Seth, A Legacy of Faith

April 12, 2026

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
For an extraordinary God.
The hidden servants, the hiddenfigures of the faith.
That's really what I should havetitled.
Amen.
But we'll go with ordinary faithfor extraordinary God.
Faithfulness in the shadows.
That's what we want to lift up.
And so our meditation text comesfrom 1 Peter chapter 4, verse
10.
It's the New Living Translation.

(00:23):
I like that translation on thisone.
So if we can read this together,let us read.
God has given each of you a giftfrom his great variety of
spiritual gifts.
Use them well to serve oneanother.
Amen.

(00:45):
One another.
Amen.
Alrighty.
And our main text comes fromGenesis chapter 4, verse 25
through 26.
And I want to encourage you toread all of Genesis 4 as it
forms the context for thisparticular passage.
And this is the NIV, and here'swhat it says Adam made love to

(01:08):
his wife again, and she gavebirth to a son and named him
Seth, saying, God has granted meanother child in place of Abel
since Cain killed him.
Seth also had a son, and henamed him Enoch.
And at that time, people beganto call on the name of the Lord.

(01:35):
I want to talk about Seth, alegacy of faith.
A legacy of faith.
Ordinary faith for ordinarypeople is the series.
A legacy of faith.
Without even thinking, mostChristians have been trained to

(01:56):
believe that the significantpeople in God's people, in God's
kingdom, are only the stars ofGod's kingdom.
Most Christians have beentrained to think this way.
That the people that God usesare the ones that are out front

(02:21):
the most.
This unwritten narrative, Godonly blesses and uses the
superstars of the faith.
But the regular people he leaveson the sideline.
Put it another way, God onlyanoints the Abrahams, the
Moses's, the Joshua's, theDavids, the Frederick

(02:43):
Douglass's, the Harriet Tupners,and the Fannie Lou Hamer.
They have something I don'thave.
God put something in them thathe just didn't put in me.
So many of us, we we live withthis idea that when we see
someone that is used of God, itmust be because God is giving

(03:08):
them something that He wouldnever give me.
And this narrative plays in ourminds.
I don't have the credentialsthey have.
I can't pray like they pray.
I don't have the education theyhave.
I don't have the Bible knowledgeor the theological depth they
have.

(03:28):
My faith story is not some superdramatic story.
Matter of fact, I've never beendown to my last dime.
I actually do pretty good withmy money.
And my friends and family havenever kicked me to the curb.
I still got friends and family.
Truth be told, I came to Christbecause I happened to come to

(03:52):
Christ's community, and PastorArchie happened to preach, and I
just trusted Christ, and that'smy story.
No drama, no main, no majordeliverance, no no no deathbed
confession.
I just came the ordinary way.
And many times when we when wehave an ordinary experience with

(04:12):
God, we think that God wouldnever use us in a super
extraordinary way.
And we've been trained to thinkthat way.
And I want to suggest to you inthis series that we're starting
that God uses people of ordinaryfaith.
God is not looking at yourcapabilities, he's looking at

(04:33):
all of our availability.
And whoever is available, that'swho God uses.
And you don't have to have yourname in the lights for God to
use you greatly for hispurposes.
Last Sunday we we talked aboutPaul and we talked about his
nephew and how God would use hisnephew to warn Paul that his

(04:54):
life was about to be uhexecuted.
And here Paul's nephew warnedhim.
We don't even know his name tothis day, but yet his name made
it into the biblical record.
Because God uses people ofordinary faith.
Some of you probably never heardof Shalom and Hanum.

(05:17):
These were two individuals whohad two families who were a part
of Nehemiah's workforce thatbuilt the walls around
Jerusalem.
Or should I say, rebuilt thewalls around Jerusalem?
And Shalom's family and Hanum'sfamily.
They were the family that workedon the dung gate.

