Spiritual Responsibility

I want to talk to you a little bit this morning. On Sunday mornings I try to teach some, and we've not taught much as of late. We usually get in to preaching. But I'd like to talk about some things this morning whether we preach them or teach you. Reading in the book of Ezekiel the third chapter. If you've got your Bibles you can read with me. It's the sixteenth verse. (Reads through chapter 4.) Reading in the book of Ezekiel the Lord reminds us here that we've got a duty. We've got a job. He tells us that the wicked are our responsibility. So far as preaching to them, so far as warning them it is our job to do it. We're set as watchmen upon the walls and it is our duty to go out and warn people and tell people, or our duty to do the things I made mention of a little but ago, here at Bethlehem. That is, being partakers of the benefits of God, and sharing and sharing a like in the brotherhood with a responsibility of sending the gospel. Jesus said, What you see write it, put it in a book, and send it to the churches. And so then, we see our responsibility that God is holding us responsible with all of our substance, all of our body, all of our mind, in that He said, Thou shalt love the Lord God with all of thy mind, with all of thy heart, and with all of thy strength. And your substance, your strength is represented by your substance. So then, He tells us here in the word that we have a responsibility to God. He said, Now you can neglect this responsibility. If you want to neglect it, He said, it's all right. You can neglect the responsibility, He said, but nevertheless, even though you neglect the responsibility I will still require it at your hand. Notice what He said now. He said, When I say unto the wicked, Thou shall surely die, and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wick from his wicked way to save his life the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity but his blood will I require at thy hand. It goes on to down to say, And when a righteous man doth commit sin if that man dies if you don't warm him, He said, I will require, I will require his blood at your hand. But if you do warn him, He said, then the blood is off of your hands. Though a man die in his sins, yet God said, I will not require it at your hand, because you have warned the man of his sins. You have warned the man of his judgments, you have warned the man of his wrongs, and if the man then continues to do evil, and the man continues to do wrong, God doesn't charge you with it any more. But, folks, there is one thing that we're going to have to come to understand and that is that God has given you a responsibility. There is absolutely a God given responsibility to mankind. You know, the church doesn't want to accept the fact that they are responsible for people that are without. But the Bible said it's your job and my job to pray that God will grant repentance unto them that are without. It is your job to do that. God cannot get to those wicked people. God cannot get to those sinners unless you pray that He can get to them. He has to have a prayer to go through. He has to have a person to work through. You pray that God will grant repentance unto life to them that are without. We are the body of the Lord Jesus Christ in the earth. We're praying for reconciliation. We're the ones that are mediating in the absence of the body of the Lord Jesus. We are the one that's standing between God and that man that's lost and undone out there. God cannot break into His sovereignty. God cannot encroach upon his rights. He's got his own world. He's in his own state of mind. He's doing his own thing, and God will not invade his privacy. He will not encroach upon his rights. God will leave him alone and let him do what he wants to. Because this is the day of Grace he has opportunity to hear just like anybody else. But there is one thing about it, if I am living for God, if I am serving God, and if I pray to God, and I ask God to do something in the behalf of that individual then God can do it for me because that if my request. I have my sovereignty and I am willing to ask God by means of my sovereignty to do something for that man that He cannot even go near because of iniquity. So then, through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, God, through my pray and asking can go out there and do something for that man. God can confront that man in some way. He might prepare that man's heart in letting that man go around where there is a wreck, or let that see a home burned down, or let that man see some great tragedy, or He will prepare that man's heart to where a dream will confront that man, or some way or another God will confront that man with something because I prayed that He would grant repentance unto life to that individual. You know a lot of people their brothers, their sisters, their loved ones, they never come to God, because the individual that is in the house of God, and the person that's confessing Christianity hasn't really had enough love and concern and care to spend a night in prayer asking God to do something for them. Somebody would say, Well, Brother Pike, I ask God all the time to do something for folks. I know, you know, we like to do this, go around and never pray, never get on our knees, and never fast, and if something strikes our mind we'll say, God have mercy on that brother. Lord, save that brother. And then we say, I prayed for him. Why, you hardly had a good thought toward him. You didn't hardly take time to even think about him; let alone pray. But I'm speaking of praying that God will grant repentance to them that are without. I'm talking about you taking up a little of your time to get down on your knees and say, God, that's my son, that's my daughter, that's my brother, that's my loved one, that's my neighbor, and even your enemies. The Bible said love your enemies. Say, God, that's my enemy; I want you to save him. I'm concerned about him. I don't want to see him go to hell. We don't like to accept the idea that we have the responsibility of humanity, now do we? We don't like to do that. We'd rather eat, we'd rather drink, we'd rather go off somewhere, and frolic. We'd rather take a vacation. We'd rather get off to ourselves, and we'd rather relax, and we'd rather spend the money that we've heaped together, or spend our time, and our strength that God has given us just doing that that pleases the devil which is within the flesh. Or pleasing us in our old fleshly way of life. We'd rather nobody would bother us because we have to many things we want to do. We want to go here and we want to go there, and we want to be in this and we want to be in that. And we don't have any time for God. But I want you to know, Brother and Sister, that even though you may do it God still charges humanity to you. You are still responsible for humanity, and you might not testify to them, and you might be an old sarcastic person that resents anybody telling you what you ought to do, but I want you to know in the day of the judgment God is going to hold you responsible. And in the day of the judgment every person that you've neglected to warn concerning his wrong God is doing to have his blood on your hands in that day. You may neglect them, and you may just push over it, and you may feel like, Well, it's no responsibility of mine, God called Brother Pike to do that. God called Brother Taylor to do that. That's Brother Gary Armstrong's responsibility. That's Sister Pike's responsibility. But I want you women to know you're just as responsible to God to warn the wicked as Sister Pike is. And you are just as responsible to God, you men, to warn the wicked as Brother Taylor is. Somebody would say, Well, Brother Pike, I have to work for a living. Has it ever occured to you that I have to eat, and Brother Taylor has to eat, too? Has it ever occured to you that we have to trust God for a living, too? Somebody would say, Well, you've got plenty of money. Well, I hope I'll discover it some day because I sure need a whole lot of it right now. You say, But you've got a whole lot of income. I've got a lot out go too. Have you ever thought about that? If I get ten thousand dollars that's just a drop in the bucket. I need a hundred thousand dollars. I need at least a hundred thousand dollars right now just to keep the wheels turning. And I've got to have forty thousand dollars one way or another. I've got to have it, and God will give it. Now, so then, you see I'm in the same boat that you're in. We're all in the same problems of life so I can't point my figure at you and say a ha, a ha. Neither can you point your hand at me and say that. We've got to realize that if God in His word has said something, Brother, He means what He says. If God has said something in His word and then He sent the minister to tell you His word He means for you to give the more earnest heed to what that preacher is telling you, and realize that that is your responsibility, and that God is going to hold you responsible for everything that you heard. You know, the Bible said, to whom much is give much is required and that is applied in more ways than one. Is that right? See? God, what God has given He will require it of you in the day of judgment. God will require of you whatever He has given you. And whatever He has made your responsibility according to His word He is going to require it. Therefore, if you hear much you're going to know much. If you know much then you're going to be required much and be punished if you do not produce much. A lot of people try to take the outlook, you know, they say, Well, I'm ignorant; I don't know. God, He'll by-pass me, and He'll let me get by with it, Brother Pike, because I'm ignorant. But the Bible says that the servant that was ignorant he will be punished also. The Bible said he will be punished also. The servant that knew not to do His Lord's will, that committed things worthy of stripes shall be beaten. The Bible said with few stripes. God won't require as much out of him because he did not know in that the servant that knew to do his lord's will and did not do it, the Bible said, he shall be beaten with many stripes. So then, you see where you're at today. You see how much you know today. You see how much God has enlightened me, so then you see how much God is requiring out of you. If God has enlightened you in this manner, and after that fashion don't you believe God is going to require it of you? You say, But, Brother Pike, I've just turned that thing off to my hearing. That doesn't do any good. That doesn't do any good. A man might be going down a steep incline and his breaks goes out, and he might just turn himself off to it, but after awhile there will be a crash. Whether he turns it on or off there will still be a crash. You can just turn it off and say, Well, that's all right, Brother Pike, but there's going to be a crash. You are going to meet God somewhere. The Bible said someday you will meet Me face to face though you feel that I'm just exactly like you are. Every man's ways are right in his own eyes, and so then, we get to thinking that God is just like us. We say, Now, I'm a Christian and I'm satisfied, and I do this, I know God is pleased with me and off we go. And nobody can't tell us anything else. We've got it in our head that God is pleased with us, and that God has made allowance for all of our mannerism so we've judged God to be just exactly according to our thinking and our feeling. And all of a sudden there is a crash. And we run headlong into God, and we say, My God! What have I done? You know, a lot of times I'm talking to God and things go