I want you to turn in your Bibles
to the book of James. Martin Luther said that the book
of James was a book of straw. He didn't think it ought to be
part of the Word of God. Martin Luther was a great believer
in the message of God's grace. It is so very, very important
that we get the gospel right can be very lopsided, you know. You can be off this way. Well,
salvation's by grace, which means we can do whatever we want to
do. We're going to heaven anyway. And so, works becomes nothing,
really. That's not what the Scripture
teaches. It's not, let us sin that grace may abound, the Apostle
Paul said. So, we can go that way, or we
can go the other way, which is to say, I have to be good enough
to get to heaven. I have to do enough good things
to get to heaven. And that, we know, is real off
base. So, getting the gospel right
is so very, very important. In fact, the blessings of God
truly only fall when He gets all the glory. And you know,
I've talked about this a lot in 35 years here. The gospel of God's grace. The
book of James is a controversial book. Luther thought it to be
a book of straw. But actually, great and wonderful
teachings in the book of James. James simply says, if you have
a faith that's dead, it doesn't work. But if you have a living
faith, it works. A dead faith is like the faith
of demons. James said, the devil believes
and trembles. The devil believes and trembles,
but the devil produces nothing good. So, good works do matter,
but they only come from and out of a person that knows Christ. And, as we will later see, it's
only by the grace of God that you do what you do. that you
are what you are. And therefore, God gets all of
the glory. So, the key to the whole thing,
you've heard me say this thousands of times, the acid test, is who
gets the glory. Really, Christianity is not difficult. It really isn't. It's just this
simple. Give Him all the glory. And there's
something wrong if you don't want to. If you want to take
some of the glory yourself. And Miss Pam was reading a book
while we were on the cruise, and this guy said that there
are a lot of glory thieves. And that's very, very true. Attempting
to steal God's glory. Are you a glory thief? I don't
really care what trail you take, what path you take. I hear a
lot of talk about, well, I'm so insecure, he's so insecure,
and he needs building up. We have to be careful about that
because we build you up so big that you get to thinking you're
something. It's a false glory. I am what I am by the grace of
God. That's what the Apostle Paul said. And the more this
church learns this, and we must learn it, I think about this
a lot. Do those who really sit and listen
to me preach, do they really have a Bible? And can they really
spell out the gospel? I don't mean spell the word gospel.
Who was the smart guy that said space? These you have with you
always. Spell it out how God is just
and justifier. I mean, you really know how there
can be a just God and how He can justify you or justify taking
you to heaven? How can God take you to heaven?
I thought while we were celebrating what was about to be 2014 on
the ship, six, seven thousand people crowded on that main street. I mean, you couldn't even move.
When we got back to the room, Pam and I were talking about
how empty and about what was going on here with people who
maybe for the first time had a sober New Year's and saw that
you could laugh and have fun and have a good meal and be together
and not be drunk. You know, a lot of emptiness
in this world, the grace of God. So, I've thought about the coming
years. I think the coming year calls
for a direct message that this Wednesday, the clutch cargo building,
which is Grace Gospel Building, will be paid for in cash. We
close the deal paid for in cash. Next week sometime, construction
crews will be coming in and bars will be taken out and things
will start to roll. And by the way, I already know
that we met our 1.1 budget for Grace Centers, and we're at 1.2
million a few days ago. So that's good news, right? We
give God glory for that. That's a marvelous thing. You know, some of the folks that
have given, our family doctor gave $10,000. People doing things
like that, it's just amazing. Our doctor's Jewish. and contributing
to a gospel cause. I mean, people see that something's
going on here. I hope you see it as well. And what I'm trying to say here
is that there's no room for uncertainty in the message. It has to be
direct and God-centered and Christ-centered and Holy Spirit-inspired. Outside
of that, nothing happens that amounts to anything. I see so
much going on in the religious world, but it really amounts
to nothing if it's not clear and concise And if the trumpet
gives forth an uncertain sound, the Bible says, who shall prepare
himself for battle? In other words, the preacher,
as he blows the gospel trumpet, must be clear that it's by grace
and that all the glory goes to God. Once you begin to say, Pastor,
I bet I've heard you say that a billion times. And if I live
long enough, you will hear it a billion times more. Because
I am convinced beyond any shadow of a doubt that the reason this
place is continually blessed is because God blesses us because
we give Him the glory. When we stop that, when we stop
that, then He withdraws Himself. Any of you, I want you to know
my frailty. I do. I don't want you to I don't
want you to see me as a pope or a... I don't know. God is
the hero here. I want you to see me like as
a hammer. You know, a carpenter needs a
hammer. Jesus was the carpenter. And He builds His church. But
the truth is that God is God wherever you are, isn't it? And
that's why I say to you quite often, what I pray for myself
is, God, give me more faith. It's not me at all. Without faith,
it's impossible to please God. And the truth is, if the millions
are going to come in to do what we need to do, God's going to
have to do it anyway, right? So, just do all you can. This
is what I'm preaching to myself now. Do all you can and then
trust God. Act like you did nothing, really.
