I leaned over just a moment ago between
the two specials and said this is a
wonderful, wonderful Wednesday night crowd.
And I praise the Lord for you being
here, and it's an encouragement to me to
see that your pastor is encouraged.
When I was at the Ambassador Baptist College,
they taught me, and well so, and I've
lived by that the past few years that
we've been in evangelism, that when you go
to a revival meeting, you do not gauge
the success, if you will, of a revival
meeting by how big the offerings are, by
how big the crowds are, by how many
people are saved, by how many converts are
baptized, or anything like that, by how many
times you preach.
Nothing like that whatsoever.
But I was told at Bible College that
you gauge the success of a revival meeting
by if the pastor is encouraged when you
leave or not.
Because if the pastor is not encouraged, but
rather discouraged, you've done a pretty sorry job
as an evangelist, but if you can encourage
the pastor who knows his people.
You see, you might come forward and I
might think to myself, wow, that's wonderful, but
the pastor knows you, he sees you on
a weekly basis, he knows those in the
congregation who are visitors, he knows those who
are faithful, those who are not, and so
if I can be an encouragement, and I
can uplift his hands as they did Moses
in the Old Testament, then I feel that
I have done a successful job as an
evangelist.
And so although I'm here for the entire
flock to preach, I'm here to encourage your
pastor specifically, because it's often well been said
that you are the flock, your pastor is
the shepherd, and the evangelist is the sheepdog
that comes in once a year and bites
everybody on the ankles.
Well, I appreciate your pastor allowing me to
come here this week.
I enjoyed my time in May, I've enjoyed
my time this week.
You've been faithful to the meetings, we appreciate
that so very much.
You've been responsive, the Spirit's been good, and
I praise the Lord for it.
Let's get right into our sermon tonight.
I was in the study today asking the
Lord to give me something fresh and anew.
I saw a few things from Mark chapter
5 that I've never seen before, and certainly
the message to go right along with the
last song that was just sang, God's Refiner's
Fire.
New message to me, new message to you,
hoping to be a blessing.
Let's stand, please, out of respect for God's
Word.
You will notice there are 43 verses in
this chapter.
Now, don't get afraid, I'm not going to
read all of them.
As a matter of fact, by way of
a text, we're only going to have one
verse.
But I probably will preach through just about
all 43 verses.
You say, Brother Locke, that'll take a long
time.
I'd like to remind you, we went through
four chapters last night in 45 minutes, so
I can believe we can handle 43 verses,
alright?
Mark chapter number 5 and verse number 1
will be our text tonight.
Mark chapter number 5 and verse number 1.
The Bible says, "...and they," that is a
reference to Jesus and His disciples, "...and they
came over unto the other side of the
sea into the country of the Gadarenes."
Tonight, I want to preach a simple sermon
entitled, When Hope is All Gone, Health is
All the Way.
Thank you very much.
You may be seated.
Let's bow our heads in hearts and pray.
And let's ask the Lord to bless our
time together tonight.
When Hope is All Gone, Health is All
the Way.
Now, Lord, I pray tonight that You would
help me as I preach the unsearchable riches
of the Word of God.
Father, I plead the blood of Jesus Christ
tonight and claim the victory that Your Bible
promises that we have.
And I pray, dear Lord, that You would
help me as I preach the Word of
God.
You would help feed my friends in this
congregation as they listen to the Word of
God.
Lord, tonight, as I've often prayed, I often
pray and plead with You that You would
make me just a little bit like liquid
and pour me out upon this congregation.
And Lord, I don't want to come with
man's wisdom and with powerful speech.
Father, as the Apostle Paul said, I want
to come in the demonstration of the power
and the fullness of the Spirit of God.
And so, Lord, tonight I pray that You
would help me as I preach.
Lord, You've been with us tonight in our
singing and the choir and our fellowship.
Lord, we've enjoyed our time together.
Father, tonight I pray that around the Word
of God we would have a very, very
profitable time.
That You would do for us tonight what
my sermon cannot do.
Father, I'll be careful to give You the
praise.
And I know, based upon Your Word, that
You will and that You want to do
great things.
And so I'm asking that You will, and
I pray it in faith, trusting that You
will.
And I ask it tonight in Jesus' name,
Amen.
Just yesterday I was watching the news over
in the trailer and found out, and you
heard I'm sure, that at the Martin Luther
High School there over in East New York,
there was a young man who walked into
a public school and began to shoot up
a few people.
And thank God nobody was killed that day,
but several people were injured.
I'm sure you heard today just in your
state, in a neighboring town just a few
hours from here, there was a madman who
walked into a law school and blew three
people out into eternity, one of them being
the dean of the school, one of them
being one of the school trustees, and one
of them being a student, and several other
people were injured.
No doubt everybody in this room will remember
with antennas going off in your mind just
a few years ago when we had Columbine,
just a few years ago when we had
the deal over in Arkansas.
And it seems now that if you begin
to read the papers, you'll find out that
probably every state in America is in a
mess.
I just got back from Ghana, West Africa,
and I'm telling you there's things over in
Africa that I won't share with you, that
I won't take time.
And I talked to the missionary, and he
told me some of the things that he
was struggling with.
And I talked to pastors all over this
country and around the world, and they tell
me of the struggles and the temptations and
the trials and the hardships that they have
in their churches.
Did you know, ladies and gentlemen, statistically, now
you can make a statistic, say anything you
want to, but statistically, did you know that
we as professing evangelical Christians, if you will,
have a 75% divorce rate in our
churches?
In churches, we have a 75% divorce
rate.
And I think to myself often, I wonder
why in the world America is so messed
up.
I mean, why are our marriages so shaky
and so rocky?
Why are our kids serving the devil?
Why is it that it seems like there's
no hope at all in America?
You see, I pray for revival every day.
I preach about revival just about every night
or every week of my life.
And I do believe, as I said last
night, I believe it wasn't a sermon, that
it is not that God will revive America.
That's not the point.
The point is that God can revive America,
but I'll be honest with you.
You start reading the magazines and you start
watching television, you start flipping through the satellites,
you start looking at the computers and you
start reading and you start studying, and I'm
telling you, you're going to come out with
a pretty bleak and dismal picture of the
country that we're living in.
You think back to September the 11th.
Everybody in this room immediately knows exactly where
you were and what you were doing that
day.
I was at the Carter's Grove Memorial Baptist
Church in Hazel Green, Alabama, just a little
tiny place.
I was up that morning getting some things
done in the office.
It was probably about 9 o'clock or
so, and I didn't know anything about it.
I hadn't turned the TV on that morning.
I hadn't listened to the radio.
About 10 o'clock came and then about
10.30 came, and by then it had
long since happened.
And so I was in the office doing
some things, and I was wondering that morning
on the telephone why everybody I talked to
just seemed kind of serene, you know, kind
of bleak.
And I thought to myself, man, nobody's happy
about anything today, you know.
And so then I called my mom, and
I was talking to her just happy-go
-lucky, and she said, you hadn't watched the
news this morning, had you?
And I said, what do you mean watch
the news?
She said, go back to the trailer.
And I'm telling you, I went back to
the trailer, and I turned it on until
my amazement.
