The truth is Jesus paid it all.
All the dead I owe sin and left a crimson stain. He washed it
white as snow. There is therefore now no condemnation
to those that are in Christ because it is finished. The dead is paid. Justice is satisfied. And up
from the grave he arose and I have a mediator at the right hand
of God. So good to be back in the old
bar singing the praises of God. in this place. Amen. Our scripture
reading is from the book of Philippians chapter 3 and I'm seriously thinking
about beginning on Wednesday night doing a series of studies
from Philippians 3. This is where we got the name
of our church, Grace Gospel Fellowship. The gospel is the gospel of God's
grace. God has loved the people unconditionally
when they didn't deserve to be loved and that Christ died for
those folks and that The Spirit of God, in time, takes them out
of their lodibars and brings them to faith in Jesus Christ. And then indwells them. And he
who hath begun a good work in you will accomplish it, will
complete it. And that's the message of the
Gospel. The Apostle Paul, Greg has read
these scriptures to you. I want to use verse 10, just
the first four or five words here as my subject today. That
I may know Him. That I may know Him. I want to
primarily talk with you who have been Christians for some time. As I studied and prepared, I
thought what could be the subject of How should I title this? And probably you're going to
be scratching your head after the service, but I wrote, you
are too old not to be dancing. You're too old not to be dancing.
And I, as you will see, simply mean by that, if you've been
converted two days, two weeks, or 200 years, you ought to be
dancing. There ought to be a glory and
a shout and a sense of how much you owe. How indebted you are
to the grace of God and the God of grace. The Apostle did not
say, I have heard of Him on whom I have believed. But I know whom
I have believed and am persuaded. And he said again, and for whom
I have suffered, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things
and do count them but dung. Jesus in his intercessory prayer
in John 17 prayed this way, this is life eternal to know thee. This is life eternal. Knowing
God. Not knowing a creed. Not being
a good Baptist or Presbyterian. But knowing God. What a wonder
it is to know God. how glorious it is to be able
to leave here and to say, I know God. This is life eternal, to
know the only true God in Jesus Christ whom He sent. The apostles'
prayer for the folks at Ephesus was that they might know the
love of Christ which passes knowledge. You're too old not to be dancing.
Every Christian in here, there ought to be a joy and a peace
that passes all understanding. The church really isn't dull.
You better look out or I will dance. There ought to be at least
a dancing in your heart. David danced over being elected
and chosen by God in the Old Testament. And his wife criticized
him for dancing. And he said, if you think I'm
getting down now, watch me. I'm about to do something more
spectacular. The Apostle Paul talked about
being filled with the fullness of God. See, age has nothing
to do with... Actually, actually, this ought
to happen. We ought to be growing in grace
and in knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And those of us
who've been saved for years ought to be doing the most dancing. Because we're growing in this
grace. And every day we see something
new and fresh. And we experience this. You should
have damned me a long time ago, but you didn't. Every day that
ought to cross your mind as you battle and war with your flesh
to know. Knowledge based on encounter. Probably the saddest thing of
my 50 year ministry is this, that I myself and along with
others I have observed that we don't experience God like we
should. I know experience doesn't save.
I know a feeling doesn't save. But I also know this, The Apostle
Paul experienced Jesus Christ and wanted to experience Him
more. Is that your desire? To be filled
with the fullness of God. That's been a lifelong goal of
mine. And this week I've been praying
for that. Just fill me to the top. Fill me to the top. I really don't care what they
think. But you don't know if you're filled with the fullness
of God, you might do something really fire out. God is fire
out. God is an awesome God. You look
at what God has done here. You look what God is doing here. This ought to be a place of great
expectation. And you've been saved for years,
ought to be dancing because you've never seen what you are seeing
here happen. That's the way I am. A guy calls
up and says, we'll do your parking lot for you. Yeah, but that's
nearly $500,000. We know it. We know that. We'll still do
it. We'll put up the 200 trees and
the curbs and the asphalt, and we'll level that whole place
off. The old songwriter wrote these words. I am thine, O Lord.
I have heard your voice. And you told your love to me."
Have you heard His voice? Has He told you His love? How often do you want to hear
that? Every single moment of life. The songwriter wrote this,
I would rather have Jesus. than silver or gold. I'd rather
be His than have riches untold. I'd rather have Jesus than houses
or lands. I'd rather be led by His nail-pierced
hand. I'd rather have Jesus than men's
applause. I'd rather be faithful to His
dear cause. I'd rather have Jesus than worldwide
fame. I'd rather be true to His holy
name than to be the king of a vast domain. or be held by sin's dread
sway? Has there been a transmutation
of a historical fact into a personal encounter? That's what I want
to know. Where you have come to know him
intimately, personally. If you were to show me a picture
of President Obama, I would not say I know him because I do not.
I recognize Him. There is a big difference between
recognizing and knowing Jesus Christ. There's a big difference
between being an eyewitness and hearing something second hand.
It's not the same to recognize a picture of someone, but to
know that person. You show me a picture of Miss
Pam, it's a whole different story. There is just a big difference
between experiential knowledge and intellectual knowledge. Some
of you are here and you know the five points of Calvinism,
but that's not the question. The question is, do you know
Jesus Christ in the free pardon of your sins? Do you walk with
Him and talk with Him along life's narrow way? Do you know He lives? Have you been a believer for
years? Why aren't you dancing? Paul's been converted for 30
years here when he writes the book of Philippians. He has started
churches all over the known world. And yet he's hyper. Oh, that
I might know Him! Well, the Apostle Paul, when
he wrote the book of Romans, oh, wretched man I am! What's
going on in his life? I love the book of Romans, especially
where he says, oh wretched man that I am, in chapter 7, right
at the end of the verse. And then he begins chapter 8
with, there is therefore now no condemnation to those that
are in Christ Jesus. Something happened to him on
the Damascus road. He never got over it. Some of
us have got over it seemingly too quick. Having been born of
the Spirit of God, brought out of spiritual death to spiritual
life, why aren't we dancing? You were dead in your sins and
trespasses. You were in the world. Those
of you who've been saved from crack or heroin, those of you
who have been delivered, you ought to be praising, you ought
to be dancing. At least in your heart. And those
of us who got saved out of church, some of you got saved, you were
embedded and camouflaged and hid in churchanity. You were a goody two-shoes on
the outside, but on the inside, full of dead men's monks. And
God, in the power of the Holy Spirit, came to your dead religious
church and grew you out and saved you. You were in a double darkness. See, I think people who got saved
out of church ought to double down. Because you were all hunkered
down. It's not very hard to convince
the crack addict, you've got a problem. It's the churchy folks
who've been sprinkled, ducked, and poured. And you've been a
Presbyterian all your life, or a Baptist, or whatever, and mama
and daddy, and you have your pedigree. Why aren't you dancing? You see, the Apostle Paul was
still hungering, still thirsting, still excited, still driven,
still seeking, still longing, still fighting the good fight.
He's not an old believer and bored. Nobody is bored when the
Spirit of God is blessing the gospel of His dear Son, and you're
contemplating, He died in my stead, in my room, in my place. My purpose in life is not to
arrive safely at death. Is that your purpose in life?
Just hang on till I die. I have God-sized goals. Listen,
I'm thinking like this. Okay, almost 70. That doesn't
mean anything to God. He hasn't grown weaker. Look
at Sarah and Abraham. They had a baby way past 70. No, Ms. Tam, I'm not thinking
about that. What I'm thinking about is that
God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we
ask or think. You know, I was thinking this
week, Some have been converted for years, and the most exciting
thing in your life is a rocking chair. I'll let you think about
that. You've never gotten out of the boat like Peter. Have
you ever been out of the boat? Listen, until you get out of
the boat, you're not living. You really don't know much about
Christianity. You're safe, hunkered down in
the boat. Some of you are looking, what
is he talking about? Simon Peter walked on water for a while.
