Apostolic Lighthouse
The Love of God - Pastor Sampson
been around the world, left Wednesday to anniversary service and BBR can saw her tremendous preaching there, left there, went to Union City, Tennessee, to the wedding. Things were kind of in a bind there so we jumped in and helped them till about three o'clock in the morning, went home, her went to the motel, got up the next morning, went to the wedding, went a little early to kind of help finish up some things. Left right after the wedding and drove however many hours it is home that depending on what kind of trouble that you have and started out kind of depressing but it got better as we went and had to drive about 60 mile an hour all the way home and I'll just tell you I don't like 60 miles an hour. I'm an 80, 85 mile an hour man I'll just be honest with you so if you're gonna travel with Brother Samson and you better know we're gonna travel that's why I usually go by myself and then I don't have to listen to somebody whine all the time. "Go you goodness you drive me!" I hear about my driving and how fast I'm going. I just like to go and get there, how they do you and so but we made it home, got home about I don't know 130 this morning and got in bed about two probably that alarm went off about five and I didn't want to get up and I will confess I try to pray an hour and Sunday morning from five to six close and you know I went till seven o'clock this morning I was praying and the next thing I knew I kind of jerked us I need to look at the clock I looked at the clock it was ten after seven I'm not gonna lie to you not all of that was praying this morning. I went to sleep in prayer and some of y'all sleep in my preaching I guess I could sleep over what's a wall in the prayer and I had a pastor acquaintance he had a man in his church that slept while he preached and it just infuriated him he even made this statement sometimes I just want to grab a Bible or a song book or something and throw it at him it just wake him up I'm preaching and and he's not even listening to it and so this went on you know for years and he just always agitated at this elderly man for sleeping on him while he preached. One time during one of his sermons he made a statement and one of the just you know how you get messed up and you say something and it's not really correct so one of the elders come up after church and said you said so and so while you preached he said I did not say that he said yeah the elder you did and a couple of said you did say I never said it finally said we'll get you the tape of you preaching and you you're going to find out that you said that before you're done and so he said I dared to I was in my office and I got that tape and I put it in the tape recorder and I'm sitting there listening myself preach and he said in a little wall something woke me up he said it was the click you know when those some of those cassettes didn't have auto stop and it was going click click click click and that's what woke him up his own preaching put him to sleep he said I never said nothing to that elder after that I just let him sleep he said my own preaching put me to sleep so that's kind of the way that I felt this morning but I I heard a message preached and it was even taken from Hosea and even while we were at the camp meeting and just struck a chord in my heart and I just I just for a little while this morning I want to preach to us about a loving God and a loathsome a loathsome people and that word loathsome means disgusting that's the only word that it gave me for it disgusting so I kind of look at words synonymous with that was appalling awful disgusting nasty and I looked at that and I thought how many times probably have we in the eyes of God been this way to him and I want to go to Hosea this morning the let's go to the 11th chapter of Hosea and I like Jose it's a it's an interesting book and it's how God uses him a lot of times to Hosea to display his love for his people and I am thankful sister Aldin that we serve a loving God where would I be today if if if we didn't serve a loving God I'd be in trouble I'd be in trouble and I know a lot of people a lot of people have this ideology that God is this vengeful person brother Nathan Sampson setting on his throne and just waiting for somebody to do wrong and he's just gonna ring fire in brimstone and strike them with lightning and a lot of times you know we may see people we wish would get struck with by lightning but that's our flesh that's why that's why we're not God because when we made up our mind to destroy the earth with water we'd have just done it bless God they they getting what they deserve they deserve that and God sets back and waits 120 years to save eight people now that's long-suffering that's a God that I'm talking about this morning brother Johnny McKinn the God of love a God that loves us even though we are so undeserving so many times sister carpenter of his love of his of his of his gentleness and worthy of wrath and sometimes my dad would make this statement well I didn't deserve that yeah but you got by with so many that you did deserve that you didn't get get caught at or or you didn't get a weapon when you should have had one so this will kind of average that out and but you know I'm the same way living for God a lot of times I've deserved punishment I deserve I deserve correction and God's give me love he's give me space to come back we see that with a prodigal now such a such a such a prime example of love and you know we make this statement a lot of times though I don't feel like the father of the prodigal son I don't feel like when he left that his dad went out to the fence every day and look for him I don't I don't feel