Luke chapter number 15 of the Bible tonight,
please.
The Gospel of Luke and chapter number 15.
Luke chapter number 15.
Good to see you tonight.
I appreciate so much you being here on
this Tuesday night of our Revival meeting.
And not just any Revival meeting, but the
second week of our Revival meeting.
And we just allow the Lord to get
in this thing and kick out both the
front doors and the back doors and the
side windows.
And I believe God's given us a wonderful,
wonderful time.
And I believe if we keep praying and
keep speaking and keep looking to Him and
keep turning from our wicked ways, as the
Bible commands us in 2 Chronicles 7, 14,
I believe God will continue to pour out
His richest blessings and His Holy Spirit upon
His people here at the Great Baptist Temple.
I will have to be on my best
behavior tonight and for the rest of the
week, as my wife is here now, so
I can't preach near as mean as I've
been preaching in the past.
And of course, you know, I'm just kidding
about that.
I do appreciate my wife.
I could not do what I do in
evangelism if it were not for her.
And they say behind every good man is
a good lady.
And I say to that, hallelujah, amen, a
million and one times, because my wife supports
me.
And I'll tell you, if I didn't believe
this Bible, I wouldn't drag her all over
this country.
I'll tell you that right now.
But I've got a wife that loves me
and I've got a wife that appreciates me.
I'll tell you what, I've got a very
submissive wife as well.
Last time we got in an argument, she
came to me on her knees and she
said, if you don't get out from that
bed, I'll beat the devil out of you.
But anyhow, but the truth of the matter
is, but I appreciate my wife and I
appreciate what God did for her as she
was in Thailand for some time.
But I appreciate so much her being with
me now.
Luke chapter 15, let's all stand, please, out
of respect for God's wonderful word.
Luke 15, I'll begin my reading in just
a moment in verse number 11.
I appreciate our brother here said he just
got in from Florida and he said something
interesting.
He said he was tired, which I'm sure
many of you are.
And I appreciate you being here, although you
are.
And he said it was either go to
the house and sleep or come to the
church.
Well, a lot of Baptist I preach to
get the best of both worlds.
They come to church and go to sleep.
But I hope tonight that you'll listen up
and you'll listen to what the message of
the Bible is tonight.
Luke 15, verse 11, please.
The Bible says in he speaking of Jesus
saying, a certain man had two sons and
the younger of him said to his father,
father, give me the portion of goods that
fall to me.
And he divided under them is living.
Not many days after the younger son gathered
all together and took his journey into a
far country.
And there wasted his substance with riotous living.
And when he had spent all their roles,
a mighty famine in that land.
And he began to be in one.
He went and joined himself to a citizen
of that country.
And he sent him into his field to
feed swine.
And he would have fain filled his belly
with the husk that the swine did eat.
And no man gave unto him.
And when he came to himself, he said,
how many hired servants of my father's have
bread enough to spare?
And I perished with hunger.
I will arise and go to my father
and will say unto him, father, I have
sinned against heaven and before thee.
And am no more worthy to be called
thy son.
Make me as one of thy hired servants.
And he arose and came to his father.
But when he was yet a great way
off, his father saw him.
And had compassion and ran and fell on
his neck and kissed him and said unto
him, father, I have sinned against heaven and
in thy sight and am no more worthy
to be called thy son.
The father said to his servants, bring forth
the best robe and put it on him
and put a ring on his hand and
shoes on his feet and bring him on
the fatted calf and kill it and let
us eat and be married.
This, my son, was dead and is alive
again.
He was lost and is found and they
began to be married.
And I want to bring you a simple
message entitled Some Consideration Before You Pack Your
Bag.
Thank you very much.
You may be seated.
Let's bow our heads and hearts and ask
the Lord to bless our time together.
Now, father, once again, I pray that the
Holy Spirit of God would have complete reign
and complete sway and control of the service
tonight.
Father, I pray that I would preach in
the next few minutes all of thee and
none of me.
Father, impact me at this time.
Fill me with thy spirit.
Empower me, I pray.
And Lord, just as much, I pray you
would empower this congregation as they listen.
Lord, no doubt perhaps there's even one in
here tonight that has never genuinely been converted,
never truly been born again, never really been
become a Christian.
And Lord, tonight I pray the spirit of
God would do his convincing and his convicting
work in their heart and mind and show
them their utter desperate need of Christ.
And then for God's people who perhaps are
like this young man in Luke 15, I
pray tonight again that you would comfort with
all God that you would convict.
Have your will and way.
And may tonight you lead us in a
Holy Spirit, heartfelt, old-fashioned Bible revival.
And Lord, we'll give you all the praise,
honor, and glory for everything that's said and
done.
For we ask it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Now, what I do not want to do
tonight from Luke chapter number 15 is debate
about the spiritual condition of this young man.
There are many people in the day and
age in which we live, and I suppose
there's different categories of preachers.
There's different, obviously, categories of denominations.
But there's been a great debate for years
about the young man in this portion of
Scripture.
Was he saved?
Was he lost?
Was he saved?
Was he lost?
You can believe what you want to, but
I believe tonight, and I'm going to preach
this message as if this young man were
a blood-bought, born-again child of God.
I am aware of one thing and one
thing only.
I'm aware of the fact that before he
left home, he called the man in the
story his father.
I'm aware of the fact that when he
went down the long, dusty road of sin
with a knapsack of the devil on his
back, I'm still aware, he still called the
man in the story his father.
And when he got out of the slop
and dropped it and went to his daddy's
house, he still called the man in the
story father.
And so when he was doing good, when
he was doing evil, and when he came
home to repent, the man in the story
was still this young man's father.
And so I believe that is a picture
that here is a child of God.
Here is a person that was a Christian.
This is not somebody that was lost and
came home and got saved.
And by the way, I've also heard theologians,
and they call themselves that, debate as to
whether this young man had salvation and lost
his salvation.
There's just one problem with that.
You're eternally secure when you get saved by
the grace of God.
And friend, I'll tell you one thing.
I won't get a big head about it,
but I could swing over hell in a
rotten cornstalk, spit the devil in the eye
and sing Amazing Grace, friend.
I've got my salvation, and it ain't going
anywhere.
My Bible tells me in Ephesians 4.30,
And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God,
whereby ye are sealed under the day of
redemption.
And since the day of redemption has not
taken place, speaking of the rapture, I've still
got the sealing of the Spirit of Almighty
God.
I had a charismatic lady come to me
one night, and she tried to tell me
what I believed.
