Part 5 - ''And They Sang A New Song'' - The Broken Rose

Part 5 - ''And They Sang A New Song'' - The Broken Rose mp4 Verse number seventeen is where we left off last week. Number sixteen actually. Song of Solomon chapter one and we'll pick up. We remember we left with our bed is green is where we left off and tonight we're going to pick up at verse seventeen. The beams of our house are cedar and our rafters of fire. You may be seated tonight. Thank you, father. Father, anoint your servant, the lips of the unprofitable servant. Anoint the ears of this congregation, this holy people. People unlike any other people on planet earth. Indeed, they're a strange lot, father. Indeed, we are a unique lot. Hallelujah. But we thank you that you called us to a marvelous light. And that this word is the life that we now crave. Father, we thank you that our food has become like Yahshua's. It's meat that we know not of. It's a spiritual meat. And we ask you now to tenderize this meat for us and pulverize it to where we can digest it a little bit. Let it be sweet to our mouths and bitter to our stomach. Father, as it goes in and begins to do a new work and draw us closer to your soon coming kingdom in the name of Yahshua and everyone said Amen. For those of you that have just joined us tonight, I want to recapitulate if I may for just about two minutes where we started in this series. It's important that you hear because to get where we're going to get to tonight, you sort of need to go back and remember where we started. We started in the book of Revelation. There was a group of Christians, a group of believers that were not like other Christians. They were not like other believers and they were definitely not like the world. They're known as the first harvest or the first fruits. They're known as the 144,000. They're known as the remnant. Whatever you want to call them, they're known as Israel. But whatever they are, they're different. Whatever they are, they are different. And they were known by a song they were singing. This song, Brother Shul, was nobody else. There was millions of people before the throne. But none of those people, saved people could sing this song that this little strange group was singing. Amen. And we learned that a song is an expression of where we are, our life experiences. We learned that when a songwriter sits down to write a song, they are normally writing from the moment that they are experiencing. So your song, Sister Holly, is your life experience. When you die, everyone in this room, you'll preach my funeral. I'll preach yours. We're all going to be going by the way of the grave. When they close our casket, that will be the end of the song. Your whole life has been a song. You've been writing a song and some of those verses are probably not very good. Amen. Probably sound like a Dolly Parton song if we sung your song. Hallelujah. A coat of many colors. Every one of you, your life is a song. It's a song that is a song of what you have experienced in this life and how that song has either drawn you closer to your heavenly Father or farther away from Him. You're writing a song, Brother Shul. And right now, at your age in life, you're on verse 2 now. But as we go along, we're learning a new song. Now, there's a group of people that Yahweh has called you out to personally teach you a new song. And it's his song. It's the song that his son sang here on earth. It's the song that the firstborn son had to learn. The Bible said the firstborn son of Yahweh learned obedience by the things he suffered. His song at the end of his life was this. The song of surrender. Sister Holly, he was the only man in the history of the world that ever got that song right. He's the only one that got the song of songs right. The song of surrender. He learned every verse. He learned the melody. He experienced the pain of that surrender. He became the song and the song became him. Now, Brother Von, if I want to sing that song, where do I find it? It is the song of all songs. Or in other words, the life of all lives. The existence of all existences. The lifestyle of all lifestyles. It is the ultimate song. It's the ultimate life. It's the ultimate dedication. It's the ultimate surrender. And Sister Callie, everyone, the Bible said in the book of Revelation, no man could sing that song except this group of people. No man. You see it, Brother? See, some people have ears to hear what the spirit is saying. No man, Shane Stool cannot sing this song. Rick Connolly can't sing this song. Shane Von cannot sing this song. But if that same spirit that was in Christ, also dwells in you, then you're parakeet. That song. You'll be a parrot. You'll be a part of the choir. That song that will flow out of your life of surrender like it flowed out of his. So all of these years, now that I've recapitulated and caught you back up, all of these years you've read your Bible, and you've read every book of it, but you always skipped over that little song of Solomon. Amen. It just didn't quite make no sense to you. Little weird book. Almost as weird as Enoch. Weird little book. Strange. And you wonder why God even put it in the Bible. It really don't affect my life. It's a love story. It's a poem. It's just a song. But that's your mistake. It's not just a song. It's a song of all songs. And the Father hid it away because he wanted you that's called to sing the song to find the song. Hallelujah. That's why others skip over it, and we're taking it verse by verse. Because there is somebody in that song of Solomon that already sang the song. All you gotta do is read the lyrics and listen to the melody and live the song and sing it yourself. And you will sing a song that the angels cannot sing. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Now, when we pick up in verse 17, the beams of our house are cedar. The beams of our house. So as I'm reading that today, asking the Holy Spirit for the inspiration of the verse, the first thing that popped out to me was our house. Yes, our house. Let me explain something to you. When you are in a covenant of marriage, your house became our house. My house became our house. Those that do not stay in the house have not learned the song of songs. I want you to hear me now. Why? Because what's the first thing we wanna do when we have quarrels in the house? Am I gonna preach to myself a moment if I'm gonna preach? Do y'all know what my wife did when we first married? She took all my suitcases and threw them in the garbage cuz I was always packing one up every few weeks ready to do cuz we was fighting. Not fighting, but you know, you understand. And I go throw my clothes in the suitcase. I come home one day. What? No suitcases. Nowhere in the house. You know why? Cuz I spent my life running. The power gets hot. Run. But when you learn this new song, stay in our house. Stay in our house. My wife said you leave but you leave them with no clothes, no toothbrush. You leave them with no mouthwash. Go on out there. Your stuff staying in our house. Yeah, you know why? Because when you learn to quit running away from the house of your way, when times get hard, you will learn this new song. Y'all always brides gotta quit trying to move out of the house. When times get difficult, they don't like what the preacher say and they don't like what somebody did to them. But there will come a day when now until when you learn this new song, if you're still singing the church song, you go out when you get mad at somebody. But when you learn the new song, his house becomes our house. Now, that's if you're in a covenant of marriage. Now, you just stopped over for a one night stand. You just came in so your children would have a good program to go to or you came in so you can hear the prophet prophesied or you came in for a blessing that it's not our house. But when you say I don't care if times get hard, I don't care if the lights get turned off. I don't care if we run out of money. This is our house. I don't care who I don't like or who don't like me. This is our house. The house of Yahweh is our covenant house. You can't sing this new song if leaving is an option. There must come a place in your walk with God that you say in your mind, I don't care who offends me. I don't care who don't even like me. I don't care who I don't like. I'm in a covenant with Yahweh. This is our house. All through the Bible, the temple of the Lord was referred to as his house. I wish everybody was here to hear this sermon tonight. It was always referred to as his house. My temple, my house. But Elder Morgan, grab a mic and read where it changes. I want y'all to hear this scripture. You know why it was his house? Because he didn't trust a woman enough to move her in. He was doing the whore test on her. You hear me? He was seeing why she was there. Let me tell you something. If you're in a marriage as long as it's good, you won't be in it very long. As long as everything's good, you might as well go ahead because it ain't always going to be good. Let me tell you something. Yahweh's church ain't always going to be easy for you to come to. There's going to be tests. There's going to be people that get up on your nerves. There's going to be things I say you don't like. There's going to be things you say I don't like. But there's a problem. It's our house. And I'm not leaving. You're not leaving. So we might as well find a way to make this thing work. It's our house. This is our house. This is our ministry. This is our calling. Punch your feet. Punch your feet. God said in his word, My house. But there's going to come a day when my house is our house. Oh, hallelujah. And do you know who that's going to be? That's going to be a wife, not a prostitute. That's going to be a bride, not a whore. That's going to be a committed covenant believer. Oh. Whenever you come into a ministry, you come into a covenant with that ministry. When we ask you to be partners in ministry, now not the locals, but the nationals, your partners because you're here. But a partner and minister, we've never asked you for a dime. We'd ask you for a covenant. If you always called you here, get in here. Join us in a covenant. Let's do a blood covenant with one another, not literally for those haters that are watching spiritually. We come in this place. We make a covenant that it's our house. And I want you to hear me. If all it takes to get rid of you is an offense. Satan's got one ready for you. Okay. Let me tell you something. The woman I married, it takes more than an offense. It takes more than a disagreement. It takes more. It just does. Because darling, when we got married, she almost put a lock on the back door. Ain't no out. There's no out. I'm in. It's a covenant. When we marry, she knew I'd spent my life as an orphan. Running from here to there when we married. She said, you're running stops right now. This is our house. She said, there's gonna be days you don't like me and I don't like you. When we don't like one another, go to bed, wake up tomorrow and we'll like each other again. Gonna be days I'm not dressed up and I don't look like I do right now. There's gonna be days with it, but I promise you one thing. I'll be here for you when you have nobody left. This is our house. The only people that can leave is those that were never there. Listen to me, ladies and gentlemen, that have moved here from across the nation and that are on your way right now. Anything worth fighting for is worth fighting for. And this house is worth the fight. He said, our house. Now, all through the Bible, it was his house. But read for me Revelation 22 and 17, Elder. Up until this point, it was his house. Up until this point, it was Yahweh's house. But read for me Revelation 22 and 17. And the spirit and the bride say, Come, and let him that here say, Come, and let him that a thirst