And trust God. The gospel of the glory. Giving
God the glory. That's what it's all about, whatever
your situation is. True worship has to do with giving
God all the glory. What a beautiful snow it was
this morning, even though it's treacherous out there and going
to get worse. But how beautiful it was. Give God glory. You know,
every snowflake is different. There's no one snowflake that's
the same. Our God is such a mighty God. But here's what I want you to
learn and really get deep down inside of you and be able to
take a Bible All right, now I know I told you to turn to the book
of James. James 1 and verse 25, "...but whoso looketh into the
perfect law of liberty..." That's the gospel, the Word of God,
the law of liberty. Often when we see the word law,
we think about works or penalty or enslavement. But here's the
law of liberty. I'm free pretty much to do anything
I want. But I bring a lot of things into
captivity because it might hurt you. Or, you know, we're free,
but we're not free to offend other people. The truth is, grace
makes you free, but when you're around other people who are offended
by something, you don't deliberately try to offend them. In other
words, some people think that some things are wrong, like a
glass of wine. Or, I don't know, eating pork. or whatever. And so we don't
deliberately – we know we're free from that. We're not under
that kind of law. But we don't deliberately try
to hurt other people. Look us into the perfect law
of liberty. Continuathare in, he being not a forgetful hearer,
but a doer of the work. This man shall be blessed in
his deed. And all that's saying is this.
This is what I'm going to be talking about this coming year.
The graced way. the grace way. I'm going to teach
our counselors over there. I'm going to teach the men of
grace. I'm going to have classes that
I'm teaching on the grace way. It's the grace way. So, that
we're not teaching one thing over there and another thing
over here. We're not singing one thing over there and singing
another thing over here. We got it together and it's about
the grace of God. You know, Satan's greatest ploy
is really to throw us off base. My problems or your problems
are not going to be solved by a psychiatrist. They're going
to be solved by God, by His grace and coming to believe Him more. Aren't you a Christian? I believe,
help my unbelief, right? And I pray to do this. God has
given us His Word, and I guarantee you that you married couples,
If you will do it God's way, you can have a happy marriage.
The blessing is in the doing, not because you do. This is an
important fact. You are not blessed because you
do anything in the sense of works, except glorifying God, which
says He did it all. In other words, God doesn't bless
you. God doesn't hold a carrot in front of you and tease you
like, come on now, don't commit adultery. Don't fornicate, don't
use drugs, and you'll be happy. The blessing is in the doing
it God's way. Whatever God says, you do it,
and I guarantee you, absolutely beyond any shadow of a doubt,
you'll be blessed. God has written this manual called
the Bible. And when we live out what He
says, the blessing is found in it. Is that as clear as mud,
or is that clearer? Do you understand the blessing
is in the doing? So, salvation is by grace, right? The gospel is the glory of God. It's the glorious gospel. The gospel of the glory, which
is simply this, that God has saved you, and He didn't have
to. That makes it glorious. That
God has loved you freely. That's the glorious gospel. That
He should have sent you to hell. But He didn't. That God chose
you and you're still having panic attacks. Still not trusting God. You're
still thinking you can do something. It's the gospel of the glory.
You know, I know some of you may think that I'm amazed that
God saved you, but I'm more amazed that God saved me. I am getting
so acquainted with myself. I hate myself. When I would do good, evil is
present with me. Right? What I want to do, I don't
do. The devil and I are in fisticuffs,
I think, more now than ever in my life. But I also think that
God is showing off more than he has ever had in 50 years of
ministry. He's becoming more real to me,
more an everyday basis of being amazed at what God is doing.
