Where Would You Pitch Your Tent? — Percy Ray

This sermon was recorded at Camp Acor, an old-fashioned Baptist camp meeting hosted by Southside Baptist Tabernacle. We are located at 6710 Textile Road, Ypsilanti, Michigan, 48197. Our phone number is 734 -482 -4122.

Southside is an independent, fundamental, Bible-believing Baptist church. Camp Acor is held under a tent on a church property on Textile Road, beginning on the second Sunday in July and ending on Friday.

All are invited. See our website for more details. Our website is www .campacor .org. That's www .campacor .org. This recording is made available for your edification. Please do not change it or alter it in any fashion without written permission of the pastor.

If you have any questions or would like to speak to someone about your personal relationship with Jesus Christ, please feel free to visit the church, call us, or write us via snail mail or by email at pastor at ssbtonline .org.

Thank you.

Abram and Lot Separate in Genesis 13

Genesis chapter 13,. Genesis chapter 13, and Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife, and all that he had and lot with him, into the south. Abram was very rich in cattle and silver and in gold. He went on his journey south, even to Bethel, the place where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and Hea, and the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first.

And there Abram called on the name of the Lord, but also which went with Abram had flocks and herds and tents. The land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together, for their substance was great, so they could not dwell together.

There was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's cattle and the herdsmen of Lot's cattle, and the Cainites and the Presites, dwelt then in the land. Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, between my herdsmen and thy herdsmen, for we be brethren.

Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. If thou takest the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if I will depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.

And Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered where they were before the Lord, destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, and as thou comest unto Zohar.

Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east, separate themselves, the one from the other. Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain, pitched his tent towards Sodom.

The men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. The Lord said unto Abraham after Lot, as were separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes and look from the place where thou art, southward, northward, eastward, and westward.

For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever. I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, so that the man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.

Rise, walk through the land in the length of it, and in the breadth of it, and I will give it unto thee. Then Abram removed his tent, came and dwelt in the plain of Maram, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord.

Reading, if correctly read, the thirteenth chapter of the book of Genesis. Genesis. Thank you for letting me come. A lot of things I'd like to say to you personally, but I'll not take time. Of course, you've been here all day.

Say something else before I leave, probably. But it's a great honor, a great privilege you've bestowed upon me to invite me to come and invite me to speak with such preachers as this one you just heard, and with Brother Lochte and Brother Shipman, two of the best preachers I know of in the country.

Whether that man can't preach and then get an old woe out clogger like me, it'll be rough on you. I enjoyed the man that just spoke. I like to see him get in it. God said, by the foolish of preaching, he saved folks.

Didn't say by the foolish of singing, or by the foolish of ball gaming, or entertaining, or nothing else. He said, by the foolish of preaching. Folks that get a little foolish, let them go to it if they get saved.

The Primacy of Preaching and Salvation

That's what he's stressing, wasn't it? Saving folks. Hallelujah. God for him. Such a blessing to be here to see many of you. We welcome you to come to Kamzah on August the 6th through the 9th this year.

It's for young people and adults. I hope you can come. Brother Laverne Butler is going to be with us again, and J. Harold Smith is going to be with us for the whole week. And those two within yourselves, along with some other great preachers, will be there, and you certainly want to be there to hear them.

We're going to have a great time. And then always for preachers and laymen and their wives in March, following the second Sunday in March, we want you to keep coming. And I want to thank the church for contributing regularly to the support of our work down there, because there's been times when we couldn't have kept going if it hadn't been for folks like you that has helped us through the years.

God bless you for it. I just wish I could tell you how much it's meant and how much it's helped at times when we needed help. And I greatly appreciate every penny that you've given as personal gifts and as a church beyond words of expression.

It's good to see my friend, Brother Don Green. I just rejoiced when I saw he was here. And I rejoiced when I found my good friend, Brother Pat, over here singing. He always blesses us. It's good to have him here to bless your hearts.

