And then this is the big one. I probably won't do these anymore. Back in 1973, I broke my neck, and I told you my doctor never looked at the x-rays and sent me back. It was about three months before they finally did any surgery on it. When they do a surgery, it paralyzes your vocal cords, and so they did the surgery in 73, and it paralyzed my vocal cords. I couldn't talk for four months. They finally came back, but not all the way. And then in 08, they did another surgery over here, and I lost it a little more. And then by January 21, it got pretty bad, so I had a surgery on my vocal cords. And the doc said, we'll do the surgery and your voice will be back strong in three weeks. It took nine months, and it never came back like it should. So I'd never do this, probably my vocal cords wouldn't last. But I used to do a 24-hour King James seminar. And we would do this on Thursday and Friday. And we'd start at 8 o'clock in the morning on Thursday, go to 8 o'clock at night. Then start 8 o'clock on Friday, go to 8 o'clock at night. And in that 24 hours, you get a year's college curriculum. OK? 32 lessons. This is, I think it's 12. Discs, I think 10 of them are the 32 lessons. And then there's a CD in there that's the entire audio MP3. And then there's another disc. This comes with a 135 page syllabus. And that is on the other disc, some of what is covered here are the two lines of Greek manuscripts I mentioned last night. Good ones come from Antioch and Syria. Bad ones come from Alexandria and Egypt. The Hexapola, the Apocrypha, the Theory of Inspiration, the Establishment of the Canon. Who said these 27 books belong in the Bible, in the New Testament, and no other ones do? Reasoned eclecticism, which when you hear the word reasoned, don't you think it's going to be reasonable? I mean, really, nothing can be farther from the truth. I don't know if you ever did it, but if you look at an NIV, there's 17 verses missing. And you might have a friend with an NIV, New International Version, and say, well, your Bible's got 17 verses missing. And it used to be they would say, well, yeah, you're right, but those aren't in the Alexandrian manuscripts, and we think they're the best. So at least, even though they had a bad Bible, they had some Greek. some manuscript evidence. Here's what they say now. I read the scholars and here's what they say now. We put in what we think ought to be there. You ready for this scientific statement? And hope someday they discover a manuscript that backs our conjecture. And they call that reason. Disiderius Erasmus, as I was telling your pastor, I'm reading a book on him right now. Disiderius Erasmus was a tremendous author, tremendous intellect. And he's the one that compiled what is now known as the Texas Receptive. So that is back there. There's some other stuff back there. And you don't have to go. Don't feel like you have to go back there and buy anything. You certainly don't. You can feel free to just go buy and leave money. But anyway, so those are back there. I will be back at the table afterwards. I'm going to talk to you about something that we're all aware of, but you may misunderstand, OK? I'm going to talk to you about why you backslide. Now I want you to turn in two places to explain, because I don't define backsliding the way most people do. I want you to go to Hosea chapter 4. Hosea chapter 4, that would be right after Daniel, the book of Daniel. And I want to get 1 Corinthians chapter 3. So Hosea chapter 4 and 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Now you probably know of somebody that's saved and they're not in church, they're not living for God, they're in the world neck deep or forehead deep. And when we see a Christian and we know they're saved and they're living in the world, we say they're backslidden, right? They're not. They're not backslidden at all. Actually what they are is what the Bible calls carnal. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 3. And look what Paul says, and there was a carnal church in the New Testament. It's the church of Corinth. And he said, I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat, for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able, for ye are yet carnal. I want to talk to you about what carnal is. When you get a Christian out there living in the world, that is so much carnal. What is a baby? Why does it say they are carnal? Because a baby never says no to its flesh. If a baby wants something, you know it. You know, somebody asked me one time, they said, why are, you know, a horse is born and it's up running across the pasture that day and a cow is born and it's doing the same thing? Why are humans so weak when they're born? I said, because all them little babies got the heart of a killer in there. And God's got to put them in a body they can't hurt anybody, okay? And do you ever take something from a child that they shouldn't have? and they let out a scream. That's because they're carnal. They cannot tell themselves no. And so when you've got a Christian that is living in the world, what it is is they won't tell their flesh no. That's carnal. That's not backsliding. Now I want you to look at Hosea and look at the picture that God gives us of backsliding. He says this in verse 16, For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer. Now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place. Let's pray. Father, we thank you now, God, for your goodness and your grace. Lord, I think I speak for these people when I say this, we have no problem with you tonight, because there's nothing wrong with you. And we have no problem with your book, because there's nothing wrong with your book. God, if every one of us in this room was honest, we'd look in the mirror and say, there's the guy that's going to get me. That's the one that can hurt me the most. But God, I think, I really do, I think we've got some folks in this room probably have been trying to serve You more, trying to attain what we in Christianity call higher ground, and they can't understand why they seem to make a little bit of progress and then go back. And that's what we're going to talk about tonight, Father. So I pray, Lord, that You get Sam Gipp out of their way and out of Your way. and speak to the hearts of your people, God, and accomplish your purpose in each life represented. In Jesus Christ's name I pray. Now again, look at the