[0:00] got acquainted with him and then he went to New York, as he said, in Sunday school for probably 10 years. And now he's venturing out into evangelism, taking meetings and preaching around.
[0:14] And it's a new thing for him. And we're very, very happy to have him out here on the West Coast with us this morning. So, Brother Samson, you can go ahead. Amen, amen. Well, it's good to be saved.
[0:27] It's always good to be saved. I told you a little bit about me, but my family background, the Ryman family, down in Tennessee, there's the Ryman Auditorium.
[0:39] Most of y'all know it as the Grand Ole Opera. And it was my great, great, great uncle built it. He got saved under Sam Jones. And so my daddy got saved at 18 years old.
[0:52] He was a gang leader in Washington, D.C. He's actually preaching down to Brother Andrews today. And we've been here in California preaching together. It's an honor to be able to preach with my father and to be with him.
[1:02] But he was an old gang leader, got saved. And God saved him out of, I mean, his crazy stories. Five guns put to his head, wrapped five cars around telephone poles.
[1:14] And he's had a lot of crazy, crazy stuff happen to him. But I was glad I got saved. And we would go to the prison. And, man, he'd go to the prison to tell his story.
[1:25] Because, I mean, he had 68 points on his license, FBI looking for him. He was dodging a draft, stole a Colt .45 truck, had liquor all the time. I mean, it's crazy. My grandfather was crazy, you know.
[1:36] The cops come to get my dad. He's shooting at them, you know. And it's just, they're crazy. They're just crazy. And my dad's still crazy, but he's crazy for Jesus, amen. But he had gotten saved.
[1:47] And that started an effect down through our family. And we had gotten saved. And I thank God for being good to us in that.
[1:58] And so we're with you this morning. I appreciate the opportunity. This is our second time being in California. We were here in 2019. And then up north of California.
[2:09] So we thank God for that. And, you know, it was the first time. But going out here and listen, it's a lot different than the East Coast. And all y'all have been to the East. Some of y'all from the East.
[2:20] But it is a lot different from the East Coast. And you learn a lot of different things and stuff. And you come here, and it's different. Now, what we have in common is this. I was in New York.
[2:32] And the state of New York is like a communist country, amen. Compared to where I was from Delaware. I mean, it was just crazy of the rules and all the kind of stuff. But we follow you guys.
[2:44] That's the thing. New York would follow you guys. And so you have certain rules, certain things and stuff. But I tell you what, it is absolutely beautiful here. And I can understand why you want to stay.
[2:55] Amen. To be able to see the mountains and stuff. And it's totally different coming up the coast and seeing that coast compared to the East Coast. And it's just absolutely beautiful.
[3:07] And so I am thankful that being able to come and be with you guys. Go to Luke chapter 8. Luke chapter 8. And we'll get in the Bible there. Luke chapter 8. I want to thank the visitors for coming.
[3:19] Now, I want to say this, a little clause. If you don't like what I say or something I say, I'm not the pastor. Amen. So you come back and hear the pastor. Amen. And so I'm not here to offend anybody, but I am here to tell you the truth of what God's word says.
[3:36] And I'm going to be speaking to everybody today. Look at verse 4 of Luke chapter 8. And when much people, it's talking about Jesus here. When much people were gathered together and were come to him out of every city, he spoke by a parable.
[3:54] A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell upon the wayside and it was trodden down. Now, I don't know if you know what trodden down is.
[4:07] But sometimes you go down the highway and you will see a little path on the grass coming up to another road. It's been trodden down. The grass is gone.
[4:18] It's just dirt there. It's trodden down. Back home where I'm from in Delaware, there is an irrigation system. There are a lot of corn out there. And they have corn and peas and greens and all that.
[4:33] And so this irrigation system had a pivot point. And it would go back and forth like this. And it was on wheels. Now, they would go and they plow and they plant the seeds. But those wheels would trodden down things there.
[4:46] And it would get really hard. Now, let me tell you something. Living in this life and this age, boy, you get trodden down. I mean, for you guys, it would be traffic.
[4:57] Hallelujah. Son, I would trodden me down. I mean, I was on my way 45 minutes from here. And he told me it wouldn't be a lot of traffic. I was like, man, there's still a lot of traffic on the road.
[5:09] Sunday morning. That's crazy. And, boy, people are being crazy on the road and being silly. But, boy, it will beat you down. Work will beat you down. Things in this life will beat you down.
[5:19] And you know what it does to you? It hardens you. I don't want to be hardened. Listen, if you're lost here, there's a lot of hardened people towards religion.
[5:31] And I can understand why. I tell people all the time, throw religion out the window. Let's get Jesus. Amen. Because religion will damn you to hell.
