May 17, 2026

Join us in a beautiful service.

Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:02

Hallelujah. There's good words to say in the house of God, and it brings God's attention to the crowd, to the people. Is our praises unto him. Praise him in the morning, praise him in the noontime, praise him in the evening time. They even made a song about that. And so it's easy to praise him on the mountaintop, easy to praise him halfway on the mountain. It's a more difficult praise when you're in the valley. But when you're in the valley is when you're really growing the most if you don't faint in the valley. Just remember every valley's got a mountaintop to it. Praise God. Let's press in today and get something from the Lord. How many of you need a touch today? Praise God. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.

SPEAKER_03 0:59

Bless Brother Matthews. Bless his heart, Lord.

SPEAKER_06 1:01

Bless our brother. Bless Lord. Pray that every one of us has ears to hear.

unknown 1:07

Honestly, brother.

SPEAKER_03 1:09

Right here, it'll be it'll pick you up real good. Can you hear me? Yep. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

Hear me? My belly is jelly today. I'm very, very thankful. I needed that touch from the Lord. And sometimes it comes just by praising him. That's right. You know? I'm encouraged today. I really am. I have something to say to give to the church. Something very valuable, I feel, very good. And it's a it's a good thing. And it's something that I think everyone will receive. And if the Lord will assist me, then I'll be able to get that out to you guys, and you'll actually receive it. Because you know you can hear something, but not get it. That's right.

SPEAKER_07 1:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

Now, Rochelle, you got your phone? I'm going to ask for some help today. And have some class participation today. This is going to be good. And I'm going to do it in a short amount of time, and I feel that it'll be received because it's not in a mean way, not in a bad way. This is a good thing. It's a I want to, as your brother in the Lord today, as the deacon of the Gospel Truth Assembly, I want to encourage this church today. Because we need a building. Alright? Who like the music? We love Brother Jesse and the stuff that he's doing. But when he's in part of the band, and that's something that some people have not experienced yet. But when we get our own building and we have our music back, I believe with all my heart that God's going to, we'll just be worshiping them, and there's going to be more powerful experiences that happen in that building than we've already had up to this point.

SPEAKER_08 2:35

I believe it.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

Remember when we used to drive around to different ones? The bathrooms, a nice facility. I'm thankful for Brother Alex. We're getting ready, church. We're getting ready to have a building. I believe what I have on my heart today to give to you guys for something to consider is I believe it's the last threshold before we get a building. Okay, now Reshell, what's on that text? You got your phone? About the hearing part. Can you say it loud? Yeah. Or come to the mic?

SPEAKER_00 3:22

I'll say it loud. So Mike asked me to look up the different ways of learning and how much people retain where they are.

SPEAKER_02 3:30

Can you guys hear that? Amber, can you hear that? Sarah, can you hear that?

SPEAKER_00 3:34

So we looked it up and it says that, of course, learning and retention, understanding and remembering those things depends entirely on how you learn. But within an hour, people forget about 50% of what they heard.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

Okay, stop. One hour. 60 minutes from leaving this building, we'll forget half of what's been. Now that's a study they've done. Half. So in other words, Brother Connell, whoever stands up and speaks for an hour, two hours, whatever's been spoken, 50% in one hour. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

And up to 90% will be forgotten within a month.

SPEAKER_02 4:11

30 days. 30 days. That, of course, is naturally speaking because God, obviously, can open our ears and we can hear something and retain it through God. But it is true when you're zoning out. I remember when I was in school, I'd be looking out the window, I was thinking about hunting and fishing, and I was not paying attention to the teacher. And the teacher would go, Mr. Mathis, is there something else you'd rather be doing? And I always thought, yeah. But but but you know, I was zoning out. We can zone out in church. I can zone out.

SPEAKER_08 4:41

100%.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

We can zone out. I want this message to get across, and I want everybody, if they will, to consider what I got to say. Just to consider this. And it's I think it's very uh beneficial. What was the other thing now? There's two things there. Class participation.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

The difference of participating versus just hearing. And the people that are just hearing it retain about 5% in difference to when you're participating in it, you retain 75 to 90 percent.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

Member, that's good. Remember, now say that again. The f say it again one more time. Guys, did you guys hear this?

SPEAKER_00 5:21

The people that are just listening retain five to ten percent, I believe it was.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

Five to ten percent is what what you retain, which is very, very small. Brother Connell can sit here for one hour, and what's 10%? Six minutes of 60. That's not a lot.

SPEAKER_08 5:37

No.

SPEAKER_02 5:38

Okay, so so I was like, this is very important, I think. What I got. Brother Connell, under the direction of Brother Connell, I've been studying on this, working on this, and my heart's for it, you know, this building, and I think we're gonna get the building. I really do. But I want I want to ask a question to everybody here. Do you believe that God could have already given us a building? Does anyone believe that that to be true? Yeah, yes. We could already be in a building right now.

SPEAKER_08 6:02

Yeah, absolutely.

unknown 6:03

I believe that.

SPEAKER_02 6:03

Uh no, no, you're right. Okay, so uh Sister Dot told Brother Connell years ago about the ministry. She said, uh, you know, don't you think you should be doing something for the Lord or whatever? And he's like, Well, I'm kind of waiting on God. And Sister Dot called him and said, The Lord told me he's waiting on you.

SPEAKER_06 6:20

Yeah, washing dishes. Yeah. And she called me and broke my spirit. She said, God told me to tell you that I that he's not waiting on, you're not waiting on him, he's waiting on you.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

I feel, did everybody hear that? Yes. I feel this building is on our shoulders, especially the foundation that's been here a while. Everybody, but especially for us that's been here a while. You know, there is no more new people. I thought about that today in the shower. I was just thinking about sayings. Our new people, you guys are furniture now, you're already here. You're not new no longer. It's awesome. Tina, you're not new now. How long have you guys been here? Two years?

unknown 6:59

No, four.

SPEAKER_02 6:59

Four? Man, wow! It's awesome. It's awesome. So, in light of what I know I got a very minimal amount of time to get something to you guys, and I know that it's not going to be retained unless I put the nail in the coffin on it. I've and I'm with the Lord's help, I will do that. I I feel that I got this message in my heart to give, and it's really of encouragement for the church. But the Lord is waiting on us. We are not waiting on the Lord. We could have already had a building several times over. I remember I stood in a parking lot on Wilbith Road, a brick church building that had a wheelchair ramp and a baptismal tank, and it was a brick, nice, beautiful brick building. Perfect, like 250 people, congregation, maybe, don't you think, Jess? Big, nice. I seen it. I walked in it, beautiful. I stood right here in a parking lot while they were bidding on it because I just wanted to see. It went for $52,000. $52,000. What we have right now is over $100,000. We could buy a church and have $50,000 to put in a parking lot or kitchen or anything else. So, what I wanted to do today is I wanted to show you guys how important it is with our tithing. And I'm gonna do it in a like elementary way, super, super simple way. Uh, because we learn through participation, I'm gonna do something a little different today. Do you guys remember when Brother Jesse had the shield and the armor and the sword? Uh it drove home something, didn't it? Do you remember when Brother Tim went through each saint and had a needle that was doing those? For some reason, you obtain that and you're your mind locks into that better than just somebody talking. So today, I asked Brother Matt a while ago, it's still good to use your daughters? Okay, is Stella here? Where's Stella?

SPEAKER_05 8:52

Right there, brother.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

Uh oh, there you have I'm looking back there. Laney, you want to help out? Okay, come on. You guys can help out. I'm gonna give you guys something good. I think it'll be fun. This is gonna be fun, yeah. That's been a while. Well, I've had this ready for some time, but the Lord's just been touching my mind continuously. Now, here. I'll tell you what, you go out here, and two quarters to every person.

unknown 9:12

All right, two quarters.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

Two quarters.

unknown 9:16

That's good.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

Laney?

SPEAKER_06 9:18

Laney?

SPEAKER_02 9:20

Come on, take your time. You're alright. Take your time. Take your time. And brother Matt, did you take the thing that I screenshotted to put on the thing? Okay. Okay, not yet, but in a minute. And brother Matt's gonna help me. We got good tools. We got we got the ability to do a whole lot. When we get this building, it's gonna be on like Donkey Kong. I feel that. I really do. I feel there's people that want to come. There's people that I know that will come automatically. Jeff Jones is one of them. Gonna come when we get a building, especially because they've added to it. Anytime people put something to it, they want to see the fruits of their, you know. I have people that uh our bike of the fond gave big money, 500 bucks, a thousand bucks. There's people gonna come to check out the building when we get it. And God, and and God's gonna get his will done. He's gonna whoever he wants, he's gonna throw a hook in, and they got no choice. I believe Jeff Jones got no choice. We'll see. We'll see. But there's just no coincidence. Okay, now she's handing out the quarters, and I'm gonna wait till she's done. You you about done, huh? Huh? You got everybody?

unknown 10:22

Almost, almost.

SPEAKER_02 10:23

Okay. And the reason I'm doing this is because um your uh another study said something when you do with your hands, you learn more than if you do. So me and Rochelle were talking about that. Like, uh, let's see, where's Jack at? Uh Jack, if we were welding together, I could give him a manuscript, and that actually happened when I went to welding school. They gave me a book, a manual, and we sat in class, and a lot of those guys were snoring. Does everyone got it? Who don't have a quarter?

SPEAKER_07 10:53

Raise your hand.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

Raise your hand if you don't have a quarter. Everybody got one?

SPEAKER_05 10:56

Is it two quarters, brother? That's two quarters.

SPEAKER_07 10:58

I gave everyone one but my mom.

SPEAKER_02 10:59

Oh, oh, one? Oh, we got it. Yeah, we're good. You're supposed to have two. Okay, we got two. Okay, good, good. It don't matter as long as everyone got something physically to do. There you go. Okay. Now, well you're not done. Now I want everyone. Okay, before I want to say something about this. Does anybody think that 50 cents is tithing?

SPEAKER_03 11:21

Yeah, I do.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 11:24

Some people would be saying, well, that's ridiculous. That's not really okay. We can say that it's tithing, right? Because it's something. That's right. But it's not, it's not proper. It's not appropriate. I mean, it's not uh it's not uh what you would say the average would be. I guarantee you, everybody in here, if you have any income whatsoever, you can do 50 cents, right? Let's let's be honest. Okay. That's a fact. Okay, so now let's go. You go on this side, hon, and take everybody drop the 50 cents in the plate.

SPEAKER_05 11:51

Yep, pass the plate.

SPEAKER_02 11:52

Pass the plate. Everybody drop that 50 cents in there.

SPEAKER_03 11:57

Very good. Now here, bring it up here. Bring it up here. I'll put that in there.

SPEAKER_02 12:33

How many people we got here today? Roughly 30, 25, 30, something like that. Whatever. Okay. This scenario. Probably close to 30. Yeah, we got some people out. 26? 2630. Okay. So this right here is a representation of what Matt's gonna put on the board there.

unknown 12:53

Everybody?

SPEAKER_02 12:54

Everybody? Yeah, you guys are done. Yeah, thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for that. My little sisters are growing up fast. We got an awesome church, man. We do. We this is quality. Everybody I'm looking at, creme to creme. The gainers, you guys, the Lord's brought you here. Everybody that sits in these seats, we got it's a privilege and an honor to serve God. Because when we get our building and people do come, you can say, I was part of that founding group. I was part of the original group when we first got that building. That's something to be said.

SPEAKER_06 13:22

Praise God, bro.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

That's something to be said. Okay, so now. Okay. This is called, May I have your crumbs, kind sir. And and the power that just went on right here is what I call a multiplier, a magic multiplier. It's because everybody put in 50 cents, is why this works, okay? So 50 cents times 40 cents. Now, this was what about what we have when everybody's here, close to 40.

