For our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power. In power. Friday night I sat in Spartan
Stadium with 73,400 other football enthusiasts. watching our two grandsons, Matt
and Mitchell, who play for the Spartans. It was a great game. And, of course, we won. But as I sat there and they announced
the attendance, I looked over that massive stadium and said
to myself, 73,400. This is how many have died already
here in the United States this year of heroin overdose. Actually, 75,000 have died so
far. And I'm sure many more have died. But because of family cover-ups
and misdiagnoses, we don't know about them. I can't tell you
how many times I've been asked to preach or speak at a funeral
service of someone who's OD'd, and mom and dad say to me, don't
say anything about them dying of an overdose. Of course, I
pay no attention to that. If you want me to speak, then
I will tell the truth. I've been thinking about this. This will be a little unusual
type of message for us here, but I think you will, along with
me, see the need. single out one particular sin. By the way, just so all of us
are comfortable, everybody in this place is an addict to something
and needs deliverance. But the heroin epidemic is totally
out of control. 120,000 die in the US every year
from addiction. 120,000. That's 350 people a
day. And now I'm beginning to hear
on world news, it's not me saying it, it's on world news, saying
something like this. The therapeutic community claims
that only 30% of graduates After one year, stay clean. Only 30%. So it sounds like that our little
programs aren't working. There are 10 million addicts
out there. 10% are receiving some kind of
treatment. Thousands are being diagnosed
with co-occurring bipolar disorder and depression who are on heroin. These are government stats, not
mine. 80% drop out of programs in three
to six months. In three to six months. ODs whose lives are saved after
they have overdosed, are given the same drug to bring
them back again because they are overdosing within four hours
of being brought back to life. Heroin is the most addictive
drug available. Extremely high in potential. and the effects of physical and
psychological addiction are severe. Do I have a witness in here?
Yeah, about a hundred of you giving witness, the rest of you
lying. The risk of overdose and death
are at an all-time high. The ruinous power of heroin is
not a mystery, it'll kill you. It will kill you. After destroying
just about everything in your life, your health, your relationships,
your material security, the pharmacia, the demon personified, after
taking everything from you, will look you square in the eye and
laugh at you. pitiful, unwashed, unclean, on
the street for months, eating out of dumpsters. This is demon
power. After injecting, smoking, or
snorting, the body quickly converts the drug to morphine. And then
morphine provides the rush of pleasure and profound relaxation
that brings the user back in spite of the dangerous side effects. People are always saying to me,
Pastor, you need to really watch what you say from the pulpit
You know, you don't want to trigger people. Well, this, I'm not trying
to trigger anything. I'm trying to loose the Holy
Spirit in here to give life and born people again. Soon your brain adjusts to the
impact of heroin called tolerance. Unbeknownst to you, the chains
and handcuffs are placed on you. The chains and handcuffs are
on you already. Now you're a slave to a false
god. And believe you me, heroin has
so many worshipers who just bow down and worship the false god. A horrible taskmaster with no
love, no tenderness, a demon from the very pit of hell. Dependence
begins, and you need the demon more and more just to avoid feeling
sick, restless, irritable, and shaky. When you try to stop,
you find the handcuffs seem tighter, and the chains around you stronger,
and you cannot break free. Tremors, nausea, diarrhea. runny nose, goosebumps, anxiety,
and agitation begin to set in. And the demon again speaks and
tells you, you will never be free, you will never be happy,
and you will never be healthy again. Your children are wards
of the court, your marriage is ruined, your financial stability
is gone. How powerful! from dependence
to addiction, and now the drug has become an obsession. Your
inner strength is not enough. It will take a power greater
than yourself. Is there a power greater than
the monster of addicted life? Oh, I tell you this morning,
there is a power. And I also tell you this, if
there's not, let's close up shop and go home. I'm tired. There is a power. That's why
I'm here today. I've had enough this week to
quit. If I didn't know there was a power. And I have told you this now
for over 40 years, those of you who've been around to hear me.
