Have You Seen Your Calling Yet — Carter Conlon

This message is one of the Times Square Church pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other takes are available by writing World Challenge P .O. Box 260 Lindell, Texas 75771 or calling 903 -963 -8626.

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Discovering God’s Calling

My message this morning is a question. And the question is, have you seen your calling yet? Have you? Have you seen your calling yet? And there are so many people who say, Lord, just show me what you called me to do.

Lead me, guide me. Give me understanding of what you've called me to be and how you've called me to live as a Christian. And so many of that is the depressing question, especially on the heart of a hungry Christian.

Now, those that are not hungry for God really don't even consider these issues. These are really issues for those that have that that inward desire to live for God and to live a life that is honoring to him.

Dependence on the Holy Spirit

Father, I thank you for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, I thank you for your quickening power. I thank you for the life that you give. I thank you that if you come, the word comes alive.

If you withhold your presence, it's only a dead letter. It can do no good for any heart. And so, Holy Spirit, we acknowledge you. We acknowledge your presence. We acknowledge our need of you. I acknowledge my need.

I dare never stand and speak the word of God without your anointing. Father, I thank you for the grace to disappear, that Jesus, you may appear, that your word may be larger than life. God, that your truth may find a lodging place in the hearts of all hearers that you've gathered in this house today and those that will hear this message in the coming weeks.

Father, we thank you for it, God, with all our hearts, that your kingdom is going to advance and the name of Jesus Christ is going to be loved and honored in our hearts and in this house today. We thank you for it in Jesus' mighty name.

Moses’ Commission and the Call of God

Exodus chapter 4. If you'll turn there with me, please, the second book from the beginning of the Bible for those that are new to Christ. Exodus chapter 4. Have you seen your calling yet? We're going to begin at verse 10, read through to verse 17.

And Moses said unto the Lord... Now, you have to understand that Moses has been given an incredible call here of God, which we're going to talk about. And this is his response to the Lord. And it's a typical response of many people who are called by God.

And Moses said to the Lord, Oh, my God, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant, but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue. And the Lord said unto him, Who made man's mouth?

Or who maketh the dumb or deaf or the seeing or the blind? Have not I the Lord? Now, therefore, go, and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say. And he said, now this is Moses, Oh, my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send.

And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. And he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee. And when he seeth thee, he shall be glad in his heart.

And thou shalt speak unto him and put words in his mouth. And I will be with thy mouth and with his mouth and will teach you what you shall do. And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people. And he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth.

And thou shalt be to him instead of God. And thou shalt take this rod in thy hand wherewith thou shalt do signs. Now, this man, Moses, was a man specifically prepared of God for a mission that God had entrusted to his life.

God’s Unique Purpose for Every Believer

And I think it's important for all of us, before we even get into this message, to understand that God has a purpose for your life. You and I were not saved just to come to church and experience his presence and sing songs.

Now, that's part of it. That's wonderful because we are created to worship him. But we are created for a purpose. There is a unique design that God planned from before the foundation of the world for you.

Even before you were formed in your mother's womb, God knew you. And he had a plan for you. And it's a calling that's very unique to you. No one else can fulfill your calling. You have a unique spot as it is in the wall of the temple of God.

You are a stone that's being fashioned individually by God's hand. And no one else can do what God has called you to do. Now, the Lord gave Moses an incredible mission. He told him, go and get your family out of captivity.

You have, as it were, almost two to three million relatives, brothers and sisters. We can liken it to you and I today. For example, we know all nations are born of one blood. We have family as it is all throughout the world of every race, every nationality, color, every language, every culture.

And God said to Moses, I'm calling you now to go and get them out of captivity. They've been gripped by a horrible demonic power that is now squeezing the very life out of them and is causing their firstborn to be put to death.

It's causing their hope and their strength to diminish. And I'm calling you now, Moses. I'm calling you to stand and I'm going to do something in you and through you that is going to release millions out of the captivity of darkness.