come, and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely. But notice what the verse said. At one time, it was Yahweh saying, Come to my house. But not anymore. Now, it's the mister and the mischievous telling the world, Come to our house. Because before we can invite the world to our house, it's got to be settled by a wife and a husband, by a covenant. Before you bring a baby into the world, get your house right. The spirit and the bride say, Come to our house. You know why? You're safe here. We're not going nowhere. You're safe here. We're solid as a rock. One thing you can know about this ministry right here, whenever every enemy of hell is through fighting and they're about done. When everybody, we're still going to be with the lights on. Do you hear me? We're not going nowhere. This is our house. It was built by the father and the mother of this church. This is our house. No matter what you do, we're going to be here with the lights on. Every Friday night, may not be nobody but me and Maxine, mom and daddy, but we're going to be here. We're in a covenant with this house. You've got to learn what covenant means. How are we going to grow a family if we don't expect family problems? You think everybody moving in here is going to be right? You think everybody coming here is going to be right? But I think we can get them right. If we'll just have a house ready for them. Hallelujah. God said in his word to his, when you learn this new song, you got to become committed to the house, the Lord's house. The work of Yahweh is going forth. Now notice what he said about, or what she said about that house. She's talking to him. The beams of our house are what? What are the beams of a house? They're the support. The structure. Y'all see that roof up there? That's called the crown of this building. The crown will fall. Without the beams. Being right. You put it in the water. I want you to hear me now. The cedars is what we have to build the structure of our house with God out of. Now she's talking to the bridegroom. She says our house, I've been building it. With cedar. Now the house without the roof, the roof will be our eternal glory. But I want you to hear me. The roof is our salvation when we finally get it. That roof is coming. But not until there is a house made out of cedar. Now it's not Yahweh's job and he's not going to build the house. Your life is a house. This ministry is a house. But if you will build the cedars, he'll build the roof. There's two things he'll build. The roof, the foundation. He said I'll root it. I'll lay the foundation of salvation but I'm not going to root it. I'm not going to build the beams. You've got to build the beams. Why? That's the purpose of your salvation. That's the purpose of the foundation. The foundation is there for a house to be built on it. It's not there for you to sing I'm saved because you've got a foundation. He said we build our house out of cedar. Now I really wanted to know the meaning of cedar and of course I realized there's a lot of things out there but I was looking for a Bible answer and I found it. But to find the meaning of cedar, you've got to look beyond the pashat level. What's the pashat level? The literal letter. As I was reading the pashat level, cedar, then I heard the Ramesh, I heard a hint. And now, you and I, we're going to do the Drash level where we research this thing because we've got a hint. I knew this cedar had to mean something because all of Yahweh's word is hidden with beautiful meanings. Now I found the answer, you don't have to read it tonight, but when you get home, the book of Numbers chapter 19. Now when you get to the book of Numbers chapter 19, you're going to find an interesting story in the Torah. Listen to me well, you can never understand your Bible without the Torah, ever. Everything you interpret will be wrong without Torah. So I went to the Torah and I found in Numbers chapter 19 something called the waters of separation or the waters of purification. Here's how the story goes. In the days of Torah, if you touched a dead body or if you became unclean, if you laid with your wife during her cycle, anything you did that made you unclean before Yahweh, you had to be put outside of the congregation. I told you I believe in Torah. You had to be put out of the church. Once you had touched something that brought infection into the church, they put you outside the church. See people that don't believe in doing that, you don't know Torahs why you don't believe in it. But whenever you brought infection in the congregation, you had to be put out. And then you had to go through a ritual called the waters of separation or the waters of purification. And the way it worked was real simple. You would find a red heifer, a perfect red heifer. And you would take this red heifer cow and you would slaughter that cow. You would take that cow's blood after you drained the blood and sprinkle it seven times towards the temple, his house. Not our house yet, his house. And you'd throw that blood that way and then you would take the rest of the animal. All the innards, all the skin, all the bones, all the rest of that large red heifer and you would burn it. Now while you were burning it, it could only be burned with a certain type of wood, cedar wood. Because cedar is the symbol of purification and separation. It's not like other trees. It is a holy tree under Yahweh. And they would take that red heifer and burn it and throw cedar wood in there until there was nothing left but ashes. What would they do with the ashes? They would take the ashes, put it in a clean vessel, and they would seal it, all these ashes, and they would set it outside the camp. Now when you had become infected and you had to go outside the camp, they would take you and find running water. Not stagnant water. It had to be a river. It had to be a running stream of water. And what they would do is they would take that water that was running and they would take