We call ourselves Grace Gospel Fellowship. Grace, unmerited
favor, gospel. That God has invaded history
and come down to this earth, not to spy out our sins, but
to deliver us from our sins. That He died on a cross, was
buried and rose again, went back to heaven and is coming back
again. Grace, gospel, fellowship. And we meet here and we fellowship
around that. That's why we call ourselves
Grace Gospel Fellowship. It's amazing grace. The apostle
said, I don't frustrate the grace of God. In the book of Galatians,
I don't mix law and grace. So, James says, you'll be blessed
in your doing. That's right. When you do it
God's way, you'll be blessed. Anything outside of doing it
God's way is rebellion and sin. If you don't do it God's way,
right? If you don't do it God's way,
then you're doing it somebody else's way. And if it's not God's
way, then it's rebellion and sin against God. And God doesn't
bless that. So, I guarantee you this, if
you want to have joy, if you want to have happiness, live
the way the Bible says. I guarantee you, good things
will happen. Not because you do it, but in
the doing. Try it out. I devil dog dare
you, try it to do God's way. Pick out a few things and just
say, you know what? It doesn't seem right to me,
but I'm going to do it God's way. I'm going to, if you've
got a lost mate, I'm going to live my life in a way that they
see Jesus in me. that they see Christ in me. I'm
not going to try to convert them myself. I'm going to do it God's
way. I'm going to pray for my husband.
I'm going to pray for my wife. I'm going to live in such a way
that they have to scratch their head and they say, I see there
is a God. I see it in her or Him. Right? Jesus said, I'm the way. I am
the way. So any other way is not the way.
I'm the only way. He said, I'm the truth. Jesus
said, I'm the way that brings not only soul salvation, but
life salvation. And I want you to know this.
I'm not interested in Jesus being a fire escape to anybody. Or
you getting off drugs for two years and using Jesus as an escape. I'm not interested in that. It
thrilled my soul. I saw someone wrote someone an
email and it was on Facebook, I am listening to Pastor Clark
on Sermon Audio and he is filling my soul with Jesus. That is my
desire, to fill your soul with the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus
not only saves the soul, but the life. In other words, it's
not about you getting off of drugs for a year. It's about
you getting your life back. It's about me getting a life. You can go to jail and stay off
crack for a year. Well, maybe. I don't know. Unless
you know some of the guards. You know, we have aftercare because
we know the devil's still out there, right? He's a roaring
lion seeking whom he may devour. We need each other. So, God is
all about this. He saves the soul and He saves
the life. And so, we're about saving soul
and saving the life. That's why we don't want you
to move on. Jesus said, I'm the truth. I'm the truth that sets
you free. I mean, haven't we all had an
ugly past? Don't we need to be set free
from our past? There's nobody in here that doesn't
have an ugly past. And most of us in here are not
too hot on our present. Right? But the Lord will set
you free from all of that, all of that condemnation that you
feel and sense. You need to be filled. Be not
drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be you filled with the Spirit
of God. Those that walk in the Spirit will not fulfill the deeds
of the flesh. You can't be filled with the
Holy Spirit and be out using. Right? You can't. Jesus said
this, I'm the life. I am the life. Get a life. A life that causes abundance. A well springing up. Really,
that's what I want. I want that. A well springing
up. The things of this life can overtake
you. Right? You can get waterlogged. You can start to feel things
that you shouldn't feel. And the Lord promised not to
put more on us than we could bear. Amen. Sometimes I think
we can overdo it in life. Alright, three simple things.
I am what I am by the grace of God. It's so important that we
know that and acknowledge that. 1 Corinthians 1.30 says, "...but
of him are you in Christ Jesus?" Well, what does that mean? That
means God put me in Christ. Yeah, but you didn't deserve
to be put in Christ. That's taking a nasty thing and
putting it in a pure thing. Right? God put you in Christ.
Now watch this. "...who of God is made unto us
wisdom." Is this stupid to you or is this wisdom? That I am
what I am by the grace of God. God put me in Christ. That's
wisdom. That is my wisdom. And it says
this, "...but of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who God has
made unto us wisdom and righteousness." You know you have to be as good
as God to go to heaven, right? Well, you do. You have to be
righteous. Well, who made you righteous?
God made you righteous. So how did He do that? He imputed
to you the righteousness of Christ. But you didn't deserve that.
So when you stand before God Almighty in the Day of Judgment,
there'll be no condemnation for you because you have imputed
righteousness. In other words, God put to your
account perfection, a perfect righteousness. And sanctification. Oh, here's where people go nuts.
