I said we found another use for the stool tonight, amen? And it's always good when things have multiple purposes, amen? And I was over the house today and I was on a lengthy phone call with a friend of mine and we were just discussing some issues of the day and I saw this call try to come through from Elkhart, Indiana, and it was a number I didn't recognize. And in my heart, I knew it was probably Tilde's dad. And so I got off the phone with one friend and spent some time talking to another. And it certainly was good to talk to Brother Ed. And what a delight to see Brother Dave in church tonight. We probably haven't seen each other. It's got to be close to 30 years, Preacher. And, uh, my hair was dark. Yours was too, I think back then. So I don't know what's happened to us, but amen. I appreciate the Lord being kind to us. Amen. Appreciate you being in church tonight. And, uh, thank you to the dear sister that brought supper over to us. Amen. That was a great, great blessing. Take your Bible and turn with me to the sixth chapter of the book of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter number six. Isaiah chapter number six. And when you have found verse number one, if you can and are physically able, let me ask you to join me by standing tonight I was reminded today in a little situation I found myself involved in on social media. I'm trying to learn not to delve into everything that I've got an opinion on, but sometimes I find it difficult. And I just put a scripture up and somebody took issue with that. And I was reminded of that old quote that said, Don't ever debate a fool. They will bring you down to their level and beat you with experience. Amen. And, uh, I just conceded and, uh, trying to learn as I get older, just what battles to pick. And it really wasn't a battle. I was trying to be a blessing, but man, we live in a world where, amen, everybody assigns a motive to everything you do. And that's going to be more and more as we move on. And, uh, and that's why we need to keep our minds stayed on the word of God. Look at verse number one. The Bible said in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon the throne high and lifted up and his train filled the temple and above it stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings with Twain. He covered his face. With twain he covered his feet, with twain he did fly. The one cried unto another and said, holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. The posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, woe is me. For I am undone, because I'm a man of unclean lips, and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips. And thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin is purged. And I also heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then said I, here am I, send me. Father, we bow in your presence tonight. God, we come as humbly as a creature knows how to come before their creator. And Father, we realize that, Father, in us that is in our flesh dwelleth no good thing. Father, the only good thing about any of us, Lord, is the one that saved us and has taken up residence inside of us. Lord, I pray that that man would shine through tonight. Lord, I pray that God, you would give me that unction that I need to preach tonight. I pray that you'd be the wind in my lungs and the strength in my legs, the thoughts in my mind, the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart. Lord, may they be acceptable to you tonight. And Father, I pray that as Lord, as we look at this portion of scripture, God, that you would answer our prayer tonight that David prayed. God, you'd open our eyes. that we might behold wondrous things out of thy law. Father, again, we thank you, Lord, for the opportunity that, Lord, you have given us on a Tuesday evening in April, Father, to gather once again. And, Father, we'd ask that, Lord, you'd make this time profitable to us. And, Father, for that, we'll thank you and we'll praise you, for it's in Jesus' name we make this prayer. We wrap it in expectation. Amen. You can be seated. I've been wearing glasses now for, I don't know, a lot of years. I don't even really know how long. It's been a long time. And I'm aware that periodically, I don't do it as frequently as my optometrist would like me to. Periodically, I have to go in and get my eyes tested and get my prescription changed a little bit because as we get older, our vision begins to change. And it had been about five years since I'd had an eye exam, and I noticed, and I think I made mention that one of the struggles that I had during COVID and the massive amounts of medication they were giving me was it was messing with my blood sugar, and I've never really had a problem in that area. But because of all the steroids they were giving me, it was throwing all kind of crazy numbers. And I'm probably the unusual 60-year-old in the room. Most people my age need glasses to see up close, because your arms are no longer long enough. I don't need that. I can see fine up close. My vision, amen, gets blurry once I get past about two or three rows. Adam looks a lot better from this vantage point without glasses than he does with glasses. So I was noticing, I was in the hospital and I couldn't read my Bible. if it was written in boxcar letters, my vision was just that bad. And so I knew once I got out, I needed to go see an optometrist. And so, you know, the drill, if you've ever been to see one, they set you in the