Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Well, yeah, thank you. While you're standing... This is crazy. Thank you. I hit the wrong guy up here. I was going to say, while you're standing... Let's turn to Romans 6, okay? Romans 6. Pastor, I'd like to invite you to my funeral. Those are just nice words. Matter of fact, when this service is over, I'm going to sign my own Bible after that one. Amen. I've never been more impressed about myself. I'm not that good. I'm not good at all, as a matter of fact, without Jesus and without Him. It is so good to have all of you here, even Gary Bialzo. God bless you. I have known Gary since he was a newlywed. And I don't tell everybody this, but he was one of my students, yes. You don't know how to respond to that, do you? But he was a mess. He was a mess. The one redeeming factor in his life is his wife, Patsy. And the people said, oh yeah, oh yeah. Gary, that was a bit too strong, as a matter of fact. Amen. Amen. Good to have Dr. Adams and his dear wife here, and I'm feeling such conviction because I think I meant to write a letter to you congratulating you for 30 years of ministry. So on behalf of everybody at Christ Church Baptist Fellowship in Houston, congratulations for 30 years of faithfulness to the Lord, faithfulness to the call of God on his life, faithfulness to your wife, praise the Lord, and faithfulness to preach. Amen. And Pastor Mutcher, thank you so much for the invitation to be with you. It is an honor and a pleasure. My room is OK. The basket is fantastic. It's now half empty. Thank you so much. But my time is a little bit different than your time. So I feel like it's later than it is. So that may work for your favor, because I have been known to be long winded. Oh no, no, you don't know what you're asking. Yeah. So I have about 733. Pastor, is there any certain time you'd like for me to be finished with? Yes. Okay. I just love to have freedom. That doesn't mean I need to take it. I mean, you know, all right, this is fine. But anyway, look at Romans chapter 6. This is my first time to have ever preached here. And I don't always have permission to do what I'm going to do tonight, and that is preach a subject that was, other than salvation, was the greatest truth that ever changed my life. And so when I get to go to a place, it's one of those sermons, pastor, that I I just kind of ask the Lord for permission. Lord, may I preach this here? Because I've never been here before. And what changed me might be able to change some of you. And so it's primarily a message to believers. How many believe that believers need messages every now and then? And what I'm praying for tonight is not a sermon. OK, not a sermon. but a message. We hear so many sermons, but oh that we might have a message from the Lord that could be life transforming. So with that in mind, let's look at Romans chapter 6 verse 1. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into His death. Therefore, we are buried with Him by baptism into death, and like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is free from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died into sin once. But in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it, and molest thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What, then, shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid! Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin and the death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin, that ye have obeyed from the heart. That form of doctrine which was delivered to you. Let's remain standing. We'll have a word of prayer and then please be seated. And we thank you, Lord, for letting us be here at this wonderful church. Thank you for these 28 years you've given this church. Thank you for the pastor obeying you and getting out here to this place. Now, as we're gathered in this midst, Lord, we're thankful for the health that You've given us to be here, to be standing here. We couldn't praise You enough, Lord. We just couldn't praise You enough. But please accept our thanks for the health to be here. Now, Father, we pray that You might give us an open mind and an open heart and open ears. You said, He that hath ears, let him hear. So, Lord, help us to turn on our ears to hear what You have to say to us. We understand that in the message, Lord, that we hope to be giving tonight, that the powers of darkness would be at enmity against this message, that the devil would hate for this message to be received by God's people, especially those that are struggling. And so we pray that you would bind the hands of Satan and that you release the Holy Spirit to do His work. You said where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty. The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. So if we take the letter of the law and try to minister without your Holy Spirit, unction to function, we'll fall flat on our face. And we'll have been just as good to stay at home, if not better. For the letter killeth. It will slay us. But oh, your Spirit gives life to that letter. So we pray that the Holy Spirit might take full control of this preacher and of the listeners. So that the words of truth might be inculcated into our hearts down deep. Changes. And here's what we promise to do, give you the praise and the thanks. In Jesus name, Amen. You may be seated please. In July 1969, Michael Collins, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin went up to the moon. The first men to the moon. Hard to believe that there was more technology, there's more technology now in the dashboard of the Ford Taurus than there was in the entire space mission that got manned to the moon and back. They were on Commodore technology, if some of you can remember that. I mean, they were not one notch above IBM's Selectrics. Unbelievable. And probably here in Portland, Oregon, you don't know the very first word that was uttered from the face of the moon. Well, I won't keep you in suspense any longer. Here it is. Houston. Houston Tranquility Base here. The eagle has landed. And even you young people that were not even alive at that time have perhaps seen that little news clip of Neil Armstrong taking that one small step for man, that one giant leap for mankind. Following him was Buzz Aldrin. He was the second man to walk on the moon. While Michael Collins went around the moon in the Columbia module, the Eagle landed, explored a little bit and then they got back in the ship and they had one, one rocket, one chance to get back to the Columbia module and it fired and they got back and then back to the earth. They received the ticker tape parade and they received the heroes welcome, the lights that had not been seen nor since, since World War II. Folk heroes. Even when Armstrong recently died, the world stood still for a moment and everybody went back in time and remembered July 1969. Remember it was July 1979 that a reporter did an interview of Buzz Aldrin. It was now the 10th anniversary of being first on the moon, 1979. Reporter thought that she was going to get a real scoop and a real story here. And she said, tell us, Mr. Aldrin, you were first on the moon with Neil Armstrong. Give us insight about how far we've come since we were first on the moon. And things have changed from the lining on your skillets that you cook with to the weight of your vacuum cleaner. to the smartphone that you use was really birthed in the space shots that America made, especially the Apollo shots. That's when technology really took a giant leap for mankind. So much has changed. Tell us, Mr. Aldrin. Give a statement. that says something about