Never learned it. It's over. All right, I hope you're glad you're in church tonight. And I hope when we're finished, you're still glad you came to church tonight. And let me thank you on behalf of my wife and myself for the privilege of being here with you. It's always exciting to see God work, and he always works in Remember the day and a lot of reflection for us today. Thinking back to when the church we pastored was older ago or new and a lot of young Christians and all those things that I don't think success is the number of people in the pews. I don't believe that. But I do believe a good church grows. And it doesn't always grow. That's just the simple truth. Some people, they say, okay, I'm a good Christian. Whatever that means, I'm a good Christian. By my own definition or somebody else's definition, most people settle just above hypocrite. I can't tell you why no hypocrite. Well, that's a good way to seek to achieve it. But when you reach that place, it's great to be there. It's great to say, well, I've grown and I've learned some things, but that's not where it is. That's not where it ends. We sing songs that have been written by people who have walked with the Lord, and those songs all deal with it sweeter day by day, and every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before. And I just believe in a boundless Christianity. I believe that if you're unhappy as a Christian, it's not my fault. Blame anybody you want to, it's yours. You can be as close to the Lord as you'd like to be. You can be as happy in the Lord as you want to be, but it's a matter of choice. Acts chapter 19 this evening. Acts chapter 19. And as we, when I say Acts chapter 19, it's not Acts chapter 19. That's a good place. I stuck too many things in my Bible tonight. Let me find where I'm supposed to be. I've got pens, I've got notepads. I'm looking for the passage where Eutychus falls out of the church window. Where's it at? Help us, Lord. Is it 19? Well, that's pretty bad when your guest evangelist. That's why you don't want to put too many people. Acts chapter 20, see my Bible goes verse one through seven, and then my text begins in verse number seven, so that's why I just couldn't find it on the page. The Bible says in Acts chapter 20, verse number seven, now you know exactly what I'm gonna preach on and how dumb I am, right? Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came to gather to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow, and continued his speech until midnight. That's how I know Paul was a Baptist. No doubt about it, Paul was a Baptist. And there were many lights in the upper chamber where they were gathered together. And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus being fallen into a deep sleep. And as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep and fell down from the third loft and was taken up dead. Paul went down and fell on him and embracing him said, trouble not yourselves for his life is in him. when he therefore was come up again and had broken bread and eaten and talked a long while, another reason I know he was a Baptist, even till break of day, so he departed, and they brought the young man alive and were not a little comforted. If you read your Bible very often, you're gonna find God's put things in there, kind of like file cards. You ever write something on a file card, I need to remember this, and then you lose the file card. and then you find it somewhere you go okay you know why did i write god's got a lot of those in the bible they don't necessarily you know it's the the gospel's going great guns i mean people are getting saved things are happening and there's a few moments here for us to talk about a guy fell out of the church with fell asleep and i think that's probably in there for baptist badness you can't get bad as You know, that's just not a manly or a womanly thing is to be excited about the Lord. But boy, when something goes down in church, you know, I've had phone calls. Preacher, I saw a couple of patrol cars in the parking lot last night. Well, that's where they take their coffee break, okay? But I'm glad you got excited about it. Amen. Maybe next time we'll have them pull in on a Sunday morning. I'm with them. Better yet, we'll have them come get you. And if it'll make it more comfortable, we'll put you in cuffs and have them haul you in. You can sit right there in church and you can be part of the storyline there. But unless it's really, really out of the norm, we tend just to take Christianity with a grain of salt and say, well, yeah, I'm a Christian. Can I remind you tonight, being a Christian is the greatest thing that ever happened to anybody on the face of the earth. I don't care how much money you make. I don't care how much you got in the bank. I don't know how many kids you've got. I don't care where you've been, what you've seen. There's nothing more exciting than living a life for the Lord Jesus Christ. And I feel sorry for people that are kind of halfway in and halfway out. We just do it. And this sermon came about years ago. I remember we, we started in a living room, just about like you folks did at eight or 10 people. I remember having a little electric, it was plastic that fell and twisted and all kinds of stuff. had a glass of water above the table, glass of water would turn. It was really exciting time to be pastoring a church of 10 or 15 people, but there we were. And the folks that were so gracious and so kind to open their home for us were just wonderful people, love the Lord, and they were excited. The only thing that perturbed me about all that is about 11.30 to 12 o'clock every Sunday morning while I was preaching, through the air would waft the scent of pot rose because it wasn't for me, it was for them, it was for their family. And I knew in just a little while when I finished my sermon, I was going to have to leave. I often thought of preaching long enough to let it burn and let them get a lesson that never really came about. But I remember that shortly after we outgrew the living room and the Lord gave us a building and we were up just about like this, as a matter of fact. And we were meeting there, something got in their minds and in their hearts and they just decided they didn't want to go to church anymore. And so they dropped out. And we fast forward that 30 some odd years and we built our new building on the interstate. And one day I was sitting in my office, I was knocking on the door, I opened the door and it was this precious mother, this lady. And she said, I just came by and we had just kind of a casual conversation. Now you do it, what's going on? She had lost both of her kids. They were gone. She didn't know exactly where they were, what they were doing. She said, can I look inside the auditorium? And we went and opened the doors and she looked at the auditorium and she just began to sob. And she looked at me and she said, preacher, I could have been part of this. And I said, you were a part of this. You were a foundation for this. But that wasn't what she meant. What she meant was at some point I got cross, I got upset, somebody did me wrong. And I chose to turn my back on God. And now I regret it. And boy, you talk about something that's difficult for a preacher. How do you help somebody there? I've wished a hundred times I could roll back the hands of time a little