Unstoppable Revival
Pastor David T. Elms Preached on 1/27/2026
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42:32
Summary
Pastor David T. Elms explores the story of Balaam and Balak to demonstrate that God's blessing on His people is unstoppable and irreversible, moving the church from the status of dust to a crouching lion prepared for victory.
Key points
- •Revival is a cycle of consecration, preparation, and harvest, requiring intentionality to break daily flow and seek God.
- •The blessing of God is a divine impartation of vital power affecting every area of life: material, spiritual, emotional, and mental.
- •God's blessing is sovereign and cannot be reversed by human curses or opposition, as illustrated by the story of Balaam and Balak.
- •God blesses His people even when He knows they will fail, because He sees the end from the beginning and honors their covenant relationship.
- •The church is transitioning from being perceived as prey to becoming a spiritual predator - a crouching lion ready for victory.
Scripture
Revival
Blessing
Spiritual Growth
Authority
Perseverance
Life application
Commit to the rhythm of consecration this week by breaking your normal routine to spend time reading Scripture and praying, trusting that God's blessing is active even when you feel surrounded by worldly chaos.
Reflection questions
- In what areas of your life have you felt like 'prey' rather than the 'lion' God declares you to be?
- How does knowing that God's blessing is 'irreversible' change your perspective on current trials?
- Balaam could only speak what God put in his mouth; how can you ensure your words align with God's blessings rather than the world's negativity?
- What 'altars' or sacrifices are you currently building to prepare for the upcoming harvest?
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Full transcript
0:00names represented 30 minutes, aloud reading the word and letting it soar into this
0:00atmosphere. Thy word, O Lord, has been forever settled in heaven. The grass withereth,
0:06the flower fadeth, but the word of the Lord stands forever. I'm going to
0:12speak for just a few moments tonight about Out of the book
0:17of Numbers, the 23rd chapter, I'm going to speak from both Numbers
0:2322, 23, and 24. I will tell just a bit of the
0:29story of Balaam, but I'm reading from verse 25. And Balak said
0:35unto Balaam, neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all.
0:40He had hired Balaam to curse them, but it got out of
0:46control. And so he said... Neither cursed them at all and that wasn't what
0:52he was trying to say He wanted him to curse him He had paid big
0:57money to get him to curse him, but he wanted him to stop blessing them
1:03because Balaam was a Prophet but he was a prophet for hire. He was a
1:08borrower prophet Balaam answered and said in the bailiff told not I thee saying all
1:13that the Lord speaketh that I must do and And Balak said unto
1:19Balaam, Come, I pray thee, I will bring thee into another place.
1:25Peradventure, it will please God that thou mayest curse me them from
1:31thence. See, he's back to what he really wants. And Balak brought
1:37Balaam unto the top of Peor, that looketh toward Jeshimon. and balaam
1:42said unto balak build me here seven altars and prepare me here seven bullocks and
1:48seven rams see this this prophet doesn't build his offer his altars his own altars
1:54he he asked notice that in that text he said bail balak you you build
1:59them for me right here and balak did this is the king this is how
2:05desperate the king was he wanted to curse god's people And Balak did as Balaam
2:10had said and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar. Thank you for
2:16your word. Let it make sense to your people, O Lord. I will not dare
2:22take time and waste it at this moment. I thank you for this moment. Let
2:28it minister to your good people. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. I'm going to
2:33talk about unstoppable revival, ladies and gentlemen. This month we have had a season
2:39of consecration, dedication, fasting, reading the word, and we're going into a month of
2:45preparation where there will be training. We will be discussing things like the gifts
2:51of the Spirit, how we can operate in them, the fruit of the Spirit.
2:57We're going to be doing this all year long in a three-month cycle. Consecration,
3:03preparation, harvest. And it is a year of revival. But I want to
3:08tell you all tonight, if I was an evangelist and preaching a revival somewhere,
3:14this message would be a Sunday night shouting message. This was back when I
3:20evangelized, they had Sunday night church, okay? I'm more spiritual than all you that
3:26don't have Sunday night church. But so, you know, we had, I was laughing.
3:33at that because of the times we were sitting there talking and who was it
3:38that who was it that talked about them taking up oh we were with brother
3:44McKellar for the Carl McKellar and we were talking with Joel urchin and talking about
3:49my uncle Royce and he was saying that they all were with Andrew urchin the
3:54one who was the original Andrew urchin Nathaniel urchin's father And they were preaching in
4:00Houston, Texas. All of them had been preaching revivals. And so Brother Carl McKellar
4:06said that he and my uncle were brother-in-laws, okay? They both married daughters of
4:12N.A. Urshan. And so my Aunt Annette was called Bobby by the Urshan family because
4:18they let their babies name their kids. And Bobby was the way her sister called
4:24her, not B-O-B-I-E. No, it was baby said incorrectly. So she was so little, she
4:29said, it's Bobby. So they named my aunt and called her that on the Urshan
4:35side. And Brother Urshan, since you're watching tonight, I just want to explain it to
4:41you. On the Urshan side, they all called her
4:46Aunt Bobby. It was a nickname. My Uncle Royce married her
4:52and said her name, according to the birth certificate, is Annette.
4:58That's a girl's name. And so all of the Elms, it was like
5:03Hatfields and McCoys, it was Urshan Elms. Urshan said Bobby, Elms said Aunt Annette. So
5:08we're sitting there talking with Brother McKellar, Carl McKellar at a Mexican restaurant before the
5:14conference started. And he was telling us how they were all preaching revivals in Houston,
5:19Texas. And he said, yeah, I wasn't big time like your Uncle Royce. Your Uncle
5:24Royce was holding a long revival for Brother James Kilgore. He said, and I was
5:30preaching over here for Brother Olson. This was Brother Olson from Jacksonville's daddy.
5:36He said he had a little small church. Royce was over there at
5:41the big church. And Brother Urshan, Andrew Urshan, was preaching at CLD's church.
5:47Well, the two sons had Monday off. And back then, you did not
5:53take a day off if you took one day off. Andrew Urshan found
5:59out That they had Monday off and he told both of them so I
6:05expect you both to be at my revival service tonight They looked at each other
6:10and he brother Carl McKellar was told he said we knew we had no choice
6:16and he said so we went we sat there and he preached and he had
6:22an altar call and And after the altar call, Andrew Urshan got back up
6:28and he said, all right, now be seated again. The Lord has given me another
6:34sermon for this evening. And they're laughing about how nowadays all of us are backslid
6:40because back then you took no nights off. It's so good for us to get
6:46a dose of the way it used to be. Listen, they're not better than us.
6:51No, no, no. I'm not going to let that attitude come in. They weren't better
6:56than us. You've got to go according to the sign and the assignment that you've
7:00got at that time. But we still got to watch out for carnality, works of
7:05the flesh, lust of the eye, pride of life, lust of the world. We've got
7:09to make sure it's not of the father. It is of the world. And so
7:14be ye spiritual, saith the Lord. What I've come to tell you is
7:20that even though they didn't take nights off for revival and we take, you know,
7:25too much of our church only comes on Sunday morning. Okay, I love them. We're
7:30going to love them just the same, but I love the crowd that's in this
7:35place tonight. This is a good looking Tuesday night crowd. There is something happening in
7:39the spirit. I detest the idea that you have church to give people more to
7:44do. I'm not going to do that. Every leader that I've met with at this
7:50church, when they get, you know, new leaders come along and they want to tell
7:54you, oh, I've got a great plan. And they show up with a calendar full
7:59of things. And the old gray-headed pastor, is my brill cream working tonight, Melanie? It's
8:03a little over on this side. Just a little bit here. Okay. The gel helps
8:08it look darker. And I think I just hairsprayed it tonight because I didn't have
8:12time. That's the reason I'm not in a tie because I had to go to
8:17that thing. Am I okay? Without the tie. I didn't have to wear a
8:22jacket. Listen, I don't want them to see my muscles. No, we
8:28have limits. So here's the thing. They were talking with all of
8:34that. And Brother McKellar, he's not in his youth anymore. One of
8:39the greatest athletes Pentecost has ever had. Unbelievable. World-class athlete. World-class athlete
8:45and I stood there as I sat across from him and was talking
8:51and thinking about all of this and and he said you know though
8:56guys he said of every generation of every Generation that has ever been
9:02marked in the Bible. They all wish they could have been here They
9:08could be here upon whom the ends of the world have come. I
9:14And I want to tell you all folks this I'm not preaching a Sunday night
9:20message. Okay, you know if there's just if it sounds like there's any hype in
9:26this please back up pump the brakes and say he's trying not to get excited,
9:32but I am so honored to That it is upon us while the world
9:38wants to impute chaos on every part of the earth and evil and darkness.
