This tape is entitled, In the Last Days.
It is given by Pastor Romain from Calvary
Chapel, Costa Mesa.
Turn over to 2 Timothy chapter 3, please.
2 Timothy 3.
In the first verses of chapter 3 of
2 Timothy, he starts out by saying, This
know also, that in the last days perilous
times shall come.
He said, this know also.
That hooks into the conversation that was just
before that, and was talking about your conduct
and my conduct.
That we're not to argue and strive.
You don't argue over scripture.
You're to keep your peace.
He says in verse 25, in meekness, in
meekness.
You can't be meek and just be yelling
at the top of your voice.
In meekness instruct those who impose themselves.
Those who are arguing against themselves.
So there's a guy in here the other
day.
He was a dude.
He came in, he walked through the door.
Husband, wife made the appointment.
I was talking to her.
She introduced me to him.
He shook hands with me.
And it was kind of like shaking hands
with an iceberg.
He was glaring.
He didn't like anybody.
But you see, the thing is, I don't
know what kind of day he's got.
I really don't know.
It can be a terrible day.
Then he's got to face this terrible situation.
And some dumb stranger wants to butt in.
The dumb stranger is me.
So right off the bat, he doesn't like
me.
War is declared.
Silently, without a word being said.
I have to be awful.
I really do at the outset.
I don't have to be careful later on.
But at the outset, you know, you don't
want to add fuel to the fire and
really convince the guy that he was right
coming in.
So I have to be awful careful I
don't laugh.
Because when I meet guys, not so much
ladies, I don't know, maybe ladies do it.
I just don't notice them if they do.
I notice guys do.
They size you up.
Small little punk.
Older, not much hair.
And you can, you know, because I'm in
the union.
I'm a card-carrying member of that union.
It's called clunky men.
And all men are in the union, whether
you want to be in there or not.
Some try to be suave and smooth and
sophisticated and cool.
Smell good, look good, dress right.
But you know, if you put a handful
of mud in an ermine bag, the ermine
bag doesn't change the handful of mud.
It's just, that's basic, that's fundamental.
And he was ready to go.
Now this, because it has to do with
this, believe it or not, and it has
to do with what we're going to read
in a minute.
It's just so apropos to the whole thing.
Now this is what he said.
He sat down and my opening line is,
may I help you?
Because I figured somebody should start the conversation.
Because when I first started this thing of
sitting down with people, they'd just sit and
stare at you.
Did you ever pass a field where there's
a bunch of cows in it?
If you stand, if you stop and go
over to the cow and say, hi bossy,
hi cow, they just stare at you.
Well, that's what happened when I first started
this thing.
So I figured, well, the only thing I
can think to do is, may I help
you?
And so he turns and talks to her
and I don't exist.
I really don't exist at that time.
And he said, you made this appointment.
It was your idea.
And I agreed to come along because we
got a lot of troubles that are your
fault.
Do any of you ladies know, do you
recognize that?
Probably not.
You probably don't.
And it's your fault.
This is the other part.
Therefore, I'm just going to sit here and
you do all the talk and I'll do
all the listening.
She says, okay, I'm out of the house
right now.
I'm not living at home.
And the problem is with our boys.
And he jumped right in.
He was going to sit there and he
wasn't going to say anything.
She didn't get what, 25 words out of
her mouth.
And there he is.
He's got both oars in his mouth and
just trying to go like mad.
And I thought, well, I recognize this gentleman.
He's made of the same stuff that I
am.
It's called jerkiness.
And I thought we, he and I will
have just a, just a fine time.
And we did.
I said to him, I said, in order
to lay a groundwork, I said, we'll start,
you and I'll start.
Tell me who Jesus Christ is.
I don't have to answer that question.
I'm going, I said, no, you don't.
I said, but the reason I ask it
is so that we can have a common
grounds.
He said, I want you to know something
else.
He said, I, I had a violent argument
with a, with another man who was a
friend over Jesus Christ when I was younger.
And because of that argument, he died.
I'm going, I recognize you.
Of course, I got this nice straight face.
I said, no, he didn't die because of
the argument.
I said, because God said the breath of
everybody's body is given into his hand.
I said, therefore the man quits this life
when God's ready.
I said, you've used that for a dodge
for years.
