Separation and Holiness

Father, we thank you again for the opportunity to come before your throne to seek your face. We remember our pastor, Lord, as he speaks to the brethren who are up in San Leandro. Larry, who's gone to accompany him, Lord.

The good brothers and sisters that are up there, Lord, we pray that they might hear your word. That it might be effective. That their hearts will have been made ready to receive what you are saying today.

And that you will convict by your spirit, Lord, of sin, righteousness, and of judgment to come, Lord. Help us, Lord, to do your will. Lord, as we gathered here this morning, we pray that we would hear your voice.

That you would speak clearly, Lord. That you would speak your word for today, Lord. For this assembling, for this people.

That your word would go forth with the anointing of the Holy Spirit, Lord. We pray for each one that's here, Lord, that you would bless each one and hear their prayers. And bring us again safely again tonight, Lord, we ask in Jesus' name.

Amen. You may be seated. I want to remind you all again about tonight.

If you would be so kind as to be so faithful. And come out tonight to hear our brother from the true gospel church, right? Isn't that his church? Mine. He'll be speaking tonight, and I'm sure you know that when you come you say, Oh, Pastor Thompson's not here, you know, or whatever, you know.

I will assure you, you will hear from the Lord. You will hear from the Lord. God is faithful.

God is faithful. So, and support our brother. He's a good brother.

And we like to support the other brethren we've had. We've had Ed Kina here, and we've enjoyed him. And Temecula.

George Simmons, yes. Good old George. I love George.

Wonderful friend. So, we look forward to tonight. To say this morning, maybe it'll come together.

It seems like there's A and there's B, okay? And so I'll see if they come together. A, okay, this is a little pastorial, okay? We ready for the little pastorial thing? Let me get my glasses down. This is a little pastorial.

Now, I felt the Lord say that we need to stir up the gift within us. I'm asking, I'm praying, you know, what should I say and what do we need to hear? And I don't know if I'm going to preach on that, okay? Because He hasn't given me a passage to preach on that. But I feel the Lord is saying among us that we need to stir up the gift within us.

And I'll give you a quick... I wish I had my old drawings. I did a drawing. God inspired me.

I used to know how to draw, and God inspired me. And I did a drawing on the Feast of the Lord. How many of you guys from my old Sunday school class remember my drawing? Okay, she remembers it so well, probably.

Come on, Grace, you remember the drawing. What was over here? You guys that saw the old drawing. Rebecca, you saw the old drawing.

The door. Exactly, there was a door. A door post.

And on the door was? Blood. Blood, okay? And I've learned that these are actually good techniques to learn. Because, you see, they remember the picture.

It brings something to mind. Okay, it was a picture of a door post. A lentil over a door.

And the reason why was because God commanded they had to shed the blood of a lamb on evening and put its blood up with hyssop on the door on both sides and on the top. So it was a picture of a door with blood running down it. It would be nice if we could reproduce that maybe sometime on an overhead so we can show it.

Piece of cake, Bob says. It's the drawing that I'm worried about. No, we've got artists here.

Okay. It was a picture of what? Yep? Bread. Yeah.

Three flat loaves of bread. Okay? Representing. It didn't make them square like modern day matzo, okay? But that was what it was represented of.

The three pieces of bread. Remember it says that Jesus took the bread and he broke it? Well, he didn't just take any old bread. And it wasn't the, quote, last supper.

Okay? They were having Passover. And he didn't take any piece. He took the middle piece out.

Right? Isn't that right? He had three pieces and they take the middle piece out. Okay? It's very significant. Okay, so it's the three pieces of bread.

Which represents unleavened bread. The three unleavened bread. Okay? And then on this side we had another picture.

What? Grain. Right. A little sheaf of grain that had been harvested.

Okay? And it was somewhat a little green to represent the first sheaf that was harvested of the barley harvest. Okay? Which was the first grain to ripen. Which is known as the first fruits.

Right? And that's the feast of first fruits. Because they have the first three feasts together which are Passover, unleavened bread and first fruits. Which the Lord fulfilled in being the Passover lamb.

The Lord fulfilled in taking away our sin. And the Lord fulfilled in rising from the grave as the first born of the new creation. The first born from the dead.

Okay? He's the first fruit. And the principle behind the first fruit is if God blesses that first sheaf, He'll bless the rest of the harvest. Okay? You take that one.

You get the first sheaf. You cut it. You grab it like this.

Cut. With your little thing. Tie it up.

And you take it up. And they wave it to the Lord. And that part belongs to God especially.

