Who Really Commits the Profanity?

Who Really Commits the Profanity?

by Tommy Tyson

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

There was this old boy walking down the street one day, and he saw this antique shop, and there was a cat up in the window, drinking milk. Drinking milk out of an old saucer. Well, he noticed the saucer, and he realized it was a very valuable antique. I don’t know what it was, Ming or something, you know. And he wanted to buy that saucer, but he knew if he went in and tried to buy it, the shopkeeper would get suspicious and up the price on him. So he walked in very casually, you know, looked all around, and finally got over to the window, and he said to the shopkeeper, “My, that’s a beautiful cat you’ve got in that window.” Well, he said, “Yeah, he is a right pretty cat.” Well, he said, “Would you consider selling him?” “Well, yes, I guess so. I’ve always got another cat.” “Well, I’ll give you $25 for him.”

“All right, mister, if you want him that bad, you can have him. Give me the $25.” So he gave him the $25, took the cat, acted as if he were walking out, then he turned and said, “Say, I don’t have anything to feed a cat with at home.” And he said, “Here’s a little saucer he’s already been drinking from. Why don’t I take this little saucer along with me?” And the shopkeeper looked at him and said, “I don’t guess I’ll let you have that saucer. It’s the best cat seller I’ve ever had.”

So, that’s what I want to be for Jesus. I want to be the cheese in His traps that catch you rats. And I do thank Him for letting us be here together. I’m excited about what’s happening in the world today.

For a number of years, many of us thought that the Holy Spirit was bypassing the organized institutional church. I’ve had deep suspicions along that line for Seth. But I’ve come to report to you that the Holy Spirit is even finding receptivity in the organized church.

You know, this is the age of miracles. I’ve seen three bishops baptized in the Holy Spirit this year. Two Methodists and one Episcopalian. And you know, that’s great. I’m sure many others have, I just don’t know about that. But I’ve just seen wonderful movements of the life of the Spirit breaking forth. In the past 12 or 15 months, I’ve seen more receptivity to the supernatural power at local church level than I’ve seen all the rest of my 20 years in the ministry put together.

Now, if you’re really not aware that heaven is breaking in on us, I pray that you’ll get aware here this week. And if you are not desperate enough to be humble before God, and to do business with Him, I pray you to get desperate enough. If you’re not aware of your sins, go out and rob a bank or do something.

Jesus said, “I wish you were hot or cold. But because you’re lukewarm, I’ll spill you out of My mouth.” They’re tragic words. And you know, I found that to be the truth in my life. The words who really don’t respond are those who think they’ve got it made, satisfied, rocking along on their own energies, you know, and sort of have really built a self-image of themselves, don’t need anything much, because they’ve got it. Like an old boy down in Georgia, I was holding a meeting down there, and he was a wonderful attorney, brilliant boy. Went home with him after the service one evening, he had a lovely, I suppose, $150,000 home, up on a little hill, beautiful pine trees, azaleas, camellias, all the rest. Went out on the patio to drink, I drank lemonade anyway.

And had a beautiful botanical garden out there and all that. And I had preached on the prodigal that night. Oh, I preached hard. I really bored out on the prodigal son. And so, sitting out there on the patio, he looked at me and said, “Tommy, I thought you preached well tonight.” And I said, “Thank you, Morgan.” He said, “But it didn’t apply to me.”

Well, I said, “I didn’t know that. I guess the Lord did, but I didn’t. But why didn’t it apply to you?” “Well,” he said, “this is my pig pen. What’s wrong with it?” And I said, “There’s not a thing wrong with it, Morgan. It’s a beautiful pig pen. But I just want you to know, just hang around here.”