She said, I know what you believe.
She said, you're one of them Baptists, and
you believe that you can make a profession
and go out and live like the devil
and live like you want to, and you're
still saved.
I said, no, ma'am, I do not
believe that.
I said, I sometimes think that was unfair
of you saying it.
I said, I don't believe that whatsoever.
I said, I believe if a man makes
a profession and goes out and lives like
the devil, that's all he got was a
profession.
Because when a man gets saved, he don't
want to go out and live like the
devil.
I believe when a man, woman, boy, and
girl get saved, they will want to live
right, and they will want to live godly.
And yes, you might get upset, and yes,
you might be rebellious every now and then
and fall all over yourself, but you won't
live a wicked life.
Just like we said last night, you live
like hell, and you'll die and go to
hell, my dear friend.
That's not Greg, that's Almighty God.
And so tonight we are dealing with a
young man that was saved by the grace
of God.
Was not lost and got saved.
Was not saved and lost it.
Another lady came to me one time, and
I preached on eternal security one night, and
she got all mad and hot in the
face.
And she said, I know one thing.
She said, one of us is wrong about
this eternal security business.
I said, yes, ma'am, I know more
than that.
I know which one of us it is,
because I know what my Bible says.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to tell you,
here was a young man in this portion
of Scripture that was saved by grace, through
faith, washed in the blood, but he backslid
on his father.
And I want you to see tonight the
message, some considerations before you pack your bags.
There's some things I want you to see
in this portion of Scripture, in Luke chapter
number 15, that is very dire and very
necessary that we deal with tonight.
In case you're planning a trip away from
God's house very soon, or in case you're
planning a trip to get away from the
presence of God, or if you're a backslider
tonight, there's some things I want you to
consider before you pack your bags.
I want you to look, please, at verse
number 14.
In verse number 14, excuse me, back up
to verse number 13, would you?
The Bible says, and not many days after,
the younger son gathered all together and took
his journey into a far country, and there
wasted his substance with riotous, does not say
righteous, but with riotous living.
The first consideration I want you to see
tonight is, number one, what I call the
distance.
Here was a young man that went to
his father one day, and he said, Father,
he said, give me the portions of goods
that falleth to me.
Now, he had earned a living.
His father did owe him that, because he
had been put in a store, and so
he said, Father, I'm sick of your rules.
He said, I'm sick of your mandates.
I'm sick of your legalism.
I'm sick of your funny mentalism, and all
this, that, and the other.
He said, I'm ready to go out and
sow my wild oats and have myself a
good jolly time.
He said, I think I'll take my money.
And the Bible says that the younger son
gathered all together and took his journey into
a far country.
Now, I want you to see, ladies and
gentlemen, that the word far is the key
word in that verse.
It does not say he went to his
neighbor's backyard.
It does not say he went 15 miles
down the road.
And no, it does not say that he
went merely to a country.
It uses that small little word, F-A
-R, he went into a far country.
And I believe what the Spirit of God
is trying to show His dear people tonight
is simple.
It is when you get away from God
and when you get involved in sin, it
will always take you a long and a
lot farther down the road than you ever
wanted to go, my dear friend.
The very first song that our dear group
sang tonight, sin will take you farther than
you want to go, cost you longer than
you want to pay, and keep you a
whole lot longer than you ever want to
stay.
And here was a man, you will never
convince me in a million years, that he
thought he would actually get that far from
the Father's house.
And the first thing you need to consider
as a backslider is when you get your
life involved in sin, it will always hold
on to you longer, it will cost you
more, and take you a long way from
the Father's house, and you'll wake up sometimes
thinking to yourself, how did I ever get
in the mess that I'm in?
Let me give you an illustration along these
lines.
By the grace of God, I preach all
over this country, and here's the type of
people I meet.
I go to a church one year, Pastor,
and people are Sunday schoolers, Sunday morning, Sunday
night, Wednesday night, Bible meeting, missions conference, soul
winners.
I mean, they're on fire for God.
I mean, they'll charge hell with a squirt
pistol.
I mean, they just want to live for
God.
They want to do everything they can.
They can't get enough of the Bible.
And I go back the next year, and
I begin to ask the pastor about them,
and they're not there in the church anymore,
and they have all these problems.
And they come to me in a revival
meeting, and then I begin to slowly but
surely see what began to seize in their
life.
Here's what happened.
They were Sunday school, Sunday morning, Sunday night,
Wednesday night, revival meeting.
Every time the doors were open, all of
a sudden they decided they'd drop Sunday school.
After all, nobody will probably know.
And so they dropped out of Sunday school,
and then they were Sunday morning, Sunday night,
Wednesday night, and nobody really noticed, and if
it was a larger church, perhaps the pastor
didn't even pay much attention.
And so all of a sudden, you know
the very next thing that drops off, prayer
meeting.
Somebody said, by the way, not too long
ago, that the Sunday morning crowd shows the
popularity of the church.
The Sunday night crowd shows the popularity of
the pastor, for those that come back to
hear him preach.
And the Wednesday night prayer meeting proves the
popularity of Jesus.
And might I just say, he's not real
popular in a lot of independent Baptist churches
that I preach in.
And so the first thing that takes off
is Sunday school.
The second thing that takes off is Wednesday
night, and you've got the next one.
The next thing that takes off is Sunday
night.
They start thinking to themselves that God and
everybody else in the church owes them a
favor.
And after all, it wouldn't do me too
much harm just to go to Sunday morning,
just to hear a little bit of red
-hot fiery preaching, and amen a little bit
on Sunday, and live like the cotton-picking
devil on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
and the following Sunday.
And so they, all of a sudden, their
Sunday school, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night,
then Sunday school goes, then Wednesday night goes,
then Sunday evening goes, then guess what goes?
All together, the church goes all together.
And they begin to forsake the assembly, they
begin to make excuses.
And Daddy gets a bigger boat, and they
start going out fishing.
And Mama gets a little bit of a
later job, and starts working more on Wednesday
nights, and she starts working more on Saturday
nights, and she gets in so late in
the evening that they don't want to come
to church anymore.
And they allow Johnny and Junior just to
kind of sleep in until the sun warms
their feet and watch all the Pokemon and
all the crazy cartoons on TV, instead of
coming to the house of God.
And then they come to me in a
revival meeting, and they say, Bubba Long, my
marriage is on the rocks, my kids are
serving the devil, I'm so frustrated, I wake
up every morning as empty as a burnt
out volcano, what do I do?