[5:42] They want to control you and do all that stuff. But religion, throughout the ages of all these different churches and things, they beat the lost down. And they don't even know which way to go. But let me tell you something.
[5:53] The way to go is Jesus Christ. Is Jesus Christ. And so you get beaten down. And you get hard. I don't want to be hard. I want to be alive. I like what the pastor said.
[6:03] We're a little lively here. Amen. Look at verse 6. And some fell upon rocks. And as soon as it sprung up, it withered away because of lack of moisture. Okay.
[6:15] You know what happens when you have lack of moisture? Now, I walked out this morning of the parsonage. And it rained last night. I was like, wow. It rained. I heard it don't rain much over here.
[6:26] Now, we have, we get, we say they have rainy seasons and stuff. But you don't know what rain is until you go back over to the east. It rains, man. You go down south and they have them floods.
[6:37] And they had to, that's rain. But boy, lack of moisture, guess what happens? You dry up. I don't want to be a Christian that's hard and dry.
[6:48] I don't want to be that way. But I tell you, things of life will do it. They'll take all the moisture out of you, all the life out of you, if you will. And you'll dry up. They'll harden you.
[7:00] I don't want to be hard. I don't want to be dry. Look at verse 7. You with me? Say amen. There's my whoop whoop. Good. All right. Now, if you weren't here for Sunday school, we'll have to tell you later. All right.
[7:10] Look at verse 7. And some fell among thorns. And the thorns sprung up with it and choked it. Now, how many of you have ever been choking on something? You ever see somebody choking on something?
[7:21] And they're like, oh, oh, oh, oh. And somebody comes over there and hit it and then, poof, spits it out, you know. But what if you don't get it out? You're out.
[7:35] You'll pass out. You know what we have in our churches a lot of times? And we have a lot of people that's hard, dry, and they're out. You say, well, I'm talking about out of church, but I'm also talking about in church.
[7:48] You get hard, dry, and then you're out. You're somewhere else in La La Land. You ever see somebody like that? Preachers preaching, they're thinking about something else. You ever been there?
[8:00] Boy, I'm telling you, I don't want to be out. I don't want to be hard, dry, or out. I want to be filled with the Spirit of God. So Jesus is telling us here about the seed being thrown out.
[8:13] And he said, listen, you can get hard, you can get dry, and then you're out. But look at verse 8. And others fell among good ground and sprung up and bore fruit. What does it say?
[8:25] A hundredfold. A hundredfold. Now, listen, Matthew, in the book of Matthew, in the book of Mark, he has the same parable. He's talking it in a different way.
[8:36] But he says this. He says, there's some that are a hundred, sixty, or thirty. Or he'll say a thirty, sixty, or a hundred in the other Gospels. But Luke's the only one that says it could be a hundredfold.
[8:50] Now, listen, I want to be a hundred percent for God. I don't want to be sixty percent or thirty percent. Listen, now, if you're most of the time in churches, thirty percenters and sixty percenters, and they just come Sunday morning, and that's it, and I'm not trying to pick on you.
[9:05] But you should be here Wednesday night, and you should be here in Sunday school. But you have them ones that come in and out. And God, thank God for you, because you help pay the bills. Hallelujah. Amen. Really.
[9:16] But I want to be a hundredfold. I want to be all the way in. I don't want to be hard, dry, and out. I want to be a hundred percenter. Amen. I want to be a hundred percenter.
[9:28] Listen, you're going to put your money down on something, and you know they're going to win. You knew they were going to win. You put a hundred percent on it. Now, I know this, that I'm on the winning side, and we're going home to be with glory.
[9:40] I want to put a hundred percent down on that. Amen. And this book, praise the Lord. Praise His holy name. A hundred percent. So Jesus tells them, you can be a hundredfold for the Lord.
[9:52] You can bear fruit a hundredfold. In the same verse, He says this, he that hath an ear to hear, let him hear. Well, wait a minute, Jesus. Everybody got ears. What are you talking about? Really?
[10:03] Really? Jesus said it all the time. He'd tell a parable. He'd tell a story. He'd be preaching. He said, if a man has an ear, let him hear. Well, the problem is, we're not listening.
[10:16] That's why He says it. Now, we have kids, and I don't have my kids here, but Pastor Toby has his kids here, and we have another young lady in the back. You know what I do with my kids? I tell them to do something. And when I tell them to do something, I say, wait a minute, come back here, tell me what I just told you.
[10:30] You say, why? Because they have ears, but they weren't listening. And sure enough, they'll go, um, uh, they can't remember.
