Aunt Lou Miser and Davey Jones

Aunt Lou Miser and Davey Jones

by Tommy Tyson

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

Well, this has been some week, hasn’t it? Glory to God. And sister, we thank you for helping us to realize at a very depth of level, a deep place within us, something of the indescribable price that has been paid for our salvation.

That was anointed of God and I thank you. Praise God. And out of Gatewood, black, red, yellow, green, white, blue, I love you. And I love that family. And Gaylene does seem like one of my daughters, I’ll tell you the truth. And my heart will be going with her as she goes to Nairobi.

Alright, I don’t know much about this thing. If you all do, you can get it fixed. Okay. Alright. Oh, okay. Alright. Beg your pardon? You like your haircut. Thank you. Didn’t you, Benny? I want you to know that’s as up to date as you ever heard of. I got my haircut at a unisex barber shop.

Whatever that is. I saw it and I went in. But, you know, I was talking about how much I love Bob and Ida Gatewood and their children. And I appreciate so much. And I think I told you one night that through Ida I got to know her wonderful family in Flint. And I’ve had several missions in Flint. And always they loved me as if I were their son and brother. And have honored me so much. And I know it’s because they’ve picked that love up through Ida and then through Jesus.

I can’t express in words my love for you all. I think you know that. I think you’ve experienced it. I think you know something of the deep joy that Francis and Judith and I have in being one. I don’t know. I’m sort of frustrated about all of that. Francis and I were, you know, have been brothers for a long time. Real brothers. I love him just, you know, and I know he loves me. Then of course, Judith was brought in as his wife and my sister. And now the baby, I guess I am granddaddy or something.

But how do you be granddaddy to your brother’s baby? But anyway, I’m sure not going to be Uncle Tommy. No Uncle Tom here. That’s God, isn’t it? Hallelujah. But we are having a great time. It’s not over with. And I want to thank Brother Talbot and every member of the Council Ring, on your behalf, for all they’ve done to make this possible.

We thank those who’ve come in by the evenings. Nearly every evening this week, we’ve had guests who’ve come in to be with us. And I want to thank the people from here in Baldwin for being so loving and kind. There have been several of the Baldwinites. Is that Baldwinite, Kathy? Is that what you say? With us in the services. And we’ve fallen in love with your lovely town. And I’m going back home and tell our robins how beautiful their Kansas City cousins… I mean their Kansas cousins behave and look. And I’ve had a good time with the robins. They have showed off their worms to me. It’s just wonderful. How the robins and the squirrels have ministered to me on this campus. I hope they have to you. It’s been indescribable. And I praise the Lord.

I can’t also pass this by without saying one of the great blessings has been… Every night as I’ve gone to my room and had my study time and get ready to go to bed, I’d look in there under the door would be those Bible verses. And I’ve been going to bed with those beautiful Bible verses. It was the young people that did the… praise God for that wonderful ministry.

Reading from the Gospel of our Lord as recorded by John, in the 20th chapter of the Gospel, beginning with verse 19. It is following the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension. Late that Sunday evening, when the disciples were together behind locked doors for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them. “Peace be unto you,” He said. And then showed them His hands and His side. And so when the disciples saw the Lord, they were filled with joy. Jesus repeated, “Peace be with you.” And said, “As the Father sent me, so I send you.” Then He breathed on them, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive any man’s sins, they stand forgiven. If you pronounce them unforgiven, unforgiven, unforgiven, they remain.” And after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, “You shall receive power, and you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Judea, Jerusalem, Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

Lord Jesus, for this beautiful experience at Kansas CFO, for every person that You’ve brought here to this camp, for brothers and sisters of long year standing, for newly discovered loved ones, we have experienced and do experience oneness in the grace of God. I give myself afresh to You now, that in the moments that You are to use me, they may be filled with power for Your glory and for the good of every person here. Thank You, Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Praise God. I propose to take the stream of life that has been flowing in us and has carried us to deep places of introspection, self-examination, cleansing, and repentance, and renewal, and join you as that stream reverses its flow somewhere and somehow from just an inward flow to an outward gush, that out of our innermost being there might flow rivers of living water, as we consider who we are in Jesus. Jesus stood with these disciples on that first evening and said this awesome word: “As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you.”