bit. And so let's do this again. I've wished before I could say, don't worry about it, forget about it. But that's a chunk of life that never can reclaim. And there's always gonna be a regret there. You say, why are you preaching this? this is part of who you are. And one day, if the Lord doesn't return, I don't know what, how, what God has in store for you, but I know this, it's going to cause you to reflect back on this and say, well, I remember the day. And when you remember the day, you're going to remember the people and you're going to remember some of them that for whatever reason, just aren't around anymore. I think, you know, Paul said, you did run well, who has hindered you? There's a hindrance. I believe God's going to bless this church. Is that all right? You say, why? Because God wants there to be a church. And I believe if God blesses the church, I can't tell you it's going to run 10,000 in Sunday school. That would be preposterous and absurd. But I believe this healthy things grow if they're alive. And the truth of the matter is if there's a healthy church, it will grow. And so I believe based on that, that a church is going to grow. You can go in any direction you wanna go, and probably somebody tonight, right now while we're here, less than 100 feet from this building, will cry themselves to sleep. Right now. Here we sit. Oh, how I love Jesus. Isn't everything wonderful? Aren't you glad you live in America? You understand somewhere within a half a mile of this place, there's a couple of people contemplating suicide. Let's just be thinking about it sober a little bit. God puts you in a place to minister, and he puts you here because there are people here that need you and will need you even to a greater extent as time goes on. But there's gonna be some exciting things that come about as a result of it. There'll be some times when you see some of those people that said, preacher, I had a gun in my hand last week, I was gonna end it, and something just stopped me. And I said, I don't know where to go, so I'm gonna go to church. And their life changed. Those are the kind of stories. So I'm excited for you because I know your stories are coming. And these views are gonna fill up with people. And not everybody that comes in here is going to be on the verge of suicide or death. There are gonna be some young couples that are excited about getting married. They just have decided, we got married, let's go to church today and start our marriage this way. And they're gonna wander in, they don't even know how to spell God. but they're going to get excited about the things of the Lord and their marriage is going to grow and be blessed. And they're going to have children running up and down the aisles with all the other little children that are here screaming and yelling. And somebody's going to say, I wish you'd do something about these kids. Somebody said, somebody did something. That's why there are kids here. And that's why we're doing all this. You're going to see the blessings of what God does. And so I'm excited to tell you that those days are coming and you're going to look back and say, thank God. You're gonna be able to tell somebody when they come in, you know, when we first started, I was one of the first people here. I sat right here in this pew, and God is real. All those things are good, and all those things, but I would be foolish and remiss if I didn't say this. Some of you might know me. You say, who do you think you are? I don't know about you. I have no idea who, but I just know from the handful of people we started with who all loved man. I mentioned this morning just in passing a young man that's on death row in Southern Ohio waiting for the electric chair. He's a little boy in Sunday school. I failed him. Or at least I tried. Somebody failed him. Somebody failed him. He didn't make it. I'll bet right now sitting in his cell he'd do anything in the world. to go back, I'll give you a cup of water. I think I swallowed some of these bottles. He'd give anything in the world to go back to that day, he was just a boy, still in Sunday school, and maybe make a decision to change his life. I'll take a bottle of you, no matter what you got, don't worry about it. I don't need two. If I need two, I'll have to exit the service for other reasons. Jim, you have something that just didn't wanna go down and you didn't want it to come up, so don't get rings on the furniture. With all those thoughts in mind about all the blessings that you could tell me about that already happened and those that are yet to come, I'd rather be a Christian than anything in the world. I'd rather serve the Lord than anything in the world. But having said that, the tragedy is when those days come, some of you may not be here to enjoy it because some people just for whatever reason walk away. This young fellow reminds me of a guy who's on his way out and I want to talk to you about him a little bit tonight and look at this fella. He falls out of the window of the church. I've had a lot of people fall out of church and some of them I've Really, to be honest with you, I had feelings that maybe I'd push him out of the window if I got close enough to him, but that's not what I'm talking about. This guy ended up in a predicament and in a situation that he nor anybody else in the church was planning. And my tragedy, and some of you already know how the story ends, we read it, and so you know how it ends, and so you're not gonna listen to what, but do you understand that it's possible and maybe even likely that some of you will At some point, just walk away from God and say, you know what? I don't have anything to do with it. And you're going to pack yourself on the back because now you have come to the place where you've got them Christians in and you're going to live a horrendous life and die a sad, angry, bold person. Yep. You say, I don't believe that. Help yourself, freak country. I've been around a long time and I've watched a lot of people. Can I say to you tonight, I'm thoroughly satisfied. My wife and I will attest to, she can tell you, we've had some tough times, we've had some hard times, we've had some tragedies, we've been through those things. But all in all, I'd rather be a Christian than anything I know. I'd rather live for the Lord and watch Him work and serve. Now, what does that mean? That means that if you stay, you're gonna have to watch the people come and go, just the way that it works. And when that happens, you're going to wish there had been something you could do to help. That's what takes place here in this passage. in this passage that there's about to be a tragedy. So let me quickly go through it. They're having a meeting. They've got the upper part of a building rented. They're in an upper room. Everybody knows what happens in an upper room when it's hot. the upper room gets hotter than any place else. It rises and up it goes. So there they are. They're in an upper room. They've got a massive crowd, I have to believe, because when this fella gets there, he has to sit in a window, or at least chooses to sit in a window that apparently is open at the back of that upper room. Now, being an upper room, it's probably 25, maybe 30 feet off the ground, but there's an open window there. He chooses where he sits. Nobody made him sit. He makes the choice. to put himself in