Psalm chapter number 51 in your Bibles tonight,
please.
The book of Psalms in chapter number 51.
Thank you so much for being here tonight.
Enjoyed the good spirit of the Lord this
morning and the service and what a great
crowd we had.
And thank you for being back here this
Sunday evening.
And I hope that you'll be back and
do your dead-level best to be back
in every single service tomorrow night, all the
way through Friday night, 7.30 each evening.
Give you just a little bit extra time
to get ready and to be here and
especially you who will be in the choir.
Please come and come early and be ready
to sing for the glory of God.
Thank you for coming.
Good to see you.
And please come back with an open and
willing heart to do that which God speaks
so hard about.
Psalm chapter 51.
Let's stand, please, tonight out of respect for
God's Word.
Now it's the afternoon, just kind of seeking
the Lord, praying about that which He'd have
me to preach and just feel that this
is the burden and this is the area
and the direction that God has led me
tonight.
And so I hope it'll be a great
blessing to you.
But more than even being a blessing, I
hope it'll be something that'll conviction, that'll change
your life for a time and for eternity.
Psalm chapter number 51, please.
Look, if you would, at verse number 17.
Psalm chapter 51, verse number 17.
The Bible says, "...the sacrifices of God are
a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite
heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."
Notice it one more time, please.
Psalm 51, 17.
"...the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
a broken and a contrite heart, O God,
thou wilt not despise."
And tonight I want to preach the simple
subject, the doctrine of brokenness.
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.
The doctrine of brokenness.
Lord, tonight I need your help as I
preach the Word of God.
I'd be a fool to stand in this
pulpit and try to preach in the energy
of my flesh.
So, Lord, I openly admit to You and
to this congregation that I am a nobody
and that I need the help of the
Spirit of God.
So, please help me as I preach.
But, Lord, just as much as I need
You as I preach, this congregation needs You
as they listen.
I pray that You would open our ears
and open our eyes and open our hearts
of understanding to the Word of God.
And when we leave, may we honestly be
able to say that we are James 1,
22 Christians, not just hearers, but doers also.
Father, please speak to our hearts tonight.
I pray that You would move.
I pray that You would convict and that
You would change and that You would have
Your will and Your way in our hearts
tonight.
And, Father, no matter what You say, I
pray that we would be obedient to Your
precious convictions and to Your Spirit.
And we'd be willing to do anything and
everything that You ask us to do.
For it's in Jesus' name that we ask
it and pray.
Amen.
If you take your Bibles throughout the book
of Psalms and read Psalm 32, Psalm 38
and Psalm 51, you will find out that
basically those three chapters are the triplets of
David getting his heart right before God.
If there is one thing that I see
that we are missing in modern day fundamentalism,
if there is one thing that I see
that we are missing in most of the
Baptist churches that I preach in, if I
am seeing something that really grieves me and
that really bothers me, and to be honest,
it grieves me of my own lack, I
believe in pulpits and in pews around America
and around the world, we have lost the
ability to weep.
We have lost the ability to be broken
over certain things that God mandates, commands and
tells us that we should be broken over.
You know, if you read about 78 or
80 of the Psalms, you know, historians give
or take a few of how many David
actually wrote out of the 150.
I'm telling you, here's a man who was
broken all the time about the good grace
of God.
Here's a man who prayed and wept about
God's mercy.
He prayed and wept for God's forgiveness.
He prayed and wept for his enemies.
Now, there were times when he was pretty
vindictive, if you will, in his prayers.
We call those precatory Psalms when he was
praying that God would kill and judge those
other wicked nations, but most of the time
when David prayed, there was a broken spirit
that was in his heart and he would
just pour out his heart before the Lord.
I want you to take your Bibles and
flip over just a chapter or so to
chapter number 56.
I'm going to show you something, would you?
Psalm chapter number 56, something very interesting that
I read a year or so ago and
it kind of spurred my imagination and I
began to study it.
Psalm chapter 56 and verse number 8, notice
what David says.
He said, Now tell us my wandering, put
thou my tears into thy bottle, are they
not in thy book?
I began to read that and I thought,
what's this business about God putting tears of
David into a bottle?
And so I began to study it as
far as the context of the Scripture was
concerned.
Historically, and I found out that whenever a
person would die, it was the Jewish custom
when their family, their friends and their closest
associates would show up at the funeral.
That those who were the closest to the
deceased, those who were the closest, such as
maybe a man had passed away, it would
be his wife, a wife had passed away,
it would be her husband, it would be
the children, those who were the closest to
the one that had passed away.
They would have almost like a little vial,
it would be like a little medicine bottle.
And what that person would do, the Jewish
custom here in Psalm chapter 56, is as
they were going through the ceremony and as
they were going through the rituals there of
the funeral and there was much to be
explained, just too much to explain that item
of service, many, many different things that they
did by way of customs and by way
of their culture.
But one of the things that was interesting
is they would take that little vial, they
would take that little bitty medicine bottle, if
you will, and as they were weeping and
mourning the loss of this one whom they
had loved and they had shared life with
and they had shared good times and bad
times, they would take that little object, that
little vial, and they would take a few
of the tears that trickled from their face
and they would place them inside that bottle
as a memorial to their broken heart and
weeping heart over the decease of their loved
one.
And they would then take that little medicine
vial and they would place it into the
casket with that body, lower it down into
the ground, and that was a picture that
they had mourned and their heart was broken.
And David said, you know what, Lord?
I want You to take my tears and
I want You to put them in Your
bottle.
And I believe what David was getting at
was, Lord, I want You to judge me
and I want You to break me and
I want You to do something for me
to show me my own lack of love
and my own lack of compassion.
And he said, Lord, take all the tears
that I've cried and place them in Your
bottle as a memorial.
And I'll be real honest, if God tonight
were to take a bottle and bottle up
all the tears that you have shed for
the power of God, if He were to
take a bottle and bottle up all the
tears that you have shed for your lost
family members, if He were to take a
bottle and fill up with all the tears
that you shed over this or past revival
meetings, if He were to take a bottle
tonight and fill it up with your tears,
here's the question, how big would your bottle
be?
I'll be real honest with you, I believe
that God could take the average Baptist church
and He could take a tiny, little, insignificant,
minuscule bottle and He could fill it with
the tears of every person in that church
and in that congregation, and it still probably
wouldn't even be half as bad.
Because if there's one thing we have learned
in modern day Christianity, we have learned to
have a hard shell and nothing stirs us
and nothing moves us, and brokenness is the
farthest thing from our minds.
But in Psalm chapter 51, we meet a
man who was broken over two things.
I want you to look in your Bibles,
if you would please, at Psalm 51 and
verse number 1.
Turn back to Psalm chapter 51 and notice
what verse number 1 says.
David is writing, he says, Have mercy upon
me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness, according
unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies, blot
out my transgressions.
Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse
me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin
is ever before me against Thee.
Thee only have I sinned, and done this
evil in Thy sight.
Thou mightest be justified when Thou speakest, and
be clear when Thou judgest.
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in
sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts,
and in the hidden part.
Thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
Purge me with discipline, I shall be clean.
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than
snow.
Verse 8, Make me to hear joy and
gladness, that the bones which Thou hast broken
may rejoice.
Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot
out all mine iniquities.
You can see how ashamed David was for
what he had done.
Notice verse 10, Create in me a clean
heart, O God, and renew a right spirit
within me.
Cast me not away from Thy presence, and
take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation,
and uphold me with Thy free spirit.
Simple outline tonight.
Two little things that we talk about, and
we're done and go home.
Number one, I believe David was broken over
sin.
And if there's one thing tonight, ladies and
gentlemen, that we need a good old-fashioned
revival of, we need a good old-fashioned
heaven-sent, heart-felt, Holy Ghost revival of
you and I being broken over our sinfulness
tonight.
We are living in a day when sin
just does not bother people anymore.
And you know, it used to be a
day when sin just didn't bother the ungodly.
But nowadays, sin doesn't bother those who are
in the church house.
And our sin, and our lack of faith,
and our lack of fervency, and our lack
of prayer, and our lack of devotion to
the local church, and our lack of dedication
to the Word of God, it just doesn't
bother us anymore.
And it's almost like we've become a callous
on our hands.
We've worked, and worked, and worked, and we
eventually got to the place where we feel
no pain anymore.
We feel no suffering anymore.
We feel no heartache anymore.
And we're hard, and we're stanched, and we're
cold, and there's no tears of joy in
our heart anymore.
And that's exactly what happened to David.
You know the story well.
We'll not turn there with our fingers, but
in our minds and hearts, just kind of
pull back the curtain of memory and go
to 2 Samuel 11, and you remember that
David was the king of Israel.
Here is a man whom the Bible says
was a man after God's own heart.
He was a man of God, a man
full of compassion, a man whom had godly
characteristics, but the point is, he was just
a man.
And in 2 Samuel 11, in verse number
1, we see how much of a man
he really was.
For the Bible says it was a time
in those days when kings go forth to
battle.
I've never been able to figure that out.
I've read a hundred commentaries on that, and
nobody ever really actually understands that.
It was just a time when all the
kings would get together, and they would get
their captains and get their armies, and they
would go out and just kind of fight
one another to see who the big shot
was.
And I don't know all the understanding of
that, but I do know one thing.
David should have been there, and he wasn't.
David stayed home, and he laid around until
the sun warmed his feet, if you will.
He was laying around the house, and one
night he couldn't sleep.
Maybe he ate some pepperoni pizza or something
that didn't agree with him a little bit.
And he needed some Pepsi, or he needed
some Tums, or some Rolaids.
So he got up, and he went over
to the cabinet, and he got him some
Rolaids and said, you know what, I think
I'll take myself a little stroll.
And so he goes out on the roof
of the house.
Now please understand, it's not a roof like
the building that we're in tonight, but it
was more almost like a balcony, a type
of a porch.
And so he went out there, and the
Bible says he began to walk around, and
as he looked down there in his kingdom,
there was a home that was not too
far from his view.
And the Bible says that he saw a
woman by the name of Bathsheba watching herself,
and the Word of God says she was
very beautiful to look upon.
Now I want you to understand something tonight.
If David would have saw that and immediately
turned around and said, God forgive me, I
did not mean to see that lady.
I did not realize she was going to
be out in the open like that.
I apologize.
Wipe that from my memory.
Wipe that out from my heart.
Then you wouldn't have the tragic story that
you have in 2 Samuel chapter 11.
But when the Bible says that he looked
upon her, the word look literally means that
it was one look, then two looks, then
three looks.
It was a long glare, and he stared
at her.
And the Bible says in James chapter number
one, when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth
sin, and sin when it is finished bringeth
forth death.
And so he calls one of his little
servants, and he says, I want you to
go, and I want you to fetch that
beautiful young lady and bring her unto me.
And he said, wait just a minute.
He said, that is Bathsheba, the wife of
Uriah the Hittite.
And he said, I'm the king, and I
don't care about you, her, or Uriah the
Hittite.
He said, I want you to go and
get her because I'm the king, and I
said so.
And if you don't want to have a
loss of a job by Monday morning, you
better do what I say.
So that servant went out, brought Bathsheba in.
The Bible says that there was fornication, there
was adultery, you know the story, wicked and
godless, and just not too many weeks later,
all of a sudden, David gets a little
knock on the palace door, and it's Mrs.
Bathsheba.
She's standing there, and she says, David, I've
got some bad news for you.
I'm pregnant, and it's your baby.
And David says, well, hey, Bathsheba, just keep
your mouth closed.
Don't tell anybody, and I'll be able to
fix the whole problem.
I don't remember, don't forget, I'm the king.
Remember, I've got everything taken care of, and
I've got all the money that there is
to have, and I've got all the help,
and I've got all the servants, and I
can live my life any way that I
want to.
Listen, you just keep your mouth shut, and
I'll fix the whole thing.
So he goes to Joab, and he says,
I want you to call Uriah the Hittite
back from the hot battle, and bring him
down here.
I'd like to talk to him for a
bit.
And so David thought honestly within his heart
that he could hide his sins from everybody,
and he could, but he couldn't hide it
from God, and that's what happened.
And so he brought Uriah the Hittite back,
and he said, sir, what can I do
for you?
He said, listen, I just thought that since
you're such a good soldier, since you was
a good captain there in the army, I
thought I'd just bring you back and reward
you, you know, give you a little food,
give you a little wine, just to get
a fellowship with you a little bit, get
to know you just a little bit, and
then let you go down to the house,
and enjoy the pleasures of marriage, and see
your family, and then in the next couple
of days, you can run back out on
the battlefield.
And Uriah said, sir, I appreciate that, and
so he ate there, and he drank there
with him, and they talked together, and David
was probably even so hypocritical that he probably
prayed and had a little bit of family
devotions with him.
And then he sent him on his way,
but guess what David found out early the
next morning?
He found out that Uriah the Hittite had
not gone into the house, but he slept
on the welcome mat of his own home.
David found out about that, and he said,
what in the wide world do you think
you're doing, son?
He said, I'll tell you what, King.
He said, I mean, you don't disrespect me.
But he said, I've got friends and brothers
and cousins and people out there on that
battlefield who are shedding their blood and giving
their lives for the glory of God and
for the army of the Israelites.
And how dare I go in and enjoy
the pleasures of marriage and go and see
my family?
I'll not do that.
He was more honorable than that.
And so David said, well, I'll excuse you.
So David got in good and he drunk
that night.
He gave him a bunch of wine and
a bunch of liquor and a bunch of
booze and a bunch of beer.
And the Bible says, oh no, he was
even intoxicated.
That night he went down and he slept
on the porch of his home.
And Uriah was more spirit-filled when he
was drunk than David was when he was
sober.
He got up the next morning and he
went back to the king.
And finally the king said, this is to
no avail.
This guy's a little bit too more honorable.
And so he called Joab and he said,
Joab, I want you to take him back
and put him out on the forefront.
But he said, I've got a little letter
that I'd like to give you.