So you don't have to talk about Jesus
Christ.
Haven't you?
Before we're all done, the Holy spirit softened
the man, stuck his hand out and said,
I'm sorry for my part.
I started off wrong.
He said, you're right.
I am responsible for my own actions.
I don't act very good in my own
home.
I'm not a good example to my wife
or the boys.
Of course, I brought all that about or,
or God's Holy spirit did the whole thing.
He agreed to take some scriptures and read
it and write it out and tell his
wife, this is what God says I'm supposed
to be as a husband.
She took the scriptures and agreed to write
them out in her own words as to
what God said she's supposed to be as
a wife.
And then they're going to sit down and
share it.
And of course they get down to the
other things.
When all of this stuff begins to settle,
they said, now she said, should I go
back home?
I said, that's up to you.
Cause see, you can get, you can get
trapped in that.
You can start playing God in, in people's
lives.
And I just see, I see, I see
things like that.
And I don't choose to call those things
small or infinitesimal, but I see a lot
of little items and instances where God is
bringing people into the kingdom of God.
I see an awful lot of it.
I see God gathering things together.
I never hoped to see that.
I never, I really never hoped to see
that, but I see all of these things
that are happening all over the world internationally.
I see them happening nationally.
I see such things as families falling apart.
Oh, why would that be a sign of
the last times?
Because if the family's gone, everything else goes
with it.
God ordained the family is as the base
strength for a people.
And if the family unit goes, everything else
goes.
The way the family unit goes is you
have a lot of single parents trying to
raise children.
One or both have vacated all of their
responsibility and their initial conclusions that they were
going to love each other.
They were going to be married till death
do us part.
Maybe not in the name of Jesus Christ,
but they made that contract.
Divorce rate is out of sight.
The number of people that are cohabitating, that's
a fancy word for living together and having
sex together and not being married, is way,
way up, way up.
It's astronomical.
What conclusion do I draw from that?
That tells me that people do not want
to make a commitment to each other.
It takes a lot to make a commitment
to each other.
It takes a lot of hard work, but
anything that takes a lot of hard work,
if you're willing to work at it, there's
an awful lot of rewards to it.
He says in the Bible, here as he's
talking about our conduct, we're to help other
people and to help recover them out of
the snare of Satan.
Why?
Because in the last days there's going to
be perilous times.
Sometimes I talk to folks about the end
times and I tell them some of the
things that are going on to show the
signs of the times.
They said, oh, that's been going on forever.
I said, yes, but not in the multitude
that is happening now.
There's no such thing any longer of community
barriers.
Things are just so backwards.
Chuck was saying Sunday morning that it is
a felony or it's a crime at least,
I don't know if it's a felony, but
it's a crime for a medical man not
to report gonorrhea or syphilis.
That's a crime.
It's also a crime if he reports AIDS.
You go, wait, wait, you know, you go
back up saying, say that again.
That to me is another sign of the
just the twistings of morals.
Basic, just basic morals.
I'm not even, we're not even close to
biblical morals, just basic right and wrong that
every human being knows.
And so you begin to look at the
paper.
You begin to see what government does.
You begin to see cheating in high places.
You begin to see indifference and coldness to
right and wrong and to family among folks
like you and I.
A man now stands, and this is not
a singular instance, just one that I recalled
of mine just recently in the last few
days.
A man stands up and reports a drug
dealer that lives next door to him.
This actually happened.
He reported a drug dealer next door.
So they staked it out and they found
out he was a pretty good-sized drug
dealer.
I don't know what good size is.
I think if you sell any drugs, you're
a Satan.
And for his trouble, his house was all
shot up.
It just so happened everybody was in the
back end of the house because his TV
that's in the front of the house didn't
work.
So all the family was in the back
of the house and nobody got hurt, but
his house was riddled with bullets.
He's lived there for 21 years.
Now he's going to have to leave the
state, standing up for something.
They made a major case out of a
guy that blew the whistle on a whole
section or a whole department of the government
in Washington, D.C. He talked about all
the cheating and lying and stealing that was
going on.
He was written up in Reader's Digest and
I don't know what else, because all he
did was stand up and say, I'm going
to be counted, that's wrong, and here's the
proof.
Then you and I see it and we
automatically, if we don't say it, we feel
it or think it.
I don't want to be involved.
I don't want to stand for anything.
I don't want to be persecuted.
You tell people about Jesus Christ, you're going
to get persecuted.
You are, you are.
Who said so?
Jesus Christ said so.
Well, maybe there's just a good way, there
must be, maybe there's a good way to
tell them, you know, where you can kind
of smooth it over, no?
Well, I'll just, I'll look like a Christian,
but I won't say anything.
The minute you say that you're a Christian,
they're going to watch you and they have
a right to.
You should expect that they expect more of
you because you named the name Jesus Christ.
And this is in last days.
One of the most shocking things that I
came to rest upon in my time at
Calvary Chapel, one of the most shocking things
that for me personally, just as a guy,
is to suddenly realize that it's within the
scope of possibility that I could see Jesus
Christ come in my lifetime.
That's possible now because of all of the
events and the things that are taking place.
I never thought of that before.
I figured, well, God will come, I'm out
of here, you know, whenever, wherever, however, but
I'll just go home and be with the
Lord and the rest of you suckers have
got to stay here and just pay bills
and scoff up smog and pretend like you're
having a good time while I'm home laughing
like mad.
But now, and that triggered an awful lot
of things in my heart and thinking, I'm
going, well, if the Lord comes, maybe, what
if I was doing that?
If the Lord comes, I never once thought
about the Lord just coming and taking just
me, bang, I just, the Lord coming for
the church and how should I be acting?
If the Lord comes and takes just me,
how should I be acting?
What should I be?
Who am I supposed to be?
What things are accursed to me where God
is concerned?
What will separate me between, what will separate
between me and God?
What will separate between you and God?
He said in the last days, what does
that tell you?
There's going to be an end of the
days.
There's going to be some days that are
last.
There's going to be a last day.
I'm like, I really would like to get
a hold of the guy or the gal
that's the last one to accept Christ before
Jesus comes and just throttle them and jump
on their chest and on their head, jump
up and down and said, you will, you
will, you will, you will.
And I had to change my thinking back
over to the fact that maybe I ought
to consider that God could take me anytime.
So therefore, what am I supposed to be?
What am I supposed to be doing?
As there is, there are last days.
And my wife has taught Jesus Christ's second
coming for years, years.
And I'm out there teaching, if you continue
to sin, you're going to hell.
If you continue to sin, you're going to
hell.
And she's talking about the second coming of
Jesus Christ and the love of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
She was teaching that to high schoolers and
college age folks.
I had junior highs in the church.
If you don't sin, if you sin, you
go to hell.
Well, they already knew that, so they want
to know if there's any other option.
I didn't have one.
And she's out there teaching the love of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
The woman is weird.
And slowly but surely, God in his own
beautiful way in my life and in yours,
in yours, there's no difference between the two
of us before God, God very quietly, very
imperceptibly.
Oh, he did a couple of quick yanks
and tugs here and there to get me
down the road a little faster.
You know, like pick me up by the
seat of the pants and the nap of
the neck and throw me out of a
church because he had some things to get
done.
At the time, I thought it was terrible.
Now I think it's fine.
Gee, I got the best end of the
stick.
Last days, perilous times shall come.
Things are going to happen all around you.
As I was thinking about this last night
again this morning, there is absolutely no scriptural
reason to believe that God is going to
exempt America from a lot of lousy stuff
before he comes.
We are not great.
We are not a Christian nation.
That's a joke.
We are not a Christian nation, and we
never have been a Christian nation.
We have said that, but it's not true.
We are not a Christ-like nation from
the top down.
And I'd like to remind you folks that
you are in the minority, and you'll always
be in the minority, and God said so.
He says, Why is the path of each
a destruction?
Many there be that go in thereat, and
narrow is the path of least everlasting life,
and few there will be that find it.
So you're among the few.
You better pay attention.
You're chosen.
You're selected.
You're elected.
You're predestinated.
Pay attention.
And for me, pay attention.
I was up at West Covina, Calvary Chapel,
West Covina last night.
I was sharing with them about God's Word
falling on stony ground, and among cactus, and
on shallow ground.
When I got all done, and I left
there, and I started, because it's a nice
drive coming back, you know, about nine o
'clock.
It's a nice drive coming back from there.
It's about an hour back to my house.
And it just settled in on me that
God's Word that I shared with them applies
to me.
This is my Word.
You better do something about it.
God speaking to my heart, and all the
things I shared with them.
God saying to me, quietly in that car
as I'm driving along, more is required of
you, because you know more.
Do something about it.
Before those evenings over, he gave me two
beautiful opportunities to witness the two people that
are very dear to me.
That was before the evening was over with.
You want to tell me the miracle?
I did it in love.
And my wife, when I got done, she
was sitting there listening.
She says, you handled that very well.
I said, yes.
Because there's not many of those instances, you
know, so you got to get puffed up.
The urgency is from the last times, because
God said so.
I didn't say so.
It is because these things have been going
on for a long time, because if they've
been going on for a long time, which
is true, then how come we haven't wised
up as a people in this world if
they've been going on so long?
Because we don't care about God.
Well, you can't do anything about prostitution.
It's been around since the beginning of time.
Well, I thought we were a smarter people
now.
I thought we came to a lot of
knowledge.
You can't do anything about prostitution and the
common code, and yet we seem to think
that we're really great.
We spend millions upon millions and billions of
dollars to get a piece of metal up
into orbit because we've got to beat the
Russians.
And you can't find places.
You can't find a piece of ground, or
won't take time out to find a piece
of ground to build a building to get
the people off the street called homeless.
We're something, you know.
You don't want to hear it.
You really don't.
And look at verse 2, for men shall
be kind one to another.
Men will be open and try to help
one another.
And ladies, who runs the government?
You?
Well, men do.
Men will be lovers of their own selves.
You ever heard the phrase, now generation?
You ever heard the me generation?
Get what I want now.
You ever heard that before?
Did you hear it's been given out with
pride and a whole philosophy and way of
living?
Oh, people have always been selfies.
Now it's promoted.
It's advertised.
Go for the gold.
Go for the gusto.
Get all you can get while you're going
through here.
That's a beer advertisement.
Still an advertisement.
Get mine.
Who cares about anybody else?
That's all through the sports world.
There's something that I could really get started
on.
That really bothers me because I've enjoyed sports
for years.
I don't.
It's just all of the zing is being
taken out of it.
Sports, so far as I'm concerned, is in
such mediocrity that it'll never recover.
When I say there are no professional men
out there, there are some standouts.
I saw a lady last night on the
Olympics win the gold medal and get on
her knees and pray.
She said, God gave me the ability to
do this.
I'm going, all right.
National television, sock it to them, Lord.
I was just jumping up and down.
I would have thought the same thing of
her if she had not even placed.
Of course, if she hadn't placed the camera,
we wouldn't have been on her because we
go for only winners, right?
Only the lovely people, only the sparkling people.
Everybody else is second class.
That's so sick.
God never made anybody second class, but because
in the last days there'll be lovers of
themselves.
Where's mine?
You haven't given me my due.
God specifically says in this world, you better
be careful because if I come back and
find you doing these things, you're left out.
I'll leave you.
Yeah, but Lord, and he slams the door.
Remember the 10 version, slams the door because
he means what he says, means what he
says to me.
He means what he says to me.
He wants me up and on, on my
feet and paying attention to what he has
said that I am accountable for, that I'm
to respond to that.
And you are too.
You can't lope along.
There's no such thing as getting by as
a Christian.
There's no such thing as mediocrity.
Not with Jesus Christ.
He said, if you're lukewarm, I'll spit you
out of my mouth.
You're detestable to God if all you do
is just kind of cruise.
God will take you fighting him tooth and
toenail and love every minute of it because
you suddenly know that you're fighting God.
I love to talk to people that are
fighting God.
I'm angry at God.
I hate God.
Good.
And they go, what?
I'm going, good.
That's great.
Fight God.
Bring everything you got in a thimble and
fight God.
Give it to him.
He isn't fair.
Tell him about it.
Don't tell other Christians that God's not fair.
Go tell God you're not fair.
Shake your finger in the face of God.
Defy him and jump up and down and
push and pull.
And then when you get all done, you're
flat on your face.
You can't go any further.
Say, oh, help, Lord, mercy.
And his love doesn't change.
There you are, this infinitesimal speck in the
whole realm of time, jumping up and down
in the face of a creator and a
holy God.
And he can handle it.
I'm just so tired, Lord.
I've fought you and fought you.
Now, I quit.
What do you want?
Help yourself.
What do you want?
Jump in.
Whatever you want from me, hey, let's go
for it.
Like that 19-year-old young lady that
I had the letter shared with you a
while back.
You bought my life.
I belong to you.
And for a year, she said, what do
you want?
Show me.
For a year.
How come a year?
Who knows?
She was willing.
She was open.
But she was insistent.
All of a sudden, she gets this world
map and she lays it out and she
says, if you want me to stay where
I'm at, I'll stay there.
If you want me to go anywhere in
this world, I'll go.
I'll do that.
I'll go anywhere you want me to.
And Chile come up.
She could speak just a few words of
Spanish, not much.
She said, you want me to go to
Chile?
And it got more and more and more
and more.
So she started writing letters and they said,
sure, we can use you down here.
She's all right, Lord, you're telling me about
Chile, apparently, as best I can determine.
She didn't pick out Chile.
She had the whole map.
Nineteen-year-old and a young lady and
scared to death.
Same thing is true for you.
You don't have to go to Chile.
You don't have to lay out the world
map, but you can say to God, all
right, I'm yours.
What do you want?
Let's go for it.
That's certainly not a lover of yourself, because
He'll put you to work and blow your
mind and work you to death.
And you'll see lives changed all around you.
Well, go try it.
People will think you're high on drugs.
You'll be laughing all the time.
You'll be so tired, you'll have a headache,
you want to lay down.
God says, no, no, you got on this
thing late.
Let's get it going.
The upshot of that was that young lady
says, okay, I'll go, but you're going to
have to furnish all the stuff.
Here comes the money for a plane ticket,
and here come the whole works, and the
whole works, and the whole...
You, good gravy, if you haven't seen it,
wake up!
Down there, and there was an island off
of the coast.
I couldn't even pronounce the name of the
thing.
But there was an island off the coast,
and she knew she should go to that
island.
And she gets down there, and she's looking
for a church or place to fellowship.
She's scared to death.
She can't find a place.
She goes to talk to this one guy,
and he said, well, sure, we could use
you here to teach the gospel.
You betcha.
And maybe you could help out with the
children, and that's one of the things that's
on her heart, was help out with children.
But she just didn't have a piece of
that guy.
She says, no, I think I'm supposed to
be at an island out here that's just
off the coast, but I don't know how
to get there or where it is.
I'm supposed to be on an island.
I don't know where it is.
And there was another pastor standing there, saying,
well, I'm from that island, and we need
you bad to help with the children and
to teach them the gospel.
I'll get you over that island.
We'll get you a house.
We'll get you all set up.
But that was luck.
You know, God just picked her up out
of the United States and dropped her in
the middle of South America and let her
swim around a little bit.
He ordered every step.
And along the way, when she was down
there, while she's looking for the church and
everything else, she was lonely, and figured she
was out of God's will, and maybe ought
to go back home.
None of this makes any sense.
She said, but I knew better than that.
I was just frightened, and I was by
myself, and I didn't know anybody.
She was in love with God, not in
love with herself.
For men shall be lovers of their own
selves.
There'll be covetousness.
That's part of loving yourself.
Boasters about yourself and who you think you
are.
Proud.
That's part of loving yourself.
Blasphemers.
Talking against those things that are holy.
Making fun of those things that are already
disobedient to parents.
Oh, my.
And not only disobedient to parents, they're starting
to shoot them now.
The children are starting to shoot the parents.
You aren't worth the powder to blow you
up if you're a parent and you don't
require your children obedience.
You don't love them if you don't require
obedience.
I don't care whether they're 6 or 16.
And I'll turn that around a little bit
too, and if you're a son or daughter,
you aren't worth your salt if you are
not respectful of your parents.
I don't care what they did to you
or what they are or what you think
of them.
God says you are to respect them.
If you don't respect them, then you better
ask God to change your heart as a
son or daughter.
I don't care how old you are, how
old your mother or father is or they're
senile or they hate you or they're bitter
or they're dried up.
What their condition is does not excuse you.
You are to be respectful of your parents
and your children are to be respectful of
you.
And if you let them get away with
anything, listen at your role.
Do I believe that?
You bet your sweet life I do.
With every fiber of my being, I believe
that.
The only way you're going to get God's
blessings is if you say you love your
child and you let him run around and
squalor.
By squalor, I mean to do just as
he pleases.
And anything will get me quicker.
When I'm out shopping for groceries, it's for
a guy to shove his cart in front
of mine when I'm in line, or for
children to come tearing around the corner screaming
like mad and run into me.
I like to back my cart up and
leave wheel marks up his back.
Then when I recover from that, I'm wondering
where the parents are because this is the
child's appearance.
Every once in a while, I'm lucky enough
that the parent will be right there and
all.
Children should be chained up, not seen.
Now you know the number of people that
are going to hear that on tape.
Disobedient to parents, unthankful.
Suicide among teenagers is up.
Unthankful, ungrateful that they've got health and a
home.
They've got a clean place to live.
Pick them up by batches and fly them
out to Bangladesh, parts of India.
Let them roam around there with the children
for a while and see what those children
have got.
Let them live there for a while.
Let them eek out a living.
We are the most blessed people above all
in this nation with material stuff and we're
unthankful.
Nobody points out to the children.
You've got someone that cares about you.
Somebody puts a roof over your head.
Maybe they're lousy.
Maybe their parent is lousy.
Okay, okay, okay.
Maybe their parent's lousy.
But you're still blessed and you ought to
look around.
I heard a guy who's supposed to be
quite an author.
He's written several books on various subjects now.
He's writing about somewhat the slant is on
the family.
He's a secular writer.
I don't know whether he's Christian or not.
He says, our children don't have that much
to look forward to.
It's because the people have forgotten to tell
the young people about the past.
They have plenty to look forward to.
Yes, I think they need to know about
the past.
I really believe that.
You want to know whether our children got
very much?
Go to the parking lots of the junior
high and high school schools.
See how many cars you see.
See what kind of cars you see.
Back in the ancient days when we'd come
out of caves when I was in high
school, the only cars there were the teachers.
There was a few of these other rich
brats that had cars, but what, 10, 15,
or 20?
If you can't get your parents
a car, get the keys to the car
and some gas money, your parents are terrible.
I want my children to have better than
I do.
Fine, fine, great, noble, but go the extra
step and at least teach them what it
is to do without.
Peddle a bicycle for a while.
Walk before you learn to ride.
Stop handing everything to them free, and then
what they do is they spin on it
and sneer at it.
Do you think you do them any good
by doing that?
They have no values.
They have no values because they're not taught
values.
You don't throw food away.
You pick up after yourself.
You clean your room, and you not only
clean your room, but you get out here
and you help with the rest of this
house that you also help dirty.
You know what happens if you don't do
that?
Then the guy comes in and sees me
after he's had that kind of training, and
he doesn't pick up a sponge or a
tea towel or dry dishes, and he wouldn't
even know the right end of a vacuum
cleaner if he didn't hear the noise of
the motor on one end.
I don't know what I'm talking about.
Oh, they used to allow me to go
to couples retreats in Sherwood.
They don't allow me to do that anymore.
I'd say, okay, all you ladies after the
lunch hour or the breakfast hour or the
dinner hour, all you ladies out of here.
You're out of the dining room.
All you guys bust the tables, take the
dirty dishes up, wipe off.
You like that, huh?
You and me, I do.
I just, I can't wait for it.
Masochists cause trouble and pain and anguish.
Wipe off all the tables, dry them all
off.
I get this.
This is what I say now.
I used to.
They won't let me do it anymore, and
it's just as well.
They need to hear from somebody else anyway.
I say, now there's two buckets of water.
One is clear water, and one is soapy
water.
The soapy water has bubbles in it.
I'm talking to the men.
Why do I have two?
Oh, you poor ladies.
I know you're poor ladies because I'm married
to one.
Wipe this table off.
Up there are spare napkins, knives, forks, and
spoons, and glasses.
I want you to set the place up
with the salt and pepper, the sugar, and
get it all ready for the next meal.
If there's 40 or 50 or 60 or
70 men there, it is a zoo.
And the ladies, bless you ladies' hearts, the
ladies, quite a few of them are standing
up there.