chair, they've got that chart, they project on the wall, 10 feet away, and you start guessing at letters, read the smallest line. And I struggled and strained to read the letters. And then he put that apparatus over me, Brother Tom, begins to change my vision. He begins to change lenses and do different things. And the amazing thing about that was some of those changes were dramatic. There was a big change. But as the clarity and the clearness began to become more in focus, those changes were almost imperceptible. And I began to ask him some questions, but in the process of that, I realized that oftentimes, ladies and gentlemen, little changes can make a big difference. Amen. And that same thing is true spiritually. Sometimes a very small change in your relationship with the Lord can make a world of difference. And so as I spoke with the optometrist that day, as I sat in his chair, I began to ask him some questions as to what it is, Brother Dave, that causes an individual's vision to change down through time. And he said, well, first of all, our age has something to do with that because our vision begins to change as we get older. We don't see things the same way we used to see them. You ever heard somebody say that spiritually? Well, I just don't see things that way anymore. And that's a dangerous thing. Ladies and gentlemen, the second thing he told me that I was interested in, he said our environment, the world in which we live, has an effect on our vision. He told me something that I, Brother Lonnie, did not know prior, but as he was looking at my eyes with that little device that he can scan the inside of my retina and all the cornea and all that kind of thing, he asked me a question that was puzzling to me. He said, have you ever been around birds? I'm like, not really. Birds are nasty. Amen. I mean, they're nice to look at, but people that have birds as pets, I just don't understand. Amen. Birds are made to be eaten. Somebody say amen. And I said, why? And he said, well, he said, you've got some little areas of fungus in your eye that is called And I forget what the term is, histo something, I forget what it was. Plasmosis, I think maybe that's what it was. And I said, so what's that all about? He said, well, people that are around birds and bird droppings all the time often get this fungus in your eye. And I'm like, well, that's not me. I don't make a habit of wiping bird droppings in my eyes. I don't make a habit of spending a lot of time around them. I have no idea why, but there they were. And he just said, he said, the environment, our surroundings. Have you noticed how our environment changes how we see things spiritually? Amen? Constantly wants us to look at things differently. Then he said this, and this made sense to me. He said, our physical health, there are some medical conditions. some physical conditions that we encounter as we get older. He said, yours in particular, he said your vision changed because your blood sugar was at an elevated level for a long period of time. And I began to realize that too much sugar-coated preaching affects the way we see things. Amen. And I realized this, ladies and gentlemen, that spiritually, we need to have our vision checked at regular intervals. We use the term 20-20 that is considered as having good vision, and that means that you can see things clearly from 20 feet away, but gradually we lose our ability. Some people have something called nearsightedness, which is when they lose distance vision, and some people have farsightedness, and that's when they lose close vision. But I began to look at this text some time ago and began to realize that What we have right here in these verses that I have read to you in your hearing is a test that God gives us that he gave Isaiah spiritually for his spiritual vision. Ladies and gentlemen, I believe firmly that how we see things will determine what we see. Amen. And ladies and gentlemen, as we move on, and this has kind of been the, really the unintentional theme of the meeting, but as we move on into time and eternity, you're gonna need to make sure that you are viewing world events and current events and, amen, family events through the pages of your Bible. Because if you look at them through the pressure of culture, if you look at them through the lenses of politics, if you look at them through the lenses of acceptance, your vision's gonna change dramatically. Amen? I don't know about you, but it's my desire to see things the way that my God sees them. Amen? It's my desire to have the same viewpoint and the same perspective on things as the Lord does. And so I noticed something here. Look at verse number one. The Bible said, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord. You know, like many changes in life, This one begins with a tragic situation. Sometimes it's a tragedy that comes into somebody's life that causes them to reevaluate, causes them to, amen, reorder some things. And the Bible tells us that there was an event in the life of Isaiah that was tragic. He said in the year that King Uzziah died, there was something about the death of that particular king, ladies and gentlemen, that was fixed in the mind of Isaiah. There's some things about Uzziah that are interesting. Uzziah had been a great king. There'd not been another king like Uzziah since Solomon. And Uzziah was an amazing administrator. He was able to put things in order. He was a tremendous organizer. He was a remarkable military