Something To Do For God

"Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also. And I went up by revelation." (Gal. 2:1, 2). Now, I want you to notice this: Paul is a revelator, a man that teaches spiritual revelation. The Bible teaches that he is our Apostle. He said, "Inasmuch as I am the Apostle to the Gentile Church, I magnify my office." He is the Apostle to this Church and this Church is supposed to be a Revelation Church.

I come in from time to time and see people with problems, and I know that they have problems. When I get up here to preach, I'm not here to mock them or make light of them, but I really come with all Truth in my heart to help them. I am really amazed, at times, when I come in here and find out that people are all torn up and divided asunder. One will be upset with the other. One will blame the other for it, and I find them crying, all torn up, and without mocking at all, I'm amazed at it. Jesus marvelled one time at the unbelief of His creation. Now, He made man and put him in the world. He knew the thoughts and intents of a man's heart, how he would function and all about him; but He was literally amazed, and the Bible said that He marvelled at humanity when He saw their unbelief. Although I know the ways of man, because I have dealt with them for so many years, yet, I marvel at the things I see. I don't mean this wrong, but we have got a world full of babies. We cry every time somebody hurts our feelings. If we don't cry we punch him in the nose. If we don't do that we are going to be a gossiper and we are going to tear them down in every place that we can find. If we have to use the Scriptures to justify what we are doing and saying, we are going to do it to tear that man or woman down.

There is a world full of lost and undone people that are on their way to a burning hell, to a place where there is a real fire. A lot of people do not want to believe that and they do not accept it, but it is a real burning, tormenting thing called fire, which the Bible says is not quenched. The Bible calls it "Eternal Flames."

A lot of people say, "Well, Brother Pike, I believe there is a fire, but I believe it will go out after awhile," but the Bible says, "Eternal Flames," not an everlasting flame, because we could speak that away. We could take a little Greek and a little Hebrew and juggle it up together, you know, and say, "Forever means spaces of time," and that kind of thing. Jonah was in the belly of the whale forever, and yet he wasn't there but a day or two, which were spaces of time etc. But when you go to say "eternal" you can't explain that away can you? If you explain the word "eternal" away then there goes our eternal life down the drain, so we can't afford to explain it away. The Bible said, "Eternal Flames," so you can be sure that there is a place that God has prepared for them that reject the Gospel and would not obey the Voice of the Lord, where people are going to when they fail to carry the Gospel to a lost and dying world.

God has commanded us to preach the Gospel and to publish it to every creature, and He tells us that if we do not do it, we are in violation of His way of life, for it is our reasonable service to give out bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God; wholly unto God, not partially, for every bit of us is supposed to be given to God. David said to love Him with all of your heart, all of your mind, and with all of your strength. You are to love God with all that you are. That doesn't leave any room for anything else does it? You have got to love Him with everything that is within you, not partially, but with everything. If you sing a song you ought to sing with all of your soul, with all of your might. If you say "Hallelujah!" you ought not to say it out of a formality because you are Pentecostal, but you ought to say it because of the hallelujah down in your heart, because you love God. You do not have any time to sit around and watch television and see what the world is doing out yonder. You don't have any time to sit around and read the newspapers of the comics or do something else. All of your time is to be given to God. The Bible says you are to bring into subjection every thought in obedience to Christ. There is not one thought that God will allow you to spare from dedication toward Him. That doesn't give you any time to be watching or reading anything or be making any plans. You say, "Well, I have to work and make a living." Every time you pull a paint brush it ought to be; "I am going to work and make a dollar today so I can do something for God tomorrow." I don't mean like some hypocrites do, you know, they'll get out and trade for a job whether it is painting or some other form of contracting, or maybe working in an office, and they say, "I'm making this a ministry for Jesus," but Jesus doesn't ever see anything as far as their finance, coming out of what they are doing; not anything. I believe this in my heart. A person that will pay their tithe and won't give to God is backslid. Come on folks, the Bible says, "tithes and offerings," if you are going to go by the letter. That means you are backslid and not obeying the Bible, but I believe that God had called us unto glory and virtue and He intends that everything that I get ahold of be given to God. I believe that God intends for all of my time to be taken up in prayer, in fasting, in studying the Bible, in going and preaching the Gospel and in coming together somewhere to make plans to win souls for God. I believe that with all my heart. Every person, when they wake up in the morning, the first thing that ought to cross their mind is, "Am I all right with the Lord? What am I going to do for God today?" If they wake up in the middle of the night it ought to be, "Lord, do you want me to pray? What are you trying to tell me, Lord?" All through the day it ought to be Jesus.

The Bible says that the man of God will meditate in the Laws of God day and night, with every thought and intent of the heart. Everything! If a person is not in that kind of a condition they do not have God. God's Spirit does not work a half a dozen different ways. It works just one way and that is to completely swallow you up, completely possess the reins of your heart and the ways of your life, and cause you to place your affections, love and desire on the things that are yonder in heaven. It takes all of your desire away from the things of the world. God does that! That's what the Holy Spirit does. If you don't have that kind of an attitude and that kind of a life, you don't have that kind of a God. That's the only God there is, the true and living God. If you come to Church whenever you take a notion to, just whenever you feel inspired to come to Church, you are backslid. Your heart is not right with God. As it was said to the sorcerer as he tried to turn the deputy away from the faith, "Your heart is not right with God. You are in the gall of bitterness and bound of iniquity." So then, there is a right way with God.

The Bible says that even in the days of Paul; Peter, being the man with the keys to the Kingdom, erred in one place and Paul immediately went to him and said, "I blamed him to his face because he was to be blamed, because he wasn't walking upright before God according to the Gospel." Now folks, if Peter was in error, and if God wouldn't let him get by with it and sent Paul to rebuke him, it would have had to have been Paul I dare say, for if it had been another person anywhere on the earth, Peter would not have received it, because he was the greatest man in the earth according to the Bible. He had been given the keys to the Kingdom, but when he got a hold of the Revelation Of Christ that Paul had, he said, "This is hard to be understood," because he knew that Paul had received an experience that appeared to be above his experience.

Somebody said, "I don't believe he had one," but he had received one. You say, "Why do you say that?" Because he had to go to a people that Peter wasn't going to. He had to go to the Gentiles while Peter was only going unto the Jews. When Peter heard Paul's revelation he had confidence in him above his own integrity and he looked on the things that Paul had, and when Paul told him he was wrong, Peter received it. Peter receive it! If another man had come up I am satisfied that Peter would have had a round with him and disputed with him and said, "Now, look here, I have the keys to the Kingdom. You listen to me!" But he couldn't do that could he? Now, if God can do that to Peter then what can He do to me and you?

There is a right way to serve God and many people today are not going that way. Instead of living for God, instead of getting our minds on God, instead of trying to win souls, we carry our feelings on our shoulders and every time something happens on the job we've got to run to the Pastor or somebody else. We've got to get everything balled up or straightened out as you call it, when the Bible says that if you have an ought against your brother, to go to your brother, not the Pastor. Do you know why you come to the Pastor? It is because you are trying to get around your brother. You are trying to beat the other fellow to the Pastor so that you can get the Pastor turned in your direction, and if you can get him warped up and turned in your direction, that soothes your wicked conscience and makes you feel like everything is all right, but it does not make any difference. If the Pastor turns in your favor and you have got him warped up, then both of you will go to hell, whether it is me or whoever it is. If a man does not judge a matter right, God will send him to hell as well as He does the fellow that does wrong. We have got to have righteous judgement and we have got to do right. Why do you fuss? Why do you fight? Why do you quibble and always stay at each other's throat on your jobs and different places? Somebody said, "Well, I don't like my boss, Brother Pike. I don't like the way he talks to me." Well, leave him and quit him and get another one. Don't stay on the job and fight with him and argue and try to imprison the minds of the other brethren that are on the job against the man because you don't like him. Get off of the job and leave him alone. The boss says, "Well, I say something to him because he does not do his job right and I am not satisfied with him." Well, fire him! There is no need to come to the preacher about it. I don't care if you fire him or hire him. I am not interested if you hire three or ten or four. If you don't hire any, it is your business. God didn't call me to do that. God called me to preach.

Now, it is the same way with your family problems. You have got family problems, and you won't correct your children, they do wrong. Then, you want me to settle the problem when I tell you from the pulpit what you have got to do. You don't treat your wife right. Then, she runs off and leaves you and you want me to settle the problem. I didn't marry your wife. You married her! I didn't tell her to leave. You are the cause of it!

Is is the same way with the wife. The husband runs off and she wants me to settle the problem. I can't settle it. All I can do is tell you the right way to go; and if you don't go the right way, then there's another way to go and that's the wrong way which leads to hell. I could say it in a more society sort of a way. We live in a day of society and brilliance, you know, and polished scholars, where we could use some more terms, but the real right term according to the Bible is, "You are going to hell." That is the best way to say it, because folks that are simple understand that kind of talk. You are going to go to hell if you don't live right. If you live right you are going to go to heaven. I mean that is just how simple the Gospel really is. Now, I need somebody that will stand by me; not somebody that is going to fuss and fight with their wife or husband or young ones all of the time; not somebody that is going to sit in church and kick him on his leg and nudge him because he won't bounce the baby, because you are upset and have been that way for two or three days. That didn't hit so good! Bite him, pinch him, kick him...anything, as long as the Pastor doesn't see it. You say, "I wouldn't do nothing like that!" I have seen some of you do it.

Folks, what are we going to do? Are we going to be a bunch of babies all of our lives and never grow up? Paul said, "When I was a child, I spake as a child, but when I became a man I put away childish things." Are we going to be babies all of our lives, and every time the Pastor goes away say, "Bless God, I don't like what they said, I'm quitting my position right now?" What are you going to do? "I'm going to the Carolinas! I'm going to Virginia! I'm going to Texas! I'm going somewhere!" But, what about your position? What about what you are supposed to be doing for God? Doesn't that matter? Doesn't that count? "Ah, let him get somebody else," Somebody says. Okay, I'll tell you, we'll get somebody else. If you don't want to do it, just remember, Brother Pike has got somebody else.

