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And how they would call on God in times of trouble. Oh my God, Jehoshaphat and them, they called and they prayed. And Jehoshaphat began to talk to the Lord because he did as his grandfather David did. And he began to talk to the Lord, and the Lord remembered the promises That was— oh God, the guy who did laps. Oh gosh. He'll come to me. But the Lord sent saviors. He sent deliverers, people to bring Israel up out of whatever they were in. And they were called. But he— but then they would go back to their sacrifices and bullocks and they would give their turtledoves. But their hearts weren't in it. They did it because it was what the law said they had to do. The law said, oh, on the 5th moon you do this and on the 1st Sabbath you do that and on the 3rd month you do this. And they did it all. That's right. But they didn't have genuine hearts for God. Yeah. And he realized that. So oftentimes the Lord is not looking for religiosity or pomp and circumstance. God is looking for a genuine heart, a genuine heart. Uh, faith brings about action. Perception brings about action. Um, people say why they got saved and how they got saved and stuff like that. I'm gonna tell you why I got saved, because my perception was I didn't want to go to hell. It looked harder and worse than heaven, and I knew nobody else could do it but Jesus. So I hurried up at the ripe young age of 16. It took me 2 years. Right. You know how I hurried up? Took me 2 years. Now how does that sound like hurried up, right? But we— but came to the Lord. But in that search for it, it had to— it had to prepare my heart to be genuine. Because once I got saved, I wasn't going nowhere. Uh-huh. Amen. 'Cause I knew that any minute he could crack the sky. Any minute he can say it's time. Any minute. When I tell you testimonies, when I think back and sitting— saved now— sitting in a stolen car with a gun at my head. The guy pulled the gun and pulled the trigger. Yeah, he did. I said to the driver, I looked at him, I said— I looked at the driver, I said, we need to go. Took off. Left the cop standing on the side of the road. I was like, Jesus, did that man lose his mind? Not, not having enough awareness of who God was, not having enough awareness of understanding the protection that God gives us when we ain't got sense enough to know he protecting us. Little bit of faith, little bit of faith, faith to get saved. Now you got to walk out your salvation. Now you got to walk it out. You got to grow that faith. So in Matthew the 9th chapter, starting at the Verse 1. And I want to read that because when you read— when you read Matthew, they got a lot of stuff going on in Matthew. Oh my goodness, it's just unbelievable. Healings are going, miracles going, fasting, praying, all kinds of things. But I want to touch on 3 things in Matthew today when we're reading. Matthew 9:1-7 says, and he entered into a ship and passed over and came into his own city. And behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy lying on a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith— I'm going to stop right there. Earlier we talked about perception, and we talked about it being sight and sound, sight and sound. We talk about faith coming by hearing, but Jesus saw faith. Yes, he did. Say, Jesus seeing their faith. So there's some faith that we have that Jesus sees. God sees it. We don't even know it yet, but God sees it as as we're coming. He sees it. He said, "And Jesus seeing their faith." Where was I? Jesus knowing their. Behold, they brought him a man, and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy, "Son, be of good cheer. Have I got good news for you." Be of cheer. I've got goodness. Thy sins be forgiven thee. When the disciples over Luke were asking for God to increase their faith, he was talking about forgiving those who transgress against you. And here Jesus is saying to this man that's sick, "Your sins are forgiven you." Wonder what the correlation to that is? Hmm. I could tell you, but I'm gonna just leave that thought with you. What's the correlation? This is Bible study, y'all, so I ain't tell y'all everything. I'm gonna ask y'all some things too while I'm up here, so y'all keep listening. And behold, a certain of the scribes said within themselves, this man blasphemes. Ain't that just like though the devil? Miracles are being wrought and he's talking about how bad you are. I'll never forget someone— I was watching T.D. Jakes one day and he was doing his thing and souls were coming to the altar. And then the next person said, you know, he left the body and he ain't in Christ. I said, may the works I do speak for me. If you show me a man with faith, I'll show you a man with works. That's what James says— Peter says. If you show me a man with faith, he gonna have some works because his faith isn't gonna sit idle. Faith produces a response. And we're gonna talk about some of those responses here in Matthew. Um, these men that brought this guy to Jesus for the palsy, they had faith. He