Apostolic Lighthouse
Fully Persuaded - Pastor Sampson
earlier this morning and said, "Dad, we got Kobe's shot one, and it's down, and we're trying to find it. We'll be there in a little bit." So, got some running behind this morning, but this happens once a year. The men fill the call of the wild, and away they go. But thankful for those that shook off the longing. Some already went out and got it down back this morning, but we're thankful, we're thankful for that. Hallelujah. Give me just a little second here. I want to talk to us a little bit about being persuaded. Paul uses it several times in his writings in Timothy and in Romans also, and used the word that I like to use, and Paul says fully persuaded. I guess if you need to put a tag on that today or a title, fully persuaded. And we see some people that they believe, they like it. We see this so often they come into our congregation in a worship service, and the power of God and the anointing, and they feel that. And man, I like that. I like what I felt here. Man, I have so many times I've heard I haven't felt this in years, and you people don't know what you have here. And that's their first impression, but sometimes when you get to opening the contents of the box and you see everything involved to what I feel like gets us to this place with God, everything we lay down, everything we separate ourselves from, the holiness we try to adhere to. All of a sudden it begins to hinder, and they're not just fully convinced that it's worth feeling what they felt, even though I've never felt anything like this in my life. But then when they see the sacrifice involved, because the spring doesn't issue two kinds of water, you either can serve two masters. You're going to love one, hate the other, hate one, love the other. You just, you can't do it. It's not going to issue two kinds of water. There's going to have to be a purity. There's separation there, and people come in and a lot of times, brother Adam, they say, "Man, I'd give anything. I'd give anything if I could have a church like this, or if I could feel this feeling on a continual basis." But when it comes down to the separation and everything that we feel that it takes to get this relationship with God, that you could walk into His presence and just lift your hands and begin to worship God, hallelujah. They're just not convinced that it takes all of that. I've seen over the years in just this week, this week. I was talking to a young man, and he made this statement. He said, "You know, this place right here is just kind of an icon in the faith." There's a lot of apostolic history in this church, from the Moninvested Church in California to the Jack's Creek Church, and they're in Jack's Creek, Tennessee, and just so much, so many articles of faith and miracles that happen. And if you've ever read the book of Sister Daniel wrote it, "Man, just so many things God done and just a powerful church and worship." And we're just reminiscing over the things. And as I set where I set, I begin to look through that congregation. And I've seen all heroes of faith that still adhere to the message to our standard of holiness. People that over the years had such a relationship with God by the Henry that they were fully convinced, fully persuaded that this is what it takes, and this is right. But I saw a large number of people that I've worshiped with, people that I've known over the years, people I hold dear to my heart, and from a young teenager up. But I've seen something that struck a chord in my heart, and it caused me to realize that some are not fully persuaded. They're not convinced. And I like reading about Abraham. And Romans the 4th chapter, and I'm going to hit it briefly, and I just kind of come up with this right before I come out of the office and start my heart. And my dad was a faithful follower, reader, believer in Abraham. He had liked to talk about Abraham. In Romans 4, and you can just stay seated this morning. There's 12 that sit in the Father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but also walk in the steps of that faith of our Father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised, for the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith, through the righteousness of faith. For they which are the law be heirs of faith is made void, and the promise made is of none effect. Because the law worketh wrath for where there is no law, there is no transgression. Abraham come in and he began to adhere. He adhered to the law, but also there was something in him. He had a glimpse of that promise, that dispensation of grace. But to that also, which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, that is written, "I have made thee a father of many nations before whom he believed even God, who quickenedeth the dead, and called off those things, which be not as though they were." Just by faith, we have to realize that by faith, he hadn't had any Holy Ghost experience. It was just through faith that Abraham began to separate himself from his surroundings, from his former. He was a moon worshiper at one point, but he grasped this promise, and through faith, which quickenedeth the dead, and called off those things, which were not as though they were, who against hope, he believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations according to that which was spoken. Abraham had to be convinced. He had to be persuaded. He had to stand on that promise of God. You're going to be a father of everyone, of every nation, and he was in his 90s, and he doesn't even have a child at this point. But his faith by the winch is beginning to reach out, and the greater that his faith become, and the hanging on the words of the angel that came by, and they utter this promise, and it was so utterly preposterous that Sarah is in the tent, and she begins to snicker at the very idea of an old woman, nearly 90 years old, would have a child. The Bible plainly says, "Pass the flower of her age." She was at the point that conception was impossible with man, and looking at it in the natural eye. That would cause anyone to