Apostolic Lighthouse
Sowing In the Time of Famine - Pastor Sampson
things in just the last few days. I've got phone calls that I won't be back to church by the Samson. I'm quitting church. It's been in my heart for some time. I've been pondering it and kind of confused me over just the past few weeks, the conversations we had, the determination that they had in their heart and just to all of a sudden give up on God. Let me explain something right here before I get into Genesis 26 chapter, starting at the first verse. A lot of times the statement is made, "I've got to the place that I don't feel like I've fed in." And just one night with me missing, just one service, me missing, I come in, I feel really just a little bit, man, where have I been? Disconnected, maybe. I remember at school if I was absent for a day or two, which was very unusual for me. I had more than one year of perfect attendance at school. But if I would miss, I would come in. I would feel just a little out of place because I hadn't been there or didn't know. I just felt weird because I hadn't been there a couple of days and when I come in. But they make the statement, "I feel disconnected. I feel like I don't fit in anymore." Well, you have to understand, light has no fellowship with darkness. I can't go to beer joints. I can't go to gambling casinos. That's my conviction. I can't go there. And when you start getting more involved with Egypt or the world, I can't fellowship with that. I can't go where you're going. And so the farther you begin to go that direction, it makes me understand that disconnection that you have that you don't fit in anymore. And you don't fit in. But it's because that you have pulled out and you've gone away in a direction that the light can't go, that my convictions can't allow me to go. And then that causes that separation there. But you remember the story of the gentleman that quit coming to church feeling disconnected and feeling like he didn't fit in anymore. And the pastor went and during this visitation, nothing really was said other than, "Come in. How you doing? I'm fine. They just sat there and just didn't seem like there was a whole lot to talk about." And during the course of setting there, there was a coal of fire that rolled out of the fireplace onto the hearth. And they both just sat there and they watched it for a while. And after a while, the coal of fire that had rolled out of the fire were the Jones. It began to dim and it began to turn black. It began to lose its glow, its fermency, its heat. And finally just turned into just a chunk of coal land on the hearth. The pastor gently got up, he grabbed the tongs, he took the coal of fire, he placed it the coal and put it back in the fire. And just in a little while, it was glowing red and glistening. And they sat there and they looked at it for a minute. And the pastor said, "Well, I need to go. I just wanted to drop by." And when he got up to leave, the gentleman looked at the pastor and he said, "Thanks for the sermon, pastor." He said, "I'll be back in church Sunday morning." Oh, what he realized that he had got away from the fire to become coal indifferent and just be in place, simply placed back into the fire, just restored all of what it was before. And he caused this young man to realize this and he said, "I'll be back in church. I know what the problem is now." "Hallelujah." And so, yeah, I don't feel like I fit in. You probably don't fit in anymore because you don't pray. You don't have any, don't want to fellowship with nothing at the church. You don't want to get involved with nothing at the church. Just simply put it. No, you don't fit in anymore. But you go in a direction that people can't go. And so, that's, you just get back in the fire and all of a sudden you start praying, you start fellowshipping, you start interacting and you said, "Man, I fit in here. I feel like a part of this church." "Hallelujah." "I feel like a part of this church today. Hallelujah." I may have missed Wednesday night, but I'm starting to fit in. "Hallelujah." And I'm going to let you read a little bit here and I'm going to let you sit down. Now, I know you said, "Man, you're long-winded, but you got to think of something. You're the one getting to go to the bathroom. You're the one walking around. You're the one getting to sit. I've been standing since 10 o'clock and it's 10.34 this morning. And I'm sure, without a doubt, we're 60 minutes from being done. So, two hours, I'll be standing here. So, feel sorry for me. Don't feel sorry for yourself. All right. Genesis 26, starting at the first verse, then we'll skip a little bit and go on down. The attention will be the 12th verse, but don't jump ahead of me. And there was a famine in the land besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. This wasn't the first famine. And Isaac went unto a Benelach, King of the Philistines, into Garah, and the Lord appeared in him and said, "Go not down into Egypt, but dwell in the land that I'll tell the of." A lot of times when trouble comes and uncertainty comes, people want to start making decisions that will affect them for a lifetime. And I have set more than once and I've heard the advice of people that have lost spouses and companions through death and the advice. Go ahead and be seated. I'm gonna read some more, but thank you for your reverence to the Word of God. But they, almost some of the first advice of those that's been through it, Sister Sherri, I don't know. I've not been through that. I've dealt with it enough to create my own ideology of what to do and what not to do maybe. But their advice is don't make any rational decisions. Don't make any important decisions until all this bereavement, this grieving, and all this has passed. And then when you get lined out, you can make some make your decisions then. But don't just do something right now that you'll regret later. Hallelujah. And the Lord, so here we got, we got Isaac and he's about to make a decision and he's heading for Egypt. It's so strange that a lot of times in the Bible you read when there was trouble and there was famine, everybody headed for Egypt. It seems like Egypt seems like that it's going to pacify for a while and it's going to supply you for a while. But the meaning of Egypt, Egypt that troubles or suppresses are anguish. That's the biblical definition when you want to interpret in that language. That's what it means, anguish and suppression and trouble. And a lot of times you see them and a lot of you, we read stories where good came out of it, where they went into trouble and I won't spend a lot of time with that this morning. But the Lord said, "Go not down into Egypt in the land which I shall tell you of." Sojourn in this land. But it's hard here. It's trouble here. There's famine. It doesn't say drought but for whatever reason there is a shortage of provisions. It's not totally a load of bar in the Bible which it means