<TITLE>05. Par 19-22</TITLE>L-19 I might say this. If there was one thing that I find in Pentecostal people that makes me believe that they are certainly outstanding Christians, is not because of their speaking with tongues, or the signs of the Divine healing; it's the joy that they have. They just have no embarrassment. They just let down their hair and start to rejoicing, because they've got something they're not ashamed of. That makes me believe that there's something outstanding about them. They're not ashamed. They'd just as soon shout out there in the street as they would here in the church. And if a hundred people are laughing at them, that wouldn't stop them a bit. They'd continue on shouting--joy.
Find them on the mission fields starved to death almost. I've seen them with no shoes on their feet, living off of about thirty cents a week, preaching the Gospel, brother, just as happy as you are coming to church in a limousine. They are happy, for they've found something that means more than creed, or denomination, or--or church affiliation. They found what it takes to bring joy. And a Christian should be happy. We were prayed for, that our joys might be full. It's something about it that's real.

L-20 Now, if we've lost that joy, if we've lost those things, and we can't find them among our kindreds, we can't find them, then there's one thing to do, is go back where we left Him at. The Church should go back to the beginning where they left Him. And that's exactly what Mary and Joseph did. They left Jesus at the feast of Pentecost. That's where Mary and Joseph left Jesus.
Now, I say this to all due consideration and respects. That's where both Catholic and Protestant left Jesus--at the feast of Pentecost. You can't find Him searching around here through creeds and denominations. The denominations and creeds and all should go back to the beginning.

L-21 When Jesus was on earth, He said, "I am the Vine; ye are the branches." And when a vine comes forth, the branches come out of the vine. And the first branch comes up. The second branch looks just like the first one. The third branch looks like the first one. And on to the end of the vine, every branch looks the same. One don't come up with grapevine leaves, and the other with paw-paw leaves, another with oak leaves, and another with palm leaves. If it starts with a grape leaf, it ends with a grape leaf.
And if the first church was a product of that Vine, Jesus Christ, and wrote a book of Acts out of it, the second branch will have to be the same thing, or it's been grafted into something that has a different life.

L-22 "I am the Vine; ye are the branches." If the first branch brought forth joy, love, loyalty, the gifts of the Spirit, casting out evil spirits, water baptism by immersing... And if we today find that not all into the church, the church is not getting its life from that Vine. For church today... We Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals, and whatmore, if our church, they cannot write a book of Acts behind this church, then it's in the wrong vine. There's something wrong with it.
If Jesus was on earth today, and I'd walk up to Him and say, "Lord Jesus, I go to a church that doesn't believe in Divine healing." He would say, "It wasn't so from the beginning."
If I went to Jesus and said, "Lord, my church does not believe in speaking with other tongues." He'd say, "It wasn't so from the beginning."
If I went to the Lord Jesus and said, "I been sprinkled, and my church says it's all right. My pastor says, 'If I sprinkle you with water, it's just as good as immersing in water.'" Jesus would answer, "It wasn't so from the beginning."
If I walked to Jesus and said, "I shook hands and took the right hand of fellowship from the church; I believe that I've been borned again." Jesus would say, "It wasn't so from the beginning." It's true.
We've got to go back to the beginning. Where did the church leave Jesus? At Pentecost. There's where the churches will have to go back to find Him, back to Pentecost.


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