laugh. If you went up and told my mother, sitting here today, 87 years old, that in nine months she would have a child, I want to tell you something. I don't know the exact response, but you would get a negative response. Hallelujah, because to her, that's pretty much impossible. But Abraham was persuaded that with him all things are possible. Hallelujah. I like that persuasion of faith this morning. Oh, I'm telling you something. If we can ever get a little seed of faith implanted in our heart, we'll look beyond everything, the likes and the dislikes, and then what we have to do, and what we don't have to do. Faith will make you look at it like, "This is what I get to do. I get to dress right. I get to dress holy. I get to come to church three times a week, and even get on top of that, get a desire for a revival in our heart and in our soul and for a hearing of the word that our faith might be built up within us and cause us to be totally convinced and fully persuaded." I want to be persuaded today. Convinced is to bring, as my argument to belief, consent, or as a course of action, to persuade and to overcome by argument. I want to tell you something. This church didn't get to where it's at today without an argument, without a fight, without a dispute. I don't have time to get into a lot of church history, but one, I believe it was one of the turbines that got the gun and put it on his hip and said, "I'm going to preach this gospel if I have to kill every man in this country." They were fighting against them. They were throwing rocks in tomatoes. They were burning down the brush arbors. They just was a rejection of truth, but there was some that stayed up all night, even though they plowed with mules all during the day, and then they went to church at night. They were camelites. They were fighting against the one God, apostolic move. Brother Tony Walters, grandfather, one of the first men in this country to preach the Jesus name doctrine. I want to tell you something. It was rejected. Nobody wanted it. They fought against it, just like the Pharisees said, "You seized fought against Pastor Paul." I want to tell you something. There was a dispute to get this gospel started in this country. There was a hardship, but somebody by faith said, "There can be a church in this community." When the church closed down, Brother Frippler went to his dad, and he said, "Man, we can't close the church." He wasn't even going to church, but he knew by faith. He knew there needed to be a church in the community, and the dispute was, "We're closing the church." There's no need to have a church. There was no money. There was no interest. Oh, it was kind of like Abraham. Brother Frippler said, "We've got to have a church. We can't close the church, man." Brother, Sister Samson's grandfather said, "Well, there's no preacher you can't have a church. If you don't have a preacher, how can he preach unless he be sent?" I want to tell you something, but when that persuasion begins to work on the inside of you, and that faith begins to build up, and the persuasion, and the convincing, "Oh, there can be a church." Then the faith builds up. There's got to be a church, and then the faith gets a little stronger. There's got to be a church. We can't have a church. There's no preacher. Then I'll preach. It wasn't even going to church living like hell itself. Oh, here we got Abraham, a moon worshiper, but all of a sudden he's convinced by the grace of God. Even though, before its dispensation, faith begin to rise up in human. He realized I'm just a pilgrim and a stranger in this country. I'm going, I'm moving farther. Brother Frippler said, "I'll preach." He said, "You can't preach. You don't notice. You don't even have education." He said, "I'm going to preach. Don't close the church." He was convinced there needs to be a church, and now in this country we have two churches because of that faith that expanded. It grew, and it convinced somebody that there can be a church, and after that came, we're convinced there was this final persuasion. I'm persuaded to believe that we can have a church in this country, regardless of the opposition of the camelites and the unbelief that study all night. Finally, they would throw their Bible in the floor and say, "If I can ever catch him wrong, I'm going to hook that preacher, but the preacher just kept on preaching. They come one night to hook him. Brother Frippler was just a young boy at that time. He slipped in, and he said, "Uncle Ed." He said, "They're going to hook you after church." Uncle Ed Durbin just reached over and patted. Brother Frippler said, "Lag," and he said, "You don't worry about it, Sonny. Everything's going to be all right." Before the end of that church service, he slipped out, and he's down to his house, and he come back, and after church they walked out, and that big guy was waiting on the preacher, and he said, "I don't condone all of this, but I won't tell you something. I understand it. When somebody is fully persuaded and they're convinced we can have a move of God in this country, we can have a church, and we're going to have it." And he walked down, Uncle Ed was carrying the baby, and he said, "Ed, put the baby down. I've come to give you a weapon. There's just something about the church that there's got to be opposition against the church. Every saint of God needs to understand, "Hey, we've got to be fully persuaded. Above the opposition, above all the trouble, we've got to put up a fight. We've got to make a stand. This is what I believe. This is how I worship, and this is the way that it's going to be." You put that baby down. This is going to be the end of this preaching deal right here tonight. And Uncle Ed laid the baby in the car, and he slid out of his coat, and when he slid out of his coat, hanging on his right hand was a twisted clevis. That's a big piece of steel that you hook an implement to attract, or maybe in that day probably to a harness of mules. But he had that clevis hit you, hanging on a wire on the end of his hand when he slid out. And that old boy looked at him, and he