Choosing Rather to Suffer — Leonard Ravenhill

Christ’s Sacrifice and the Hope of Redemption

We thank you tonight for one, the only one, who could put away sins. What all the blood of beasts on Jewish altars slain could not give one guilty conscience peace or wash away one stain. But Christ the heavenly Lamb takes all our guilt away.

Lord, we read in your word today that our high priest does not need to make an offering every day. Once in the end of the age he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin.

He only could unlock the gate of heaven and let us in. Oh dearly, dearly has he loved and we must love him too and trust in his redeeming blood and try his works to do. Father, we thank you tonight for every redeemed soul, not only here but to the ends of the earth.

Lord, I look at some of these men I know, but for the grace of God they may be in prison tonight or in hell. When they were ready to fall on the edge of the precipice, out of time into eternity. When there was no eye to pity them, your eye pitied them.

When there was no arm long enough to reach them, your arm reached them. When there was no hand strong enough to grasp them, you lifted the beggar from the dunghill. I look at these precious fellows here tonight, these Mexican brothers, these Indians tonight.

Lord, I bless you that one day around the throne of God in heaven they'll be from every kindred and nation and people and tongue. Lord, whether some have been saved ten minutes before they were raptured or served Christ for 50 or 80 years won't make any difference.

We thank we're going into society which is ageless, endless, sinless, but not joyless, it's full of joy. Jesus is going to reign forever and ever. Lord, we bless you for that day when you said every knee shall bow.

Lord, we're anxious to see these villains who have ruled the empires of the world, Mussolini's and Stalin's and Hitler's. These men who have written the history of their countries in human blood. We think of all the millions who have marched to war, devastating so much.

And yet, Lord, we bless you, you're going to call, they're going to speak, and at the voice of the Son of God. Lord, there'll be millions of people who've heard your voice in church. They've heard it under conviction of sin.

They've heard it under the wrath of God. And yet they never obeyed that voice. God, what an awful thing. There are millions tonight who will never hear the voice of Jesus unless we have a Holy Ghost revival throughout the world.

But we've millions of people who have heard and they've not obeyed. But Lord, one day at the voice of the Son of God you said everybody shall come. They're going to obey your voice that time anyhow. Blessed Lord, we pray and thank you for mercy to us.

Thank you for mercy to our nation, our so-called Christian nation. We've broken every commandment of God a million times today and yet you seem to sit back and don't invade us. And Lord, we're praying for a Holy Ghost invasion before we have a Russian invasion, before we have an invasion of war or death.

We pray again, spare us, God, in our stupidity. Open our eyes, open our understanding, open our wills to do the will of God. Lord, show us the dross of this world and the glory of the world to come. Lord, we bless you for this holy word you've given, this lamp for our feet, this light for our path.

We praise you, Father, for all who down the ages, the men who were burned at the stake to give us this wonderful, wonderful book. I've been thinking tonight, Lord, of that wonderful young Scotsman, Hugh McHale, going to the marketplace as a young man, joyfully singing in front of the scaffold because he knew in whom he had believed.

We thank you that we know that tonight. We know in whom we have believed. Heaven and earth may pass away but, Lord, you have never broken a promise and you never will break a promise. Thy word, O God, is forever and ever.

And the sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. We thank you, you said this in Hebrews, Thy throne, O God, shall last forever and forever. We bless you again, you've singled it down. He didn't need the help of the Virgin Mary because, you say, that he by himself purged our sins.

Lord, I think at the moment when he said it is finished, I think every demon in hell must have been afraid. I believe every angel in heaven went into ecstasy because he put an end to the old sacrificial system and he abolished the priestcraft and made us a kingdom of priests unto God.

Lord, I bless you, these dear men, some here tonight may not have a penny in the bank, but they have the same standing at the throne of God as a multimillionaire. We may not be brilliant and read our Bible in Hebrew and Greek, but we thank you we read the Word of God.

And we thank you that you speak to us. Lord God of hosts, we thank you you do lift the beggar from the dunghill and make him a prince unto God. Lord, we've living testimony that you can only turn warts into wine, you've turned sinners into saints, you've turned liars into truthful people, you've changed the dead from death to life, you've brought the hopeless into hope, you've brought the unbelievers into belief, you've brought the faithless into faith.

We thank you that even as the old song says, the hill of Zion yields a thousand sacred sweets before we reach the heavenly fields or walk the golden streets. Lord, we bless you. I thank you for everybody who's been added to your kingdom through the mysteries around the world this very day.