picture. For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer. Did you ever see a heifer slide back on level ground? No, I'd be like, who was the guy that did moonwalking? But really, you can't slide backwards on level ground. How do you slide back? Have you ever done this? Have you ever been climbing someplace and you went three feet up and then you came two feet back? Okay, that's backsliding. You know what a backslider is? They're not a carnal Christian. A backslider is a Christian that's actually trying to attain. Don't we talk about you need to get to higher ground? A backslider is somebody that's trying to attain higher ground, and what they can't understand is, they go, well, I'm here, and man, I get up here, and then I, I don't go all the way back here. I go back here. And then I try to get up here, and then I go back here. And so isn't the picture really a noble cause? Isn't the heifer trying to get to higher ground? but you can't seem to get to the top. And if you are here, and you're saved, and you say, well, I've been trying to take a step higher, I've been trying to get farther up the ladder for the Lord, and it seems like that's what I do. I go three feet forward and two feet back, and three feet forward and two feet back. I'm gonna talk to you about what may be the reason that you slide back. I don't think, when I say somebody's a backslider, that's not an insult. That's somebody that's trying to do the right thing, right? Carnal is an insult. Backslider is somebody that's trying to attain higher ground, but they can't understand why they just can't get up there and secure it. And the first reason is that where you're trying to climb is too steep. I'm not a mountain climber by any stretch of imagination. And you read about some of these mountain climbers, you know, and they're hanging off of ropes and falling off the side of mountains. And I think, I think that, I think I've got a story on this mountain in Scotland. And it's a very unique mountain. Now, you know when the guys climb a mountain, they find a lot of different things. They'll go to the top of the mountain, they'll find somebody put up a stone cairn. You know, they built to show that they were there. Some of them, believe it or not, will have a, like a little desk And it's got a log book, and when you climb that mountain, you open up that log book and you can say, you know, like a guest book in a motel or a hotel, you stay at somebody's house, you can sign, you know, I made it to the top on February 24th, 2024. Sometimes you'll find a dead person that made it up and never made it back down. Well, there's this one mountain in Scotland, and I mean people have died trying to climb it. It's that bad. And when they get to the top, you know what they find? Families having picnics. Kids playing. Because it's not a mountain like this. It's like a doorstop. It's like this. And you can climb this side and die trying to get to the top. Or you can just drive around this side and pull up to the parking area and walk up. You can see this guy. I can barely make it. And some guy with a ham sandwich going, come on, buddy. You're almost here. But here's the problem, guys. You're trying to attain higher ground, but what you're doing is you're just taking too big of a bite. You know, I was talking to you last night about reading 10 pages of your Bible a day. I don't often say what I'm gonna say, because if you give anybody a low figure, they'll go for it. I mean, we will shoot for the lowest rung on the ladder. But really, if you say, well, I just can't read 10 pages a day, you know what I tell people? Then read three pages a day. Now, you can do three. And when you read your Bible one time at three pages a day, add one, and then read it four pages a day, and then add one, and read it five pages a day. What you do is, you know, when somebody says, well, I'm gonna take this, you're not ready for that. You know the Caterpillar Company? There's over there by where you used to work, Caterpillar Earth Moving Equipment. They used to be the R.G. Lateral Company. R.G. Luterno was a save man, he was an inventor. One of the greatest inventions he ever had. You know, all of your cars out here, generally that, the drive wheel is in some way connected mechanically to the engine. The engine spins, it goes through the differential, it goes to the wheel. You see those big earth movers? They got a big engine, they got a big wheel, and they're not connected. That big engine just, just, just generates electricity. And what R.G. Letourneau invented was an electric motor that went in the wheel. So you got a wheel this big, and the motor is here. And, and, and so it's just hooked, hooked on there. And that, that actually is how large earth moving equipment came into being with his invention. And he was a save man. And the guy made millions. Now, I'm going to ask a question, not a trick. You know the answer. Some of you won't answer because you know you're not doing it, but what's a tithe in the Bible? Guys, guys, what's a tithe? 10%. Right. Okay. And I have people say, well, that's an awful lot. I don't know. It's less than the government takes from you. I mean, really, if you stop and think about it, God lets you keep 9% of your income, right? R.G. Letourneau made so much money, he tithed 90% and lived on 10. So, I was talking to a guy one time, and he said, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to tithe 90%. Don't try that. Okay? Don't try that. You know what you want to do if you want to try something? First of all, start tithing. Tithe regularly. I don't believe tithing is giving, okay? You can't give somebody what's already theirs. I call tithing getting God's money out of your wallet, which just seems like a good idea. But if you want to do something, you know, you get your tithe every year and every year you look at your income and you're consistently putting 10% in the plate. Now you're not giving yet. You can't give until you tithe. But maybe you start adding 2%. I'll give you an example. My wife and I, we're a church of about 1,000 people. We have a missions program in our church. We support that missions program. But Kathy and I, on our own, support 20 missionaries on a regular monthly basis. And so I figured at one time, just because I wanted to see what it was, and counting the tithe. In other words, what we make in a year, 10% is tithe. And then we give 15 more. So we give, we go about a quarter of