9:43And I just came from the evidence of evil. I want to proclaim in
9:49this hour. Calm down, Elms. In this hour, we're going to see revival that
9:55is unstoppable. It's unstoppable. I'm not saying it to get excited. I'm telling
10:01you, if God has ever been true, he's true today. The Bible tells
10:06us about blessing, and this is the point I want to make to
10:12you tonight. I could preach two hours. I'm watching the clock. I preached
10:18way too long in the first service Sunday morning, but nobody knows it
10:24because it wasn't online. Follow me. I know we've heard the
10:29word blessing used and thrown as a hype fest growing up in this thing. Listen,
10:35there's real offering takers and then there's hype offering takers and all of them can
10:41be us. But I knew it growing up. I just sort of knew when, you
10:47know, there's a little, that story I can't hardly believe. I hope you've never felt
10:52that way. Hope you've never thought those thoughts, but I've sometimes heard stories
10:58that I think mmm God bless you I might need it to have been
11:04there little Thomas is in me But they're still the fact and I've told
11:10my brother hail this if don't see what I think is coming. I'm gonna
11:16die Knowing first of all his word is true. I My
11:22Bible teacher at North Carolina State University was an atheist. I've told you about him
11:27many times. God sent me to him. I didn't convert him. He could out quote
11:32me all day long. He knew that Bible backwards and forwards. But to him, it
11:37was a book of myths. He bought into it like that and I
11:42remember knowing knowing that somewhere they're gonna find some geological thing if this
11:48word is false we're gonna find something that absolutely proves that it's false
11:54back then there was not a place known as Nazareth historically the only
12:00record they could find on of Nazareth was this Bible. And so they said,
12:05well, it was kind of a word they cobbled together and just imagined it was
12:11there and it was created to create some mythological place like Hogwarts. Is that a
12:17place is Hogwarts a place? Is that a person? See, I, y'all don't watch movies.
12:23I asked the wrong people. Sister realms. Tell me what is Hogwarts? I got some
12:29coffee creamer. That's called butterbeer. Anybody know about butterbeer? I bought butter
12:35beer, but I'm so spiritual that I took the cover off of it.
12:41So you don't know I'm drinking butter beer. So see there, you just
12:47don't know. You walk where and don't be touching my creamer in the
12:53church office refrigerator. Don't be sneaking back up there. Next thing I know,
12:58Justin's going to be about. That's that's mine. Stay out of my butter
13:04beer. They didn't know there was a place called Nazareth. And I
13:10thought, okay, I'm going to pay attention. I'm going to pay attention. I'm going to
13:14pay attention. All of a sudden, they found some, they uncovered some pottery and things
13:18that said, oh, there was a Nazareth. Then they said the book of John
13:24was written like 200 AD and it was a cobbling together a bunch of myths
13:29until along came around 1960 ish and they didn't even report it for many years
13:35something called P49 P stands for parchment 49 and it dates to the time period
13:41of 120 AD ish I said ish okay I don't have the exact date but
13:46right around there and they said if this has been discovered then then it had
13:51to be written around 90 because this parchment is found in Egypt and the book
13:55of John was written up in Ephesus and Somebody had to write it, put it
14:00on parchment, and ship it down to Egypt. And so all of that talking about
14:06how the Bible's just myths cobbled together, stories brought together by some community who wanted
14:11to mythicize this man named Jesus, it's been trashed with the truth of archaeology. Now,
14:16if you don't want to believe it, God's going to give you enough to not
14:21believe it. It's amazing how that works out. If you really don't want to believe
14:27it, you're going to have just enough to not believe it. But I'll stand here
14:32and tell you, if you really want to believe it, he'll always give you. I
14:37wish it was more, but he's going to give you enough to believe it. And
14:42so this, this, this blessing concept is one that I love. I want to be
14:47blessed. I want my children blessed. I want my wife blessed. Blessing means
14:52a divine act where God imparts vital power
14:58to human beings. This vital power, it consists
15:04of material things, spiritual realms, emotional strength, mental
15:09peace, prosperity in life, and increase. I've argued
15:15with my angel a few times that he
15:20could have brought more material increase my way.