said, I see your faith. You're doing— they carrying this guy. They carrying this guy. They bringing him to Jesus in a state where it took more than one of them to do it. They sacrificed their time, their effort to get this man to Jesus. That's right. He said, I see your faith. We need to take one another to Jesus. We need to carry one another. Am I my brother's keeper? Yes. Yes, I'm my brother's keeper. We need to take one another to Christ. They took them. He said, I see your faith. He said, your sins are forgiven. And after, you know those religious folks, the ones who say you ain't saved, the ones who say you don't know Christ, the ones who always got something to say about what's going on in your life and their life is shipwrecked? Y'all don't know none of them. Uh-huh. But those folks, the Sanhedrins, they carried on a bit and Jesus knew their thoughts. He said, so is it easier for me to say your sins are forgiven or to rise up and walk? What's the difference? What's the difference? The guy is still not going to be in the condition that he came here in. He's not leaving the way he came. When you come into Jesus' presence, you're not leaving the way that you came. So it really doesn't matter whether he says to you, rise up or your sins are forgiven. I kind of like the sins are forgiven number. I kind of really like that thing because if the sins are gone, then I have access. When the sins are gone, I have access. So I want access. So I'm— I like that your sins— I like that your sins are forgiven stuff. Yeah, really good. But then they— but they said, for whether it is easier to say thy sin is forgiven or to say arise and walk, but that ye may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. Jesus has the power to forgive sins. Yes. Yours, mine, his, them, theirs, ours. Any of them, all of them. We're going to talk a little bit about that, or Calvary, a little bit more as we go on into this passage. He has the power to forgive sins. And thus he said to the sick of the palsy, arise, take up thy bed, and go into thine house. And he arose and departed to his house. But when the multitude saw it, they marveled and glorified God, which had given such power unto men. And as Jesus passed forth From hence he saw a man named Matthew sitting. Oh, I want to drop down from that. Let me— I want to skip over that and I want to go down to— oh, let me go ahead with that. And Jesus passed forth from thence and he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the receipt of customs. And he said unto him, follow me. And he arose and followed him. And that's a whole nother story, but Christ called Matthew from being a tax collector. They weren't too favorable back in that day. So we're going to leave it at that. People that are unfavored, God will call and use. And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. I find that interesting that Jesus went to Matthew's house and in comes those people who need Jesus. Most of us will come into the church, but we won't go places where sinners are. We won't go into their locations. And now I'm not telling nobody to go sit up in a bar and try and bring nobody. I'm just saying, I'm just saying, we got family members, we go to barbecues, we do church work, all kind of things. We need to let our light shine. We need to let our light shine. That's part of our faith walk. When people can see your walk— because remember, we talked about faith being a hearing and a seeing thing. That's right. It's a perception. People perceive you. When the, um, when the Shunammite woman saw the prophet coming, she said, I perceive that this be a man of God. Let us fix a place for him. Let's do good by him. Yeah. I perceive there's something about this man that's not the same as with everybody else, so we're going to do something special for him. And sometimes when people see you, they ought to have that same testimony. I perceive this be a woman of God. Not that you opened your mouth, not that you wore the right clothes, but that there is something in your spirit man that's shining forth that they can perceive it. And Jesus, okay, we're back to verse 9, 10, 11. The Pharisees on earth and Jesus, Republicans heard that and they said to him, I'm supposed to be reading 1 through 9, aren't I? 1 through 7. Oh, I already passed that. I'm sorry. 