I saw those airplanes fly into those buildings,
and immediately I thought about my brother that
lived just about 35 miles or 45 minutes
or so away from those very powers in
the military.
And I thought to myself, I wonder how
he is.
I tried to call him.
You couldn't get through on the line.
And I remember that night I thought there'd
be about three people show up, and I'm
telling you, they packed the doors of that
church, and we had a prayer service, and
everybody in the entire church came forward, and
we got on our face, and we wept
and crawled and cried like a bunch of
babies over our nation.
And I preached that night from Psalm chapter
number 11.
Where in the world do we go from
here?
And we'll never forget the tragic event of
September the 11th.
And I'm going to be honest with you.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist and a
brain surgeon to figure out that there are
some things in America that just seem...
I remember about a year and a half
ago I was preaching in this very state.
I'll not tell you where because it was
rather close to here.
And I was preaching in this state, and
the pastor and I went over to a
man's house.
And he wanted me to talk to this
man about the Lord.
You know, sometimes an evangelist comes to town,
and they think that he can say things
differently than the pastor.
And so, every evangelist that's ever been in
that church has been over to this guy's
house, suddenly to the Christ.
And I'm telling you, he's the reprobate I've
ever seen once.
I remember I walked in the house, and
he was sucking on his cigarettes, watching his
wicked television programs.
And I mean, he didn't even care.
I mean, the smoke was just abyllum.
I mean, that television just trusted 90 miles
an hour, but he didn't turn it down.
He didn't turn it off.
And I said, sir, I'd like to talk
to you about the Lord.
I said, would you mind if I walk
over and turn the television off?
He said, that'd be fine.
I walked over and turned it off.
And he was counting up.
He went over and put his little cigarette
out, and put the little flames out.
You know, it wasn't smoking so bad anymore.
And I started talking to him.
I pulled my little pocket knife out, started
giving my testimony, started telling him about my
life.
And you could see his tears trickle after
that man died, dribble down his face.
And you could tell he was trying to
hold it back.
And so I began to talk to him.
And I got to the bottom root of
the whole issue.
I know why he acted the way he
did.
I know why he wouldn't listen to what
any of the preachers said.
You see, about two or three years earlier,
he had a real, real bad run-in
with his wife, who would steal his wife.
They were not divorced.
They were separated.
And she removed from him their two little
boys and one little girl, and that broke
his heart.
He blamed it on God, and he didn't
want to have anything to do with God,
the church, the Bible, the preacher man, or
anything else that even smelled of remission.
So I remember I looked at that man,
and I was talking with him, and I
said, sir, and I called his name.
I said, would you mind that before we
leave, I said, would you mind if I
got on my knees right here beside this
couch and prayed for you and your son?
And I'll never forget in a million years
what he said.
He said, Brother Lawrence, he said, I wouldn't
mind a bit if you did that.
He said, but I don't really see what
the need is.
He said, just to be honest with you,
I believe my family situation is just a
little bit too hopeless for God to handle.
And you know, if you study Mark chapter
number five, everybody preaches on the maniac of
Judea, and I'm going to mention it tonight.
But did you know, ironically enough, in my
study today, I saw something I've never seen
before in these 43 verses.
Did you know there are three situations in
one chapter?
We always hear about the one, the guy
who was crazy and sold me the mouth,
and was running around naked every day.
But we always hear about the one, but
did you know in 43 verses of Mark
chapter five, there are three hopeless, dismal, and
horrible situations, and Jesus stepped on the scene
and took care of every single one.
I want you to look at your Bibles,
number one, if you would, please.
Mark chapter five.
Go to verse number two, would you?
Mark chapter number five and verse number two.
If you're taking notes for sake of an
outline, I want you to see number one.
The first situation was hopeless because of the
devil.
It was hopeless because of the devil.
Look, please, in verse number two.
And when he, that Jesus, will come out
of the ship, immediately, if you study the
Gospel of Mark, you will find out that
72 times in 16 chapters, the word immediately
or straightway is used.
It is a book of expedience.
It's a book where Jesus got things done
very rapidly.
And so it says, when He was come
out of the ship, immediately there met Him
out of the tombs.
A man with an unclean spirit had His
dwelling among the tombs, and no man could
bind Him.
No, not with chains.
Why?
Because He'd been up and down with fetters
and chains.
And the chains had been plucked asunder by
Him.
And the fetters broke it in pieces.
Neither could any man tame Him.
Verse five.
And always, notice that word in your Bible,
and always night and day, He was in
the mountains and in the tombs crying and
cunning Himself with stones.
You know those stories very well.
Matter of fact, the last time I was
here, the first service I preached on the
man who got the devil preached out of
Him.
And if there was ever a man who
heard a message that got the devil out
of Him, it was this man right here.
Here's a crazy lunatic of a man.
Now, there's several things I do know, but
I'll be honest, there's several things I don't
know about this gentleman.
I don't know, number one, how old he
was, and I don't think it really matters.
I do not know, number two, how long
he had the demon, and I don't think
it matters either.
But I do know, by way of context,
that he had Him for a long time.
Say, preacher, how do you know?
Because according to the Bible, everybody knew this
man to be this way.
Everybody had washed their hands.
He had been kicked out and ostracized from
society.
And nobody wanted to be around Him whatsoever.
And you can see that town thinking to
themselves, you know what?
There's no hope for that dirty rat right
there.
Let me tell you a few graphic things
about this man.
Here was a man, the Word of God
says, was filled not with one, not with
a hundred, study your Bible, but at least
a thousand demons.
And more than likely, it was a lot
more than that because the Bible says whenever
the demons came out of his body and
went into the hall, the Bible says there
were 2,000 of the swine.
2,000 pigs.
And so here's a man.
Every thought, every action, everything he did, every
place he went was completely dominated, controlled, directed
and dictated by one person.
It was the very man himself.
It was the devil.
And he was under the dominance and he
was under the control of the devil until
Jesus Christ stepped on the scene.
But you see, the devil made this man
do some very, very interesting things.
Can you imagine a man who had thousands
of demons in and out of his body?
Controlling his mind.
Controlling his actions.
And Luke tells us that this man ran
around, excuse me, but it's what the Bible
says, he ran around naked.
He ran around with no clothes on.
Profaned himself in front of the men, in
front of the women, in front of the
little boys and the little girls.
And people couldn't even go down to Walmart
and over to Kroger's and down to Ryan's
and down to Shoney's because they were scared
that man was going to come streaking, running
through the streets naked.
And they didn't know what in the world
they were going to do about it.
And so they got 9-1-1 and
they called the sheriff and they said, Sheriff
so-and-so, you're going to have to
do something to incarcerate this wicked man.
And so they put fetters on his legs.
They put shackles and fetters on his hands.
They put a muscle on his mouth.
And they threw him in the drunk tank.
They threw him in jail overnight.
But by the power of the devil, he
would break those chains.
He would break those fetters, bend those bars
and go screaming and crying like a wild
lunatic.
A wild crazy man.
Back up into the mountains.
And the Bible says he lived in the
mountains and in the tomb.
I don't know about you, but I don't
have a whole lot of friends that live
in cemeteries.