That He stands in me tonight and says that to you. He says, “Mary, as the Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” He says it to Francis and Judith. He says it to Linda. He says it to blonde. He says it to every one of us. “As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” We are saved. We are baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit for the glorious purpose of being outward and living expressions of the indwelling presence of the Almighty, the Father. The Father has never had but one plan when it comes to ruling and reigning in this universe. That plan is to rule and reign in and as and through His people. We make a great mistake, in my understanding, when we think about the ruling kingdom of our Father being established in Jerusalem on a 50 by 50 marble slab, and He’s coming back there, setting up a throne over there, and somehow is going to rule in the world by coming in on a white stallion, lopping everybody’s heads off. And we, as the saints, are going to come in with Him and lop our enemies’ heads off and get even with everybody. And then bring in the millennium. Well, I want to tell you.

It won’t be a millennium worth living in. It’ll be a thousand years of pre-Calvary experience. It won’t be Christian. That kind of concept doesn’t even come up. The New Testament, the God of the new revelation, is the God who takes upon Himself our transgressions and who does not keep score on our iniquities, but had rather die and suffer Himself than to hold you liable. Didn’t you hear Him praying again tonight? “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. They know not what they do.” And yet I hear people of God acting as if the consummation of the Prince of Glory will be in terms of blood from His sword as He comes in, lopping heads off. We need to repent for our un-Christian concept of history. We need to repent for our lack of faith in that finished work of Calvary, of Calvary. Jesus said His authority, His rule, and His reign was not like this world. He said, “In this world you rule and reign by exercising authority over people, by manipulating people and getting them to do, and getting them to do what you would have them do.” But He said, “My kingdom is not of this world. And he that stands among you as greatest is servant of all. All.”

And this King of glory begins to reveal the real nature of the new order as He took towel and basin, girded Himself, and began to wash their feet, revealing an order that fulfills the promise when He said, “The meek shall inherit the earth.” I want to challenge you. Do you believe that tonight? I don’t mean, do you just believe the book? I could hardly care less whether you point out and say, “I believe it just like it’s written, from cover to cover.” Really, I don’t think that means a thing. It’s, are you willing, and to what degree do you believe, in that you’re willing for these words to be written on your heart? What part of the Bible do you live out? That’s what I’m interested in. Not what I… what your doctrine is about the Bible.

Do you understand the authority of the kingdom of God is not the authority of cracking whips of the darkness, but the authority of Calvary love that suffers and pours out that blood. Now we’ve got to learn this as spirit people. That’s one thing. One reason we as charismatics or Pentecostals have not had, and we’ll not have, the witness to the world that we should have. Because we have and should and do enjoy our walk with Jesus. We have and should and do enjoy the reality that everything He has is ours. I’m filled with His grace. I’m filled with His glory. He hears my prayer. He heals my sickness. He meets my needs. We need that testimony. But we have failed and failed miserably in manifesting the authority of towel and basin. We really have. And we are sent. We are sent by God as spirit-filled believers. And He said, “I give you all power. I give it to you. I give you the keys to the kingdom as my Father has sent you.” And I don’t know, maybe you are unlike me. But I still find something in me that wants to get the power of the Holy Spirit to use me so, so much that finally the world will recognize how great I am.

I want to learn how to pray so I can really pray. Not only that you get healed, but you go out and tell the world that Tommy prayed for you. And this is what happened. Oh, it blesses me when I go to my conference back home. And they ask me to give my annual report.

And I can tell them how many were saved. How many were baptized with the Holy Ghost. You think I don’t tell them? How many renewals we had. Oh, it’s wonderful. I just hope they realize what a jewel I am. Amazing, isn’t it? That we want that kind of power.

It’s a misunderstanding. The wonderful experience is that as we know who we are in Jesus and who He is in us, then really as you know yourself, you can forget yourself. As you’re secure in Jesus, then abandon it. You don’t have to defend it. You don’t have to explain it. Just abandon it in terms of service. And we begin to realize that this ministry of the power of the kingdom of God is in terms of that disciplined obedience to His love that is called meekness. And as we begin to live in that order, we discover a power that sets people free.

A power that sets them free to be themselves. Not a power that binds, but a power that sets free. I wanted a power to manipulate. I wanted power in prayer for Francis most of the time. I mean, sometimes. I mean, my wife, Francis. I wanted so much power in prayer when she does wrong. I have used prayer as a means of making her the perfect wife. I have used the power of prayer to sanctify every bishop I’ve ever served under.

I’ve used the power of prayer to straighten out every president that ever sat in Washington. That’s amazing. The power of prayer. And here’s the power of the foot washer that sets people free. That sets them free. How can a person really come to a responsible repentance if they are not free to exercise their own will in your presence? It’s as you give a person freedom to exercise their will in love that they are brought to a deep, meaningful transformation. And as long as we seek to coerce them through public opinion or peer pressure, we are reverting to the techniques of the world. And here is that power that causes you to love a person that you want to be their servant. And every time I have a problem with another human being, when I check it according to this concept of kingdom living, it lies somewhere close to this point that I’m either trying to be their minister or their boss or their corrector or their healer or their baptizer or their God, something other than their servant.

This King of glory, He who counted not equal to be… or counted not robbery to be equal with God, emptied Himself of His glory, took and put Himself the likeness of man, and being fashioned in the likeness of man He humbled Himself and became a servant, obedient even to this death of the cross. “As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” You’re going back home, children. There’s a lot of dirty feet.

A lot of dirty feet at your house. Do you want to talk about foot powder? Stinking feet? Or do you want to go back with a towel and basin? Anybody can wash clean feet. Jesus washes dirty feet. As Brother Rufus used to put it, He’s not a mud slinger. He’s a foot washer. Now that’s power. That doesn’t seem like power. But that’s power. It’s the power to set people free to be themselves that they might see themselves in the light of your love. I began to get pictures of this as a little boy. You know, it’s amazing. We see these pictures. We don’t know how to describe them. We grew up in eastern North Carolina. My daddy was a preacher. Mostly in small country churches. And my mother loved my daddy tremendously. I picked up from my mother that her greatest joy was to be the mother of her husband’s children. And my mama loved her children. But really, I just got from her the idea that she did love me. But she would have loved me if I was a frog as long as I had… You know, if I had come from my daddy.

She loved that man. Oh my, how she honored him. And left us with that memory. And my mother had 10 children. And we weren’t even Catholics. Amazing. Sister, when you started telling the baptism story, I thought about the one I heard along that line about the little boys that went to a Southern Baptist revival and heard all the brim fire and damnation and about Rome and all that and repentance for sin. And they saw him being baptized. And so the next week, they had an old goat out there that they were trying to convert. And they took him down to the creek and tried to baptize him. And the old goat just refused to go in. And after they tried it every way they knew and realized they couldn’t do it, finally one of them said, “Let’s just sprinkle it and let him be a Catholic and go to hell.” But we had… We had living in our community a blessed saint of God. I’ve never heard anyone else called by that name. Lou Miser. That was her name. Aunt Lou Miser. I don’t know how related she was to any of us. Just everybody called her Aunt Lou Miser. She lived with her daughter Mary who had married a no-good rascal called Dave Jones.

And she called him Davey. And Davey’s wife, Mary, was Aunt Lou Miser’s daughter. And the whole community loved Mary and Aunt Lou Miser. And any time there was anybody in need, a child sick, or a baby to be born, or anything of that nature, Aunt Lou Miser would be right there to help and to serve as long as she was needed. And she stayed at our house quite much. And I would hear my father and others say, “Aunt Lou Miser, you don’t have to put up with Dave Jones. You can come and live with us. And we’d just love to have you.” And she’d say, “But you don’t understand. Davey is a good boy. I know he loves God. And I know he believes in Jesus. But he doesn’t know it yet. But one day, he’s going to know it. And when he does, he’s going to be the man that I know him to be.” “Well, Aunt Lou Miser, if you need us, you let us know.” “Oh, Davey wouldn’t do anything to hurt any of us. He’s a good boy.” Always that. Now, I heard that as a little boy and I thought, you know, that’s what they mean by getting old.

You know, I just thought that was a silly old woman who was sort of weak and didn’t know how to slap anybody anymore. You know, you even horsewhip rascals like Dave Jones. But Aunt Lou Miser lived out that before us.

While I was yet a little boy, Aunt Lou Miser went to heaven. Just a few days after she’d gone, one day, here came Davey’s horse down the road with Davey tied on it as drunk as a fish. Somebody in town had found him drunk, tied him on his horse and sent him home. And the horse stopped at the door. Mary went out and untied him, drug him into the house, washed him as best she could, put him to bed.

Davey awoke, not only sober, but talking about going to heaven while he was drunk, seeing Aunt Lou Miser and Jesus. And he was filled with holy love, and lived out one of the most dignified Christian lives. And everybody became amazed at what a brilliant mind this man had. Nobody saw it but Aunt Lou Miser.