how far we've come since you were first on the moon. Parenthetically, I need to tell you this. Buzz Aldrin, ten years after being first on the moon, lost his mind twice. He lost his family in divorce. Keeping that in mind, tell us, Mr. Aldrin, Give us a statement about how far we've come since you were first on the moon with Mr. Armstrong. I'll never get his answer, Pastor. He said, well, they taught us how to walk on the moon, but nobody told us how to live on the earth. They taught us how to walk on the moon, but no one told us how to live on the earth. If I may take so auspicious a title for the message tonight, I would like to speak to you on this subject, how to live on the earth. Jesus said in John chapter 10, verse number 10, the thief cometh not. How many think he is? He's Lucifer. He is Satan. He is the destroyer. He is the accuser of the brethren. The devil. The thief cometh not, Jesus said, but for to still and to kill and to destroy. He wants to steal your joy. He wants to kill your everlasting blessedness by obeying God. He wants to destroy your marriage. He wants to destroy your life. He is the destroyer. The thief cometh not but for to still and to kill and to destroy. Oh, I love this conjunction. But, Jesus said, I am come that she might have life. Can somebody tell me how he said we're going to happen? More abundantly. Everybody just holler more. Look at the person next to you. Just kind of holler more. That's what I'm talking about. More. More what? Just more everything. More joy? More real joy? More blessedness in marriage? This old world out there thinks they know what marriage is all about and what love is all about. They don't have a clue. I don't need to take marriage lessons from Brad Pitt or the late Liz Taylor or Richard Burden. I don't need that. Man alive. They can't even stay married to the person they're married to. Man, Pastor Munchley, you and I have been married to the same women folk for over three decades. Well, I'm almost four decades. Well, Adam's been married 50 years. I mean, no, not that long. Hadn't even been living that long, hardly, amen. I mean, even Gary Patch had been married 35 years. For a woman to be able to live with a man like that, you know God's going to be in it. Through Jesus Christ, we have more of everything. But I didn't get that I did growing up in a Christian home. I really didn't. I need to give you my testimony. I was down the gutter. I wallowed in the muck and mire of this old world. I did everything to do until I was gloriously saved at the age of six. Glory to God. Sure! I guess, how many of you kids are at camp, amen? I recognize that. Give me a big sure. That's what I'm talking about right there, kids. Got your back, my brother from another mother, a sister from another mister. All right. All right. I like young people. I've never quite grown up, you know. So we have a more abundant life, but when I was a kid growing up, I got saved when I was young. I mean, I went to church nine months before I was born. I'm a prenatal Baptist. You know what our number one game was? Church. My dad was a pastor. There's never been a week of my life I've been out of church. See, I've never been sick seven straight days in a row. So therefore, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, we're going to get in church before the week is out, no matter if I'm sick or in a sucky mule. Yeah, we played church. And I was the baby of the family, so I didn't always get a choice about what I got to play. My brother was a hog about the thing. He always wanted to be the preacher. So here's how it would go. We're going to play church. I'm the preacher. Next door neighbor. I'm the song director. And they look at me and they would say, you're the sinners. That's sinners plural. I'm the congregate of the immoral people. That's me. You're the sinners. Sometimes they would get magnanimous and say, you're the congregation, you know. It was kind of the indescript person in the play, you know. When my brother would preach, I didn't have to look around to see who he's talking to. It was me, the sinners. When the song director would, after David would preach, would lead the singing, he kept singing, just as I am, just as I am, just as I am, looking a hole through me, until I came down the aisle and got born again, again. And then I got born again, again, more times than you can shake a stick at. I made a good Methodist. Not free will, because that's the pasta scene that's all over. You know what I mean? So, anyway. Kind of a ministerial joke right there. Amen. So, I really got tired of getting born again and again. I got tired of being the collective sinners of the play. So I thought I was going to do a really cool coup de grace. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So David said, let's play church. I was ready for him. So I knew I couldn't even scream out, I'm the preacher. So he screamed out, I'm the preacher. Next door neighbor, I'm the song director. Before they could say anything, I looked at him and said, and I'm God. Yeah, talk back. Yeah. I remember the look on my brother's face. Our next door neighbor's face. Yes, I got him. I thought I was so clever. My dad didn't. He was standing on the upstairs. We were in the basement. He was standing upstairs and he heard it all. Johnny, how can I put this? He brought me upstairs and knocked all the God out of me. He beat every temptation for deity that I'd ever had. And with God's help, I never tried to play God again. I remember when we moved from Washington, D.C. to Florida, we'd go to Saturday meetings all the time, and that would last for like eight hours. Preaching, singing, preaching, singing. If the kids went to sleep, moms would just tuck them under the slats of the bench. Remember the torch? You could smell the food cooking outside, and the preacher's still preaching, still preaching. You want to go eat, you know? And I remember getting all excited about heaven. When we all get to heaven, we shall meet on that beautiful shore. And the preacher's preaching about heaven, about Jesus coming. And I remember getting the indefinite impression it's going to be great when we get there. But until we get there... I remember, you know, for some reason, you know, there was a song that I remember that was sung when I was a kid. Wait a little longer, Lord Jesus. I said, wait a little longer? No. I want to go now because... I remember Bombeck wrote a book. The title said it all. If life is a bowl of cherries, why am I always in the pits? I mean, seriously, I know the grandson of the man who wrote the song, Victory in Jesus. Oh, Victory in Jesus, my Savior forever! And I felt like saying, if life is so victorious, why am I such a loser? Why don't I have power over the sublimest and the most simple and the most stupid temptations? Why don't I just cave in? Why don't I just give out and wipe out? Where's all the victory? I mean, if I'm going to heaven, shouldn't I be a little bit more joyful while I'm here on earth? And shouldn't I be a little bit more heavenly in my thinking and my living than I am here? Let me just say this, the problem wasn't God, the problem was all me. And I was not letting the Word of Christ dwell in me richly. And remember, as a young man, this truth got a hold of me. You know, sometimes we can get a hold of truths, but boy, when the truth gets a hold of us, And I thank the Lord for great men of God that I've read after, that I've heard. I remember telling the homiletics class I used to teach, if you only use one research, that is plagiarism. But if you use two or more, that's true research. So it's a research message. It's not original. There's nothing new under the sun anyway. So the victory that I'm enjoying in Jesus is not something that every one of us who are saved by the grace of God cannot and should not be enjoying right now. You know, one of the great doctrines of the Baptists is the personal priesthood of the believer, that we believe that every one of us have a standing before God, that every one of us have that same positional truth in Christ, that every one of us are seated with Christ in heavenly places. taught us how to live on the earth. And he outlined it perfectly for us right here in Romans the sixth chapter. So, how to live on the earth. Number one, come to the place of finding out. Everybody say finding out. What are we going to find out? Well, look what it says in verse number six of Romans chapter six. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, for the body of sin might be destroyed, for that henceforth we should not serve sin. Knowing this is finding out that the old man is crucified. I remember as a kid, I heard different versions of this. The Indian chief was saved. He'd been saved for three months. And the pastor, who was instrumental in winning him the cry, said, How's it going with you? And the Indian chief said, Ugh, big war going on inside. White dog fighting against black dog. And then the question is asked, Which dog wins? And the Indian chief says, One I say, sick him to. Another version says, One I feed. And we holler, Amen! Glory to God! Feed the right dog! I'm really not arguing the truth that there is an old nature that is within us. I'm not arguing the truth that because of Jesus Christ, we have the new nature. And by the way, that's what the Bible teaches. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. But the problem is that we're giving too much credit and too much power to the old man. What are you saying for the Pope? Well, if you're going to use a black dog representing the old nature and a white dog representing the new nature, make sure that the white dog representing the new nature is a Great Dane. And the old nature, the black dog, is a dead chihuahua. See, we've almost geared ourselves up to sinning. I mean, really. I mean, we're good. One thing that we are good at as Baptists is being Baptists. We believe in salvation by grace. Not of works. Amen. Not of works. Not of works. Not of works. Not of works. Not of works. And we don't do any. So we forget the rest of that passage. Not of works, lest any man should boast, for we are, verse 10 says, his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. After we're saved, we sin. We sin all the time. Hey, speak for yourself. What do you mean we sin all the time? It's almost like we have to prove that we're once saved, always saved, so let's keep sinning. That's not what the Bible teaches there. What? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Wait a minute, Brother Pope, you're not preaching sinless perfection, are you? Of course not. You don't even need to discuss that. If anybody thinks that you're a person that's arrived at sinless perfection, I don't want to hear your testimony. I want to hear your wife's testimony of your sinlessness. I don't think we're going to hear that, are we? We don't have to push that. The Bible says that the old man is crucified. I don't know, help me out. Sounds like he's handicapped. Huh? Sounds like he's handicapped. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. It did not say that we would not, but that we should not. See, all the power and all the potential for living a holy life is in that verse. You ever thought about that? Jesus said, go ye in all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And then he said, lo, I am with you always, even in the end of the world. He said in that same chapter, all power is given me in heaven and earth, and lo, I'm with you. Isn't that a great thought? All power is given me, and lo, I'm with you. All power is given me, and lo, I'm with you. He said in Hebrews, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. So that means that all power is working in us. Philippians 2.13 is one of the greatest verses to memorize. For it is God which worketh in you both to will, watch this, and to do of his good pleasure. See, many people will say, well, I have a will to do right, but I just can't seem to do it. Many times Christians get landlocked in Romans chapter 7. They forget about Romans 6. They go to Romans chapter 7 and they hear the struggle of the Paul says, that which I would do, I do not. And you hear them argue themselves. Forgetting the last part of that chapter that declares that we have the victory. Where is the victory? In our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And then we forget the top of the eighth chapter. There is therefore now no condemnation. To who? To the people that walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh. So here we have the great promise right there between Romans 6 and Romans 8 of all the power that we need to live the Christian experience. Knowing this, what? That the old man is crucified. We need to accept that. We need to come to that fact. Let me say this without going into too much detail. I'm not trying to get anybody here more saved than you already are. How's that? You can't get more saved than you already are. Amen. But what I'd like you to do is just allow your condition to catch up with your position. You are seated with Christ in heavenly places. So therefore, go ahead and live like it, go ahead and act like it, but you've got to come to the knowledge of that truth that all power is given you. Watch this, that you have been given by God power to resist all temptation. Isn't that what 1 Corinthians 10.13 says? There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. So he's given us an equal and actually an overcompensating power to resist any and every temptation that comes our way. There is not a sin that through Jesus Christ you cannot conquer. You say, well, I don't believe that. Well, see, that's part of the problem right there. You don't believe that. You don't believe that the power is in you. Huh? You just don't believe it. You know, watch this. We respond not to necessarily what is the truth, but we respond to what we believe is the truth. And that's how we live. Some years ago, I pastored a man who really, right now, is permanently incarcerated for the rest of his life because of a severe mental illness. One of the most unusual men I've ever met. For fun, he would read calculus books. But he would just, for the most part of his life, live a berserk life. And I remember one of his sane moments. He talked to me once. And he said, Johnny Pope, he always called me Johnny Pope, Johnny Pope. I said, yeah. He said, I know that my reality seems insane to you, but you need to understand something. The world that I live in is as real to me as the real world that you really live in. And I thought, boy, that was a genius statement. I mean, a man who believes that it's totally normal to do the most insane acts, lives in an insane world, but it's real to him. That's why he acts it out. So he does what he does because he believes. But he's this way. There was a guy in the insane asylum that was having an imaginary gunfight with his friend. And in an imaginary gunfight, his friend won. He collapsed. People went over to him and he said, don't talk to me, I'm dead. He finally got up, but whenever anybody would approach him, he'd say, don't talk to me, I'm dead. And he became incredibly unsociable. He would eat by himself and just kind of live off by himself. And people would approach him, he'd say, I'm