. You know why?

  641. Because it's not crowded. It's not crowded at the church

  642. door. And if it is, oh boy, I'm.

  643. And if it is, Are you sure it's church or is it entertainment?

  644. Just to begin, I met a pastor your way back from this city.

  645. And I'm, I'm not going to mention no names or nothing, but

  646. we've talked a lot in the past. We've talked rolled his window

  647. down. He said, Brother McGee, we're

  648. living in the world today. That's crazy.

  649. And after entertainment, he said that's what it's all about.

  650. Now. Don't have entertainment in

  651. church. A lot of times people ain't

  652. going to come. Well, that's her choice.

  653. If they want to go to hell, go ahead.

  654. I don't know about you, but I choose the spirit of the living

  655. God. I choose worship.

  656. I choose the Holy Ghost. Come on.

  657. I choose the move of God. I choose running.

  658. I choose shouting. Come on.

  659. I choose holiness. Come on, I choose the I choose

  660. that narrow way. I choose that front that that

  661. rear door. I'll go in it, Lori.

  662. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

  663. Few there be that find it. It's not crowded.

  664. See, it's been said. And I was stirred about this.

  665. That 100, and I don't know how old this statistic is, probably

  666. may not be opened up to date. I don't know, 158 billion

  667. dollars are spent on return on entertainment a year.

  668. That's staggering. Yet you can't get people to come

  669. to church and even pay their tithe much less anymore.

  670. Thank God for people in this church that pays or ties.

  671. I praise God for it. I thank God everybody said thank

  672. God for it. That's what keeps the doors

  673. open. That's how we keep the

  674. missionaries going. Come on in.

  675. Don't stay here. And I hope the Spirit of God

  676. don't just stay here. But it works it way out these

  677. doors and around this city. And when they see it, yeah,

  678. you're a witness and you don't even know it.

  679. Sister McGee. I don't know how long we had

  680. lived there, but where we live right now, there's a man that

  681. moved down here and his son that moved down on the corner from

  682. us, and he had a couple lawn mowers that was sitting up there

  683. about his trailer. I don't know.

  684. Walked up one day and he's talking.

  685. He said, I'm going to throw these mowers away.

  686. He said, you want us, you're going to throw them mowers away.

  687. He said, yeah, that's OK, take them.

  688. I thought that one looks almost new.

  689. He said, well got a he says he's got a rope broke in it ain't no

  690. good. I went home, took top off, put a

  691. new rope in it, put gas and oil in it, fold it and just got rid

  692. of it. Just just this year it the IT

  693. wasn't because the motor quit, but it was a it was hey, it was

  694. it was self-propelled mower. Nice mower.

  695. It starts first time. I don't care if it's that there

  696. all year it start. I mowed my lawn with it.

  697. Sister Jessup's lawn with it. Lady next door to me mowed it

  698. too. Mowed all them years.

  699. We've lived there 17 years and I know, I know it was.

  700. I don't know how many. 1215 years old.

  701. Took it to my brother and he's going to use the engine.

  702. She's still good. Come on church, he gave me

  703. another little mower and it looked like brand new.

  704. I I never heard of a weed eater mower, but it was a mower, a

  705. weed eater mower. Is it green and little bitty old

  706. thing? And and when they was using

  707. mowers around here, I told brother.

  708. I said, man, this thing's just like new of it.

  709. It runs, but it just needs a little help.

  710. Brother pat take us home, fix it and I'm going to take it to

  711. church and they can use it to, you know, trim mower.

  712. So the dead they put it over here.

  713. Guess what? But wasn't it just a little bit

  714. to my other mower went bad too? So two went bad and within two

  715. weeks and I asked bro Freddie, I said is that more already been

  716. used downstairs? He said ain't nobody using a

  717. Bishop, you brought it over, take it home.

  718. So I took it home. Now I'm using it.

  719. Come on, that guy, give them to me, you know.

  720. Now he'd moved away for a good while and directly all at once

  721. he showed up and he moved up in the center part.