like that that's just my own ideology I feel like it went for some time and then maybe occasionally a stranger would come by somebody traveling and he would inquire of the towns that they'd been to where they came from and maybe if they even knew the man he said what did what about my son yeah we saw him and he was such and such tavern he was had a woman on each arm and money hanging out of every pocket and he's doing good I feel like the father just went back to work just went back to the field didn't worry too much about it for a day or two and maybe it just periodically would inquire about his son but one day I feel like that he talked to somebody and they said well we saw your son he don't look quite as spry as he did a year ago or whatever the time frame he looks a little haggard he looks like he's he's aged a few years in the last whatever and I believe at that point the father begins to watch the road and then we all know the story when he looked up and he seen him coming and he said here comes my son kill the fatted calf my son's coming home man put the put the put the ring on his finger the robe on him and man we're gonna we're gonna just restore him right here to royalty and he came home and we read that story and I feel like as parents each and every one of us have that love for our children and even even beyond that somebody else's children and a lot of foster care in the in the church and a lot of children with that that that that somebody extended that parental love beyond that biological connection and I I'm thankful today that that's the kind of God that we serve my goodness where would I be today if God wasn't a merciful God and had love for humanity I begin to read this chapter and I didn't take any of my study and material I just had my phone which a lot of those apps synced to my phone and I just I picked it up and almost one of the first things I read was about a loving God and a lot so a lot of some people my goodness can't even say that word this morning I can preach it I just can't pronounce that hallelujah but I I begin to look at that and I thought God this is this is surely the way you are and Hosea Hosea had it had it right and but starting at Jose 11 let's just start at the verse verse I will try to deal I think I believe there's about maybe 12 verses in its entirety of this chapter and I want to try to deal with all of those today and even Jose had 10 and 15 it said this is just before my reading but it said so shall Bethel do unto you because of your great wickedness in a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off you know that's when man gets controlled when when man's in charge and we a lot of times in judicial system we we we we want to vote in a righteous judge a judge that's fair a judge that's that's biased in his decisions and that we we check the integrity of that of that judge and so many times you can read the news of so many judges that are unfair they make by you know biased decisions and and we want unbiased judge let me correct that you know that that doesn't just look at favoritism or somebody that's patent is palm like you see with lobbyists in in in the political world and but we we we want somebody that that that gives righteous judgment that's fair in judgment and can look beyond just the pretense that a person is putting on and understand his nature and I have a friend and his brother robbed a bank and it was Russell Lawson he talked about his brother Robin the bank and they caught him and through the course of this trial the judge was looking at Russell's brother and he was evaluating him we sing the song he looked beyond my fault and he saw my need and this was very it was kind of comical especially the way Russell tells it but he said through the course of this thing the judge watched him he listened to the testimony he watched his brother's response through this whole thing and at the very end before sentencing sister Sherry the judge looked at him and he said have you got any words to say have you got any regrets any sorrow for what you've done he thought he would be comical and he said yes sir he said I'm sorry I got caught and the judge said young man he said that's exactly the feeling that I had about you and I think it was like 20 years 40 years something like that he gave him judgment but because of his no remorse and but he gave him a righteous judgment a lot of times we thank judgment and let me get back to we thank God sitting on the throne breathing fire and brimstone down on everybody that does wrong that's not the kind of God we serve he's a righteous God if you've done wrong you're going to be judged right if you've done right you're going to be judged right that's what judgment is about in the severity of the judgment now if you maybe tire come off your car and you hit somebody and then in another vehicle and kill that person or you shoved somebody in that person it went into another person and just horsing around and that other person fell off of a bluff or some precarious thing and they lost their life that you know you'd probably get into some trouble but it would be involuntary manslaughter there would be a lighter sentence for that but if that judge can ever prove that you predetermined and you said it you you meditated that and you caused that death by by premeditating it you're going to get first degree and you're going to get you're going to get righteous judgment you're going to get the judgment that you deserve Hallelujah but oh so many times with God we I'm thankful he's a loving God they brought the woman to him caught in the very act of adultery that was a crime or an act that was was punishable by death by stoning and they caught her in the act and they