So he gives it to his little servant.
His little servant takes it over there.
And no doubt that the servant doesn't open
it up.
He gives it to Mr. Uriah.
And Uriah says, what's this?
And he says, well, this is from the
king.
It's a little letter that you're supposed to
take to the captain of the Lord's army.
And he said, just take it out.
There being the honorable soldier that he was,
he wasn't going to open it up and
he wasn't going to look at it.
But you know what Uriah had in his
hand?
He had his own death notice right there
in his hand.
He had his own death notice because King
David told Joab, the captain of the Lord,
put him on the forefront of the hottest
battle, put him right up against the wall
and retire away from him.
So they took him out there.
The archers were up there on top of
that wall.
And buddy, they were shooting the arrows 90
miles to nothing.
And there he was wide open.
And the army backed away from him.
And before you know it, an arrow shoots
through his heart and word gets back to
David.
And then word gets back to Bathsheba.
And she weeps and she scrawls.
And the Bible says that David took her
and he married her.
Bathsheba became King David's wife, who eventually was
the mother of Solomon.
But yet the Bible says that he comforted
her from the mourning death of her husband
Uriah.
And she bore the child and everything in
the kingdom seemed to be just fine.
Until you get to verse number 27.
But the thing that David did displeased the
Lord.
You see, he may have fooled Joab and
he may have fooled the servants, and he
may have thought he fooled everybody in the
kingdom, but he didn't fool God and neither
will you.
And here is a man who got out
of trouble with everybody but God.
And you can get into trouble with anybody
you want to, but when you get in
trouble with God, you're in more trouble than
you've ever been in your life.
I don't care who you are.
I don't care how long you've been in
this church.
I don't care how much you pray, how
much you give, how much you read your
Bible.
When you get in trouble with God, you're
in big trouble for Him.
And you can try all you want to
to hide your sin.
And for one year, David was not right
with God.
He kept that sin in his heart.
He harbored it in his heart because of
his pride and because of his arrogant, cocky
attitude.
He would not get right with God.
And you read sometimes Psalm 32 and Psalm
38 and see what happened to him.
Because sin does not just affect you spiritually,
it'll affect you psychologically.
I mean, it'll mess your emotions up for
him.
It'll mess you up physically and spiritually in
every way you can imagine.
And he said at night, he would water
his couch with tears.
And he said his bones were literally getting
older.
And I mean, his hair was even getting
gray and he was getting wrinkles, not because
he was necessarily growing old that quick, but
because that sin and that burden was depressing
him.
And it was laying heavy upon him and
he knew he needed to get right with
God, but he would not.
So one day he had his royal attire
on with his nice gold and silver and
diamond, pearl studded cap upon his head and
he's sitting there upon the great throne and
people come in and people go out and
people come in and he's counseling people all
day and he's telling Joab where to go.
He's just going about his normal old duty.
One day there was a little prophet by
the name of Nathan that came to town
and he had some business with King David.
And you know, whenever God needs to get
something done, He always sends a man with
a message.
A little Nathan came walking in there and
he told him some little old ditty of
a story He said, I'll tell you one
thing, we ought to kill the man that
did this.
This man that did this is going to
restore this fourfold.
Told him about the little sheep that was
stolen out of the fold and this man
had a whole lot of sheep, had a
whole lot of money, had a whole lot
of goats and cows and oxen and all
of this.
And he said, but he went across town
and sold some little old man's sheep that
didn't have a whole lot and that just
got to David.
I mean, that got under his skin.
He rose up and said, this man will
pay fourfold.
And he stuck that long bony evangelistic finger
right in his face and said, guess what?
That wasn't him.
He said, it's you.
It is your fault.
You're the reason the judgment of God is
on the land.
And David at any moment could have killed
that prophet for speaking the way that he
did to the king, but he didn't.
You know why?
Because he knew the man of God was
right.
And from that day, David went out and
penned Psalm chapter number 51.
Notice what he said in verse one, Have
mercy upon me, O God.
Verse three, For I acknowledge my transgression and
my sin as ever before me.
Notice the most intriguing verse here.
Verse four, Against thee.
Thee only have I sinned, done this evil
in thy sight.
Thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and
be clear when thou judgest.
Now notice something, ladies and gentlemen.
He did not say, I have sinned against
Uriah the Hittite.
Although he did.
Here's a man that committed adultery.
Here's a man that lied.
He committed treason.
Here's a man that lied over and over
again.
He committed murder.
And one sin got bigger and bigger and
bigger.
And before you know it, he's enveloped himself
into a whole pile of sins and transgressions
and iniquities.
But not one time did he mention any
of those people who he harmed.
He did not say, I sinned against the
armies of Israel.
He did not say, O God, forgive me
because I could have got a disease in
my body.
O God, forgive me for what I did
to the life of dear Bathsheba.
He didn't do any of that.
He simply fell on his face and said,
Against thee and thee only have I sinned
and done this evil in thy sight.
Because all sin, no matter who it's committed
against, or no matter who it harms, it
always breaks the heart of God, dear neighbor.
And David lifted up his voice and he
said, O God, it's against You and You
only.
When I look in the mirror, all I
can see is a man who has displeased
his God.
All I can see is a man who
has been arrogant and cocky and proud and
ungodly and rebellious and backslidden for a whole
year.
And he says, O God, would You blot
out my iniquities?
He said, Hide Your face from my sin.
David said, Lord, I'm so ashamed at what
I've done.
It's grieved me and bothered me so much,
I'm ashamed to even ask that You would
look upon me.
I want You to hide Your face because
of my sin.
And David was ashamed.
I'm going to tell you there's a big
problem in Baptist churches nowadays.
People are not ashamed of their sin anymore.
There's no shame in America at all.
People walk around and, buddy, they put their
hands on their lapels and they talk about
what they do and who they're with and
where they've been going and what they've been
listening to and what they've been watching.
You watch some teenagers sometimes.
I mean, they're brazen and bold.
And, buddy, they'll be the first to tell
you that they're going to live their lives
any way they jolly well please.
And there's no ashaming anymore when it comes
to sin.
David's heart was overwhelmed and David's heart was
heavy and God broke David's heart slap into
and he fell on his face.
And he said, oh God, it's against You
that I've sinned, not against anybody else.
And I want You to take Your loving
face and turn it away from my iniquity,
turn it away from my backsliding, turn it
away from my rebellion.
And when David got right with God, he
was bothered about his sin.
You know when real revival comes, ladies and
gentlemen, it comes when God's people begin to
get honest with God about their sin.
It comes when we get broken.
You know, a lot of people have the
idea, well, you know, an evangelist comes to
town, he preaches a bunch of little stirring
sermons, preaches on hell, tells a bunch of
scary stories, and, you know, 15, 20 people
get saved, and glory to God, we had
revival.
Did you know 15 or 20 people getting
saved is not revival?
Did you know that people getting saved is
an evident outflow and working of revival, but
revival doesn't have one thing to do with
lost people getting saved?
We could have 1,500 people saved in
Martinsville this week and still not have revival,
do you know that?