no bread but there is a shortage. There's hardship. There's enough that it's cause and concern. You ever been that like that in your life? I'll do this. I'll do that and I'll do this. I'll go here. I'll go there and I'll go down there and I'll make big money and I'll come back in just a few years and everything's going to be paid off and everything this and that. And then the first thing, you know, it's 20 years and you're still there. You can read that even with, I've been trying to think of it, the two, Ruth and Naomi and they said, you know, she was gone into a place that was hedonistic. But the drought, it was the famine that caused her to go there. But the Bible said, "I went out full and she made the statement, 'I'm coming back empty.'" I went to a place that looked like it was going to supply, it was going to suffice. But when it all clears, I'm coming home empty. And so many times we see people in the church make this decision in the time of trouble, in the time of discouragement, in a time of hardship. And I've just suffered ever since I've come to the church. And ever since I've been, I've heard of make statements ever since I've been paying my ties, I've been suffering financially. And so they, I've seen them leave the church. And I've seen the end results of that decision in the specific situation of talking about it's tithing that's put me in this place that we're in today and into this struggle. So to get away from the struggle, to get away from the trouble, to clarify, you know, this situation that I'm in, they make the decision to leave the church. Not one child today in the family is saved. The sons are queers, the girls are lesbians, one out full, but are come empty. But I made a very foolish decision to go to Egypt. But God's speaking to him, don't go. That's so just dwell. Sojourn is to dwell. Lodge in this place, in this land. And I'm going to be with you. There's still a famine going on. There's still shortage going on. There's trouble going on. There's still uncertainty going on. But he's with you. He's with me in the time of trouble. He's a present hell. What's that mean? Present means right here, right now. Don't matter what you're going through. Don't matter what you're facing. Don't matter the uncertainty. But right here, right now, God is with you. I'm going to bless you. I'm going to be with you. For unto thy seed unto thee and unto thy seed. I'm going to give you all of these countries. And I will perform the oath which I swear unto Abraham thy father. And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven. It will give unto thee the seed of all these countries and in thy seed shall all thy nations of the earth be blessed because that Abraham obeyed my voice, kept my charge, my commandments, my statues and my laws. What's that saying? I'll be the same God to you that I was to your father. And Isaac grassed that promise and all of a sudden he has become more than my daddy's God. He's more than just my parents God, more than just the God that my parents served. Now he's a personal savior. I got a personal relationship. I'm not going to church cause my wife said to or my husband said to. I'm not being drugged to church because mom and dad said, you're going to go. But all of a sudden Isaac's coming to a place in a time of trouble, a time of adversity. I'm going to live for God. He's going to be with me. He's going to bless me. He's going to make me an overcomer. Say all by the Samson you're preaching the prosperity and everybody's going to be blessed. No, there was adversity when Isaac made this decision. There was trouble. There was starvation. There was famine. That word means hunger. Starvation. You can go to Revelation 6, 5 and 6 in some of your home Bible reading. You can read about the severity that's coming and the famine the Bible talks about in the last day. Let's just go to let me just grab Luke. Let me grab Luke the 21st chapter in the 11th verse. We'll read just a little more about famine and trouble. And in the last days, which I feel like we are in the last of the last days, but it said in great earthquakes shall be in diverse places, unusual places, places that it usually doesn't happen. And famines and pestilence, famine, hunger, starvation in the last days. The Bible talks in one place not just for food or drink, but for hearing of the Word of God. There's a famine in pulpits today because people are afraid to preach against sin wrong doing because they might lose somebody if they preached against sin. Hallelujah. Why do we have so many people that sexually uncertain? They're not secure in their identity. They don't know what they are. They don't know what they want to be. That's because parents and preachers in the pulpits have not stood up and preached about it. They've allowed it. They preach a God is love. God loves you the way you are. God does love you, but I want to tell you something. He demands change. He abhors homosexuality. He's going to punish homosexuality, but we don't want to offend all brothers and sisters. You know, I got it in my family, but it's still wrong. I don't care who's doing it. It's still wrong. Sin, sin, rights, right. They don't preach about it. There's a famine. There's a starvation for it. I'm here to tell you today homosexuality is wrong. Lesbianism is wrong. You are what you were born to be. Hallelujah. So if you're here today uncertain, don't go to judgment day saying, "Hey, I was uncertain and nobody told me because I'm going to tell you today, rights right and wrongs wrong." I don't want a famine of preaching righteousness and holiness in apostolic lighthouse pulpit today. But Luke's talking about famines and pestilence and fearful sites and great signs shall there be from heaven, but before all these, they shall lay their hands on you. They're going to persecute you, deliver you up to the synagogues and into prisons and brought before kings and rulers. For my name's sake and it'll turn to you for a testimony. Listen to verse 14, "Settle it therefore in your heart not to meditate before what ye shall answer. For I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay or resist." Hallelujah. You're going to be able to stand in the time of adversity. You're going to be able to stand in the time of hardship. We'll go back to Genesis 26. We read where Isaac's wife was very beautiful to the place that he was afraid that somebody would kill him because of the beauty of his wife in desiring her. So he come up, you know, and he said, told everyone that it was his sister, a bemolat called Isaac, and he said he looks out the window, he sees him sporting with Rebecca, he calls him in and he begins to reprove him for what he done. Thank God for some bloody and the time of adversity and hardship that it will still stand up for right in authority and leadership. And a bemolat called Isaac and he said, "Behold of assured, ye, as she is your wife, and how said as thou she is my