[10:42] How many of y'all say amen to that? You know what I'm talking about. You had children, and it was so frustrating. They come back, what did you tell me to do? You weren't listening to me. And Jesus is saying, hey, he that hath an ear, let him hear.
[10:58] Over in Revelation, He says to the churches, if he that hath an ear, hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. I talked about that this morning. I want to be able to hear what the Spirit's saying.
[11:11] Now, this morning, the Holy Spirit's moving through here, and He's touching everybody's heart. Saved or lost, He's touching your heart. He's speaking to you some way, somehow. Now, it could be about this, it could be about this over here, and then this could be about this over here.
[11:24] Whatever it is, the Holy Spirit's speaking to you. As I preach, that Holy Spirit is speaking to you in a different way. And the Lord says, got an ear? Are you hearing?
[11:35] Are you listening? You can be a hundredfold. Hey, listen, you don't have to be hard. You don't have to be dry. And you don't have to be out. You can bear fruit a hundredfold. He said, you can do it.
[11:47] Then the disciples ask Him. The disciples say, what does this mean? So Jesus begins to explain what this means. In verse 10, look what it says. And He said unto you, it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God.
[12:04] Kingdom of God. Now, Bible-believing church here, the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God, two different kingdoms. A kingdom of heaven is a physical kingdom. The kingdom of heaven, it took me a long time to figure this out and just try to remember it.
[12:18] But the kingdom of heaven is a physical, because heaven's a physical place. Listen, when we go to heaven, it's not going to be some spiritual world. It's a literal, physical place where we're going to go, where there's streets of gold and Jesus is there.
[12:32] There's a river running. Hallelujah. It's a physical place. When Jesus Christ came to this earth, the kingdom of heaven was here. He said, why? Because He was physically here.
[12:42] And the kingdom of God was here. We said, what's the kingdom of God? We must worship God in spirit and in truth. It's a spiritual kingdom. And so right now, in this dispensation, we're in a spiritual kingdom.
[12:57] You said, what do you mean? What I mean is, it doesn't matter how many cars you have, how much money you got in the bank. It doesn't matter how much nice clothes you have. That does not make you spiritual.
[13:10] What makes you spiritual is when you apply that word of God to your heart and you begin to listen to God and you begin to walk in the spirit, as it says in Galatians chapter 5. Walking in the spirit of love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, all those things, listen, that the world is longing for.
[13:29] And they want. And God said, I'll save you and I'll put my spirit inside of you and I want you to walk in the spirit. He's talking about the kingdom of God. Over in Romans, we ain't going to look at the verse, but Romans chapter 14, verse 17, he talks about the kingdom of God is not meat or drink.
[13:45] It's not physical. But it's joy, peace in the Holy Ghost and righteousness in the Holy Ghost. Then the disciples, excuse me, the Pharisees asked Jesus in Luke chapter 17, they said, Jesus, we demand that you tell us when the kingdom of God is coming.
[14:06] He said, hey, it's not low here and low there. It's not here or there. He says it's within you. You know, this world, maybe you're sitting here and you're looking for truth.
[14:16] You're looking down deep inside. You're miserable. Hey, listen, on the outside, you look great. You look fine. You look happy. But when you get alone, you're down deep inside. There's something missing down deep inside.
[14:28] There's a longing down deep inside. There's a spiritual world inside of you looking for truth. And when we got saved and I got saved at four years old, God put his kingdom inside of me and he wants it to grow.
[14:42] Hallelujah. He wants it to grow. So God is telling them this right here is talking about the kingdom of God. Look at verse 11. Now the parable is this, that the seed is the word of God.
[14:56] So here's the seed. It's the word of God. Boy, we put out tracts and we're passing out tracts. We're street preaching. We're trying to tell people. We're trying to show them the love of God.
[15:07] We're planting seeds. Right now there's seeds being planted as I preach. And the preacher gets up on Sunday and Wednesday and he preaches. And seeds are being thrown out there and trying to be planted and everything.
[15:18] And so the seed is the word of God. Listen, you get a preacher that wants to get up here and he just doesn't want to use the word of God. Don't listen to him. Amen. Amen. Amen. You want somebody to use the word of God to show you what God's word says.
[15:32] You say, why? Because it's the seed that's going down in the heart. He says in verse 12, he says this, those by the wayside are they that hear and come and the devil take away the word out of their hearts.
[15:47] Lest they believe and be saved. You know what the devil, listen, I remember hearing stories of people. It took them a while to get saved and they would go, they would go and hear the preaching.
[15:59] I just heard one from a preacher. Man, he told this story about these people that were atheists. And boy, they were agnostic and they were living on the street there. And they gave them a gospel track and somebody invited them to the church.
[16:11] Big old church. