I was talking to Gary. I said, now, people come in here wanting these trucks, SUVs, men and women. And I said, what's that? And I said, what are they saying about the gas mileage? You ain't told me, Max. He said, there ain't one set of word yet about the price of gas. That's money. People got money. Yeah, when you act like that, you got money. Okay, Matthew chapter number 11 says, and it came to pass when Jesus made an end of commanding his disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities. Now, when John heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, said unto him, art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto them, go and show John again those things which ye hear and see. Praise God, the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk. The lepers are cleansed. The deaf hear. The dead are raised up. And I love the hound out of this. And the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he whom shall not be offended in me. As they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out in the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind. What went ye out to see? Man clothed in soft raiment, that wear soft clothing are in the king's houses. What went ye out to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written, hold thyself in my messenger before my face, or thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there is not risen a greater than John the Baptist. Of course, that's a natural process of man and his wife having children. Christ didn't have a human father. Now we stand that he that is leased in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffered violence and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied unto John, if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. I'm gonna talk to you about some observations about John the Baptist. Father, we love you, we thank you for Thanksgiving time. And dear God, soon Christmas time. Overwhelmed, dear God, this time of the year. God, how appropriate it is to give thanks, God, for the birth of Christ. And God ought to give thanks, Lord, to the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ and His ascension. So, Lord, may Your will be done in all You do, and we'll praise You in Christ's name. Amen. Salvation is a person. It is not a prayer. Salvation is not a baptism. It's not walking to an altar. It's not a ritual. Salvation is Christ. If you've got the Son, you've got life. If you don't have the Son of God, you don't have life. And that's what it all boils down to. Now Moses in the Old Testament desired the presence of God. Is that not what we desire? The felt presence of God. To know the Lord's there. That's what all this is about. God making a way that he can be with us. That's the purpose of salvation and of redemption. God getting us where he can be with us. God wants to be with us so he can take us to be with him. and praise God for that. I mean, we don't merit that. There's no rhyme or reason in this thing why God would desire us. Now, we ought to desire him, but that he would desire us is an amazing thing. But thank God he does. John the Baptist is one of the most interesting personalities in all the Bible. There's things said about him not said about nobody else. This man's different. This man's unique. He's unique in everything he did. He wasn't born like normal men. He sure didn't live like normal men. He didn't die like normal men. This is the forerunner of Christ. This is the man that God sent. to tell the world, to tell the nation of Israel, he's coming right behind me. And he is the great forerunner of our blessed Lord. He was born to parents who were way past the ability to have children. I mean, the Lord promised him a child, but like Abraham and Sarah, been a long time in waiting. Here's what Jewish history says. It says that Zacharias was 100 and Elizabeth 90, just like Abraham and Sarah when John the Baptist was born. Man, you talk about a celebration when that boy was born. Everybody rejoiced at his birth. They rejoiced on behalf of his mom and dad. They rejoiced in what all the implications of this were. Did not a lot of people, if you got saved dramatically and people saw the change, but they rejoiced. There's rejoicing in a soul really being saved. I'm not talking about professions now. I'm talking about real born again, real regeneration. But there's rejoicing. There's rejoicing in the center. There's rejoicing, everybody knows them, that know God. And then thank God there is rejoicing in heaven. John the Baptist had a miraculous birth. You and I had a miraculous birth. I mean, I'm observing things about him that's so spiritually about us. We could not be birthed. There was no power to birth us. We couldn't birth ourselves. Nobody else could. So God intervened, and God did the birthing, and we're thankful to God for that. Are y'all happy about that? Say amen. Thank God for your amens. John the Baptist had his name given before he was ever born. Oh yeah, it's told Zacharias who he'd be and what his name would be before he was ever born. My name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life from the foundation of the world. How's in God's book? Forever got in that hospital book. How's in God's