SPEAKER_03 13:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:53

How long have we been doing this, Brother Jesse? About 20 years. Okay, this scenario is just to show you what 40 people for those 20 years would be. 50 cents times 40 cents, 40 saints. That's 20 dollars. That's a Sunday service. Today we're gonna make $20 with everybody giving 50 cents. Okay? Wednesday, we're gonna make another 20. So 20 times two services, that's a Sunday and a Wednesday, is $40 per week. So this week the GTA is gonna make $40. This is with the quarters. This has nothing to do with paper money at all. This is with that $0.50. Yeah. Okay? Keep that in mind. $40 per week times four weeks is $160 per month. If we continue to do the quarters that we just did, $40 Saints, right? Two services a week, we would have at the end of the month $160. Okay? $160 times 12 months is $1,920 per year. Yeah. This is quarters. It's not really appropriate tithing. Just quarters. I found some in the car today. On the way here, I found a quarter in the plastic cup holder. Yeah. Okay? $1,920, which that's per year, for 20 years, equals $38,400. Okay? That church that I stood in the parking lot went for, $50,000. That right there, quarters, was is $38,400. Now take those two quarters, right? And just make it a dollar bill. A dollar bill.

SPEAKER_08 15:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:27

A dollar bill. Who can't reach in their pocket and give a dollar bill? If we did that, then this scenario, you change that 50 cents to a dollar, it's $76,800. Easily have enough for the building in Akron, plus $26,800 for the parking lot and kitchen utensils. Think about that. That's just from the quarters that everybody put to plate today. Just from quarters. That's how important it is. Because I know a lot of people say, well, I don't have very much. I don't have very much, or I was a little late this month. So uh that those quarters are important, okay? Yes. You change that dollar, we'll change it to a dollar at $76,800. If you change it to a $5 bill, which most people could do, right? This $38,384, over a quarter million dollars. $384,000. You change it to a $10 bill, which some of us most of us could still do, because we're doing it right now, we're giving $20 a week. Yep. This is a $10 bill. A $10 bill. A $10 bill is almost a million dollars. Wow. But here's the word. Okay. Thanks, Matt. Here's the word. That's why how this works. Two words, Lord. I've been talking to Brother Kyle and praying about this. There's two words. How many people are write in their notes today? How many people have a note pen to write in? How many people? Raise your hands.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 16:50

Okay. How many people have a cell phone here today?

SPEAKER_01 16:53

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 16:54

I would like everybody to you, because we forget so much, and because what we just listened to, the two if if you hear anything I got to say today, these two words. Faithful, consistent. Okay, could everybody do that right now? Write that down in your uh write it down on your notepad or text it to your wife, text it to your husband. Crystal, you can text it to Rochelle. If you're not married, you're not, if you're single, text it to me. If you're a brother, if you're a sister, text it to Rochelle, but text it because your fingers are actually texting the words.

SPEAKER_08 17:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:28

Okay? Or you're writing the physically writing it down. Two words. Faithful and consistent. That's how this will work. Yes. And it will work with peanuts. It will work with next to nothing. I can go under my couch and find 50 cents. You know what I mean? Estella and Laney probably come up with money from doing stuff, right? You guys got some money. You know, we have the ability, it's just the problem is without faithfulness, without consistency, you have holes. And so when you have holes, sometimes now there's two or three holes. Now there's five or six holes. Do you know when Navy SEALs are carrying a boat? There's just enough of them on this side and that side to carry the boat, but even one guy lets down, they feel it.

SPEAKER_08 18:10

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:11

Like, come on, Matt, just get it up, get it up, you know. In the front, they can tell when somebody's doing it. When you got 40 people, we can't tell who's tithing and who's not tithing. I asked him what the numbers are. I had to crunch the numbers so I know the gist and ballpark of what's going on, but I don't know who, when, and where. But I ask everyone in this church, here's I normally you give a speech or something, and your punchline is at the end of the message. I'm giving it at the very beginning so nobody forgets it. Is I believe what the Lord would make the Lord happy, what would please the Lord, what would help us get the church building is these two words faithful and consistent.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 18:46

Okay? And the small amount, I don't care if it's a dollar. Brother Connell, do you have a truck payment?

SPEAKER_06 18:52

Uh no, I don't have a truck. Yeah. No, yes, yeah. Yes. He has a truck payment.

SPEAKER_02 18:57

Do you gonna have one next month?

unknown 18:59

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 18:59

I got payments every month. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:01

Yeah. I got a mortgage payment. Who's got apartment payment or mortgage payment, right? Yeah. Do you think that next month it's gonna be there again? Yes. Absolutely. Electric bill will be there. What are they? They're consistent. So our tithing has to be consistent. Brother Connell and Sister Connell need to pay their bills. So not only do we need to fund a church, we need to fund our pastor. That's required of us by saints. Because I feel as a church, we've done a lot of things, right? But maybe this is the area that we can improve on. I think that's what God's waiting on. Maybe it's just a change in our heart. We could just, all of us together today could make a change of heart and say, you know what? I haven't been tithing regularly, I haven't been tithing consistently, nor faithfully, but I'm going to start. I don't care if it's $5. If you and your mind say five, because you know, the Lord can give you that number. He can give you that number. Because sometimes somebody can give a little more, sometimes a little less. Uh if you have bills one month that go exceeding, well, the Lord knows, just try to make it up next month. That's the because, like if I didn't make so much, my jobs are sporadic. Let's say I don't make much this month.

SPEAKER_04 20:03

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 20:04

I I I could make it back up next month when I have a good job. That way my my tithing is still consistent. It's still faithful because I picked up where I left off. And I think that would that would please the Lord. I know it would. And it could just be that our heart change is I'm gonna start doing this, whether it be five bucks. Okay, so six months go by, you get a promotion at work. Crystal, you get a promotion at work. Let's just say you felt in your heart, look, I haven't been tithing, but I'm gonna start going 20, I'm gonna do $20 because I believe in Brother Mike's message. I'm gonna start being faithful, I'm gonna start being consistent, I'm gonna give $20, Lord, and the Lord may be fine with that. You feel peace about it. It's really the Lord can speak to you the number. Uh a month from now, two months from now, she gets a raise, and she's making quite a bit more than she did before. And she asked the Lord, what do you think now? I used to give 20. Could I give 50? And the Lord would say, Maybe, how about not 50, but maybe just double it? 20 to 40. And you could do that. And you could just test the spirit. You could write that check, you could put it in, and you feel in your heart that that's right. Because it's not cookie cut for everybody. Everybody makes different amounts and has a different, everyone has different uh obligations and different responsibilities. But I think what makes God happy is consistency and faithfulness, those two words. And since everybody wrote that down and everybody texted it, we can now say we know what the key will be. The amount God can give you, and I we have passed these flyers out maybe four times over the years, and I I timed it, Brother Connell. It's up to you. I can actually read it, or I can hand them out. But what happens is when you hand them out, they don't get read. We'll be honest, sometimes they don't get read, or they get put somewhere and they get forgotten about. I'm guilty, I've done that, but I always try to donate a show. We try to go back and hey, where's that thing, Brother Connell, give out? Let's do it now. It was maybe two Saturdays ago that he gave it, but we're just now doing it, you know what I mean? So, what I'm scared of is that sometimes these fires go out and people go bubble appropriate, and nothing really gets retained. So, my biggest my biggest worry today was that it would actually be retained. Okay, so this is the encouragement part. Okay, this isn't a correction or this isn't nothing other than we can do this, church. We can do this. That's right. My message is encouragement. Okay? So I gave in my scenario there quarters. And so we remember in that the flyer I wrote, there was a uh what do you I don't want to say the word uh beggar on Wilboth in 77. You remember that guy? He's not there no more. But um I wrote that in my my flyer that I handed out, and it was basically back then it was the price of a McDonald's coffee, which was two dollars and eighty-nine cents. And this is Crumbs. This is literally the same scenario, kind of, but just different, and it was a smaller number. But it was $200 or $2.89 times two, two coffees a week. Because now we're jumping from that 50 cents to something more substantial. But like if you think of accurate and real tithing, it's gonna be a five-dollar bill, a $10 bill, maybe a $50 bill, or a $100 bill, or whatever. That's substantial. That's way over the money we need for. I I it's over a million dollars. $300 some thousand. What was that one? That one's $768,000 on quarters.

SPEAKER_07 23:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

Can you imagine every saint in this church just start giving $10? I mean, I think we should give, you know, what the Lord puts on our heart, but I mean, if you're not gonna give anything, give something. Like a $5 bill, a $10 bill, please. For the love of God, just let's all work the because we have to carry some of the burden. Uh, you know what I mean? Like everybody got to put their hands to the plow for it. You know, we all, you can't we can't let five people plow. It's just like worshiping. We're talking about that today. You get three or four people plowing, but there's say there's 50 people in here when we get a church building, and there's only two or three people. We all got to get behind them, brethren. We all got to get behind them, sisters, because we all gotta plow. When we all, how's the saying go? Uh many hands make light work. Remember when we move people? We can move people, we can move crystal in like a half hour, huh? An hour. Why? If it was just me helping Crystal, do you think you know how long that would have taken? All day, all day, until the sun went down. But because the brethren's chipped in, we got it done an hour. It's that way with this tiding, it's that way with this building. So, anyhow, I this scenario I have with a coffee, I don't need to bore you guys with numbers. I like numbers because they don't lie. Numbers are black and white. You like those 50 cents, that was an actual thing. It's all right there. You can you can calculate it yourself. It it does not lie. That is with these saints giving those two quarters that you put in with your hand.

SPEAKER_01 24:23

That's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 24:24

That's that that's right there. 768,000 with a $10 bill. So come on, saints, we can do this. We can do this. I feel if we have a heart change, just in our heart, if we have a heart change and say, I'm gonna do this, then the Lord may not wait for us to get a million dollars. He may give us a building next week. Just all he's waiting for is a change of heart, potentially, possibly. So uh I looked up, I asked Brother Tim about our bank account, and I was just crunching numbers from last year. What did we do? So the building fund last year, we were averaging seven to eight hundred dollars a month. Okay, that was last year. The good news is uh we're we're farther along now. And I use this scenario just to give you some ballpark, okay? A church building that cost $250,000. These buildings now, $100,000 building was a big building back in the day, no longer. We're looking at $250,000, even though we're fortunate. The Lord can bless us with, like, say that $50,000, or someone can give us a church building. If someone gave us a building, we'd have $100,000 to get the kitchen beautiful. New pans, new for the sisters to cook big dinners. Why? Because we can have graduations, we can have, we can have funerals, we can have weddings, we can have we don't have to pay rentals, we don't have to pay this. We can use our own building. And the sisters can cook a big, wonderful meal, we could go play basketball, we could park all of our cars in the shade, we could play horseshoes, we could get together and have men's meetings.

SPEAKER_08 25:52

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 25:53

There's a lot we could do. If us brethren was struggling, somebody needs some help, say, let's meet at the church, and we could build a project at the church or work on a car or whatever. It's endless. But imagine if we were given a building and had $100,000 extra to do something with.

SPEAKER_07 26:06

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 26:07

That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah. Okay. So a $250,000 building at a 30-year fixed rate loan at uh 6.5%, which is going to be, it's probably gonna be more than that, like 7%, maybe who knows. But let's just say 6.5%. That's a $1,500 to $1,800 payment. Yep. Okay, for our our little assembly here. So when we do get a building, we can't just not pay the bills. It has to be there, folks. It has to be there.