that position. You say, what in the world has that got to do with Christians today? Because there's a lot of people making bad choices in good churches. They're making bad choices. You say, well, are you gonna judge this fellow? Forgive me, I am gonna make some judgments here. I could be completely wrong. And if you get to heaven and find me with a black eye, you'll know that I was wrong about this guy, okay? That somehow I told you something that wasn't so, but I've been around a lot of people in my life and I've watched a lot of Christians and I've seen Christians go down that I get mad at everybody else. And it's never my fault. It was God or somebody else that steered me wrong. Okay. And you'll get that straight down when you get to heaven, you'll find out whose fault it really was. You say, well, preacher, you don't know what people done to me. And then I remind you, you don't know what people done to me. Yeah. You say, well, yeah, I've got some tragedies. You pastor a church of 25, 30 people. You got some tragedies. Some of the most faithful, most good, kind-hearted people I've got have got stories you'd cry about. You say, what does that mean? They just made the right choices. And you say, well, I want to make the right, but somewhere along the line, it may become apparent that you're not quite going in the right direction. May I say to you, first of all, this fella didn't care much about being in church because he got there late. You say, well, how can you say that? Because of where he had to sit. You know, if you get to church and the only place to sit is as far away as you can get, as high up as you can get, you're in the wrong church. You are if you got there at the wrong time. I would submit to you that this young fellow probably reminds me of some of these little guys that were raised in Sunday school. Mom and daddy got him to church and got run in with the wrong crowd. And all the church people are sissies. They don't really love God. They're all hypocrites. You know, I've heard all the stories. But something kept tugging him. But when he got there, he made sure he got as far away to the back as he could get. And I submit to you that before people get out of any churches, they always, it's interesting, we call it backsliding. That's a Bible word, by the way, and it's a Baptist practice. But I find out that before people ever get out of church, they start backing away. They start backing away. I've gone to people before, and I've just kind of tried in a kind way, a pastoral way, to say, listen, there's something wrong. And the answer I get is usually, I can usually tell how serious it is. And if it's helpless, it usually something like this, it may not be on me. I think, well, you know, what's going to happen is about five months, you're going to blame the preacher who came to you and said, what can I do to help? And you said, you know, then it's going to be all his fault. So, but that's kind of where you find yourself. You know, you can spot things in your life if you'll check every once in a while. I've had skin cancer three or four times. And so I have learned to stand in front of the mirror and look at it. And I know what a melanoma looks like. I know that's the bad boy. I know they've got to go cut them off. I've got scars to prove it. But I tend to look in a mirror a little differently because I understand that. I go to the doctor frequently and he's poking and prodding and looking and all that. And you say, well, why would you do that? Because I don't want to die with melanoma. And I've learned over time that it's a far less horrible thing to go to the doctor and have him poke and prod and look than it is to have somebody tell you, we can't, we didn't get it all. I've got some scars where they took three or four inches and said, we got to get all of this. And I don't appreciate that, but I'll be honest with you, it's a lot better standing here telling you about it than having somebody else stand and tell you what I didn't do. And sometimes when you're in a church situation, the job of the preacher, I think it was Sam Jones years ago said the job of the preacher is to comfort the center and to discomfort, you know, the guy that's self-righteous. And that's kind of where it ends up sometimes. The same verse that will cause somebody else to be excited, the same preaching that will cause somebody else to be uplifted, will be a blast to somebody else. And that's just the way the Holy Spirit works. Aren't you glad we serve a God who can give us positive or negative, whichever one we need? And aren't you glad he can put out positive and negative at the same time so one guy can get us? lifted and shout hallelujah, and you can say, oh, Lord, I'm so sorry. And it works just that way. What a powerful group we have. But something wrong, this young man got there late. How do you know he got there late? Because he got the worst seat in the house. And it wasn't by choice, apparently. The last thing was the Bible talks about it being filled with people. It was a crowded room. And he got there, I suppose he probably stopped for a cup of Starbucks or Something along that line, I don't know, maybe it was by the hall, whatever it was, but church was not a priority in here. I find that people who have church for a priority get there early. I've been in places where people come in and you got to church, you know, 30 minutes before church start, you couldn't sit while the first three rows on either side. They put their Bibles down, that's my spot. You say, why? They like to get down there where the spit flies, you know? I mean, they like that. You say, well, I don't know how to say it. I do the spitting most of the time. But then somebody say, you shouldn't do that. You can't talk as fast as I do with as much in your mind as you have to get out to people and not somehow just get it all tangled up. That's how it works. But I think people that love church and usually find they get there early. They like to stand around and talk afterwards. You know what it's like. I've had to stand sometimes and just, you know, turn the lights on and off. And then I've had people that turn the lights on and off and have to do it for me to get me out of there. I love church. I really do. The finest people I've ever met in my life have been church people. I'd rather be with God's people than anybody I can imagine anywhere on the face of the earth. And you say, well, they're all a bunch of hypocrites, best hypocrites I know. Yeah. You know, the worst hypocrite is the guy who only believes in hypocrites. So there we go. So at any rate, I think they ought to find some excitement in this. Like this fella gets to church late, how do you know that? Because he's as far back as he can go, as high up as he can go, sitting on a windowsill. Number two, I know he's willing to be uncomfortable just to stay at a distance. Ain't nobody can tell me sitting on a windowsill is an enjoyable place to sit. Just don't happen that way. I like padded pews. We have padded pews. You say, why? We went up church. I said, we're going to have to buy pews anyway, and we're going to pad up. You say, well, it'll ruin your church. Well, it won't hurt certain parts of it. It'll make certain parts of you feel real good and comfortable. And so I just enjoy it. Just that's the way it is. You say, I think it ought to be comfortable. But