wrong, and I say, My God, what haven't I done? You know, a lot of people say, Well, something happens to me I try to figure out what I done. I tell you, when something happens to me I ask God for grace. I say, God I've done so many things wrong I don't know which one it was, and I ask Him for more grace. But I tell you this in the name of the Lord today: You've got a responsibility to God. Every individual that names the name of Jesus Christ the Bible said let him depart for iniquity. That's your first and foremost responsibility. The Bible said pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, that you ought to visit the orphans and the widows in their afflictions, and you are to keep yourself unspotted from the world. If you don't stay away from the things of the world you will die and go to hell. The Bible said if the love of the things of the world, or the love of the world is in your heart then the love of the things of God, or spiritual things, or the love of God is not in your heart, for to be worldly minded, or carnally minded is death. It means that you are void of life. The next thing is, pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father being to visit the widows and the orphans in their afflictions. You can console yourself with the idea that it takes all of your money and your substance to pay your light bill, to pay on your car, and to pay on your house, and to pay on your bills. Are you listening? But in the day of the judgment you're going to die and go to hell, because God didn't tell you to seek the car first, nor did He tell you to seek the house first, not did He tell you that your responsibility is to take care of your family first. He said that you are to make provisions for the household of God, and you are to seek the Kingdom of God first of all and then all of these other things shall be added unto you. I will take care of you. You are my responsibility. I will provide for you. You consider the sparrow. You consider the lilly in the field. Don't I take care of them? When the lion roars and he's hungry don't I feed him? Don't I have to feed the elephants? Don't I have to take care of all of that in life that hungers and thirsts? That's My responsibility. But the thing that I want you to do, I want you to seek Me, and then I will supply all of your needs according to My riches in glory. For I tell you one thing, Brethren. It is a sad situation to see and individual try to live off of their income in the day that we're living in. It's a sad situation, did you know that? It's sad to say, but we've got some women here that while the women are working down here they are a continual complaint. Woe is me, woe is me, woe is me. I don't have this and I don't have that; woe is me. You know, I don't see how God ever does anything for you. With that old carnal mind of complaining unbelief I don't see how God ever does anything for you. And the Bible said, you discouraging the hearts of the people that is the very thing that God cut them off for. They that went over into Canaan, and came back and discouraged the hearts of the people, God cut them off. Isn't that right? You say that you've seen God, and you've seen God's greatness, and you know that God can do it, and you've given God your heart, and then you turn right around and you complain. All of the time you complain. God have mercy on your complaining soul. You know, God will meet the needs. How many of you believe that God will meet the needs? How many of you believe that God can afford to meet the needs. Now somebody said one time, God He hangs His gates out of pearls and He paves His streets with gold. It sounds like He's in a good business the way He can take care of us. Isn't that right? Anybody that can pave streets with gold and hang gates out of pearls I'm not in question as to whether He can take care of my needs or not. He can meet my needs. Why is it, if we really believe that God can do that, why is it that we do not trust God? If we do believe what we're saying why is it that we don't utilize our ability and faith in that direction to get God to met our needs? Why is it that we lean upon the arm of flesh and every time we get a grunt or groan we've got to have a doctor? we've got to have a pill? Every time we get a letter from somebody that says, Well, we're considering taking your vehicle away; we get all hysterical? Woe is me, woe is me. Everybody is down on me. I can't do anything. With that kind of attitude I'm satisfied that you can't. But I'll tell you what. If you'll do like David, if you'll encourage yourself in the Lord, if you'll stop long enough to pray and fast a little bit, or to read your Bible and to talk to Brothers and Sisters about God, and get your mind off of the T.V, and pull yourself out of the frolics of the world, get a little spirituality about you, I'll guarantee you faith will begin to come up, and you'll find a different world, and you'll begin to think different and God will begin to do something for you. Do you believe that? So then, I feel that what we need to do is consider Jesus in the matter. We need to consider the Lord in the matter. The Bible said acknowledge the Lord in all of your ways and He will direct your path. But if we're always complaining, if we're always grumbling, if we're always finding fault our minds never have any room to consider the power of God. Jesus said be strong in the power of My might. Somebody said, Brother Pike, my strength is gone. Mine is too. But see? What's that got to do with it? He said be strong in the power of My might. He said when you've done all that you can to stand, He said, then consider Me. He said when you've done everything you can to pay your bills, and you've done everything you can to find healing for your body, He said, then consider Me. Isn't that right? He said, Then stand. If