In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of having the right attitude towards God and towards fellow human beings. He encourages the congregation to love God wholeheartedly and to cast off any excess baggage in their lives. The preacher believes that God has opened the eyes of a man named Jim and started a revolution in his mind. He urges the church to be ready to move with the clouds and to take heed of themselves, allowing God to examine their hearts and actions. The sermon also discusses the concept of being controlled by God's spirit rather than by worldly influences, and the importance of finding rest in God's kingdom. The preacher highlights the need for both justification through the blood of Jesus and dominion over sin through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Now, I'm not picking on the pastor. I didn't mean for him to have to reveal his weight last night. That was not my motive. But, you know, we need to have some understanding in the five-fold ministry. Because if we don't, then we don't understand what's happening and going on. But I'm really not an evangelist. I'm a watchman. Okay? Now, a watchman, I mean an evangelist, he goes through the land and gets folks saved that knows they're lost. A watchman has to call them back. So, we're in a time right now that the Lord has not sent us to the lost. He sent us to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Deal with them first. Call them first. They're the bidden to the feast first. Then, if they don't come, He'll go to the highways and hedges. How many believe the Lord's got a feast for us? And somebody's going to partake of it. You know, we've heard a lot about the millennial and things that's going to be going on and things that's going to be done. And one Sunday morning I talked about Ezekiel 41, 40, 41, 42, 43. Long in there about the building of a temple, a structure, a city. And that is the millennial temple, but it's been built in the church age. Did you hear that? It is going to be the church, the body, the temple, the city. It's going to be in the millennial. But God puts us together in the church age. Hey, we ain't getting ready to leave. We're getting ready to rule. Amen. How many wants to rule with Christ? Reign with Him, praise God. How many wants to reign with Him? I'll be glad. I was talking to somebody a few days ago. And we got talking about the conditions that we're living under in this country and under this system called the American dream. But it's becoming a nightmare. And the further we go, the more it's going to be a nightmare. Because I don't know about you, but I'm getting upset with the taxes we're having to pay. You're working five months out of the year for the system. Now, that's two percent lower than the Romans were under. Two more percent and we'd be caught up with the taxation of the Roman Empire. And there's no end to it, brother and sister. The only hope is that Jesus will come again and fix everything like it's supposed to be fixed. And I want to be a part of that, don't you? But if you're going to be a part of it, now you listen, you catch this. You cannot rule with Christ. You cannot rule and reign with Him until you're first ruled by Him. You must be ruled by Him. I want you to turn with me tonight to the 20th chapter of the book of Acts. Acts chapter 20. And we're going to deal with what I feel the Lord would have us to deal with tonight. I want you, if you're here tonight, I want you to be sure and come back tomorrow night. Because I think the Lord is going to let me back up what I'm saying tonight with something else. And if you miss, you don't miss a part of it, then there's a piece of the puzzle gone. Let's turn to Acts chapter 20 and verse 17. Verse 17. And from Miletus, how do you say that? Miletus, he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church. And when they were come to him, he said unto them, You know from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind and with many tears and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews. How I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you and have taught you publicly. And from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. And now behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesses in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide in me. But none of these things move me, neither count my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy. And the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God. Now behold, I know that you all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God shall see my face no more. Wherefore, I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Verse 28. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood. Now it looks like I'm going to preach to the preacher tonight. And I am. But to the flock too. Okay? Now, I've never noticed this. I don't know if verse 17, where this is only the elders of the church at Ephesus. I always took this that he called all the elders of all the churches together. But now there's a question in my mind whether he did. The elders is in plural, but he called the elders of the church. I don't know if he's talking about just from Ephesus, which it really doesn't make that much difference. But he's simply saying to them in verse 28. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers. Now, this word overseers is a very, very important word. I didn't even study it all out. But it deals with oversight. But it also means to beware. It means to look diligently. It means to watch. It means a sentry. And it also means a scope. Like a telescope. Okay? And when you see the meaning of this word overseer, you're seeing the scrutiny or the closeness that he's dealing with this word. Take heed to yourselves and to the flock. Watch yourself like a sentry. Watch yourself with a telescope. And watch the flock the same way. Because the Holy Ghost has made you overseers. Now, I believe that the problem with the church today does not lie with, and I'm not saying this church. But the church as a whole lies in the fivefold ministry. Amen. And I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to tell you something, flock. God is changing the fivefold ministry and bringing something to pass and something to work in their life. But you've got to be willing to go along with it. Or you're going to be in trouble. Because there's no doubt. There's no doubt. We've been through a time that we have not took heed to ourselves. We have not watched ourselves with a fine, telescopic, sentry, watchful, oversight vision. We have got loose. Amen. And it has brought on problems. It's brought on conditions in the church. That God never intended it to bring. But praise God the Lord is doing something about it. Judgment has began at the house of God. And it don't start at the back, it starts right here. But don't you ever think it quits here. It starts here. It's not going to quit until God has shook everything, and moved everything, and dealt with everything, and purged everything, and cleansed everything, until we can be a vessel under honor to the Almighty. It will not stop until God gets finished. And I'm glad I'm a part of it, praise God. Aren't you glad that He didn't throw us in the pile and say, I'll just pick me another one. Aren't you glad He said, I'm going to fix this one. I'm going to break this one, and redo this one, and remake this one, that I can have a vessel under honor. Now I want you to turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 9. 1 Corinthians chapter 9. We're going to read in verse number 24. We're going to start reading at verse 24. 1 Corinthians chapter 9. Know you not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is tempered in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we are incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as unstruckly, so fight I, not as one that beateth the air, but I keep under my body. Now, you know, if you stop right there, that's exactly what's happening. In the King James rendered, we've got under our body. It's in control. But I keep under my body, bring it into subjection, lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway or disapproved. Now I want you to notice chapter 10 verse 1. God did not put chapter 10 up there. Because moreover ties verse 1 to verse 27. Moreover is a word that's not expressed in English. It's a word that's expressed, that we express also. Okay? Or but. Okay, let's read verse 27 again. But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. Also, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant, having all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. But would many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they lusted. Neither be you idolaters, as some of them, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink, rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of the serpents. Neither murmur you, as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them for examples. They are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Now isn't it amazing that you can tie verse 9, the last part of verse 9, chapter 9, and the beginning of chapter 10 together. That they never was meant to be separated. They were meant to be tied together. Isn't it amazing that the writer here, who was Paul, speaking not just to the Corinthian church, but speaking prophetically because he brings in upon whom the ends of the world have come. How many believe the ends of the world have come on you and I? Isn't it amazing that the writer of this book takes us back to the experience of the children of Israel, from Egypt to Canaan, to say to us, this is your example in the last days. Take this as your example. This has been recorded for your admonition, to take it to your advice. You be instructed by this journey from Egypt to Canaan. Amen. Now, we are in a race. Sorry to say, we've got involved in the wrong race. It's not the race of who gets ahead. It's an endurance race, which is different. It's not who gets over the finish line first. It's who can endure to the finish line. It's a marathon run. Okay? It's not a hundred yard dash. It's a fifteen mile marathon. It's an endurance course. It's he that endures to the end is going to be saved. Okay? How many wants to endure to the end? Now, we started out talking about Paul calling the elders of the church. Now, if he's talking about just the church at Ephesus, then there was more than one elder in the church at Ephesus. Because the word there is plural, elders. And he's saying to that group, take heed, watch yourself. Take heed to yourself. How do you take heed to yourself? That's why I brought you to the ninth chapter of the book of 1 Corinthians. Paul used the athlete. He said the athlete that wins is one that's got control over his body. He's a man that has got charge of his body, and he makes his body his slave. He doesn't do what his body wants to do. His body does what he wants to do. Okay? He gets his body not in shape first. He gets his body under control first. And then the body getting under control under him, he then begins to mold. He begins to shape. Amen? He begins to put that body through whatever is necessary to train, to bring it under subjection and make it be what he would have it to be, that the body can endure the race or whatever the competition is