our income every year. Now, we can live on the 75%. I just tell her, don't eat. See how easy that was? That's it. You had that dress for 30 more years, I think it'll last a while. But if you want to do that, guys, what you do is, if you start out, you start out Given 90%, you're not going to be given long, because it's too steep. I had a guy do this one time. I wasn't talking about how much you read the Bible. Here's what I told him, and I think I said it here. If I hadn't read the Bible one time, cover to cover, every word, if I hadn't read the Bible one time, I wouldn't be praying for the Lord to come back. That'd be like saying, I hope my dad comes home from work and catches me doing something bad. And I said, why do you want the Lord to come back and find out you haven't read his book? And so I said, if I had read the Bible once, I wouldn't be praying for the Lord to come back. And so I told you, if you read 10 pages a day, that'll put you through it about three times a year. And this guy came up and he said, I'm going to read 40 pages a day. Now I read 30. That's every 45 days, eight times a year. And I said, 40, 40, if you read just about any Bible, if you read 40 pages, you'll get through it in a month. So that's 12 times a year. That's a lot. And he says, I'm going to read 40 pages a day. I said, how much are you reading now? He said, none. I said, but you're not making 40 pages. He said, nope. He said, I'm going to read my Bible 40 pages. I said, that'll get you through the month. He said, I'm going to read it for 40 pages a day for a month, and then when I get through it, I'm gonna start reading 10 pages a day, and go back to praying for the Lord to come back. And I was back in that church about three years later, and that guy was still there. And I said, hey, you remember three years ago? He goes, yeah. I said, how'd that 40 pages a day go for you? He said, man, he said, that was tough. He said, that was tough. But he said, I got through it. And he said, for the last three years, I've been reading 10 pages of my Bible every day, and I've been praying for the Lord to come back. And so here's the thing, guys. Everybody knows you start out small. I had a guy in my church. He would bench press 400 pounds. Now, he didn't start there. He started with 395. You know he didn't, right? You know he didn't. You don't start out like that. You don't say, if you're not jogging, I think I'll go jog 25 miles. No, you won't. Listen, brother, I jog 25 feet, okay? If I ran from here to the door, there better be a chair there when I get there, because I'm going to hyperventilate. But you start small and work up. So make sure you tithe and then maybe give a little more. And maybe the next year you give a little more. Maybe the next time give a little more. Guys, I really believe this. Some of you say, man, I want to do this for God. I want to do this for God. But the problem is where you're trying to climb, it's too steep. It's no shame to come around the shallow side and come up and get there in a, in a good way. So it may be that what you're doing is it's just too steep. It may be that where you're climbing is too soft. When we went on the road back in 1986, we have three boys. The oldest was 10 and the youngest was 1. Listen, it's great raising children on the road. They give you a hard time, leave them at a gas station. They're all now grown, live in three different time zones. They all got their own gas station. But sometimes, if we weren't in a hurry, like we would be, we'd see a creek. And I'd just pull the rig over and we'd take all the boys, all four of us, we'd take our shoes off, our socks, roll our pants up, we'd walk a creek. I'll never forget this one time. We were just walking up this creek. It was maybe a calf deep. It wasn't real deep, you know. And it was kind of like the creek was down in a little kind of ravine. And all of a sudden, this creek made a turn. And I'd say maybe it was 15 feet we were down. The outside of that turn, and this is Ohio. This is not like the desert, OK, where you have sand. It's all sand. It's like a sand dune. Nobody said go. But all of a sudden, all four of us, we were running full tilt. And we hit that sand. All four of us. I mean, we were really turning. And sand was flying everywhere. And here's that thing about 15 feet. And we got this thing. We got about five feet up before gravity overcame inertia. What does that mean? We were still running and going nowhere. And when you quit making progress, you stop. And you're still making progress. In the wrong direction. And so we got about five feet up and then stopped and then literally stand there and come back four feet. Now, if we had tried to climb around the corner where it was solid, it would have taken some time if we got up there. And sometimes what people, you know, we want to get to higher ground for the Lord, and what you're trying to climb on is too soft. You say, what do you mean? Okay, I like music. Okay, I like, and I didn't tell you this, but if you guys don't give me enough money, tomorrow night I'm going to sing. Don't make me sing. But, you know, I know these people, I've had these guys go, well, God's called me into the ministry of music. I don't find the ministry of music. I'm sorry, I don't find the ministry of music. I find the call to preach manifests itself as three ways, as a missionary, as a pastor, or as an evangelist. I didn't say that you can't sing for the Lord. But you go, well, you know, I had a guy one time, this kid, he was in my youth department, and he was a good basketball player. And he was a carnal kid. I mean carnal, not backslidden. He was just flat carnal. And he came in one day. And do you ever have a carnal person wax spiritual? You know, they try to talk spiritual. They go into a tone. Brother, I need to talk to you about this. You know, it's that hush tone. And he sits down in my office, you know, and he says, I just came here to tell you that I just gave my basketball talent Stupid me, I didn't even know God was getting up a team. And I said, oh, I said, you gave your basketball talent to God. Yes. I said, it's his to do with as he pleases, right? Yes. Now, you know what he means. Go ahead and make me rich, okay, make me famous, force it on me. I said, no, no, all right, I got a three quarter ton 2017 Dodge Ram truck. We tow a 29-foot trailer during the summer. So let's say I bring it out here and I give it to the pastor. This is just an illustration, just so you know. But I give it to him on Friday. And Saturday, I forgot that I had to move a freezer. And now I don't have a truck. And I call him up and say, hey, you know what? I got to move a freezer Saturday. Could I borrow your truck? And he says, no. Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, wait a minute. I gave it to you." He said, yeah, he gave it to me. Well, why didn't you let me use it? I never lend my stuff out. Once I give it to him, isn't his to do with his wishes? And so I said, I said, your basketball talent is now God's, right? And it was, you just thought, yes. It's his do as he pleases, right? Yes. I said, what if he tells you to never play basketball again? He goes, I'll play anyway. Shortest NBA contract God ever had. You guys, what I'm telling you is, you try to make it on music, you try to make it on talent, you try to make it on some psychology. Guys, you're looking at a guy that doesn't believe in the four temperaments. Okay, I don't believe in them. You know, what's a phlegmatic? That's no clutch, I understand that. And what is it, you know, a melancholy. Here's what, I'm gonna challenge you, here's what you do. Get a book on the four temperaments, I'm gonna tell you which one you are. First one you read. You'll be the first one you read. You'll find out that there are 20 particulars, and you're 12 of them. Nobody's 20. Nobody's 20. But you better stop reading there, because when you hit the second one, you're going to find out that you're nine of those. You've got a split personality. Then you get to the third one, oh no, I'm 15 of these. Sybil. How many are in here? And then, you know what you get? You get these people that say this. They start doing things they never did. Well, you know, I'm a phlegmatic and that's what we do. They start adding things, okay, so they can be one. Guys, if you're gonna try to make it for Jesus Christ on psychology, it is too soft. You got a bunch of people, they're trying to make it on psychology, they're trying to make it on their personal talents. Back in the 70s, 1970s, The big thing in churches was get all excited. Man, everybody wanted to get excited. You're supposed to get excited about something. Now, guys, I'm sure you've been excited, right? I mean, you've been excited about something? Like, did Oklahoma ever win a game? I don't know. But I mean, you've been excited. But you can't go forever on excitement. At some point, brother, you're going to wake up and you're not going to be excited. And what happens is people are trying to get the high ground. But where the climate is too soft, it will not support your weight. Look, you can quote verses from a song if you want, but when the times get hard, you ought to be quoting that book, okay? And not your poetry, not artwork, not your songs, nothing like that. Back again in the 70s and 80s, there was a guy named Bill Gothard. And he had a ministry. And I'm not criticizing him. Somebody said he knows a lot of Bibles. He knows a lot about animals. He'd have this thing. And the graphics were great. But if the Bible said something about a lion, he told you about a lion. And if it said something about a bear, he told you about a bear. Guys, do you understand? Learning about a lion is not spiritual. And so anything the Bible talked about, he went to the encyclopedia and got an article on it. That's not spiritual, you understand? And you try to do this psychology, you try to get some kind of emotion. Your support group. I'm gonna be part of a support group. You know what it's for? What it's for? For people that don't have support groups. I want the no support group support group. Wait, I think you and I fit in that real good, okay? There it is, we're the whole group, him and I, and he's 2 3rds of it. But you see what I'm saying? You got people, and they want to get to high ground, and they'll do anything but read the Bible, and get in church, and get preached to. If you want to get to higher ground, the two best things you can do is be in your church every time the doors are open, every time the lights are on, and read that book every day, because that's what God gave you to build yourself up on. And so it may be that you... And here's the thing. You get excited, and you're going to... So look at this, man. I made it all the way up here. and then you slid all the way back here. Well, I got into psychology, and I found out that, you know, I love it when they go, well, this is my gift. You know, I never found anybody got the gift of giving. I never found any of them people. They never get the gift of giving. They get the gift of this and that, and, you know, my gift is the gift of humility. I'm just like that, you know. But you get that psychology, and you'll go, you'll think you're, you'll talk down to everybody. Oh, yeah, you don't, well, I know what personality you are. But then trouble comes, and you'll find out that don't get you through it. This book will get you through it. So it may be that where you're trying to climb is too soft. If you can't get to the top, that heifer's trying to get to the top, but it's carrying too much weight. Now, we are Americans. I'm going to tell you one of the most horrible verses in the Bible. It's a verse that terrifies Americans. You know what it says? With food and raiment, there would be content. You say, why is that terrible? Because it doesn't even include house. Now, other than the pastor, I haven't been to any of your houses, and I'm going to tell you something I know about every house represented here. Tell me if I'm wrong. You can tell me if I'm wrong if this doesn't cover you. I'll bet you everybody here, you got more food in your house than you can eat in one day. And for a Baptist, that's saying something. OK? I'll bet you in your house, you've got more clothes than you can wear at one time. I preached in this church in Ohio. And I don't think this guy, I think every stitch of clothes he ever had, he wore to church. I mean, he'd have about three. He'd wear two ties. I noticed the guy had like three shirts on and two ties. He put a tie on and then put a tie on. Now, I'm not going to talk to you about his intellect level, OK? You can kind of guess on that. But stop and think about it, guys. If you can't eat it and you can't wear it, God considers it a luxury. See, Americans, we want food, raiment and a house. No house. Now, I'm going