book? For I was ever in my mom and daddy's little book. For I got my little shoes bronzed. I don't know if anybody does that anymore. That used to be a big deal, get your little shoes bronzed. Hey, God knew me before I ever knew him. God loved me before I ever loved him. God made a way I could come to him before Adam was ever even created. I mean, this thing, you think about it. There is a truth that we've existed as long as God has, because we've been in his mind. There's never been a time you wasn't in God's mind. Now, don't try to understand that. If God never learns anything, He didn't learn your name. Let that sink in. He's always known you. He always knew who would be the redeemed. He's always known who would be saved. He had that thing so settled, He wrote your name down. Christ is a lamb slain before the foundation of the world. He already submitted to it. always back yonder he was a lamb's lamb. That's why he's eternal son of God. Again, don't try to understand this stuff. You'll have a short circuit in a hurry. It can't be understood, but it must be believed. Aren't you glad that you serve a God you can't understand? but it gives us enough proof that it's reasonable to believe it at the same time. Oh, think about all of these things that God knows. God knows everything about you. He's always known everything about you. Somehow God let that sink in, but it came. God knew everything about you forever. He's always known everything about you. He knew who your grandparents were. He knows everybody in this world your kin do. He knows every thought you ever had, but he's always known it. He's always known it. He knew how to plan to get the gospel to you. He knew how to plan to raise up a church you could sit in. He prepared a preacher to preach to you. He prepared people to pray for you. And he's always known that. It's not always been executed, but He's always known that. God knows how many go as far back as you want to. God knows it all. God knows every thought you ever had. God knows every word you've ever spoken. God knows the intent of your heart in every situation. God knows every action you've ever committed. And in spite of all that, He loved you and made a way that you could be forgiven. That impresses me. He's always known it. He's always known you. Let me say it again, y'all ain't getting this. He's always known you. There's never been a time God didn't know you. You've been in his heart for eternity. You've been on his mind for all eternity. God made a way man could be created. Then God made a way that man could be redeemed, amen. God said about Jeremiah, for you is ever born, I knew you. I knew you. You know what God told David? I got all your members written down in my book, for you is ever born. God's got how many toes you got. God's got your arms right. He got every member you got wrote down. What's that mean? That's the significance that God puts on us because it's not us, it's his significance on Christ. We ain't nothing except him. God ain't pleased with you, he's pleased with Christ. God ain't never been pleased with me, he's pleased with Christ. You ain't never lived to date, God's pleased with you. But he's pleased with Christ. And because he's pleased with him, he's pleased with me. I've never done nothing he's pleased with, because I'm not perfect. But thank God he's pleased with the one that saved me. Well, God named Cyrus 150, 200 years before he was ever born. Why? He knows all things. Those of you that don't have children are gonna have them. He knows what their name's gonna be. He knows where you're gonna live. He knows where you're gonna work. He knows how much money you're gonna make a lifetime. He knows how much your wife's gonna blow. Amen. Why would God let us know all this stuff? To let you know you can trust Him. He knows all things, I can trust Him. I'm significant to Him, I can trust Him. He loves me, I can trust Him. He keeps His Word, I can trust Him. I'm telling you these observations about John the Baptist let us know how important we are to God Almighty. But it was stated that the parents of John the Baptist were filled with the Holy Ghost. Both of them. Yeah, yeah, you want to get your mind in a flex, in a twist. Think about this, John the Baptist filled the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. What about that? Say, explain that. Why you think I'm gonna try to explain what can't be explained? I ain't got a clue. But I know what the Bible says and it's right. He was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. What all that means and implies, I don't know. But God made a way. When you got converted, God could live in you. John the Baptist ain't got no corner on us. He was, he had the Holy Ghost in his mother's womb. You've had him ever since you were saved. Luke 1 14, his parents rejoiced at his birth. We're still rejoicing. You ought to live in a way people rejoice that you're saved. You all with me? Boy, that's right. You ought to live a life. These people are rejoicing because they got saved watching you. That'll be something you've had an impact on. Amen. Y'all rejoice together and you're going to rejoice because the money you give, the prayers you pray, we're all this thing together. And if you're