Luke chapter number 14 and verse number 25.
I prayed this afternoon and said, Lord, what
is it you want me to preach?
And I'm not exactly sure why the Lord
directed me here.
Matter of fact, just last night I was
in a camp meeting over with Pastor Barrett
and his fine folks at Zion Hill, and
I preached on this very theme.
And normally I'm very cognizant of the fact
that maybe a couple of people were there,
but I just can't get it off my
heart, so I hope it'll help you tonight.
Luke 14, verse 25.
The Bible says, And there went great multitudes
with him, and he turned and said unto
them, If any man come to me and
hate not his father, and mother, and wife,
and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, in
his own life also he cannot be my
disciple.
And whosoever doth not bear his cross and
come after me cannot be my disciple.
But which of you intending to build a
tower sitteth not down first, and counteth the
cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it,
lest happily, after he had laid the foundation
and is not able to finish it, all
that behold it begin to market, saying, This
man began to build, and was not able
to finish.
Or what king, going to make war against
another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth
whether he be able with ten thousand to
meet him that cometh against him with twenty
thousand.
Or else, while he is yet a great
way off, he sendeth an ambushage, and desireth
conditions of peace.
So likewise, whosoever he be of you, that
forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot
be my disciple.
Tonight from Luke 14, I want to preach
on this subject.
Go back to your seat.
Thank you very much.
You may be seated.
Let's bow our heads and hearts and pray
and ask the Lord to bless our time
together tonight.
As we do with the subject, go back
to your seat.
Now, Father, I simply humbly pray tonight that
you would empty me of myself.
Fill me with the Holy Spirit.
I pray I would not say one thing
that would dishonor Christ.
And I pray I'll say everything with boldness
that you've laid upon my heart.
Help these, my friends, as they listen.
Help me now as I preach the unsearchable
riches of the Word of God.
And we'll thank you for what you'll say
and do, for it's in Jesus' name that
we ask it and pray.
Amen.
Let's just suppose tonight at Franklin O.
Baptist Church that when Pastor Norris was in
the pulpit just a moment ago introducing me,
that during his introductory comments, let's just suppose
I was not even here and I was
not going to be the speaker tonight.
And let's say that Pastor Norris looked everybody
square dab in the eyeballs and said, ladies
and gentlemen, what a privilege we have tonight.
Tonight in the flesh we have none other
than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself who will
walk through the double doors of this church,
grace up to this pulpit with a suit
and tie on, clip a lavalier mic to
his tie, get behind this pulpit and preach
the faith of the Lord.
Now, I'm telling you one thing.
If Jesus Christ were to walk in these
back doors and were to physically, thank God
He's here tonight in spirit and in truth,
but if He were to physically get in
this pulpit tonight, I can promise you one
thing about our Savior, there wouldn't be anybody
swinging from the chandeliers, nobody would be doing
cartwheels, I don't believe we'd be shouting from
the aisles, but I think we'd all be
on our face before the thrice holy God
of the Bible.
And if Jesus got in this pulpit and
began to preach, I don't know a lot
about maybe the Lord Jesus Christ more than
I'd like to know a whole lot more,
but I do know one thing about His
preaching.
If He were preaching tonight, there wouldn't be
one person looking at your watch.
There wouldn't be one person rubbernecking and turning
around and looking at the clock there in
the balcony.
There wouldn't be one person doing their manicure
or fixing their false teeth or combing their
hair.
There wouldn't be but one person digging their
nose or passing notes.
I'm telling you, if Jesus got in this
pulpit, you would sit at the edge of
your pew with bated breath and you would
be magnetized to the ministry of Jesus Christ.
And let's just suppose that He were preaching
in this pulpit tonight and He said, tonight,
ladies and gentlemen of the Franklin Rowe Baptist
Church, I'm going to preach on the subject
of discipleship.
I'm going to preach on the subject of
what it really means to sell out, to
spit in the eye of the devil, to
stomp on the world, to turn your back
on friends and family as it were and
sell out to be a true blue dyed
-in-the-wool New Testament Bible disciple.
And let's just suppose that Jesus preached on
being a disciple of Himself tonight.
Now, by the way, if there's any area
of our churches that we are lacking in
in fundamentalism, it is discipleship because it takes
more than wearing a WWJD bracelet on your
arm in the grocery store to be a
follower of Jesus Christ.
You are not a follower of Christ with
your lips.
You are a true follower of Christ with
your life.
That is why Jesus told the self-righteous
hypocrite, the scribes and Pharisees, that ye draw
near unto me with your mouth, but your
hearts are far from me.
So let's just suppose Jesus preached on discipleship.
And let's just suppose as we continue the
analogy that He said, now we're to the
invitation.
I want you to stand with your heads
bowed and eyes closed reverently before the Lord
and the pianist and the instruments begin to
play.
And let's suppose that Jesus gives this very
simplistic, very basic and very generic invitation tonight.
Jesus is speaking and here's what He said.
Ladies and gentlemen of the Franklin Roe Baptist
Church, if you really want to follow me,
if you really want to be a New
Testament disciple, if you really want to sell
out and do what's right and be a
true blue Christian, I want you to step
out of your seat.
I want you to come bathe these altars
in prayer and in tears.
And I want you to fall in your
faith and beg and ask and plead the
God of the Bible to fill you with
His Holy Spirit, to give you the power
and the Holy Ghost wisdom to be a
true blue disciple.
I do not believe.
I do not believe that if Jesus gave
an invitation like that, I don't believe there'd
be two people left in their seat in
the building tonight.
Anybody that has any brain matter between their
two God-given earlobes tonight, I believe they
would sincerely be on their faith.
I know I'd be on my faith.
I hope you'd be on your faith.
I'd want my wife to be on her
faith.
I know our preacher would be on his
faith.
I know these deacons would be on their
faith and the Sunday school teachers and the
Christian school teachers.
I believe everybody in the building probably would
leave their seat, would fall on their face
and say, I really want to be a
disciple.
But here's the problem.
I can see how you live and hear
what you say, but there's only one person
tonight that really knows the intentions of your
heart.
The Bible says in 2 Samuel 22, the
eyes of the Lord run to and fro
throughout the whole earth, beholding the evil and
the good.
Psalm 11 3, God is upon His holy
throne.
His eyelids try the children of men.
Jeremiah chapter 17, verse 9, the heart is
desperately wicked and deceitful above all things who
can know it.
I, the Lord, search the heart.
I try the reins of men to see
whether they be good or whether they be
evil.
Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verses 13 and 14.
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole
matter.
Fear God and keep His commandments, for this
is the whole duty of man.
For God shall bring every work into judgment
with every secret thing, whether it be good
or whether it be evil.
And I may be able to see you
tonight and say, you know what?
That person is so sincere.
Their intentions are clear.
Their motivations are pure.
And that person, that man, that woman, that
teenager, that little boy, that little girl, man,
they really want to tell out and they
want to be a disciple.