said, "Oh, Blackjack." And he knew that he had trouble. And Uncle Ed said the first lick, he hit that guy, broke his wrist. And, you know, the fight was on, and we still have a church today. We may have to use a Blackjack. We may have to do it. I know we warn not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. I want to tell you something today. Back then, they may have to put up a little different fight to have the church. They set out on the stumps with shotguns while the service was going on to keep them from burning, setting the brush armor on fire. Somebody's got to set a defense for the gospel, and you can never do it until you get fully convinced and fully persuaded in your mind. We're going to have a church. I'm going to stand for God to overcome by argument. You look at history, and not so much today, but back in the 30s, 40s, and 50s, 60s. You'll find out what two of the biggest killings was over. Religion and politics would build up into an argument until somebody would get a gun and let her kill a family member, or the friend down the road, or whatever, but there would be a killing. It was always over religion and politics for the biggest part in that era of time, fighting for the church, fighting for what they believed in. I don't condone that. I don't condone taking a gun and killing somebody just because they won't agree with you, and you can't convince them that you're right, but it's by that argument today that a lot of us are setting in this place. That's why today we have people that's in Bible studies today. There's an argument going on. There's somebody that says, I need to be convinced. I believe, but help my unbelief. I need to be fully persuaded today, and we have people that's in Bible study today, and they're being convinced. They're getting their faith built up. Faith comes by hearing. What are you going to hear by the Word of God? It's the Word of God that builds us up. That's why we preach deliverance. That's why we preach healing. That's why we preach prosperity, because we're convinced and fully persuaded that this God that we serve is well able to perform that which he has committed. We committed into his hand. He's able to perform it. We're persuaded of that. What if he don't? What if he does? Don't be a read shaken in the wind. Don't be tossed to and fro with every wind and wave of doctrine and everything that comes along. Get steadfast in your faith. Get steadfast in your doctrine. Get the Bible out. Read that thing. Understand why you believe what you believe, and you get fully persuaded. Sometimes it takes an argument, but there's people that's give up their life because they believe what they believe was right. Kind of off on old stories this morning, but the elder used to talk about the three women and the men. It was in the boat, fishing, whatever they were doing, and they got in an argument about something between it was shears and scissors. I remember this story. I've heard him tell it many times, and they got in the argument the two men was saying that it was shears, and the woman said it was not. It was scissors. And this argument got so heated up that they lost control. They grabbed the woman, threw her out of the boat into the lake, and said it's shears. They were so upset. The lady couldn't swim, and she'd begin to thrash around screaming scissors. It was scissors. It was scissors. They're looking out at her and screaming. It was shears, and she went under. Bubbling, blubbering, scissors. She went down so far. You know what she done? She was so persuaded that she was right. It was scissors. She run her hand up through the surface of the water and begin to do her fingers in a scissor motion. I want to tell you something. She was persuaded that she was right. She was persuaded that these men had confabulated something in their mind that wasn't right. It's scissors. I'll go down and believe and always believe in my mind. It was scissors. If I can't talk, I'll signal what I believe. I believe in one God. I believe in holiness. I believe in separation from the world. I believe that with all of my heart. I know you're saying, Brother Samson, there was a time that you was carnal. There was a time that you rejected God. There was a time that you rejected the calling of God. I'd have to say this morning, that's sad but true. Sad but true. That I remember one day standing in a hospital hall at the end of the hospital. The screams of my three month old baby with a head injury and a broken femur bone up up real high on the thigh broken. Arguin with God. Arguin with God. Arguin with God. You've got a calling on your life, Brother Samson. Better obey God. I don't want to preach. I've got other things in mind. You've got a calling on your life. You'd go forth again. There was two or three that just continually would say, Brother Samson, you've got a calling on you even in preaching. They would say, you've got a calling on your life. You've got a calling. I rejected that calling. Arguin with God. If God, you know, he wants willing workers and I'm not willing to do what he's calling me to do. And I'm going to do my own thing go my own way because I'm not willing and he wants willing workers. Arguin with God. I want to tell you something. You don't argue with God because when God gets enough of your foolishness and decides to get your attention. If you're sitting here today, I'm telling you and you're arguing with God and you're not fully persuaded. You're not fully convinced. I want to tell you something. God can get your attention. God can make you willing. When God gets done with you, you'll be like Jonah. When he come out of the belly of Will, the Bible said he described it as the belly of hell for three days. And when that Will may went to the bank and puke him out on the bank, I feel like with all of my heart. Well, he was pulling slime and seaweed. He was running for Nineveh just as hard as he could go. He was fully persuaded. I got a work to do. God won the argument. I'm convinced. I'm persuaded. Here I stand. All of a sudden I'm like Paul. I see that light. Okay, God. Okay, God. I'll