I've been preaching for a long time and trying to win souls for over twenty years in the United States, in the islands and round about; and I make it a point in my life not to be foolish enough to have anybody in a position without somebody else ready to take their place, so if you don't want it, you leave it! There's somebody else waiting to get it.

I'm going to tell you something. When you leave what God had given you to do, you might as well forget about going to heaven, because God isn't going to take you to heaven. When you leave one church because you don't like what the preacher says and you don't like reproof, and you go over to another church, God isn't going to receive you. Now, the church might receive you, but God isn't. You are going to that church thinking everything is all right because they have received you there, and then you will die and go to hell. God doesn't change about. If you cannot live for God at one church, you cannot live for Him at another one. Somebody said, "Well, Brother Pike, I just cannot live for God over there at that church, but I can at another church." That is a lie! If you can live for God, you can do it in the chambers of hell, Jesus walked through the chambers of hell and held His integrity with God, and if you've got God it is not a matter of where you are! If you've got God, you've got the victory. If you're in Monroe and you haven't got God, you haven't got the victory. Brother, getting God means being born again, and some of you haven't been born again. Somebody said, "Well, I know that I got down at the altar and I cried and felt God." That doesn't mean you're born again. "I got it with speaking in tongues!" That doesn't mean you're born again. Somebody said, "Well, I know that I'm a Christian." That doesn't mean you are born again. The Bible said that you could believe a lie and be damned. You can believe you're on your way to heaven when you're on your way to hell. Somebody said, "Well then, how do we know, Brother Pike?" The Bible said, "We know that we've passed from death unto life because we love the brethren." That is the only proof of eternal life that I can find in the Bible. I can't find any place in the Scriptures anywhere at anytime, where they speak of any proof of eternal life except that you have the Love of God and love your fellow man. The Bible said that if you don't love your brother, whom you have seen, how can you love God, whom you've not seen? For, in that you did it unto the least of these, my brethren, you did it to Me. Isn't that right? So, the only proof of life is love, because God is the Spirit of Love.

When you mumble and grumble, and when you find fault against the Pastor, against the laity, against the leaders, against your brothers and your sisters, it is a positive proof that you don't have eternal life. Now, you might be a good church goer, but you don't have eternal life, and if you don't have eternal life you're in trouble.

Did you know that the Bible said to love your enemies? Somebody said, "I just can't love that old brother", but the bible said for you to love your enemies, not just your brother. Love the one that's mistreating you. If you're just loving your brother, you need to go farther than that. Love your enemies. Do good to them that despitefully use you. Pray for them that persecute you, and if somebody does something wrong, go up and just tell them, say, "God bless you, I love you." They say, "Well, I can't stand you!" Say, "Well, I love you the more," and when they do something against you and it gets into the grapevine, then Brother So and So and Sister So and So brings it over to your house, you know, the first thing we do is say, "Ahmm, yes, ahmm, yes, I noticed that he was that kind of person all the time. I tried to have confidence in them, but you see what kind of person they are." Then, two days later you find out that they didn't say it at all, but it was the long-tongued gossiper that came over your way, and you've talked and said things and run that sister or brother in the ground, and you feel just as dirty as a pig.

Now, do you know what the problem is? God allows it that you might get a good chance to look at yourself in the mirror of God for all of a sudden, it will dawn on you that that wasn't the bad person, the bad person was you, or you wouldn't have had that in your heart to start with. The Bible said, "Love you enemies, do good to them that despitefully use you, pray for them that persecute you."

Somebody said, "I have got the gift of healing, Brother Pike." I see them on the field and I really believe some of them really have got the power of God, as far as gifts in their lives. They say, "I have the gift of healing," but the Bible says that if you can work a miracle and you don't have charity, it doesn't profit you anything. You still do not have eternal life. You may have discernment, but that does not give you eternal life. You've got to have charity, because the only proof of eternal life is love toward your brother. It takes the love of God; not faith, but love. Somebody said, "Well, I believe it takes faith." The Bible says that faith worketh by love. It takes love.

I know we say we don't have anything to do. I talked to some of the youth and some older people and asked, "Why don't you something for God?" "There just ain't nothing to do," was their reply, yet the Bible says, "Go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come into the House of God."

Some of you just travel like a traveling evangelist. You go all the time, but if you didn't do anything but find one person a day in a store, service station or a field anywhere and try to talk to them about God and try to get them in the House of God, you would be working for God.