15:28I have plenty of mental tranquility. My mind is fine. I'm
15:33blessed. I'm thankful. Now, don't ask my wife after church, but
15:39just listen to me. The Bible tells us that that's the
15:44blessing of the Lord. And Balaam was hired to curse the
15:50people of God. Here's the thing about blessing. Seek ye first
15:55the kingdom of God, Matthew 6, 33, and his righteousness, and
16:01all these things, that's temporal necessities, all these things shall
16:06be added unto you. Notice Psalm 34, nine. Oh, fear the
16:12Lord, ye his saints, for there is no want to them
16:18that fear him. Notice Psalm 84, 11. No good thing will
16:23he withhold from them that walk up. That's it, brother Pep.
16:29Uprightly. But if you'll notice very carefully, every one of these
16:35promises of blessing are conditional. They are given to those who walk uprightly,
16:41who fear him, who seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
16:47And if you really read when you read, no weapon formed against you
16:53shall prosper, that verse is only written to the people of God.
17:00know a bunch of backsliders and sinners and atheists and no God
17:05people quote it. No weapon formed against me shall prosper. You better
17:11watch out. But here's my point of all of this. It is
17:16the faith walkers, God fearers, God lovers, righteous keepers who the promises
17:22are given to. Now we are those people. It costs to be an
17:28apostolic Pentecostal. It does. To be a part of this church, there's a price people
17:33pay. It costs to be faithful in giving. It does. It costs. If you know
17:38how to count, it costs. It costs to pray like we've been praying all month.
17:43It costs to change your schedule and get up here and take the time. Do
17:48you know the fuss it takes to get up here in a time when you're
17:53not scheduled to read? It's not in your normal flow to come by and stop
17:59and read every one of these names worked hard to get here And I know
18:04Ray and Rudy Omega live right across the lawn Over there, but you know what
18:09Zack and winter live closer than they do and their names not on here as
18:15much as Ray and Rudy's I hated to point that out for everybody to hear
18:20they're wonderful people and They're great people of God. I'm
18:26just telling you, this is the thing. It's hard to
18:31break into your flow of things and do that. Don't
18:37start judging Wintran's that. If I pick on you, it
18:43means I love you. One of the easiest messages to
18:49preach, but sometimes it's one of the hardest messages to
18:54get people to believe, is that God is absolutely certain
19:00that he's going to make sure his church is blessed.