dead. How are you? Dad, thank you. Finally, a shrink, a psychiatrist, called him in the office and said, let me ask you a question. The guy said, OK. He said, do dead men bleed? He thought for a moment. No, dead men don't bleed. And he grabbed his hand. And you know those little pricking instruments that you draw blood with on the end of your finger? He grabbed one of those little pricking instruments. A little bit of blood spurred up. And the doctor said, what do you think about that? The man looked at that and said, what do you know? Dead men do bleed, don't they? That was his reality. You couldn't talk him out of it. This 18 year old young man from a very fluent family got saved. I mean, born again and his whole lifestyle changed. He didn't want to live the party life anymore. And his parents thought he was crazy. So they took him to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist leaned him back and said, I just have a few questions I need to ask you, son. He said, where were you born? He says, which time, Doc? I've been born twice. Well, let me put it to you like this. Where were you born? He said, which time? He said, son, would you please just tell me where do you live? Where's your home? He said, which home? I've got an earthly home. I've got a heavenly home. Son, could you just tell me, who is your father? He said, well, I got an earthly father, I got a heavenly father. Before it was all over, the shrink needed a shrink. You couldn't talk him out of it. See, our reality is different from the world's reality. We have a brand new nature that has not been living in the slime of this world. That's why harlots who get saved become as pure as the driven snow. Alcoholics become sober. Adulterers become pristine pure. Liars become truth-tellers. We're brand new! We've been delivered! We've been saved! And you've got to believe that the same power that took you from darkness to light, from hell to heaven, from lost to saved, can give you the power to say no to sin and yes to righteousness on a daily, regular basis. Have you ever seen these elephants at circuses or at zoos? Massive megaton elephants. Got this chain around one of their legs. It extends to a little stob just barely in the ground. Come on. You ever wonder what keeps that elephant there? You know he has enough strength to pull up that stob, knock down the tent and make road pizza out of all of us. What keeps him there? You ever know what keeps him there? His perceived reality. when he was a little Dumbo before he was a Jumbo. They tied the chain around his leg, put it to a road spike, drove him to hard ground at about a 45 degree angle, and little Dumbo pulled and pulled and pulled for three weeks. Then his greatest asset is memory. becomes his greatest liability. Because it's indelibly locked in his memory banks that when he comes to the end of the chain, he cannot take another step. So that when he becomes jumbo-sized, he still comes to the end of the chain. He has all power to pull up that stake. He has all power to tear down the fence and the tent. But he doesn't operate in that power because he believes he does not have the power. Hogs are stupid. I've heard some people say, I have a Vietnamese pig and it's the smartest animal I have. You've got some dumb animals. I'm telling you, from a boy that was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, that hogs, as a rule, are not as smart as a lot of people want to give them credit. I mean, I've heard people argue the smartness of hogs. Let me give you a for instance. This comes to you tonight from a hog farmer. He had a problem with the runaways. So he had a cure for the problem. He put a little bit of electricity and a little electric wire around his fence. Around feeding time, the old sows would back up to that electric wire. Beep. Little curious piglets that put their wet snout up to that little wire. Snap, crackle, pop. And after every hog and piglet had touched that little wire, they never got near that fence. They were smart enough to do that. But then this hog farmer, I'm not making this up, wanted to move the pigsty from this place to over on the other side of his acreage. He took the wire down. They still didn't get near the fence. He took the fence down. He couldn't get the hogs out. So help me, those hogs would come up to where that fence used to be. Nothing between them and the woods except clear blue sky and fresh air. And they would just stare into their freedom, but they wouldn't take another step past where the fence was gone. Stupid hogs. They were free. But they did not accept it. They believed that at that point, no matter what they saw, they could not step there without becoming electrocuted. And they weren't ready to become bacon. So they just stayed right there in that parameter. Now, as we think about this, this is no more ridiculous than for you to sit there telling me, you've got to have it in your life and you can't shake it. If you're a Christian, there's a man that's involved in pornography and you're sitting there saying, I'm hooked, I can't help it. The Bible says I can do all things through Christ with strength of me. For a lady to be sitting here saying I'm emotionally involved with a man on the Internet, I'm involved in this chat, and on a regular basis I get there and I know I ought not to do it, but I just can't resist it. Yes, you can. You have believed the lie of the devil who has told you that you don't have power. You want to tell me those little coffin nails called cigarettes has got you hooked and you can't quit? You can too. That you're involved in alcohol and you can't become a total abstainer? Oh yes, you can. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. But you see, you've got to come to the place of finding out what that the old man is crucified. But you're going to have to take another step. Everybody say facing up. All right, what are we going to do? We found out that the old man is crucified. If we're going to live on the earth, then we're going to live. And I mean, really live the abundant life. We not only need to find out, but we need to face up. What are we talking about? It says in verse number seven, for he that is dead is free from sin. Now, if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more death and the more dominion over him. For him that he died, he died in the sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise, reckon. in that you died, he's alive, and you've accepted him. That's what baptism was representing, that you died a self, you were buried a self, you rose up as a new self in Jesus Christ. Old things are passed away, behold all things have become new. So he says in verse 11, likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed. Indeed, indeed, indeed. Unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, reckon is a good word. I like it. What does that tell us? Well, it tells us that God was a Southerner. But actually, the way we use the word reckon in colloquial Southernese It's not the way that it was always meant in 1611 and 1736. See, nowadays, here's the way we use Reckon. Hey, Johnny, you want a Dr. Pepper? I reckon I do. That means maybe I do, maybe I don't. Yeah, it's OK. Hey, Johnny, you think it's going to rain? I reckon. That means maybe it will, maybe it won't. But Reckon. I mean, if you look up the word reckon, you'll find this as one of the definitions. It's not an archaic word. It's still a very viable living word. It's a good word. But the way that they used it back in 1711 or 1611 was like this. It was an accountant's term. It was a mathematical word. Reckon. We put it to you like this. When