(05:38):
D-U-N-G dung gate.
You know what dung is.
I'm trying to say it nicely,y'all.
Looking at me all holy.
Don't make me say somethingprofane up in here that my daddy
said wasn't a cuss word, butI'll say it if I have to.
But they worked at the dunggate.
The dung gate was the gate whereall the sewage from the city

(06:01):
flowed out of.
Most folk didn't go out the dunggate because it stunk too bad.
But here were two families thatsaid if God calls me to help put
this wall back together, if Igotta work by the dung gate, I'm
gonna do it for God's glory.

(06:23):
Because they did work by the gundungate, and I can imagine
there's a whole lot of folkssay, I love you, Lord, but I
ain't working by the dung gate.
Because they work by the dunggate, they got their names in
the biblical record.
Two more names are worthmentioning.
Beeziel and Oholiah.
Don't name your children that.

(06:44):
We got enough creative names.
Say amen.
Who are they?
Names we've never heard of.
Yet the Bible says God anointedthem with a spirit of creativity
and design, and they would bethe architects of the tabernacle
that Israel would worship at inthe wilderness.

(07:06):
My point is the Bible islittered with individuals whose
names are sometimes not evenmentioned, names we don't even
know of, and yet God used themin majestic ways for his
purposes.
And my word to you is thatyou're not too small to be used
by God.

(07:26):
Your name doesn't have to be inthe lights to be used greatly
for God.
Listen to what the master said.
I didn't say it, he said it.
He said, Everyone who gives acup of cold water in my name,
they shall be rewarded.
Surely you can give somebody acold bottle of water.
That's why our meditation textsays that all of us have been

(07:48):
gifted to bless somebody.
And this is a word to all of usthat God can use people of
ordinary faith.
That's the aim of this series.
That's where I want to landthis.
And I want to start with thischaracter by the name of Seth.
Not a whole lot to be knownabout Seth.

(08:10):
Most of us know his brothers,Cain and Abel.
Yet it's Seth is the one thatGod would use.
A man of ordinary faith that Godwould use for extraordinary
purposes.
Genesis 4 tells the tragic storyof loss.
Here are two brothers thatcouldn't get along, like a lot

(08:33):
of siblings.
And it would sadly lead to thedemise of one and the banishment
of another.
It really leads to my thesisstatement this morning, and here

it is (08:43):
regardless of the magnitude of the tragedy, God
provides a path through it.
I don't care what it is, I don'tcare how difficult it is.
I'm not saying that God canalways provide an answer, but
does anybody know he'll providea path through it?
The Lord here blessed Adam andEve with two sons, Cain and
Abel.

(09:04):
But something had gone terriblywrong between them.
And you think it would be enoughto lose one son to death.
But then they would lose thesecond one to banishment.
Two sons lost.
They went from two children toemptiness in one day.
That's a painful experience.

(09:25):
And to add insult to injury,Seth has to live in the shadow
of that.
You are the replacement.
You got to carry on the name.
And as I said, I cannot mostassuredly tell somebody that you
won't have trouble.
But I know God will be with youthrough it.
I know God has a way of bringingyou through the trouble.
This world is filled withtrouble.

(09:46):
Job said, man born of a woman isof a few days and full of
trouble.
Jesus said, In this world youshall have trouble.
And if you keep on living, doesanybody know trouble will find
your doorstep?
It'll find your email address,your cell phone number.
It'll even join the robocallsthat you get in your cell phone.

(10:06):
It will find your way.
But the good news of the gospelis that we never have to go
through trouble by ourselves.
God may not prevent the trouble,but he surely will be with us on
the path through the trouble.
And maybe that's why David said,Yea, though I walk through the
valley of shadow and death, Iwill fear no evil, because God

(10:29):
is with me.
We may not ever avoid thetrouble, but God will be with us
through the difficulty.
And I believe that's the word wehave here with Seth's story.
Seth becomes the path for Adamand Eve through this trouble as
he leads a legacy of faith.
He's an ordinary individual.

(10:50):
Not much is even said about him.
We don't even know much abouthis life.
And yet he leads a wonderfullegacy here.
And so I want to raise thequestion: what does that
ordinary faith look like?
Very quickly, we will discernfrom the story of Cain and Abel
as to what that looks like.
And number one, I'll start offand say this ordinary faith

(11:12):
always involves worship.
Ordinary faith always involvesworship.
Just regular, the regularroutine of worship.
Genesis 4 may very well be thefirst narrative articulation of
what Jesus would call thegreatest commandment, in which

(11:34):
he says in Matthew 22, love theLord thy God with all thy heart,
mind, and soul, and love yourneighbor as yourself.
And here in this text, we we seean articulation of that where
both boys bring an offering.
That's loving the Lord thy Godwith all thy heart.
But Cain left off the secondpart.

(11:55):
He killed his brother whereyou're supposed to love your
neighbor as yourself.
And I can pause right therebecause we live in a day where
Christians think I can worshipGod and treat folk any kind of
way.
But look, if if if you can't getthis right already, no, this one
ain't right either.
We are called to love otherpeople, and the proof that we

(12:17):
love other people, love God,shows up in how we treat
somebody else.
And so in this text, in thistext here, verses two through
four, we get the story of thebirth of Abel and the birth of
Cain.
And Abel here, the text says hewas a keeper of the flocks.

(12:38):
Cain worked the soil.
And in the course of time, itsays that Cain brought some of
the fruits of the soil as anoffering to the Lord.
And Abel brought an offeringfrom the portions, some from the
firstborn of his flock.
And early on we see here thatAdam and Eve taught their sons
the value of worship.

(13:00):
Bring an offering to the Lordfrom the increase of what God
has given you.
Adam and Eve basically said totheir children, Look, you can do
whatever you want once you getout on your own.
But as long as you're in ourhouse, we're going to church.
And when we go to church, wegive an offering.
So my point is, you got to giveAdam and Eve some credit.

(13:23):
They did try to do right bytheir children.
But I do need to say somethingto the parents that sometimes in
life, even when we do our bestwith our kids, something can go
horribly, horribly wrong.
And in the text, there's nothingthat would suggest or indicate
that Adam and Eve did anythingwrong.

(13:45):
And I don't know what parent I'mtalking to.
Because I don't know of anyparent in my days as a pastor
that has intentionally tried todo their child wrong.
But most parents with a modicumof common sense want the best
for their children.
But how many of y'all know, evenwhen you give them the best,
sometimes they just don't turnout the way you want.

(14:09):
Adam and Eve understands whereyou are today.
Yes, we make mistakes, amen.
I'll be the first one to say,I've made many mistakes.
And you know what you do whenyou make mistakes?
You apologize, preach autrep.
You sit them down and you say,you know what, daddy or mama
shouldn't handle it that way.

(14:30):
I tried to do the best I can,but I don't always get it right.
But no, at the end of the day, Ilove you from the bottom of my
heart.
Please forgive me for not alwaysdoing it the right way.
But I want to encourage someparent today, even on your best
day, sometimes it doesn't alwaysturn out right.

(14:53):
But I know I could hear whatsomebody's saying.
But didn't Solomon say train upa child in the way they should
go, and when they grow old, theyshall not depart.
That's why you need my Biblestudy methods class right there.
Yeah, I'm bragging.
Because there's a differencebetween wisdom literature and
promise literature.

(15:15):
In the Old Testament, God doesmake promises.
But in Proverbs, uh, Solomon isnot reciting one of God's
promises.
God never promised that somehow,if we raise our kids a certain
way, they will never havetrouble or never go the wrong
way.
No.
What Solomon is doing, he'sgiving us wisdom and a guide as

(15:37):
to how we ought to raise ourkids.
And if you follow this guide,there's a good chance that
things will turn out your way.
That's the whole point.
But it doesn't mean it alwaysturns out the best.
And so we got to do like Adamand Eve.
We got to keep doing our best.

(15:58):
Even when things turn to theirworst.
And I want to encourage someparent today, keep doing your
best.
Do your best the best way youcan.
And you never know God has a wayof showing up and giving your
children what they need.
But ordinary faith worships Godregularly.