18 to 19. I'm sorry, I have to read back to my notes. So we're going to jump down to— well, we're going to jump down to 18 and 19, but those verses in between, Jesus is teaching a very powerful concept, principle. He's preaching a very powerful principle about the bridegroom and him being with people, with the bridal party, and how when he's with them, what they don't need to do, what they can do. And he also begins to talk about the old. The reason he came was that the old was starting to wear. When old things— you can't add old and new things all the time. You just can't do it. And the old way of serving God was coming to an end. And there was a new way coming in. And Jesus was beginning to teach this at this particular time. And in comes chapter 18, verse 18. While he spake these things unto them, while he's teaching this powerful message, Behold, there came a certain ruler, a man of influence, and worshiped him, saying, my daughter even now is dead. Even now. Well, my daughter is even now dead, but come and lay thy hands upon her and she shall live. And Jesus arose and followed him, and so did his disciples. When I read that, I said, hold up. Hold up. Worship stopped Jesus from teaching a principle. Worship. This man came worshiping. Daughter dead. He know he needed something from God. But he didn't come weeping and crying and carrying on. He came and he said— he began to worship God. And Jesus stopped. Do you know when you worship God, he stops and takes notice? He stops and worships. Worship is knowing who God is. We worship God because of his deity. We praise God because of the things he does for us. This man came worshiping. He was a ruler in his own right, but he knew who Jesus was. And when he came, Jesus stopped teaching and rose up. And I find it interesting that Jesus rose up because we know that he spoke some things and he said some things and it was done. But he rose up and he rose up because the next miracle needed— he was on a path to meet the next miracle. He got up and went because there was a pathway already being made. There was somebody in their mind saying, if I could but touch the hem of his garment. Christ, it's amazing. He said, before you were formed in your mother's womb, I knew you and I made a way out. I made an escape for you. I find this passage interesting because the woman had an issue of blood, a disease that was in her blood. But the Bible said Christ came and was nailed to the cross, and his blood healed every disease known to man. This woman got a prelude of what the blood was going to do. Right. Through blood, there was a connection With her according to the blood before Christ even got crucified. I don't know about y'all, but I'm gonna have to take a shout break right now. I was reading that and I stopped. I said, hold tight. Did, did he say that she had a blood issue and Christ arose from a teaching position to go do something he could have spoke, to be on a course to meet with a woman who had an issue of blood? Because he had a destiny to heal. And I call her the secret agent. She's a secret agent. This man came worshiping. Oh, glory to God. He came worshiping, but she was a secret agent. And her disease was such that she was not supposed to be among people. She ain't had no business out there in the streets. Right. And if people had saw her, they could have stoned her. A whole lot of stuff could have happened to her. But she got down and I'm almost— I'm just going to perceive this, y'all, because it ain't written nowhere. But I believe she got on her hands and knees and crawled. Amen. Because her perception was not to walk up to Jesus, it was to touch the hem of his garment. Now, I don't know about y'all, but if you walk up to somebody and drop down, everybody gonna be looking and say, what happened? But she went in as a secret agent. She came in underneath the radar. 'Cause he teaching, he going on about his business. He had to stop. I mean, when he rose up, everybody who was there rose up and went with him. The crowd thronged him. They pressed. But here this secret agent was on her knees and she touched the hem of his garment. Faith. Secret faith. Right. I call that a secret agent. Right. Now faith has a lot of things we done talked about, this worshiping faith. We talked about this secret agent faith. And while Christ was still gone, because remember, the guy said, my daughter even now is dead. Christ stopped and healed somebody. And when he got to where she was, where the young daughter was— I'm not gonna read off of time. You, you got a Bible, you can read it. I'm sure y'all know these stories. But when Christ looked at the woman, he said, daughter, your faith— sometimes we can only get from God what our faith allows. That's right. We want big stuff, we got a little bit of faith. Right. We want big, big, big stuff. We haven't grown our faith to reach that yet. We haven't stretched that muscle. We haven't gone through enough experiences with God. We haven't yielded enough to God. We haven't trusted enough in God. We haven't pulled ourselves out of self and put us in God. Yeah. To get that huge blessing. But hold on to it because he said it's a mustard seed faith and it's going to grow a root. It's growing a root. One day you're going to get that. You got to hold on. Faith is unwavering. Amen. It's unwavering in the sight of God because you can't see it. So what's there to waver about? It ain't here. Nobody can snatch it. Nobody can hide it. It ain't here. But when it appears, when it appears, when that thing that God has appeared, can nobody do nothing with it but say, look at God. Look at God. Cancer. We got witnesses. Nowadays, it just say, Lord heal me of cancer. We got witnesses diabetes. The Lord heal me. Now diabetes one of them things I say, listen, get your