Thank you for letting me come. And like I said, there's a lot of things I'd like to say. We love your pastor and appreciate him for the glory of God. Let us pray. Hal, Father, tonight, we're here conscious that you've been here blessing people all day.

And we're conscious that it'll be no strain on you to bless yet, because you don't get tired. We get tired, but you don't. And you said where two or three would be gathered in your name, you'd be there.

Yes, Lord. And so, Hal, Father, we're reminded that you're here. We may not recognize you. We may miss you, because we're not here personally in spirit, or you're here anyway. But help us to be here where you're at and to be blessed with you.

God bless every preacher that's here tonight. Thank you for every one of them. Bless the churches that are represented here tonight. We pray thy blessings upon them. Bless Southside, oh God, in a special way.

And bless this precious pastor, Brother Walker. Hal, we thank you for his life and his influence and his testimony and his witness and his leadership, those who work with him. And God, we pray that you'll continue to bless Brother Locke and Brother Shipman, the others who have happened to lead in this conference.

Give them thy power and thy direction. And oh, God, take thy servant now and lose his tongue and illuminate his mind. Give us holy auction. Send us away, conscious that you said something that will stay with us.

And we'll praise thy name for it in Jesus' name. Amen. I want to talk to you tonight a little while about being careful who you pitch a tent with. Be careful who you pitch a tent with. God told Abraham, said, get up and go to a place that I'll show you.

And Abraham pulled stakes, carried his herdmen, his family, their herd and everything he had. And the folks' neighbor said, you heard about Uncle Abraham? What? Poor fellow has lost his mind. He just pulled stakes, don't know where he's going.

Uncle Abraham, where are you going? Don't know. Just going. God told me to go and he'd show me where to stop at. So he loaded up a thing and headed out. And everybody in the community thought, sure, he's crazy, lost his mind, got sick mentally.

But he just headed out. And it came an hour when God said, this is it, Abraham. And the first thing Abraham did is build an altar and worship God when he found out that was a place. Got that altar built and worshiped God.

It wasn't a place pleasing to his nephew, Lot, and some of Lot's herdmen and probably part of Lot's family didn't like it. And as a result, when they took up their boat there, they began to complain and stirred up strife between Lot's herdmen and Abraham's herdmen stirred up trouble.

And as a result, they started to fuss. And Abraham called in Lot and said, look, we're brethren. Let's not have any fussing. Let's not have any strife. We're brethren. Let's get along together. The whole world's out here in front of us.

If you don't like where we're at, you just pick what to do. If you don't like what you want, I'll take what's left. That's a good spirit, wasn't it? That's Christian spirit. And as a result of it, Lot went out and beheld the whole countryside.

He looked it all over. I can see him looking it all over. And he saw the plains of Jordan that is well watered and good grazing. And he thought, well, Uncle Abraham's got it made. He don't need to get any richer anyhow.

So I'll take my herdmen and my herd and family, and we'll go down where the plains of Jordan where there's plenty of grass and plenty of water, and soon we'll be rich. And he said, all right, Uncle Abraham, since you've given my choice, plains of Jordan, all of that down there is mine.

You can have the hills. And so Lot loaded up his herdmen and his herds and his family, took all he had, moved down in the plains of Jordan where the grass was, where the water was, where it's easy to get rich.

The Danger of Selfishness and Choosing the Wrong Crowd

Selfishness got a hold of him. Now, let me pause to say this. Selfishness will get you with the wrong crowd, and the wrong crowd will get you away from God. And when you get away from God, you're going to lose everything you got.

So you just remember that. You'll see that for the pictures completed this evening. And he moved down. Well, instead of when he moved out and left Uncle Abraham, he didn't have nothing but the hills, no grass, no water.

All of his cattle, all of his herdmen left up there without any water, without any grass. Now, he could have pitched a fit and have been roughed on his nephew Lot, but he didn't. He just went down back to the altar and got down and prayed, and God said, Get up, Abraham.