participating, what one does, we all do. We're a body. Some of the hands, some of the feet. But we make an effort. God blesses, God touches people. He don't give me the liberty to go preach in meetings and help young preachers. Everything they ever do, you gotta part in it. Amen. The whole world labors together with God and we shall rejoice together. John, the Bible says to be great in the sight of the Lord. I'd say we must be great to him for him to do what he did. God can make you great. Amen, young'uns. God can make something out of you. God has the ability to take a bunch of nobodies and make somebody out of them. Where you don't have to go around with your head hung down, cause you a nobody. I tell you when I met Jesus Christ, I become a somebody. Not cause what I've done, who I belong to. He owns me. He bought me. He loved me. And your savior did you too. Amen. I don't know how in the world I woke up with my throat like it is, but I did. Here's what God is preaching to do next week. God help me. I'm begging for your prayers. Amen. Filled with the Holy Ghost. What a mystery. How do you explain a baby full of the Holy Ghost in his mother's womb? How do you explain the mystery of the new birth? How'd you get birthed? It was invisible. And the Holy Ghost created a new man inside of you. He created a new nature inside of you so he could dwell in. How do you explain that? How do you explain things you used to have a bit of concern for, now you love. Things you used to love, now don't even appeal to you. You know why? You got a new man in there. Now, if you live according to that old man, then that old man wants the slop of the hogs, but that new man wants perfection. That new man wants God. Oh, the mystery of the new birth. Amen. I'm thrilled about that. I know you are too. John the Baptist was a powerful witness. Hey, you ask God, if you've never experienced it yet, ask God to give you an experience of salvation that everybody will believe. I want something believable. There ain't no victory in all this doubting stuff. I want something praise God. Blessing assures Jesus is mine. That's what some of y'all want. You want the same thing. You wanna know it, you wanna know it, you wanna know it. And thank God you can know it. He gonna let some of y'all know it. How many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God? Is that not what we're doing? church. We're trying to turn people to righteousness all these years. Well, I started out before I even come here in the early 80s being on the radio all these years. I meet people all the time listening on the radio. I don't even know who they are. You wouldn't believe the people listening to our radio broadcast every day. I mean, tons of them. One of the most listened to radio, or it was, I guess it still is, because it's the perfect time. 3.30, a lot of people getting off work, and they're turning off. One of my old buddies, sometimes he'll give me a text, you're burning up the radio, you're burning it up, you're burning it down. This sure pays for that. This church backs that. All these meetings we have in this church, this church funds that, pays for that, feeds people, loves people, cares about people. Thank God we're doing this thing together. We're trying to turn people to righteousness. Sister Melissa, a pastor last night, told me, he said, you would not believe the help our women got down there at that women's meeting. He said, then they got them books by Amy Edwards, and there's still a gleaning off of that. Don't that bless you? Thank God to let us do that. All churches can't do that. All churches can't accommodate 275 women in one room. Praise God. He let y'all do it. What? Trusted you with it. He trusts you to be kind to people. He trusts you to show people how to love, how to pray. That's what he does. We're trying to turn people to righteousness, not just salvation. That's just the start. Our whole life's full of turning others to righteousness. Hey, man, what a blessing. Let me read this to you. They that be wise, I'm talking about people, this is two. They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever. Now, I would not believe that if God didn't say that. Brother Bullet, let me tell you what this is saying. It is saying we'll shine like the brightness of the light of the noonday sun and as the stars forever and ever. That's what he said. Now that's literal. I don't know of any other way to take that than literally. Shine as a brightness of the firmament, the heavens, and as the stars forever and ever. Boy, it's wise to obey God. It is wise to love God. It's the greatest wisdom you ever had to serve God. It's the greatest thing ever happened to you to live by faith and to serve him and to serve his people and to love his people and to back up his word and to turn people to righteousness by your life, by your lips. By your support, turning many to righteousness as the stars forever and forever. You do that by leadership. You do that again by your list, by your life, by your long suffering. By you knowing a lot of people ain't what they ought to be. A lot of people aren't saved. A lot of saved people aren't mature. That's where you once were. And somebody was long suffering with you. And somebody helped turn