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as long as we have life here on this earth. But here's the problem with that. A Holy Spirit filled church is only there because God chooses to bless it. I know a lot of churches and a lot of people that gather, but there's no God where they gather. Ichabod has been written over the doors of the church. Now, I just want to bring something to your mind, not to be hard on you. But I want you to think about this. God's chosen people was Israel, right? You know what He did? He let the ark be taken, the tithe of the Holy Spirit dwelling among them, and He wrote Ichabod over the doors of the church of Israel, the nation of Israel. You know what it means? The Spirit hath departed. Samson's the tithe of that who kept sinning, kept sinning, kept sinning, getting in trouble. And he wished not that the Spirit departed, and he found himself bound up in the twine there that Delilah had bound him up with. And when the Philistines were upon him, who were God's enemies, God let His enemies overtake Him. And that boy ground and ground and ground and ground around and around and around in that mill, blinded and his head shaved and naked and a laughingstock to everybody around, and it didn't bother God at all. And so if you think that God has to have the church, you're wrong. If you think that God has to have a place for you to gather, you're wrong. God will withdraw His hand from you. Listen, you have to get this out of your mind before I get started tonight. You have to understand that God is not going to reward unrighteousness and God is not going to do wrong to get a chance to do right. He's not going to do it. That's not how God operates. You either do things God's way or it's the highway. God will say, if that's what you want to do, go ahead, but you're going to do it without me. And there are a lot of places that operate that way. The Spirit of God is nowhere around. People are not concerned about what God has to say about anything that they're doing. They're not concerned about anything except what affects them in the here and now, they don't worry about the hereafter. And you will learn if you're around Christianity very long that if you talk much about the hereafter, the judgment seat of Christ, dying, things like that, you'll find out that it's not a very popular subject and people generally don't have a tendency to draw toward that. They have a tendency to stay away from it. They don't like to be reminded of their own mortality. Listen, I want to prepare you so that if tomorrow you get bad news from a doctor, and they tell you that you're fixing to step into glory in the next two weeks or so, that you're ready to go. I want to prepare you so that if the Lord blows the horn tonight while you're sleeping, it's like, okay, fine, good, glory to God, that's a great wake-up call. Has the Lord got the coffee ready or what, man? And go. You are not going to be prepared if you keep your eyes on the here and now. The most valuable thing that you have on the face of this earth next to the Bible and the Holy Spirit is a place to gather and to have God speak at you. And if you don't want it, God will just dry up the preachers. When God gets ready to damn a nation, He takes the preachers away. And he gives them false preachers and false prophets in their place. It happened to Israel. You have over 400 to 1 discrepancy there. You've got Micah Ahab, who's the one preacher there that they say, call him, but Ahab says, call him up. And Ahab says, I don't want to call him up here. He only has negative things to say. Man, he doesn't like me at all. He's not nice to me when he comes in here. And he said, well, I'd like to hear what he has to say. He said, well, let's call these other guys. They call 400 of them in there. and 400 of them in there, give them, tell them the positive message and everything's going to be great. Oh yeah, King, you're going to go out to battle like they're going to go out and play the Dallas Cowboys as a popcorn and football team and they're going to beat them, you know. They're going to be the Cinderella story and everything's going to be great and everything's going to be wonderful. And all 400 of them birds agree with him. And then that old, that other King says, well, I'd like to hear from this other guy. And you bring him into that court right there and he says, oh, sure, King, it'll be just like that. And he goes, oh, come on, quit lying to me. You're being sarcastic with me. He says, okay. He says, you don't need to go to battle because if you go to battle, you're going to get whooped and you're going to be dead and dogs are going to lick the blood out of the chariot. He said, see, look at that. See what I'm talking about? Negative. It was the truth. Do you realize that if he had heeded that truth and said, you know what, today would not be a good day to go to battle, he would have still been alive for a whole lot longer. But you know what he chose to do? He chose, listen, you know what happened? One of those prophets came up there and smacked him. The king had him put in jail. And you know what that boy said? He said, I'm not a prophet if by the end of this day, before the sun goes down, you ain't a dead man. And you know what happened? He was a dead man. That happens in the last days. Now, I wouldn't dare say that I'm the only one that has the truth and those kind of things, but I'm telling you, truth nowadays is hard to find. It's all become a marketing scheme now, and it's all become this big wheel of business. Church has become a business and a social club. That's not ever what God intended for it to be. You don't have to have business and a social club to keep the church going. You've got to have preaching. Alright, come to Exodus 32. Why don't you stand and shake out there just a little bit. I realize it is 6 o'clock and we started 30 minutes ago. But you've got to give me at least double the time you give for announcements, for introduction. So, let's just see what the Lord's got to say to us here tonight. Notice what the Bible says in verse 17, skipping down from the entrance of time, and Joshua heard the noise of the people. As they shouted, he said unto Moses, there's a noise of war in the camp. It must have been some rock show going on down there. Joshua says, buddy, that sounds like war down there. And he said, it is not the voice, Moses says, it is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them cry for being overcome, but it is the noise of them that... Look at that music thing coming there. How about that? Now, I love music as much as anybody loves music. But you know what got them in trouble? They were dancing around the golden calf. You don't dance to preaching. Do you ever feel like dancing to preaching? Not very often. Not as like this morning. You don't feel like dancing. You don't feel like crawling a hole and hiding in it, amen? But every now and then, you know, the Lord may get you going a little bit, but you don't feel like dancing, you know, to preaching. They're dancing. Now watch. And it came to pass that as soon as he came down to the camp that he saw the calf and the dancing, and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hand and break them beneath the mount. You'd think I'd get mad. He's pretty upset. You ever read the book of Nehemiah? How many of you ever read the book of Nehemiah? You know what he says in Nehemiah? Nehemiah is preaching and he goes on a tear. You know what he does? He goes over and starts pulling people's hair in the congregation. And slapping people. I guess they were sleeping in the church service or something. That's rough preaching, man. Moses got so mad he broke the tablets that God wrote with his finger on. Now can you imagine if God had been mad just a few verses earlier and Moses had been mad at the same time where Israel had been? It would have been all over, buddy. The Lord would have struck them all with a lightning bolt from up there on the mountain and told Moses, just hang out up here with me until I get done with the bloody mess down there and we'll start all over again. And then what the Bible says is that He broke them beneath the mountain. He took the calf which they made and burned it in the fire and the ground with the powder and spread it upon the water. It means He just scattered it out. And He made the children of Israel to drink. Father, we pray that You might bless this message this evening, Lord. You might help us to see these things and to realize the importance of what it is that we're dealing with here. Pray, God, You might open up our blinded eyes and soften our hard hearts. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Thank you. You may be seated. Notice that in verse number 21, the Bible says in Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people do unto thee that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? Aaron. You're letting these people worship around a golden calf. They're dancing. They're naked. Their music is all out of whack. They must have held you over the fire. They must have threatened to kill you. They must have threatened to kill your whole family. Surely, Aaron, somebody threatened you or did something to you to make you let these people do what they're doing right now. Why, Aaron, why didn't you stand up and say something against it? Why didn't you stand up and do it? Well, Moses, he sat there and said, let not the anger of the Lord wax hot. Now notice the people, they're set on mischief. Not my fault for not standing in the gap and stopping them, Moses. I know I'm the priest and everything, but Moses, you know, the people are what the people wanted. And it was all about the people, Moses. And Lord, you know how the people are. They get nervous sometimes, Lord. And then they get upset. And Moses, the next thing you know, they're making demands. And you know, we don't want to run anybody off. I mean, after all, they're the chosen people. Because it's all about the people, right Moses? And they brought me all their golden earrings, Moses, and I threw them in the fire and this calf just jumped out. I don't know how that happened. It's just some kind of a miracle. He just started making it together. The Bible said he fashioned it with his hands. And he comes down there and so what happens is after he finds out from Aaron what's going on, he at least takes the time to get the other side of the story. And the Bible says in verse 25, when Moses saw the people were naked, for Aaron had made them naked to their shame among their enemies. Now I've got to stop there for just a second. And I've got to tell you that there are many preachers today that are making Christians naked at the judgment seat of Christ. There are many Christians today that are being allowed to dance around the fire and to do what they want to do, and they're being allowed to worship their golden calves. Nobody's stopping them. Nobody's talking to them. And when they get up there to the judgment seat of Christ, the Bible says they'll be naked in the shame. There's many people nowadays that have not been taught about the judgment seat of Christ, not been taught anything past salvation. And therefore, when they show up there in front of the Lord Jesus Christ, He's going to turn to those preachers and say, Eric, what did they do to you that you didn't tell them about the judgment seat of Christ? You've made them naked. How do you make them naked? By not telling them the truth. By not being so concerned and consumed with making them happy, but being concerned and consumed with what makes the Lord happy, they decide, well, you know, what I'd rather do is make the people happy than make the Lord happy. And guess what? There is going to come a payday someday like the preacher used to preach, Lee Roberts. Ladies and gentlemen, you've got to realize that the payday comes for you and I at the judgment seat of Christ. And you need to be aware that when you go and you're listening, you've got to be listening to what it is you're being told or not told. It's called selective truth. The truth of salvation. A fellow told me one time, he said, preacher, he said, my preacher preaches the truth. I said, good, what does he preach? That's a blessing. Glad to know there's somebody who preaches the truth. What does he preach? Well, he preaches salvation. I said, well, that's a blessing. That's really good. I said, does he preach to you about the second coming of Christ? He said, well, I don't remember him mentioning that. I think he talks about it every now and then. I said, does he tell you about hell? He said, well, sometimes he talks about it when he talks about salvation. I said, well, good, that's the truth. I mean, that's good that he's telling you about hell. I said, did he tell you about the judgment seat of Christ? And he said, oh, you mean, you know, the great white throne judgment up there where everybody's judged, the books are open, and I'm saved, and I get in? I said, no, no, no, I mean the judgment seat of Christ. Not the great white throne judgment. I mean the judgment seat of Christ. Does He tell you about the judgment seat of Christ where every work done in the body after you're saved, whether it be good or bad, is going to be thrown into the fire, and you'll get either gold, silver, and precious stones, or wood, hay, and stubble? He said, I never heard of that. He said, all I know is I'm supposed to stand in the judgment up there in front of God, and He is going to say that because my name is written in the Lamb's book of life that I get to go to heaven. I said, you'll be in heaven long before that judgment. He said, well, what do you mean? I said, I tried to explain to him. I showed him a couple of verses of Scripture. You know where I went? I went to 2 Corinthians 5. I went to 1 Corinthians 3. I went to Romans chapter 14. I showed him the things about the judgment seat of Christ. You know what he said? He said, well, that's the same judgment as the judgment over there in Revelation chapter 21. That's the same judgment. I said, who told you that? I said, the judgment seat of Christ is for a Christian. Look at it. I tried to show him. Now, on that bad preacher's defense, I saw right quick that the guy wasn't interested in learning anything else. Maybe the reason that guy's not showing him anything is because the people aren't interested in learning. But I can tell you this, it's still incumbent upon that guy to tell them whether they want to learn it or not. And by the fact that he's not telling them, then he's making them naked in the most unbelievable place and the most unreasonable place to be naked of anywhere in the universe. And at any point in time, one place you don't want to be naked is up there in front of Jesus Christ. And so Aaron made them naked. You say, why? Because he didn't stop them from their foolishness. He didn't say anything about it. He just let it go on. He just kind of rolled with the flow. Well, then the preacher steps up in verse number 25, 5 times 5. You know how that goes. He saw that they're naked in verse 25, and the Bible says Moses stood in the gate of the camp and he said... Now, here's what the positive side of the message this morning is. What do we do to stop this preacher? Well, the first thing you do is preaching returns instead of singing. Moses steps up and he said, who's on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me. That's a public invitation to publicly say whose side you're on. That's in front of everybody with eyes open and heads up and no heads bowed and no eyes closed. And I do that so I don't embarrass anybody or anything. You know how people are nowadays. People are funny about that. Well, you know, it's my business between me and God. And you didn't think about that when you were sinning. You didn't mind sinning in public where everybody else could see you or causing other people to sin. But you know, all of a sudden you want to do business with God. Well, if they'll close their eyes, I'll go down there. Your pride gets a hold of you so much that you think God's talking to you about coming down to the altar, maybe even about something else. Your pride gets a hold of you so bad, you think, well, if I go down there, they'll think that the preacher made me go down there for what he's preaching about, and it may not have nothing to do with it at all. And here's the bottom line. Who cares what it's about? It's about going down there to get things worked out between you and the Lord. What difference does it make what it is? That's the Lord through the power of the Holy Spirit putting you under conviction or tagging your heart to have you pray for somebody and saying, hey, come on down here, let's go. You know what happens? We're like logs in a flume. We jam it up! And we stop other people from coming. Listen, man, if God speaks to you, you should come. No matter what it is. Who cares whether they like it or not. They're not going to stand in your defense at the judgment seat. They're not going to get up there and say, Oh Lord, don't do that to them. Now Lord, I just happen to know them. You know, they're not going to do any of that, buddy. They're going to be worried about their own backside. The reason a lot of times people don't want you to move is because they don't want to move. And when you do, it puts them under more conviction. All I'm telling you is to be obedient to the Lord. If He speaks to you, you move. If He don't say it, man, fine. But Moses returns, and notice the absence in this passage of music. The first thing Moses does is not step up and say, now Aaron, what we need to do is get us a choir and get a couple of congregational hymns and let's go ahead and get our singing started and get everything moving in the right direction. And then I got a great message that God gave me. You know all Moses did? He stepped up there in front of those people and he said, alright, who's on the Lord's side? If you're on the Lord's side, then you're with me. Get over here. And if you ain't, we've got something for you. You've got a parting gift on the way. We're so glad you attended today, and we're so interested in making sure that we keep you, that we're going to tolerate the foolishness that you just did, damning a nation. But hey, you know what? People are people, and that's okay, and you know how God is. He just lets that stuff go. That's not what happened. He said the positive side. We'll get there in a second. He gives a public invitation. He calls them to separate themselves from among themselves. They had a shot right there to repent. God gave them a chance right there to say, you know what? I've been wrong. You know what I've seen people do? I've seen people say flat out to me, face to face, eyeball to eyeball, Preacher, I know you're right and I know I've been wrong, but you know