But I do not know your heart as
does the Lord Jesus Christ.
And what an embarrassing predicament you'd find yourself
in tonight.
If Jesus were preaching this sermon on discipleship,
if Jesus were giving this invitation and the
altars and the aisles were flooded with people
falling on their face before God saying, I
really want to be a disciple.
There's no doubt in my mind.
Hear me well.
There is no doubt in my mind that
there would be people in this church who
would be on their face and God would
come to you and you would lift your
face and look him eyeball to eyeball.
And in front of everybody in this building
upstairs and down tonight, Jesus Christ would honestly
have to look at you and say, you
know what?
I know what the real intentions of your
heart are.
I know what your real motivations are.
You're just here because everybody else is here.
You really don't want to be a disciple.
So why don't you just go back to
your seat?
And if I think the truth were told
on many of us tonight, we are not
that interested in being real, dyed in the
wool, New Testament disciples.
I want you to look in your Bible
if you would, please, because Jesus did something
quite interesting.
He spun around on his heels, looked a
multitude in the face and basically told them,
just go back to your seat.
Let me show you what I mean.
Look in your Bibles, please.
Luke 14, verse 25.
And there went great multitudes with him and
he turned and said unto them, If any
man come to me and hate not his
father and mother and wife and children and
brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life
also, he cannot be my disciple.
So somebody says, well, wait a minute, Brother
Locke.
H-A-T-E, hate.
I didn't think God was a God of
hate.
Well, you know the character of God and
you know the character of Scripture well enough
to know that God's not talking about bitterness.
He is not talking about pride and prejudice.
He is not talking about divorce.
He is not talking about church wit.
He's not talking about sawing people's heads off
and shooting people with guns.
That's not the type of hatred that he's
talking about.
Please understand that the word hate in your
New Testament Bible, Luke chapter 14, is a
comparative word.
It is comparative terminology.
For example, I'll give an analogy.
I'll start a sentence.
You finish the sentence.
Guess what we see every Sunday afternoon of
the world?
Sunday afternoon drivers.
And if there's one thing I cannot stand
and dislike, it's Sunday afternoon drivers.
Because I'm telling you, not only do I
like to preach fast, I'll be honest with
you, I like to drive fast.
I like to do everything fast.
I'm always in high gear.
Ninety miles to nothing.
From the time I get out of bed
to the time I go back, I'm telling
you, my brain is just a running.
And my wife tells me I twitch while
I'm sleeping.
And so I'm still fast even when I
sleep.
And when I get behind a Sunday morning
driver or a Sunday afternoon driver, I'm telling
you, it crinkles me up to no end.
But here's what happens.
It's 70 miles an hour on the interstate.
And we get behind some little fellow who's
going 27 miles an hour on the interstate.
And I mean, he's just a putter.
And I mean, he's sweating because he thinks
he's wide open Jeff Gordon.
And so we get behind him and we
rip over into the other lane and we're
hollering and screaming and yelling out the window.
And we throw that thing in low gear
and we fly past him going about 87
miles an hour.
We pull over into his lane and we
zoom right on by him.
And he looks at his little old wife
and he says, honey, that fellow passed me
like I was sitting still.
Now let me ask you a question.
Was the little fellow sitting still?
No, he's going 27 miles an hour.
But his speed compared to my speed made
it seem as if he were sitting still.
And Jesus said your love for him ought
to be so great.
You ought to be so sold out to
the cause of Christ tonight that your love
and your zeal for Jesus Christ would be
so huge that your love for anybody else
would seem as if it were hastened.
Little Susie was playing in a sandbox one
day in the back of her house.
Her mother went out there and she had
three little dolls.
And I mean little Susie was weeping a
bucket of tears.
Big, huge tears streaming down her face.
And her mother came out there and she
just gently grabbed her and said, Susie, what's
wrong?
She said, Mama, it's my dolls.
She said, well, Susie, what's wrong with your
dolls?
She said, well, there's nothing wrong with them.
She said, but I feed them all the
time.
And I change their clothes all the time.
And I comb their hair all the time.
And she said, Mama, I love them and
I love them and I love them.
But they never love me back.
And if you want to be a real
disciple tonight, you better write down number one,
that first and foremost, you're going to have
to love Jesus Christ more than any other
person, more than your spouse, more than your
children, more than your preacher, more than yourself.
And Jesus said, you need a good old
fashioned revival of falling in love with Jesus
Christ, the Son of God.
I got news for you, friends.
It's not real popular, but I'm not running
for office tonight.
I'm trying to preach the Bible.
I think if everybody at Francisco Baptist Church
would fall in love with Jesus Christ, it'd
fix a lot of problems at home.
It'd fix a lot of problems in school.
It'd fix a lot of problems in the
community.
And bless God, it'd fix a lot of
problems in a local church.
Did you know the Bible says, only by
pride come a contention.
And if we just get out of love
with ourselves and fall in love with the
blessed Savior, Jesus Christ, I'm telling you, it
would fix a lot of the problems that
we have.
You know, it's one thing to say, well,
I love Jesus more than my wife.
You know, I've got the most submissive wife
on the face of God's earth, honestly.
Been married six years, and I could not
be and would not be where I am
in evangelism if it were not for my
dear wife, Melissa.
She is the most submissive lady you've ever
met.
It's honest truth.
Last time we got in a fight, she
came to me on her knees.
She said, if you don't get out from
under that bed, I'll beat the living devil
out of you, you little brat.
But I'll be honest with you.
You know, sometimes it might be easy to
say, well, I love Jesus more than my
wife.
I love Jesus more than my preacher.
I love Jesus more than my mama.
I love Jesus more than my father.
But wait just a minute.
The verse doesn't stop there.
Notice what your Bible says, please, again, in
verse number 26.
If any man come to me and hate
not his father and mother and wife and
children and brethren and sisters, yea, the word
means furthermore, and his own life also, he
cannot be my disciple.
You say, but Brother Locke, you just don't
understand.
I know, I know the Bible says that
we're supposed to raise our kids in the
nurture and the admonition of the Lord.
And I know I shouldn't let little Junior,
little Judy watch certain things on television.
And I know I shouldn't let my daughters
dress all worldly and sleazy and things like
that.
And I know what the Bible says about
that.
But you know, Brother Locke, I don't want
to deprive my kids.
I don't want them to stand out and
look like a bunch of goons.
Well, go back to your seat then.
Just go back to your seat.
If we're not going to sell out and
get right with God and live a Bible
life, then we might as well just go
back to our seat, close her down and
make this thing a movie theater because it's
plenty big enough.
I'm telling you, you're going to have to
fall in love with Jesus more than you
love your kids.
You're going to have to fall in love
with Jesus more than you love your boss.
You're going to have to fall in love
with Jesus, hold on to yourself more than
you love you.
Can I be real honest with you about
something?
I know some of your hair is going
to part right down the middle.
