All right, I was about to tell
you a couple of jokes I heard, right? This little boy was sitting
on a park bench, and there was a big Doberman pincher sitting
very close to this little boy. And a man came by, walking by,
and said, little boy, does your dog bite? And the little boy
said, no, mister. My dog doesn't bite. The man
reached out to pet the dog and the dog took the man's hand off.
And the man said, little boy, I thought your dog didn't bite. The little boy said, that's not
my dog. All right. I heard one more. When I hear
them, I try to repeat them, especially if they make me laugh. This husband
went on a business trip and left his wife at home alone for a
few days. And sure enough, someone broke
into the house, a man broke into the house. She heard him and
called 911. Police were on their way and
she didn't have a gun or anything to defend herself or to stop
the guy. And she said, Lord, help me. And she said, I'm going to quote
a verse. And so when she came face to
face with the guy that had broken in, she said, X-238. And the
guy froze. He just froze. The police got
there and the guy was still standing there. And the policeman said to the
lady, what scripture did you quote that was so powerful to
stop this man dead in his tracks? The guy spoke up then and said,
scripture? What scripture? I thought she
said an ax and two 38s. Alright. Philippians. One of my favorite
verses. 4.13 I can do all things through Christ
that strengtheneth me. And another one of my favorites is John, the passage in John
15 that says, without me, you can do nothing. The passage Greg read, the next
one down says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. The first thing I want to do
this morning, and then we'll get very positive, is to slay
self-sufficiency. I can can be dangerous without
the rest of the verse. Or, I can do is dangerous without
the rest of the verse. All heresies in the church have arisen from a tendency to
dishonor God and flatter man. That's where heresy comes from.
And I don't care what you want to flatter about man. His works,
his will, free willism, whatever you want to flatter about man
is heresy. Because the Scripture says whether
you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do to the glory of God. Self-flattery. I can. Self-sufficiency. Two men went up to the temple
to pray. One, a publican, and the other,
a Pharisee. The publican said, I thank thee,
God, that I am not as other men are. Self-righteousness. Self-centeredness. The publican
would not so much as raise his head toward heaven, but smote
himself on the breast and said, God be merciful to me, the sinner. What must be proclaimed, and
when self-sufficiency is proclaimed, this is never proclaimed. That
it is grace and grace alone. It is sovereign grace. As I said
last Sunday, I do not back up from what I preached last Sunday. It's the truth. It deflatters
man. It brings man down. And there's, you know, you can't
fall out of bed when you're sleeping on the floor. It causes us to
look up. Salvation is of the Lord. And
so everyone sitting here is in one of those categories. Either
you feel yourself, even if it's to the tiniest degree, self-sufficient,
self-able, to save yourself. You are off and wrong and it's
heresy. Let me say it again. It's heresy.
It's grace. It's the mercy of God. On the other hand, the doctrines
of the Gospel, commonly known as the doctrines of grace, are
distinguished for this peculiarity. Above all else, they give all
the glory and all the praise to our God. And that our God
is not a weak God, but He's a mighty God. And He's sitting on a throne
as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and none can stay His
hand Nor say unto him, What doest thou? Even baby Christians, and
there are many in here today, discern this truth. That salvation
is of the Lord. And they give every song and
every message and every testimony the acid test. Does it glorify
God? Or does it exalt man? That's
all you have to do. It is very simple, baby Christians. Do this. Is it a braggamony or
is it a testimony? Does it say God did it all? Does
it say I did not first call on God, He first called on me? I did not find God first, He
found me. I was hiding in the bushes when
He came to me. Does it throw all of the self-sufficiency
down? Nothing in my hands I bring.
That's the way you come to Christ. You can't bring your freewillism,
your works, your church entity, your religion. You can't bring
that to God. He will refuse it. For God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God
is the Savior of poor sinners. And so, the Lord Jesus says,
Without me, you can do nothing. Without me, you can do nothing.