I'm so confused, what has happened?
I'll tell you what happened.
Sin hit you a lot farther than you
ever intended to go.
And friend, I'm telling you tonight, you better
consider what I told you.
I read a story not long ago about
a young lady that was 18 years old.
Her father told her, you will not date,
you will not see a young man, you
will not do any of that until you're
18 years old.
And so on her 18th birthday, she was
all excited she was going to get to
go out for the first time.
She went to a large Christian high school,
and she was going to be dating one
of the so-called young Christian Don Juan
Suave members in the school.
And so man, she was excited, and he
was excited.
Well, the day came.
And it was her 18th birthday, and man,
sure enough, about 6.30, 7 o'clock,
knock came the door.
Man, it wasn't the Jehovah's Witness, it wasn't
the Avon lady, it was Mr. Don Juan
Suave.
And here he was, he had 15 cans
of Ray hairspray all in his hair, you
know.
He had a great big old dozen roses,
and man, he was excited.
His little heart was about to beat, slam
out of his chest, and all of a
sudden the door opened.
And you can imagine it was kind of
a slow motion.
And she came walking down, and she had
her beautiful dress on, had her little bow
in her hair.
And he thought to himself, whoa, good giggly
wiggly.
Look at her, man, I'm so excited.
And so she came down the steps, and
they came in.
He sat on one side of the room,
and she sat on the other side of
the room.
And daddy set the full shotgun and said,
you better be home by 10 o'clock,
amen.
And so they began to talk.
And so he says, now you treat my
daughter with respect.
And you love my daughter.
You take care of my daughter.
And don't you lay your hands on my
daughter, because she's my property, not your property,
to the day you say, I do.
And then some of you daddies say, amen,
because if you don't, I will.
So anyhow, here was this man, and he
gave them all of these rules and regulations.
And so man, he grabs her by the
arm.
He gives her the roses.
Boy, she gives.
Oh, boy, she's just kind of, she's just
swelling up like a watermelon inside.
Boy, she's so excited.
Here she is, 18 years old, going on
her first date with a boy.
He opens the car door.
And there was already another couple.
One man was driving.
Young lady was sitting up front, so he
opened the back door, set her there.
Went around the back, got in the car.
Man, going on a double date, the best
one, amen.
And so they go down to get something
to eat.
But before they got something to eat, they
stopped by the little park.
They fed the ducks, began to talk.
And man, he was even nice and even
led in prayer.
Oh, how noble of him.
Even led in prayer before they pulled out
to go to the area.
And so finally, when they were through there
in that park area, they decided they was
going to go get themselves something to eat.
And so they pulled into this dimly lit
restaurant.
Man, people were standing around, sucking on their
cigarettes.
And the Bud Light and the Budweiser and
the Michelob signs were blinking.
She could see the smoke just billowing out
of there like it's some kind of rock
concert.
Every time the doors would swing in and
out, it looked like some type of saloon.
And she could hear the rock music, see
people standing around with the pool.
Sticks in their hand, men having themselves a
good time.
The money was just a-flying.
And she said within herself, I'm not going
in.
All of a sudden, he said, let's go.
And he noticed some hesitancy on her face.
And he said, what do you mean, you're
not going to go?
And she said, no, I'm just not going
to go.
She said, my daddy taught me how to
go to places like that.
And he said, come on.
He said, this is a nice restaurant.
He said, your daddy's not going to go.
Why don't you worry about it?
He said, just get out of the car
and come on.
The other couple had already pulled out and
started walking to the door.
She said, you do anything you want to.
She said, call me a cab.
She said, get mad, take me home.
We'll never take down another date.
But she said, take me to the house.
He said, I know what your problem is.
He said, you're a sissy.
He said, you're scared your daddy's going to
get in his little pickup truck and drive
all over this town on your first date.
And he's going to pass by Shoney's.
He's going to pass by Ponderosa.
And he's going to pass by all the
Chinese buffets.
And pass by Crystal's and McDonald's and Burger
King.
He's going to pass all the other places
in town.
And you're scared.
You're just afraid, little girl, that your daddy's
going to drive by here and see my
car in the parking lot.
And when you get home, you're scared what
your daddy's going to do to you because
you came to this place.
She began to cry and she said, that's
not true whatsoever.
She said, take me home.
She said, you've got it all wrong.
She said, when I get home, I'm not
scared of what my daddy's going to do
to me.
She said, but I am scared and I
am afraid of what I might do to
my daddy.
My dear friend, you hear me and you
hear me well.
The question to ask when you begin to
prodicalize and walk away from God, the question
to ask when you get your life involved
in sin, is not what is God going
to do to me, but what are you
going to do to God, my dear friend?
Because your sin grieves the heart of a
holy God.
And if He likes it, you should like
it.
And if He hates it, you should hate
it.
If it bothers Him, then bless God Almighty,
it ought to bother you and it ought
to bother me.
And did you know that your sin does
not just affect you, it affects your spouse,
it affects your kids, it affects people in
this church, people in this community, and it
affects your effectiveness and your testimony and your
witness for the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you better be careful, friend, because sin
will take you a long way from the
Father's house.
And for number one, we see tonight what
I call the distance.
I want you to look at these words
again, please, at verse number 14.
The Bible says in verse number 14, and
when he had spent all, it does not
say when he had spent some, it says
when he had spent all, there arose a
mighty famine in that land and he began
to be in law, back up to verse
number 13.
And not many days after, the younger son
gathered all together and took his journey to
a far country and there wasted, you get
that, and there in that far country, and
there wasted his substance or his money, his
inheritance, with riotous living.
The first consideration is what I call the
distance, but the second consideration is what I
call the disposal.
Get the picture.
Here's a young man that comes to his
father.
He puts the rake down, he puts the
hoe down, he parks the John Deere tractor
in the garage and says, Daddy, I'm sick
and tired of your rules and I'm sick
and tired of your work.
It's interesting to me, here was a young
man that left home because he got tired
of working, but he ended up working in
a home theater.
And so he said, Daddy, I'm sick of
working, I'm sick of your rules and regulations,
I'm sick of praying, I'm sick of family
devotion, I'm sick of church three or four
times a week, I'm tired of it, I'm
going to go out on my own.
And did you notice, my dear friend, did
you notice that his father never tried to
stop him?
Did you notice that?
His father did not stop him.
Now, he probably told him, I know best.
He probably told him, listen son, I know
what you're going through, and I felt this
way when I was your age too, but
son, I know best, but I'm not going
to stop you.
And might I tell you that God will
give you a preacher to preach the living
devil out of you, and God will give
you the Holy Spirit to convict you, and
God will give you a Bible and say,
my way's best.
But he won't stop you if you're ready
to go.
If you want to go, friend, you will
go, and if you want to stay, you
will stay.
I don't believe in that business about God
preordained some to heaven and preordained some to
hell, and God knows that God puts you
in sin, and God pulls you out of
sin.
Bless God, you'll get your life in sin,
and you'll get your life out of sin,
my dear friend.
And here was a man that considered not
the distance and considered not the disposal, and
he lost everything.
It doesn't say he spent $15.
He lost everything.
And the Bible says, out there appealing to
his flesh, out there serving the old slew
foot, the devil, out there in the wicked,
bow up.
How he wasted it, we don't know, but
we do know it was riotous misery.
I mean, he wasted his life and wasted
his substance when he could be living, loving,
and working for his Father.
Might I say something tonight without apology?
If you tonight are a blood-born, born
-again child of God, and you live your
life outside the dictates of the will of
God, and you live your life outside the
dictates of the ways and the word of
God, and you live your life tonight as
a Christian, any way you jolly well please,
might I just say, friend, you are wasting
your life away.
You are wasting your time.
You are wasting God's time.
You are wasting God's people's time.
And if you are a child of God
that lived your life, my dear friend, you
are wasting your substance.
And I meet people all over this country,
all over this country that, oh yes, every
now and then they knock on the door
of a church.
Every now and then they even crack the
Bible.
Every now and then they pray.
Every now and then they give.
Every now and then they come forward and
they make some type of decision, my dear
friend.
But for the most part, they are wasting
their life.
And they're taking up space in the work
of God.
And they're causing other people to fall by
the wayside.
You can be one of two things tonight,
and one of two things only.
You can be a stumbling block, or you
can be a stepping stone.
And because of the life of many independent
Baptists that my wife and I meet all
over this country, many people are stumbling over
other people's lives when your life should be
used as a stepping stone to bring that
person closer to Jesus Christ.
And here was a man that did not
consider the distance, but it still happened.
Here was a man that did not consider
the disposal, but it still happened, and he
wasted his life.
My Bible tells me, redeeming the time for
the days of evil.
Friend, we don't have time to float around
with life.
We don't have time to float around with
sin and to mess around with ungodliness because
we are in a warfare.
This is not a Goldman Bailey circus.
This is not a game.
This is not playtime, my dear friend.
This is a time of warfare when God's
people are to fight, not disposing and wasting
of their life, but using the assets, the
abilities, the gifts, and the talents that God
has given to us.
And tonight, here was a young man that
had to face the distance of being in
a poor country, and he had to face
the fact that he was flat-busted.
He was flat-broke and had absolutely nothing
whatsoever to show for his wayward lifestyle.
But I want you to look at what
now plays at verse number 14 again.
The Bible says in verse 14, And when
he had spent all, there arose a mighty
famine in that land.
Please get this.
And he, the young prodigal, began to be
in war.
Number one, the distance.
Number two, the disposal.
But number three, what I call the desire.
You know, here's a young man that had
everything handed to him on a silver platter.
Here's a young man that had a nice
bed to sleep in, had a nice, leaky
-free roof over his head at night.
Here's a man that no doubt probably had
some silver pillows or something.
I mean, he had a nice soft mattress.
He had a nice table to put his
feet under.
He had a nice family.
I don't know if he had sisters.
We do know that he had brothers because
one of them got mad at him for
coming home.
And so, we do know that he had
a father.
No doubt then he had a mother.
He had servants that served his father.
And since he was the next of kin,
since he was the son, no doubt the
servants would serve him as well.
And so, I mean, he was high living,
friend.
I'm talking about high class.
He had everything handed to him on a
silver platter.
But one day he said, Daddy, I think
I'm going to go my own way.
And when he went his own way, when
he finally got out of the wicked, wily
ways of the world, he wished in himself
that he would have never left him again.
And I meet people all over this country,
they say, I wish I'd have never done
it not even one time.
I wish I'd have never left.
Hey, you ask David.
You ask David, friend.
The Bible says in 2 Samuel 11, in
verse number 1, that it was a time
when kings go forth to battle.
I do not know what all that means,
but I do know that David was supposed
to be there.
And the Bible says that David stayed at
home and he walked on the roof of
his house.
And the Bible says in verse number 3,
he saw a woman bathing herself and she
was very beautiful to look upon.
I'm going to tell you something right now.
You know what that word, that phrase, look
upon, means?
It does not mean that he saw her
and said, Oh God, please forgive me for
what I've seen.
And Lord, blot that out of my memory.
Take that away from my heart.
The word look upon means that he took
a casual stare.
It'll bite you too.
And David wished in himself that he would
have never committed such an immoral, adulterous vow
on occasion.
Because it cost him and his family.
It cost him and his body.
It cost him a child.
And it cost him even in the kingdom.
And so don't you tell me, my dear
friend, that you won't one day wish, Oh,
I wish to God I never would have
done it.
Let's use David as an illustration again.
It's amazing to me how God said David
was a man after his own heart.
But David fouled up a lot in the
Bible.
I'm glad God's got forgiveness.
But here was a man named David, the
Bible says, in 2 Samuel, nearing to the
end, it says that he went out and
numbered the people against the word of the
Lord.
God said, Don't you go out and number
the people.
Don't you go out and think you're some
kind of big shot because you've got a
bunch of people out there.
Don't you think you're something because you've got
the biggest Sunday school, Mr. David.
The Bible says that he had Joab go
out and count them anyhow.
And God said, Because you've done this, there's
going to be three great cataclysmic judgments that
are going to come upon the Israelites.
And he finally threw himself on the mercy
of God rather than on the wrath of
man.
And the Bible says that thousands and thousands
and thousands of the Israelites died in one
day.
And don't you think the desire of David
in his mind when he laid his head
on his pillow that night was, Oh, God,
I wish I'd have never numbered the crazy
people.
And here was a young man, the Bible
says, and he began to be in want.
You know what he wanted?
He wanted his father back.
He wanted his bed back.
He wanted his inheritance back.
Hey, he wanted his old sweaty, mule-infested
job back.
He wanted his old dirty dog back.
He just wanted to get out of the
mess that he had dug for himself, friend.
The Bible says he began to be in
want.
But I want you to go on in
your reading, if you would, please, and look
at verse number 16.
Oh, what sad verses these are.
Verse number 16, my Bible says, and he
would have fainted, filled his belly with the
hush that the swine or the pigs did
eat, and no man gave unto him.
This is what I call the desertion.
Everybody deserted him.
Everybody left him.
It's interesting to me, Dr. LeBond, when this
young man had a lot of money, he
had a lot of friends.
When this young man had the dope, when
this young man had all the booze, when
this young man had all the young ladies,
he had all of the friends.
But it's interesting to me, when he was
flat busted, he didn't have a friend one.
The Bible says, and no man gave unto
him.
That doesn't mean that every now and then
somebody dropped a penny in his little cup.
No, that means that no man gave unto
him, and everybody left him.
I'm not giving my full testimony here at
this church, and I probably will not unless
the Lord leads me to do that on
Friday night.
But let me just say this.
I was in trouble a lot with the
law before I got saved by God's grace.
I was in court six different times.
They put me on probation five different times.
They got tired of seeing my face, and
I was just about on a first-name
basis with the judge.
He locked my father up about 20 years
before I got there the first time, and
he told me the last time I was
there, if you ever stand before me again,
son, I'm going to lock your cell up
in a jail cell until you're 21, 22
years old, and you will not see the
light of day, and you'll rot in the
same jail cell your daddy did for five
or six years.
So he said, you better straighten up your
life.
But you know what it's interesting to me?
Every time I stole a gun, every time
I stole a go-kart, every time I
got in trouble for vandalism, every time I
got in trouble for fighting, no matter what
it was for, every single time, even if
it wasn't a court sentence, if I was
just maybe brought home after a curfew at
2 or 3 or 4 or 5 o
'clock in the morning, something like that, you
know what's interesting to me?
There was never a time, I emphasize the
word never, there was never a time that
I ever got in trouble with the law
that I did it by myself.
I wasn't that stupid.
I wasn't dumb enough to steal something by
myself.
I wanted somebody to fall down with me,
you know.
I was one of them thieves, you know.
I wanted a little help.
I wanted a little encouragement, you know.
I wanted somebody to prod me along, drive
the getaway car, something I didn't want to
do by myself.
Because if I got caught, I wasn't the
only one who was going to take the
rap.
I wasn't the only one who was going
to take the blame, if you will.
And so I wanted some help in this
thing.
Every time I ever did anything stupid, it
was always, always with somebody else.
Let me tell you what's interesting about that.
All six times I stood before that judge
in Lebanon, Tennessee, I was by myself every
time.
Every single time.
You know what?
Not one time did I have one of
my friends jump up and say, oh judge,
judge, it wasn't Gregory Wayne Love's fault.
It was my fault.
I did it.
I cooked up the idea.
Man, it was my concoction.
It was my program.
It was my problem.
It was my plan.
Hey, sentence me.
Put me on probation.
Hey, don't make him pay all that money,
that lawyer.
Not one single time in all of those
years did one of my friends stand up
and tell me that it was their fault.
Not, not, no.
When the problems came, they all scattered like
a bunch of cockroaches when you turn the
lights on.
They were gone and not to be found.
But it's interesting to me when the trouble
kind of settled and when the heat was
turned down, they were right back with me.
Getting in trouble again.
Sirens start blaring.
The ghost, raptured friend, out of there.
And I'm left to take the blame.
Now, there's a couple of reasons for that,
but I'd say the first one's the biggest
one.
I had the wrong kind of friend.
Now, you get mad at me if you
want to.
I'm leaving on Friday night, but I'm going
to tell you something right now.
I don't care if it's your family.
I don't care if you call them your
best friend.
I don't care if they're sitting in the
pew with you.
I don't care if you talk to them
on the phone for 15 hours a week.
If they call you their friend, but they
take you farther from God and do not
bring you closer to God, they are not
your friendless God.
They are your enemy.
My Bible tells me in Amos 3, verse
number 3, can two walk together except they
be agreed?
And as I learned in Mexico, no way,
Jose.
It just don't work that way, friend.
And God says, come out from among them.
Don't you be unequally yoked together.
Hey, God said, mark the fornicators.
Mark the heretics.
Mark those people that don't live right.
We have no company whatsoever with evildoers, the
Bible says.
And friend, I'm telling you, if you got
the wrong kind of friend, you'll never have
the right kind of relationship with God.
Did you hear me?
If you have the wrong kind of friend,
you will never have the right relationship with
Almighty God.
We think this idea of friend just deals
with teenagers.
Hey, I've met a lot of middle-aged
people and a lot of adults and a
lot of elderly people that had messed up,
ruined lives because of their friend.
And no man gave unto him because his
friends were kind of the money talker.
His friends were only there for the good
times.
His friends were only there for the high
life, if you will.
But when he got out to what he
considered the high life, he figured out he
turned out to be a low life.
And I want to show you that.
If you'd please look in your Bibles now,
please, at verse number 17.
In verse number 17 of Luke 15, the
Bible says, And when he, this young man,
came to himself, he said, How many hired
servants of my father's have bread enough and
despair, and I perish with hunger.
I will arise and go to my father
and will say unto him, Father, I have
sinned against heaven and before thee, and no
more worthy to be called thy son.
Make me as one of thy hired servants.
We'll get to verse 20 in just a
moment, but this is what I call the
disappointment.
The Bible says right there in verse number
17, And when he came to himself.
Plot version.
Let me tell you what I think that
verse means.
I think he just got to the place
where he realized what a fool he was
for ever leaving home.
He came to himself.
You see, for a while, man, he had
this big vision of what it was going
to be like in the world.
I guess probably one of the best illustrations
of this is about two and a half,
three weeks ago when I was preaching in
Los Angeles, California, and I told you some
of the crazy gruesome stories, some of the
gurus and spooks and boogers and kooks that
I met out there.
I mean, some crazy folks.
But they took me to the most famous
corner in the world, Hollywood and Vine.
You know what was at Hollywood and Vine?
Nothing.
A bunch of drunks and winos, a bunch
of harlots and whore mongers walking around.
I didn't see one cotton-picking movie star
walking around.
If I would, I probably wouldn't know who
it was.
I definitely wasn't going to jump out.
Well, you signed my Bible.
I didn't see one thing at Hollywood and
Vine.
You know, I thought it was going to
be something to see those...
I thought I was going to walk in
front of that big Chinese theater and see
all those handprints and all those names.
I said, I want to go see all
the names of the stars.
You know what it is?
It's all the way down the sidewalk, all
the way through New York.