And if you've got a bunch of friends
that live in graveyards, I'll tell you one
thing you need before tomorrow morning comes up,
friend.
I'll tell you what.
You need some new friends is what you
need.
If you've got friends that enjoy hanging around
death and enjoy hanging around darkness and blackness,
you need some new friends.
This guy right here had no friends.
He was up for all by himself.
He'd jump up on a gravestone and the
moon would be full and he'd howl like
a wild coyote on the back side of
the desert somewhere.
He'd foam at the mouth and had long,
greasy, stringy hair.
His beard was all full of mucus and
I'm telling you, he'd had a bath in
weeks and months.
And I mean, he sunk to high heaven
and his eyes were bloodshot.
He was the most wicked, vile, ungodly man
in all the countryside.
And so I can imagine, they know all
the trustees and all the people of the
county got together one morning over a cup
of coffee and they said, you know what,
we're going to have to figure out how
we're going to help this man.
And so his chef said, well, you know,
I've already tried to incarcerate the dirty bum
and he can't get incarcerated.
He's got some kind of weird supernatural strength.
You know, he goes into a phone book,
he's got an answer on his chest and
he can break through the bars and all
that kind of stuff.
And so he's got some kind of Superman
strength and so I don't think there's anything
I can do.
And if anybody's open for suggestions, I'm willing
just to take a few.
And so all of a sudden, Dr. Bottle
Stopper raised his hand and he said, you
know what, I bet if we put that
guy on Ritalin, that'd help him a little
bit.
I bet if we got him a prescription
and we took him down there to the
psycho ward, I bet if we put him
in a straitjacket for a little while, I
think we could probably help him.
And he said, well, Dr. Bottle Stopper, Mr.
Psychiatrist, if you think you can help him
so much, why don't you go out there
and try to diagnose his problem.
And so I can see Dr. Bottle Stopper,
he gets his little glasses together, you know,
and he gets his little suit and tie
and he gets all fit, shined and polyestered
up and he grabs his little fold-up
couch.
You know, this guy can't talk to anybody
unless they're laying down.
So he took his couch with him and
he tucked it up under his arm and
he started climbing up the mountain.
And finally, he gets up to the top
of the mountain and he pulls out his
little pen and he pulls out his little
paper and he makes sure he gets his
little watch just right.
You know, those fellas get paid by the
hour and they're not going overtime, that's for
sure.
And so he lays his little watch down
and he says, now Mr. Crazy Man, there's
one thing I don't want you to do
and that's have one of your little spells.
Don't spit on me, don't salivate on me,
I don't want you to say anything stupid
and I want you to just sit there
on that little couch and tell me all
of your problems.
And I know, Mr. Wild Man, everybody thinks
you're crazy, but you know what, it's probably
because your daddy used to be a smoker
when you was younger and you know, you
probably got that smoke still in your head
or something like that.
I bet your mama spanked you one or
two times when you was a kid and
it probably warped your mind and I know
a bunch of kids that had a good
warped mind, that's for sure.
And you know what, you know your daddy
probably said something to you one time or
maybe your Sunday school teacher said something that
really upsets you one day and so I
understand why you act like this.
And I understand why you fall with the
mouth and why you run around naked and
why you act like a crazed lunatic and
I know the rest of the world doesn't
understand this, but let me just write you
out a little prescription and I believe I
can put you on some medication that'll help
you.
And so the guy said, Mr. I'll tell
you what, I won't help more than I
can see straight and if you think you
can help me, let's do it.
He picked up that cot, put it under
his arm, he walked down hand in hand
with that psychotic and they take him over
to the store and I mean they seal
him up on every kind of drug you
can imagine.
He takes a pill in the morning, he
takes a pill at night, he takes a
pill to eat, he takes a pill to
keep that down which he just ate, he
takes a pill to go to sleep, wakes
up at three in the morning and takes
another pill so he can go back to
sleep.
And I mean he's popping pills for about
three weeks and all of a sudden a
crazy man's pill comes on him again and
he realizes, hey, Dr. Bottlestopper couldn't help me
at all.
So they pull that big group back together
and he says, listen, I'm open for suggestions.
Dr. Bottlestopper and the Ritalin crowd couldn't help
him.
Somebody's gonna have to figure out something to
do with this man.
So all of a sudden the Grand Master
of the Masonic Temple raises his hand and
he says, you know what, I bet I
can help him.
I bet if I can get him up
there to sell a bunch of candy for
crippled children I bet that would help him.
That would get his mind off of his
problems and get his mind off foaming at
the mouth and running like a naked man
and if we can get him down there
at the stoplight to stop people and wear
a Shiner's hat then I think that'd probably
do some good.
And so he puts his little apron on
and he gets his little billy goat and
he comes riding up there and he's got
his funny little trash can hat on with
a broom sticking up the side of it
and he walks up there and he says,
now Mr. Crazy Man, don't have one of
your little sales.
He says, don't have one of your little
fits.
He said, me and the brotherhood down on
the bottom of the mountain want you to
know that we want you to become an
honorary member of the Masonic Temple.
What we'd like you to do is come
in here and go through all your little
rituals and all your little routines and all
your little religions and you know, put a
little sword to your chest and all that
kind of stuff and you know, wrap a
little mask around your head.
You know what I'm talking about.
Some of you have probably been in that
before.
And so you go through all this little
ritual and you go through all this little
routine and he said, well okay, I'll try.
And so they get down there and you
know, he gets a little Masonic Bible and
they give him a little Masonic ring and
they tell him one day when he dies
they're going to toss the drain on either
side of the grave and they go put
him in a Masonic grave and they talk
about him being a member of the brotherhood
and they pat him on the back and
they say, now you're a Mason.
But all of a sudden about 24 hours
later he throws another fit and he goes
nuts and he goes running through the Masonic
temple and tears everything they got up and
they said, hey pal, we don't want you
in here anymore.
So they couldn't help him either.
And so the sheriff gets back down there
and he calls another meeting one morning and
he says, fellas, I'm open for suggestions.
Dr. Bottle Stopper couldn't help him and the
Grand Master of the Masonic Lodge couldn't help
him.
And he said, we're going to have to
have some help sometime.
And so all of a sudden this little
squirrely figure stands up in the back and
says, my name's Norman Vincent Peale and I
do believe I can help this fella because
I wrote a book on the power of
positive thinking and if we can get this
guy not to focus on his problems rather
to focus on everybody else's problems we can
make this guy realize that life is worth
living.
And so Norman Vincent Peale and his bad
toupee goes crawling up to the top of
the hill and he walks over there and
he says, Mr. Crazy Naked Lunatic Man.
Now don't have one of your spells and
don't jump out on me and don't lash
on me and by the way, here's a
man the Bible says cut himself with stones.
Nobody told that?
They don't have to do that.
Here's a guy who cut his body.
He was bleeding like a stuck pig.
He was naked.
He foamed at the mouth.
Long greasy stringy nappy hair.
Here is a crazy man.
And so Mr. Peale says, well you know
what?
You probably had a bad childhood.
You probably have bad dreams at night.
You probably have to still sleep with a
night light.
Do you have that kind of problem?
And he probably bowed his head and said,
you know what Mr. Peale?
