God of the trees, I am the Lord, we'll set you free. We have heard you cry, have mercy on me. ♪ I am the one ♪ I am the one ♪ I was lost and dark before ♪ I began to pray and Jesus came to me He said, child, I'm sorry for all that you have done. Just reach to me, for I am the tree. I am the wood. I am the tree. I am the wood. Will set you free. When I heard you cry, and I see your face, I am the voice. Woo! I'm happy, so happy. Hallelujah. Is this child on me? Is this child on me? Is this child on me? Is this child on me? ♪ I am the one who lives and is free ♪ ♪ If I have to die, have mercy on me ♪ ♪ I am the one, I am the one, I am the one, I am the one ♪ Start today, amen. What he wouldn't bless back then, he won't bless today. Amen, all right, amen. Everybody knows this very familiar scripture. In verse number one, it said, and it came to pass. When Jesus had finished all these sayings, He said unto His disciples, You know that after two days is the feast of the Passover, and the Son of Man is to be betrayed to be crucified. Then assembled together the chief priests and the scribes and the elders of the people unto the place of the high priest who is called Copias. and consulted that they might take Jesus by subtlety and kill him. But they said, not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar among the people. Now when Jesus was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment. and poured it on his head. And as he said it me, but when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, to what purpose is this waste? For this anointment might have been sold for much and given to the poor. And when Jesus understood it, he said unto them, why trouble ye the woman? For she hath wrought a good work upon me. He said, for you have the poor always. with you but me. You have not always, for in that she hath poured this ointment on my body. She did it for my burial. And listen to what he said. One more verse. He said, Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this that the woman hath done be told for memorial of her. Amen, you can be seated right there tonight. I certainly need your prayers this evening. I realize tonight that it takes the Holy Ghost. I realize tonight, when I looked in the mirror this morning, I didn't see a preacher. Amen, I seen a vessel of God. I mean, listen tonight, if the Holy Ghost don't come by, we might as well go home and shut the door. Amen, it takes the Holy Ghost. Amen, stir it in our hearts tonight. But I thought about this little woman. Amen, and we get into this in a minute. Amen, only in the Gospels, my friend. And surely what Jesus told her. I'm standing here today in the year 2025. I'm telling you about a little woman that brought an alibi extra box of money. Amen, Jesus never lied. God never lies. Amen today. But there's some things, my friend, that listen. I just want to pull off the sheets tonight. Amen. Just pull. Amen from the scripture. Amen. some very common sense things. When I look at this, when I read Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, amen, it's different writing. I pointed at the same man, Jesus Christ, amen. When I read this same incident, amen, in Matthew and Mark, And Luke and John, they look at it from a different angle. And they write different words. But it's about the same man. Amen. And so we see this little woman. We don't know her name, my friend. But we're gonna know her name. at the end of this thing tonight. If the Lord give it to me, I'm gonna give it to you. Amen. She brought something, amen, down there on that day that was precious to her. And she said, hey, she said, hey, I thought, Jesus is more precious than anything I've got. And I'm gonna take it down yonder, and I'm gonna put it on his head. I'm gonna break it, my friend. Oh, man. Matthew and Mark. Over in the book of Mark. Amen to that. She breaks it. Oh, listen to me tonight. If you come to Christ. need. We're going to come broken. And when we come broken, he said, you'll come unto me. He said with a contrast spirit, a broken heart. Hey man, let's look at this a minute. You stay with me. I didn't write nothing down. I ain't got the authority to do that. Hey man, but this was penned down how many years ago. Amen by the old men of God. And in the spirit of God, I come upon these men and they begin to jot what the spirit said and what God said. Write it down, brother, in the book. You'll be able to stand on it in this modern day. Amen. Amen. We'll find out some interesting things as we go up. God will let us tonight. God, I need you. I can't do it without you. He's going to take the Lord. Amen. Now listen, when we look at this little woman, she comes down there. Amen. Two days or so before Christ, it's the big eye sold away. Amen. And he's going to be crucified. Amen. He's going to die. and he's gonna give up the ghost on the cross, but right now, he's sittin' here in this house, and amen, there's a little woman that come down out where he was, dropped up most everything she had, amen, listen, and poured it on his feet. in his head and anointing him. Amen, are you with me tonight? Listen