In this sermon, the speaker talks about how life can be exciting and fun, but suddenly things can take a negative turn. He uses the metaphor of someone tying up our hands and causing us to go through dark nights. He emphasizes that these difficult times are meant to purify us and make us stronger. The speaker also mentions the presence of "living maids" in our lives, referring to people who challenge and refine us. He encourages listeners to focus on their relationship with God rather than their works, and uses the example of the apostle Paul who wrote his epistles while in prison.

We'd like to take them out of that. We want, we just, I'll just help you get out of here. Don't do that. One time Jesus rebuked me when I was going to help somebody out of a circumstance. He says to me, the most unkind thing you could do for that person is to take them down off the cross before they're crucified, because they'll just have to go through it all over again. So, it's best to go through it right the first time, isn't it? Honey, I'm not making you nervous, am I? Huh? No, I don't, oh, I'd run home. No, I don't want to, I don't want anybody to feel I can't make it, I can't go through it. I don't want you to feel morbid. I want you to feel blessed. I want, I want to help you to God. I want to help you to God. I want to help you to know how to interpret life. We're here, we're saved, we're baptized in the Holy Ghost, but we're not out of here yet. We have to live, we have to face life, we have to face these things that Jesus allows in our life. We have to face them. And what are we going to do with them? Well, we're just going to let them do what he intends them to do. You know, there's another maiden, I'll hurry on, because we, uh, well, because, uh, I'll hurry on. Only on the third maid, you're going to stick it out with me? The third maid, you know, she works on our hands. What do you call those people who works on your hands? Yeah, this one works on our hands. Did you ever have your hands touched when you were just getting along so beautifully in the Lord, and you had a ministry, and you had works, and, and, oh, everything was so lovely, and everything was so blessed, and it was so beautiful, and oh, hallelujah! And, and life really was fun, and it was so exciting, but all of a sudden he just seems to take your hands in his and just tie them up tight. And he says in these words that her hands were tied through the long, dark night. And it is night, after you had such a beautiful day, and such a prominent place, and everybody admired you, and said what a blessing you are, and what a blessing you have been, and they just loved you, and flattered you, and praised you, and said the nicest things about you, and all of a sudden he just, that, sent one of those maids that just started rubbing with that oil of murder, and bitterness, and you were not promoted, demoted, and put into some obscure place, and ministry, and lesser, lesser grace, and lesser glory, and how can they do this? Didn't you say in the meeting that you, Lord, I want you to have your way? Yes, but they've taken my place, they voted me out, they've given my place to another. I had such a beautiful ministry, and it was so wonderful to work for the Lord. And he says to every church that he wrote to, every church that he wrote to in the book of Revelation, he says, yes, I know thy works, but I have something to say to you. So he ties up our hands, he says, through a long, dark night, and it's night, and it's dark, and we don't know what we're going to do, we don't know where we're going to be, and it's hard, and my place was given to another. We could get jealous, we could get angry, we could start blaming, it's this one's fault, and that one's fault, and a lot of things we could say, a lot of things we could do, and those may, if we could just get our hands on them, what we would do, but he says, no, I'm interested in you, I know all about your works. Do you know you are more important than your works? When we meet Jesus, he's not going to say to us, how many choirs did you direct now? He's not going to be there with a pencil and paper, now let me see, how many choirs did you direct? How many Sunday school classes did you teach? Maybe there's pastor's wives here, how many churches did you pastor? Forget it, forget it, he'll say, just turn around and let me look at you, just turn around, let me look at you. What did leading those choirs do for you? You know, the work of the Lord is reactionary, and the Lord puts each one of us in the place where he can best get at us. He doesn't give you a choir to direct for you to wing the title or wheeling the baton, but he makes you a choir director so the choir can work on you. Well, what do we do? What do we do, resign? Just let those maidens row, let the killers row, let the bass row, let those sopranos row, and let them develop the best choir director that ever was, full of the grace and beauty of the Lord. It isn't pleasant to be voted out, is it, you know? Have you ever been voted out? That's not pleasant to be voted out, but you know that can be the most beautiful vote towards your queenship. It all depends on how we accept it. Jesus isn't interested in what people do to us. He's interested, he'll stand back and let that maid just rub us, rub us, and he knows it's all in the bitterness, but he'll stand back and won't do a single thing about it, but just watch how we react, and if we will accept the beautification. Well, there's so much I could say about facials, I better go on. And you just take these maidens and just take them and let the Lord talk to you about them. Did you ever have your feet worked out so we get out of the flesh and walk in the dirt? You wouldn't have thought Jesus was getting a beauty treatment when he was mad, more than any man, but he was qualifying for something. You wouldn't have thought Joseph was getting a beauty treatment when he was thrown into that pit by his own brethren, his own brothers. But didn't Joseph come out beautiful? Didn't he come out of that beautiful? Joseph could have hated his father, he could have hated his brothers. No, he said, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good, for good. This was a promotion, a promotion to be put in a pit, a promotion. Think of the great apostle Paul, his feet with all of his missionary journey, all of his traveling, all