Okay? But then God blesses the rest of it. Because you're going to need the rest of it to feed your family and sell it for whatever. For whatever.

Okay? So, that significance of that is since Jesus is risen, so will we. If God bless the first one, He'll bless the rest. Okay? Alright.

Then comes the middle one. The middle one. Right here in the middle.

What was the middle one? Right here in the middle. All by itself. Huh? Do you remember? Do you remember that picture? There.

One going this way and one going that way. You said it, Grace. Two loaves.

Two great big loaves. These weren't unleavened either, were they? Fat ones. From what I understand, they were big.

Heavy. And they were way before the Lord. When? Pentecost.

We call it Pentecost. It was before the Lord. What's it called? The Feast of Weeks? The Feast of Weeks.

Because it's a week of weeks after Passover. Okay? Which is coming up, by the way. Pretty soon, isn't it, Eddie? I think in the next week or two will be the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost.

What do they call it? Shavuim? Shavuim. Okay. Shavuim.

It's coming up soon. Alright. That's Pentecost.

Alright. And that, we realize, that's where most of us are in the fulfillment, right? Of these things. Jesus died as the fulfillment of the Passover lamb.

He sent the Holy Spirit to those who were assembled upstairs as the fulfillment of the Feast of ... whatever Eddie said. Pentecost. We call it Pentecost because we're Pentecostals.

Okay? Pentecost. Alright? That's the fulfillment of the Feast of Pentecost. But we're learning that there's still three more pictures on the bottom.

They know it. They can see it. They visualize it.

They saw it a lot of times. And what are those three? There's a trumpet. Ah.

One up and one down. One alive and one dead. No.

Close. They were black. Yeah.

Goats. Two goats. One alive and one dead.

Okay? And that represents what? The Day of Atonement. We're learning about the Day of Atonement. And of course the last one was a booth.

Right. On the corner. The booth.

They hadn't seen that picture in what? Ten years? Seven for some. Ten for others. It's been a while.

But they remembered it. Okay? Because there's a teaching aid. So maybe we'll get that teaching aid someday.

So we can let you see them all. And then after a while you take the picture off. And you have the words.

And you remember the picture from the words. And then you take the words off. Yeah.

The words off. And you remember the words from the picture. Huh? You like that? Okay.

The significance of all of that is to say. Where are we on the chart? Young people. Where are we on the chart? Yes.

We're learning. We're going past Pentecost. I love their answer.

Trumpets. Okay? We're not stuck here at Pentecost anymore. God is taking us past Pentecost.

Into the next three feasts. The fulfillment on the next three feasts. And the significance of that, Tony.

The significance of the next three feasts is this middle thing here. I mean, this is the goal we're after. But you've got to get through this before you ever get here.

Okay. We all want the rest of God. That's wonderful.

We learn about the rest of God. But you don't get through that until you go through this Day of Awe. The most solemn day of all in the Jewish calendar.

This is Day of Atonement. And what happens in that day? Sin is removed. It's forgiven here.

It's removed here. Big difference. Huge difference between being forgiven and having it removed.

Okay? Now, the thing that God is saying about building us up is building up to maturity. We need to be brought up to maturity. And what do we have in order to be brought up to maturity? What has God given us that brings us up to maturity? The gifts.

We go back to the middle picture. Okay? You can't skip the middle picture to get down to here. So God wants us to stir up our gifts.

We need that. That's what God has given us to build a body. Prophecy.

The Word of Wisdom and Word of Knowledge. Apostles and Prophets. Healing.

Miracles. God has given us these things to build the body up. And we need to be built up if the body is going to be able to do away with sin.

Is that an easy conclusion to come to? Amen? I mean, we're in the day when God wants to do away with sin. It's coming upon the church on the earth. He will.

What does the scripture say about the bride and the condition of the bride when Jesus comes? Not to get her. She's without spot, without wrinkle, without blemish or any... And that's not what we have today, is it? So between then and now, we need a few things to happen. And one of them is for us to be built up.

Now, the reason why we need to be built up, okay, is this is a vision I felt the Lord gave me. It's not new. It's not special to me or anything.

It's just a renewal of something God has shown us before in the past. And that is, there came a time when the children of Israel had to go into the Promised Land. Remember that? They wandered around in the wilderness for 40 years.

And for some of us, that's our whole life. That's all they knew. They never did go into the Promised Land.

What a crummy situation. For me and my house, we say, no thank you. We want to make it in there, thank you.

