Life

You know I think about the youth and those coming up. It's so wonderful to be able to use the youth in the work of the Lord. Some of them live so haphazardly until there is no possible way to use them without God really getting you. When I use them I really have to pray. I got some that I try to use that's up and down and in and out, even though they will repent, sincerely repent, and beg God for forgiveness. And then I've got some that's hypocritical that try to make me think that they repent and they cause me a lot of problems when I try to give them a chance, but I think, you know, how wonderful it is to use the youth. Some of them have talents. Some of them have real talents, but they are so unclean in their living and they'd rather follow after passions and dope and mix and mingle and, you know, be something outstanding in the eyes of the youth out in the world, and have some feeling of prestige with them in so much that God can not use them. They stay in such terrible condition that He cannot use them, but I thank the Lord for those that He can use. People who try to live for God, even young folks, if they stumble and stagger the Lord loves them, and He'll give them strength, and help them. And a lot of times He'll overlook some of their faults and failures, but those that don't make any effort for God and they just,they want to be in on the spot light, you know, but they don't have any real desire for Christ, or God's way of life, or the things of God. As the world says, they could care less about the way of God. There are people in the world like that, you know. There are grown up's like that. They could care less, as the worlds say's, about the ways of God and the things of God. They love to come to church. They love to be a part of a program, and it's routine with them. And it makes their conscience feel better to think that they come and maybe heard a sermon, but so far as really, genuinely, down in their heart, loving God, and loving righteousness, and loving the ways of righteousness, it's just not there. They don't care for it. They love the ways of this world, and they love the things of this world, and they love to go with the people of this world, and they love to eat and drink, and the convinces of buying and selling, and getting gain, and owning and possessing, you know, and having the spotlight of this life. They love that. And of course, I say this so often, that if the love of the world is in you, the love of God isn't there. You know, God has so made the heart to where though we feel that we can have both of them, and we feel that it will work out right, and we feel that that is what God will allow, yet we are so mistaken. He will not. For me, nor you, or anybody else, He will not allow Himself to dwell in the heart that loves and cares for the things of this world. He will not do it. Bitter water and good water can not come forth from the same fountain. And the Bible said make the tree good, or bad, for the tree is known by it's fruits. O.K. Chapter ten in Ecclesiastes, "Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking saviour: so forth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor." Let's read that again now. (Brother Pike reads verse one again.) Now, you might not know it, but we are in reputation for wisdom and honor as the children of God. That is why foolishness is so unbecoming for us. "A wise man's heart is at his right hand, but a fool's heart at his left. Yea, also, when he that is a fool walketh by the way, his wisdom faileth him, and he saith to every one that he is a fool." That is, Solomon is saying that when a man is foolish, that his deeds, his words, everything that he says describe him in the eyes of the people as a fool. They sum him as a fool. "If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for yielding pacifieth great offenses. There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, as an error which proceeded from the ruler;" ( Brother Pike reads the rest of chapter ten, also chapters eleven and twelve finishing up the book of Ecclesiastes.) Solomon, the great wise man, said some day the silver cord would be loosed. The golden bowl will be broken, or the pitcher broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher, all is vanity. You know, looking down deep within the heart, Solomon is referring to the heart. Referring to this, concerning the silver cord, the broken bowl. He spake in one place, the Lord spoke to us saying that my people have hewn themselves out cisterns, even broken cisterns that can not hold water. They have forsaken the living God. It's true fact that the broken bowl__ There comes a time when life will not be contained within your vessel any more. You won't be able to contain life there anymore. The inner container will be broken, and the little wheel that is turning to bring forth the water, the little pump won't pump anymore. The wheel won't turn anymore and the silver cord, the connection with life, and God, will be broken. Then the dust shall return to the earth. You know, so often we look around and we think about aged people, how that they are going to die and then we are contented