Those of you who are here and
in your sins and without Christ, you're here today on purpose.
This is not your doing. In fact, God let you, you know,
some of you are bass fishermen. When I was a much younger kid,
we used to, in Kentucky, when I passed through there, we'd
go bass fishing in some of those ponds or lakes, and they'd always
say, let the bass take it and run with it. And you know what? God let you take the drugs and
run. And you ran to a hell hole. And
your life has become a total disaster. And you lost everything
that was precious to you. And here you sit. God let you
do what you wanted to do. And now God is directly moving
and bringing you under the gospel of His glory. You know, God is
able to get you off of heroin. God's able to take care of the
sins of your past and present. God's able to change you from
the inside out. What kind of God do you have?
Oh, He's a mighty God. You were born with a depraved
nature that you lived your life up to this point dead in your
sins and trespasses. Oh, you were alive to self and
alive to sinning. That's why you went to the crack
house. That's why you shot up. That's why you do what you do.
All about self. Not about God at all. It's because
you were dead. But something has happened. You're
sitting in here listening to this hillbilly preacher. Talk
about a God who came into the world, who became flesh. And the craziest thing, He came
to save worthless people. You came out of your mother's
womb speaking lies. You're a little liar. There are
no little angels that are born into this world. It looks like
if there were, you'd get smarter the older you get. But as you
get older, by 15, you're smoking weed. You're getting drunk. You're
using crack. No, you don't get smarter as
you get older with regard to sin. You get more deceptive. So what has to happen is this. In your depravity, God has to
come and find you. Because you see, God's not lost. You are. Some of these testimonies
is a long and twisted path of how God got you here and then
did a work in your heart. He quickened you, sovereignly
regenerated you. Do you hear what I'm saying?
Something wonderful happens in here when the gospel is going
forth. The Spirit of God, like a fetching
bird dog, seeks out the elect of God and quickens them. I know some of you were across
the street. Not all of you. All of us have
been converted in different places and have different testimonies.
But some of you were brought absolutely to the end of your
own way before you got sentenced by the court to go over to Grace
Centers of Hope. The judge said, I'll give you
a choice. Jackson or Grace Centers of Hope. All the time God was behind it. He put in that judge's mind to
give you that choice. He put in your mind to choose
grace centers of hope. And then the next thing you know,
you're in that barracks and they're telling you, well,
you have to go to church. I see some of the fellow rescue
mission people put in their literature. And of course you don't have
to go to church here. Well, here you do. Amen. We're not about just keeping
people alive. We're about taking this good
news, this message from God that he has come to earth to give
life and to give it more abundantly for you to have a life. And some of you would have been
Friday and Saturday out in that snow had not God been good to
you. You'd been in a vacant house
had God not been good to you. It wasn't an accident God chose
you. He saw all your mess. And I heard
a preacher just this past week say, God foresaw your faith,
and on the basis of foreseen faith, He chose you. No. God saw you as an empty vessel.
You had no faith. No. It wasn't your faith. It
wasn't because God saw you were going to eventually come to your
senses. God chose you sovereignly. You
cannot give me one reason within yourself why God would have ever
chose to save you. Not if you're honest. But He
sovereignly elected you. There is no way of getting around
it. The message totally shuts us up. That I was dead in sins,
the Spirit came to me. I did not come to Christ, He
came to me. And after He came to me, I wanted
to come to Him. I didn't have any faith, but
before the foundation of the world, He chose me and wrote
my name down in His book. Before you were ever born. Crazy! He elected you. And then, when
you weren't even born, He came down here in the person of His
Son, and went upon Calvary, and actually redeemed you. You know,
you've been redeemed a long time. Redeemed. It means bought. It
means He paid the price. At Calvary, He paid the price.
He already knew all about your mess. You'd done all your mess.
Way back 2,000 years ago, He came and redeemed a number of
people that no man can number. Yeah. Say, well, pastor, I, you
know, what if he didn't elect me? I guarantee you, if you're
asking that question, he did. Otherwise, you wouldn't even
ask the question. I don't believe that at all,
and I don't care. Just think about God electing
you. Say, well, I've only been, you
know, pastor, I've only trusted Christ a few weeks ago. Well,
here's the deal. Before you ever came to Christ,
he'd already wrote your name in his book. He had predestinated
you to this. Oh, pastor, don't tell anybody
that. You know, they'll never come to Christ. If you tell them
they're predestinated and don't have to do anything, they'll
just sit. That's what they're already doing. No, when you move towards Christ,
it's because Christ has already moved in on you. That's what
I'm saying. That you were elected and you
were redeemed. And then maybe today, you're
sitting here giving Him glory. I don't know. Maybe last week
you were using. But maybe you were converted
today. You know, faith cometh. Faith,
faith cometh. Where does faith come from? It
comes from God. It comes from God. For by grace... What? By grace are you saved
through faith. And that faith is not of yourself,
it's a gift of God. What a miracle that you believe
this, that Christ died in my place. That it's not my church,
and it's not my baptism, and it's not my good parents, and
it's not my good anything. It's Him alone. He has saved
me. and is saving me. And how do you like this one? I love
this last one. And he's going to keep me.