diet right. You can heal yourself of diabetes. I'm just gonna say that, y'all. I'm not being mean and nasty. I just think some things we can do better. We can do better. God is here to do those impossible things. Now if you could heal cancer, I tell you heal that too. Get yourself together. But we can't do nothing with cancer. We can't do nothing but close the heart valves. Even when the surgeon go in, if he ain't right, if it ain't, if it ain't at a certain point, nothing he could do either. So there are certain things that we gotta— that, that secret, that secret agent faith is a powerful faith because everybody didn't know. Everybody didn't know what was going on with her, but she got a huge blessing because when she got blessed, Jesus stopped and made an announcement. Somebody got healed. Amen. through their faith. He made an announcement and then he continued on his journey. And when he got to where the daughter was even now dead, they had a party going on. Well, not a party, but back in those days you hired people to sing songs and carry on. They were carrying on. And when Jesus came and said, oh, she only sleeping, they did to Jesus what they do to us when we tell them what we expecting God to do. They laughed. You know, I'm— God's got my miracle. I'm waiting on— I'm praying and I'm working towards my miracle. I got a ministry God has put in me. I got a deliverance that God has given me. I got some children God is going to bring about. I got some unborn things that God wants to do for me and my neighborhood. I got some brothers I've been praying for on that corner over there. I got some young ladies who've been walking in the streets at night, but they come to me in the daytime and ask me to pray for them. I got some people over here in the restaurant I go eat, and they be crying about their children in jail. I got some work to do. So I got some stuff I need to do in my journey. Amen. So on his way to where this woman was, he said, you know, people laugh at you when you say you got this stuff to do. They look, they laugh, who you think you is? What you mean you got ministry? What you mean you going to write an album? What you mean you going to write a book? What you mean the Lord delivered you? I know you. You— I give you 6 months, you'll be right back over here. I know you. They think they know you, but they don't know the God that you serve. And that's the part that they lost. They don't know the God that you serve. He got there, they laughed. He said, go, y'all need to get out of here, just leave. And when they left, he didn't even— all he did was hold out his hand. He didn't even say nothing to her. Right. He just held out his hand and she got up. She got up. She got up. He showed up and the blessing showed up. He showed up and the blessing showed up. And as soon as he left there on his way— now I can imagine those people who were laughing before I move on, laughing. And when the little girl came out, they probably had their mouth to their knee. What happened in there? All kind of speculation I'm sure went on. But all they could say was she was dead and now she lives. There's some things in our life that are dead that we need to bring to God. There's some things in our life that God promised and we done forgot about 'cause we consider it dead. We consider it undone. We need to bring that— we need to stir that back up. We need to bring Christ back on the scene of that. God promised ministry here, Mother. It's coming. Hold fast because God don't lie. Amen. God— my perception is God don't lie. And if he don't lie, everything he say comes true. I might lie. You may not like my behavior. I might promise you something and for whatever reason, when I promised it, I might have been in good standing to go do it and things changed and unable to do it now. But you still looking for it. Yeah. 'Cause I promised. But that ain't God. When God promise something, it comes to fruition. We, we stand in time. God doesn't. We stand in time saying, when? He said, what? Oh, oh yeah, yeah, I ain't forgot about you. We stand in time, but God stands in eternity. Right, right. We stand in time, we think it's taking a long time, but God's standing in eternity. He's saying at the appointed time, not before time, at the appointed time. And we've got to learn to wait on the appointed time. When Christ left that woman— I'm gonna go one more and I'm gonna be done. Kind of sort of. I'll be done because my time will be up. When he left that scenario, I'm telling you, Matthew was unbelievable. I was like, well, are he gonna get through healing folks? He gonna get through doing his miracles? He left that and started out, and guess what happened? The town crier showed up. Jesus, thy Son of David, have mercy on us. They begin to cry. You know, some of us got a loud ministry. It ain't silent. It ain't soft. We ain't secret agents. These guys weren't secret agents. They want everybody to know, we know who you are and we want something from you. We know who you are. You're the Son of David. You're the promised