You see, the Lord Himself lays the axe to the root of the tree. Without me, you are nothing and
you can do nothing. That's the truth of this Bible
and the message of this Bible. Think about this. That you as
a Christian can do nothing. You are powerless. You are not
sufficient within yourself. You can't produce. You can't
be without Christ. So it puts the ax deep to the
root. And so here we are. As Christians,
it is God who works in us both the will and to do of His good
pleasure. Every good and perfect gift comes
down from the Father above. Anything that's good that comes
out of you, Christian, God had to put in you and then work it
through you. Now, if that is true of the Christian,
think about the man who is a sinner, a woman who is a sinner, without
God in this present evil world. Think about how impossible it
is to be saved. without God. Absolutely. In fact, the apostle in Ephesians
2 says, you, all of you Christians, he made alive, who were dead,
inactive toward God. Dead in sins and trespasses. And you walked according to the
course of this world. According to the devil's dictates.
And there you are. In the crack house. In the hood. In Lodi Bar. Some of you hiding
out in church. Dead as a doornail. Last night, flipping through
the channels, I was watching actually a Greek Orthodox service,
I think. Oh my goodness. I don't, and I'm not trying to
down you as Greek Orthodox. I'm just saying. I sat there
like this. What the heck? Oh, I'm sorry
I used the word heck, but it was like, what is this all about? All of these guys had on the
long robes and there was all of this stuff. I'm just telling you, for me,
in church, you know, you can go to hell from a church pew. You can go to hell from the choir
loft. You don't have to be in the bar
singing 99 bottles of beer on the wall. You can sit right in
a pew, and if God leaves you alone without Christ, you will
surely perish. We are without strength. That's
what the Bible says. The sinner is without strength.
And today, as I preach to you, I am so very, very conscious
that unless God does something in me and does something in you,
this will amount to nothing. God's got to be here. God's got
to make this place alive. God's got to quicken you. God
has to seek you out of your lowly bar. God has to go through in
the power of the Spirit through these chairs and touch you and
make you alive. You'll sit right here thinking
about crack. You'll sit here thinking about
your church entity. Some of you I've already made
mad now. You love that formality. And
when I try to take it away, you cling to it because that's what
you're trusting in. All of your righteousnesses are
as filthy rags in the sight of God. There is none good. No, not one. So it must be God who saves the
sinner. Now I want to move on to the
second text. We always must be careful of
quoting half-texts. Like, I can. I mean, that's alright
if you add the rest of the verse. In fact, I think Christians ought
to have that attitude. And I think our churches have,
for the most part, have become very minor key, Very negative. I grew up in negativity. I really never thought too much
and never heard too much about, I can do all things through Christ. You know, as a little boy, I
was a dreamer. I dreamed. I remembered this
week in the study, I was thinking about, oh, it's been, almost,
I don't know, maybe 50, not quite 51 years ago, but a long time
ago when I was a young preacher. There was a little lady that
came to where I was pastoring. And after church, she only came
once. But she came that Sunday and
she said, may I lay hands on you and prophesy? Of course,
I was a young guy and I didn't believe too much and stuff like
that. Anyway, she was elderly and I had respect. She laid hands
on me and she got real close to my ear and she said, you will
preach to thousands. You will see awakenings. You
will see revival. And you know that was a long
time ago and I forgot a lot of things. But I haven't forgot
that. And I thought then, who me? But
she had and was looking to the Lord more than I was looking.
I kind of had the attitude that, you know, I can pastor maybe
a few people and, you know, we'll fight every once in a while and
split. You know, I was a Baptist at that time. God have mercy
on you Baptists who are here. At any rate, negative. Just negative. You know, my life
now at my age, you know, you kind of ought to be, I guess,
maybe, I don't know, I thought older people kind of, you know,
took Tylenol and got in a rocking chair. But my life is more exciting
now. A hundred times more exciting
now. I'm experiencing God more now
than I ever have in my life. I can do all things does not
stand alone. That's not the closing of the
verse. Multitudes of men have thought
of themselves that they could do all things. Mussolini and
Hitler and Napoleon and Stalin and Obama. I know some of you didn't think
that was too funny, but that's alright. But it's I can do all
things through Christ. That strengthens me. That's what
the verse says. You know, Nebuchadnezzar in the
Old Testament got up one day and he was walking on the top
of the palace and he said this, is not this great Babylon that
I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my
power and for the honor of my majesty? And God immediately said to him,
the kingdom has departed from you. You're going to eat grass
like a cow and your nails are going to grow. And after years
of out there in the grassy pastures, Nebuchadnezzar said, God is God
all by Himself. And none can say His hand nor
say unto Him, what doest thou? You know, I was thinking about
the Apostle Paul too. Here was just the opposite. The Apostle Paul was a short
little man who stuttered. Isn't that something? A short
little man who stuttered and went all over the known world
preaching about a crucified Messiah, a ridiculous story, who was born
of a virgin, was crucified, buried, and arose again, and ascended
back into heaven." You read the Apostle Paul's life. He said,
I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me. Think
about all the things that the Apostle Paul did. I'm positive
that there is no work to which a Christian can be called to
except God will qualify you for that work. You know, in myself,
I'm so unqualified. Just unqualified. And you are
too. But that's not the way we think
as children of God. We are to live by faith and not
by sight. Think about it. And I'm not saying
God's calling you to preach, but I am saying if you're a Christian,
God's called you. And you may be hiding here today. Or hiding like this, as I did. I can't do that. I can't tell
anybody that. They'd think I'm nuts. That's
not so unusual now for people to think that of me. You know,
you think about some of the craziest things that have happened here.
I mean, they are wild. But we must always remember,
little is much when God is in it. There's only one thing you
need to settle in your mind. Is God in this? Coming into service
today was listening to a lady speaking on I Can. She had this
text. I Can. Do all things through
Christ that strengtheneth me. What's God calling you to do?
He saved you on purpose for a purpose. And you can do this with God.
Because He's able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that you
ask or think. Just go hog crazy. Ask God. Are you a dreamer? Dream. Dream. I'm dreaming. I haven't told
some of you these things, but not yet. And I know some of you
are praying now, oh God, don't let Him go completely. Done and due are big words in
the Scripture. In fact, salvation begins with
a big done. It's finished. You know, God's plan will come
to pass. Jonah said, I'm not going to
Nineveh, but he did. And I told you last Sunday, he
went by Wales Valley University. And God may have to send you
to school, Has God ever sent you to school? He'll send you to school where
you can learn this lesson. You think, you say, well, I don't
know, Pastor, and I know there are probably some of you thinking
like this, because we've all been used to the negativity.
And I have been, actually in my ministry, I have preached
total depravity, which is true, till even Christians gave up.
It is true that man is totally depraved. And the Apostle Paul
said, O wretched man that I am, in Romans 7. But he didn't stay
there. He didn't stay on the minor note.
He began to sing happy songs. There is therefore now no condemnation
to those that are in Christ Jesus. We pass from death into life.
And now that you're God's child, know that you're saved for a
purpose. And He's going to work in you and accomplish that which
He has called you to do. The apostle would say, thanks
be to God which giveth us the victory. Are you experiencing
victory in your life right now? Or defeat? You should be experiencing
victory. That's right. Over whatever your
circumstances are, there is victory because God is there and God
has saved you. Think about this. There is no
corruption, no evil, no propensity, no failing that you cannot overcome
through Christ that strengthens you. Whoever told you Whoever
is telling you that you cannot overcome your addiction is a
liar and the truth is not in him. You and I, by faith, can march
around the walls of Jericho and blow our little horns and they
will fall. The walls will come down. There
is no wall that cannot come down. as we live by faith and not by
sight. And something else I think you and I need to learn. That
the devil is a chained lion. Let me put it a different way.