Here's where we really get churchy. Sanctified. I've been saved and sanctified."
Don't drink. Don't smoke. Don't cuss. Don't
play cards. Don't, don't, don't. And they
talk about that being their sanctification. Sanctification is not what you
do. You are what you are by the grace of God. The reason you
don't do those things… Listen, if you haven't done something
yet, don't think you won't. Don't think you won't. Don't
think that you've got to such a holy place that your old nature
and flesh has just died and gone. No, I guarantee you, I'm 69,
it hasn't gone anywhere. In fact, you may be a little
more inventive as you get older. Now listen, I'm going to read
the whole verse together. 1 Corinthians 1.30, "...but of him are you
in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written,
he that gloreth, let him glory in the Lord." Now, if you're
going to glory at all, you've got to glory in the Lord. Right? Because He's all of this to you.
And you are what you are by the grace of God. Some of you need
to remember, some of you really need to remember, that just a
short time ago you were not living on Seneca Street. You need to
remember when you were out there and you hadn't changed your underwear
for five or six days. We need to remember when we were
so drunk we couldn't stand up. We need to remember we could
have been, were it not for the grace of God, out there tonight
as the temperature drops and so drunk that we would have froze
to death on the street. You need to remember. Don't forget
where God's brought you from. And know you are what you are
by the grace of God and give Him all the glory and the praise
and the honor. Don't ever forget that. Don't
even get so caught up that you forget that God's brought you
a mighty long way. to stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how He could love you, a sinner
condemned unclean. Oh, how marvelous! Oh, how wonderful
is the Savior's love for me!" So, you are what you are by the
grace of God. You've been saved by grace, unmerited
favor, a well springing up. The things of this life can overtake
you. Right? You can get waterlogged. You can start to feel things
that you shouldn't feel. And the Lord promised not to
put more on us than we could bear. Amen. Sometimes I think we can overdo
it in life. Alright, three simple things.
I am what I am by the grace of God. It's so important that we
know that and acknowledge that. 1 Corinthians 1.30 says, "...but
of him are you in Christ Jesus?" Well, what does that mean? That
means God put me in Christ. Yeah, but you didn't deserve
to be put in Christ. That's taking a nasty thing and putting it
in a pure thing. Right? God puts you in Christ.
Now watch this, "...who of God is made unto us wisdom." Is this
stupid to you or is this wisdom? That I am what I am by the grace
of God. God put me in Christ. That's
wisdom. That is my wisdom. And he says
this, "...but of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who God has
made unto us wisdom and righteousness." You know you have to be as good
as God to go to heaven, right? Well, you do. You have to be
righteous. Well, who made you righteous?
God made you righteous. So how did he do that? He imputed
to you the righteousness of Christ. But you didn't deserve that.
So when you stand before God Almighty in the Day of Judgment,
there'll be no condemnation for you because you have imputed
righteousness. In other words, God put to your
account perfection, a perfect righteousness, and sanctification. Oh, here's where people go nuts.
Here's where we really get churchy. Sanctified. I've been saved and sanctified.
Don't drink, don't smoke, don't cuss, don't play cards, don't,
don't, don't. And they talk about that being
their sanctification. Sanctification is not what you
do. You are what you are by the grace of God. The reason you
don't do those things… Listen, if you haven't done something
yet, don't think you won't. Don't think you won't. Don't
think that you've got to such a holy place that your old nature
and flesh has just died and gone. No. I guarantee you, I'm 69,
it hasn't gone anywhere. In fact, you may be a little
more inventive as you get older. Now listen, I'm going to read
the whole verse together. 1 Corinthians 1.30, But of him are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written,
he that gloreth, let him glory in the Lord. Now, if you're going
to glory at all, You've got a glory in the Lord. Right? Because He's
all of this to you. And you are what you are by the
grace of God. Some of you need to remember, some of you really
need to remember, that just a short time ago you were not living
on Seneca Street. You need to remember when you
were out there and you hadn't changed your underwear for five
or six days. Amen. We need to remember when
we were so drunk we couldn't stand up. We need to remember,
we could have been, were it not for the grace of God, out there
tonight, as the temperature drops, so drunk that we would have froze
to death on the street. You need to remember. Don't forget
where God's brought you from. And know you are what you are
by the grace of God and give Him all the glory and the praise
and the honor. Don't ever forget that. Don't
even get so caught up that you forget that God's brought you
a mighty long way to stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how He could love you, a sinner
condemned unclean. Oh, how marvelous! Oh, how wonderful
is the Savior's love for me! So, you are what you are by the
grace of God. You've been saved by grace, unmerited
favor. Now, this is where the church
goes wrong. Many churches go wrong as far as I'm concerned.