Messiah. You are he that can do what we're asking for. And he said, and they didn't mind. And they blind now, but they followed him. I love that part of the scripture. He said, they're blind, but they followed Christ. Okay, that should be interesting. Can't see him, but they could follow him. Can't see him, but could follow him. And my sister here already took the punchline. That's walking by faith. Right. They can't see him. That's faith. They can't see him, but they could follow him. And when they got there, he said, what do you want? Sometimes we got to be explicit with what we want from God. If you're going to be the town crier, cry for something worthwhile happening. Amen. If you're going to be the town crier, cry for the pastor and the church. You're going to be the town crier, cry for the neighborhood you live in. Cry for the people that don't know Christ. Cry for the souls that are dying daily out of the ark of safety. You want to be the town crier, cry. But when you cry to God, make it worth his while. Oh God, I need a new car. Well, go to work and get one. A lady, one of the old— one of the saints I was growing up, she said, This prophet came to town. He said, oh, sister, you gonna get a house. She said, tell me something I don't know. She said, I work every day. My credit score is very good. And I know I can get a house. That ain't what I want right now. She said, so, um, you might want to tell me something else. I said to myself, you didn't tell him that. She said, yeah, I did. I said, because you don't— you can't prophesy me something God already said I could have. You can't tell me what God already said I could have. And if I know I can have it by keeping my score good and working hard, I can get that house. I ain't gotta ask. I can get that car. That's right. I can get my bills paid for. I can get out of debt. I got me in debt. I love it. We get in debt, then we want God to get us out. Right. He said, well, I didn't tell you to buy that. When I was telling you to give an offering, you was buying something. When I say save, you was spending. And we go, oh God, Jesus. Yeah, he hear you and he will answer you, but some of that stuff you need to— we need to do ourselves. Well, these town criers cried for something they could not do for themselves. Oh, that we would have our sight. That we would have our sight. He said, he said, Jesus said, well, let me ask you a question. Do you believe? That's the question that the apostles missed when they was asking Jesus to increase their faith. They asked him to do something that they already had, that they can already do, but they didn't believe it. Right. They didn't believe it. Therein lies the crust of our faith. What do you believe? What do you believe? Because it's all in your perception. I believe God. Really? All the time? Sometimes? On time? After times? When things are dead and there's no life in them? When that marriage is over the hill? When your health is like, okay, the doctors give you up? Is it that faith when you can't see your way? That blindness that comes in our life? I don't know about you, but live long enough, there'll be a blind spot. I'm just talking from experience now. Just live long enough. Mother, right? There'll be a blind spot. You get sidetracked, sideswiped. Where'd that come from? It's coming, but stand fast in the liberty where God has set you free. He's giving you the freedom to get through that. Amen. Faith is one of those things that it's a little thing. It's a little thing. Mustard seed faith. It's a little— this thing's so little that if it weren't for the fact there's so many of them, if somebody said get that mustard seed, it'll be where? And don't let it fall on something brown, it's lost. It's completely lost. But that's our faith. That's all the faith you need. Yes. That's it. Mustard seed faith. Mustard seed faith brought back the dead. Mustard seed faith put eyes in people who didn't have them. Mustard seed faith healed a disease that nobody else could heal. Mustard seed faith. Where's your faith? What is your faith? Do we have to ask God about that? No, we don't, because we've already got what we need. We've got mustard seed faith. Mustard seed faith. And I am done. Amen. And I am done. Of course I'm done because my time is up. Because truly, I got a couple more pages of notes I can go through. I'm sorry. Because, well, okay, Pastor, don't say go through. All right. When we think about faith, and I really have to say that one of the things I was looking at with faith was this woman whose husband was a servant of God. Husbands and wives, we husbands, wives, sometimes children, mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, they have this working relationship that they're in. And this woman said, my husband was your servant. He served. He served. How many times do we have members of our family— my mother served God. And the Bible says I have an inheritance among the saints. Ha! Hey, hey! Don't stop me, God. My mother served God. My mother knew things. I'd be like, huh, who's she talking