sister and Isaac said unto her, because I said lest I die for her." And a bemolat said, "What is this that thou has done unto us? One of the people might lightly have lain with thy wife, and thou should us have brought guiltiness upon her." In the time of hardship, we see Isaac being reproved for things that he wasn't doing exactly like he should have. And he said, "And he that touches this man or his wife should surely be put to death." So all of a sudden, the thing that was troubling, the thing that was worried, the thing I want to get out of here, I want to go to Egypt, God's turning this thing around for a blessing. God is putting Isaac in the position to take and to acquire everything that Abraham had and the blessings that was going to come to him. And it looks so impossible and looks so uncertain. I've got a turn to the weak and the beggarly elements. That's usually where our mind turns to in the time of trouble. And I want to tell you something. Somebody posted a thing the other day and he said, "If that promotion takes you out of the church, it's a devil in disguise. Don't go for it. If it's taken you away from the church, I want to tell you something. I'm here to affirm that today. If whatever the promotion is, whatever the offer is, if it pulls you away from the house of God, the presence of God, it's a devil in disguise." Isaac's going through this. You're not the first one to have this ideology, the same intellect as Isaac. So then he's going to be put to death. So then here it is in the midst of trouble. Maybe possibly a drought. I don't know. Maybe China cut them off. Maybe Russia cut them off. We're not doing any more foreign trade. I don't know what the case is, but man, there is a famine that's going on. Trouble, nobody knows what to do. There's no food. So Isaac chosen of God, blessed of God. God's position in him. Some like to talk about global positioning. I like to talk about BPS, Bible positioning. Let the Bible position us in our lives in this world. And this is what Isaac's doing. And all of a sudden the logical thought comes to him. There's no food. There's no groceries. There's a shortage. It's hard to get. It don't look like it would take a NASA rocket scientist to figure out something has to be done. He doesn't try to make a trade agreement with the Hittites and the Moabites and all of them otherites. It's surrounded them, but Isaac does the most logical thing and sensible thing that is the Bible said, then Isaac sowed in that land. He sowed. If I want something to eat, I'm going to have to grow it. I'm going to have to prepare it. I want to talk to you for just a little walk about sowing in the time of famine, in the time of starvation, in the time of hunger, in the time of trouble, in the time of uncertainty. I have heard my father-in-law talk about and my father talk about the days of the Depression. They would coon hunt and there was just a whole lot of coon in them days, but possum was plentiful and their dogs, they would tree them and they would skin them to send them off to St. Louis to sell the pelts for money and they would hang the carcasses of those possum up on because people ate a lot of them in that day. I don't, man, I've seen them cook before. I don't want nothing to do with them, but I can guarantee you one thing, Brother Dakota, after about a week, that old possum in the pot probably looked pretty good, especially if you could put a little sweet baby raised on top of him. You know, it would taste pretty good. But my father-in-law told me him and his dad was, my wife's grandfather was skinning them. They had about 10 or 12 of them hanging on the wall and the question wasn't discussed how long they'd hung on the wall. But there was a man come along, they had about 10, 11 kids in the family and most of them was girls and a lot of times when they were hunting, they'd see a light coming through the woods and this same gentleman would come through and want to know what they had caught and if they had caught anything, and a lot of times they'd say, "Well, look, you bring them to the house or you let me have them and I'll skin them and you can have the pelts and you come by the house here in a little bit, you know, and if you know anything about coon hunting, it ain't seven, eight o'clock at night. It's on up into late night and wee hours of the morning. I hunted to where I swore I was not going anymore the rest of the week. I was going to get some rest." And before that next evening was over and the dogs was baying out there on the end of the rope. Brother JB, I'd go out there and I'd say, "Man, Brother Darrell Jones, he's been with me a many a time. I'm not doing this tomorrow night." But it'd be late in the night and I'd be right back out there. But this man would come, he'd tell my father-in-law and he'd say, "Look, y'all come by after a while, my wife will have you something to eat." And he would do this. It was small meager payment for the carcasses that they were getting so they could feed the family. And then just a few days after he took those, I was 10 or 12 of them hanging that they'd gotten and he took them and just the next day or so he'd come by and he said, "Have you got any more possum?" Grandpa Sam said, "What'd you do with them others?" He said, "We ate them. We ate them. We ate them. They're gone. We need some more trouble. Oh, I wouldn't do that. I wouldn't live like I wouldn't eat them for this things over. We may be doing a lot of things that we say we wouldn't do." But he planted. Bobble didn't say how much, he may just have planted a garden. But that's hard work. Gardening's hard work. Gardening's time consuming. I've tried it a time or two. Once Vertigo got me and it grew up in grass and weeds. The second time I was so busy where the Dusty built me some raised gardens. They said, "Raise garden beds. I'll help you." I had so many meat and things to go to that I didn't even get them planted. Yesterday most of my time was consumed pulling the grass and the weeds out of those garden beds that I didn't have time to plant. But I want to tell you something, hunger and adversity would make me half time to go and to plant a garden. But Isaac's looking at it and the Bible said he planted in that same year he planted. In the face of impossibility hardship he planted. And I got to do something. I got to feed. I got to survive. We got to survive. You get into survival mode. I've worked cattle before that's going into survival mode. They'll tear your corral down. I don't care how good it is. They'll cause damage. They go into survival mode. I've got to get out of here. I've got to get away from these people. The way we were treating them I can understand why they wanted to get away. Brother Kenneth Yates watched us one time. We were working cattle and after a while he made this statement to me and Brother Triplett and thanking my sons. We were doing the yearly process of working cattle. And he watched