You ever been up against a Goliath? And you had nothing really to
win the battle. And like David, with his little
sling and five smooth stones from the brook, you won. There's
nothing like that. Have you ever done anything absolutely
ridiculous? I mean, with regard to serving
Christ. But, you know, you think about,
here's a guy who is a tax collector, right? He probably dressed pretty
sniffy, but he's a tax collector. Everybody hated him. So he had
to have some self-value. So he probably dressed... But
he shimmies up a sycamore tree to see Jesus. Everybody must have got a great
laugh about that. Look at this pint-sized man who's
sophisticated and we all hate, but he's shimmying up a sycamore
tree. And people took notice of that.
He wants to see Jesus. And you know, everybody that
criticized him didn't get to go to lunch with Jesus. It was
only Zacchaeus. And if you walk on water, somebody
is going to be there to criticize you. But you notice all the criticizers
are in the boat. They don't get to experience
what you experience. Joseph's brothers threw him in
a pit because he had a dream. Do you dream? Do you dream big
like your God? Do you have goals like your God
as a Christian? Listen, the Lord didn't die for
you to be saved. He died to make you dangerous.
You ought to be dangerous. You better not get near that
church over in the old bar lest you get saved. Those people are
crazy over there. They're dangerous. Look what
they're doing to our city. Have you seen their parking lot?
That's the way people are going to talk about that. Do you really
want to be normal? I'm just going to tell you right
off, your pastor does not want to be normal. I am not going
to die normal. And maybe it's going to be something
like this. Some of you are going to begin
to whisper to one another, you know, he's really trying to lead
us into things I really don't think he might know exactly. You know he is. 80 years old
now. I'm looking out in the future.
I'm going to say something that's probably going to upset some
of you. I would rather fall. I would rather fall on my face
than fall on my butt. You know what that means? That
means a holy boldness. So you fall on your face. Get
up. That may be called relapse. I
don't know. The great thing about Christians is they don't stay
down. I don't play to break even. And I don't play to lose. I play
to win. That's Christianity. Fear and
faith both start with F. But that's as far as it goes.
Faith is living defensively and offensively. It's playing both. Why aren't you dancing? Maybe
because you are a church spectator. You come here every Sunday for
60 minutes. God's got your attention. Is
that all your life consists of, is knowing Christ? Getting quiet
in here now, isn't it? Have you been converted all of
these years and still think you can go to church? You can't go
to church because you are the church. Is that right? We're the church. Church is not
this building. We are the church. And so church
is happening wherever you are, in a sense. You are part of the
church. So you can't be the hands and
feet of Jesus when you're sitting on your rear end. I love the
word GO! And that's what Jesus said. He
didn't say, step. He said, go. Your workplace is
your mission field. Listen, right now is a good time
to invite folks. Because most of them were at
Fletch Fargo at some time in their life. So when you go to
work tomorrow, just say to somebody that you know, hey, you ought
to come over Sunday and see what's happened over there on the building.
I mean, that would be a good way to start. You don't have
to say, you don't know Jesus, or you're going to hell. Would
you like to know Jesus? You can kind of sneak up on them.
Invite them here. We get those pews up there. We've
got to fill those pews. We can't just have 500 people
sitting around here. That's empty space up there,
right? Amen. I think the city's going
to tell us you can only put 900 people in there at a time. OK.
That's all right. We'll have free services. And
when I get too old to do that, we'll play the first service
on a recording. Or on film. Your colleagues or
your congregation. Who are you telling about it?
Do others see Jesus in you? Do your kids, do your grandkids
see Christ in you? Or are they like this? Really
on the inside, I think God's dead. It was good for a while
to think there's a Creator, I want my grandkids to see great
things. For they cannot deny, Pawpaw
got the bar. And it took a miracle of Almighty
God to get the bar. I want my grandkids to know that.