SPEAKER_07 26:36

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 26:37

Okay, so I added up now. This is just numbers I'm running out. $100 on gas, a hundred on electric, a hundred on water. I realize some of them will be less, but some of them will be more. This is just an average. 100 on supplies. We're talking about toilet paper, Kleenexes, uh, soap for the uh restrooms or whatever. That's um 25 per week is what I did, and 25 times four is a hundred bucks. So I added those hundreds into that fifteen hundred. We're looking at nineteen hundred dollars ballpark to have a building at that scenario, nineteen hundred bucks. The church has now been averaging last year, it was seven to eight hundred. We've doubled that now. We're in the fifteen hundred dollar range now. So we only yes, praise the Lord. Thank the Lord. We're we're coming up with fifteen hundred a month. We only need a couple hundred more, and new people will come when we get this building. But we're looking at uh between you know eighteen, nineteen hundred dollars, and we're at fifteen hundred. I suspect we're a little bit over that now. We're probably without even checking numbers, we should be around sixteen, seventeen hundred a month right now, currently. So we're about ready. We're about ready. Okay. That's the church building. Now we got our pastor and our pastor's wife. Okay? Not only do we have to fund the building, we have to fund our pastor. It's not the pastor's responsibility to fund the church, it is the church's responsibility to fund the pastor. And our pastor, too, to his credit, has never passed the plates around. Like I've been in ridiculous services where they actually count what they got back and they come back out, they have a back room, they come back out, oh brother brother, so so. And he'll go, really? The saints only gave $1,300? We need $1,700 for the project that we're doing. Pass them back. And those plates go back, and I see my own dad digging down in to get even more. And it he they would shake down the sheep, so to speak. Then there's the ridiculous ones like uh Seth Rodler and all them that pray over money, and they're all about money, and and and that's ridiculous as well. But he's never he has never preached tithing because a lot of times people are scarred from bad religion, and that's all they were about. A lot of them is that they run it like a business. It's all about the tithes. If you don't show up, or your ties don't show up, they come to your house, like he said. That's true. When me and Rochelle were wanted to be members at First Friends, they asked us first thing in our meeting, how much you make, you know, how it's the truth. They really did that. So we I've experienced that. So I just say, Brother Connell has been gen uh generous, and Sister Connell's been generous. They provided pizzas for all those years. Lots of money, $30,000 worth of pizzas. They they they every Saturday, all kinds of pizzas. We'd have all them pizzas. They've given up their home, they've given up their soap, they've given up their Kleenexes, their toilet paper, their bathroom cleaner, many, many hours of cleaning that bathroom. People going in and out of the home, in and out of the home. So they sacrificed for all those years, and we as a church, during that time, did not tithe appropriately, or we'd have a whole lot more money. And so I'm guilty as charged. I'm guilty as well. Alright, so I want to get off everything I was wanted to say. Brother Bent, you have that picture of the of this? The cow? Yeah. Will you put that up, please? Scripture tells us not to muzzle the ox.

SPEAKER_03 29:53

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 29:54

Okay? So imagine this. Everybody can see this? See this animal? He's treading out the corn, so to speak, right? And that's his job. That's his job. Can you imagine the farmer that has this thing and doesn't feed it, and all of a sudden his ribs are shown, but he still requires it to work? Keep on going, brother. Matt, show the next one. That's pretty sad that the farmer forgot to feed him. He's still out there doing his job, but the farmer forgot to feed him. He's getting weaker and slower. But he's still doing his job. Still doing his job. Still doing his job. Look at him now. Can you spiritually get an eye on this? We have to feed our pastor. We have to feed our pastor. It ain't right. It's financially not right. Has the Lord blessed us? Lord's blessed me.

SPEAKER_03 30:53

Very good, brother.

SPEAKER_02 30:54

It'd be wrong for me to have to feed my pastor. That's right. It'd be wrong for me to let that happen. And so I hope that you guys hear this message today. It's very important. And I feel like Brother Connell, I've watched his neck sweat and his shirt get soaked. And I've seen him stand up after a long day of welding. This was years ago, still to this day. I remember sweat on a on neck on the back of his neck and just covered in sweat, dripping from his hair. He's done his job. He's done his job. Sister Pat has stood with him and has faithfully been there. All those papers they put out, they are due their pay. That cow, that bull should be able to be fed.

SPEAKER_08 31:39

Amen.

SPEAKER_02 31:39

That's wrong for the farmer to let that cow go to work and not feed it. It's wrong for us to allow Brother Connell to work like he has feverishly. He's worked and worked hard. And the Lord knows that. And here's the thing about uh ties, brothers and sisters, is the Lord knows our heart. The Lord knows our heart. And it's not like a religious thing where if you can't make it that month, you can't make it, that's fine. That's right. The Lord knows. The Lord knows, but he also knows if you're just skipping out on it. That's right. He knows if you just say, you know what, Brother Connell, I ain't got it this month and I ain't gonna do it. Or next month, well, I kind of have it, but I'd rather go golfing. Or I love guns. I love buying bullets and guns and different things that I love doing. Michelle likes plants. But if we didn't tithe, that would be out of order. That's right. And I believe when we get a building, he's gonna require this foundation to be in order. And that's physically, spiritually, emotionally, financially, in all areas. We're gonna have to get in order as a church, and then God's gonna bless us. But I feel like this is one area where if we'll just remember the scenario that I did today. Uh how long have I been up, brother? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:44

Oh, not long, brother.

SPEAKER_02 32:45

Okay, I got time to read this one quick. Okay, these only take I I this time is valuable, and I don't want to overtake it. You know, I don't want to very good. Um so in in September of 2020, I wrote this. Okay, and then uh three years later I wrote this, and I believe I wrote another one before that. So uh this here is so that if somebody would question, how much am I supposed to give? I I hope this will help help you guys out. Uh this will take me 12 minutes. Is this gonna bore anyone? Can I can I read this real quick?

SPEAKER_08 33:16

Sure, sure.

SPEAKER_02 33:17

Okay, I because I don't want people to fall asleep. I don't want to mumble. I don't want I want to be profitable. 1 Kings 8 18, and the Lord said unto David, my father, whereas is in thy heart, and I highlighted thy heart, to build a house unto my name, thou didst well that it was in thine heart. So it's really a heart condition. I feel like the Lord's wanting us to change in our heart. And that 50 cents is really a heart change. Even if you gave nothing, but now you're giving 50 cents, right? That in itself is a heart change. You're saying, I want to do this. Amen. I want to give. And the the key to that would be those two words consistently. Give that 50 cents every month. Don't let it ever stop without not doing that 50 cents, if that's what you can do. But if it grows, you know, you should be able to do more. Okay, so under the direction of Brother Connell, I'm sending out this article. I wrote this. Tithing was issued in September of 2020. I believe that was through our usual text. However, this time I'm sending a hard copy. Now, at the end of this service, I have copies. I would like people to take this home and reread it. Uh, because with a husband and wife, it's a little bit different scenario than when you're single. You can make up your own mind and you can talk to the Lord and get your own. But with a husband and wife, especially if there's two incomes or there's one, you can pray together. You can pray together and ask together what you would feel. A lot of times you can't, you don't have to make your decision right away. I sometimes say, Shell, will you pray about this? Let's pray about this. And we might meet on our Saturday meeting. We have a family meeting, we call it, on Saturday, we'll meet and we'll go over some things. Uh, and then I can say, How do you still you still feel that way about this or that? And so as a husband and wife, it's difficult sometimes with finances, but you can sit down and pray about things and ask, and the Lord will show, man, I woke up last night and I had a dream about $50. Uh, you know, and the Lord can give you a thing through a dream, like three times, $50, $50, $50. And the wife says, you know what? Someone just told me the other day $50, and it's like, that's it. I feel like that's what the Lord would have me do. $50. That's how that can happen. Uh, because it's not so cookie-cut, I believe, as the religious do it, uh, the religious world. They do 10%. It's actually above and beyond that. Real tithing is everything. Like, if God requires you to give the keys of your car to somebody, that that's what you should do. You know what I mean? And sometimes it's above and beyond 10%. So it is my hope that the physical copy in your hand, which everyone can take, will serve as a better vehicle than a quick scan or a text. Perhaps it will lay on the coffee table or on your nightstand or on your kitchen counter as you drink an iced coffee. Remember that scenario was $2.89. That's way over 50 cents. $2.89 is that's a coffee. Two coffees a week. We could have had a church already. I I did a whole nother thing on that. If you'd like to see it, I'll give you guys examples of anything I'm talking about. Uh, so a coffee purchase at Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, McDonald's. I pray you read this several times. I pray that its message gets across to where you actually hear it and receive it instead of merely just reading it. In which, let's be honest, it's easy to do. I pray it provokes you to action. I pray you recalculate the numbers I have calculated and put it out in the article attached. I pray that it touches your spirit and brings true, godly to all of us, conviction, godly conviction to all of us, including myself. So as I was writing these articles over the years, the Lord say, Mm-mm, that's no longer adequate. You need to tithe more. And I'm like, okay, Lord. And then I'd write another article and he'd say, That's no longer adequate, you need to tithe more. He's always asking me to be a partaker of what I'm putting out here, so I'm like, okay, Lord, I will, I will do that. It says, uh, the reason I feel led to present this again is because in years past we've been given message. Brother Connell has preached tithes. He has. Uh some people say, well, you didn't preach on it enough. No, well, he did. And he made sure that there was a box in the back that we could have put into, and everybody remembers that box. That was always there, and he did cover it. Uh so over the years, Brother Connell, uh, yeah, unfortunately, we struggle as a whole in this area. I know that. I know that by going over the numbers. We do struggle as a whole, as a church, as a unit. There's some that give great, and there's some that give medium, some give small, and some give none. You know what I mean? We got to get to the point where we're all carrying the load. That's what this message is about. Unfortunately, we still struggle as a whole. He's definitely preached about giving and tithes and what happens when we do and what happens when we don't. Remember the message about holes in our buckets. Remember that? Brother Kyle preached a whole uh if you get a bucket and you drill holes in it, I get a paycheck come Friday, and I I stick the bucket under there and the water pours in, but I don't get to take none home. That's because I got holes in my bucket. That's because the Lord's not going to bless you if you're not tithing. He will bless you financially when you when you start uh and I can give scenarios, there's some good ones that just happened here recently. God will bless you when you start tithing. And and he will bless you because if a farmer has a field, right? Ronnie, how many how many pieces of corn do you think would grow up in this field right here if I painted planted six years of corn?

unknown 37:55

Oh, six.

SPEAKER_02 37:56

Six. What happens if I planted none?

unknown 37:59

Zero.

SPEAKER_02 37:59

I would go and there is no corn. None. None. So if you don't tithe, you have no way of getting blessed, financially speaking. When he says something in his word, uh it it you can count it for what it is. He says, You do what you're supposed to do, I'll bless you. Going in, going out. Don't do what you're supposed to do, I'll curse you. He can take money from you. He can put you down at the bottom of the pits going, oh, I ain't got a dollar. And then the question is, did you tithe? And you're like, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. You know, like I better tithe. You know? Yeah. So um all right, uh, also I presented messages from my heart about the strength of all of us giving a little, which equals a lot. Remember the message about the toothpicks? That's another one I got in there, but I don't need to do that. I think we got the thing with the quarters. I have the toothpicks there. And what it is is I give everybody a toothpick, and they can everybody can break one single toothpick. I got popsicle sticks in there. You can break uh here, I'll just get this one right here. Yeah, do it. I might go. I I like that because you're not just listening, you're watching the field. Yeah, like brother with a needle. Break S. Anybody else want to try that? Wow. You just seen a good example of that. Yeah. Imagine these recorders, right? That that's all this was really resonant. When we work together, we can do a whole lot. You can't break this. You can easily break these other ones. So if only Sister Pat, Sister Tina, and Sister Rochelle tithe, and none of uh none of us over here tithe, that's easily. That's that represents this. You ain't getting a building. You can't pay your bills, you don't have a church. That's exactly you're never gonna have a church. But if everybody starts doing these two, as she does a popsicle stick, and she does a popsicle stick, and she does a popsicle stick, and everybody does a popsicle stick, that can't be broken. Now we got a building. Now we can pay our bills. We do it together. That's a military thing. Uh I could go a whole bunch on that, but just believe me, that we if we work together and we do this together and we all put the burden on it, we are gonna have a building. No doubt in my mind. So here we are, 12 years in the garage, three and a half years out. This was in 2023, so I had three more years on that, six and a half years out of the garage. We have no building. Other churchgoers and other Christians that know us could say, as our good sister puts it, oh, that's pitiful. I mean, think about it. These people out here could say, these people come every Sunday, they ain't got no church building. And all Babylons out there having a big chado with their big fine buildings and all that. Aw, isn't that pitiful that this little group don't have a building? I don't like that. It says they could say, Look, they don't even have a building. Are we pitiful? Such a shame, isn't it? A small flock with no building to assemble in. It's really quite pitiful, isn't it? Well, now I don't know. Let's look at the facts before we cast pity. For twelve years we mooched off of Brother Kyle and Sister Connell. That's the truth, and that's the right word. We mooched. Come on now, let's be honest. Our tithing as a whole church was extremely meager and most often non-existent. It was not faithful, and what was the other word?