the ashes and they would pour the ashes of separation and pour the water over the ashes and then the water over your head. And as that water went down you, the cedar that was in that water would separate you and clean you and make you pure. It's called the waters of separation. Now I want to show you something. When the Lord showed me that today, He said, notice it has to be running water. And then He said, the way the man of the Lord talked back and forth, it's a little bit really funny, He said to me, what does water represent? And I said, the word. He said, exactly. Now this is when it got deep. He said, what would have happened if they would have mixed the ashes with steel water? But it's the word. It's not a fresh revelation. Christians that say, I'm in the word, it's killing you more than it's helping you. It's dead water. If you've never been to a stagnant pond, you want to see filth? Do you want to see algae? Do you want to see bacteria? Do you want to see filth? It's when you get a bunch of old preaching that's not for your day. And try to take a bath in it and try to say, I'm in the word, but is there a word in you? A fresh revelation for your day, not their day, not yesterday, but every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of Yahweh. For the one I go where they preach the word, I know it's the word, but is it the word? Is it a word from a hundred years ago from a religion that is dead and gone? Or is it a right now revelation of this hour, this moment, this minute that you're living in? You don't need water. You need living water. Until you can go to a ministry where every service you leave saying, where did that come from? You're not under living water. If every service you go to, you already know before you get there, you're going to hear God's getting ready to bless you. And God said, God's getting ready. I wonder why God's always getting ready. But you know what? If you're swimming around in dead water, you think that's water. You think that's a word. You think that's revival just because it's got the name as very on it. See, let me explain something to you. You got to have separate water. You got a pool of water. You got a little word. It's wet, but it's full of mixture. It's dead water. I don't want to baptize nobody else in dead water up here. I want you all to pull the plug while I baptize. So it's running out. I don't think you're supposed to baptize people in dead water. Turn it on. Let it be running while I'm doing it. Do something. Get it alive in there. Trouble the water. Trouble it. Do something. Why? Because let me tell you, that's why the Bible said that the letter kill us. That's the word, but it'll kill you. Brother Von, you mean the word to kill me? If it's not the word for your day, it is word for another day. And you eat it. You cannot live in the present day. He said, go get running water. And I want you to take this cedar ash. And I want you to mix them together now. And I'm going to use that mixture to separate you and make you pure again. I'm going to take those three elements and I'm going to separate you and purify you with cedar. And when I do that, there's going to be three elements. Brother Von, I've been memorizing the word, but if you're not mesmerized by today's word, memorizing yesterday's word ain't going to help you at all. You know, that's why I've just never been too, I've never been too much into. I mean, I'm not against memorizing Scripture. That's wonderful. But if you're not mesmerized by Scripture, mesmerized by it, to where when you hear it preach, you're like, my God, I see that. There's something alive in that word. I had a family. I don't know if I can find the text. Send it to me today from a big Pentecostal church somewhere off yonder. Y'all would know them if I called their name. And they said, Pastor Von, we've been with you from the beginning. He said, when we heard the word, we don't even know how we knew it was truth because it went against everything we believed. But we knew it was truth. We just knew it. That's the fresh revelation of the word of God. The Bible doesn't say man shall not live by bread alone. And it doesn't say he shall live off the word. But by every word that proceed death, that keeps coming out of the mouth of your way, you must have fresh revelation or you will die in this day. Brother Von, I got loved ones. They know the Bible from front to back. I know they do. They're in a dead pond. Say it again. But they know the word. Front to backwards. They know it. But they're in a dead pond. The Bible said the word, the letter, will kill you. But when you get under the spout where the revelations coming out, it will give you life in this hour that you're living in. Now, notice the three elements of the water of separation. It had to be blood, fire, and water. Without these, you can't be separated. I'm going to say it again. You had to have blood from that red heifer. But then you had to go to the upper room and get a little fire. Then you had to get the waters of baptism. When you bring those three elements together, you're separated. You're separated unto God. You've got to have the blood, you've got to have water, and you've also got to have fire. But let me talk to you about that fire now. If you're not careful, you'll think that fire is just to get you to shout. But the Bible talked about the baptism of fire. It said he would have a fan in his hand, and he would burn up the threshing floor. I want you to hear me. If you've truly got the fire of God in your life, every day it is burning up. Your threshing floor, everything that shouldn't be in your life, is getting burned up. Everything that's wrong is getting burned up. Do you know why I say it a million times? Nobody hears me when I say it, but I'm going to say it again. When I've got this microphone, I have no friends. Do you know what I mean by that? There is a fire that has to come out of my mouth. And it's got