Look northward, look southward, look eastward, look westward. Take a good look. The way you look, all you see is yours. And your seed will be as the numbers of the grains of sand, or as the stars. If anybody can number them, then you'll know how many your offspring will be.

And furthermore, because you've acted like this, I'll bless your children, bless your descendants, and bless those that bless them. And I'll curse those that curse you, and curse those that curse your descendants.

And that covenant still stays good. If you want to get in trouble with God, you mess with a Jew today, and you're done in trouble. You brought yourself a bunch of trouble on when you started. That is not whether it's a natural Jew or an engrafted Jew.

It's dangerous to mess with a Christian. You go out and mess with the old lost sinner in the lost church, remember all you want to, but you've got to keep your dirty mouth and dirty hands off of God's youngins.

Abraham's descendants, so to speak, the engrafted Jews. And as a result, God said, he'll curse those that curse them. And if you want to get cursed by God Almighty, just mess with God's youngins, and he'll put a curse on your back.

I don't care if you're a deacon, or you're a sister in the church, or who you are, or another preacher, or a leader in the denomination, what you are, you're just up on God's youngins, and you done bombard you a bunch of trouble.

And God won't quit it when you holler either. Just remember that. Don't ask to hide. He just won't do it. You say, well, I know some, and God hasn't done nothing. Well, don't get in a hurry. They're not going anywhere.

God won't be when they get there. He'll tell them good, and he gets ready. He don't have to get in a hurry, because they're not going to go nowhere anyhow. God won't be. And as a result, God blessed old Abraham and showed him where to dig some wells.

And when he dug those wells, there's all kind of water in them. He watered his cattle, and God caused grass to grow on those hillsides. And there's all kind of grass. And God's blessed Abraham's descendants.

National Blessing, Christianity, and Standing for Conviction

They've always had plenty. And this country, yeah, man. This country has been blessed bountifully as no other country on the face of God's earth. You listen to this preacher. Did you know that there's no nation on the face of the earth can survive without America?

If America cut off all of our supplies to every nation under the sun, they'd all go under. Including Russia. No nation can survive without our support. God has blessed this nation as no other nation. And the reason of it, we've respected a Jew and respected Christianity and the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ and God's ministry.

And that's the reason of it. And God said he'd do it, and he's going to keep on doing it. And all these God-fighting infidels and atheists and skeptics and so on and communists just wasting their time and getting themselves in trouble when they fight us.

Go on, stand for America. Go on and believe in the things that your forefathers taught you about God and about the church and about... Don't get scared. They're not going to destroy us. Just stand up for what you know is right in the light of this book.

The Prodigal Son and the Wastefulness of Sin

As a result, a lot pitched his tent down there where the wealth was. Pitched his tent down there where the entertainment was going on. Pitched his tent with a wicked crowd. As a result of it, my friends, there's some things I want to take note of with you tonight.

First of all, there's three people I want to call on the scene on this question. We've got one in the 15th chapter of Luke. There's a young man that had everything he needed. He wanted for nothing. But he became a smart aleck, smarter than his papa and his brothers and his neighbors.

And he went in and said, give me my part of the estate. Give me what belongs to me. I'm tired of this disciplined life. I'm going to go somewhere. And the father divided the estate. Give him his portion.

And he took it and carried it down in a far country. And pitched his tent down there with the harlots and with the drunkards and with the wicked people. And soon they relieved him of all he had. They relieved him of his character.

They relieved him of his health. They relieved him of his wealth and left him a pauper. Left him nowhere to sleep but with the pigs. Left him nowhere to eat but the slop of the hogs. And left him with no health.

Left him with nobody with any confidence in him. Left him with no manhood in him. Left him down there by himself. Now listen, my friends, sin wastes. He wasted his substance and righteous living. That wasn't his money wasted.