that he's fixed into, whether it's the boxer in the boxing ring or a wrestler in the wrestling ring or a man in the race running. Whatever is needed, he makes that body subject to him first, so he can train it, praise God, and exercise it and make it grow where it needs to grow, come off where it needs to come off, shape up where it needs to shape up. All of these things come under subjection where the body can endure the things it's going to be put to. He uses that. And then he says to the spiritual man, hallelujah, now the athlete comes to know self-control. I am not preaching the gospel of self. It's not self-control you need. You need spirit control. That's our problem now, self-sin control. I am not preaching a gospel of self-control. No, I'm preaching the gospel that will bring God's people back to spiritual control, where the spirit will, number one, control this body and take control of the corporate body, and thereby we can control the devils of this age. How many would like to have control over the powers and principalities and the governments of darkness? Okay. Now, isn't it amazing though, that he went ahead talking about bringing the body under subjection, and tied this to the children of Israel. Do you know how many finished the course that started at the start line in Egypt? Do you know how many went across the finish line of the original starters out of Egypt? Two. Can you believe that? Three million lined up and took off. But only two crossed the finish line. I'm only one of them. You know why? You know why they didn't cross the finish line? Well, Paul tells you in chapter nine. That's why he tied them together. They never could get their body submitted to the Spirit of God. Never did. And what happened to them? And this is where we are today. God told Moses with their toes in the waters of the Jordan, said, Turn them around, take them back into the wilderness, and let them wander for forty-nine, thirty-nine years or forty years. You know what God done? He raised up their seed. He raised up their seed. Amen. Now, their seed didn't have to start in Egypt. Their seed started in the wilderness. But their seed is the ones that took up the stick and endured and crossed the finish line into the land of Canaan. Now, isn't this amazing? Egypt and Canaan. The starting and the finishing. The beginning and the end. But only two were able to go. Only two were able to endure what God would put them through in the wilderness. You know why? The same problem that you and I got tonight. The same identical problem. Now, the book of Corinthians, I believe somebody spoke this to me since I've been here, but that ain't where I got it from. I got it from the Spirit. The book of Corinthians is the book of excesses. It's the book of extremities. Everything in the book of Corinthians in writing to the current church, it's the people in excess, excessive or in the extremity of things. It's the people out of control. It's the people that's lost the leadership of the Holy Spirit. It's the people that's not governed by the Spirit of God. Even the truth they have. Amen? Now, I want you to notice something. You'll have to check this out. But I've done my homework on this. The thing that the children of Israel, that caused them to lose the race in the course, Egypt's a starting ground. Canaan's a finish. Egypt represents God's people governed by something else other than God. A government. We're dealing with governments, brother and sister. We're dealing with control. They were in the land of Egypt controlled. Slaves in bondage to. Pharaoh and all the customs of the Egyptians. God does not want His people controlled by Pharaoh, by Egypt, by Babylon, by Syria, by Rome, by nothing but His Spirit. So the starting line is out from under a government of whatever to take them to a land of Canaan where they would be governed by God and God would be their King. How many wants the Lord to be your King? See, when the Lord is your King, you're at rest. It's a place of rest. Hebrews, the first three or four chapters, chapter 3 and chapter 4, tells us what Canaan is. It's a rest. It's where you quit making bricks for Pharaoh. It's where you're not a slave of Pharaoh anymore. You are a bond slave and a love slave to the Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. It's a place of rest. Amen? It's out from under one government under another one. Now, here was the problem. They never could. They never did ever be able to submit themselves to the government of God. They had been in Egypt too long. Four hundred twenty years had took its toll. The customs, the traditions, the culture, the ways, the economy, all that involves Egypt, had took too deep a root in them. And when God tried to get it out of them, He never could do it. You all listening to me? It was so deeply ingrained till they never could submit. You know what's so amazing about this story is, they didn't have to chart their course. All they had to learn to do was follow the cloud. Isn't that amazing? The love and the care and the oversight that God has for His people. All He says, I'll put a cloud up there by day and a fire by night, and you just move when it moves, and do what it does, and it'll lead you right into a land of rest. But they never could submit to it. Why couldn't they? There was something that had a hold of their body that became the master of their body. Now, the things that threw them in the wilderness is not classified in the realm that we call the flesh or the old human nature. It's the excess and the extremity. Do you know where, right here where it says that they lusted? Do you know what they were lusting after? Food. Well, is food a sin? Is food a sin? Y'all