we first started there in Houston, Brother Gary, you and Patsy remember that. Remember that little Volkswagen used to drive around? I remember we were so poor, the brakes went out and I couldn't get them fixed. Thank God I had stick shift. I was gearing down everything. That's how I had to stop and throw in the emergency brake. Air conditioning, pulling the floorboard. Barbara came up to me when we got in the bank statement. I was balancing it out. And she said, hey, Johnny, now we have two girls and two boys. At that time, we only had two girls. She said, hey, Johnny, do you think we could take the girls to McDonald's? I said, hey, sounds like my kind of place. I said, I'm ready. I said, the only problem is, Barbara, I don't have a penny on me, and I know you don't either. But let me balance a checkbook, and then we'll go to the bank and cash the check. That's how we used to get money. For pieces of paper, you'd write out cash. Then you sign the back of the paper and you'd give it to an, are you with me? Okay. We didn't have any plastic that you'd stick in machines and, you know what I mean? So I reconciled, yeah. So I balanced the checkbook and paid off all the bills except for a couple and I owed those people. I'm going to have to call the creditors. I said, honey, Not only do I not have any money on me, but we don't have any money in the checking account. We're not going to be able to go to McDonald's. So, we stayed home and had my favorite, oatmeal. And the next day, we really had some good eating. Bologna and crackers, thank God we had that. Not quarter pounders with cheese, no French fries, no. I had a hospital call to make 26 miles away. Now my idea of making a hospital call was having a full tank of gas with a Dr. Pepper between your legs. Amen. I could not get a Dr. Pepper. I could not even fill my car up with tank. I had one dollar bill left in my pocket. And even then I was going to have to negotiate some way to park downtown at the hospital, not pay the, you know, fee. Just had to park in the museum area and then walk, you know. So I got my $1 worth of gas, and that was it. Nowadays, it really is that. Don't press all the way, you know. Just barely touch a dollar, you know. And then I went up to the, yes, I stuck nothing into the tank or the gas jobber, you know. I had to go to the desk, and I pulled out the last dollar bill that I had, stuck to the last dollar bill. was a small rectangular piece of paper just a little bit smaller than a dollar bill and had been hiding behind my last dollar bill. A rectangular sheet of paper. It's called a deposit slip. Hmm. Hmm. I came back to the car. I was terribly curious. I had my checkbook with me and I pulled the checkbook out. And I opened up the checkbook and I looked at the deposit trying to see where I recorded it. I didn't see where I had recorded. So, I went back home to look at the statement. He said, what about the guy in the hospital? Let the dead bear their dead. It's time to find out. It's time to find out what's going on in the checking account there. And so, Some of you don't know how to do this, those of you that bank online and all this stuff, but there was a place on the statement that said, add all deposits since the date of the statement. I had not added this deposit. The date of the statement was the 11th of the month. The date of the deposit was the 13th of the month. I had not added that deposit. So you know what I did? I reckon it's so. $362.22. Paid off the two remaining bills. I said, Barbara, get the girls. Forget about McDonald's. We're going to Luby's tonight. So what about the guy in the hospital? He'll be there tomorrow. It's time to party tonight. We're rich. Ditch shrimp and fried okra and tea and banana pudding. It's time to party. We're rich. I was eating bologna and crackers the day before and the day before that. Oat milk, come on. It's time for cholesterol. It's party. Okay, good. A little bit slow there. All right. Now listen. I was filthy rich. I didn't know it. I was loaded to the gill. But see, I had not reckoned it to be so. If knowing the truth, the old man is crucified, is finding out, then reckoning, that is facing up. That's looking into the record saying, our Savior died a vicarious death. He died, I died. He was buried, I was buried. He rose again, I too have a resurrected life. For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Now, if knowingness, find that out, and reckoning is facing up, then there's another word I want to give to you. Everybody say, starting in. That's yielding. Look at what it says in verse number 12. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body. You should obey in the lust thereof. Neither yield, underline that, your members as instruments of unrighteousness and the sin. But here it is again. Yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. So yielding is starting in. I don't know if you all know this or not, but when I wake up in the morning, I don't have a band of angels over my bedpost at our house singing, Good morning, Johnny. Get up now, Johnny, and pray. God is waiting just for you. And then I jump out of bed like an Oklahoma musical. Good morning, angels. Hello there, angels. God, I'm coming to pray. And then when I pray, thank you, thank you. And then when I pray, I say our father. And the father says, yes, my son, I've been waiting all day for you. I'm here. I hear the audible voice of God. No. No. Two things I do not like to do. Number one, I do not like to go to bed. Number two, I do not like to get up. I am allergic to the morning. I remember a guy I knew said, I get up in the morning and I'm ready to take on the day. And I go look in the mirror, turn on the light and say, good morning, Tiger. Go get him today. That's what I do. If I want a good day, I stay away from the mirror. I don't have any tiger in my tank. I need crutches like coffee, you know, a little bit of help. Donut doesn't hurt. Come on now. Crank it up. Crank it up. Crank it up. Yeah. Somebody finally got spiritual. Amen. Donuts and coffee. You know what I usually don't get pumped about? And I'm embarrassed to tell this to you. soul winning, going out on church visitation. Do you know, the next to the last time I went out just knocking doors, not this week, but a few days ago, my wife and I went down one side of one street and up the other side of the street and did not find one person to talk to. And on top of everything, my wife got stung by a hornet. Felt like saying, as I killed that hornet, I killed the hornet, her knight in shining armor. Felt like saying, out, thou unclean spirit. I even looked at her and I smiled and I said, you know how the house used to say, so what is the answer to every problem? And you've heard me say, Barbara, I always feel better after I go through so what ain't. I said, I don't feel better right now. We wiped out, didn't we? She said, we sure did. I mean, are you listening to me? Day before yesterday, Barbara and I were at the drugstore and the guy came out and he was smoking on the bench. And I put the car in reverse and started going. Boy, the Lord spoke to my heart. And I walked there with a track and I said, Sir, I've got this wonderful gospel track my father wrote. He said, I'm not interested. Well, Sir, I'd like to just leave it with you. No, no, really, I'm just not interested. And I thought, man alive, I've been preaching for 42 years and there was a pain in my heart. If he could just know Jesus for 60 seconds, he wouldn't be rejecting this. If he could just know the joy of forgiveness of sins, what he's missing. I'm never feeling bad about that. When I think about the rejection