The only spirit that can deal with the spirit of this age is
the Holy Spirit of God. May He be here today. And I'll tell you this too about
religion. If He's not here, let's go home. Let's lock the doors. The Apostle
Paul says this in the Thessalonian letter. Think about this potential
today. I hope this gives you goosebumps. That our gospel came not only
in word, but also in power, and in demonstration of the Holy
Spirit or the Holy Ghost. Think about it, church. Those
of you who are Christians here today, just think about it, how
we need that power today. You moms and dads and grandparents
who are here visiting with your children that are over at the
center, think about this today. Grace Centers of Hope is not
going to do anything unless the Holy Spirit does something. Our
little programs, our little program, And then the world has nothing
to offer you out there. Every person in here who knows
the Lord needs to be begging, asking, pleading, wrestling at
the throne of grace, asking the Holy Spirit to come in here today
and do what only He can do. Here's what the apostle, I read
this verse, I heard a preacher preach from this passage probably
48 years ago, and I can hear him today. It's 1 Peter 1, 12. They preached the gospel unto
you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. Oh, that God Almighty, that the
Spirit of Christ would invade our services. I know some of
you are Baptists, some of you are Methodists, some of you are
Catholics, Lutherans, Presbyterians, but I'm telling you, you're nothing
without the Holy Spirit, without a spirit invasion. They preach
the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which
things the angels desire to look into. The Apostle said, I'm not
ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the dynamos, the dynamite
of God unto salvation. Do you realize, humanly speaking,
the potential here today? I'm preaching the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, the God Almighty invaded history. that came down here
in the person of his son, walked the Judean acres without sin,
died on the cross for sinners in their room, in their place,
in their stead, paid somebody's sin debt in full, went back into
heaven, and there we Christians have an attorney, and brother,
do we need one, at the right hand of God, who's making intercession
for us. Amen. And what if he would be here
today in power? You guys sitting on the back
row with a cup of coffee and you young ladies whose lives
are totally destroyed, you came in here today with no real purpose,
no real thought. You could care less. You've been
a mess now and using for years and years. You've almost given
up hope. You come over and eat our hot
dogs over at the center. and our great meals and use our
water and sleep in our beds, but you have no thought. There
doesn't seem much hope or anxiety on your part about ever being
free. You spend a few months over there,
and before you know it, you've decided to move to California. Nothing happens. But what, let's
just say that there is a spirit of Holy Ghost invasion here today. And he begins back there in the
back. And it's such a mystery. You
began to feel, you began to sense something. You began to own your
sinnership. You began to see that you need
a savior, a redeemer. And it's as if you almost shake
your head and go, hey, hey, hey, hey, calm down, self. You know you're a pretty good
guy. You haven't killed anybody. Yeah, you've gone the gamut. You've used the marijuana, the
crack, the heroin, and you're living in a home. But basically,
you know you haven't killed your mother. You're a pretty good
person. And the Holy Spirit screams,
no, you are an offender. God is angry with the wicked.
You have nothing to pay for your sin. What I'm talking about today
is simply this. You're going to live and die
an addict unless the Holy Spirit does something on your insides.
It's very, very true. Have you experienced the power?
I want to just confess to you today, there's nothing, there's
no high like the Most High. I'd like to spend, you know,
if I could stay high on Jesus Christ every day, it would be
awesome. If the Holy Spirit were to invade
and give unspeakable joy and blessed assurance that Jesus
is mine, what a way to live, a little heaven on the way to
heaven. But there are people sitting here today, your life
is hell. You eat out of dumpsters. You
have eaten out of dumpsters. Your past is horrible. But there's
also people here today who used to eat out of dumpsters. Now
they eat at the steakhouse. because of the power of God Almighty. There are people here today who
wandered into this place, or maybe when we were up the street,
or you came into this rehab program, you had no intentions. You didn't
even know you had to go to church on Sunday and Wednesday. And
when you found out, it wasn't exactly what you came for. But God intervened in your life
and all the way had a plan and purpose to bring you here and
vested you in power. You were in bunk 32 up, and the Holy Spirit came in there
where you were. You fought, but you didn't win.
because there's a power greater than yourself. It's very, very
true. Ephesians 1 19 says this, Paul
said, I'm praying that you folks at Ephesus may know what is the
exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe according to
the working of his mighty power. God is the only one that can
make a believer out of you. Oh, we used to sing that song,
he made a believer, he made a believer out of me. Some of you in here contemplate
the gospel this way, you know, that God stuff. You tell me that
God came in the person of his son, was born of a virgin. Give me a joint. I mean, that's
the way you live. You have no thought that it's
appointed unto man once to die. You're going to face God. Just
as sure as you were born into this life, you are going to face
God. Thank God for this power. I was
only a boy. I was eight years old when I
experienced this power. I experienced this power for
myself, and now here I am nearly 74. I don't believe that an experience
saves me, but a power did quicken me and gave me life. I was only
eight years old. I was thinking last night as
I prepared this message, I was thinking about how at maybe six
or seven, I began to toss on my bed at night, I couldn't go
to sleep. I knew I was lost. You see, there
was a power. You're so dumb, you don't even
know you're lost until the Spirit of God takes the scales off your
eyes. You don't know how bad you are.
But when he takes the scales off your eyes and you began to
see, I'm in trouble here. So I remember that little boy,
seven, six, seven years old, wrestling my brother in the next
bunk bed. He didn't know it, but I would
toss and turn, could hardly rest. You see, but there was a power
working. Some of you here have no guilt. You have no conscience because
there's not a power working. When the power of the Holy Spirit
quickens and gives life, you become so conscious of the need
of a Savior and a Redeemer. And actually, the miracle, here's
the miracle. I hear people always talking
about free will. Free will this, free will that.