I do still have that problem.
Although I live up here in darkness and
I live up here in the dungeons and
the tombstones.
I'll tell you, to be honest with you
really, I still have to have a night
light you know?
And you know, I think really what my
problem is Mr. Peale is you know, up
until the time I was 27 years old
I was a bed wetter and so because
of that I've got a warped mind and
so I'm not able to think right and
so that's why I run around naked and
that's why I'm wicked and it's a day
in wrong and that's why I'm undone.
And so Mr. Peale says, now listen, don't
focus on your problems.
Focus on what's wrong with everybody else.
See the good in you.
See the inner self.
See how wonderful you are.
See what a great dynamic person you are.
Look into the mirror.
Give yourself a big cheesy grin and say,
Mr. Wild Man, there's nothing wrong with you.
It's the world that has the problem, not
you.
And so for a while it seems real
good.
He reads through the book Norman Jensen Peale,
The Problems of the World.
The power of positive thinking.
It seems like that power has been real
positive in his life and all of a
sudden about two weeks goes by and the
wild man has another crazy thing.
And I mean, he just hits the foeman
at the mouth, rips his clothes off again,
runs around like a wild man and a
lunatic and the crowd says, listen, there's no
hope for this guy at all.
We don't want him at church.
You can't keep him in jail.
He can't keep a job.
His family don't want him.
There is no hope for this man.
So they call another counselor.
And they get around in there and everybody
gets together this time.
They're all putting their noggin together.
They said, you know what, this man probably
needs a good dose of religion.
This man needs something to focus in on
that's kind of God like.
And so when these liberal, modernistic, new evangelical
preachers stands up and he says, you know
what, I believe I can.
I believe down at my church we've got
just what he needs.
So it's okay if you think you can
help him.
And so, you know, he goes back to
the house and he comes back as little
Don Juan suave hair dude.
He gets his nice little outfit on and,
you know, those guys don't believe in wearing
ties.
And he gets his little backwards collar on.
And he gets his little nice pretty cross
necklace and he puts it around his neck
with his nice little bracelet and his little
ankle, you know.
And he goes walking up there with his
NIV Bible and he walks up to the
top of the hill and he sees that
little crazy man over there and he says,
hey, Mr. Crazy Man, I noticed you don't
have any clothes on.
He said, well, they don't make you feel
bad because most of the people in my
church don't have any clothes on either and
so you'll fit in real good at our
Baptist church.
And he said, so you can just come
on down and you can just kind of
sit right in.
You can kind of sit in the back
row.
Everybody else does and so it's not a
real big deal.
And there's not a whole lot of red
hot preaching down there.
You know, you can live any way you
want to and you can do what you
want to, act like you want to, run
around with who you want to.
You can still holler and scream and act
like a wild animal for all I care.
It doesn't make any difference, but I do
believe if I could get you down there,
I'll tell you what.
How about on Sunday morning, you come walk
in the aisle and he says, when you
walk the aisle, I'll put you through the
baptismal dunking booth and I'll dunk you down.
He said, I bet the whole town will
show up to see you get baptized.
He said, I'll tell you what let's do
right now.
He said, how about let's get down on
our knees.
Would you like Jesus to save you?
Oh, I'm telling you what, sir.
I'd love for somebody to do something for
me.
I need some help.
I'm tired of not getting any sleep at
night.
I'm having all kind of problems and I
tell you, my life just seems like it's
hopeless and I don't mean to have these
fits and I don't mean to have these
spells and I don't mean to run around
like a drunken lunatic and like a wild
animal with no clothes on and so I
need some kind of a help.
And so he says, well just repeat after
me.
Dear Lord, dear Lord, I know I'm a
sinner.
I know I'm a sinner.
Come to my heart and save me.
In Jesus name, amen.
And so the preacher goes back down to
his nice little little church and on Sunday
morning all of a sudden he gets up
down the back road.
Mr. Naked Man comes walking up and he
comes walking all the way down the aisle
and the preacher takes him by the hand
and he says, today we're going to baptize
Mr. whoever you are.
And so they take him up there and
some of the other churches across town put
out early because they heard he was going
to get baptized.
And so they all come in there and
they put that old wild, stringy, greasy hair
up in that banditry and they dip him
down and everybody shouts the victory and everybody's
always so excited.
He says, now if you just learn to
give a little bit of money in the
offering plate and if you just learn to
sing every now and then when we open
up a hymn book and we don't open
the Bible much around here but if you
learn just to drunk every now and then
when I say something good from the newspaper
then you'll fit in just right and I
do believe a little reformation will help you.
And it did for about six weeks.
He sits there in that church and every
time the plate came by you know, he
had a few nickels and dimes that he
scratched up out of the graveyard and somebody
ran up on his visitors and did ten
folks and so he picked it up and
he threw it in the plate and made
him feel real good about himself.
Man, made his heart just feel like it
was swelling on the inside.
After about six weeks one morning he was
sitting in church and man, he had one
of them spells and he come unglued in
that little church and they never heard anybody
shouting until he got up and ran down
the aisle.
I mean, he was slipping like a ball
in a circus clown.
He jumped up in a baptismal booth.
He jumped all over the place.
He ripped up the songbook.
He foamed at the mouth, pulled his clothes
off right there in church and everybody couldn't
believe this.
Wow, man.
He said, you know what they said?
He said, go back up there in your
mouth.
Psychiatrists tried to help you, wasn't any help
for you.
Priests tried to help you, no help for
you.
Grandmaster of the lodge tried to help you,
no help for you.
All these people tried to help you and
the sheriff tried to help you.
Everybody wants to help you.
You don't want no help, mister.
Go up there.
And he started saying to himself, you know
what, I still would like to have somebody
help me.
I still would like somebody to put their
arms around me and love me and have
concern for me and care for me.
And he walked up there and so all
day long the whole crowd got together and
they began to bump ideas around and finally
they couldn't come up with anything.
So they put up some ticket signs, got
some big old poster boards and big old
black letters.
They wrote, no help for the crazy man.
And they put them outside their churches.
They put them outside their capital buildings.
They put them outside their public schools and
their private schools and their places of pure
repute and they put them outside their not
respectable grocery stores.
People started walking around carrying ticket signs.
No hope for the crazy man.
You know what, believe anything you want because
I think they probably made him believe that.
Here's a man who sat up there lonely
in solitude he wanted some help but could
have none And the whole crowd washed their
hands clean with this fella and said there's
no hope for you whatsoever.
But you know what, ladies and gentlemen, when
it seems like you've come to the end
of your rope, and it seems like there's
no compassion, there's no concern, and there's no
care from anybody else, I'd like to remind
you there's a little boat that's on its
way to that town called Gadara, and there's
somebody inside that boat named the Lord Jesus
Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of
Lords, and when that town said no hope,
help was just now on the way.
Because look what your Bible says, please, in
verse number 7.
In verse 7 the Bible says, and cried
with a loud voice and said, What have
I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son
of the Most High God?
I adjure thee by God that thou torment
me not.
For he said unto him, Come out of
the man, thou unclean spirit.
And he asked him, What is thy name?
And he answered, saying, My name is Legion,
for we are many.
