Who wrote a song somebody go get God it's a it's a great song and that was their theme and he said I just felt like somebody went and got God for me Burton and I thought man somebody did go get God It's a wonderful thing. And so praise the Lord for the good of the good report. Let's take our Bibles We're gonna turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter number I believe it is, 2 Corinthians chapter number four. And if you're able to stand, I ask you to stand, if you do not mind. He had told me something else about, I was there preaching missions conference a couple of weeks ago. And when I was the last night, this guy came up to me that I wasn't familiar with, and he's about 40 years old. And he said, I'm getting baptized Sunday. And I go, praise God, man, that's good, what's your name? He goes, John. I said, oh good, John, when did you get saved? Well, you know, it's kind of different. I had a dream, and it started going on with some kind of weird stuff, and I said, I said, well, John, you know, God, you know, there ought to be a time in our life where we, maybe we don't know. He goes, I don't know the date. I said, well, you don't have to know the date, and you don't have to know the exact time, but you ought to have a time, and you ought to have a date that God saved you. You see, you meet Jesus, something so big as Jesus, you'd remember when you met him. And then someone pulled me away from him, and I wasn't able to talk to him, or it was the end of the service. And he waited till everybody was gone. Then he just, our preacher, we'd all come up and said, John's waiting to talk to you still. I said, well, he is? I said, OK. So I went over and talked to him. And he goes, I ain't got a day or a time. I need to talk to you. And we talked. And man, he went to Afghanistan. And he'd had some PTSD issues. We're on the front row. Nobody's in the church. And I gave him the gospel. And I said, John, do you want to? He's literally sitting in the chair. I said, do you want to pray? He goes. Yes, and fell over and he got saved and got baptized Sunday. And I thought, man, what a blessing. I mean, it's just good. God's good to us. They need us to be a part of something like that. And so what a blessing. 2 Corinthians chapter number four, just want to share my good news with you. I don't talk to myself too much. I could have shared it in the room by myself, but I thought I'm going to share it with you guys. So it'd be good. 2 Corinthians chapter number four, the Bible says, therefore, seeing we have this ministry, As we have received mercy, we faint not, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, It is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. Lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants, for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father we love you and I thank you Lord once again for the word of God. Thankful for how wonderful it is just even rereading it often and Lord, how much it means to me and how much it speaks to my heart and how great a power it has. And I pray that tonight be no different. Pray that the preaching and teaching of your word would change the life of every person in this room or rest the minds of every person in here that we might get something from you that would be powerful enough to change the direction of our life or help us in directing our life, Lord. And we would be different when we leave here and there'd be a change. And God, because you're just that God. You're just that powerful. Your Word is definitely that powerful. And I pray that you'd help each person, Lord. No field folks are going through it in different areas. Lord, I'm glad you're going through it with us. And I pray that everybody in here is saved by the blood. I pray that they've been, have turned to you and you're their savior tonight. If not, I pray they get saved tonight. In Jesus name, amen. You can be seated. Thank you for standing so long. I appreciate that. The Apostle Paul, once again, we read a little bit in 2 Corinthians in Sunday School, I believe it was, and we think about Paul as a man that gets saved and goes on a mission immediately. He gets born again, God meets with him, conviction sets in, he gets saved, and I believe in my heart that Ananias led him to the Lord, Ananias baptized him, and in Acts chapter number 22, But verse 14, I believe it says something like this, and why tarryst thou? Let me read it to you real quick, because I make statements, and then I don't mean to go down these rabbit trails, but I do want to help you to understand why I just said that. He says in Acts 22, 16, and now why tarryst thou? Arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling upon the name of the Lord. Many folks believe he got saved on the Damascus Road. I'm not one of those folks. I believe he was under conviction on the Damascus Road, but I believe he got led to the Lord by Ananias, because Ananias says, arise, and why tarryest thou? Arise and be baptized, washing away thy sins. We know that washing away your sins does not happen by baptism. And he called upon the Lord, well, wash your sins away. And then you get baptized. I believe it was a simultaneous thing for Paul to get saved. And his life changes dramatically. I mean, he immediately, God sends Ananias and he tells him, you're gonna stand before kings and magistrates, it's not gonna be easy, and you're gonna do a lot of great things for God. And can I tell you this, tonight, that God wants to do great things with every person in this room, whether you're a child, or whether you're a lady, or whether you're a man, God wants to do something incredible. He has never changed that, it wouldn't matter if we lived on an island with five people. God would want us to witness to all five of them until they got saved, and then God would want us to swim somewhere else to find some more, amen? And it's what he wants us to do. It's the plan. And so Paul gets saved, and we don't want to go through Paul's whole life tonight, but we know that he became a church-planting machine. He would go different places. He would go right into those towns. He would start preaching in the synagogues first, and then he would go to the Gentiles, and there would be lots of people that were against him at times and didn't want to hear it, but he never