Well, it takes a different kind of spirit in order to do that, doesn't it? Okay, but there came a day when they did go into the land. But when they did, a lot of things happened. First, leadership changed.

Moses was gone and Joshua was in charge. Secondly, God said, you better put a little distance between me and the rest of you because you've never gone this way before. So the ark went out ahead of everybody else by a considerable amount.

And the third thing that you need to know is that when they went to cross the land, the river Jordan was at swollen stage. It was at flood. It was during the rainy season.

It was the worst time of the year to cross the river. Okay? Now we realize that God is saying that it's death to self that he's called us to. That's crossing the river.

That's not dying and going to heaven, but it's death to our self-will, death to our self-preservation, our right to be our own selves. That's crossing the river. We're learning that.

That's wonderful. Alright, what God is doing is he's calling the church to that. But before that happens, there's some priests who take upon their shoulders the presence of God, the ark.

And they go out ahead of everybody else. The priests are barefoot, by the way. Did you know that? They go out ahead of everybody else and they're carrying on their back the presence of God.

And they come to the river which is swollen. It's the worst time. Isn't it always when God goes to move in your life, everything goes crazy? We always tell when dine's coming, even if we can't read the calendar, we know it's just coming.

Everything goes crazy. Everything breaks loose because God is dealing with us. And that's what God will do.

When God wants to deal with us, when God was ready to change us, the circumstances will almost always go bananas. Because he wants us to do this by faith and not by looking at our circumstances. So he says, walk into the river, guys, holding this chest on your back.

Now, believe me, they're not going to float with this chest on their back. It's covered in gold and it's heavy. Walk in, barefoot.

Sure. So what'd they do? Well, the poor guy in the front, he had no... The guy in the back, you know, he's somewhat away from the water, so he's back here, so he's kind of pushing along. The guy in the front, he's kind of, you know, pushing this thing so hard.

But he's in the water before he knows. And as soon as they walk in the water, the river runs dry. The water stops coming down.

And as they're walking, it's just getting drier. They're going, oh, this is really cool. So then they walk down, down to the middle, and then they stop.

And that's where we are. I believe the Lord wants us to realize that we're here, in the middle of this river. How long we're going to be here, I don't know.

Because they stayed there until all the children of Israel crossed over. God has begun to speak to His church. There are people, young people in particular, in the world today, that realize there's more of God and want more of God and are willing to pay the price.

And He's going to take them into the land. But He needs somebody to stand in the river until that happens. Now, those priests didn't ask for that job.

They didn't volunteer. They may not have been all that happy with it. They were the first ones to go into the water, into the problems, and they were the last ones to get out.

And they had to wait until every slowpoke and whatever, and youngs, and whoever it was, until they all got over with their dogs and cats and sheep and everything else. They had to wait and just stand there. I imagine that... It doesn't say how long, but I doubt they rushed across.

Now, maybe if it was a large area, maybe they got across fast. But I'm sure it was a lot longer than they were comfortable with. And so it may be for us, it may be a lot longer than some of us are comfortable with.

Somebody's got to stand in the river. And it's the ones who go ahead. Well, we didn't ask for the job, did we? Now, I really believe that the spirit realm is this way.

Now, I could be totally wrong, but this is what I think. When God reveals something to anybody in the earth, and they proclaim it, it becomes free to be known in the earth. Let me make this clear.

Remember when Luther posted up his thesis on the board? Luther realized some things, but those of you who know a little about history realize that in Luther's day, he wasn't alone. There were several people who came right along about the same time who didn't know... They all didn't believe exactly the same thing, but they all came to some... who had insight, all of a sudden, who didn't necessarily get it from Luther. They got it from the Lord.

But they got it probably because Luther was brave enough to post his thesis on the board. When he proclaimed something into the material realm that God had given him, it opened up a door. I believe that's the case.

I believe that's why the New Age people are so interested in opening up a door for the New Age to come in. You open up a door, things come in from the spirit realm into the physical realm. That will happen too, you know.

There will come a day when things will come from the spirit realm into the material realm that we don't want to come. And we'll have to stand in the water until the church goes through because there will be a day when the kingdom will come. As we hear in the songs, I don't know that Matt Redmond has heard our teaching, but he says, could this be the day that ushers in your kingdom? Well, where did he get that? I don't even know if he heard it in his preaching.

But he's hearing it from God. Because God is telling us, this could be the day! And you could be the generation, guys! Ooh, Robert. That means you.

Alright, so this B, second half, okay? That was first half, that was pastoral. B, second half, this is for the young people. Okay, let's turn to Isaiah chapter 61.