you've done everything to stand and there's no hope and there's no way, stand anyway. Just stand there, He said, and be strong in the power of My might. My grace is sufficient. I'll supply your needs. I've given you all things that pertain unto life. Put your faith in God. You know, what we do we put our faith in our feeble efforts and ambitions, and when we get week and we get cast down, and when we're out two or three days from work and we don't have an income all of our hope is gone, and why? Because our faith was in our income. Our faith was in our power of ingenuity. Our faith was in our ability. Satan has caused your faith to go in the wrong direction and be in your ability. So then, when your ability begins to dwindle away and you feel helpless your faith is gone. But, Brother, Sister, that's not the way to do it. Put your faith in God. That's what you want to do. I put my faith in Jesus. I don't trust in the flesh. The Bible said we are they who have no confidence in the flesh. I don't have any confidence in the flesh. My flesh failed me years ago. I found out that it was a renegade so I killed it and buried it, and today I'm having a good time with Jesus. Hallelujah. Glory to God, I'm having a good time. I put my faith in God and I trusted in God, and God has turned many hundreds of thousands of dollars to me. And back there when I trusted in my flesh I couldn't even get enough to have a good breakfast. I could get enough to pay my bills, and now I'm able to help other people pay their bills. You know, the Bible said God will make you the head and not the tail, and you'll lend to many nations. Isn't that right? That's what's wrong with America today, they've got so heady and high minded. The Bible said in that last days they'll be heady, educational, you know, leaning to their own powers of ingenuity. They've got so heady and high minded, and professors have got to where they pass one piece of paper from one to another until they've got eccentric. The world says the deep end. They've gone off on the deep end. Some bald headed professor over here that's spent about fifteen or twenty years studying he slips a piece of paper over to another bald headed fellow that's studied his life away and he says, now you and I, we're the people. We've got the answer. And so the people go to hell. And so nation gets bombed, and so the children turn into beatniks, and so starvation comes, because two bald headed professors decided they had the answer. But how many of you believe that Christ is the answer? It doesn't matter if you study until it runs out your ears; that's not the answer. It's going to take faith in God. Brother, what we need is faith. We don't need a whole lot of knowledge and understanding. We need a little faith in God; that's what we need. We need to believe there's a supreme creator. We need to believe there is an invisible God that cares for us, and a present help in the time of need. The wives don't need to put their confidence in their husband's pay check. You know, you think back of some of the drunkards. It's a good thing those wives didn't put their faith in their husband's pay check, because he never had one. What little he got he gambled away and drank it up. I know people like that. But they prayed, the mothers did that. They prayed and they put their faith in God, and they raised their little families. And Daddy wasn't worth killing. Can you say I love Jesus? (Begin tape one, side two.) ....you don't put your faith in God? Why is it you women here don't get your faith out of your husband's pay check? You know, some of your husbands can give ten dollars in the offering and you about have a spasm, because you can't figure out what__ What are we going to do? somebody says. Do you realize you gave ten dollars to God? Are you trying to starve us to death? Said, Honey, let me buy you a new dress. Well, it will be tight but I believe we can afford it. Let's go look at them. I'll knock off somewhere. We'll make it. Somebody say I love Jesus. Do you see the difference? A lot of times in the men's meeting down here, Brother Jim, he's always pleading for the cause. You know, the Bible said plead the cause of the orphans, the widows, and the cause of the gospel. Jim he'll plead the cause and something is said about five hundred dollars, or a thousand dollars, and some of them act like__ They act just like the mountain fell in on them. A thousand dollars? You mean give the church a thousand dollars? Somebody said, You know, I saw a car the other day that was really nice. The man said I could have it for fifteen hundred down. Twenty-five hundred. He didn't want but seven thousand dollars for it. Seven thousand dollars for a heap of junk? and metal? Brother, don't you see how blind we can be? The devil blinds us. We'll take and strain every nerve in our body to get a piece of junk, because it's been painted up, and polished up. And beside that Brother Jim, here, he does just as good a job out here. I get some of the old ones and Jim he sprays them, and polishes them up, and they look just as good. But you'll mortgage your soul for that heap of junk. That's what you'll do. You'll mortgage your soul for that heap of junk and then when you have a chance to do something for God you think that's terrible. You'll put thousands of dollars into mortar, and into cement, and into wood, and into nails, and a lot of times in the bank. But to put anything in the Kingdom of God you feel that's too shaky. Now, you can trust that crooked banker up yonder. You can trust those crooked people that's praying off of what you've got. But now it's a shaky situation when you talk about sons of God, and the Kingdom of God, and the angles of Heaven. Yet God paves His streets with gold and hangs His gates out of pearls, but it's still a shaky situation. Do you love