The devil is God's devil. Just think about that a little
bit. He's chained up. The Old Testament talks about
God has made a highway into desert. It's called the highway to heaven. But it's a fence highway. And
the devil is on the outside. There's a fence on both sides
of the highway to heaven. And what he does is, the devil
does this. He is a roaring lion. And he
runs along the fence. But he can't get on the highway.
Because you are gods. And it's a highway to heaven.
And you are more than a conqueror through Christ. This world cannot defeat us.
This world cannot defeat us. You and I can rather enlighten
this world. We can be a Jonah and eventually
end up in Nineveh and see great revival. See, I believe that.
I've longed for that for 50 years, to see great awakening. My desire
is to see this balcony packed This auditorium packed because
we have the good news, the glad tidings. We are victorious in
Jesus Christ. And nothing can stop us. What
is stopping you as a child of God? Do you know that God works
in us so much that He overcomes one of our greatest enemies?
Myself. You know why you're not experiencing
stuff? Because of yourself. Oh, I can't
do that. Oh, I can't do that. Oh, that
would never happen for me. God would never do... Do you
know this? I know this. I know this so well. That God has put people in my
way who are not Christians to do for me what I dreamed of
happening. You didn't buy this building. There's things happening here
every day that God has put me in the right place. And I've
even said to myself, like Mr. Custer, I don't want to go. What
am I doing here? You know what I mean? And God
put somebody right there. I've been to the strangest places
where God hooked me up. He's a hook-up God. I know some of us every once
in a while have occasions to meet demons. Some of you don't
believe that, but you will when you meet one. But do you know
this? All things are ours. I don't
have to fear demons. I don't go around looking for
demons, but I don't fear demons. They have no power over me. They
can suggest things. They can't possess me. They can't
take salvation away from me. In my life I have faced a few.
Literally. Faced demon-possessed people.
There is a name that is above every name. Demons flee at that
name. the name of Jesus Christ. You
see, and I say this with humility, I am not a loser. I'm not. Hey, I'm a winner. And
you, too, are a winner as a Christian. I'm not defeated. I'm more than
a conqueror. I don't know. I don't know how
you can be more than a conqueror, but I am. In other words, I win. I win. I win. I win. I win. Win.
Win. Win. That's more than a conqueror.
I'm always winning. The Apostle Paul said to the
Corinthians, everything's yours in Christ. It's all yours. It's
all yours. It's all yours. Have you ever
thought about this? Have you ever thought about the
power of the Holy Spirit? The energy of the Holy Spirit
of God inside of you. Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever sensed, and I know
salvation is not feeling. I know salvation is Christ. But
I'm telling you, Christ in you and the Spirit of God working
in you, there is feeling. A lot of feeling. how the Spirit of God communicates
strength. And you've done what you thought
you couldn't do. You have gone through things
you thought you couldn't go through. And I've gone through some very
sad things. I remember standing at the gravesite
of our first child and experiencing what I cannot explain of peace
and energy, and even joy. Have you been through anything
like that? You know, the Holy Spirit is
the Comforter. Do you know what you have as
a child of God? When you lay on your bed late
at night and the devil is talking to you and you've got that defeated
attitude? Just remember this, I can do
all things through Christ. And tell Sloughfoot to go back
to hell. I read the story of, this is
supposedly true of Martin Luther. I don't know whether I told you
this story last week. I forget what stories I tell you. But
Martin Luther, the father of the Reformation, was in bed. And you know the Pope had put
out a warrant to kill him. because of the Reformation justification
by faith. Anyway, religion will kill you. But anyway, Martin Luther was
asleep in his bedroom, and the devil came and sat at the end
of his bed. This is what Martin Luther said.
And Martin Luther heard a rustle, and he got up in bed, and looked,
and there was the devil. And he said, oh, it's just you. And went back to sleep. You know, it's a marvelous thing
how God gives faith in emergencies. Have you really had a tough time? Maybe somebody died that you
loved How God, in the power of His Spirit, energizes and gives
you strength. Isn't it amazing how weak faith
can sprout? Have you ever experienced that?