It's not just one little place.
It's just all over the place.
Bubblegum sticking on it here.
Some drunk guy's vomit laying on it here.
Trash and all kinds of junk laying on
it here.
Cigarette butts laying all over the place.
I mean, it was nothing.
And this young man had the idea that,
hey, when I get out there, man, it's
going to be something.
When he got out there, he was greatly
disappointed.
And let me tell you something, friends.
You will be too.
Here's a young man that more than likely
laid in his bed at night and said,
you know what?
My mom and daddy won't let me watch
HBO, Hell's Box Office, and Cinemax, and Send
to the Max, and David Lettermouth, and Orphan
Windbag, and the rest of that mess on
TV.
So I'll tell you what.
I'll get out of here, and I'll go
watch it myself.
And so he laid there.
He got to the place where his thoughts
completely induced his mind.
And the more he thought about it, and
the more he thought about it, the more
dominating impact it had upon his heart and
his life.
And, friends, if you're not careful, you'll think
about something so much that you'll end up
doing it.
Now, you please hear me tonight.
It is not a sin to be tempted.
But when opportunity and temptation meet on the
road of life, you better look out.
And the devil's always going to make dead
sure that Mr. Temptation and Mr. Opportunity come
around the same bin at the same time.
And here was a young man that thought
about it.
And he said, man, mom and daddy won't
let me do it, but bless God, I'll
just go out and sow my wild oath,
and I will do it myself.
The Bible says that when he got out
there, he found out it wasn't all that
it was cracked up to be.
It wasn't all the newspapers made it sound
to be, young people.
It wasn't all that the Hollywood stars and
the people on TV and MTV and all
this kind of stuff.
It wasn't at all what they had portrayed
it.
It was real out there.
You see, what comes on the screen is
not real.
It's kind of proliferated.
It's made up.
It's made to do.
And I'm going to tell you something, friend.
When he got out there, he found out,
hey, this ain't a sitcom.
This ain't a sitcom.
This is a mess.
This is a cesspool.
And the Bible says he was greatly, greatly
disappointed that he ever left his father's house
to begin with.
Now, I would do you tonight a great
injustice if I said, all right, heads bowed,
eyes closed, we're going to the house.
Because we've painted a pretty dismal picture about
this young man.
I mean, we've made him out to look
pretty wicked, pretty vile.
And can I remind you, I'm not going
to let you off the hook.
If you are a backsider, now, as a
God, you are being wicked.
You are being vile.
You are being ungodly.
But I'm glad the story doesn't stop there.
I'm glad, thank God, we got verse number
24.
Verse number 20 through 24.
Look at verse number 20, would you please?
My Bible says in verse number 20, and
he arose.
Now, wait a minute.
Who put him down there?
Did his daddy drag him out of the
house and say, son, you are out of
here.
Go to a hog pen.
No, he found himself in the hog pen
and he had to find himself out of
the hog pen.
And so the Bible says in verse number
20, and he arose and came to his
father.
But when he, the young man, was yet
a great way off, his father saw him.
Huh, he must have been looking, huh?
And had compassion and ran and fell on
his neck and kissed him.
And the son said unto him, father, I
have sinned against heaven in thy sight.
Had him no more words to be called
thy son.
But the father said to his servants, bring
forth the best robe and put it on
him.
And put a ring in his hand and
shoes on his feet and bring his with
a fatted calf and kill it and let
us eat and be merry.
But as my son was dead and his
alive again, he was lost and is found,
and they, the people of the household, they
began to be merry.
This is in closing, and which is the
moment we go to the house, what I
call the delight.
Oh, he had to consider the distance.
Oh, it took him a long ways.
He had to experience friendly disposal.
Wasted all of his substance on riotous living.
When he had spent all, every dime that
he had in his pocket, all of it.
And then he had to consider the fact
that now he desired, he began to be
in want.
Oh, he was a beggar.
He wanted something.
Somebody that had everything and lost everything because
of his wicked lifestyle.
Then he had that time of disappointment when
he realized what a foolish, foolish young man
he really was.
He had that time of desertion when everybody
left him.
But I'm glad we also got this time
of delight.
Because one day he was laying in that
hog pen.
And by the way, let me show you
just how far sin will take you.
Can I remind you who's giving this story?
It's Jesus.
Can I remind you who he's giving it
to?
He's giving it to Jews.
Now, you read your Bible, my dear friend.
You're going to find out something.
That Jews and swine did not mix.
They didn't eat swine.
They didn't feed swine.
They didn't touch swine.
They didn't talk about pigs.
And here's a young Jewish boy, not only
talking about them, he's living with them and
eating what they eat.
Now, don't you tell me sin won't take
you a long ways from God, friend, because
it will.
And so one day he stood up.
Maybe he got himself a little mirror that
he found somewhere.
He spit on that mirror and he dusted
off and he looked himself in the face,
realized what a fool that he really was.
And he said, I'll tell you what I'm
going to do.
Bless God, I'm going to dust off my
dirty duds, I'm going to fix my tennis
shoes, and I'm going back to the house.
He said, I'm sick of this mess.
I know my daddy will take me.
Hey, he must have known that his daddy
would take him back since he knew he
was going to go back to the house.
He didn't go farther into the world.
No, he thought to himself, it might be
a bad situation.
I might get my tail tore up when
I get back, but I'm going back because
I know daddy will take me back.
And so he got up and the Bible
says that he began to rehearse a little
speech.
I don't know, maybe he pulled out a
little piece of paper, maybe he started writing
it down.
And so he memorized that thing.
And all day long he rehearsed that thing
and rehearsed that thing until he got it
just down just right like he wanted.
Every syllable, every vowel.
I mean, just perfect.
And so he made his long trip home.
So how did he know it was long?
The Bible says he was in a park
up there.
He wasn't next door.
And so he made his long, dusty road
trip all the way back to the house.
And before he even got home...
Boy, I like this.
The Bible says that while he was yet
a great way off, his father saw him.
And I'm going to tell you something, friends.
I'm not going to take liberties with the
Bible.
I'll let the text and the Word of
God speak for itself.
But you'll never convince me as a preacher
in a million years that his father did
not sit on that porch every day just
waiting for his son to come home.
My Bible tells me in Hebrews 13, God
will get tired of your mess.
He'll cut off your day of grace and
kill you and take you to heaven because
he can get a whole lot more glory
from you up there than he can down
here.
You say, well, I just don't believe God
will do that.
Hey, friend, visit the hospital sometime.