But if we did have 1,500 people
saved in Martinsville this week, it is more
than likely because before the 1,500 people
were saved, we did have revival, because God
works in our hearts and works through us
to reach the lost.
For example, how many ladies in this room,
just help me, all right, how many ladies
in this room have ever had a baby
before?
Would you put your hand high in the
air if you've ever had a baby?
Okay, God bless you, you may put your
hands down.
Now, do you know what you did when
you had a baby when you went to
the hospital?
Of course you know what you did, but
when you went to the hospital, and you
know what you looked for?
You looked for a clean place.
You know, you didn't go to some little
old hut somewhere with dirt all over the
floor, and some doctor that never wore a
glove in his life, and you know, Dr.
Smell Fungus, and he stunk, you know, and
he had bad breath, you know, a big
old beard sticking out to about like this.
You went to a place that was respectable.
You go to a place that is nice.
You know why you go in these little
nursery buildings and you see these moms and
dads and these older brothers and sisters, they're
all googly-eyed and goo-goo-ga-ga
and the rest of that stuff, you know,
and they're looking at that little baby, and
they got that little baby-neck bassinet, it's
all covered up with that big plastic thing,
and I mean the room is white as
snow, and I mean they got all kind
of medicine in that place, and I mean
they're squirting the thing, and they covered up
with these masks on their face, and got
these booties on their shoes, and got gloves
on.
I mean they're all scrubbed up.
I mean it's that way through the whole
delivery process.
It's that way for the next several hours
after the baby's born.
You know why they clean that place up
like that?
Because they want an atmosphere that is clean
and conducive for the birth and growth of
babies.
It's just that simple.
They don't want them born and growing in
a dirty environment.
You know the same thing is true with
God in Revival.
God wants to scrub the walls clean of
the local church, and He wants to work
in us and through us, and He wants
to scrub us and get us holy and
get us pure and get us clean, so
that in here we may have a clean
and conducive atmosphere for the spiritual birth and
growth of babies into the Kingdom of God.
But it begins with an old-fashioned burden
and brokenness for our...
When's the last time you've fallen on your
face and you knew good and well that
you were not right with God, and you
fell down and you wept before the Lord
and asked God to forgive you?
You know what most of us do?
We pull the little...
I lay me down to sleep.
I praise the Lord, my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake, I
praise the Lord, my soul to take.
Tommy Ross.
And please understand, I say this reverently, but
I think sometimes we're so generic in our
prayers.
God, let me know what we're talking about.
Oh Lord, forgive me for all of my
sin.
Forgive me of everything that I've done over
the past few days.
No, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to have
to get specific about our sin if we're
ever going to get specific about the area
of Revival.
David said, Against thee and thee only have
I sinned and done this evil in my
sight.
He poured it out before the Lord.
Now, God knew what he was talking about,
but David made it evident.
He said, God, I've sinned.
I've been wicked.
I've been ungodly.
Forgive me for what I've done.
And I'm telling you the joy bells of
God flooded his soul when he got broken
for his sin.
Notice what happened, if you would please, at
verse 8.
He said, Make me to hear joy and
gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken
may rejoice.
Hide thy face from my sins and blot
out all my iniquities.
So is this, creating me a clean heart.
Why did he say that?
Because he had a dirty heart.
Creating me a clean heart, O God, and
renew a right spirit.
That word for spirit can be translated out
of your King James Bible, attitude.
He said, I've had a sorry attitude for
one year over what I've done.
He said, I want you to create in
me a clean heart, O God, and renew
a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence and
take not thy Holy Spirit from me.
Now let me please explain to you what
he is not saying there.
I've heard some of the Charismatics and some
of the Pentecostals say, you see right there,
David's praying that he doesn't lose his salvation.
That's not what David's praying.
I'd like to remind you, in the Old
Testament, the Spirit of God came upon people.
In the New Testament dispensation, the day that
we're living out now, the Spirit of God
indwells people.
And I've got the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit of God right this very moment.
And I don't need more of the Holy
Spirit, He just needs more of me.
And so David is not praying that he
will not lose his salvation.
In the Old Testament, the power and the
fullness and the Spirit of God would not
indwell people, rather it would come upon people.
You remember Samson?
Not that it indwelled him, but rather it
came upon him.
The idea is literally of placing a sack
or a burden or a pack upon somebody's
back.
And that's what the Holy Spirit of God
did.
He gave them what they needed to serve
the Lord.
And so David says, Lord, I want the
power of God back.
I want you to give me your Spirit.
I want you to give me your fullness
and that joy that I used to have.
Why is David praying that?
I'll tell you why.
Because a Christian who is in sin knows
nothing about the power of God.
A Christian who lives in sin knows nothing
about the power of God.
And that goes from the choir of oil.
That goes from the pulpit.
That goes to the Spirit.
I don't care if a man can preach
some of the most fanciful sermons on the
face of God's earth.
Any man can hold his own for 30
or 40 minutes in a pulpit.
I don't care if that man can quote
all the Bible and he can preach slower,
he can preach faster, he can jump around
and dance around like a ballroom and daily
circus clown, and he can hold people's attention.
Any preacher that has sin in their life
doesn't have the power of God on them.
Any church member that has sin in their
life does not have the power of God
upon them.
And I'll be honest with you, because of
our lack of brokenness, because of our lack
of compassion, and because of our lack of
concern, and because of our lack of wanting
to deal with our sin, no wonder our
churches are in the mess that they're in,
because we know very little about the power
of God, because we know very little about
being broken over our sin.
Now, it's one thing to be broken over
somebody's sin.
It grieves me when I hear that somebody's
fallen to sin.
The Bible says, if a man be overtaken
in a fault, he which are spiritual, restore
such a one in the spirit of meekness.
I'm not supposed to beat them down.
I'm not supposed to pull their Bible out
of their arms and kick them in the
face and laugh at them and put them
in the publication and tell everybody about them.
I'm not supposed to do that to a
brother in Christ.
I'm supposed to help them, realizing that at
any moment I could be tempted the same
way and I could fall into that sin.
So I understand the fact and the understanding
tonight that we should be broken about other
people's sin, that that should bother us.
But I'll tell you what we lack, being
broken for our own sins.
David said, Lord, for one year I've not
had any joy and I need my joy
back.
Nehemiah chapter 8 and verse number 10, Neither
be you sorry, for the joy of the
Lord is your strength.
And he said, Lord, I've not had any
power.
He said, I've not had any strength.
He said, I've not had any joy.
I've had a bad attitude.
I've not had the power of God.
You know why?
Because for one year he was not broken
for his sin and he said, Oh God,
create in me a clean heart.
Give me a new heart after the things
of God.
Give me a new level of dedication.
Help me to go on in my faithfulness.
Help me to go on in my fervency.
And David got broken for his own sins.
God's Spirit got on him in old-fashioned
Holy Ghost conviction.
It got to the place where David couldn't
handle it anymore.
And if you will, he ran to the
altar and fell on his face and said,
God, please cleanse me.
And it was then and only then that
God began to flood the revival blessings in
the heart and in the life of David
once again for one year.
