Apostolic Lighthouse
What Do You Value The Most - Bro Sampson
even when I had something on my heart that I thought about, and then this thought came to me again, and so without any notes or guidance tonight, I'm just going to preach a little bit on what God give me to preach, hallelujah. And this goes to the 13th chapter of Matthew, I'm going to start at the 31st verse, but I'm trying to get to the, down around the 44th verse, and I couldn't find really a good starting place or stopping place in this setting of about the parables, and I'd like to say tonight again for everyone that's here, whether it's your first time or you've been here several times visiting before, it is a pleasure to have you here with us tonight. We're thankful that you're here. Hope, hope that you feel a warmth and a welcome here that would give you the desire to come back and visit with us again, hallelujah. Alright, Matthew 13, let's start at 31, there is already some parables that's been going on before this, but I'm just going to start at the 31st, he said, "In another parable, put he forth unto them, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all seeds, but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and it becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof, how many is thankful that one day God planted a seed in your heart, hallelujah, somebody invited you to the house of God and you came and you opened up your heart and there was a seed that was sown in that heart and it began to grow and it began to mature and you begin to desire more and more of the things of God and you begin to find yourself straying away more and more from the things of the world and before you know it, you may have came here not knowing even the simplest Bible story that we refer to as elementary to a saint of God, a prayer warrior, a soul winner, a worker in the house of God, you have branched out, you have become a tree from that small seed that was planted in your heart, how many is thankful for that tonight, hallelujah. And then the key, and he goes right along another parable he's spanking to them and he's already in the parable mode, he has come from a group of people that has rejected him and from this being rejected, he goes to the seaside, he's got a gathering, he begins to speak to them in parables, this was prophesied that he would do this, it was prophesied and you can find that in Psalms chapter 78 if you want to read that and find it there that he would speak with parables to the people of God and the kingdom is likened into leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal to the whole was leavened, hallelujah. How many remember when you come, you got just a little taste of the Holy Ghost, you got just a little taste of the goodness of God and it began to boil up like putting yeast in the bread and then you let it set and you come into the house, you could be seated tonight, I'm going to go right into the preaching and reading mode here, but this leaven when it's added in, it begins to activate and it begins to not contaminate but it begins to have an effect on the entire loaf of bread or the whole batch of bread and it's very small in comparison by the motherly into what has been added into this baking mixture and it begins to rise and you come in the house, a lot of times the mom will stop you at the door, your wife will stop you at the door, I got bread that's rising, I don't need any activity going in here, I don't need anything to disturb it and make it collapse down, you just be real careful, I want to tell you something, when you're induced to this leavening, when you're induced to this presence of God, I want to tell you something, it'll make a difference in your life, the things that wasn't of any value to you before, your eyes will begin to open, you'll begin to rise up against things that you never rose up against before and there becomes a transition that's taking place in your life and just one small touch of the Holy Ghost, oh I'm telling you something just like these children at youth camp are rededicate and reconsecrating, I'll tell you somewhere by the steps that we just come out of revival and we had leaven get the Holy Ghost and we baptized seven, I want to tell you something the Apostle Paul said, I die every day, every day, I got to rededicate, I got to reconsecrate, because if you don't, I'm telling you something little things that's in the world that the church don't really stand for and God's not really for, it'll start creeping into your life, it'll begin to have that leavening effect in the wrong way, I'm telling you something, I'm thankful for the line that God said in the middle of His people, the difference between the clean and the unclean, the righteous and the holy. She hid until the whole was leavened, all these things Jesus spake into the multitude and parables and without a parable spake He not unto them that it might be full feel which was spoken by the prophets saying and you find this in Psalm 78, I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things which has been kept secret from the foundation of the world, then Jesus sent the multitude away and He went into the house and His disciples came unto Him saying, declare unto us the parables of the tears in the field, I stop just beyond this parable, but you find we all know it starts in the beginning about the law of the sowing and the reaping and we come to God and we realize, man this is a great thing, this kingdom of God, but we also have to realize that there is an adversary that will work against your heart, work against your mind and work against your soul, you can go through the writings of Postle Paul, he fought a lot of these things in the church, it's always false doctrine rising up, it wasn't coming without, it was coming within people trying to disciple and get their own followers within the body of Christ, that's what he admonished him, don't chase after anything that comes along, if it's not already been established, if it's not what the disciples has been preaching, don't look at it, don't consider it, don't follow it, it's not of God, that still stands today, but in this parable of the sowing and the reaping in the first parable, it just talks about the sower was cast in the seed and it was fallen