quit, and he always kept on, and he had a ministry. And if we were to look at it tonight, when it says in verse number one, therefore seeing we have this ministry, he's talking about the ministry of reconciliation. Reconciling people to God. We're at enmity with God until we get saved, and then we're at peace with God when we get saved. And God gave Paul this ministry But he gave the ministry to him to show others to make that their ministry. To reach people for Jesus Christ. And he says as we have received mercy, we faint not. Because God saved you. because God saved Paul because he got mercy. I didn't deserve salvation and neither did you. Wouldn't matter how nice a person you were. If you were someone that followed all the statutes of the cities and followed laws and went to work and didn't cuss and weren't nasty and doing all these things that I did, then you were in more trouble than I was because you might have thought you didn't need God. And listen, I'm more afraid of a person that thinks they got everything together than I am of the drug addicts that's in the street. And so because we've received mercy, Paul says, we can't faint. We can't stop. We've got to do something for God. Folks, listen to me. This is 5% of Christianity. This is a small part of what a Christian is and what a church is. And the church is not the building, the church is not the chairs, the church isn't the man of God. The church is born again baptized believers that have come together to fulfill the great commission. We have a great responsibility to do something for God and we cannot faint. And Paul told the Corinthian church that. He said, we renounce the hidden things of dishonesty. And we're gonna look at some of this in just a moment, not walking and crafting, it's not handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, committing ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And he says this, but if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. Our gospel. Now, I'm not going to preach long tonight, and you can say amen right there. My folks would say amen. They wouldn't believe me, but they would say amen. But I want to give you a testimony. And he says, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. Not to some men's conscience. to every men's conscience in the sight of God. And if you were to follow the Apostle Paul through the New Testament, you will see that he gives his testimony everywhere. And so I'm going to give you my testimony tonight, my gospel. I don't want it to be hidden. I want to just give you my testimony, what God did in my life, and you'll know more about me than you probably ever wanted to know in just a moment. And I'm glad God came and got me. I tell people he reached way down and got me. He reached way down and got me. And I'm thankful he came to my house and he did something. But the Bible says if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost. The title of the message tonight is The Best Kept Secret. What do you think The Best Kept Secret is? Well, I'm going to share that with you in just a moment. Best kept secret. And so I'll just start right from the beginning. When I was a baby, when I was born, I was born, my name was Christopher Scott Marquez. I was the third of three children, and I had two brothers, Randy Marquez and Ricardo Marquez. I was the third child, and my brother was two years old, and the other one was one year old. We just, one right after the other. And my mother had had me out of wedlock with another man, another Mexican man. I'm half Mexican. You probably could tell by looking at me. I'm half Mexican. And my mother got pregnant with me, and it was rough having a two-year-old, a one-year-old, and no husband. Her husband had left her. She had gotten pregnant from another man, a man named Gabriel Pena. And I took the Marquez name on my birth certificate. And when I was 10 weeks old, my mother, her brother was married to a lady. That lady and my real mother were best friends growing up in Fenville, Michigan. They went to school together. And her brother and his wife had met early on in high school. Of course, her brother had dropped out of high school. He had an eighth grade education. And he would end up going to Vietnam in 1968. And her brother and his wife could not have kids at that time. They just didn't know if they'd have kids. And so my real mom gave me up for adoption to her brother. And she said, if you're going to adopt him, I want you to give him your name so that if you ever have any other children, he'll at least have your name. So they changed my name legally from Christopher Scott Marquez to Burton Dale Gates Jr. And my uncle raised me as his child. And at 10 weeks old, I would tell you this today, that he is my dad and my mom is my mom. And they took me in early. And I did not know that I had, that I was adopted. They told me when I was nine weeks, nine months or nine years old. And my dad came back from Vietnam, and my dad, you know, he never bragged about stuff I told you a little bit about him. He never, he wasn't someone that wore hats and bumper stickers and different things like that. You know, I've met a lot of those guys, and some of those guys, I don't even believe that they were those guys. And I could talk to them a little bit and ask them a couple questions about the military that they can't answer, and if they can't answer those questions, they weren't in the military. And my dad wasn't like that. But he came back from Vietnam, and he started drinking a lot. He was trying to drown out what he had done in Vietnam. And my mom and dad, they just partied my whole life. I mean, literally every weekend. And my dad, his combat pay when he went to Vietnam was $80 a month. Those guys did make a bunch of money. And, you know, just the way it was, we moved from Germany when I was three years old back to Fort Benning, Georgia. And then we went from Georgia to Fort Riley, Kansas. And then we went from Kansas to California, Monterey, California. And then we went from Monterey, California. to Missouri and went from Fort Benningham, I'm sorry, we went from Missouri down to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where I was 11 years old. And we went to North Carolina because my dad's brother was dying of cancer. And he got one of those station, duty