And he besought him much that he would
not send him away out of the country.
And there was nigh unto the mountains a
great herd of swine feeding.
And all the devils besought him, saying, Send
us into the swine that we may enter
into them.
And forthwith Jesus gave them leave.
And the unclean spirits went out and entered
into the swine, and the herd ran violently
down a steep place into the sea.
There were about two thousand that were choked
in the sea.
They that fed the swine fled, and they
told it in the city and in the
country.
And they went out to see what it
was that was done.
And they come to Jesus, I love this
verse, and see him that was possessed with
the devil.
And had the Legion sitting and clothed and
in his right mind.
And they were afraid.
Why were they afraid?
Because they had never seen him.
And what the Masons couldn't do, and what
the Redmond couldn't do, and what the Prozac
couldn't do, and what Dr. Bottlestopper and Norman
Dinson Peale, and what the rest of that
crowd couldn't do, in one simple conversation with
the eternal Son of God, took care of
every problem this man ever had, and he
got saved by the glorious grace of God.
He got the same salvation.
He was washed in the same blood.
And he exercised the same faith that I
did on April the 17th of 1992.
And I'm going to tell you something, pal.
You're looking at a young man right now,
25 years old, left behind the ears, got
a lot to learn, a lot of growing
up to do.
But I'm going to tell you something.
I'll never forget the days that that judge
leaned over to my mother and stuck his
finger right in her face and said, Ma
'am, he said, Lady, your son is a
menace to society.
And if you don't do something for him,
if you don't place him somewhere, then the
Tennessee Department of Corrections for Juvenile Delinquents is
going to place him somewhere.
And I'm telling you, my public school teacher
said, There's no hope for that brat.
I'm telling you, I believe my mama got
to the place where she started believing there's
no hope for him.
In my heart, I started believing there's no
hope.
People in town said there's no hope.
I mean, I had more friends in that
town than I knew what to do with,
but none of the mamas would let me
play with them.
I mean, I was a wicked little brat.
All I cared about was myself.
I didn't care about you.
I didn't care about God.
I didn't care about church.
I can remember going to church, sitting on
the back row laughing at the preacher.
And I'm telling you, if you could look
back 10 years, ladies and gentlemen, you could
talk to person after person after person after
person who would say, You know what?
There is no hope for Gregory.
Well, I tried to be a good person.
I went with my friends to the Catholic
church.
I've been to an abundant life fellowship.
I grew up in a Southern Baptist church.
I knew the Romans rose, and I could
quote a verse or so in church.
Yet, my life was in so much shambles,
and my life was in such a wreck,
such disarray.
I can imagine that in my heart as
I would walk by, I can imagine what
the people must have been thinking.
My family saw no hope for him.
The judge saw no hope for him.
My attorney that I had six different times
probably thought to himself, No hope for him.
No hope for him.
I'll be honest with you.
After a while, I started believing in him.
Is there really anything more to life than
fun?
Is there really anything worth living for?
I'm glad to tell you, ladies and gentlemen,
because I heard an old-fashioned man of
God get in the pulpit one night and
open up the Bible, and he began to
preach Christ's crucifixion.
He began to tell me not that I
was a good person and needed to look
at my inner self, but he began to
tell me that I was a wicked, vile
person, and I was wicked all the way
through, every bit of me intrinsically.
And he told me there was only one
person that was holy.
It was the lovely Lord Jesus Christ, who
died for me, was buried for me, and
three days later on resurrection morning, he got
up out of the grave, he defeated sin,
death, and hell, and ladies and gentlemen, that
night I got saved by the glorious grace
of God.
And I'll tell you, there were people that
looked at me and said, there's no hope
for him, there's no hope for him, there's
no hope for him.
And you know what?
In this world, there was no hope at
all.
But thanks be unto God, when I had
no hope, and when I came to the
end of my rope, and when it seemed
like there was nothing worth living for, Almighty
God said, you know what happened to me
the night I got saved?
Same thing happened to this crazy man.
God did something for me.
You see, God gave me a key.
God gave me a joy, and a satisfaction
that wicked living could never give me.
And there was a time in my life,
and I just like to tell him, by
the way, I don't care if you were
a Sunday school teacher when you got saved,
or if you were cooking a dog's hind
legs, we were all under the condemnation.
Here's a man who had a hopeless situation,
because of the devil.
But hurriedly tonight, would you please look at
Mark chapter 5 and verse number 24.
Mark chapter 5 and verse number 24, because
the second situation was hopeless because of a
disease.
The first one was hopeless because of the
devil, but notice please, the second was hopeless
because of a disease.
Mark chapter 5 and verse 24.
And Jesus went with him, and much people
followed him, and brawled him.
That's a fancy word of saying.
There was a lot of people there wanting
to talk to him.
And a certain woman, which had an issue
of blood 12 years, and had suffered many
things of many positions.
And it's been all that she had, and
was nothing better, but rather grew worse.
She had heard of Jesus, came in the
press behind him, and touched his garments.
She said, if I may touch but his
clothes, I shall be cold.
And straightway, there's that word of expedience again,
and straightway the fountain of her blood was
dried up.
And she felt in her body, that she
was healed of that plague.
And Jesus noticed the word immediately, knowing in
himself that virtue, that word means power, had
gone out from him, turned him about in
the press, and said, who touched my clothes?
The disciples said unto him, thou seest a
multitude thronging thee.
And saithst thou, who touched me?
He looked round about to see her that
had done this thing.
But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what
was done in her, came and fell down
before him, and told him all the truth.
And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith
hath made thee whole, go in peace, and
behold of thy slave.
Jesus came to town, and as everywhere Jesus
went, people always knew that he was coming.
Now I know they didn't have tabloids, and
black and white newspapers, extracts to read all
about it, and Time magazine, and all that,
but you know, they had something comparable to
that in the little regions round about Jerusalem,
because everywhere Jesus went, his name proceeded.
And the people thought to themselves, you know
what, we've got to see this miracle work
in man.
Matter of fact, if you read Luke chapter
number 19, you'll find out there was a
midget tax collector, who was so excited that
Jesus came to town, that he skimmed up
a tree, and sat down to wait for
Jesus to come by.
Everywhere Jesus went, he caused a great stir.
You see, there was a time, if you
read the Beatitudes, you'll find out that Jesus
is preaching the Sermon on the Mount.
In Matthew 5, 6, and 7, he starts
the Sermon on the Mount with his disciples.
He ends the Sermon on the Mount with
a great multitude being there.
Everywhere Jesus went, throngs of people followed him.
And so it was no different here in
this town.
Jesus, by the way, has now got back
in his boat.
He is no longer in Gadara.
The way to be a
good shepherd is to know who to cast
the load on.
And with a very shy manner and fashion,
reaches out and touches him, and the Bible
says, immediately she knew.
She knew without hesitation, the Bible says, that
the fountain that was in her, this blood
problem, this issue of blood that she'd had
for 12 years, immediately dried up within her,
and she knew it.
You see, she'd been around a lot of
doctors that said, well, you got this problem,
and you know you got this problem, and
you got this problem.
And they told her every problem in the
world, but the problem was, they couldn't diagnose
the real problem.