  722. And the other day he he came over and he's he come and talk

  723. to me once. Well, I didn't even know his

  724. first name. He didn't know him, but we

  725. talked and he come over one day and I, I was out there and I

  726. was, you know, I, well, I was wrenching my car and shammying

  727. it. Imagine that.

  728. And we stood there and we talked a while and the next thing he

  729. know it said Brother Mason, he said, I want to say one thing to

  730. you. He said all the time that you

  731. have lived here. He said, I can say you're a

  732. godly man. Let me tell you, Church, let me

  733. tell you, when you walk out the doors of your house, you've got

  734. to remember that you're not alone because you got Jesus

  735. inside you. His reflection comes from you.

  736. People see you differently than they see the world.

  737. Something's going on inside this house.

  738. Come on, something's going on inside this house.

  739. This isn't an empty house. It may have a it may.

  740. Hey, I may be wrinkled enough. All of that.

  741. Come on. That's.

  742. Yeah. Come on.

  743. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm getting up there in them 70s and getting

  744. ready to go over the hill, you know, and soon be 76 years old.

  745. But I'm going to tell you something.

  746. There's something burning on the inside of this house.

  747. The fire hadn't went out yet. It's still burning in here.

  748. Come on. Oh, glory, Hallelujah.

  749. Somebody needs to help me preach a little bit.

  750. Hallelujah. I think we need to worship as

  751. long as we can. I don't care how old you are.

  752. If we can worship, we need to worship.

  753. Hallelujah. Yes, Hallelujah.

  754. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah.

  755. Hallelujah. You know what?

  756. It's a sad thing, but people will miss church to go to a

  757. sports event or a special concert.

  758. You know how to get a crowd in church?

  759. Have a big old dinner and they'll show up.

  760. They'll show up for the word dinner.

  761. You might want to say Amen. In fact, you'd be better off.

  762. We'd just say Hallelujah. That's the truth.

  763. You have people come in the doors that you ain't seen for

  764. five years. You know what?

  765. Because Brother Freddie, the truth is some of them saying,

  766. what can the church do for me? Boy, I'm going, I'm, I know I'm

  767. meddling, but that's all right. I'm going to meddle a little

  768. bit. I think it needs to be stirred

  769. up a little. Sister Sheila, I remember time

  770. being pastor. My wife was sick.

  771. Somebody needed some food. Sister Sheila asked her.

  772. I said, Sister, will you go with me?

  773. We'll go to the grocery store and we'll get some food, take

  774. his people. And we got kind of surprised

  775. these people needed food. And I started just telling

  776. people, you know, we'll bring you food, but you're going to

  777. have to come. Church once walked in that

  778. house. Hey, big old TV, cell phones.

  779. I didn't have cell phone, didn't have big TV either.

  780. You know what people do and get what they want to get.

  781. If you've got a strong desire to go to church, ain't no devil in

  782. hell can keep you out of it. I understand sickness,

  783. understand that, I understand that.

  784. But I'm going to tell you if I'm well, I'm going to go to church.

  785. I'm either going to church, you know, if, if, if I'm out of

  786. town, that's one thing. But if I'm home and I'm well,

  787. I'm going to church. You know why?

  788. Because I'm figuring on getting well or yet I'm going to get

  789. feeling better. Come on, I'm going to worship

  790. and you can worship with me if you want.

  791. You don't have to. You can go home feeling drab,

  792. but I'm going to home and I'm going to feel good.

  793. Oh, Jesus. Oh, well, I know I'm meddling.

  794. That's all right. I'm going to do it.

  795. Hallelujah. I know.

  796. Here we go. I'm.

  797. I'm about to close. I better be.

  798. And it's turning red up there. That's usually where I end up in

  799. the red. Now here.