SPEAKER_01 41:38

Consistent.

SPEAKER_02 41:40

I was asking Crystal. Consistent. That's right. I call it class participation is important. Uh consistent and faithful. Okay? Come on now, let's be honest. Our tithing as a church was extremely meager, most often non-existent. That is just a fact. Okay, that was those 12 years. What about the last, well, it's six and a half now years since the article uh was attached that was put out. I will give you all very big shock. The numbers never lie, and that's why I like numbers. They are black and white. You cannot argue that 10 times 12 is 120. That's just a fact. So what I'm about to tell you should shock you, period. Using the bare bare minimum, which is ridiculous, bare minimum, not a true standard of tithing. That's what I was saying. Not a true standard of tithing. 50 cents is still something, but it's not a true standard of tithing. By us who make money, we make money. By no means whatsoever. Again, for effect, a silly standard of extremely minimal giving. The equivalent of two cups of coffee a week for 20 saints. And this isn't even Starbucks coffee. That was a McDonald's coffee, which cost half of the Starbucks. They're at like five and six bucks on that scenario that I gave. This scenario was silly, extremely minimal, very small sacrifice. We would have, as of 927-23, $142,541.81. That was with the example of two coffees a week. For us, 20 saints. That wasn't even 40 saints. That was twenty, and that's in the that's in these flyers. I wrote out the numbers so you can see it. It's 20 saints, giving two coffees a week. We would have had 100. Now, this is without the the the bikathon, the bake-athon, uh, different ones giving the auction. This is without any of that. This was just with two coffees a week. I really want the saints to get this. That the quarters and the coffee is is the point. It's the magic multiplier. It's what makes makes it happen. Even if it's $2.89, as long as it's consistent and it's faithful and everybody's doing it, it amounts to a whole lot. Amen. It amounts to a nice building. It amounts to brother and Kyle and Sister Kyle being able to go out for steak once in a while. You know what I mean? Paying their bills and having extra. That's what it amounts to. They should be. We should bless them with that. And we should get a nice building. There's no reason why we can't. $142,541.81 with two coffees, 20 saints. So, in our enough to buy a church. Building for sure. Realizing this, almost laughable, almost laughable. Two coffees. If you would go out into Babylon and ask them at any of these churches, faith, faith, family, or whatever, say, hey, how much is tithing? And you ask the pastor or the deacon or the who's ever, their elder, or whatever they call it, say, hey, would it be appropriate if I gave like you know 289 times two a week? Would that be enough? They laugh at you. They go, That's that's not tithing. No, no, sir. You need to tithe off of what you make, your income. That's what they would say. That's laughable. But with this scenario that I'm talking about, we'd already have a church and way over with two coffees. And I mean, I I can't stress this enough. If everybody gives just a little, we make a lot. That's what this is about. Enough to buy a church building for sure, realizing this is almost laughable for one working saint to tithe two cups of coffee, two dollars and eighty-one two dollars and eighty-nine cents per week. Uh the the the the county, or am I? I better better slow down. I'm getting nervous because I don't I don't want to take too much time. But I do want to get this out, and I it is a it's encouraging. I want the saints to be encouraged by this. Four weeks was $23.12 for the month. This is not really tithing, especially if basing tithing off of the Old Testament version of giving 10%. This is crumbs. Will you donate your crumbs, kind sir? If you went to that bum on Wilboth and uh he wanted some money and you you got your bill phone and had all these 20s, and you gave him $2.89, he might have got offended. You know, he wants, you know, he wants a $5 bill or a $10 bill or something. Go get his. Well, I shouldn't say that. I I'm not gonna judge. Uh he could have been a very good man, but I don't believe so. He was there every day. You know, uh oh, someone said he did have a house. He was right around the corner. Yeah. So yeah, his sign said homeless, so that's a lie right there. All right. I challenge anyone to stop off at a highway when a beggar approaches you, whip out your wallet with several fives, tens, and twenties, wait till his eyes loot uh go on those larger bills, then hand him out of your pocket a $1 bill and 89 cents. Uh I know one beggar in particular whom that would have offended. Uh I don't need, I don't intend on offending anyone reading this. I think, uh yet I think we all can agree that $23.12, $23.12 for a monthly tithing would be considered crumbs compared to our income each month. So in my analogy, please remember my numbers, our stats, are not a representation of true tithing. It's only an example of using the crumbs for 20 saints. If this is what we could do with crumbs, imagine what we could be done with real, honorable biblical tithing. You could multiply that number easily by 10. We won't go there, but if our tithing capability became an actual tithing, we could be in a $500,000 building. There's no doubt about it. As promised, however, I will lay out the numbers for you to see our crumb analogy. And I won't do that. You guys can read that. It's kind of what I just did. Uh, and I I wrote all these these all out. We could have had a church several times over. Uh so where do you go to church not having your own building? If given all these handouts, hypothetically you could say the Connells Garage. The Baptists have led us on their fellowship hall. Remember that we almost did a one uh service, they did a morning service, we did an evening service. We almost had an arrangement like that. Oh, the Smiths let us use their barn. Uh the county lets us use their abandoned building out back every Saturday. The VFW has donated their hall twice a month, etc. etc. That's all wonderful for those offerings. Yet one thing for sure in all these scenarios is that we can never speak the words that's our church building. This isn't our church building. This is a school that we I'm thankful that we get to use it, however. But just not the same. Brother Connell or Brother Jesse, when when they light the band up, I remember there's been times when the bands were up there and they struck one chord or Sister Trisha saying one note, and you feel the Holy Ghost just come in and melt you right away. And that just doesn't happen as much like that here. It's it's it's different. And and I I'm excited because when we do get the building, the ones who haven't been able to experience that will get to experience it, and it's gonna be awesome. That's right. It's gonna be awesome. Um, so I feel let's see, but I am your brother speaking from my heart. God can do whatever he chooses and can work through any of those scenarios, which I would accept if that's what he had told our pastor to do. Yet, truly, someone could label us as a mooch, and they wouldn't be lying if we were always bumming off another place, which we're actually paying for this one. And I I I uh I this is a recommendation. I recommend every brother or anybody's doing that to bump it up to $20. It was $17. We can give $20. If you can give $20, give $20 because that's a little extra. Do you know that for several years? I asked Brother Tim, was the amount there like it was supposed to be for every brother for every service? And I I skipped some, but I did when I did try to go back and pay the one that I skipped. Uh but there was holes, there was holes. There was times when guys didn't pay. They would forget or didn't do it. And that means their $40, $60, $80 had to come out of the building fund. So this over here, of which we've amassed, amounted to, now it's getting pulled away every week. We can't allow that to happen. That's true. We're going in the opposite direction. And that wouldn't be good. So I say, hey, give a couple extra bucks if you can. Instead of 17, give 20 if you can. So a beggar or scrounger, I don't know about you, but I don't like my name attached to any defin any of those definitions. It sure is more respectful, honorable, credible, and worthy when we can say, is this our this is our church building? Which we're going to be able to say for the first time. Like even Brother Connell's building was our church building, but that was truly not our building. That was his, him and Sister Pat's building that they allowed us to stay in and to use. We'll actually have a building one day we can say this is our church building. How cool will that be? There's a good pride in that, not a bad. And we didn't get this by a church that's just been taken over or been given. We're earning this every dollar. So that's cool too. I like that. So when we get in a building, we can say, hey, we did auctions, we did bike-athons, we did bake-offs, we did, we raised money, and we did this. And there's gonna be more pride in that, and it's gonna be awesome. We're gonna get a jubilee. When we get in that new building, we're gonna get in a jubilee. I feel that the Trisha is gonna sing, the music's gonna strike up, brother Connell's gonna stand up under anointing, and we're gonna see something. The latter rain is gonna be greater than the early rain, so we will see some stuff. There's no doubt in my mind.

SPEAKER_03 50:10

Amen.

SPEAKER_02 50:11

Uh and I'm like, I'm excited about this building. I feel deeper responsibility within myself to take accountability over this building situation. When I was in high school, the JV team got the hand-me-down jerseys. The varsity team got the brand new ones, the good ones. I remember being handed an old yellow jersey one time. I didn't like it. It's true. Back then, they probably don't do none of that now. They buy all new stuff. But back then, we were country school, old country school. They didn't have a lot of money in the athletic fund. And so the 80s was different than now just. They all get all new stuff. But I remember when we did get new stuff, I was excited. I was like, hey, look at this, man. We were walking around like, hey, these duds are sweet. We have warm-ups, we had jerseys, we look good, the letters look good, the colors look good. I was proud. But I remember when they gave me that old yellow jersey when I was uh younger, and I was like, this ain't cool. I I didn't like it, man. I didn't like that. I don't like the hand-me-down thing. I like to earn it, I like something nice. I feel uh the JV team got the hand-me-downs, the varsity team got the new ones. Uh I remember being handled the yellow jersey one. I didn't like it. It sure didn't make me feel special. When we get a new building, we're gonna feel special. As a church, I don't want to hand me down. I don't want to hand out, I don't want any pity at all. I don't want no one to say that's pitiful. I want to earn our building. I want to say with dignity and confidence, this is our building. Proud to be Gospel Truth Assembly, proud to have gone through the fires, proud to be varsity, proud to be on God's true cutting edge, the truth we have, the pastor we have, the gifts and abilities we have. I'm not of ashamed of who we are, and I never want to play second fiddle to any other church. That's right. That's just coming from your brother Mathis.

SPEAKER_03 51:48

Amen.

SPEAKER_02 51:48

Uh, that's my two cents worth. I believe in pride, that's not a sinful pride, a wholesome pride, a good pride, pride in a job well done, pride in our teaching, pride in our young ones serving God. Someone could say to a beggar, Where's your pride, man? Well, if you are forced to beg, that's one thing. But if you have the ability to work and provide, I don't believe you should be a beggar. I don't believe this church has to beg. I don't I believe if we do what I'm asking you to consider and to do, I believe when the heart, there's a heart change, I believe God's gonna give us a building because we already have the money to do that. Uh obviously with a $50,000 building, we could do that twice, right? Uh but we might be able to just put, well, the Lord will work it out. He's already working certain things out. But we could put money down and get a loan or whatever. I believe when time comes, the Lord's gonna handle it. He said, I'll give you what you need when you need it. I'll provide it, don't worry. That's for the entire church. It is very clear and obvious we have uh the means to get a building. My number speaks extremely loud, I believe. God wants us to tithe, and in reality, we as a whole have not done that. We have not even provided the crumbs at times I spoke of. The blame is not Brother Connells, the blame lies squarely on each one of our shoulders. The pastor is not responsible to build the support the church. The church is supposed to support the pastor. Deuteronomy 25.4, thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. Again in 1 Timothy 5.18, for the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn, and the labor is worthy of his reward. Brother Connell is not only working hard physically in Speed, but he's worked before we even before me and Rashad even got these messages. Years and years he is with the older brother and driving all the you know, that work is not like uh forgotten. That work was part of this, what we're receiving now. That's right. So it's not just what he did in these years, all the years before. So, and we're benefiting from that. So, if I were to put a price on that, I should give brother and sister Connell a million dollars because we're getting the truth. And what's that worth? Amen. We can't even put a price tag on that.