us for a while. I don't know if that was his worst. First episode of just a personal witness of what has to be done and that's dehorning and castorating and injections. He looked at us for a while and pretty soon he shook his head. He said there's no way y'all can go to heaven doing to these animals what you're doing. But hardship. I've got to do it. I've got to do it. I've got to survive. So in the face of adversity and famine maybe possibly no doubt a drought. The other day went and put in a deer food plot. Work in the ground it was just powder. It looked like only a fool would be out there trying to plant something in this kind of weather that we have but we're having that that's already planted. You're having to water and water and water just to keep it in survival mode till the rain gets here which is a week away from us. You can get discouraged a lot of times. Man they talked about the hurricane that come up into the gulf and I thought man we always get a little spin off or a kick off of this storm. Man I was excited and I've been talking to God about praying and I listened to the weather and man you just get depressed you can see it coming and that thing went up that whole storm turning counterclockwise it come up that Mississippi River and man it just kept spinning to where it came off toward Springfield and come out across there and I'm looking at that and there's red there's yellow and green and just it's spinning and it's coming and I'm rejoicing and I'm happy because it looks like help is on the way my grass is drying I got a hundred and fifty head of cattle that's just eating on shredded wheat looks like but they are you know God still blessing me they say they still gaining weight but man I want rain and I've been talking to God about it I just knew that God had answered my prayer and so helped me 70 miles from here it began to evaporate and dissipate and just up into the atmosphere and not enough stability to make it come on in and there it was just spinning and just you could have drove forty five minutes and been in rain and it goes away we don't get one drop of it it could it could be discouraging it could make a man try to make decisions and this time people sell their whole herd that's what drives the price of cattle down they can't feed them they have no means of pasture so they load them up brother Winkler and they take them to the cell barn lease properties drying up going to the cell barn I'm selling out that Isaac in the time of famine I'm going to sow a crop for the Caleb sowed that crop he said dad it was like powder I cast I cast the seed and he said I drug the seed bed and I got it covered and it's just laying there in powder so we make this decision we've got about a 900 gallon I think it was tank and a big pump and we go to the creek we're going to pump it full of water the pump don't work I can't get it to pump I primed it from both ends I done everything we were waiting in the creek I was straining I still wasn't feeling very good and we couldn't get water so we load the pump all up take the tank he fills it up and he takes it up there and he puts it on his crop I seen him yesterday he looked like the tank was filling back up going back up to water that seed so you know you read a lot of times about the wells of Abraham and then Isaac drilling these wells and you can get on into it and they they would strive for these wells and the the enemy the Philistines the dwellers of the village you know that had there maybe their own little well in their own little village but those outside the village they're having hardship well a lot of times you want to direct people out in the world that's having trouble and hardship to bring them in is life still tough yes it is but that present help in the time of trouble that God that's with you in the face of adversity right here right now why are you here right now right now I want to feel the presence of God I got to have a touch I got to pray through again I got to be encouraged again I got to hear another Bible study I got to hear another sermon preached I got to have another Sunday school lesson I'm dry I need to dig a well I'll keep coming back to the well let's go back to when Isaac got Rebecca where did he find her the servant with the camels you know where he went he went to the source I'll just go to this well and it'll be a few hours but it won't be very long somebody's going to come to this well guess who came first to the well I want to tell you something you get in the will of God there is blessings there is prosperity but mainly for the soul and stability for the soul and that's where he found Rebecca the servant he found her at the well he sowed in the land and received that same year what are you talking about when it looked impossible when it looked like there was no hope and there was no need what's the use he sowed what's the use I prayed what's the use I've come to church for a solid year like Elder Laverne has done and never felt the presence of God the only time I can feel a little bit of anointing when I was in the pulpit and when I walked off of the pulpit his words were I felt deserted I felt rejected I could not feel God and he sang the song walking by faith and not by sight sometimes hard to do I feel like Laverne's brother Laverne's down was qualified to sing that song not feeling the presence of God but you know what he done Laverne's down had the reputation of praying an hour every day regardless of how busy he got he said I prayed that hour if I got home at 11 o'clock I prayed till 12 o'clock at night one o'clock in the morning but I give God that hour prayed for an hour a day for 12 months and never felt the presence of God but that hour a day sister Rhonda Parker was like so in seed in the time of famine someday it's going to rain someday it's going to be different someday God's going to turn this thing around someday I'm going to feel the presence of God again and be in the blessings of God what's the use keep on persevering keep on pushing keep on praying keep on inviting I went through seven months two years ago this knee replacement and y'all all know the story but so many times I couldn't come to church couldn't couldn't come feel the presence of God try to pray at home and so miserable and so into much pain and so much oh there's so much misery one day my wife was gone and she ran to town and I sat there and I thought God this devil's fought me long enough and I got up out of that chair and I had my walker and I started praying in the chair and it wasn't long I was up out of that recliner and I had that walker and I was in the middle of the floor before that prayer meet was over that walker was swinging around in the air and I was talking to God I was having me a prayer meet and I got tired of desolation I got tired of desperation I got tired of pain I got tired of separation God I need to touch today I got to touch you I want things to be different