bring her before God and no doubt maybe cast her down scantly dressed and her her appearance and and said we caught her in the act this is what she's guilty of and they already had the stones in their hand if you'll read that they were ready to do business they were ready to execute judgment and rightly so that was the law punishable by stoning but they bring her to a loving God they bring her to a righteous judge and he looked at her and some way he looked beyond her fault and he saw her need you just ma'am you're looking for love in all the wrong places you you're going about this all the wrong way but he sees some kind of good and he begins to write in the sand and we know the story man such a forgiving loving forgiving God and just begin to write in the sand and whatever he wrote he began to bring conviction we can only paraphrase and and because we're we're we're we got limited information on on on his writing but it was something that gripped the heart maybe why are you so quick to take the life and maybe he began to write the maybe the sin maybe John Doe you was with her last week or last month or whatever and he began to write but the Bible said they laid down their stones and they begin to just walk away what do you say and brother Samson sometimes when we're standing in our humanity our carnality and we've got an arm load of stones and we're ready to execute what is in our eyes righteous judgment all of a sudden there is a conviction that comes along and and it's a judgment of love covering the sin that's been committed the wrong doing that's been committed and we're left with nothing to do but just to drop our stones and walk away you know why because the love of God convicts and condemns when we got murder in our heart when we got envy strife and get even and God's spirit comes along because he loves us and he sees us a lot of times in Western history in the stories and books that you read you read about a lynching you read about a jailbreak and they're gonna take them out and they're gonna take justice into their own hands and finally some marshal or some hero in the story comes along and he begs just give me 24 hours or give me 48 hours and I'm sure you've heard it or read it but you know sometimes they didn't want to wait so they're gonna take them out and they're gonna execute their own judgment and somebody causes them to realize the mistake that they're about to make and it's not even this person at all they are innocent and they want they find out that somebody else is committed the crime but because the judgment they felt like needed to be executed so speededly they were to take matters into their own hands and sometimes we're guilty of that in the body of Christ and in the church we're so unforgiving they get what they deserve that's the judgments of God on them we're all guilty of it we're all guilty of it sometimes we put the judgment of God on somebody when God ain't even got nothing to do with it you're more worried about the situation than God is you're damning and you're condemning and you're unforgiving and crucified you know you don't want a fair court you just won't crucifixion we see that in the in the crucifixion of Christ they brought in men of Baliel they brought in false witnesses false accusation and it finally it builds up to the point that they're gonna kill somebody we're gonna have a crucifixion and we begin so bias in our decisions that we want to crucify the the righteous just give us blood just give us blood we want action we want drama we want we want something to happen and then when it happens judgments of God on them got just what they deserved God help us help us where's the love of God we serve a God of love I had a friend brother John Daniel he got bad he I believe those cancer that he had but whatever whatever that it was but he got bad and he sent me down one day and he said brother Samson he said I've got a message God spoke to me and I know I'm not gonna get a preach it but someday if you ever can you need to preach it what is it brother Daniels he said brother Samson we serve a loving God we serve a God of love and long suffer but he's a loving God and I just thought of this just now when it came to me we said we serve a loving God and he talked for a little bit about the love of God but he said brother Samson don't ever make him mad don't make God angry with you so we got God here looking down on Israel and the 11th chapter of Jose had he said when Israel was a child then I loved him and called my son out of Egypt as they call them so went from they went from them they sacrificed him to Bailam and burned the incense to graven images God's looking at his people long forever story you could talk about forever about the children of Israel and in going into bondage and and to come in coming out of bondage but God is a loving God and he looked at all the all the things on the earth and we already we already know that it's been destroyed by water and here it is it's wickedness again and wickedness over here wickedness over there and everywhere he looked and then he can't find any any righteous people at all and so we know that no of or finally we read about Noah find in favor with God that's what I want I want to be a Noah I want to be a Abraham I want to be a Moses I want the favor of God in my life but I don't want to make him mad we serve a loving God and he called him out of Egypt he chose a people for his own and he watched them as they grew and they become great in this in in this land of Egypt and he's he's so proud of this child do you remember your your first child do you remember that and you used to you sit around and you say man what did we do before little Jayden come along well man why