to feel that we as individuals have lot of life yet. Lot of things to do. But, you know, it's striking to notice that multiplied hundreds and thousands of youth are dying, and being killed, while some aged people rather than dying, are adding years to years, and some of them are living longer. Seventy, eighty, ninety, a hundred years, and they are still going. I talked to a black man one time and he was one hundred years old and his wife was ninety, or ninety-five. She was way up near where he was, you know. And it was something to stand there and talk to the man that had lived; now some of you out there, you are about thirty years old, or thirty-five, and you know how long it has been since you were born into this world. How many years it's been since you were born into this world. That's thirty-five long years. Now, you say, well, it don't seem very long. I know it don't when you get ninety-five it won't seem long, but I'm saying that if you just set down and think about all the places you have been, the different towns you have lived in, the different hills you have crossed and the different places you have visited and how many things you've done, you know, from the time you kicked your foot in the cradle, that's a good long while. Thirty-five years. And think now if you could add another thirty-five years, and then after that you just turn and add another thirty-five years. Think about how long that would be. That's a long, long time. Did you know it? Long, long time. And I think about that and I was talking to this man, a hundred years old. Not too long ago I was talking to a man. I was going to buy an air plane from him and he was way up in years and I was a long in my forties and I was talking to him and he said, you know, you ain't nothing but a brat, and I thought well, I feel like I've been here several days or more you know, but he had been here so long until he actually, talking to me had the feeling like that, you know. In other words he had done so many things and was of such age that he could look back at me and think, if I was back there where you are at, my, what I could do. But yet he was still healthy and going strong and was telling me how to add years to my life. It's wonderful, you know, when you think about these things. You say, well, what enthuse you, Brother Pike? About thinking about these things? Life. Life. See, God is the spirit of life. There is no beginning of life with God. There is no ending of life with God. There is no sadness of life with God. There is no pain of life with God. No misery of life with God. Life is fully, brilliant, bright and abundant with God, because God is filled up and overflowing, never ending, ever inspiring life, and source of living. God never gets sad. God never has pain. God never feels bad. God never has one inclination, not one of any kind of discouragement. He never has any feeling that He can not do any thing He wants to whenever He gets ready and on the scale He desires to do it on. God always is everything, every where at all times. Now, the only thing that has to do with God in creating sadness is you and I, because He can feel the infirmities of you and me. Because of this, then God gets sad. Other than that He never gets sad. It is your pain and your hurt and your sorrow that He has subjected Himself too and made Himself relative to, that He might love you the more abundantly and do for you the more abundantly, in that He might feel your infirmities. It is that which God has done toward you that has invited trouble into the life of God. So, it's wonderful when you think about life and tapping onto the life of God. When you really think about tapping onto the life of God, the eternal life of God, and getting a hold of the wonderful life of God, it makes you feel enthusiastic. This is what makes me a preacher. I've been preaching for many years, and this is what makes me a preacher, and this is what makes me go over seas, and makes me want to go abroad. This is what makes me want to have the crusade in the Carolinas. This is what inspired me to preach across the nation down though the years and still inspires me. What is? It's life in it's wonderful abundance to tell people about the never ending life that I have and the never ending life that is available to everyone that can and will believe. Now when you run across this and you really get a hold of it and you know that you have got it and as Oral Roberts used to say, you know that you know you know that you know, then when you get to where you know that you've got it, then you want to share with other people and tell them about this abundant jubilance and joy of eternal living and eternal inspiration. What a wonderful thing. Moses tapped onto this life after he crossed the hundred mark, you know, he was just getting in shape to do something for God. Just beginning to feel a real call, you know, and Caleb, Joshua, numbers of others, Abraham and Noah, many other men and on back, even as far as Enoch, men like Methuselah. You know, when you think of life at a hundred and then think what it would be like after that you have done lived a hundred, and like Enoch you decided to