this evening. Amen, even the disciples that stood and sat there said, hey, what is this waste? What are you doing? Can't we sell this and give it to the poor? And Jesus said, the poor, you'll have it your way. He said, but you ain't gonna have me. She chose a good thing. And brother, she's gonna be remembered. What's people gonna remember? When you die. Amen, when they roll you up. How that empty carcass, brother. That empty mountain. Amen, in a coffin. What's people gonna say? Have you been with the Savior? Do you know what's precious? Well, praise the Lord. We get loose in a minute. Oh, amen. I'm going to skim through this for us. Amen. We go over to Book of Mark. That same instance. Amen. Different man looking at it. This woman carried her ointment down there. and she anointed the head of Jesus. Well, this one right here, amen, listen, that same woman, amen, somebody else seen it. You hear me tonight? Don't fall out with me now. Just listen to me. Just for a few minutes. She come down there, amen, and she began to break, to break that box, that alabaster box of ointment. You'll hear of me tonight. It's right here in the pages of this blessed Bible. Amen. She broke it. We've got her come broken. We've got to give him everything. You not receive nothing, God. Have God given height of what you have. Amen. Thank God good. All the time. Amen. Now listen. Tell us what you think. Amen. Tell us what you think, Mark, about what you saw. He said, well, I saw a woman. I'm just going to witness. Amen to you. He said, I saw that little lady come through the door. and come and brought everything that she had. Amen. But she broke her box. Are you with me tonight? Amen. The first instance, Matthew said, well, she anointed Jesus' head. And there's a memorial in the mortuary. Hey, listen, she came broken. She came broken. That's how you gotta come. The sweetness, it's gotta come out. The fellowship, you've gotta hook up with God. Amen. Oh, listen to me. Amen. She come broken. Broke that box. Let that fragrance out. Oh, listen to me tonight. Ain't God good to us tonight? And then, when we get over in the Luke, amen, we'll find they said, Hey, that woman that anointed you, she's a sinner. It ain't good enough just to come. You gotta come broken, and you gotta come honest. You gotta approach it honest, my friend. I wonder how many last night have walked out the door of his church. Amen. Let's not be honest. Amen with the man of God. Let's not be honest. Amen, the spirit of God drawing them. Their children's dying. Amen, without hope. Their family, everything's itching to let me just go down. But they laugh and deny. She said, I know I'm a sinner. I can just see her now. But I got to go where Jesus. I heard about him. Hey, hey man, the psychiatrist ain't done me no good. I've been down there. I've been to all the meetings. I've been in religious crowding. I've been in the Bible study. I've been in the youth choir. I've been in the big choir. About that lesson tonight, she probably tried it all. Amen. She said, all I got left is me. I'm going to take myself in there. I'm going to give what I got. Amen. I'm going to break it. Oh, listen to me tonight. I ain't nothing tonight. Amen. But listen, I know when you work for God, better you got to be humble. It's about Him. It ain't about us tonight. All my time. Look, that's where we are. Let's flip on over here. Amen, let's look at Luke. Oh, brother Luke, what do you see? Oh, listen, same story. He's down at Bethany. It's almost feast day and he's gonna die. Amen, but he's still precious to somebody. Amen, we see. In the first two books, even the disciples said it's waste. You think about how many people sit in the house of God and see somebody give up an offering of praise to God. Somebody to say something good about the master and say, hey, they talk all the time. They shout all the time. They sing all the time. It's just like him to say that. And every time you pull up in front of God, we pray, you're not wasting the night. He sees you. Money to kill or the church. One of the killers of the church is when God's people gets the shut mouth. And they will not praise Him. And they will not give honor. They'll call Him their Father. But they'll not fear Him. They'll give Him honor. And they'll call Him their Lord. And they'll not fear Him. How you know? We'll follow Him home. We'll go to Walmart. We'll go to the mall. We'll go wherever we're at. Their lot's under a bushel. They put it under the bed. We're supposed to be a city that's set on a hill. But I'm okay to not care. If we're to get it from God, we've gotta be broken tonight. Ain't that right? Amen. I want you to know, they're down at Simon's house. They manned a leper. And here they are again. Still down there at the Pharisee's house now. So things are beginning to look bad for old Simon. And Jesus has got him pegged down. Amen. I mean, I wish we could put this scene all in one book and just see what all was said it was. But one writer looked at it this way and this one that way. But nevertheless, like I said, it's about Christ. Listen to me, it's about