to burn you up, you up, me up. It's got to burn that threshing floor. When you're burning up the forest, you're burning up the straw. Anything in your life that can burn, it's going to burn. Otherwise, you can't be separated, and you cannot tell your bridegroom, our house is built with cedar. If you've not allowed the fire, if you've not allowed the cedar wood, then you can't tell him, beloved, our house I've been preparing for you to move into. And it's built with cedar. It's built with separation. It's built with holiness. It's built with purification. I'm building you a house, sir. I'm building you a house, sir, that you'll make your abode with me. And this will be our house. And ladies and gentlemen, once you've built the beams of purification, then he will crown it with holiness. He will crown it with eternal life. He will crown it with the crown of life. Now let's go to the next verse. I want to read you something, and I want everyone to listen carefully. Now he talks back to her, and what does he say? I'm the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley. Now why does he tell her that after she talks about a house of cedar? Because he wants her to know, you really want me in your house. Because I'm the rose of Sharon, and I'm the lily of the valley. The rose is a symbol of beauty, perfection, elegance, fragrance, romance, and love. The rose. It's the queen of all the flowers. You know why? It's a perennial. You can't kill it. Winter don't kill a rose. Twenty degrees don't kill a rose. It kills all those little offensive flowers. All them little dany flowers. All you little petunias, and all you little... They can't survive. Yeah, but the rose of Sharon will be back next year. The rose of Sharon will be back after the winter's gone. He said, I'm the rose of Sharon. He said, I am the queen of all the flowers. It comes back year after year. Now why does he call himself the rose of Sharon? Because what he's doing here, he is telling his wife. My nature, who I am as a person, the hidden part of me is the rose of Sharon. The rose is being used to demonstrate the nature of the bridegroom. Now why would a man call himself a rose? A rose is a feminine characteristic. Because there better not be a man here that don't have a rose inside of you. He's telling her, my nature. Now on the outside, I'm a tree. But inwardly, I'm a rose. And he said, I want you to know it's just like a man that dates a woman. On the first date, he walks around like Shane Shul. Rough and tough. Like Brother Kent, wearing short sleeves to show them muscles off to the world. I'll take one of them for a dollar. Hallelujah. But let me tell you, all these men, once you fall in love, you'll start exposing your rose, your affection, your tenderness. You'll expose it to who? In a secret place. To your bride. He always says, if you're coming to my secret place, I'll take off my warrior's clothes and I'll show you the rose. Who I am deep inside. He says, I know to the world I'm coming with a vesture dipped in blood. I know I'm coming with a sword in my mouth. But there is a group of people that's going to bypass the sword. And they're going to find the rose. You got to know him. Ask the rose of Sharon. Why does he want you to know him as the rose? Why? Because a rose is only revealed. The nature of a rose. What is the nature of a rose? It's only revealed when it's crushed. You'll never get the fragrance of a rose. In a perfume. Until you crush it. Only when you take it off the stem and rub it on your fingers. When you get that fragrance on you. Only when you take the petals and put them on the bed sheets. When you love or enjoy the fragrance of the rose. The nature of a rose is only revealed when it's crushed. When it's crushed you find its inner beauty. Crushing always reveals the nature of a thing. Take the lid off a sour milk. And you'll find the nature. Hiding in that beautiful jug. I want you to hear me. Every one of you in this room tonight has a nature. And we'll all see it when the lid comes off. I want you to hear me now. I want you to hear me close. That jug of milk sitting right there with all the rest of the milk looking just like the rest of the church. But if you ever do something to cause that lid to blow. You'll find out what's inside. Now as long as you keep the lid on you. But you see the rose is waiting for you to crush it. Because it has nothing to hide. Its best part comes out when it's crushed. It was born to be crushed. And more people that are born to be crushed. We shine when we hurt. I am the rose of Sharon. It was this rose that released its sweetest fragrance. On Mount Calvary. When they crushed his bones. When they crushed his pride. When they offended him. I'm sorry they didn't have the power to offend him. But when they attacked him. Did you hear what I just said? The only way you can be offended is if you can be offended. I want you to hear me now. The only way you can be hurt is if you can be hurt. Roses don't get hurt. They get released. It was your attack on me. That showed you my nature. It showed you what was inside of me. They broke the rose on Mount Calvary. They broke the rose by the bacon on Calvary. And if you'll go read Luke twenty two you'll find out when they broke the rose. Here's what flowed forth till everybody read it. Everybody read what flowed forth Luke chapter twenty two verse twenty three and verse thirty four. Now watch as they take this beautiful rose of Sharon. Read from a Luke twenty three and thirty four and they crushed the rose. Here's what come out of it. Then said Yahshua. Father forgive them for they know not what they do. That's what comes out of a rose. Did anybody hear me? Whatever's been hiding in there comes out in the crushing. When they broke that rose on Calvary he could have screamed Father kill them all. Do you know what he said? He said do you not know? I could call ten thousand legions of angels. Do you not know my