SPEAKER_01 53:46

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 53:46

So the fact that he's been doing that, he's worthy of it, worthy of it. Uh okay, so uh blah blah blah blah. I better get to the thing here. Okay, so I will not repeat the article. I sincerely ask that everyone read it twice. Please. Brothers and sisters, I ask you to read the sometimes you just don't get the first time. And try not to read it when you're tired and laying in bed. Try to try to, I'm asking you as your brother, I plead you, I make an appeal to you. Please read these articles twice. Because whatever I said, it's gonna sink in. The Lord will help you, touch you. Um so I will not repeat the article, uh, blah, blah, blah. I'll be honest and say there have been times I skip, but my conscience reminds me, and I try to make up for the month that I skipped. Um and that's that's it right there. Uh and I wrote those words down before the Lord didn't touch me. This I didn't even remember that, but this was years ago. The words attached to tithing, I believe, would please the Lord, and they are what? Who wants to say the two words?

SPEAKER_08 54:44

Faithful.

SPEAKER_02 54:45

What are they?

unknown 54:46

Everyone's ever said it.

SPEAKER_02 54:47

No?

unknown 54:48

Faithful and consistent.

SPEAKER_02 54:49

Consistent. Faithful and consistent. I I appreciate that. Faithful and consistent. That's right. I believe that would please the Lord. The two words are faithful and consistent. Yes. The good news is today we can start a new practice. Starting today, starting this service, after this message, we can start. We can tell the Lord, Lord, whatever you put on my heart, I want to do. I want to be faithful. Amen. And I want to be consistent. The good news is we can start a new practice, a new habit. We can become worthy of our calling and give our resources as God lays on our heart. Have you sincerely asked him what he wants you to give? You can designate money to the building fund and you can designate money to ties for our pastor. God, as at do or do as God lays on your heart. I personally believe this is the reason we do not have a building today. This is my personal belief. That we're not we're not waiting on God. God is waiting on this foundation to produce what we're supposed to produce. And when we do that, I feel like he's just gonna unlock that door. It's just gonna be done. Because he could, if we're honest, we could say he could have already given us a building. So the question is, well, why don't we have a building?

SPEAKER_03 55:52

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 55:52

And we can't blame God. We cannot blame God. I take responsibility. I take responsibility myself. I take responsibility.

SPEAKER_03 56:00

I believe that, brother.

SPEAKER_02 56:01

We're supposed to be mature. And if we're gonna be the foundation of this movement, which I believe we are, it's an honor and a privilege to be a part of this movement. And right now we don't see the full maturity of that, but I believe when we get a building, we're gonna see some things. There's people gonna be healed. We're gonna be glad that we and it's and it's a privilege and an honor to be a part of this. And the people who've held these seats. Uh, God is so good he might not wait for us to come up with another 20K. He might just be waiting on our hearts to change, and then presto, here's our building. It could just be our attitude towards tithing be changed, and that's all he ever wanted.

SPEAKER_01 56:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 56:34

I remember one time I was all upset and I was throwing a fit, and um, I was just mad at God. I'll be honest. I just why is this and why is that? And I was mad. And uh, I mean, there's no lying. You can't lie because God knows your heart and he sees your mind, he knows every thought in your head, so why try to hide it? You know, like he knows. He knows I'm upset with them. So I got in my off shop and I was like, I'm mad at you, and I was like, why not this? And why this, Lord? We're doing this, we're doing that, and I was coming, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he just let me kick around for a while. And then I just got on the floor and I melted and I cried out to him like this, and I like, I just got broken. He said, That's all I was waiting for. Yeah, that's true. That's all he was waiting for. Right. I had a truck blow up. This is true. I had a truck, the head gasket blew, I had a tractor literally blow up into pieces. I had two tractors, I mean, everything I was doing, everything was blowing up around me. Everything was going bad and breaking. And I was just like, for weeks and months, it's because I was in my own spirit, and I was like, I'm gonna fix this, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna I'm gonna I was doing everything on my own power. Here you go. And God was just all he was asking. And I was like, man, that's all I that's all it was. I just had to be broken in front of him. And it's like I could have skipped, I could have highballed all of that garbage if I just would have been broken from him. Uh I personally believe the reason that that that we don't have the building is just because we haven't had that breaking, that broken, that uh self-evaluation where we look inwardly, where we look at ourself and go, is it something I need to do, Lord? Am I not, you know, am I not humble before you? Am I not hearing from you? Am I not hearing from you correctly? You know? Uh, because we're not going to get this building in the flesh. We're going to get this building because of God's favor with us and because of his doing. I believe that. And I think he might even do something like, just like he said, he's blown money out of a bush. Brother Connell has told that story. We might be surprised what God does. Oh, yeah? Watch this. Bam. You know? I'm looking forward to something like that. I'd be excited. I will run the streets. Like Sister Rashaw had to run the other day. I'll do that. I'll run up and down. I'll say, Thank you, Lord, for this church. I'll run around it seven times. It could just be our attitude towards tithing be changed. That's all that day that he needed was me to change my attitude and be broken. You know, same thing with this or anything else. If he's dealing with you on something, sometimes it's just submitting to him and doing what he asks. Remember, our attitude determines our altitude, as Brother Connell preaches. It's a matter of the heart. He wants us to have a desire to build. He wants us to give the resources he has blessed us with. It's not really, it's really not a lot to ask of us. Are you willing, as Brother Jesse often says, are you willing? If you are, I humbly ask you to put that to action. Because a lot of times you can say, I'm willing, I'm willing, but are you? Because there's two wood boxes back there that says if you are or you're not. You know what I mean? You can say, I'm willing, but uh, how do they say less talkie-talkie, more walkie-walkie? I go up to that wood box and I put it in, I'm showing the Lord that I'm willing. I'm not just saying it, because it's very easy to say, I'm willing. Well, just do it with your pocketbook and the Lord will uh honor that.

SPEAKER_03 59:33

That's right, brother.

SPEAKER_02 59:34

Uh so I humbly, as your brother, I say we can do this, it's encouragement. I humbly ask you to put it into action. Um if you're unmarried and you have an income, pray unto the Lord. Ask what amount to give. Your Holy Ghost will unction you. If you're married, I ask that you talk with your spouse and agree on a monthly building fund. Sometimes people have every tenant is different. Sometimes one person works, sometimes two people work. Some me and Shell, we bounce around a whole lot. We do different things. But some people may like have their certain bills cut out. Well, maybe I can give $10 and you can give $20, and that together will be the $30 that we give. Right? I mean, if you get with your husband and wife and you you you say, oh, I can only afford $20 a month, and the wife says, Well, I can do, I can match that. I think I can do $20. No, that's $40. That's that's that's what we need. We need that consistency. Um, so if you're married, I ask that you talk with your spouse, you agree on a monthly building fund amount, and a monthly tithing amount. This is where the rubber meets the road. If you can't come up with a number, pray about it. Seek the scriptures about giving, and God will give you a number. Now, I, in my previous article, lined up the Old Testament 10% tithing. It's all right there. You guys can read that and see how it is. But I truly believe, like Brother Connell has preached before, ask the Lord. I mean, you know, God can direct us. He can direct us on what I'm out to use. There have been times when some have struggled to pay tithes but felt the Lord would have them go ahead and put the kingdom first. In obedience it was done, and lo and behold, the bill money was provided. I'm saying this as an example because the devil, your flesh, will tell you every month you don't have it. And if you listen to that, you'll never give, and thus never receive the blessing for it. I'm weary of not having a building. How about you? I take responsibility for it. Will you? Let's not blame anyone but ourselves. Let's be mature about this. Let's receive it and do something about it now. I love each one of you. Please don't take this as a spirit of rebuke. Take it in the spirit of, come on, saints, we can do this. Because we can. God will help us. Let's get back our fervent heart to build. Brother Matt.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:41

Amen, brother.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:42

So uh these articles will be at the the door when you guys leave. If anybody wants to read them, I I ask that you read them a couple times. And just think of that ridiculous scenario that that Matt put up there. I mean, that was literally quarters. And if you think about that, that multiplier is the main message that I wanted to give. Please, please, please, even if it's the dollar, even if it's two dollars, whatever it is, just don't let the some people give bi-weekly, some people give monthly. Whatever that is with you in your house, don't let that one go by by missing it. Even if you, you know, uh next month just give that, put that two bucks back, make it four bucks this month. Just be consistent. And what's the other word?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:23

Faithful. Faithful.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:25

Faithful. Faithful, consistent. That's the only thing I needed you guys to take from this message was just those two words. Consistent and faithful, because I believe that's what the Lord put on my heart to give you guys. That's all he wants out of tithing. Faithful and consistent.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:36

Praise God.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:37

Thank you guys for listening to me.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:42

Very good.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:43

And all in all serious, and all genuine, I I just I would like to have a building. I really did. Because uh let's, I mean, brother Jesse and uh, you know, Matt, brother Matt, and now Brother Alex, we're dragging this stuff around. Thanks, brother. And we're we're we're doing all this stuff. And that, you know, will we do it? Yeah, we're gonna continue doing that. But it'll be nice when we just have our building. And brother Alex, we'll set up a nice sound, nice. I mean, I got I got a vision, it's gonna be great. We're gonna have things set up. It'd be nice just to roll in there and have service and no more of this. I think this time, though, is a time that we can uh use to appreciate when we do have a building. We'll be able to say, hey, we don't have to no longer move chairs. Our chairs are where they need to be. And how cool will it be when we can do functions in our own building. Even have parties or TV on the uh I I have a heart for the youth. They have a lot. Uh Jack, I I have a uh sister, our sisters, that they have a lot, the world's offering them a plethora of evil things to do. All day long, they're pounded by the cell phone, all day long, pounded by TV, advertising. You can't pump gas in your car without getting some stupid advertisement. So they're bombarded about hey, this is what the world's got to offer. Hey, this is what the world's got to offer. So my heart is that we go camping or hiking or do stuff. Like if we have a building, we can actually get together and do things for them, have movie nights or whatever, and all that stuff will be possible when we get a building.

unknown 1:04:04

Amen.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:05

I love you guys.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:07

Hey, I don't want to jump up too soon. I'm not the type to usually jump up real quick. I want to give everybody else a chance. But, brother, that was all God. Yes. And if you didn't notice, I didn't cry and participate like I should have in the worship. No motive behind that. No motive. I have a lot on my mind right now. But uh God touched me through your message today, brother. And God can touch us and bless us at different scenarios and times in this service or throughout the week or any other given time. And my heart is to build, brother. My heart is to build. And I appreciate Brother Mathis getting up and putting that out, and you can tell it was well orchestrated. He really put a lot of thought and time. And I'm one. I'll tell you, brother, I received it today, Brother Matt. I received it, brother. I received it. I'm one of the birds in the nest with his mouth wide open. Yes, brother.

unknown 1:05:02

Praise God.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:02

And sometimes, like I told you in the past, them birds don't know what the mom's gonna put in there, but they eat it anyway. We have a good mother here. Amen. We have a real good mother, and that helped me today, brother. And uh, I can tell you right now God's told me to be more consistent on tithing.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:26

I'm an open book. I don't have a problem, Sister Pat. You know, I don't have a problem to tell you where I stand. I don't have much to hide. I am who I am. I'm not a phony person. I try not to change around people. When you see me, I'm the same tomorrow. I don't I don't want to get around my friends in the world and act one way and get around my church people. That's part of serving God. I want to be the same. I want to be consistent. And so my my theory was behind tithing is once in a while I'd give a chunk. Let me step up here so I don't have to yell. But I would give a chunk. Tim can voucher this. We tithe and sometimes I don't put my name on there. Lately we haven't been doing that. We just stick it in the thing. I don't care where it goes. I know it's going to a good source. I used to put it in the middle for Brother Connell and Sister Connell. If you want to do that and you put your name on it, so be it. I haven't been doing that. But I can tell you right now, I have been being more consistent at my tithing. And it goes along with Brother Matthew's message.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:23