Where's Abbie? Abbie. There was a king of Israel. No, of Judah.

That was when they were split. Because there weren't too many kings of Israel that were of both kingdoms. There were just a couple.

But there was a king of... It makes plenty of noise when I get in front of this thing. There was a king of Judah that long before he was ever born it was prophesied that he would come and that he would do certain things. Now when they split the two kingdoms the king who went up to become the king of Israel which was of the ten tribes north of Judah or Jerusalem he built another altar in Bethel.

He said, this is the altar for the Lord, this is where you're going to worship. Well, what was it? And he built cows. He said, remember? Aaron had the right idea.

This is God. This is what He looks like. So worship Him.

He wasn't saying that the God that hadn't done all those things that this was a different God. He was saying, this is Him. You've wondered what He looked like? Here He is.

Well, people bought it. Okay, well when that happened a prophet came up from Judah and he prophesied about that altar. And he said, there's going to come a king who's going to destroy that altar.

And he's going to rid this nation of ungodliness. It didn't happen until hundreds of years later. Now, what would it be like if you were born and you happen to be the king but you didn't know that.

You're just born. You're just a person. And then all of a sudden as somebody's reading the Bible to you they read, and there's coming this king or we'll call it queen because I'm calling Abby now, okay? There's coming this queen and her name's going to be Abigail and they're reading that your mom and dad are reading and you go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Who? Yeah, Abigail. Now what are you going to think? I wonder if that's me. My name is Abigail, right? I wonder if it's really me.

Okay. I want you to look in Isaiah chapter 61. It doesn't have your name there, Abigail but it's talking about you.

Isaiah 61. Let's read verses 1 through 6. We got it. Ta-da! Ready? Let's read it together, out loud.

The spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all who mourn and provide for those who grieve in Zion to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and the garment of praise instead of the spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor.

They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated. They will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. Aliens will shepherd their flocks.

Foreigners will work your fields and vineyards. And you will be called priests of the Lord and you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations and in their riches you will boast.

Now I want to tell you, young people, this is written to you upon whom the end of the ages has come. God is proclaiming the day of vengeance. When Jesus came, He read that first part.

Do you remember that? When Jesus came, He read the first part, first few verses, and He stopped to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and He closed the book and sat down. Now what is God telling us today? We sang it this morning, that the day of God's vengeance is upon us. Notice, it says there, verse 4, They.

Who's they? Hmm? I want to tell you, I think it's you. I would like to talk this morning to the young people about holiness and the fear of God. OK? Holiness and the fear of God.

The reason is because they will be priests unto God and ministers unto His name. God has called you out. There are two things that make for holiness.

OK? One you probably will understand easily, the other is not quite as easy, but hopefully you'll understand it when we're done. First is being without sin, that's holy. Right? The angels before God are without sin, therefore they're holy.

Right? OK. There's that aspect, being without sin. God is making us holy in that aspect because He's removing sin from us.

OK, but there's another kind of meaning for holiness too, and that is something that's separated unto God. And it's a little different, and I'll show you the difference. Let's take Aaron, for instance.

Aaron was separated unto God. Right? And made the high priest. And it read on top of the thing that he wore, holiness unto God.

Right? And Aaron was holy. Right? Did that stop him from making a golden calf? No, but even when he made the golden calf still, he was still, as the high priest, he was still holy. When his two sons burned on their ordination day, Moses ran in there and said, Hold your breath, Aaron.

Don't make a move. It may happen to you too. You can't grieve.

You can't mourn. You can't walk out now. You've been anointed.

You're holy. You're just going to have to stay here and minister unto me. You're separated.

Remember when there was rebellion in the desert? And 240 leaders brought firepans to the Lord. And they were going to, in rebellion, they were going to show that they could offer a sacrifice to the Lord after all the people are holy. What happened to them? They were all burned.

All killed. And so there's 240 firepans laying on the ground now. And they're going to clean up all the mess after everybody's burned up.

And they're saying, What do we do with these firepans? And Moses says, Hey, you've got to keep those things. They're holy. Well, it made them holy.

They were presented to God. You see that? It has nothing to do with sin or not sin. It's separation to God.

You see what I'm telling you? When something is set aside for God, that's holiness. Okay? Without sin is holy. And being separated unto God makes nothing holy.

Do you see? I'm not trying to tell you any more than there's two aspects of holiness. That's all I'm trying to tell you right now. Okay? I'm not trying to confuse you with, Can I be holy because I'm separated unto God and still sin? I'm not trying to confuse that issue.