leader. He began his reign at the age of 16. That's mind blowing, really. Amen. I mean, 16 year olds, amen, barely know how to control themselves, much less a country. And I'm not being unkind tonight. I'm just saying, listen, I remember where I was at 16. This young man ascended to the throne at the age of 16 and his reign lasted for 52 years. was a remarkable tenure. He was an extremely popular king and his accomplishments were many. Under his leadership, the nation of Israel, or the nation of Judah rather, had grown and prospered in a way that they had not seen before. They enjoyed peace and they enjoyed stability. But in spite of everything that Uzziah did, remember I said last night, I think it was last night, that one of Paul's great fears was that sometime at the end of his life, he would do something that would negate everything that he had done in the former part of his life, and he said, lest when I preach to others, I myself should be a castaway. That's kind of what happened with King Uzziah. King Uzziah was a king, but he intruded into an office that he had no business being in. He intruded into the office of the priest, And sadly, the result was that he died as a leper. He died with that horrible disease of leprosy. I don't have time to talk about that much, but there are some interesting parallels between leprosy and sin. Amen? Because the conventional wisdom used to be because lepers had digits missing and appendages missing that it must just be that their flesh just rots off, but they didn't find evidence of that laying around in leper colonies. And then somebody did a study and found out, brother, that what indeed leprosy does is it affects an individual's ability to feel pain. We don't like pain. Amen, in fact, we live in a society, we try to avoid it as much as we can. Do you understand that pain is not your problem? Pain is a symptom of your problem. Pain is just telling you something's wrong. It's like the check engine light in your car. The check engine light's not the problem. I've been in some people's vehicles where they have put a piece of black electrical tape over the check engine light. That doesn't fix it. Amen. There's a lot of Christians that do that. Amen. We don't want to come to an altar and get anything fixed. We don't want to spend time in prayer and ask God really to show us what's wrong. So we just come to an altar, amen, and put a piece of black electrical tape over the problem in our life. Or we, amen, we take something to make the pain go away. We do something to alleviate the symptom without ever taking care of the problem. Somebody ought to say amen right in here. Amen. Here's the interesting thing. There was something about King Uzziah that caused Isaiah to not be able to see the Lord. And it wasn't until the king died, look how it's written here. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord. Yeah, the Lord's been there all the time. The Lord didn't just show up when King Uzziah died, but there was something, there was something about the way Isaiah viewed King Uzziah. Listen, I've realized this in my own life, that there are sometimes, amen, people and things that get in the way of me seeing the Lord. And by the way, anyone or anything that gets in between you and the Lord is something that needs to be dealt with. Amen. And I'm just telling you, listen, we better be careful. We better be careful that we don't put a man up on a pedestal. You understand this? We all have the same propensity for failure. That's why Paul wrote those words, ladies and gentlemen. His fear, listen, he knew himself He knew his tendency. He knew that if he relied on himself and he did not lean on the Lord, that there was gonna come a time when his failure would become public. And so let me ask you, what's in between you and the Lord? Is it a dream? Is it a desire? Is it a person that you placed up on a pedestal in your life? Amen. Listen, I love that girl on the front row with every fiber of my being. Amen. But my first love cannot be her. And her first love cannot be me. Amen. And here's what I've observed in the lives of far too many people, is they just grow kind of apart. And I realized this, that if we're both, if we both have the right relationship with the Lord, the closer we get to Him, the closer we're gonna get to each other. Amen. I'll tell you this, I'm not gonna sit up here and tell you that we never have a disagreement. Amen? Because if I did that, I'd have to pray that God would strike Jeff dead. If I was lying. I'm not gonna tell you that. Listen, you can't live in something that small, 24 hours a day. We can't even slam a door. Amen? We're on church property, folk will hear, we can't argue. Folk will hear us, amen. But I'm just telling you, I'm not gonna tell you that there aren't times we don't have disagreements, but I'll tell you what, we have learned to deal with them, amen. We've learned not to allow those things to fester. Listen, I don't want anything to get in between me and the Lord. I don't want it to be an idea. I don't want it to be a pursuit. I don't want it to be, amen, a hobby. I wanna have the right relationship with the Lord. Notice what else? When the human king passed on, there was the perception of the heavenly king. Notice what the Bible said. He said, I saw also the Lord sitting upon the throne high and lifted up. and his train filled the temple. The imagery there is beautiful to me. Amen. He is walking through in his mind, amen, Solomon's