He did not know what it was to
have the power of God.
For nearly a year, he did not know
what it meant to walk in the joy
of the Lord.
But in the back of his mind and
in the inner recess of his heart, he
knew he was not right with God.
He got up every day and went through
the religiosity and went through the routine and
went through what he normally would do.
And he worked in the energy of the
flesh.
He spoke in the energy of the flesh.
He prayed in the energy of the flesh.
He did all of these things in the
energy of the flesh knowing in his heart
that he was not right with God.
But finally, God's Spirit spoke to him and
he could handle it no longer.
He wrote Psalm 32, Psalm 38 and Psalm
51.
It's not that it took him three psalms
to get God's attention.
It's that it took him three psalms to
open up his heart and say, Oh God,
I'm so sorry for what I've done.
Would you forgive me for what I've been
looking at?
Will you forgive me for what I've done,
for the lies that I've told?
Will you forgive me for my dishonesty?
Will you forgive me for my lack of
commitment?
And for three psalms he poured out his
heart before the God of the Bible.
But I want you to look, if you
would please, a thought here in verse number
12.
Verse 12 of Psalm 51, David said, Restore
unto me the joy of thy salvation and
uphold me with thy free spirit.
Notice please, then, T-A-T-N, Then
will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners
shall be converted unto thee.
Why is it that David said that?
You know why he said it the first
scepter?
I'll tell you why.
Because David said, Lord, when I get broken
for my sin, when I get right with
God, when you give me the power back,
when you give me the joy back, when
you give me my fervency back, when you
give me my excitement back, then and only
then will I be able to be the
effective witness that you called me to be.
And David, number one, was broken over sin,
but number two, David was broken over soul.
And for one year, he had a sorry
testimony.
For one year, his character was crooked as
a barrel of ginger.
For one year, he had no burden for
those in the kingdom who were without God.
For one year, he had no compassion and
no concern towards the heathen.
But yet, when he got right with God,
one of the evident tokens to prove to
us that he did get right with God
was the fact that he had an overwhelming
burden to see sinners converted by the grace
of God.
And he said, Lord, for one year, I've
had no verbal witness.
For one year, I've had no spiritual testimony
whatsoever.
And he said, Oh God, would You forgive
me?
He got broken for his sin.
He wept and he scrawled and he cried
and he prayed, Oh God, forgive me.
And then when he got right with God,
as God was changing him and revolutionizing his
heart, he said, Then, then, then, will I
teach transgressors Thy ways, and sinners shall be
converted unto Thee.
And David got an old-fashioned brokenness over
the souls of humans.
You know, I'll be honest with you.
David asked a real good question in the
Psalms at one time.
He was discouraged.
He was to the place where he felt
like no one cared for him.
He was running from his son Absalom and
he was hiding in the cave of Adullah.
David was just overwhelmed with discouragement and depression.
He said, I looked on my left hand
and I looked on my right hand and
nobody was there to help me.
Nobody was there to save me.
Nobody was there to deliver me.
And he said, No man cared for my
soul.
You believe what you want to tonight, but
I believe that sinners far and wide could
honestly say that tonight.
No man cared for my soul, because very
few Christians care for sinners anymore.
We see somebody that walks into our services
and their clothes are a little bit less
to be desired.
Maybe they look in a way that we're
not used to.
And I want to remind you, the reason
sinners do the things that they do is
because they're sinners and they don't know the
grace that you know.
Sometimes we take our little fair circle noses
and we hold them up in the air
and if it were to rain, we'd all
drown for sure in five minutes.
And we act like they're supposed to look
like us and smell like us and dress
like us and walk like us and talk
like us.
But I'd like to remind you, we've experienced
something that they've not experienced yet.
And we're expecting them to be just like
us when they cannot be like us.
Well, as I said this morning, they are
dead in their trespasses and sins, but no
longer does that bother us.
No longer does that grieve us.
There are people under the sound of my
voice.
Did you know in this room right now,
in this room right now, this whole congregation
represents hundreds of family members that are going
to hell.
Just in this congregation tonight, we make up
and represent hundreds of family members that are
going straight to hell.
And we can sleep night after night after
night and work day after day after day
and it never bother us and we never
pray for them and we never call them
and we never write them and it doesn't
bother us at all.
Why?
Because we're not broken for souls.
We're not broken for those who are without
the fold, those who are without the walls
of the church.
The Bible says in Psalm 126, verses 5
and 6, they that sow in tears, get
that, shall reap in joy.
He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious
things shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing
his seeds with him.
God said, if we go out with a
tear in our eye and a compassion in
our heart, God said He'd give us fruitful
harvest.
Why is it that we're living in a
day when it seems like sinners are not
converted?
Why is it that we're living in a
day when it's like pulling hen's teeth to
get people to walk an aisle to be
saved by the grace of God?
Why is it that we go to homes
and doors are slammed in our faces?
Why is it that we can pass out
gospel tracts and it just seems like nobody
cares to take them and you can find
them all over the streets after you've passed
them out?
I'll tell you why I believe with all
of my heart tonight.
Why people are not being converted by the
thousands as they used to be because God's
people have lost their voice.
We're so messed up in the T-ball
and HBO and our programs and our schedules,
it doesn't matter that people are going to
hell tonight.
And it no longer bothers us whatsoever.
Why?
We're not broken over souls.
I remember I was preaching my very first
year in evangelism.
We were still in Bible college.
I was 20 years old.
I went to Houghton Lake, Michigan.
And I was preaching this little church, Houghton
Lake Baptist Church, and it was one of
these domed churches.
It was made out of a kit.
It was the biggest monstrosity, the priest I've
ever seen in my life.
You could sit on one side and whisper
and the people on this side could hear
you, but you could sit in the middle
and shout and couldn't hardly anybody hear you.
I mean, it was the weirdest auditorium I'd
ever been in my life.
They didn't even use a lapel mic or
any type of microphone for that matter because
it just kind of, you know, went from
this wall to this wall and bounced all
over the place.
You just couldn't hear.
And so, you know, you could just stand
in one particular little place.
You couldn't run around much.
You could stand in one little place and
just about everybody in the building could hear
you.
Well, I preached there, if I can remember
right, on a Wednesday night.
And no, we're just getting started evangelism.
I didn't have any meetings.
And the pastor said, hey brother, how would
you like to stay over till Friday?
We'll keep you in a hotel room.
And you stay over till Friday and I'd
like you to preach to a men's breakfast
down at the little breakfast place.
I said, I'd be fine.
So I got up and preached to about
25 or 30 men on that Friday.
And he said, well, how about you stay
over on Saturday?
He said, then we got a little thing
you can preach to some junior kids.
You know, we got some junior kids coming
in, kind of like a little one day
vacation Bible school.
You can preach to the junior kids.
I said, I'd be fine, so I'll stick
around.
So he said, well, you got much on
your schedule?
So I looked and said, well, I don't
have anything on my schedule.
He said, well, how about stick around for
Sunday?
You can preach all day Sunday.
And then he said, if you stay Monday
and Tuesday, you can preach the youth rally.