preach. I'll do what you want me to do. I'll do it without fear, without favor. You know what? There was just not so much a gentle persuasion, but a convincing persuasion. I was convinced that I needed to be doing the will of God. And I've started that and I've continued doing that ever since. Become the father of many nations according to that which was spoken. So shall I see being being not weak in the faith. We get weak in the faith. When the faith becomes weak, we're not as convinced as we one time was. The danger with being hot and cold. When you're just lukewarm, you can transition from that state of lukewarmness either direction. It doesn't take very long to get hot. Does it take long? You're completely cold. In that area. That's why the Lord said I'd rather you be hot or cold because if you're lukewarm, you begin to look around. And you're like so many that I've seen over the last few years by the Jones. They say, just don't take all of that. Just don't take all of that. They begin to probe and they begin to work. You know why? Because they're making that they've got lukewarm and all of a sudden. They tell you in the HVAC school, there's no such thing as cold. It's just the absence of heat. That's what they say. It's just the absence of heat. The more heat you take away, the more colder that it gets. That's in climate control, cooling. So the cooler you start getting, you start taking the heat away. I often use this example of you take a piece of molten steel and a refinery by the Tim Jones in the moment that you pull that out. There's a refrigerant process that begins to take place immediately by the Winkler when you pull it out of the forge. It can be quite hot, but all of a sudden you can see the colors of it begin to change and it'll glisten and it'll sparkle and it begins to change. Because of the refrigerant process when you pull it out of the heat, we talked about the preacher that went and talked to the man that had come into church for a few months. A pastor went by to talk to him and they were talking there and they just begin to just stare at the fireplace and I tell you about when the coal rolled out on the hearth. It was red hot coal and it rolled out on the hearth. They said and they watched it and as they watched at this refrigerant process, it began to take place and it began to take on a more dull glow as the minutes went on and after a while it was just a black piece of coal laying on the hearth. The preacher got up without saying a word and he took the tongs and he set the coal back into the hearth and just seconds. That thing was glistening and red and glowing because it was put back in the fire. The absent of heat caused that refrigerant process to take place. It was a deterioration that began to take place. You can take this metal out and I don't know if any of you have ever had the opportunity to buy a new piece of steel and you can take it and it can be red hot but you can take it and you can lay it out and you can see this change and as it begins to cool down, the cooler it gets, the more and after it gets in a certain zone, the more contaminants will begin to adhere to that piece of metal because it loses its temperature. The next morning you can go out there. I'm talking about overnight with it laying on the ground and the dew, just the dew from the ground getting on this piece of metal. There'll be little rust spots all over it. Just a little film of rust and just one evening, one night leaving it laying out and for rain comes, it begins to deteriorate. This rust begins to adhere to this and this is what happens with the church and when the pastor put the coal in the fire and he saw it live and back up and it got red hot, he sent a message to this young man and the young man looked at him and he said, "Pastor, thanks for the sermon will be in church next Sunday." He's seen when you get away from the fire, that gentle persuasion. When somebody's excited about the church, they're excited about the church. I've got to have the church. I can't miss the church. I've got to have church three to three times a week. I've got to be here but I've seen that refrigerant process that begins to move in on them as they begin to get lax and cool and they find every reason in the world to miss church. I'm telling you something and the more you do that, I'm telling you something, the sicker them kids are going to be, the more trouble you're going to have, the more opportunity the devil's going to present for you to stay home and fix the drip in the plumbing, fix the stool. That won't leak whatever happens. I see it almost on a weekly basis in this church. I almost know what service midweek or weekend I almost can tell you who's going to call and tell, say, I've got this problem, this problem, and this problem because they have lost that persuasion. The elders used to hammer us, you don't miss church, you don't miss church. We were persuaded this is what it takes. The tailor just gives us a little series on being comfortably numb. When you get cool, when you get lukewarm, you get relaxed because you're not out or told. What's the big deal? Evidently, you're in the crisis on there. There's something that God's attention was on that lukewarmness. He said, I'll spew you out. I'm going to spew you out. What happens with that is you're not as convinced as you was that I need to be in the house of God. You're not persuaded that attendance to the house of God as as important as it once was. You're not fully persuaded anymore. I don't know what to do. Build up your faith. Get you a prayer closet, faith. Pray in the Holy Ghost. You want to build up the Holy Faith? Just pray in the Holy Ghost. Pray to you speaking tongues. Pray to your speech becomes not your own. You've got the carnal man out of the way. The Spirit of God, that Holy Ghost is coming right in to that spiritual man. It's bypassing all the carnality and the spiritual man is beginning to get what it wants when you speak in tongues as the Spirit gives. I'm telling you something. The carnal man can't control it and the spiritual man begins to build up. And when it's all over, man, you love everybody. You're ready to take on the world because your most holy faith has been built up. And you are fully persuaded that this is where I need to be. This is what I need to be doing. You build up your faith. We look at Abraham when he was about a hundred years old and neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. The odds were against them. It's like going to the casino and winning $5 million. You're probably going to lose everything that you've got before that happens. And Abraham looks at the odds and then he looks at this God that he believes in and something about that faith begins to build up inside of him. And he becomes, okay, and being not weak in the faith, he considered not his own body now dead when he was about a hundred years old and neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise of God. My dad loved these scriptures right here. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief. I don't believe that anymore. I want to tell you something. That's where the problem starts in Pentecost. I just don't believe anymore. Oh, I'm telling you something. Your unbelief is going to cause you a lot of problems. Your unbelief will cause you to not be fully persuaded if there's any doubt, if there's any unbelief. You're not fully persuaded. You've not been fully convinced of this God that you've stood and testified about. You're not fully convinced of the church that you stood under your own reconnaissance and said, Hey, this is a good church. We got the power of God in this church. I love this church. But unbelief that seed of doubt will get in there and totally destroy that persuasion. Say, I still believe it, Brother Samson. Can anybody say that this morning? I still believe it. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but he was strong in faith given glory to God. That's why we preach worship in the apostolic church. That's why we preach because when you come up here and you begin to offer up a sacrifice of praise unto God, go back to the days of sacrifice. The Old Testament of school master into the new. He required a perfect sacrifice, unspotted, unblemished. I don't like all this social media preaching. Brother Samson, been going on around here. You just keep loving it and you keep holding to it and you see where your children winds up. You see where you wind up. You see where your marriage winds up. The statistics are against you. And if you're willing to take those odds, I want to tell you something. You're walking on thin ice. But me, myself, I want to walk up here. That's why we go to that prayer room. We do a soul searching. Oh, I'm telling you something. I want to get it right. God, I'm fixing to intervene. That's why we come up one more time. Three, four, five minutes before church. We begin to pray. We begin to travail. God, search my heart. If there's any secret sin, if there's something in there, God, that I'm harboring and I'm hiding and I feel justified by it. And God, you don't feel justified. God, you convinced me. You persuade me. You purge me. You cleanse me. And don't just do that. You take that hyse of mine and you scrub me. You wash me with hyse and make me whiter than snow. I'm getting ready to shout. I'm getting ready to worship. And there is now, therefore now, no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. If you're sitting here today and you're condemned over things that's in your heart and in your soul, the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, we need to destroy every bit of that when we come into the presence of God, where we can raise our heads and say, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." Sometimes I pray for people. Praying for brother Matherley and this sister Matherley. A lot of times in prayer, they'll say, "God, pull their record. God, check their record." I don't know. All I can seize the outside. But God looks on the heart. God, just check their record. They've been faithful. All I can see is the fruits. They've been faithful. They've been dedicated even when he had the diagnosis. He said, "Brother Samson, everybody's scared, but I'm not scared of it. If God don't heal me, I'm just going to go on to the glory world and be up here walking on streets of gold." That was his confession. You know what that let me know as much as I love brother Matherley? I want you to know something. I see right away that brother Michael Matherley was totally convinced. He was fully persuaded that the God he serves is able to deliver. And if he ain't ready, wasn't going to deliver him, he was still going to trust him beyond the grave. I'm persuaded today that this is right. I'm persuaded today that this is what it takes to give to heaven. He was strong in the faith given God the glory, giving him glory, giving him praise. That helps you to cleanse and purge the heart. He was fully persuaded. Verse 21 it said, "And being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was also able to perform." I'm persuaded. God, you promised this, you're able to perform it. You know why there was a child in the Abraham Sarah family because of faith? Because of faith. As comical as it was. As comical as it was. Unrealistic as it seemed to be. Abraham just reached out by faith and got a hold of it. Sarah the weaker vessel, she kind of getting a giggle out of it because she knew it wasn't going to happen. This man's lost his mind. But when she's seen the integrity of her husband Abraham, he just reaches out and he grabs a hold of it and it's going to happen. You know what? Because he was fully persuaded through faith. Sarah looks at it and she fully persuaded through faith. What do you say about the Samson man? You talk about outreach. When you get fully persuaded you're going to argue through an argument with somebody else. You're going to convince them that this is the best thing on the top side of the earth. Through that argument, they're going to become persuaded and they're going to believe and they're going to get the Holy Ghost and then they're going to reproduce because they're excited about what they're