temple, which was a larger replica of the tabernacle that I've been studying, amen? And he sees the Lord and the Lord is seated on the throne and he's high and he's lifted up, he's in his rightful place. And by the way, that's another reason why we don't need to bring God down to our level, amen, and amen, try to find a book that is easier to understand. They mean we need to have him on a high and lifted up place. But I want you to notice the Bible said his train filled the temple. That doesn't mean he had a freight train following behind him. He's talking about the that's the imagery is that of a bride. Amen? And I'm telling you, when a bride comes down that center aisle, she's wearing that beautiful white dress and that white gown, and she's got that veil over her face, but there's something that follows along behind her. And I know a lot of people think it's ornamental in its appearance, but it is a representation of glory. Amen? And the Bible said that his train filled the temple. Notice what these beasts, these seraphim, the Bible talks about them in verse two. With Twain they covered their face because their identity's not important, neither is yours. With Twain they covered their feet because your feet are nasty, amen. And with Twain they did fly. And they cried one to another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. we see the proclamation of a holy king, amen? I'm gonna tell you one of the things I'm afraid has happened in our day is we've lost contact with the holiness of God, amen? We've lost the concept that, we've almost gotten a mindset, amen, culturally in our country that God's just our buddy. Amen. He's just kind of there to hang out with us and make us feel good. And amen, approve of the things that we're doing. And listen, that's not the God represented in your Bible. The God represented in your Bible is a God that is not just holy. And he's not just holy, holy, but he's holy, holy, holy. He's thrice holy. Listen, that's a God. Hey, you ought to approach with a great deal of trepidation. And yet the Bible tells us, as New Testament believers in the book of Hebrews, that we can come boldly to the throne of grace. You know why we can come boldly to the throne of grace? Just like I said on Sunday, because that man on the middle cross said we could come. Hey man, hey listen, we're not coming based on our own goodness. We're not coming based on our own merit. Hey, I'm coming to him based on the fact that Jesus Christ died in my place and washed me in his precious blood. Amen. I want you to notice what happens here. Oh, by the way, look at verse number four. The Bible said, and the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried. And again, the imagery is that of the temple, larger representation of the tabernacle, which is the only building on the face of this earth whose dimensions came from God alone. Amen. And was a replica of what I believe God had in heaven a long time. Amen. I want you to notice the house was filled with smoke. I'm not preaching on the tabernacle tonight, but I got to just chase this rabbit just a minute. So as you enter the courtyard of the tabernacle, as I said, the first thing you encounter is the brazen altar. And there's a fire on that altar all the time, and that is where the sacrifice is made. That's, amen, that's, you cannot proceed any further in a relationship with God until your sin has been paid for. Amen? And then there's the laver, that basin, and as I said the other night, the priest, amen, as they moved around, the interesting thing as you look at the tabernacle, ladies and gentlemen, was there was no place of, no piece of furniture that was used to rest or recline. There was no chair, there was no lounge in the tabernacle. The priest was moving all the time, amen. There was always work to be done. That's the great thing about our high priest, that when he'd offered, the Bible said he sat down. None of these priests could ever sit down, but my high priest, when he'd offered and placed that blood on the mercy seat, the Bible said he sat down on the right hand of God the Father. You know what that sitting down was a picture of? Hey! The price had been paid, the work had been done, it had all been completed. That work in the tabernacle was never complete. And they'd wash their hands and their feet at that laver, and then they'd enter in to that first enclosed part of the actual structure of the tabernacle proper. There were three pieces of furniture in there. There was a table of showbread immediately to the right, amen, 12 loaves of bread representative of the 12 tribes of Israel. I also believe the Bible says they were arranged in two rows of six. How many books does your Bible have? You think that's a coincidence? It's not a coincidence. Somebody said a coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous. Amen. Amen. There's no coincidence those rows, those loaves are arranged in two rows of six. That's a representation of the Word of God. And directly across from that is the golden candlestick. That's the only light source inside that room. There's no ambient light. There's no outside light. The only light, what sheds light on the Word of God is the Spirit of God. Somebody say amen. That's why, listen, you can read this book as a lost man and you will, amen, you'll get yourself so turned around and so twisted up and you'll have all kind of false doctrine, but if you will allow the Spirit of God to illuminate the