I am the Lord, that is my name,
and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise
to graven images. Will a man rob God? The answer
is yes, if he can. Will he rob Him, attempt to rob
Him of His glory? Absolutely, there's no doubt
about it. Will religion do that? Absolutely. Will the atheist
do that? Absolutely. He will, if he can, take away
the Lord's glory. But the truth is, he can't. And
the reason he can't is a very simple one. And I hope that you
will hear me and hear me really good and that you will leave
here today in your soul and heart, steadfast in praising Him. You are what you are by the grace
of God. He's Lord. It's imperative that
we know that and believe that He's Lord. That means He's boss
man. That means He's in control. That
means this world is not a runaway. That means that He's sovereign,
that He's omnipotent, that He's omniscious, that He's all knowing
and that He's in control of all things. That's why He can say
to us and we can say to ourselves and quote Him on it. And we know
that all things work together for good to them that love the
Lord, to them who are called according to His purpose, because
He's on the job 24-7. And He's a perfect manager of
our lives. My glory I will not give to another. Often I'm asked, and we get these
calls almost every week, you know people are jealous of us.
They think we have some kind of hidden moneymaker here. And so they call the center,
And they asked Tracy, who's my assistant over there, can we
come and see pastor? We'd like to pick his brain. We are thinking about starting
our own shelter. And occasionally, I do have the time for that, and
people will come over and sit down with me. And when they come,
There's always this question, how do you do it? That's always
the first, how do you do it? Well, you all know the answer
to that. I don't. That's the first, they
don't accept that though. No, you know what we mean, pastor.
Of course we know there's a God and we know that he's in control,
but we wanna know how you do it. I said, okay, I'm going to
give you three points that are so absolute for your success. And I start out this way. First
thing I want you to do is to begin to give Him glory. And they just look at me. And
then I say to them, the second thing you must do is give Him
glory. And then the third thing that
is beyond any doubt, you have to do this, give Him glory. Tomorrow is Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. Day, and I've been asked by the
Ministerial Association and some other folks along with some other
pastors to come and do a video in honor of Dr. King. And I've
been asked because something's going on here that people notice.
Otherwise, I wouldn't be asked. And I'm going to give them that
three-point message. You want to know what's happening
at Grace Gospel Fellowship? God's getting glory. We give
Him all the praise. We don't take absolutely any
of it. He's the Lord. If you know who God is, and you
know what you were, your hand automatically goes up. Praise
God from whom all blessings flow. From sinking sands, He lifted
me. With tender hands, He lifted
me from shades of night to planes of light. Oh, praise His name. He lifted me. You feel that bubble
on the inside? You want to praise Him? Then
why don't we just do it? You know, he receives that. He
hears that. The cherubims and the seraphims
are going, good job, pastor, you led them to praise our God. We excite them. They're watching
us. They come to service. They know
that we preach the same thing every meeting. We give God all
of the glory. You know, what I gave you, those
three points, people reject that. They look at me, you know, like
a new calf looking at the barn door. Oh, you don't know that,
you guys aren't Southern people. But it's kind of like... I say, those 52 houses, how did
you accumulate them? To God be the glory. How is it
that you bought the old sanctum clutch cargo building? Well,
we didn't actually buy it ourselves. Somebody bought it for us that
the Lord brought them to buy it for us. Well, look at the
insides of that building. People are always wanting to
have weddings here. They're wanting to use our building, which we
will let them for certain. Anyway. God gave us this building. How
do you have a learning center? How is it your people are getting
their life back? And then we tell them they don't
want to hear that. They don't want to hear that.
But you can rest assured of this, the glory He will not give to
another. There's a day coming when you
are going to give him glory. So I'm not a Christian, I'm an
atheist. I'm talking about you. When your knee is going to buckle
and your tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to
the glory of God. He's the Lord. He's the one,
the Alleluia Chorus, Tells us of him hallelujah the Lord God
omnipotent reigneth in Revelation 19 and on his vesture is written
king of kings and Lord of lords Glory, you know the chief in
you know why you're here to give him glory. I'm talking about
alive I'm talking about you have a life to give Him glory. The chief end of man is to glorify
God and enjoy Him forever. Aren't you glad there's a God? Can't you say, what a mess I
would be without the Lord. He's the one whose name is above
everything. He's the one that it is said
of him, none can stay his hand, nor say unto him, what doest
thou? You need to go to school with
the old King Nebuchadnezzar. He was strolling through his
kingdom. I kind of picture it like me driving down Seneca or
Moreland or Fairgrove Street. And if I were to say, this is
my kingdom, Ken Clark, alias Superman. I did all of this. And while Nebuchadnezzar
was strolling through the kingdom, he said that to himself. And
you know what God said to him? The kingdom is departed from
you. You need to learn this lesson,
that I'm the Lord. And my glory I will not give
to another. And his fingernails began to
grow. And he lost his mind and went
out in the field and began to eat grass like an oxen. He was
a crazy man. There is one lesson for you and
I to learn. I am here for the glory of God
and to praise Him. And Nebuchadnezzar said, when
my reasoning returned unto me, I said, and all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his
will in the army in heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth. And none can say his hand, nor
say unto him, What doest thou? God's in control. This world
is not a runaway. He's Lord, and He has created
it for His glory and power. And Nebuchadnezzar said this
too. And those that walk in pride, he's able to abase. Boy, you're
living dangerously if you're proud, because you have nothing
to be proud of. Your bow should be in the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. Say,
well, pastor, that's what you always say. And that's what I'm
always gonna say. You know, I have noticed this.