I remember the precious saints in Russia tied up in prison. Lord, they hardly can get a breath of fresh air, never mind a new suit and new clothes. And yet, Lord, I bless you that they're not willing, they're like those wonderful people in Hebrews 11, not accepting deliverance.

God, I bless you for their stubborn faith. I thank you, Lord, they used to be intimidated, they refuse to be intimidated by men or by guns or by a system. Dear Lord, in heaven, we'll feel embarrassed at the sight of them.

We've lived an easy life today, and their daily toil is misery and grief and sorrow and anguish. And yet, Lord, as the hymn says of Jesus, who every grief hath known that wrings the human breast and takes and bears them for his own that all in him may rest, we thank you for this.

Let's sing a verse. I know not why his wondrous grace to me he hath made known. Well, let's begin at the beginning. That's a good place. Yeah. Good. No, don't do that. Forget that. No, he's a Mexican.

Well, we didn't expect that. We give it away. At least we give half to missions, which we usually do anyhow. Thank you so much. Well, again, I want to thank Dale. This prayer meeting began over in Brown's house, which is now part of Last Days.

I remember one afternoon we came down from Agape and had a cup of the, you know, that stuff. What's the stuff that Christians drink? Oh, tea. So we had a cup of tea and some cookies, and we prayed God would make that house a house of prayer.

I still get letters from guys even this week. I heard, I met you first at Brown's house. Oh, something happened at Brown's house. And I'm very grateful that they, over the years, have been good friends.

Thank God for what it's meant to me. And Brother Dale, we prayed together for years. Twice a week, now we've got to one. So it mustn't go to half, Dale. Glad to see him tonight. How's your daddy tonight?

Did he have his surgery? Oh, he didn't have surgery. His father's 95, and his mother's what? 94 and 93. You think you won't make it. You know, they've been married 72 years. Isn't that wonderful? Martha, dear, we've a long way to go yet.

Do you think you can put up with me another 25 years? Tell me when I get home. You know, I've had all kinds of suggestions about what to do when this meeting finishes. Well, it isn't finishing. I talked, as I should do naturally.

The first person I told was Dale. Then I told Melody. And then I told the council here. And they felt, I have felt, that this should be the last night. I think this is about the 500th prayer meeting we've been at.

So, boy, we've some responsibility. And I, no, I didn't feel anybody should take it on. They didn't. And what others have said this week is, why don't we break up all you've taught us, and have house meetings.

Well, that's the best thing. That's how the church began. For the first three centuries, Christians couldn't own property, either to live in or worship in. And I believe we're going to go back to that, as we've done in Europe and elsewhere.

Praying for Revival and the Return of the Upper Room

We're going to have the most amazing revival in history. This man, two men fired me up today. I didn't think they believed as I do. I thought I was the, you know, oddball on the universe. But this fellow says there must be an awakening.

After all, Jesus is not coming for a crippled old woman. He's not coming for the Laodicean church, which is poor, wretched, naked, blind and miserable. Did he go to Calvary? Did he go to hell? To produce the church so-called today?

Of course he didn't. There's going to be revival that will sweep past all the churches. Sweep past denominations and nations. If there wasn't, I wouldn't want to live. This famous preacher said to me today, Brother Avery, if God isn't going to move, I'd rather be removed.

But God answers prayer. What are these under the altar, it says in Revelation? Not the sermons. Good night. The Lord wouldn't preserve sermons in heaven. He says, what are these under the altar? The prayers of the saints.

And thank God for the prayer that's been offered so very often here. So, then, one thing I do know, when I said to Spencer the other day, I told you that the meeting was going to finish, he told his wife.

So his wife said, What will you do, Spencer, on Friday night? He said, I'll go up to my own church and pray there. Later I saw Sonny, and Sonny said he'd been considering, after we had made the announcement, they'd been having a prayer meeting Saturday nights up at, what do you call it now?

I can never say the thing. Community Christian. It's a clumsy title, change it. Community Christian Church. They're going to have a prayer meeting Friday nights for two things. It's a prayer, no preaching.

I preach too much, maybe. It's going to be prayer from half past seven till half past eight, then out to the streets, and when you've got warmed up, go out and spread the gospel down in Thailand. Now that's the way to do it.

They didn't stay in the upper room too long. We've changed the upper room for the supper room now, so nothing happens. There's going to come another upper room. There's going to be a moving of God. You young men are my hope.