power? But I'm going to sacrifice my power for my fragrance. Father forgive them. They don't know what they do. You listen to me and you listen well until you can release that fragrance. You are a joke. I'm going to tell all of you something. The biggest scam in the world is the cover of Christianity. I want you to hear me before you say amen because you may not say it when I get done. If you dare call yourself a Christian. And you cannot forgive you're a fraud. You're a scam artist. You got a mask on worse than Mardi Gras. I want you to hear me. I tried listen to me. I tried six months ago to be an example of this church of how you release the fragrance of forgiveness when everybody attacks you. I tried to be your example when they were blistering me all over people's inboxes and all over Facebook. I tried to be your example. Father forgive them. They don't even know what they're doing. Your fragrance comes out when your life is crushed. You're going to answer to God for not forgiving people. And Sister Callie the only way it counts is that they don't deserve forgiveness. It only counts if they don't deserve it. He didn't say father forgive them because maybe they know. They're killing me. He said I know but they they don't know what they do. They don't know what spirits operate through them. See y'all wanted to learn a new song didn't you but I don't think you do because this is part of it. I want you to hear me. You hear me well until you can release the same fragrance of forgiveness. You are not a Christian. You are a churchgoer and there is two big differences in those two. Sister Maxine I forgive you in advance. You hear me. I forgive you in advance. Because I know you're going to say something I don't like one day. And you're already forgiven. Did you know that. Not one. I mean what I. I've got family members that are forgiven every day. Before I wake up they're already forgiven. God's trying to introduce you to the rose of Sharon. I just hope we're not building a faith church. See that's my fear. I fail whenever we don't forgive one another. God's calling you to release forgiveness tonight. On one another. Otherwise mama and daddy will just sell the building. We don't love one another. What are we doing. If there's one person in this church who can't talk to another. You're a fake. You're a fraud. Cali get it right. To me to get it right. With whoever you've got to get it right with Pat. Just get it right. And you know how you do it. Not by waiting for them to forgive you. You just go ahead forgive them. And it's over. Hallelujah. I want to sing a new song. Song of songs. I want to learn this song. I want to learn how to be beautifully broken in all the right places. So that the master can repair it. He said I'm the rose of Sharon. And I want you to smell like me. I was at my grandmother's Monday. And she's getting ready to leave this world. And I thought about my grandmother. And I said my life was so affected by her. And I began to think back over our life my life and her life. And I remembered something sister Judy. That will live with me forever. I used to live in her home. And when you live in people's home you can smell their fragrance. All that. I lived with her. I know Karen tells me about brother and sister Kendrick and I believe she tells me out of her whole life of living with them. She never heard daddy raise his voice one time to his wife. Oh I want to smell like that. I want to smell like that I'm not quite there yet but I want to smell like that. That's my wife's testimony is that right honey. Is that what you told me. Give me an amen over there. Okay. That's because I don't want to say nothing wrong. I want you to hear me now. My grandmother when I was a little boy somebody would say sister Gatlin somebody said something about you and they would come telling her what people said. And I'll never forget what my precious grandmother would say. She would always say these words. She would say well honey. They must believe that somebody must have told them that they just believe it. Never wonder who told them that. Never. Well I'll set this straight right now. She would and she meant it. Somebody must have told them that. They believe what they were told. I watched her my whole life never say one ill word against anybody. That's my testimony from living with her. I smelled her fragrance every day. Oh and her phrase you drive me crazy five o'clock in the morning praying downstairs and I have to be woke up every morning. Like my God why'd you can't pray at eight o'clock. Why five in the morning. And I know now she didn't do that kind of praying we do. It was that. I'm like oh Lord have mercy. I was smelling her fragrance. Your life has a fragrance. It stinks or it smells like a rose. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Do you know what a rose does. It gives hope. In a dark ugly stinking world. Pick a rose. And smell it. All of a sudden it takes you away to a better world. It makes you think maybe there's something good left in the world with the smell of a rose. It gives you hope. Do you know why people commit suicide. No hope. Because they've never smelled our sweet rose that we've smelled when we walked in the garden alone while the dew was still on the roses. They've never meandered through the garden like you have in prayer when you smell that sweet fragrance of hope. Listen brothers and sisters. Breathe deeply his fragrance. Breathe it deeply. His fragrance will keep you in his love. And I'll tell you where you can smell that fragrance. Sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer. That's where you smell it. Prayer. Listen some people are scared to pray because they don't know what to say. They're going to say nothing. Just lay down in the garden. Just get in the garden. And just start sniffing. And smell his presence. I'm going to try to close in a moment. He goes on and says I'm the lily of the valley. Why did