Moses, go get them and bring them into a place of promise which I've provided for them. I don't see any higher calling on the life of a Christian than to be God-gripped, than to allow the Holy Ghost to have access and sway to every area of our lives and hearts and say, Holy Spirit, grip me.

Grip my mind, my thoughts, my heart, my actions, my past, present, future. I surrender it all into your hands and I ask you, Holy Spirit, to take my life and use me to glorify the name of Jesus Christ by bringing people that you love out of captivity and bringing them into the glorious freedom of Jesus Christ.

That wonderful victory that was won on Calvary 2 ,000 years ago. And the Lord says to Moses, now I'm not just calling you, but I'm going to give you power over their oppressors. There's a power that is oppressing my people.

God said, I'm going to give you power over this power. In Exodus chapter 4, verses 3 and 4, the Lord said, verse 2, he said, what do you have in your hand? And he said, I have a rod, the shepherd's staff.

And he said, cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground and it became a serpent. And Moses fled before it. And the Lord said to Moses, put forth thine hand and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand and caught it and it became a rod in his hand.

Now, some commentators say that the serpent was the symbol of power in Egypt. Many of the pharaohs would have the symbol of a cobra on their headdress. And there may be some validity to that. Essentially speaking, God was saying to Moses, listen, I'm going to give you to what I'm about to do in your life and through your life.

And if you will trust my word, I'm going to give you power over the power that oppresses my people. He said, throw it down. It became a serpent and he ran from it. And you see, the man or woman, the person who doesn't know God will always flee from their fears.

And God said to Moses, I'm going to do something so deep in you that you're not going to be afraid of fear anymore. Fear is not going to have any power over you. Moses, you're going to stand before the most powerful, wicked ruler in your generation.

And with nothing more than a stick in your hand, confidence in God, you're going to make a declaration to him. You're going to say, let my people go. And Moses, he's going to have to obey you. It's an incredible thing.

I often wonder as I read this story, why did Pharaoh put up with this? Why did Pharaoh for so long let this old man and his brother come walking into his presence and make these declarations and bring these plagues upon Egypt?

You see, he was powerless to do anything. There's only one answer. God's hand was on the entire situation. He is in control of everything that happens. Nothing happens without his permission. He said, listen, you don't have to flee now any longer, Moses.

You don't have to run. Moses had been running for 40 years from fear. He had in his own self-will slain an Egyptian. He had attempted to bring about deliverance for his own people in his own way, and it had been rejected.

Fearing the exposure of his self-effort, he had run into a land called Midian. And he'd been there for 40 years fleeing, as it is himself, from the power of Egypt. But the Lord said to Moses, now, and this is very significant, he said, put forth your hand and take it by the tail.

Now, you see, if you know a cobra or any kind of a venomous snake, they don't turn their back unless they're running from something. I don't know if a snake has a back. I don't know if that's the appropriate thing to say.

But let's just say they don't turn tail unless they're fleeing. And a venomous snake doesn't flee. A venomous snake by instinct stands and fights with everything that it's got. And God said to Moses, don't you run from the snake anymore.

Because of what I'm about to do, the snake is going to run from you. And Moses, you run, you just go and grab it by the tail. You see, a snake keeper or charmer would never grab a snake by the tail because it'll turn around and bite him.

They would always pick them up from behind the head. But Moses says, no, the power of Egypt is going to flee from you, Moses. I'm going to give you power. You see, Jesus Christ has commissioned the church of which you and I are part.

He told us that we're to be witnesses of the victory of Jesus and his power over the powers of darkness in the places that he sends us to throughout the entire earth. Acts 180 said, you shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you.

You shall be witnesses of me in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth. This is the call of the church of Jesus Christ. He says, you are not to run from your fears anymore.

You're to face your fears. You are to walk headlong and you are to take what formerly chased you. You're to chase it now. And by faith, you're to take it up in your hand. Jesus himself said in Luke 10, 19, Behold, I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy.