They didn't know, they were just simply practicing
medicine.
And so they were using her to practice,
and they still use her, but nonetheless.
She was saying that, I need some help,
I can't figure out what this problem is,
it bothers me.
And they said, well, you know, perhaps if
she just wanted to try this medication, and
so she blew a little bit of the
life savings.
And they said, no, that didn't work, why
don't you try this medication.
So she blew the rest of the life
savings.
And they said, well, that didn't work, so
she sold her car.
And they said, well, that didn't work, so
she sold her house.
And she suffered many things, of many physicians,
and was none the better, get the phrase,
but rather grew.
It didn't get any better, as a matter
of fact, it got to the place where,
when there was no help for this lady
at all.
There wasn't a physician in the whole land.
There wasn't a doctor in the whole land
that could diagnose what this woman's problem was.
And they told her, they said, well, you
know what, this is something you're going to
have to live with for the rest of
your life.
It's just something we're going to have to
fix, you know, with medication, you know, a
little dab will do you, a little here,
a little there, eventually we'll get it regulated,
we'll get that thing fixed.
And for 12 years, this woman had a
problem that would not get fixed.
And it bothered her, and it breathed her
in her body every single day, until Jesus
came to town.
And Jesus came to town, and the people
were thronging Him, the red, the yellow, the
black and white, they were everywhere.
He was healing the blind eyes, and doing
all of these great and mighty miracles, and
we'll see one more miracle that He just
performs here at the end of the chapter.
But yet this woman sneaks up behind Him,
and she reaches out, and by faith says
within herself, if I could just touch it
a little bit, the hem of His clothes,
the hem of His garment, I know by
faith He has the power to heal me
of the disease that's in my body.
And so after all that helpless situation, what
am I talking about 12 months, what am
I talking about 12 years?
With no peace, with no help, with no
satisfaction, but continual pain for 12 years.
And she reaches out and touches the hem
of His garment, and immediately the Bible says
she realized in her body that she was
healed.
I want you to look in your Bibles
if you would, please, here at Mark chapter
number 5.
Notice the little phrase, if you would, in
verse 29, would you?
Mark 5, 29, and straightway, notice this, the
fountain of her blood was dried up, and
she felt in her body that she was
healed of that plague.
I began to study that little phrase there
historically, and I began to study it there
in the application, the context, the setting that
it's placed in in Scripture.
That little phrase, the fountain of her body
and the plague that she was in, I
studied that.
You know what, it happened to ladies, that's
just kind of the way that they phrase
it in the New Testament, the obviously phrase
nowadays, and I'm going to do my dead
level best not to be graphic at all,
and so I'm not even going to give
all of the illustration and everything that I
read, but basically it deals with ladies that
have problems in pregnancy.
It deals with a lady that had problems
whenever she was birthing a child, and it
would cause a problem, whereas hemorrhaging would set
in, and great pain and stress and duress
would be upon the body, and usually there
was a certain amount of days that they
would give that young lady to be healed
of that problem, but yet this lady for
12 years had not yet been healed.
And she had had this problem for 12
fallen years.
The doctors told her, hey, you can keep
coming, you can keep spending your money, you
can keep wasting two or three hours a
day in the doctor's hall, and you can
sit there and you can make visit after
visit after visit, and we can examine you,
and we can give you all types of
physical examinations, and we can tell you this
and we can tell you that, but we're
just guessing.
We are just estimating your problem.
We're guesstimating your problem.
We're trying a little here, a little there.
We're hitting, we're missing, and basically they sent
her out the door, and every time she
went home she said within herself, you know
what, there is no hope for the problem
that I have, but you know what, when
hope's all gone, or hope's all gone, help's
on the way.
Because somebody came to town named Jesus.
And Jesus came, and you know, He didn't
have some great big flamboyant crowd that was
following Him because He was some great big
filthy rich evangelist that, you know, would walk
around and heal people by the top of
a handkerchief, you know.
He wasn't one of these Benny Hinn troops,
and Rod Parker, and Kitty Jakes, and the
rest of these bunch of guys on television.
You know, my wife always tells me, she
says, you know what, every week of your
life you've got to say something about Benny
Hinn.
Now you know what, if I've got one
little rabbit trail that I run, and I
preach it, if I've got one thing that
I really like to preach on, and I
like to preach it on every sermon, it's
that dirty crook Benny Hinn.
I mean, I'm telling you, if there's ever
a dirty crook in the world, I believe
Benny Hinn is a dirty crook, and his
brother David Chicken.
But nonetheless, here's this guy, you know, he
says, put your hand on the screen, and
you'll get a feeling.
So you put your hand through the screen,
you'll get one a whole lot quicker, I
promise you that right now.
I had one of these nuts one night,
I was watching him on TV, it's the
honest truth.
If I've ever told you the truth on
the pulpit, I'm telling you right now, just
as sure as you can hear me, I
was watching this guy on television, it was
about 11.15, 11.30 at night, ain't
nothing good on TV that late anyhow, but
I was sitting in the hotel room, and
I was watching this guy, and he pulled
a wallet, it's the honest truth, he pulled
a wallet out of his back pocket, and
he opened it up, and he said, you
know, he started pulling out a little money
out of the back of it, you know,
and I ain't got but a little bit,
but he started pulling out some money, had
it all hanging out there, you know, he
said, if you send me $19.95, 20
bucks, okay, if you send me a $20
love offer, here's what he said, I will
send you a wallet, that is so blessed
by God, you can't send the money, and
sure as that carpet's red, that's exactly what
that man said, I didn't make it up,
I ain't lying about it, it's the honest
truth, before God, that's exactly what he said,
if you send me $19.95, I will
send you a wallet, like this one, that
you cannot send the money out of, that
is how God will bless you by sending
$20, now you know what, I'm not real
smart, but I'm sorry, I'm not real stupid
either, I've got enough sense to know, if
that man's got a wallet, but he can't
send the money out of, bless God, the
last thing he needs is my $20, you
know, Jesus didn't come to town with that
man, he didn't come to town begging people
for money, he didn't come to town saying
I'm going to have his healing crusade, he
didn't have to set up a pub kit,
man, the people following him everywhere he went,
and so Jesus is there, this woman hears
about it, she touches him, he turns around
and asks an unusual question, who touched me,
by the way, who knew he touched me,
that's kind of like in the Garden of
Eden, you know, some of these liberals say,
well looky there, God said Adam, where art
thou?
As if he didn't know, he's just playing
this shit a little game for a little
while, he knew exactly where Adam and Eve
was, he knew exactly who touched him, but
he wanted to see what this young lady's
face was, so the disciples kind of rebuked
him, if you can imagine that, the disciples,
the followers of Christ rebuked the disciple of
Christ himself, and they said, Jesus, now you
see all these people following you and you're
going to ask this silly question, who touched
me, and she said, knowing, and the Bible
says, she, knowing what was done of herself,
came and fell down before the Lord and
told him all the things that had happened
to her, and Jesus said, notice what he
told her in verse 34, he said unto
her, Daughter, for those comforting what are theirs,
Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole, go
in peace and be whole of thy plague,
that word whole is the greatest word in
all the story, you know why?
