Why Did God Create You — Percy Ray

Christ’s Preeminence in Creation

You'll find the reading in the book of Colossians, chapter 1, verse 15, Colossians 1, 15, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by him were all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.

All things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and by him all things consist. He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence.

For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. 15 through 19, first chapter of Colossians. May we pray. Our Father, we thank you tonight for those that have praised you in song. Our Father, we pray now that your form, as it were, vacuum over the place.

Leave nothing but your presence in this service now. We pray that every person here shall be benefited by being here. Touch every heart. Open our ears and our minds to the truth. We pray, Heavenly Father, that you'll take thy servant and loose his tongue, illuminate his mind, give him holy unction, that he may say something that will be worthwhile to those who wait for it.

Thank you for this great church, this marvelous pastor that leads them, and those who lead with him. We pray that the lighthouse shall become more far-reaching than ever. She might be the witness that you put her here to be.

And now, Father, we pray now that you'll revive those of us that are saved and save the lost. We beg it for Jesus' sake. In Jesus' name. Amen. One verse of scripture in the first chapter of Genesis I want to leave with you.

Humanity Created in God’s Image

Genesis 1, 26 and 7. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

So God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him. Male and female created he them. Then I'd like to call your attention to the second chapter of Ephesians and the tenth verse. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God had before ordained that we should walk in them.

I want to raise three questions tonight. Why did God create you? Why did God save you? Why did God add you to the church and anoint you? First of all, my friends, I've read to you the scripture, By him and for him was all things created, heaven and earth.

Without him wasn't anything created. So I'm here to say to you in the beginning tonight, none of you are happy souls. You just didn't happen to be born. You just didn't happen to come along because mother and father were together.

But God brought you in the world for a purpose, for a plan. God looked down through the corridors of time, and saw in this day in which you live, the need for you. And a need for what he created you to do.

And he brought you forth into the world. So you are not an accident here. God created you. For this particular age in which you live and this particular day in which you are living, God brought you in the world.

Now what did God create you for? Why did God bring you in the world in this particular age in which you're in? You say, preacher, I don't know. Isn't that a tragedy? If I didn't know, I'd go and get on my knees and stay there until God revealed to me why I'm here.

I can't think of a greater tragedy in life than to live and die, and never know why God created me. To illustrate what I'm trying to say, Paul said, when I realized I was separated from my mother's womb, saved by God's grace and called of God and ordained God, to reveal Christ to the heathen, I didn't consult flesh and blood again to do what he put me here to do.

And from that day henceforth, Paul went forth to reveal Christ to the heathen. Wherever you find Paul, he's revealing Christ to the heathen. Before the Sanhedrin courts they said, Paul, we have you charged with thus and thus.

You're right, gentlemen. Well, let me tell you about when I met up with Jesus on the road to Damascus. Got in before the governor. The governor said, sir, we have you charged with thus and thus. He said, you do, your honor.

Rightly so. But before we get into that, governor, let me tell you, when I met up with Jesus on the road to Damascus. Then we remember that Paul was thrown in jail and whipped and beat and cursed and hated.

Spit upon. His hypersilence, no doubt, said, Paul, isn't it rough? We're just preaching the gospel and telling about Jesus got beat up and thrown in here. It's so hard to be Christian. Paul said, son, isn't it wonderful to suffer a little bit for him who suffered all for us?

And if you don't mind leading us in prayer, I'm fixing to start a song service and tell them about Jesus. Before daylight he had the whole crowd saved and baptized. Then when they carried Paul out and stoned him to death, he got up to paradise.

Saw how wonderful it was up there. But he realized he couldn't reveal Christ to anybody up there because there's already Christians. He asked God to let him come back. And Paul came back, his body lying there on the pile of rock.

He got to wiggling and come out of those rock, pile of rock, bloody all over, his clothes torn. Said, folks, hold on, let me tell you something. Just got back from paradise. Said, I can't tell you what it's like, but I'm going to tell you this much.

You're not allowed me to reveal it. You know why? If we knew how much better paradise was than this place, we'd all suicide to go to Mars. But he said, my spirit's groaning and moaning and grunting. I want to be absent from this spot and be present with the Lord.