I've had no wages. Of course I've had wages. We've got a bunch of men that could hardly pray. A few years ago now they pray with tears, and I believe that's more precious to God than you giving a million dollars to missions.

This man said to me today, this famous author, Brother Enid, I need to pray so I can pray with brokenness. I got a letter yesterday from a young man that we met in 79 in Fort Smith. He was a bus driver, and God got hold of him, and he wrote such a letter this week, you'd think David Brenner or somebody wrote it.

He said, I've moved into a depth of prayer I didn't know existed, and just when I thought I got there, God showed me I'm water to the ankles, I need to get to the knees, I need to get to the loins, I need water to swim in.

I heard a man say a daring thing this week. He said, Lord, I want to be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. All people say, Friday night is my church. Great. Pay your tithes tonight, but anyhow.

No, this is your church? That's good. You know what it says? I've been reading a book this week about preaching. I love to read about preaching. And it says that in Scotland, when the preacher preached, as they do preach there, I'm talking about nearly a hundred years ago, that the conversation in the home, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, was the two sermons they heard on Sunday.

Where does that happen anymore? You know why it doesn't? Because there are no preachers. We've got teachers, we've got preacherettes, preaching sermonettes to Christianettes who smoke cigarettes. And that wasn't Shakespeare, it was me.

Preaching, Holiness, and the Judgment Seat

But preaching has to come back. I'm not going to say much, but there's a man who moves my heart. I met him 40 years ago in Wales. He has a church now up in North, where is it? North Fort Worth. The church is called Bethesda.

He's a remarkable man. He has two PhDs. I never knew a thing about him last week. He has a colossal mind. He has a burdened heart. He has a vision. He has a vocabulary. He has a voice. Go and hear him sometime.

I'm not telling you to run away from your church. But the special thing about that man is this. He tells the congregation, get out of here. He isn't trying to get a crowd. You see, we think crowds are evidence of success.

They're not. Neither in our personal life, in church life is a crowd an evidence of spirituality. It's maneuvering very often. But that precious man can preach. If you want to hear him at his best, he preaches Tuesday morning at 10 o 'clock.

In the tape I heard he said, the things I'm saying to you this Tuesday morning I would never dare say Sunday morning in my church. Because he preaches to people who've moved up in the Spirit. He's at a depth that there's no preacher around like that I know of.

So I'm not telling you to run away from your church. I'm saying if you're shopping, and I know a lot of you go to, you go to Dallas, to Neiman Marcus, and the rest of you go to Kmart, or you go to Sam's.

So while you're out there, slip up the road a bit further and hear that wonderful man. Another thing I heard this week was that, okay, you can have it. Talking about prayer, I heard of two churches. If you're going to join a church, what I would, I suggest you take a piece of paper with you and put a H here for every time the preacher mentions hell.

And put one here, E for eternity. Put one here for missions, if you like. And put a line underneath, and every week for the first month, see how much the man talks about eternity. See how much he talks about hell.

There's not much preaching. Oh, I heard somebody say the other day, find a church where you're comfortable. That'll kill you. Dear God, you're half dead now. Why go to a church where you're comfortable?

Go to a church where you're uncomfortable. Go where they preach about hell. Go where they stir your conscience. Go where you have to go back and do some repairs. Don't be lulled to sleep by some fancy choir.

The test of a preacher, and they hate me to say this, but, you know, the test of this, Sunday morning in America it's fashionable to go to church. Sunday morning shows how popular the church is. Sunday night shows how popular the preacher is.

Prayer meeting shows how popular God is. I've quit, and I'm going to get down to business writing a book on the judgment seat, which I have to write. It's painful. Honestly, it scares me. I tremble. I go to bed as early as I can, get up at midnight often.

I told you about the hymn we sang at first where the young man was in a house and it burned down. I get up at midnight. I go to my office, look across to my neighbors, see if his house is on fire. If it isn't, I pray.

And if it is, I pray. But it hasn't been yet. But there he is. He's got a wife and children. I love him and I want to pray for him. But you see, I've given up three national conventions this year and I'm not boasting about it.

I've got to get down to business. Something has to come. John Wesley did not invent the doctrine of justification. It had been forgotten and he revived it. Pardon me, Martin Luther. Before him, Huss. Huss was a...

Well, Huss was the man that provoked... Actually, Huss provoked Martin Luther. Martin Luther rediscovered justification by faith. Wesley rediscovered sanctification by faith. Now there's something else that has to be rediscovered.