by the wayside and it was fallen among brambles and it was fallen in the rock and some, all of it spring up, but some of it was very quickly choked out, some of it dried up and withered because it had no root system, but some fell on a fertile soil and it began to produce some 60, some 40, some 30, it was producing, but then it comes on down the parable of the tears and it talks about the sower that was sowing and it specified the seed that he was planting, the Bible said that it was good seed, but still yet through that reaping or through that sowing rather, excuse me, we find that something that was taken place, oh, I'm telling you something, some start out in revival and they start out, man they are so very, very enthused and throughout the entire revival, they are just ate up with enthusiastic response to the word of God, but not very many days after revival, you'll see a withering, you'll see a drawing back, you'll see a slackfulness where they attended every night in revival, you no longer see them at every service, regular service night, after that, what has happened, they've come up, they spring up by the wayside and the wayside, the things by the way, has quickly choked them out and sucked the nutrients out of them, I'm telling you something, you've got to be rooted, you've got to be grounded, you've got to have your mind made up because there is an adversary called the devil, that's the other sower that we see in the parable of the tears, we see the mess sower that was concerned with his crop, we see a sower that made all the necessary arrangements to produce a healthy crop, but all of a sudden the servants come in and they say, hey, there's tears in the wheat, while men slept, there was another sower that came along and he began to re, he began to sow, he began to sow tears in the wheat, I'm telling you something today, we need to be aware that there's another sower and he's trying to sow a seed of doubt, he's trying to sow a seed of unbelief, he's trying to sow a seed of discouragement, but I'm telling you something today, you just keep on coming to the house of God and it won't be very long, God will begin to divide the good from the bad, hallelujah, declare it to us the parable of the tears, with each parable God's just coming right on down to the wire and to the just of what he's talking about and he answered and he said unto them, he that soweth the good seed is the son of man, the field is the world, keep this in mind, what the field is, the field is the world, the good seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tears are the children of the wicked one, the enemy that soweth them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the world and the reapers are the angels, I setting in church Sunday, see the Sunday morning or Sunday evening brother Mustang turn and he said I have a word for you elder, not a prophecy, just a word, I was expecting greater revival, more souls, more anointing, my wife asked me later on did you get sick in your stomach, I said no because I expected what he was talking about, that's the way that it's always worked, he said the devil don't like what's going on here, he's going to try to do something to hinder revival, he's going to try something that will discourage people, you know what he was telling me about, he was telling me about me about this second sower, there was good seed that was sowed but during the night while men slept the enemy come in and when people were unaware very seductively they had another seed that was sown in the midst of a great crop, oh brother Samson what are you going to do, I'm going to do just like this Bible talks about right here, when they said man let's go in, let's get these tears out, let's clean this field out and you know we won't have to, we won't have no more trouble and you know what the owner of the land said, he said no you just let it grow, what are you going to do brother Samson about this spirit that's trying to creep into the church, I tell you what I'm going to do, I'm going to keep on praying, I'm going to keep on singing, I'm going to keep on shouting because he didn't tell me nothing that hasn't been going on for thousands of years when there's good seed sowed, the devil's going to come and try to do everything that he possibly can to deter you, you're going to run him off, you're going to root him out, no I'm going to sit right here, I'm going to preach the love of God, I'm going to preach holiness, I'm going to preach separation, I'm going to preach worship and I want them to shout, I want them to worship, I want them to get a good feeling of what the Holy Ghost is really like and if they can never pull out, if they can never get a love for separation, if they can never get a love for holiness, someday, I'm telling you someday, there's going to be a judgment day in the angels, I remember the time that we put the play on the great white throne judgment, I think Brother Johnny was the angel, imagine that, Sister Sarah, Brother Johnny was the angel, he was coming around and he was getting different ones, it was in the audience, we had a big supper before the play and man everybody laughed and everybody talked, we ate and we drank, we had a good time, we walked in like it was just going to be some ordinary church service or play, everybody sat down, nobody knew who was who at the zoo and all of a sudden there was a sound rumbling sound and the lights flickered and then it was total darkness, Brother David McLean was in the attic of the old church where there was a big square exhaust fan and he blew a blast on that trumpet, when that trumpet sounded, it was like a fear went through that whole congregation and I remember as Sister Linda McLean was the first one, the first actor in this play even though she was sitting in the audience and very few of them, could you tell apart, she stood and she screamed at the top of her voice, God has come and I am not ready and all the time Brother Johnny McLean was the angel of separation that was coming and her screaming, I'm not ready and they brought her up and there was a voice and I don't know how many lights, it was back before we even had halogen lights several years ago but this throne was sitting up here and it was so bright, you couldn't hardly stand to