(16:20):
And there's a few things I needto say.
Worship anchors our soul in theLord.
Because I know there's anotherChristian narrative out there
that says I don't need to go tochurch.
That's true, you don't need togo to church.
But worship is where God anchorsus.
Salvation brings you into thefamily.
But worship anchors you into thefamily.

(16:42):
And worship has a way ofanchoring my soul in the Lord.
It's our response to God as thesovereign Lord, his presence,
his character, his saving workin Jesus Christ.
And a consistent experience ofworship trains us to remember
that God is great and God issovereign.

(17:04):
It reminds us of what God hasdone.
It reminds us that our ultimatehope resides in Him.
So if I'm consistently andregularly worshiping God, and
when trouble comes my way,without even thinking, I say,
but you know, He's still on thethrone.
I don't like what I'm goingthrough.

(17:25):
I don't like this tragedy, butGod is still on the throne and
I'm gonna still trust him.
That's what worship does.
It gives you fortitude for yoursoul.
But also, too, the consistentroutine of worship gives us a
sense of wholeness in ourhealth.
There's something that isrestored through the rhythm and

(17:45):
the consistency of worship.
And I've shared this before, andit's worth sharing again that
many studies have documentedthat those who engage in regular
worship live longer lives, theyhave better physical health
outcomes, they live longer, theyhave better mental health uh
outcomes, they have betterfamily relationships, better uh

(18:09):
personal relationships, and forthe married folk, and for the
married folk, and for themarried folk, and for the
married folk, one more time, andfor the married folk, they have
significantly better sex livesfor the married folk.
Tell your neighbor for themarried folk, for the married
folk.

(18:30):
That oughta make you want tocome to church right there.
Preach, Pastor.
I am, I'm trying to preach this.
Regular worship extends life, itrenews and refreshes our life.
Read an article two weeks ago.
They say if you have a dog or apet, it will extend your life.

(18:54):
Convicted me, because y'all knowwhat I think about dogs.
Pray for your pastor, he needsdeliverance.
I know.
Say, all you need is a pet andit will extend your life.
But then I read this week abouthow worship extends your life.
I ain't mad at nobody.
But when I stand before theLord, I want to be said, I want

(19:16):
to be able to say, Lord, itwasn't the dog that I had that
kept me alive.
It was the Lord my God thatenabled me to live as long as I
did.
Worship will bless your life.
Here's the last one.
Worship is our personaldeclaration of faith.
If the Jewish people can do theSabbath and the Muslim can do

(19:38):
Friday moss, then what is theChristian declaration?
There's no such thing as aChristian Sabbath.
Sabbath was something that Godgave to the Jewish people.
God didn't give us a ChristianSabbath.
No, he raised Jesus from thedead on a Sunday morning.
And the reason why we come tochurch on Sunday morning is

(20:00):
because Jesus got up with allpower.
I've had folk argue with me onthat.
Well, we should still practicethe Sabbath.
I ain't mad at you if you wantto practice the Sabbath.
But the reason why I come tochurch on Sunday morning,
because early on a Sundaymorning, he got up with all
power in his hand.
And since the first century, thechurch has been worshiping on

(20:23):
Sunday morning because they wantto honor the God that got up
with all power.
We need worship.
Ordinary faith just involvesworship.
Tell your name, just involvesworship.
Amen.
But then also, too, ordinaryfaith involves discipleship.
What do I mean?
Discipleship is what I said.
We're working out our salvation,we're growing our faith, we're

(20:44):
getting stronger in the word,stronger in understanding God's
purpose, his plan in the world,to cultivate a stronger faith in
us.
That's our vision statement, tohelp people become followers.
That's God's goal in the world,to bring the world to Christ and
to grow us, to grow the world inrelationship with Him.

(21:05):
Verse 4 through 7, chapter 4.
And Abel also brought anoffering, fat portions, some
from the firstborn of his flock.
The Lord looked with favor onAbel and his offering.
But on Cain, his offering, hedid not look with favor.
So Cain was angry.
And his face was downcast.

(21:26):
He was depressed and anxious.
Then the Lord said to Cain, Whyare you angry?
Why is your face downcast?
If you do what is right, willyou not be accepted?
But if you do not do what isright, sin is crouching at your
door.
Desires to have you, but youmust rule over it.