Alright? God wants us. We're learning. God is dealing with sin.

But if you're separated unto God, you're holy. You got that now? Everybody got that? Two aspects of holiness. Alright.

I want us to look at three different examples of those who were separated unto God. First, I want to look at the Levites. Then I want to look at Samson.

And then I want to look at Samuel. Okay? And rather than read a whole lot of scriptures for you, I'll just story tell. Okay? First, let's look at the Levites.

How did the Levites come about being separated unto God? When they left Egypt. Okay? Got the setting? We're leaving Egypt. Alright? What is the condition that we find ourselves in when the children of Israel are evolving the prince of Egypt.

Okay? And the first scene that comes up is Hup! Boom! Right? And they're all doing what? They're working as what? Slaves. And they're crying out to God for a deliverer. Right? Because they're slaves.

That's the condition that we find the children of Israel. When the Levites are going to be made God's special people. Okay? So what God does, as he says, if you put the blood on the door, when my angel comes, destroying angel, who will kill the first born of everything, man or beast, I'll pass over you.

Come near your house. If I see that blood on the door, your first born will not die. Okay? They did that.

Some of the Egyptians did that too. By this time they were scared to death. Did you know that some Egyptians went out with them? With a mixed group.

Yeah. Okay? Anybody that would believe by this time, they put it up there. Okay? God passed over.

They lead them out. They go through the Red Sea. They get into the desert, in the wilderness.

Okay? And God says to them, Now I want you to take account of how many first born there are in the nation of, first born male there are in the nation of Israel. I want to know exactly how many there are. I don't remember the number.

Okay, Eddie? I don't remember the number. Anyway, 2,300, whatever it was. They came up with that number.

They said, Okay, now I want you to count the Levites between this age and that age. I don't remember the ages either. Okay? Middle of something.

Young adult to about, not quite as old as me. And they counted those and the numbers were almost the same. Almost the same.

There were a few more first born than there were Levites. And God said, Okay! They were forfeit when my death angel went through there because I would have... And so since I didn't, you owe me your life. So I want all the Levites instead of the first born from a whole nation.

And for the little remaining difference, there was a price they had to pay in money for the remaining difference of those that exceeded the amount of Levites that there were. And from that point on, the Levites belong to God. So the first thing we learn about the Levites is that they're ransomed.

They belong to God. They don't belong to themselves. Now, for somebody like Sherry, where's Sherry? There's Sherry.

For some others, like my daughters or maybe some of the others, that might be, hmm... You know? I really kind of was hoping I could belong to myself. But, I want to tell you young people, God has purchased you. He's called you before you ever existed, long ago.

The price of His own son. And you belong to Him. I know.

It's a tough one, isn't it? You're not your own. You've been purchased. And you didn't have a choice in the matter, did you? Like Diane says, you didn't get a vote.

Notice how quiet it got. You don't belong to yourself. God has some claim on your life.

And I think most of you know it, don't you? Maybe you want to admit it, maybe you don't. But, most of you know it. Look, I don't keep up as a thing with the generations, okay? Some people do that as a thing that they do.

But I hear enough to know that the young people of your generation realize that they are a special generation. I'm talking about worldlings. I'm not talking about Christians.

I'm just talking about kids out there of your generation know good and well that there's something different about their generation. Is that right? You guys probably don't keep up with it either. But it's in the songs that they sing.

A special generation. Okay? You set apart. Okay.

Let's look at Samson. What were the conditions on Samson's day before he came into being? Well, in Samson's day they were oppressed. It was later on from the Levites.

They're in the land and the Philistines have kind of taken over things. And taking care of the Philistines. And now the Philistines were very warlike people.

Were in control. And they would come in at harvest time and steal the harvest and do what they wanted. And so the people of Judah were oppressed because of the Philistines.

Now is that not like it is today? Are not God's people for crying out loud are not God's people young people oppressed? Are they not? I mean this is an oppressive age. Oppressive times. When I was a kid I don't know.

When I was a kid I was going to say it was great to have fun but I don't remember a lot of fun when I was a kid. But other kids seemed to have fun. Maybe other kids had fun when I was a kid in my age.

But being a kid should be fun. But it isn't, is it? Sometimes it is. Should be.

But in a lot of cases it's not fun. There's a lot about being a kid anymore. It's not fun anymore.

It's oppressive. It's oppressive because the enemy is coming in and stolen stuff. And lied to us.