what's the use for the Samson use at the point of death I don't care even in death what said though God slay me yet I'll trust him if he takes me to the grave beyond this life is what Lot said if he slays me I trust him beyond death beyond the grave I don't know what's there I don't know what tomorrow holds but I'm going to trust you and Isaac put his trust in what God said everybody going out of town and working it seemed like this was a poorest I guess it is the poorest county in the state I I don't know I'm not looked at the statistics but I know this little area right here we got we got the probably about the less income of any other area in this county like all the other fire departments they get all the bright shiny fire trucks and cars and you see stuff sitting out on the hot side of the highway at Reading's Mill then what we get to drive around and they got they got the tax money that flows into that place and all we gets the second hand me down stuff that probably broke down on them going to an emergency three or four times they give it to cynically you know I kind of sometimes seems like that's that's the case but they just keep fighting fires they just keep on putting for the effort so why can't we in the church in the time of famine and just so a seed and expect a reaping oh brother Samson it won't happen I serve the same God the Abraham served I'm a child of Abraham I'm out of the lineage of Abraham I got the same promise Abraham's got what are you going to do I'm going to keep on keeping on I'm going to keep on suing I don't care how incredible and how impossible how preposterous it may seem I'm going to sow in the time of famine oh you don't know yes I do know because I haven't read to you the last part of this verse he showed in that land in that year that famine and he received in that same year because of his efforts because of just getting up and doing something and the Lord blessed him he received in that same year a hundred fold a perfect crop and you read about them guys that raise that corn and soybean you'll hear him talk I produce this many bushel to the acre but I've never heard any of them yet say I produced in it it produced a hundredfold a hundredfold that's with irrigation units that's with the climate in their favor but people have a tendency in the time of trouble let me just read to you the effects of the famine from the Berkeley University study Berkeley study historic famine leaves multiple generations vulnerable to infectious disease of famine this is in our lifetime in a different country but let me just tell you the effects of a famine maybe you can grasp what they're going through they're they're thinking their their indecisiveness and their uncertainty man this is a famine this we're going to have the effects of this for 60 70 years societal shocks reverberate six decades after the largest famine in human history more than 60 years after the great Chinese famine it continues to take a devastating toll on health according to a new study led by UC Berkeley researchers widely considered the largest famine in human history the great Chinese famine led to an estimated 30 million deaths and an estimated 33 million births were lost or postponed other words famine caused miscarriages and famine caused people to decide not to reproduce it's too too much hardship in this world these kind of reports today have reduced us to the average probably what two children per family anyone has over two children today look oh my god I can't believe she's having another baby I cannot believe she's expected again and they used to happen by the dozens you know back in the day in depression they needed kids they didn't have combines in well they call it remedy you know you just spray the weeds now they got seed you to plant round up ready yeah they didn't have that they needed kids to pick cotton and pick beans and help in the garden that's where they survive but nowadays they've got us down to where you know nobody wants to have any kids can't afford it they've made it so expensive that you don't want to have them because you can't afford to have them and so then we put a sniff sniff on our red-blooded Americans and we import and we immigrate people and bring them in deluding our culture and our democracy even to a lower the steam and that's the game and we've succumbed to it but regardless hardship has caused us I can't have anymore I can't you know she was used to be five dollars now they're 150 bucks Levi's or this or that can't afford to have them I can't afford to have them hardship won't allow us to have so it causes us so this is what's happening 33 million births were lost or postponed the study published in the proceeding of the National Academy of Science in the United States of America analyzed data on more than one million pulmonary tuberculosis infections across birth courts to assess the impact of famine over the intervening decades since that famine since that one famine let's see the results tuberculosis is a leading cause of death from a single infectious agent worldwide China experiences more than 750,000 cases per year annually the great Chinese famine devastating a devastating humanitarian crisis resulting from severe food shortage spanning 1958 1962 that's in my lifetime affected some parts of China more severely than others the western province of Shuchen was hit particularly hard experience an estimated 7.5 million excess deaths and a steep drop in fertility the research collaborated with epidemic epidemiologist in China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to analyze a massive data set on pulmonary tuberculosis infections diagnosed between 05 and 2018 for risk associated with aging as well as a broad trends in tuberculosis incidents over time the study found substantial substantial excess rates of tuberculosis among people born during the famine as well as their offspring indicating a previously unrecognized intergenerational effect parental and early life exposure to famine and then it goes it just goes on telling about it but all these results from famine kids that were born during that famine were affected people seeing this would cause them oh no we can't all right let's forget the famine in the world let's start talking about a famine the Bible said they'll be a shortage in the last day they'll be a famine but it's not going to be for food or drink but it's going to be a hearing for hearing of the word of God and people in the time of adversity in the time of a spiritual famine I'm not talking about groceries now or anything in the outside I'm trying to bring this thing down but in the church trouble in the church within the church the famine within the church it's so hard or so easy for people to make unwise decisions I just don't want to live for God anymore it's too hard I want the world I want the pubs I want the juke joints I want the I want the marijuana I want the math I want the