I want them to point out things and say, that could not have
happened except there's a God somewhere. You know, I thought
about this this week too. It would be great for us to have
a mission trip. You know, this week, there's
a group coming up from Lancaster, Kentucky. And they're coming
up, and they're going to be sleeping in the old church building in
the basement. And they're going to be working on our houses and
painting, doing all kinds of things. It's their mission trip.
I thought maybe we could have a mission trip, and we go over
to 21 Stephens Court. That would be a great mission
trip. And we can stay in the basement of the church at night
if you want, because it'll take about two weeks to fix that house
up. That's a dog fighting house. We took, I don't know, 10 inches
of dog manure out of the basement because that's where they had
dog fights. We own that now. We could have a missions trip.
Yeah, we could be missionaries, actually. We don't have to go
to Africa. We can go to Stephensport. We
don't have to go to Peru or Brazil. We can go to Stephens Court.
Think about what this church could do. We're right here on
the mission field, in the mission field. I'm longing for the day when
this church becomes the largest supporter of Grace Centers of
Hope, our baby. We should be, and I believe God's
going to do that. In fact, before we go to Stephens
Court, we'd have to raise a little cash. Like Lancaster, they'll
bring 10,000 or 5,000 or they'll bring enough to buy shingles
or whatever when they come. What about us? That's what I
mean by dainty. See, to know him is to know him
and to do. See, I know Ms. Pam in loving her, knowing her
personally, and I do for her because I love her. And I get
to know her better. And this thing of serving Christ
is not something that's dreaded. Something wonderful and awesome.
So it's just simply this. Knowing is doing. And doing is
knowing. If you aren't doing it, then
you really don't know. Within the heart of every Christian,
there is a desire to bring Him glory. And to live for Him. The Apostle Paul said, we joy
in God. Why aren't you dancing? I believe probably you're not
dancing because maybe you don't understand. You can't out-give
God. The more you know Him, the better
you know Him, the more you serve Him. The more you lose your life,
the more you gain it. We haven't learned to gain life. Have you got old and miserable
in Christ? I mean, have you got old and just not? You know, you're
an old believer. You were saved years ago. What
I want to ask you, are you giving 100%? Think about it. Join in God. Have you thought
about it? God's ultimate plan for your
life is not sitting in a church pew for 60 years or 60 minutes
on Sunday. God's plan for you is not you
sitting here once a week. That's not His ultimate plan
for you or for me. Sam and I talk about working
seven days a week. And I know that the Lord did
not do that either. He rested. And I know there has
to be that balance. But in my heart, there is a desire
to serve Him who died for me and to make every day count to
His glory and His honor and His praise. Just so you know, we
act like we live in days of peace. There's a war going on out there. A war in this country. A war
in our streets. There's good and evil going on
all around us. And what are we to do? Charge
the gates of hell. I want to tell every grandparent
in here that drug man wants your kid. That's right. If your children,
grandchildren, great-grandchildren do not see Christ in you, see
someone in you that's greater than you, see someone that has
changed you, see someone that makes you dance. Oh, Grandma's
so happy. She's happy all the time. You
think she's on something. Often I hear this, well, we just
don't have the financial resources. I want to tell you my thinking
about that. We will never have the human resources or financial
resources to do what God has called us to do. And if we do,
our dream is too small. It's too small. Because if we've
got it, then we just don't need really to call on God. I want
to see things that could not happen without God happen. Don't you? I do. And we're all
happy about it. One of my fears, I guess to some
degree, is to think we get all cozy here. That we have arrived
here. We haven't arrived. I don't know
whether this is the right word or not because it sounds rough,
but choose your dictator. Fear or faith? Is faith going
to dictate how you live or fear? Is what people think going to
dictate how you live? Or is trust in Christ? Someone
said this, I like this. No decision is a decision called
indecision. Is that right? Everyone in here
wants to spend eternity with God. We just don't want to spend
time with Him. We stand and stare. Are you staring
from a distance? I mean, really? I know that there's
some of you greatly encouraged by what God is doing here, but
it's from a distance. You're really not in. You're
looking from afar off. Man, that's wonderful. But you're
not a part of it. You're not all in. I like this. I was reading this week. Someone
has said, we Facebook more than we seek His face. We text more
than we study the text. Our eyes are not fixed on Jesus. They're fixed on our iPhones
and our iPads. Emphasis on the eye. Then I got
to noticing myself. Every spare moment, I'm looking,
right? You are too. I see people in
the restroom doing it all the time. And then we wonder why
God feels so distant. Someone said to me this past
week, I know there's a God, and I think I know God, but He feels
so far off. I don't know how to make this
any simpler than, you ought to look him up. If I don't see Pam
for several hours, I'm going to find out where she is. I'm
going to find out what's going on. When I come home and she's
upstairs, I haven't seen her for a little bit, I go upstairs.
And I said to the Lord this week, I know the devil's after me.
You better be praying for me. This week especially, I think
because I was kind of preparing this message, and I think that's
why I entitled it, Why Aren't You Dancing? Remember when you first got saved?
What a joy! You could hardly contain yourself
when you really realized that God loved you, and that God chose
you, and that God sought you out, and that Christ died in
your stead. Do you remember that? That really
ought to be an everyday thing. Now, in the Calvinistic churches
where we believe in predestination, there's kind of a downplaying
of feeling, and kind of a downplaying of, if you have a church of over
200, you can't be preaching the truth, because that's too many
people, because everybody hates the truth. This ought to be the
fastest growing church in town. Because God's here. And I believe this. I believe
if it would get out on us, God's over there. I'm telling you,
God's over there. Do you know God can draw a crowd? Let me
say that again. Do you know God can draw a crowd?
What if everyone here brought the Holy Spirit with them? What
if all of us brought the Spirit of God with us today? And there's 500 people here who
are centered on Jesus Christ and His glory and His honor and
His praise. And what if we brought our children
here to hear the Gospel? And God started saving our kids.
And our kids stepped out. Wednesday night I was talking
about getting our baptismal pool and God saving our children.
Two children came up to me and said, think about this now. I
didn't even actually notice them so much. But two children came
up and said, you know, would you baptize me? Now, I know people
want to be baptized, and sometimes they think that baptism saves. But if you come here at all,
you're going to hear me say baptism doesn't save anybody. But just
for those children to be thinking about that, do your kids think
about it? Are your kids exposed to the
gospel and your grandkids and people around you? What about
your best friends? What about the people at work? And I want
to tell you this. You know, there's an old expression,
take a hike. And you may be here and you're
saying something. I didn't come to hear that. I've been busy
all week. You've been too busy. Get up
real close. You want a front row seat? You
want to warm up? My grandparents had a wood stove,
and we'd go down there in the winter. You know, every room
except where the stove was, and it wasn't real warm. But I would
say, I'm cold, and I can remember my grandmother saying, come closer
to the stove. Are you cold? Do you feel like,
you know, maybe you don't feel anything. I mean, you've been
a professor of faith in Christ for years. You don't feel anything.
There is feeling in this. The Apostle Paul said, oh, that
I might know Him. Now some of you are going to
think perhaps that I've gone Chrismatic, but I'm going to
say this. A single step of Spirit-led faith in God's direction, fill
your veins with spiritual adrenaline. There is nothing in this world
like being filled The Spirit Christ, the Holy Spirit, the
Spirit of God. That's why you're not dancing.
And I used to be very concerned about impressing preachers, and
I just really don't care anymore. I'm not out to impress anybody.
You know, as you get older, life gets a little tougher. What I
want to do is dance my way out of here. I want to experience
God. I want to know him on a daily
basis. I want to sense his presence.
I want to know when he's not very near. Have you ever seen
a child get lost in stairs or some big store from his mother?