I’ve got a memory like that haunting me every time I talk about power. I don’t know that I want that kind of power. And yet, that’s the kind the Holy Ghost gives. The kind of power that lets you see the image of God that’s written in the soul of man. The kind of power that lets you see the blood of Jesus that’s been poured out for every man. The kind of power that lets you believe when nobody else does believe. But God has never lost faith. Do you want that kind of power? Are you willing? “As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” Another expression I find concerning the power of God is the power of holy compassion that honors the all of the created order of God. This is a sacred and holy world. It’s the kind of power that we see in Sadhu Sundar Singh of India. That great and wonderful Christian. It’s the kind of power we see in that beloved Saint Francis. It’s the kind of power we see in that modern Saint Francis, Dr. George Washington Carver from Tuskegee Institute. It’s the kind of power that we caught a glimpse of in Glenn Clark. The kind of power that broke through to let us see that all the universe is fraught through and through with the glory of God.

And there’s a sermon in stones and every blade of grass reflects His glory, reflects His glory, and every bird sings the angel song, and it’s a holy and wonderful world, and God wants to live in it in an awesome wonder of the reality of the immunity of grace. It’s always been this way. There was one named Elijah whose servant thought that the saints of God were going to be run over and taken away and done away with and somehow the devil would win out. Oh, Elijah just said, “Lord, open his eyes that he might see.” He didn’t go anywhere, just his eyes were open. And he saw that the air around him was filled with heavenly chariots, all kinds of glorious beings. And he said, “Why, those that are for us are greater than those that are against us.” And yet I find saints of God that are more aware of the works of the devil than they are of the works of God. I find saints, spirit-filled Christians, that see more of darkness in this world than they see of light and think somehow those that are against us are getting greater and greater, those that are for us are fewer and fewer, and began that prophecy of doom. I don’t believe it.

I don’t accept it because I was there with the crucified and the Lord. Do the glory to God. He’s done it. He’s done it. He’s done it once and for all. And I was there when He raised up from the tomb, and He’s on the throne of the universe, and His throne is forever. All other kingdoms will come and go. There is one kingdom that has never and will never falter. And that’s the kingdom of our Lord and God. And God is waiting for people, His people, to get a vision of kingdom living. Do you hear me, children? And to see the sacredness of every area of life. We wouldn’t have a labor problem in this country. And I want to suggest two things in my opinion are causing the economic strife of our day. One is the military budget, which is really getting more and more and causing inflation more than everything else put together. The military budget. But the other thing in my opinion that is really the economic problem, and this is a greater economic problem, the other is causing more inflation. But the greatest economic problem is a lack of the sense of sacredness about work.

The lack of the sense of sacredness about work. We have lost the wonder of the holiness of labor. And somehow we’ve just got a job. And we’ll never, never see the kingdom of God until our jobs become callings. And when you’ve got a calling you can’t be without a job. Glory to God. When you’ve got a calling you can’t be without a job. That’s what’s happening. I don’t think he’d mind me saying it but I won’t call his name. There’s a brother right here. I’ve loved him for years. And he lost his job a few months ago. And he’s been going through a real stride time in his life. But I saw this afternoon more clearly than I’ve ever seen that the Lord is laying a calling on his life, not in the sense of preaching like me or like somebody else in that sense, but calling in the sense of the dignity of true selfhood in the kingdom. Calling in the sense that my presence in the world is making a difference and that difference is for good. I was put here by God. My body is the temple of the Almighty. Jesus lives in me. My shadow will heal you if you come under my presence, so get out of my way.

I got a calling. Calling on my life. That’s kingdom living. And you begin to realize that in that calling of God there is that holiness of life. And you begin to see it happen. Francis Macbeth and I have a preacher brother named Joe Petrie. Joe was a graduate of Duke and Yale Universities. Phi Beta Kappa key. Just a brilliant, brilliant man. Sharp as all get out. And was really going to town as a Sharpie and, you know, a commentary of the news as a Methodist preacher. I mean, you know, he was just a great editor of current events.