If you've been in the dining room down
there or up there at the conference center,
they'll be standing up there on that upper
level, you know, where that railing is, and
then this lower level where you walk down
into the tables and so forth.
I call it the pit of the arena,
especially if there's children there because they throw
food in every direction.
But these are just couples, and those ladies
just can't wait to get down there because
they could do it, bang, bang, bang, bang.
And it would all be done, and they'd
all walk out.
And I'm down there with that microphone, out,
out, you, you lady, out.
Let me give him the silverware.
I said, out, out.
And here's a table eight feet long with
about four trays of knives, forks, and spoons.
And right behind them are two tons of
glasses stacked up.
And right next to them is a whole
bunch of napkins.
And that's on an upper level, just right
there where you go up to get your
food.
It's all set there.
The people have set it out for them.
So here come the people out of the
kitchen.
We'll help.
I said, out, out.
Men only.
One guy says, why are you doing this
to us?
And another lady, she's standing there watching her
husband smile.
I said, what are you smiling at?
She says, I've never seen him do that
before, and we've been married 23 years.
I didn't know he knew how.
And you know what he did?
One guy said, this is woman's work.
I said, you're not very good at it,
are you?
I said, might as well get potty trained
right now.
You're laughing, but it is the wildest thing
in the world to watch.
And one guy or two guys will say,
okay, my table's clear.
What do I do next?
I said, knives, forks.
Now that's what I say.
I'm standing right there looking at them in
the eye.
I said, knives, forks, spoons, and either cups
or glasses, whatever's supposed to go next, and
napkins, one at each place.
Oh, where are they?
I said, take one step forward.
They take one step forward, bumping the table.
I said, well, I took a step forward,
where are they?
I said, you just bumped the table.
The table's eight feet long.
Oh, you mean this?
I said, yeah, all right.
He said, none of it has wings, it
won't fly.
Oh, don't be smart.
I can see why I know what I
know.
Why am I going through all this?
Because I believe that the finest example that
can be said in the home is surely
by the mother, but also by the father.
I really believe that with all I got.
One young man said, I used to wait
in the morning to hear my mother and
father know that they were up.
He said, I'd make all kinds of alibis
to go into their bedroom, and I like
to tiptoe in there because I knew as
soon as they got up, they put their
arms around each other and prayed, and I
just love to see my mother and father
praying.
He's not going in the missionary field.
He's already gone through college and all the
rest of it.
Where do you suppose he saw the example?
Disobedient to parents.
If you let them be disobedient, it's your
fault.
They turn out disrespectful, you're the one that
taught them to do that.
That's not fair to that child.
Whom the Lord loves, he coddles and spoils.
I don't find that in the Bible.
If you're going to pass on the love
of the Lord Jesus Christ, then you're going
to correct your child.
There's a scripture in there that says, beat
your child with a rod, you won't kill
him.
That's child abuse.
Amen.
Disobedient to parents, unthankful and unholy, without natural
affection, yet they do not have that love
for one for another.
A lot of people live together simply because
they're living together.
Truth breakers.
One of the first signs, I forget who
it was, somebody that's pretty well known, said
that one of the first signs of a
deteriorating civilization is when the contracts between parties
are no longer kept.
When you break contracts, that's one of the
first signs of a deteriorating civilization.
Why?
Because your word and your name is no
longer valid or held as valid by you.
Your word means nothing because the circumstances change
and it's not convenient for you to keep
your word.
That's keeping your word all the time.
False accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of things that
are good.
You stand up for good and you'll get
ridiculed all over the place.
In your own family, among your own relatives,
among your so-called friends, because you let
them be friends and you didn't want to
jeopardize the friendship so you've never acted like
a Christian.
Well, you see, because of our social position
it's necessary for us to keep liquor in
the house because if people show up because
of our social standing and because of my
husband's business we have to have liquor on
hand in the house, but we don't drink
it ourselves.
No, but your children watch you dispense liquor
to everybody else.
Beautiful example, not standing for zip.
You either stand up and you're counted or
you don't stand for anything.
Maybe you overreact, maybe you overdo it, but
I'll tell you what, that's the better part
of the whole truce breakers.
Despising those things that are good.
Laughing at somebody because they pray.
People laughing at you because you pray.