what what you know what what did we do before we had kids and the family begins to grow and it's more exciting and you and you love your children and I told the story about brother Caleb his birthday and I'm gonna I got him a guitar and an amp and man I'm so excited brother Daryl Jones about giving it to him giving it to him on his birthday they're out the yard plan so I make the block I go up to my mother-in-law father-in-law's I get his base and his ham I put it in the back sister Becky and I'm coming back around the corner and I'm excited about giving him a gift but when I pull up in the front yard him and brother Keith are having a knockdown drag out so righteous judgment what do you do in case show partiality so I beat I set the presence down beside the car and I took my belt off and so I didn't want to show partiality I beat the back off of both of them but I had my arms loaded with gifts for him and I have to sit them down and execute judgment I feel like it was a righteous judgment Proverbs said in 29 and 15 a rod and reproof give wisdom but a child left to his own counsel will bring a reproach on his mother I don't want them to reproach their mother so I beat the back off of them but I had all this pleasure and joy and they were just kids but if I hadn't have corrected that's to sit in here today he'd probably been somewhere brawling and and you know trying to beat somebody else's brains out but so many times that's the way we are God is loaded down with blessings that he wants to bless us with and for some reason we make ourselves unworthy and he has to give us correction instead of gifts but it's his good pleasure to give us the kingdom and our we prosper as our soul prospers and so he called him out of Egypt he's so excited about his his his his children his family their mind I chose them I'm not sharing them and you can go back to Exodus you can read about it he's he's not sharing this is my family and you're not treating my kids this way and you're and you're going to you're going to recognize that that I'm your father and you're not going to whore around and you're not going to mess around and I'm the one that you're going to serve this loving God is sitting there now and he's trying to evaluate his people and time after time he called him perpetual backsliders perpetual never ending and he still got this love and you we see this through this whole book of Hosea this love that God is demonstrating for his people and what he wanted to love them and to give to them he's he's realizing here something's got to be done I called you out of Egypt and now he's talking about and as they called them so went them was so went from them and they sacrificed just every idol that come along and called them that's what they ran to the exit the intrigued the excitement the whatever it was that pulled them some of these religions that they went off after they were they were pretty graphic they were pretty you know they was just pretty in depth and then this pull the people to them and they sacrificed and the bail and they burned incense to graven images and I taught you from also to go taking them by their arms you remember teaching your children to walk you remember teaching them how to pull up and man them little boys would grip my fingers and I lift them up and man I still remember all the good times I still remember the playing in the floor and the rasmin and getting up on my knees when I could get in that position and it didn't have bad knees and artificial knees and we would buck and bounce and man they would act like I was the horse and they was riding a buck and bronch and man we had we had some wild rodeos right there and then the living room floor and we built forts and we put blankets over chairs and we'd get down and I'd get down and play man brother Samson are you telling me you did that I did that that was my children I I love them I wanted them to to have a good time he said I took them by their arms and they knew not that it was me oh God I'd hate to raise my my children that they did they didn't even recognize me as a dad or recognize their mom as our parent didn't want to spend time don't want to you know we didn't want to come around what what kind of a what kind of father would I be what would I feel like I I know people today that were so hard and so bitter growing up and today the parents kids are not even excited about being around their parents and God's looking at them but they don't even know it was me that was doing the healing me that was doing the delivering me that was given to me me that was blessing me a me that was giving them houses they didn't have to build and what what drinking water from wells they didn't have to dig and eat and fruit from trees they didn't plan and they don't realize that it was me I drew them with cords of a man and with bands of love I girded them up I treated them and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws and I laid meat and to them he's by the bottle said coming to me my yoke is easy let me take it from a rancher's perspective there's been times that I've went out and it was cold and it was ice and it was freezing weather and so many times the changing in weather will bring forth the cattle and then throw them into labor and they'll and they'll deliver and you're out there at all hours of the night if you've got any any love or you know and trying to desire to make this thing turn a profit you can't lose one calf today that's probably be just at a young age of fifteen hundred two thousand dollars and if you raise it into an adult calf could be you know a few thousand dollars depending on the breed so you try to make it happen but you get a you get in love for these animals and you going out there and if I found them frozen I found them with sleet all over them I found them with their blood their mouth would be cold you knowing that their suffering from hypothermia I've done everything that I could I brought them into my home I spread blankets I built a fire in the fireplace I I've run warm water in the back I know some of this is he's gross in yell because you y'all are so all so high class but this was my cow I got this cow you know I got her into this trouble it's my responsibility to get this calf out but I didn't do it just because of the money I wanted to see that little thing live I didn't give it the cheapest injection that I could find I got the nine hundred dollar bottle of medicine and drew out a maximum and maybe even a double dose and give it and I've seen them when they were just almost at the door of death and give them an injection and warm them up and rub them and sit and work them and get the blood flowing up and it wasn't very long as you look around and he's up and he's nursing and man that tail that tail is just screwing around in a circle and I'm telling you something he's getting that colostrum and that milk and he's excited he's got a will to thrive when just a few hours before he had no will to live this is what he's saying I make their yoke easy you want a good tight gird on a horse but you can over tighten you can get the bent so tight that he's had so much pain and the ox maybe the harness is so so binding and so tight that he can't really work but he said I was to them that take off the yoke off their jaws I loosened it up look you're under a little bit too much of a bind here let me let me make it easier for you God said my yoke is easy and my burdens light I'm not gonna try to make you carry ten times more than what you were you trying to carry I'm gonna ease it up a little bit that's why he's told all you that are heavy lighten come to me I'm gonna lighten the load for you I'm gonna fix it for you're not you're you're not laboring so hard that's kind of God we serve he he fixes the buying that you're in he can take the pressure off how you do that you just go to him and you begin to talk to him God I don't know where to go I don't know what to do God I've done all that I know to do that's when you just stand back okay God I've turned it over to you brother matherly made the statement being him out behind the barn down by his garden on the last workday that we had in his house pretty soon he just stopped it he looked at me and he said brother Sampson these women are afraid to death of this cancer but he said you know brother Sampson I ain't afraid of it well cuz he just feels like God's no that's not what he said he said I know God can heal me I know God can but he said if he don't that's just a short cut to glory he said I'll just be right there just a few days shouting on the streets of gold brother Sampson waiting on waiting on the rest of you to get there he said I'm not afraid of it how do you do that when you know you have this life threatening affliction he said come on to me all you that are weary and heavy laden I'm gonna ease your burden I'm gonna take some of the load I'm gonna pull some of the stress off of you cuz he's a god of love and we know that we can trust him he said I was to them that take off the yoke off their jaw I laid meat into them I provided for them I cared for them I give them new floor when they had an ammonia I was the pediatrician that leaned over in the NICU unit and I give all that special care when you couldn't make it on your own I adjusted the defeating to I I adjusted the the rate of flow and what whatever they do in them in the medical world to promote health and life I was the one oh what about sister Maggie Brister back in the day I think she died at 90 and that's been 30 30 years ago or more they didn't have the medical technology in the 20s like they have today put on a little Vicks and little skunk grease and cast royal and you know whatever who somebody just just made the statement it was the it was the thought of taking the cast royal that made you get better and he told about the cast royal and the every time they got sent that's what they had to have some you don't know anything about cast royal but I'll tell you what it'll do it'll throw your body in the rapid discharge of case that's what you're wondering but they done whatever they could to sustain life I think Brother Triplet used to take some sulfur sulfur and molasses for the crew they had skunk oil that she rubbed on them at night that's all they had but their mothers would stay up all night and I remember Anna at a Darwin when she was born she was I think a pound or pound leaven and this is back in the 20s her baby bed was a shoe box her incubator was the warming oven above the wood cook stove and they would put her in that and she survived a miraculous a miraculous miracle right there to be that age and that day and time and to make it but that's the kind of God that we serve sister Maggie breast her would take them burning up with fever and pray over them and put them to bed and go lay down and go to sleep because she felt like God was going to take care of them and the next morning she would go in there and her fever would be broke and they would be feeling better but what else could she do she had to depend on God to help her and her confidence was that she had the favor of God them bristers in the south they multiplied like flies God give them favor but they had a mom that could would set up and do everything they could do and this is what God said I give you everything I've done everything I could possibly do how many can say going back to Egypt is not an option back to the street sister Stephanie's not an option back to the brawling drug world whatever alcohol but other Tony is not an option we're not going back God may punish us God may correct us for where we're at today but you're not going back to Egypt I'm not going to send you back there and bring a reproach on myself he shall not return into the land of Egypt but the Assyrian shall be his king because they refuse to return and the sword shall abide on his city and shall consume his branches and devour them because of their own self and not because of me I love them I don't want to see this come upon them but they've strayed from me they straight out from under my protection what do you say how often Jerusalem Jerusalem how often what I've gathered you together if you've never lived on a farm if you've never had the privilege especially those little banny chickens man they're like Braemer cattle we had one that gathered her chicks and I guess the owl or whatever got her grabbed her and took her off of the little farm that we lived on and for days them little baby chickens just run around with no mother my dad I remember he he he he had favoritism to this little this little banny chicken after about two or three days one day we heard a cheap and men here they come running and here come that mama that little banny chicken back into the yard some way she had escaped her predator of whatever nature and here she come back into the yard and I mean she begin to bustle around and cluck and the little chickens gathered around and man she raised them wings up and then little chickens got all up under there and man everything was all right mama's back home gonna be provided for everything's gonna be all right but I guarantee you one thing for two or three days and nights the little chickens with no wing to get under the insecurity they may have felt heard the story one time of a prairie fire that came across the prairie back in the day and they were a couple of the farmers were out walking around they were surveying the damage and they were just a what appeared to be a big clump of sick burnt sagebrush there and while they were just idly talking there one of the old farmers just took his foot was gonna kick the bundle of sage brush over and when he kicked it little chickens begin to run everywhere this mother had set there and everybody knows about a prairie fire it's a fast moving fire but she had gathered her chicks under her wing brother Adam and she sat there and she protected those chicks until that fire consumed her in its passing that she gave her life for her chickens baby chicks the Bible said how often I wanted to gather you I wanted to pull you in I wanted to protect you but you would not you would not my people are bent to backsliding from me though they call them to the most high none at all would exalt them verse number eight I want to draw your attention how shall I give the up Ephrym remember you just little hard parents at the side of a casket I remember when he was just a baby remember how he used to hold him in my lap hold him in my arms that make the statement parents are not supposed to outlive their children and you see that love of that parent as they begin to just memories begin to flow out of him and get to the place but the kingdom that they're not even aware that really anyone else is standing around and let's see Ephrym I remember what you couldn't even walk son I took you by the hands I stayed with you till you learn to get on your own two feet oh it's exciting to teach them to walk but each thing we teach them for not careful it's a separating point they don't depend on us brother would like they did 30 days ago they don't need mom and dad grandma grandpa to get from point A to point B because we've taught them to walk in a day or two they don't need us for the Darryl Jones to get up anymore they just figure out how to get up on their own at first it starts with a crawl then it's pulling up and then it's walking then after that a little bit of independent sets in that we get them to the stage that their driver's license and we're thinking man I'm gonna have them now they can do all that running they go a little lumberyard and they can go to the to the grocery store in the dollar store and Walmart they can do all of that and I can get something done with it when they get them license whether Jordan they're a little more into you know they go get a lot of stuff for you but there's a lot of hey can I go over here can I go over there all that time alone in the front room is kind of fading out maybe God is sitting on his throne experiencing the empty nest syndrome they talk about one day you look around and that the children that you made the statement what did we do before we had our children what occupied our time what did we do I can hear God say I remember the time I didn't have my own people I remember the time that this earth was full of people and God was not even in their it not even in their thinking all of the knowledge they acquired all of a sudden they don't need their creator anymore but the Bible said because they didn't retain God in their knowledge don't forget your parents young people don't forget who help get you to where you're at today you go back and you visit that mom and dad even though you got children of your own you get close to mom and dad build close to mom and dad keep a relationship with mom and dad but someday you're gonna have one that'll rip the heart right out of you and God is setting sister would and he's looking at this how can I give them up how can I give them up or my babies wish I could be a pastor eat fried chicken and collect money the heartache you're there brother Nathan is when they're born at the hospital