stations, because they were trying to help him be with his family. So he went there. At this point in time, my mom and dad were still, my dad was a hard worker, man, but they just, God wasn't in our home. And when I was 11 years old, my mom and dad would both go to work and he would let me stay with my uncle, who was 16. And I had some other aunt and uncles that were 14 at that time. And then my dad had 10 brothers and sisters, all raised by their dad. My grandma was not a really great lady at the time, growing up. And so when I was 11 years old, my 16-year-old uncle thought it would be great if me and him went out and smoked some marijuana. So I was 11 years old, smoking marijuana. And then my aunt, who was there also, who was probably about 25 years old, we would go to the movies, the drive-in movies with her, and they would let us do other things and drinking. And all the while at my home, at my mom and dad's house, my dad had a big black lacquer bar, and they would have people over every weekend, and they would let me bartend at that bar often. And I would give people drinks and pour drinks and different things. And it was really a crazy thing to look back now to think that that's what we did. And my mom, even today, would say, I cannot believe we did that. And that's all I ever was into. Then we went to Germany. And at 12 years old, I met some guys in Germany. And we started doing the wrong stuff in Germany. In Germany, you can drink. If you can make it to the bar, you're legal. You can drink. You don't have to have an ID or anything like that. And I began to do that kind of stuff. And I got in trouble in northern Germany to the point where I was going to go to jail in Germany and to a kid's home and move to southern Germany. And they let us go because we were moving. And then I got in trouble in southern Germany where they were going to put me in a home for boys. And my dad got orders to California. So Germany said, you can leave, but you can't ever come back to Germany. And I'd done some, I won't tell you the things I did, but I did a lot of bad things. And when I got to California and back to Monterey, I was a sophomore. I played varsity football the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade. I was a pretty good football player. In 10th grade, when we got to California, immediately, I went to the football coach, said, I want to play. And they said, we need to see your grades. My grades were terrible. But what happened in Germany is they sent my grades to my house instead of to the school. So I took those grades and I made them not terrible. And I turned them in and my mom said, son, what are you doing? I said, mom, I got to play football. And she allowed me to do that. And I started playing football. And man, went out of control immediately. Started drinking and doing things. And when I was in the 10th grade, we went to senior skip day. I wasn't a senior, but I played varsity football. And there was only two of us on the varsity. There was one freshman, and that was me. There was two sophomores when I played on varsity football. And so I hung out with all those guys. And we went. And on the way there, My truck, my dad in the most truck I had full of full of drinks and alcohol and things. And I hadn't drank yet. We were driving up through Gilroy, California, up in the mountains, had two guys in the back of that truck, two girls in the front. And I flipped that truck and I flew out of it. And I and I broke my leg and my whole face was covered with asphalt. My back and the guy in the back, he was he tried to hold on and it crushed him on the way to the hospital. We're both in that ambulance. I can hear Lance just screaming and yelling. And and It was bad. And when we got there, they came and told me that Lance died. And this is, I'm 16 years old, man. Life is spinning out of control. And I never forgot that. We got back and laid in bed for two weeks because I flew out of a car window. The door popped open. And what happened is I was spinning and going around, and they found out that that tire had popped. And I didn't know how to. I just got my license two weeks before that. And that happened. Played football there. That's all my sophomore year, my junior year. Moved to El Paso, Texas, where my dad would go to the Sergeant Major's Academy. I wear his Sergeant Major's ring to this day. And I was there six months. And it's a border town. There's a lot could happen to someone like me, who is a drug addict, messed up, and got in trouble there. Moved back to California. Then I moved to New York to graduate my senior year of high school. Got in trouble there. Quit the football team. was going off to play college football in Albany, New York. And then we'd quit that team and move to California to play in upstate California in Chico, California. We'd get there, play a year of that, and decide that they didn't know what they were doing. And I would quit that. And it was all for drugs and alcohol. My life was totally wrecked. And I went back home after that, and back to my mom and dad's house in El Paso at this time, because my dad would become the lower United States Drug Task Force Sergeant Major, seven states, JTF6. And it was a big job. His next job was, they wanted him to politic, but just Sergeant Major of the Army at that point. But I was up to no good, and I got into crack cocaine and really messed my life up there. And I remember one time my dad, mom went to my grandfather's funeral. When they came home, I had sold everything they owned for crack cocaine. I couldn't quit. I wanted to. They kicked me out finally. I said, son, you can't ever come back to this house again. You're out. And they kicked me out, man. They adopted me. They put up with me for a long time. And they kicked me out. I went back to California, started bartending. I first went to Utah, got kicked out of Utah, went to California, started bartending there for a while. Eventually, we'd go to Connecticut to my brother's funeral. I had half brothers, if you remember. I went to his wedding, stayed there for a little bit, bartended there, got more into stuff, more and more and more, spiraling out of control. And then we'd go back to California, because I got in trouble. I got extradited on an airplane from Connecticut to California, because I was wanted. And