You're going to think I'm wicked.
But you know I love myself tonight.
You know that?
I love myself.
And if you tell me you don't love
yourself, you're the biggest liar this side of
the lake of fire, friend, because I'm telling
you everybody in this room loves themselves.
I got news for you.
The Apostle Paul had struggles with his flesh.
And if Paul had struggled with his, I
promise you, Greg Lark's going to have struggles
with his.
That's why he said in Galatians 2.20,
I am crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ
lives within me.
And the life I'll have now live in
the flesh.
I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself
for me.
He said in 1 Corinthians 15.31, I
die, not monthly, not yearly, not biweekly.
He said, I died daily.
The Apostle Paul got up and every time
his little feet hit the floor, he looked
in the mirror and said, Paul dropped dead.
You're not in control today.
God is.
And that's why Paul could say in Ephesians
5.18, and be not drunk with wine,
wherein is excess, but be filled, dominated, dictated,
overrun, controlled by, be filled with the Spirit.
Let me ask you a question.
How can you be filled with the Spirit
if you're filled with yourself?
And the obvious answer is, you cannot be.
And my greatest enemy tonight is not the
liberals.
My greatest enemy tonight is not the New
Evangelicals and the Robert Shulers and the rest
of Benny Hens and all the other crooks
and charlatans on TV.
My greatest enemy is me.
Your greatest enemy is sitting with you tonight
in the pew.
And before you poke your spouse, I'm talking
about you.
Somebody said the only reason the Pope thinks
he's perfect is because he's not married.
Bless God if he's married, his wife would
tell him different.
Amen.
Because nobody's perfect this side of the glory
land and will never be perfect until we
drop this robe of flesh and rise and
kick up glory dust in the sky.
We'll never be perfect.
But I'm telling you, we need to have
some people who fall in love with Jesus
Christ, who get out of bed every morning
and they read the Bible and they pray
and they give and they go and they
work and they love Jesus Christ.
And I'm telling you, if you'd fall in
love with Jesus, it'd fix a whole lot
of the problems you've got in your life.
I believe if we just fall in love
with Jesus, I believe Dr. Bottlestopper's office wouldn't
be so overrun like it is nowadays.
I believe if we just fall in love
with Jesus, you can pull your teenagers off
of Ritalin.
I believe if we just fall in love
with Jesus, that we wouldn't have to worry
about a bunch of pills and a bunch
of Dr. Ragamuffins and going to a bunch
of sociologists and psychologists.
I'm telling you, if you'd just fall in
love with Jesus and it'd fix a whole
lot of the problems that you've got down
at the homestead.
And here's what Jesus said.
If you want to be a disciple, you're
going to have to fall in love with
me more than you love any other person.
But you know what?
The text doesn't stop there.
Let's keep reading in our Bibles and notice
what happens now in verse 27.
And whosoever doth not bear his cross and
come after me...
Now, I'm not real smart, but I don't
like to think myself real stupid either.
If the Bible says we're supposed to come
after Him, then obviously there's a place whereby
we're supposed to go.
Obviously, He's leading us somewhere.
Matthew 10, 38.
Let a man deny himself, take up his
cross daily, and follow me.
So notice what He says, verse 27.
And whosoever doth not bear his cross and
come after me cannot, Jesus says, cannot be
my disciple.
You've been around preaching long enough to know
outlines.
I like to do everything with P's or
Z's or D's or Q's or R's.
And so you follow me.
Number one, you need to fall in love
with Jesus Christ more than you love any
other person.
Number two, if you want to be a
real, true, blue, dyed-in-the-wool New
Testament disciple, then you're going to have to
fall in love with Jesus more than you
love any other place.
Did you know if you get revival in
your heart, you'll be willing to do whatever
it is that God wants you to do?
Did you know you'll be willing to go
wherever it is that God wants you to
go?
You'll be willing to wear whatever it is
that God wants you to wear You'll have
this little phrase that I've had for six
years now in evangelism.
Where He leads me, I will follow.
What He feeds me, I will swallow.
I'll tell you something, friend.
We've saved all of our messages on full
-time surrender to the kiddos.
And I'm just as bad as everybody else.
You know what we do.
Brother Adams, we get up at school and
we get the little chapel platform down there
and we slap the lapel mic on and
all the kids get there and they're all
tired.
They're popping their bubble gum.
They're worried about getting demerit.
They're not worried about some guy preaching.
And so we get in there and we
go to Romans chapter 12 I beseech you,
therefore, brethren by the mercies of God that
ye present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly
acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service
and be not conformed to this world but
be ye transformed by the renewing of your
mind that ye may prove what is that
good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
And we shoot the old gospel gun and
we tell young men and young ladies give
Him your life.
Give Him your life.
Surrender to the will of God.
And we ought to preach like that to
teenagers.
Because teenagers ought to surrender their life to
the will of God.
But wait a minute.
We've saved all of our messages on surrender
to the kiddos.
When I know a bunch of moms and
dads who need a good old-fashioned message
on surrender.
Somebody says, well, how come kids ain't living
for God?
It's because mom and daddies ain't living for
God.
That's why.
Do you know if you study the life
of John the Baptist you'll find out he
had the personality of a rock.
John had no personality whatsoever.
But he didn't care.
You think I wear wild clothes.
Buddy, I ain't ever wear...
I ain't ever wore black leather pants and
a double-breasted camel hair coat and a
big old beard and great big old hair
sticking out with locust legs coming out of
my mouth.
Now, that sounds pretty good if you're a
missionary to the motorcycle gang.
But bless God, not in a Baptist church.
And old John had the personality of a
rock.
But I'm telling you, Jesus said there was
never a man who was greater than John
the Baptist.
And old John mounted the pulpit.
I'm telling you, he preached and sweat and
jumped all over the place like a Bartleman
Bailey circus class.
And the people enjoyed it, except for the
scribes and Pharisees.
Because he pointed them out and said, you
bunch of snakes, you bunch of vipers, you
bunch of wicked low-down, good-for-nothing,
yellow-bellied compromisers.
He said you need to get saved and
get right with God.
And they didn't like that.
By the way, they still don't like that.
And you can always pick them out.
Sam Jones says, you throw a rock into
a pack of dogs, the one that chases
is the one you hit.
And I always know who I hit in
the Baptist church because they're the first ones
at the tape table, amen.
Well, I just got a bone to pick
with you.
Well, pick on, dear friend.
But guess what I found out about the
life of John.
Old Zacharias couldn't speak for a while when
he found out that his wife Elizabeth was
going to have a baby.
God said his name won't be Zacharias.
His name's going to be John.
And when Zacharias began to speak and he
told those people his name's going to be
John, guess what the people said?
What manner of child ought he to be?
The preacher, I read that the other day
in my devotions.
I thought to myself, what a claim.
What manner of child ought he to be?
I'll tell you what kind of kid he'll
be.