still, again, I find there's certain people that come, and they'll be, you know, church will maybe half full before the service starts. And they'll come, and they'll fight over the back row. They are all these rows down in front. That's something that's dreadful about getting too close to a preacher. You might get down there close enough where God could touch you on the shoulder or speak to you. They don't like that. I'm gonna be back as far as I can. People say, well, preacher, I have problems and I have to go to the restroom. Well, does that make you sit far away from your television? You ride in the backseat of your car? Amen. You say, well, I don't like that kind of preaching. That's why God called me into the company. You know why I do it? It's amazing what people can do to accommodate themselves and then use for an excuse not to accommodate the things of God. It's an amazing thing that I can justify myself in certain circumstances and not justify myself in other circumstances because I'm comfortable. Can I be honest? I just want to be comfortable. That's not my problem. My problem is when the things of God make you uncomfortable, something's wrong. See what I'm saying? I'm not opposed. Listen, I'm in padded seats. I'm in air conditioning. I'm there. I'm all vocalized. I like it real well, even if it costs money, I'm in. But the thing that bothers me is the fact that I can get upset about things that I'm supposed to be in love with. You ever try to read your Bible through in a year? I know a lot of people have done it, and I think it's a good thing to do, and I think you ought to do it, but I'll guarantee you, you're not gonna do it in a year. Because I don't know anybody that's gonna be faithful 365 days without, you say, well, I read mine, yeah, but you have to go catch up. You missed a few days and you kind of stumbled around a little bit. So the next week, some of you read a whole month in one day, because you had to really catch up. I'm not opposing it. I'm thankful that we could read our Bibles through, but let's be honest, it's pretty hard to do things that are right with any excitement in our life. The Lord didn't make everything that he told us to do and told us to be about things of grand joy and greatness. He said, I wonder why he did that? Because there's a place called heaven. Okay, and heaven is real and there is no sorrow and no sickness and no sadness in heaven. We're going to be there soon enough. And if not reading your Bible is the difficulty, you know, then just realize this one day God's got a place where none of those things are going to be problems for us. financially about to get hold on things. I just see him as a promising young man. Maybe just graduated from college. Everybody knows him. They all have a good report of him. And now his church starts at 7, 730 and he gets there at 705 or 740 and comes in and over the balcony and he finds there's only one place up there and probably moves a couple of people apart and sits down in an open window. It's the worst place in the world. I knew he was going to fail because that's not where he was supposed to be. Secondly, I know he's going to fail because he was halfway out before he got all the way out. If you sit on a windowsill, part of you is hanging out. We won't elaborate how much. But if I'm sitting on a windowsill, then part of me is hanging out the window. There's no doubt about it. He was halfway out before he was ever all the way out. Keep a guard on your heart. Keep a guard on your heart. And again, I'm the proverbial preacher. I can't tell you how many times I have to pray, God, keep my heart on this message the way it needs to be. Because I've got something that's distracting me. I've got something else I'm interested in. And there've been numerous times when something spills over in your mind, and while you've got three points and something on a piece of paper, your mind can't stay focused. And there are times I say, Lord, keep my mind and my attention where they need to be for the sake of God's people. I think if that's the mindset that a preacher needs, then people sitting in the pew would have a mindset that says, God, keep my mind and my heart on what's being said. Because if you gave this preacher something for me tonight, then I need to hear it. And there's a thousand things that can disrupt my ability to hear, and the devil will use any one of them or all of them if he can keep me from hearing what can change my life for the better. I've had people, and I know you have, come and say, preacher, I need a schedule of one. I need to get in and talk to you. And when it's online, here we go, we sit down, and they start on the phone with us, four Wednesday nights in a row, and you were here. But the problem is you were halfway out, and the part that needed to hear was the part that was halfway out. You know, before anybody leaves the church, they're halfway out. They're halfway out. Nobody ever just all at once doing good, We find that place where we're halfway in. If he's sitting on a windowsill up there in the third loft of the window, then I know half of him's in and half of him's out before we ever get started. Don't ever let yourself get in that place. Don't ever let yourself get in that place. Somebody said, well, you know, you just can't talk to the preacher. No, you won't talk to the preacher. Let's say that in plain English. I submit to you that there's probably not a problem you ever have with a preacher, problem you'll not ever have with another member of the church, problem you'll not ever have with a nursery worker that couldn't be taken care of in a matter of moments if you just got together and said, look, we just need to talk. Most every problem I've ever had to deal with that exploded was two people that just butted heads all at once because they could have solved the problem and stopped everything in its tracks, but they refused to do so. Why? Because I'm right. Everybody knows I'm right. Why should I want to talk to you? Who cares what you think? I'm right. I rest my case. That's kind of where it is. I see this guy coming into church. I kind of see him a little in this shell, and you'll have to excuse me. My mind is rather vivid, and I've seen a lot of people in this predicament, spiritually speaking. And I've seen him come wandering into church, and he comes in, and he goes, the church is full. You know, you've got problems when you're upset because the church is full. But he's looking around, and sure enough, he's got a family that's been in the church for years and years and years, and they got a little gold plate on the end of one of the pews that they paid for when we got new pews, which I want you to know our family paid for that. And now you got it full. I can't even come to church. Haven't been here in six months, but I decided to come tonight, and you should have cleared And preachers can be mean, so if you'll excuse me, I'll excuse you. Don't get to that place in your Christian life and realize there's something wrong. There's something wrong. People will sit in your office and say, preacher, there's something wrong with the church. I submit to you there's something wrong with you a long time ago. You didn't stop that's the reason you think there's something wrong with the church. You say, well, you know, those people are just self-righteous. Listen, I know some of those people that have taken a whole paycheck and gone and taken care of somebody else's bills, but they couldn't afford to pay. And they said, preacher, don't ever tell anybody where you got this, but make sure your bills. You would call on, judge, help yourself, because you're going to stand before a holy God someday who will set you straight. Yeah. I'm not saying everybody's a saint. I obviously didn't, because there's people that would say things like that. This fellow wanders into church. I just can't even get a picture of him because I've been, can't find a seat. You know, the preacher's trying to pray and he waits to pray so this guy can sit down and he looks around and finally he plops down in the pew and inevitably it's one that squeaks real loud. Everybody turns around and looks and he says, I haven't been there. You're not here tonight, so you'll have to play this. Maybe you're watching on this. This says low battery. That must be it. Somebody's giving me the low battery sign. Don't let yourself get in that position. This young man, when he left home, probably in my mind said, well, if I don't go, they're gonna judge me. If I'm not there, they tell me things are really going good at the church. A lot of people go, and I thought, I don't look like a hypocrite, so I'll go. And so he hangs around, and he watches the end of the fourth quarter, the last free throw, and then finally gets in the car. Now he gets, can't believe it, parking lot's full. They don't even put enough parking spaces at the church. And you know, he just liked the second coming of the Lord so excited. And he gets out of it, and maybe it's a she, maybe I should change that, guys, maybe I'm giving us a hard time, but whoever it is, just, you know, just like hugging an electric eel. And they come into church and they look around and you say, well, nobody knows, preachers know. Preachers know. If we can't read anything else, we may not be able to read word, but we can read faces. And I preach a lot of times, people don't want to be there. I preached the sermon, oh, probably four or five years ago to a fellow that sat and he sat back over here. And while I'm preaching, I hadn't preached for them. I don't even know if I read my text. And I look back over here at this guy and this guy's sitting here like this. Well, you know, that's all. So, you know, I was preaching away and when I got to one of the good parts, I just kind of come right over there. And every single time I thought, you're a lowlife. You are not going to be. And I sparred with that guy for a solid hour. I mean, every time I look at him getting me. And I couldn't believe that. And when I was all done, I walked back over there and I asked my wife and some people, I said, did you see that guy? I don't even know why he was in charge. Everything I said he just wanted. They said, you mean the guy with the nervous tick? We haven't contemplated that. I just knew he was mad at me. That's all. Did you ever get a wrong opinion about somebody? Well, I understand we can do that, but I don't want to give somebody the wrong opinion. I don't want to give somebody the wrong opinion. Somebody said, well, I don't like these church where everybody yells amen. Listen, if you want two and a half million dollars in the lottery tomorrow, you'd say amen. You'd be like, I don't really care. No, you'd go nuts. You'd be turning cartwheels with arthritis. It wouldn't bother you at all. And we keep getting excited about the things that are going. And we wonder why our kids and our grandkids don't want to be part of it. We wonder why our country's in a mess. We wonder why things are going the way they're going. And I submit to you, it's because people have looked too long at Christians and said, I don't like that. I don't like that. You say, well, I got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. to your face, please. Let your face know there's some good things going on in your life. You say, well, preacher, you know, I've had a bad life. God just hasn't done much for me. Now I think I'm gonna die. Well, it happens on the other end. Maybe you should be smiling about that, finally. All those problems are gone. He was halfway in before he's halfway out. He got partially cold, partially. You know, Lord talked about them lukewarm folks over there in the Book of Revelation. And lukewarm is neither cold nor hot. It's sometimes one, sometimes the other. And you watch people that are like a yo-yo, you know, this week, man, let's go to the mission field and win people to God. Next week, why? I don't think I'm going to come to church anymore. And then the next week, you don't preach. I think we ought to just get excited. Do people like that just wear a preacher out because you don't know who's coming down the aisle? You know, you can kind of prepare for sad sack if you know that's, You get confused. I think this is the fellow we're looking at there. I think this fellow came late because he wasn't really interested. He just wanted to put in a show. I think he was halfway in before he was, you know, even got going. He was halfway in and halfway out at the same time. You couldn't really predict him. And then boom, all at once, he's gone. And I submit to you, that was a waking moment. Probably not a good term because it was his dying moment, I believe. somewhere between that third loft and the ground, he said, I kind of wish I'd sat on the front row. And I probably should have listened to what that preacher had to say. What do you think? You think I'm right? I probably should have brought my Bible. Maybe I had something to land on. I got to believe some things went through his mind before there was this dull thought. But I think somewhere in the next few moments, and I say few moments because I don't know how time counts when you're dead. But somewhere he goes from being a dead corpse lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood because of his own foolishness to his eyes open. And the first person he sees is a man of God standing over him. And you know, I could think of a thousand things to go through your mind at that point. But he sees that man of God there who's got him by the hand. And he says, come on, let's get up and go back in. Sometimes that's all a man of God can do. Put his arm around you, shake your hand and say, come on, let's go serve God again. And he was probably startled enough, I believe that he did. But there was a man of God that cared more about him than he cared for himself. Somebody was concerned about him. There's some people that when they leave and they go, you're kind of glad they're gone because they've been such a problem. Now I say that tongue in cheek because you don't ever enjoy seeing anybody go because You wanna see people get right and do right. You wanna see people do the right thing. You wanna see them happy. Now, I'd love to pastor a church full of people who are just ecstatic about it. It'd be the greatest thing in the world. At least on Sunday morning, it would give me some thrill to preach to people that were out there. Everybody does. But this fella had things to be happy about. Because he, if nothing else, had a man who got to care about him. Prayed for him. And you say, how do you know that? Well, he took a tumble out of the window and from what I understand, his man of God went to him with every intention of doing