talk to me. Well, why did they get in trouble lusting after? There you go. Why didn't they want it? Why didn't they want what God wanted them to have? Because there was something that had a hold of them. You can't tell me it didn't if Paul never tied the two together. Amen? How many of you ever come to realize that Eve failed by something that was not wrong? She failed by eating. And she failed by eating fruit. This is going to be a silent service tonight. But we're going to get somewhere tonight. We're headed to Canaan. This church is headed to Canaan. We're coming out from under a government and a system of men, and we're headed for the rulership of the Holy Spirit. Amen? I believe it's time for the Stone Mountain Church, praise God, to cease wars and start declaring war on the powers of darkness. Can you say amen? Now, the next thing happened to them, they committed idolatry. But what did they worship? The gold and the silver that God gave them? That calf was made out of earrings and rings. There was no sin in that. There's no sin in the gold and the silver. It's what they made out of it. It's where they put it. Hello? In fact, God told them to bring all that stuff out of Egypt. They went up, brother and sister, out of Egypt with their pockets full of gold and silver. And that's what God told them to do. Borrow from your neighbors. Take the bounty from the Egyptians. But here they are now on the journey to watch the rest and the government of God. And here we go. Here we go. God calls His men up on the mountain to get a word. You know, our problem today is not we're behind God. We're way ahead of Him. The biggest problem you have between you and God, He's too slow for you. God's too slow for us, especially in the Americas. We're just speeding up too fast. We're like the hare and the turtle. We're the hare and God's the turtle. That's why the Bible tells us over and over, wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. Let Him catch up. We done got ahead of Him. Hello? See, because while Moses was up there waiting on the Lord to get them a word, a law, hallelujah from God, they said, man, ain't no way. We're going to wait on that dude. We don't even know where he's at. We got to have church. I mean, get these musical instruments going. It's seven o'clock. And we got to have church and the preacher hadn't showed up. So they worshiped. But what did they worship? They didn't worship God because He wasn't there. He was up there with Moses. You remember Sunday morning I said where the angel told John to measure the worshipers? Okay, don't forget that. And so they took the very thing, the very blessings of God, the very thing that God had put in their hands and made them. Of course, they found Him a preacher that would be governed by them. Is that right? They wouldn't wait on a word from God, from God's man. They found Him a preacher. And He was politicking. I wish the overseers were here. And He made them what they wanted, a God of their materialism. Now, there was nothing wrong with the gold and the silver. It was what they'd done with it, the sin. Now, let's go to the next. Now, God's going to have to really restrain me on this next one. I'll get too plain. But I don't know if that ain't the right road to take from here on out. Just get plain, bless God. The Lord, I was praying in 82 for God to make me prosperous. Now, I really do want to prosper. But the sad thing about it, what He showed me was Jeremiah in prison. So I'm headed for prosperity. So I guess I'll just go ahead and get plain. But the next thing they got in trouble with was sex, fornication. Now, God is the one who made that stuff. Now you see why He said these things are going to be your example in the last hour? This generation that the end of the world is going to come on, this is going to be the message for you. This is what you're going to have to look at. This is going to be an example for you to go by. Because the same thing that tripped them up, if you're not careful, it's going to trip you up. And you're not going to endure the race. You're not going to go to Canaan. You're not going to go to the place that God has prepared for you. You're going to die in the wilderness. The same thing that tripped them up is going to trip you up. Sex. The Bible said they committed fornication. That's illegal sex. And brother and sister, what we've been tripped up with today is not outright the wrongs of things. It's not the thou shalt nots that's messing a lot of God's people up. It's the very thing that God ordained and God blessed that is out of excess or out of control. Or we don't have any control over it. Say amen, somebody. Because sex out of control leads from one thing to something else. And brother, if it's out of control, you're never satisfied. It's just like now we go to restaurants and we have a problem not figuring out if we're hungry, but figuring out what we want to eat next. Because everything's on the menu. We done had so much and done eat so much and done tried every food you can try. Our battle today is not with getting some food. It's trying to decide which one we want next. Is that true? And I said to one pastor, I went back and I told him, I said, here's what I'm going to tell you. I do not have any scripture, but I have a word from heaven. The church of Jesus Christ has got to be cleaned up all this stuff. Somebody say amen. We got to get back to the sanctity of all of these things. Amen. And get all of this. Now all of these things that I've mentioned thus far are bodily. They're things of the body that God will never, never, never deliver you from. Hey, you don't want God to deliver you from eating. If you do, they're going