to tell you something. I have never, this is the simplest thing you could ever do, I have never had one Christian ever tell me they did it. If they did it, they didn't tell me. Get your legal pad, back there on that table there's a yellow legal pad. Get your legal pad and a pen and go through your house and write down everything you cannot eat and you cannot wear. And everything on that list is a luxury. Well, God doesn't, he doesn't give me what I need. If it's not food and raiment, it's a luxury. Like, do you ever thank God for the chair in your living room? Do you ever thank God for the living room your chair's in? Do you ever thank God for the carpet on the floor? Do you ever thank God for the floor under the carpet? Do you ever thank God for an indoor toilet? You see what I'm saying? Guys, if you would walk through your house and write down everything that you can't wear and that you can't eat, we are all rich. Is that not true? Yeah. And you know what our problem was? You know, you guys have heard of the Oregon Trail? You come to Boise, Idaho, I can take you to the Oregon Trail. From my church, it's about, from the edge of the parking lot, it's about 30 feet away. What is it? I-40 that goes through here? Okay. I-85, or I-84. I-84 goes east to west. You know where it's at. That I-84 right there by the church, just north of it, that is the Oregon Trail. See, what they did is you'd get some animal, and it would, you ever walk, you ever see on a hillside where cows have been taking the same path, they were, and then, so man says, okay, the animal's got the brush out of the way, I'll take this. And then, they came along with a horse, and it got a little wider, and they came along with a wagon, they made it a little wider, then they put two lanes, and then when the interstate came through, they put four lanes. Most of the Oregon Trail, now, not all of 84, I-84 is the Oregon Trail, for two reasons. It always had to change course for two things, someplace they needed a bridge or a mountain they had to go around. I mean, when they came west on wagon trains, They couldn't go across the river like we can. So they'd come up to a river, and they'd have to find a Ford or maybe a Chevy, but they'd have to find some place where the water was very shallow where they could cross. And then they'd come back and get on the trail. And now we just put a bridge across it. Or they'd come up to a mountain, and they'd have to come around it, and now we just put a tunnel right through the mountain. But guys, you know what they used to say? This is to say, because you'd imagine if you were going to go to Oregon back in the 1800s, you'd think, well, what if we lose the trail? Well, what if we lose our way? You know why you couldn't lose your way? You didn't need an Indian guide. You didn't need any white man guide. You didn't need to look for the ruts and road. It said you could follow the furniture. Because here's what happened. They'd put Grandma's china on there. They'd put the upright piano from the house. They would put everything on that wagon they could possibly put in there. And that's all well and good until they start uphill. And at the end, we'll start going uphill. And Grandma's china and the piano, you know what those wagon masters do? They'd come back and they'd say, now look, go through that wagon, and you better really pick what you want to keep. Because all the senior wagon is not making the top of this mountain. And we got to get over this mountain before winter comes. And what they would do is they would literally take articles of furniture, they would take their old bedstead, they would take their cast iron pot bellied stove. That would work, right? That's something you would need out west. When you can't make it over the mountain, you're going to just have an open campfire. And they literally said that so many wagon trains had offloaded stuff along that they could just follow. It's like a Goodwill truck just crashed all the way to Oregon. You know what our problem is? We want to serve God with everything I got. You know, now guys, look, what I'm about to say, I'm not being critical of anybody that does this. We were going to some people's house to have supper. And when we pulled up to the driveway, we're going to walk in through the garage. You know, sometimes you have a garage open right into the house. And right beside the garage outside is a boat. But nothing wrong with the boat. Nothing wrong with the boat. And when we stepped into the garage, there were the water skis. And of course, they went with the boat. Okay, so you want to go water ski with your boat. That's your business. And right next to the water skis were the snow skis. And right next to the snow skis were the tennis rackets. And right next to the tennis rackets were the golf clubs. You know what I think when I see all that? You ever put your baby in one of them things where they're laying on their back and there's like a little thing that goes from here to here and it's got like five little things and one goes. You ever see that? It's to entertain a baby, right? I don't care what you do for recreation. You want to get a boat and go water skiing? Get a boat and go water skiing. You want to go snow skiing? You go snow skiing. You want to go fishing? Go fishing. You want to go play basketball? You want to play tennis? You want to golf? I don't care, but how many toys do you need? You know, when I was young in this country, if you wanted to do something to entertain yourself, you went bowling. And if you became a fanatic, you bought your own bowling ball and a bag to carry it in. and a pair of shoes and one glove. Do you know what Michael Jackson and the Cleveland Indians outfield have in common? They both have a glove on one hand for no apparent reason. Anyway, really, how much money could you spend on a ball, a bag, a pair of shoes, and a glove? Let's say it's absolutely to the max. I bet you couldn't spend 500 bucks. Now, here's what happens. You get a missionary comes through here, and the Lord says, you ought to give that guy something. And you say, I don't have anything. No, you do. You know what your problem is? You got this fund for your next toy. Your next toy isn't $500. Your next toy is like $10,000. I mean, guys are, and look, they're all having a four-wheeler. But their guys are paying for a four-wheeler what I paid more than I paid for my first car. Paying more for a four-wheeler than my dad paid for his house. And so, here's what, you want this $15,000 toy, and you got $5,000 put away. You still need $10,000 before you count yourself as broke even. And Lord says, give that guy something. And you go, I don't have anything to give. What you mean is, I'm filling this hole for a toy. You know, we were saving. When we first went on the road in 86, this guy gave us a 32 foot trailer. And we pulled it from 86 to 95. And by 1995, it literally was folding over the axle. It had two doors, and the back door wouldn't even open anymore. It was literally coming over like this. And I knew we were going to need about $35,000 for a trailer. And I never asked. We never go anyplace and say, you know, pray. Pray for us, we need this money. And then you drop the wad and I go, look how God did that. So if you're not going to hit people up for money, you got to save it. So we start saving money. We get up to $3,000. Now that's pretty good, but if you need $35,000, that's a little short. And then here's what happened. You remember when the wall came down back in 1990, 1989? The Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain? We've been saving and saving and saving. I mean, it took years to get that $3,000. And I looked at my wife and I said, babe, right now, the gospel's going into Eastern Europe and they are open. They are grabbing gospel tracts. They are grabbing Bibles. It's not always gonna be like that. This is the time to invest in Eastern Europe. I said, we're taking $1,000 of our trailer money. And we gave it to a missionary that took stuff behind the iron curtain. There is cold in Eastern Europe now. To the Gospels, they are in Western Europe. And then there was a preacher in the Philippines, a Filipino preacher, that Roman Catholics burned his house down. Well, we only got $2,000 left, so I gave him $1,000 for a new house, toward a new house. And then I had a missionary who'd been one of my students in a college I taught at. And he was a little South Seas island. And out there, guys, you got to have a little four-wheel Toyota-type truck to get where you're going. And one of the guys in his church, one of the natives, had rolled the truck. And he needed $15,000 for a truck. All we had was $1,000. You say, wasn't it tough? No, because I knew we couldn't get anything with $1,000. So we gave it all away. Couldn't I have said, well, I'd like to give those guys something, but we're saving for a good cause. But God is going to tell you to give something. And I'm not talking about me, OK? I'm not talking about give it to Gibb. I always say this. If you think I'm telling you to give me money, trying to con you to give me money, give it to somebody else. I said that one time. I was preaching. I said, if you think when I'm talking about giving money, if you think I'm trying to get you to give me money, I said give it to somebody else. This guy came down after church. And he said, God told me to give somebody $1,000. Who should I give it to? I said, have you seen my family? We've eaten once this month. I told him what I would tell you. I said, go read your missionary letters before you start reading. Say, God, I want to give somebody $1,000. I'm going to read them letters. Tell me which one of those missionaries you want me to give $1,000 to. I said, if he doesn't tell you to give $1,000, because that's what will happen. Well, he told me none of them, so I guess I get to keep it. I said, if he doesn't tell you to give it to one of them missionaries, come and see me. I know some other missionaries. Maybe you give it to one of them. And if he doesn't tell you to give it to one of them, give it to your preacher. That's a good amen out of you right there, brother. And that guy, he went and he read the missionaries. He gave $1,000 to a missionary. I've known that guy for 40 years. He's never given me $1,000. He's never given me $1,000. But anyway, guys, I believe some of you want to give for God. I believe you had missionaries come through here and the Lord's tapped you on the heart and said you ought to give him something. And you know what stopped you? You got everything on the wagon. You can't let go of anything. You want every toy you ever had. I'm looking at this. Every night I'm looking at this. I'm a car guy. Okay? But you know why I'm looking at that? I had a grown man in my church, he was depressed. He was a young man, he was younger than me, but you know what he was depressed about? When he was a kid, they didn't have Hot Wheels like that. And he felt like he'd just been cheated. There's an answer to that, you know what it is? Oh, well. Grow up. I mean, guys, look at what we pay for toys. Look at the expense. You know, what is the bumper sticker? The difference between men and boys is the cost and size of their toys. And where a kid is going to play with a squirt gun, his dad is going to buy a paint gun that's full auto. Then he's got the entire, you know, thing he wears on with his goggles or this. I mean, the guy's putting $10,000 on himself. I don't know what you do with it, guys. But you know what the problem is? The problem is you can't leave go with something. I read this thing, and they would go catch monkeys. And you know how they'd catch a monkey? They'd take a coconut, they'd drill a little hole, and they'd empty it out, and then they'd stake that coconut to the ground, and they'd put rice inside that coconut. And that monkey could reach his hand in there, and he'd grab a hold of a fistful of rice, and he couldn't pull his hand out. All he's gotta do is let go of that rice, and he'd pull it right back out. He'd never let go of it. Maybe we did evolve for monkeys. Guys, our problem is we're just trying to take too much with us. We want everything that I ever had. We want it all. I'm going to serve God, but I am taking the, you know, you've got young people here. You know, if you want to play a game on a computer, that's your business. But I tell my students, I said, at some point, put the games away. I mean, quit playing, playing, quit playing. What is play? And so maybe the reason you go, you make it up. But if you're going to stay up here, you got to throw something off. And you're not willing to throw something off. And you can't understand why you keep sliding back. So it might be that where you're climbing is too steep. It might be where you're climbing is too soft. It might be that you got too much weight. Or it might be this one. This is the last one. The first rig we had, or second was that we, by the way, when we gave that $3,000 away, God gave us the money for a new trailer. gave it all without ever asking for it. And the next trailer was a 35-footer. And I pulled it with a one-ton Ford van. It was in four-wheel drive. And I pulled into this church. I'd never been there before. And it was kind of like this, maybe three steps up from the front, you know, from the front parking lot, about three steps up to the front porch. But the land fell away. So you came out the front door, three steps down to the ground. But you could go to the basement and you walked outside and you were ground level. So it was about a 10-foot drop. And I said, where am I parking my trailer? And he said, behind the church. Well, now, all I see is grass. And it's been wet. And it's grass. And I looked at that and he goes, oh, he said, don't worry. He said, there's gravel underneath. There's an old U-shaped driveway and there's gravel underneath that grass. And there was. about four feet under that grass. And I said this, before I ever went back there, I said, you got anybody in your church that's got a four-wheel drive truck? He said, yeah. I said, well, have him be here Saturday when I pull out. He said, oh, oh. He said, it's just a little Toyota. He'll never pull you out. I said, I wouldn't pull you out. I said, I just want him hooked to me and give me a tug. And he said, well, I don't think I should just have him here Saturday. So I nosed this thing over. Once I nosed it over, I knew John Calvin was in control, okay? He was all predestinated. I got the thing squared in back. I dropped the trailer. I couldn't even drive up the other side. I actually had to pull up and back up to get up the other side. And so now Saturday comes, and this guy comes in with this Toyota truck, and he's got tires as big as this pulpit. I mean, I got in it, and I got a bloody nose. He had a pilot's license to drive it. And he got this big old Toyota sitting up there. And he says, and he looks at my truck. I mean, my truck, two of his Toyotas, my truck made. And he said, I'm not going to be able to pull you out of here. I said, I don't want you to pull me out of here. You know what pulling me out of here is? I hook to the trailer, I put it in neutral, and you do the work. I said, I don't expect you to do that at all. I said, I said, here's what I'm gonna do. I said, first off, I gotta hope I can get the ball under the hitch, because if I can't get it squared, we're in trouble. My son Nathan, my middle son, he was the oldest one with us at that time, he got me lined up perfect, dropped the trailer on the ball, I put it down in second gear, and I told this kid with the Toyota, I said, I'm gonna try to, just try to ease it out of here. I never spin a tire, guys. And I said, if I spin a tire, you're helping me. And the truck kind of picked up. And then, boom, I felt it spin. And so I stopped it. And I said, here's what I want you to do. Here's the building. I'm behind it. I said, come on down here. Nose to me. I had a chain. We put a chain on there. And I said, now, here's what I'm going to do. I said, I'm going to put it in low range. And I said, I'm going to start it. When I feel the tire spinning, I'm going to tell you to hit it. He took the slack out of it. And so where I started spinning, I told him to hit it. And we came around. Now, we were coming slow. He's slinging mud. I'm slinging mud. You could tell we were Baptists. And at one point, I'll never forget it, he was halfway up that hill. And all of a sudden, this Toyota lost traction. And he's got four tires. And it's just hopping, like he ain't going nowhere. And that Ford got traction. You say, what are you going to do, hit him? No, I was going to push him. I had traction. I ain't stopping for nobody. And that Toyota saw that Ford coming. It got motivated. And it got out. But guys, here's what I'm saying. Those guys, like in the Oregon Trail out in the west, they'd start up a mountain. I mean, they were climbing where it wasn't too steep. They were climbing where it wasn't too soft. They had gotten rid of all of the extra weight they could. They still couldn't make it up. You know why? Because they needed somebody to give them a pull or somebody to give them a push. They get one of those wagon wheels down into a rut, that horse ain't never pull, that team of horse ain't never pull it out. You just need somebody to get behind you. Guys, you know what's wrong, why some people never make a tire ground? They're too proud to say I need a pull or I need a push. Now let me tell you who does the pushing, preachers. The preacher, he's always pushing. You're not reading enough Bible. You're not churching enough. You're not giving enough. You're not passing enough tracts. Push, push, push. That's our job. But do you ever push a car in the mud? Do you know what happens? The guy pushing gets covered with mud. And that's how it always ends up for a preacher. You get out of the rut, but man, you sure sling mud all over the preacher, but there's a time when your pastor's gonna push you. And instead of griping, you know what you ought to realize? He's trying to help me. You know, I was telling you last night about reading 10 pages a day, and I said that's only about a half an hour, three minutes a page. Well, back when I was on the staff at Maslin, back 40 years ago, I wasn't reading my Bible every single day. And I certainly wasn't reading even 10 pages. And one night, my pastor was preaching, and he said, you ought to read your Bible 30 minutes every day. Well, really, that's 10 pages. But he'd say, he said 30 minutes. You remember that, I don't have time to read the Bible? Yeah, well, it wasn't the first time I heard it. When he said, you ought to read your Bible 30 minutes every day. Now, let me give you some advice. If you're going to say something stupid, say it to yourself. Then no one will know. And so to myself, not out loud, not even under my breath, I said to myself, I don't have time to read my Bible 30 minutes every day. And it was like, you know how the Bible says little birds shall carry the matter? He went, you don't have time to read your Bible 30 minutes. I said, who told him that? And then my pastor cussed in the pulpit. I don't think a man ought to cuss, let alone in the pulpit. You know what he said? He said, you don't