Good to be saved. I just came from New York. So this is a little bit of a culture shock for me here. I was in Wisconsin one time and I'd never preached there before, kind of like here. And I got up and the preacher said, now Brother McGahee's here. And he said, he's exuberant in his exhortation. And I had to look that up in the dictionary. But he called me a loud mouth. And he said this, he said, now around here, this was up in Wisconsin. He said, around here, he said, we kind of take everything in and kind of mull it around in our mind and our heart. And I'm sitting there going. So I got up to preach and I said, all right. I said, you take everything in. I said, where does it go? Does it ever come out? Amen. Amen. Kind of like Jonah, didn't know which end it's coming out of, amen. But take your Bible this morning, turn to 1 John chapter five. 1 John chapter five, it is an honor to be here. I love brother Cody and I sort of love Jack too, I guess. But brother Zorn, he's a strange individual. Can I get a witness? Brother Cody, his mind and everything is just, it's far beyond. If we could take his brain out and examine it here, I don't know what we'd find. Amen. So this morning you're going to get completely opposite. Amen. He's smart. I'm not. He's fast and talking. I'm not. But anyways, it's good to be here. I'm going to read one verse and just throw a fit for a little while, if that's all right. 1 John chapter five and verse number 12. Now thank God for the King James Bible. Amen. In this verse, there's not even a two syllable word. So anybody in here can get this. Brother Jack can understand this. Amen. But it says here in verse number 12 of 1 John chapter five, he that hath the son hath life. Is there anybody here like that? I did not bring my nitroglycerin tablets with me here this morning. If I phase out here in a minute, do not resuscitate me. The last thing I want to see is Jack Lutric coming over me going, I got you brother Ward. No, let me die. Get it out, get it out. The Bible says, he that hath the Son hath life. And he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. And buddy, I remember those days. And thank God I'm saved. Amen. Amen. So let's pray. Father, we love you. Thank you, Lord, for saving us. Thank you, God, for this morning and being able to be in church. And Lord, you've moved around in here and stirred hearts, saved souls already. God, as we open this book, we're totally dependent upon thee. God help us, Lord. We need you. Bless this church, bless brother Cody, his family. God, all the folks make up the congregation, every heart, every home. God, I pray you'll work in here this morning, and we'll thank you for what you do. Save that sinner that's here. Show them their needs. Save them like you did us, Lord, I pray. In Jesus' name, amen. I wanna preach this morning the message that I heard somebody else preach. That all right? Probably one of the greatest messages I've ever heard in my life. We were up in Delaware some years ago with Brother Allen Ryman, and Brother Ryman's a strange cat. He got a church about 300 people and he's won most of them himself. And he's a soul winner. But me and Brother Danny Hall went up there and there's an old man in the church there, kind of a patriarch in the church. Everybody called him Pop-Pop. And old Pop-Pop Coleman was dying. He had leukemia, his lungs was filling up with fluid, and they sent him home to die. So when me and Brother Danny Hall got there, Brother Allen asked us to go over and pray with the family. So we go in the house there, and all of his family's there. I mean, he's getting ready to die. He's got a couple days to live. So we go in there, and when we walk in, there's old Pop-Pop sitting on his recliner. And we walked in the living room and he looked up at us with tears in his eyes. He goes, did you hear boys? I'm going home. They've been, I don't know how you want to go out of this life, but that's the way I want to go out. I'm, I'm, I'm going home when I go. And there is a real good possibility I die before this is over with. And if I do, amen, I'll be over yonder. But we come in and we said, well, Pop-Pop, we want to pray with you. And we knelt down next to his chair and he had all his nephews and sons were in there and we started praying for him. And well, he put his hands down, Brother Cody, on us and laid his hands on us, started praying for me and Brother Danny Hall. And when he put his hands on us, he said, Lord, bless these boys. And I'm telling you, it was like a window opened up in the living room and God poked his head down in there. And we prayed and cried and went to the church, started revival on Sunday, and that meeting goes from Sunday to Sunday. So the last Sunday of the meeting, I was sitting on the front row, and I had a tape measure on my belt, and I was going to preach on death. The Bible said the days of our years are three score and ten, or if I read it straight, they'd be four score. So you pull out a tape measure to 80 inches, that's your life, that's your expectancy. And then you subtract your age from that, you know. Some of y'all, you're down to. Amen. Then you can subtract other factors, like how you eat. I mean, or how you drive. He's coming back to the airport. Brother