coming. It's about coming broken. It's about bringing your best, amen. Not leftovers tonight, but bring your best for God. You want your lost people to go to church, you go. You're tired of dead church services, get up off the pill and let's go shout. We've grown accustomed to the barn. I had a preacher friend of mine, Brother David Castle over at Kingsport. I remember hearing him preach one night, and he said, my grandson, when he was little, said he'd come over and he'd like to play hide-and-go-seek with Papa. He said we'd run around and hide. He said we'd go and get behind the chair, all these things, hiding from one another. He said, one day I jumped in the closet. And I shut the door. He said, but when? Hey man, I shut the door, it was pitch black. I couldn't find, he said, Nick, I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. He said, but the longer I stayed in the dark, the more I got used to it. And before long, hey man, I was used to the dark. My friend, the longer you sit, the colder you get, the more used to it you'll get. There's a darkness out there. Don't get caught, my friend. You'll be like a unicus. You'll fall from the loft, my friend. And they may not be a part of saving you. You might fall. God help me. I want this to make sense. God, I just heard it. It come to me yesterday. I didn't know what my brother was going to preach. It came to me yesterday. I told the brother going out the door last night, I said, you ain't going to believe it. Amen. But listen, it's what God gives me. Hear me tonight. I didn't tell him exactly. I said, you ain't gonna believe it. Amen, but listen tonight. Amen, she's seeking something that's better than what she's got. She's seeking something prettier. She's seeking something that, brother, would give her comfort, give her joy, give her peace, give her healing. She's broken spirit, and she comes to our Jesus. Ain't that right? Amen. You go anywhere else but Jesus, you went to the wrong place. I don't know what you're struggling with, but giving a man $300 an hour, you lay on the couch or chair and you tell him all your troubles. They can't help you. They can't make you feel no better. They may throw you a pill out the door. They may throw you a nerve pill. That ain't gonna help you. You may have all the money in the world. And brother, but I will tell you, you can buy the biggest, best king-sized bed, but it cannot buy you sleep. You can buy the biggest steak in the world. You can have all the good groceries need, but it will not buy you an appetite. Oh, my friends, I believe there's some in the house of God that's lost their appetite. We got all the trophies on the wall. There's one junior, he's batting the ball. Hey, I played football, too, in high school. Hey, man, listen, God had to get my attention. God. and to tame me down. I want you to know today. Somebody said, why didn't you do that? Why didn't you do that? It wasn't in God's plan. I'm gonna tell you, when you go against God's plan, amen. Hey, they said she's a sinner, but it does not matter to Jesus. They said you ought to hear about her, that woman that anointed you, that woman. and took it all, and her tears, and walked your feet with her hair. Amen, anointed you, she's a sinner. Oh, what did Jesus say? Amen. He said, Simon, I have somewhat to say to you. Down at the Pharisee's house. Had to be silent the whole time. We're just peeling layers. Let's just peel layers. Hey man, we've seen a woman come in and they said, hey, why are you wasting? Jesus says, there's going to be a memorial of this woman. She's worked a good work in me. Some of you, most of us, at the end of our life, they won't put a statue out on the town square. Most of us, they won't see, we won't see a picture of us on the White House wall beside Washington and Lincoln and Jefferson. Amen. I don't care. Thank God you know why. I want my right! God, Father, Blood, Blood, Sweat, and Snow. Thank God that's over. He said there's gonna be a memorial this one. Charlie Robson's gonna be preaching about her. Gordon Lusk's gonna be preaching about her. Any new preacher's gonna be preaching about them. She's a sinner. She wasn't when she met Jesus. I like that old song. I'm not a sinner anymore. I'm glad today when you get born again, you're not a sinner no more. Somebody said, well, I'm just a sinner saved by grace. You ain't saved then. But when you get born again, you'll quit the sinning. Somebody said you ain't going to fail. Yes, you're going to fail. But you're not going to be out in the world practicing sin no more. All have sinned, all have come short of the glory. Yeah, but we'll quit practicing sin. You know what that old damnable doctrine does? It sends your children to hell. It's everywhere. Have the mind, it ain't gonna preach to us. If you can't hire a preacher, he ain't for sale. I may never get another dime that God said he'd supply my way. No wonder David said, I once was young, and now I'm old, and I've never seen the righteous forsaken. Though it's seed, bag, and bread, are you the seed of God? Do you belong to him? Then you'll have everything you need. You might not drive a Cadillac, he didn't tell you you would. He didn't tell you you wouldn't have to walk to church. But he said if you love me, you'll have a desire to walk to church. Too many times the devil give us these lousy woo-woo moments. Where everybody's against me, God's forgotten him. I want you to hear, go back, if you didn't hear last night, go back and hear what Brother Gordon said. The Lord said, I'm with you, Gordon. I was right there with you. Come on. Come on, brother. George, if you didn't help nobody, you helped this old boy. Amen! Let a little fire under me. I want to do more. I want my way to run on. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen And this woman come down there and the Bible said she, over Mark 14 said, I'm reading it right here. And the Bible said in Ben and Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper. As he said in me, there came a woman having alabaster box on me, a spot in her, very precious, and she broke the box and poured it on his head. She took everything she earned for the year and said, it's worth Jesus. I find it hard for me I find it hard to believe that some people's life's all about Jesus. Till it comes to sacrificing what? The flesh wants to die. I'm not no old man. I'm 50. Maybe 50's old. I don't know. But it's 50 years old. I'm not satisfied with just showing up on Sunday, preaching 30 minutes, and going to the house with no results. We get used to that, don't we? Ah, we come in, Charlie preaches an hour or so, we have a decent little Sunday school, and we march on down to the buffet. And we done forgot about what Charlie preached. Because we're worried about getting first in line. You know why God ain't blessing people, right? Their mind ain't stayed upon Him. They're distracted. Amen. And the Bible said, when she broke it, she poured it on his head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves and said, why was this waste of an ointment made? Here's your religious crowd. Why do they get loud down there? Why does that preacher have to scream at me? But if he ain't preaching, he ain't screaming. If he ain't screaming to me, he ain't preaching. I need something to get the hold of this flesh. I need something that deburs the flesh. I need something that makes me feel better. If you leave the house of God, blew up in your flesh, I think, listen, you failed today. If we come in the house of God and the word of God's preached, it ought to make us loud. It ought to make us make a judgment. It ought to challenge us. Some of you parents was challenged and you brought your children. Pray for those that didn't. I didn't see nobody back there. I didn't look. but they're being robbed, the most precious thing. You give me a few more minutes here. Jesus tells them the same thing. Mark. Luke, what do you see? When Mark said, I see a woman, she came in and she break it. Put it on his head. Put it on his head. You pray for him, I'm human. One of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him And he went into the Pharisee's house and sat down to meet. And behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meet in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of woman and stood at his feet. Mark said, Luke said, no, Mark, I seen it like this. She stood behind him at his feet. You think she's popping bubblegum? Some people can't shout because they choke on their Jolly Rancher. It's amazing, ain't it? Come on, we say we want the Holy Ghost to have its way. I ain't telling you to go to hell for it, I'm just saying you're missing opportunities. To shout! To give God praise! Clap your hands! To lift your hands! He's already commanded us to worship, praise, and come in these days with praise, and to His courts with thanksgiving. Right? Correct me. I need amen. He said, he said a woman at a city camp, and she's a sinner. You know, the first two women, they just, they brought their, their box home. Listen, the Bible said and stood at his feet behind him weeping and begin to watch his feet with tears. and wiped them with the hairs of her head and kissed his feet and anointed him with the ointment. Well, we'll see now, we got one that anointed his head. Got another one that broke it. And now we got one that's washing his feet with his tears and anointing him. And the whole time, old Simon's sitting over there going, I ain't got no water. Ain't got no wall. Ain't got no wall. Ain't got nothing to shout about. Ain't got nothing to praise about. I don't care what they call you. They call you Hones, Pentecostal, whatever. If that's what praising is, I guess call me that. and being a child of God, I'm proud of being one. There she was, and she wiped the tears off his feet with her hair. How long has it been since you've seen somebody shout their hair down? How long has it been, man, since you sucked your chest in and praised the Lord? Come on now, you want revival, you gotta have it. Hey, listen, you gotta praise the Lord. You can't come here like, hey, I've got it all right. I've done it all right. Hey, come in here and act like I'm a saint. Yeah, you are. I'm gonna be