And by the way, don't ever be ashamed to say, I was saved by
grace. God should have damned me to
the lowest hell. Don't pussyfoot around with religious folks who
are, well, you know, God did all He could for me and then
left it up to me. God didn't leave it up to you.
God let you do what you wanted to do for a mighty long time.
And you just kept digging a deeper hole. God's marvelous providence
that brought you in touch with the Gospel. God crossed your
path. You headed straight to hell when
He caught up with you. You were running fast. But He
outran you. You ever thought about what you
could have done? Well, secondly, it's the grace
that leads you along the way. And here's where the church goes
wrong. Alright, you get saved. Now, God turns it over to you.
God says, alright, now you're saved. It's up to you. And in
the church I went to, which I think is, you know, so foreign to me
now, the church I attended, We were taught that after you get
saved, you know, you start to build up rewards. And the more
good things you do, the more diamond-studded yo-yos you get
when you get to heaven. I've even heard this illustration.
You know, some of you who are Baptists and tithing and you
never miss church and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
You'll be living on Main Street in heaven and driving Cadillacs
And all you other peons are going to be driving Fords. That God is going to reward you
according to what you've done after you got saved. Well, the
problem with that is, first of all, in your flesh dwells no
good thing. And if it were that way, you
would have whereof to glory. I mean, just think about this.
If God rewarded you and gave you a big crown, I don't know
what you'd do with crowns in heaven anyway. You ever thought
about that? You're on streets of gold already,
right? Heaven's streets of gold. And
then you've got eight crowns on your head. And, you know, you're thinking
about gold and maybe starting opening your own mine, a gold
mine. Never mind. It's just a human
way of thinking. I am what I am by the grace of
God. You don't know why I haven't fallen flat on my face and been
a total failure so far? Because God has held me up. Because
God is working in me. In the book of Hebrews, in this
one point that I'm dealing with now, was the battle of my life. I think the victory is fought
right here for Christians with regard to how we live. Because
in our flesh, all of us are failures. Right? I mean, you've got all
these secrets. You know you do. Right? You've
got secrets. You're a Christian, but you're
full of secrets. Full of something else, too,
probably. But full of secrets. Full of secrets. You've got this
secret life. that you really don't share with
anybody. Hebrews 13, 20 and 21, I want
to read these verses to you. Now, the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great Shepherd
of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
make you perfect in every good work to do His will. God making
you perfect in every good work to do His will. Who causes you
to do His will? He does. Then who should get
the glory? If He works in you to do His
will and causes you to do good works, He ought to get the glory,
not you. Not you. Now watch, make you
perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you. That's why you don't fail. When
God sets out to do something in you, It's going to happen. I used to hear in church, Jonah... You know, God told Jonah to go
to Nineveh. And Jonah decided he didn't want
to go. So he had to go to Whales Belly
University. You know that story, where he
got his degree. And when he got out of Whales
Belly, he said, Salvation's of the Lord. A lot of people need
to go to Whales Belly University. God works in you to do that which
is well-pleasing. In the old church, I was taught,
if you don't do what God wants you to do, He'll get somebody
else. No. No. If God wants you to go to
Nineveh, you're going. I mean, you may have to jump
ship. You may have to be swallowed by a whale, all those gastric
juices. Can you imagine what he smelled
like when that whale spit him up? But you're going. Because it's
the will of God. It's the will of God. "...make
you perfect in every good work, working in you that which is
well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory."
There it is again. "...to whom be glory forever
and forever." We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which God has predestinated. That's right. So, don't get all
haughty. You know, I've heard people say,
I know who I am. I know what I can do. Know this,
if anything good comes out of you, God put it in you. Just
know that. So don't be walking around like
a peacock. You're no peacock. And sometimes,
you know, God will let you have a panic attack because you need
one. You need one. Those that walk
in pride, God is able to abase. That's what the Scripture says.