Here I am, 75 years old, and I've noticed this here more probably
in the last couple of years. You know, maybe you ought to
streamline your message a little more. I will agree with Ms. Pam. Maybe I should stop wearing suits.
I don't know. Dave thinks I ought to wear suits,
right, Dave? I know God is not looking to
what you wear, but I know this, the message doesn't change because
God doesn't change. Whether I'm wearing blue jeans
or in a three piece suit, the message doesn't change. It's
to God be the glory, great things he hath done. Can I get an amen? You ever thought about it this
way? He's able. You ever just brag on your God?
Hey, let me tell you about my God. My God is able to do exceedingly. Is that it? No. Abundantly. Is that it? Above all that we
ask or think. Is that your God? Or you got
one of these teeny weeny little gods? No, He is a mighty God. And you need to know that and
believe that. You know why? Because it's going
to take a big God to bring you out of darkness into light. And
I know that happened with me. Take a new path, preacher. Preach
other things. And this week in my self-talk
session, I said to self, why? Say, I'm talking to myself. I
know none of you never talk to yourself, but self-talk is a
pretty good thing. So I'm saying to myself, okay,
how's the church gonna grow? How am I gonna be an active part
in that? What should I do? So I said,
you know, change the message a little bit. You don't have
to always be talking about predestination. or the doctrine of election,
or particular redemption. And so I said to myself, self,
why? Why would I change the message?
I'm not bragging, I'm just telling you, it seems like we're doing
okay. By the grace of God. What if
I began to water that message down a bit? I can tell you, and
I tell all of you visiting with us today, this place would fall
apart. You know, Thursday, I guess it
was, or Friday, whenever I went to lunch with a lovely donor,
I was asking God, please, please, I know $169,000. I know that's
an incredible number to ask somebody to donate. And so Mark went with me, we
went out to lunch. And you know, I scheme and plot
these lunches. You don't wanna take me to lunch,
I'm gonna ask you for help. Amen. I think those are divine
appointments. So I began to, I always began
with, thank you for all you've done. I always began with that,
and I mean that. And so I'm sitting there thinking,
okay, I took the house pictures with me, right? So I've got something
to kind of start the conversation with about how we bought the
houses and, you know, you got to get on, I had to get on the
house track, but I had to thank this person because they've done
so much for us. And she looked right at me and
she goes something like this. So what about this house? I said,
oh yeah, I did want to talk to you. I've got Mark there sitting
with us. Anyway, she looked right at me
and she said, I'll do that house. And I actually choked on my salad. You know, sometimes we ask God
and He gets a little ahead of us. He just goes ahead and does
it. I thought maybe toward the end of the meal, you know, I'd
put it out there really straight. So I'll do that. Think about that. I mean, I just
want that to kind of sink in $169,000. That's a lot of money. And you know that old house has
been sitting over there. It's been condemned. Actually,
it was condemned when we got it. And it's been sitting there. Danny Davis, three years ago,
put a roof on that house. I said, someday we're going to
get this house fixed up. We've waited three or four years.
Got that new roof on it, kind of saved the insides of it a
bit. And now look what God has done.
There are some of you right now who are going to be graduating
September, October, maybe November. You'll have a bedroom. They'll
have a bedroom. Don't run off. Don't go away. God is such a great, great God. The gospel of the glory of God
is not growing weak, is it? And by the way, for 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's
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. He's able to save to the uttermost. So, I know he's happy today with
what's going on here. Because we're not taking any
glory. We will not have it here. If a preacher gets in the pulpit
and begins to talk about, you know, what he and what you must
do to save yourself, it's totally a lie. God must save the sinner. You know, here, listen to me. Some of you in here have deaf
ears. Until today. And God's unstopping them. And
what I'm telling you is that 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. Dead in your sins. Your mom and
dad, dead in sin. Grandma and grandpa, dead in
sins and trespasses. And maybe you have a long history
of people who weren't Christians. You know, people say, you know,
somebody told me that this morning, I'm a lifelong Democrat. I'm not going to say who. But if you're in here and you're
saying something like this, I'm a lifelong Christian, no, that's
too long. The truth is, you were born to
parents who had a depraved nature. And 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. You know how lost? Crazy lost. Depraved lost. Degenerate lost. Evil lost. And God comes seeking you. And if you got what you deserve,
he'd send you straight to hell. I'm going to get back to my main
point to give him glory. I'm telling you, have I just
described some of you in your past life? Absolutely. All of us in here. And when I would not come to
him, he came to me. Some of his testimony 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, some of you have
been, 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. I'll give you,
the judge said, I'll give you a choice. Jackson or Grace Centers
of Hope? Is the jail still in Jackson?