Said, another thing I want to tell you. If this tabernacle is dissolved, we have a building not made with hands, eternal in them. Said, for me to live is Christ, to die is gain. Nevertheless, I want to stay down and get those evidence in the flesh to know Him.

John the Baptist and the Call to Repentance

There He is. Then there's another. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. Sent from God to prepare a people for the Lord. Now, John knew before he got here what he was going to do. Because when Mary went over to announce to Elizabeth, the mother of John, that Jesus was on the way.

And of course, John was going to be the forerunner of Jesus. That's what God brought him in the world for, to be the forerunner. And when she announced that Jesus was on the way, John had a jumping spell in his mother's womb.

Began to leap for joy. Because he knew why He was coming. And John came. And John prepared a people for the Lord. He began to preach, repent ye, for the King of Heaven is at hand. And as a result, a number of people repented and he went out and baptized them.

Then a group of religious folks, Pharisees, Sadducees, legalistic, ritualistic, religious crowd, run out to be baptized of John. John said, nothing doing. Now from here ye generation of vipers and snakes, your damnation slumbereth not.

Before I baptize you, you have to give some evidence of the fruits of repentance. And if you haven't repented, I won't baptize you. So you see, my friends, John wouldn't baptize anybody unless they had repented.

Unless they'd been born again. Because he's preparing a people for the Lord. And those people must be people that have repented. And so, then while he was preaching and baptizing, Jesus came on the scene.

Asked John to baptize him. John said, I have need be baptized of him, comest thou to me? Jesus said, John suffered to be so that it might fulfill the scripture. Tear out the plans of the Father. And John baptized Jesus in Jordan.

And he came straight way up out of Jordan. And the Holy Spirit landed, come down and sit upon him. And then God spoke out from heaven and said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Then Jesus takes those people that have been saved and constitutes his church.

He called them out. Jesus said, who do these folks say I am? They said, some say thou art John the Baptist, some say thou art one of the prophets. Jesus said to them, whom say ye that I am? Peter spoke up and said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Jesus said, blessed art thou because you have an experience from above. And I can use you. Jesus called those twelve men out and constituted the church. Now now, listen to me. Those twelve disciples, according to the Word of God, had to be baptized by John the Baptist to be a disciple.

Let me repeat it. Those twelve disciples of Christ had to be men that were baptized by John the Baptist. There could be no one else. See, John came to prepare the material. He preached salvation by grace and faith and new birth and experience from above.

Then he baptized them. And that made Baptists out of them. Then he baptized Jesus and that made a Baptist out of him. And the Holy Ghost come and put his approval on him and said, he is satisfied with it.

And God spoke out of him, lest anybody read it. He said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. John just got through baptized, making a Baptist out of him. And out of that Baptist material, Jesus took and constituted the church.

Jesus was a Baptist. The twelve disciples were Baptists. And they preached the only way to be saved is through Jesus Christ, plus nothing, minus nothing. And the Baptist church has been here ever since.

It will be here when the trumpet sounds. Now, you see, God sent John to prepare those men and to prepare Jesus. So, as John preached, you had to be born again, quickened. Why? Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall never prevail against it.

Why? He's built it out of born again people. Imperishable people. Eternal people. Everlasting people. Incorruptible people. And it can't perish. He built it on himself. He's eternal. He's the foundation of it.

He's the head of it. You can't drown the body, let alone keep head above water. So, Jesus is the head. So, he can't destroy the body. He's the body. And you're the body. So, John came along to do that.

Jeremiah’s Calling and God’s Purpose

Paul came along to do what I said he did. You want one a little more technical? I got it for you. Older book of Jeremiah, first chapter. Listen to it. Fourth verse. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee.

Before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee. And I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. While he's yet the dust of the earth. For he's ever broke forth. For he's ever planted in the mother's womb.

God knew him. I formed thee. I knew thee. Before thou camest forth, I sanctified thee and ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child.

For thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee. And whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces. For I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth.

And the Lord said unto me, Blessed, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I this day set thee over the nations, over the kingdoms, to root out, to pull down, to destroy, to throw down, to build, and to plant.

Before he was ever formed, God knew what Jeremiah was going to do. So I go on through the Scripture, just put up one after another. When? For he's ever born. God planned while he was coming into the world.

He planned and fixed for what they were coming into the world before they ever got here. If God hadn't had need of you for something in the day in which you live, you'd have never been here. Let me repeat.