look at it and Brother the angel brought her up before the throne and there was a voice from the throne and it began to read and it began to judge and she was the first one and she went, when they opened that door they had a flame, imitation of flame that was flickering and roaring and you could hear screams every time that they opened that door and Brother Johnny began to put some on the left and he began to put some on the right and I'll never forget the effect that that play had, the reality even back in the day when the theatrics would have probably wasn't what they could be today, it had an lasting effect and people will occasionally still talk about the white throne judgment and I'm telling you something, this is what the Bible is talking about today, the reapers are the angels, someday they're going to come and if Satan has sewed that seed and you have let that seed get in your heart and it's pulling you away from the church, it's pulling you away from holiness, it's pulling you away from, oh come on, you know what the church stands for, you know what the apostolic doctrine preached but it has a tendency to begin to tell you that's not important, you don't have to do that and don't take that, what you're thinking is justifiable but I want to tell you something tonight, what you're thinking is justifiable homicide in the spiritual aspect of your life, it's destroying the love of God, it's destroying the desire to be in the house of God, I'm telling you something today, oh you got to evaluate what you're going to do Brother Samson, I'm going to keep on preaching, I'm going to keep on singing, I'm going to keep on praising until he comes and then I'm going to let God separate the wheat from the tears. The enemy that sewed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the world and the reapers are the angels, as therefore the tears are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of the world, there's a lot of sentimental connection a lot of times in the church, why Brother Samson do you suffer some things that you suffer? If I was you, I'd have done took care of that situation a long time ago. And usually what happens, and I've made this statement before you go to a flower bed and all of a sudden you notice a great big weed that's grown in a mung, the other day I went down, here a few years ago I planted a couple weeping willows and I noticed the one closest to the spring, wasn't looking very healthy and I got to looking at it and it looked a little different, I went down and there was a vine that had grown up along the trunk of the tree and had it branched out and it had runners off of this grape vine or some vine of whatever nature but it was killing, it was literally choking the life out of the willow tree. You know what, Brother Johnny, I didn't go up there and grab that big ole vine and start jerking and yanking and getting that thing out of there because I knew what it would do, it would just break the branches, it would destroy, it would destroy this tree, me trying to get it out because a lot of times because of the entwinedment that was in this tree, so I just went in and I just began to snip this and I had a little battery powered saws on and I went in there and I began to cut things off right at the ground, I just cut its supply off and just a few hours I was sitting under that tree, we were doing some excavating there and I looked at it and the weeds, the leaves of that vine had already started to wilt and you could tell the difference between the trees, the leaves of the weeping willow and the leaves of the vine which before you couldn't hardly tell any difference but I cut the supply off to that thing and it wasn't very long, it just began to die and I went by the other day and it looked like a whole bunch of dead leaves that was up in the tree but if I had have went in there and just tried to yank and jerk and get it all out, man I would have done a lot of damage to the good, a lot of times in the church you have family that is connected, you have emotions that are connected, when you go to slamming in yanking and jerking and I'm getting this out and I'm getting this out, I'll tell you what, I'm going to let God get it out, I'm going to preach the truth and you can accept it or you can reject it but when the angels come, I'm telling you I seem by the johnny take people right beside somebody else, maybe a husband and wife, one way and one with the other, why? Because the angels, just like God was talking about right here, it's going to come around and separate the sheep from the goats. The tears are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of Man shall sin forth his angels, so they shall gather out of his kingdom, all things that offend in them which do iniquity. You may come to church for 30 years and do whatever it is that you're doing but someday God will separate you, God will separate you. The Son of Man shall sin forth his angels, together out of his kingdom, all things that offend in them which do iniquity and shall cast them into a furnace of fire and there shall be weeping and wailing, gnashing of teeth, then shall the righteous shine forth that's a son in the kingdom of their father who have ears to hear, let him hear, oh goodness right there, right there, in this little caption right here, "He that hath ears let him hear." So often, I think it's even in Revelation, you hear, "He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the church." What are you talking about, Brother Samson? You better today in this service, you better start discerning the good from the bad. You better understand what God is trying to talk about. There's a purification coming someday, he's going to separate the wise from the foolish and you've got to have to have a love of God in your heart, 44, this is where I'm going. What was the world like? The world was what, the field, remembering the previous parable. The world was the field, all by the Samson. You know what's kind of funny and it caught my attention today in study, John 3 16, "For God so loved what the world." You think we're the only planet? You think this is the biggest, you think this is the brightest, no. But out of all those planets, Joseph's planet earth and he loved the world so much. We have interpretations for all of these other parables coming down, but these last two doesn't go into an interpretation, there's so many ways that you can take this. Then shall the righteous sign as the son, in the kingdom of the Father, who hath ears to hear, let him hear. Again, the kingdom of heaven is likening to a treasure, hid in a field, the witch when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and he bieth that field. For just a few more minutes I want to talk to you just for a little while. What do you value the most? What do you value the most? It's likening to a treasure, hid in a field, which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and he bieth that field. Let me tell you something tonight, sometimes people stumble onto this thing. Sometimes they run into it, they're not even looking for it. Sometimes Sister Stephanie, they're just sitting on the side of the road with no particular thought in mind other than how in the world am I going to get back home and get out of this situation that I'm in, and somebody just pulls up in that moment of indecision or no decision and says do you want to go to church, yeah, when, right now, right now, yeah, just get up, come on, let's go, gets up off the side of the road, no place to go, gets in a car, comes in, walks into a church, she has no idea what's going on. She has absolutely no idea the identity of not one person in that building other than the acquaintance of Brother Bill Eckerd that picked her up and brought her to church, and in just about five minutes her hands are in the air, she's creeping, she's crying another five minutes, she has found the pearl of great prize, she has found that treasure that's hid in the field and nine years later, seven years later, whatever the timeframe is, she is still valuing that treasure more than anything that she's ever found, more than the drink, more than the smoke, more than the drugs, more than everything that had her addiction. There was a plan in the hands of God when those friends from Colorado Springs, Colorado dropped her out on the side of the road and drove off and left her, I'm telling you something, she stumbled on to the pearl, the treasure that was hid in the field, other search and they'd never find, but I'm telling you something today, when you find that treasure, what's your value, you've got to love the treasure, you've got to value this hidden treasure more than you value anything in your life. What are you, Banda Simpson, allergies and work me over today, but you say, what kind of treasure? Well you've got to understand something, this was the day before, well they call it, safety deposit boxes, this was before bank vaults, this was before digital safes, and a lot of times men hid their treasures, sister Samson's grandfather, he would hide, he would bury his money, he'd put it in coffee cans and seal them up, and then he would dig a hole and he would bury them, and one day some of the family they watched him from the barn or through a crack in the barn and found where he was burying his money, and one day he went and it was a significant amount of his money had disappeared out of there, and somebody had found his vault and they buried that and they dug it up and then they spin it, but a lot of times people pass this walks of life, people will buy their estate, but maybe just the whole estate buy it, and they go in and maybe when they start cleaning there's hundreds of dollars hidden between pages and books and libraries, there is hundreds of thousands of dollars that sowed up in the mattress, all about Samson that don't happen, yes it happens and it happens quite frequently, some of these treasures buried and maybe people deceased, maybe they were incarcerated for something, this treasure just becomes lost, they may die in the nursing home, they may have died in a correctional facility, I don't know what could have happened, but one day somebody plowing, somebody, one day somebody cuts down a tree and all of a sudden here is this treasure vault, and I know we probably all had dreams of finding a briefcase full of money or a purse full of money or some drug deal where they throw their money out the window, you just kind of daydream about finding that and keepers, keepers, losers, sweepers, and you know you just say man now it has become a mind, but this man, he comes and he stumbles upon a treasure, the nature of its existence today is not known, but just the value of the story when he finds this treasure, it's not on his property, but he knows that it's there, it's not in his possession, it's not legal for him to possess, but I want to tell you tonight about a treasure, it's not in earth and vessels, but I'm telling you something, it can be obtained tonight through the anointing in the power of the Holy Ghost, I'm telling you about a treasure, oh that's worth more than you can ever own in this world, and he looked at the value of it, I don't know his wealth, I don't know his worth, but I know this treasure amounted to more and he went and he sold his possessions, he sold all that he had and he bought the field, because that's where the treasure was buried, oh you could title, where's your treasure buried, what's the worth of your treasure, so many different ways that you can go with this, but this man seemed the value of this, nobody knows, this thing has been here maybe for no telling how many years, I'm the only one that stumbled upon it, I'm the only one that knows about it, and he began, I remember one time we were going down 7th Street and there was a truck that was all jacked and souped up and my son went by that and man he got a static, he said I'm going to buy that truck, I'm going to buy that truck, he and that he didn't even try it out, but he began to try to figure out a way, he was just still real young, but he began to try to figure out a way that he could purchase that truck, unfortunately old dad come into those plans in a pretty significant manner, but he began to work and he began to connect, he began to figure and so he figured out a way and him and old dad went down, we tried the truck out, and we bought that truck and while he had purchased that truck he was running to town to wash it, he goes by another person that was sitting out in the yard and he had seen this truck just