Where you had a little faith and suddenly something happened
or something went on where that faith began to get bigger and
bigger and bigger and grow and grow. Faith. Trusting God. That's why so many times I've
told you, if I could ask God to give me one thing, it would
be more faith. To trust Him. To believe Him. To walk in faith. So many times, I need to overcome
me. I need that faith and that inpouring
of the Spirit of God's energy. I can do all things through Christ
that strengthens me. It's a can-do strength. Are you
sitting here? I hope that you get shook today. What am I doing sitting here
faithless, dreaming dreams, but don't believe they can come to
pass? Just simply sitting. Wasting my life away. In the
Old Testament, there's a story about Zerubbabel, the high priest.
And he was rebuilding the temple. And he had so many problems.
And Zerubbabel said, Who art thou, O great mountain? Talking
about his problems. And God took the mountain right
out of the way. Removed whatever the hindrance
was. Boy, those are great times when God does that. When the
hindrances are removed. I do believe, if we could believe,
great things we could do. Do you believe you can do great
things through Christ? Well, if you don't, you won't. That's just true. The man or
woman who shall ever do anything is that one who says, this is
the right thing to do. I'm called to do it. And I will
do it. I have God to help me. God is
on my side. And it must and it shall be done. I hope you can get there. As
long as you think little, you'll do little. So, what are you going
to do? Sit and live out your life? You
know, my dad, I think I've learned this lesson. He retired and sat
in his big chair and died. You might as well get ready.
I may sit in the big chair and they may have to carry me up
here, but I'm not going to sit around and die. You know, we really do need the
Spirit of God in the sense that You know, God called Gideon.
Gideon said, I'm a shepherd boy. Gideon had to put out the fleeces,
you know, and test God instead of believing God. Moses stuttered
and had all kinds of excuses. What's your excuse? Because you
might hear God say this. Who made your mouth? If God's called you to do something,
don't you know He's made a way? Nothing is impossible with God. If the Word says, I can do all
things, should I shrink from great things? If the Bible says
this, and it says this, I can do all things, does that include
great things? You know, I've had a lot of thoughts
this week, but I've had the privilege of meeting four presidents And
one of them was Ronald Reagan. And when I was a little kid,
I used to think about, I want to be president of the United
States. I used to think that. You know, if I and I think about
so many things, and this is with regard to the two children, we
ought to be teaching our children the great things of God. You
ought to be telling your kids about how we got this building.
What great things God has done here. Telling them. And telling
them, you know what? If you trusted Jesus Christ,
you can be and do anything you want to do. That's what we teach
them. And just this personal story.
I wrestle with telling it because it's Shannon. And you know, when
Shannon was in high school, she was all into sports. Everything
was sports. And her mother and I got a little
worried you know, sports, sports, sports, and she needed to do
some girly things. And so the Miss Troy thing was
coming along, and Pam cut it out of paper and gave it to Shannon
and said, you ought to, you know, you ought to just enter this.
But going back a little bit, when she was a baby, of course,
she was firstborn and strong-willed and all of that. She's been that
way from a child. But I used to mow the grass with
her. mow the grass, take her places
with me. I'm from a tiny tot. And I would
sing to her things like, here she comes, Miss America. I would
sing that to her just a little. Well, I believe that I believe
we ought to put those kind of things in our kids. Confidence. As she grew up and got taller,
she became Amazon lady at school. She was six foot tall. in middle
school and just had no confidence. So she went out for sports and
excelled and lettered in five sports and all kinds of stuff.