you to righteousness. Helped turn you to a prayer life. Helped turn you to devotional life. Helped turn you to the importance of God's Word, God's house, God's people. Even if people think about this, if this community never Obeys the gospel preached from his pulpit, this church is restrained and evil. It ain't near as bad as it could be. It's bad enough. You take the salt and the light out of this thing, it'll be pure brute beast, that's all it'll be. Thank God we help the slow of the decay of the community, the brightness of God's wise ones will shine, it says, forever and ever, and they shall never fade. Don't you think about what this is saying. We don't have light within ourselves, our light's Christ. So he's the sun and we're the moon. We just reflect the light. That's what he's talking about. In the new Jerusalem, there'll not be a sun in the sky. Christ will be the light of that city. He's gonna be reflected off of all his people. We're all a moon, some of you just bigger moons. We're all a cup, some of you just got bigger cups. And the Bible says that we'll shine, if we're wise, we'll shine as the brightness in the stars forever. What about Lucifer? He's called the shining one. Lucifer was a orchestra, had all them pipes built in him, had all that music built in him. He's a choir leader of heaven. He's above the throne of God. His whole being is like diamonds and jewels, wherewith he reflected the light of God throughout all of heaven as he's above the throne. God's light, he reflected it like a diamond. We're taking His place. Oh yeah. We're taking His place and we're gonna reflect the glory of God. He never don't know me or yesterday or the other, whenever I worked this up. He never don't know me. What all that is saying, we shall replace the devil and his fallen angels and reflect the glory and the light of God. Amen. Your brightness here is on temporary. Whatever you achieve here is temporary. That's forever. Yes, you'll never faint. You say, well, hey, what's that gonna be like? Don't ask me. But it's there. It can't be denied what I just said, it's there. Now that means something. God's talking about stars. He's talking about light. He's talking about people lit up, shining like stars. Man, hey, some stars got more glory than others. Some of God's people's gonna shine more than others. That's all inference of 1 Corinthians 15. Verse, notice this, he should go forth in the power of Elias or Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. What's that mean? I wanna show you what that means. Some of y'all are living proof of this. Before God saved you, you didn't care about nobody but yourself. You didn't live for your wife, you didn't live for your children. You didn't train your children, you didn't have nothing to do with them being productive citizens or even knowing God. You was off to your own self, living your own world. But when God saved you, and I pray you was at a young age when he did, you started turning your heart to the children. That's what that means. And no longer are you just living for self, you're living for the future of your children. You are living in a way that your children can know the truth and know the light of God's Word. And you are preparing them by putting them in church. taking them to Sunday school, taking them to church service, taking them to power conferences. All these things we do to point that child to God, because God's turned our heart to our children. Boy, these people in here, man, love your children. But you never show them greater love than when you pour on them, when you turn your heart to them so they can have a future and know the true and the living God. And the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Is that not what we're doing? I was aggravating y'all about Sister Carolyn. Aren't you glad you can pour it? Do you understand, people, the wealth having your girls under her and Donna teaching them? Do you know the wealth of that? My God, this church has got one of the greatest privileges. Anybody in this world. Cause that's the wisdom of the just. Being imparted to the disobedient. That's what we do. We point our children. You know, it's like I'll use Brother Luke here. Brother Luke, get to praying in the Holy Ghost. You point your children to the wisdom of the just. He didn't get like that overnight. That's been a process of living for God. It's cost him something to get that, what he's got. And you point your children to people that live for God, got faith, stay with it, are faithful to the things of God. Amen. That's why, you know, you get tired of hearing it, but I don't get tired of telling it. That's why I thank so much of my parents. My heart of total disobedience, rebellion, turn to the wisdom of just. And the older I get, the wiser my daddy is to me. He's bigger to me right now than he's ever been in my whole life. You know what? He stayed with it. He never wondered from it. Amen, never veered from it. Isaiah 40, the Lord spoke of John the Baptist 700 years before he was born. The voice of one crying in the wilderness. This is Isaiah 40 verse three. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare you the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. What makes straight that highway? It's repentance. Repentance breaks up the fallow ground. Repentance removes the obstacles. Repentance removes the hindrances. That's why John is preaching the message of repentance. That they repent of a dead religious system. And there's one coming down the road who is a lamb of God who will take away the sin of the world. You know what some of y'all are doing? I'm gonna tell you what you're doing. You may not even know you're doing it. You're waiting for the coming of the Lord. And God's preparing your heart to receive him in salvation. That's what he's doing. God always does that before he saves somebody. He prepares the way of the Lord. And he starts working repentance in your heart. And you get sick of what you are and what you've done. And you get such a desire to know God above all things. That's God, the Holy Ghost preparing your heart for the coming of the Lord. That's what the church used to be doing in our day. It's getting close to God, preparing ourself for the coming of the Lord. Verse number four, every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, the rough places plain. What's the Lord saying? To build a road, a gorge. A lot of valleys, you gotta fill them in with dirt. And mountains have to be lowered to go over the top of them, to go around them, or to go through them. Boy, you go up to Bluefield, West Virginia, you got a tunnel on the, up there at Whitville, you got a long tunnel on the North Carolina side. It don't take a whole lot to hold your breath through that one, but buddy, you get to that next one. They better not be doing no 45-mile an hour in front of you, because it's gonna take all you got to hold your breath through that second one, especially if they're going slow. That thing's longer. They went right in the middle of that thing. They went right through that mountain. That's what God's talking about. He knows how to build the road so the king can come and dwell in your house. Amen. When the way of the Lord is prepared, the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. And all flesh shall see it together, the glory of the Lord will be revealed to every prepared heart. That's what he said, amen. The voice said, here's what, the voice says, what should I say? What should I cry? The Lord said, You tell them all flesh is grass, and the goodliness thereof is the flower of the field. The grass withereth, and the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people is as grass. Here's the message. You're going to fade away like grass. You're gonna be like a flower, that its beauty fades away. No matter how beautiful a woman is at 20 years old, her beauty's gonna fade. No matter how strong a man is at 21, his strength is gonna fade. That's what you understand. And those of us getting up in years, we look back and say, where did it all go? It's gone so fast. We was always told it would. But now we know. We're just repeating. Have you ever noticed that? When you get older, you're just repeating what your parents told you and your grandparents told you how it's gonna be. And if you got wisdom, you'll take advantage of these days of your children being young so you can develop them. You've heard me say this. You can bend a sapling, you can't bend a tree. When those children are little, they can be bent. You can bend their will. You can't do it when they get older. Oh no. This whole world, it's gonna be gone. We're gonna run through this thing and it's gonna be over before we even know it. Make your mark. Take advantage of the moment. The moment God gives you the opportunity. It says here John the Baptist would also be the first man to practice the ordinance of baptism. Nobody got saved by baptism. It's what it represented. Christ got baptized, he wasn't a sinner. He couldn't sin, he's the son of God. He got baptized, why? To identify with us. The waters of death. He's identifying what he's gonna do. What's baptism for? Baptism is a picture of the death, birth, and resurrection of Christ. You go down into the waters of death and you come up to walk in newness of life. That's Christ. He went down into the waters of death on the cross, but he is raised from the dead and raised in newness of a resurrected glorified body that he did not have before he died. John's baptizing repentant people. and they said, we want you to baptize us. John said, I don't baptize unbelievers. Oh, baptize us. He said, bring me fruit. Bring me the evidence you repent and I'll baptize you. I'm not baptizing you in your pride. You ain't repentant of your religion. You've not repentant of trying to work your way to heaven. You've not repentant of trying to make yourself good enough. When you repent and know that only God can save you, then you're ready to be baptized. Now the preacher represents Christ when he baptizes you. You can't baptize yourself. It has no biblical authority. Nobody's got the authority to baptize but the church. And the church gives that authority to the pastor. If they want a young preacher to baptize somebody, the church has the authority to do that. But the preacher baptizes people, you don't baptize yourself. You didn't baptize yourself into God's family, the Holy Spirit did. When you got baptized spiritually, you got baptized in