the day before and he was sitting there trying everything and his power to figure out a way that I can go buy that truck, man I got to have that truck, I got a lot of stories about that truck, but anyway when my son was going to wash it and clean it up, it made me show it off a little, he went by and he honked and this young man was sitting in the yard, he looked up and he seemed that somebody else had already purchased the thing that he was desiring, I want to tell you something today, this treasure that I'm talking about, there's enough treasure for everybody, you just got to be willing to sell out, you got to be willing to value the treasure more than the thing that you possess, more than the thing that you're holding in your heart, it's got to be this treasure of Christ that you've got to value highly, highly, way more above the things that you possess, total commitment, I want that, I'm just going to go sell everything I got and I'm going to go get it before somebody else buys it, I know what it is to lose real estate that I wanted so bad, that I wanted so bad, some of it connected to my property, I tried and tried and tried, but I just wasn't, didn't offer enough money and it sold to somebody else, I didn't place enough value on it brother did you, somebody else wound up with it, and while you're sitting, do I want to let go of this, do I want to give up this, do I want to sell this out and hold on to this treasure that I've found, he goes right into the next verse, again the kingdom of heaven is like an into a merchant man, he ain't stumbling on to it, he's searching for it, I kept on searching, searching, kept on searching till I found him, kept on searching, searching, kept on searching till I found it, seeking goodly pearls, pearls in those days were valued the highest, they were not valued like diamonds are maybe in our day, but sometimes you can read on some kind of special little news information informative thing that will, they'll talk about somebody that found a diamond and how big it was in the worth of that thing, and it's, man, it's so valuable, brother Jordan that kind of makes you want to grab a pick and shovel and head for the hills and browse around a little bit when you feel or hear about the value of this diamond that somebody found, but in this day pearls were the value, pearls usually wound up in the kingdom and in the kings treasury when it was found, but he was a merchant man and he was seeking goodly pearls, he was seeking things of value when he had found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had and bought it, everything that he had while they come to the music, this is where you have to make up your mind, what you value the most, you want to be saved, you want your soul saved, or do you want the field, the world, what the world has to offer, what's the value of your field today, what do you value the most, is there just some things in the world that you're going to hold on to, just some things hidden in your heart that you're going to hold on to, are you putting more value on your possessions than you are the field with the pearl of great price, are the things that you're valuing in your life, no matter how insignificant they are and you're not willing to give it up, for God so loved the world, remember that scripture John 3 16 we've quoted it all of our life, he gave it all, he gave his only begotten son, he gave his life, he shed his blood for this planet, not the sun, the moon, the stars, everything else in the cosmos and the orbs and all of this thing, this world right here, he valued so much that he gave it all, he never held anything back, he gave it all, that we wrestle with things in our everyday life and we hold on to it and we place more value on material things in this life that we do, the mercies of God, the love of God and we hold on to that, I want this so bad, how many have passed up good deals because you just really didn't want to depart with the money, I've had the money, I've been to flea markets and I'll see good deals and I'm standing there and I got the money in my pocket and I look at the object and then I think, how hard did I have to work to get this $200 or $300 and then I'll look back, I'd finally just walk off, maybe I'll go back later and I went back later and somebody else that was willing to pay the price, I'd see it go by on one of their carts or their buggies and they'll be carrying it to their car because you know why they were willing to pay the price, I had to sit there, I had to wrestle with the value in this thing, do I want this or do I want my money, and while I admire the moment of hesitation, somebody said, man, that's a deal, I've looked at it, walked two steps over and someone walked straight up and buy it because I didn't value it as much as they did, what are you talking about, brother Samson, you want eternal life, you want the pearl of great price tonight or do you want to hold on to your earthly possessions, do you want to hold on to what this flesh is wanting to play with and get involved in, dress like, look like, act like, talk like, if you got a ear tonight, understand what I'm trying to preach to you tonight, do you want the gift of eternal life, are you going to stand around and evaluate the things that you're wanting to hold on to and trying to justify why I can't let go and live for God 100% of everything that I've got, I've got to value the love of God more than I do the love for this world, he paid it all, he gave it all for God so loved the world, he valued us more than his own life, stand near feet today, ask yourself the question, what's the value I'm placing on this world compared to the love of God, am I going to hold on to trivial things until the best deal in my life walks away, somebody else walks in, man what a deal, God I want the Holy Ghost, God I'm tired of living for the world, it's never brought me peace, only a temporary high, only a temporary enjoyment and I see the people in the house of God, living for God, enjoying the blessings of God, and God poor and his blessings like Brother Mark talked about, I'm telling you something tonight, you've got to put a value on what God has to offer you tonight, what are you going to value? I'm trying to hear the Father sadly say. (upbeat music)