Well, I heard about a prison in a publication that was made, where there is just enough room in the cell for one person to walk to the rest room, but in these little narrow cells they have four bunks towering up, and three people have to lay in the bunk while one person goes to the rest room: a little narrow cell that people spend their lives in. You can't get along with your husband or wife and your children in a four, five or six room building, and here they are cooped up, four of them in a little cell; and I want you to know that I'm talking about women folks. These are women that are in prison in that kind of condition. The prison that I read about was so dirty that when the people went to examine it they referred to it as unfit for dogs, and that even animals have better places in which to live, and yet, we are crying because somebody hurt our feelings. They live in that every day and nobody tries to do anything for them, so much as to write them a letter or go visit them, or try to find anything about them or help them find out if they have got salvation. Every day they live there and you don't do anything at all about it but sit at home and cry because somebody hurt your feelings or didn't do the way you thought they ought to do, and it just tore you all to pieces. You big cry baby! That's what you are, a big cry baby!

The husband tells the wife how she ought to live and how she ought to dress and what she ought to do, and she says, "Oh, my God, you killed me! I've been with you three years, and you've killed me! I'm dead! I'm no more good!" No, you're not dead. I'll tell you what, by the way you act, you're everything but dead. The best thing that could happen to you is to have it go the other way, but you cry, you pout and you fuss.

People are not only in natural prisons, but hundreds and thousands of people, men and women alike, boys and girls, are in spiritual prisons and we are not doing anything at all about it. Somebody said, "Well, I don't see where that matters. I don't see where that's got anything to do with salvation. If they're not supposed to be there, God wouldn't have put them there!" Alright, I'm going to ask you one question. If that doesn't have anything to do with salvation and all you've got to do is believe; you know, go to church, pay your tithe, believe, be a good Christian and God is going to say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant...." If God is going to do that, why did He say that in that day the Lord would say, "I was hungry and you didn't feed me, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was sick and in prison and you didn't visit me," and they will say, "Lord, when did we see you like this?" Jesus said, "In that you did it not to the least of these, my brethren, you didn't do it to Me."

I am thoroughly convinced from my heart that the reason your belly is rotting out with cancer and you've got your sicknesses, the reason you've got poverty and trouble with you children, trouble with your family and your job is because you've let those people go lacking and God is letting America rot until she stinks like a rotten potato. Her bellies are rotting out with cancer. Her mind is going bad on her and her nerves have gone berserk. Everything is wrong with her because she won't feed the hungry. She won't clothe the poor and the naked. She won't try to help anybody or inconvenience herself for anything. They'll come by and drop a few dollars in the offering, maybe once a month, and if they do it more than that, they're not going to drop their money in, and they rare back and drive new cars, ride down the road, go frolicking, go to the mountains and the beaches and everywhere, while people are in cells like those women.

Somebody said, "Well, bless God, you can't help those kind of people." Well now, if that be true, then why was it that the reports stated that one man was in there for murder and somebody got a piece of literature in to him. The man read the literature and was convicted, giving his heart to God. He testified that never in his whole life had he ever been confronted with God and never had anybody ever come to him in that manner. The man surrendered to Christ and was filled with the Spirit of God, according to the reports, and is living a holy, overcoming life, praising God for the person who did it. He made the statement, "Before my conversion, I was so bitter, the man that I killed, I was satisfied over killing him and didn't feel bad about it. I was so angry at the ones that had put me in prison, feeling that I had done what I felt was right, that I didn't have time to think about Christ or anybody else. I didn't take time," he said, but somebody got to him. Now, if there is no need to do that, then why did that happen? Somebody would say, "Well, that is a rare case," but there were numbers of cases where people had given their heart to God, surrendering to Christ. I've been into the prisons and preached to them. I've seen the tears run down their cheeks while I was standing there telling them about God. They were grateful and thankful, and they couldn't show their appreciation enough for somebody coming and telling them about Jesus. Do you know what, folks, when it gets to be your own boy or your own daughter; when it gets to by you or your husband that's behind the bars, then you're going to understand the feelings of the infirmities of the weak. God is grieved every day.

I remember when Brother Taylor and I went over to the judge in Athens, Georgia on behalf of a brother's son that is here. The old judge came out. He was an aged fellow who had been doing it for many long years. He sat down very sternly and very reserved and said, "What do you want?" I said, "Sir, I want to talk with you." He said, "Alright." I said, "I want to tell you about Jesus." That didn't set too well, but he listened. When I got through, he granted my petition and not only that, but when I got through talking to him the tears began to fill his eyes. He began to wring his hands and say, "Sometimes I feel like Pilate." I said, "Sir, God saves judges too. Would you like to be saved?" He said, "Yes." I said, "I want to lay my hands on you." I went over, laid my hands on him, and Brother Taylor and I prayed. Tears filled his eyes and I asked, "Do you feel that God has saved your soul?" He did like this, nodding his head yes.

I wonder down in my heart what we are doing for God? A report came from South India of eight hundred leprous people that were eaten up with leprosy, which were pleading for the Gospel to be sent to them. They were in the hospital, mind you, and the hospital was pleading for help, with eight hundred people going to die unless God undertook. You say, "Well, God isn't concerned about that," but in the days of Paul, James, John and Elisha they were sent to the lepers. God was concerned in that day. Of the widows that are around us some of them are going hungry and some of them are in need. Somebody said, "Well now, Brother Pike, you're absurd! You know there's nobody like that today." I just heard of a man taking his life not too long ago because he couldn't make his family a living. Brother Bob, you said that since you've been down here, the brethren didn't know it, but right over there, you went hungry. Is that right? "Oh," somebody said, "That couldn't happen," but it does happen, right in you own midst, yet, you've got shoes laying back there, dozens of coats and dresses, and you fuss because you can't get another one. You eat like a pig all the time and fuss if you don't have everything you want, and yet, people are starving to death, but do you ever get the thought in your mind that you can come and do a little something extra? Somebody said, "Well, I've got a day off. I think I'm going to the mountains." Well, bless your heart, go to the mountains! You'll need to enjoy it, because I'll tell you one thing, when you are turned into the flames of hell you're not going to have any remembrance of the mountains. "I think I'll go down to the beach." Well, go ahead! That's good. God ahead and spend your money; spend your time; go to the beach and have a good time. You need to, because you're going to burn in hell for it. Go ahead! Somebody said, "Now Brother Pike, do you mean to tell me that I can't even go to the rodeo?" Of course, they don't go to the rodeo much around here, you know. We just came from Arkansas and thousands upon thousands of people, right next to where we were at, poured into the rodeo. Brother Taylor and I took full advantage; and we waited until they started pouring out, and I'll tell you what, every tract that I had in English, that I could get out, I think we had very few left when we got through, but I passed them out until it got dark. I didn't get to bed, Jim, I gave out tracts. I was weary, tired and worn out and said, "I'd wish I had David!" He's a whiz at giving out tracts. I said, "If I had Brother Dale and little Brother Ricky Gonzales and my David," I said, "Boy, we'd cover this place." I'll tell you what, while we gave out the tracts, I watched those poor, diluted minds, people coming out of there, you know. Here came a fellow out with four tumblers that you buy for ten cents at the store in his hand and four more in his other hand, and here he was going. I mean he felt like he had whipped the world, and I thought, "Now, you probably paid your whole paycheck for about forty cents worth of tumblers, because I know for a fact that if you get to where you win anything worthwhile, they won't let you do it." Somebody had been telling me recently how they got good about winning some of the bears that were worth a few dollars, so they stopped him and wouldn't let him do it anymore. I looked at these people, coming out of there with those kind of things, and at the people who had come to perform for them like the Louven Brothers and Dolly Parton, and then of course, they had the ferris wheel out there and the rodeo, you know, and I thought, "Those people, lining their pocketbooks or bank accounts with the money from a poor, helpless people that don't know their right hand from their left. God will burn them in hell for that."

Some of them, no doubt, went home and couldn't pay their rent; couldn't get groceries or do anything, because I could tell there were poor folks going in there, all just to go in for a few minutes to live it up.

Folks, they tell me there just isn't anything to do for God out here every day. How many do I hear say that? I heard it this very day! There just ain't anything to do for God; yet, you can sit on the bench, be restless and discontented, your mind wandering everywhere, never having done anything and never going to do anything because your mind is polluted and diluted by the things of the world and your thoughts are everywhere except in the Word of God and listening to the preacher. Somebody said, "Now, how in the world did you know that that is the way I was thinking?" It's not hard, just get up here where I'm at. I want to tell you tonight that there's something to do for God!

The nursing home needs somebody to tell them about Jesus. The prisons and those rodeo riders need somebody to tell them about Jesus. Somebody said, "Well, I feel like somebody has already told them about Jesus." You don't know that they've already told them. There is one thing for sure, you haven't told them about Jesus, and God didn't say that in the day of judgement He was going to reward you because somebody told them about Jesus. He said for you to go into all the world, and for you to preach the Gospel to every creature. Somebody said, "Well, bless God, I'm not a preacher," but the Bible said that He was a Prophet and you're bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. That means you're the bone of a Prophet. Isn't that right? But today, He speaks to us by His Son, Jesus Christ; that is the membership of the Church.

What about Stephen? What did he do? He wasn't a preacher! He was just a deacon, but he preached one of the best sermons, enough to make them stone him to death.

Now, Let's simmer down a little bit. I'm not through. If you want to go home, get up and leave! It's like I told them in Olive Branch a few days ago as I was preaching over there. They started a little gimmick. One thing they started didn't work, and I just preached a little longer, and when I had preached two hours and something, we had a good meeting and everybody went home. If you don't want a two hour sermon, let's get back in gear now.

There is something that we need to do for God. If it takes all night long, as it did for Paul, to get it over to the people, then we need to stay all night long. We need to stay away from bouncing bojacks, pretty-boy orators and polished scholars, and get down to the Word of God and realize that we're going to hell if we don't straighten up our crooked lives. God's not playing a game with you because you're young. Somebody said, "I'm young!" That doesn't make any difference. You know more today as a young person than Grandma knew when she was seventy years old. God is not letting you by with any thing. You need to get straightened out! You would have known more if you have listened better. There is something to do for God.

I want somebody to line up with me, to work with me, to get into these offices and get into a position with me, that is going to be a man and stay there when I'm gone, and if you ain't going to do that, get out! That's the best way I know to say it. Get out of it! If you're not going to stay at the office and work with me, and every time I leave you say, I'm going to quit!" Quit now! Get out of it! If you think it's a mess and you want to give the mess back to me, give it to me now and get away from it, and keep your long tongue out of it. That's where the mess is. It's your long tongue.

Somebody said, "Brother Pike, you just don't talk right." No, what it is I talk different from the place you were schooled. I was just schooled in a different school. John was schooled in the wilderness, you know, and he didn't talk like the polished scholars. He said, "The axe is laid to the root of the tree, and every tree that doesn't bring forth good fruits, we're going to cut it down." That's what we're doing tonight. We're whetting our axes. We're getting ready for a cutting. We just went to school at different places. Now, I want somebody to stand by me.

I am weary of going off and coming back, and every time I come back, somebody in their office says, "I'm just going to quit!" Bless your heart, you quit! The quicker you can quit, the better I like it. Somebody said, "Well, I'm experienced and you'll have to train somebody else." The quicker I get to training them, the better off I'll be, and the quicker you get out of there, the quicker I can train them. Somebody said, "Well, I'm not sure that I'm convinced of the message." Well, go somewhere where you can get convinced! Somebody say Amen! Thank you.

I'm convinced of this message. I'm convinced that it's right. I'm convinced it is God. I've given my life to it and I don't want anybody to go along with me that is not convinced of it. If you're half convinced, then you get on out from here, unless you are going to make an effort to get the other half straightened out, and if you are never going to be convinced of it, you go somewhere and get with those folks that you are convinced of, and when you find something that you are convinced of, stay with it! But, consequently, I noticed that some of you haven't been convinced of anything. I have heard a lot of things and seen you talk about a lot of things, and you told me that you had been in a lot of things, but you have never mentioned any of it that you've been convinced of. Do you know why? It's like that old Chinese proverb: "He that is convinced against his will is of the same devil still." No, it doesn't go like that does it? He's of the same opinion still. His own opinion is of the devil and the Bible tells him, to start with, not to lean to his own understanding. It is the Word of God. If you would quit reasoning in your mind; quit fussing and fighting, and you ladies quit trying to run my business. Somebody said, "Well, Brother Pike, why are you taking about your business?" This is my heavenly Father's business and I'm set over it to take care of it, and you need to stay out of it! You husbands need to do me the favor of keeping them out of it.

Now, I believe that a woman can help you in business. Paul said, "Assist my women workers in whatsoever business they have need of." I believe that a woman, if she is willing to work with her husband and do right, can be a help to you and a help to the Church, but when you are too lazy, careless and unconcerned to do what you're supposed to do, and you try to pass the buck and shift it over on the woman because of your laziness, then I don't need your help or hers either one. I want a man on the situation; somebody I can talk to, because my wife doesn't like for me to talk to women. If you think she does, ask her. So then, I put a man over it; somebody I can talk to. Now, if you are going to have your wife work with you, that's good, but if you are going to work with your wife, I don't need you. There are two ways to live in the world, and I don't say this to be comical; that is for God or for your wife. The Bible said that the unmarried man careth for the things of God, how he may please God, and the married man careth for the things of his wife, how he may please his wife. That puts some of us in bad shape, doesn't it? It says the married man is like that.

I want you to get up, folks and do something. I hope and pray to God that I never leave here again and come back and find the mess that I found after this trip. I want you to get in here with me and work with me and be a brother to me or get away from here and leave me alone. If you want to work with me that's good, but don't come telling me the problems about your job, your wife, your children, your friends, enemies and everything else, unless you want to come to me and talk about the Love of God; unless you've got a problem with that child, where he needs Christ, where I can help you with it. I've got more things to do than to sit around and talk about trading cars or buying some piece of land. I don't even get to see my mother. I love my mother. I've been down to my mother's house one time since my daddy died, trying to give myself to God. I stay away from my wife's mother, trying to give myself to God, and then you come and take up five or six hours, sitting here, talking about some car, some rattletrap, or somebody didn't treat you right, or you're going to do this or that. I don't want to hear it! If you've been hurt, genuinely hurt, I want you to come to me and I'll help you and instruct you. I'll pour in some oil and wine, but if you want to gossip and you just want my favor so I'll feel good at you and bad at whoever you feel bad at, I don't want you to come down to my house. If you're going to sit there and gossip and tear down, bicker and backbite, and call all of these people devils, when I love them and believe that they love God, I don't want to talk with you.