crack cocaine I don't know if I'm a man or a woman I don't know even what I want to be see what a famine for the word of God will cause see why do you preach standards and I know we got holiness but we're a holiness church you knew that when you come in you looked at a well we we don't look like they look on the beaches we don't look like they look in the taverns we don't look like they look you know in the amusement parks we just we are what we are we're holiness we're holiness people but when a famine comes you know what's wrong with America today nobody's preached it nobody will cry out it starts here but look where it's ended up today you know why skin cancers at an all-time high I told you about the the talk show come on over morning this DJ it was a rock station but it was a talk show and he made this statement they were talking about the UV and all that he said they got talking about skin cancers in this day and age we live in he said you want to know why it's at an all-time high this is a center man this is man don't have anything to do a church he said you go dig in your photo albums of your great great grandpa and your great great grandma and you look at them in the fields and in the gardens they can't keep their clothes on today in an acclimated environment let's see where it took us to look at the damage that it's doing to us people in their thirties they've sent hands so much they look like they're 60 years old because nobody preaches nobody warns nobody throws up the flag look at where we're at today back in the in the world war when it came and the women begin to go to the factories they begin to dress check the history of it it's it's it's in black and white plain as the nose on your face the look where it's took us today because those preach pastors won't preach in the time of trouble people start moving people start leaving so they think the the the remedy for this in this time of famine this time of loss this time of hardship let's ease up on the people and I know there's decisions that we make to try to help people that's struggling and it's sometimes when we're working with this and we're struggling this one over here that's doing good is damning and condemning everybody that's trying to help this one that ain't the way they did it in my day I've had elders tell me if I had all the people in this church today that I ran off myself you couldn't build a big enough building in this town my elder told me that that I ran off you couldn't hold them in this building so we worked with people but we keep on planting we keep on sowing leaving the church quitting pray quit praying quit the choir quit worship and setting in the back not having anything to do with church and then wonder why that you don't feel in and and all of a sudden you're in a famine and you you're indecisive and you don't you don't want to reproduce anymore you lose that desire to reproduce what's the use of bringing them they're just going to die here anyway let me tell you something a good trip to the prayer room a good trip to the altar a good involvement in a worship service you people are crazy how you worship no one writer said after the way that I worship my God the world calls heresy but when I get in the presence of God I feel the presence of God oh God something in the struggle something about in the time of fan in famine brings uncertainty and insecurity the worst thing we could do was stop reproducing the churches in a financial crunch we need to drop the outreach program we're struggling financially all that Bible quizzing we need to shut that down causes lights and we got to run the air conditioning when I get together and have their have their quizzing in our meetings we can we need to stop that I know churches that do that the plapper told me of of a church that had a choir so big that it took two great ham buses to haul them around and today because of foolish decisions and indecisiveness and and no clarity from the pulpit or whatever I don't know the reason but now they're just down to one bus and it ain't full somebody quit so and somebody lost the the desire that we've got a plant if we want to survive next year we've got to plant we've got to sew oh there's too many kids too much perversionist in this world I don't want to bring any kids I don't want to bring any children into this world I want to tell you something have those children and you raise them in the fear and the admonition of God and nurture the Alma and they'll grow up loving God they'll grow up loving the church they'll grow up loving outreach they'll grow up loving youth camps and camp meetings because you nurture and you provide probably one of the smartest real estate guys in this country he's dead and gone now Gary Pierman he met me at the guy station up here one day and we were talking he's talking about trouble he's talking about the news reports he said Kelly we'd be better off in southwest Missouri if we didn't have a television or radio or a newspaper we'd be better off you know why because we just go on planting we just go on buying we just go on selling we just go on providing we just go on working why because we didn't know there's any trouble out there we didn't know there's people starving to death why because we're raising gardens and we're providing for our own work just getting up every day and going to work it's it's really the trick providing famine what's the use for the Samson he could have very easily threw up his hands what's the use but if there's no food plant some there's no place to stay throw you up a tent get you some brush they used to live under brush arbors before it was a hot in the house I couldn't sleep they'd go sleep under the brush armor at night hardship I never did that you'll be one of the first to go they no need to pray God ain't going to move I've been praying for years and I've been gone man you just talk to brother done he's passing going on now but man he talked about the first time the anointing come down and the presence of God came down and it felt like it filled him until it was bubbling over I'm telling you something that's what's worth so and that's what's worth the effort in the time of sowing in the time of famine can you imagine Isaac's kids when that hundred fold harvest came off they got a fresh well out there that they dug they got water they got food they got a place to eat in the depression brother triplet talks about his mother knew where every used to there was residence in the woods and they just everywhere and you know they just lived everywhere but they planted fruit trees and she knew where all those places was where people had moved and left and apple trees that wasn't being harvested and she knew that they picked the persimmons before they were ripe enough man I got one the other day I like to slice the seed and look in there see if it's a spoon a fork or a shovel see how much trouble we're going to have that winter since