If God hadn't had something for you, a purpose and a plan for you, in this day in which you live, you'd have never been in the world. God wouldn't have let you come. You'd have never been created. I don't care how poor you are, how rich you are, how intelligent, how ignorant.

I want you to get one thing tonight. That is that God brought you into the world for one purpose or plan of some sort. I repeat it. Without it, you wouldn't have been here tonight. You wouldn't have been in existence.

Salvation, Calling, and Spiritual Stability

Now let me tell you something else. Or look at Romans. We find another passage. For the gifts. It's in Romans 11, 29. For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance. Which simply means when you come to the world, you've got the gift and you've got the calling.

You may never repent. You may never yield to what God puts in the world with a gift and a calling and an ability to do. But you had it when you came. For everything out of his mother's womb, God had prayed for him to be appreciative.

Now he heard it, do it, until he repented. And then the gift came up from the calling and he yielded. Many folks never yield to the gift and the calling that God created them for. Because they've never repented.

Some have repented and got saved and they still haven't yielded. But they're living a miserable, confused life. My friends, the only reason any human being is confused is simply to. If you'll get saved, you'll know when God saved you without any doubt.

No matter what happens to you, you won't get confused. If I get sick, I know I'm safe. If I get beat up, I know I'm safe. If I start starving to death, I know I'm safe. If I get put in prison and burned to death, I know I'm safe.

I don't have to worry about that, I know I'm safe. That ankle will hold through any storm that hits. Then the other thing is, if you know you're doing what God created you to do, there's nothing that can confuse you.

See, that ankle will hold. And everything in the world can. It don't make any difference what happens to me. You can beat me up, you can hate me, you can slander me, you can curse me, you can try to destroy me.

But I know I'm safe and I know I've been called a priest. I'm doing what God called me to do and created me to do. And I'm not confused and the whole nation couldn't confuse me tonight. They didn't confuse.

And if you're living in a state of confusion, one of two things, you're either not doing what God created you to do and what's in the world to do. My dear people, if you get those two things settled once and for all, you can lift your hands and praise the Lord God of this universe.

And God help you to see it tonight. So as a result, see God brought all of us into the world for something. To give you some simple illustrations. You remember one day Jesus was going to teach a profound truth to 5 ,000 men and that many women and children probably.

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

And He'd set out down on the seaside to teach it and preach it to them. But time went on and the end of time had come. The disciples said, Master, it's dinner time. You better feed these folks. They're going to get hungry.

Send them away. We ain't got no food, no catering service. We can't get out here to feed that many people. No way to feed them. Send them away before they start fainting. Jesus said, All right, y 'all get in the boat.

They got in the boat and went on the other side. But the Scripture said the people out on the seaside, the disciples didn't know why He was going there. That 5 ,000 people with the women and the children didn't know why they was going over there.

But Jesus knew. Because God the Father looked down through the corridors of time and saw this hour of this day that Jesus would be teaching a great truth. When they pulled in, that's a little old freckled-faced, snaggled-toothed, bare-footed, red-headed boy.

Fishing. Kind of frightening because he caught two the day before. And his mother cooked them and cooked him five pieces of bread to go with him. But he's so determined that he's going to catch that man that he didn't even take time to eat.

It was a little while after dinner. He's so absorbed in teaching. All of a sudden he heard them all come looking around, those 5 ,000 men, the women, the children, all of them come in. He comes home. Oh, he's going to kill me!

He's going to kill me! Oh!

Oh, no, no, no, no. Don't get scared, son. We asked the man to go see the man out on the boat. We didn't come to see him.

God, he knew. He was on as close to the edge of the water as he could and got to looking too. Jesus pulled his boat up. Went to teaching again. Hour or two passed and the disciple said, Now listen, Master.

You better send this crowd home. This way at dinner time they're going to start thinking it's over in the evening. No way we can feed them. There's no catering service, no grocery stores, no restaurants, no none of that.

Master! Jesus said, Feed them! Said, Feed them. Two hundred pennies is all we got. That won't stop. And a little boy said, Mister, I got a little munchie. Can I have a bobble fix for me? One of the disciples said, Shh!

Jesus said, What's that? Shout out to the little boy here. He's got a couple of little feet, five feet of bread. He's trying to give it to you. What good is that to this crowd? Jesus said, Son, you want to get up?