I'd get there. Finally, I got to where I was 30 years old and life was out of control. Worked in Monterey, California as a bartender, made $300 or $400 a night, but slept in a garage because I would spend it every night. Everybody thought I was happy. People would meet me. They'd say, man, that guy's got it under control. I had a lot of friends and people and was into stuff. And my mom and dad said I could come to Arkansas. I wasn't wanted anymore in Texas. The statute of limitations had pulled away. And it was just for misdemeanor marijuana and different things like that. And so I don't want you guys to think I'm wanted or anything. All that stuff got cleared up through the years. When my mom and dad moved to Arkansas, where I wasn't born at that point, they said, you can come visit for Christmas for two weeks. They sent me a plane ticket. I went, and I begged them, could I stay? I said, mom, please let me stay. And this is, you know, they kicked me out seven years before that. I hadn't been home for seven years. And they let me stay, and I told them I was different, and I changed. They'd heard that my whole life. I'd always changed, but I never changed. And got a job there at a pizza restaurant and became the manager, because I would lie. On my applications, I'd always say I'm a manager. I have this, this, this. They'd call people that I knew and get references. I did all kinds of sly things. And lost that job, and then went to Applebee's and started bartending. And 17,000 people, which is a big city for you guys, but everybody knew me. And then I used to wonder what was going to happen to my life. I mean, I really, I used to drive to my mom and dad's every night and I would take beers out of their fridge. I'd drive home every night, drink every night of my life for probably 10 years, smoke marijuana for about 15 years every day of my life. And when I was 31 years old on a Tuesday night, these two teenage boys knocked at my door. And they said, Burden, we want to know if you want to go to church. And they had those tracks. And one of them's daddy was Brother Weedo. And I had just gotten a Bible from a lady at the furniture store. I don't know if I told that story. And her husband and they showed up. And I had that Bible on my coffee table. And I remember as a kid, my mom had a big old Bible on the coffee table, family Bibles. We never opened it. We never went to church. They knocked on my door, and I said, you guys ain't gonna believe it, but they just gave me a Bible. And they kept coming back to my house every week. And I finally answered the door in the fourth week. And I said, I'll go. And I decided to go to church that day. And I remember driving around that town just lost and confused, wondering what happened to my life. Why didn't I have kids? Why haven't I done nothing with my life? I was supposed to be in the NFL. When I was in the 10th grade, I was getting letters from USC. I mean, I was going to be something. and alcohol and drugs took me the wrong way, and sin, really. And when the boys knocked on my door, they kept coming back, and I went to that church, sat in the third or last row. He preached on Psalm 23. I'd never heard Psalm 23, never heard John 3, 16, never been in church in my life. And I walked down, and I got born again. Amen. I got saved, and God changed my life that day, and it was incredible. And little by little, I started going to church on Sundays. I was still drinking. I didn't know how to quit drinking. I was still smoking. But I felt really bad about it. Matter of fact, I thought if they find out, they're going to kill me. They're going to kick me out of here. I didn't think I could sit in the church. I thought everybody was perfect in church. Little did I know, nobody's perfect in church. And I used to sit across from people, and I'd think, man, if they know, they're going to get me. And I remember one night I had just did some things and I was in the gas station and Brother Guido walked in and he was trying to talk to me and I'm kind of pulling back because I think he's going to smell me. I'm like, hey Brother Guido. And then talking to him and they just kept saying, Bert just keep coming to church, just keep coming to church. And then they asked me to go to teen camp. And they said, we want you to be a counselor at teen camp. And I'm like, because really, I was a good faker with people. I mean, I wanted to get off the stuff. But I kept going to church on Sunday. And that preacher would preach. And I thought, this is incredible. Church is actually good. My preacher preaches, and he cries every single service. He cries crocodile teardrops where they fall out of his eyes. They don't roll down. They fall out. to this day. And I used to watch him and I thought, I wonder if that's real. And he would preach and just quick messages and when he would be done, I thought, man I wish he'd keep preaching. Why is he preaching so short? I would go home and I'd think, man, I got to change my life. I got to change my life. And then they asked me to go to camp, so I did. And the night before I went to camp, I did what I normally did, went to the bar, stuff like that. And then I got on a bus to drive to Comfort, Texas, 12 hours on a Sunday night after church. And I get on that bus, and I'm seeing all these kids and these youth pastors, and they're all so sweet. I'm like, I'm sitting in the front row by myself. They're all back there, and I'm going, Lord, what am I doing? They're going to kill me if they find out who I am. And I went to the teen camp. And when I got there, Brother Guido said, go to that tent over there. They need some coaches. And I coached high school football in California. And I've been into sports my whole life. I'm really, really, I like sports. And so I went in there. And they go, hey, are you Burton? I go, yeah, how did you know that? There's like 300 kids there. And he goes, Brother Guido told us about you. You want to be a coach? I said, yeah, I'd like to be a coach. I'd never been to teen camp in my life. And I tell you, man, that week was the best week of my life. You know, it was just unbelievable. We played games. The preaching was unreal. And a man named Cecil Ballard preached that week, all week long. And I remember him preaching messages about if you burn your plows and don't look back and