Well, it used to be. So you can go to Grace Centers
of Hope, or you can go to Jackson. And you thought, oh, that's an
easy choice. I'm gonna go over to Grace Centers.
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. Somebody ought to say glory to
God. Amen. So we were dead. I'm going to
get to this quickly now. I have three minutes. That is a joke. Man is dead in
sins and trespasses. So, so if you are here and spiritually
alive, you're here and you're going like this, you know what?
That's the greatest message I ever heard. That God came to earth
in the person of his son, Jesus Christ, kept the law, went up
on Calvary, died in my room, stand in place, took all my sins
away, got up on the third day, ascended back into heaven, and
now I got a lawyer there at the right hand of God. You see, it wasn't an accident
God chose you. He saw all your mess. And I heard
a preacher just this past week say, God saw, 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 gonna 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. Somebody ought to say, praise
the Lord. election. You see, what I'm preaching to
you today, what I'm saying to you today will lead to this one
thing. Glory to God. 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've 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, 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. He's going to keep me. You heard Dr. Christopher this
morning read the song, Prone to Wander. Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.
I wouldn't suppose any of you have sinned this week, have you?
I mean, you haven't had any evil thoughts this week, have you?
I mean, you that are converted while you're almost perfect,
aren't you? How crazy that is! You haven't
thought about quitting, have you? You haven't thought about
using, have you? You say, well, pastor, most of your
sermons seem toward addicts. That's because I am one. I'm
not preaching just to you who use drugs. I'm talking about
all us addicts. There's no one in here that's
not a sinner. And you're either a lost sinner
or a saved sinner, one or the other. But I do know this, it's very
simple. Been thinking about it all week.
Nope, we're not gonna change our message. It's gonna stay
the same. He said, well, people, you know,
pastor, people have heard you say the same thing now for 45
years. I know. And actually, they've got the
virus, the grace virus. And it's talking about grace,
talking about God's grace. Somebody said to me a few weeks
ago, so how are all the Clarkites? I said, oh, we don't have Clarkites.
They meant it to be funny. But you're not a Clarkite. You're a Christite. You're a
believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you make no bones about it. To God be the glory. You know,
If there was anything I would ask for in this congregation
is that we're really a happy people. We're messed up. I mean, in our flesh dwells no
good thing. We still have those evil thoughts.
Our flesh is no better than it was when we were born, actually. In fact, our flesh just... And
by the way, just for those of you who are getting older, when
you get 75, you won't be perfect. more imaginative in your sins,
more experience along the way. You know, I was thinking this
week too about all of my life. I was converted when I was eight
years old, but all of my life growing up in the Baptist church,
I always felt so guilty. Just always so guilty. And then
I learned this lesson, that in my flesh dwells no good thing.
But that new me, that born-again me, that which the Spirit of
God put in me, never sins. So, there's a war going on. I read about Sitting Bull, a
statement by Sitting Bull this week. I forgot what I was reading.
Something about Sitting Bull. An Indian chief. And some guy
asked him, hey, you got a white dog and a black dog, which dog
can take the other? He said, the one me feed the
most. You'll get it in a minute. I'm
feeding you today. And it's very simple food. It's
just this, you've been saved by the grace of God. Don't frustrate
the grace of God. Give Him all the glory. And say
this from the depth of your soul. Oh, what a wonder that Jesus
found me. You know, I look at you and I'm
not amazed that you've been converted. I know me better than you. And
it's such a wonder that I'm heaven bound. I look over 75 years and
so far not a total, total disaster. A lot of bumps in the road. but he's still working in me
and he's gonna take me all the way. I know my sheep and they
know me and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life
and they shall never perish. Some of you are in here like
this, what about my past pastor? You don't know what, if you only
knew, I don't wanna know. People often come to me and say
things like this. I wanna tell you just how bad
I am. You don't have to. In fact, your
stories kind of bore me really. I mean, you can't outdo what
I already know about myself and about our depravity. Here's what
you ought to be talking about. He's a greater savior than you
are a sinner. I hear people give their testimonies
on television and they're always going like, I just want to tell
you about how far I went into the depths of hell, into this,
into that. And I'm thinking, hurry up. Get
to the good part. And He lifted me. And He saved
me. He regenerated me. And now I
know I'm loved with everlasting love. He chose me. I'm predetermined. I'm going
to heaven by the grace of God. What a miracle that is. There
ought to be a lot of peace in your heart and soul about that.