all he could to help him. And boy, all at once he's back in church. I submit to you that he was halfway out before he was all the way out. He never appreciated the love that God had for him until the man of God showed up to his rescue to help him out. It's always amazing to me, people call the preacher, you know, preacher, I go to church there. I get a phone call like that. I go to churches. You do, what's your name? I don't know that name. I go to church here. You know, have people stop by every once in a while and, you know, want some help. And then I'm all for giving people help, but they don't lie to me. Okay. Just say, you know, look, I can't rob a bank, but I'd like to come steal some from you. That'd be all right. At least you'd be honest. You know, I go to church. Oh, I've been going to church here since. I haven't been going to church since you came here. And I say, no, no, I started the church. I had a pretty hard time coming before I was here. in my trunk and I'm gonna leave it with you. I could run a tire store if I'd taken all the spare tires people offer. If you just give me some money for gas, we're right on the interstate. Everybody is going somewhere. I'll give you my spare tire. I've got whatever it is. I want you to know I have good faith and I got a whole room full of good things. Because they don't really come back. And preachers sometimes maybe get a little caustic. And I honestly don't believe that I am, but I think I probably have good reason to be. I try to have faith in whoever comes along and trust them and sometimes realize that maybe God just wants me to give more than he wants me to take care of them. And so I've tried to always submit to that, but sometimes you can always tell us the same story. You know, I think, do you guys get together? Is there a meeting where you get together and you pass out flyers and say, here's how you say it. And you know, you want to get a real play, sometimes it's almost like it's rehearsed. And the thing with a spare tire was amazing to me. I'm telling you, if I'm lying, I'm dying. I could at one time open a used tire store. Cause that was the thing that month, everybody that came by, I had some tires. I'll leave them with you. I don't want your tires. I'm not here trying to buy, tell the good gear guy. All those things, that's what we're dealing with here. This guy really would have been that kind of guy that you say, how do you know that? I just read between the lines. You say, well, you don't know that. Well, I could have proven it before long, but I've seen a lot of this guy annoying pretty well. And all at once he wakes up, his life's been restored. Having fallen that far, I gotta believe he's laying there looking up at that third story loft he just fell out of. was hot and he was cold at the same time because he was up high and he was far back, you know, part of it was cold hanging out the window and part of it was hot being in a hot building and so he, you know, hot, cold. Can Christians be like that? Yeah, a lot of us can. Preachers can be like that and sometimes it's kind of funny because some of us have probably been there in the last few weeks. I don't know whether I'm coming or going, Hot, cold, up, down, I don't know. Wanna go to church? I don't know whether I love God or not. I wanna live with all my heart. We get in those places where everything seems to be swirling around and we can't make up our mind. And sometimes it's good that you got somebody there who cares about you. I think he learned something. If he didn't learn anything else, he learned something about the man of God. That his polite plight and his problem wasn't what a preacher It wasn't the preaching that was hurting him. Something else had caused the problem. It wasn't that the crowd doesn't really love me and respect me. They were all there for him. All at once, he realized the people that love me were the people that was in that hotel room. The person that can help me is that man of God who's in that pulpit. Sometimes God has to bring you to that place. Sometimes God, I've been in a lot of hospitals and I think a lot of people come to a place like that in a hospital sometimes. I've gone in and taken somebody by the hand wouldn't shake my hand. And they said, preacher, can you pray for me? I said, I'd love to try and be a help. I've seen hard hearts soften at a place like that. And it's kind of sad that God has to take us sometimes to the end of the world almost before we realize that it wasn't like I thought it was. It wasn't like I thought it was. I've seen some of those fellows come back and God do some works in their lives and I've watched them change. And I've pastored some drunk guys that probably would look like, don't go, don't mess with them, but they had a heart for God that just wouldn't end. I remember, I've told the story about being with a fellow and his wife, when he had been diagnosed with asbestos cancer in his lungs, being in the Navy, and there was nothing there for him. So he just kind of wasted away, lost weight, lost weight, lost weight. And he was never coarse. We were good friends by that time. I knew what he had been. I knew he was a tough, tough monkey. And I remember going over there the morning his wife called me and she said, it doesn't look good. He's unconscious. And I remember going over there together with his wife and his daughters there. And he was just laying there gasping for breath. I remember that guy, he was big enough to hold me up and put me in his pocket. That one time, tough guy. And I watched that old fellow lay there, and I watched that lady and her children there, and they started to sing the old hymn, and we had a word of prayer, and then they started to sing another hymn, something about heaven, and I remember somewhere through that prayer, that old rough guy that I knew so well, last thing he ever did, never opened his eyes, but off that bed, he just, that's the biggest smile on his face I've ever seen. He dropped it back down to his pelvic, So what do you say? I'm saying there's hope for all of us. There's hope for the people that don't want to come to church. There's hope for people that don't like me as a pastor. That's fine. You say, how do you, how do you put it? It's not putting up with it. It's realizing what the grace of God can do in somebody's heart. And God's put you in a place here now. I don't know why you're here. I don't know, but I know God put you here. And if God put you here, he's done that to an end. something God's going to accomplish. And somewhere down the road, you're going to drive by somebody one day in New York at their house, or you're gonna be on visitation, passing out a gospel tract. Somewhere down the road, you're going to maybe stop and tell somebody about the church, and they're gonna say, I live right here. Somewhere they're gonna connect. And whether you convey that to somebody or not, it's gonna connect in your spirit and your soul, and you're gonna realize And then you're gonna immediately be confronted with the most satanic thought that any of us ever has, and that person didn't care anything about God. I've thought that on a hundred occasions, that person didn't care anything about God. Can I tell you that's satanic? Simply because you don't know. And if God went to all the trouble of bringing a preacher for all these many years down here to