They'll be the kids you make them.
If they love God, it's because you love
God.
If they love church, it's because you love
church.
If they love the man of God, it's
because you love the man of God.
I'm going to tell you something.
It's not real popular in the day and
age in which we live, but you want
a sure way to have your kid take
a man of God and hate church?
Just rip your preacher off every Sunday afternoon
when you're down at the restaurant.
Just tear him all to pieces.
I'll tell you one thing.
I just don't think he's doing a very
good job.
And bless God, I could do a better
job than Brother Norris.
Well, apparently God didn't think so, big shot,
because he put you out there and put
him up here now did he?
And I think we ought to get behind
the man of God.
I think we ought to take care of
the man of God.
I think when his tires start getting slick
on his car, you ought to buy him
some new tires, or bless God, put a
Mercedes-Benz in his parking lot, amen.
But I think we ought to love the
man of God.
And I think we ought to support the
man of God.
And I'll tell you why teenagers mouth off
at the preacher, it's because mom and dad
behind the preacher's back mouth off at the
preacher.
Now, I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, we
don't need to just preach on surrender young
people, surrender young people.
We need to preach on surrender all of
God's people.
I know a bunch of people right now
who would be on the mission field from
Ambassador Baptist College if mom and daddy could
just cut the cords and let them go.
If that just cut the cords and let
them go, you'd say, brother, I can't understand.
I've had this kid and I love this
kid with all my heart and I just
can't let them go to the mission field.
Well, go back to your seat then.
Just go back to your seat.
Because if you love your kids more than
you love the will of God, you cannot
be my disciple.
Are you going to love Jesus more than
you love your place?
While we're on this little particular thing of
a place, let me say this.
There is one, count them, one place.
There is one place tonight in this century
and it has been since New Testament days
that Jesus Christ has organized, has sanctified and
has put His blessing on.
Did you know there is only one major
organization today whereby God puts His stamp of
approval and that is the local New Testament
church of Jesus Christ.
And did you know if you fall in
love with Jesus, you'll fall in love with
a local church.
I'm sick of the way people treat local
churches in the day and age in which
we live.
And I please tell you, this ain't a
lodge hall.
This ain't a moose lodge.
This ain't a 3D movie theater or an
IMAX.
This ain't a bowling alley.
This ain't a worship center.
This ain't a family life center.
You ain't coming here so everybody can see
your clothes and see your new haircut.
You've come to the house of God so
we can worship God in spirit and truth
and the preacher can get in the pool
pit and bow his back like a Benny
Rooster and preach the devil out of all
of us.
That's why we come to church, friends.
I'm sick and tired of these churches.
They say, well, just come as you are
and you'll leave as you were too.
You'll leave as you were.
I thank God for a church that's got
some standards.
I thank God for a church that's got
some dress standards.
I say, that's not real popular in the
day and age in which we live.
They say, oh, just let everybody wear what
they want to wear.
Just let them use what Bible they want
to use.
Man, get you a bunch of diesel sniffing
cigarettes sucking mophead quartets up there and let
them beat around with some bass guitars and
on some drugs and it'll bring the people
in.
Yeah, and what you get them with is
what you'll keep them with too.
Now, I'm telling you, we need some old
-fashioned standards.
Hey, I'm telling you, you ought to give
God your best.
I don't think you ought to come to
church in your Bermuda shorts and your little
pink flamingo shirts.
I think you ought to dress up.
I think you ought to look nice when
you come to church.
You say, well, you don't put preaching and
God in the middle.
And bless God, we need somebody in the
middle every now and then.
Because I'm sick of the guilds of not
having revival in local churches.
And I'll tell you why we don't have
revival in local churches.
It's because we treat this place just like
we treat our little boss's house.
We treat this place just like we treat
like some old little house.
We treat it like it's a garage.
We treat it like it's no big deal.
No, this is the local New Testament church
of Jesus and we ought to treat it
like a local New Testament church.
People come to church.
They wake up, you know, church starts at
11.
So they get up about 1053.
Yeah, it is.
I'm glad we go to heaven.
There'll be no.
So they reach up and they hit that
little button, S-N-O-O-Z-E,
snooze, because that's what you want to do.
And finally, you wake up at 1058.
You say, honey, we're going to be late.
We got to get to church.
So you jump up.
You don't even brush your teeth.
You don't even comb your hair.
You don't even put no deodorant on.
You got the same socks on you've had
for 43 weeks.
Your wife comes walking out of the house.
She's all disheveled and all wrinkled.
She's got rollers in her hair.
She's got one naked kid over here.
She's got a half naked kid over here.
And she's got a diaper on top of
her head.
Or the baby's caught all over.
And she's got milk spit all over.
Nobody's had breakfast.
Nobody's had devotions.
And then everybody's running around the house.
Just a couple more minutes of church time.
And they throw one on the hood.
They throw one in the trunk.
And old papa's out there.
We're going to be late for choir rehearsal,
baby.
Get in the car.
And he comes down there and throws that
thing in high gear.
He rips her high heel off the bottom
of her shoe.
And they slide in the church, 90 miles
to nothing.
They come whipping and flipping in the back
door.
They sit down in the back row and
say, I'm here to worship God.
And I don't believe a word of that
garbage.
I think if you're here to worship God,
you ought to comb your hair.
I think if you're here to worship God,
you ought to do what's right.
You ought to dress what's right.
Some people come to church.
If it's turkey season, somebody's about to go
stick their head on.
Thing's sticking up just like you.
I get the pretty low down and sorry
Christians who would dress right to get a
paycheck, but they won't dress right to worship
God.
I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, I believe
we've got to fall in love with the
place of the local church.
Did you know if some of us gave
our bosses the same excuse for not going
to work, that we give God and the
preacher for not coming to church?
You'd be on welfare tonight.
He'd have fired your tail 10 years ago,
and you know it hands down, he'd have
fired you and kicked you off the job.
I think I've learned something hard way about
badness.
We do what we want to do.
You say, well, brother Locke, Wednesday night prayer
meeting.
It can't be that big of a deal.
There's a program that comes on Wednesdays that
I just got to watch.
We'll go back to your seat, big shot.
Let's go back to your seat.
Well, brother Locke, you don't understand.
My kids play t-ball.
Hello.
Ain't nothing wrong with t-ball.
Nothing wrong with a nice little soccer league.
And I'm telling you, if you let your
kids get devoured by sports and you let
them have their mind filled with sports, sports,
sports, and they don't care anything about preaching
and they don't care anything about the house
of God, then just go back to your
seat because you cannot be a disciple of
Jesus Christ.
And I'm telling you, we need some people
who will just sell out to the cause
of Jesus Christ and fall in love with
God's place rather than their place.
Well, brother Locke, I just bought this new
bass boat.
Well, glory to God, I hope you did.
Take me fishing sometime.
They say, well, but I got to pay
for it.
And in order to pay for it, I
got to miss Sunday morning church so I
can work a few extra hours.