Jesus? How we're just talking about the street you live on. And as Brother Terrell used to say, I hope it ain't crooked street. Talking about these kind of things, folks, where does that put you and I? Can we actually shirk the responsibility of God? Can we actually turn away from the duties of God, and go out here and spend our entire life for the things of the world? After awhile your life is going to be gone. The Bible said that if you save your life in this world you're going to lose it in the world to come. If you make everything nice and good for you and your flesh in this world and you let those little babies go hungry overseas, and you let people die and go to hell just so that you can make it easy on you and yours you are doing to die and go to hell. Did you know that? If you let other people die and go to hell you are going to go to hell. The Bible said, He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity. Isn't that right? An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Somebody would say, Brother Pike, I don't believe in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. I'm not under that; I'm under grace. Well, you need to act like it then. The Bible said everyone that's fallen from grace is under the law, and the law says you let somebody go to hell you go to hell. You let somebody go hungry, you go hungry, because it's an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Isn't that right? That's the way you're going to be judged. How many of you understand what I'm saying? Is this clear? All right. I'm going to let you go in just a few minutes, but I feel like saying a few more things yet. All right, now. So then, can I shirk my responsibility in God? Can I just turn away from it and say, No, I'm not going to do that. And if so, will God let me by with that? Will God just brush that thing aside and say, Well, you know, I understand. I don't believe He will. According to the Bible you've got a responsibility. Every individual, including myself, every person here ought to be passing out tracts, reading the gospel, preaching the gospel, helping some poor and needy. Searching for something to do instead of binding ourselves up, and getting our selves in a prison, instead of withdrawing within this old renegade mind of ours, and this old reprobate mind to try to get a hold of us, instead of withdrawing from life and getting into a shall just to feed this old carnal man, or that is the devil that's in the flesh, just to feed that old snake that you've got caged up. Instead of withdrawing and getting into a cage, and neglecting the things of the world, you need to come out of there, get in the mind of Christ, and not only give of your time and your substance to God, but like I said the other night, every time you give a dollar you should be trying to figure out how to give another dollar. Every time you pray a prayer you should be trying to figure out how you're going to pray another prayer. Every time you help a person you should be trying to figure out which other person can I help, Lord? That's the way it's suppose to be, folks. Let your light so shine that men may see your good works and glory your Father which is in Heaven. Depart from iniquity and get away from the lust of the flesh. You say, But, Brother Pike, I'm young;. I've got to do things. Why I'd love to do things, too. I enjoy eating just as much as you do. I enjoy drinking just as much as you do. I could take a base ball bat and I'd enjoy knocking a ball over the hill just as much you, dancing, running, frolicing, riding, going on. Don't you think I'm a human being. I could enjoy it just as much as you. But the Bible said that if we belong to God we've got to mortify the deeds of the body, and we've got to withdraw from the flesh, that we are to make no provisions for the things of this world to the satisfying of the flesh. Can you say amen? Praise God! Now, it sounds like you are just with me. Now, after a more thorough examination I wonder how many of you are making provisions. Somebody say I love Jesus. Now, we want to find out which way we're going here; we don't want to be confused. Do we mean what we say? Are we actually saying what we mean? See? Do we know what we're doing, or are we playing some kind of game. How many of you understand what I'm saying? Folks, this is a responsibility. I could go on and on and on with these things because there are hundreds and thousands of things that flood my heart and my soul, but I talked to you a good little bit before I started ministering this morning and I dropped some thoughts in so I'm going to close here. But listen, if you save your life here in this world you are going to lose it. You're going to lose it. Mark that down. You go ahead and save it. You make all the provisions for the flesh you want to, do all the things you want to, have your sons and daughters and your neighbors and your cousins and your friends, and you all get together, have a good time, enjoy it, because you're going to go to hell anyway. Get together, have a family reunion. Every time you get a chance have a big dinner so you can eat and glutton, and get bigger, and fatter and fatter and fatter so that when cancer starts it can do a god job, so that when the devil starts eating off of you he can do a good job. Just keep on eating and drinking, keep on being merry, keep on living it up, keep on spending your dollar, keep on spending your day, your time, in doing everything, but remember__ That is, without God, but remember one thing. For all of these things Solomon said you're going to be brought into judgment. And remember, after awhile you're going to grow old, and you're going to be at the end of the trail. You keep your life. You don't lose your life; you keep it. You give it to education, you give it to prestige, you give it to fame, you