live another hundred, think of all the days and years see, that had passed during the episode of your life, all of the many things that you would have seen, said and done, during a period of a hundred years, and then when you were a hundred all of a sudden found out the you were going to live another hundred and have that much more time, and so you lived another hundred. And then after you lived that hundred, after all those days, and years, suddenly you discovered you were going to live another hundred. And think about that. Three hundred years of living and the beautiful part of it is that during all that living Enoch walked and talked with God. I thought about it like this. I thought, God, it has been such a glorious experience since I've come to know you that I've walked with you and my, what if I could walk and talk with you three hundred years. My what a time Enoch must have had. I think a lot of times, you know, I think if I just had three hundred years like Enoch, just to do all that I want to do for God, and to say all that I want to say for God, and be all that I'd like to be for God, my, what that would be like. And I get to thinking like this. My lands, Enoch, you did not live very long. I'm planning to do a whole lot better than that.You know, a whole lot better than that. But I think the three hundred years present in this world right here, to be able to talk with them that are in need. To be able to talk with the generations and those that are around that really needs guidance and really needs help. And I think about them, and I think. God, what if I had three hundred years to be right in this present world and tell these people about the glory of God. My, what it would be like. You know, I've thought a lot times, I'd think, Well, God you know, you gave them three hundred years, my, why is it that we don't have three hundred years here? But see, we look at it like this. It took three hundred years for Enoch to arrive at what we are arriving at in just a few years. We can say more in just a few years with what God has given us and made us to know than Enoch said in three hundred years. Within a short period of time, I can do more, say more, reach more people than Enoch could in three hundred years. I preach over the T.V. I preach over the radio. I put out the printed page. Enoch had not any of these facilities. I'm able to reach millions of people where Enoch would do good to reach just hundreds of people. Now, so then I think about this and it's so thrilling and I think well, God, it's such a glorious opportunity. What a thrilling experience it is to me, Oh, God, to be at little Bethlehem and to have a building and to have the things that we have here and to be able to meet with the people and what a beautiful things we've got at Bethlehem. All of the world needs to know about it and everybody around anywhere needs to be invited and told to come out here and learn about this wonderful eternal Life that God is giving away. I've thought about it a lot of times you know. It would be so wonderful if you could get the vision and if you was enthused and the Bible said, go out into the highways and the hedges and compel them to come in my house might be filled up. And you know, if you had a vision and if you were thrilled the way you need to be thrilled about the things of God, you'd go out into the world and you'd be inviting people and your conversation would be so abundant concerning the life of God, and you'd be so running over and so enthused in the things of God, that people would just follow you just like flies. And somebody would say, you know, I just feel something when I'm around that fellow. He makes me feel good, you know,He makes me feel like doing something. It's like a ball player, you know, You take a ball player. I've seen this in my life time. I remember when I was just a boy, you know, about fourteen, fifteen, sixteen years old. I remember a certain boy that lived on the hill,there. He was a pretty, pretty nice of a boy. Wretched as he could be. All of us was, but anyway, pretty nice, you know according to our calculation and calibration of life, but I remember he would come around, you know,and it was just something about him that when he got around me it just spelled baseball. I could just get baseball minded, think about baseball. Baseball was just the grandest thing in the world. He could just come around, you know, and I could take one look at him and I was ready and I was ready to play ball. Just something about it. He loved baseball. He ate it and drank it, so to speak. Every time he come around he was talking about baseball and had, he had a spring to his step. Let's go pitch a few, you know. Let's go bat a few, and just every time you see him coming you just get lifted up and you'd want to go play baseball. You know, and lot of times be setting on the benches when he'd come up to bat at the baseball filled, maybe something else would come up and you didn't get the enthusiasm, but when he come up, you know he'd turn his hat and flip his hat and throw it down on the ground and he done all the things that the devil does to get peoples attention. And he was just