have time to read your Bible 30 minutes every day. Get out of bed 30 minutes early so you can read your Bible. Fatty cussing in the pulpit, I don't know what it is. I got so mad I thought he expects me to start getting up at 1130 every morning just so I can read my Bible. I'm telling you guys, you know how mad I was? I was so angry that I went home from church that night and set my alarm 30 minutes early. My pastor, he pushed me. I got mad when he pushed me, because that's what you do. When he hits you, you get mad. I told a guy, I said, you ought to go to church. He said, well, I went to church and the pastor made me mad. And I said, well, did you thank him? We call this aerobic preaching. We'll get your pulse up to about 125 beats a minute. Get some sludge out of here. You'll live longer because you came. You will not thank us. But I'm telling you that there are people that their preacher pushed them. And you're just too proud to let somebody push you. Or maybe a friend. Maybe a friend. Maybe one time somebody said, call Wade. Wade, I don't think I'm going to make it tonight, brother. I don't think I can handle this by myself. You hear what Wade says? Grab on here, bud. You might only need your friend to give you a tug one time. Just get you out of that ditch. And then after that, they just kind of seem like they're on automatic. They got to the higher ground. And we are a proud people. I am sorry. I think we're right on our doctrine and on our Bible and so many things, but we all men are proud. And I am sorry, Baptists are no different. And you're too proud to say, I need help. You're too proud to say, I need someone to give me a pull. I need someone to give me a push. And if you don't get a push. Now look, you can't call the preacher every week. You can't call your friend every week. Oh, I need another poll, Wade. Oh, Wade, third time this week. He's going to say, call somebody else, Buck. You know why? Because I'm just throwing it out of gear and letting him try to pull me up the mountain. That ain't going to happen. I've got to put some effort in this. I've got to get it down into gear. Let him take the slack out of that strap. But I've got to work with him. He can't pull me up that mountain by myself if I don't make the effort. But I can't make it by myself without his help. And maybe some of you, maybe you look back at a time when you said, well, that night, you said, I'm not making it through tonight. Aren't you glad you had somebody to call? You ever call somebody and say, pray for me. Pray for me. I'm having a rough night tonight. I don't think I'm going to get through this one by myself. Will you pray for me? Well, don't you be too proud for that, you understand? And that's just what you need to get to higher ground. So guys, a backslider is not a safe person who is smoking and drinking and living in the world and has no intention of ever getting in church again. That's a carnal Christian. They're like a baby, they can't say no to their flesh. A backslider is somebody that's been trying to say no to their flesh. A backslider is somebody saying, I wanna get up there. I want to get, don't we sing, I want to be on higher ground? He said, I don't understand it. Man, I get a running start. Man, I get up there by 10 feet. Yeah, I slide back eight. Yeah, backslide is somebody trying to get up to higher ground, but where they're climbing is too steep. They're trying to get too much at one time, or what they're climbing on is too soft, or they're trying to bring everything with them, or they're just too proud to say, I need to push. I need a pole. Well, the best thing you could ever do is tell your pastor after he's made you mad and you realize that what he was actually doing was helping you. Say, preacher, you said something one time that made me so mad and ever since then, I've been doing better. I'd like you to stand with your heads bowed. And your heads bowed and your eyes closed. Now if you're not interested in higher ground for God, I can't do anything about it. I'm not going to guilt trip you into it. I'm not going to flog you. I'm not going to beat you or brow beat you or call you names and say you ought to care. If you don't care, you don't care. I can't do anything about that. But if you care, I'm not going to ask you to raise hands or identify yourself in any way. But maybe I'm talking to somebody and you can say, yeah, I can see. I've been trying to get up to higher ground Seemed like I'd make three steps forward, two steps back, three steps forward, two steps back. I couldn't understand why I keep sliding back. You're a backslider. That's not evil. That's not even shameful. Carnal is shameful. You're trying to do the right thing. But maybe you're, maybe you're trying to lift too much weight. Maybe you need to try five pounds instead of 500. Maybe you need to try, Four pages a day instead of 10. Maybe you need to give 12% a year instead of 10 and not 90. Maybe you're trying to, where you're trying to go, it's too steep. Maybe you can just bite off more than you can chew. Maybe you've been looking at all these Christian books and they're all telling you this philosophy of how you can get to higher ground and none of it's got anything to do with the Bible. It's all some man's wisdom, some man's philosophy. I'm telling you, you'll feel good for a while, but that'll drop you. You'll fail so fast. You won't understand. How come I made progress for a while, now I'm not? Because you're finding out it's too soft. And maybe you're like that monkey. You got a handful of rice, you ain't getting enough for nothing. And the world's got you. Not sin, not drugs, nothing evil. That thing is staked at the bottom of the hill, not at the top. You ain't getting that coconut to the top. You have to let go. Or maybe just some night you just need to call a friend and say, pray for me tonight. I need a pull. I need a tug. Preacher, thanks for telling me I wasn't doing enough. I've stepped it up a little bit. You helped me. So if I'm talking to somebody and you can see in your own life you've given a shot, And then you slid back and you made a little progress and then you slid back and you, that's what it is. It's one of them four, you check it out. Maybe tonight, you need to make whatever adjustment you need to make so that you can make some progress up that hill. Because I'm telling you, you get top of that mountain, the view is out of this world.