give it to money, you give it to popularity, you give it to eating and drinking, but at the end of the way when they throw the dirt in your face, and you stand before God there won't be no reason to offer complaint when God says, Depart from me, ye that work iniquity, because I don't remember any works of anything else. That is, works of righteousness. But, Brethren, Sisters, let me tell you something. If you are willing to lose your life in this world, if you're willing to lay down your life for your friends, for greater love hath no man than a man that'll lay down his life for his friend. If you are willing to lay down your life as a living sacrifice, a service unto humanity, and unto God, and I don't mean play, but I mean business about it, be a hero for God. If you're willing to do that God will give you his everlasting and eternal life in the world to come. If you are willing to let God live in this temporal body of yours for the few troublesome days that are here that's full of vanity, full of trouble, as Solomon said, even if you get all the money, riches, if you are willing to let God tabernacle in you, and reach the lost and the suffering and the needy, and shine as a light from with you, if you are willing to do that God will give you in exchange an eternal body, and eternal life to where it will never die nor pass away. I want to make the exchange. I have made the exchange. I'm working harder to try to be more productive in the sense of the change. I'm asking God to keep me from just playing around. Let me do something Jesus. Let me think right. Don't let me spend my time in foolish thoughts. Let me say this in closing. Did you know people don't realize that all day long all they do is just think. You know, you say, Well, Brother Pike, that's all you can do. No, there's something else you can do outside of just set and think. You know, I've said this before. A man is a thinking machine. He's a little computer that's programmed for life, and all he ever does is think. He thinks, he thinks, he thinks. He thinks about eating, or he thinks about drinking, or he thinks about riding, or he thinks about going, or he thinks about his enemies, or he thinks about complaining, or he thinks about the problems, or he thinks about the wife, or he thinks about him, or her, or them, or they, or thus, all the time. You know, it's a wonder he don't go crazy anyway; some folks do. Some folks get to thinking about what they are thinking about and then their thinking breaks down on them and they go crazy. They get to thinking, My! I think all the time. That's all I do is think, think, think. You know, but really thoughts can be life giving and can be inspiring if you energize them, and if you put the right kind of materiel up there. If they become the mind of Christ and the thoughts of Christ they can be living giving thoughts, Brother. And your soul will be subject to an ever expanding, great, abundant living. But, if the devil gets interwoven with those thoughts, then those thoughts become a prison, and they become a harassment, and they become a torment until they torment you night and day until your mind breaks down, or until you go to be with the devils and demons you gave yourself to. All of the paths of God are peace. Do you believe that? So then, knowing that you just are a thinking machine and that you are thinking yourself to death, do you know what you need to do? You need to get away from that foolishness. Now, listen, as I said in closing. If all I do is set around that think about some garbage that they emptied out on television, if I spend my time thinking about money, thinking about houses, thinking about land, thinking about my sons and my daughters, and my children, myself and my wife, and what we're going to eat and what we're going to drink, what we're going to wear when the Bible said take no thought for these things. They'll take thought for themselves. Evil is sufficient for the day thereof. Don't be thinking about these things, He said. Meditate in my laws day and night. That's the thing to do. Don't think yourself to death; meditate in My laws day and night. Now, if I sit around and I think on all of these things, at the end of day I'm just a weary, worn out, good for nothing, having done nothing all day, person. Do you understand what I'm saying? I'm just__ You know, the hippies say, We're just wasting away, because they're taking dope. Brethren, you don't have to take dope to waste away. If all you do is sit around and think you're wasting away anyway. If you don't believe it you just watch the calendar long enough and see. You are wasting away. Do you understand what I'm saying? Why then spend all of my time thinking, thinking, and at the end of the day it ain't been worth fifteen cent to me, or God, or nobody else. Why waste such valuable life and time when I can invest it? Why would a sober, sane person that's got any understanding at all take a million dollars and go out here and squander it away just throwing it off in the river, throwing it over here, little bit over here, and throwing a little bit away over here when he could invest in and make millions of dollars and become exceedingly wealthy? Why would a sober person do that? A sober, sane person won't do that. Did you know that? And that's what you are doing with your life. You should invest it, invest it. Invest it, folks. You need to invest it, because it will bring great dividends, and it will bring you treasure like you never dreamed of in your life. Just take this little seed, let it fall in the ground so that it can die, and come forth in that image of Jesus, and when self is gone you will be a great and a mighty person. I want you to think on that now. You've got a responsibility. You can neglect it, you can go out from here today, come back to the service tonight; I'll