The Lord gives you a burden, Jason. You've got to lay her down, honey. You lay it down, you've laid it down. Now, I've had messages that I've preached on and I'm still preaching on. You just can't preach enough about it and you can't get it all out. But if the Lord's called you like He's called so many others, it's a burden. You've got to carry that burden that the Lord gives you. He'll give you not only your burden, but he'll give you other people's burdens. They ain't got no sense to lay it down or to carry it themselves. And so the Lord will be so sweet to give you their burden. And you walk around with it. And the Lord gives you a message that you've got to lay it down. You lay it down there at the altar. And you do your best. You study God's word, and you pray. But when it's all said and done, that burden has to be laid at the altar. Now where we find victory is when the preacher lays that burden on the altar, and then those that hear it, and those that are convicted by it, they lay themselves down at the altar. If we do that, well, we'll have a joyful life in the Lord. You say, well, what's joyful about carrying a burden? Well, because God's asked you to, and the God of this universe, if He's asked you to do something, what an honor and a privilege to do that very thing that He asked. The Bible says, we're going to have some thoughts, and we talked about this in Sunday school, but we all know the very familiar passage of Scripture, and we're going to try, for the Lord will allow, we're going to try to tie these together, And I'm no different than nobody else. The Lord gives me a message that only I can preach. Not that because I'm special or I'm better than anybody else, but the Lord gave Daryl a message and so Daryl's got to preach it. Now the Lord can give another preacher the same message and he might do a whole lot better job at it. But I've got to do my part. I've got to be like those in Zachariah's day, right? Those that thought that There aren't no point in building the temple back. We can't build it as glorious as it was once built. We don't have the resources. We don't have the power. We don't have the strength. But yet we know that God, when He asks something of us, that He'll give us the power and the strength that we need in the moment that we need it. And all we have to do is do our best. Though it might look like in other people's lives, or eyes, in other people's eyes, that it might look diminished to what they could do. Well, guess what? If the Lord's called them to do it, well, then shame on them for not doing it. But each and every one of us has got a job to do, and I hope that we are obedient in doing it. The Bible says that, you know, You know the passage, very familiar no doubt, in the 17th chapter of Matthew, and it says, The Lord have mercy, this was the father of a son, and he said, The Lord have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic, and sore vexed, for often times he falleth into the fire, and often into the water, and I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him, Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you, bringing him hither to me? And Jesus rebuked the devil, and he departed out of him and the children. And the child was cured from that very hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of thine unbelief, for verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence unto yonder place, and it shall remove, and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit, this kind goeth not out, but by prayer, and fasting. Now, if you want to turn, you can turn to what we studied in Sunday school and in Zechariah the fourth chapter we can break into the sixth verse. It says, Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts, who art thou, O great mountain, before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings of crying grace, grace unto it. And then if you want to you can turn on over into Proverbs and it says here in the 21st chapter of Proverbs in the 16th verse of the man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead. We'll read that one more time. The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead. And then one more place we're going to read here in the 15th chapter of Matthew. And it says, in the 7th verse. Ye hypocrites, why did Esaias prophesy unto you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips. But their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. We were thinking about that very thing. as we was studying the Sunday school lesson, how the Lord said, who art thou, great mountain, that the Lord was going to make this great mountain for Zerubbabel a plain, and that he would bring forth the headstone thereof with shouting, crying, grace, grace, The Bible says over there in Matthew where we read that if you had but the faith of a grain of mustard seed you could say to this mountain be thou removed and it'll be cast into the sea. Think about that for a minute. If you could have the faith of a grain of mustard seed Just trust in the Lord. Otherwise, you can't receive it. But I'm afraid if that's what you hear, when you read this verse, you're taking it out of context. Because what the Lord was saying was, when the disciples come to Him, and they said, why couldn't we cast this out of this lunatic. He said, if you but have the faith of a grain of mustard seed. But then he went on a little further and said, but this one, of this particular instant at which he was talking about had to come out by fasting. but I want you to understand something. He