He said, we've got a youth rally scheduled.
And so he kept me around for several
days, but I'll never forget the Monday came
around.
And Sunday night, just before Monday rolled around,
he said, preacher, he said, I'm not gonna
be able to go with you, but I
was wondering if you'd go visit a man
by the name of Homer Smith.
And I said, I'd be glad to go
visit him, you know?
And he said, I'm not gonna be able
to go.
He said, I gotta go to a hospital
visit.
He said, there's some folks in my church
that's gonna be having surgery tonight.
I need to go see them.
And he said, you'll have to go by
yourself.
He said, and my wife and your wife
can go out and do a little bit
of shopping over at the mall.
He said, but if you don't mind going,
it's about 45 minutes away.
Said, his wife comes every single week.
Said, she's just faithful.
She's honest.
She loves God.
And said, she comes to the altar just
about every week to pray for Homer Smith,
her husband, to be saved.
And I said, sir, I'd be honored.
I'd be glad to go visit.
And I said, you give me the direction.
And I said, I'll go.
I got up the next morning, went out
and gassed the car up, got me a
cup of coffee and drove for a while.
And you know, it was supposed to be
45 minutes.
I got a little turn around.
Took me about 55 minutes to an hour
or so.
But finally, I remember I pulled into the
driveway.
And I don't really know exactly in my
mind what time it was.
It was a little bit before lunch.
I'd say it's probably about 11 o'clock
or so.
I remember I pulled into his driveway and
all the way there, I was praying, Lord,
give me an opportunity.
I don't know this man from Adam's house,
Cat.
He doesn't know me.
He's never heard me preach.
I don't know what to say to this
fella.
I want you to just open up his
heart, open up a way whereby I can
share the gospel with him.
And I remember I pulled in the driveway
and there he was sitting in a folding
chair with a wheat in his lap and
a Pepsi in his hand.
And he was taking a break from weeding
the yard.
And I said, thank you, Lord.
I remember I pulled up and I got
out, you know, and had my suit and
had my Bible.
I walked over there and he knew who
I was because his wife told him I
was on the way.
Buddy, she'd been praying for years that Homer
Smith would be saved by the grace of
God.
And I remember I walked over there and
Miss Smith came out.
Hey, Bullock, how you doing?
She shook my hand.
Thank you for coming.
God bless you.
And she walked to the house and I
didn't see her again.
I sat down in one of the little
chairs and he reached over, just a real
cordial man.
I mean, just a nice, honest man.
He reached over and shook my hand and
said, preacher, how you doing?
He told me to be coming by.
And so we just commenced the talking.
I didn't jump in with both feet and
just start beating him with a gospel gun.
I started talking to him about his family
just for a moment.
And so he told me about his family.
He said that when he was younger, he
was raised in a Roman Catholic home, but
he never really cared much for religion, never
really did much for it, never did his
stuff on the inside, you know.
Didn't get the heebie-jeebies and all that
kind of stuff.
He said, you know, I just didn't figure,
you know, religion was for everybody, but for
some people.
And so I started giving my testimony.
I didn't give my testimony, you know, four,
three, four, five minutes, something like that.
Tell him about what the grace of God
did in my life.
And he said, son, let me ask you
a question.
He said, you thirsty?
I said, well, I am, something to think
of.
He said, would you like to have a
Pepsi?
I said, yes, sir, I'll take one.
He got up, went in the house, came
out with a can of Pepsi, I opened
the thing up, I drunk her down.
I was talking to him.
I was talking for about 15 minutes.
And every time I'd get around the gospel,
he'd change the subject.
You've been around people like that before.
You knew that the conviction of the Spirit
of God was working on them, but they
were not going to yield it.
He'd talk about wheelies, he'd talk about home,
he'd talk about skiing, he'd talk about fishing,
he'd talk about mountain climbing, I don't care
what it was.
He'd talk about something to get off the
gospel.
After about 15 minutes, he said, you like
something to drink?
And I said, sure.
And so he goes in the house and
he comes out with a can of Pepsi
and I'm sitting there.
And this is the honest truth.
I sat there and talked to that man
for two hours.
And when I was done talking to that
man, I must have had six Pepsi cans
laying beside my chair.
I mean, that man kept getting up and
going in and getting a Pepsi.
And each time he got one, he'd take
a little bit longer and he'd go to
the inside of the house, you know.
He'd come out there and give me a
Pepsi.
I'd drink it out, my eyes would swim
a little bit, I'd crush the can and
throw it down.
And after two hours, I got about six
Pepsi cans laying over beside me.
And I've been talking to God, but I
didn't get my testimony.
I've shared the Roman throne.
I've done my best to tell this man
about Jesus, but it's obvious he's not interested.
And so after two hours, you know, I'm
not going to be crude, but I'm going
to tell you what I told him.
I said, Mr. Smith, I've been here for
two hours.
I've drunk six Pepsis.
I said, I've got to go in the
house.
I'm about to die.
He said, all right.
He said, just come on in.
And so I went to the house and
I followed him.
Now in my mind, I've been there two
hours and I ain't seen his wife, Mr.
Smith, one time, not once.
I ain't seen her hide in her hair
ever.
Know where she was?
Thought maybe she left, I didn't know.
So I went in and went to the
restroom, put all my recycled cans in the
recycle bin, you know, my old trash cans
full of them.
And I got to walking out through the
kitchen.
And as I was walking out, they had
one of those kitchens that kind of spilled
over in the living room, but there was
kind of a petition that went between the
two that had these little bars, almost looked
like a little prison.
You've seen them before.
You can see through into the living room.
I remember I was walking down the hall
and coming out of the bathroom and I
came down through the kitchen and I looked
over to my left and I saw where
Ms. Smith had been.
It was almost like a picture.
You know, you see these Thomas Kincade pictures,
you know, these pictures you think, man, I
wonder if something like that could ever happen.
It was almost like I wanted somebody right
there just to paint what I saw.
They had one of these big bay windows
and I mean, the sun was coming through
that thing and the rays of that sunlight
was coming down on that woman and there
was a big solid white, I mean, solid
white leather Lazy Boy recliner.
And that woman had a handkerchief in one
hand and she was down on both knees
and she had her arms sprawled out over
that big white leather Lazy Boy recliner and
the sun rays was coming down on her
and I'm telling you, I walked through that
kitchen and kill bumps got all over my
arm.
Her husband was standing right there and that
woman had been over there for two hours
weeping and squalling like a baby and I'm
telling you that her husband would be saved
by the grace of God.
I mean, her face was red as a
bead.
I mean, tear tracks all over.
Her hair was in disarray.
I'm telling you, the veins were popping out
the backs of her hands where she was
squeezing her fists and trying to get a
hold of God and she'd been down there
praying and praying and praying and you could
tell he was a little bit embarrassed.
Kind of startled him a little bit.
Kind of took him back.
He said, well, you wanna come in the
living room and sit down?
I said, sure.
So I walked in the living room and
I sat down and Miss Smith got up
off her knees and she wiped her nose
and wiped her face and cleaned her makeup
up and straightened her bangs up best she
could.