a big outstanding thing for the devil and he would just enthuse you so that you felt, you just wanted to hollow for Him. Shake the pop up spew it every where, you know. Somebody say, praise the Lord. I'm talking about folks enthuse for the devil. See, you thought I was going off on a tangent and I was going to wind up down at the baseball field. Didn't you? You got to feeling real good about it didn't you? It disappointed you when I said what I did you found out the devil was at the other end. That's like a fish nibbling, you know, at the bait.He is so enthused and after awhile he thinks, my I'll grab that worm, and about the time he grabs it he finds out that somebody is on the other end of it and he is so sorrowful. But you know, really and truly, folks, I'm trying to get over a point tonight. People that are in the world, the Bible said that the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light. They are so enthused and so enriched with what they are doing and so carried away. See, the God of this world, Lucifer, has blinded them to the fact that they have got to die and they don't let themselves think about dying and the youth get all doped up and do these things and don't think about dying and they don't think that their life is going to run out and because they have got plenty of life. You know they can stay up all night long and just get a few winks sleep and back up tomorrow and they are going strong again. Do you see what I'm saying? They've got plenty of life. They've just got life to spare. Then all of a sudden it dawns on them. Their body begins to fail. Their health begins to fail. Their eye sight begins to fail. Their nerves begin to fail. Their brain begins to fail. Everything begins to fail, and all of a sudden they find themselves in a terrible complex. In a terrible condition and then they begin to seek God and they begin to call on God, and they begin to remember what the preacher said. You know, I preached a lot of times around the nations and I think, God they are not paying much attention to me,and then I've heard the Lord, do not worry. Son. It's all going in. You know,science says you don't ever forget anything that you hear. Just don't you worry about it, Son, you preach the gospel to ever creature. When that day comes, all of this they've got back in the trunk of their heart, back in the chest, back hear, they are going to start searching and they are going to start thumbing through it and they are going to say, my Lord, I don't feel so good, Lord am I going to have a heart attack? God am I going to have cereal hemorrhage?

I got cancer, Lord? And then they will start scheming, they'll begin to look and they will say, what was it that that preacher said back yonder? What was it? You know, maybe I'm going to die. Maybe I'd Better do something, and then hell looms up. They think, oh my, no. No, I don't want to go to hell. I don't want to go to the lake of fire. What was it that the preacher said? But the Lord said to me. He said, you just go ahead and preach the gosple. Let me take care of it. You sow the fields down. You put the seed in and don't you worry about it. There will come a day when the blade will begin to spring up and there will come a day when there will be a great harvest. You just go right on, and after while when the preachers get through plowing and planting, God will bring forth the harvest and you know what? It's beginning to come forth. People are beginning to be stirred. Like the reporter said the other day. Don't you feel there is a new ego about this and a new stirring,and don't you feel that at this time some more people are realy beginning to get interested in this thing? They really are. Even in their hypocritical way they are beginning to do it. But folks, Just think what that means for us. Just think what that means for us that have been concerned and us that have done the right thing and we that have borne the heat of the day and we that have pleassed God and we that have lived holy and clean befor God and acceped the blood and righteousness of the Son of God. Just think what that means for us at this time. See, when all of the follish virgins begane to run for that oil and began to say, give us of your light, Our life is running out. We don't have any inspiration in this world any more. We can't get a kick out of football like we used to, and basket ball and baseball and all of the other things don't thrill us any more. Sorrow and heartache and our children are gone and death is striking. Our loved ones are dropping out and our minds are breaking down and we are having to hold our nervse together by dope and all of this drinking whiskey and every thing else. Our money means nothing because it looks like we are in fear all the time. You know, the Bible said, the rich mans riches won't let him sleep because there is an uncertain sound in his ear. That uncertain sound is that the government is going to get it. Some thief is going to get it. You are going to die and leave it. Somebody is going to take it away from you and they can't rest. Like Solomon said, All of this I have gotten by wisdom, but said,who knows but what I'll die and