Word of God, amen, and you'll spend, amen! And it's directly across from that table of showbread. But you remember the third piece of furniture in that room was the altar of incense. What does incense do when it's burning? The house is filled with what? Smoke. Again, interesting little aside here that the way that tabernacle's arranged, you enter on the east side, you're moving to the west side, amen? That's how God's always worked through his word. He's worked from east to west, amen? And so the closer you get to the Lord, you encounter this altar of incense and smoke coming off that altar in an enclosed room. What does smoke do when it gets in your eyes? And what do your eyes do when they start to burn? When's the last time you've been so close? When's the last time you've been so much in His presence? and so overwhelmed with how good he's been to you, amen, that your eyes begin to burn and your eyes begin to water and you begin to weep and you begin to thank God that you are not where you could be, but you're where God has allowed you to be because of his mercy and because of his grace. Oh, ladies and gentlemen, can I remind you There's not a one of us in this room tonight that deserves to be in this church on this night, in this hour. And if we got what we deserve, we'd have been in hell a long time ago. We'd be laying in a ditch somewhere. We'd be coming out of a ballroom or a honky tonk somewhere. Hey, but God's been good to us and we ought to remember and we ought to be thankful how good he's been to us. Look at verse number five. The Bible said, then said I, Did you notice that? He sees the Lord on the throne, high and lifted up. Brother Dave, his response is, man, I need to put this up on Instagram. I need to put this up. I need to send this to my friends on Snap Face. Amen. Amen. I know it's Snapchat. I'm being sarcastic. I'm not that out of touch. Sarcasm, my primary language, amen. Tried to dial it back a lot lately, but amen. No, you know what he was overwhelmed with? He wasn't overwhelmed with where he wasn't overwhelmed with the fact that God let him in there. He was overwhelmed with the fact that God would let him in there. Amen. I'm just saying his response when he saw the Lord wasn't, whoa, looky here. No, his response was woe is me. You know why? Because he saw the Lord. I'm almost of the belief, y'all, that the one in this room that thinks they're closest to the Lord probably is not. And the one who may feel the least worthy may be the one who's closer than the rest of us. Amen. And I got to think as though, how do you and I see the Lord? Did you see him today? Did you hear from him today? The word was made flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Did He show you some grace today? Did He show you some truth today? Were His mercies new every morning? Isaiah, when he saw the Lord, the Bible said he saw himself and he did not see himself. Amen, the way most of us see ourselves, we see ourselves as pretty good people trying to get better, but that is not how Isaiah saw himself. He saw himself as somebody who was worthless and unworthy. And his response was, woe is me. Notice the terminology used here. He said, I'm undone. That means not together, not complete. The idea is when somebody knocks on your door and you weren't expecting company. Amen? And the kids have got every, or the grandkids have got every toy known to mankind laying out in the living room. Somebody say amen. And you weren't expecting somebody to come to the house and so you stall answering the door and you're throwing toys under the couch and in the closet So I got to thinking, what if he came to your house tonight? What if the Lord showed up at your place tonight? Would you be ready for it? Would you have some things you'd want to, it's kind of fruitless because he, amen. I mean, rocks and tombs couldn't keep him in and walls and rooms can't keep him out. So it's kind of fruitless, but we'd try nonetheless. I want you to notice what he said. He said, I'm a man of unclean lips. Amen. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. Amen. I'm afraid that too many times we get careless because we live in such a coarse world. Amen. We get careless with our language. Amen. Listen, I've been guilty of it. I can't remember a time when Brother Dave's been guilty of it, but I imagine he probably has been. Said things that you wish you hadn't have said because somebody's gotta explain that to their kids. Amen? I've really tried not to do that. I was talking to a friend of mine today when I was on that long phone call that I, man, had your dad go to voicemail. We were talking, he's a man that's a little bit younger than I am, not a lot. And I said, you know, I said, I said the younger version of both of us would look at us at this stage of life and say, man, you guys are compromisers. But I'll be honest with you. I've just realized that every hill ain't a hill worth dying on. I didn't have the wisdom to figure that out when I was a young man, everything was a challenge. Everything was a battle and a minute, a battle needed a win. Amen. Well, it is possible to win a battle and lose a war. Amen, I'm not saying we don't contend for the faith, that's not what I'm saying at all. But aren't you thankful that God's been gracious and patient with you? And he's put up with your foolishness, amen? And he's forgiven you time and time. I made the point yesterday when that priest is ministering, he's walking on the dirty