to have to bury your hide. What's left of it. Amen. And you sure ain't going to pray, God deliver me from my possessions. Ain't never been a man prayed that. Because if you do, you're going to be out in the cold child. Hello. God have you walk in the stone mountain church of God. Don't you pray. God will never deliver you of your possessions. And sex. We got folks praying. Oh, God, deliver me. If he did. You've been a mess. Or the partner you married to would be. Hello. Hey, I'm not out the scriptures. Amen. He does not deliver you from the things that he ordained. Amen. But what he does ask you and what he will deliver you. And what he is saying to you. You got to get it under control. If you don't, it will control you. And when it controls you, it leads to access. It leads to fornication. It leads to adultery. It leads to overeating. Over sex. It leads to worship in the very possessions that God has blessed you with. And brother and sister, this is a problem from the state house to the general office. All the way down to the pews of the church. Amen. We got a generation of people totally out of control of the very things that God has blessed us with. Why? Because this body in the fall. In the fall. Now this body was created by God. But in the fall became called the body of sin. Paul deals with it over and over and over and over. It became the body of indwelling sin. Sin dwelled in this body. Jesus came in a body to deal with a body. He hung a body on the tree. On Calvary. To deal with a body. Amen. The body of sin. The Bible says that he was manifested to destroy the works of the devil. What is the works of the devil? He took the created body of God. Made for God. By God. For God. And made it the body of sin. He made it a body for sin to dwell in. It was Satan's rebellion that entered into man. It was Satan's self that entered into man. It was Satan himself that got into this body. And it became known as the body of sin. And Jesus was manifested to destroy the works of the devil which is the body of sin. Read it in Romans. Now, let's go back to Egypt. At the starting line out of Egypt, they started out on this journey at the starting line by the blood. The blood delivered them from the guilt and the penalty of God's judgment. Amen. It was the blood that God said to Moses, Tell them to take the blood and put it on the doorpost. And when I pass through, I will pass over them. God's judgment of death that was pronounced on Egypt, on sin, on anything outside of God. It was a guilt, a death verdict. And the blood started them. It delivered them. It started them. But you listen now. You listen now. The blood delivered them only from the penalty of God's judgment which was death. You listen now. When they left Egypt, slew the lamb, took the blood, ate the body, the meat. God stopped them or led them, the Bible said, into the wilderness of the Red Sea. The Red Sea wilderness. In other words, that was as far as they could go. They couldn't go another step because the Red Sea was before them. They had to have something else. They had to be something else of God's provision to take over right here at the Red Sea. Now the blood done its job. Anybody that had the blood on the doorpost, brother, when that angel got to that house, he flew over that house. The blood done the job. Okay? I'm not discrediting the blood. Don't you ever say that because it won't be true. The blood done its job. But at the Red Sea, facing the Red Sea, now Pharaoh continued after them. The blood didn't kill Pharaoh. Hello? He pursued them. But at the Red Sea, to continue their journey, God had to manifest His power. Hallelujah. The first five chapters of the book of Romans deals with, you know what the first chapter deals with? It deals with the same thing I'm talking about tonight. A people that has messed things up and end up in perversion. And the end result of a people that does these things, the end result is, unless they turn, God turns them over to a reprobate mind. I started this meeting talking about a revolution in our minds. But the first five chapters of Romans deals with that blood that justifies, that delivers a man from the penalty of sin. Hallelujah. Makes him stand straight and right and justified in the sight of God. But from there forward, justification is not mentioned anymore. He picks up the story at the Red Sea. The sixth chapter deals with the dominion of sin. The deliverance over sin. The power over sin. Victory over this body of sin. Amen? Look at it. Don't look now, look later. Sixth chapter of Romans deals with the dominion over sin. God's power over sin. It's not enough to be washed in the blood. You've got to get full of the Holy Ghost and then get controlled by the Holy Ghost to make it to the end. Amen? He deals with the dominion. Don't yield your members. Hey, brother and sister, these hands of mine will still sin unless there's a power ruling these hands. Hello? These eyes of mine will still sin unless there's a power controlling these eyes that's stronger than sin. Is that right? And on and on, this mind will sin. And I'll guarantee you, you'd be shocked tonight of how many Christians is bound. And you say, oh, they're Christians? They're Christians that's got caught in a trap. You'd be surprised how many folks. Brother G.W. one night walked up on a man in Selma, Alabama, a preacher. Caught him in the pornography section. Of course, the next time he seen him, he said, I've been delivered. I ain't doing that no more. You'd be shocked how many of God's people is caught up in stuff that like I'm talking about tonight. You're out of control. And see, the overseers is out of control, so they ain't going to say nothing to the flock. I've done a study, and please, please don't take this carnally natural. I've done a study on fat. The reason I haven't preached it yet, I'm not ready to be a martyr. I'm going to skip that tonight. But one place fat represents the blessings of God. Another place fat represents a people out of control. Like Eli. He lost his sight. His telescope got blurred. He couldn't see. His oversight was messed up. His vision got dim. Hello? The end result is the ark was stole. The ark got stole by the Philistines. And the next event is the glory left out. Hello? But it all started with a fat Eli. That had not took heed to himself. Preacher, I'm not talking about you tonight. But how am I going to preach this? You know, it's not the size. That ain't what I'm talking about. You know why I ain't fat? I can't get fat. Won't nothing make me fat. I eat everything but the legs on the table and I still don't gain no weight. That ain't what I'm talking about. I'm talking about out of control, okay? But in Paul's dealing with this thing called the body, he deals with that which we've got to have. And that is the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Now what has happened in our day? Why? Why is there no more life in our churches today than there are right now? I'll tell you why. We've moved the spirit out of the corporate body of Christ and put the natural blood back in it. Instead of the spirit flowing through it, the natural man's flowing back through it. The blood, the natural life is flowing back through the church. Somebody say amen. We can do almost everything we're doing in the natural. But I tell you what we can't do. I tell you what we can't do. We can't do the works of Christ until the blood's pulled back out, spiritually speaking, and the life of the spirit of life is put back in the body. And it begins to flow through the body, control the body, dwells in the body. And the whole, this whole thing is wrapped up in one word, dwell. It's mentioned three times in Romans 8. If the same spirit that was in Christ, raised Christ from the dead, dwell in you. And that word dwell means it's not just the Holy Spirit coming in. It's the Holy Spirit comes in and takes control of the members of your body. And through the Holy Spirit dwelling and living in you, He gives you victory over this body and you put to death the desires of this body that's out of control. Now I believe, you know you preach this and some folks, I've had folks teach lately that we wasn't saved. And I've heard folks teach lately we don't have the Holy Ghost. But you can be saved, you can have the spirit in you, but still not be in control of that spirit. It's the control of it that counts. They had, look brother, they drank of the spiritual drink. They drank of the rock. They drank of everything. Everything was Christ. They drank of it. They ate of it. They partook of it. They followed it. But they never did come under total submission to the leadership and the controlling force of God Almighty. And they did not go in. They did not go in. God let them die in the wilderness. I was in Selma, Alabama, the last five nights of 1978. Brother Larry, Sister Opal at that time lived there. I was there in revival in a black church. I don't mean the building was black, the people were black. We closed that meeting out and I stayed in Selma on January the 1st of 1979. Early that morning before anybody woke up, the Lord woke me up and spoke these words to me. He said there will be an event that will take place before this year goes out that will signal the beginning. Now not the end. Will signal the beginning of the end. There will be an event that will take place before this year, 1979, goes out. Will be the beginning of the end. Okay? I simply laid there and talked to the same spirit that was telling me this. And I said to him, if the end is on us, if we are entering the time called the end of time, the latter time, the last moment of time, what is the message you would have me to deliver? Lord, please don't leave me knowing there is an end, that we are at the end. Show me and tell me what kind of message you would have me to deliver from here until it closes down. I heard that spirit say these words to me. Become a voice of faith to the people. Become a voice of faith to the people. And what was so strange, and it took me years to unravel this, what was so strange, he led me to read 1 Corinthians 10. The one I read tonight that follows 9, that's tied to 9. Read this, he said. And I read it. More of a brethren I would not have you anger. And I was led to read down to where he said, upon whom the ends of the world have come. I could not tie preaching that message to becoming a voice of faith. So in my carnal thinking and understanding, I took 79 and everywhere I preached, I preached on faith. If the woman had the issue of blood, I preached about her. Blind boy in a mess by his faith got healed. Everywhere I went, I accumulated all and homogenized all the messages and the examples of faith in the word of God. And I thought that's what I was supposed to do. Become a message of preaching faith. But along about the end of that year, the Lord spoke to me and said, your message is wrong. I thought I'm doing what you told me to do. No, you're not. No, you're not. I told you to read 1 Corinthians 10. How do you get faith out of that? You don't hear faith preachers talking like I'm talking tonight. Our land is flooded with faith preachers. But it ain't delivering God's people from the excesses of the body. In fact, it's leading them heavy into it. Is that right? And to praise God forevermore. See, faith don't come by hearing faith. Faith comes by hearing the word. When