what, Preacher? And then give me a list of reasons why they can't do right on decisions. You know, the hardest decision that Christians make, it's not really fighting against sin, it's separating from sin. You say, what is sin? Disobedience against God. God tells you, I want you here to be a preacher. And you say, well, that's fine. I want to be a businessman. You're in sin. Still attending church. God says, I want you over here as a businessman. You say, well, I want to be a preacher. And God says, you're sinning. You say, why? Because God said, I don't want you to be a preacher. Listen, God calls you to preach. Thank the Lord. If He don't call you to preach, thank the Lord. But you know something, ladies and gentlemen, we have a real problem today, and our problem is when God calls us to be separate and come out from among them and separate ourselves from the things that we love and the things we're attached to and all that, all of a sudden we find out what we love. And you know what we love? We love those things more than we love Him. We got Isaacs in our life. Moses just says, look, I'm tired of the foolishness. Who's on the Lord's side, get over here, and who's not, don't make no difference, and calls them out publicly. And then notice what happens when He calls them to separate. And He said unto them, and the sons of Levi, He said, they stood in the gate, and He said, all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto Him. Now, Moses stood up and said it, and then all the sons of Levi's come up there and stand with Moses. And watch what Moses tells them to do. And he said unto them, the sons of Levi, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side." The sword gets returned to the proper place. Now it's time to fight. It's not time to play. Now it's time to divide. It's not time to unite. Now it's time to do surgery and cut out the cancer. It's not time to throw a Band-Aid on it and put a little Bactine on it and kiss the boo-boo and everything's going to be okay. This is rough. There's going to be almost 3,000 people that are going to die in a bloodbath here shortly, and these boys that have to kill them, I want you to look at who they're killing. A girded sword by his side and go out from gate to gate throughout the camp and slay every man is... Wow! Brother, companion, that would be wife or husband, that would be in this case wife, brother, wife, companion, and neighbor. God's been camping the tent next to you. You know, the Lord said, they're not on my side, kill them. How'd you like that? Buddy, the civil war ain't got nothing on the Bible. You say, well, it's brother against brother in that great struggle called the civil war. There's a civil war right here, buddy. This is their own people. And Moses says, who's on the Lord's side? And the tribe of Levi steps over there, all the sons of Levi. And Moses says, get your swords. And they're like, what? So get your swords. Now, here's what I want you to notice about this. Notice there's a personal responsibility to weed it out. God doesn't just destroy it like He did Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. You know what He says? You're on the Lord's side, you have a responsibility to separate yourself from those people that are standing between you and me. And you've got to look at them eyeball to eyeball. By the way, if anybody's ever messed with a sword or a knife very much, that's a close order drill. You've got to look somebody in the eyes while you're stabbing them. You don't stab them from 300 yards, you know, just wink at them and that kind of thing. I mean, it's close order. That's a guy looking at his brother. You know what? At the point of the sword, these people still refuse to repent. Yeah, go ahead and kill me. Yeah, go ahead and kill me. God's God of wrath. Yeah, look at that. Yeah, see, I'm just over here doing my thing, worshiping my God and that kind of stuff, and your God's going to kill me? God didn't kill them, the people did. And folks, what I want to tell you is that there's a personal responsibility on your part to separate from anything that stands between you and God or anything that may drag you to worship something other than worshiping God. I don't care who it is. Friends, family, preachers, pastors, prophets, anybody that gets between you and God, it's biblically wrong and it will destroy your fellowship. You say, why? they'll pull you away from God every time. You know what you're in effect saying when you don't do that? You're saying you love them more than you love God. You won't want to be in that number when the time comes of the judgment seat of Christ to have that held up against you and say, well, I gave you an opportunity to show me which one you love, but it's obvious you loved it more than you loved me. I've seen people love their jobs more than they love God. See, we have all kinds of ways of working it out, don't we? Justifying it. You know, making it okay. Or God understands. No. Now, hold on a minute. You'd like to think God understands. But God doesn't always understand everything we give Him credit for understanding. Verse 27, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses, And there fell of the people that day about 3,000 men." How come the men fell? Because God held the men accountable for the shape of the nation. Pretty big responsibility, isn't it, men? I'm a little tired of hearing it all be blamed on the women all the time. The women, the women, the women, the women, the women, the women, my foot. The women were doing the dancing, the children were doing the dancing, all that kind of stuff. How come God killed the men? Because the men were responsible for not making their wives do what's right to do in the sight of God. Do you ever stop to think about that? Do you ever ponder that for just a minute? That means children are without parents. Wives are without husbands. No grandparents. That's a generation that's going to be destroyed right there. Three thousand people died that day. You know why? Because they refused to repent. When Moses said, who's on the Lord's side? Some of the people that were doing wrong stopped their foolishness and got on the Lord's side and said, okay, okay, alright, alright. You know how you get another chance? You repent. These people refused to repent. I want to ask you a question tonight. If God put that same thing on you, could I just ask you a question? Would you be able to do it? Come over to the New Testament, look in the book of Luke. Now, this is what you call rough preaching. Luke chapter number 9, you're familiar with the passage. A certain man said unto the Lord in verse 57, Lord, I will follow Thee with us wherever Thou goest. Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, and the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. And he left Him. The guy never followed Him. You say, why? He didn't want to give up his riches. And notice, it's a man, it's not a woman. Second case 59, he said, and do another, follow me. And he said, Lord, suffer me first, go away and bury my father. It's a man. And he said, you say, why? Family ties are more important than ties to the Lord. That guy's got an opportunity to follow the Lord Jesus Christ and probably become one of the apostles, or at least one very close to Him, one of the disciples at best. And you know what he says? Well, Daddy, you know Daddy. You know Daddy, Daddy, me and Daddy. We're Daddy. We're close, you know. And I don't even get the idea that Daddy's dead yet. We're going to wait for Daddy to die, and then after Daddy... You know what this indicates? This indicates he's got family ties that are greater than his ties to the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm sure that's not any of you. And then there's a third case. And the Bible says, and Jesus said to another, Lord, I will follow thee, but first let me go bid farewell to them that are at my home. You say, what is that? Friends. They can't turn loose of those friends. You know what? I bet it's difficult for you. There's another passage over there. It says, if a man love me, he'll keep my word. Let him take up his cross and follow me. If a man love his mother, brother, sister, husband, wife, and so on and so forth more than me, he cannot be my disciple. But that's just not preached to you. Putting Jesus first is talked about tongue-in-cheek nowadays. It's like a joke. It's not serious. When we say, Jesus first, it's like, well, Jesus first, but you know, I've got my wife and I've got my family and I've got my kids and I've got my aunts and I've got my uncles and I've got my mama and I've got my daddy and I've got my husband and I've got this and I've got this and I've got this and I've got this. Then Jesus ain't first. You know why our relationship with the Lord is drying up the way it is? Because He ain't first. That's Southern for He is not number one. everything else moves in the way. Business, family, everything to do with finances, friends, anything you can think of. You know what happens is that all of a sudden that choice comes. Now I bet some of you, you have opportunities to do things on Sunday and the Lord will say, now we'll have church here on Sunday night, be glad for you to be there. And somebody will come up and say, you know, it's just Sunday night, you know, why don't we And you know what you have a chance right there to show? You have a chance to show what you love. Now, next