Cody is steering with his legs. He's talking like this. My tape measure's going. Amen. Or just being dumb. Huh? Like the rednecks famous last words. Hey boys, watch this. But I had that tape measure to preach on death. Then I heard a ruckus in the back, and I looked, and here come old Pop-Pop. He couldn't stand it no longer. He couldn't stay away. And he come in, and man, everybody went, he's got like 40 family members in that church, and they're all hugging him. And I'm going, man, there he is. And I went, oh, no. I'm supposed to preach on death, and here, Pop, he might die before I get done. And the Lord said, no, that's what I want you to preach about. Preached that morning. I think we had nine people get saved that morning. But during the invitation, old Pop-Pop jumped out of his seat. He's sitting on the second row right there. And he jumped out of his seat. And he never was much of a shouter or anything like that. And he jumped out of his seat and he started running up and down in front of the church. And his wife's over going, you know, he's got heart failure, lungs filled up with fluid. And he starts looking at everybody going, better be real. You better make sure what you got's real. Better be real, tears streaming down his face. But I'm sitting there, man, this is a dying man's last request. And it put chills up and down my back. And I told the Lord, I said, Lord, I will preach that everywhere I go. Amen, so here today, I'm telling you, it better be real. Amen. I know this, I know I've been saved. Amen. I'm going to heaven when I die. Telling you, I've been washed in the blood. God reached down and pulled me out of the muck and mire of this whole world. I'm telling you, I'm saved. Hallelujah. Thank God. Woo! What a salvation. What a Savior. I'm telling you, I ain't ashamed of it. It's the best thing that ever happened to me. Better be real. Better be real. Let me say number one here this morning. You better be able to take me to the place where you got saved. Amen. You might not remember the date, but you'll remember where you were. Amen. I can take you to the place. How about you? The longer I live, the longer I travel around and preach, the more I see, folks, I don't know if it's real in people's lives. You ought to see the glassy look in people's eyes from up here. Amen. I've seen them get up and walk out. I've seen them put their heads down. I've seen them glare at me, stare at me. I don't know if that's real. I preach probably, I don't know, over 200 youth camps and evangelism. And I've seen kids, I've seen young men, young ladies. I don't know, if it ain't real, you'll never make it. I've seen kids raised in church. I don't know whether saved or lost. If they are, they didn't get what I got. Amen. I can take you to the place. I went to Pensacola Bible Institute. I went to Bible school with Brother Cody's uncle, Danny Zorn. And we went to school together. And I went to Pensacola. I didn't go there to go to school. What had happened was is I got mixed up in the drug culture at an early age. I was always big for my age and always hung around older folks and stuff. So I was selling dope when I was 14. and got mixed up with the law, always with juvenile justice system, mess, just a real mess, and wound up in jail. Probably the best thing ever happened to me. And while I was in the jail, I was married, had a little baby, and died. I told my wife, I said, do not tell dad I'm in jail. Huh? I was married at the time, and I was still afraid of him. So I wind up in the jail. I get in the jailhouse and I seen one of my old buddies from school there and I said, hey, man, what are you doing here? And he goes, I stole the Lincoln. And he burned his brains out, huffing glue and tolling and gas and right guard and everything else he could get a hold of. In the middle of the night, he tried to set my bunk on fire. So what'd you do? What'd you think I did? I beat his brains out. Amen. But I was sitting there in the jail, and the deputy sheriff came down. He goes, hey, McGee, your daddy's here to bail you out. I thought my dad was 800 miles away. And I looked at him, I go, is he mad? I said, he's mad. I'll stay in here. And listen, folks, I don't know when it was the Lord first dealt with you, but that was the first time in my life that I ever felt the Holy Ghost conviction. And when I got up out of the bunk, and I walked over, and they pull a steel bar out, and they roll you around in this thing, go up the incline in the sheriff's office. Up that incline, I'm thinking, man alive, look at my life. What a mess. My hair was down to here. I was just a mess. And I knew there was a breach between me and God. And I walked up there, and I'm thinking about my dad then. I said, oh, no. I said, I can see the sheriff shooting him. Shoot him again. Because he's going to try to kill me. And he'll go through every cop there is in there to get to me. And I'm thinking, oh, man. So here we go. And I looked over that big sheriff's desk there, and there stood my daddy. And my dad had tears running down his face. He looked, and he goes, you OK, boy? And I said, yeah, Dad, I'm all right. He said, well, I'm here to get you out of here, boy. And I'm telling you, my life turned upside down. I