Folks, it's time to do something, not only here in Monroe, but over in Baltimore, Maryland. They need it over there too. They have got some over there who need to get straightened out. Somebody said, "Bless God, don't you talk about Baltimore, Maryland!" I was there, maybe before some of you were, many long years ago, when I preached to them, and they were in bad shape then. They're in bad shape in Mississippi. They're in bad shape in Georgia. They're in bad shape over at you house, and you need to get straightened out and do something about it.

Why are they in bad shape? It's because you and me are not doing anything about it outside of sticking sugar tits in their mouths. Now, we have a war to fight. We've got a battle. We've got something to do, and we need to do it. If you want to help me, alright. If you don't, well, leave me alone, because I have got it to do.

If you want to get in with me like a soldier and line up, go on! That's good, but if you're going to stand around and cry and boo-hoo every time somebody says something that doesn't fit your fancy, I don't want you telling me about it, and I don't want you telling my wife about it either. I makes it hard for me to live with her. Some of you women that are always bawling, how about staying home to bawl. Don't come over to my house bawling. If you have really got a problem, it's alright to come, and if you bawl about it, it's alright; but if it's just because of something you didn't like, or it went some way that you didn't like, or you've got some kind of pain in your body that everybody has just about every day, don't come over here and bawl about it. The Bible says that if you're afflicted, you should go pray. Let him that is afflicted mourn. Do you love the Lord? You say, "Well, why do you say that, Brother Pike?" The Bible says that Asa was smitten. If there is something wrong with you, my Brother, there is a reason for it. God hath put a bridle on you. The bridle is for the horse, the bit is for the horse's mouth and the rod is for the fool's back. We learn obedience by the things we suffer. He chastens those that He loves. When something happens to you out on the job, somebody says, "I had an accident!" You sure did! You had one with the devil. You say, "How's that?" You gave place to him somewhere then something happened. "Say now, Brother Pike, supposing you have one?" It will be the same color. I've been there. I would be the same thing. The Gospel spells the same thing to me as it spells to you. It works the same way.

Alright now, I've tried to be honest with you tonight; not to mock you, nor to hurt you, but just to tell you like it is. I want you to stand up with me in the Gospel and take my hand like they did Moses, and lift it up. Don't take my head and try to drown me. It's like a man that came to me last night. He was upset and drinking and you know, it takes one person that's in the mess out in the world to know how to deal with the other ones. He was talking about some of them getting on dope. "Some of these young fellows," He said, "get on dope and people try to pamper and pet them and that ain't the way to do it." He said, "Stick their heads in a bathtub and half drown them. That's the way you're supposed to do it!" Another Brother standing close by said, "That's right, because you remember how we stuck yours in the bathtub." He remembered it. Do you understand what I am saying? There is only one way to deal with the wicked and that is with force, but there's one way to deal with the elect and that is with love.

There are people that are in churches around the nation that have been like a bunch of tadpoles in stale water; in a pond that has never bred anything but mosquitoes or pestilence. It never does any good. Stagnant water is no good. When you get stagnate you start breeding wiggle-tails, spiritually speaking. You need to be a channel for God and keep some clean water going through you to keep to mud and slime off of you and go on with the Lord and try to do something for God.

I'm not going to say, "You're a bunch of dead-heads!" I know that there are preachers that use terms like that, and some of them are dead-heads, but I don't believe I've got a bunch of dead-heads here. I believe I have got some folks that are alive. I've got some Christians, but I'll tell you what, out of the bunch I've got some hypocrites, and I want you and me to gang up on the devil and those hypocrites and see if we can't get them out, for one bad apple will ruin a whole barrel.

I understand little babies crying. If you are a little baby in the Lord, I understand you whining and whining, just like we have some little babies here tonight, naturally speaking. They whine and their mothers have to love and care for them and try to help them. I understand that, but you big overgrown babies, what you need is a good spanking, a good chastening from God. A good correction and you would be alright.

So now, I want some of you to get up and mean business with me, and when I ask you to do something, don't go ten miles around the field to try to do it some other way. Do it the way I ask you to do it and it won't cause confusion, because that is what you are doing. When I tell you something don't get fearful in your mind and go start reasoning it out and say, "Well, I know that the brethren..." I've got a problem. We decide something in the men's meeting out here and we positively nail it down, and we say, "Now, this has got to be just exactly like that," and then, somebody else, who is in a leader's position or office will take the liberty to say, "I can't do it like that because of such and such," but the brethren said to do it like that. Now, you're breaking the rules! You're coming against the Lord. You're coming against the brethren. No wonder you get in a mess.

Do you know where the trouble comes in? People are so natural minded. They get down with a pencil and paper and figure and figure, and are so used to running their business and being sure that they have every penny to pay every penny of their bills and don't know what it is to live by faith' don't know what it is to trust God, and everything has got to be right down to the penny so that when they go to run God's business they try to run it the same way, but you can't do that! Somebody says, "Well, bless God, I believe I can!" I'll tell you what! I'd like to give you a pencil and paper tonight and let you try to figure out just exactly how Peter walked on that raging sea; when you get the answer to it, I want you to come tell me.