feeling. They become fully persuaded. This thing just begins to spread and begin to spread and begin to spread. But being fully persuaded by faith, God you promised it, you're able to perform it. And therefore it was imputed unto him for righteousness. It's a good story, Brother Samson, done told you about my dad. He'd get a hold of that. Why? Let's read just a couple more scriptures here for we move on. Therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed unto him. But for us also to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him, that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. If you can't believe that, you're wasting your time. One writer said, "They that come to him must believe." Here we are. This is where it started. Even before that dispensation of grace, we come in with the New Testament. Here we are just believing, just reaching out and grabbing at the faith and just believing it and becoming persuaded. But you know why it was written? So we could read it and our faith would build up. Oh, Brother Samson, no. I done told you the impossible physical condition that they were in. They were just okay, God, you said it, I won't believe it. Some of us, our faith staggers, when we're praying about a job opportunity, our faith staggers about a raise on the job. Our faith staggers, you know, when we get an ingrown toenail. But it was written that we could read it and Bible says it was written for us and that lets us know when we come, we must believe. Believe what? God's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Sometimes you've got to get diligent about a situation. Kids come up sometimes wanting a dollar for the vending machine. I just kind of try to brush them off. No, not tonight or, you know, maybe I don't have a dollar or whatever, you know, but it don't stop there. Yesterday, Brother J.B.'s little daughter was here at the birthday celebration. You got to be persistent. You got to know how to present your case. Bible said come to you like little children. I don't understand that. You just get around some of them. They're just little miniature psychiatrists, just what they are. There's a lot of stuff on that farm that the reason that it's there was because of them grandkids. But she was hollering at her mom and dad and Jennifer and J.B. were talking and didn't hear it. Sister Samson heard her and looked at them and she goes, "Baby, what do you need?" She goes, "I want some cake." And she had icing all over her spoon. She had icing all over her plate. She had icing all around her mouth. She said, "I haven't had any all day." Sister Samson, she don't pay any attention to any of that. She just cuts her a big old chunk of cake and that little girl went off happy about it. But I mean, all the evidence was against her. She had just devoured a big piece. "I haven't had any all day." She knew how to get what she wants. And we know how to get what we want from God. But we just got to build up her faith so we'll be persuaded enough. We need some persuasion in this world. Persuasion don't work. Let's go back to comfortably numb and see if persuasion don't work. Why do influencers on social media have hundreds of thousands of posts? Because they're influencing people. They're making people think, "Even though I wear a size 12, she looks so good in this size 8 that she's wearing. I think I'll get that and put it on." Well, that's ridiculous, Brother Samson. Well, sometimes I think that's what I see around the church. They're persuaded that they look like something that they're not. Things that are not, though they were not. And they build their faith. "Man, I look like a movie star in this dress." Well, I've got another definition for you. I won't use it right now because you don't look like a movie star. You don't look like a model. You look like the Michelin man up on the sign up there. But they convince you and they persuade you that this is going to make you look like they look. This is going to make you feel like they feel. The guy is high on the drugs and he's feeling so good and he's got so much energy. He starts promoting it to the guy that's had a rough night. Don't feel good on the job and he starts promoting this. And the first thing you know, he's so down. I'll just try a little of it. He tries a little bit of it. It wires him up to the nines and he's going, not realizing that it'll never feel that way again. But he's going to keep going back and going back, trying to get that original high that he got and pretty soon he is addicted. He's convinced that that's what he needs. He's convinced that he can't live without it. He's persuaded. I have to have it every day. They'll sell the back glass out of their truck so they can get it and then drive around in the cold and the rain running in their truck. Don't make sense but somebody persuaded them. What are you talking about Brother Samson? Why can't you persuade somebody that you work with on the workforce? Forget the 15 Greyhound buses and 20 vans and all of that. Just start winning your coworkers. Study you trying to look and act and dress and fit in with them. Why don't you go in there and portray so much Jesus in your life and happiness that they want to be like you and convince them and let them become fully persuaded by what they're seeing. The Bible said you are a living, a pistol, scene and red of all men. Everybody's looking at you. Young man, young lady, don't be ashamed of your holiness and your modesty, your virginity. Don't be ashamed of none of that. What's the old story at the school when I began to pressure this young lady and she went to their youth leader and said this is the pressure that I'm getting. They're saying it's so much fun. Everybody does it. It's the thing. Just give it all up. Talking about her purity. She said you go back and you tell them that any time you want you can be like they are but they can never be what you are and that's what sets you apart. That's what sets you a cut above. Not that you're better. It's just your faith in God. Just your faithfulness to God. I'm persuaded. I don't care what the world's