seen something that day of the love of God. Amen. And man, I'd make a long story longer. We got in the car. There was snow on the ground. My father-in-law died trying to push a car in the snow the same time they let me out of jail. My father-in-law was saved. My sister-in-law running down the highway. We're in the car. My wife says, there's Penny. We pull over and she looks over and she goes, Daddy's not gone. Daddy's dead, died the same time they let me out. She jumps out with her sister. My dad drives me up to the foot of the holler. We lived in a place called Holberg Holler. And he dropped me off, said, son, I can't drive down there. He said, you got to go there's your people. And I stepped out of the car, no shoestrings in my shoes, no belt, no coat. And I walked about a mile and a half down the road. And there was my father-in-law laying in the ditch. Still there in the ditch, they couldn't get the ambulance stuff there to get him. And I walked up to him, and I looked, and I looked at a couple of the farmers standing there, and I said, he ain't there. He said, Jake was saved. They told me later, said, that's where you preached your first message, Mark. Amen. Well, our whole life turned upside down. Lost everything I had. I had no car, no furniture, no nothing. Me and my wife took a bus to Pensacola, Florida. I got to Pensacola. We had a borrowed suitcase, a few clothes, a baby in diapers and had a bag in my wallet. I had 16 cents in my pocket and I bummed a quarter and I called my mama. She had wrote me a letter and said there was jobs in Pensacola if I want to try to get my life straightened out. And I called her on the phone. She come picked us up and she looked at me and she goes, son, you can stay with us. Your little family said, but me and your daddy's in church now and you'll have to go to church with us on Sunday morning. I told my mom, I said, fair deal, mom. And I came and man, I was like this. I didn't want nothing to do all a bunch of squares. Amen. I mean, look at the nerds that are sitting in here right now. And I come in there, and I said, well, I can endure this. But I didn't take in consideration that old preacher. And that old guy got up there and started preaching, started calling me names. Hey, stupid. Hey, dummy. Hey, man. How is it being you? Oh, yeah, you wound up in jail. Got a family? Oh, man, you're sharp. You're sharp as a bowling ball, man. Oh, yeah. I said, boy, this is fun. I look up, my dad, my uncle, they're sitting there with their heads down smiling. Sitting on the seventh row back and one Sunday morning. He looks at he goes. Hey you long-haired punk. I'm talking to you. I Looked around in there and I went well, I'm the only one in here with long hair Everybody else looks like a cop And I'll tell you what the preacher did he I went for a few Sundays there and he drew on Sunday night But we didn't go on Sunday night and he stepped out from the pulpit and and he stuck both hands out and he described in detail what Jesus Christ looked like when he died on the cross. And I had never seen it like that. And that preacher's hands shook and tears in his eyes where he told how they took their fists and hit him. Man, I'm sitting there that morning and I had never heard it like that. He told how they took cat and iron tails and them soldiers would would beat you with it, with pieces of bone and steel tied in the ends of it, and it would stick in your flesh, and they'd turn and rip furrows through your flesh. And man, he described that in detail. I could feel that that morning. And he pointed down there at me, and he says, how can you refuse that, man? He said, when he was on the cross, the Bible said all of his bones stared at him. And he looked down there at me, and they started singing, just as I am. And he said, if you'll trust Christ today, he'll save your soul. And I'm telling you that morning on the seventh throwback, four people in, I bowed my head and said, God, I know I'm a sinner. Lord, I know I'm lost. I said, God, would you save me? But I'm telling you, hey, you know what? The highest sheriff of heaven came by and arrested me. And I was saved. Amen. I ain't never been the same. But I can take you to the place. It is the best thing that ever happened. Saved. Going to heaven when I die. How about you? Better be real. You better make sure it's real. I wonder who'd be the old man in your life? Who would be the old pop-pop in your life? Any man that'd be concerned about you. You better be able to take me to the police. We was in a meeting one time, and you probably had never met Brother Spurgeon Hayes. They called him Pee Wee, and he was about six foot five. He was three tour in Vietnam, recon. And Brother Hayes, we was at his church, and he had about 30 people. And he said, all right, he said this morning, he said, what I'm going to do, you start revival, I'm going to point to you and you tell me where you were when you got saved. I'm like, yeah. He said, I don't want to hear about grandma's biscuits. He said, I don't want to hear about the little cabin by the side of the road or what kind of day it was. Just tell me where you were. And he started pointing to people and asked them, what if I did that in here? Would you, would you have a place? Or