She shut down that big lazy boy recliner.
And old Homer Smith came over and plopped
down right beside me and kicked his legs
up.
I kicked mine up and he said, you
want a Pepsi?
I said, no, I'll be fine.
Amen.
So I looked over at Miss Smith and
I just kind of cordially talked to her
for a minute and right in front of
her husband.
Right in front of her husband.
She wiped them big old tears out of
her eyes and she said, preacher, one day
he'll understand what this is all about.
Right in front of him.
One day he'll understand what this is all
about and he'll be saved.
And I remember I walked out of that
place that day as a 20 year old
evangelist.
I remember I got in my car and
I drove down the road and I thought
to myself, God, give me tears.
Give me a weeping in my heart that'll
keep me awake at night for praying for
people that need to be saved.
I've been there five times.
I can be honest with you about something.
We'll tell you something about my life.
You know, that was a time I got
a stepfather named Joe Sumner who's lost in
the ball and high weeds.
I've talked to him a thousand times.
I've given him every answer, every gospel thing
I can imagine.
I've talked, talked, talked, talked, talked, talked, talked
and talked to him, I was blue in
the face.
And I'll be honest with you, I got
sick of talking to him after a while.
But you know, there was a time in
my ministry, I'm talking about right now.
Right now.
I believe if a preacher's gonna jump on
everybody else, he ought to jump on his
stepfather down there.
Right now, in my ministry.
You know, there was a time in my
life when I prayed for Joe more than
I pray for him now.
I'll tell you what, I got talent.
I get sick of praying for him.
I got tired of it every time I
prayed, it seemed like I was far away
from God, he got it.
I remember I used to have a friend
by the name of Chris Bonnell.
I remember Chris and I, we got in
more trouble together before I got saved.
Me and two kids on the face of
God's earth.
I mean, we were Siamese twins, we were
inseparable, you couldn't keep us away from one
another.
And the only one time we were away
from each other for two weeks during about
a two or three year period is because
the court said we could not see each
other for two weeks, we got in so
much trouble together.
I remember I got saved and I went
over and I talked to him, I picked
him up in my vehicle, I had a
new car, my stepfather was in the car,
had bought me and so I was driving
that thing around.
I was about, I don't know, I'd been
saved about a year or so, maybe not
quite that long, I was maybe almost 17
or something.
Brother Mike finally let me get a vehicle
to the children's home.
I remember I went and picked him up
one day and took him back to the
children's home.
I talked to him about God and talked
to him and talked to him and talked
to him, took him to camp with us
that summer.
And then we got back from camp on
a Saturday, early morning Saturday, something like that,
from Fort Bluff Camp in Dayton, Tennessee, just
outside of Chattanooga.
And I remember the next Sunday, I was
supposed to, the next day, I was supposed
to be preaching in teen church.
And that day I got up and I
preached, as a matter of fact, from Psalm
chapter 51 on purge me with chastisement.
And I should be clean, wash me and
I should be white as snow.
And I preached on the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
I remember Chris got up and he walked
down the aisle and made a profession.
Little did I know, the only reason he
made that profession is because I'd been on
his case and I'd been on his back
and I'd been praying for him to get
saved and I'd been weeping for him and
I'd been telling God, I want you to
save him.
I'd been telling him he needs to get
right.
And so he came forward, made some little
old profession and it just seemed like from
there it was downhill.
I mean, for the next two years, I
mean, he was wicked as a devil.
I brought him to the children's home.
Brother Mike let him live there for six
months.
He was kicked out of Barrowwood Christian Academy.
He was kicked out of Flankin' Lowell Christian
School.
He was kicked out of a children's home.
I mean, he was kicked out of everything.
I mean, this kid couldn't keep straight.
And I'm telling you, he was the best
friend that I ever had in my life.
And I'm gonna tell you, I remember nights.
I remember nights.
Week before the Lord, I'd go to these
different churches and these different camps and go
to these places and hear these men preach
and hear them preach about sinners being converted.
And I'm telling you, I wanted to see
people saved so bad I couldn't keep straight.
I remember I'd go home and I'd swallow
like a baby.
I mean, I wouldn't eat.
I mean, I couldn't drink anything.
I didn't care about talking to anybody.
I didn't care about anything.
I'd just pray and pray and pray and
pray.
And I mean, I'd weep and I'd be
broken.
And there's several people that I prayed for
like that.
I've seen several of them, thank God.
I've seen the privilege of, I had the
privilege of seeing several of them saved.
But there's always those few.
So just kind of get to the place
where you thank yourself.
Well, you know what?
There's just no hope for that crowd.
Kind of like we talked about this.
And did you know that was times in
my ministry when I prayed more for Chris
Bonnell than I do right now.
As a matter of fact, if I can
be real honest with you, I bet I
hadn't prayed for him.
I bet I hadn't mentioned his name to
God in six months.
I will tell you why.
Because I get justice counted.
You know why it's quiet in here tonight?
Because you know this place is right.
Because we are dead at four o'clock
in the morning.
We have no compassion and love in our
hearts towards those who are lost and going
to hell.
We go down to the restaurant, we get
our food, we give them our money, they
give us our receipt, we walk away and
never even think to give them a gospel
prayer.
There's rebuttals.
We can go to a family reunion.
People say, well, how you been doing?
We tell them everything in the world.
But we do our best to deviate the
conversation away from God, because we're scared to
death when our families don't thank us.
You know how many people I've had tell
me, oh, Brother Rock, I love my family
so much, I just can't share the gospel
with them.
It's hard, it is hard.
But if you do love them that much,
you will share the gospel with them.
And I tell you, we're going to have
to have a brokenness, friend.
We're going to have to get to the
place where it grieves us that people are
lost, and it grieves us that people are
going to hell.
And David said, Lord, when I got broken
over my sin, I got broken over souls,
I will keep transgressors your way, and sinners
will be converted unto you.
I give this illustration, it will be done
tonight.
I've held a number of revival meetings at
the Parkview Baptist Church in Ardmore, Alabama.
There's an Ardmore, Alabama, there's an Ardmore, Tennessee,
and they're not too far apart from each
other, just right down the line.
I preached on both sides, and this past
year I was there, we were there for
an eight-day revival meeting.
My wife and I, the Robertsons had some
responsibilities and some things that they already had
scheduled, and so they weren't able to be
with us, and so I went in for
an eight-day meeting, and we had 27
services in eight days, 27.
They kept me as busy as a one
-armed paper hanger, and I was preaching on
Sunday, and preaching on Monday, and preaching on
Tuesday, preaching during the day, preaching during the
night, preaching on the radio live from four
to 4.30 every single day.
And I'm telling you, we were busy, busy,
busy, busy as little bumblebees.
I was going to Christian schools, going to
jails, going to nursing homes, all kinds of
places.
But I loved it.
I enjoyed every bit of it.
I'd have done it 127 times if I'd
had time, and I'd have had time.
And so I remember on Friday, we went
to this little nursing center, and I preached
that day.