(21:47):
Oh, rule over it.
Discipleship is learning totrust God's spirit when he
speaks.
That's discipleship, and that'swhat's going on in this text.
Give me a minute.
Stay with me.
Y'all need we need to get thiston of ink been spent on.
Spilled on this verse.
What did Cain do for God to lookwith disfavor on his offer?

(22:07):
Whole bunch of ink been spilledjust on that verse.
The most prominent position sayshe should have brought an animal
sacrifice, but he brought agrain sacrifice.

So the argument goes (22:20):
well, when his mama and daddy sinned, God
killed an animal and then putcoverings over them.
And so he's being disobedient bybringing a grain sacrifice.
His brother Abel is doing theobedient thing.
He's bringing an animalsacrifice.

(22:41):
And if he had been obedient, heshould have brought an animal
sacrifice.
But wait a minute, the Leviticallaw also took grain offerings
too.
Israel could bring the produceof the ground as an offering.
Matter of fact, if I can put itin our language, Cain brought, I
mean, Abel brought cash.

(23:02):
Cain brought bitcoin.
And at Christ's community, wetake cash and bitcoin.
That's the difference.
Wasn't no issue here.
I don't think it was theoffering.
Because again, this isinstructive for Israel as to how

(23:23):
they approach God with theiroffering.
So I don't think that's it.
Second one, others say, no, Caindidn't give his best.
In other words, he gave amediocre offering.
And he thought God would acceptit.
That sounds good.
Sounds like a pastor trying toraise an offering, amen.

But here's the issue (23:44):
the text never tells us why.
Because the text is notinterested in that.
Come to that in a minute.
We always go with what the textis interested in.
The text never tells us why, yetwe got folk throughout history
spin, spill all kind of ink onwhat Adam or on what Cain did.

(24:09):
Another trans, another optionis, well, it's the type of
offering that he brought, it'snot the type of offering that he
brought, but it was hisattitude.
His attitude was not right.
His heart was not in it.
Abel's heart was in it.
And that's an honest attempt tounderstand it, but there's

(24:29):
nothing in the text thatsuggests that's exactly what's
going on.
Why?
Because that's not the interestof the author.
So the issue in the text is notwhy God looked at his offering
with disfavor.
No.
The issue in the text is how dowe respond when God shows up and

(24:52):
speaks to us in worship?
The issue in the text is thatGod was working in Cain's life.
And the question becomes whenGod sees something and I'm in
church and the Spirit of Godmoves, and it seems like the

(25:13):
sermon was crafted for me andnobody else.
What am I gonna do with it?
Okay, am I the only one to evergo hear a sermon and seem like
the preacher followed me aroundall week long and just told the
whole church all my privatebusiness?
I'm just asking.

(25:33):
That's the point of the text.
Cain came to church and thepreacher was preaching about
anger, and somehow he wasconvicted.
And the question the text asksus that when we come to church
and God speaks to us through theservice, how will we respond?

(25:58):
I'm trying, I'm trying, I'mtrying.

(26:24):
And God says, hold on, I knowwhat they did was not right, but
sin is crouching at the door.
For somebody else, it's notbitterness.
Watch this, it's jealousy.
Because mama gave more, itappeared mama gave more love to
this child than you, and now youfind yourself struggling with a

(26:44):
spirit of jealousy, neverrealizing what God has done for
some.
The text asks the question whatis it saying to us?
What is God saying to us?
And how do we respond?

(27:05):
In a word, here it is.
It's the the twins of testingand temptation.
God never tempts anybody, but hewill test.
It really is a remix of Genesischapter 3.
You just don't see the serpentin the passage.
He's crouching now at the door.

(27:29):
It's testing and temptation.
And the question becomes in thecontext of testing and
temptation, what will I lean on?
Will I trust God?
It's a word, it's a word.
I'm gonna lose you right here.
It's a word, it's a word aboutthe doctrine of what is called
hometeology, the doctrine ofsin.