the body of Christ. When you got baptized spiritually, or physically, you're baptized into the church, the body of Christ. Only the Lord can enable you to die to self. You don't have the power to do that. He gives you the power to die to you. So you're walking in the newness of life, I'm about done. We can't keep our soul in our body. You can't demand your soul jump back in your body when you die. God's in control of death. He's in control of all of it. Only he can give you life. Oh, the preacher can put you under the water and it mean anything. Baptism don't add your salvation, but it's an act of obedience. That man of God has the authority to put you under that water. And nobody but him's got it. Amen. He that worketh in us both the will and the do of His good pleasure. He works His stuff in us. We don't possess it. You don't have the power to save yourself. You ain't got the power to live for God. You don't have the power to change your heart. You don't have the power to change your mind. The Lord does all this. Now I wanna skip to the last of this thing and say a few things and I'm done. John the Baptist did all these mighty works. Man, they come out from Judea. That's Orthodox Judaism. They even come from Galilee. Cause all the early disciples of Christ were the disciples of John the Baptist. So they come from all over Israel. He baptized them by the thousands. What do you think prepared the early church for all them converts on the day of Pentecost? And all that massive explosion to where Josephus said 100,000 were converted in the church of Jerusalem. Here come all these converts to John. Now, they didn't understand what all that meant then. All they knew was the king's coming, and I need to repent of my sin to prepare the way of the Lord. Their knowledge was limited, but they took God in all they knew Him to be at that particular time. That's what they did. And then the Lord died, and then it's revealed to them the gospel. and then they were saved, born again in the New Testament sense of the term. Now, notice this, John the Baptist put in prison. This thing ain't turned out like he thought. He's preaching the Lamb of God, but in his own mind, had God overcome with the fact Christ's gonna rule and reign, he's not delivering Israel from the domination, the oppression of the Roman Empire. He hasn't set the nation free. John the Baptist is getting this thing mixed up. He's got to be the Lamb of God for him to be the lion of the tribe of Judah. He's gotta be the sacrifice for him to be the king. Christ is revealed as the Savior. Our problem's not who's dominating us, as far as the political realm might be. The problems are hard, till the heart gets right. Till God takes care of that sin problem, we can't be right. So John the Baptist had the amazing mission of identifying who Jesus was. See, that's what he did. More than just baptized people, the baptismal repentance, John the Baptist identified the Messiah. That's his major, major, major mission. He's down by the riverside, the Lord comes down there. He is the Lord's cousin on his mother's side, Mary's side. and he knew him not. Doesn't mean he didn't know who John the Baptist was. John the Baptist knew who Jesus was. He didn't know he was a messiah until that day. And the Lord come walking down there, and the Holy Ghost got on him and said, there he is, identify him to the world. And he said, behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. And then he saw the heavens open up and the Father said, this is my beloved Son, whom I'm well pleased. And the Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove and rested on Christ. Now, dear people, he saw all that, but he got in prison and he started doubting. How's that possible? Well, how's it possible that we doubt? He's not sure he's identified the right one. Or, there's another train of thought. I gotta get this out here. The Jews believed in that day. Some believed that Christ and Messiah's two different people. That there had to be one that died for the sin of the world, and then a different Messiah would come to set them free from Roman occupation. Well, those two were just one. But that's what a lot of them believed. John the Baptist is in prison. He's about to be beheaded. But he didn't sign up for that. He didn't know that was gonna be part of it. He thought he was gonna rule in the name of Christ. So the problem, he sends his disciples to go ask Christ, are you really the one? Or do we look for another? You ever doubted whether or not you knew Christ? If you're saved, you probably have. You probably went through doubt. Times come, you get depressed, things turn backward, your prayers aren't answered, and the devil throws all that down on you. How do you know you're safe? How do you know you belong to God? Hey, you're in good company. So did John the Baptist. He wasn't sure he knew the Lord. He wasn't sure he identified him properly. So he sends his men back to ask the Lord. Are you really him? You know what Jesus, Jesus didn't say I am. Jesus proved it by what he did. Jesus told him he's doing things that only God can do. He said the blind see. And the deaf can hear. And the lame can walk. And the dead are raised again. And the common man has the gospel