to? She got a crystal ball. How she knew where I was? How she knew what I did? And she had 4 of us. How she know what to do with us? She talked to God every day, 2 or 3 times a day. And she knew. But she served God. And when out of her serving God, I have an inheritance in that kingdom of God. Right. I have an inheritance in the kingdom. I was born into the kingdom of God. I was born as a citizen from my mom's. Yes. She lived the life. And then she didn't give us no wiggle room. She didn't give us no wiggle room. You going to church and you gonna pray. My mother used to catch us coming down the hall and hit that oil and pop us with it. I'm trying to get on the bus to get to school and my mother having a prayer service. I'm serious. She having a serious prayer service. I'm like, oh Jesus, here she go again. One day she said, them demons out there waiting on you. Sassy me. stepped back and looked out the door. I just want y'all to know, if you say you don't see demons, bless you. Because I looked and I said, okay, pray. Yes, I did. I jumped back in that prayer because when I looked out, something was out there. It was out there. And I said, okay, I know now I need to pray. But from her prayers, I knew that I could go out among the world because we got to live this thing in the world. We got to live this thing when Nobody else is living it. She said, my husband served you. Now the creditor's coming to get us. They coming. And we don't have no recourse. And I love it. He said, what you got? You know us women. Well, I ain't got nothing but. I ain't got nothing but. All right. I love that but, which meant I ain't got nothing. He said, okay, whatever you got, whatever faith you got, mustard seed faith. See, I got a little jar of oil. It's amazing how God blesses what we've got. You got a voice? Sing. You can pray? Pray. You can help? Help. Do you know that that's the— I'm gonna say this, Mother, don't beat me up— that's one of the best helps and one of the best gifts in the house of God, the gift of helps. Yes, ma'am. Do you know how many pastors would love to have about 5 members Under that anointing. Oh my God, the gift of helps. And God give it to us and some of us don't— we ain't talking. I ain't singing. I sing loud out in the road, mother. I'm telling you, I sing loud out in the seat there for you. I got a different— I got a different post right now. Yes, I can sing, but you got to know where you are in Christ and what God has called you to do and what post you need to be on. You may not see it now. I ain't a prayer warrior. I ain't a songstress. I ain't got no book. I, I, I, I ain't. Yeah, you are. Yeah, you are. God told you. He didn't save you without giving you a work. He did not save any of us without giving us a work. And I love the older saints because when we got saved, they made us stay on the altar till we knew what the work was. And if we got up and had no idea what it was, they knew. They would say, um, babies, Go see Sister Joanne in the missionary department. Oh, Sister, you need to go talk to Sister Juanita in the choir. Oh, Mother So-and-so, she's going to be an usher. Uh-huh. They would. And you'd be like, how do you know I want to be an usher? The Spirit of God. Because they didn't let you just get up off there because God don't save you for naught. God don't save you to be saved to shout and to come in the church and look good. Like we all like to do. That ain't what he saved you for. He saved you for a work. And that faith that you have, that mustard seed faith, is going to develop into that ministry that God has called you for. That mustard seed faith. You can be a town crier. Thy Son of David, have mercy on me. You can be the secret agent. I got, I got a prayer life so deep you won't even see it. And when you know anything, I'm walking up and praising God, and God looking back and saying, "I got an announcement. Here's my daughter with a testimony." And you be saying, "I know you was going through all of that. I know it wasn't for you to know." But the witness is now there. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, hoping for that healing, hoping for that deliverance, hoping for that son, hoping for that daughter, hoping for that ministry, hoping for that gifting, hoping for that. A breakthrough. Hoping. Now faith. Now faith. Now faith. We got to have faith that we see it. We perceive it before it's done. Yeah. We perceive it. I see it. What the mind of man can perceive, that will he do. That was a saying that came up back in the '80s. And I used to think, that's a strange thing. But as I've lived long enough, I see it to be. What the mind of men think, they manage to get it done. it's in your heart to do it, you can get it done. You're going to find a way. If your goal, if your desire is to serve God, you're going to find a way. You can be the town crier, the secret agent. Right. You could be the worshiper, the praiser. All of these titles that come only because of your action, because faith springs you into action. And you're going to do what you