And you visit some places where some of
God's people got involved in sin and you'll
see that they would not get right.
They would not get right.
And so God just went ahead and killed
them and took them to heaven.
You say, whew.
And I'll tell you what, brother, that lets
me off the hook because man alive, God
don't spank me.
God don't bother me.
That's because God don't spank the devil's children.
God spanks one group of people, friend, and
that's saved people.
He don't bother with the devil's crowd.
Oh, he'll convict you and try to get
you right with God, but if you want
to consist in your reprobation and consist in
your wickedness and your violence, hey, that's fine.
God is not going to correct the lost
person, but you better believe he'll take your
tail to the woodshed if you're a child
of God.
And if God never wears you out, I
definitely need to know what kind of pills
you're on because he wears me out all
of the time.
I mean, I've got trap marks all over
me where God beats me upside the head.
I mean, he takes me to the woodshed,
friend, and wears me out sometimes.
But he gets me home.
And here was a man that knew his
son was going to come home.
Didn't know how long it would be, but
knew he would be there.
And the Bible says, while it was yet
a great way off, his father saw him.
The Bible says that he ran, had compassion
on him, and he fell on his neck
and kissed him.
You know what's interesting?
That boy started quoting that speech and didn't
even get to finish it.
He said, Father, I've sinned against heaven and
thy sight and no more will I be
called thy son.
He said, Stop right there.
I don't want to hear another word.
He said, Hey, servant, bring forth a bestrobe
and put it on him.
Put shoes on his feet.
Kill a fatted calf.
Hey, don't just go get some chicken or
some goat or some turkey.
Man, you kill a fatted calf, we're going
to have ourselves a feast.
For this my son was dead, and is
alive again.
He was lost and is found.
The Bible says, they began to be merry.
Everybody in the house was excited except one
person, his brother.
And there's always going to be somebody that
gets mad, rolls their eyes, and blows that
when you come back to God, but that
don't make any difference, friend.
You need to come back anyhow in spite
of the crowd.
And there was somebody that got mad, but
oh, the father was rejoicing.
And the father was excited.
And you know what I'm glad about?
I'm glad his father didn't just stop him
right there and pitch him up by his
holsters and say, Son, I'm going to ask
you a question right now.
You give me the name of every harlot
you've ever been in.
You tell me every place you've ever bought
cigarettes.
You better tell me every liquor store, every
Bud Light, Michelob, Miller Light, High Life, Low
Life, whatever it was.
You better tell me every place you drank,
and you're going to work that money off
for 15 years, and bless God, you're grounded
until you are 38 years old.
You daddies heard that before.
You're grounded until you're 38 years old, and
you're going to walk around the house, and
you're not going to remember what you did
to your dad.
So it was enough that he just came
home.
It was enough that he just came home.
He didn't hoard it over him.
He didn't lord it over him and put
it up in his face and say, Hey,
everybody, look here.
Look at this public spectacle.
Look what my son's done to my family
now.
No, he didn't do that at all.
He had compassion on him.
Kissed him.
He was just glad his son ever came
back to this world.
Let me give you this illustration I'm through.
My mother, every now and then when I
was a kid, did discipline me somewhat.
But I wasn't disciplined because I would not
call my mother a disciplinarian.
She's just that way.
But my grandfather, he was a disciplinarian.
He was in World War II.
And my granddaddy was the kind of fella,
he wouldn't worry about a belt.
He wouldn't worry about a whole lot of
things.
His favorite thing was to use with a
switch, and I'll tell you about that in
a minute.
But my granddaddy was one of those fellas,
if it was in reaching distance, he'd beat
the devil out of you with it.
I don't care if it was a 2x4.
I don't care if it was a tire
iron.
I don't care if it was a tire.
I mean, if he could get it and
you kicked him off, he'd bust your tail
with that thing, and friend, you wouldn't know
that my granddaddy got the whole thing.
And so, I remember one day, I was
probably, I don't remember how old I was.
I was young.
I was anywhere from 6 to 8 years
old, all right, somewhere in that time frame.
I'll never forget, my granddaddy was staring in
the mirror in Mountain View, Tennessee, and I
was living with him for some time when
I was a little child.
And I used to go to all the
weekends, but I remember he's shaving in the
mirror.
Had one of them little plastic towel racks,
you know, that was stuck to the wall
and had the towels on it.
And I was in there just swinging around
like a little monkey, you know, just having
myself a good time.
I'll never forget, my granddaddy just kept on
shaving.
He just kept looking in the mirror.
I'll never forget.
He said, boy, if you break it, I'm
going to wear you out.
That's all he said.
That's all he had to say.
He said, boy, if you break it, I'm
going to wear you out.
And he just kept on shaving.
He walked out of the room.
He wasn't gone 30 seconds until that thing
came out of the wall.
Now immediately, I thought to myself, here I
am, 6, 7, and 8.
I'll never live.
I'll never live to be 9, 10, or
11.
I knew he was going to kill me.
I didn't know what I was going to
do.
I did know this much.
I did know that where it came out,
it left some holes.
And I did know that it was kind
of kind of gluey and kind of sticky.
And so, I got some wash rags out
of the closet.
I was trying to be as quiet as
I could, you know, mission impossible, you know,
and I shut the door and I grabbed
these rags and I started getting them all
wet and I started soaking the wall.
I mean, the water was dripping down in
an old white paint.
I started soaking it, trying to get that
stuff sticky again.
I picked up that thing, stuck it to
the wall, back to the ground.
I thought, all right, let's go to plan
2 here.
Leave it in the floor, shut the door,
turn out the light, and sit down and
pretend like you don't know one thing going
on.
So I did.
I walked in the living room.
I sat down in the chair.
I started watching TV.
My heart was about to beat out of
my chair.
I thought to myself, I thought my toenails
were going to curl up and come out
of my tennis shoes.
I started getting sweaty.
I couldn't hardly talk and all of a
sudden, my granddaddy stood up.
Now, my granddaddy very rarely, ever, ever went
to the restroom for anything consecutively.
I mean, usually it's 2 or 3 hours,
2 or 3 days, whatever it was.
And all of a sudden, he stood up
and I thought to myself, I know, I
know he's not going to the bathroom.
Man, out of the providence of God, he
started walking down that hall.
I heard him turn right.
I heard him flip on the light and
I heard him shut the door.
Now, for about 5 minutes, he didn't say
a word.
And I thought, man alive, he's going backwards.
What in the world's going on?