does the word come? By quoting scripture? No, this ain't the word. It's a written word. But it's not the logos. This book I hold in my hand is a killer. This book is a killer. It'll kill you. This is the letter. What gives life? It's when the spirit takes this book, the sands of this book, and writes them on the tables of your heart. Then they become the living word. The revealed word. And faith gets in your heart. Hallelujah. Amen? So we're in a time. What's going to take us into the place of the thing that's going to keep us out of the place that God would have us to be? In the borders of Canaan. In the secret place of the Most High. In the place of protection where the overseer is the watch. And here, see, I got into this. I got into this. I got to the place that I let the flock I preached to get by with anything. I done like the priest done that God rebuked in the book of Malachi. I let them bring their lame sacrifices. I let them bring their three-legged lambs. I let them bring their blemished limbs. I let them buy with anything. But, buddy, that priest was to watch that tabernacle and watch that altar and watch that congregation and keep the oversight. Watch them with a telescope. Watch them close. Take heed to yourself. Watch the flock. Watch that flock. Do not let them bring the blind, the lame, the hung. Don't let them do these things because if you do, you made my table of not effect. He made the table of the Lord. That's what I done. As a priest, I quit watching the flock. I started shouting the flock. Shearing the flock. Eating of the flock. But my call is not to eat your lamb chops or enjoy your wool. My job is to watch you with a telescope. And when you come, if you come with a blemish, it's to point that blemish out. Somebody say amen. It's to have an oversight. And one night I'm going into the house of prayer. To the corporate house of prayer. And bring something out that probably you've never seen before. But our job as overseers is to watch the flock with an oversight. And that's with a telescopic view. That means it's not just a natural view, brother and sister. It's a view that's magnified by God. It's a view that's like a magnifying glass. You see what the natural eye cannot see. And you look into that flock. And when that flock begins to do whatever. Any of these things that I'm talking about tonight. Then that overseer is to say to that flock. This must cease. It must stop. But here we are tonight. Amen. The churches and the messes are in. It's because we've not took heed to ourselves. But thank God. Aren't you glad God's doing something about it? How many is ready to take heed to yourself? How many is ready for God to take His telescope out and take a good long look at you? See, He sees you when you're back at home. He sees you in your bedroom. Hmm? Y'all didn't know that, did you? Ain't it strange I had to come all the way up here and tell you. God sees you everywhere you go. He knows your motives. He knows where you're worshiping out of your heart or not. He knows. He knows how much those things you possess has got control of your life. He knows how bound you are. He knows what's in control of your life. Well, how can I get control over this body, Brother Lowell? Well, let me tell you something. Don't try to buffet it within your own self. Ask God to take a hold of it. Lord, help me in this area of my life. Give me control in this area. The Lord showed me I'd left my first love. I didn't try to start loving Him again. I asked Him to help me and restore my first love again. Amen? How many believes we've got to have the power to keep this body under subjection that we can finish the race? How many wants to go all the way across? How many got in this thing to go all the way and not die in the wilderness? Amen. Die like a bunch of unbelievers and a bunch of rebellious folks. Brother, I'm headed to a promised land. I was telling Brother Jim today, God showed me the frame of the city. He said, yeah, that's the one Abraham saw, and that's the one I'm at tonight, Brother. I'm looking for a city who's building, make us God. There's a city, Brother and Sister. There's a place we're headed. Look, young folks, let me tell you something. Sell out to this thing. Get in this thing. Give your body to God. You say, does God want my body? Your body's the temple of the Holy Ghost. It's the habitation of God through the Spirit. Hallelujah. It ain't just your inward being that God wants. God wants your hands. God wants your feet. God wants this mortal body. Hallelujah. And He wants control of it. He wants control of it. It's your body, He said, present to the Lord. Your body you present as a living sacrifice. Your body you bring to the Lord. It's your body that's the temple of the Holy Ghost. My fingers is a part of the temple of the Holy Ghost. My feet is a part of the temple of the Holy Ghost. And the only way the church can come alive again is the Holy Ghost. Control my fingers. Control my mind. Control my eyes. Control my desires. Can you save it? Get this body under subjection, Paul said. Like an athlete does it through self-control. You do it through the help of the Holy Spirit. And you can live peaceably. Not all gnawing. Always wanting something. Nobody's happy anymore. Amen? This is brought on to the loving our neighbor. We love our neighbor's wife. Amen? It's brought on instead of helping my neighbor. We covet what our neighbor's got. See, the law's only got two principles. That's the man's attitude towards God and his attitude towards his fellow man. Don't covet what he's got. Amen? Get this body and see. Now, I've got to say this and I'm going to close. I believe that God has opened Jim Hite's eyes. I