of his activities, and this is what this is all about, this is what our feet stand for, all this active life that we live. But Jesus wants to crucify our feet, nailed them on the cross with him so that we can't, he couldn't come down from that cross until the Father released him. And here's Paul, oh, that he was doing for the Lord. This is our language. And all of a sudden, Paul is thrown into prison. You wouldn't think Paul was getting a beauty treatment in a Philippian jail, but every one of Paul's epistles was written while Paul was in prison. We would not have all these beautiful epistles if Paul had said, okay, all right, if the Lord's going to let me, if this way God's going to treat me, then I'm not going to serve him anymore. Other people say that, but every epistle that we have, Paul wrote when he was in prison. So, honey, if he's tied your hands and bound up your feet and that your active life has stopped for a season, Paul sang hymns even at midnight. And didn't he come out of there with a beauty treatment? Do you think Paul will be in that bride? Oh, listen to Paul. That I might. Why did he go through all this? Go on. That I might go on. Being made conformable, conformed at time unto his death. And Paul reached the place where he could say, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yes, it's not Paul who's living in this and doing all this. I live. Yes, not I. Christ is alive in me. Christ is living this life that you see me live. Paul's dead. This is Christ. Holy Christ. This is life out of me. Oh, I love that man. All right, honey. You want the fourth one? Third one? All right, she's a dietician. And she's going to choose your food. Now, a diet has everything to do with our, with healthy cheeks and healthy body. And I don't think Esther would have been ready to be presented to, if she had the power of death on her face. But she must be alive. And she must, she must have a healthy countenance. The Lord is the health of my countenance. All right, what is the diet of the bride? If you read the Song of Solomon, you will find out the diet of the bride is, thou didst eat fine flour and honey. Now, do you still love me? Yeah. How do you get fine flour? Oh, yes, go on. Yes, yes, honey. It has to be ground, ground and broken and crushed and bruised. Thou didst, she ate fine flour. She didn't just sing about it on Sunday morning. Thou didst eat fine flour and honey. And now this maiden, you see, you know, every maiden just rubs a little deeper and reaches a little deeper down inside of us because there's so much to be done in us. There's every part of us to be worked on. And just, oh, you know I'm talking about the spiritual things, don't you? Of course, of course. Now this maid, we have to have these maids, but this one, I want to tell you, she deliberately puts crushing in our way. There are maids that hurt you and they know they're hurting you. There are those who crush you and they know they're crushing you. The carnal man takes a certain delight in hurting other people and crushing other people. Did you ever hear, I heard a woman say not long ago, I'd just love to cut her up. Now that's an awful spirit. That's an awful spirit. And that woman thinks she's so spiritual. And she's right ready to tell how the other person ought to live. But to make statements. And there are people who just love to cut other people. But I want to tell you there's none of that in that bridal company. The Bible says there's all, there are many companies. There are many companies. There are queens and concubines, the Bible says, and virgins without number. These are all various companies that we're in. And Paul tells us in the 15th and 1st Corinthians that every wife will find her own company. We'll just fall into it where we belong. What we have paid the price for. That's the crowd we'll be with. That's the company we'll be in. But there'll be none of that spirit in this bridal company. None of that. But this, the Holy Land of God will have it right worthy of Him. Amen? Yeah. And these maidens, they're just everywhere. My dear, it's time for me to stop. You know, this just gets old again. I could talk forever. Just tell me, that's all I know. All right, I'll tell you who these maids are and you can think them over and pray about it. And, you know, these, this dietician, this one, she's everywhere. You just run into her all the time. In your business life, in your home life, and they're marrying in the church. But never lose sight of the purpose that they're there to purify us. Do you have some maidens in your church? This is the end of side one. Please stop your machine and turn the cassette tape to side two for the continuation of the program. Power of the Holy Spirit. Come live in me. Sometimes my shoulders are wet and I come out of meetings, Why did the Lord let me marry that man? Because he can work on you better than anybody else. And I've had, I've had men say, Why did the Lord let me marry that woman? I say because she could get you perfected faster than anybody else. A member of the family. How many of you have children that are working on your man? These are, these are, it's an end. They live in, maids, and sometimes it's making you, that's making, listen, listen, listen. That's, that's, that's crushing, it's crushing you. Now I don't care how much you laugh. I don't care how much you laugh. Just so when you meet that maid, you take the breaking. There's, I don't care how much you laugh, there's plenty of weeping in life these days. There's plenty of tears. And if you, if you are having a retreat from tears, I don't care how much you laugh. I don't care how much you laugh, I'll laugh with you. But when we meet this dietician, and she wants to feed us ground, crushed, sifted, not whole wheat. We're having a good time laughing, but it's pretty real, isn't it? It's, it's pretty real. And when you're, when you're going through it, believe me, it's not easy. So you laugh now, just so long as you go through it, when you meet this thing, when you meet this thing. That every, these, the, now, because you, you meet this dietician everywhere. You'll even meet her at the altar. These maidens are at the altar in your church. Is there somebody in your church you just can't pray beside her? I'll go over here. Just don't, don't, don't do that. I, I just can't pray beside her. You, they're in the choir, they're