tell you the same thing over. Go out and then come back and do nothing and you won't be getting anywhere. But if you'll go out and do this and join ranks with us here, and be progressive, and be part of the operation of Jesus Christ. Brother, you're not just coming to church. And it won't be just the same old thing all over. I'll tell you what; you'll be in a business. Your Father's business, Jesus called it. You'll be investing and you'll be drawing some of the greatest dividends you ever drew in your life, and you'll be laying up treasure in heaven where thieves don't break through and steal, and where moths doesn't corrupt. And you will be exceedingly rich by receiving this heavenly treasure in these earthen vessels. All right. I want you to stand with me. The little moments of exhortation when we come here to exhort you, or tell you about Jesus, I hope you will realize what kind of treasure this is. God's peculiar treasure. But I hope you will realize the value of it, and you won't lose one gem, not one gem. You know, the Bible speaks of the pearl of great price. Did you know the words of God__ Of course, in the beginning was God the Word, the Spirit. Did you know that's the great pearl? And did you know that these words that we speak are treasures, that these are pearls? These are pearls, not like perishable pearls that really is of no value except to stick on a string and hang about your neck and admire. I'm talking about something that's real, folks, that Word that created a pearl, and a diamond, and a whale, and a shark, and a bird, and an eagle, and a man. Words of life, Jesus said. You say, are they really pearls, Brother Pike? The Bible said don't cast your pearls before swine lest they trample them under their feet and turn and rend you. Your words are priceless pearls when you are a Christian. Words of eternal life. When you are speaking to people, when ou are speaking to people out there you are speaking words of life to them. That person, if they listen, you'll convert their soul, and you'll save their soul from hell. You'll convert their thinking. That's what you are. Are then you just a nobody?. Can you then say, Well, I'm just a nobody? I mean is someone a nobody that can save a soul from eternal damnation? Is that possible that a person is just a nobody that can keep a man from burning in a lake of fire? that can bring a man health and happiness and peace? maybe save his little home by keep him and his wife together, or save his home in the sense that it might keep him from losing his darling little child that the devil would snatch out of his arms because of his lack of understanding and foolishness? Are you then worthless, are you then a nobody, you that are able to intercede? and go out there and save people from the calamities of life? Folks, I tell you, you just don't know how great you really are. You don't realize what a responsibility you've got, what a mighty person you are as ambassadors for Christ, beseeching the world to be reconciled to the great king that he might eradicate all infiltrations of life and bring wholesome living and a real government, and a real world. I'm talking about life in this present world, on this present earth that will be restored to a garden. My! What great men and women you are. How then can we be so negligent to eat, drink and just lounge around and die and do nothing and be worthless and throw our life away, squander our talents. How can we then do that and do God and the Kingdom such a great injustice when God paid such a price with the death of His Son? How can we do that? All right. Let's sing a little chorus together, can we? Brother Pike is not scolding you. I'm not trying to holler at you and get you upset. I'm trying to wake you up. I'm trying to get you to listen. I'm trying to get you to see. Is the beggarly elements of this world, Paul said, more important, that which will perish, and the feeble humanistic desires, or humanistic side of life that you are catering to, is it so valuable to you and so important that you would neglect eternal treasures and eternal health and life, happiness, and youth, and strength, that you would neglect that for those beggarly elements of the world? Would you do that? You know, it's like they say of sheep; when sheep wonder off they are sick. When they wander off from the shepherd they are sick. Folks, you are sick. You know, you are sick. When you think like that and you do those things you are sick. Jesus said the sick need a physician, and there is a balm in Gilead, and there is a physician at Bethlehem. You need a physician. You need your case diagnosed. You need a remedy; might need an operation. And the operation might be you. You know, I saw the other day where it said operation world. It might be operation you. Let's sing this little chorus together, can we? (Singing.) Can you sing it with me, now? (Singing.) Sing it again, can you? Think on it now. Can you sing it with me? (singing.) Now I want you to slip your hand up with me while they are playing on the instruments, they're playing, and I want you to love Jesus for just a few minutes. I say this so often, examine yourselves and see if you are in the faith. Where is your conviction? Is it im works of righteousness that you yourself are trying to do? Is your ambition sold out to your own human desire in trying to achieve things in life. Oh, I feel the Holy Ghost, don't you? I feel the Holy Ghost. Is your spirit today, your innermost being, you know, is it surrendered? Is it surrendered to God? Is it? Is that that we call the sovereign state of being, that innermost you, is it surrendered to God? Is it? Are you in God as a real genuine conscientious state of affair that desires nothing but His love, and His kindness? Are you? As I said to the Brethren yesterday, are you from that conscience, from