(27:52):
That is, what happened in Adamand Eve in chapter three just
passed on to the nextgeneration.
So what happened with Adam andEve in Genesis chapter three
became murder in Genesis chapterfour, and it becomes something
else in five, all the way downto Pastor Archer to you and to

(28:12):
me.
What lives in Cain, don't foolyourself.
Lives out so in me and lives inyou.
Oh, Pastor, I would never dothat.
Can I say it like I want to?
I've said it before.
If we knew we wouldn't get thedeath penalty, if we knew we
wouldn't go to hell, and we knewwe can get we can get away with

(28:32):
it, it's a whole lot of folkthat we be dead right now.
Preach our trip, I am.
They would, I might be deadright now.
Because what lives in Cain livesin me.

(28:53):
And I'm not making this upbecause Paul saw this years
later when he said, For all havesinned and come short of the
glory of God.
That's why we need redemption inJesus Christ.
He bears the sins of the world,he cleanses me and makes me
whole.
That's why I need the cross.

(29:14):
At the cross, at the cross, whenI first believed, that's where
my redemption is.
Ah.
So how does God bring us throughthis?
Watch this.
The good news is, oh, I wish Ihad time to deal with this.
The good news is, is that eventhough he messed up, he

(29:37):
confessed afterwards, which is agood thing.
Well, he kind of didn't confess,he kind of tried to remove his
own responsibility.
But God still gave him grace.
Because how many of y'all knowhe deserved the death penalty?
He killed his brother, but Goddidn't give him what he
deserved.

(29:58):
He gave him grace, he marked himand said, Can't nobody do to
Cain what he did to his brother.
Oh, I wish I can preach that.
See, the only reason why some ofus didn't get what we deserved,
because God marked us.
I wish you could see what thedevil had in plan for your life.

(30:22):
I wish you could see what lifewanted to throw your way.
But God said, No, I mark them.
And even though they deservewhat they ought to receive,
because I've marked them withtheir grace, because I've marked
them with my grace, because I'vemarked them with my mercy.
You cannot touch them.
Hear me.

(30:43):
But here's his mistake.
He should have been confessingthat before he killed his
brother.
He gets the revelation, and whatdoes he do?
He keeps it to himself.
And went out and killed hisbrother.
What does that mean?
He needs help.
We all need help.

(31:05):
We need help.
Which leads to my last point.
Then I'm gonna wrap this upbecause I've held you too long.
Give me my last point.
We all need help.
That's my whole point on thatpoint.
Let me get to the last one.
Here it is.
Third one.
Ordinary faith involves alegacy.
And that's where Seth comes in.

My point is this (31:20):
look, the same thing that was in Cain is in
Seth.
Seth is susceptible to the sametemptation, the same testing.
Put him in the same situation,he might do the same thing.
What's the difference?
He cried out to God.
That's what happened with whatit says in the text.
He had a son born.
The son somehow got involved,maybe in some kind of ministry,

(31:44):
and the text says for the firsttime, men began to cry out to
God.
That's what Cain should havedone.
That at the point where theconviction came, that's when you
cry for your help.
Don't wait and try to figure itout on your own.
But cry out to God in thatmoment, and God will show up and

(32:05):
provide a way of escape to getyou through the struggle.
He'll put the right people inyour path.
He'll give you the community youneed to help you bear the
struggle.
So worried about how much weneed help.
So let me wrap this up.
I'm gonna close with this.
I've never told y'all thisstory.

(32:26):
But I'm gonna tell you today.
So most of y'all know I've had alot of surgeries with my eyes.
Some of y'all may know that.
But I've had at least probablyabout nine surgeries with my
eye.
And it's not because ofsomething genetic.
It's not even due to any of afault of my own.