time that happens, next time you're at work and the guys are getting going out to have a, you know, a beer or whatever they do after they get off of work and stuff like that and your wife's waiting on you at home with dinner on the table and the kids are waiting there and they're all washed up and ready, you just go on and go and your wife, she won't care if you go ahead and go with the guys. It's no big deal. You see, you're expected to be someplace, folks. You're expected to be there. The table's set. Dinner's ready. Somebody took the time to prepare a meal for you and put it on the table and did all the stuff, get the house straightened up and clean, get the kids washed up and all that, and get them seated at the table. All they're waiting on is for you to come so you can partake of the meal, maybe help bust the suds after the meal's over with, and they're waiting on you. I tell you what, when that person comes at 5 o'clock and says, hey, man, we're going to go out and get some chicken wings and a Coca-Cola, you know, why don't you go ahead and come with us? You go ahead and go and see if it don't turn that family topsy-turvy. You go ahead and go and see if it doesn't upset that wife. And you know I'm telling you the truth. But you know what happens? You'll go ahead and make the choice, well, guys, I've got to go home, you know, my wife's got dinner on the table, you know, I've got to go ahead and go home. And the Lord said, I had dinner on the table the other night and you didn't bother to come by. It was the problem. Well, I had something else to see and something else to do and somewhere else to be. I mean, Lord, you know I love you, really. Your actions really show me you love me. Now, all I'm saying is, folks, is it is time, and I'm trying my best to restrain myself tonight so that you don't get upset. I want you to get the message tonight. It is time that we wake up and really realize that what we're saying and how we're acting are two entirely different things, and we are sending a whacked-out message to that world out there, let alone other Christians. let alone our own families. We serve God when it is convenient for us. When nothing else is in the way, when nothing else is going to cost us anything, then we jump on the bandwagon and serve God. But listen, you know, I mean, after all, that's what Christianity is supposed to be, right? It's just a matter of convenience. It's just something that you do whenever you have time to do it. After the grass is cut, after the house is painted, after the car is washed, after the carpet's vacuumed, the dishes are put up, all the dinners are made, and everything is lined up and ready to go for Monday morning. Okay, well, I guess I could go Sunday morning, but I can't go Sunday night. You know why? I need to rest. Man, I'm just tired. I've got to get ready for work tomorrow. What did you do yesterday? You rested on Saturday? Well, preacher, I have things I have to do. When I get home, I have responsibilities. That's what I said, you see? When it comes down to costing us something, you know what we do? We pull back from it. It's like, I don't know, I think I've done my portion. We're not all in. No, I wouldn't have you raise your hands for that. I was going to say, are there any poker players in here? I can help you out. Isn't there a thing like when you've got all these little chimps or something like that? Don't shake your head. Isn't there a thing where you've got these little chimps or something and you shove them all over there and you say you're all in on roulette wheel or blackjack or whatever, everybody just freeze. Don't move, you know. Trust me, there is such a thing. Alright, now listen. Here's a Christian. I'll bet a little bit, but I ain't putting it all in. See, you know what? As long as Christianity, as long as Jesus Christ doesn't conflict with our comfort level, we're fine calling what we call serving the Lord. Right? Really, as long as it doesn't cost us anything, as long as it's not difficult. You know what we do? We say, hey, I'm good with that. It's okay. But the first time there's the slightest little bit of grind, let me ask you, what is the first thing to go? The first thing that goes is church. It's the first thing we don't have time for anymore. That's the strangest thing in the world. That's like a doctor that says, I've got this medicine for you, all you need to do is drop by and get it. Well, you go by and you get it, and you go by and you get it, and you go by and you get it, and you go, okay, fine, and then all of a sudden, you know, you're out of medicine, and you got stuff to do, and you say, hey, doc, you know, I need some more medicine, and he goes, well, you're gonna have to come here to get it, and you're like, well, I ain't got time to come. Well, if you don't come get it, you're gonna die. Well, I know, listen, it'll help you, it's gonna get you well. Well, I know, but I just can't make it by right now. Okay, I'll see you in the graveyard. And the very thing that will help you is the first thing to go. Your marriage gets in trouble, the first thing that will help you is the church. You know it's the last thing on your list to do. You've got time to move. You've got time to this. You've got time to that. You've got time to fix. You've got time to work. You've got time to this, or whatever it might be. The last thing is on your list. You know, sooner or later, I guess I need to get back to church. Like, hey, you know what? Honestly, I think the Lord is like, you know what? If it's that much of a bother, don't bother. That's the holidays coming up, and I know it's a special time of the year, and I want everybody to have a wonderful time and all that kind of stuff, and we're going to have a Christmas Eve service here on Christmas Eve, and if it hair-lips your family, I'm sorry, they can go ahead and go with them. Or bring them here and let them be hair-lipped while they're here. That's fine. But I'm having a Christmas Eve service. If there ain't nobody but me and my wife and some of my friends, we're having a Christmas Eve. I don't think of any better place to be on Christmas Eve than here. I ain't looking for somebody coming down the chimney, man. I'm looking for Jesus Christ coming in the clouds. That don't matter to me. Now, if that's what you want to do, it's fine. I don't care, really. Honest. But I want you to listen to me for a minute. We've gotten to a position in our church and in other places in Christianity today that if it's ever going to cost us or there's going to be a grind or there's some kind of a conflict, you know what we say? You know, please have me excused. I really don't think I can do that. And I think that at this time of the year, if I'm invited to come to somebody, let's say Brother Gene and Miss Sandy, they invite me to come to dinner at their house. And I say, I appreciate it, brother. I'll be glad to come over there. And then I pick up the phone and I call my wife and I say, we've got to go to Gene and Sandy's for dinner. And just so happens that I forgot to hang up my cell phone while I'm calling her on the hard line, and Brother Gene hears that. Now, I could be wrong, but what would be your response to that? Your response, what would it be? Yeah, that's what I thought. That'd be a nice way to say what you're really thinking. Amen? Yeah, you know what he's really thinking? Hey, preacher, don't bother. Don't do me no favors. You know what? I'm setting the table. We're making a turkey. We're going to have all those fixings, the dressing and the taters and the green beans and all the other kind of stuff, and hot biscuits and cranberry sauce and blackberry jelly and everything else you can think of, man, and pecan pie and all the stuff you're supposed to have this time of the year. We're going to have all that stuff. But hey, you know what, preacher, if you don't want to come and you don't really want to be here, don't do me no favors, okay? I can't stand sitting at a dinner table with a prune sitting over there that don't really want to be there. They want to be somewhere else. You know what I'm going to say? Get up and get out. I'll tell my kids, my grandkids, you know what I'll tell them? If you don't want to come, don't come. I don't want you here because you've got an old guilt monkey on you. You had to pack your suitcase on the way here because you're on a guilt trip. Hey, I'm not into that stuff. I don't want to lord it over somebody else. If you don't want to come, don't come. Now watch. I want you to come to church. But I'm not God. I can't look in your heart. I believe church will help you. I believe worshiping God will help you. I believe reading the Bible, studying and praying will help you. I believe assembling yourselves around other Christians will help you. But if in your heart your attitude is, well, I guess I've got to go. Somebody will say something if I don't. I think the Lord sits up there and says, don't bother. I'd rather not have a bad spirit at the table. If you don't like what I'm serving tonight, we're going to have collard greens. Man, I had some turnip greens the other day. They've got to be done just right for me to eat them, brother. But boy, I won't tell you. Anyway, if he's going to serve broccoli and turnip greens and all that kind of stuff, and you don't want to come, you say, I don't like to eat over there. You know what? Honestly, I believe, now I'm speaking for