and you you look at them through the waiting room window nursery window and you're there when they're born your close proximity to hear the cry those seem like it's just a few days in your data cadence and babies and even though you're not a kid somebody else's baby you're taking it in your arms and you feel like it's yours and it's it's a part of you a few days you're at the school and their first day of school like a they're gonna color books and crayons and backpacks and new tini shoes and they're so cute you watch them you watch them go to their room and just a day or two you preach eighth grade graduation day after that you preach in 12th grade graduation and then a day or two you're performing a marriage and the cycle goes on and then all of a sudden you have one that comes up that's alienated themselves from the church from the prayer room from the worship and they make the statement to your sister wrong I just don't feel like I've fit in here I remember the days that I'd miss some school I think I just mentioned this you didn't you didn't even though they were your friends they were your classmates but so some way you just you didn't fit in it took a couple hours to realize that you know you still got friends and their opinion of you is it's still good and after a while you get comfortable and you fit back in because you came back but when you start separating yourself I can't go with you to gambling concealer I can't go with you wherever it is that you go that takes you away from the church you're gonna feel like you're alone you're gonna feel like you're not fitting it because you're not fitting it anymore you don't pray you don't fact you don't worship drop out of the choir you start pulling yourself back and then you pull your finger I don't feel like I fit in here and it hurts so bad sister Anna call me the other day with Samson I'm just not coming back to church anymore I don't feel like I fit in god help us it hurts so bad I just don't want to be a part of this family anymore you lose your will to thrive there's no antidote that brother Samson can give I can set over your bed and wipe your brow cool your fever brow give you stuff to drink to keep you hydrated but if you lose the will to thrive I'll never forget sister she said I just brother Samson just pray that God takes me sister Solomon no I just don't feel like I have any purpose anymore I just want to die brother Samson I just want God to take me on I'm ready to go I've been here for 87 years I'm just ready to go how do you outpray somebody like that this is what I've dreamed about what I've long forced what I've looked forward to I want to go let's try to preach hope and there's sister Solomon there's there's things you can do there's people you can help there's there's people you can encourage I'm just ready to go home when they lose their will to thrive he said how can I give you up everybody else's pronounced in judgment everybody else is saying stone everybody else is saying let's conquer them let's let's let's subdue them let's bring them down they think they've something I'll never forget people there 29 years ago made the statement I thought they were my friends but they made the statement Kelly and Kathy are getting exactly what they deserved they lived high and mighty for too long they need to be brought down that was my friends and it hurt I didn't want to kill them how do I let you go how do I walk away from 39 years of my life it felt like I I was what do they call them Siamese twins or whatever when you're when you're joined together law office is making offers we'll get every dime that you ever put there we'll do this and we'll do that I said I didn't do it for them I did it for God I did it because I love God and the work of God I don't want revenge I don't want retaliation I don't even want to give them up and God's looking how can I give you up I taught you to walk I provided for you I bought your first bicycle I can't give you up how shall I deliver the Israel not how can I punish you for what you've done it was a gross injustice that they done how can I give you up how can I deliver you how shall how shall I make the is Adam and how shall I set the is a boil well the count of get Deuteronomy 29 and 22 I'm at 11 15 I'm gonna try to close here it's pretty quick didn't need to be a crybaby this morning but I man I'm just feel grateful to be serving love of God 29 verse 22 and 24 that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you and the stranger that shall come from far land shall say when they see the flags in that man and the sickness which the Lord had landed on it even all nations shall say wherefore have the Lord found us unto this land and what mean of the heat of how can I bring a reproach on my people how can I deliver the Israel how shall how shall I let me give you just a little bit of these two names right here one means red and bloody and earthy and then the other one's just the definition was earth earthy for these two words these two cities they were two cities of the of the five that was destroyed along with when Sodom and Gomara was destroyed these two cities and he's talking about it he said how can I do that to you don't make me do this it's not in me it's not my nature I love you you you're my people how come how am I gonna give you up how am I gonna utterly destroy you so he backs off and he just lets them go into bondage for a little while and get the attention of God in my personal testimony I told about how God got my attention God not willing to do it and you want willing workers that excuses me but I forgot the point that God could make me willing and he could do it in just a matter of minutes oh God nothing like devastation