wasn't saying if you need something, all you gotta do is believe. But he was saying if somebody else needs something, all you gotta do is believe. That's entirely different, isn't it? We've been preached to. I have taught so many times that you must believe in order to find salvation. But this lunatic found deliverance because somebody had enough faith to believe that the God of this universe could touch mankind, could touch a man that wasn't even right in his own mind. But the Bible also says over here in Zechariah where we read, if you got a mountain too great that you can trust the Lord. Though he said, this he made a declaration when he said, who art thou, O great mountain? You're going to come in and I'm going to make you plain. They're gonna come in carrying their heads told, saying, grace, grace, grace moves mountains, too. Not only faith, there are those that have turned away. This is a beautiful message to dare to get itself out of the way because there's a lot of people who don't have, because they're so-called brothers If that demon possessed man would have faith, the grain of a mustard seed, he could have been made whole. But what he said was to his disciples, you need faith. And when you have faith, you'll even affect those that are possessed by demons, of those that are crazy. Oh, but how many of us have realized When we come to the altar, and we were praying our heart out. We weren't praying alone. There was those with faith greater than we encompassed, and that was prayer. And because they had a faith the size of a grain of mustard seed, all of my sins that would have made up a mountain was removed, glory to God. And because God removed it, hell can take grace. Grace! Oh, grace! And I'm thankful. It wasn't by might, and it weren't by power, but it was by the sweet Holy Spirit that He illuminated us and caused us to see. There are those that have turned from the way of the Bible says here. The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation. You hear what it says here? Of those that remove themselves out of the way of understanding. There's a lot of people that think somehow when they don't want to do what the Holy Spirit's asked them to do, that they can turn away from it. They can turn back to it. whenever they get ready. But the Bible tells me here in Proverbs that the man that wanders out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead. How is it then that the dead can do anything? Dead can't brush their teeth, dead can't comb their hair, and the dead can't pray that the Lord might show them mercy. My grandfather, he'd always talk. He mentioned it more and more times than I can remember about how he was out of church. There's a man on the altar. praying. I hadn't come to the altar at the altar call, but just when the folks had gathered around and that preacher, that man was crying out and said, Oh God, Make me humble. Oh, make me humble. But my granddaddy had an understanding of certain things. And he realized as he was on his knees, he began to tremble. He began to worry because he knew that it was hard job of Abel's sales. And he said, that man didn't know what he was asking for. Because the Lord will take everything you got. He ought to be humbling himself instead of asking God. And I see his point. If you ain't humble, if you're proud, and then to refuse, and to pray, and take it on your own self, and to humble yourself. But why is that? The matter isn't to lose everything. The Bible tells me that God resisteth the proud. but giveth grace to the humble. More grace, that's what we need. We need to be able to have the mountains removed in our lives. They have faith, can't remove them neither. The prayer I pray is these that have turned from the way. We can tell them that you just need to have the faith of a grain of mustard seed. Don't you think they think? Don't you think they think that they have faith? There were those that say, Did we not cast out devils in thy name? And the Lord says, Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. There was those that said, But Lord, I'm close to you. Because they draw nigh with their lips, and they honor with their mouth, and they honor the Lord with their lips. But the Bible says, without a cause. There's no hope for them, for they've turned from the way, and they dwell among the dead. But what about grace? What about the mountain of sin that they're standing on top of, and they think it's got them closer to heaven? Oh, but they're the closest to hell they've ever been. And along comes a God-fearing Christian that has the faith of just a little bit of a seed. And they pray, and lo and behold, the ground begins to shake, and the mountains begin to move. And when it's all said and done, they'll be like Jerusalem. has restored me to my father. What does the devil want us to do? The devil wants us to make excuses for them. The devil wants us to explain away their pathetic actions. The devil wants us to say, well, maybe they're all right when they're living in sin, when they haven't repeated the commandments of God that they openly break. to sin, though there might be, to breaking the laws of our country. Have you ever met those people? I think because a time has passed that because they lied to you ten years ago that now when they come back around that the Statue of Limitations have run out and that you ought to trust them and you ought to consider them as your brother, but the Bible tells Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It was so important that God sent a forerunner to