would you have to try to fabricate one? Or like what happened in his church, when he pointed to a few people, they just put their head down. They didn't say nothing. Man, I'm sitting there, I couldn't wait till he got to me. But he pointed to an old man who was sitting on this side and he pointed to him and he was there and he had the palsy, couldn't keep his head still. And he said, where were you, sir? And that old man looked up and a tear rolled down his face and he said, Omaha Beach. Buddy, you could have heard a pin drop in there. And old Brother Hayes says, tell us about it, brother. He said, we got off them Higgins boats that morning. He said, when them planks came down, he said, there was bullets that started coming in there as big as cigars. He said, before we got out, we were knee deep, ankle deep, knee deep in men's blood. Half of us was killed before we even got off the boat. He said, we hit the beach. Some of them drowned in the water. He said, we were floating. got on the beach and I was crawling through other men's blood and entrails. And he said, there was many that were calling on God. He said, there was many that were calling on mommy. He said, there in that foam and that blood, he said, I called upon Jesus and he saved my soul. I'm telling you, you might, hey, you might not have a testimony that dramatic, but you'll remember where you were. No doubt in my mind. If not, better be real. I'll tell you what, folks ought to be able to tell what happened to you. Amen. Man alive, we got saved and everything changed. I told my wife, I said, I'm quitting smoking, I'm quitting drinking, I'm quitting drugs. I'm going to try to quit fighting. I still hold that one back. You never know when you might need that one. Amen. So if I ever backslide, I got a list of people I'm gonna beat the snot out of. My wife says, you quit rock music too? And I went, yeah. I didn't even thought about that, but we quit it all. Amen. And my brother, my brother next to me, we used to bar hop together and all that. And here's what he said. He said this, he said, God stole my little brother from me. That's exactly right. Amen. Can folks tell what happened to you? Do they know? Can they watch you? When all this was stirring around here a minute ago, are you ashamed to say amen? Are you ashamed of sticking your hand up or wave a hanky? Amen. Some of you girls sitting here, some of you young folks, is it real? It better be real. Better make sure what you got's real. Amen. I travel around, preach to kids. I know kids. Everywhere I go, there's kids that cut themselves. I don't understand that. And everywhere I go, I see it. I have people come to me. Now, since I mentioned it, people will come to me. I don't get it. I don't understand. I was in a meeting one time in Massachusetts, if I even said that right. You know there's saved people up there? And a little gal came to the altar. She's 18 years old. And I knelt down, and Jack knows her. She's a pastor's daughter, 18. And I went down to pray with her. I said, what's going on, girl? And she showed me where she'd been cutting herself. I said, oh, girl. She goes, what do I do? I said, stop doing that. And man, we prayed together. It broke my heart. Went to the motel. Me and Jessie Craigle was together. Man, we tossed and turned around. And that next night, she was there again. And I walked up to her and I did an experiment. I said, young lady, I said, let me ask you a question. I said, the people in your church, do they love you? And that girl never even hesitated. She goes, no, they don't love me. And I wanted to say, well, you're wrong, but I didn't. It took me back. I went, I think, I hope you're wrong. Amen. You folks that are here in leadership, and man, I walked in here, I'm mesmerized. All the classes going on, leadership, songs, choir. I hope some of you folks take time to love these little kids. If they don't get it here, they'll try to find it out yonder. Amen. Say, what are you saying? Better be real. Better be real. Man, I want to see an environment where young people can serve God, get excited for God, not just sit there like a ghost. Amen. Better be real. And I'll tell you what, it better be able to take you out of here what you got. Amen. What you got, is it able to take you out of here? The next cataclysmic event that'll happen is the rapture of the church. Any moment now. I don't have a problem that wouldn't solve. Any moment. I'm telling you, he's coming. And boy, is he ever mad. Amen. I was in a meeting, we was in West Virginia. Little old church we went to. You can't even get there from here. You had to cross a creek to get there and all. The revival meeting was a youth revival. So that night they put on a skit. And they had a skit called As the World Burns. And what had happened was the rapture had taken place. And these kids in the church, like these boys, some of these girls, they were traveling around looking for their family. And it showed different scenes. Where's mama? You know, where's my little brother? And they were all crying. Well, they came to the church house. And they came to the church, they had a few pews sitting up here, and there's about six or seven people sitting there. They had missed the rapture. I wonder