need to do. So Elisha gave the woman what she needed to do. We have to exercise our faith muscles. And we talked about that from the town crier to the woman at the well. Life evidence, we should have evidence that we have faith. People shouldn't have to ask you about your faith. They should see your faith in action. That's right. People shouldn't ask you, do you have faith? It needs to be, it needs to be so potent. And I know I said it was a seed that was planted that grew down and grew out. But when you gonna let it spring forth? It can't stay underground always. Amen. It's gotta pop its head up. The bamboo, the bamboo, and I'm gonna sit down with this. When you plant a bamboo, it takes it 20 years to spring up. But when it springs up, within 72 hours, it's over 9 feet tall. When it start to grow, it grow fast. Oh, that's not the American bamboo, but over in the other places. Now they got all kinds of hybrids of everything. But when you— when they planted bamboo, they had to water it every day. They cultivated it, and it didn't come up for 20 years. I'd be like, uh-huh, I done forgot I planted that thing. They'd be like, I planted something? Uh. But they never forgot because they watered, and the root went deep. Oh yeah. It grew down for 20 years and then it sprang up. Oh yeah. Then it sprang up. So we don't want to spend our entire life with our roots in the ground. We want that faith to be a now faith. We want that faith to be a right now faith. We want God to, um, to do something miraculous and, and have that faith that he's given us to, to bring it to fruition. We need it in the body. Look at the seats out here tonight. Look at the seats out here tonight. Yeah. Take a look. We need work. And I always tell people when things like this happen, it's time for an infusion of new blood. Can't beat a dead horse. Can't make 'em drink. Can't make 'em come back to— I mean, we just talked about faith, but I ain't gonna work on that. I'm gonna work on getting something new. Because when you pour it into people and you pour it into things and you've done all that you can do, leave it alone. Leave it alone. When you've done all that you can do, the Bible says, having done all to do, just stand. Then you just take your hands up and give it over to God. Right. And go out and do something else. Right. And go out and do your first works over again. What you did the first time, go do it again. And just miss all the mistakes you did the last time. If you, if you can figure out what they are. So we're at a great point for our faith to be built at this point. We're in a great— we're in an excellent spot for our faith to grow. You look at me and say, Minister Peoples, you done lost your mind. No, we're in a great spot. We're in an amazingly great spot for God to do something extraordinary. Amen. Extraordinary. 30-day extraordinary miracles. 90-day extraordinary— people every day in business are saying, I got a 30-day plan to wealth. I got a 90-day plan. And you know what? Them boogers make it. I be like, now I serve God. What happened? Where's your faith, Carol? Or what is your faith in? Amen. What is your faith in? Well, I'm looking for miracles. I'm looking for healed bodies. But you know what? I could use some money too. I say, Lord, I could use some of that wealth. The wealth of the rich is stored up. I want it. I want it, I need it, 'cause we say we need it for ministry. We need it for ministry. God can do it. So I'm excited about this topic of faith. I know Pastor has us on this roll and he teaches for 6 weeks. I understand why. You just can't— There's so much. You just can't. I, you know, I don't know if anybody here, and I'm gonna take a few more liberties to say, if you have a faith testimony, you need to be telling it. You need to be telling it. Faith comes by hearing. We want the frequency in this place to be so charged that when people come in, they be saying, who is all on my skin? What is that? That's the Spirit of the living God. That's right. That's the— that's our faith at work, because you ain't leaving out of here the way you came in. It don't take a lot. And I noticed we got a few men in the house, but you know what I see? I see prayer. I see women of prayer. I see wailing wall women. I see women that know how to connect with God. That's what I see. I see the crust of where faith springs out of. Yes. I'm no prophet. I'm just telling you what I see based on what I see. The crust. If you're here, you know what you need to pray for. If you're here, You know what we need to do. And the Bible says where 2 or 3 touching and agreeing— I think 3, 6, 9, yeah, that's about 12 of us in here. Whoa, take out the multiplication right quick. That's a lot. And God, God works in not addition but multiplication. Yes, he does. He works in multiplication. So what's our 30-day plan? We at April 3rd, and April has 31 days. I'mma challenge you. Ain't no sense in me standing up here not challenging you. 30 days— we had April 3rd, there's 31 days in August. What month did I say we was in? May. I'm hurrying up