Jesus used it two times, the word whole
means inwardly, you see, this woman had a
physical problem, but Jesus did not just meet
her physical problem, he met her spiritual problem
as well, she was not just cleansed externally,
but by her faith she was cleansed internally
as well, and Jesus said, Daughter, your faith
hath made thee whole, you are clean on
the inside, you are clean on the outside,
and the doctor said no hope, and God
said help from the Lord, but please look
if you would, if you would back up
just a few verses, so Mark chapter 5
in verse 21, Mark chapter number 5 in
verse 21, the first hopeless situation dealt with
the devil, the second hopeless situation was because
of a disease, but the third hopeless situation
in Mark chapter 5 was because of death,
and it does not get much more hopeless
than that, Mark chapter 5 in verse 21,
and when Jesus was passed over again by
ship unto the other side, much people gathered
unto him, and he was nigh into the
sea, and behold, there cometh one of the
rulers of the synagogue, Jarius by name, and
when he saw him, he fell to his
feet, and besought him greatly, saying, my little
daughter lieth at the point of death, I
pray thee, come and lay thy hands on
her, that she may be healed, and she
shall live, notice verse 24, and Jesus went
with him, and much people followed him and
thronged him, then is when you have the
story of the lady coming, while Jesus was
actually not going for her, that was kind
of a by-product miracle, it was a
parenthesis miracle, if you will, the reason Jesus
was going that way is because he was
following a man, a ruler of the synagogue
by the name of Jarius, because his daughter
lay well nigh unto death, and she was
fixed to be as dead as four o
'clock in the morning, and he falls down
before the Lord and says, you've got to
follow me, you've got to lay your miracle
-working hands on my daughter, I believe that
you can heal my daughter, and so Jesus
goes, and he heals this lady of her
plague, everybody thronged him, and then the story
again picks itself up, if you will, in
verse 35, did you look there, Mark chapter
5 and verse 35, while he yet faked
there came one from the ruler of the
synagogue's certain which said, notice, thy daughter is
dead, that's pretty plain, thy daughter is dead,
why troublest thou the master any further?
He said, don't even make Jesus walk to
the house, took off the respirator, you know,
she slipped into a coma for a few
moments, but she's dead, and there's no use
in bothering Jesus, trouble the master any further,
verse 36, as soon as Jesus heard the
word that was spoken, he saith unto the
ruler of the synagogue, be not afraid, only
believe, and he suffered no man to follow
him, saith Peter, and James, and John, the
brother of James, to come unto the house
of the ruler of the synagogue, and saith
unto them, them that wept and wailed greatly,
when he was come in, he saith unto
them, why, why make you this a deuce?
He said, what's this big stir all about?
Why make you this a deuce?
And weep, the damsel is not dead, but
sleepeth, so he saith, and they laughed him,
by the way, he says it the same,
they laughed him to scorn, but when he
had put them all out, he taketh the
father and the mother of the damsel, and
them that were with him, and entered in
where the damsel was lying, and he took
the damsel by the hand and said unto
her, Talitha Kuma, which is being interpreted, damsel,
I say unto thee, arise.
Well, here's the word again, and straightway, the
damsel arose and walked, for she was of
the age of twelve years.
But no doubt, you talk about a very
helpless situation, I mean, we could probably maybe
even come up with a hint of help
in the first place.
You know, we could probably come up with
a real hint of help for this lady,
you know, some type of medication we could
give her, some type of support group, and
the second source.
But, you know, there was no hope at
all for the third source.
She was dead.
That young lady's breath had gone from her
body, her brain waves had stopped working, her
heart had stopped beating, no more pulse pulsating
through her body.
She was dead.
Jesus knew that, but he wanted to show
how great his power was.
He was not known as the son of
God, he was the very God of God
in the world.
God in the flesh!
Darius said, you've got to go and heal
my daughter because I know that you and
I are going to be So in the
course of events, we see that the other
story took place.
Finally, one of the rulers of the synagogue
came and said, Darius, don't even bother.
Don't even bother the master.
As heart-breaking and as heart-wrenching as
it is, your daughter's dead and there's nothing
she, you, me, or anybody else can do
about this terrible hope thing.
So Jesus gets there and he sees all
these people and he says, I want all
of you to get out.
He says, y'all sitting right here crying.
He said, there's no need to be crying.
There's no need to be making this a
do.
He said, don't make no funeral preparations, no
arrangements.
Get the flowers out of here.
He said, Peter, James, and John, you're the
only ones I want in the room.
He said, she's not dead, she's sleeping.
And the people chuckled and laughed at him
themselves and they said, she's sleeping?
She's dead.
She's not talking, she's not walking, she's not
moving, she's not breathing, she's dead.
And Jesus said, she's sleeping.
Get out of here.
So they left.
He got Peter, James, and John.
He got the mother, he got the father,
and those who were the closest associates or
relatives probably.
And the Bible says that he brought them
into the room and he comes to this
little girl and he says, Talitha, keep straightway
here.
That young lady got up off that bed
and Jesus looked at those people and said,
give her.
You talk about a hopeless situation.
You talk about something doctor, I mean to
never wake up.
Here is a young lady who just died
literally, physically, clinically dead.
And Jesus walked in, laid the foster and
said those little interesting words and she gets
up, she opens her eyes and she begins
to breathe again and she can hear and
she can see and she begins to talk
90 miles to nothing and Jesus says, give
that little girl something to eat.
She's got to have something to eat.
And the Bible makes the interesting little analogy,
the interesting little phrase.
She was of the age of 12 years
old.
Now I've heard some historians say, take this
for what it's worth.
It doesn't make any difference.
It's not doctrinal.
It's basically philosophical.
Some people believe this.
I don't know if I do or not.
But it certainly makes a good point.
Words in the Bible do mean something I'd
like to remind you of that.
And we do know that the lady who
had an issue of blood had that for
exactly 12 years and we do know historically
and we do know because of the problem
more than likely it was because of the
birth of a baby.
Now here's a young lady who the Bible
tells us who was exactly 12 years old
in the very same context, in the very
same town, who just had a problem.
Jesus went and raised her from the dead.
And maybe, just maybe, some Bible historians believe
that the woman who had the problem for
12 years and the little girl who was
12 years old were basically mother and daughter.
I don't know if that should be the
case.
Take it for what it's worth.
But nonetheless, in all three cases Jesus did
something that he couldn't do.
In all three cases Jesus did something that
none of these people could control.
They could not help the crazy lunatic.
No hope for the crazy man.
Sorry ma'am, you're just gonna have to
go back to the house.
Keep spending your money.
We're gonna keep telling you this, we're gonna
keep telling you that, but there's not a
whole lot we can do.
There's no hope for you.
But you know, when I was just studying
this, and it probably blessed me more than
it blessed anybody in the room tonight, but
I'm gonna be honest with you.
I studied this.
I got a hold of this.
I thought to myself, you know, that's a
beautiful book.
In one chapter of the book, in 43
verses, there were three overwhelmingly hopeless situations that
Jesus, very calmly, very serenely, and very, very
quickly took advantage of, took control of.
He turned the tables, and he turned those
hopeless situations into something that honored and glorified
and magnified this blessed holy name, and in
all three cases, people were there for him.