(32:46):
It goes back to something thathappened to me when I was in
seminary.
When I was in school, they had adoctor, my doctor, that was on
the board.
And he wanted to do a gift tothe students at the school.
And his gift was I want to givea special surgery to all the

(33:08):
students that qualified.
And at the time it was called RKsurgery.
Kind of similar to what they donow, laser surgery.
They don't even do RK anymore.
But RK was cutting edge at thetime.
And so I went ahead and got thesurgery.
And the way the surgery worked,they put a slit, they cut a
small incision in the eye, andthe eye would open just enough,

(33:33):
and by opening of the eye, itwould actually increase your
sight.
So you wouldn't need glasses,you wouldn't need contacts, you
can see far and near.
And for 95% of people, thesurgery worked perfectly.
Never had a problem with theireye.
But for me, it didn't work.
Because I had a condition thatwas undetectable at the time

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called keratoconus.
Keratoconus occurs when when youopen, when you cut on the eye,
it over-corrects.
So instead of giving me moresight, y'all, I was about to be
declared legally blind.
Literally.
And so, through a series ofevents, they sent me to my

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current doctor, Dr.
Linda Burke.
Dr.
Clark, who's a member of thischurch, she does my glasses for
me.
Amen.
Little shout out for my doctor.
But my ophthalmologist, the onethat does the work on my eyes,
they sent me to Dr.
Clark.
Dr.
Clark.
I mean, I'm sorry, Dr.
Burke.
So anyway, when I went to her,she said, Well, I can put you in
some contacts, but you gottaunderstand those hard lens

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contacts, they only gonna workfor a while.
I'm gonna have to do surgery.
I'm gonna have to put a newcornea on your eye.
Well, I was feeling a littlekind of way, because this was
new.
We're talking about thispre-internet, pre- you know, you
using stone tools and stuff likethat.
I don't know.
You know, what you using, rocksand I don't know what you're
using on my eye.
So I was feeling a certain kindof way, kid you not, feeling a

(35:02):
certain kind of way.
So, so I knew I had to get thesurgery.
I'd gone reluctantly, I agreedto get the surgery, but before I
got the surgery, my good friendPastor Clark, he was pastoring
in Austin, Texas, had me comedown and preach to his church.
I tell the church what I wasgoing through in my fears.
When I finished the sermon, showyou how God works.
When I finished the sermon, Godcame up to me after service and

(35:25):
he said, Pastor Archery, I knowyou're scared, but I'm a living
witness, the surgery works.
I've had the surgery in botheyes.
He said, I'm telling you rightnow, they know exactly what
they're doing.
In that moment, my fears, whichwas at about 100, went down to
zero.
Because God knew that's what Ineeded.

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Since then, like I said, I'vehad about eight or nine
surgeries.
I've had uh two stents put in,I've had uh a surgical patch put
on, um, a number of differentthings.
And and and I've had all this,and I've been so involved in her
office, when I come to theiroffice, they call me Pastor
Altry.

(36:12):
Come to me for wisdom.
And and the reason why I itreally it really turned me is
what my doctor said after I cameback from Austin with that
brother's testimony.
I told her about what happened.
And she just looked at me andshook her head, and this is what
she said.

(36:33):
She said, Now, if you just staywith me, I promise you.
I'm this is what she said.
If you stay with me, I promiseyou, I'll keep you seeing.
She said, the mistake mostpeople make, they get a little
bit of sight and they thinkthey're good.
And then they disappear.

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And she said, this is what theydon't understand.
When they disappear and comeback, it's worse than had they
left.
You know I want to preach this.
But then she said, Pastor Octry,if you stay with me, I will

(37:15):
always keep you sitting.
Pastor, what do you try to say?
If you stay with them, if yougonna have some flip up, you
gonna mess up, but God wannakeep you, God wanna put some.

(38:13):
And for over 40-something years,my God is the Lord Jesus Christ
and him crucified and raisedfrom the dead.
Hallelujah.
Come on, let's prepare ourhearts for the Lord's Supper.
Come on, y'all.
Here's my word.

(38:33):
Listen to me.
Get your communion out.
Something's soft, man.
Come on.
Hear me out.
Here's my word.
It's a legacy that Seth left.
If you had a chance to compareSeth's legacy to Kane's legacy,
Kane's legacy brought abouttechnology, the arts, music, all

(38:59):
kinds of stuff, but it alsobrought violence and war.