earth, he's ministering, his hands are getting defiled, his feet are getting defiled, and yet every time he passed by that laver, he was instructed to wash, and God did not rebuke him if he washed, 15 times or if he washed 50 times, it didn't matter. The point was that he spent time to wash. And ladies and gentlemen, can I remind you, we live in a world that constantly will defile us. It defiles our eyes, it defiles our ears. Maybe in this world that we live in is bent on defiling us. And yet God has given us a Bible that we can, gay men come to and he can wash us and make us clean. And if we confess our sin, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us. And if the instruction to us, y'all, is if somebody sins against us in a day, 70 times seven, and we're supposed to forgive them, that's the instruction to us. Reckon how much more gracious the Lord is. And you better be really grateful for that. Amen, I know I am. Man, I'm so grateful that he didn't just knock me off a long time ago. Amen? I'm grateful that he's been merciful and kind to me. Notice what else he said. He said, I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. You see, getting a glimpse of the Lord will change how you see the rest of humanity. It's really easy for us. Here's one of the things I think that has beguiled us. We use this terminology a lot, and it's true, that we are living in a world that is getting ever increasingly dark. Would you agree with that? Amen. It seems like the darkness is closing in all around us, right? Now, you've just indicted yourself, so hang on. Because he never told the lost that they were supposed to be the light of the world. They told us we are. I remember one time when I was a young man, right about the time, I guess, just shortly before I first met Dave Jones. I was up in northern Michigan and it was the late 80s and it was November. We already had snow on the ground. That usually starts in mid-October up there where we were. We were up north of the 45th parallel, just south of the Mackinac Bridge and way up north. And I wanted to have a tent meeting. Nobody's ever accused me of being good at this, or a great organizer. I wanted to have a tent meeting. I knew I couldn't have one outside. And so, you know Jim Green. Jim Green had an old military mess tent, Green Army Canvas Tent. I called Jim up, asked him if I could use it. He said, sure, what are you gonna do with it? I said, I'm gonna put it up inside the auditorium. He's like, really? I'm like, yeah, I'm going to have a tent meeting inside the auditorium, November, Northern Michigan. So we put the tent up. I hadn't thought this thing through. You know how you are. Things dawn on you as you go. I had figured out that when I put the tent up, none of the lights are going to do any good, right? Because the tent, amen, is covering up all the lights. So I thought, well, we're going to be old timey. Listen, listen, I've said this before. This is not really a laugh line, but this is true. Listen, I'm a city boy. I was born in the city. I was raised in the city. One of these days, I'm going to a city. Amen. My only country experiences have ever happened in a Cracker Barrel restaurant. That's it. Or the reservation. Amen. And you go to Cracker Barrel restaurant. They got those they got those those kerosene lamps on the table. Those oil lamps. They're not real. They many they are. But you can't. Amen. Well, you know, you know how I'm a guy, so I fill the lamps up with oil, right? And you know how us guys are, if a little is good, more is better and excess is just right. So I'm figuring, man, if I turn the wick up, higher I turn the wick up, brighter light's gonna be. Not so, nay nay. I realized this and I had spent all that time cleaning all that glass. And I put the oil in there, had the right oil, I lit the flame, I turned the wick up, and you know what happened? There was a bunch of soot that came off the wick and gathered on the inside of the glass. The outside was so clean it could squeak, just like most of us in this room. But the problem's not what's on the outside, darling. The problem's what's on the inside. And if the world around you is dark, it is not dark because there's a casino up the road. And it is not dark because Seagram's is up the road. And it's not dark, amen, it's not dark because, amen, people can't figure out what gender. You know why the world is dark? Because you and I have allowed some things to gather on the inside. Somebody ought to say amen. By the way, this altar's open anytime I'm preaching. because we've allowed some things to dirty us on the inside of our life, and everybody else can't see them, and we think we've got it all hidden, but the simple fact of the matter is, number one, God sees it, and number two, it has an effect on the world around us. And if this world is getting dark, it's not dark because, amen, because of who's in office. It's not dark because of the agenda that's being pushed. It's dark because you and I, have allowed our light to become dimmed by some things. And there's only one solution to that, that we'd come to him and say, wash me throughly and I shall be clean. He saw the people as hopeless. Let me give you the last thing and I'm done. Look what the Bible said in verse number six. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand. I thought about that. Listen, I still have PTSD from the smell of ivory soap. I've eaten a whole lot of cakes of those as a kid. Amen? And I can just smell ivory soap. And I can have post-traumatic stress disorder. Amen, some of y'all know exactly, I know you know, amen. Amen, I'm looking back here at mom, she probably fed you more than a few of those, amen. Can you imagine, you see the picture here? This ain't a bar of ivory soap, man. That seraphim has taken a live coal from off that burning altar and he's coming to Isaiah with that thing and he's gonna cauterize his lips, amen. And he said, he said, lo, and he laid this on my mouth and said, lo, this hath touched thy lips and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin is purged. Notice Isaiah's response. He said, then he said, also, I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then said I, here am I, send me. I said we see a tragic situation. We see a transforming vision. I probably didn't give you the point, but that's not the point of the message. We see a transformed volunteer. Do you understand, ladies and gentlemen, that probably there's a very high likelihood that every one of us that's in this room tonight is here because somebody told us about the Lord? If I remember right, and that's been a long time ago, Brother Dave, but if I remember right, it was somebody named Jack Grigsby. Led you to Christ, am I right? Man, that's from like way back, way back. I can't remember stuff that happened during COVID, but I hadn't forgot that. That's crazy, but. And you know why Dave's here and why he's still in church and why he's still serving the Lord? Because somebody told him about the Lord. You know why I'm in church tonight? And the man that told me about the Lord hadn't been in church in decades. But I'm not in church because he is or he isn't. I'm in church tonight because he's good. And although the person that told me about the Lord has fallen out by the way, can I just remind you the Lord they told me about has never fallen out by the way. Hey, there's never gonna come a time when you and I are gonna get a report that God is no longer God because he done something, amen? Because he done something to forfeit that. We're here tonight because somebody with their mouth and with their life told us about the Lord. And there's probably a lot of us in this room that know people. Man, if you see what I'm seeing coming down the road, our only hope is the Lord. Amen? Listen, I'm not trying to be Johnny Ranclot. Listen, I just try to be realistic. I'm telling you, I think we got some dark days coming ahead. Listen, every person that has ever done a exhaustive study on prophecy has come to the same conclusion. There's one world power that's not around in the end of this thing. It's us. So something's gotta happen to us. Amen? I don't like that. That goes against every fiber of Americanism that's in me. But can I just say this? The greatest ism in the world isn't Americanism. And it isn't capitalism. And it isn't globalism. And it isn't communism. The greatest ism in the world is evangelism. And if we're not careful, we will make America the best country to go to hell from. Amen? I'm gonna tell you something, ladies and gentlemen. I don't want anybody to go to hell, but I'm not going to heaven tonight because I'm an American. I'm not going to heaven because I can, amen, cite the Pledge of Allegiance, and amen, I can sing the national anthem. I'm going to heaven tonight because 2,000 years ago on a cross, somebody died in my place, and I'm going to heaven tonight because somebody back in 1977 opened their mouth and talked to my mom, and my mom invited them to our house, They came over and talked to us, and as a result, we went to church, and I gave my heart and life to Jesus Christ. And I'm just trying to tell you, from that moment, May the 8th, 1977, till this very hour, April the 11th, 2023, there's never been a moment I've ever had to worry about where I'm going to spend eternity. And regardless of where that individual is right now that told me the fact of the matter is the one he told me about hadn't gone anywhere. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And you can count on him. And so there's a divine request. Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? There's a distinctive reply. He said, here am I, Lord. Send me. And there's a divine responsibility to look at verse number nine and we're done. And he said, go and tell this people. You see, here's our job ends at telling. Amen. All I got to do is tell. I can't make somebody trust. Amen. I can pray and ask God to deal with their heart, amen, and prepare them, but I can't make somebody trust. Listen, I'm afraid that a lot of times we try to, amen, create good techniques to get people to respond. It's not about that. It's about the spirit of God dealing with the heart of a person when they hear the gospel and realize, man, if he'd do that for me, Amen. I'd be foolish not to give my heart and life to him. And so I wonder tonight as we bow our head and close our eyes this evening, maybe you need to ask the Lord to see you in that chair and adjust the way you see things. This world's going to try to change how you see things. And your flesh is gonna be tempted to adapt how you see things and not be firm on how you see things. But ladies and gentlemen, if the world is getting dark, it is not because of the proliferation of sin. It is because of the dimness of the light. And I wonder tonight if there might be some folk that would say, Preacher, you were preaching God was dealing with my heart about something and I've