honest. I don't know half of you not blessed. I love you. I love you. The Bible said that now in the first seed, not seas, seed, which had bitten him saw it, he spake within himself saying, this man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is and that touch of him. For she is a sinner, oh he knew. He also know what brother Simon was thinking. Judas sets it meet. Judas is at these meetings. He's, well, the Lord called him a thief. Okay, he was a thief. He was a devil from the very beginning. But he was at foot worship. You think that tonight? I do, I really do. I think he talked to the Lord's supper. Don't you? He had partnered with Christ. Christ learned who he was. See, you ain't gonna go to church and God don't know who you are. You can come in, honey, you can carry the bread. You can carry them little cups if you want to, but that don't make you a Christian. You can leave prayer in your Sunday school class. That don't make you a Christian. Judas walking with Christ didn't make him a son of God. He already knew his fate. Jesus already knew who was going to sop with him. But he's had all these meetings. He's at these meetings. We're just peeling it off. We're saying, hey, look at that. Well, after all that's who that was. You see, you see over the years, we think we escaped when the truth is proven. No, he's just removing layers. He's just removing layers. And one day, guess what? If it rains enough, The wind blows enough. If it rains enough, you know, it'll uncover what's in there. You go around Nuffie's Holy Ghost Meats, you look around it, it uncovers things. I mean, I'm trying to do right. But we're peeling back layers. We're seeing this clearly. Preacher, I don't see it that way. Well, let me just preach this the way God gives it to me, and you go preach the way God gives it to you. I'm trying to help you tonight. It ain't bad to be revealed. It's called mercy. It's called grace, actually. It's not cheap grace. This grace costed my Savior his life. It's not made for us to drag grace everywhere in the world and say, Jesus is with me. He's watching over, but he ain't walking with you. You're going down to the world, brother, and you're celebrating with the world. You're doing the things of the world. The world loves her own. You get more joy going to Dollywood than you do to church. There's something wrong. You get more joy out of the country music. I don't get no joy out of it. I don't listen to it. Then you do amazing grace. That poor dear rotten soul out of hell. There's a lot of things I got rid of. You better get rid of them, honey. Oh yeah. Amen. My listen. Almost done here in just a minute. Jesus said, Simon, I have something to say to you. I got something to say to you, old boy. Yeah. He said, master, say on. Oh, really? He said, there was a certain creditor had two debtors. The one owed 500 And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love the most? He got this right. Yeah, Simon Aynton said, suppose that he to whom he forgave the most, and he said unto him, thou hast rightly judged. Now stand there and take this. That's what he told him. He said, and he turned to the woman and said unto Simon, seest thou this woman? See this woman right here? You see a sinner? You see this woman, you said, and she was a sinner. They knew her. I don't know why she's guilty of. They knew everybody. It's just like being young. Just like Rahab the harlot, it was Rahab the harlot. I'm gonna slow it down, but listen. He said, I entered into Thine house, O Pharisee. Do we got any Pharisees here tonight? You went home and said, boy, if you'd been there, they'd got you, boy. I had a man one time said, you're going to preach it awful close to get me. I said, I'm going to try my best. He's one of them braggers. But listen, the Bible said, saith thou this woman, I entered in thine house, and thou givest me no water for my feet, but she hath washed my feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss, but this woman, this woman, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head was full. Thou didst not anoint, But this woman hath anointed me, my feet, with oil. What for I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, comma, he calls the many. He said, this woman's sins, which are many, comma, are forgiven. Comma, that means he stopped for a minute. I wonder if he just sat there and looked at the faces, Simon. Help him, Lord. The sinner woman's forgiven. Yeah. Yeah. Somebody needs a, I mean, I mean. Thank you, Lord. Yeah. Take it down there and sell it, give it to the poor. Jesus is about to die. The very one that loved him more than himself. And all they can think about is money, money, money. All we can think about is how we can build on to the church. What color the carpet is. And we got people dying and going to hell. And we're fighting over the color of the carpet. Ain't that right? We're worried about putting tags on all the pews in memory of so and so. But people are dying and going to hell. We have come for our cynical. Caring much for the tangibles. More than we know about God. I'm here tonight, my daddy's