Jesus Christ to preach the message. Repent, repent, repent, and when you're done, repent some more. And how we do that is by humbling ourselves. Oh, but it's so hard for those To say that they're sorry. To God or anyone else, there are people, no doubt, that are atheists for no other reason than they're too proud to repent. Too proud to acknowledge that there is an authority higher than their own and because of it. They dwell among the dead and there's no hope unless the grace of God comes by and removes the mountain. We've seen people that we've been praying for and it just seems as if that as the old saying goes, they just can't catch no break. Oh, if you ever, you know what I'm talking about when you invite somebody to come to church. You know the Holy Spirit bears witness among us all. And I'm, you listen, if you think somehow when you're struggling or when you're, or you're in your backslidden condition and you think you got it all here, the saints of God that commune with Christ Though they never tell you, they know what you need. Not because they know better, but because they know Jesus. And Jesus is the answer. So we all pray, and we're concerned. And how many times have we invited somebody to come? Won't you just come? Thanksgiving won't you come to church and they say they will and lo and behold they go to church they get up to go to church and they start their car and the battery's dead and you just say it must not have been meant to be this is what I'm talking The grace that moves mountains is stronger than other times. Do you remember in your own life when everything was going wrong? Yeah, because the prayers of those that had more faith than you, was prayed with fervency. The effectual fervent prayer the Bible says, for the prayer of a righteous man. Oh, glory to God. That's what we need, each and every one of us, instead of making excuses for those that dwell. among the tombs, those that dwell with the dead. They're not going to have the faith. They're not going to even, as it were, even consider their ways, as Jason made mention of. of those living among the dead doesn't even consider who their neighbor is. For if God would give them eyes to see, they would see that their congregants, those that they worship with, are not only in filthy rags, but those filthy rags that the dead commune with the dead because they're dead. Then along comes some old-timey Christian that had enough faith to pray. And when they prayed, grace came by the way. And because of grace, they could be restored. But instead, what we want to do is come together and agree to disagree. I guess that's good, except for the fact that when we agreed to disagree, we emboldened the dead and still continue to live among the dead. Now, I might have to agree to disagree with my boss. There's certain topics I've learned I can't talk to my boss about because it upsets him. I might even be so bold as to say that it frightens him. And there is a certain amount of truth to the statement that with ignorance there's bliss, right? But anyhow, whether we know where we stand with God or not, we will know in the end. But in the end, it is too late. In the end. Oh, let us not be numbered with the faithless and perverse generation. Faithless and perverse generation. How long shall I be with you? Well, he was with them until his ascension. But guess what? He'll not have to dwell with them anymore. But there is a coming a day that every perverse and faithless individual will stand before God. And because you lack faith, it won't only send you to hell, but just like the disciples here, if Jesus had not been there on earth, if the Father would have walked away when the disciples could no longer provide any help whatsoever for his son. Their faithlessness would have sent a lunatic to hell. You can't get much worse than that. I've got some loved ones that I've sent down crazy. And I'll have to be honest with you, I don't know without the Lord touching their mind, I don't know how they're going to find Jesus. But here's a man that was a lunatic, a crazy man and demon possessed. So he was a lunatic. Jesus said he had a demon. Well, guess what? Crazy people can be possessed by devils. And also, crazy people can be possessed by themselves. And they'll have a conversation. We've seen that, where they'll have an in-depth conversation with themselves. And we'll say, those people are crazy. But what those people need us to have the mountain removed in their life. And it needs to be brought by our faith in order that they might receive grace. And yeah, we live in the last days. And I truly believe that the door of opportunity is swiftly closing for the gentile race. But guess what? until the fullness of the Gentiles come, God's still saving. And God will still extend His grace when His children pray and have faith. Listen, I'm not telling you anything that myself, I don't struggle with. To be honest with you, there's loved ones I have that I cannot, I literally cannot think of how they can work themselves out of the situation that they're in. But Daryl, the Bible didn't say that Daryl had to have a grain of knowledge. The Bible didn't say Daryl had to have a grain of logic. The Bible didn't say Daryl has to have even a glimpse of hope. The Bible didn't say that Daryl has to at least be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. But the Bible says that if we have the faith of a grain of mustard seed and we pray and mountain in your life, would you quit fixating on your own pathetic life and realize that and what we need ain't