work and to labor and to pray and to beg God, and then gave him a building right here in the middle of all of this, And at some point you stand there and somebody, understand this, God does care, man, God does care. That's just a fraction though of how much Jesus cared for the lost soul. And when you find yourself there, don't be like this guy, half in and half out, upset. I just pictured him as a pastor's worth nightmare. And it took some time. I don't believe he sat up there. What do you think? Is that a valid assumption? I think, you know, if this was Sunday morning or Sunday night, then I believe Wednesday night, he didn't get there and look up at the balcony. As a matter of fact, I don't think he got there late. I don't think he got there late. I don't think he looked toward the balcony. I think he found him a place to sit right here on the front row because I want to get everything that there is to keep I want to hear every word clearly. He brought his Bible with him. I believe he did. He brought his Bible with him. He sat there. I've watched people that come after they got saved and somebody got a new Bible and you thought it was, I mean, 10 Christmases worth of gifts. I've had him come and say, look, look, look, look, look, oh, he's got me. Play this Bible. This is a good Bible. It's got a lot of money. Well, you know, it's like a kid showing you his tricycle. And I mean that with all due respect. You know, we've got, I know where Bibles are. I know they're expensive and they're going, but it's a Bible, thank the Lord. But you know why they're so exciting? Because their lives have changed. It's different now. It's all different now. I submit to you that I believe Eutychus fell into a deep sleep as Paul was long in preaching. That's what it says there, isn't it? Paul was long preaching. You notice God's not upset, but Eutychus is. And while Paul is long preaching, he sinks down into a deep sleep and fell down from a log and was taken up dead. End of story. Well, that's the beginning of the story. That's the end of all Eutychus. But God's got some work to do. Now, why would I preach that to a bunch of people here who just got a brand new building? Because you're not there yet. God gave you a building, this isn't the end, this is the beginning. There's work to be done. And it's not the preacher's job. It's not the preacher's job. You know the best guy that I know of to reach a police officer? No, the police officer. That's the best person to reach a police officer. You know the best person to reach a plumber? No, the plumber. You say, ah, you know, everybody sees a preacher come, they pull the shades, they lock the doors, they tell the kids to be quiet, they go out in the backyard, I don't know how that works. Oh, he's not here, he was out in the garage. He just ran out there and hid. The best person to reach the person that comes to your mind is you. That's who it is. That's who it is. You know, I understand there are gonna be people that are gonna die and they're gonna go to hell. Not because they're bad people, because we're all bad people. They're gonna die and go to hell because they never trusted Christ as their Savior. And the reason they never trusted Christ as their savior is either because they chose to reject Him, or they never had anybody take the time and explain to them how much God in heaven loves them. And what those words, for God so loved the world that He gave, is only for God to say what they really need. We just don't take the time. We've got our lives. We're 100 miles an hour every day. We've got a church building now. Let's get a church. Let's get the books out. Let's get this going. Let's get that going. I'm appreciative of all of that. I know what it takes to have a church service. I'm not saying that's not important. Realize this, there's somebody out there sitting really in a precarious place. They're halfway in, halfway out. They're missing something. They're longing for it. They're drug addicts sometimes, looking for something. There are people with broken marriages wishing something. People that have kids that are about to go to jail. People on drugs. This world is a cesspool compared to what it was even 50 years ago. So, here's what Christians do. We go, yep, Jesus is coming. But I submit to you, I believe he's coming. was his last I think there are some hard parts in this world. I think there's some wicked and violent people. I think there's some people that would What would it be like to stand in heaven among those thrones of thousands and thousands of people and say, Lord, I, tell them where you're from. Our church building is on this street. That's where I went to church. And have somebody behind you say, hey, I lived in that neighborhood. And you'd say, boy, it's wonderful that you got saved. And they'd say, you never told me. Somebody I worked with told me and I got saved, but you know, my wife and my teenage daughters didn't get saved. We drove past your church all the time. What does it take, preacher? It takes somebody with a heart that cares about people the way somebody cared about you one day. If you're here tonight and you're saved, you're saved because somebody cared about you. Loved you enough to be brave, strong enough to say things that you knew people really wouldn't want to hear, but they said them anyway, and you listened, and it broke your heart, and you came to Christ to know what a difference you made. Not everybody's had that opportunity. And what's even more sobering is you and I may be that somebody for somebody else. When's the last time you entered on a gospel trip? when's the last time you just were pleasant to the guy at the gas station, or the gal in the checkout line, and said, you know, I go to, and we've got a new building. Our pastor, boy, I'd love to see you come. Changed my life. We always go in with this dreadful, dying attitude. Yeah, I gotta go to church all the time. You wanna go? Of course they don't wanna go. Because of our attitudes. And then we can thank God that we weren't put into another position of having to try to bring them, or leave them, or pray for them. We can just let the world go to hell, and we can smile, and it'll be all right, because I get to church occasionally. That's not why you're here. I close with this thought tonight. Please remember, there's nothing that you've ever wanted or desired that can fulfill your wishes any more than heaven's gonna take care of them. And oh, what a wonderful place heaven is. gates of the world. Everybody lives in a mansion. Nobody lives in a ghetto or slum there. Everybody lives uptown in heaven. Our Savior is not a million miles away waiting for us to fall on our knees. We could stroll right down Gloria Lane and stand there. He'll take all the time in the world to talk to us because we've got eternity. A place where we never grow old, where we never get sick. A place where there is food. I'm glad to report that. All of those things that are there and a thousand more I can't describe. Aren't you glad you're safe tonight? Aren't you glad that Jesus comes before midnight tonight? We'll just meet on the other side of heaven. We might've thought this was the last meeting for us tonight. We just might have another one about midnight in glory because the Lord's come and there we are. Boy, there are regrets to be had. Most of the regrets I have in my life