everywhere. And sometimes, sometimes when they, when they feed you, they know, they know what they're doing. They know they're crushing you. Maybe they're, they're jealous of you and they, and for them to get ahead, they have to crucify you. How are we going to eat that? How are we going to eat that when somebody cuts you down and tries to nail you to a cross? Well, if we want to do what the Lord wants us to do, we won't run away. I'm always having people come. Right now, I'm trying to help somebody that says, I'm just not going there to church. I'm just not going there. And just about those tones. There's a, there's a new church in town and I'm going over there. I said, honey, you better not. And I'll tell you why. Because that's a new crowd. And all the maidens over there are young and strong. So you better stay home. And, and gain your victory. Just gain your victory. And let Jesus rule in your life. But I, I think in another message, oh my dear, there's so much more. I, we better leave that to another message. We had better because I don't know how much, you just sit here and pull it out on me. It's your fault. But I want to, before I let you go, I want to give you an illustration of a woman, a very dear friend of mine, and I, I know this isn't something I heard, but I know this. I know what she went through. Wealthy, adored by her husband, he would have given her anything, done anything for her, loved her, of course. And because she was wealthy and loved and everything, just given to her on a platter, she was very strong in her likes and dislikes of people. And she said, if I liked them, I just liked them. If I didn't like them, I didn't pay attention to them. I wouldn't, I wouldn't bother with them. But when the Lord baptized her in the Holy Spirit, she knew that was wrong, that she just couldn't treat people like this. So she started praying for love. Jesus, help me to love. I want to love people. Help me to love. Now, this, this is true. The Lord sent him to her home. She said, my mother-in-law was the most unlovable person that I know. I didn't love her. She knew I didn't love her, and there was no love lost between us. And when she started praying that God would give her divine love, this mother-in-law sent a telegram, uninvited, unwanted. She says, I'm coming to spend the winter with you. And they were brought into the home. And so she went to bed that night, and she said to her husband, I didn't invite her. Well, he said, honey, she won't stay forever. Try to make the best of it. Well, I don't love her. But I do love you. I just can't love her. Try to get along. Just do try to get along. A couple days went by, and Friday came, and the maid who did the Friday work came to the door, and the mother-in-law was up early in the morning. She answered the door, and the maid said, good morning, and started to come in. She says, who are you? Well, she says, I'm the maid. I came to clean the house. She says, is this the way, is this the way my, is this the way she's spending my son's money? Where you came from? And let her clean her own house. So the maid said, well, I'm, I'm sorry. And she turned and went away. Well, of course, you know the round they had over that. But this mother-in-law stood over her and told her to get down there and wash up her own kitchen floor. And she just took over that house, and I mean she took it over. Talk about eating fine flour. She said, I got down and washed up my kitchen floor, and I washed it up with my tears. And I said, Jesus, how long? Jesus said, now listen, Jesus said, didn't you pray? Didn't you pray for love? But I sure don't love her. He said, I do. And if you will let me, I will fill you with my love and you will love her. Now, I can send her away if you want me to, but you will miss what this will do in your life. And she said, Lord, don't let her stay, but oh my father, you will have to help me. And it went on, battle after battle like this. She fell ill in that home. And of course, my friend had to nurse her and take care of her. One day, Jesus asked her, get a pan of water and wash her feet. Wash her feet. Go wash her feet, bathe her feet. And she sobbed and sobbed and sobbed and prayed that song. Until after a while, she said, Lord, I'll wash her feet. I'll wash her feet. You know, we can say, I'll wash her feet if it kills me. We can say it that way. It's one thing, that's one way of saying it, but it's the Spirit that Jesus is after. It's the Spirit that He wants to be broken, beautified. It's the Spirit. Well, she did that. One day then, this is over a period of, this goes on all winter. And spring was coming and Jesus said to her, won't you tell her that you love her? She says, I won't, I don't. I can't lie. I won't. And she battled and prayed and, you know what it is? Pray something through, huh? You don't get through the five-minute excursion at the altar. Sometimes it takes days, sometimes it takes weeks. Until we break and yield. For when we yield, then Jesus has the enablement. And so she said, all right, Lord, don't let that woman go. Then God's grace was being poured into her. She said, don't let that woman go. I'll do everything she asks me to do. I don't care what she wants me to do. I don't care what it is. I'll do it. God, don't let that woman go until I can tell her I love her. So one morning, she says, you know, Lord, I think this morning I can tell her I love her. All right? You go tell her you love her. So she took her breakfast into her that morning. She says, Nana, you know, I want to thank you for coming and spending the winter with us. She says, I, I, Nana, I've learned to love you while you were here this winter. And I really love you. And she says, that woman got some fidgety? And she says, you know what I've been thinking? She says, I, I, I'm just thinking now that I'll get my trunks packed and I'll be leaving this weekend. She had a costly ministry. She had to give the gift of help, you know, to help you on to perfection and purification and to God. And she had finished her ministry there so she could go on and purify somebody else. You ought to be full up to here. All right. But you've been a lovely, lovely group. And I say again, I don't care how much you laugh here. There's plenty of tears in this world. And when weeping time comes, take the breaking. Take the purifying. What do you say? Yes. Do you want to stand now?