But anyway, her mother encouraged her and I encouraged her to enter
the Miss Troy. She entered the Miss Troy with
a JCPenney bathing suit. All right, you got it. and her prom dress, and anyway,
she won Miss Troy, and then she kind of liked it, and then she
won Miss Teen Michigan, and then she went on, and I used to tell
her things like this, you know, this really isn't now about you
so much because you're winning, but think about all those little
girls who are there, petrified, who didn't have any confidence,
who had no confidence, you ought to be helping them, encouraging
them. And it's okay if they win. But
anyway, so she won Miss Teen Michigan. She won Miss Michigan
World. Youngest Miss Michigan World. Went to the Miss World
thing and took fourth place or something and then got in her
20s and won Miss Michigan USA. Went to the Miss USA contest
and placed there. But all the way along, and now
she coaches girls in all of these pageants. But what I'm saying... And by the way, God used all
of that mess to help Grace Centers of Hope in a mighty way. She
met everybody under the sun and helped us with so many things.
God has a plan for your life. And your children. Think about
what your children are facing. Everybody's using drugs. It's
not just inner city problem. The suburb schools are infested
with with drugs and mess. Everybody's having sex outside
of marriage. All kind of mess going on. What are you telling your kids?
What's this church telling these kids? In fact, this Wednesday,
we have reach out Wednesday here. The kids are going to have popcorn
and They're going to have a movie and we had 38 kids up there last
Sunday. Amen. What are we doing for the teens
here in this city? You know, not only in this city. But in other cities, I want this
place to be used downstairs. So one of my dreams is that this
building is used especially with young people on a daily basis. This is a meeting place. This
is a place where when you can't go home, you can come here. That
there are Christian activities going on downstairs. All kinds
of fun things. I wasn't raised in that. In fact,
I can remember hating to go to church. All things are possible. I'd
love to have a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th grade school at least. Those are dreams. And I believe
they can happen. And I believe they're going to
happen. I really had a crazy one last week. I said to myself,
somebody's going to give us a million dollars. Say, well, who? I have no idea.
But if you're sitting here, make me mighty happy if you'd write
the check. Little as much when God is in
it. Think about this. You have been
twice created. We are His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus. You have been born again. On
purpose. For a purpose. Not to just buy
and sell and eat and drink and sleep and get up and laugh and
weep and live to yourself. God's got a purpose for you.
Oh no. Some of you have a record. I
know that. That's okay. We all have a record. So you've
been to jail. What a great experience, you
can tell. You know, I went to prison. I had probation. I reported.
I stuck needles in my arm. But God saved me. Did God make the stars and they
not shine? Did God make the sun to give
no light? The moon not to cheer the darkness?
Well, you've been twice born for a purpose. The devil will
always use something in your life where you've messed up.
And what you have to do is talk back to slewfoot. I refuse to
hear what you're saying to me. I know. You told the truth. I
am a mess up. But I can do all things through
Christ that strengtheneth me. And there's nobody who is not
messed up. God can put the fire in you.
And what you ought to be praying here is God bless our pastor. God set the preacher on fire
and let us watch him burn. Right? God and the power of the
Holy Spirit fill us Thrill us on the Lord's Day. God, I know
that my friend is still in addiction. God, speak to them and use me. Amen? I know I have kids and
my family has fallen apart, but Lord, now that You save me, help
me to reach out to those children that I deserted a long time ago.
Help me to be an influence in their life. Help me to be a great
mother. I know you've saved me and I
can be a great mom. Help me to do that. I can do
all things through Christ. Quit this mentality of I can't
to I can through Jesus Christ. Do you believe it? Do you trust
that? Let's stand together and praise our God. Thank you, Lord. Give thanks with a grateful heart. Give thanks to the holy one. Give thanks because you've given. Jesus Christ is come. Give thanks with a grateful heart. Give thanks to the holy one. Give thanks because he's given
Jesus Christ his son. And now let the weak say I am At the poor say, I am rich because
of what the Lord has done. Let the weak say, I am strong.
Let the poor say, I am free. Because of what the Lord has
done for us today. Do you feel a praise coming on?
Amen. Amen. Amen.