are names. Is that fair to say? And they're not deeds I shouldn't have done. They're people I should have talked to. People I should have said something to. People, I don't know whether they're in heaven or hell. And what's worse, I don't know whether I spent my whole life in the ministry since God called me to preach. I've told people how to get saved. I've seen people walk an aisle and get saved. I love you, Christ. But I don't know that I've ever made a dent on what this world's got. But I believe if we work together, or if you as a church work together to get the gospel, you say, well, listen, let me give you something real simple. How hard would it be to pass out one gospel tracker a week? Ladies, gentlemen, are you man enough? Are you strong enough? Are you willing to say, boy, I'm afraid somebody laughed at me. One person, come on. You got grandkids, they're all laughing at you. What would happen in a church if passed out one gospel track a week. See, sometimes it's not the preacher that wants you to know everybody to Christ. It's a God in heaven that wants every soul to at least hear that their life can be changed. And while you might not be able to change the world this week, you could do a great service for our God in heaven by telling somebody if nothing more And you may not be interested, but I promise you, if you'll give God a chance, he'll prove to you that he loves you more than anybody in this world ever could. And turn, take your groceries, pump your gas, whatever it is you're doing, and maybe never know what happened. But boy, that's where heaven gets exciting. Because if you pass out enough of those, there gonna be some great stories told one day when you get to heaven. Somebody left a gospel track, somebody in somebody's hand, and they got saved. They got saved, and God called them to the mission field, and they went halfway around the world to Buddha Buddha land, and 3,000 people trusted Christ as their Savior because of one gospel track. Somebody got saved, and somebody went back into the factory and started witnessing, and the director of the plant operations caught that track. Somebody was angry, and he took it, and got saved, and got in church, and got off of drugs, youth department down at the church. You never know. Or you can just come to church and park yourself in a window halfway in, halfway out, till you fall out of the window. And there may be a preacher that'll love you enough to try and nourish you and get you back to God. But boy, best thing to do is don't ever get in that place. Find you a place of service. What a golden and wonderful opportunity you have as a church to reach this area and conduct And I submit to you, these people here, I don't know, I will never come in contact with them. And so I say this as a Christian, they're not my responsibility. They're yours. They're yours. Take that seriously. Get you a gospel trip tonight and think, where would I be and somebody not to take the time to pray, to witness, to give me the gospel. God, at least let me pass out a tract this week. And I submit to you, the people, you think they're going to kill you. You think they're going to chop you up into little pieces and laugh at you. I guarantee you, that's not going to happen. I guarantee you, you're going to give one away and somebody may take it and it'll be a difference, but you give another one away the next day. Somewhere down the road, I would say probably within a week, is that fair? Probably within a week, you'll have somebody gospel track. And they'll say, you know, I've been praying. I asked God just this week, Make your day, I promise you. They say, you know, I had a teenage daughter who just died on a drug overdose. I'm trying to figure it out. I needed some help. Thank you. Not everybody's going to love you. There are going to be some people who give you a funny look, but I promise you the most people you're going to find are going to be people who say, thank you. You're probably going to run into somebody. I've done this a lot. My most fearful moments. I've been sick for 20 years. Wow! Scare me to death! Take a track. Take a track. Hand out a track. You don't have to hand out 50,000 this week. You don't have to set the Guinness Book of Records for track pricing. Take one, would you? Your eyes, in one week, this church would have reached a mass of humanity the same size as your church. One gospel track. And God might give you an Thank you for letting me come and be here. Old Eutychus, there are things in the Bible I don't even know why they're there. There's a story of old Eutychus sitting up there in the window, falling out of the window, killing himself. The man of God coming and rescuing him and restoring his health, putting him back to where he needed to be. That's in there for a reason. And I believe that there is a reason that I could explain it was the fact that, as I said before, he was not where he was supposed to be. He wasn't in or out. He was just kind of partway, meandering through life as a bored individual. But all Christianity is not like that. Christianity is about leaning people to Christ and seeing them get saved. Be the church God wants you to be, the light. All right, let's stand with our heads bowed. We're going to sing here in a minute. Before we do, I'd like to invite you to just come to an old-fashioned altar if the Lord spoke to your heart, and do business with Him. I'm not asking you to do business with me. You even have to talk to me. But you do business with the Lord. Truth be told, there have been times in our lives when we've been eudicous. Kind of half in and half out. Then you come to a place like this, the Lord begins to work on your heart a little. You begin to realize, maybe I've been eudicous. I don't want to fall out of that building. Don't want to fall out. Let's get our songbook 739. Sing, let him have his way with you. Would you ever know Jesus, and be all things to the record? Would you walk with Him, even in the narrow road? Would you ever dare to burn in fear, He o'er your door? Let Him have His way with you. This power can make you what you want to be. This blood can cleanse your heart and make you free. His love can cleanse your soul and you will see. God's plans for him to have his way with thee. Let him have his way with me. His power can make you what you want to be. His blood can lift your heart and make you free. His love can fill your soul and you will see. What's left for you to do and it's right with me. All right, I appreciate you coming. Brother Sal and Mrs. Sal, thank you for coming. If you leave tonight and your heart's not warmed, it's not the church, it's you. Amen? All right, let's bow our heads. Brother Jacob, why don't you close us out tonight, please? Father, I thank you that we can all be here tonight to hear from you. I ask that you would say this message deep in our hearts so that we don't forget it. Give us that desire to be pleasing you, to be here for you, not for people looking at us, not for any not good reason, but to please you. Help our hands do what I don't do, and our hearts and our minds have already figured out what needs to happen to be this great state. Amen. Now, we got plenty of food back here, and so you don't have to run off to the restaurant tonight. We can stay. There's dessert. There is chicken, there's all kinds of stuff. All right, God bless.