19:06Nobody will stop him. Nobody can keep him from doing
19:12it. He will ask permission of no one. He's going to bless. He's going to
19:17bless his people. So when we get into this story, the people of God were
19:22trying to traverse the land of Moab. They were going to Canaan. They didn't care
19:27a lot about being in Moab, but they were a powerful people. And a wicked
19:32king named Balak was in charge there in Moab. And Balak went and hired this
19:37prophet named Balaam. He hired him to come for one purpose. I
19:43want you to curse the people of God the name Balaam literally
19:49means Balaam means to devour am Means people so the name of
19:55Balaam literally means to devour the people so maybe he did some
20:00research and looked his name up to and Need somebody to curse
20:06these people I'm going to call on Balaam to come them come come and curse
20:12them Balaam was a borrowed prophet But he had one little deal and I won't
20:17tell you this story about how his donkey stopped in the middle of a trail
20:22and saved his life And it was the one talking doctor. Mr. Ed horse that
20:28Balaam's donkey donkey talked to him. You don't have to believe it. I'll still love
20:33you. I And Balaam, life was saved because an angel with a sword was
20:39there to say, Balaam, you can go, but you better only say the word of
20:44the Lord. And so Balaam said, I will go and I'm for hire. But he
20:49was decent enough to admit to this pagan king the word that God puts in
20:54my mouth. That is all I will speak. And then Balaam went with him. And
21:00so Balaam knows if you're going to impress God, you got to build altars. You
21:05got to make sacrifices. And so Balaam starts out by saying, we're going to woo
21:10God by making sacrifices. And we're going to go to the top of what is
21:16known as Bamaf Baal, which was the high places where the Baal worship occurred. And
21:21it was a view that partially saw the encampment of Israel. And of course,
21:27the idea was, here maybe Balak thought, if we can get God
21:32looking at us with seven oxen and seven rams on top of
21:38seven altars, maybe God will get intoxicated with the the volume of our
21:44sacrifice, with the smoke of our consecration and change his mind about
21:50that rowdy crowd down there in the land that's walking through Moab.
21:56So they built the altars and the idea was maybe if you can just see
22:00the stragglers on the edge When you see that bunch you can cuss them real
22:05good And so they did that they thought God would mix up their little offering
22:09with the offering of a righteous man They thought God would get confused with the
22:14size of the sacrifice not concerning that it has to be a sacrifice from a
22:18righteous man I'm not saying that we're good if we just want to be righteous
22:23and Did that sound like doublespeak? I hope it wasn't because I'm not
22:29good enough to be saved. But if I get under him, his righteousness makes me
22:34good. I can't wake up and say, well, I got his righteousness. No, I've got
22:38to go get his righteousness. That's the reason we wake up with praise on our
22:43mouth, thanksgiving on our lips. This is the day that the Lord hath made. I
22:47will rejoice and be glad in it. I'm getting into his righteousness. I put on
22:52the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. And so here they thought God
22:57would get confused. And so Balaam said, told Balak, I will go peradventure. The Lord
23:02will come and meet me. And whatsoever he showeth me, that will I say. And
23:06so the game was on. And across. Across the valley was the children of Israel.
23:11They had no clue what was going on on the Balaam. They had no idea
23:16that Balaam was offering sacrifices. Israel probably thought they were Indian smoke signals going up
23:22over there. Somebody's flirting with his girlfriend. Look at all that smoke going up. They
23:27had no idea that there was a curse that was trying to be conjured. Balak
23:33and his little hired prophet were conspiring to curse Israel. And Balaam stood before the
23:38Lord and God showed up. And with the smoke of sacrifice in his face, he
23:43put a word in Balaam's mouth. And he felt that something and Balaam felt the
23:48unction of the Lord. He knew that the God of heaven has honored him. The
23:54God has come somehow to speak. And Balaam is watching, or Balak is watching Balaam.
23:59And he said, ooh, God's here. We're about to hear something good. Hey, everybody, God
24:05came to our party. And the Hebrew says that That God plays some verbal judo
24:11with his declaration. Because the curse was not just blocking the curse. He didn't just
24:17say, not only did I stop the curse, but the curse was flipped. That God
24:22didn't just give a commentary on God's people, but he gave them a fresh word
24:28of blessing. And here's what Balaam said. How shall I curse what the Lord has
24:33not cursed? And how shall I defy what the Lord has not defied? From the
24:39top of the rocks I see him. From the hills I behold him. And the
24:45people shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations. In other words,
24:51they're not just average. My people aren't just a number in the UN. My people
24:57are spectacular. And then the word of freshness came. Who can count the dust of
25:03Jacob? I don't know if any of y'all clean house.