And then the Lord started dealing with him. Baptized him with the Holy Ghost. Gave him the Spirit of truth. And old Joe right in the local parish began to tell the truth. Did you ever see Al Capp and Li’l Abner with that shmoo? You ever see it? I have often wanted Al Capp to put that little thing in a pulpit. You know, little old shmoo, everywhere he went everybody have to tell the truth. But old Joe would get up to preach on Sunday morning and if he didn’t have a sermon he’d say, “I’ve prayed and I’ve studied, but I don’t have a message. Any of you have the message for this morning?”

Well, he said, “What’s the use of me wasting your time? Let’s pray.” And you know, they’d gather around the altar and pray and sing a hymn and go. Well, that’s, you know, that’s not bad unless you came to hear a preaching behind which you could hide and cover up your vanity. And he’d go in the homes, you know, and they’d say, “Oh, preacher, we’re so glad to see you.” He said, “Well, you don’t act like it.”

“Why don’t you tell me that you don’t really like to see me? I sense it in your spirit. Let’s get honest.” Are you ready for that kind of preaching? Well, they worked. So he began to move every year, and sometimes it didn’t wait a year.

And he didn’t know what else to do, so he became conference evangelist like me. Any other conference in North Carolina. And for a number of years Joe just sort of went around trying to have a preaching ministry, nobody would listen. And so he said, “All right, Lord, you’ve called me, you’ve baptized me. If you’re not going to give me a ministry, then I’ll help other preachers have a ministry.” He’s the busiest man you ever knew and lives real good. Just amazing. He called it, you see, that spirit of meekness that makes him a servant where life becomes holy. Now he could have fought the bishop, cursed the conference and cursed the church and became an independent Bible-believing preacher and go out and build a Bible church. And you know, the only thing about Bible churches, New Testament churches, the New Testament church didn’t have the New Testament, and any church that has the New Testament is not a New Testament church. Any church that has the Bible is not a Bible church. The church of the Bible wrote the Bible. It didn’t have the Bible. It was the Bible. That’s what you said it was the Bible. It was the Bible. It’s wonderful. And so old Joe repented, caught the spirit, and start having that kind of ministry that serves.

But I’ve watched it where any of us begin to catch the sacredness of the world around us and approach this world with a sense of the awesome holiness of God, the world becomes a new place. And it sort of leaps up to bless you. But I am so serious about these robins showing me their little worms. One did it an hour ago, or a little over an hour ago. I saw him. In my spirit, I heard him call. And I looked. And he was about 40 or 50 feet away. And he realized I couldn’t see the worm well that far away. And I stood there and I said, “You darling robin, what do you want?” And he came running right toward me, with that worm hanging in his mouth. I said, “You precious thing, you. That’s the finest worm I’ve seen today.”

And he stood there and showed it to me. And then took off. Left me in ecstasy. Just amazing. I saw a couple of dogs walking along. One was a big dog. One was a little dog. I looked at the little dog. And I said, “You precious, ferocious beast.” The big dog growled. “Oh,” I said, “you’re the ferocious beast. Excuse me.” He wagged his tail.

Just amazing. How the universe around us is just crying out to be recognized. It’s just amazing. Well, that’s what we see in Jesus, isn’t it? That Jesus moves. And as He moves, the waves quieten down. The winds stop. Just wonderful. As the boys go out with the net in obedience to the word of God. Fish wink to jump into their nets. And come in with 153 great big ones. This is the way Elijah was, James says. Elijah was one of us. And yet he was so close to heaven that when he prayed, the clouds listened to him and said, “Elijah told us to hold off. So hold off.” And they waited for three and a half years. Can’t you just see these clouds? Just bulking. You know, like me.

And you’re just waiting to drop it slow. Saying, “When is that prophet going to speak again?” Three and a half years later he said, “Do it.” And they emptied their waters. And yet we as saints say, well, two things you can’t do anything about, what old is the weather. Why not? Why not? Why droughts? Why tornadoes? Why earthquakes? Have you heard about it in Agnes Sanford? Do you know about Agnes?

Agnes began to get this vision of the sacredness of the world and how it responds to the rule and reign of the kingdom of God. And she began to see that nature was put under bondage unwittingly. And her last book, Creation Waits. But Agnes began to see this. And creative miracles began to happen. You ought to go see Agnes Sanford. Agnes Sanford has the most beautiful flowers just growing out of the rocks. While when she and Edith Drury sit down for a meal, the blue jays and bluebirds, I guess bluebirds instead of blue jays, weren’t they? California jays. California jays. They come and share meals with them. Just a minute, we sat there. There they came. Francis got up from the table just a month ago or so, went right out on the deck and sat there and held out of his hand and there was a California jay right in it at Agnes’ house. Oh, you know what Agnes is doing there? She’s a New Englander. I had most of the ministry in Morristown, New Jersey. Had a home up in Massachusetts. Agnes Sanford heard all this prophecy about the San Andreas Fault and how the Southern Peninsula was going to rush away and go out to the ocean and all those millions and millions drown.