One of the tragic things of the last few days is this, that one of the great preachers there said, you know, the trouble in the world is we've lost sight of the rapture. That's not true. Well, we may have.

But these very guys that have been preaching the rapture most have crashed and shocked the world in the last year. It's not that we've lost sight of the rapture. We've lost sight of the judgment seat.

Do you think they'd go into that sin if they had an eye on the judgment seat? You and I have to live with eternity's values in view, not live like other Christians and other people. I've told you so often, I'm sick, I'm sick, I'm tired of mediocrity.

I want to see a church where there's a pillar of fire that says God's in residence. And that's going to happen. And that's why we've been praying for these years. I got a letter this week from a young man.

He's from Africa. He said, Mr. Rainer, I don't understand America. I don't understand America, your religion, your Christianity. The presence of God isn't there. I got a letter from India this week, a young man that sat here a few weeks ago.

He said, Mr. Rainer, I said when I lived in America, we have imitation Christianity. But the missionaries have taken that imitation Christianity to India, and now we have an imitation of the imitation.

There's no moving presence of God. There's no fear. We don't walk out in our tiptoes. We don't go home and discuss the sermon. Dear God, we have to get home before we turn the wretched TV thing on. You won't go to heaven because you get rid of a TV.

You won't go to hell because you have one. It's a case of your intimacy with God. If I have one ambition, it's to be closer to God every day of my life. I know in whom I have believed. You know that. But there are five billion people out there.

We'll never evangelize the world with what we've got. Most of the missionaries go with the Bible. They hit a Mohammedan on the head, and he hits them back with the Quran. So two things, and I'll rush on.

New Birth, Restoration, and Apostolic Holiness

Some people talk about reconstruction in the nation. How can you reconstruct carnality? If you go to the greatest of modern historians, who is Arnold Toynbee, not because he's English either, but Toynbee says we built 19 permanent civilizations and said this will last forever.

They've all collapsed. We're trying to rebuild with what? Carnality. Unless men are born again, we go back to the same old wretched thing. Then somebody else is talking about, that's reconstruction. You can't do it.

It takes the miracle part of the new birth. Then the other thing is, they're talking about restoration. What do you mean? All get together? That's not restoration. That's amalgamation. I had a guy say last Sunday, I watched the TV for once.

He held up a book worth $5. Send me $50 to keep my ministry on the air. No, to keep his private jet in the air. It's not to keep the message on the air. And these guys don't have it anyhow. I would pray for restoration.

If you mean restoration like the deacons, tell me a church that has deacons like, at Pentecostal to Pentecostal to Presbyterian, where the deacons like Acts 1 -8 are full of faith and of the Holy Ghost.

When the preacher isn't there, you don't have to say, get us a preacher. You can say, Deacon Jones, you fill it, and he comes full of faith, of the Holy Ghost. There are signs and wonders of merit. That's the exodus.

Do you know what the proof? The Catholic Church says it's in apostolic succession. The Church of England says it's in apostolic succession. Do you know there's one proof of apostolic succession? Do you know what it is?

I'll tell you. It's simple, profound, apostolic success. That's the only proof. Argue your head off. The shattering thing, and I'm kind about this, dear God, I have to face him. The giants that have fallen, all Pentecostal.

They're all full of faith, full of the Spirit, guidance of the Spirit, gifts of the Spirit. They can see out there, there's a woman somewhere in America with a floating kidney. They pray for her. Surely there's one woman out of 250 million with a floating kidney.

So what is it? All we're going to have to do is have a reconstruction of holiness, holy living. This book was not written by scholars and doctors and professors. Just one class of men wrote this book.

Do you remember who they were? Holy men of God, spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And it's going to take holy ghost filled men. If all the deacons were like they are in Acts 6, what does it say?

Of Stephen, a young man, full of faith and of the Holy Ghost. That's God's standard for deacons. Go to the 8th chapter of Acts. What does it say there? There's a young evangelist by the work of Philip.

Why does the Scripture say do the work of an evangelist? It doesn't say preach like an evangelist. Do the work of an evangelist. What did he do? Well, he just went down the road to a city. Signs and wonders and miracles.

The whole city was rocking with joy. There's no joy like the presence of God. I've told you so often entertainment is the devil's subject for joy, substitute for joy. And when you get satisfaction out of that dumb thing, your joy will diminish.