sometimes when I try to give the gospel, I'm not in a real big hurry to get into that rejection. I hope I don't feel like praying, but I pray. I don't feel like going so in it, but I so in. You ever been reading the Bible and you start falling asleep? Reading the Bible! I feel like a heathen when I'm reading the Bible and I start getting sleepy. Sometimes I've even walked around and read it out loud so that I don't fall asleep. I love those first few chapters of 1 Chronicles. Amen? But the only thing I'm getting out of it, God is for marriage! And having babies! You get the JPEGs and say, thank God I get that! But the Bible says every word of God is pure. Now, let me tell you something, my friends. There are wonderful moments of soul winning. There are wonderful revelations, or I should say illuminations that God gives us from His revelation. And there has been ecstasy that I have had in prayer, but not always. This man got up and said, and his wife said, it's time for church. Get ready. He said, I'm not going. She said, get ready? He said, there's hypocrites at that place. She said, come on. I'm not going, he said. But honey, you've got to. Why? She said, because you're the pastor. I love to preach. I love to preach better than I love to eat, and I'm telling you, I love to eat. Somebody said, how do you know you're called to preach? I said, you wake up one morning craving chicken. That's how you know. But pastor, I was talking about this today. There are times that I get migraine headaches that are so bad and used to, I would never have it when I would preach. But there have been times in recent years that I have been so sick with migraines that I have, and I don't mean to make anybody sick, I would throw up before I got in the pulpit. And then when I would get through preaching, even before I could go back and shake hands with people, I had to go throw up. I mean, my own preaching made me sick. What I'm saying is, there are times that I don't even feel like going to church. There are times I don't feel like soul winning. There are times I don't feel like praying. There are times I don't feel like reading my Bible. Well, Brother Pope, then why do you do it? Here it is. Yield. I yield to what I know is the truth. See, I came to the place of finding out. The old man is crucified. I am a new creature. I've come to that place of facing up. I do have the power in Jesus Christ to be what he wants me to be. And so now, therefore, I yield to it whether I feel it or not. Some of you are sitting there saying, I don't think I want to do that. Why? You do that with your job. You do that with school. And sometimes you do that with your marriage, don't you? You don't feel like staying married to that person, but you do it anyway because it's right. So you yield not waiting for the filling to come, but you yield to the truth. that you are responsible to yield to. Yeah. You know, I heard a soldier say once that it's not that some men are cowards and some men are brave. He said all men are cowards. Some are just willing to stay on the battle line a few minutes longer, a few minutes longer. Sometimes the difference between a hero and a coward is five minutes. He just stayed there. didn't stop. Sometimes when a Christian, a good Christian and a not so good Christian, is the fact that a Christian that's living the good Christian life just does what he or she is supposed to do whether they feel like it or not. Now I'm going to tell you something. As a rule, There is that reward. I've never got through praying when I said that was a waste of time. And I've never got through so when and even that time that my wife got stung by the hornet, we didn't see visible results, regretting doing what God told me to do and obeying the Great Commission. Because he promised to do season, you should reap if you faint not. So I set that as truth. That's part of the truth. He said his word were not returning them void. So I set that as a truth and thy word if I hid my heart that I might not sin against God. So I'm going to keep reading the Bible whether I'm getting through anything or not. You know what I'm saying? I mean, the tea strainer may not be able to hold much water even when it's dirty. If you put it under the spigot, it gets clean. You may not be holding as much as you want to when you read the Bible, but just stay there under the spigot of the washing of the water of the Word and let the Word do the work. So if knowing is finding out and yielding is facing up or rather reckoning is facing up and yielding is starting and everybody say going on. How are we going to go on? Here's how we're going to go on. It says in verse number 14, for sin shall not have dominion over you if you're not under the law, but under grace. What then shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. No, you're not that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey. There it is. His servants are to whom you obey, whether sin and the death of obedience and the righteousness. But God, we think that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed. What are the next three words? Everybody say with me out loud the next three words. From the heart. There it is. Underline it, circle it. But ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. If knowingness facing up or finding out and ye reckonness facing up and yielding is starting in, then obeying, but more especially obeying from the heart, that is when you are going to be going on. Jim Vineyard said this once, I'll never forget it. He said, somebody asked me once if I ever thought about leaving my wife. He said, I tell you what, if you got a Cadillac parked in the driveway, you don't go around stealing Volkswagens. I think I know what he was saying. Now, I think that we ought to be faithful to our wife, whether they are considered Cadillacs or whether they're considered Chevys, you know what I mean? I don't think I'm going to go any further than that. I'll just leave it. But I do believe there is that overwhelming power of a new affection. That overwhelming power of a new affection Now when we say new affection, we're not saying that even an old affection gets so old that it never becomes new because Jesus said, I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy what? First love. So what Jesus was saying was saying, never get over the first love with me. Do you know one of the great dangers, watch this, one of the great dangers of marriages is that they get over the first love. Now this is My opinion, you are welcome to disagree and be wrong. This is America, okay? I mean, you have choices. America's going to have a big one tomorrow. People can make right choices, they can make wrong choices. We've seen wrong choices a lot here lately. I'm ready for some right choices. And the people said, Amen, Amen, Amen. Just leave it at that. Time to get a drink of water. But a lot of well-meaning Christian counselors, what happens is they begin to tear down romantic love. Ah, it's love at first sight and all that other stuff. Love is a decision. It is a decision. There's absolutely no choice about that. But you don't need romantic love. No, this romance and they make fun of romance and on and on and on. Well now, if you want to make fun of the worldly romance, go ahead. But, how can you read Song of Solomon and not know that God's pretty romantic? His left hand is under my head, his right hand doth embrace me. Whoa! Love is strong as death. It's pretty romantic, isn't it? No, no, I don't dare tell married couples. Romance is too overrated. Don't worry about romance. Just be married and enjoy it. Huh? I believe in romance. I