That wasn't his property wasted. That was his father and his mother's and his brother, brother. Part of it, most of it would belong to the others. But the father just gave him what is his to shut him up.

And he went down there and wasted that that didn't really belong to him. And he wasted something else. God had given him a character. God had given him a good mind. God had given him a healthy body. God had given him a chance at being somebody in life.

And he goes down there and spends it all with highlights. And spend it all with sexual immorality and all with booze and gambling. And lost his health. Lost his honesty. Lost his virtue. Lost everything that man could hope for.

Lost his chance in life. And lost his ability to do what God created him to do and brought him in the world to do. He lost everything that's given him. And come dragging back barefooted without anything to eat or wear.

Wound up in the hog pen. Now I tell you when you decide you're going to quit God. And quit being obedient to God and to your parent. And to the authority of God. And say give me my life. I live it like I want to live it.

I live like I want to go where I want to go. Do what I want to do. Act what I want to act. You'll do it all right. But I'll tell you one thing. You'll wind up in the hog pen. Eating slop with the hogs.

And naked. And your virtue gone. And your manhood gone. And your hope gone. Your health gone. Your chance in life gone. Your wealth gone. And you'll be gone with it. Just remember that my friend. Lot took his herdman in his herd.

Lot’s Descent into Sodom and Its Consequences

And his family moved down to Sodom. And pitched his tent towards Sodom. And the men were exceedingly wicked and sinful in Sodom. And those men influenced his herdman. Those men influenced his family. Those men influenced him.

He quit having family altar. He quit worshiping God. He quit serving God. He quit honoring God with his life. And all he's doing is getting rich. And it grew worse and worse. And all of his family went to the devil.

Began to drink and dance and gamble. And come for sex perverts. And everything else. And there they are down there. And as a result of it. It got so far. He'd spent all God give him. God had given him the ability to make a living.

And be respectable. God give him health. God give him wealth. God give him some other things. And God got tired of giving. And he said okay. I'm going to burn it all up. And take it all away from him.

And let him go. And they called on Uncle Abram. Abraham a man of God. An honored God. A friend of God. Called. Said if I find 50 riders. Will you spare a lot? Yeah. Pardon me God for fine 40. Yeah. Fine 20.

Yeah. Fine 10. Yeah. Couldn't even find 10. And so God as a result. Rained rimstone and fire. You know a story. Burned up Lot's family. They all went to hell. His daughters. Son-in-laws and grandchildren went to hell.

His herd went to hell. Those of them wasn't saved. And all of his cattle. All of his herd burned up. And the Dead Sea stands today. Where Sodom and Gomorrah used to stand. And where Lot used to dwell.

And the rise of that water. The fall of it never changes. Over 2 ,000 years have passed. And the water level in the Dead Sea stands there. New water runs in. Fresh water runs in. Dives when it hits the Dead Sea.

God said in the book of Peter. It's to warn those who should act. Would live ungodly. He lost everything. It stays lost. And old Lot tried to get out. And on the way out. His wife turned to a pillar of salt.

Then his two daughters and his wife got drunk. Committed adultery with him. And he gave birth to two of the weakest generations ever walked on earth. The Amorites and Moabites. And took ten generations.

Cleared that mess up. And the afflictions of it's been on us ever since. But I'll tell you my friends. When he chose. He walked off down there. And left off God's altars. And do good. He chose to serve.

And to get rich. And to satisfy himself and his family. Which way you gonna pitch a tent? God built altars. God worship. I mean. Abram built altars. God worshiped God. Abram honored God with his life.

And believed in God. And stood for God. And God blessed him. And blessed his descendants. Still blessed his descendants. Which way you want to pitch your tent? I want you to know my friends. We're in a day when the world's trying to get us to pitch our tent the wrong direction.

Preaching Against Sin Rather Than Political Hypocrisy

Now listen to this preacher. We're trying to solve a lot of things down. That's what I want to talk to you about tonight. Who you gonna pitch your tent with? You're gonna pitch it to the compromising.