God is a jealous God. We're going to have to be boundless in our joy, in holy ecstasy. Well, there's the introduction. I just want to pass a few thoughts on from the epistle to the Hebrews. You know, if you were here last week, and I tell you, I've wrestled and struggled with that.

It's not what those people did in Hebrews that stirs me, it's what they didn't do. They didn't accept deliverance. I told you they stood there and watched the lions chew up babies, chew up their wives.

Faith That Reckons, Risks, and Rests

Not accepting deliverance. Well, look at Hebrews 11. Verse 23 says, By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child, and they were not afraid of the king's commandments.

What do we say about faith? Faith does three things. It reckons, it risks, and it rests. It reckons God is. The key word in Hebrews 11 is faith. The key verse is verse 6. He that cometh to God must believe that he is.

That he's what? That he's just endless in his power. That after all he's poured out over the ages, God is not drying up in his resources. Wesley wrote 200 years ago, Jesus thou art all compassion. If he wasn't, we'd be roasting tonight.

Dear God, we've sinned more sins in America today than the rest of the world may be. We claim we've 600 million Bibles. That's three for almost for every person in America. How many have been read today?

I'm not concerned how much you know about the Word of God. I ask guys that come in, my brothers that come in my office, I don't ask them anymore. I say this, do you know God? They back off. Well, that's the only thing you're in the world for.

If I say to you, why did Jesus come into the world? You'll say, he came into the world to save sinners. That's not what Jesus said. What did Jesus say? In the 17th chapter of the Gospel of John, the most amazing chapter, maybe in the Bible, what did he say?

He says that they may know thee, the only true God. He didn't come to rescue you from hell. He didn't come to change your rotten habits. He didn't come to make bad men good, he came to make dead men live.

And if you live in him, you'll reach for him, you'll love him more. There's nothing he can ask of you. Love is extravagant, love is unreasonable, love is beyond comprehension, God, soul of the world. The only way you can explain God's love is I saw a soul.

And he's asking us to come to that same position. Anyhow, three things that faith does, it reckons on God, God is, and it risks, and it rests. What did the mother of Moses do? She took some little kind of basket, and took that little treasure that she had and put it in the water.

What did she do? She reckoned on the faithfulness of God. She risked, she walked away. The crocodiles could have eaten the little thing, the lid could have blown off, and the baby could have roasted in the sun.

Somebody else could have stole it. But she believed God. So she reckoned on God, she risked on God, and she rested on God. But there's Moses when he was come to earth. You know this character I'd like to, I won't ever have a chance maybe, he's just such a wonderful parallel in the life of Moses and the life of Jesus.

Why, Moses was hardly born before they, the king said, kill all the children. Jesus was only hardly born before Herod said, kill all the children. Jesus was born, as I've said so often, what's the puzzle about Jesus?

What's the trouble with the last Adam? Jesus was the last Adam, not the second Adam. And the last Adam was born with what? Without a father. So what's the problem? The first Adam was born without a mother.

Thank you. So what are they worried about? We hear very little about the father of Jesus. All we hear about is the blessed virgin. Okay. We don't hear much about anybody except that this woman came along and Moses was called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

So when Jesus was born, when Moses was born, he was born in a slave hut. When Jesus was born, he was born in slavery because the nation was dominated by Rome. Jesus was born in poverty, Moses was born in poverty.

They both had godly protection. So Moses moves in three sections of 40. The first 40 years, well, where was he? Okay, he was protected by his mother, his loving mother, foster mother if you like. How she cared for him.

Read the 7th chapter of Acts when you go up, it tells you about him. The first 40 years he was educated in the universities of Egypt. The first 40 years. The second 40 years he learned a lot more than the first 40 because he lived with his mother-in-law.

And the third 40 years he ruled over a nation. But you see God's working in this man. He has every hostility that Jesus had. You remember when the brothers and sisters of Jesus turned on him and they were mad because of his prominence?

And his own household turned him out. Moses had exactly the same thing. Do you remember what his sister did? She ridiculed him. What happened? God smote with leprosy. Do you know if God smote us for our gossiping and criticism we'd have to turn this into a healing meeting?

The Cost of Discipleship and the Discipline of Time

Two things you need to watch. Your time. We're careless with our time and we're careless with our tongues. The tongue is sharper than a twedged sword. Every bit of gossip and slander and criticism in church or out of it is coming up at the judgment.

There's not a word being lost. Every word of slander, every word of criticism, every word of opposition in the church, it's all coming up. The things you say with your little group. I heard a guy say recently, you can't go to a church where there are not cliches.