he call himself that. Because he wants you to know when you get in the valley. My fragrance will be down there too. In the low places of your life where hope is needed most. I'll be there too. Now let's read verse two of Psalms chapter two I'm trying my best to hurry tonight. What did he just call himself the lily of the valley. Now he's talking to you tonight. He says as the lily among thorns. So is my love among the daughters. I find that interesting. Once he found out she had built him a house made out of cedar. And was literally absorbing his fragrance. Once he found out he begins to commend her on the song that she is learning. The song of surrender as she's absorbing his very likeness. Watch this. In the previous verse he said I am the lily of the valley. And in the next verse he says my daughter you're a lily among thorns. I thought he was the lily. Does anybody see what's happening here. He said I'm well pleased with you. Because you're starting to smell a little bit like I smell. I see that I'm the lily. And now look at you. You're wearing no bra patch. But you're turning into the same lily that I am. He said in that verse that my nature. I'm seeing my nature. And a daughter. But I love what he said. He said among all the daughters among all the church people. Because they're all daughters. But you're my fair one. You're the they're still daughters you're turning into a lily. They're still Christians. You're turning into an Israelite. They're still Babylon. You're turning into the rose of Sharon. Your very self. Come on now. He says I looked among the daughters. Verse two I love that. My love among the daughters. That means he told about sinners because that's not his daughters. This church folk. But there is a fair one. There is a bride in the body. There is a hundred fold in the whole tabernacle. And he says in that version you're turning into what I am. He just said I'm the lily. But I love what he said. Among the thorns. He's calling the other daughters. They're growing up in the same church. Keeping the same Sabbath day. But always picking at something. Poking. Hurting people. Being a thorn. Always pointing a thorns always point you. Always pointing at what somebody else is doing. Always making making life miserable. But not that little lily. She's just putting off the fragrance of forgiveness before anybody even needs it. Hallelujah. She can't be offended. She can't be hurt because she's so much like him. You can't tell the difference in the two. The song of surrender. She's willing to surrender her own feelings. I want you to hear me. You're looking at a pastor that has no more feelings. I mean it. I love everybody. And I love you when you don't like me. Because I truly believe one day, elder, if the Lord doesn't return, y'all gonna put a lid on my casket. And I don't want to stand before God as a fraud. I've been down that road. I don't want to be that fraud. I want to love like he loves. Smell like he spends. I want to be a lily among the thorns of this old world. This world is mean. This world is mean. Don't let the church be mean. The world's mean enough. This ought to be our resting place. Lily among thorns. Why is it the lily in the valley? Listen, you're becoming misrous, lily of the valley. You're becoming misrous, Yahshua. Misrous, obedient. Misrous, crucified one. Misrous, crushed rose. The problem is you didn't know that's what you signed up for. You signed up because you thought you'd found a sugar daddy. You thought you could pray and he'd answer all your prayers. You didn't know he wanted something back. You didn't know salvation was free but sanctification wasn't. Whoo. Hallelujah. I've got a hurry so I can get you out of here now. You will know that the lily has been formed in you by the fragrance you release when you get pricked by the thorn. I won't, I'm gonna say it one more time. You'll know that you've turned into a lily when that thorn pokes you. What is it released from you? That's when you know you've become a lily when you get poked by the thorn. When someone pricks you in a dark place, does the fragrance of humility flow forth from you? Or does this flow forth? Who do you think you, listen, who do you think you are? You're supposed to be a lily. Just don't be a lily loo but you can be a lily. Just be a lily. Hallelujah. Just be a lily, a good little lily. It's worth any price for him to call you a lily among thorns. Now I'm gonna close with this. Let's go to 1 Corinthians 6. I wanna read you something before we go tonight. As you learn this new song, I'm gonna read you a part of that song you may not like. Whoo, this Bible is something, let me tell you. Right when you think you was right where you needed to be. It's time for church again. Whoo, and that sword comes out. And it doesn't kill us, it just divides the bone and the mouth. Let's read 1 Corinthians 6, 1 through 7. Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust and not before the saints. Now here's what Paul says. He says, hold on a minute, what do you mean in my church? Y'all taking one another to court instead of taking it before the church. Verse 2, do you not know that the saints are soon going to judge the whole world? Now how are we supposed to do that if we're not supposed to judge? We ain't supposed to judge nobody. My Bible says it's different. My Bible says we're gonna judge the whole world. Do you know how you're gonna judge them? By the life you've lived. By the fragrance you've released. Listen what he said, and if the world is going to be judged by the saints, then why is the congregation not able to judge the smallest matters among you? Know ye not that you're even going to judge the angels? Did y'all know what your job is going to be, to judge? To call one another into meetings and find the truth? That's what judgment does? When someone is offended, you bring them before the whole church, the church is supposed to judge it? Did y'all know