all those things. And they had a thing in the back of the auditorium where it was Trinity Baptist College from Bob Smith down in Arlington, Texas had a college. And I went by there one day, hey, let me give you one of these Burton. And I took one. Yeah, I wish I could have done something like that with my life. If I could have went to Bible class, I wish I would have gotten saved earlier. And I didn't think you could do anything for God. I really didn't know anything. He kept preaching that week. And man, I became counselor of the week. And man, my team was awesome. Our team's name was The Pointers. It's stupid. You might not know what a pointer is. It's maybe a golden retriever, bird dog, pointer. And we came up with these cheers. And man, that week, my kids would hit the ball on the softball field, and I would run with them going, come on, come on. And the other Texas preachers, they were like, Good job, son. Good job. And I was out of control. I mean, I was living the dream. And the last night that he preached, I got a hold of my heart and I went down to that altar. It's open air tabernacle. 300 kids are at the altar. I'm on the outside by myself. And my preacher had preached two weeks before, it's better not to vow a vow than to vow a vow and not keep it. And I said, God, if you could help me, I don't even want to go home. I don't ever want to drink again. I don't ever want to get high again. I don't ever want to touch another woman again. I don't want to steal again. I don't want to go into another bar again. Please help me, Lord. And I mean, I had, once again, a snot slinger. I mean, I was crying, begging God to touch me. And when I got up, all the men of my church had their hands on me. All the kids are over there looking for counselors, and they're all over there with me. And I went back to my seat, and something changed that night. That night I went back to my dorm and my youth pastor, Brother Pulse, in the bottom bunk over here, and there's another preacher above me, just graduated Bible college, Brother Andy Reese. And I said, Paul, I don't know if my mom and dad are saved. I need to go home and bring my mom and dad to the Lord. And he goes, Burton, you got to do it. I'll teach you how to do it. And then we get on that bus that next morning. It's a 12-hour ride, and I open up the Bible to the book of Genesis. Never read the Bible in my life. And I started reading that Bible that day. It's a 12-hour ride. Started getting dark about eight hours into it. We didn't have these fancy phones then. We had things that go like this, no flashlights. And man, I read it till I couldn't see it no more. I remember getting up in like the Joseph to Genesis 37 or whatever it is where Joseph appears. And I stood up on that bus and I looked back at Brother Paul, the team pastor, and I said, I said, Brother Paul, you ever read about this guy named Joseph? And Paul's like, Burton Joseph was the man. And that's my kind of language. So I'm like, yeah, he was the man. I sat back down. I got into Exodus, and I thought, I can't believe that it's not a Charlton Heston movie, that it's really real. I'm just telling you, I didn't know nothing about God. And I got all the way up into, like, Leviticus. And I mean, I was reading. And it was intriguing. And I got home that night about 1 o'clock in the morning. I had my own apartment. But I drove to my mom's house. And I knocked on the door. And she goes, what are you doing, son? I said, Mom, can I stay here? She said, yeah. I said, Mom, God changed my life. I'm not the same no more, Mom. She goes, son, just go. Go ahead. Go to your room. I love you. And she went to bed. And then the next day, man, we We went into my house, and I had this apartment that I'd gotten, but they'd never given me a new apartment with new carpet. I just took the apartment quick, and it was all messed up, the carpet. And the next day, the guy calls me and goes, Burton, we got a real nice apartment across the way if you want to take that instead of what you had. And that was a miracle, because I'd been in that one for a year. And I said, yeah. And Jake Wedo and Andy Reese went over to my apartment. We threw away all the Mardi Gras beads, all the video cassettes and all that stuff and cleaned everything up. And God started working that new apartment. And then I started reading that Bible every day. And I knew I had to win my mom to Christ. And so I went to my mom's house a couple of days later and I said, Ma, After I got filled up, after I got into God and God started working, I was at every service. God started working on my heart, changing my life. I didn't wear earrings no more and I started wanting to really glorify God and He started working. So I went to my mom's house one day and I said, I was like, I'm going to try to win my mom to Christ. And I went there and I started talking to my mom. I said, Ma, You and Dad, I was hardcore independent Baptist. My mom would tell me she'd pray, and I said, well, your prayers don't even reach the ceiling, Mom. If you regard iniquity in your heart, the Lord won't hear your prayer. I mean, I was hardcore. I said, Mom, you need to be saved. She said, son, let me tell you a secret. When I was a little girl in Michigan, this preacher in this bus used to come pick me and my sisters and brothers up. Her dad was an alcoholic, my mom's dad. And they used to take us to an independent Baptist church. And she goes, I think I trusted the Lord then when I was a kid. And she goes, and we never put you in church. And she said, there's a story in the Bible. I didn't know about it. lady named Hannah, who promised her son to God, and she goes, I promised God if he ever gave me a son, that I would give him back to you, to him, and he gave us you, and we never gave you back. And I'm telling you, man, things went dire, really, really wrong at 11, 12, and 13. I mean, I used to cuss my mom, and I looked at my mom, and I said, Ma, You got saved when you were a kid?" And she goes, yep. And I said, you never told me that I needed to be saved? All these years you knew about this and you never told me? I mean, I was 32 years old. And my mom, that's the first I'd ever heard she ever went to a church, the first I'd ever heard that she'd been saved. Now, that's where I wanted to get to tonight. And that's my testimony. And