if the rapture took place right here. I wonder who'd be left here. It's liable to blow your mind. Amen. I wonder if all of a sudden we hear a trump sound, like an arc that almost knocks the earth off its axis. come up hither and boom, we're out of here. Well, all of a sudden here you are left with clothes and blood and glasses and false teeth and screws and bolts and titanium knees and everything else laying all over the place. Can you imagine? There'll be a mask laying there where a lady wore a lot of makeup. I know who that was. But all of a sudden, here you are, left behind, and you look at all the instruments, nobody's playing them, the pulpit, you don't hear Brother Cody's voice, Bible's laying all over the place. Well, you'd lose your mind. Well, I wouldn't wait. I wouldn't sit there and wonder whether I'm saved or not. I'd get in. Amen. And they changed the scenes, and they had the judgment. You know how that song goes? All is silent as the mighty judge ascends the throne And they had the pulpit there and they had these shop lights hooked up And there was a guy come out was acting like the lord, you know And them lights went you couldn't see his face just a figure sitting there And that song says the book of life is open as the countless souls begin to mourn And they had a big family bible and it opened up I don't know how it opened up, but it did. Rick Drummond was sitting there, and he goes, did you see that? I don't know if they had a fishing line hooked to it or whatever, but it opened. We're like. And then they said he who was the saint's accuser. And this old boy come out of the room over here wearing a Grim Reaper outfit. And he's walking through the church. And man, them country folk, it scared them to death. There was people like, ah! There was people it was like the old-timer said there was people outside looking in the windows It was that packed that little church and they changed scenes again folks And they showed me something there in that skit that I've never got out of my mind They had the people that had missed the rapture. That's for you that are here that are not saved You are on the left side of God the throne the people that have been raptured out are over here and the people that have been raptured out are You know, they showed them in heaven, they had white sheets on and they're all going, whoa, man, don't this feel good? And they'd look down in the congregation and get somebody. And there was an old guy there and bibbed overalls. And one kid said, there's granddaddy. And they went down and got him. He didn't know he was part of the skit or nothing. And here he comes, he's walking up there like this. He goes, whoo, whoo, it does feel good. And I'm sitting up there going, I want to go up there too. I want to go. And the big old tall boy said, there's Brother McGee. He was preaching when I got saved. He went up there and got me. Man, I jumped the barrel. Whoo! Amen. If just a skit feels that good, can you imagine? Hey, no more pain, no more death, no more suffering. Hey, to be in glory forever and ever. And they showed that last judgment there, the white throne. And folks, I got bad knees and all, but I'm gonna come down here. These folks over here in the white sheets, they were standing there, and one gal had a little girl about this tall. Her daddy was over there. He was playing one of those that was lost. And it started scaring her. And she grabbed that sheet on her mom, and she's going, mommy, mommy. She goes, shh. She goes, I want daddy. I want my daddy. Daddy over here was going, I can't come over here, honey. I can't go." And the more he said that, the more all that thing started getting real to her. She was crying going, I want daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy. And man, I'm telling you, I looked around, there wasn't a dry eye in there. I can't imagine, I can't even fathom across the fevered mind to be at that place and see one of your loved ones over there. Huh? Some of you got children that you worry about? You brought neighbors, friends of yours, people you rode motorcycles with, got people you love, your neighbor. You don't want to see them over there. Amen. We did a skid at our camp one year and my little granddaughter, brother Cody, my son-in-law, they did that with him. And the angels came and grabbed him and it was going to pitch him into hell. And my granddaughter was about five and she went ballistic. My daughter had to take her out. And she's kicking and screaming going, daddy, daddy, I want my daddy, I want my daddy. Man, I'm telling you, I can't imagine. It better be real. It better be real. Better what you have is real. Can you die with what you got? Do you know where you're going? If not, I couldn't think of any place better to be. Here today, amen. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. So here this morning, while the pianist comes and heads bowed and eyes closed, here this morning, if you're not sure, if you're not saved, what in the world are you waiting for? You can get saved today. Amen. Father, I ask you to bless this invitation. Lord God, have your way. Lord, save folks like you did us. God, move in this congregation, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's all stand