that? Nobody does it because nobody's a Bible-keeping church. This is Babylon, they don't believe in all this. They believe in love and one another, in spite of their sin. But he said, Paul said here in verse number 3, know ye not you're going to judge the angels? How much more the things in this life should you be judging? Verse 4, if then you have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. Verse 5, shame on you. Paul said to the church, to this church, he ain't talking. Paul is talking to the first harvest church right now. This word's alive. He says shame on this church. Is it true what I'm hearing? That there's not a wise man in the whole church? That you're all while you're having church? Is no one able to judge between two brothers that are arguing? Is no one able to call a meeting? Is no one able to judge and say, this is right? That's wrong? He said shame on you, you're not a real church. You're a fraud. Now, I read all that to read my favorite part. Brothers, verse 6, go to law with brothers, and they go before the unbelievers. Listen to verse 7. Now therefore, there is a fault among you, because you go outside the church to handle your problems. Now, this is the part of the verse that's going to get you in me too. Why don't you just take the wrong? Because you want to be vindicated. Your pride wants to be said, you're right. But Paul said, if you want to solve the problem, take the wrong. Just take it. Be crushed like a rose, and give God the glory for it. Pastor, they were wrong. Take it. I want to be heard. We want to talk about it. But Paul said, they did your wrong. He said, we could resolve the whole thing. He doesn't got to go to court. We didn't got to go. We didn't got to have a meeting. Just take the wrong. And release the fragrance of forgiveness, and the whole thing, the whole church is at peace again. But you can only do that if you're a rose, or a lily. A thorn can't do that. I want you to hear me tonight. We're singing a new song. When First Harvest Ministries has grown beyond this building. And we're on that 30 acres of land with that beautiful tavern. And if I'm dead and gone, I want you to remember this sermon. I want you to put it in a book. You better grow up and learn to take the wrong, or you'll leave the house every time. Amen. We have been done wrong so many times. Crushed, walked on. And I've told my wife, let's just let it go. If you need to be vindicated, then you're not a rose, yeah. Yahshua wasn't vindicated. They stripped him naked, humiliated, and went to his grave with everybody believing that he was wrong. But when he got up, I said when he got up, everybody knew he was right. Your day will come when everybody will know you were right. But wait for that day and let it go. God's calling me and you tonight to be a rose among the thorns. I'm not going to continue. Brother Nash, if you're my wife, somebody, if you'd come, there's so much more I want to talk to you about tonight. I want to talk about that apple tree so bad in that next verse, but time is gone. Tonight, I'm pleading with this congregation, the national church, the local church. Make up your mind. This is our house. It's not my house. This is our house. This is not Bishop Kendrick's house. This is our house. And there's going to come times, just like marriage, where you're looking for the door. But if you'll wait it out, if you'll just, you'll wind up back in the love nest together before it's over. Be a rose. Let God crush you. Sometimes he uses people to do that, and it don't feel good. It hurts. Whenever you lose your desire to be right, that's when you'll be right. That's all staying tonight. Life is true. To me. Life is true. Only life at all. Only life at all. To me. Life is true. Only life's true. Only life. But the homework took away. Only us. Only us. The truth I am. Would you sing back tonight? To me. Your shoe up. To be like him. To be like him. Would you let the Holy Spirit work in your life right now? Would you let this message work in your heart tonight? Would you let this world work you to do my best? He's the lily of the valley, the bridal morning star. He's the parish of ten thousand crew, my soul. He's the wittled rose of children, he said. Would you let this world work you to do my best? Would you let this world work you to do my best? He's the lily, he's the lily of the valley, the bridal morning star. He's the parish of ten thousand crew, my soul. He's the wittled rose of children, he said. Oh, my, my, my, my. He's the beautiful rose of share life. He's all I'm bringing. Oh, yes, he's my, my, my, my, my, my. The next symbol, he's my coming King. I'll create sunshine for all, I'll work the pain that you are, I'll be ready to do Whatever it takes to be more like you, that's what I'll be ready to do I'll drink, I'll drink sunshine for all, I'll work the pain that you are, I'll be ready to do Whatever it takes to be more like you, that's what I'll be ready to do Let's sing that own song, if I'm not the right key I'll let you leave it, he's still working on me He's still working on me, to make me what I want to be It took him just a week, it took him just a week to make the moon and the sun The sun and the earth, the sun and the earth, and you've returned mine I love him, I love being a patient for the university He's still working, cause he's still working on me He's still working on me, to make me what I want to be He's still working on me, to make me what I want to be It took him just a week, to make the moon and the sun The sun and the earth, the sun and the earth, and you've returned mine I love him, I love being a patient, he must be He's still working, he's still working on me Dear God's word, he's the reflection that I see Makes me wonder why he never gave up on me or not But he loves me just as I am for us He's still working on me, to make me, to make me what I want to be It took him just a week, to make the moon and the sun