25:09We don't have a ton of dust in South Florida. I mean,
25:15compared to West Texas, compared to California. We got humidity that works
25:21as a help to stop the dust. If you've ever lived in
25:27arid places, you think you have dust. But in our house, my
25:33wife, about once a day, goes on a war path. I'm glad
25:39I'm not there. I've got work to do. I'm at the office.
25:45But when I get home, I get the report of the war.
25:52And I'm very interested in the report because she's warring for
25:58me. I mean, she is changing sheets times they don't need
26:04to be changed. I'm telling you, it's just redonkulous how many
26:10times my sheets are changed. They don't need all that. But
26:16she's at war with the dust and I thank God for
26:22it. I'll miss it when she dies. But Balaam opens his
26:27mouth to curse the people of God and out comes a
26:33blessing. Balak is so upset, he says, wait! Whoa,
26:39let's do this differently. We'll go to a more strategic place. So he gets him
26:44and comes to another place where he might see the whole batch of them. And
26:48so he said, there you will be able to see the utmost part of the
26:53camp. You shall only see them and you shall see more of them. And he
26:57takes him to the top of Mount Pisgah. There are seven altars and
27:03seven oxen and seven rams and seven burnt offerings. And the Lord shows
27:09up again. Maybe, maybe this time we're going to get a curse.
27:15The Bible said Balaam told Bailey God is not a man that he should let
27:19lie Neither the son of man that he should repent hath he said it will
27:24he not do it? I said it up there on bail on big hope bail
27:28and I'm saying that on top of Mount Pisgah and hath he spoken it will
27:33he not make it good behold I've received the commandment to bless the Lord and
27:38he had blessed them and I cannot reverse it and then he said Israel will
27:42be like a rising lion The first prophecy, she'll be like dust,
27:48she's everywhere. The second prophecy is she's gonna be like a rising lion.
27:53I've been blessed to see lions. I went, when we preached in South
27:59Africa recently, we went out and saw some lions in the Kruger Park,
28:05and my wife was chatting with Sister Amy Myers, and we had, how
28:10many lions were down right there? About seven or eight, just, I'm here,
28:16I am not lying. I'm not lying. The lions were at the edge of
28:22the carpet. The black where the black meets the brown. I'm not lying. And they're
28:27chatting. These women are just chatting like we're just, it's a wide open truck. It's
28:32wide open. There's no top. There's no windows. It's just wide open. And I'm just
28:37about this far off the ground. Right here. Sitting. There they are. And they're chatting.
28:43And I said, that lion while they're chatting, they had a little giggle. I got
28:48it. She giggled a little bit, and that lion just raised up and
28:54looked at her. Sisters, I'm married. She's the lion. They're friends, okay? When
29:00you see a lion rise up, it will move you. I'm telling you,
29:05it will move you. If you're in the presence of him, it's like,
29:11hmm. And I'll admit it, I'm afraid of him. I'm a man enough
29:16to admit it. But God said, I want
29:22Balak to know that my people is not just like the dust. They
29:28are like a lion rising up to hunt. And so Balak stops him
29:34and said, wait just a minute. The Lord commanded a blessing and I
29:40cannot reverse it. And so I'm going to tell
29:46you that he has not beheld iniquity in Jacob. Neither hath he seen perverseness
29:52in Israel. The Lord God is with them and a shout of a king
29:57is among them. Balak says, stop. Sister Elms come, I'm closing. Please don't bless
30:03or curse them. He's really wanting to just say don't bless them. But he
30:09said, maybe I'll get a little more attention by saying let's just not curse
30:15them. And he says, okay, this time let's do it one more time. Balak
30:20hatched another plan and said, I'll take you to another place per adventure. It will
30:26please God and ye will curse them from thence. And he brought him to the
30:31top of Mount Peor. And on top of Mount Peor, the Bible says that he
30:36could see every tribe from there. And Bible readers know what is about to happen
30:41because if you've read Numbers 22, 23, 24, If you're familiar with your
30:47Bible, Numbers 25 is where Baal Peor happened. Baal Peor
30:53is where the people of God would not be judged. And so Balaam told
30:58Balak, since God won't curse his people, then go get your best looking girls
31:04and have them seduce the men of Israel. And when they cohort on top
31:10of a mountain together, God will curse them because they've got to be a
31:16pure people. And it happens in Numbers 25. 24,000 children of Israel died
31:22from a plague because the boys had coharted with the girls of Balaam
31:27or Balak, been seduced and lay with them. That God is not going
31:33to put up with that. Adultery is from the beginning to the end
31:39a process. It's a problem. Fornication is a problem. I don't care what this
31:45modern day world says about it. It's not right. It's not righteous. It's not good.