Pushy foot and easy mouth. Preachers that won't preach against sin. Listen. Sin's wrecking this country. Sin is damning this society which we live in. We've got preachers and politicians going all over this country.

Preaching against abortion. I'm against abortion. Why don't you get up and pull pitch into political rallies. And start preaching on these low down sorry men. That's committing adultery with these women.

And making heaven have abortion. Did you ever hear them preaching on sexual immorality of these men? That's causing women to have to have an abortion. Why don't you preach against the fellows that's causing women to get in trouble.

I can remember when a man. If he got a woman or a girl pregnant. My friends he went to the electric chair or the gas chamber. It ought to be that way now. Because he's took something for that woman you can't ever restore.

It's the same as a death. And yeah we got a lot of politicians. A lot of preachers. That's all you hear about abortion. Abortion. Abortion. The table. I'm against it. Don't misunderstand me. I think it's wrong.

I know it's wrong. I preach it's wrong. But why don't we open fire on the devil. It's the old men and men. Old sex perverts running around messing up all the women. That's having babies and heaven have abortion.

We're saying nothing about that. All the politicians preaching against a bunch of lowdown reprobate men. A bunch of old sexual maniacs going around messing up the women. Why don't we preach against that?

Do you ever hear them preaching against that? No. You're a fag too politician. You're a fag. You won't get that vote. I'm not afraid of the old blurry eyed outfitch. There's nothing meaner than a man mistreating a woman like that and getting her pregnant.

Then have to have an abortion. Don't have to but she does. Who's the cause of it? The lowdown men that started it. They're the one that sowed the seed. They're the one that caused the trouble. Why don't we wake up and preach and teach against it and sound the trumpet against such stuff as that?

Defending the Authority and Truth of the Bible

Face the truth and my friends, where are they going to stand? Now I can remember the day 15 and 20 years ago. See I'm getting old. You didn't hear nothing about the Bible. Whether it's true or wasn't true.

You didn't hear folks trying to pick it to pieces, raise questions in their mind. Why worry about it? One question. Stand up and preach the word of God. It is true when God said it. It's true now and everybody that's preaching it ain't true.

He's a liar and headed to hell for preaching it that way. Don't pitch your tent with that smart-ass bunch, those theologians and those professors and those skeptics that's trying to take it apart and say it don't mean this.

Just let that bunch go on to hell with it. You preach it like God said it. Teach it like God said it. Stand up and hold it up like God said it. Don't pitch your tent with a bunch of modernists and a bunch of skeptics and a bunch of theologians and scholars that say the Bible don't mean this and mean that.

It means exactly what God said. It meant what it said a hundred years ago. It meant what it said when God said it and God don't take it back. God don't have to take it back and it'll always mean and we need to get in our pulpit and preach the truth and preach against sin of the devil and quit compromising.

Hellfire Preaching and the Call to Revival

We pitch in our tent with the ball teams and with entertainment and with sing-ins and a lot of things and we ought to be preaching in hell fire and damnation and judgment of God till the sinner crowd who gets shook up, they can't eat or sleep or work till they get saved.

That's why we need to face the truth. Who are you going to pitch a tent with? These little mealy-mouthed scarecrows trying to be popular preachers and get the big church or go back and preach the judgment of God and the wrath of God, hell fire and damnation, judgment of God until folks get so shook up they can't sleep, they can't eat and as he said, they'll go crazy if they don't get saved.

We ought to pitch a tent with that crowd that'll pat you on the back and say, that's a nice sinner. He preaches nice. He don't tell a lie. He don't preach about an agonist. He don't preach about our mixed bathings.

He don't preach about our cussing. He don't preach about our drinking. He don't preach about our adulterous. He's a nice preacher. Who are you going to pitch a tent with? The naked crowd? The undressing crowd?