I could tell my testimony in 30 seconds, 60 seconds, two minutes, two hours. But I want to tell you, when my mom told me that, that really bothered me. Because I could have died. I mean, I flew out the car window at 16. When I was 18, I got hit by a dump truck on the way to school. And it took the whole back end of my car over here, just missed me. My head broke the window of the car. I mean, I had done so many things where there was just death, death, death and never died. You know what my mom had and she never told me? The best kept secret. And I want to say this tonight to you. When's the last time you told anybody your testimony? Do you have a testimony? Now, the problem with some people, Pastor Furst, is this. It's my kids. They used to think, Daddy, I don't have a good testimony. I said, oh, no, no, you got the best testimony. Your testimony always goes back to your daddy when he got saved. My wife got saved at 10 years old in a church, raised in church. And so now my kids, I hear them telling their testimony, well, my dad, he got saved when he was 31. And Pastor Furst, I don't know, how old was you when your dad got saved? He was 26 years old. And so Pastor Furst and brother, you boys, I mean, you're not boys, but I mean, you guys, I mean, it's an unbelievable testimony. But most people don't get it and don't do it. And Paul said, if our gospel be hid, our gospel, what did Paul tell people everywhere they went? How he got saved. And I'm just gonna tell you, this is a very important message for you tonight. This is really, if you don't do it after this, I don't know what to tell you. Because Paul said, I want you to look at the verses with me real quick. In verse number two he says, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in a craftiness. Then it says, nor handling the word of God deceitfully. And I do believe that Paul was saying, we're telling you the truth about the word of God. But I'm gonna tell you that as a Christian, if you walk in here with this and you say you believe this and you do not give your testimony to people and tell them how you got saved. then you're handling the word of God deceitfully. It is not right. And if you look at the words he says, he said, by manifestation of truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God, to every man's conscience. My church, every person in my church, whether they be coming for a month or not, can tell my testimony to anybody. I tell people all the time, hey, if you can't get excited about what you got, get excited about what I got. Start telling people what happened. No burden. Because he did something for me. And he did something for you, Dallas. He did something for you, Brother Ron. He did something for all of us. And the Bible says, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. What do you think Paul and them did? They went from town to town lifting up Christ and telling him. And listen, your neighbor, I'm just gonna, listen, does your neighbor know how you got saved? What about your neighbors, Brother Burton? Oh yeah, they all know how I got saved. That was one of the first things they got to hear about me. Hey, we're just, we bought a house, right, six miles from our church from my mom, and it's a nice house, and we paid a lot of money for that house, and still paying it. And both my neighbors are 81-year-old black men and another man that's retired from the military and a contractor across the street. And these are folks that have paid and worked hard and did different things. And I went to all of them and said, hey, we're moving in. I'm a Christian, and God said, here's how God tells me all the testimony. I'm trying to win that 81-year-old man to the Lord. I think he's about to get saved, Wardell. And the man next to me says he's saved. And the guy built across the street, black guy, he says he's saved. And listen to me, I've invited them all. And everywhere I go, in the gas station, it wouldn't matter. I'm going to tell them how God did for me, not so I could preach this message, because I didn't even know Paul did that. But when God saved me, It made me want to tell somebody everything that happened to me, because listen, it's really a big deal what God did for me. It's an unbelievable thing. Listen to me, I'm not supposed to even be alive today. And I told you the story, but that's not even giving you the half of my life, the things I've done that I'll take to the grave. But God saved me, and he changed my life. And listen, Paul said, commending ourselves unto every man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost. You say, well, what's our job, Brother Burton? Well, you better start telling everybody your testimony. So, you know, do you tell everybody? I tell everybody. Told the man at the place today what my life was. I just kind of brought it up like this. I said, I don't really know much about gold. And I don't buy anything in a pawn shop in Philadelphia because they're cheaters and they'll lie to me. Because I'm kind of hoping you guys are going to tell me the truth. But years ago in my former life, I was a liar and a thief. And so I'm okay with it. And I told him how I got saved. And I was preaching up here at this church. And it was kind of nice to him. And he took off some money. And then eventually he took off some more money. And it was good. But listen to me, everywhere we go, Taco Bell, I mean, wherever you're at, the coffee shop right there, whatever the name of that little coffee shop was, wherever you're at, man, when's the last time you told your testimony? Because listen to me, there's a good chance that you ain't told nobody your testimony in a long time. I'm just telling you. But he says, commending ourselves to every man's conscience. But if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost. So I don't think I ought to give my testimony. Well, you know, you don't have to do that, but you ought to be giving the death, burial, resurrection, and the truth of Christ to every man's conscience. Commending ourselves to every. Well, that's Paul. No, that's the example. That Paul's written that. God wrote that for our example. And listen, we ought to be ashamed of ourselves if we're not telling. Listen, brother, I knocked on some doors 12 years after I got saved in El Dorado. Went back, knocking on doors, and I knocked on the door, and a guy opened the door. He goes, man, you're the bartender. 