He begins to cry. On several occasions, I have
seen that and did my best to comfort that child. I'll find
her for you. The kid only screamed louder.
When you get to the place as a Christian, you begin to look
around and sense, where is He? I'm dead and cold and indifferent.
I don't feel anything. I don't even know whether I want
to go to church today. You know, something ought to
happen. And it ought to be fear. I want to know Him. I want to
be, Lord, where are You? Lord, don't go off to far. Lord,
reveal Yourself. And I want to say to you, If
this thing is boring, if this whole thing is boring, you probably
need to get saved. One thing I can say, my life
is not boring. I can say that. I battle with
my flesh. I battle with myself. I've prayed
most of this week. Fill me. Baptize me. Show me yourself afresh. Let me climb higher. I want to
go down into the depths of the love of God. I want to know the
height and the breadth and the width of the love of God in Christ
that passes knowledge. I want to be out of my head.
You know what I mean by that. It's all there for us. But it's
only there when we get out of the boat. It's only there when
we dare to climb the sycamore tree. It's only there when we
realize, you know, I don't know myself. I want to know Him. Well,
the Apostle Paul knew Christ. Yes, he did. And no, he didn't.
In Ephesians 2, here's what it says. The Apostle said that in
the ages to come. The ages. The eons, the Greek
says. The eons. In the ages to come. He's going to make known the
riches of His grace to us in Christ Jesus. So what that means
is you don't know nothing yet. And I don't know anything. Around
here we talk about the five points, but we don't know anything about
God's amazing grace yet. It's going to take eternity for
you to know how good God's been to you and for me to know. So
I study it. And the more I grow in grace,
the greater His grace gets. It's true. All you have to do
is this. Think about where God found you. Think about Him even thinking
about you. Think about how insignificant
you are. Think about He wrote your name
in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world.
Think about that He condescended into this world because He so
loved you. Think about that Christ came
here and died in your room instead. That He paid your debt. And when
you didn't know nothing about nothing, He sent the Hound of
Heaven to seek you out. You see, this I know. Some of
you are here and you don't know God at all. But you're not here
by accident. God, a long time ago, determined
to bring you around. And He's seeking you out of your
Lodibar. and bringing you to the place
where you trust Jesus Christ, which is an amazing thing. It's
an amazing thing. I've had people say to me over
the years, now, let me get this straight. You're saying that
the Creator came to earth. Is that what you're saying? Yep. You're saying that He walked
the Judean acres for 33 years down here on earth, the earth
He created? Yep. Are you saying that he was born
of a virgin that never knew a man? Yeah. You're out of your head. That's the craziest thing I ever
heard. Are you saying that he died as
a sacrifice in the place of scuzzbags? Yeah. Yeah. Are you saying he
went down into the grave? Yeah. And got up on the third
day? Yeah. Isn't that the craziest
thing you've ever heard? I believe it with all of my heart.
But it is far out to think that I'm riding the river with that
story. I got all my eggs in one basket. I'm trusting that. There's a
cemetery out there. There's a grave out there. This
old body is going to leave this world. But what's your hope,
Pastor? My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. That's my hope. And I'm saying
that we all ought to be dancing about that. That that old story
can't get old to us. But it's fresh and new and it's
exciting. The guy said to me, well, how
do you know he's alive? I said, I just talked to him.
I just talked to him. All was well. I'm about to get
happy here by myself. I know some of you want to get
out of here, but I'm feeling pretty good. I've had a rough
week. The devil will take your joy
away. That's it. Go take your joy away. He'll
try to stop you from dancing. Christian life, knowing Christ,
is not a drag. It's abundant life. Jesus said,
I'm come that you might have life, and not just ordinary life,
but that you might have it more abundantly. More abundantly. Oh, that I might
know Him. Oh, that all of us would leave
here today and just leave here with this prayer, Lord, let me
dance. And this is the way to become a dancer too. Give it
all up.