  800. Here we go, Pastor. I won't be at church Wednesday

  801. night. So and so's going to be in

  802. concert in Evansville and, and, and I'll probably never, ever

  803. get the chance to see her again. You know Lauren, Daigle and

  804. Wilson. You know all of the.

  805. I'll never get a chance to see them again.

  806. I want to tell you something. This could be your last chance.

  807. You'll see the church. You don't got no promise

  808. tomorrow. Today the Bible says it's a day

  809. of salvation. Tomorrow you may die.

  810. You better praise him while you can.

  811. Come on. You could sit on your seat

  812. tonight and die tomorrow. I don't know about you, but if I

  813. die worshiping, all right, just let it happen.

  814. Come on. I'm planning on worshiping.

  815. I'm planning on. Come on, I'm planning on

  816. preaching my heart out. I'm by red closure.

  817. I really am. Hallelujah.

  818. See, I'm thinking that one of the problems we have right now,

  819. we've been looking for the that real nice, exquisite front door,

  820. and all it'll do is point you to hell in troubles.

  821. See, I don't know about you, but huh.

  822. I'm hunting the back door. I'm going to tell you why.

  823. I'm going to give you Scripture, and I know probably I might,

  824. might be the only one that ever preaches us this way, but I've

  825. studied that long enough that I feel like I'm right.

  826. So you can believe what you want.

  827. Luke 6 verse #38 This is my last scripture.

  828. I want to be on the given team. Give.

  829. Everybody said give and it shall be given unto you.

  830. Now you catch that give, and it give and it.

  831. Now there's what you give, it shall be given unto you.

  832. Now listen, good measure, everybody press down, shaken

  833. together. You know corn, you can shake it

  834. up and it'll go down and running over it shall men give unto your

  835. bosom. For with the same measure

  836. everybody said same measure that you met with all it shall be

  837. measured to you again. Are you catching it?

  838. I don't know about you, but anything you give your your

  839. promise a double portion back. You read that verse you, you go

  840. through and take all the commentaries you want to.

  841. But I'm telling you, that's the way I read it.

  842. Give and it shall be given to. OK, right off the bat, I'm going

  843. to get back, back what I got. But he said, now it's going to

  844. be pressed down, shaken together and running over.

  845. In other words, what you give is going to be running over.

  846. It's a double portion. Which do you want?

  847. I don't know about you. You can go in the front door if

  848. you want to. I'm going to take a back door.

  849. There's a double portion waiting on me back there.

  850. Thank you for giving me some time tonight.

  851. Thank you for helping me preach. I'm going to open this altar

  852. tonight. And if you're a little

  853. questionable on some areas in your life, I'd be you.

  854. I'd be hitting the altar and straightening it up.

  855. And no matter if you are, if you just want a little more, if you

  856. want it like pressed down, shaken together, running over,

  857. I, I'm going to leave this altar open for you because I believe

  858. God's got something. I don't know, but I want my

  859. house to be one of those that you walk in, you feel the

  860. presence of God right away that they know something's going on

  861. And there's prayer going on in there.

  862. There's a sister Jen, when you walk in my house, I want you to

  863. feel comfortable. I mean, comfortable so much.

  864. And she say man and I, I, I feel a little hard in here.

  865. For you, Sister McGee and I, the older we get, the better

  866. listeners we become. I can remember a lot of time,

  867. remember times, Sister McGee and the Parsonage.

  868. I remember a young lady come knocked on our door.

  869. It was after midnight. She barefooted.

  870. You know why? She wanted in a home that she

  871. felt comfortable and she began to spill her guts to us.

  872. They wanted to get hold of somebody could pray.

  873. And guess what? She didn't come to our front

  874. door. She come to our back door.

  875. I'm on church. It don't matter what that front

  876. door looks like. It's what they feel inside the

  877. house that counts. Altars open.

  878. I feel Holy ghosted. I preach my soul.

  879. Edward Al, It's you the.