It’ll deteriorate. You’ll get down to the swill. And this will lead you to it, if you insist on it. For anything that we take, other than the living Lord Himself, as our Savior and our salvation, will turn on us and lend us. Blessed is the man who knows his need for Jesus. Blessed is the woman who knows her need for Jesus. Blessed are the young people who know they need Jesus. For Jesus Christ is the gift of God according to our need. That’s really where Jesus meets us. He meets us at the point of our need. And that’s what He’s trying to get us to see here tonight. And that’s why many of us are here consciously. I think all of us are here for that reason, whether we know it or not. It’s because He has brought us here to minister to us according to our needs. And I’ve discovered this in the realm of life. That human need is not an occasion for guilt or condemnation. Human need is an opportunity to do business with God. Whatever that need may be. It may be between you and your wife. In terms of family life. You know, really, you can get another wife. Chances are, she won’t have much on the one you’ve got now.

The one you’ve got now is not much better than the last one you had, is she? You know? You can trade in that old boy you’ve got. He really, he’s not going to be much worse than the next one you get.

In the same way about preachers. You can run the one you got off now, and the next one you get is about the same deal. You know, we are all sort of cut out of the same mess. All this business of rearranging outward conditions really doesn’t get the job done. Because that’s not where the need is. Do you know where your need is? It’s on the inside of you. That’s where your need is, on the inside of you. And if you get right on the inside, it’s amazing how your wife gets right on the outside. Are you a husband? Are you a children? Are you parents? I just have to share this with you. Ken, our youngest son, who is 19 now. Frances mentioned to me some time ago that Ken was learning some new words that we didn’t think he’d learned at home. All kinds of four-letter words. And some we thought were rather profane and blasphemous. But he never used them in my presence. So I never had an occasion to get mad and, you know, get with him. I used to get my children, I get mad. How about you?

I let it rock till I get in the corner. Then I react. Then I repent. Then we have a conference. That’s sort of my pattern. But anyway, time came around and old Ken let out one day. And I started letting on him. And really talked to him about profanity. But I was aware of the Lord enough to slip into my study first. And I slipped into the study and I said, “Lord, I don’t know how to talk with Ken. I don’t want to just, you know, tie him down. I want to help him.” And as I listened, the thought began to come to me. What is profanity?

Well, I said, “Lord, profanity is taking Your name in vain.” “Well, who does that more in this house than you?” And I thought, I don’t take the Lord in vain. You know, I’m a preacher. And then I began to realize, how many times have I said, you know, “Praise the Lord” with my lips. No praise in my heart. How many times have I bowed to ask the blessing? When really in my heart, I wasn’t grateful, I was grumbling. How many times have I really taken the name of the Lord, prayed and said, “This I ask in Jesus’ name.” And it wasn’t in His name at all. It was in my name. You know, when you ask and really pray according to your fears or your anxieties or your greed, and you say, “This I ask for Jesus’ sake,” that’s profanity.

It’s not for Jesus’ sake or in Jesus’ name, unless you’re really in Jesus’ spirit. And I’ve had so many prayers like that. And boy, I thought, “Lord, You’re not being fair to me. I’m not the one who’s being profaned. Lord, You didn’t give me wisdom to deal with Kenneth.” And boy, I just sat there and the Lord had me in the corner. I had to repent. I got out on my knees in front of my chair in the study. And I said, “Jesus, help me to really repent and be cleansed of profanity in my heart, in my life. And help my lips never to use Your name in vain. But help me to really live with You in the Spirit from the inside out.” And you know, I began to work with him in that regard. And I have never from this day to this had to speak with Kenneth about his profanity. It’s amazing how he has just learned this lesson when I repented.

And you know, I’ve noticed this about a lot of people. Their needs represent an occasion for me to get before God. And when I work it out within me, somehow the change is made manifest in them as well as me. That’s why the judgment of God begins with the house of God. When the church gets right with God, the world’s going to know it.

You see? You really don’t have to get your children straightened out. When you as married wife, get right with God. Your children are going to know it. Something’s going to happen to them. When you start agreeing, no wonder my children have so many problems. All they’ve done is reflect mine. They’ve reflected my difference with friends. Frances is a wonderful girl. I’m so glad God gave her to me as a wife. She’s about the only woman I know who put up with me. As well as she does anyway. But you know, one of our big problems has been, Frances just has not known how to raise my children.

It’s been amazing. And I’m sure she thinks the same thing. I haven’t known how to raise her children. And I thought about it a lot. No wonder our children pick up all this tension and reaction, with us differing as we do as husband and wife. And so when I discovered this, Frances and I agreed we would never disagree before the children concerning the children. That if she said something I thought was wrong, I’d wait until we got alone. Or if I said or didn’t say something she thought was wrong, she’d wait until we got alone. And we would work out our differences concerning the children with one another before the Lord. And you know, it’s amazing the effect it has on the children. Try it sometime. Your kids aren’t nearly as bad as you’ve been pretending. The biggest problem with your children: they got so much of you in them.

That’s the biggest problem with them. I know because I’ve discovered that in the home. So the Lord begins to show us our needs in many different ways. Whether our need is physical, mental, spiritual, financial, social. And God is not particular in that sense. Any area of your life where you are hurting, or where you are aware of a need, Jesus will minister to you on that level. And do such a good job that He will win your response in the other areas. And most of us learn to do business with Jesus an area at a time, where we are hurting most. And we start learning to be honest, and opening the door to Jesus. And He moves in and starts taking over. And just ministry. And it’s beautiful to see our age getting to the place where we are secure enough in many different ways. Most of us have had a little psychology. That’s helped us a great deal. It’s helped us to rationalize one thing.

That’s tragic sometimes. But it’s also helped us to become more honest. And I believe that this age in which we are part is more honest about needs than any age I’ve ever known. There’s a new humility developing among preachers. And that’s amazing. You know, sometimes we felt that preachers, you know, there were three genders: male, female, and preachers. And that somehow we felt that preachers were sort of somewhere between God and man. And we expected them to be super human, or super spiritual, and sort of dehuman. And we put them on pedestals. And so when preachers began to fuss with their wives, they make sure none of the church members are around.

All the windows are down. And then they fuss. And that’s why a lot of preachers’ kids have had so many problems, is because their daddy hasn’t been free to be honest about his emotions. The church members hadn’t let him. My goodness, he’s the preacher. You pay him to be good. You know. You’re supposed to be good for nothing.

You know. And so we built up a real function around the church this way. And these preachers had a real difficult time. But now laymen are discovering they can pray. Isn’t that great? Don’t you just love the way the Lord’s breaking out among laymen? And you realize you don’t have to have a seminary degree to get God’s attention. And that you witness. You can really be filled with the Holy Spirit, even when you haven’t even been secretary of the woman society. You know. That the Lord can really get to you and through you. And so laymen are getting secure this way, getting in the power of the Holy Spirit. And lo and behold, they’re discovering their preacher, sometimes, is the last one in the group that gets baptized with the old Ghost.

And so the layman begins to realize, “Well, that preacher, he’s a wonderful man. But he’s just a man. He needs my prayers. He needs my love. He needs my faith. Because he has needs in his own life.” And we began to get him down off of a pedestal. And that hurts. And you know, this is one reason I love CFO. And one reason I’m glad God let me get in CFO. Somebody said to me, “Tommy, I had leaders on a pedestal until I met you.”

And one reason the Lord lets me be a speaker in CFO is to help people overcome leader-itis. You know. Because I’m so human, and so earthy really. But this whole business, this is a part of the life of the Spirit that’s happening in our day, where we realize God is a jealous God. He’s to have no other gods before Him. No other person we are to adore. Only worship the living Lord. And so He’s letting us get honest enough about our needs that we can see the needs of others. And then as we begin to see those needs, we realize we don’t have to condemn. We believe. We pray. We minister. We accept saving grace. We accept the keeping and healing power. And you know, it’s beautiful to begin to see this. And this is happening in so many… I’ve been in several preacher conferences this year. And it’s been wonderful to see these preachers time and time again say, “I’ve got a church that accepts me as a human being.” You can’t imagine how freeing that is to a preacher. To have somebody say, “Hey, buddy, I’m pulling for you this morning. Get at it.” You know? I’ll slip by the study and say, “Look here, let me lay hands on you before you get out there.”