And nothing shall by any means hurt you. He didn't say, I give you power over some of the enemy's power. He said, I give you power over all of the enemy's power. And nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Christ as the Enabling Power of God

Now, leave a marker in Exodus chapter 4 and go to 1 Corinthians in the New Testament, if you will. Right after the book of Romans, you'll have Acts, Romans and then 1 Corinthians. Chapter 1. Paul is speaking about an incredible truth that thankfully some in his generation were able to lay hold of.

1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 23. He says, But we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power.

And the word power in the Greek text means the enabling power. We preach Christ, Paul says, as the enabling power of God. And the wisdom, or may I also call it the enabling wisdom of God. Paul is saying to the Romans, We preach Christ as everything a man needs to do everything that God has called him to do.

We preach Christ as the source of entire life and strength to fulfill the call to the letter that God puts on every man and woman's life. He said, Because the foolishness of God, verse 25, is wiser than men.

In other words, if God were able to make himself foolish, even as foolish as he could make himself, he would still be wiser than the wisest natural man. And the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling.

My question was, have you seen yet your calling? For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, and not many noble are called. For God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.

Now there's a reason why those who are naturally strong are not called. There's a reason why the kingdom of God cannot advance through people who rest on natural talent and ability. And you're going to see that in a minute.

But God has made a choice. He said, I don't want those that are strong in themselves. I want those who know they are foolish. I want those who know that they are weak. I want those who know that they are base.

They are the lowest things of the world. I want those that everyone else has cast out and despised. I want those that the natural man in the natural world wants nothing to do with. These are the qualifications to be used in the kingdom of God.

God has chosen these things, yea, the things which are not to bring to naught the things that are. Or in other words, to take away the power. To make idle it actually means. To take away the existing power.

God said, I have chosen the weakest, most despised, foolish vessels I can find in the universe. And I put my enabling power upon them. That through them, the existing powers that captivate the hearts and lives of millions of people may be broken.

And others may be released from captivity into the glorious liberty of Jesus Christ. That all men may come to the understanding it's not by human might. It's not by human power. It's by my spirit, saith the Lord.

It's by the grace, the almighty goodness of God that we live, Paul says, and move and we have our being. Verse 29, he says, that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

That according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. You see your calling. Now, listen to me carefully. Moses, in spite of all the promises of God towards him and all the displays of God's power.

God had given him signs. He had shown him the serpent. He was able to pick it up by the tail and became by faith. It couldn't harm him. He gave him another sign. He said, put your hand inside your coat.

Take it out. It was leprous. He put it back in again. He took it out. It was holy. He said, I can do anything. I can heal. I can restore. Leprosy was a disease, of course, which was the ultimate uncleanness in that generation.

You were cast away as it is from the society that you were part of, put into an unclean place. Never to return all of your life to be walking around crying unclean everywhere you go and having people recoiled from you in horror.

And God said to Moses, there's no longer anything that I can't cleanse. There's no situation I can't change. He was giving him the displays of his power in some very tangible ways so that he could understand it.

And some of you, many, many who are here today, you are an absolute testimony of the changing power of God. You know you're a living miracle. You sit here today, you say, I'd be in a mental hospital. I'd be in prison.

I'd be dead of drugs if God's Spirit hadn't come upon me. You were insane, but now you sit here in your right mind. You are vicious and vile. And God came and gave you a new heart and gave you a new spirit.

You say, Pastor, this is true. This is true. There's nothing impossible with God. He can change anything he wants to change. And Moses knew this. God gave him the sign and the knowledge. He had the knowledge.

But somewhere along the line, the knowledge has got to translate itself into a belief, a heartfelt, life-changing belief that this change is not just for me, but it's for all who call on the name of the Lord.

And lastly, he said, I'll give you another sign. He said, take water out of the river. If Pharaoh doesn't believe, pour it, and it'll become blood on the dry ground. He said, I can change any element.

I can change any situation. I mean, the typology is obvious. Ultimately, it was the blood of God Almighty himself that was spilled on the ground that made the pathway to freedom. And it's incredible when you begin to see it, because everything points to the cross.