And Agnes said, “It shall not be so.” And found a home in Monrovia, California, as near the San Andreas Fault as she could get it. And she’s sitting right there at 88 years old. And that fault is getting better and better. Not bigger and bigger. Just amazing. I read a geologist report a few months ago. And it’s amazing. It’s amazing the geological world. How the San Andreas Fault is getting better. Not worse. There’s an Agnes Sanford that’s loving the world. Calling it sacred. It’s my daddy’s world. So behave yourself. I was with her at Monterey Peninsula. We were having a CFO. They were having some of those big fires out in Southern California. And everybody was, you know, wanting to pray about it. And I was sitting about halfway back in the group. Agnes was speaking and stopped speaking. And said, “I believe the Lord would have us pray concerning the fires.” She said, “Jesus, how do You want us to pray?” She got quiet. She said, “Thank You, Lord. I see that. I see the winds dying down around the fires. I see a heavy mist building up, and I see gentle winds bringing that mist in over the fires and the fires being smothered. Thank You, Jesus. It is so.” And we’re on back talking.

I thought to myself, Agnes, baby, you can get by with a headache now and then. You know, you can get by with a short foot now and then. But you’ve already declared how it was going to be. And you better know what you’re talking about. I didn’t say that out loud. She’d have run me off the place. No, she’d have loved me. But anyway, the next morning, there were the papers. “Last night, the winds died down. There’s a heavy mist moving in. The fires are being smothered.” Amazing. Amazing. That’s the kind of picture I get as the Father has sent me. The kind of picture that in a world like ours, where there’s so much world hunger, babies are starving. And I’m glad I pray more about our farm life than any other one thing in my life. I bless this nation. I fly, I crisscross it. I’ve been crisscrossing this nation a half a dozen times this calendar year. And as I fly over it, I bless it. The bread basket of the world, we can feed the whole world if God wants us to. And I bless it. And I pray that we’ll learn really the secrets of productivity. And then we’ll learn the genius of distribution. We’ll learn and just become the servants of God.

But as we learn these secrets that are tied up in this universe, we realize we’re having to do with the King of Glory who multiplies fish and loaves, not to make a show, not to make a spectacular so we can build up a great spectacular ministry. He refused that. He rebuked the crowd and even the disciples. Said, “You believe because you saw the fish and loaves multiplied.” That’s not the reason He performs miracles, to put on a show. He multiplied the fish and loaves because He didn’t want people to stay hungry. The disciples said in effect, “Let’s preach them a sermon, Lord. Let’s give them the spiritual food, Lord.” No, He wanted to feed their starving bodies. So He performed the miracle of multiplying fish and loaves. Now when we get that kind of love that we can see wheat is not only for the purpose of helping wheat farmers make good money, have good machinery, and enjoy the farm, but wheat is for the purpose of really feeding the world without respect to politics, to color, or denominations, but wheat is for the purpose of feeding the world. And that wheat becomes a sacramental expression of our labor. There’s something wrong with the church that will take and we will take wheat on a Sunday and bless it and consecrate it and make it the body of Christ and let shiploads of wheat be stored up and rot and adore and starve.

There is a break down. It’s a mockery to our sacrament, I tell you. And if we see it, then the real meaning of that bread on a Sunday is really that every grain of wheat is somehow sacramental and made to feed God’s people. And when we get as concerned about distributing our crops as we are about raising our crops, we’ll have the kind of faith that has the water and the rain that we need for our crops. The world will respond. “As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” This is my haunting, haunting life in the Lord. I have a vision of this wonderful kingdom where we are servants. And in that service, we see it all as holy. But then, this awesome challenge that we see under God, we are masters. Now this sounds like a contradiction, but it’s the strange paradox of kingdom living, that as we are filled with holy love, and as we are filled with a vision of the holiness of life, and incidentally, I hope you’ll get with our brother, see your name’s there, what, huh? I hope you’ll get with our brother, Armand, and with his wife, and let him share with you some of the issues in his own business right along this line.