31:50It's not sanctioned. If you're living with somebody right now and you're not married, you
31:55need to change. You need to change. I want you to be pleasing to the
31:59Lord. It may look like you're getting blessing, but blessings don't come when you're walking
32:04in unrighteousness. And so here, here we go. And so we've got 24,000 die of
32:09a plague that happens on bail PR. So maybe God knows what's about to happen.
32:15You imagine God who knows the end from the beginning. He already knew what
32:20Israel was going to get. And yet, even though he knew they were going
32:26to blow their covenant away, he still only puts a blessing in the mouth
32:32of Balaam. There are sometimes people who say they're righteous curse other people who say
32:38they're righteous because they think they've got something on them and they don't understand how
32:42serious God is about getting blessing. He will bless you past your fall. He will
32:46bless you knowing you're gonna fall. He will bless you because he knows when it's
32:51all said and done, there's a get up inside of you that's going to stand
32:55up and you're going to still rejoice in righteousness. And even though he knows you
33:00have a bad day between here and there, he says, I'm going to bless you
33:05here because I know you're going to get to there. That's the reason this church
33:09is never going to be in the business of writing people off. Never. They can
33:14remove my ability to pastor them and a few have. Few I'm not able to
33:19pastor him. I'm happy to dismiss him and see him gone. Yeah, I can't pastor
33:23everybody But that doesn't mean we're gonna write him off We're gonna put him in
33:28the hands of a good gracious wonderful pleasing God and say be blessed be blessed
33:33Go and be blessed It was useless after the Bible said that when Balaam saw
33:38that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel the third time he set his face
33:42to the wilderness and And he said, I'm on the losing team and I want
33:48to get off this losing team. And he started mumbling to himself, how goodly are
33:53thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel. Blessed is he that blesseth thee
33:58and cursed is he that cursed thee. the top of the high places of Baal,
34:03he said they look like dust. On the top of Pisgah, he said they look
34:08like a rising lion. But up on the top of Peor, he said it looks
34:13like they're a crouching lion. The difference between a rising lion and a crouching lion
34:18is that a rising lion is just starting to hunt a crouching lion already has
34:23the victory in his eyes and he is about to spring like a loaded spring
34:28the lion that's crouching is not the prey he's the predator and the Lord said
34:34the blessing on my people is that while the world looks at her like she's
34:40the prey, like she's the one that's always to be laughed at and mocked
34:45and belittled, they're tiny, they're small, they're not that much. The Lord said, I'm
34:51going to turn them around to where they're running like an army with banners.
34:57They're clear as the sun. They're fair as the moon. And Balaam said, they
35:02are like aloes planted by the Lord. Their buckets will overflow with water.