Woo! I'm telling you, my gift allows me to see. My gift allows me to work in the spirit. I can plan and plan and plan a sermon and it won't work. But when God stands at me to my feet, it comes out. My gift is to work in the spirit. And I can tell you today that God stood Mathis to his feet and gave us what he gave us. I've been trying to be more consistent. Manny's been on me. Me and Manny do live off one income.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:01

I don't need to tell you any more than that. I don't need an attaboy. I don't need a boohoo. I don't want, I'm not one that needs sympathy. We've lived like that for 39, 30, what is it, 36, 37 years we've been together now, and we've always lived with one paycheck. I feel it's God for me. For me and my household, I appreciate that He's allowed me to do that. I appreciate that I can come home and my wife, we're old school. She tends to the home, this and that, blah blah blah. But I God's always made a way for us. So I do. I am one of the families in the church that live off one income, and sometimes we don't have it. But you know what, brother? We've been giving just a little bit. Whatever I can. Whether it's $10, whether it's I know I can give more than 50 cents or a buck or five, but if it's 10 or 20 or 30 or 40, God's been seeing it.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:49

And he's been bringing money into me from certain ways. I wasn't one that believed that. I'm not one that believes God's gonna bless you financially and figure like Babylon preaches. It steered me away from being able to believe that, Dad. You know where I'm coming from, Brother Tim? Babylon and Creflow dollars steered me into where God don't work that way.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:12

When you have a man stand up and say, Give, give all you can. Okay, you give 50, that's it. You gotta be ashamed of yourself. I want somebody to sow a thousand dollar seed today. And ten people come forth and give that, and then he stands behind that and lies to them and tells them you'll get that back in a month or a year tenfold. And it never happens typically. It stirred me away from believing God can work in that way. But I've changed my mind.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:38

If you give ten, God can give you back twenty in a week. If you give fifty, he can hand you a hundred in a month. That's good. What's being done in here is powerful.

SPEAKER_05 1:08:51

And it goes along with what uh what I felt in the beginning of the service. I come in here, had things on my mind, trying to do a few things around the house, and it seems like from every angle the government can stop you in what you want to do. You know, you think you own something, you don't own it. At any given time, they could throw you out on the street and say, We're taking it.

SPEAKER_08 1:09:11

That's the truth.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:12

Brother Connell, there's a reason he keeps preaching about greed and money and how they're suppressing. I looked at Mandy yesterday and I almost started crying, and I said, My father's right. They're suppressing us. They're trying to edge out the middleman, Brother Alex. If you're poor, you don't care because you depend on what they give you. That's it. If you're rich, you don't care because you don't need them. That's it. It's the middleman, it's us that's gonna carry this gospel on. Woo! I can feel the Lord. It's you know what's gonna you know where the latter rain's gonna fall? On our shoulders. The latter rain is a rain of time. It's a movement that's gonna go forth and it's gonna conquer, and it's gonna start to heal the lame and open the blinded eyes. It's gonna heal the Sams. It's gonna bring people forth. That's what the latter rain is gonna be for. And I believe, and God has told me that we're gonna be a part of that. We're gonna be on the front lines, Brother Tim, walking and leading and working in the latter rain march, the latter rain movement. And people's gonna get a chance one last time, like they had a chance to come onto the ark, but nobody would. Nobody got on that ark. What a rebellious bunch of people that was. We're no different today. I want to get on the ark. You know, matter of fact, we're on the ark. I don't want to jump ship. God is gonna give a call. Come out of her, my people. That is solely gonna happen in the Later Rain movement.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:39

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 1:10:40

It's happening in trickle right now. The other day it was just trickling. Yesterday it began to just sprinkle. I was gonna do a project on my home, and the Lord stopped me dead in my tracks with a lightning storm. I pushed that project on the back burner for now. Maybe he doesn't want me doing that. I want to be led by the Lord. I'm the type of man that tells you you don't tell me what to do, I do what I want to do. And that's not gonna work with the Lord. We must submit. We must fall down before the rock and be broke. I don't want the rock to fall on me, the gospel, or the Lord Himself and crumble me to powder. And so, with everything that's being said today, I appreciate Brother Mathis. You touched my spirit. There's things in this world that we might not be able to participate in. But I know we're on the brink, folks. I know we're on the brink, brother Jason. The other brother Jason, we're on the brink of something dynamite happening. We are on the brink of a building, brother. God has touched my mind. I'll touch on this one more second, and that is about tithing. Some messages just go in this ear and out this year. And like I said, for me, the tithing and the money situation has been rough sometimes to hear because I've had a bad taste put in my mouth from watching so many Babylonese preachers. I advise you not to watch anything if you're not strong enough. I agree. As your elder, if you can watch something and be strong enough to watch one of these motivational, positive, you know, positive speakers. Be careful though. Don't put your hand to nothing. The Lord's had to work me over over and over for 20 years, teaching me, do not touch that. Do not put your hand to it. When I'm told not to do something, it makes me want to do it more. It's like the little red button that says, do not push. Man, I want to go up and push it because I want to see what's going to happen. And the Lord has taught me to leave certain things alone. So through going, seeing that, Brother Williams, and watching how they work out there, I told myself, I'm staying plum clear of that. God will build a church and we don't need finances. He's starting to change my disposition. He's trying to change my outlook. My outlook. We do need money. And I've always believed that. And we did. It was easy just to get uh comfortable going into the garage every week. There was just a comfort zone there that I enjoyed. Everything was set up. We don't have to worry about our church building because it belongs to Brother and Sister Connell. It's nice because you walk up a driveway and you're there. It's 0.25 miles down the road.

unknown 1:13:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:34

How convenient. And I got used to that, and you get laxadaisy and you get comfortable in where you walk and where you're standing. But God's wanting what he said today. Action speaks louder than words. So I know what you said today, brother, was straight off the Lord's griddle. Sure was. Amen. It was straight off the Lord's burner. And like I said, I try to sometimes just sit back. I want to give everybody a chance. I've told my son-in-law and I've told myself it's easier to sit back sometimes than it is just to jump up. I got something dynamite. Man, curve that. Try to be still once. And I'm working on that because I could get up every service. It's in me just to jump up. But I knew today the Lord wanted me to jump up, Brother Tim. My heart was racing out of my chest. Every time he went to, when I thought he was coming to a conclusion, my heart would start pitter-pattering. And I know that's how the Holy Ghost can work. And so before the service, as worship was going on today, I looked over and I was having a hard time. You know, I was having a hard time. We're all going to have a hard time from time to time. Some services, how can I say this? Some services I might not need to press in like I needed to the service before. This is just me as an individual. I encourage you to press in every service. But some services are more crucial. And it depends where you stand in your walk with the Lord, whether you need a tremendous outpouring of the Spirit that day or not. I'm not going anywhere. When you see me and I can't, I can cry very easily. And it's just the opposite of the way I was when I was a young man. Is that not right, Jessica? When I was younger, I didn't cry in front of my kids. Very seldom did I cry. Growing up, I would bust my head open, get stitches. I didn't see any sense in crying. I could have. When I laid my head wide open and had 32 stitches and an artery, I wanted to cry. My buddies was all standing around me, and but I thought, that's not gonna get me anywhere. I gotta get home. If I turn into a blubbering mess right now, I might lay here and bleed out and die. I had to get my senses together, put my hand on my head and push as much pressure as I could and run home. So my point in saying all that is I'm not going anywhere. When you see me and I don't shed and ball and cry, don't worry about it. God's got this. I'm not going anywhere. And I don't even need to say that, I hope. I hope I don't need to tell you I'm not going anywhere. In other words, we're all gonna go through things. We're gonna go through things through the week, we're gonna go through things on our job, we're gonna go think that through things even in our own spirit. Just pray for one another. But today, I had too much on my mind. I had things on my mind that I was upset that the government tells you you're not allowed to rewire your home without pulling $500 worth of permits and this and that, and and then you gotta be certified. If you ain't a certified electrician in the state of Ohio, you're not allowed to do your own wiring. That's what I've learned. And that's natural, and I don't even want to go there. But that's what was on my mind today. For two weeks I've been laying it out and studying and reading and focusing, and I could almost be a master electrician after two weeks. I've been messing with electricity since I was a young boy. You've heard the stories. When I popped the glass fuse, I had them right there handy and had one in there and jiffy before my dad even knew it was out. It would be a trickle of the lights, and poop, a new fuse is screwed back in. And that's back in the day when you had glass fuses, about six of them lying in the bottom of a little square breaker panel this big. I've been messing with electricity my whole life. Been nailed, been shot, had hit, I got hit with 480, got hit with 220 three phase, not single phase, three phase. Double phase, there's two, there's one, two, and three, and two twenty phase. Did you know that? Did a little schooling today. I laid my arm right on 220, single phase, uh see uh double phase. Two poles, two hotlines, and a neutral. Arm went right on it. About dropped me. 480, three phase, blew up my face. Taught me a lesson. When you go to hit the start button on a panel, make sure the lid's shut. Them panels are there for a reason. If it explodes, it contains it in there. I had the lid open looking in there, and three phases of 480 arced and about blew my head off. I had a full beard at the time. Went into my boss's office yelling, look! My beard was stuck, charred to my face. Eyebrows singed off. But something told me to go put my welding goggles on before I hit the start button, and I'm thanking God I did. It was the Holy Ghost, it was the Lord. Put your welding goggles, the big black goggles, I put them on. It could have blinded me. Yeah. Instead, it burnt my beard and my eyebrows off. So, my whole point of standing up today is to say that God's got this. And that's just some of my little trials you're hearing today. I want to be an electrician and do my own work, and we're I know I can, I know I'm more than confident. But they say you're not allowed. They're suppressing us, Dad. We're suppressed. So I appreciate uh Brother Mathis. And so when I stood up here and was having a hard time today and couldn't get my mind off, ask Sister Mandy. I've drove her crazy for two solid weeks. Ask Matt how many times I've told him about how we're gonna do this and how we're gonna do it hot. We're gonna grab the line with thousand-volt-volt electrician gloves on, snip it, and you can do that. I don't advise it. But a lineman comes out and cuts the line hot. They watch videos, they do it. If you got lineman gloves on and you ain't, if you you can touch that line as long as you ain't grounded, you're safe. I don't do that. I put a thousand volt lineman gloves on and snip it and have a roll of tape ready, and you're good, you're safe. Once you tape it up, you're safe. I had it all laid out, didn't I, Brother Matt? Just to find out that you're not allowed to do anything anymore, it seems like. So when I got here today, I had all that rolling through my mind, and one thing, brother Alex, touched me today. More than that now. But when I stood there and I watched my brother Alex walk up here, how many of you seen him come up here and fix the mic? How many of you seen him walk up here and go like this and adjust this mic?