leave it to a fool. And so he did. The man was very foolish that he left it to. Lost the greater part of the empire as soon as Solomon died. But you see what I'm saying? This great preacher at the end of the way, this great Solomon, who had all the power and riches, he realized that life was the greatest thing of all. And he as if to say, look what I've done. Look at the mistake that I have made. And then at the end of the way he said let me tell you the best way. The thing to do is to fear God. Fear God. I've got my abundance of riches, he said. I've got great and mighty, abundance of riches, but he said, if I die who will they belong to. And he said, you know what? The best thing that I have come to out of all my research is to know that you should fear God and keep commandments. Said this is the duty of man. The whole duty of man. Said he doesn't have any duty in trying to get an education. He doesn't have any in trying to be a president or a senator or a doctor or some great thing in life. He doesn't have any duty in trying to own and build and possess. He doesn't have any duty there. Solomon said he has one duty and that one duty is to fear God and to keep His commandments. The whole duty of man he said. This is his duty. He said this is what I've learned out of all my travail and my seeking that all that all possess, whether it be riches, power, authority, whether it be wisdom and knowledge and understanding, whether you have wives and children, whatever it is, he said, folks it's worth nothing at the end of the way. One thing is worth something to you if you have feared God and you have kept His Commandments. Then you have eternal riches, eternal life, eternal splendor and magnificence and eternal glory and the eternal things basis with eternal life inspiration belongs to you. You've got it eternally and forever. You can be happy. You don't loose the main spring. That is to say, let's say it like this, If a man gain the whole world and loose his soul, what has he profited. Besides that the soul is that which lives. The soul that sins shall surely die. What if you do get everything and then loose life. What good is everything without life. Life says as it expresses itself, you hear life, and life said seek ye first me and I life that have created and owed all things, I life, will add all of these other things unto you and you can enjoy them because I life will abide with you forever, but seek ye first me, the life. And you know, Jesus emphasized this, and I am going to close in saying these few words. Jesus emphasized life. He said is not your life worth more than the raiment that you use your life up to obtain? Isn't your life worth more? He said. He used the term your body, your health, isn't your body worth more. You break it down to get all the refineries of life and then your nerves are gone, and your system is broke down, and you are just a nobody and a nothing and you can't even enjoy a dollar. Isn't your body worth more than raiment? Jesus said. I gave you the body. Isn't it worth more than the raiment that you use it up to obtain? And then He said, Isn't you life worth more than the meat that you use it up to obtain that you might put it in your belly? Isn't your life worth more than the meat, more than the things of this world? Isn't your life worth more? Jesus said, Have you ever stopped to consider the fact that you have got something greater, and that thing is life, and yet that life is so much greater, you are so careless with it Jesus said. You don't pray. You don't fast. You don't study the word. You don't try to relate to life. You don't try to develops character or characteristics that will make you more partakers of the abundance of life.You don't do anything to learn to walk in harmony with life,and to relate to life.Jesus said, isn't that kind of unreasonable? Isn't that a condition of ignorance? I've given you the most prized thing. I've given you the greatest possession of all and yet you are so unreasonable in your thinking, until you neglect it, lay it aside, and like somebody has said in the past, I overlook an orchid while searching for a rose.Lot of times a pearl of great price can be near by, but the pearl is not recognized in the snout of a swine. He doesn't know anything about the beauty of Pearls, and a lot of times he had rather bubble in the slop. Always with a pig. As far as he is concerned root the pearl out and bring on the slop. That's the way the world is. Root Jesus out. Do away with the pearl of great prize. Don't let Him be here. I don't like to retain truth in my knowledge someone would say. Do away with that. That vexes me. That bothers me. That hems me up. That puts me in kind of a prison. And it gets me to where I can't do my thing like I want to. And so the swine with his snout kicks out the pearl. Or the Bible said don't cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and then they'll turn and rend you after they do that. You know they will make a joke out of it and a joke out of your God. So then, tonight I recommend one thing. Fear God. Keep His commandments. This is the whole duty of man. Seek life first in it's abundance and God