preached unto him. Old John Baptist said, that's all I need to hear. That's all that's him. That's him! And that quickened faith back in his heart. Have you got anything in your life that when the devil comes to aggravate you and confuse you, whether you're saved or not, do you have anything to point to that happened in your life that only God could have done? That's what you look at. You don't just look at a trip in the altar. Is there a continuance there? Is there anything you can point to knowing only God could have done that? I tell you right now, I ain't breaking. I'm just telling you the truth, buddy, I can. If all I got is a trip to the altar as a boy, July the 13th, 1969, if that's all I got, I ain't got nothing. If that's all I got, I ain't got nothing. I got a lot since then. I got chastisement. Buddy, I run from God, he took me to the woodshed. Hey, he straightened me out. He didn't take him 75 years to do it either. He straightened me out. He gave me a love for the church. He gave me a love for God's Word. He gave me a love for God's men. He gave me a love to have fellowship, hallelujah, with God and the people of God. Thank God there's things in my life only God could do. Amen. Now that's what'll keep you going. Amen. Lee, I'd say me and you been sorry Christians. Me and you both been sorry Christians. And I ain't you, but I know him enough to see the God stuff in that man's life right there. Oh yeah, I see things in him that only God could do. Cause I knew him, B.C., before Christ in A.D., in the year of our Lord. That's what I'm talking about. Amen. Geritol and Jessica down there, I mean Gerald and Jessica down there. Hey, I see things in y'all's life only God could have done. And if I see it, I know you got to see it. So devil comes and says, how do you know you belong to God? Because these things God's done in my life, I could have never done. I'd never even desired it. I mean, Max back there when he got converted, raced a while longer, put Jesus saves on the back of his car. Ain't that awful, terrorizing them boys, you're gonna go to hell while he's out there out running them. You couldn't have paid him to do that. No, no. What does that? God does that. God does that. Thank God. John the Baptist, have you got anything in your life? Hey, his whole life's what God does. Brian, if John the Baptist doubts, you know we're going to. Jesus said, that's the greatest man ever been born, a woman. He doubted all that evidence. That just goes to show you, when you get in a dark place, like a prison. You start having mental problems. You start, your mind starts slipping. Discouragement, depression sets in and it's a physical thing. And buddy, your mind shuts down on you. And you start getting Alzheimer's about what you've experienced with God. And then somebody say something like Jesus said to John the Baptist and it all comes back. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I called Brother Bill Dyson one time. Woman come to him and said, Brother Bill, should I be in doubt whether, said the devil's been telling me I ain't safe. He said, say what? What'd you say? Yeah, the devil's been telling me I'm not safe. Well, when did the devil start telling you that you're not safe? She said, when I got saved. Before you were saved, he says, you're all right, you're gonna be all right. You get saved, he never stops dogging you. And if you got saved and you're so convinced of it, he can't stop you there, he'll try to steal your effectiveness. You pray like, put all that doubt in there, praying don't work, praying, what are you doing praying? Why go to church all the time? They ain't no need in all this stuff. He puts all that doubt in your mind. Why? To keep you defeated. Can you imagine, sister, let's you go. Can you imagine, Rick, Can you imagine if John the Baptist had died in that condition? What it would have done? Boy, God got him back in faith and got him back on praying ground. Amen, aren't y'all glad he done that? Boy, I thank God for John the Baptist. And I thank God for all you John the Baptists in here and you Brian the Baptist and Rick the Baptist. But the important thing ain't the Baptist part. The important thing is the Jesus part. That supersedes it all. I have somebody with me to bear my heavy load. Brother Michael Judd, that's one reason I know I'm saved. Cause I've had fellowship with him. Not like I won't do, but I sure have. Michael, you ever been up here like teaching or whatever you do, you ever been doing that and you feel God quick in your mind? give you liberty in your thoughts, that's the Holy Spirit. You ever witnessed somebody and you just felt God set that thing up and you felt that power? You ever prayed and God the Holy Ghost come to help you pray? Now, buddy, if you're saved, that should happen to you. Him come to help you pray, intercede for somebody. I'm working up a bunch of sermons just on Christ. I've been working them up. I bet I worked up 10 sermons this week, trying to get ready. He's our advocate. Do you know what that means? He's our intercessor. Yeah. He's our great high priest. All that's got to do with the nasty now and now. That's why we've got a great high priest. I can't wait to get on all that stuff. It's glorious. Glorious.