that being on the inside, are you day by day producing characteristics, or giving forth the character of Jesus that will develop into a God nature? That will make you partakers of the divine nature of the Son of God? Is there an innermost desire, and intuition that yearns from within for His glory, and for His goodness? Are you surrendered to Him within you heart? If your spirit is not surrendered to Christ, if your spirit isn't completely surrendered to Christ you are failing God. You know, God is a spirit. God is a spirit and you are the temples of God, and God's Spirit, the spirit of life, dwells in your temple. Brethren, why then will you suck on a weed, cigarettes? Why suck on a weed? You are a human being with intelligence. Why will you be in bondage to a weed, a beggarly element? Why will you suck on a weed? One so great as you are, a human being made in the image of God, is he then to be in bondage to a weed? to suck on a weed? And to think the wrong thoughts is just as bad, or worse. Are you subject to the feebly, beggarly passions of your body as great as that inner you is, Christ within you the hope of glory. See? If your spirit isn't yielded to the spirit of Christ, to His very desire, to love Him and please Him in all things, if your spirit isn't one with His spirit, if your body isn't completely surrendered as a living sacrifice, if you haven't cast down every thought, every imagination, and if you have not brought every thought into subjection to the obedience of that life and God within you, you have failed Him. You have failed Him. The Bible said cast down imagination and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bring into captivity every one of your thoughts to His thoughts and way of life that it might not be you living, that that inner you died, and that Jesus is living on the inside. That is, God living. Paul said, Not me but God that liveth within me. The life I now live it's God life. I live it by the Son of God. I lost mine through sin; He replaced it through His love and consideration. He replaced it with a God life. You are not your own you are bought with a price, to glorify God in your body, to let your light shine, and let men see your good works. Withdraw from fornication, idolatry, cheating, and swindling, and lying. Paul said all that do these, I say to you again, they won't inherit the Kingdom of God. Withdraw from the love of the world, sports and frolic, those kind of things that are not of God. Fleshly ambitions and zeal, withdraw from it. You say, But, Brother Pike, you've got to do something to stay alive. I know it, and I'm telling you what to do. The words of God are spirit and life. And all you've got to do is get His spirit and words and you'll stay alive, my Brother, Sister. Moses was eighty years old and about that time God called him on eighty day fast. He didn't drink, nor he didn't eat for eighty long days, but his eyesight didn't wax dim. And at eighty years old God called him for a forty year ministry. I'm talking about life, folks. I'm talking about life. You don't have to get out and run up and down the road. (Begin tape two, side one.) They never jogged. They never did the silly, foolish things you call sports and exercise. That don't have nothing to do with life. Blinded. That's not the way you restore life. That's science, knowledge falsely so-called. They are tell you that but that won't ever restore your life. It will just occupy your time until what life you have got is gone. Some of them are having heart attacks jogging up and down the streets. They eat like a pig, and then try to jog it off. That don't make sense. The thing to do is not eat so much and leave off the jogging. Get temperate in all things. Let's lift our hands up and love Jesus, can we? The Bible said we use great plainness of speech. That's the only way to get rid of Satan. And get him out of your life, and to help you diagnose your case and offer a remedy. Let's love Jesus. Let's love Him, can we? Let's just lift our hands up and love Him for a few minutes. Father of Heaven, Lord, we examine ourselves before you to see if our conviction is in Your Word, faith by the hearing of the Word through which we are saved, making sure that it's not foolish convictions of our ideas, or something that some minister has said, Father, that was worthless, some old wives fable, or something that we've had in tradition, or something that the elders have imposed upon us, or something that we've been thinking and feeling all of these years. Father, let it be faith in the Word of God, that whatever the Word says that's what we believe. And Father, that through that faith comes Your spirit to purify our heart and save us through the grace that You've offered at Calvary. Father, let it be so as we examine ourselves to see if our faith is in the Word, or if we be in the faith. Holy Father, save and forgive, heal, deliver, destroy the evil one from out of our lives. Let us be filled with Your glory and with Your blessings. In Jesus name. Let's sing this chorus and we're going to close. Don't forget the services tonight. Give me another key, Frank. (Singing.) Do you love Him? Is your heart clear? All right. Bow your heads with me. I'm going to ask Brother Larry if he'll come up here and dismiss us. I'm going to ask him to dismiss you. And while Larry is praying the prayer of benediction I want you to think. Just stop and think now. Stop and think, and say, Lord, I heard the words of the minister and I want to incorporate this in my life. Help me, Jesus. Before it's too late and I suffer sorrow and tragedy that I can't ever change and correct. Help me, Jesus, while there is still opportunity. Brother Larry.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

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

Holiness Unto The Lord