will add all the other things or life will bring you the desire of your heart. But when you are dying don't forget everything is lost. Death takes everything. Satan is a thief and a robber. He robs you of your health, your sanity, your children, your blessing, your prosperity, everything. That's why Jesus said, "Watch and pray". As I told David Paul over in the late evening. I said David watch your little children. Watch your little children. Folks, watch your fingers. The devil will steal your fingers. He'll cause you to get them in a place to get them cut off, and you will go through life with your fingers missing. He'll cut your arms off. He'll take your eyes. Watch every part of your body. Watch and pray. Watch your children. Watch what you do. Watch where you go. Acknowledge the Lord in all your ways, in everything that you do, in everything that you think. Always have God there. Watch, because Satan is a thief and a robber. He's after the beautiful things of God to steal them from you because he doesn't own them. I want you to stand with me. I wanted to say these few words of exhortation tonight. Now, I want you to think them over. Life is so short, Beloved Friend. I'm talking to you right now. I could be dead before I step from this pulpit. You could be dead before you go out those doors, though you are healthy and whole right now. You could be dead before you go out those doors. Easily, very easily, you could be dead. You know, It takes about three things to really keep our heart in condition. The heart is a great thing. Nobody has ever made a mechanism like it. Scientist marvel at it because it can beat a hundred years, never miss a peg and never stop during the entire hundred years and at the entire hundred years at the end of it it can be ready to go again like it was with Enoch for another hundred, then it can be ready for another hundred. See, and it is a marvelous, one of the most marvelous things there is. David said I'm wonderfully made. And scientist say the heart is unbelievable and marvelous and yet it is considered a muscle. And actually there is about three things that is imperative toward the keeping the heart in condition, as we would say. And that is potassium, sodium, and calcium. Potassium, sodium, brings a relaxation to the heart, while calcium gives it it's contraction. It gives it that which it needs for contraction, but you know, course we get these things in vitamins, different elements, whatever. But you know, isn't it wonderful to know that even beyond that God is the main spring. God is the day spring from on high. That has visited His people and has taken up His abode in their heart. Until the Daystar dawn within you. That wonderful thing called eternal life. You don't understand, some of you. I know you don't understand, cause every time I think of it I can feel something that just about, you know, I just feel like wheeeeee. I've got it! That's the way I feel. I think, Oh! I've got it! Glory to God, I've got it! This is real and I've got it. So I know by that some of you don't understand. But it strikes me so many times and has been to where it would just about take my breath away. That thing would strike me and I would say, Glory to God! I'm tell them, but my God, what a time I'm having on the inside. And I think, Lord and I'm telling them, and if they just knew this thing, you know, how wonderful. But see, I know you don't and I know you don't even believe that I've got it. So I think, well, the use. You know, what is the use. But I'll just go on preaching the gospel and they that are suppose to get it they will get it and they that are suppose to believe they will believe and as many as are ordained unto eternal life they will have that main spring. And then I won't have to struggle to tell them. They will look at me with the same wonderful expression when they themselves don't have words to express it because it is joy unspeakble and they will say, oh glory to God. I just can't say it. It's unspeakable. Glory to God. But it's full of Glory. Full of glory. Full of joy. Serving God is full of joy. Peace and righteousness in the Holy Ghost. What a wonderful experience. Life. Wonderful life. Abundance of living. I wonder how many of you are planning to live forever? They have got a little song that says if you want to live say amen. If you want to live forever say amen. Praise God. It's one thing to want to live forever. It's another thing to do something about it. You've got a chance to live forever. God has given you the chance. It's up to you. You know, I'm going to close right here, because there is no end. I could go on and go on. I could just go on and go on, but I'm going to close. I'm going to let you go. We probably won't get to preach again before we get back out of meeting. There might be a possibility that we would be here Sunday morning. I don't know. As far as I know, Brother Taylor, maybe will be here. Is that right? Sunday morning? Brother Taylor will be here, so if he's here I won't appoint anybody else. And there is a possibility that I might be here. But anyway whether I am or whether I'm not, you can come and worship the Lord. And I want