as important as what the damned of hell need. I'm telling you, he said, if you but had the faith of a grain of mustard seed, he'll remove a mountain, one mountain, the mountain in the lunatic's life, the mountain in the devil possessed life, and he'll cast it in the sea. Am I reading the scripture right? Am I? Is that not what it says? Why is it that we always have to internalize it? We are so narcissistic in our way of thinking. We believe that we can come to God and get what we want for ourselves. But the Lord's telling us. That we need to put our faith in God and order like the lost, and the possessed, and the crazy. Listen, we see signs all over saying no to what is an Amendment 3. They're all over the country, but I'm truly scared. I'm truly scared that we could borrow well here in Missouri, where people would consider us a conservative state. with a lot of religious people. I'm concerned that we might see this pass, and if it passes, we'll have as liberal of an abortion law as it were as California. Listen, them purple hair wearers Do you hear what I'm saying? I'm worried, but is Daryl worried enough to take faith the size of a grain of mustard seed and pray on the behalf of the unborn that didn't ask to be brought into this life? But Daryl, they'll be in the presence of the Lord, and they will, and glory to God for it. We don't only pray that the babies might be saved, but we pray also that the mothers might not be tormented. The Bible says that the Lord hears the blood crying from the earth. Oh, how deafening it must be. But it is in every woman that kills her unborn child. It is not haunted. about it. There are those that celebrate it, and there are those that truly are demonic, I think. But even those can be reached, right? If grace comes by like it did for me and you. Have you prayed for the election? Some people, I've talked to some people, and they said, But you know what, just between me and you, I don't think they've been practicing very much. They don't even know what's going on. I talked to Save, even asked me, Darryl, what's this about? What's that about? They're totally oblivious of what's going on in our culture. Well, if you don't know, how can you pray? Now, you can know too much, and you can be inundated and overwhelmed by the wickedness of our world. And because the Bible says that in the last days, because iniquity abounds, the love of many will wax cold. We need to be very careful, don't we? We don't want to find out too much about what's going on. But we need to know enough. that we can effectually pray. So we need to know great details. No, we do not. The Bible tells me that when Daryl prays, there are certain things that Daryl can be so burdened that the sweet Holy Ghost will take over. Now listen, I used to think that I needed to be here for my children. You know, when I would have some health troubles, I'd say, oh God, who'll raise my children if I die? But the Lord showed me more than once that He'll do just fine raising my youngins. If I die before they leave the house, I look at Carolyn. Oh, and I tell you what, she is so, well, special, we can say special, or different, I don't know what, but anyhow, yesterday, just a little, three years old, is that what she be? Yeah, she's on the couch. Daddy talks about it all the time. He grew up with three siblings. But when you live in a large family, Sometimes when one's talking, another one's in a large family in a small house. Sometimes one of your children is talking to you, but yet you get distracted by the conversation of two other children at the table. And you hear one telling the other one that he has liberties that he don't have. But I'm not sure about it because I wasn't fully paying attention. But anyhow, little Carolyn, she goes on and on. She's quite the talker. But my wife, somehow, got sidetracked by one of the other girls. And I don't know why. I don't know why. I believe it was, and my three-year-old daughter looked at her mother and said, listen, you need to focus, focus on me. You know what? Bless her heart. But you know what? We might be inundated. You might be overwhelmed, but we do serve a God that his grace is sufficient. We do serve a God that hears the cries of little children. The light of the world might expose not only the sin of mankind, but the salvation provided by Jesus Christ. And then along came grace. And when we stand there with the head cornerstone, we can be as Osorovable when we go to heaven. have made the way. We can see where we once was blind and dwelling with the dead. So what does our lost loved ones need to do? Well, to be honest with you, those who've turned their back on God, and I can read other scripture, but we're gonna drive this one home, right? The man that wandereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead. So what can our lost, those who have backslidden, those who have turned their back, those that are so blinded they say, Lord, Lord, and before the Spirit of God even moves, they're screaming and shouting. What can they do for themselves? Absolutely nothing. But us on the other hand, we can pray a prayer, a faith, and God can remove mountains. We can pray that God might send grace their way instead of the door being closed, instead of the car not starting, instead of the brand new car not starting because it had a short. provide and we live in a generation where. because of pride. What did the Bible say? If we humble ourselves, He will give us what? Grace. So that tells me that a proud generation, a generation too proud to pray for