Yes, sir. You're welcome. Wormy hands where he's been putting bait on the hook. Handle that lunch. Let me put it out there. Jesus said, Father, I thank thee for this boy's lunch. Bless it. Said the disciple, Set them down in the company of fifties and hundreds.

Get your basket. We're going to feed them. He began to pull that meat off and put it in the basket. Break them pieces of bread and put them in the basket. Fed that little boy all he could eat. He was so good.

Said five thousand men, the wives and children, when they got through, they had twelve baskets left. Said, Jesus said, Did anybody else want any more? Got twelve full baskets up here. They didn't eat all of them.

Now you listen to this. Do you think that was an accident? Gnosis. God looked down through the corridors of time and saw the need of that lamb and then preached. He created his mother to birth him.

And put teaching in his soul when he birthed him to have that out there.

Now if he'd have been there the day before or the day after, he was there when Jesus needed him. I raise this question. Are you going to be where Jesus needs you when he needs you? Or will you be out trotting around to see your kinfolks or picnic in the family reunion or something else instead of being there when Jesus needs you?

Prophecy, Providence, and Readiness

Now then, if you have doubt that God didn't know ahead of time, I'll cure that for you. When it comes time for Jesus to go into Jerusalem, he's going to need a coat to ride him and saw the need of it, of a coat, to ride him to Jerusalem.

Now watch it. He let an old prophet see that coat tied to that post 800 years before it happened. So don't think it's a jumped up affair. The old prophet of God saw a coat tied to a post and saw the disciples loose him and put Jesus on him to ride him to Jerusalem.

And they was going on in. Nobody knew nothing about it but Jesus. They was going into the city, stopped outside of the village and Jesus said, Go on young, you'll find a coat. Go in the city, you'll find a coat tied to a post.

Loose him and bring him here to me. Well, the coat's there, not what they went in there. And sure enough, there was that coat tied to that post. Loosed him. Started to lead him back to Jesus. And the man who wore him said, Hey!

What you doing taking my coat? Said, The Lord has the need of it. And he let him have it. And Jesus took that coat and rode him to Jerusalem. But mind you, a prophet of God saw that taking place 800 years ago.

What I'm trying to say, a lot of the work of God is not hip, rare and sudden. God's got it all penned and perfect. And he saw a need. He had a man to draw him, had him tied to the post. Now, if the coat had been there the day before or the day after, it wouldn't have worked.

So you remember, when God needs you, He wants you there when He needs you. But He has some need for you. Or He wouldn't have created you. That's why God created you. There was an hour when God needed a woman.

Son of Jesus. Son of God. Jesus. Needed somebody to anoint His feet. Little old woman had bought a box of almonds. She didn't know why. She spent all of her earnings doing it. It was expensive. They tell us it had the fragrance of a million roses in it.

That day when Jesus came on the scene, she was back. You say that wasn't much, but we've heard about it ever since. We've heard about the little boy in the peach ever since. We've heard about the man in the coat ever since.

God put you here to do it. If you don't, you'll miss your vote. And if you don't know what it is, and you yield to do it, my friends, you know God knows what He's doing. He has control. By Him. By Him.

By Him. For Him. Was all things created. Hey! He had a rooster. Sitting out there waiting. To tell Him to crow. To bring Peter back. Action in. Jesus said, Four men. Cock crows. You deny me three times.

Jesus said, Four cock crows you will. Three times. Old Peter got up there and got the cushion, said, Didn't know, Lord. He wasn't out there accidentally. He got there on purpose. If God used roosters and cows, He didn't use somebody like you and me.

Bishop of God. Let's honor God. One other. Passage of Scripture. One of my most favorite passages. I like it and I use it a lot. All the trees got together. Had a big convention. And they didn't have a moderator or president.

The Olive Tree and Faithful Service

So they got together and cast their vote. And elected the olive tree. President of all. They called in the olive tree and said, We've just elected you president of all of the trees.

You reign and rule over the trees. Olive tree sat in at one.

President of all the trees. President of all the trees. But if I go to be president of the trees, I won't buy no olives. And if I buy no olives, The olives that come off my tree are crushed and they make oil.