12 years of not bartending in that town, and that man recognized me as a bartender. And I thought, man, what a... And I have something for that. I said, well, I used to make every drink you can think of. I made them frozen, I made them on the rocks, but now I just serve Jesus straight up. And any of you just laughed, gave yourself away, did you understand what that means? And my preacher was like, what does that mean? He had no idea. But listen to me. I made a big deal, man, being a bartender. I'm not telling you you got to be me. Listen, I've toned down for you folks. I didn't want to scare you. I like every song we sang tonight, every one of them. I'm excited about being safe. Well, listen, when I get in the airplane, they're going to know how I got saved. Matter of fact, I get up, when the airplane lands, I get up in the aisle and they finally say their last little things. And I say, I want everybody on this plane to know, and they all think I'm a terrorist right away. They're scared. And I said, I want everybody on the plane to know that I love the Lord Jesus Christ, that he came and he got me, he's the Savior of the world, everything we're going through today, God will take care of you, he died for you, he's already paid for you, all you gotta do is give your life to him today, and I'll be outside that door with my Bible if you'd like me to show you how you can know Christ as your personal Savior. And you know what, nobody likes it. You wanna suck the wind out of an airplane, everybody's like, when you get up there, they're like, oh, I'm so glad to be here, and as soon as I say Jesus, it's like. And they don't like it. But you know what? I'm committing myself to every man's conscience. And I've been doing that for seven years. My kids, they know I'm doing that. Everybody knows that. Brother Ito got on a plane with me a year ago when we went, the guy in the video. And he goes, Pastor, when that plane lands, I'm doing it. I'm doing it. And I go, what? He goes, I'm going to say something, too. And so he was so scared. I get up and do it. And he stands up and he goes, I was a drug addict, God delivered me from drugs. And he sat down, and I go, I go, good job, Vito. He goes, I about threw up, Pastor. It was so scary. Hey, listen, when's the last time anybody heard your testimony? Anybody? I mean, think about that. Because quite possibly, it's been a long time. He said, well, we got 1,800 people here. Well, all 1,800 of them ought to know how you got saved. I know if I lived here for 15 years, there wouldn't be anybody in that town didn't know how I got saved. But I'm just telling you, I'm not trying to up you or act like I'm cool or better than anybody. I'm not. But I'm accustomed to it before I ever read this. When I read this, I thought, this is unbelievable. In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. Look at it now. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It's the best-kept secret. What is it? Your testimony, probably. My mom's was. I had no idea. Now, several years later, a couple years later, I tried to get my mom and dad to come to church, and they would come every now and then, and then they would accuse me of this. You told him about us, didn't you? And I go, no, I didn't tell him anything, Ma. And she goes, well, he's been reading our mail or something, because everything he's saying is about us. And I said, oh, no, Ma, that's the way preaching is. Every time we come, it's just like he's talking directly to us. And they wouldn't, because they'd go out and boating, and they never would come. And then my granny. was having a revival in her town at an independent Baptist church. My granny used to go to a southern Baptist church and Brother Guido was going to preach a revival in that town at an independent Baptist church. I said, Granny, you need to come here Brother Guido preach. My granny went to that independent Baptist church. And he preached, and she changed her church. And that preacher came and visited her at her house, what we just think you're supposed to do. And no preacher had ever visited her in 20 years. And then my mom and dad had moved to that town. And my granny says, they would go up on the weekends, spend time with my granny. And my granny said, well, if you want to spend time with me, you've got to go to church. And my mom and dad started going to that independent Baptist church. And then I'm in Bible college at the same time. And I'd go back with Kara after we got married and see my mom and dad. And one day I said, mom, how you guys doing? And my mom said, son, me and your dad got beside our bed last night and said, God, if we're not saved, please save us. I wasn't bugging them or nothing. They got saved. My uncles and aunts in that town got saved. I mean, so many people got saved out of this thing. It's unbelievable. And that preacher called me later on and said, Burton, we'd like for you to come down to our church and baptize your mom and dad. I was still in Bible class, so I baptized my own mom and dad. And God blew in and did something in our lives that we'd never been the same. The preacher later on would have a stroke. And my dad called me after that, after the service one day. He goes, I just did something stupid. I go, what, Pop? He goes, I volunteered to teach Sunday school, son. And I don't know what I'm going to do. And my dad was a leader. I mean, he was a leader. And I said, that's all right, Dad. So I ordered Clarence Sexton books on Sunday school and sent them to him. And he started teaching through those books. And we would go down and visit him, my wife and I. And I'd wake up, like, 5 in the morning, use the bathroom or something. And I'd look in at that kitchen table, and my dad would be in the Bible. My dad was a drunk. He was just a weekend drunk. 