themselves or anybody else, too proud to acknowledge their own sin, is a generation where grace is not abundant. For He said He gives more grace. to the humble so the generation that is proud of the generation that is alike of those that commit the sins of Solomon Gomorrah of those that have lived in excess and abundance and have everything that they think they need. That generation has the least amount of the very thing that they should receive, but it doesn't even come by their way. And why is that? Because there's a lot of so-called Christians wringing their hands because they ain't receiving what they think they ought to be having from the Lord. But where the New Testament church, times in their homes. I know though that be true. Oh, but there is a peace and a calm that comes over them when they feel the closeness of God. And why is that? Because to be absent from the body is to be present with Christ. And because of it, they lift up the prayer for their loved ones that are born again and those that are lost. So what will you do? Are you hoping that Amendment 3 don't pass? Well, you can hope in one hand and vote with the other. But I've got a better solution. We can stand up for what's right and then pray that grace might remove a mountain. Amen. Believe the Lord's done with us, let's get some song to sing. See, it removes a lot of that, don't it? I just, why do they act that way? I just wish they'd be kind. I just wish they would believe they're dead, and they live among the dead. They thought that there'd be joy in sin for a season, and then that could return. They didn't realize that that joy of sin for a season takes place in a cemetery. They are as destitute as Legion was. right, who dwelled among the tombs. And for a pastime, he cut himself, and he threw himself in the fire, and he was tormented. And somebody says, well, all he needs to do is quit running around naked. Well, that's where Jesus found him, right? You know, all he needs to do is clean up a little, comb his hair, take a shower, and put some clothes on. I'm afraid I've heard a lot of people, have you not heard that? They get so focused on how a person ought to dress, they forget that salvation comes before it all, right? Here's the thing, Jesus wouldn't have done this. So we won't say Jesus, we'll say one of his disciples. One of his disciples could have met Legion and said, listen, Before you come to Jesus, you're gonna have to get some clothes on. You're gonna have to wash up and you're gonna have to cut your hair. And could you quit it with the profanity? And could you quit it with the spitting? People's gonna think you're a lunatic. And they could say, here, let me help you. I'm a hairstylist. And they dress that person up so pretty, but the problem with it is, is that a man that lives among the tombs, live among the dead. And the dead don't care whether they're naked or not. And he's just going to take his clothes off again. And he's just going to roll around and spit and sputter. Nobody wanted to be around him, not even the pigs. But when Jesus came, He set him free. Isn't it amazing? He set him free. He could have continued to dwell in the tombs. He was a free man. But he didn't want to, because now he was alive. He said, might I go with you? And the Lord said, no, you'd return to your own city, right? I've often wondered just a few chapters later. My disciples run into a failure. See, the people of the community come and seen him and he was clothed in his right mind. And it scared them. Because this is powerful medicine. This is crazy. Did you see what it did to all our pigs? And look, them pigs didn't even like going around the cemetery. You know why hogs were such unclean animals? They ate at the city dump and they ate the people that died and that didn't get buried. Hogs, wild hogs even to this day, there are certain places here in the United States that wild hogs have attacked human beings. And the point that I'm trying to make here is when the Lord turns communities upside down, there is always those that reject it. Why? Because they themselves are unwilling to allow the grace of God to remove the mountains that will set them free. They're quite content and dwelling amongst the tombs. And we could say, until we're blue in the face, that they need to do this, and they need to do that, and they need to do this, but until we pray, and have the faith of a grain of mustard seed until we even pray, Lord, might you send grace by their way. They can know the truth and still remain in their chains. The beauty of it is is that if we know the truth, the truth can set us free. But if we have rejected the truth, well, then we have encapsulated ourselves in a prison that we can't get out of unless the grace of God comes by our way again. So they don't need to hear me or you talking about what they need to do. What we need to do and what we need to be doing is God hearing from us. Go ahead. What they need to hear is Christians calling sin, sin, not making excuses for it. They need to see a bright line, right? And then Christians need to stay between those bright lines, right? Have you ever been on a dark night when they just paved the road before they got the stripes down? That's lost. And they're blind on top of that. But me and you, we are the ones that's supposed to point the way. We are the ones that's supposed to have the light of God shining in our hearts. so that the lost that cannot see can have the grace of God. Pass by, let's get some, let's gather around the altar and pray with these that have come.