You know? And just slip into the study and lay hands on him. “Lord, anoint him with the Holy Ghost. He can’t preach and let You do it, Lord. Lord, I don’t want to just another can, PhD delivery. Lord, set him on fire. He’s my buddy.” You know? And just slip in and start doing that. It’s amazing what he would do. And he is doing. We’re discovering it. And we’re discovering it about one another. It’s just beautiful. To begin to realize our needs, our open doors to Jesus. Whatever those needs might be. And you know, I’m glad that many of us are discovering that God is a miracle worker. And He just slips in on us, you know. I just had a great experience. It happened Saturday. This week, this past Saturday. A couple from Greenville, North Carolina, Mary and Roy Honeycutt, called me. And Mary said, “Tommy, I need to see you and Roy. We want to have a little time with you. Can’t you and Frances meet us down at the beach on Saturday? And let’s have some time together.” So we drove down to Atlantic Beach. Only about 80 miles from Goldsboro. And met in a friend’s home down at the beach. And had a lovely day. Just great. And while we were sitting there sharing together, the people next door found out I was there.

And I knew them too. And they came over and said, “Tommy, this is God.” I said, “What’s God?” “You’re being here.” Well, I said, “I think so too. But why do you think so?” “Well, there’s a man and his wife visiting next door to us. He’s an attorney from Lexington, Kentucky. And he’s here on a few days’ visit because he has a terminal sickness, medically speaking.” It’s cancer in the lymph nodes, is it? I guess that’s a type of leukemia, whatever. But anyway, the lymph system is just filled with a cancerous condition. And medically speaking, there’s no help. “And we believe he’s ready for prayer.” And so this man, attorney, and his wife came over. And it was just beautiful. The Holy Spirit just began to minister supernaturally. Just giving me a gift of the word of knowledge. A gift of discernment, you know. A gift of the word of wisdom. It was just beautiful. Just see the Lord operate. And this old boy knew it was the Lord. I’m just so glad he had such enough to know that. And he just melted down. And here was one of the outstanding attorneys in that whole area. Brilliant man. Well trained. Financially secure. And all socially secure. You know, what we’d call the cream of the crop.

Becoming just like a little child. Melted right down. That prayer group got around him. I pulled out a chair. You know, Episcopalian too. And I pulled out a chair and put it right in the center of the circle. And I said, “In prayer circles, we call this the hot seat. Why don’t you get in it?” You know, no holding back. You know, none of this. Just like a little child. He sat in it. That group came around. We laid hands on him. And you’re talking about the power of heaven. I mean, just this old fellow just opened up. He and his wife both, they stood there in tears and hugged my neck. Hugged everybody else. And I told him I was getting ready to come to Nebraska. And I said, “I’m going to hold your name before the prayer groups. I’m going to get Glenn Clark’s book, I’ll Lift Up Mine Eyes. We’re going to bless it before that group. And I’m going to send it to you while I’m there.” He said, “You mean you do that for me?” I said, “More than that. That’s just the beginning.” I said, “Old buddy, you’ve opened the door. Jesus has come in. And you haven’t seen anything yet. He’s really going to take over.” “Well,” he said, “I can hardly wait.”

And you know, this… And his name is Alford. Van Alford. A-L-F-O-R-D. And his wife’s name is Ruth. So you prayer group readers, be praying with me for Van Alford. But this is how the Lord just opens up to these wonderful ministries as we have need and will humble ourselves before the Lord. Whether it’s in guidance. I’ve just seen Jesus just lift burdens and tremendous concern in recent days and letting people have the anointing of His presence and just open up doors in beautiful ways. I’d like to tell you this, Dory. Jim was with me. We flew up to Martinsville, Virginia. Jim flew me up there the other day. And there’s a man up there named Claybrook Lester.