To keep the lights on in the house of God. When my olives that I bear is crushed, It makes oil for God to notice people when they need an oil. And if I go be president of the trees, There'll be no olives.

Therefore there'll be no oil for the lights in the house of God. And the lights will go out in the house of God. And God won't have no oil to notice people with. Olive tree reconsidered and said, If that's you, you can get you somebody else to be president.

I'll bear olives. And keep the lights on in the house of God. And keep anointing oil for the God of this universe to notice people. So my friends, In social and fraternal order, I'll make you the presidents in Queens.

Maybe God put you in the church. He'd be pleased to keep the lights on. With your means and your end thoughts. Oh, God help us to see it. And so then my friends, God knows what he's doing. He's not ahead of time or behind time.

The Pastor’s Calling and Perseverance

Your pastor won't mind me using him for a little stretching. I remember down there on the pine picket, At Greer Southline where the camp meeting was. Your pastor carried me out there and he sat me down.

And he said, Brother Ray, God's called me to preach.

But one of my lungs has collapsed.

The doctor said, can you preach to him and live long? He said, I don't understand why he called me. And then the lungs collapsed. And the doctors tell me if he'll ever preach. If God calls you to preach, You talk to him.

And he heard our prayers and said, well, to a moral degree, He's still preaching. You see, God looked down through the cars. When your church was weakening, Because it's been contrary. That's the reason he's dead.

He's behind time. He's right on it. If you don't know why God created you, I'll say it again. You're not an accident. You're not an accident. Such a day as this. Two good works. Which God has before ordained that you should do them.

It's the workings of God. Not mom and daddy. And not somebody else. It's the workings of God That brought you in this world. And lets you live in this day. Because he has something for you to do. And may God help you to find it.

And do it. Then, he saved you. So you could do it. As I said, the gift and the calling was in there when he created you. But without repentance, You don't come to birth. So as a result, Why did the Lord save you?

Why God Saves: Holiness, Fellowship, and Fruitfulness

My friends, First of all, He saved you. Each one of you. Because he had something for you to do and a purpose for you. Now God did not save you, If he please, Deliver you from the penalty of sin, necessarily.

God didn't save you. His purpose was not to keep us out of hell, But to get the hell out of us. So he could use us. Not to just take us to heaven, But to get us with heaven in us, So we could bless folks.

That's why God saved you. My friends, If the only reason God saved us is to keep us out of hell, Or to get us to heaven, The Lord wouldn't kill us as soon as we got saved. I know some Baptists, like a wasp, They're bigger when they first get saved.

Like a wasp, bigger when he's born than he is now. A lot of Christians, bigger when they're first saved than they are any other time. It would have been better if they had gone on to heaven, But God left them here.

And he wants to put heaven in us, Not to make us happy, But just make us feel good. That ain't why God saved you. He saved you, To present you full grown to Christ. To honor the Lord Jesus. His purpose is to make us holy, Without blemish.

In the day of our judgment, He presents us at the right hand of God, Without spot and without blemish. That's the reason he paid such a price for our redemption. His purpose is to make us fit, The inheritors fit for the inheritance of the saints of light.

We wasn't fit to inherit anything. He saved you so you could be an heir of God, And a joint heir with Jesus Christ, And inherit a lot of things that God's got for you. God saved us for another reason.

God was lonely. He craved fellowship,.

Companionship. You see after all, To create man in all image. You see God had created,.

And not a thing he created could appreciate what he'd done. Not a thing he'd ever created could talk with him, Or walk with him, Or fellowship with him. And God found himself in this vast universe, Of all things created by him and for him, In heaven and in earth, Controlled all the powers.

But he was so lonely, And he said, Let us create a man in our own likeness, Somebody we can walk with, And talk with. Companionship. Put him in the garden. God walked with Adam. God talked with Adam. God had companionship with Adam.

God fellowshiped with Adam. Adam lived with him. God, Loneliness over with. But that man sinned, And he couldn't stay in there with God anymore. God has left alone again. No companionship, No fellowship.

Nobody to talk with. He looked down through the ways. God was so lonesome. What can we do? To regenerate, To recreate, And put back where we can talk with God. To fellowship with God. Reason. God saves you ladies and gentlemen, Lads and lasses here.

He wants to walk with you. He wants to talk with you. He wants companionship with you. He wants fellowship with you. God loves you. He wants somebody to inherit part of you. And He creates, Recreates you, Or saves you.