You have a free will. Your will is enslaved to your
nature. And you have a totally depraved
nature. And Jesus said, you will not
come to me. Not you can't come, you will
not come to me. But he also said this, here's
the miracle. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. How so? They will be drawn to
me by the Spirit of God. And their willer will be changed. Your willer is all messed up.
You need a power stronger than heroin, stronger than drugs. You need someone who's able to
change your will and give you a desire to know Christ. That could happen today. You
know, I long to be preaching. when it happens. And people can't
sit and wait for us to sing 29 sentences just as I am. I mean, God does something. I
mean, the reality of this, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Let me get down here where I
can talk to you. If the hound of heaven would be here today
and he would be on the hunt, The hound of heaven, the Holy
Spirit of God. He's been sent here by God Almighty
to draw, to woo, to bring a sinner to Christ. So he goes on the
hunt. I don't know whether that's a
good hound dog imitation or not. But our God is an active God
in this matter of salvation. He's not waiting on you, crackhead.
He's not waiting on me, religious person. He's seeking out the
elect of God to bring them to faith in Jesus Christ, to quicken
them, to give them life. There's a power greater than
you. I wonder. I wonder, I see some
of you trying to, you know, your face is twitching. You're trying
to cover up that you're feeling something inside. You're trying
to not let those tears come to your eyes about, I'm fine, I'm
fine, I don't feel anything. Oh, yes you do. I am positive
that the Spirit of God is here today. I am positive about that. And that He is speaking to somebody
today. Is it you? This power is able to cause you
to pop up out of that seat where you are and to say, I once was
lost, but now I'm found. I once was blind, but now I see. Wouldn't that be something? I
would say, bless God, if that were to happen today. Yeah, amen. God Almighty, the power of God,
that's what we preach here. Listen. Some of you are visiting with
us. I've been here 30 some years. I've seen the ins and outs. I
have scars from the battle. There's a war going on here.
And I do know this, this is what keeps me here. My mother used
to call every Saturday and she'd say, Those addicts are gonna
kill you up there. They're gonna kill you. I'd say,
Mom, I've never felt more safe than here at Grace Centers of
Hope. More safe. Because I know the Holy Spirit's
real. I know He's a comforter. I know He's able to do what I'm
not able to do. You know, I started preaching over 50 years
ago, and I learned, God taught me right off that you can't save
anybody, that's my doings. I'm the author and finisher.
And so I went all over the country. I preached all over the United
States as a young boy, 19, 20 years old. In Baptist churches,
mostly. They were deader than a doornail. I used to come home driving that
old 56 Buick. It didn't have any springs, and
it would lope up the Kentucky Parkway kind of like this. And
it was late at night, and I'd cry out, oh, God, visit us. Do something. I'm so happy to
be your pastor here in downtown Pontiac, in the inner city. The
potential of watching God show off and church. Hasn't God showed
off here? You think about what God has
done. There is not one thing that has happened here that I
can explain outside of this. There is a power greater than
me, greater than the preacher, greater than all of us put together.
And he's right on point. And he's saving his people from
their sins. Sometimes, oftentimes, when I
get to the car after a Sunday service and no one has professed
faith in Christ, I feel a bit dejected. And it isn't long until
the Spirit of God says to me something like this, just keep
sowing the seed. You're not gonna save anybody
anyway. And besides, you don't know who went home today with a new start and a new life.
You don't know what happened. They may not have publicly confessed
faith in Christ, but they were converted today because my spirit
was sent. And they were brought to Jesus
Christ. There is a power. I wanted you
to know that today. I want you to leave here today. We have our Canadian friends
visiting with us. We're delighted to have you here
today. You know, almost every week,
I get a call from out of state, sometimes out of the country. This week was one of those weeks
where I got a call from a pastor who said, what are you doing up there?
What is the program? What is the program? And I'm
going to say this to you. There's a very practical side
to life, very practical. And I know that we need to be
and have structure, and things need to be in order, but a program
never has saved anybody. We say, well, we have skill classes,
and you know, many of our people are bipolar. Even our pastor
thinks he's bipolar. And you know, people are schizophrenics,
I never think about schizophrenia except I think about Spurgeon
and the schizophrenic that came forward in his church. They used
to call people slow. You know, he's slow in Spurgeon's
day. And John came forward, and in
those days you stood before the church and kind of gave your
testimony. And John came before the church
Spurgeon asked him to say a word with regard to his salvation,
and John, a little slow, said, I am a poor sinner and nothing
at all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all. Bless God! Something happened there. Can
you say that? I don't mean you're slow. I just
mean, can you say that? Can you say I am a poor sinner
and nothing at all? But Jesus Christ is my all in
all. Oh, there's power in the blood,
wonder working power. There's power, power, power,
power, power in the blood of Jesus Christ. Though your sins
be as scarlet, he will wash you white as snow. Jesus paid it
all, all the debt out. It is well with my soul. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory
divine. Where are you? Who are you in
here today? God has spoke to you through
the gospel. Say, Pastor, you just don't know.