This is a work of faith. We do things by faith. I may do something that is altogether crazy to you, but I keep this thing going by faith and God honors that faith. When the Lord told that prophet to take that stick and beat on the ground, why that fellow thought that the prophet was crazy. He took that stick and slapped the ground. He thought he was honoring an old prophet, "after all, he's a prophet of God and I have to be careful with him, you know. If he says to do something, we can half do it, you know." He flopped the stick on the ground a time or two. When he got through, it upset the prophet and he told him, "If you had done what I told you to do, you would have defeated your enemies many times, but, in that you just pecked on the ground a few times, that is how often you will defeat your enemies." He said, "Your enemies are going to rise up against you and take you. You will smite them because you smote the ground, but every time you were doing that little foolish thing that you thought was so foolish, God was killing your enemies." He thought it was too foolish to do a thing like that, but God was killing his enemies with the foolish and abase things of the world. When somebody tells you to do something, do it! Now, if you don't have any confidence in him as a preacher or prophet, go from him! The Bible says, "If you perceive there is no understanding in a man, go from him!" Don't stay with the man, but if you perceive he is with God and that what he is saying is of God, then you do what he tells you to do!

Sheep are supposed to be lead by a shepherd. They are not supposed to lead themselves, nor try to lead the shepherd. They are not supposed to listen to every other shepherd that come along. They tell me that if sheep follow any other shepherd, they are sick. We have got a lot of sick folks, ain't we? Any time a sheep will leave his shepherd, he is sick.

Now. I love you and want you to know that I don't want to hurt you. I just want to get real plain with you and say it just the way I feel it, so that when you cone to me there won't be any wondering about how I feel about it. If you've got extra time, give it to God. If you've got extra money, give it to God. I you want to go somewhere vacationing or do something, that's your business. I have nothing to say against that, but I'll tell you what, you need to do something for God before you do, and I don't mean that when you get ready to go somewhere, for you to come and give me fifteen dollars in order to soothe your conscience, thinking that God will keep you out of a wreck while you are gone. You need to be giving every week, every day, every time you get a paycheck, you need to be giving to God. If you have extra to go to the beach or anywhere else with, that's good, but I'll tell you the best way to do that. You can work all of that in with your evangelism for God. Sometimes I get down to the coast. Sometimes I get up to the mountains, but I try to work it in with my work for Jesus Christ. That way you don't get to go every year on vacation, but God will see that you get to go on time. If you will work for God and put some extra efforts toward the Kingdom of God, you'll be glad, because this thing is about over. You'll be glad in a little while that you did, because it is just about over.

Don't forget, they are still digging out there trying to get this building in. Lots of you feel that you can't dig, but you can. You say, "Well, I've got a backache!" Lots of times, when you complain about your backache, somebody's already digging that has got something worse wrong with them than you have. If you can't dig, bring them a Coca-Cola. Do something! If you can't do that, make them a bow of soup. There is something to do, folks. I hear people complaining like this: "I just hate to dress like this and show my nakedness," the women will say, "but you just can't get anything out of the stores!" Naturally you can't because the carnal mind is enmity with God. That's the kingdom of the devil out there. They're not going to make anything for the Church. Get you a sewing machine or find somebody who will sew for you! Make it like you want to, instead of these pistol-legged pants and tight britches; after all, they had to be sewn somewhere before they got to the store. Whatever you need, you can get it and get it right. Somebody says, "Well, I just can't get magazine without some filth being in it!" Well, throw the magazine away! Stop taking it! Somebody said, "But, I wouldn't see all the things that I want to see." Well, I feel this way. I Like to look at magazine a lot of times if it has got things that might be useful, and I don't blame you for wanting to do that, but if I have to look at every filthy evil thing there is to get it, I don't want it! I'll just wait, and when I get ready to get something, I'll just go up there and by it. I'll find out where it is.

We don't have gimmicks here. We get money by faith and put it in the Gospel, not by selling peanut brittle and popcorn. If you want to sell peanut brittle for a living, that's your business, but when the Church starts selling peanut brittle to survive, they need to close the doors on the Church. God doesn't need a peanut brittle foundation.

I love you tonight, but I ran into so much when I came back this time that you just can't imagine what bad condition things got into while I was gone. I know what caused it! I was taking two trips in succession and not being here long enough in between times.

Let's love one another. That's the only way we're going to make it folks. Let's pray about this hurricane "Gladys" that is coming in because, no doubt, buildings will be lost. I might be some of your folks or it might be us, but let's pray and ask God to help us.

Notice these diseases and encephalitis and all of these other things that are happening. Brother Leon Wilson told me how that a man mocked him for saying that a plague of mosquitoes was going to come in, but when it did come, the man's kid took encephalitis. Then he said that the man came back and repented and God delivered the kid from it. Let's love one another.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

Founder and first President of Jesus Christ’s Eternal Kingdom of Abundant Life, Inc.

Holiness Unto The Lord