35:08He went from dust to a garden and he started describing from
35:14vague stories of dust to visionary declarations of a springing lion and
35:20aloes planted by the Lord. It doesn't matter what angle you look
35:26at God's church from. He's got a blessing bigger than my ability
35:31to describe that's coming to the church on this earth and in
35:37the world to come. I could spend all night telling you about
35:43my blessings, raising children, Could tell you about him you've heard them
35:49but until you've lived them with your children and know that God came through
35:55and when You weren't praying God came through when you didn't know you needed
36:00him that he was blessing you When you're down there sitting around complaining, but
36:06because you're his people he's got a blessing coming to his church It's unstoppable
36:12God's people are going to we are I'm gonna say I am
36:18I don't want to speak for you I am a blessed my
36:24family's a blessed my wife is a blessed wife my children are
36:29blessed I'm blessed nothing's gonna stop it But there's a blessing coming that's
36:35bigger than we can even comprehend. I don't know when. I don't know not then,
36:41not there, not here, not now. But someday, somehow, a blessing that is unstoppable is
36:47coming to the church of the living God. And it will not be stopped by
36:53anything. And that's the reason I can keep on giving and keep on singing and
36:59keep on dancing. Boy, when they sang that song tonight, I thought, what kind
37:05of dance you gonna give tonight? You know, I literally thought about it. What kind
37:10of dance you gonna give? And I said, I'm gonna give him one that I
37:15decided. I looked up here, Lenworth was doing it. I looked at Lenworth's dance. He
37:20kept his feet in the same place. Len, I'm gonna have to practice it, but
37:25if I ask Ethan, he would already have it down. My kids have got every
37:30one of y'all down. That's Thanksgiving at my house. imitating all of the people's
37:36dance. Some of y'all don't have one. But, notice she stopped playing on that
37:42part. Look at that effect. That was a perfect effect. Baby, you're doing good.
37:48You're getting better. And then, what was hilarious, was here I'm trying to think
37:54of my dance. So I think this is the one I gave him. I
38:00think I gave him this one. I know you're jealous. But I'm a man.
38:06I don't dance like a woman. Okay, so deal with it. Maybe that's, I
38:12don't know. But I looked up And Major, here was Major's.
38:18I thought Major's got to move. I don't know if I'm
38:23going to practice that one. He was up there singing. I
38:29like your shoes. They were looking good. You weren't, see, you
38:34didn't, it was just, you put on your crazy praise. I
38:40know. Ladies and gentlemen, shall we all stand together? He's going
38:46to bless us. Are you his people? Have you been baptized
38:51in his name? Have you been filled with his spirit? Are
38:57you saying no to the flesh? Are you saying no to a carnal world gone
39:03crazy? Are you loving people that the world doesn't love? Are you being patient and
39:09kind to people who aren't being that way to you? Come on now. This is
39:15what makes us different. Bless them that curse you. Pray for them that despitefully use
39:21you and persecute you. For great will be your reward. And so,
39:27I, I, y'all, I hesitated to do this. I don't often bring poetry to
39:33the pulpit. But this one got me, and it almost sounds like a spoken
39:39word. It was written in 1877 by Gerald Manley Hopkins. It's entitled God's Grandeur.
39:45Will y'all pray after I'm done with the poetry? I don't want to lose
39:50y'all my poetry, okay? The world is chained, charged. The world is charged with
39:56the grandeur of God. Will it flame out like something from shook foil?
40:02it gathers to a greatness like ooze of oil why
40:08do men now not wreck his rod generations have trod
40:14have trod have trod all is seared with trade bleared
40:20smeared with toil and wears man's smudge and shares man's
40:25smell the soil is bare now nor can foot feel
40:31being shod and all this Nature is never
40:37spent. There lives the dearest freshness deep down things.
40:43And though the last lights of the black west
40:49went, oh, the moment when the bright eastward sings.
40:54Because the Holy Ghost over the bent world broods
41:00with a warm breast and all wings. That's so
41:06deep you almost have to read it. All is
41:12seared with trade, bleared, smeared with toil.
41:18Man wears smudge and shears man smell the soil. That's
41:23what Brother Sean and I had to deal with. The
41:29soil of hate. The smudge and the smell and the
41:35smear. The fallen flesh. But the Holy Ghost brews. Because
41:41the sun sets dark in the west and the dawn
41:46dances bright in the east. Because all of creation sings.
41:52He comes upon the clouds. Free to his name.
41:59For the Lord's church will rise up unhindered, unstoppable, mighty to save.
42:05A blessing is coming your way. I'm opening this altar for a
42:10little seasoned prayer. Why don't you come down and just talk to
42:16the Lord for a few moments. I love you, Jesus.