the year, okay? See, we want the 90 days or whatever be done at. We're in August. August has 31 days if I looked at my calendar correctly. What is it that we're gonna ask God for in faith together. Mother, I'm just gonna— I just wanna— we can have what we say, but what are we saying? What are we saying? Are we asking for souls? Are we asking for souls? And are we talking to souls in the grocery store? Right. Online, anywhere? Anywhere, everywhere, people are looking for God. We should be so prayed up in our faithfulness that people are saying, what church you go to? I open my mouth and people always say, what church you go to? That's right. Every time I open my mouth, what church you go to? Oh, I go to Pastor Rico Sharp's church over in Sanford. I start talking about Tea Time, I start talking about my business. Well, what church you— I'm talking about one thing, they want to know what church I go to. Oh, here's the address. Now, do they come all the time? No. But you— that's not my problem. My job and your job is to tell somebody. That's right. Is to tell somebody. Right. We got a third— well, 29 days before the third. 29, 28, 30, 31, 28, 29, 30. Yeah, we got, um, 29 days. 28 more days in this month before it's done. I'm gonna challenge you. When you wake up, ask God, who, Lord, am I talking to today that can come to our church? And I'm gonna be real serious and tell you, ask for 3. That's a little, that's a little, 3. I ain't say 7. You can go with the whole God's perfect number 7. We're just gonna go with 3 today. We're gonna go with 3. Every day, can you talk to 3 people and invite them to your church? Right. Is that a hard thing, guys? No. Is that a hard thing? Now I just want y'all to know I just put myself on the spot too. Sure did. I was just talking to the Lord the other day. I said, Lord, I got all this stuff I got to do and now I'm going to give myself another thing to do. Thank God for Jesus. Because I don't have to do it. That's the good part about this. I don't have to do it. All I have to do is wake up and say, Lord, I'm a useful vessel. Who do you want me to talk to? Put them in my path. Right. And he'll put them in— you ain't even got to go out your way. He'll put them in your path. Well, I don't leave the house. Oh, they'll call you. I'm serious. They'll call you. People call and say, I was thinking about you. Really? I ain't heard from you in a coon's age. Oh, y'all don't know about coons either, do y'all? Okay. I ain't heard from you in a long time. A long time. But that's my challenge to you tonight. We talk about walking by faith. Let's put some action behind our faith. We can do this. Amen. We can do this. God is not a man that he should be mocked, and he doesn't lie. So if he said he'll supply our needs, we need a church full of folks, Lord. We need every seat full. I thank God for all the angels in here. I do. I really do. I appreciate every one of them. Now, angels, we're going forth to work. Go with us. Go with us because they're out there. There are souls out there that are crying and dying. The city's in turmoil, the news. And please pray that Trump don't be the president. I know we're not so politics in church, but I'm just saying, Jesus. Jesus. That's just all I can say. When I think about him, I just say Jesus. My mind gets boggled. How did this happen? And even in that, We know that God is the author and the finisher of our faith. And no matter who gets in the White House, God is still in charge. That's right. So God is in charge, and whether Trump or Hillary or anybody else get in there, God is still— he's our— we're in his kingdom, so he's our king. But we got to go out and get some souls in here. I just encourage you to do that today while I was standing here. Mustard seed faith can do that. Amen. This is tiny. This is tiny. Could you imagine if we had pea-sized faith? Go from mustard seed to pea-sized. Go from pea-sized to the next size. We can build our most holy faith and we can do what needs to be done to help this ministry to get where God wants it because God doesn't call a ministry into being without supplying what needs to be done. And we've been here long enough to know what God needs— wants to be done. And we need to get on our P's and Q's and get it done. Pastor don't have to be here to get it done. Sheep will get sheep. That's true. Sheep will get sheep. I ain't see no wolf have a sheep, and I ain't see no shepherd have a sheep. That ain't even a miracle. That's craziness. But sheep have sheep. Delivered souls can bring in souls to be delivered. I don't know what your testimony is. You don't know what my testimony is. But your testimony is a drawing tool. You need to tell it more and it'll draw people. If you lift Jesus up, he'll draw all men unto him. Amen. Amen. Come on, let's put your hands together for that. Amen. Amen. Well, I thank you for the word. I thank you. I really do. And it was nuggets in that that you can draw from and pull from, from that. So I appreciate it. I really do appreciate it. Like I said earlier, uh, well, Pastor