I was wondering whether I could tell you,
I had to stop and think whether I
could tell you this next.
This young lady that was in here for
worship this morning with Richard and Mary, she
was over here in the local restaurant and
I walked in and she didn't see me
and I just watched her.
She shook her napkin out and put it
in her lap and bowed her head and
prayed and I'm going, all right.
Of course I didn't say that to her.
So I asked the waitress to give me
one of those small tables right next to
her.
And I sat down and she says, oh
no, I'm so loved and so greeted and
loved, you know.
I said, hi chubby, how are you?
What's going on?
And I was joking back and forth with
her and four or five of the waitresses
come over and they said, why don't you
let this young lady alone?
I said, I'm willing to.
I said, I don't even know her and
she's trying to pick up on me and
I'm an old man.
She's trying to pick up an old man.
She's so desperate.
I said, she's had three facelifts.
She's really old.
Poor Mary, there is no such person.
Lousy little bum.
You mustn't give that away.
Don't tell me living this Christian life isn't
wild and wooly.
And if you're not enjoying it, wake up.
There's so much going on.
In Christian fellowship and in witness.
It's a sure pleasure to tell people about
Jesus Christ.
See Him jump up and down and scream
and yell.
You don't have to enter in.
You don't have to fight Him.
When they see you, that you stand for
something.
That you're respectful to your parents.
That your word means something.
That you do stand for things that are
holy and good.
That you require your own household to be
in order.
You require your own life to be in
order according to the Word of God.
They'll know it.
Without being able to analyze it, they'll know
that that's who you are.
And it'll drive them nuts because that's what
they really want in their life is what
you've got.
Oh crud.
Let's pray.
Father, thank You for the heaviness of Your
Word.
The pointedness.
The even-handedness, Lord, of Your Word.
That we don't have to be these things.
There is no need for us to indulge
ourselves in any portion of it.
No reason to be high-minded or puffed
up or proud.
Except we'd be proud of the fact that
You picked us out.
And then we can't boast, Lord, because You
picked us out while we were failures.
And we still are.
And thank You, thank You, thank You.
And praise You, praise You, praise You.
We do so in Jesus' name.
We all agree together by saying.
While listening to this tape, perhaps God's Spirit
has been talking to your heart.
If you felt the need to draw closer
to your Creator, why not start today?
God has provided a way for man to
enter into relationship with Him forever through His
Son, Jesus Christ.
Jesus said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life.
No man comes to the Father but by
Me.
The Bible says that as many as receive
Him, to them give He power to become
the children of God.
You too can receive Him right now by
asking Him to forgive you of your sins,
and asking Him to come into your life
and to be Lord and Savior of your
life.
If you'd like to receive Jesus Christ into
your life today, you can do so through
a simple little prayer.
Just open up your heart and repeat this
prayer with me.
Lord Jesus, I admit to You that I
am a sinner.
I believe that You died on a cross
for my sins.
Please forgive me of all of my sins.
Please come into my heart and into my
life.
Please make my life acceptable unto You.
And thank You, Lord, for Your gift of
eternal life.
And I receive You this day.
In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
Now, if you prayed that prayer with me
right now, you are a new person.
All your past sins and faults have been
forgiven by God, and in His eyes you
are a brand new creature.
The Bible says that if any man be
in Christ, he is a new creature.
Old things have passed away, and behold, all
things become new.
Now, as a newborn spiritual infant, you should
seek the sincere milk of God's Word so
that you may grow by it.
So read your Bible, and pray to the
Lord often, and seek out other Christians, and
enter into fellowship with them.
We'd love to hear your decision for Christ.
We'd love to give you a free study
of the book of John on cassette by
Pastor Chuck Smith.
Jesus never turned a spiritual or hungry or
thirsty soul away, but filled everyone who asked.
So we'd like to do the same for
you in His name.
So please write to us at the address
on this tape, and tell us of your
needs and what the Lord has done for
you today.
And may the Lord bless you now, and
keep you in everything you do, and everything
you say.
And welcome to the family.
Oh, back out of the grave We
want to see Jesus To
reach out and touch Him And
say that we love Him
Oh, back out of the grave
We want
to see Jesus Correspondence
may be addressed to Pastor Romaine at 3800
South Fairview Road, Santa Ana, California, 92704
USA