You just don't know what I've done. I don't even care to know
what you've done. I know what he did. I don't want to talk so much about
the power of addiction. I want to talk about the power
of the God of the Bible who is on the throne, Jesus Christ,
the Lord and Savior. I'm telling you, there is a power.
I'm kind of interested, just a little bit, in closing. Have you felt something today? Well, I know you saints have.
I know you children of God have, you rejoice in the gospel. It
never gets old, same old story over and over. I preach the same
every Sunday. You clap and say amen and we
grin and rejoice here and we say bless God, bless God. I see some of you using that
term on Facebook. I like that, bless God. That
was last Sunday's message, bless God. How we bless God. Maybe you came in here today,
I mean, you were low. You were really low. Maybe you've
thought this. By the way, you know, I look
at the world's idea of how to get people off drugs, and if
it weren't so serious, it would be funny. Now what you have to
do is give drug addicts drugs to get off of drugs. I know it's a little more sophisticated
than that. But here, we don't give people
drugs to get off drugs. And I'm not saying that to those
of you that when you get saved, if you're addicted, that all
of your symptoms go away. I am saying this, though. He'll
help you through the sweats. He'll help you through the shakes.
I do know this. I do know this. Doing the same thing over and
over and expecting different results is insanity. How about
this? Christ in me, the hope of glory.
How about this? I can do all things through Christ
that strengthens me. How about the great power of
the Holy Spirit? who's able to work inside of
you. How about this? How about being in a climate?
How about neighborhoods where your neighbors all love Christ
and know Christ and understand addiction and know that the power
of the Holy Spirit really is the answer? That salvation is
by grace alone. You may have wallowed in the
stables of sin. You may be as black as all hell.
But Jesus said this, come unto me all ye that labor. and are
heavy laden. I was thinking about telling
you this. Say, Pastor, you've never been an addict to drugs. I haven't, but I had surgery
once, and I was coming out of surgery. I was in the recovery room, and
they must have given me morphine. Hallelujah. I only felt this way one time.
But the nurse knew me and she was shaking me and going, she
called me pastor. Pastor, wake up now. Don't you want to go home? I
said, no. So when people say to me, you've
never used drugs, I say, one time I did. So I kind of know the devil's
ploy. He camouflages. He makes you
think you're high, but you're about as low as you can get.
Because you will sell your children to the drug man. You will. We might as well be honest about
this thing. There is nothing that you will not do. Because
your conscience is gone. You need to be born again. And
only the Holy Spirit can do that. I said, well, Pastor, I think
you've totally made me feel helpless. Thank God you feel that way. Now come to Jesus Christ just
as you are, without one plea, but that His blood was shed for
thee, O Lamb of God. I come, I come. Say, Pastor,
but he knows all about me. What if he turns thumbs down?
He won't turn thumbs down. And besides that, if I was you,
I'd double-dog dare you to give him a try. I just dare you to
venture out, shaky and fearful. Venture out, trust Christ, believe
Him. What options do you have? Especially
if you're a heroin addict, what options do you have? Another
drug? No, you have no options. There's
only one way. There's only one way, and it's
smack dab through the middle of Jesus Christ. and He's promised
to receive you if you'll come. Let's stand and say, would you
like to confess Him? Has God done something inside
of you? You don't completely understand
it, but you feel joy and peace. You feel like your sins have
been forgiven and you're trusting Christ today. Come, acknowledge
Him as Lord and Savior. Trust that tomorrow you'll have
a happy holiday and a safe holiday and enjoy yourself and get rested
up for the battle. I'll be around here for a little
bit if you want to talk a little. Maybe you don't understand what
just happened to you and you'd like to talk about it. I'll be
back there. What an awesome thing it is.
for the Spirit of God to show us Christ and His redemptive
power, and to know Him, not having any righteousness of our own,
but trusting Him alone. Amen. Let's bow our heads and
be dismissed. Father in heaven, thank you for
your great love, for loving us with an everlasting love, even
before you formed us in our mother's womb, and you chose us before
the foundation of the world, and that you so loved us that
you became flesh and tabernacled among us and died in our roomstead
and place. We praise you today. We take
no glory to ourselves. We know that we've been saved
by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Thank you for the faith
to believe. Thank you for the perseverance
that you place in us. Lord, we would have quit a long
time ago had it not been for you working in us, both to will
and to do of your good pleasure. For those today who've come to
know Christ, give them the courage to openly profess him. I pray this to your honor and
glory in Christ's name, amen.