My friends, That you, Might companionship Him, And fellowship Him, And inherit what He has, And help to glorify His name. He cares, And craves for companionship. That's why He redeemed us. Sin is son to suffer.

Unless we've been made fit through the shed blood of the Lord, We can't fellowship God. Paul mentions the condition on which the purpose of salvation is accomplished. If you continue in the faith, If you've got an experience of faith that's unshakeable, That's the kind it is.

Now this stuff will turn over and you will leave. Like Jesus told about a man that went to the sweeper's house, Clean and garnished and empty. Unclean spirit left him. Went out and sought a place of refuge and couldn't find any.

Deserted places, treeless places, dead places. He'd come back and looked in that fellow's house, And it hadn't got saved. All he was running around, he was running, He said, more spirits, more wicked than he was.

He left the house and went back and said, Hey fella, come on, a few other spirits, come on. That fellow's house I left still empty. We can all move in there. And all eight of them got in there. And Jesus said the latter state of that man is worse than the first state.

Now that's folks who run down the church aisles, I've got religion. Turn over and you'll leave and live right for three or four years. And the next thing you know they take out. And they're meaner than they ever were before they joined the church.

They don't want them out. They didn't get Jesus in there. And the evil spirits take out. And they had eight devils that stood along those devil dudes. Amen. That's how that happens. That's the way that happens.

So my friends, I want you to know, Paul said, You remember we had a crowd over in the local number some, And said we remember the good old cucumbers, onions, and garlic. And we ate it all over in Egypt freely.

But the ones that's right loved the manna. They loved to stay. And these cucumber, onion, garlic crowd all the time Went around dancing, drinking, cussing, desecrating God's day. They had never been into faith.

Faith must be steadfast. Not be swept aside by every wind of doctrine. Every seducing spirit and doctrine devil come along. It must be on a foundation. Conviction grounded on truth. As unmovable as rocks of Gibraltar.

God’s Threefold Purpose for Believers

You just can't live in a way and carry out God's purpose. We must have faith. We must have had an experience born of God. God's supreme purpose for our lives is three-fold. First, to transform us into living witness like Paul.

To the heathen that they might see God. Witness of His love and His power and His mission. Heal the light. Let the light shine that evil workers may go the other way. Then to make us channel of blessings.

He has no other channel through which the world will judge Him against Jesus by your life and mine. Your children's conception of God is determined by how you feel about God. How you treat God. The church is the channel.

To express our beliefs. Do something else. He set up His kingdom while He was here. Jesus put in action the kingdom of God. But He's going to have to leave His kingdom work and go do something else. You know what it is?

He's going to have to go now and fix us a place. See, man was put out of the garden. And he had nowhere to go when he died. And Jesus regenerated us and put us back in with God. We had nowhere to go when we moved out of these carcasses.

Jesus said, okay, in life all the time so many mansions. Do you believe what I mean? Believe in God and He'll fix you one way or another. I'll get it fixed and I'll be back and tell you to it. But where I am, there you may be also.

Jesus has gone to fix us a place. And death is only... Death means deliverance from this old carcass to the house not made with hands. The E means we make our exit into the next world. The A gives us assurance we've got somewhere to go if anything happens.

The T tells us that we're triumphant victorious over the grave and devil and hell. And the H stands, my friends, for home. Where we'll never roam. Eternal home. Everlasting home. Jesus said, I'll go to fix you.

Meet me up in my father's house and I'll fix you on. But while He's gone, while He's gone, while He's up there fixing it, His kingdom was about to be left by death. Then Jesus said, that won't do. So He called our twelve men, constituted the church, and said, you look after my kingdom while I'm gone.

I'll be back. Here's the keys. Whatever you bind here, I'll bind it up there. Whatever you loose here, I'll loose it up there. I'll be working with you, but I'm up there getting a place ready for you.

So, He's established a church to carry on the work of the kingdom while He's gone to work for me and you. He wants us to work for Him. He said, here's the keys. And then He said, occupied till I come.

You're occupied till I get back. Carry on till I get back. He built His church out of an imperishable eternal people so it'd never die. He fixed it where hell could never conquer it. And I want you to know tonight, my friends, you listen to the old man who's been across America for 49 years.