right there, I got friends here. Listen, all of us, A-double-L tonight, has been guilty at some point. We've come to church, we've come to church, we, all of us, has come to church with the wrong attitude. We couldn't worship because we're still arguing with our wife in our mouth. Ain't that just being a human? I mean, ain't that the way the devil uses us? You said, I said, no, not me. Well, you lie. Hypocrite, hypocrite, hypocrite. She said, he said, you see this woman right here? There's Andrew, man. But she's forgiven him. Are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same love is little. And he loved us a lot. And Jesus loved us a lot. And he said unto her, thy sins are forgiven. And they that said it at meat with him began to say within themselves, who is this that forgiveth sins also? And he said to the woman, oh yeah, by the way, just so they're gonna know, I'm gonna say this again. Thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace. I gotta turn over here. In the book of John chapter 12. Let's see who this is. She's a representation of us. But she's a representation of who we was. And Simon and them's a representation of what the religious us is. I'd rather be saved than religious. Wouldn't you? I mean, wouldn't you tonight? I wonder how many's worried about what they're having to suffer right now. I wonder what show's on. You wanna have revival? You gotta put it all out. You gotta say, God, not only this week, but in the weeks to come, I need revival. to be willing to do what it takes. Not bad pharisees. Bring people into our house and halfway worship. Get them through the works. Yes, worry about your hair. So what? Shout it out. I mean, I know we can't stir it up. Hey, but listen, if you're born again, looks like something would get a hold of us. Looks like some prize would come out of me. Something get out of hand. Ain't that right? Amen. Jesus went down there. Six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper, and Martha served, and Lazarus was one of them, sat at the table with him. What a blessing. He's been dead. Just for a little while. Then Mary. Then took Mary, pounded on me. John, how you see it? Well, I see it like it is. Well, that's all right. We'll just throw the layer off. Reveal it. Man. and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair and the house was filled and the house was filled with the older And then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son. Well, how about that? That went on far, far from the tree. Or far, far, however you want to call it. Simon's son, we should betray him. I said, why wasn't I to listen? sold for 300 pence and given to the poor. And he said, not that he cared for the poor. The Bible said, but because he was a thief and had the bag. He didn't die with the bag, but he had it. And bear what was put therein. He bared it. Then Jesus said, let her alone against the day of my burning. Has he kept this? For the poor you have always. You have with you, but me have not always. He's about to leave and all their worries. They should be, I mean, I don't know that none of us, maybe we would have done the same thing. They just take too many running to Jesus now. Out of all them that he healed, all that he touched, he fed, I mean all them diseases that he cured, where was he at on the crucifixion day? I don't know, I didn't read about him, did you? I read about old Mary. His mother was there at the cross. Mary, behold thy son. Son, behold thy mother. Who is my mother? Who is my son? Who is my brother? Them that do my commandments. You want to be in a family of God, you've got to mind the Lord. It just ain't something we go out here and we get our new shirts, it says Churchbrook, Princeton, Freewill, wherever you come from. That ain't no witness. I mean, listen, I got a shirt that's got three nails on it. It said three nails forgiven. I got one I wear every day under my overalls. I do. I got a hat with a cross on it, but that don't make me a Christian. It's how I act. It's how I respond. It's what people see in me. It makes me what I am. Amen, ain't that right? and all they're gonna worry about is putting more money in the bank. We peeled back them layers. We seen the real people come out. Here's a woman, knew she needed God. Knew the lifestyle she lived wasn't right. She needed a savior. And here's these bunch of Pharisees. frauds in a lot of ways. True, brother. True, brother. Say, don't you know she's a sinner? Yeah. I'm going to share this since we could have been. I've done the very best I can. Good, brother. That's good. I'm going to share this. Brother Adam Wise reminded me of a friend. Had a tent. Brother Paul Price, some of you may know him. I don't know. Years ago, he had it. Had a tent, they traveled and done revivals. And one night, she said, there was a woman coming. She just got out of drug rehab. True story, guys. She didn't have no dress on. Stood out there defeated. Some of them called her before she come in and said, you can't come in because you ain't got a dress on. Firestays. Firestays. Firestays. You clean the pig up, it'll run right back