Everything is about the covenant that God made with his son and about the new life that he promises each one of us through him. But in spite of all the promises and all the displays of God's power, Moses still had to fight through the same struggles of unbelief which you and I have through today.

We all fight with unbelief. You want to know how I know why? Because the Bible says every temptation, every trial is common to all men. I fight with it. You fight with it. We all fight with it. It's a struggle sometimes when we look in the mirror to believe that God actually can do to us what he says he will do.

We hear the distant voice of the Spirit calling, and we make a mistake of looking in the mirror and saying, God in heaven, that's a wonderful idea. I hope you sure find somebody that can do it, because it's not going to be me.

Unbelief and the Fear of Inadequacy

Exodus 4 .10, Moses getting this incredible call. He says, Lord, I'm not eloquent. I've never been before, and I'm not now, but I'm of a slow speech and of a slow tongue. Moses would basically say, that's an incredible thing.

You're calling somebody to stand before the most powerful king that this world knows. And I don't have the ability. I don't know what to say. I don't have the power. I don't have the resources to do this thing.

I have no commending presence. Nobody has ever listened to me before. I mean, even Hebrew slaves wouldn't listen to me. I lost my influence in Pharaoh's court, and now you're calling me to stand before this king?

They'll listen to me. And you see, that's the very root of what causes people to miss their calling. It's that unbelief. And then in verse 13, well, God answers in verse 11 and says, who made your mouth?

Do you not understand who you're talking to? God says, I make everything. I make all things. I've already shown you I can change any situation. Why would you want to limit my power now? Remember the children of Israel?

They did the same thing. They came out of Egypt through the leadership of Moses. And the scripture says in the Psalms that they limited the holy one of Israel. They put parameters on him and said, well, you can do this, but can you do that?

Yeah, I know you saved me from drugs, but really? Calling me to preach the gospel or be a missionary or to go into a foreign culture that I don't understand? I know nothing about. And to stand and make declarations of truth?

Then in verse 13, he says, oh, my Lord, I send I pray thee by the hand of whom thou wilt send. Now, other translations all basically say the same thing. Lord, please send someone else. That's the New Living translation says it that way.

Please? This is a marvelous idea. God, I'm with you. I'm with you in heart. I did my part 40 years ago. I killed an Egyptian. I buried him in the sand. You know, you were there. You saw it. I'm with you.

And whoever you send, boy, he's going to have my support. And the scripture says, you know, that's true because that's so many people come to the altar to pray or go to a prayer meeting and say, oh, God, people are dying in certain places of the city or certain areas.

There are people here today that pray, oh, Jesus, please send somebody into my office. There will be a living testimony for you. And here you are sitting at the desk yourself. And the same thing is in the heart.

Send someone into my neighborhood. God, the kids are dying on every street corner. They're dealing drugs. And I see the devil crushing them. And they're under the influence of wicked powers. And I can see so many looking out their windows and praying.

God, send somebody. And the scripture tells us that the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. Now, it's important to understand the next transaction from verse 14 to 16. You have to understand that this is done when God's spirit is hot towards this unbelief.

It says, his anger was kindled against Moses. And he said, is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he comes to meet you. And when he sees you, he'll be glad in his heart.

You want natural ability? God says, okay, Moses, your focus is on natural ability? Well, here's a man who has it all. And you can take him with you on your journey. He said, but I want to give you an ominous warning.

Those who would rather trust in natural ability than trust in the living God. He said, I give you a warning. And it's in verse 16. He said, he will be your spokesman to the people. And he shall be to thee instead of a mouth.

And thou shalt be to him instead of God. He said, I'm going to let him go with you on your journey. But I warn you that this type of a man doesn't hear from God. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2 .14, the natural man.

Now, that's the man who's governed by his fallen instinct. That's what the original Greek text means. The man who is governed, led by, thinks through, plans with his natural fallen instinct. Receives not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him.

And neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. He walks and charts his own course. Proverbs 14 .12 says, there's a way that seems right unto a man. But the end thereof are the ways of death.

Beloved, beware of the self-trust and natural abilities which accompany all of us on our journey. It is these things more often than anything else that will lead into error. And away from the pathway of victory that God has destined you and I to walk in.

Natural Ability Cannot Wait on God

Firstly, go with me to Exodus chapter 32, please. Go ahead in your Bible. I'm going to speak a little bit about natural ability. God says, alright, you want him, you got him. I know he can speak well, but he doesn't hear from me.

Incredible. Incredible. I'm going to show you where natural ability will take you and I. See, the man who follows his natural ability will chart his own course. He will not go where God calls him. He will go where he thinks he can be best suited to the cause of Christ.

We don't see it that way, but often it's a different path than the path that God has called us to. He doesn't call us where we are strong, necessarily. Now, it can happen. But quite often he calls us where we are weak.

He calls us where we need him. He calls us where we can't trust in our own resources, because when we begin to trust in our own resources, we begin to distance ourselves from the very source of our life and power.

Firstly, Exodus 32 tells us that natural ability cannot be still and doesn't know how to wait on God. Exodus 32. Moses has led the people, or God has led the people through Moses out of captivity. He's brought them to the mountain that he told Moses.

He said, this is going to be a sign. You're going to bring him out and you're going to worship me on this mountain. He's giving Moses now the instruction, the law. He's talking about the places of promise to him.

Moses is locked in, shut away with God. The people are down near the perimeters of the mountain, and they haven't heard from God for a time. You see, natural ability gets nervous when it hasn't heard from God.

Natural ability has a tendency to take over when it feels that God somehow has gone on vacation. Exodus 32, verse 1, it says, When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mount, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron.

Remember this man, Aaron. God says, you want him? You got him. And said to him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't know, we want not what has become of him.

And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to me. You see, in times when faith alone is needed, the natural man will move to create his own solution.

The natural man will always do this. He says, I've got an idea. And that's very dangerous in the kingdom of God. And all the people, verse 3, broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron.

And he received it at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool after he had made it a molten calf. And they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. The natural man, in times when faith is needed, will redesign God to fit his own distorted viewpoint of God.

When flesh is leading, God gets very strange looking. And beloved, we're living in a generation like that right now. When flesh is leading, you can hardly, you can't recognize Jesus Christ any longer.

He takes on another form as men's hands begin to fashion him. As they say, Well, I had a vision and I think God looks like this and I feel that he acts like this. And they set their hands and they begin to create and reform because natural ability is leading.

It's no longer the Spirit of God that is leading the church. And when Aaron saw it, he says, Verse 5, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation, said, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.

Natural ability will build its own altars and it will determine its own focus of worship or level of dedication. And ultimately, Verse 6, will bring the people to a place where faith is no more and the flesh is ruling.

And they rose up early on the morrow and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play. It's party time. That's exactly what Aaron told the people.

He made a calf. He charted his own course because he wasn't hearing from God. He made his own altar. He made his own level of worship and dedication and then declared a party. It's party time. They're living in a time of wilderness searching.

They're living in a time when they're being led out of darkness. And a fleshly priesthood now has taken dominion for this season over the people of God and is leading them into poverty. Party time. I've heard that a lot in the last several years in the charismatic church.

It's party time. When Moses finally came down, Moses saw what was happening. It says, verse 25, it says, Moses saw that the people were naked, for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies.

If you can see it with me, you can see the people of God rejoicing while being stripped naked and exposed to shame before their enemies. Natural ability will be quick to look to place the blame when its pathways end in dismal failure.

You see, natural ability can't lead in the kingdom of God because you can't even see it, let alone lead. And the ways of flesh will always fail. You see it throughout scriptural, throughout church history.

You see people rise up that really don't know God and proclaim that they are leading the people in this glorious new revelation about the ways in the kingdom of God. And they travel down the road and you can hear the partying, the shouting.