I'm talking about I got to prepare my intellect for the well what the persimmon seed has got inside of it going to be a sharp winter spoon means lots of snow going to have to shovel snow and the fork is pretty mean sharp and the spoon is lots of snow so kind of prepare for that you know kind of like the farmer that was he watched the Indian and however much hunting the Indian done he knew that Indian knew that this was going to be a bad winter so he had start chopping wood the Indian do more so he had chopped more one day they ask him how do you know he said well I go by what the old Indian chief does over here how many pelts and how big he you know he builds us TP and whatever that scenario was so he said that's what I go by he said so if you want to know really how to go by the elements you're going to have to go to the old wise Indian chief and ask him so the man went over to the reservation he asked the Indian how he knew how to prepare for a bad winter he said well I just watch and see how much wood the farmers chopping and that's what I go by that they were preparing for whatever kind of weather come they were both prepared so when you're looking at the hypocrites in the church and you're looking at this one that ain't praying you're looking at this when it ain't faithful I tell you what I want you to do like brother Treble said put your major and stick up beside me major up to brother matherly major up to some of my mom that some have been living for God for in truth for 60 years why don't you put your major and stick up against them you don't never compare themselves to those that's praying desperately for you those it's that's that's inviting you those it's be friending you you make excuses by those that's not doing anything or pretend to be doing it and not doing it understand one thing when you go to hell because you're not going to church with a hypocrite I'm not sowing in the time of famine you're going to go to hell and every hypocrite that every was worldwide it's going to be in that fiery furnace pit with you that's who you're going to suffer with so I'd rather go to God and let church and live for God with the hypocrite as I would to go to hell and be in torment with the hypocrite holly luja I'm not going to look at everybody else I'm going to look at the one that's doing something and I'm going to try to set my pace by his pace and then I'm going to be ready for whatever comes because I'm going to sow in the time of famine and the man waxed great he went forward and he grew until he become very great well my family says this is an occult this is a not an occult you can come when you want to leave when you want to you can get involved in anything in the church you want to get to if you're living right and living holy and he waxed and he went forward he grew great and he grew until he became very great he had possessions of flocks possessions of herds great store of servants and the Philistines envied him those village dwellers all they had to take care of was a little 10 by 20 yard out in front of their little their little cottage but all of a sudden and you read they ask him to leave they ask I see leave you become too great for us afraid that he was going to overtake him wouldn't it be something that the centers came in and like we're fixing to read here and one to make a league with us I want to be a part of this church man this church is growing it's a wicked world out there it looks like it's impossible to live I'm afraid I'm going to get robbed mug thug whatever just can I just be a part of the church the Bible said in the last days will be seven women taken a hold of one man perilous times are going to come why not in the time of adversity the time of trouble when everything's going to hell in a hand basket could we just keep living for God keep persevering keep witness and keep out reaching that finally the world come in and said hey you people are so happy you got so much joy even in trouble we want to be a part of the church we want to come and grow in the garden of God and in the time of famine the garden of God is flourishing it's growing we're watering we're fertilizing we're doing whatever it takes to produce a crop in the time of a spiritual famine make a league with us let us be a part what's the secret my friend Billie Eisel in Union City Tennessee they got several things going on but one of them is a drug rehab and the thing is when they come get to the place where they can they have to go to church and they have to go to Billie Eisel's church until they finish their reformation whatever they call that that sheriff come and he told pastor Eisel he said either is nothing as effective for these drug additions than the apostolic church the Pentecostal church is where they get their help that's what's really changing these people in the time of their trouble they turn to something that looks so insignificant but they put a seed in the ground in the time of famine and a drug addict turns into a sign of God what can I do it's dry dig a well they dug a well the first well they called us sick you know what that means contention and quarrel the first well so they don't fight and argue okay we'll just move over I got enough sense if you're going to fill that one in I'll dig another one so the second well was sent now that word interpreted means hated and strife so the first time they could have contention they quarreled over they filled it in they moved it over it made them so mad that hatred got in their heart those stupid fools they can't look around and tell they're under attack can't they understand that if they drill a well we're going to fill it in and the in that saying of God just keeps going back to worship he just keeps going back to praying while the world's saying you won't last you can't make it I'm telling you we just keep digging another well this was also in the time of famine hated and strived so they dig a third well real ball oh here it goes broad places in the famine just putting forth in the in the famine drill one well there's confusion and quarrel the next well that there was hatred and strife so we'll dig this third well real ball broad places spacious places oh oh what was the the prayer of j Bez when his wife put his mom put a curse on him when he was born and she died and passing and here he comes he's born with this generational curse on him I'm telling you something my mom was a alcoholic my dad was a drug addict and I was born in the projects and there just ain't much hope for me because of my family I want to tell you something there is hope you can drill a well you can raise your hands to God like j Bez did that one little place mentioned in the Bible and he said God enlarge my boundaries don't confine me to this generational curse that I'm going to grow up believing that I can't and I won't but I am so now we've got a well they're not striving for it they're not quarreling about it they're