The alcoholic crowd? The sex crowd? The dancing crowd? The mix bathing crowd? Hey, who you going to pitch a tent with? Who you going to pitch a tent with honey? Folks will get out of conviction until they can't sleep, breathe, and get safe.

Our little eyes sermonize for church heads. What way are we going? Who are you going to choose? He pitched his tent to where the wicked men continually before his family influenced his family. Choice involved influence on his family, involved influence on his herdmen, involved his influence on his business, and as a result of it, he lost his business currently, and it all dumped into fire and burned up.

What effect is your preaching having, my friends, on the spiritual life of the community in which you live? What effect is it having on those that live around us? What is it doing? Is it shaking people up again?

We need some old-time hell-fire damnation preaching across this country. We've shut up too long about sin. We've pitched our tent with a little nice-talking crowd, the moral and manner crowd, the entertaining crowd, the ballgame crowd, seeing which can put on the biggest ballgame and win the most things to put up in the window.

There's no church yet that is showing trophies for souls that has won, and I've been to a bunch of them that have trophies of all kinds reached all across the states for the ballgames. Brag about it. You say, we don't like you personally.

I knew you wouldn't believe it. I come so you have something you didn't like. It's a lot easier to have entertainments and put on socials and all kind of outings and all kind of trips and all kind of singing trips and this and this to go soul winning.

Well, it's going to hell, and while they go to hell, we're entertaining each other and putting on little socials and playing ball and eating out and having a dance about. Which way are you pitching your tent, brother, sister?

Brother Bridges, which way are you pitching a tent? These are out, or they're out that brings us to persecution like the early Christians fought. Like our forefathers suffered in jail. We, you say, why are we having it rough?

Paul said you haven't suffered yet to the shedding of any blood. Nobody's shed any blood over preaching yet. Nobody's been put in jail over preaching yet. There's this preacher tonight, and he pitched his tent towards Sodom.

Repentance, Christian Separation, and Faithful Living

What? Selfishness gets us with the wrong crowd, and that wrong crowd will pat you and brag on you and pat you on the back till it gets you away from God's way of preaching, God's way of teaching, God's way of living.

You listen to this preacher tonight. It's getting too easy to live in sin in our churches all over America tonight. We're not going to have a revival till the church people get repentant of sin and clean up their lives and change their way of living.

We're just well to face it tonight. We're just as well to face it. You need to expect it. The television media has so brainwashed us Americans until nothing's wrong anymore. Everybody else is doing it.

Everybody else living like that. What a sin 10 years ago. Is this much sin inside of God now as it was 10 years ago? It's still as true as it's ever been. The Bible hadn't changed. I don't care what Dr. Doodle Digger, Post Hole Digger said about it.

The Bible is still what God does save God, does save God, does save God. Don't let all these fools run around trying to undermine the Bible. Don't penetrate that bunch of fools trying to undermine what the Bible teaches.

Believe it like God put it. Believe it like God said it. Preach it, teach it, live it, practice it, and let that crowd go to hell if they want to go to hell. God said heaven and earth may pass away, but my word will never pass away.

The word of God is here to stay, and all the forces of evil and hell can't change it. I better quit before I get stirred up.

This sermon was recorded at Camp Acor, an old-fashioned Baptist camp meeting hosted by Southside Baptist Tabernacle. We are located at 6710 Textile Road. Ypsilanti, Michigan, 48197. Our phone number is 734 -482 -4122.

Southside is an independent, fundamental, Bible-believing Baptist church. Camp Acor is held under a tent on a church property on Textile Road, beginning on the second Sunday in July and ending on Friday.

All are invited. See our website for more details. Our website is www .campacor .org. That's www .campacor .org. This recording is made available for your edification. Please do not change it or alter it in any fashion without written permission of the pastor.

If you have any questions or would like to speak to someone about your personal relationship with Jesus Christ, please feel free to visit the church, call us, or write us via snail mail or by email at pastor at ssbtonline .org.

Thank you.