Look what we've found. Look who we are. Look at the great truth we have that no one else has laid hold of. And you don't even need a set of binoculars to see them all as the dust rises and they begin to fall not too far down the road.

Because natural ability will always fail. It knows nothing about the kingdom of God. It's quick to look and to place blame. In Exodus 32, when Moses came down from the mountain, verse 21, the scripture says, Moses said to Aaron, what did this people to thee that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them?

Aaron, did they torture you, Aaron? No, Moses was serious. What did they do to you? Did they threaten you? Did they put a knife to your throat? What did they do to you that you have brought them into such nakedness?

And Aaron said, well, let not the anger of my Lord wax hot. You know the people that they are set on mischief. Incredible, isn't it? Just like in the Garden of Eden. The woman made me do it. Well, the serpent made me do it.

And nobody will take the blame. Nobody will look within. That's the sin nature. That's the natural man. Will not look within his own heart because of the pride that is resident there. And at the same time, he's still trying to attach some spiritual meaning to his own actions.

And Aaron said, let not the Lord, thou knowest the people that are set on mischief. In verse 24, he said, I said to them, whosoever has any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it to me. Then I cast it into the fire.

And there came out this calf. Now, the Bible tells us that Aaron fashioned it with his own hands. But you see, he's trying to make something spiritual out of it. He says, you know, Moses, this had to be God.

How else could this have happened? We were seeking Him. We wanted to know who He was. We just took all our gold. And you see, that's where a lot of theology comes from today. We took all our gold, kind of threw it in the pot, and out popped this calf.

It has to be God. In the early 90s, I was invited to be a keynote speaker at a very large charismatic church conference in Canada. The Holy Ghost came on me and gave me an ominous warning for the church.

I warned them that they were creating a calf. And they were going to refashion God to suit their own lust to party. Sought in the spirit that people were gathering, not because they wanted truth. Not because they wanted the will of God.

No missions focused. No yielded surrendered life. No. It was, we want to party. We want to run the aisles. We want to come to the altar. We want to jump up and down. We want to shake. We want to vibrate.

We want to feel good. Today, the charismatic churches, especially in Canada, have no boast. But myriads have diminished or ruined churches. Wandering, confused souls on every hill without shepherds. And exactly what the Holy Ghost gave me to speak.

I said, the people are going to be wandering on the hills, not too many years down the road. Because they have no shepherds. Here's the scripture from Micaiah, where Micaiah stood before the king and everyone is saying, go and prosper.

They're all standing around saying, go, go, do this thing that's in your heart. And Micaiah said, no, if you do this thing, it will be the death of you. Today, we see the devastation throughout the country.

See charismatic churches in complete disarray. People wounded and bruised. Church leaders that have stayed to the word of God are telling me they're starting to filter in now. And they won't raise their hands.

They don't want to worship God. They sit in the back. They don't want to get involved in anything. They mistrust all leadership now. While the self-willed leaders that were leading them still try to attach some spiritual meaning to having stripped God's people naked before their enemies.

They stand there and still say, well, it had to be God. It had to be God. We were seeking Him and I popped His cap. Whether or not it looks like the Jesus of the Bible seemed to be insignificant. It even got so brazen that there were preachers standing and saying, put away your Bibles now.

God is doing a new thing. Don't examine it by the Bible because they knew it couldn't stand the test of Scripture. And now we see people stripped and wounded and naked. Pentecostal churches have become a laughing stock.

In the province of Quebec, Canada alone, there were 100 or so Pentecostal churches. Small towns fighting hard, digging in for many years. Most of which embraced the things that had passed through in the last 10 years.

Almost all the churches are diminished to at least half and some are gone of their membership. They are the absolute laughing stock of their communities today. Stripped naked. While those who led them to this nakedness still stand back and say, well, you know the people.

What they're like. And others justify their spiritual poverty by saying, well, you know, God is purging His house. That's always a convenient escape for the preacher that has lost touch with God. You know, God's purging His house.