Claybrook is up in years now. I guess I don’t… I know he’s in his 70s. I don’t suppose he’s 80 yet. But Claybrook has been one of the old pillars of that community. You know, a real businessman. You know, chairman of bank board and all that deal. You know, I mean, he’s made it. He’s got it. You know, he lives on Moe Burst Creek. You know. And Claybrook has been, you know, chairman of the board of deacons, the First Baptist Church, Martinsville, for nearly all of his life. You know, he just… has been right there on the fine line. Rough, tough, but real human deal. And a few years ago, his only child, a daughter, came to a CFO, and the Lord started meddling with her.

And really, baptized her with the Holy Spirit. And Annabelle started going back home, talking to her daddy about Jesus. And you know, it’s amazing how people talk about God until they’re baptized in the Holy Spirit. Then somehow, though they still are, you know, it’s God, but it’s God in terms of Jesus. Don’t you love the way the Holy Spirit honors Jesus? So Annabelle started going, talking about Jesus. And it turned her daddy off for a while. He thought she was getting too fanatical. And then he discovered he had Hodgkin’s disease.

And so he called her in one day, and he said, “Who’s this crowd you’ve been running on with?” And she told him, and told her name, my name among others. He said, “You reckon you’d get some up here to pray for me?” Well, she said, “Daddy, Tom will be glad to come.” So she called me. And I came up. One afternoon, he was sitting there in his room, in his home, lovely home. And I came in, we got to talking together. And he didn’t respond too much, but he opened up a little. And I read the word of God to him. And I said, “Mr. Lester, I’m going to pray for you.” “All right,” he said, “I wish you would.” So I laid hands on him and began to pray. And the Lord anointed. It was just wonderful. And I got through praying. It’s just as spontaneous as you’ve ever seen anything. He opened his eyes and looked at me and said, “Boy, that was a damn good prayer.”

I think that was so wonderful. I don’t encourage people to use slang. But, you know, that was so honest, such an honest response. And I sat with him the other day while Jim and I was there. And I have never been with anyone where there was a greater anointing of the Holy Spirit. And to see that man, now in his 70s, over the last five years, come to the place where he just melts before the Lord Jesus. And there he is, radiant in the power of the risen Savior and the Holy Spirit being magnified through his daily life. Beautiful things are happening. Now, I’ve said enough tonight, on this opening night, to bring us to this point. I don’t know what your need is.

It’s not like mine. I have my own. And I know you have yours. I’ve looked you over since I’ve been standing here. You’re a beautiful group, really. But I haven’t looked at a single person and the Holy Spirit speak to my heart and says, “I’m through with that one.”

You know, God isn’t through with you yet. Regardless of what He’s done for you, He’s got more for you. He has more heights. He has deeper depths. He has more power. He has more love. He has cleansing grace. He has healing depths. Whatever your need might be, Jesus Christ has brought us here to minister to you, to me, as a person. Now, some of us, He’ll confront us directly and we’ll get under deep conviction and pray through. Some of us, He’ll minister to us in such a way that we hardly know He’s ministering until He’s already done it and lets us look back on it and see that the work’s done and we hardly knew that it was done. But not only is He ministering to each one of us directly, here’s a beautiful thing about CFO, is that He does it through one another. Now, He’s going to use me. He wouldn’t have me here if He wasn’t going to use me. And I’m expecting Him to use me, not only when I’m speaking, but through every moment of every day. But, I’m expecting Him to use you just as much as He does me. He’s going to be using us in the creatives during the day. That’s why we have the program set up like it is.