And tried to take over things. Okay? And now Samuel. This is later on in the history of... And when Samuel was a boy what was things like during Samuel's day? Well one thing is noted.

One thing in particular was said about Samuel when he was a little boy was that the word of the Lord was scarce in his day. Is that not like today? The word of the Lord is scarce. There are a lot of people who have never heard the word of the Lord.

They may have heard something but they've never heard the word of the Lord. They don't know what God is really saying. They get one crazy message this week and one crazy message that week.

They don't know if they're flying away or staying or what they're doing. They don't know if they're supposed to prosper. They're certainly not supposed to suffer.

And yet they find that they do and they can't put it all together. The reason is because the word of the Lord is scarce. You read the memoirs of the kids from Columbine and they struggle.

And a lot of the reason why they struggle is because the word of the Lord is scarce. You listen to the songs, the word of the lyrics that the young people sing and they don't understand why they're suffering. And the Bible tells us clearly why we're suffering yet they don't understand why they're suffering.

It's because the word of the Lord is scarce. So somehow they hang in there when everything in them tells them this is nuts. And that's how it is today.

The word of the Lord is scarce, young people. You may not realize that because a lot of you have been born and raised in this church. But if you get a chance to get away, you're going to find the word of the Lord is scarce.

You've had some examples. My kids went to a thing. It was a good thing.

A lot of... It was a thing that we were all promoting and part of. A lot of us were there to participate. But there were some strange goings on when they were there.

And they wondered, is this God or not God? Because it sounded like it should be God but there was something about it that was not right. So they prayed and asked the Lord. And they got a sign from the Lord.

And they came back saying, you know, it was told us that this was the word of the Lord but it really wasn't the word of the Lord. That's because a lot of things happen, a lot of things are being said, a lot of things are being preached today and they're not the word of the Lord. And that's the day we live in.

Now, the calling of these young people are the Levites. The Levites were called, they were ransomed. They were given in exchange for the firstborn so they didn't belong to themselves.

But with Samson, Samson's... Before Samson was born, Samson's mom had a visit. And a man came to speak to her. She thought it was a man.

She wasn't sure. She was a little more insightful than her husband. Doesn't give her name.

Poor woman. That's the way they get treated. Doesn't give her name but she was a godly gal.

The husband, he gives him a note but he's kind of like most of us. You know, usually you think the woman being the featherhead and the guy being solid but this woman was solid and the guy was a little featherhead. So anyway, the guy comes and visits the woman.

Tells her that she's going to have a child. And that this is the mode of life that he should have. That he should not partake of anything from the grape or have any wine or any other kind of fermented drink.

And that he was going to be separate unto the Lord because God was going to deliver Israel through this guy. Now, let me ask you. Well, let me finish the story and then I'll ask my question.

So, she comes and tells the husband. You know, she says, his appearance was awesome. I mean, she's trying to tell him this guy looked like a guy but honestly I'm not so sure that he really was just a guy.

And the guy, the husband, he says, Oh, yeah. Well, that's cool. What did he say? So, they pray and they say, I want to talk to this guy myself.

So, he comes back and so he says, Well, what did you say to my wife? So, the guy says the same thing he said. Oh, I mean, you know, he could have saved himself all that because she already told him. So, he says the same thing to her.

You know, okay, don't drink anything. Don't drink any fermented stuff and don't eat any grapes or anything like that. He's going to be separate unto me and don't cut his hair.

Oh, okay. Cool. Let me get you something to eat.

Well, I'll... You can get... You want to make a sacrifice to God? Fine. But I'm not hungry. Okay.

So, he gets the thing, makes the sacrifice to God and then he goes up in the fire. Whoa! He goes. She said, I told you he was awesome.

Whoa! Whoa! Oh, no. Now we've seen God. We're going to die.

She says, Why would he kill us? He came to tell us I was going to have a baby. We're not going to die, Manoa. Oh, okay.

Good old Manoa. So, he gets the picture. He's a little slow, but he gets the picture.

So, anyway. Now my question. Young people.

It's a simple question. What has grapes got to do with anything? This is a simple question, isn't it? You've got to answer for me. What has grapes got to do with being holy? Hmm? Anthony.

What's the answer? Huh? You make wine out of grapes. Right. Okay.

So, I'm going to tell you So, what's wine got to do with holiness? I mean, okay, don't get drunk. I can understand that. Don't get drunk.

But can't eat grapes either. Well, you're not going to get drunk on grapes. Why can't you eat the grapes? Don't cut your hair.