Little groups are for sure. I went to a church there was a notice board it said the brothers will meet for golf and the wives will meet over here. Well, you're going to get that anywhere. You see, you can't help what you hear very often but you can help what you say.

My mother used to say if I got a bit careless against my sister, Len, keep your tongue between your teeth. You know, this little thing slips so much, doesn't it? Well, it's in a wet place that's why. And how easily it gets out of control.

But every idle word we spoke we were going to be accountable in that day. Well, let me show you this man again, this babe. There he is unprotected except the eye of God is on him. He's down in Egypt. Well, Jesus went down into Egypt just after he was born too.

But Moses goes and he's educated all the wisdom. That's what it says. It says in the 7th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He possibly spoke a dozen languages.

Maybe he had all these languages so he could meet the Hittites and Perizzites and other people later on. But he's learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. It says he was mighty in word. Well, you know as well as I do, he was no orator.

He stammered. Why does it say he was mighty in word? Because he was a statesman. He's a statesman. Moses was up in the cloud with God. What happened? He was there for 40 days, 40 nights. Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days.

Moses on the backside of the desert for 40 years. And they both come out more than conquerors. But going back to this a minute, Moses again is criticized by his family. It's one thing to see him going down Main Street, which obviously he did.

Josephus says he was appointed to be the next king. Maybe Ramesses III. Maybe so he went to, where was it? Dallas. They showed all the gold trimmings of Amenhotep's King Tut's a few months ago. You know one thing they found when they went into that, where was it?

Luxor in 1920 an English lord and Leonard Woolley went. And they found that casket with a sarcophagus of gold on the top. And they found lots of things. And they found a little thing about 6 inches high, a tree and a ram with the horns in the tree.

Well they knew how to decipher everything else. And they said, well this isn't an Egyptian god, what in the world is it? So one guy said rather nervously, well I used to go to Sunday school. Oh you went to Sunday school, what's he got to do with this?

Well there's a story there about Abraham and he was going to offer his son and a ram came in the thicket. And God had that thing smuggled into that casket to wake those guys up 5 ,000 years after. But they were stunned when they saw all those things.

The richest treasure ever found. Well Moses was in line to go on that throne that ruled over the world at that time. And look down here for a minute. Now in Hebrews 11 we hear about Moses' mother then we come to verse 24.

By faith Moses when he was come to years. The Hebrew there says what's the Hebrew word there? Instead of when he was come to years, when he was come to maturity. No it says when he was come to greatness.

This isn't some rash decision. You see when Jesus came to his own, his own received him not. Jesus went, Moses went out and he saw some men fighting and he supposed they would understand. You know that word isn't in the Bible often but it's a mess when it's context is.

Moses thought well if I deliver this if I kill him they'll see I'm a type of the deliverer. They didn't see anything of the kind. He supposed that they would understand the greatest event in the history of the world.

It had shocked hell. All hell had gone into pandemonium. All heaven had gone into ecstasy. Why? Because Jesus rose from the dead and a woman went. What? To cheer him? She went to embalm him. That's not very flattering.

I told you the other week a man phoned me and he said you've been such a blessing in my life. I want to do something for you. I'd love to do something for you Mr .Ramiel. I'd really want to do something for you.

I thought what in the world is he chewing at? Do you know what he said? He loved me so much. He said can I be a pallbearer at your funeral? Wasn't that gracious? Or is it another way of saying drop dead?

But this woman came and she supposed it was the gardener. She mistook Jesus for the gardener. She supposed. The father and mother of Jesus went to the temple. The greatest festival they ever had. And coming home they said goodbye to aunties and uncles.

They talked about the high priest and the other priests that were anointed. They got lost in all the show. And when it came to the sundown Mary says to Joseph well how did Jesus get on today? He says well darling you know he's been with you.

No he hasn't. They supposed he was in the company and he wasn't there. She supposed he wasn't in the company and he was there. It's a tragedy when you go to church and you don't know whether Christ has been present or not.

You got lost in the choir. You have such a good choir. You have a nice gentle preacher that never disturbs you, never troubles your conscience, never sends you out to weep. Oh I hate that word. Somebody quoted it the other day.

Oh well you know we're only human. What do you mean in God's name? You're redeemed and you're only human? If you're really in the spirit according to Romans 8 you have the spirit of Christ, you have the spirit of God and the Holy Spirit.