Nobody Cared

WASHING JESUS FEET PHOENIX AZ 57-0310A

E-34 034 But notice, way down in the city was a young lady. Let's imagine her now, just before closing. Now, be real reverent and quiet. This young lady had taken the wrong road. She was a bad lady, maybe just a girl, eighteen, nineteen years old. She was a woman of... Oh, well, we don't have to go into details of that. She was of ill-fame. And you like to point your finger to her.

But let me tell you something, brother. There can't be a bad woman unless there's a bad man to be bad with her. That's right. So don't scorn her like that. Some mother's darling... I believe instead of pointing to her and... If you'd open your church and send somebody to bring her in, there wouldn't be so many of them. That's right. Poor little kid, no one loved her, no one cared for her. Society had turned her out, and nobody wanted her. So she had to live, and she done the best she could, maybe. She was bad.

I wouldn't uphold her sin. No, sir. But what I'm--I'm after, is the church that won't open a door to her. You don't want her in your society. Who are you anyhow, Pharisee? Right. You're no bet... You're worse off than she is many times. "Oh, but we couldn't stand... Our crowd wouldn't let a woman like that... We couldn't put her in the church membership. Oh, no, no." That's the reason she is what she is. Some mother's darling, certainly it is. It's a soul that Christ died for.

But you're too stiff and starchy, your society. If I had a society like that in my church, I'd kick them out the door and start it over again with harlots. I sure would. Self-made bunch of educated idiots in this nation... That's right. I don't say that to be mean [Congregation applauds--Ed.], but they--they love the praises of man more than the praises of God. Jesus said, "Whosoever will, let him come." But you don't want them. Sure. The last call was go get that kind of people. That's the supper call.

HE CARETH FOR YOU PHOENIX AZ 60-0301

96 048 Oh, cast your cares on Him; He cares for you. Now, He cares for you, now we know. Let's ask a few minutes if He cares for us. All right.

He cared for the leper when He was here on earth. There set the leper. Did you ever see a leper? Oh, I've seen many of them, hugged them in my arms, them white with leprosy. Looks like a seed wart turned inside out.

Setting where nobody would touch him, down in the slime and dirt and filth of the street, about as low as he could be, where everybody was afraid to get around him. He was a... He was a outcast. He was cast away from the society of the city, from the society of the church, from the society of--of everything there was in the city. No one wanted nothing to do with him. If they done anything, they'd pitch him a piece of bread and let him get it out of the dirt. They wouldn't get near him.

But Jesus cared for Him. He walked right down with him and set down. I can just see Him lay His hands upon him and said, "I will, be thou clean." Oh, He cared for him. When nothing else could care, He cared.

When nothing else will care for you, He still cares.

HE CARETH FOR YOU PHOENIX AZ 60-0301

105 050 There was an immoral woman one time, like an alcoholic or a prostitute, so immoral till the women of the city wouldn't touch her. She was an outcast. She come out to get her water; she had to wait till noontime. She couldn't come with decent women. Nobody'd have anything to do with the woman. She'd been married, and had a bunch of husbands, and living common law then. Nobody cared for her. They were too stiff and starchy. Nobody cared.

But He cared for her so much that He told her the secrets of her heart, and forgive every sin, and put Something in her, that she run into the city, saying, "Come, see a Man that's told me the things that I've done."

See, that's what makes Him great to me. He isn't a stuffed shirt. He was God's grace to the people. He was God's love expressed in human flesh. No matter how little or insignificant, He cared; immoral, drunks, alcoholics, whatever it was.

ONE OF THE MEANEST MEN IN TOWN CHICAGO IL 61-0429B

E-27 027 Delinquent mother and delinquent father makes a delinquent child. Maybe, let's say, this little lady had a father and mother that didn't care for her, and she got on the street in the wrong crowd. When she did, she became an outcast. Nobody cared for her.

This little preacher setting here, taking this note down now, when he was telling me, that he had about forty corners here in Chicago that he preached on, or sent people to preach on... God bless that boy. Give us some more street meetings. That's how you get these drunks and things in. Some of us get too high and classy to stand on the corner anymore, go down in the slums. Jesus said, "Go in the hedges, and highways, everywhere, compel them. The hour is at hand."

MEANEST MAN IN SANTA MARIA SANTA MARIA CA 62-0630E

E-53 053 So when all the association come together, and all of them, I imagine they was having a good time toasting, and drinking, and having a big time. And you could hear old Pharisee above all of them up there, you know, just carrying on. My, what a time they were having: great time.

And now, let's look around a minute. How did He get in there? How did He ever pass the gate of the flunky? There He sets over in a corner. He's right on time. He's always on time. And there He sets in the corner (I hate to say this.), setting there with dirty feet: Jesus, with dirty feet (as the Frenchman calls Him, Jesu), Jesu, with dirty feet. Nobody had washed Him. Nobody had groomed, anointed Him; and yet, He was invited. There sets Jesus with dirty feet: come to the invitation that was given Him, but nobody cared about Him. How did He ever pass that foot-wash flunky?

GOD IN SIMPLICITY JEFF IN 63-0317M

13-2 {68} 040 And that same night--showing the consecration of David to the love of God, and then to see the same night, knowing that he was in a error that he was not permitted to do it, God was graceful enough to come down and speak to Nathan. And I always like these words: "Go tell Nathan, My..." or "Go tell David, My servant, that I took you from the sheepcote." Just... He wasn't nothing.

I--I'd like to apply that here just a minute. "I took you from nothing, and I--I--I give you a name; you've got a name like great men that's in the earth." And I'd like to apply that in a--in a confidential, yet in a--a way of making a point.

I was thinking that a few years ago I was standing down in the city here, and nobody cared for me; nobody loved me. I loved people, but nobody loved me because of the background of the family. No disregards to my precious mother and father. How I wish that mama could've lived to walked in this sanctuary this morning.

Many of the old-timers who placed their money to help build it here, maybe God this morning will let them look over the banister.