He’s in the steel business, and how the Lord has so given him a sense of the sacredness of his business, that even when a contractor is willing to pay him just to shade the size of the beams from the architectural drawings, “No, I can’t do it. Can’t do it.” Even when they’ve ordered a beam, and he buys it, and then they change the architectural drawing, instead of getting mad, he releases it to God, lets him get another beam, a month later, gets blueprints for the same beam that the first crowd had ordered and would accept. I tell you, that’s one of the greatest testimonies. It’s exactly what I’m talking about. It’s the sacredness of the business world where you are a partner to Jesus, and you’re a master with your decision. The Lord doesn’t shake him by the neck and say, “Now you do that or I’ll throw you out of the kingdom.” No, the Lord will not do us that way. The Lord’s not going to coerce us into kingdom living. He said, “If any man will come after me, let him take up this kind of cross.” And so God is waiting for us to come to that kind of sacredness where we realize, Father, as I am mastered by You, and that’s what we’ve been up to this week.

We’ve been submitting our interior lives to the Lord. That’s what healing of memories is all about, is bringing those hurts that have been inflicted by others and circumstance to the mastery of Jesus. And as Jesus washes over with that cleansing blood, that healing light, that living water, just brought to His presence, His mastery is reflected in health and wholeness. And we’ve been doing this with all of our life, with our visions, with our prayer life, with our minds. But as we bring our own wills, as we sung tonight, “I Surrender All.” I want to give you one other vision. The surrendered will is not just the person who stands and keeps saying, “I surrender.” Bless your heart, He’s accepted your surrender.

He’s accepted it. Now, start using it. Start using that will. I heard not long ago that one of the modern day teachings of parental psychology is that parents do their children a favor when they help them make decisions of their own will and then assume responsibility for their decisions.

Let your child learn to make decisions on the level where they’re able according to their will but then assume responsibility for their decisions. Is that what the Lord has done with you? He’ll let you go to hell if you insist.

He’ll let you, you know, give in to darkness. He’ll let us have a world with starving children. He’ll let us have a world dropping atomic bombs on one another. He’ll let us have a world of bitterness and strife. He’ll let man have most any kind of world he wants in order to teach us how to assume responsibility for the decisions we make.

One last thing is this, that since this is true, if we’ve got good sense, and we do, don’t we? We’ll start assuming stewardship of the redeemed will. The stewardship of the redeemed will. Where I am going to choose in the name of Jesus.

And I’m going to be responsible for that choice. I’m going to choose in the name of Jesus. And I’m going to be responsible for that choice. We have in our midst two who have experienced and expressed vividly, dramatically this truth.

Father Francis MacNutt, born over in St. Louis. His mother, has he told you, a ballet dancer. What he did not tell you is that she was one of the most gracious ladies the world has ever known. They weren’t rich people. I suppose they had enough to pay their bills. They lived in a nice section of town, but I didn’t consider them wealthy in that sense. But I want you to know I considered myself in the house of a king and queen when I went to see them. And she acted like it. I mean, every time I’ve ever been there, whether it was winter or summer, she’d have some sort of little flower on the table. It may not be a great big bouquet, but it’d be something that reflected the glory of God. I went to see her one day along in March, Francis, I believe it was. And she was sitting in there by the fireplace with the Christmas tree and the Christmas lights. Just blinking away, little lights. And she said, “Tommy, I love Christmas trees,” and said, “I buy wood every year and I… it’s a live tree and I’m taking care of it here, but,” says, “I think the lights are pretty. And why shouldn’t I enjoy them as long as I want to?”

That’s the sort of lady she was, with that, you know, fresh flowers at breakfast. Francis, I guess, she had candlelight every meal. It seemed to me like she did. But the breakfast, whether it was just oatmeal, that may be what we had for breakfast, but you’d have thought it was, you know, the latest word I was trying to think of, Eggs Benedict. You would have thought it was Eggs Benedict right out of the Waldorf. I mean just everything so gracious. She had a way of taking the commonplace and just lifting it into the realm of glory. And his father, who was an engineer by training, and what he didn’t tell you, by calling was a portrait painter. And really Jerry Ruffin said did you know you can order a paint? And he was a great painter. And really he was really quiet but just a man of gentle steel. And his mother, as tall as he is almost, they had one of those old three story houses, original houses I think they call them in St. Louis. And you know, up to her dying day I guess she never had any help. She ran up and down those three flights of stairs like a young girl. Just amazing. Just regal queen. Well, that old boy grew up in that.