SPEAKER_04 1:19:54

God, he lit me up like a bolt of electricity. He says, I'm building and I'm strategically putting the pieces in place. We never had that. We never had a board of men standing there and running electronics. Matt and Brother Mathis used to run it.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:14

Now he's added brother. And you know, before he added him to that job, he filled him with the Holy Ghost. Didn't he say he was gonna fix that, put things that fix things and put them in order? God don't never do nothing. If you gotta if you're if you want to work in the assembly and be uh working in the church, he's gonna fill you with the Holy Ghost. You are gonna get the Holy Ghost, sister. Amen. That spirit that was on you last Sunday, it's gonna happen. God didn't bring the Stanley's around not to make you a part of this. You're already a part of it. So when he walked up here today and I was standing there running the music, struggling, and he adjusted that, I got a touch finally. God broke my spirit. And he told me, He's like, look at that brother and watch what he did, and now watch, he's gonna walk back. And I walked over there and told you, didn't I, brother Alex? It's awesome to see that God's bringing people and putting strategic uh pieces of the puzzle in place. That he's gonna be able to come into a building one day and run that. There's people gonna be able to text him on there, possibly shoot him a message that this is awesome, and he can comment back. We're here, come and see us. We can do this, folks. We don't have to let them get all the goods.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:27

We can get some of it. If they can be a thousand strong, we can be five hundred strong.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:32

Yes, amen.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:33

We don't build with martyr, we don't build with sand and seeking this and that and uh man-made slime. We're gonna build with the things of God.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 1:21:48

I appreciate what the Lord's doing, and so when He came in and adjusted that mic, God showed me that I'm I'm I'm getting the pieces of uh this in place to where when we do get a building, there's gonna be men that's gonna be at back there, possibly with a set of headphones on, so they can hear what we're hearing. Adjust the mics. I probably won't run that too much longer after a building. That'll be over there in Brother Alex's lap. When somebody's too loud, you bump them down. Same thing with all the music, up and down. Uh you'll you'll tweak the equalizer. Oh, we can't hear Sister Crystal on the cello. We better bring that up a little bit. Yeah, yeah, Sister Crystal plays a cello. We had a marvelous band. When we struck up more than ever before as a band number, God flooded into that garage. There was designated designated songs. How you say that? Designated songs that I made for band numbers, and that was one of them. And so I'm anxious. I'm uh I can be still if I put my hand to it, but I'm getting anxious to see what God's gonna do here out in the future. And so I want to sit down here, but I appreciate you coming up and God showing me. I had spiritual eyes to see that naturally he just adjusted a mic, but spiritually, God's doing something.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:01

It's awesome to look over there and see Matt and Alex and Brother Williams and all our brother Mathis and all of them, all three of them filled with the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:10

Amen.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:11

That is gonna be the difference in what we're doing and what they're doing. They don't believe in the Holy Ghost. They do not believe in it properly. We believe in the Holy Ghost. If you're gonna have an active role in the assembly or vice or whatever, if you're gonna come in, you've got to get the Holy Ghost. I didn't say that. Jesus said you must be born again. And so when he done that, it blessed me and it showed me that God's strategically putting the place of the pieces of the puzzle into place. And then all of a sudden, when Brother Mathis got up, he backed it. He opened my mind even more spiritually. I seen that God's right out ahead of us. Amen. And you know what I seen? He showed me a Rubik's Cube. When I was growing up, they invented and they developed the Rubik's Cube back in the 80s. And it was one of the best-selling puzzle toys of all times. But I had them. And you know, if you if you if you take a you can take a Rubik's Cube apart, and you can there's there's I don't know how many pieces are in that cube, but I think there's three, six, nine, nine times six sides. What is that? What's nine times six, brother? I'm terrible.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:15

63? 53.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:17

54. 53.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:19

What's nine times nine times six?

SPEAKER_01 1:24:22

Nine times six, fifty-four is that.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:23

We're all bad at math in here. One thing I did not pay attention to in school, Sister Tina, was math. If it don't interest me, I'm not paying attention. So when Mrs. Justice, my sixth grade math teacher, got up and started busting out algebra, it went in this ear and out this ear, and I was sitting there doodling, drawing He-Man and Skeletor. So, enough of that. I appreciate what God's doing. And what was my what was my point there? What was my thought? What was I getting at? Thank you. If you take one apart, there's roughly 50-something pieces in there. That's all it is, is a bunch of pieces with different colors on them, Tim. And then you don't even have to take it apart. You can cheat and take the stickers off and put them back on each side. Do you know that mass that messes the math of that Rubik's Cube up? You know there's an outer rhythm on how to do the Rubik's Cube, and if you follow that, is that it the name, Brother Tim? Outorhythm?

SPEAKER_07 1:25:23

Yeah, I would imagine so. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:25

There's a way to do that. A formula. A formula.

SPEAKER_08 1:25:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:29

Four turns to the right, click it this way, three turns, six turns back, it'll all come back together and each side will be right. I've done it two or three times in my life. Many can vouch for this. I had to watch a few videos on YouTube to do it. But I got to where I could do one and two sides very quick. But my point in saying and bringing up the Rubik's Cube is each one of those pieces, when you start to get that Ruby, each one of them colors can be all over the board on there. Laney's got this toy, and you can mix it all up. It's a ball, and you can take the colors and mix them all up on there, and then I'll hand it to her, and she tries to put them back in the right order. Same thing with a Rubik's Cube, it's a puzzle toy. And so when you're messing with the Rubik's Cube, it looks like a mess, Tim. There's there's like maybe six different, well, there's six different sides. Well, how many sides is on a square? Six? Yeah. Six. One, two, three, four, five, six. Yep. I do things in my mind real quick. So you have six colors. And when it's a mess and they're scattered all over the board, and you start to bring it back together, you can see when it's starting to come together, Tim. You can see when you're getting close to the math of that. One side will start to come, you'll have six cut, you'll have six shapes over there out of nine. On the other side of it, you'll have five blues. And then you keep doing the author rhythm and you keep doing this the formula, brother Tim, and all of a sudden, right magically before your eyes, the Rubik's cube's back together. That's what he's doing here. The pieces of the puzzle starting to be revealed. They're getting closer and closer and to come together. And that's what I got I felt like God told me to get up and say today. Praise God. I want to end by sharing my poem. I want to read my poem. The Lord has been telling me for months, Brother Tim. Dad, the Lord's been telling me to read this poem. And I just for some reason kept putting it off. And putting it off. And putting it off. But I felt like today the Lord told me to read this poem because it goes along with what he just said. It really does. It'll harm, it'll it'll dovetail right into that. I had a dream, about 15 years ago, I had a dream down at on in the church behind my father's home in the garage. And the dream was this, and he brought it up today. How many of you heard him basically say that we're standing on the foundations of the solders and the patents and the liningers and the mirrors? Did you hear him say that? Absolutely. I had a dream about 15 years ago that we were in our church. And we were doing what we do now. But up on the platform was all the older brethren. They was with us. They're with us today, folks. Some of those brethren's under the golden altar, and so they're active. They're watching us. They're not in heaven. Nobody's in heaven, the Bible teaches us as of yet. But they're under the golden altar and they're active. They're watching. I know Brother Sodters is looking down. He didn't put his shoes on Brother Connell for nothing just to turn his back on us one day. He's watching where those shoes go. He's watching when he shed his feet, shod his feet with the gospel that Brother William Sodters put in Jane Sodter's. James Sodters put it in Kenneth Connell. Kenneth Connell's putting it in each and every one of us. There is an order to things. Whoa! There is a channel to things. Praise God. And my dream was as we were all doing our thing. We was in the church, we was participating, we was worshiping, we was listening, Brother Connell was preaching. And when I looked to the right, all the older brother, most of them that I mentioned so often, the main ones, there was a group of them older brother, and there was probably maybe a hundred of them back in the 80s. But out of that hundred, that's just a rough number, I know there was at least in my mind that always God brings back to me. There was five. That's not all. Don't get me wrong. But one was James Sodters. Brother James Sodters was appointed by God to give us what we have today.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:25

If we would not have stumbled across James Sodters, we would not be here today.

SPEAKER_07 1:29:31

That's it. Amen.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:32

The other one was CJ Mears. CJ Mears. Another one was Brother Ray Lenninger. That's three.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:41

Another one was Nick Grewig. And there's one more. It's the Patton. Brother Don Patton. That's right, brother. Brother Don Patton. That's the five that I always just have dreams about and think about. And so when I turned around, there they was sitting on the pole on the uh up on the platform with us. And I thought, this is glorious. But when I looked to the back of the church, there was a big clock like that hanging on the back of the wall. You remember that dream, Dad I told you years ago? When I looked, and my father was up teaching and talking, and those men was back there, amening him and supporting him. Right there in the assembly with us. And when I looked back on the wall, it was our old church on Jewett and Hazel. I remember that, and that's where we started this at. We started it on Arlington in the little house. Then it moved to Jewitt and Hazel, so now then we was in the garage, and here we are today. But when I looked back, there was a big clock hanging on the wall. And the Lord told me, when I woke up out of that dream, that was the end of my dream. He said, There's a timing to everything. I believe we're right around the corner. And God just told me, I leaned over and I began to cry, and I told my dad when Brother Mathis got up and stood to his feet for the first 20 minutes. God rolled that dream back to me. And he said, I want you to stand up and share that dream with the assembly. I told Dad, my brought up my father, I said, Dad, I just remembered a dream as Brother Mathis stood to his feet, it reminded me. So the clock, there's a timing. We are right on the brink of God doing this. We're right on the brink of getting a building. And when we get it, we're gonna go in there and look. God's starting to put things in order. We have ushers. How many of you know brother brother uh brother Jay is our usher? He's got a name tag. And I expect him to wear that when we get in our building. I love it. I don't expect him to. I I want I want him to. I I I I love it. I love it to look back and it says Usher. He's gonna help bring the people in. He's gonna help seat them. He's gonna help with parking. Yeah. Yeah, he's already right. He's already bringing people in. There's just pieces of the puzzle that God's gonna continue to reveal. And so with that dream, there's a timing to this. Listen to this poem for the ones. You might have read this, but let me read it to you. God gave us this poem back in uh 12. I think it was 2012 that he might have gave this. I maybe, I don't know. We should. 15. Thank you. I want to get my numbers right. 2015. The Lord uh gave the church this poem. I woke up in the middle of the night and uh I couldn't write fast enough. The Lord stood me up out of my bed, and I could not write fast enough. I grabbed a pen and paper and I was up on cloud nine, so to speak. God took me up on a mountain. And brother, he just began to talk to me. And I've never felt that way again, but that time in my life, God took me up on a mountain spiritually, and I was above the heavens. I was above the this, I was above all this, not above the heavens, but above this. But there's one and two heavens, and I was above them. I wasn't in third heaven, but I was caught up, not there, I'm not Paul, but I was somewhere in a realm of God.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:05

And I began to write this poem, and it carried on all through the morning, and I didn't even sleep.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:09

I went on to work, and he continued to give me more lines of this poem, even in my desk, behind my desk at my shop. And I looked over it and I started to change a few things, and the Spirit quickened me and said, Don't change a word. Do not correct the spelling. I told you how to spell it. You leave it alone. And slowly throughout the day, I felt myself start to come back down to reality. You can do that. You can go up in the glories of God and fill things and get into another realm. And you can fill things and you can get more spiritual and you can do all these things, and but eventually God's gonna let you come back down to reality because you can't stay up there all forever. And so up there, I wrote this poem. And it says, I woke up last night and began to pray. And a still small voice did say, Prepare yourself, my beloved son, as I start to show my way. Many have tried and many have failed, but it wasn't me that compelled. Now listen to this.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:08

Now plant your feet and hold your seat as I gather my father's meat.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:14

Now take hold of the truth and let your hand slip not. Set your face like flint and hold your spot. For I am the truth, the life, and the way. It is me and my father you'll meet someday. Now hold steadfast as I continue my search. He was searching for you, brother.