believe that he started a revolution in his mind. Amen? And I believe he sees what I'm talking about tonight. He doesn't see it. He doesn't talk about it. But now, brother and sister, God sent me to this church this time. This is it. To tell this flock, it's time to go. The clouds fixed to move. Okay? The clouds fixed to move. How many's ready to move with it? How many's ready to cast off all your excess baggage? Hallelujah. Get control over your life. Sell out to this thing. Get in it with all your heart. Amen? I believe the Lord has put you all a preacher here that's selling out to God. Jumping in this thing whole hog. How many believes that tonight? Now, what you got to do now, the flock. See, the flock's involved too. You don't just take the oversight and take heed of yourselves. That flock is involved too. Okay? God's straightening out the ministry. But he's going to straighten out the flock too. How many tonight, you can say like Paul, I'm going to keep my body. The King James, you know, he says, I keep under my body. He's actually saying, I bring my body under me. You know, I'm going to get control of my body. I'm never going to let my body rule me. I'm not going to let the desires of this body rule my life. I'm going to let the Spirit of God rule it. How many tonight, you want to get to that place? Lord, I don't want nothing ruling this. See, this old body of yours will crave. Hey, you get a satin sheet or a silk sheet, and this old body will want a satin sheet. Amen? You get a house with three toilets, this old body will want another one. Hello? It's a never-ending thing. You get a house with seven rooms or one story, first thing you know, you put a split level up on that thing. You've got to have some more. And your body won't fill up one of them hardly. It's a never-ending cycle. What you need to do is control it. And when you get it back into control, the Lord's in control, you won't care if you ain't got nothing but a tent. Amen? And you'll get satisfied with that wife you've got and quit trying to get somebody else's. Had a man tell me not long ago, and I ought not to say this stuff, but I'm going to just show you where we at. So when I see a preacher coming, I grab my wife and my pocketbook. I guard them until he gets out of the yard. What's the matter? Why is somebody going to die in the wilderness? Well, read 1 Corinthians 10. See what happened to them. They never could submit themselves to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. They never could get control of the traces of Egypt that were still in there. Never could. Never did. Thank God. I know they can, and you can, because 2 says, we're going over. They had another spirit. Amen? And two of them that started out the original crowd, that's what they called the original church of God. I preached in the original church of God not long ago. That original bunch, two of them, said, praise God, we're going to cross that river. There's grapefruits over there. There's things over there we ain't never took up. There's higher heights and deeper depths in God. There's things we ain't never seen. And we're going to submit ourselves to the Lord. We're going to do what He says do. And we're going to get control of this thing and let God get control of our lives. And we're crossing that Jordan River, and we're going to enter into that time of rest in the Lord. Now, in the place of rest, you don't quit. It's not a place of quit where you set it down on your haunches. It's a place where God starts to move, and hallelujah, and you quit moving. Bow your heads with me, please. Father, I thank you tonight for people that will hear, will listen. Lord, this is a voice of faith. I become a voice of faith tonight to these people. Now, the journey is just about over. We're at the end of the journey. It's been a 2,000-year run. But we're right at the finish line. But, Lord, right at the finish line, we can lose out because of our excesses. Excesses. Simply being out of control. Let this body, the cravings, the desires of this body rule our lives. Another government ruling our lives other than the government of the Spirit. But I pray tonight that this message has fell on good soil. I pray that it went deep enough that Satan can't steal it. I pray that it went deep enough that it'll get the moisture that will make it grow. And this message will bring forth fruit that will help this church after I'm gone. In Jesus' name I ask it. Amen. And amen. Present your body. Catch that word, body. That means your fingers, your toes, your arms, your members. Your many-membered body. Present that as a living sacrifice. A life of denying that body. Self-denial. Denying. Anybody here having trouble with your body? I want you to bring it up here tonight. Having trouble with your body? Bring it up here tonight. Bring it up here. Having trouble with your body? Bring it up here tonight. Bring your body up here. Any area that we talked about or areas that we didn't talk about. Having trouble with your body. Paul said, I get my body under me. I get my body under control. The members, if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, the deeds of the body, you shall live. How do you get victory over it? First of all, the first step is what you've already done, is admit. And then you turn to the Lord and ask Him, Lord, lead me into a life of spiritual control. That the Spirit of God can control me from the top of my head to the soles of my feet. My mind, my emotions, my will, and my body, my physical body. I want the Spirit of God to take control of this house. Come into my house. Or maybe you're already in the house. Now take control of this house. Take control of this house.