if you don't change its nature. Firestays. And Brother Paul got up and said, I look back there and he said, He said, there's a lady standing outside the tent and wouldn't come in, but she's just standing on the outside of the tent. He said, I went back there and he said, introduced himself, said, how you doing? I said, come on in. She said, I can't come in. They said, I couldn't. He said, well, honey, I own the tent and I own the chairs. You come in and sit down beside me. You come in and sit down beside me. I like it, Nicky, right there. When the message was preached and the honor call was made, that little girl got up from the front pew, went down right here. She got saved. She made her way past the Pharisees, past the religious people. She made her way to the sweetest faith she had ever known. She made her way. Thank God for that. Glory! Don't you let that religious crowd keep you out! Don't you let the world keep you out! You'll never change until you get saved! You won't dress good enough! You won't quit cussing enough! You won't quit pills enough! You're gonna have an inward change! I like that old song, Take Me to the King. He knows what I need. We're going to live in such a way that people desire what we And they don't see religion. They see love. You can't disciple somebody until they get saved. You need to teach them. Teach them how appropriate it is to walk the wire in church. Appropriate clothing to wear. I mean, teach them about Jesus. If you don't make a savior, he won't make a hell of man. Somebody might like to pray tonight. That little gal might be in you. That little woman might be in you. She brought everything she had. I looked it up, God. I'd like to know something. That 300 pence, you know, it was worth today, over $54,000. 300, that's right. She brought that, said, that's more, yeah. He moves more, yeah. He's my brother. He's my sobriety. You hear me? He's my friend. I can go to him. Just peel back the layers. We'll come out on something. We'll be that person. They're just bunched. We'll be that little I got a story. I got a story. If it hadn't been for the Lord, I'd have been in hell tonight. I was gonna tell you that. If it hadn't been for the Lord, I was like Reuben. I was unstable as water. Well, even before I got married, I was a young preacher, I was unstable as water. Couldn't make my mind up. I'm here tonight because of the great sermon. I refuse to listen to the religious people. I had a preaching cousin, he's backslidden now. Then he was in church. He come down there where I was at. You don't have my name. I was shacked up with a woman. A year ago, I was a man. That's me. Just like that woman. I was a man. He come down there and he said, Charlie, can we just come back to church? We won't look at you no more differently. We love you. I didn't come back then, Gordon. I caught myself sitting out there on the driveway, getting out of the way from everybody. I'd be sitting down in the car seat in the evening, turning to 6 and 9. I'd sneak around. Yeah, come on, brother. Bureau in. No lines. Smoked off. Struck a cold. Here's another year. Went by. I'm going to tell you. I'm going to put you in the hall, brother. The lady, brother. Nothing weird about the year. Went by. Went by. Somebody said, how do you know? I heard that voice. I heard that voice! He drove me out of that bed, sweat dripping off my body. He said, Charlie, if you don't preach, I'm gonna kill you. You think that was the devil? I don't think so. You know what I said? I didn't repent. I said, God, I've been bunged. I've been chained. I can't get loose. I've made a mess out of my life. Ain't no way I can get out. Two days later, though, my dad came to pick me up. In the 1985 Chevrolet custom plan, I carried two bags of stuff out there. He said, did you have no more than that? I said, no, certainly not. Nothing I got here belongs to me. But no, I said I stole from my company to get here. I got in the shade, but I didn't care. But the closer I got home, the better I felt. I didn't take off, Richard. I sat on the pew. I said, Lord, I'm not worthy. Lord, I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy! One day, Lord, I stood at the back of Benton's church. This is the first words I said. I'm glad the Lord saved me. I sat back down, cuz I didn't feel worthy enough to stand anymore. Started traveling around. Went to a little church called Honeycutt, community church. They'd ask me to come down there, I mean I was preaching a little bit. Went down there, I seen this guy. Something spoke to me. I ain't got no key. I ain't worth it. She said, I saw you up there preaching. And she said, the Holy Ghost spoke to me and said, that's going to be your house. 25 years ago today, last September. We've been married 25 years, got two daughters, a grandson. I ain't looking back. Too close home. Too close home. Too close home. And we say it tonight, too close home. I love you. I love you. Don't mind, listen. Don't listen to the outside. You listen to the voice of God. And in that same 1985, man, He knows what he's doing. That's good, brother. Let's stay until after.