and especially in your family that will get your attention this is the family of God and they've heard him they're worthy of everything you could put on him but how can I do that you're the one I taught to walk you're the one that I brought as far as you are we've commuted together can you imagine what he felt like when he walked into the garden the only two people that he had that he could could commune with they betray him and they're subdued and deceived you think God rejoiced what he drove them from the Garden of Eden put a flaming sword at the entrances to keep them out oh God driving your children from you and putting up a restraint order against them that they can't even come back sometimes it has to be done you can't trust them they'll rob you blind you don't know if they're murdering you dear that you don't know what's gonna go on so you have to put some kind of restraint between you and them we visualize God sometimes as a setting there with a rock golden rod in his head and he's pronounced in judgment on everything that he don't like if he was quick to anger he had already destroyed America he's a long suffering he's a God of love and he loves us my heart is turned within me how many of you have experienced that an event just turned your heart my repentings are kindled together I just keep repenting I just keep repenting I'm gonna destroy you know I can't do it they just kindle together I will not execute the fearousness of my anger he's an angry God they've made him mad but love is still I have got so mad before I throwed caution to the wind and I have I have put judgments on my children you're not going anywhere for six months you're dead you're not going you're grounded it's a triple you say corn team you're corned he'd you know it lasts about a week maybe you're two or three days that's awful you're laughing by the DJ but she's done it to you many times they're to that old heart softens up and you know she's kind of a sweetheart anyway look at little Rock Hill it's awake that's the way God is he said how much more if you have if your kids asked for a drink would you give them bread we'd give them a stone asked for a drink with he said how much more did your heavenly father love you and want to care for you brother Nathan it worked for you because he loves you I said studying this just a little bit I got a study at this morning God I thank you for your long suffering with me sent a little trouble but it sent me running home like the prodigal I know where I need to go I know where I need to be time I made up my mind I'm not going back to church I waited till I thought my mom and dad would be gone be in my friends roll into the yard and I was give me a change of clothes and it's gonna go have what they said be a blast I don't know what all we were gonna do I don't even remember I'll tell you why I don't remember it for the Johnny because when I pulled into the yard the lights were still on in the house my mom and dad's car was still there and church was going on that Lincoln Continental was sitting in the yard and I knew I was in trouble was I gonna beat you now I was old enough to do what I want they left the 90 and nine triplet my mom and my dad was sitting there waiting on me so bad I wanted to turn around in the driveway and just just leave my friend said what do you want to do what do you want to do I said go on in there because I had a love my mom and my dad my pastor a lot of times I've lived for God because I live for God for my mom and my dad because I didn't want to hurt him just struggling with crazy stuff I look back now doing amount to a hill of beans get so discouraged and just spawned it over and it just so magnified a lot of times we blow things out of proportion to start not really like they seem that in our adolescence it seems like a mountain to us that I walked in and they're set rather triplet it he would take a no for an answer he made me give him a commitment I'd show up at the church in a little while I said well we'll go to this birthday party and I said well we'll be there he said now he said son didn't really make a pool for the other two said I want you there I said let me get cleaned up I'll be there sister would when I walked in the door and I sat down on the back view set down at the very back that service didn't proceed five minutes rather treble begin to talk to me and call me to the front and I walked up there when I walked up there before the elder and my mom and dad and the presence of God oh it felt so good to be oh I begin to weep and I begin to cry and I got the favor of God brother triplet could be mean he could be hard I feel like I feel like I got some unjust dealings from you but I just sucked it up better cup and went on and but you know it made a man out of me could fight my own battles now spiritually it teaches you how to man up not going to execute the fierceness in my anger and I'm not going to return to destroy you from for I'm God and not a man are you thankful for the love of God today sometimes dealing with people that's disgusting to rebel his hard heart and whatever this nature is that we develop he loves us like the God of love that he is as you stand to your feet I'm God and not a man I'm the holy one in the best of the I'm not gonna come in on you bring judgment I'm not entered into your city I'm gonna win you with love I'm just gonna love you enough that you're gonna come back to me even when judgment came even when punishment came it would touch the heart of God a lot of time because the enemy was being so hard on God's people that he would bring vengeance and judgment on those it was mistreating his people that he give them over because he loved them to God of love today. Jesus.