That's a miracle working title.
Now, I'm gonna tell you something.
You live the Christian life for four days,
or you live the Christian life for 45
years, and it's not gonna take you long
to figure out that you're gonna be back
to those corners that feel like a pretty
hopeless situation.
I mean, you know, we were joking today,
you know, Pastor and Brother Robertson and myself
about the old adage, the check's in the
mail, and we were joking around how we're
still waiting on some of them from several
years, but sometimes you'll get some bills, and
you'll think to yourself, oh, the check's gonna
have to be in the mail, the check's
gonna have to be in the mail, and
you're always amazed how God pays the bills,
and David always pays the bills.
Sometimes we get back into a corner, and
we think to ourselves, there is no way
God is gonna be able to deliver me
out of this situation.
There's no way He can turn this around
for my good and for His glory.
There's no way He can fix this.
There's no way He can heal this problem
in my body.
There's no way He can fix this financial
trouble.
There's no way He can heal the problems
in my marriage.
There's no way He can help my kids.
They're living for the devil, they're living for
themselves, and they're living for the
devil, and they're and they're living for the
devil, living for the devil, and they're living
for
Here's a man who was brought through the
ringer, friend, I mean, God put the chokehold
on him.
And it seemed like a pretty helpless bush.
And all the way through that bush when
you get through here you find out that
the whole time you think of the apostle
Paul.
The apostle Paul had night and a day
in the deep being tossed around like a
toothpick in a bathtub had to be let
over a wall in a bathroom.
I mean, here's a man, he said, I've
suffered perils of nakedness, perils of hunger, perils
of thirst, perils of my own countrymen, perils
of water, perils of this, perils of that.
I mean, perils of everything!
Left for dead in the city of Lystra!
But yet you study the life of the
Apostle Paul, and I'm telling you, he was
in some pretty hopeless and helpless situations.
But every time you see him, why is
that?
I tell you, God wants you to get
to a place where you don't trust Him.
God wants to bring you to a situation
where you don't trust Him, or whoever it
may be.
God wants to completely strip you of all
of your self-righteousness and your selfishness.
And He wants to boil you down and
get you to the place where you're backed
into a wall where you say to yourself,
no hope, no hope, no hope.
When you get in those situations where there's
nothing on the way, and you tonight could
be going through a vice grip Christian experience.
You could be going through an experience right
now with your kids, with your spouse, in
this church, on your job, and I'm telling
you, it seems like there's no way in
the world you're going to get out of
it.
It seems like there's no way in the
world you're going to get out of debt.
It seems like there's no way in the
world you're ever going to be able to
fix this problem.
And you know what?
You're not going to be able to fix
this problem.
And God's going to get you to a
place where you say to yourself, no hope,
no hope, no hope, no hope.
And when there's no hope, that's when it
ends.
I remember just a few weeks ago, I
was preaching in a little town called Mason,
West Virginia.
This is one of the most interesting pastors
I've ever been with in my life.
Every visit we made, we made a ton
of them that week.
Every visit we made, he sang to the
people.
He'd just sing, he'd sing them these little
songs.
He made us, you know, about the Lord.
If they had a piano in the house,
he'd go over there, get up a couple
of chords, you know, he'd play a little
chord deal.
He'd sing them some little songs about the
Lord.
I mean, you talk about an encouragement.
I never met a man who was so
much of an encouragement in my life.
His name was Herb Capehart.
He'd get up in the meeting, and he'd
lead singing.
He'd lead singing down on the front of
the platform with his little old guitar, and
he'd just sing these little old songs.
I mean, he was just the cutest little
old man that you'd ever seen in your
life.
I mean, he was a freaky machine, too.
I never even heard him preach an actual
sermon, but, I mean, he'd preach the announcements.
He'd preach the prayer.
He'd kick his little leg up.
I mean, he was just a cute little
old country church, about 35, 40 people.
And I'll tell you, we had a wonderful,
wonderful meeting.
But, I mean, everywhere we went, that guy
would encourage people, encourage people.
I mean, we went to visit this little
old lady in her house.
She's all by herself.
Her husband had died years and years and
years earlier.
She was 98 years old.
You know, that's a pretty season long.
She'd been saved for 75 years.
I mean, saved and walking with God for
75 years.
That's 50 more years than I've been alive,
amen.
That's a lot.
And so, here, a 98-year-old lady,
I mean, crippled up with all flash.
I mean, couldn't hardly move.
You know, the home health care nurse would
come in and help her, you know, fix
her food or breakfast, lunch, and dinner, help
her get into bed, you know.
I mean, everything had to be helped by
this lady.
She could do anything for this lady.
Her health, you know, wasn't the greatest, but
it wasn't the worst either.
I mean, she could see okay, you know,
respectively.
She could hear pretty good if you got
down close and talked loud enough.
Ninety-eight years old and she's in that
house, and I'll never forget in a million
years what that lady asked that preacher and
what he said.
She said, Brother Capehart, she said, can I
ask you a question?
She said, don't thank me, I'm spiritual.
He said, Brother, I won't thank you, I'm
spiritual.
He didn't call her name.
She'd been a member of his church for
years, but she couldn't get out.
She couldn't ride for me.
She said, can I ask you why God
sent me here for a million years?
He said, I'm in a big hospital.
Whoa, I never heard her like that before.
She said, I'm ready to go to heaven.
She said, I'm always hearing people talk about
heaven and preach about heaven and sing about
heaven.
I hear it on TV and preachers I
watch and the people I listen to on
the radio talk about heaven, and they always
say they're ready to go, but not on
the next train.
She said, preacher, I'm ready to go on
the next train.
She said, I've been ready to go on
the next train for 20 years.
She said, could you tell me why God
would leave a little old 98-year-old
lady in here that somebody's got to change
and somebody's got to shower and somebody's got
to feed and somebody's got to tuck into
the bed like a little bitty kid?
She said, would you mind telling me why
God would leave somebody here like this with
crippling arthritis and, you know, I can't see
as great as I'd like to, can't hear
as good as I'd like to, I can't
get out, I can't minister for the Lord.
Would you mind telling me why God would
let the 98-year-old lady leave?
And that preacher looked at that little old
lady and he said, can you say, praise
the Lord?
And she put her hand on her hip
like this and she said, don't be silly.
He said, well, say it.
She said, right now?
He said, right now.
He said, that's exactly why God's left you
here with crippling arthritis.
So you can praise.
I'm going to tell you why you go
through some hopeful situations sometimes, man.
So you can praise the Lord.
So when you get to the other side,
you can understand and realize that you didn't
see your way out of this one.
We're pretty good at putting up a pretty
good concoction sometimes of getting ourself out of
a mess.
But every now and then, God's going to
put you in a mess you can't get
out of.
Every now and then, God's going to put
you in a mess that your buddies and
your friends and your places can't get you
out of.
You're going to have to get to the
place where God backs you to the point
where you say to yourself, no hope, no
hope, no hope, no hope, no hope.
And when God brings you out on the
other side, you can say to yourself, praise
the Lord.
I was reading it today.
I'm telling you, when hope's all gone, selflessness
is gone.