He's able to bring you down. And you can't fall out of bed
when you're sleeping on the floor. And that's a good place for us
to be. You have to look up. I'll tell you this for you panic
attack people. Isn't it a helpless feeling? I hope I don't give any of you
one while I'm talking about it. Just remember this simply, and
I'm going to be talking about the grace way. We're going to
learn the grace way. We're going to learn it from
Scripture. We're going to be able to take our Bibles. Listen,
we're going to have 700 empty seats over there. We're going
to fill them. Will the grace message draw a
crowd? Yes, it will. You know, I just suspect there
are 700 crack addicts out there somewhere. I just suspect there's
700 people out there swimming in the ocean of this world, but
are so thirsty for some fresh water. It's grace. Don't ever change
the message. In other words, don't start off
on grace and then get into works, then get into free will. It's
a grace thing all the way through. It flows all the way through.
And you can see that if you'll just open your Bible. It'll be
very clear. The struggle is within ourselves,
is we just want some of the glory. And God is determined He's not
going to give us glory. He that hath begun a good work
in you will finish it. He will accomplish it. That ought
to take care of some of our panic attacks. To know that if God
starts off with you, You can never ditch Him. I'm going to lose God. No. No. And He's not going to lose you.
He began the work and He's going to finish it. You ever thought
about this? Where you've taken God? You know,
God's been everywhere. If we'd take all of us together
and put all the places we've been and all the things we've
done, it would be quite shocking where God has been. God would
never go in there. Oh, He's been in there many times.
With you. You took Him. Many times He protected you.
Many times He dug ditches. Even the best of you folks who
are here today, consider yourself, you know, you're not a drug user.
Even the best of those here who maybe have the thought in their
mind, well, thank God I haven't done that. Well, that is correct
thinking. But think what you have done.
Or what you've thought about doing. Never lose sight of that. Our church, as we move forward,
and we will move forward, and more people will be coming, we've
got to have a balance. Yes, the drug addict is saved
by grace. But you know, that person in
church, who sat in church all their life, And if God had left
them in that church, they would have gone straight to hell. Because
it was not Christ-centered. They were not trusting Jesus
Christ. They were trusting a piece of
bread and a cup of wine. They were told that they must
digest Christ with gastric juices. And that's not the way you get
Christ in you. Or in a church out there that was preaching,
you know, you're saved by grace and then you're kept by works.
Think about God. Think about what a blessing it
is for you to know grace. I was thinking the other day
about, Lord, ok, we've got 700 capacity over there at our new
building. How are we going to fill that?
And He said this to me, My sheep hear My voice. They hear my voice. And they follow me. And I see
churches, you know, the big churches, the fast-growing churches. You
see how they do that. And I think, that's not me. My
idea is this. Preach the Gospel, and the sheep
will be discovered as you proclaim the Gospel. We may be seeing
more sheep and more sheep discovered because God didn't give us that
building for it to be empty. And everyone in here, all of
you folks who've been brought out of addiction or whatever
you've been brought out of, I bet there's somebody else that's
in that same mess. Why don't you put your arm around
them and invite them to come. Hey, wouldn't you like to see
the old clutch cargo bar? We'll sneak it in on them. You went over there where there's
less cargo? How about come and see how it's been changed now?
Amen? I'm not talking about really
sneaking the Gospel in on anybody, but inviting them to come in
here. You think about, don't be stingy with the Gospel. How
do you think God feels and senses when you do this? I want to tell
you about what God's done for me. And you don't have to push
Jesus off on anybody. You know what? I just want you
to come in here. Just come and be in service with us. And if
you don't want to come back, that's up to you. Go into all
the world and preach the gospel to every creature. You know,
God deserves more praise than what we have here. Right? He deserves more people than
what we have here. And think about those that are
out there. God's going to take you all the way. He's not going
to take you out of the will. He's not going to kick you out
of the house. You think about Romans 8. He foreknew you. He foreloved you. He predestinated
you. He called you. He justified you.
And He will glorify you. That's His promise. He began
with you. He's going to finish with you.
He's going to work in you. I know. I know life's tough sometimes. It is. It's only tough in this. When I'm outside of that, I can
tell when I'm on the edge. Being on the edge for me is not,
you know, really out there getting drunk and just thinking about
more stuff than I ought to be thinking about. And not trusting
Him more. That's when I'm on the edge.
It truly is. It's when I can totally trust
Him. Look to Him good times, bad times,
all the time. Trust Him. I just want to...
I want to sense His presence.