And the pastor came to me, Brother Dale
Mitchell, and he said, Greg, he said, let's
go visit Mr. So-and-so.
And I had visited Mr. So-and-so
the year before, and so I knew what
his situation was.
A godly man, loved the Lord.
He was only in his fifties.
So I mean, we're talking about a young
man, you know, we're not talking about somebody
that needed to go to a nursing home,
but we're talking about somebody who had a
car accident.
Actually, it was a tractor-trailer accident in
1989.
He hit another tractor-trailer head on.
It threw him out of the driver's seat,
and he landed through both windows in the
passenger seat of the other 18-wheel truck,
and came just about that close to dying
and going to hell.
And the Lord used that to save him.
He was a quadriplegic.
He couldn't move from the neck down.
I mean, he could barely wiggle his ears.
He could talk just a little bit.
He could cut his eyes back and forth,
but he could not move.
He was cold, dead, and lifeless in that
day in the first year I met him.
And so this past May, I went back,
and I saw him again, and I said,
hey mister, I called his name.
And I said, how you been doing?
He said, I've been doing pretty good, brother
-in-law.
He has one of these little things cut
out of his throat, little voice box, little
voice activator stuff there.
He's got one of these little tubes that
sticks about that far from the edge of
his lips.
And when his mouth begins to fill up,
the fluids begin to fill up his lungs,
he'll close his lips around that little thing,
and it automatically comes on a little suction
deal, and it pumps that stuff out of
his mouth so he doesn't choke to death
as he's laying there because he can't turn
over.
I remember we walked in this time, and
he's watching a football game, had his little
color TV, little 13 inch TV set up
beside him, had his eyes cut over like
that, and he's watching them.
And so we walked in, and he said,
hey Francis, how you doing?
He said, turn that TV off.
We walked over there, and we turned the
TV off, and boy, I talked to him
asking, how you doing?
I said, you ever been to encourage somebody
and you walk out feeling about that big
because they encourage you more than you encourage
them?
Boy, I love it when that happens.
And I walked in there to be an
encouragement to him, and what they do, they'd
take him in a bed, and they'd roll
him down to the services when I'd preach.
But this particular time, he'd been real sick,
and he'd had some type of flu-like
symptoms, and so he wasn't able to come
down, and so they didn't bring him in
there, they didn't want to contaminate everybody, and
so I went back, and I said, hey
brother, how you been doing?
I said, I've been praying for you.
I said, I've been looking forward to coming
and seeing you this week.
I said, you been listening to the radio
broadcast?
Every day, every day, four to four-thirty.
I said, God bless you, keep preaching this
grace.
And, I said, well brother, I appreciate the
encouragement.
I said, I appreciate your praise for the
meeting tonight.
I said, I sure do wish you could
come out.
Let me tell you what this man's testimony
was.
The preacher went in there in 1990, one
year after this terrible wreck.
The preacher went in there, Brother Mitchell went
in there and led that man in that
bed to Jesus Christ, and the man immediately,
after he got saved, the man said, I
want to be baptized and join your church.
He said, you're a quadriplegic.
He said, well there's a will, there's a
way, preacher.
He said, I believe that's the way it
ought to be done.
So he looked at it, they put him
in an ambulance.
And they took him down to one of
the members' houses, and they had a swimming
pool.
They took him in the little shallow end,
over at the three foot, the four foot,
and they put him on one of them
little spleen boards.
Had two men on this side, and two
men on this side.
And the preacher got behind him, held his
head, and boom, ducked him under the water
in an ambulance board.
Amen.
Pulled him up.
They said, when he pulled him up, he
said, glory to God.
And I tell you what, I said, give
me a church full of quadriplegics, they'll be
that faithful, they'll lay him down.
They put him back over at that little
convalescent center, that little nursing home, and he'd
been there all that time.
Hardly anybody comes and visits him.
He's got pain in his, you know, in
his body.
He can't move, can't do anything, can't get
nowhere, can't talk, can't only carry on a
conversation with nobody for a long time, just
wears him out.
Now he's got these little flu-like symptoms.
You know, the preacher says he tries to
visit him about once a week.
Try to encourage him.
And I remember I was in there, I
said, Mr. Smith, I said, that's not his
name by the way, I said, Mr. Smith,
I said, yeah, can I pray for you?
Anything in particular I can pray for?
And he gave me a couple names and
family.
So I reached over, you know, I pulled
the little covers down a little bit, and
there's his hands, and I put my hands
on top of his.
He couldn't feel it, but I just put
my hands on top of his, and started
praying for him, asked God to help him,
God to bless him.
So we got ready to leave.
He said, preacher.
And so the pastor turned around, and he
said, yes sir.
And he said, no other preacher.
So I turned around, I said, yes sir,
what can I do for you?
He said, don't say something.
I remember these big old tears well up
in his eyes.
I seen that little lip just started quivering,
and mine started quivering just as quick as
his did.
Them old tears just started coming down this
way, you know, it's the only way the
hat lay on that pillow there.
Come across his ears, come down his face
a little bit.
He said, brother Locke, I've been in here
since 1989.
He said, I've been in a lot of
pain.
I've had a lot of heartache.
Nobody comes to visit me much, and I
don't have a lot of family that cares
much for me, because of the condition I'm
in, they just don't want what happens.
He said, but you know what?
He said, I've been in here a long,
long time, and it's been a lonely road.
He said, but if I could leave one
person to Jesus Christ, laying in this bed
of affliction, I'd gladly go back to 1989,
and go through all the pain again, if
God would use me to leave one person
to Christ.
I'm gonna tell you what this preacher did.
If you think I skipped some of my
darling, and jumped in the car, and started
shouting glory, amen, you're crazy, pal.
I jumped in the car, and I about
couldn't put the seatbelt on.
I'm telling you, the snot was rolling, and
the tears were coming out, and I looked
over at preacher Dale, and he was crying
like a baby.
I mean, the man couldn't start the van.
I mean, he put his hands on that
steering wheel, and sobbed like a baby, and
he's already an emotional guy anyhow.
And I'm telling you, when he did that,
I just about hit the floor.
I'm telling you, God's Holy Spirit moved in
that car, and I thought I was gonna
have an old-fashioned fit, right there in
the front seat of a minivan, amen, it's
a Chevrolet too, amen.
And I thought I was gonna have a
fail right there on the floorboard.
And I'm telling you, I commenced to cry,
and it was about six miles home, and
I cried all the way home.
And I'm telling you, my eyes were red,
and I mean, you ever cried so much
your stomach hurts?
I mean, you get that heaving and hoovering
feeling, you can't hardly breathe.
I'm telling you, that man worked me up.
I mean, that tore my heart out to
see that.
And I went in there to be a
help and encouragement to him, and I came
out feeling that big because he's more of
a man of God than I'll ever be
in my life.
And I'm gonna tell you what that man
as a quadriplegic had that most of us
don't have.
He had a brokenness for souls.
He witnessed every individual that walked in that
room.
And the only desire he had was just
to lead one of us to Jesus Christ.
Put down my tears.
Your heads are bowed, your eyes are closed,
please.
The doctrine of brokenness.