It’s not just because somebody thought up a program and is married to a program. But this format of CFO is a way whereby we can lose ourselves in love and become ministers of the Holy Spirit one to another. We follow Marge in the creative rhythms of the morning, devotion in motion. That’s a way to worship God with our bodies. Now, some of you men who are here for the first time, I know what you’re going to think.

If you’re like I am, and like I… You’re going to think, “What has my wife dragged me to this time?” And you’re going to go up and want to go uptown and go golfing or something. But I want to challenge you, especially you that are here for the first time, to really start worshiping God through devotion in motion tomorrow morning. And discover the mystery of the Holy Spirit in letting us act like a little child. And really yield ourselves and lose ourselves. And then we start going into the other creatives, the creative drama, creative writing, or whatever, creative art, or creative music, whatever creative you’re led to, and discover a way for the Holy Spirit to whisper to your heart and express that through you. It’s amazing. And how the Lord… You know, you don’t realize God can use you. Many of us don’t. We have these things locked up within us that we’ve never touched, and when we get free, and here’s a way whereby we can do it, the Holy Spirit begins to give us the freedom of expression. And so just falling into a rhythm, we move right into the prayer group time. And that’s the real heart of camp life. So that every one of us will belong to a prayer group.

Now nobody’s going to embarrass you. If you don’t want to pray aloud, that’s your business. If you don’t want to hold up your hands, you’re free not to. But since you’re free not to, other people are free too.

We’re free. We’re free to hold up our hands or we’re free not to. Sometimes I don’t want to hold up my hands. I want to get on my knees. We’re free. But in our prayer group, we are going to discover that here are people that I have never known before who are getting closer to me than flesh and blood. And I am really discovering that people love me.

And I can love people. And you know, this is the greatest thing in the world. This was the thing that really frightened me about CFO, and it frightens me about life. That is the freedom of love. I am afraid people really won’t love me if they get to know me.

And I am afraid that when people act like they love me, it is just sort of being sacred and sweet. They don’t really mean it. They love me in fair weather, but what about the foul weather? They love me when they think I don’t have a need, but what about when they discover my needs?

I am afraid to really get involved with people on a love level. Because I don’t want to go through rejection. And if you don’t ever get too close, you won’t ever be rejected. But here God moves in by His Spirit. And before we know it, we are involved. We are involved with people in the love of God. Aren’t you glad? And that human beings, just like us, can be used of God to minister to us. And we can be used to minister to them. And we begin to discover that through all of it, God is saying, “I love you. I love you.” And that’s the real message. I’ll close with this story. My wife and I were riding along with a couple that we’d never met before. Until that evening. This had just been a few months ago. And I was riding in the front seat with a man. And my wife was riding in the back seat with a man’s wife. And there was just a divine magnetism about that couple. You know, they were just pulsating with heavenly vibrations. Just the power of the Holy Spirit. And I stood at just about all I could. And I turned to them and I said, “Now look, I’ve got to find out your story. When did you get to know the Lord this way?”

And she spoke up and said, “Darling, could I speak first?” He said, “Would it do any good if I said no?” So she said, “Well, Tommy, I was raised in the church. I never knew a moment when I, you know, deliberately had a conversion experience. But mine had just been a gradual unfolding. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know and didn’t love the Lord. I just loved Him all my life. I baptized as a child. Came up that way.” Now there’s been a time in my evangelical commitments when that testimony wouldn’t have been acceptable by me. But you know, I’m discovering God isn’t married to a pattern. My goodness. He’s limitless in the ways He deals with people. And so she said, “I just unfolded that way.” And she said, “Here a few months ago, the crowd I ran with, I noticed there was something different about them. And I don’t know how long it had been different, but I know it dawned on me one day that they seemed to have a knowledge of the Bible. They seemed to have a joy. They seemed to be able to overcome little things. And so I said to some of them one day, ‘You girls have found something I haven’t found. What is it?