SPEAKER_06 1:34:35

Praise God.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:37

Searching for all of us. He was searching for you and your wife and your son sitting there. Sister Tina, God's been searching for you. Woo! Oh, praise God.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:50

Been searching for you, Luke. And look how he lured you in through your son. What a great fishing lure that the Lord used. Now hold steadfast as I continue my search. For around the corner is the latter rain church. Now come one or come all to the gate, but don't forget to wipe your slate. That means put off your own understanding, and God will teach you something brand new. He told Moses, You're approaching holy ground, take off your shoes. I'm gonna change your understanding. All that stuff that the Egyptians showed you and taught you, I'm gonna teach you something great and different. Don't forget to wipe your slate. For it is I that holds the keys, and it is I who chooses who sees. Now we all must come to a great decision, but ponder not much, or you'll lose your vision. We all gotta come to the crossroads from time to time. I've been at the crossroads so many times in this walk under Brother Connell's ministry and leadership that I don't I couldn't tell you how many times I've come up and tried to ponder and tell myself I don't need to be here anymore and make a dumb, blundering choice. Or fault. Don't ponder on this too much. God can take your vision away from you. This is where God's led you. Hold your seat. Now in me, you must abide if you want to make the bride. Why would the Lord tell us that if there's not at least one bride member in here? There might be a bride member or two in here. According to this poem the Lord gave us, there is. I don't know who. And the Lord's not gonna tell you just yet. Paul learned at the end of his journey that he was called for the bride. But if at the beginning of his journey the Lord would have told him that, he would have missed it. He would have made a mess of things. I'm called for the bride, bless God. I'm gonna make it no matter what. Hallelujah. No, he had to suffer many things and go through many things and falter and get back up before the Lord told him. He was called for the high calling. Now in me, you must abide if you want to make the bride, but don't forget that all who play first heaven and first earth shall pass away. Don't be playing around on God. I'm speaking to myself. Let's do this thing, Jay. Be not deceived, and don't look down. Look up, look up, and receive your crown. So set your feet upon the rock, for I am starting to gather my flock. I was the lamb who was led to the slaughter, and it was my blood that was shed. So glory not in yourself, but glory in me instead. There's no way that I woke up at four o'clock in the morning and thought of these things. I've never wrote a poem in my life. This is straight. You know what happened today? The Spirit was saying what the church needed to hear today. Doesn't the scripture say that we need to learn and glean and listen to what the Spirit has to say to the church? We can listen from Herald Doomsday what each other says, but I want to hear an anointing message from Brother Mathis, from Brother Connell, from Brother Tim. Let's listen to what the Spirit has to say. Testimonies, all of it. I want to be more led by the Lord. So don't glory in yourself. It's easy to do. Let no man tell you there's no price to pay. For that's not what I taught. And it's surely not the way.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:44

You talk about a man. You talk about more than a man. Brother, I'm a wimp. When it comes to Jesus Christ. That man willfully carried his cross up the hill and let him kill him. I'm a wimp!

unknown 1:39:00

Oh god.

SPEAKER_04 1:39:02

Oh God. I'm a coward.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:10

I'm not ready to carry a cross up and let him slaughter me and martyr me. I'm gonna put my fist up and I'm fighting my way out of it. But that man was more than a man. When he carried his cross up O Gogotha Hill, and he willfully stretched out his arms and let him drive them nails through his wrist and through his feet. Brother, who am I?

SPEAKER_04 1:39:34

I'm just a stinking old coward most of the time and can't face nothing without getting a rotten spirit. Oh God, help us.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:46

Help us to put us carry that cross up the hill. Each one of us is gonna have to carry our cross.

unknown 1:39:51

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:52

I want to be more than just a man, I want to be a man led by the Lord. I want him to be my uh ultimate one that I look to.

SPEAKER_08 1:39:59

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 1:40:00

So let no man repeat it, let no man tell you there's no price to pay, for that's not what I taught, and it's surely not the way. So listen to my servant who leds who uh treads out the corn and wait for the sound of that precious mighty horn. How many of you know that the horn's getting ready to sound? How many of you know that the Bible teaches us that there's a trumpet gonna sound? Not a literal trumpet, but a spiritual, godly uh teaching of a trumpet. His mouth, Brother Connell's sounding the trumpet, and it's gonna get louder and louder. The trumpet's gonna sound from a five-fold ministry. They got it literally. They got it literally a man standing there and possibly blowing a trumpet. They literally have the the gateway, the door to heaven laid with pearls and gold. They literally think the streets are 24 karat solid gold. Those are just pictures, those are just uh shadows and types, those are just types to let you know how glorious that place, that's his most glorious, precious metal there is known to man, is 24 karat gold. And God's got something beyond that. This is how we look at things through these natural simplicity of our eyeballs. But he's got something in store for us that when we get there, you can't even imagine the glory. We can't even imagine the glory that's gonna bless us here in the weeks to come, possibly the months and the next year. Brother Mathis is right, when we get this building, a Jubilee is gonna break out. A Jubilee, it's gonna begin to pour. It ain't gonna begin to trickle rain. We're gonna get a good old storm in there. It's gonna pour down rain clouds. Those that might not have the Holy Ghost, you'll get it there. You'll get it there. Don't fret. Do not fret, do not stumble, do not waver. You will receive the Holy Ghost baptism if you believe in it and you stay around and where it's being preached. If you never hear of the Holy Ghost, you have a good reason why you didn't get the Holy Ghost. But if you hear of the Holy Ghost, which we preach it in this assembly, you will receive the promise. Don't think of it no more. You will receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Your mind will tell you that I'm never gonna get it. Yes, you will. If you wasn't ever gonna get it, you wouldn't be here. You would be somewhere in a dry sealed up day. You would be in a closed still house. Doing the love of the Holy Ghost.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:31

But you're not in the still house. This is not the game of hell. This isn't the game of death.

SPEAKER_07 1:42:55

This is the game of limits.

SPEAKER_05 1:42:58

It's a believers gates of hell. It's gates of death. Don't take it no further. They cannot teach you life in the gate of a sealed house where they only teach what they've been taught to teach. Well, I think I'm gonna be a mechanic. Well, I think I'll be a woman. Well, I'm gonna start my own business in me in Manhattan, Tim, and we're gonna start working on bathrooms. But this man over here says, Well, I'm gonna be a preacher.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:27

Did God call you to preach? We have something that's been called an anointed of God.

SPEAKER_05 1:43:36

I'm supposed to get a permit to work on my home. We have the permit here.

SPEAKER_07 1:43:42

Okay, we have the permit to do what we're doing.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:48

We have the good.

SPEAKER_06 1:44:34

If we had an interpreter, God just spoke. And let me tell you something that's precious. I know this is gonna sound goofy and everything else. Stand up, Tim. We have a new elder in the church.

SPEAKER_05 1:45:41

God, God is with us today. God's right in the midst of this assembly today. That is all God. That is 100% without a shadow of a doubt, God, that Brother Tim just got anointed as an elder. There was a timing. God see, there's a time, there's a timing to everything.

SPEAKER_06 1:46:03

Oh God. Don't you ever doubt that God spoke to him?

SPEAKER_05 1:46:09

Okay. Tim the church. Brother Tim, my biological brother, write that down in your Bible. I was ordained as an elder of 2012. Brother Tim, write that down. Brother Mathis has had hands laid on him. He's our deacon. Jay's an usher. There's gonna be many more in here. Not, I don't want to say many, many more, but whoever God wants to put in the ministry. God is raising up men, and there'll be more that's gonna have hands laid on them. And just think about that. I was just able to put my own hands on my own little brother and help my father ordain him. And the Lord spoke to me about a year ago and told me, it won't only be your dad, but you're gonna be standing there. And help bring bring in this ordination.

SPEAKER_07 1:46:59

This is the way God does things, not man.

SPEAKER_05 1:47:02

That's exactly right. Now I want to tell you something before I sit down. I'm gonna finish that. There's two more lines to my poem. I'm gonna finish this. Praise God for Brother Tim. Praise God for all you, brethren. Brother Matt got him up last Sunday and he gave us a wonderful uh message. Praise God. Don't you feel that, folks? You know when it's God, you can feel it. He breaks your spirit down. These are all, I look around, these are tears of joy. These are tears because you know what we're doing here is real. We're not putting our hand on this. This ain't some adulterated uh leadership. We're not putting our own spin on this. We're waiting on God. We've been called not to touch this with our own ambitions and wants. This ain't contaminated by man's principles and theologies and traditions. You know, they wasn't supposed to touch Jesus until he went back. He said, Touch me not, for I have ascended to my father. He could not have those natural hands contaminate him because he couldn't present that before his father. No man's touching this. This is totally, solely sold out. This is by God. This is this work here, this GTA leadership and church has been appointed by God. I've watched it for most of my life. I was five years old when Brother Connell started preaching. I know we got to get out of here, so I'm gonna keep this short. Praise God for Brother Tim. Hallelujah, Brother Tim. Praise God. Praise God for all you, brother.

unknown 1:48:25

Praise God.

SPEAKER_05 1:48:25

That's it. Now I want to tell you something. That was a message from the Lord right there from Sister Jessica today. It was. And we didn't, now hear me out on this. We did not have a soul English interpretator, but you can just about know what God was saying to us today. Do you get my drift? If you have spiritual ears and you have a spiritual mind, you can just about know God was He was ordaining Tim and this work. Yeah. He was saying, I don't know for English. I had a few words, but we're gonna get an English interpretator. We are gonna get messages from God. He said to you, I will speak in other tongues. We will get eventually somebody will stand to their feet and do that, and somebody else will hear it in plain English. God will raise that gift up. It's coming. But what I know what she said without knowing what she said, if you if that makes sense. God's watching this. This is very important what we're doing, and I appreciate the Lord today. And again, I want to emphasize this ain't a sealed house. This ain't canned up. This house has been orchestrated by the Lord. Let me finish this poem. Listen to my servant who treads out the core and wait on the side of the precious mighty horn. For it is the world that you must give up, for all that is out there is evil and corrupt. For all that shall lose his life in me, the same will I come to, and it is me he shall see.

SPEAKER_06 1:49:51

Oh God.

SPEAKER_05 1:49:52

Along this journey will come suffering and pain, but at the end, if you allow me eternal life, you will gain. Praise God today, folks.

SPEAKER_06 1:50:04

Praise God. Praise God. God's done something really. This is a red letter, like Brother James Soller used to say. This is a red letter service right here today. And you know, the world makes big should's over everything. I'm telling you, if you trust in your pastor, I've been praying and praying and praying about things. There's other elders in this church that God's raising up. That's right. There's other men that God's raising up in this church. And it makes no difference what your position is. We're all going to get a penny at the end of the day. Yes. Eternal life is what we're after. But I know as sure as I'm sitting here and talking to you, God spoke to me the day and he said, today is the day that the church has another elder. He said, Timothy Wayne or Timothy Isaac Connell. I believe it. I believe it. I felt it. Praise God. I felt it. Instead of making big should-dos like the world does, God's that simple. He knows the time. Tim's been going through many things over the years, and now God's got him to where he's an elder in your assembly here. Praise God.

SPEAKER_07 1:51:19

Praise the Lord. Praise God for his ways.

SPEAKER_06 1:51:25

His ways are greater than our ways. Higher than our ways. There's other men that I could pick out today that I see gifts beginning to work in their lives. I've told Jason Maley that God's given that man a special ability in his spirit. He has the ability to pray. We're going to need that kind of ability when they come in. God's got people out there that they're lame. They're sick. They need help.

SPEAKER_03 1:51:58

That's right. Amen.

SPEAKER_06 1:52:01

They need help. And so when you see me bring Brother Jason around when I'm praying, or I send him to pray by himself, that's Brother Connell right with my brother, with what God's raising up in his life. And didn't Brother Mathis do a good job? And didn't Brother Matt do a wonderful job last week? And I'm waiting on the other men that's in this church. But it makes no difference. We're all on the same bus. If you want to drive the bus, you're more than welcome. But thank you for building such a wonderful church. And I thank God for a good son. And now you got another elder in the church. Praise God. Praise God.

SPEAKER_03 1:52:51

Thank you, Lord.

SPEAKER_06 1:52:52

It's done. It's a sealed deal. It's over. Don't even question it. That's God all day, every day. That was God. I couldn't hardly contain myself. Jess is up preaching his heart out, and God spoke to me and he said, Today is a day. The church has got another elder in it. Praise God.

SPEAKER_05 1:53:15

Just like the Lord.

SPEAKER_06 1:53:16

Praise God. God bless you all. Aren't you thankful for this service today? Yes, yes. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. God bless you and good night. Praise God. Yes, Lord.