doing. This is what I do. What do you do on midweek? I go to church. What are you doing this weekend? I'm going to church. What are you doing Sunday night? I'm going to church. What are you going to do Monday night? I'm going back. I'm going back to the prayer room. I've got to enhance my walk with God. I'm persuaded that the more I pray the closer I get to God, the more I pray the less I want in the world. I get a dedication built up. I become totally, fully persuaded. Pastor Paul arguing with God. We see that in Acts chapter 26 that Paul has delivered up before magistrates. Paul was the strictest of the sad you see Pharisee. Paul, the confession of his own mouth, I am the chiefest of sinners. I'm maxed it out. Paul is struck down on the Damascus road by a light. He's convinced. Who are you God and what isn't that you want me to do? He knew about God. He knew about Christians. He persecuted him. He delivered him up to magistrates. This is where it talks about principalities and powers. They'll come a day that's standing in the pulpit preaching against. Everything brother Caleb covered, the homosexuality, the lesbianism, the pornography. And even though you're preaching trying to help, trying to turn the world, trying to persuade them, there's a better way. They'll walk in here and they'll take you. They'll arrest you for your hate speech. Anything you say, hate speech. I used the term Negro in this pulpit, in this facility. It was reprimanded for it. I didn't. I thought I was using it in a respectful manner. Young man's setting in the congregation said that offends me. I may mention of a Negro slave. Maybe I should say the African American or something. I don't know, but I was using how the story of the elder always told, but it offended this young man. He said I felt like it made me feel very uncomfortable in that congregation. I remember the day that it got about whooped your tail in and said, you get over it. You get over it. You be a man. But they're going to persecute us. This is why Paul talks about principalities and powers. I delivered them up to you guys and you guys persecuted them. Y'all passed the law that put them to death. And I'm the man that rounded them up. And he's discussing all of this with them in chapter 26 and in the 25th chapter as well. Then a grip of said, and Paul there are permitted to speak for the self. Then Paul stretched forth the hand and I answered for himself. He didn't go get him a lawyer. He didn't go get what do they call them? The prosecute attorney, but we need a point of, yeah, a public defender. Paul didn't ask for none of that. Paul was confident of his own relationship with God, his own experience in the truth. Paul was convinced. I'm right. This is right. I'm fully persuaded. We'll get, and he begins to talk to these magistrates, these judges. He said, you see, he's Pharisee. They're talked and you'll read. They pass him from one to another. They just keep passing him down because he was so convincing. Without a lawyer, without the public defender. Just hear. Paul said he put out his hand. Let me just tell you a little bit. Why do you act like you act? Why do you go like you? Here, just let me tell you a little bit about it. I once was lost, but now I'm found. I once was blind, but now I see. He brought me out of darkness into his marvelous light. And he stretched forth the hand and he answered for himself because he was fully persuaded. I thank my happy. I thank myself happy, King Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before the touch and all the things were for I'm accused of the Jews. I'm going to bring it out. I'm going to show you. I'm going to talk to you about it. He's done been through several others. Now he's before the king. I know the need to be expert in all customs and questions. I know how he builds the king up. He gives him favor. He's trying to get his favor. I know how intelligent you are. I don't have to go into all this because you already know all of this. I remember we was buying fur one time and Paul was trying to downgrade a piece of fur. And the guy, he said, there ain't nothing wrong with that. Paul Durbin picked it up and he's sitting there looking at it. He's got this disgusted look on his face and there's a young man there. I don't know if he knew anything about a coon or if he knew the difference between a coon and a skunk. I don't know. But Paul said anybody can see the difference in this. Look at it. You look at it and kill it. That old boy stood at him and he said, yeah, but it ain't no good. He put him on the spot and so to say, just saying, I don't see anything wrong with that. That's a good hide. You need to give the man what he's asking for. But he was put on the spot and you know what he did? He compromised. And I knew that he compromised. But he wasn't fully persuaded that he knew enough about it to get really involved with it. Sometimes people just kind of go along and you see that because they're not fully persuaded. But Paul is fully persuaded in all customs and questions which are among the Jews, wherefore I was teaching you to hear me patiently. My manner of life from my youth was without the first among my own nation that Jerusalem know, know all the Jews which knew me from the beginning. If they would testify that after the most straightest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee. Sounds like he was so adamant about his beginning. But no, he's convinced of something else. He got a relationship with God and experience with God. And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God and to our fathers. That's what you're judging me for, this hope, this Messiah that was prophesied to come. He's come. This is him. This is who I'm preaching. This is who I'm believing in. I'm convinced. And to which promise are twelve tribes instantly serving God day and night hoping to come, for which hopes say King Agrippa, I'm accused of this by the Jews. Why should it be thought of thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead? Just beginning to put him on the spot. I don't think Agrippa knew anything about