to say again to those that are coming to the meeting, be careful. Jesus said watch and pray. Watch and pray. I would love to see everyone of you up there. The big tent is going up and I could use everyone of you, helping us and strengthening us as well as fill up the tent. But you know that is not the right way, just to fill the tent up. That's not what's important. The thing that is important is to do God's will. I could fill the tent up without any problem. I could have so many thousands of people that you couldn't hardly get near this place out here, but that is not what we are looking for. Even through we would like the truth, tell the people about Jesus and still reach the multitudes. We'd still like to do that. Like to tell them, but the main thing is to do what God wants done and when He wants it done and where He wants it done and this is of course why we are having the meeting up in the Carolina's as we have across the nation and the world. But you that are coming, you pray and you ask the Lord to bless you and to help you, and when you come don't make believe, if you are really going to come by faith, whereas I know a lot of you step out by faith, some of you call it faith, but some of you actually do step out by faith and God has wonderfully met your needs. But if you are going to come by faith get off somewhere and pray and get your thoughts up and get your believing and get your trust and get that certain feeling, like this. Lord, you know my heart and you know I want to go and Lord, I'm asking you to let me if it's your will, If it's your desire. And then as you pray you think like this. Search your heart real thorough and see if you can muster up that feeling by building up your faith by praying in the Holy Ghost. Muster up that feeling that you know that you suddenly feel the confidence that John spoke of that he called faith. The confidence suddenly arise in your heart and you get that feeling you know, you know Lord I really believe somehow, not trying to convince yourself, but that certain feeling comes up and you begin to feel a consolation and a comfort and you begin to think. Somehow I just know, I've just got that feeling Lord that somehow it's going to work out and you are going to make the way for me here and on the road and when I get there. And you get that feeling and I'll tell you what. I'll guarantee you there is nothing that can stop it. That's just that feeling. That's what faith is. But you know some of you can't have it, you are not friends with God. You don't ever serve God. You don't ever fast. You don't ever talk with God. You don't ever try to be friends with God. You are always finding fault with the preacher. You are always finding fault with the Brothers and Sisters. Always complaining. Always in and out, up and down, and doing the things of the world and that's why you don't have any confidence that does hear you, whereas the Bible says this is our confidence that if we pray we know that He heareth us. And the Bible also says this is our confidence that we know that he hears us, we know that we have the petition that we desire of Him. Why? Because we do the things that please Him. So if you have not been doing the things that please God, so that faith will rise in your hearts then you had better start doing it folks. Cause I tell you in closing right here, the one misinterpret of the church is, that is the church in general, is that they have not done the things that please God. Now listen. And when the time for the translation comes around they are not going to have the confidence that everything is going to work out for them. The thing that please God is faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God, that is the confidence that He hears you and will grant you your desire. And the Bible says this one thing concerning the translation and concerning Enoch; before his translation he had this testimony. Can somebody tell me what it was? That he pleased God. We do the things that please Him, John said. So then, this is our confidence. He hears us. We know that if He hears us that settles it. We have what we desire. So all you've got to do is know that He hears you, and He'll hear you if you've got the confidence. And if you do the things that please Him you'll have that confidence. And Brother, Sister, there won't be nothing that can stop it. The blessings will pour down from Heaven and He will hear your prayer, Whether it's for you or someone else. All right we are going to close right hear. And ask Brother Richard the Jew to come up. Brother Richard. Let him dismiss us tonight in a word of prayer, and while Brother Richard the Jew is dismissing us in a word of prayer, think now. Stop and think, and ask the Lord the question, Lord am I pleasing you? Have I got faith? No, not unless you are pleasing Him. If you are pleasing him, yes. You will have the confidence. As Brother Richard, the Jew, comes let's bow our heads together and search our souls and see if everything is well in our hearts. Brother Richard.

By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.

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

Holiness Unto The Lord