the Lord, and I could be wrong, but you can correct me with the Bible if you can. I think the Lord will say, don't bother. You say, why? Because if you don't want to hear what he has, he ain't going to eat what he's got to give you. He's not going to stuff it down your throat. He is not going to make you. He is a gentleman. So would you like to have this? I don't want it. Thank you. He'll say, okay. Luke chapter 9. Want to go with me? Sure. Well, hey, we ain't got nowhere to live, nothing like that. You have to sell everything you've got. Nope, don't think yet. Okay, see you later. Bye. No forcing, no begging, no pleading, no nothing. Christians, we have got to get the understanding that when it comes time to separate, it's the time when God finally calls us to duty and says, hey, you've got a choice right now, right here, this moment, right now, we find out what you're made of. Showtime! Everything you've trained for, everything you've worked for, everything that you've done has come to this moment in time right now. And buddy, let's see if you've got the goods. Can you be man enough? Can you be woman enough to step away from anything and everything that stands between you and God? Well, preacher, you just take this stuff a little too serious. I really believe in eternity. Do you know that, brother Larry? I really believe that one day I'm going to be up there. And you know how long I believe I'm going to be there? Forever. I think that that is more real than what I'm doing right now. I feel like I'm in like a time warp right now. I know you think I'm nuts, but you really think I'm nuts when I'm done with this. I think I'm in a time warp right now. I think I'm already seated with Him in heavenly places, and He brought me back down here in the little capsule, and He's got me here trying to encourage you and tell you, hey, this preacher's telling you the truth. You better make the decision now, because once you get up there, your decisions will not count for anything. You've got a chance now to show Him that you love Him, that you care about Him, that you're sold out to Him, that you want to please Him, that He's number one in your life. Your opportunity is now. Say, well, I don't know, preacher, you know, I just kind of feel like, see, see what I'm saying? What kind of Christian is that? I've been reading some books and I admit that it corrupts you when you read the books about your ancestors. I mean, Hebrews 11 is full of them, sawn asunder and tied up in sheepskin, and they're over there tied to stakes and given to bears and given to lions, and they got one group of little teenage girls out there, and they brought them up out of the catacombs and put them in prison, and then they brought them out there to the lions, and the lions were over there stomping on them and eating on them, and they were singing. And they called to the Caesar over there and said, get the gladiators in there and kill them. We can't stand listening to them sing. Oh boy. A bunch of people that took over an African country and they got into that country over there and they found the church and they ran all the people out of the church and started killing them and took all the women out and began raping them. And the story is told of this one girl who just began singing, blessed assurance, Jesus is mine, oh what a foretaste of glory divine. And those men finally didn't take it anymore and they laid her head back and took a knife and slit her throat. Couldn't match the smile she had on her face. That's your ancestry. You say, why? When the choice came, the time came, when it came time to find out if they were really in the game, buddy, they stepped up. Everybody wants to get in the game. You ever notice that? If you're sitting on the bench, you know, put me in. Come on, coach, put me in. Come on, coach, put me in. And they throw you the ball and you fling an air ball. And then you wish you hadn't of got there because then you could continue to be a legend in your own mind. You know, well, if they'd have put me in, I'd have won the game. If they'd have put me in, the Lord finally says, okay, hey, hey, hey, your turn, come on, get in the game! And you're like, well, you know, I really wanted to, I'll be honest, I wanted to get in the game tonight, but you know, there's this special coming on TV. Tevo it and come to church. Or whatever that thing is. I don't get that. I'm telling you that the way to get restored is, is preaching gets restored, but you have a personal responsibility to make decisions for yourself. So how are you doing? You know why Christianity is a mockery in the United States of America? Because of how we live as Christians. Can I be real personal with you for a few minutes? You're supposed to be the cream of the crop. You have the Bible. You've had preaching all your life, most of you. You've been around it. You can rightly divide it. You study it. You've got a relationship with the Lord. We're supposed to be the point of the sphere. And we've got so many gaps in our ranks, it ain't even funny. You say, why? Because when the pressure comes, you know what we say? Something else to see, something else to do, somewhere else to be. Doesn't this sound like the kind of service that would encourage you to just keep coming back all the time, Brother Brad? Nonetheless, it's the truth. Our testimony, the outside world stinks, but even more than that, our testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ that bought and paid for us is a stench in the nostrils of God Almighty. He's like, I don't know if I can count on Him or not. I mean, I can't even get Him to stand up against their friends and family, let alone go stand out there in the world with hungry lions. I mean, we can't even stand the small test. Listen, if they did start rekindling the fires at Smithfield, how many of you really, I mean, honestly, how many people do you really think would be able to, willing to say, hey, go to jail, cost me my houses, cost me my land, cost me my wife, I'm over here in a jail cell waiting to be burned at the stake, and they're being falsely accusing me and plastering my picture over somebody else. There's a couple of good of them going around, plastering your face on somebody else's face, and having you doing the next thing you know, you're sitting there, they're going to try you and put you in the Coliseum, get a chance to preach there. And you get up there in front of that Coliseum, you're standing there in chains, and they're getting ready to let the lions loose on you. And they say, well, if you'll recant, we'll either make your death quick or we'll let you go. That's your ancestors. We can't even turn off the TV for 30 minutes to get a little prayer time in. Folks, I'm just trying to prepare you for what's coming. I'm not trying to be hard on you, but I am trying to be truthful with you. We are weak Christians. We are weak. Come to 1 Corinthians chapter number 11. I'll get back to this in just a second. 1 Corinthians 11. Gentlemen, if Lord ever allowed me to have a men's meeting here, this is along the lines that I would preach to you. You say, you preach like you have it all down. I'm preaching right now. I don't claim to have it all down. You should know by now, if you've been here any amount of time at all, that the focus is not on me, and I am not your poster child for Christianity. Jesus Christ is. But nonetheless, don't be looking at my life. You look at His life, and you find in the life of Him and those apostles anything contrary to what I'm telling you right now. What happened to the days you were willing to sell out to Jesus Christ? I mean, buddy, there were days you'd throw CDs on the altar up here. You'd throw car keys on the altar. You'd throw anything that you thought stood between. Don't worry, we're not going to do it. But there were days when you loved God so much that you thought anything was between you and Him, you were willing to give up anything. I mean, it didn't matter. I mean, if you thought God would ask you for it, buddy, I mean, just like that, you'd give it up. You know why? Because you loved the One that gave it, not what He gave. But now you've gotten fat and sassy, and you love what He gave, and you ain't about to give it up. And that's the truth. You know what that does? It breeds weak Christianity and it breeds a Christianity. You want to know how to reach the teenagers? Stand for something. Well, picture, you know, I just think the problem today with the teenagers is, you know, we need to have movie theaters and we need to have that. You know what we need to have? We need to have biblical Christianity that they can see every day in their lives. Somebody that's man enough to stand up for the Lord Jesus Christ and say right's right and wrong's wrong and we ain't doing that. Nowadays, kids think they've got to file a claim with HRS if they don't have a TV, a computer, a BlackBerry and all that stuff in their bedroom with a lock on it saying, do not trespass. I'd trespass and that door so cotton-picking fast, I'd kick that door, slam off the hinges. Tell me I can't go into one of the rooms in my own house? So I'll file child abuse against you. Go ahead and file it. They'll put you in a foster home. Then you'll find out how it works. Help yourself. Have a good time. Enjoy yourself. You're not going to manipulate me like that. I'm not talking about being mean. I'm simply saying, folks, there is a time period coming right now called the falling away, and you are in the midst of it. And if we are supposed to be the point of the spear, look at our own ranks. Forget about everybody else. We can't take it. Y2K comes, man, you talk about a bunch of cotton-picking, hand-wringing, man. Oh, my God! What are we going to do? Eat beans, I don't know. What difference does it make? And then it doesn't happen. There goes your credibility down the toilet. There's your chance to prove your faith and to say, hey, man, my Bible says that God says you need to see the righteous forsaken, or us for begging bread. And the Bible says, my God will supply all your needs through His richness and glory. My Bible says for me to be content in whatsoever state I'm in, and with food and raiment there would be content. So if that's how God sees to do it, fine. God doeth all things well. But instead, you know what we do? We go the way of the whole world. And we start preparing for the apocalypse. Listen, buddy, if World War III is coming, you know one thing I know about that? I ain't going to be here for the period right prior to it, and I'm going to be on the right side during it. You know, is this Armageddon? Heck no, it ain't Armageddon. I'm still here. I'm saved. I don't know about you or not. I'm still here. I'm not going to be here when the hair thing goes up in smoke. But she's going to go up in smoke. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to have a ringside seat. Come get your tickets! Come get your tickets! Come on! Come on! Come see the greatest show of all! What is it? Jesus coming down here and destroying all of His enemies, and setting up a throne, and bless God, turning the whole earth into a place like the Garden of Eden overnight, and peace will rule and reign, and the Lord will lay down for the Lamb? I am telling you, I'm going to have a ringside seat for that! I don't care if He does it right now or not, but why? He's got to haul me out first. Is this the apocalypse? Losing your money, the apocalypse. Where is that in Revelation? Man, you've got ghouly monsters and blood and guts and beasts and all kind of demons and devils flying around all over the place and death and murder and cannibalism and that kind of stuff. It's the apocalypse. The economy is going to collapse. I kind of like it. Gases prices come down. I think you've got your prayers answered. We've been praying for you people that drive an hour, two hours. You know we've been praying, God, that they can't keep paying four bucks a gallon. God, come on, you've got to do something to work this. You want me to do something? Yeah, well, please. Whatever you need to do, just get the gas prices down. I paid $2.82 today. $2.82. I'm like, man, the car you put this in here, honey, somebody's going to steal it or something. I mean, I'm like, you know, and it don't ring $80, man. I fill it up and it's like $60. I'm like, Honey, quick, give me the receipt. I didn't pay for whatever the price of the machine. It must be messed up. I mean, it took me a while to register. God answers prayer, don't He? Gas prices are down. I realize things have tightened up just a little bit, but come on, people. You know what happens? You're being tested today. You say, why? Because you're in the last days of the vineyard. You've been called into the vineyard in the last days. And God wants to give you a full reward just like you've worked there for the whole time, but it is going to cost you something and it's going to cost you the willingness to be separated from everything and everybody else that stands between you and God. I'm talking about selling out. I mean, lock, stock and barrel. Now, let me ask you a question. When you married Miss Trish, I'm going to put you on the spot and I'm confessing. If you don't want to answer, you don't have to. Okay? When you married Miss Trish, do you think that when you married her, Do you think when you married her that she wanted you to be sold out to her or she figured you had been high school sweethearts and all that and that, you know, Larry, it's okay if we get married, but, you know, if you want to date some other people and see some other people and kind of hang out for the first few years we're married, just for a little while, I understand. I know the answer to that. She expected you to be sold out, didn't she? 100% to her, right? And you expected the same thing from her, didn't you? Do you know what comes to Jesus Christ? We expect Him to sell out to us, and He did. And when He comes to us and He says, hey, you sold out, well, Lord, I've got this list of conditions. Did He sell out or not? Am I telling the truth or not? Some of you look like you're about to throw up, man. We're going to get some barf bags for you. But what I'm telling you is, you see how fickle we are? You see how carnal we are? We expect from our wives and our husbands and our children, we even expect it, and you should learn by now from your politicians that it ain't going to happen. But nevertheless, you expect them to be 100% sold out. Jesus Christ, He didn't say, I'm coming down and I'm going to give you 100%. I'm going to let you know that I... He just went and did it! He just went and died for you! Paid the whole price! I mean, took sin upon Him and said, Hey, not my will, but thine be done! And allowed Him to be crucified! And went into hell and paid the full price! And came up and He said, Okay, in case there was any doubt about my commitment to you, just look at Calvary. And then He says, Now, could I ask you a question? How about you? Well, Lord, see, modern Christianity has taught you that it's okay to serve God when it's convenient. That's not biblical Christianity. That's modern Christianity. Biblical Christianity requires you to make a sacrifice, and guess what goes to the altar? Anything that gets between you and God. But you know what you say? I don't know. Barabbas or Jesus? Crucify Him! Crucify Him! Crucify Him! I want my way. Because in effect, that's what happens. You say, oh preacher, it's not like that. Buddy, you don't understand the magnitude of the judgment seat of Christ. Every decision you make in light of spiritual things has an eternal ramification. Really, it does. And when God gives you a chance, listen, he's sitting there saying, man, ring the cash register. I know Brother Brad's going to come through. I know he's going to make the right decision. I know he's going to pick me over them. I know he is. And if Brad goes, well, you know, Lord, I'd really like to, I mean, Lord, I know, you know, I love you, Lord. Now, look, you know I love you, but I, but I, but I gotta, but I gotta go, Lord. Oh, preacher, you shouldn't be putting me under this guilt. Okay, alright, look, let's make a practical application. Okay? Brian comes home. Jennifer's not in here, so you can tell the truth. Brian comes in here home and he says, Hey, honey, how are you doing? She says, I'm doing fine. She says, How come you're changing clothes? Well, honey, I'm going out with the guys. Well, honey, you know, me and Caitlin and Peyton, we were just kind of thinking, Peyton, kind of thinking we might, you know, have some dinner tonight, some chicken breast and some broccoli and cheese and stuff like that, and we've got everything ready for you. Well, honey, now you know I love you. Well, honey, the kids have spent this whole time getting the dinner ready and everything, and couldn't you just sit down? Honey, you know I love you. I really love you. But honey, I've got to go. I need to be with my friends. I need some man time. Now, you really think that Jennifer's going to believe He loves her? You know why? Because that kind of love that don't cost you nothing is not real love. You say, what is real love? For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. It costs something. It's an action word. It's a verb. It means that you give up what you want to do for the benefit of somebody else. You have a chance to prove it to your husband. You have a chance to prove it to your wife. But more importantly, you have a chance to prove it to Jesus Christ. And you know what happens? You just let it go. And nobody wants to remind you, because I can tell you right now, it sure ain't popular. I'm not trying to hold you over a barrel. If I'm saying anything that's untrue, I pray God will wipe it out from your mind and heart and you just go on your jolly well way. But you better do this. You better start taking the matters of Jesus Christ seriously. Your time is running out. You better start making the right choices and you better start making them now. A fun fellow told me one time when I got through, he said, I'll not have anybody threaten me like that. Okay. You'll face Jesus Christ one day and you'll wish to God you'd have listened. Did I give you 1 Corinthians? 1 Corinthians 11. It's a passage on the Lord's Suffering. Notice what the Bible says, verse number 26. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till He comes. Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, so let him eat that bread and drink that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body." That simply is physical damnation, having physical problems. How do you know? Verse 30, "'For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.'" I got to looking at that passage the other day when I was reading, and I got to thinking to myself, I know that's talking about the Lord's Supper literally, but I wonder how many people have taken of the Lord Himself at Calvary's cross, but kind of took it from an unworthy position and chose to put Him back up there and let Himself go free. If that might be why we're so weak today. I'm talking old-timey religion. I'm talking old-timey relationships. I'm talking, boy, I want to be close to God at all expense. I don't care who or what it hair-lips. I'm going to do what God wants me to do no matter what. I mean sold out. But we're weak today, aren't we? Back to Exodus 32. I'll try to wrap it up. We've said a mouthful already. Personal responsibility. Notice He said, every man, every man his sword. You say, what is that for me, preacher? Right here. And ladies, that doesn't allow you to get off. You've got a personal responsibility yourself. Ladies, you're the one raising the kids. You know what you've got to do? You've got to put your own sword by your side. You've got to have your own relationship with the Lord and find out what God wants you to do in light of the Bible, in light of your families. And even if your husband doesn't do it, 1 Peter 3 has got you covered backwards, forwards, coming and going, ladies. So I've got a husband that ain't fit to tuck guts to a bear. Okay, 1 Peter 3, it fits you perfect. Read it. You set the right example, God will have him come along like a poodle on a string. God can do all things, can't He? Well, He can turn that mealy mouth or that sorry husband of yours into a good husband, but you know what he might be waiting on? He might be waiting on you to get off your blessed assurance and start doing what God wants you to do. You're not going to hide behind your husband all your life, lady. You're going to have to keep doing what God tells you to do, and you know what? You get the judgment seat of Christ, it's not going to be divided by families. I'm sorry to tell you that. You get up there, you know what? I'm not trying to be hard on you now. You get up there to heaven, folks, and it's not going to be, well, let's have Mr. and Miss Peacock here, and let's have Mr. and Miss... It ain't going to be that way. It's you, every man, shall give an account of himself unto God, personally, individually, one-on-one. No, Lord, the husband you gave me, Lord, the wife, that stopped in the garden. Every man is sword. You have a responsibility, ladies, to have your own relationship. If your husband's a cotton-picking drunk, if he is a sorry, good-for-nothing, rotten, won't-work, lazy, good-for-nothing man, you have a responsibility to have your own relationship with the Lord. Gentlemen, if you've got a wife that is a stinking pig and she is worthless and you can't get out of the situation that you're in, you know what? You have a responsibility yourself to have that sword by your side and do what's right by God and leave the results to Him. You've got to have a little courage to do that, though. It's hard. I'm fortunate. I don't have to fight that battle. And I pray for you if you do. But it doesn't relieve you of the responsibility, nor me of the responsibility of telling you the truth. Every man is sword, individually, personally. It's not a group hug thing. It's what God wants you to do. Like now. Back in the days of the American-Indian War, they called for volunteers and stuff like that, and a better one than that is Doolittle's Brigade. When they got ready to have all these guys go on this secret mission, they're going to fly over here to so-and-so, and they got ready to ask for volunteers and said, chances are it's a suicide mission. but it's for your country and we're going to go drop some bombs over there in Japan and this and that and the other." And they said, we'll call for volunteers now. Every man that would like to go, step forward. And that entire brigade stepped forward, knowing they were going to die. American Indian War, asking for volunteers. We have Indians that are raiding the settlements out here, and the French are coming in, and the British are doing so on and so forth, and the French are coming in over here, and we need some people to go help the other houses, and people, they're burning their cabins, and they're burning their houses, they're burning their fields, they're burning their crops, and they went through these towns, and these men had had no men in the place over there. They stepped forward and said, we'll go. Leave their wives and children behind. They ask a man, why did you do that? He said, well, I would hope that after I'd gotten killed and my wife and kids had their house burned down, their crops burned, that some other man might step up and come defend them for me after I was gone. Jesus Christ asked you today to step out after you'd been saved. If He asked you today to just step out from that thing that stands between you and Him, and I don't know what it is, but God does, would you have the courage tonight to step forward and go, here I am, Lord, I know it's going to cost me, but I don't care. Being with You is more important. Would you step forward? What if it cost you your boyfriend or your girlfriend? Companion. What if it cost you your neighbor? What if it cost you your own blood, family member, brother? Here I am, Lord. Not my will, but Thine be done. You know what's best. Keep my eyes on eternity. You'll straighten it all out there. They'll laugh at me. They're going to mock me. They're going to make fun of me. They're going to ridicule me. They're going to say all kinds of things about me. But Lord, they did that to You while You hung on the cross. Lord, not my will, but Thine be done. Give me strength. Give me grace. I'm going. You say, well, you know what happens? They start laughing. They start mocking. It's Calvary making fun of you. Come down off the cross. Come down off the cross. Come down off the cross. Come down off the cross. Yeah, and the second you come down off the cross, you know who goes back in your place? The one that's already been there. You know what he's saying to you tonight? You know what your friends say? You know what your family say? You know what your freedom says? You know what your finances say? I'm going to get another F in there somewhere. You know what all of those things say? They say, come off the cross. Get off the cross. Come on. Get off the cross. Stop that. Crucified life. Sold out the Jesus stuff. Come on, man! It has become something now that is simply popular. You talk to anybody, everybody's a Christian. We're a Christian nation. Oh boy, aren't we the poster child for a Christian nation? The Muslims that you people are so concerned about, and I realize they're a dangerous organization and all that kind of stuff, they live cleaner, more holy lives than you do. Even though they have a few more wives than you do. They ain't got any sense anyway, do they? One's enough. That's funny. Y'all need to breathe a little bit. You're getting like, whoa, you're getting way down there. You've got to let you come up with some air. Kristen, I'll ask you a question. If you knew they were going to lock you up I'm going to put you in jail. You're not going to see your family again. Have you stand before a priest and either deny Jesus Christ, or get burned at the stake, or pulled apart by horses, or put inside Bloody Mary and have the stuff put on the rack, or have your eyeballs plucked out of your head and have bugs put up inside your head, have your entrails torn out and fed to the pigs while the pigs ate you, Have you tied up just high enough off the ground so the pigs can get to you and cut your feet so the blood runs out so the pigs come and start eating you from the legs up? And your family's standing over there and your kids are standing over there. I'm giving you actual accounts out of Fox's book of martyrs and out of the martyrs' mirrors back in my office. And the family's standing there and tears running down their face and the wife's saying, Honey, honey, don't deny Jesus. Honey, don't deny Jesus. Honey, it's okay. I'll see you when we get to glory. Honey, it's okay. It's alright. pass out from the pain and come back to and pass out from the pain and endure all that stuff until they want to die? And you're standing there and you're next? I'm not saying that I could do that. Don't get that impression. But I am saying this, if I can't even turn loose of things down here on this earth that get between me and the Lord, I sure couldn't withstand that. Your mind has to be made up now that when the time comes, buddy, you're going to ante up. I would never do this, but in Russia they did it one time. There was a preacher over there, I guess had a mean spirit in him or something. I know you can't imagine a preacher with a mean spirit, but he came in, had a guy come in the door in a mask, him and a couple of guys, and they got in all the doors and racked back those Uzi machine guns and said, If you're for Jesus Christ, get on this wall, and if you're not, get on this wall. And when they realized that they were going to get killed, that preacher said real quick he could determine which ones were the real Christians and which ones weren't, because part of them went over here, but the majority of them went over here. And then the guys pulled off the mask and they were members of the church. Of course, they had a huge church split and all that. But it's a great illustration. But if you get sued right and left nowadays, there'd be people falling out of heart