not hated they just see leave them fanatics alone as long as we cover them we put as much effort into barium as they do done cover them and they just don't cover them I'm going back to my little village I'm going back to my little ego centric circle I'm going back to my generational curse I'm not gonna pray I'm not gonna push I'm not gonna try to make it any different this is just the way it's going to be for me oh God help us did they stop there that was a third well broad places spacious places fourth well he named Shiba oath which gave name to the city of Bathsheba the city of Bathsheba that name went the well of oath how to get its name we're going to show you here in a minute the spiritual meaning of Shiba is restoration the act of restoring a bringing back to a former position a restoring to an unimpaired or unimproved position or improve position or condition something that is restored we don't want you here now if anyone never felt like they fit in I've been told that I struggled with that for the last 24 years you are not wanted here you are not qualified for us I know what it is to have to leave and to move on but you know what God enlarged my boundaries faithful in the few things that make you ruler over many I was faithful in my little garage on my house down a mile at dirt road I was faithful born across three railroad tracks to get into the flood zone to the storefront building I was faithful God blessed us with a better building in racing upon the hill I loved it and I felt like I was in heaven God had enlarged my boundaries and I just kept being faithful he had possessions of flops possession of urge great store of servants and the philistines in Reed Hill for all the welts which his father servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father the philistines had stopped them and filled them with earth and a bimilex head and eyes he'd go from us you're too much you're mightier than us and they begin to fear him I wish there was so many penny costals apostolics in this community that people would say it's too much for us we got to join it if you can't beat them join them we've persecuted them for years they just keep having growth they just keep having revival they just keep digging wells in the time of adversity and Isaac servants dig that well and I've done went through them all and he went up from thence to Bathsheba and the Lord appeared in him the same night and said I'm the god of Abraham thy father fear not I'm with you I'll bless you I'll multiply your seed for my servant's sake and he built an altar after everything the secret to to Isaac even though he planted even though he labored he dug he produced he multiplied he built an altar you know what it's time for in our lives brother maddily to build an altar to have a place of prayer to have a place of dedication where we lay the cell phone down we lay the iPad down we reject social media and just say okay God it's me and you I'm gonna pray until I pray through and we build us an altar and create a relationship with God Isaac said unto them here they come to him wherefore come you to me seeing you hate me and you sent me away from you you fought against and just tried to destroy everything that I've done what they do on the day of the flood hey Noah open the door we've made fun of you for a hundred and twenty years but judgment has come the flood is here let us in and they said we saw certainly that the Lord was with thee you know one of the first places people want to come when trouble hits pray pray I've prayed for people right here at this altar in this building that they're religion they're against speaking and tongues they're against miracles they're against a tithe pain they're against all of these things but they come and wanted prayer I've had them come when they said I don't want to live for God I'm not ready to make any changes I just need God to move for me that's sowing in the time of famine there's going to be a day that those people are going to say hey okay I'm going back to the church that's where God touched me that's where I felt God what'd you do I sewed seed in the time of famine I dedicated their kids when they wasn't going to live for God I've dedicated kids and I don't think I've seen them since I dedicated them that I just keep sowing the seed I just keep sowing seed what are you doing with them kids and then birthday sacks putting all that money in that that little thirty forty dollars I'm going to tell you someday that's planting a seed every nickel dime whatever you want to put in there they little kids don't care but I'll guarantee it's planting a seed and it's going to be in it's might be in the time of famine when it doesn't look like it's worth the effort but someday it's going to come forth they're going to be a dedicated Sunday school teacher they're going to be a choir leader they're going to be a faithful saint sitting on a church pew we keep working in the face of adversity we want to make a covenant with you now that you're so great now that you're not in the little garage now that you're not over there in the storage unit now that we see that you are qualified we'd like to be friendly we'd like to maybe fellowship you a little bit we see that you're too great you're so great you could overpower us now we want to make a league with you that that will do us no hurt as we have not touched the as we have not have done that under the nothing but good have sent the away in peace for now though you are blessed of the lord you come to reap a harvest in so many areas but when he sowed the seed it was in the time of adversity and time of trouble god moved for him god blessed him god made him the head and not the tail but he remained faithful he kept worshiping he kept praying he kept seeking and god enlarged for the air and voice to his boundaries spacious places spacious places good luck to make an oath with god today say god i want to be on the wind inside it's always confused me how this dad of goliath could stand in his yard time after time and in his tent time after time son after son that israel subdued and took down i would have thought somewhere the way they worship gods and those times looks like they would have thought man i need to change sides i i need to change chapters in my life i need to find god somewhere in my life but son after son until the very last one was destroyed and killed and israel was victorious the children of god i'm not about to cool well i know there's people that come home with no legs no arms no eyes but they're still a soldier they're still a survival and they come home victorious they won the war we got battles to fight and it's going to leave scars but it don't matter what the uh objection is it doesn't matter what the how bad the famine looks keep planting you're going to reap a harvest someday you're going to reap a harvest someday stay faithful to god as you stand to your feet i mean to make it make it