Well, Mr. Boat Lover, go back to your
seat.
Because if you love your boat more than
you love the things of God, you cannot
be my disciple.
You know why it's quiet here tonight?
Because you know what I'm preaching is coming
out of red letters in your Bible.
And I think a lot of times we
have the idea that being a disciple of
Jesus Christ is just a little flippant thing.
Well, I'm going to be a disciple.
No, it's more than what you say with
your mouth.
It's how you live your life 24 hours
a day and seven days a week.
God, give us some people who will sell
out to Jesus Christ and do what's right.
December the 27th of this past year, I
boarded a jumbo jet and flew to Ghana,
West Africa.
I've been on the mission field four or
five times.
To make a long story short, I had
the greatest hit of my life on the
mission field.
I went over there.
We had six days of services and they
preached me 14 times.
I'm telling you, we had a glory time.
And I'll be honest with you.
Brother Wallace knows this.
He's been all around the world.
Whenever you go overseas, you've got to have
an interpreter.
And for him, that ain't a big deal.
But when you preach like me, buddy, that's
a real big deal because they got to
keep up quick.
I'm telling you, you better put some extra
quality on because them jokers don't jump out
when I hop in the pool for you.
And I'm telling you, this guy was the
best interpreter I ever had in my life,
honestly.
I've never had an interpreter that was so
thorough in what he said.
Brother Jesse, by the way, I preached in
his church before last year when I was
here for the revival with the Robertsons.
And he's good about this.
Whenever you can use an interpreter who's a
preacher, preachers think like preachers.
So he knows where I'm going before he
can get there and so they can preach.
Well, this guy was 21 years old.
His name was Old Drew.
And I'm telling you, he was a preaching
machine.
If I rub my forehead like that with
my handkerchief, he rubbed his forehead like that
with his handkerchief.
If I kicked up my leg and got
excited, I threw up a hand like that,
he kicked up his leg.
If I hit the pulpit, he hit his
pulpit.
If I held up my Bible, he held
up his Bible.
I'm telling you, he mirrored not just what
I said, he mimicked all my actions.
And I'm telling you, we had a wonderful
time.
You talk about going over a limit this
morning with 1300 and some people.
And I praise God for that, man.
That's wonderful.
But I'll tell you something, we had 500
first time visitors.
Can you imagine Deacon selling some cards out
like that?
Usher sending out some visitors cards, 500 first
time visitors, 225 public professions of faith.
I'm telling you, God came down.
We had a great meeting.
On Wednesday night, I was preaching.
And I was preaching from Philippians chapter number
two.
And while I was preaching, there were several,
I believe it was two or three, I
think it was two Muslim men who were
to my left in the back.
I knew they were Muslims, had the dark
sunglasses on, had the little robes on from
their neck all the way down to their
toes, you know.
And they had the little beanie hats, had
the little canes.
And you just knew they were there to
start a ruckus.
Now, I don't believe in preaching mean just
to be mean.
I don't believe in just saying things just
to offend people, but I don't believe you
got to trim your sails.
I think you got to be the same
everywhere you go.
People tell me I preach fast.
Well, I preach fast in Mississippi just as
well as I preach fast in Tennessee, just
as well as I preach fast in Ghana,
West Africa.
I think a man ought to be himself
everywhere that he is.
And I don't believe in trimming your sails.
I don't believe in putting a bit in
your mouth.
I'm not preaching for money and I'm not
preaching for meetings.
Matter of fact, I'm trying to get out
of a few of them, but I'll be
honest with you.
I believe you ought to be the same
everywhere you go on God's earth.
So I wasn't going to trim my sails
just because there's a couple of Muslims there.
So here's what I said.
I looked over at my interpreter out of
the side of my mouth.
I said this, Oh, Drew, say everything.
Say everything that comes out of my mouth.
Some guys were back there and I said,
Jesus Christ is God.
I don't know what he said, but they
said amen.
So I guess he said amen.
And I said, Allah is not God.
He said it.
Allah has never been God.
He said it.
I said, Confucius is not God and Buddha's
not God.
And I went through a whole big, long
list of everybody.
And I said, Jesus Christ is the only
way to heaven.
And the people knew that they were there,
but it was a calm, coolness, a great
spirit till the next morning when I got
in the book.
At 1030, I was preaching on the subject
from Luke 16.
Very simple subject.
What the Bible has to say about a
place called hell.
I preached it last week in a tent
meeting in North Carolina.
And while I was preaching, a truckload of
Muslims came pulling up to my left.
I'm not talking about a little 1986 Toyota
truck.
I'm telling you a BFI dumpster, buddy.
I mean, it was packed full of Muslim
men.
They come piled out of the cab.
They come piled out of the back.
They got out of the catalytic converter.
They got out of the ashtray.
They got out of the tailpipe.
Let's God, they were everywhere.
And I'm going to tell you the truth.
I sat in a pulpit and I was
preaching on what the Bible has to say
about a place called hell.
And preachers, they started right here on this
side of the tent.
And about 25 or 30 of them went
all the way around that tent.
Dark sunglasses, little beanie hats on.
Had their nice little old robes.
They had little books.
I guess they were Korans.
Had the little staffs.
And one by one, they lined up 25,
30 of them all the way around that
tent.
There must have been 250, 260 people in
that building.
And I'm telling you, it was almost as
if there was tension.
You could have cut it with a gold
butter knife and everybody in that building know
we was about to get blowed up.
Because it was after September 11th.
And I knew why they were there.
It's because I said something about all of
them the night before.
And there they were, lined up all around
the tent.
And I thought, well, if I'm going to
go out, we're going out with a bang.
Amen.
So I changed my sermon in mid-gear.
You know, you can always tell the devil's
crowd when you start preaching on the blood
of Jesus Christ.
Hey, if you ever get some dope smokers
and some rebel rousers that show up at
a meeting, just start singing about the blood.
And I'm telling you, they'll run for the
mountains and for the rocks.
And so I started preaching, what can wash
away my sins?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
And I started preaching on the blood of
Christ.
And I must have preached for 10 or
15 minutes.
And they all stood there and they were
stoned.
They were stone faced.
They didn't move.
I don't even know if they breathed.
And I thought every one of them's got
a gun.
Every one of them's got a detonator tied
to their legs.
They're going to blow us all to kingdom
come.
I kissed my wife goodbye.
I'll never see her again.
It's over with.
So I might as well have myself a
glory fit and just preach myself to the
grave.
But they started leaving.
This one left.
So three left.
Five, six, seven, eight of them left.
They got a little truck.
The two of them stayed.
And they wrapped right in the back.
Two teenage boys got up and ushered them
down and gave them a seat.
I had about 15 minutes left of my
sermon.
I continued preaching on the blood.
I continued preaching about the fact that there
is a hell and there's only one way
out of hell and that's King Washington, the
Red Royal Blood of the Crimson Calvary.