it. I don't think he knew come here from sick him about it. This thing is just growing. I barely thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. This is the way I used to think which thing I also did in Jerusalem and many of the saints did I shut up in prison having received authority from the chief priests. And when they were put to death I gave my voice against them. And I punished them often. Every synagogue compelled them to blaspheme. And being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests. At midday, oh King, man, here's the experience. This is this introduction into the presence of God. I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun shining round about me and then which journeyed with me. And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, saying in the Hebrew tongue, "Saul, Saul, why persecute us thou me?" It is hard for you to kick against the pricks. The prick was the thing in the harness set up when they were plowing. If you had a mule that was lazy and didn't want to do his pull, when he just started slacking up to let the other mule pull, it pulled this ox go, they called it the prick that would prick this ox. And man, he would jump up and he would get back in the harness. And that's kind of a good idea. I think around the church, just get kind of a sharpened stick. I mean, remember the story that I thanked with Sister Stacey's grandfather. The chronic Holy Ghost seeker. And they were all on the front seat in Chicago, Illinois. And Brother Triplett was preaching. He's preaching about a quickening spirit. And somebody gave him a couple big hat pins. And while he was preaching, I think it was Brother Wade. He was on each side of Brother Wade and he was getting close and coming in like he was going to jab him with that and show him what a quickening spirit felt like. And Brother Wade was crawling backwards, got plumb up all on the seat, trying to get over the seat to get away from the hat pins, talking about a quickening spirit. Sometimes we need something to quicken us. Back into the fire. We need a little pro prodding the long ever once in a while. We need some friendly reminders. He said, "Rise up on your feet. I have appeared unto thee for this purpose to make a minister, a witness, both of these things which you've seen and those things in the which I will appear unto me." This ain't the end of it, Paul. There's more that's coming. And when Paul got acquainted with it, he was convinced. But before it's over, he's talking about whereupon O King of Griffith, I was not O disobedient to the heavenly vision. God convinced me on that Damascus road. I become fully persuaded for this cause is why the Jews seek to kill me. And as he thus spoke, he was just bubbling. He's so persuaded that he's just overflowing with this Holy Ghost and an assistant to the king that's setting their name, Festus. And he just, he'd listen to it and Paul's getting so excited about it in the face of adversity and persecution. He's bubbling and Festus just, the Bible said, he cried with a loud voice. Paul, you're beside yourself. Much learning has made you mad. My dad finally got the Holy Ghost before that move to Missouri. They said, Dave, you'll be back, I think six months a year, I think it was six months. You'll be back, Dave. We'll see you in six months. You'll be back. Fifty-nine, sixty years later, we've never went back. You know why we got a dose of this one God apostolic Holy Ghost tongue talk in church, baptized in Jesus name, become totally convinced and persuaded. This is where I need to be. And for sixty years, I've been within a three mile radius of the church. Why, Brother Samson, because I am persuaded. Paul says in Romans and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able to perform Romans 838 for I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels. And look at this, nor principalities. He done been before the king. He done been before the magistrates. He done been before the rulers. He was talking from experience. I'm concerned. I'm not concerned, but I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor principalities nor powers, nothing today and nothing that's coming down the pike. I just don't know what we're going to be facing. Paul said I'm not worried about things present nor things to come because I am fully persuaded. What are you talking about? I just want to be a hero of faith. Sister Samson mentioned Paul this morning. I ain't fighting as one that beats the air. I'm not just running as one that runs. And I'd like to be like Brother Eddie Jones right now. I'd like to get into it. Be like Mike Tyson. I think I'm a champion, but he got defeated. I've got 20 million for you facing defeat. So I'm down. He's too worried about it. But we need to fight. I'm going to fight. Why are you going to fight? Because I'm persuaded that this is right. That when they come and get us and deliver us to the magistrates, I've got to tell them what the word of God says. Why? Because I'm persuaded that if he said it, he was well able to perform it. Hebrews are you standing your feet. Hebrews 11, 13. They all died in the faith. Not having received the promise. It was before their time, but it was prophesied by the Prophet Joel 700 years before it even come to pass. When Peter said this is that, that was spoken by the Prophet Joel. I'm telling you something, these heroes of faith. You know why they were heroes of faith because they saw it in the distance. It was something that was to come and by faith. Not having received the promise, but seeing them far off and were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed. They were strangers in pilgrims on the earth. They were persuaded. They were persuaded. I'm telling they were persuaded. I am persuaded and convinced that I am a stranger in this world only. And I'm looking for a new Jerusalem that's coming down. That's why I shout. That's why I pray. That's why I cry. That's why I worship. That's why I'm fast. That's why I'm thankful to the house of God. I am persuaded. ♪ They do-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o ♪