believe in romance. Hey, I'm going to let you in on something I don't tell everybody, but you seem like a nice group of people. My wife said to me one Saturday years ago when we first started pastoring over three decades ago, she said, I'll see you Monday. That was on Saturday. I'll see you Monday. I said Monday. The only thing I think I do, like Charles Spurgeon, is I isolate myself from 7 o'clock on on Saturday night. And she said, so I won't be seeing you for the rest, and God bless her, she put all the kids to bed and everything on Saturday night. And then I was up and going to church at 4.30 in the morning on Sunday. And then I would preach and then I would cram for the Sunday night service. And then I'd be counseling late into Sunday night. And that's when she said, I'd see you Monday. And sometimes she wouldn't send me a whole lot of money because I'd be taken off on the plane. And I got into conviction about not seeing so much of her on Sunday. So, you know, you can go to the store, you know, like Barnes and Noble or something, and you can get those books that don't have any writing in them. They're full of blank pages. So, I got one of those little fancy books without any words in it. I thought, well, I'll put some words in it. So I started something over 30 years ago. You're dying to know what I did, aren't you? I just love this crowd, Pastor. They're with me. So what I did was, early on a sunny morning, before I would leave, I would write her a love poem. Oh yeah. Some of them are PG-13. A couple of them are R-rated. Why? And then I would make her a little breakfast and something that would keep for a couple of hours. I'd cut her up some fruit and put some foil over top of it. I'd make some hot tea and put it in the thermos on the top. So I gave her that love poem and a little breakfast. We've got over, she's got over five books of nothing but love poems for me. We're tight tonight. And some of my poems are so stupid. Like Sunday, I think the last one I wrote was something like, you know, I sat across the room. I saw your face. I love being in your space, you know, it's just so. Why? OK, look, it means nothing to you, but she just goes, oh, I can hear her sometimes. You know, she'll come by and she'll look at me. Oh, you know how women do that. Never trust a man that does that sound. Amen. Never trust a man that does this either. That's only what women do. Amen? Come on now. Guys don't do that. Hey, did you see me fumble the ball in there? Can you believe it? You know, the funniest thing about that is those silly little things that I write her. Sometimes I don't have poems going, I have prose going. I just write what's on my heart, just a note. But see, that's what I did when I was trying to win her. I was telling Pastor, I remember Dr. Howells looking me in the eye when he found out that I was dating Barbara. And he told me, I don't think that you have a chance with her. But you can try. And I want to tell you, the competition was very, very stiff. But hey, I just kept writing love letters. Amen. Matter of fact, we still got boxes of letters that I wrote her when we were dating and we were engaged. I mean, shoe boxes. That's why God made shoe boxes, you know, to put love letters in. You know, the only difference between that stupid little poem I wrote Sunday morning and the love letter I wrote her when we were engaged? Just time. It's the same heat. Matter of fact, There's more heat now than ever. I mean, I'm not flaming out or anything. I'm heated as much as I can be, you know. But it's what? I don't know. I get this feeling you are reading more into what I'm saying. I mean, I heard you Northwestern or heathens out here. Please, I'm trying to be nice. This is a totally G sermon and you're turning it into PG? Now stop it. Rated R for violence, okay? Where do you get this business of, well, marriages don't have to have romance. If it's going to be good, it has to have romance. By the way, I didn't say sex. I said romance. The world, all they know is sex. By the way, I'm gonna chase a little rabbit here, okay? The baby boomers are pathetic. That's why we're seeing commercials on TV that used to never be on there. You want to know why? Because their only idea of what love is, is physical. And the Bible says in Song of Solomon 1.7, O thou whom my soul loveth, true love never starts in the body, it always starts in the soul. And if you went through the body to get the love, you may find out you never had it. What about that? Put that in a pipe and smoke it, and then quit smoking, okay? Now, hear me. So what I'm saying is, if we are going to go on with God, if we're going to really live on the earth, we need to obey God. But how are we going to do it? From the heart. Not because we are supposed to, although we are supposed to. Not because we have to. But because we get to, are you with me? You show me a man that's madly in love with his wife, he can't shut up about her. Matter of fact, as a rule, women don't flirt with a man who's madly in love with his wife. Are you with me? See, the devil thinks that he can get his way with you because he sees you've got a wandering eye for the world and the flesh. So he takes advantage of it. See, our strength comes in relationship. That's why the law never made anybody righteous. The law showed me I wasn't righteous, but the law doesn't have the power to make me righteous. It was that relationship with Jesus that gave me the power. It's relationship. Even the kids use language like this, dear Jesus, come into my heart. I receive you, Lord Jesus. This is relationship. That's what saves us. Relationship with Jesus. It's never real till it's personal. I was kidding around with this young lady over here. She said that the guy, one of the Lord, one heard of the Lord. I said, hey, you're my granddaughter, aren't you? But let me say to you like this. Did you know, in reality, God doesn't have any grandchildren? Everybody's either a son of God or a daughter of God. But you're not saved because mama is saved. You're not saved because daddy's saved. You're saved because you have a personal one on one with Jesus Christ. And that which saves you is what keeps you keeping on. Paul said, I am what I am by the grace of God. Oh, I thought it's the grace of God that saves me. It is. And it's the grace of God that keeps you. And it's the grace of God that keeps you keeping on for Him. It's relationship. It's loving Jesus with all of your heart. That's what the great commandment is. With all of your soul. All of your mind. All of your mind. Everything that you have. Love Him! And then the rest becomes like a domino effect. And you neighbor as yourself. And the commandments of God become not grievous. The Bible says His commandments are not grievous. Who's it not grievous to? To the person who is madly in love with Jesus. Huh? I mean, if a woman loves her man, she's going to go above and beyond the call of duty. She thinks he likes that certain dish. She's going to make that dish. This man thinks that his wife likes those flowers and he'll finance those flowers even if he has to skip his lunch to get them. It's just whatever you want, honey. And it's not a burden. I didn't realize this. You know how sometimes we husbands are slow in catching on. My wife and I for over three, almost four decades, we would walk through the malls and stuff and she would see these certain name brand purses. And she'd stop a while. And I said, do you like that? Yes, but don't you ever think about buying this for me. It's too much. Don't ever do it. I don't want it. And I see it. Would you like that part? Yeah, but Johnny, no, I mean, I