And I preached and preached and preached on
that for about the next 15 minutes.
I said, ladies and gentlemen, I want you
to bow your heads and close your eyes.
And through my interpreter, here's what I said.
If you will renounce your religion, if you
will renounce Allah, if you will renounce Buddha,
if you will renounce all of that stuff
that you've heard all of your life, if
you will turn from your ways, if you
will trust Jesus Christ today, if you will
trust Him and Him alone as I preached
this morning, it gets you to heaven.
I said, I want you to stand right
now to your feet.
And without a second's hesitation, both of those
two fully garbed, fully robed Muslim men stood
to their feet, pulled their glasses off their
face, bowed their head.
And as I prayed to an interpreter out
loud, those two Muslim men, as long as
30 and 40 other people that were in
that tent, out loud prayed to receive Jesus
Christ as their personal savior and out loud
renounced Allah and the Muslim religion.
I want to make sure I've seen them
fellas after the service.
You got to understand, when you're on the
mission field, people want to touch you.
If you go over to Africa, they want
to see if what you got's real.
I mean, they're rubbing it.
I mean, they're grabbing, they're pulling, they're choking,
they're all over.
They wouldn't let me carry anything.
I mean, precious, dear, dear people.
And they packed that building every night.
I made my way through them.
Excuse me, folks.
Excuse me, I didn't see these fellas.
Excuse me, pardon me.
Excuse me.
I got back to the back doors in
Tucson.
I looked at them and I said, fellas,
I appreciate what you're doing.
They both went to a university and man,
they had very good egos.
And I said, man, I said, I appreciate
what you fellas have done.
I said, did you mean that?
And they said, yes, we meant that.
And I said, well, what does that mean?
And they said, well, you know, our family's
not going to like it.
And that's quite obvious.
By the way, if you start in a
Muslim religion, you'll find out if somebody renounces
that in terms of Christ, buddy, they'll have
a funeral for you.
They'll go ahead and just count you as
a dead man.
They'll go ahead and count you like you've
never even been born, like you're not even
around.
And I said, fellas, what does it mean?
I said, our family's not going to like
it.
The university and our professors are not going
to like it.
Our friends are not going to like it.
And so I looked at them and I
said, well, is it worth it?
And I'll never forget.
God lets me live a thousand years.
But one of those dear black gentlemen looked
at me and said, he said, sir, to
find the truth makes everything worth it.
And you know what I saw that day
in Ghana, West Africa?
Disciples.
People who were willing to pay a price
for what they believed.
And do you know why people in Murfreesboro,
Tennessee, more specifically at the Franklin O.
Baptist Church live such flippant lives sometimes when
it comes to the Bible?
Because it didn't cost us anything to live
for God, that's why.
But you let the ACLU and those other
wicked, vile, ungodly organizations that have been built
sat on the belly of hell.
You let them have their way for a
while.
And buddy, we'll find out who the real
Christians in this building are.
We'll find out one day who the real
Christians were and who those who just really
didn't give the slip of a wooden nickel
about the grace of God.
Just a little bit.
Hey, the church is always for us through
persecution.
I promise you one thing, if Jesus carries,
we're going to go through a boatload of
it in the next few coming years.
If you think we're in the midst of
revival, you're crazy tonight.
If you think this nation is getting closer
to God, you're crazy tonight.
And if you think all of a sudden,
spontaneously, everything's going to turn around overnight, you've
been reading the Reader's Digest, but you've not
been reading this Bible.
And one day, we're going to find out
who the real New Testament disciples in this
building are.
Now, I'm telling you, if you really want
to be a disciple, then you're going to
have to fall in love with Jesus more
than any other person, more than any other
place.
But lastly, let me please say this, if
you look in your Bible as we close,
verse number 33, the Bible says, so likewise.
Look me in the face just for a
moment, I'll explain to you why Jesus said
the phrase, so likewise.
He talked about two felons.
If you're taking notes tonight, you write them
down.
One of them's a builder, one of them's
a battler.
One of them began to build, but he
didn't have enough money to finish, so people
laughed at him.
One of them was a battler.
He had 10,000 soldiers, and he thought
he was a big shot.
He was going to kill a guy that
had 20,000 soldiers.
And so he came against it, but he
found out about halfway when he was going
over the valley and through the woods to
his grandmother's house, he found out that 20
,000 men were about twice as many as
he had.
He was linked two to one, and he
thought for sure he's going to be dead.
And so he sent in an ambassador.
That's what the word ambassador means.
He sent a FedEx boy, a postal service
man, somebody from the postal service, from the
post office.
He sent him over there in desired conditions
of peace.
Now, Jesus said both of these men were
foolish.
Why?
One of them was a builder, but he
didn't sit down and count how difficult it
was going to be to build.
And the second one was a fighter.
He was a battler, but he didn't sit
down and count the difficulty of the battle
that was surfacing on the battlefield and Jesus
said both of these men were very, very
foolish.
Why?
Because one of them made a hasty decision.
Let's build, let's build, let's build.
He didn't realize how difficult it was going
to be to build.
One of them made a hasty decision.
Let's fight, fight, fight.
Let's battle, battle, battle.
But he didn't realize how difficult the battle
was really going to be and how bloody
it was really going to be.
And you know what Jesus said?
He answers the question to why we have
so many status quo Christians in our churches.
Why so many people go up like a
rocket and come down like a meteorite.
Well, they start out well and they end
horribly.
They have a little saying in golf, it's
not how you drive, it's how you arrive.
And we got a whole lot of people
who drive, drive, drive, but they don't arrive
very well.
They fizzle out.
Why is that?
Jesus tells us why.
Because sometimes we come to the altar and
we make a hasty decision that we're going
to sell out and we're going to do
what's right.
But you know what we don't do?
We don't sit down and count how difficult
it's really going to be to live for
Jesus Christ.
If you think this thing is going to
be a bucket full of roses, I've got
news for you.
It's not.
Thank God for His blessings.
Thank God for answered prayer.
But I'm telling you, we're on a battlefield
24 hours a day, seven days a week.
This ain't a Sunday school picnic and we're
not on a cake walk tonight and we're
not dancing around the mulberry bush and we're
not playing Skip to Malu, my darling, and
hopscotch and marbles.
I'm telling you, we are in a battle
for Jesus Christ.
And I think it's time God's people put
their warfare on and we spit in the
eye of the devil and we don't retreat
and we hope not back up, pack up,
slack up, or shut up till we've been
taken up by the glory of God.
And let the liberals hear what we've got
to say.
Let the modernists hear what we've got to
say.
Let the new evangelicals hear what we've got
to say.
And bless God, even let the fundamentalists hear
what we've got to say.
Because I'm telling you, we need some Christians
to take a stand.
And who will say, listen, it may be
difficult to live for Christ.
It may be difficult to have my kids
in a Christian school.
It may be difficult to pray every day
and to read my Bible and to go
to church three times a week.