attacks, man. You've ruined my kids. They'll have post-traumatic stress syndrome and all that kind of stuff. Post-traumatic stress syndrome, all that. But in Russia, there was a day where if you were meeting in a place, the KGB could come in. You know what they'd do? They'd torture you right on the spot and kill you. You know what they kept doing? They kept meeting anyway. That's your ancestors. Grabbing pieces of the Bible and running through the woods from guys on horses and with guns and stuff and trying their best to get away just so they could get that precious Bible in the hands of somebody else willing to risk their life because nothing else mattered to them but the story of Jesus. They lived their whole life underground to try their best to propagate the gospel. All they cared about was when's the next time we're going to meet. Big clandestine meeting they're going to have and they send out words secretly that we're going to have the Lord's Supper. They're going to meet down in a little cave, a little hollow in the woods, and about midnight, everybody begins to very quietly and easily slip down through the back trails, and they get off into those woods over there, and they got this one bottle of grape juice, and they got this one loaf of bread, and they all get around, and they whisper the song while they're singing it, trying not to attract any attention, but somebody had tipped them off. And the police came over the top of that rise on horseback, and killed the women, and killed the children, and killed the men. Very few escaped. You know what the account of that story is? Is that they went out with the joy of the Lord because they were serving the Lord when they got killed. And we have hard decisions. We're not ready for what's coming because we're not sold out now. You can't wait until it happens to make the decision. You've got to make the decision now. So when it happens, you can act. You better make your mind up if you're going to be a policeman, Brother James, that if you want to go home to your family, that you don't have to solve or resolve the moral issue in your mind of whether or not you should or shouldn't use deadly force if your life or somebody else's in danger. You better make that decision now. Or it may cost you your life. Christian, I don't know what's coming, but I can clearly see the state of the day's church and the state of the day's Christians. And we better make decisions now for what could be coming, because you know what will happen? If we don't, when the time comes, we will make the wrong decision. We'll protect ourself. That's if our history is any proof. Let's go to Exodus 32 quickly and I'll close. Verse 29, the Bible says, Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves in the day of the Lord, even every man, upon his son and upon his brother, that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day. It's passed down in the families. Gathering around the table and praying passing on the consecration that, hey, buddy, this is serious. What just happened, boys, what you all just saw, these 3,000 men that died, you know why they died? Because something got between them and God. And God saw fit to have them killed. Now, kids, you need to realize, let that be a lesson to you. Don't let something get between you and God. And then he says, and it came to pass on the morrow, Moses said, the people you have sinned a great sin. He's going to go make an atonement for them. But notice in verse number 33, the Lord said to Moses, Whosoever sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My book. And then He tells Moses to pick up and start leading and leadership gets restored. But then the Lord plagues the people. You see that right there in the last verse? 35, the Lord plagued the people because they made a golden calf which Aaron made. They reaped what they sowed. Whenever you start worshiping something ahead of God, plagues follow it. even though you might have been forgiven for it. It'll cost you. You make a bad decision, you get off the train, you know what happens? The train leaves the depot, and then you go back to the train station and try to jump back on it, and the train's long gone. And you're saying, Lord, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Lord, I'm really sorry, Lord, I'd like to get back on. The Lord says, well, the train's done left the depot. And if you did hop back on, it'd take you a long time to get caught back up. You say, Lord, I'm going to start chasing the train then. I'll do what I can. I know I deserve that, but I'll do what I can to get back on and get what I can get." But you know what most Christians say? Fine. That's how it's going to be. What's the point of trying? The Lord said, there's the motive of your heart. Christian, you have a decision to make. I think you have a decision to make right now. This moment in time. I think as far as eternity is concerned, that there will be a time when you are up there at the judgment seat of Christ and the Lord will play this day, this time, this hour back. Because I think the decisions that you make today will impact the decisions you make for the rest of your life. And I think that what we need to do right now is strongly consider whether or not we're really sold out. Now, I think that's a positive message because I can't think of anything better to be sold out to. The preacher, are you going to have us stand up? No, because if I have somebody stand up, if I say, well, we'll stand up and say that they're going to stand for the Lord, and one stands up, you know everybody's going to stand. I'm not even going to give an invitation. God knows your heart. And if the Lord spoke to your heart, you know what you need to do. You need to bow your head. I'm going to have Miss Pat play. We're just going to pray for just a few moments, and we're going to go home and say, I've got some things in my life between me and you, and I've got some golden calves, and Lord, I don't want them there anymore, and Lord, if you call on me, you can count on me. You can count on me. I'll be there. I'm deciding right now, Lord, I'm sold out. Right now, I'm sold out. This moment, right now, I'm sold out. And Lord, when the tough decision comes, if it comes between my family or my friends or my companions or my neighbors or my job, Lord, You're number one. You're number one. Make that decision and when the choice comes, there won't be no choice. The Lord will come up to you one day and He'll say, hey, I need you to do so and so. You won't think, well, Lord, I don't know, man. You know what you'll say? Lord, I made that decision back then in October, whatever the day's date is. Lord, I decided then whatever you said goes. I'm fine. I'm there. Let's go. Close this illustration. I have some friends, believe it or not, some of them that if it were three o'clock in the morning, If I had to pick up the telephone to call them, the first thing I would hear is, my God, preacher, it's 3 o'clock in the morning, what do you want? You know what they'd say? What do you need, preacher? They know I wouldn't be calling at 3 o'clock in the morning if it wasn't something. I'd say, well, man, I'm in a ditch over here upside down and wheels are spinning around, my car is messed up, man, I need somebody to come pick me up and take me to the hospital and get my car out of the ditch. If I'm going to grab my riches, I'll be right there. You say, what does that mean? That means that they've already decided if the preacher needs some help, they'll be there to help me. So if the time comes, they've got to call me, you know what they're going to do? They're going to be there. I don't have to say, now listen, brother, you know, after all this stuff, you know, you and I are real good friends, right? Right. Well, you know, I mean, we've been friends a long time, right? Right. Yeah. Well, you know, I wouldn't have to do that at all. Say, hey, man, I need some help. You know what the Lord wants to do? He wants to be able to look at you and say, hey, come follow me. Don't hesitate. You say, why? He'll lead you. Not in the sense of your salvation. But He will leave you in the sense of fellowship. Hey, want to follow me? I do. But first, He's gone. Now, heads are bowed and eyes are closed tonight. God spoke to you along those lines. Ask yourself this question as Miss Pat plays. Number one, am I truly, sincerely sold out to the Lord Jesus Christ 100%? I've said 100%. That's tough. I know that's tough. That's hard. If not, why not? Well, I'm not a preacher, but I want to be. Okay, we're on the right track. There's something sticking you up there. Something rearing its ugly head saying it's a little more valuable to you than He is. All He's saying is, am I number one? Look, I'm not going to have some sort of a drive and call some sort of a program or something like that. There's no hooks in this. None. I'm just saying you need to make the decision now. It's Jesus first. Others second. And I'm last in the totem pole. That's the message tonight. How about you? God, whatever you want, whenever you want it, however you want it, that way when the question comes, there's no decision. I'm going to do what the Lord wants. you
Make Your Choice Today, Cont.
Identifiant du sermon | 1029081641420 |
Durée | 1:12:20 |
Date | |
Catégorie | dimanche - après-midi |
Texte biblique | Exode 32 |
Langue | anglais |
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