He couldn't even see a thing land right
there on the floor.
And so, I started feeling pretty good about
myself.
I started sweating up a bit.
Started standing up and stretching, saying, all right,
man, he didn't say a thing, you know.
All of a sudden, I heard the most
vile curse word that could ever come from
a man's mouth.
I'm talking about worse than any 4-letter
word you've ever heard in your life.
I mean worse than any swear word, any
vow that you could ever give.
I mean, I will never forget the wicked,
ungodly words that fell from my granddaddy's lips.
I will never forget it until the day
I die.
And if you will allow me very reverently
tonight, I'm going to share it with you.
With his lungs uplifted, he simply let out
the big curse word, boy.
And I knew when he said, boy, I
was in a whole heap of trouble for
him.
My granddaddy came walking out there.
He did something I could not stand.
He would reach in his pocket and pull
out his pocket knife.
I said, oh, I didn't mean to do
it that bad, you know.
But he'd pull out his pocket knife and
open up and he'd say, son, go down
to the oak tree and get me a
switch.
Now, does he really think I'm going to
go cut a switch that's going to hurt?
I'm a six-year-old kid.
Give me a branch.
So he gives me a pocket knife.
I get all started, you know.
I go down there and cut some little
old switch about as long as a pinch,
you know.
I come bring it back to him.
I'd make him so mad, he'd go out
and get a saw and cut the cotton
-picking branch off the tree, friend.
I'm talking about a baseball bat with legs.
He'd come in there.
He'd chase me all over the house.
I'd jump on the bed.
He'd beat me on the bed.
I'd get under the bed.
He'd beat me under the bed.
I'd jump in the shower, beat me in
the shower.
He'd run me outside.
He'd run me inside.
I thought I'd jump in the deep freeze.
He'd have jumped in there and beat my
tail too, friend.
I mean, he wore me slam out.
And I got the marks on my legs.
The group just did it.
But I mean, he wore me out, friend.
I mean, oh, but you know what?
I learned two things from that.
The first reason I know, the first reason
I know he did it was because he
loved me.
He didn't want me to grow up and
have ill character.
He didn't want me to grow up and
be an N-grade and just break stuff
and walk off and be a liar and
a cannibal, a thief.
And so he did it because he loved
me.
And by the way, the Bible says that
God chastens those whom he loves and scourges
every son that he receives.
But the second thing that I gleaned from
that is this, I never forgot it.
I never one time forgot it.
And you know what?
That's been a long time ago and I
never broke a tower rack fence.
Not one.
I've not cut a switch out of a
tree leather.
I've had bad dreams about it but I've
never cut one.
And I'm going to tell you something, friends.
When God Almighty chastens you, you won't forget
it any time soon.
But the reason he does it is because
he loves you.
If he don't do it, I'd be real
concerned and real worried about my genuine salvation
experience.
Because God chastens those whom he loves.
And tonight, in light of all these things
we looked at, friends, you better make some
real concrete solutions and considerations before you start
packing your bags and walking away from the
Father's house.
Because you might be on a day's journey
and find yourself a thousand miles from where
you ever wanted to be.
And tonight, my dear friend, I beg you
in God's dear name, do not be a
prodigal.
Your heads are bowed.
Your eyes are closed, please.
There's no...
Your heads are bowed.
Your eyes are closed.
Our instruments are coming.
I'm going to ask you tonight to play
Lord, I'm Coming Home.
I've wandered far away from home but Lord,
I'm Coming Home.
I want them to play that and sing
that in just a moment.
But tonight, in the solemnness of this moment,
allow the Spirit of God just begin to
speak to your heart.
Let me talk right first to our dear
sinner friends, meaning those that have never genuinely
been saved by the grace of God.
Can I ask you this tonight?
You'd say, Brother Locke, in light of this
message, to be honest with you, I never
left the Father's house and I was never
a prodigal because I've never been a member
of the Father's house.
I've never been made a child of God.
I'm not in God's family.
I'm not part of the church that the
Bible talks about.
I've never been saved.
I've never been born again.
And tonight, the Spirit of God has shown
me my utter desperate need for the Savior.
Oh, Brother Locke, I don't want to die
and go to hell.
I don't want to live a life of
misery and sin and regret.
Tonight, I'd like to repent of my sins,
ask Jesus Christ to come into my life
and be my Lord and Savior.
And tonight, Brother Locke, I'm a man, a
woman, a boy, a girl, a teenager.
Front to back, to left to the right.
And you'd say tonight, Brother Locke, would you
please pray for me?
That's all I'll do for you and I
won't call you out.
I won't make you stand up and say
anything, but I do want to pray for
you.
We do want to help you.
You'd say tonight, Brother Locke, I really don't
know that I'm part of the family of
God.
I've never really in my life ever truly
believed on Jesus Christ, who by the way,
Jesus said, I am the way, the truth
and the life and no man cometh unto
the Father but by me.
Would there be one simply here tonight, before
I deal with God's people, would there be
one who would slip up their hand and
say, Brother Locke, tonight, tonight, I need to
be saved.
Right now.
Very quickly, right this very moment, quickly and
quietly.
You just slip up your hand high enough
for me to see it.
You can put it up and put it
right back down.
You can put it up and put it
right back down.
Is there one, is there any tonight who
would say, Brother Locke, tonight, I need to
be converted.
I need to be born again.
Oh dear friend, don't play games with God.
Don't roll the dice on God because no
doubt one day you'll hit the wrong numbers
and you'll wake up in hell.
Oh dear friend, please.
Would there be one tonight, Brother Locke, you
pray for me, I need to be saved.
Let me ask this, by the non-uplifting
of anyone's hand, that tells me that you're
saying you're all saved.
I hope that's true.
You can lie to me, you can lie
to the preacher, but you can't lie to
God for he knows everything about you.
But you'd say tonight, Brother Locke, I am
saved by the grace of God, but in
one of the points, and I'm not going
to rehearse them, in one of the points
of the message tonight, the Spirit of God
indelibly laid something upon my heart and preacher,
would you pray for me?
I'm a child of God, but I'm not
as close to God as I should be.
I'm not close to the Father's house like
I know I should be.
And tonight, the Spirit of God spoke to
my heart and Brother Locke, in my life,
there's a need, would you pray for me
as a child of God?
Right now I want you to put up
your hand and the Spirit of God spoke
to your heart.
God bless you.
God bless you many.
Put them up and put them down.
Everyone standing please.
No one's looking, no one's talking, but everyone's
standing.