But bless God, I'm going to do what's
right.
And if we just have some people do
what's right, a whole lot of things around
here would be a whole lot better than
what they are.
But notice what he says as we close
again.
So likewise, verse 33, whosoever he be of
you, that forsaketh not all that he hath,
he cannot be my disciple.
Lastly, you're going to have to fall in
love with Jesus more than you love any
other Christian.
You know, Bill Gates has a lot of
money tonight.
But I'll remind you, the Bible says in
the book of Psalms that riches make themselves
wings and fly away in the morning.
And Bill Gates can have every cotton, pick
and dime in the world, but give me
a handful of hungry people who want the
power of God upon them and we can
turn Murfreesboro upside down for Jesus Christ.
What do you really want tonight?
You want possession?
Have them.
Prestige?
Have it.
Power, fame, fortune, friends, family, pat on the
back.
You can have it all.
But the Bible says you cannot be my
disciple.
And did you know tonight, tragically enough, one
of the great reasons we're not having revival
is because the spirit of covetousness has pervaded
our independent Baptist churches by leaps and bounds.
Everybody's got to have the biggest, the fastest,
the brightest, the better.
Everybody's got to have this, that, and the
other.
Now, if you've got money, hey, that's a
wonderful thing.
There's nothing wrong with having things, but there's
much wrong when things have you.
And might I please say to you tonight
reverently, if you're sold out to Jesus Christ,
you probably won't have the biggest.
You probably won't have the best.
You probably won't have the fastest.
And we taught our kids work, work, work,
get to the top of the totem pole.
It doesn't matter who you hurt.
Materialism, materialism.
You've got to have things.
The grass is always greener on the other
side of the fence.
That's because it grows over the septic tank.
And they've got to mow it just like
you did.
Last night on the way to camp meeting,
guess what I saw?
I saw a cow.
That big old Betsy cow was sitting in
the midst of about 50 other cows.
And all them cows just content just to
eat that grass that was ankle high.
And when I drove by and honked the
diesel horn at the cow, guess what it
was doing?
Sticking its head through that old barbed wire
fence over in somebody else's farmland eating what
they had.
And isn't that just like a bunch of
Betsy badness in our church?
Always getting more, getting more, getting more, getting
more.
I remember when I was a little kid,
you know what my granddad used to tell
me when I did that?
I went to a grocery store called Bill
Crooks.
Ever heard of it?
It's Kroger's now.
I don't know why they called it Bill
Crooks but the prophecy came true because he
ended up being one and he went to
jail.
But nonetheless, so Bill Crooks had a toy
aisle in his grocery store and I'd go
in there and I'd say, Daddy, I won't,
Papa, I won't see this and Papa, I
won't see this and I got to have
this and I'd go through this and my
granddaddy told me something I never understood.
I never understood it for years.
I mean, I always thought my granddaddy would
be a pretty wise guy.
I mean, I thought he was Solomon, you
know, wisest man he ever lived.
He'd say, right there in the middle of
the grocery store, he'd say, now hold your
hands out.
He's a little bit crazy.
He'd say, now hold your hands out.
I'd hold my hands out.
I know what he's talking about.
He'd say, now, Greggy, he called me that
but he don't know that.
He'd say, now, Greggy, he'd say, now sit
in one hand and walk in the other
one and see which one fills up quicker.
And I thought, what was that?
That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen.
In one hand, walk in the other, see
which one fills up quicker.
I thought, that's real good theology, that's all.
Then I grew up a little bit and
I understood what he meant.
My granddaddy was saying, you can go through
life and walk and walk and walk and
walk and be none the better for it.
And I see so many of God's people
that strive after more money.
They strive after bigger things and faster things
and brighter things and more arrayed things.
And they want the things of the world,
but do you really want the power of
God tonight?
And do you want to be a disciple
of Jesus?
I'll give you this illustration.
We close when we go home.
My wife and I, as much as you
know, the church gave us the money towards
it and we appreciate it, but our old
truck, the 1995 F-355, so good for
that, we had to have a new one.
Our trailer, the gross weight on our trailer
is 18,000 pounds.
And after all the shopping at Cracker Barrel
that my wife's done with the boys' barracks,
it weighs about 25,000 pounds full tonight.
And when our truck broke down, I thought,
you know, that's much too heavy for my
wife to carry around on her back.
And so, you know, we're going to have
to get something.
And you can't have a BMW, you can't
have a Volkswagen, you can't have a motorcycle
or a twin bicycle to carry something that's
40 feet long, double slide out, 12 foot
high, 8 foot wide, and weighs 25,000
pounds.
I said, you've got to have something dependable.
So I prayed, Lord, I need a truck.
I need a real truck.
That's why I bought a Ford.
And so I said, Lord, I was praying
and God reminded me of a good, God
reminded me of a good pastor friend of
mine in Rockford, Illinois at the North Love
Baptist Church, Pastor Paul Kingsbury.
He said, I'm a wheeler and a dealer.
He said, I can get you a deal
anywhere in this world.
I said, all right.
So I called him up.
He said, I got a Ford man in
my church.
He'd be glad to sell you one.
He said, I'll have him call you.
What about two days later, the cell phone
rang.
I said, hello.
As you customarily do.
And he said, Mr. Locke, he said, this
is Bob so-and-so at such-and
-such a place.
He said, I understand you need a big
Ford truck.
I said, yes, sir.
He said, I got one on the lot
just for you.
He said, it's a brand new 2002 Ford
F350 V8 Power Stroke diesel.
He said, it's a four by four.
It's got four doors.
He said, it's got everything.
He said, it's loaded.
It's got the Lariat package.
It's all leather, six-way directional chairs.
It's got two built-in custom alarms.
It's got the chrome wheels.
He said, this is the Cadillac of trucks.
And I said, good.
I ain't interested because I know how much
it costs.
He said, just let me send you the
spec sheet.
I said, all right.
Send all, send all.
So he sent me the spec sheet.
I pulled the fax off.
Fifty two and a half thousand dollars.
After I gained my composure, I called him
back and I said, you know, you can
buy half a house for $52,000.
I said, there's no way on this world.
I'm going to spend 52 grand on a
truck.
He said, well, I have you priced a
used one.
I said, yeah, I went over to Alexander
Ford Mercury.
I said, they had one.
It was two years old, had 45 and
50,000 miles on it.
I said, it was a bare basic truck,
had no four doors, had no four by
four.
All it had was the diesel.
It had regular old interior.
I said, it was a basic truck.
He said, well, they won't.
I said, they wanted $30,000 for it.
He said, I'll tell you what.
He said, if you buy this truck, which
by the way, had 30 miles on it,
brand spanking new.
And to the glory of God, and the
grace of God, it's in the parking lot
tonight, hooked to my 40 foot travel trailer,
because when I leave here, I'm out of
here, because I got to start opening the
revival tomorrow night.