Now I really ask you, what on earth is growing long hair got to do with holiness? Hmm? Somebody said it. Separation? Huh? Huh? Separation? Separation? Unto God? Everybody, here he is, Samson. On the ball field with the guys.

Go play ball. Uh, Samson up the bat again. Oh no, Samson.

I can't see the ball. He's got his hair in the way. The guy, he's a loser.

He can't hit the ball. When he does, pow! Samson, we don't have enough soft balls to buy you one every time you're up. He doesn't hit it anywhere.

It goes, poof, like that. And he's terrible at fielding the ball because his hair is in the way. Oh, man.

He's got to wear a ponytail to be able to catch the ball. This poor Samson. He's a weird dude.

Samson, what's with you? Everybody's got their lunch box. They're drinking their grape juice. Not Samson.

No. He's got to drink apple juice. Huh? You like being different? No.

Not me, man. Not me, man. Spike hair.

Everybody spike hair. See? How high? It's got to be this high. No higher? No higher.

If it's too high, it's not cool. Cool? Cool. Cool.

Walk like this. Yes, cool. That's cool.

Yeah, cool. Right? Who wants to be different? Nadie, man. Nobody.

Ooh, but what? God has separated you from before you were born. And most of you know it, don't you? The trouble is, is living it out. Because for you, are you listening to me now? For you, there's a thing called grapes.

I don't know what it is, but God does. For you, there's a thing called long hair. I don't know what it is, but God does.

Now what happened to old Sam when he got his hair cut? Hmm? That's not all he lost. Pardon? He lost, amen, he lost his strength. He lost the presence of God.

He lost his sight. Now you need to know what your long hair and your grapes are. Do you hear me? You're separate.

You can't just be like everybody else. You need to know what your long hair and your grapes are. Because your life is separated under God.

You've been bought by the price. You're different. I know you didn't ask to be different.

I know you don't like being different, but you are. And the price is too big to pay. Because if you don't accept being different, and you don't accept this price that God has asked you to pay, and it's not bad, it's not tough.

Samson got along fine despite his long hair and not eating his grapes. It didn't keep him from going up. He had other problems.

But Samson still delivered Israel and was their whatever, their judge for 20 years. He survived without his grapes and with his long hair. You can survive being different.

Some of you really like being different, but that you really don't want to be different. You know what I'm saying? You like being your different on your terms, but not God's different on His terms. And God wants you to be willing to be different.

Are any of the older people hearing this? Okay. Now, Samuel. When something similar to Samuel was similar with Samson.

The condition existed both when Samuel was born and when Samson was born. And that is before they were born, it was already a well established fact that their mother couldn't have children. Now, how many times have we heard in this church that God is trying to birth something? Hmm? If you've been here for any length of time and you've paid attention, maybe you haven't, but today you are.

God is trying to birth something. Because His church is barren. And before He does that, He comes to us and He says, I'm going to birth something and when I do, it's going to be different than anybody else.

It's going to belong to me especially. And they'll be my deliverers. Out of Zion comes forth deliverance.

I heard that when we came back from the convention. And I realized, that's the only place He can come from. That's the only place He can come from.

He can't come from anywhere else because no other place really has the word of deliverance, Tony. Deliverance is the freedom from sin. Well, you're not going to get that if you believe that grace covers it all and Jesus doesn't see you, etc.

etc. There's going to be no deliverance coming from that. There's no strength there to deliver.

But out of Zion will come deliverance. You. They.

Out of Zion is going to come deliverance. Okay? You. Do you hear the call? First there's barrenness.

We've had barrenness for a long time. God wants to produce a male son. Well, you can say male or son.

But a male son is reason for God's redundancy. Something that's never been like this before. Oh, why me? Why not you? It's got to come from somebody.

Will you hear the call? Alright. Now, what were the consequences of those who were separated under God? With the Levites. They were the ones who stood there when all of Israel crossed over to the land.

They were the ones holding the ark. They were the ones who went in before. Went into the river beforehand.

Okay? It was part of their duty to do this. To hold that ark on their shoulders. Okay? Listen to me.

The church is not going to enter in. The church knows that today is the day to enter into the land. The church is beginning to hear it.

God is speaking. And people are beginning to hear it. And people are going to go in.

And like John Beck told me. Us old guys, God is probably going to pass us up. Because we're content to wander in the wilderness and murmur and complain.

But He's looking to you, the next generation. He wants to go in the land. And are you really ready and willing and able to do it? God wants to know.

Because God is going to go in the land. God is speaking it. And the preacher is standing in the river.