allowed some things to gather in my life that I know are impeding my ability to shine brightly for Christ. And Preacher, here's my hand. and ask you to pray for me that whatever it is, thank you, I see that hand. Say whatever it is that I'd allow God, that I'd ask God to cleanse me and wash me. I wonder tonight if there might be some folk, thank you, I see those hands, thank you, I appreciate that. I wonder if there might be some folk tonight that say preaching my hand represents somebody that I know, that I love very dearly, and I'm not sure that they know the Lord. Preacher, here's my hand. It might be one person, it might be a number of people, but you'd say, Preacher, my hand represents somebody that I'm very concerned about, and I'd like to ask you to pray for the one or the people that my hand represents. Would you just slip them up and let me see them? There's hands all over the room. You can put them down. Could I ask you to do something? Listen, I'm not doing this for any other reason. I'm not trying to get folk to come to an altar. That's not the point. But sometimes, I know in my life, when I have made a move, Brother Tom, toward an altar, you see, because what the devil's gonna try to do is before you get out that door, he's gonna try to steal that burden. He's gonna try to say, well, you know, it was just an emotional thing and the preacher got you wound up. But sometimes coming to an altar helps solidify and settle some things. If you've got somebody on your heart tonight or God spoke to your heart about something, could I encourage you to bring that person or that situation before the Lord to an altar? And whether you can kneel or whether you can't, just come. And Father, we bow in your presence tonight. And God, we are grateful and thankful. Lord, that we still have time. Lord, you have given us another sunrise and we're closing in quickly on sunset, but Lord, you've given us another day. And Father, we are grateful. Father, we do not know how many more days we have, and so help us to number our days, but help us to use our days wisely. Father, for these that are represented by the hands that were raised tonight, Father, I pray that God, wherever they're at right now, that God, you would draw them to yourself. God, you would show them their need. God, show them their sin and your provision for their sin in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, for those that need to come, God, probably all of us ought to come, ask you to wash us, ask you to cleanse us, those hidden things, those secret thoughts. Father, help us to be obedient tonight. And Father, we'll thank you for it in Jesus' name, amen. Let's stand with our heads bowed and our eyes closed as the piano begins to play tonight. You just mind the Lord this evening. You need to come tonight, bring that person to the Lord. you Brother Jeff, would you sing that first verse for us, brother? Have thine own way. Listen to the Lord. Have thine own way. Thou art the partner. I am the flame. Mold me and make me After Thy will While I am waiting Let's sing that second verse. Have thine own way, Lord, have thine own way. Search me and try me, Master, today. Whiter than snow. Wash me just now As in Thy presence only I bow I'm thinking of the message tonight. As that began to unfold after the death of the king, it didn't take too long as that unfolded. That happened quickly. It didn't happen over a period of years. That happened then. You know, when the Holy Spirit gets a hold of your heart, there's things that needs to be adjusted and changed. Generally, there's a cleansing. Always start with a cleansing. Get the heart right, get the mind right. That only takes but a few moments, if not seconds. Then the Holy Spirit begins to place that burden or that desire that he wants you to do with your life, with your family, with what he's really told you to do. He's gotta clean it up, a vessel fit for use. And again, it goes right back down as the preacher's preaching, right back down to our hearts, right where the decision starts. I think we've done as Americans a disservice and we think it's pretty neat to be able to have our outside of our body, our lives cleaned. We know how to clean. We know how to dress. We know what to say. We know when to show up. We know what to say and how to say it to make it convincing. But all that you notice in the text wasn't the outside, it was the inside. It's what needed to be purged and cleaned. That's where it starts tonight. Listen to the Holy Spirit. Let's sing one more verse together and we'll close. Listen to the Holy Spirit. ♪ Have thine own way, Lord ♪ Have thine own way ♪ Wounded and weary Help me, I pray. Power, all power, surely is Thine. Teach me and heal me, Savior divine. All right, we won't sing anymore. Hopefully you minded the word and the Lord and the Holy Spirit. If he's still knocking, he's there. He wants more of you every night. I thank you for the preaching, Brother Phil. Very good. Thank you for coming out. Thank you for your faithfulness. I appreciate it. We got one more night. Begin to pray for our last night, Wednesday night now. Wednesday night, tenderly. want to drop off towards the end, but we want to go strong, strong for our Lord, strong for ourselves. We need it, need to be fed spiritually, and I appreciate that, getting fed. All right, enough of that. Pastor Tom, it's good to see you tonight, brother. Would you pray and dismiss us in a word of prayer? Amen. God bless you. Yeah.