25 years, my dad never called in sick one time in the military. In the first 25 years, not one call in, ever. He was in it for 27 years. And man, God changed all our life. And now my mom says, I believe I got reassurance that time when I told you about me and your dad, because I believe I did get saved as a kid. And my dad's in heaven today. I watched my dad take his last breath. I've taken that ventilator off. And his face was kind of tight for a while. And brother, when he took his last breath, his face, I'm not trying to be funny, every muscle, he looked like a little boy again. And we knew, man, he's with the Lord. And that wouldn't have happened had it not been for what the Lord did for any of us. And so tonight, I'm not gonna preach my message. I got one, but this is it. The best kept secret is your testimony. And if you're ashamed of your testimony, you're hindering God's work. You're hindering yourself. Because when you get to a place, I'm nervous every plane ride. When that thing goes off, when they say, we're going to be landing in about 30 minutes, put your trays up, I get nervous. And I start trying to say, Lord, they don't even want to hear it. They don't even want this guy next to me. I've had people go, hail Hitler. I had people yell at me. I've had people threaten me, but I'm always prayed up, and I'm like, well, you know, I'm glad we can say whatever we want, and no one's ever put their hands, and if they do, they're gonna hopefully get beat down by me, but I hope I don't get whooped on the airplane, but you know, I'm just telling you, tonight, when's the last time you gave your testimony? Ms. First, would you come to the piano and maybe start playing something? I think we all really have a serious time of prayer right here. I know it's 8, 10, or whatever, it might be late for you, But you ought to get down and say, God, give me the boldness of God's Spirit to be able to give my testimony. Short, fast, whatever. But you ought to be able to tell somebody every time, you ought to come out to the Mountain View Baptist Church. And that's always just the inlet. That ain't the goal, to get them to church. And then say, you know, when I was, my dad, my dad's dad, when he was 26 years old, he got saved. And my dad was raised in church, and he's always raised us in church. It's a good life. God's been so good to me. God just gave me a house. And I've been married since February. And my wife loves the Lord. And man, I'm telling you, I don't know where I'd be if it wasn't for God. Love for you to come visit. We're not into religion. We're just trying to teach people how to have a relationship with the Lord in this life that we're living. Man, what a testimony. My son's testimony. He's 15 years old. He made professions. We're at a youth rally in North Carolina at Tony Shirley's. And a man named Abdel Judah was preaching. And there's 2,500 people there. We're on the front row. And in the invitation, Dale gets up, 250 pounds, six foot, walks down to me crying. I look at him like, what's up, buddy? He said, Dad, I'm not 100%. I'm 90%. He said, but I think I need to make sure. And I said, bud, well, let's go pray. I went over. I didn't have to tell Dale nothing. He knew it all. I said, just pray, God. Buddy, pray. And he got saved, man. And that boy's been different ever since. I went back to Philadelphia and preached that Sunday. I left all my folks. I took an airplane flight that Saturday night. I was joyed up, man, on that plane. My boy got saved. And I preached that Sunday morning about what happened to Dale. And a man in my church, he's our deaf interpreter. He's got a cochlear implant, and he graduated college at St. Francis University as a social worker, and I thought he was saved. And I gave him the invitation. He raised his hand. He's working in the back. He's standing in the back doing security. And I thought, he's deaf. He misunderstands me sometimes. I thought he didn't understand. And that was after the morning message at Bible Baptist. So I went back there. I said, Kel, what are you doing, man? Go ahead. Hurry up and get over to Liberty. I'll be over there in a minute. He goes, Pastor Gates, did you see my hand go up? I said, I did, Kel. Are you not sure? He goes, I don't know. And I went to Liberty with him. I said, well, drive to Liberty. I'll meet you there. Don't get in an accident and die before you get there. And I took him, and he got saved. And it was my son's testimony that did that. Hey, testimony. When's the last time you gave it? Let's pray. Father, we love you. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for being good to us and saving us. Lord, I pray that every person in this room is saved. Maybe someone's not. Maybe they don't have a time that they can look back on and know that that day you touched their heart and they turned to you and asked you to become their Savior. They put their faith and trust in what you did on that cross and they look to you for salvation. Maybe they don't have a time. Lord, I pray that if they don't, they wouldn't go any further. They talk to this preacher, they talk to me, anybody in here. They get down on their knees and ask God to save them, Lord. I pray for the ones in here that are struggling with their testimony. Oh, it's probably all of us. God, help us tonight, Lord. Bless the invitation now in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's all stand on our feet. Maybe you come down to this altar and just get along on these chairs and talk to the Lord and thank God for what he's done in your life. And ask God to help you to be faithful to give a testimony. It's hard in the beginning, but once you start doing it, Once you start doing it, it gets easier. And then it becomes second nature. I had a, my wife today told me that she got a phone call from a man named Leroy and Lisa today. What's awesome about that Leroy and Lisa thing is they live up six miles from the church up in the northeast, nowhere near our church for Philly people. They called my wife and asked what the services were. My wife told me, I go, honey, I met them at a grocery store and I gave them my testimony and they called the number a month later wanting to come to the church. I mean, that's unbelievable. Hey, today God wants to use you too. Amen. Well, I praise the Lord for the message and praise the Lord for just the opportunity to be together to hear that tonight. I hope folks were listening as well if they weren't here tonight. How many of you thought of somebody? How many of you thought of somebody you need to talk to? I think that's part of the message is that we, wow, I know somebody I should be talking to. You know, God's, if he saved you, you've got a story to tell. And maybe it's not as exciting as the one you heard.