need this crockpot a lot. I can get how many crockpots I can get that for that same price. No, I couldn't even enjoy that. But we still go buy those purses. Holy cow. If you don't like them, why do we keep walking by these purses? And they had silly names to them also. Yeah. I don't know, a duck chute or something. I don't know. Dooney and Burke or Coach and Whip. I don't know, wasn't it Coach? Well, I thought, you know, Her birthday was October 4th. So I thought, hey, I've walked by enough of those purses. I'm going to do an experiment. I bought one. Had to get a loan. She was right. They were buying a lot of crockpots, man. So before she got to bed on her birthday, I came in and sang happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you. What have you done? She just opened it up. She opened it up and she went... She was crying and she just lifted it up. I mean like it was Kunta Kinte! I've always wanted a purse like this! Man, I started jumping around. Happy days are here again! Whatever Barbara wants, Barbara gets. Even if it's all alone, okay, no credit. There's no problem. I didn't feel like we were losing anything there. She wanted it. I love that girl. I haven't seen her cry over something. I've gotten her in a long time. I don't know why she didn't like those rubber boots I got, but anyway. Get into the heart relation with Jesus and just stay there. I want to close with this. Don't get excited. I love to close. How many of you remember Kojak? Telly Savalas. Remember him? Combed his hair nice, didn't he? Number one television actor in the 70s. Big time. His roots were in Greece. Dr. Paul Van Gorder. How many know Paul Van Gorder? One of the greatest Bible... Paul Van Gorder? Dr. Paul Van Gorder? Dr. Paul? Back to the Bible? Paul Van Gorder? Well, I certainly love him, you know. We're in Oregon. Yeah, this is not the buckle in the Bible, is it? Dr. Paul Van Gorder. Everybody say Van Gorder. Okay. Great Bible teacher. Anything he writes is worth reading. Okay. Dr. Paul Van Gorder. It just kind of hurts me that we don't have more people knowing Paul Van Gorder. But be that as it may, most of you didn't know me before I got here either. So glad to meet you! Okay. Ooh. It's going on 10 o'clock. Don't feel bad. It's later for me than it is you, so get over it, OK? I'm almost through. I'm almost through. I'm almost through. Sure. OK. Thank you. So Paul Van Gorder was sitting up close to the front and coach. Tully Savalas was coming into the first class in this jet that was going to Athens, Greece. Of course, Paul Van Gorder to see the land of the Bible and to see Greece and those places. He said, Savalas got on very arrogantly, had his overhead, and he just said real loud so everybody could hear him. Hey, I want to be left alone. I'm on a holiday. So I'm not going to be boozing with anybody. All right. Threw his stuff on the overhead, sat down. Kind of gruff, you know. The plane ascended. It leveled off. Dr. Van Gorder said he saw a man well-dressed, distinguished, handsome young man in his mid-thirties, walk across the... He was in the first class on the other side. He walked across the first class to Telly Savalas and said, you know, Mr. Savalas, Greece is so proud of you. You've done so much. You've done so much for us. I wanted to say, sir, can I just sit here and get to know you better and ask you a couple of questions? He said, hey, buddy, I guess you didn't hear my announcement when I got on the plane. I want to be left alone. I'm on a holiday. Buzz off! I'm sorry, Mr. Savalas. I didn't mean to bother you." And he went back. Eight hours later, they begin their descent into Athens. But just before they begin their descent, about 45 minutes before the descent, the well-dressed, distinguished gentleman, Vangorder, said, got up, walked across the front of the plane there, and he said, Mr. Savalas, I know that you want to be left alone, but you know we're soon going to be landing. I just have a couple of questions. I might not even take three minutes. I promise you nothing more than five minutes. Would it be okay if I sat here and talked for about five minutes? Zavala said, you know, maybe I need to push the button here and get some stewardess to tell you Greeks what buzz off means. It means I want to be left alone. And that's what I'm going to be, left alone. So buzz off, man. And he said, the well-dressed, distinguished gentlemen of Smith Literaries, I am so sorry, sir. I promise you, Mr. Sovales, I will never bother you again. Forgive me. He crossed. He sat down. Plane landed. And as Sovales looked out the window, he saw a group of reporters. They had their notebooks out. They had their cameras ready. And he cursed. And Van Gorder could hear him. He said, I'm not going to give any interviews. I'm on holiday. Presuming that they were there to welcome him. So the plane stopped. They brought the stairs, as they did in the old-fashioned days, out to the door of the plane and opened up. Sibalus jumped up out of his first-class seat, grabbed his overhead, and began to storm out into the aisle. And the first time any resistance was shown to him, was shown to him now, as the little assertive put her hand up in front of his face and said, stop right there, sir. Stop right there. He looked kind of surprised and shocked. She said, because nobody exits the plane before His Majesty. You're ahead of me. Right. The mid-30ish, well-dressed, handsome, distinguished gentleman who wanted to talk to Sobales not once but twice, whom Sobales told buzz off not once but twice, was none other than the King of Greece. He told the King of Greece, buzz off twice. So the king of Greece steps down onto the tarmac and the entourage of reporters who were there for his majesty, the king of Greece, followed him down from the terminal. Picture Savalas getting off the plane. He could have spent the trip with the king. And the king might have said, where are you staying? And when he told him, he might have said, well, that's a nice five-star hotel, but my palace is nicer. They've got good food, but our food is better. Why don't you come stay with us?" But no, he's not going to have that now, because he told the King of Greece to buzz off. Now, as you're sitting there, you're saying, that's ridiculous to think that anybody would treat the King of Greece that way. You were saved by the grace of God, and the King of Kings and Lord of Lords is trying to cross the busy room of your life saying, I love you, and I want to talk with you. And I want to visit with you, but you're too busy to have devotions. You're too busy to carry tracts in your pocket. You're too busy to get into the Word and let the Word of God get in you. And in essence, you're telling the Lord to buzz off. And you're not realizing, but it is that intimate relationship with Jesus that gives you that superpower to say no to sin and yes to righteousness. that gives you the ability to live, and I mean really live, the more abundant life on this earth. And the things of this world will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before. When this truth hit me, it overwhelmed me with victory. That was already there. I just had not found out. I had just not faced up. I had not yet started in. And I'd definitely not been going on. But by His grace tonight, I found out. I faced up. I started in. And I'm going on living that victorious Christian life. I'm happier than a dead pig in the sunshine. I feel like a charged hell with a squirt gun tonight. Jesus Christ is everything to me and He ought to be everything to you. And it's as simple as that. Loving Him with everything you have and everything you are.