You know, went off to school and then served in the military and all that and then in college the Lord laid His hand on him, called him into the priesthood, came into the Dominican Order and ordained a priest and finished up his doctorate, taught six years as a professor in a seminary in Dubuque and then led in these other realms and became the best known priest in the Catholic community around the world in terms of renewal. I’ve been with him in many different countries around the world. His name is known and he’s loved. The Lord used him by and large. He is the one the Lord used to open the doors to Catholic renewal throughout South America. One of the greatest revivals in the world is going on there now in the Catholic Church, largely through Francis MacNutt. Everywhere he went he said, “Oh, Anthony Quinn,” you know, “look in that white Dominican robe.” So, just somehow caused pretty girls to flutter. And I’d say, “Father Francis, I know the Lord lets me go with you just to keep you pure.” And I’d say, “Anytime you’re having a problem about celibacy, call me. I’ll come get you.”

And here, just all over the world, just having this great ministry. And then, two years ago, it would be this fall, well, this summer, two years ago, he said, “Tommy, I’ve met a girl that if I were ever to marry, she has everything I would want in a wife.” I said, “Francis, for God’s sake, don’t ever see her again.”

And then, this fall would be two years ago, he called me and said, “Would you come to Florida to see us?” And I went down and spent the first time with them, really listening, but then telling them why they couldn’t marry and couldn’t think of it. And the Lord began to change my mind and work in my heart. And I didn’t want to let them know that the Lord had changed my mind, and I waited. And we met at a week together at Aqueduct, Judith and Francis, and some of his close associates, his confessor, a Catholic psychiatrist, a sister with whom he had been very close, and a few others, to share with them this concern of marriage and this decision. And nearly every person to the person, just with, you know, strong, passionate pleas, let them know why they couldn’t marry. And after everybody finished, he said, “Thank you.” And he went into our prayer room and spent the biggest part of the day on his face, on the floor, and came out of there in the afternoon and said to me, “I’m going to ask Judith to be my wife.”

Now, he’d made a decision. She’d made a decision. They counted the cost. They knew that it would hurt. They didn’t know how much it would hurt. But they made a decision before God. I made that decision with them, before God.

And just as much as any sacrament has ever been before God, their marriage is sacrament. Before the Lord. I declare it so. I declare it so before heaven and earth, on the night they were wed. I’m ready for the hurts. We’ve all suffered. The church has suffered. Everybody else has suffered. But through that choice that was made in the name of Jesus, redemption is coming. Redemption has come untold ways, to priests and sisters who have left their orders to marry. Encouragement has come throughout the church to see this priest suffer. And they know the day is coming when the church is going to change its law and allow celibacy to be an alternative. Don’t try to make a Lutheran out of him. I would let him join the Lutheran church. I love the Lutheran church. He ain’t no Lutheran. I love the Anglican church. He ain’t no Anglican. She ain’t no Baptist no more. No, they’re Catholic. They’re going to stay Catholic. We made a decision. And before God and man, we’re going to assume responsibility for that decision and live it out. Suffering or no suffering, for the joy that’s set before us. Sure, he suffered. But have you seen it? Have you seen it as I brought her up to this podium?

What? Do you think he’s going to cry over at that? Boy, that’s bittersweet tears. No. What an honor to suffer, to have the love of a woman like that. And a man like that. An honor for her. But I’ve made a decision to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. Don’t hand me any threats with prophecy of doom. So what? I belong to Jesus. Don’t try to coerce me into a sectarian, narrow-minded vision. I belong to Jesus. Don’t hand me out any consummation of this age determined by Washington or Moscow or Peking. I belong to Jesus. And my Father, who made this world, has foreordained from the foundation of the world that human history shall be consummated in terms of Jesus. I’ve made a decision. And I’m responsible before God for that decision in a continuing way. And I’m going to hold to the kingdom. If it leads me on the cross, so what? My master went that way. But through the cross, it’ll lead me to glory. Hallelujah. Don’t threaten me with what people can do to me. I’ve seen the King. Glory. Glory to God.

And I stand with you. We’ve made decisions for Jesus. And we’ve got to go back and wash feet and hold the vision and see the holiness of God and yield ourselves until our prayers answered. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Hallelujah. Amen.