And how do I get it?’ And they took me to a prayer group. And nobody preached any doctrine to me. They just shared with one another in that prayer group, and they prayed. And they laid hands on me. And prayed. And when they got through praying for me, I felt as if I was burning up. Just with fire from heaven.” And she said, “I was just filled with love. I never knew so much love was available. And when I started to express myself audibly, it wouldn’t come out in English.

And they called it the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And I had never heard that term to know it. And the Lord just filled me. And I was driving back home. And I said to myself, ‘I can hardly wait to get home and tell my husband.’ And just as clearly as if it had been audibly, the Lord spoke to me and said, ‘You’ll say nothing to this about that, about this to your husband.’”

Now, women, can you imagine being baptized in the Holy Spirit, and not being able to tell your husband? After all, he’s the one that needs it. And she said, “Lord, if I can’t tell him, what do You want me to do?” And she said, “The thought came very clearly. ‘I want you to live it out.’”

And she said, “Now, darling, if you don’t mind, go ahead and tell her. You respond to this point.” He said, “Well, Tommy, when she came back home, I didn’t know anything at first, until it began to dawn on me one day that she was fixing a lot of things that she knew I loved. And that she started getting up with me, and fixing breakfast for me, and things like that. But when it began to dawn on me, instead of, you know, making me glad, it made me mad. That she seemed to be finding some meaning and purpose that I didn’t know about. I felt threatened.” And he said, “I just became more angry. Now, ever since I was 19 years old, I’ve been living with something deep down on the inside of me that I call a success bug. And just a sort of a driving. One promotion after another.” And he is executive vice president, one of the largest corporations in America. Yeah, very important position. And he said, “It’s just been one drive after another, one promotion after another. This thing just drives. And at times it seems organic. And I’ve been to many clinics, trying to discover if it is an organic thing, they’ve never been able to discover anything organically wrong.

“Just, and so I termed it a success bug, and let it go and live with it. But so this thing began to act more severely. I started to go to our own psychiatrist, there at the plant. And it dawned on me that I had hired him. And I didn’t know whether really he was free enough to be honest with me. So I went to New York,” he said, “and went through a psychiatric clinic, and a diagnostic, a physical diagnostic clinic. And they didn’t discover anything too abnormal with me. And he sent me back home. And one afternoon, I came home from the office rather early. Came to the living room, and there was a Bible open on the table. Now, it may have been there all the while, I just hadn’t noticed it.” And I think quite often that’s true. God has a lot of things that we don’t notice until we have eyes to see. He has messages that we’ve been hearing all of our lives, but we didn’t pay any attention to them. Because we didn’t have an ear to hear. But when we get ready, God’s already there. Please remember that. When you get ready, God’s already there. “And so,” he said, “I picked up the Bible.

“I began to read. I don’t know the book, nor the chapter, nor the verse. I just know what happened. While I was reading it, God spoke to me.” I said, “You mean audibly?” He said, “So far as I’m concerned it was. You may not have heard Him, if you’d been there. But yes, to me it was an audible voice.” I said, “What did God say to you?” “Well,” he said, “it was very simple.” Well, I said, “What did you say?” What he said… He didn’t say… Just a few words, and he said them three times, very emphatically. And I waited and he said, “While I sat there reading the Bible, God spoke and said, ‘I love you.’”

And he said, “It was like standing before a glass window with a noonday sun breaking in through the window. Every cell of my body, my brain, my physical body, was just being infused with the power of that love. And walking with the Bible in my hands, I started to the kitchen where my wife was, and we met in the doorway, and when our eyes met, she knew, and I knew that she knew. And we fell into each other’s arms, and we haven’t been the same since.” And he said, “But that’s the message. God is saying, ‘I’m not ashamed of you.’

“I know you. I know where you are. I know what your values are. I know where your down sittings and your uprisings. I know your failures and your victories. I know you. I’m not ashamed of you.” He’s saying, “I love you. I want you for My own. And I want to be your own. I want to do business with you where you are.” Let us pray.