It feels very bad.
It's Bible college.
You know, we're down in Minnesota.
So while you're, I'm going to be down
that road.
But it's sitting out there.
So he said, I'll tell you what.
He said, I want to be a blessing
to your ministry.
He said, I'll sell you this truck for
considerably less.
And you can buy that brand, that user
that you saw over at Fort Alexander.
So you do the math.
I stole that truck for $29,000.
God gave me a 52 and a half
thousand dollar truck.
And I'm telling you, he said, well, you
need to pray about it.
I said, yeah, hang on.
Lord, do I need to?
Okay, I'll be up there tomorrow.
Amen.
So I got an airplane ticket.
Boom.
I made a beeline up there.
I took one of the fellows from the
children's home with me.
Then I grabbed that truck.
I'm telling you, I sat down in that
thing.
Couldn't even see over the dashboard.
I sunk down in that leather.
I felt so out of place.
I felt like a ham sandwich in a
synagogue, man.
It just didn't fit.
And I sit in that thing.
And I said, oh, what a truck.
I said, man, this is three trucks.
Glory.
And then I had a shouting chicken spell
all the way home.
I had to have windshield wipers on the
inside.
And then I was just shouting and yelling,
having myself a good old time.
I came back here to Murfreesboro.
I hooked that thing up.
I threw my wife in and I said,
let's go to Danville, Virginia.
As we went to the Brush Harbor Baptist
Church, I was meeting Brother Robertson up there.
And on the way by him, I passed
him because he drives a Chevrolet, amen.
And I pulled into the parking lot.
And I pulled up in the parking lot
and I got all unhooked and everything.
Boy, I was so excited.
And I sat there waiting on him.
He pulled in about 35 minutes later.
Boy, we had the service the next day.
And I'm telling you, that thing got on.
God began to work, started saving people.
And on Monday morning, I got up and
I said, honey, I know that truck don't
even have a thousand miles on it.
I said, I'm going to go give it
a nice old wash.
You know how it is with new cars,
especially when they're dark colors.
Mine's black.
And man, when a vehicle's black, it gets
dust all over and pine needles and all
that stuff.
So I said, I'm going to go wash
it.
I should have stayed in the bed, but
I should have gone out there.
Why?
I said, Brother Robertson, I said, you got
a sponge?
He said, no, but I got a hand
mitt.
He said, you just dip that little hand
mitt in there, you know, wax on, wax
off, and you just scrub your truck.
I said, all right.
I got out there, man, I was skipping
through the air, wide open like Batman, flipping
all over the place.
I was over the top, over the bottom,
over the knees.
I was on the left, I was on
the right.
Had myself just a jolly time with a
brand new, right off the lot truck.
Every only thing new in my life.
But I didn't realize that, and he didn't
either, that in that glove, there was a
little hole about the size of a quarter.
And I didn't take my class ring off.
Oh, you done it too, huh?
And I was on the back side of
my wife's side, on the passenger side, on
the back door, that big four doors on
it.
And boy, I was about to adjust a
scrub-a-dub-dub.
I mean, just having myself a scrub.
Just this way, this way, all over the
place.
And I pulled that glove off, and I
kicked that little stick it up my hand,
grabbed that thing, sprayed it down like a
cowboy.
And I didn't see him.
And I don't know where he came from.
But somehow or another, when I was on
the other side of that truck, O'Zorro
came riding into town.
It went, right across the brand new black
paint job of my brand spanking new 2002
truck.
And I'm telling you, my heart went, and
I thought, my new truck.
Now, Brother Robertson, it wasn't his fault.
He didn't know.
I don't have any hard feelings towards a
dirty bum.
But nonetheless, I took the paint off.
And I turned the stick it off.
And I went and looked at it.
And it was one of them ones that
was in the paint too, but you can
see it when you rub your finger across
it.
And I went in the house, and I
had my hands in my pocket.
I had a big smile on my face.
And Melissa said, what'd you do now?
What'd you do now?
I said, I do nothing.
She said, well, go ahead and spill the
beans.
I said, well, if you know that brand
new truck God just provided, ain't got a
thousand miles on it, blah, blah, blah.
I went to the whole deal.
She said, yeah.
I said, I just got my first real
beard scratch on it.
She said, are you happy about that?
I said, no.
She said, well, are you mad?
I said, nope.
She said, well, why not?
I said, I'll tell you why not.
When I was standing out there, and when
I stepped back and washed it off and
saw that big Zorro scar on the side
of my truck, I do not, you hear
me?
I do not believe God speaks in an
audible voice.
If you have dreams, you better quit eating
kibosh before you go to bed and quit
watching David Lettermouth and Oprah Winbag and the
rest of that stuff.
I'm telling you, God don't speak that way.
He don't speak through audible visions and dreams
and barking like a dog and signs and
wonders and all that kind of stuff.
He speaks through the Bible.
But I do believe the Holy Spirit can
impress your heart.
And I do believe when He lives in
you, He can speak to your heart.
And I'm telling you just as sure as
I know that puppet made out of wood,
and it is, because I just hit an
amen.
I was standing in front of that truck
and the Holy Spirit said to me when
I saw that big scar on the side
of my truck, here is exactly what God's
Spirit said to my heart.
It's a truck, son.
It's a stupid truck.
You know, there's a bunch of people in
this room.
You'd be a whole lot closer to God
tonight if you just realized that house you
live in is just a stupid house.
That car you have is just a stupid
car.
That swimming pool you have is just a
stupid insurance liability.
I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, if you
just understand that your stuff is your stuff
and fall in love with Jesus Christ, I
believe we can have revival tonight.
And Jesus said, you really want to be
a disciple?
Then number one, you better fall in love
with me more than any other person.
Number two, you better fall in love with
me more than any other place.
And number three, you better fall in love
with me more than any other possession.
Because if you do not, ye cannot be
my disciple.
And wouldn't it be an embarrassing thing for
Jesus tonight to say, just go back to
your seat.
Your heads are bowed.
Your eyes are closed, please.
Thank you tonight for listening.
Thank you for letting me preach my burden.
And I'm honest, that's what it is.
It's a burden.
Because this is my local church.
I love you people.
You're my friends, my family, my fellow laborers
together with God.
And if I'm going to support this church
and tie it to this church and tell
everybody all over the world about this church,
I believe as well as you do and
as well as the preacher does that we
need the right kind of church.
And the right kind of church is filled
with disciples.
You know, disciples don't have any trouble filling
up a bus strap over on January Street.
Disciples don't have any trouble singing in a
choir.
This is for the fun of it on
Wednesday night because the preacher asked them to.
Disciples don't have any trouble showing up for
Thursday night visitation.
Disciples don't have any trouble tithing and praying,
being faithful, having family altar.
That's just what disciples do.
I want you to stand right now to
your feet if you would, please.
Your heads are bowed.
Your eyes are closed.
The instruments are playing all over the building.