Are you going to go in the land? Because the Levites were separated under God. They had this task of holding this on their shoulders. The presence of God.

Think about it. In the midst of all of this, getting tired. How are you going to complain about that? You've got the presence of God on your shoulders.

Think about it. The next time it gets really bad and you're thinking about. How long, oh Lord? How long, oh Lord? Have you ever cried that? I do.

Not every place does. Not everybody does. I've been to a lot of places where there's a whole lot of hype and stuff.

And a lot of decibels. And no presence of God. And no... Don't take for granted the presence of God.

Deliverance. Samson, because he was separate, brought deliverance. A church needs deliverance.

The earth needs deliverance. People need deliverance. The poor are oppressed.

That's what we read. There's no judgment in the land. There's no justice in the land.

The poor are oppressed. The needier gets getting needier. There needs to be deliverance.

It's only going to come out of Zion. It's not going to come from anywhere else. It's not going to come from a good program where a whole lot of people get together and decide that this is a plan.

If everybody gets another hundred people who get another hundred people then we'll all be able to do a wonderful thing for God. It's not going to get it. It isn't going to happen.

Deliverance is going to come out of Zion. It's going to come out of people who give themselves to serving God and allowing God to work in them. Them.

Not pointing to other people. Oh, you all got to get saved. They get saved.

Completely. And the third thing. Samuel was the prophet who anointed David as king.

There will be a generation. There will be a generation. Maybe it's yours who will see the Lord return.

They will anoint David as king. And if not over all Israel certainly over Judah. What does that mean? If not him actually coming if he doesn't come in your lifetime and he's very well made he is coming to his church.

And he is coming to his church in your lifetime because I know it. Whether he comes to the earth or not in your lifetime I don't know. But he is coming now to his church.

Will you be separated unto God? To proclaim the way of the Lord? To make ready his path? Samuel was the one when he anointed him with oil he was the one he was saying That's him. That's God's king. That's God's deliverer.

That's God's anointed. God is looking for a generation who will do that. And point to Jesus.

And say Do that with your life. So now I'll ask you a simple question before we close. What does grapes got to do with it? You have your grapes and you have your long hair.

You need to find from God what makes you different and be different. Do you hear me? You can't just be like everybody else. You've been called.

You've been separated. Your name is in the book. You don't belong to yourself, Abby.

You belong to God. So your life is going to be different. Reconcile yourself to that.

And get used to it. It's not a heavy burden. It's not a heavy yoke.

It's easy. It's light. You can live with it.

But you need to know how God has separated and made you different. And then not be ashamed to be different. Okay? Let's pray.

Lord we we recognize your calling on each of our lives. Whether we're of the older generation or the younger generation, Lord. I'm new from a very early age, Lord.

I don't know how young I was. Very young. But I knew my life was separated under you, Lord.

I didn't know how to verbalize it. I just knew it was a fact. I wasn't necessarily happy about it.

But I couldn't escape it. Oh Lord, I I've challenged you young people here this morning, Lord. And the older of us here, Lord.

Because you've called each of us, Lord. Each of us are separated unto you. We don't belong to ourselves, Lord.

We don't necessarily like being different. But you've called us to that. Lord, help us.

We don't have the fear of God, Lord. I didn't get into that. We need the fear of God, Lord.

Nadab and Abihu didn't have the fear of God. Consequently, they were burned up. We don't want to face an angry God.

We want to please you in every way, Lord. But, Lord, you will be angry if we do not take up our responsibility. Whether young or old.

So, Lord, we pray this day that you would speak to our hearts, Lord. We all need to know, Lord, what our grapes are and what our long hair is. What makes us different? We're each one that may be different.

But we are all definitely separate. Separated unto you. We're different.

We can't measure our lives against everybody else's. We're not like everybody else. Everybody else is like the sea tossed here and there.

We're not. We've been called before the foundation of the earth for a specific time. A specific place.

A specific thing. Help us to fulfill that this day, Lord. Now, we're going to have communion.

And if anybody would like to come and pray at the altar. If, perchance, you happen to have a sneaky idea of what that difference is that God has made. And you're struggling with it.

Maybe you'd like to come to the Lord. Maybe if you're struggling with the idea of being chosen by God. And you'd like to come and talk to the Lord about it.

Or you'd like somebody to come and pray with you. If you'd just like to talk to the Lord about it. You don't have to try to be anything or do anything special or anything like that in order to be God's deliverers.

The Lord Himself will appear in you. You don't have to be that. And let it be a cheerful thing.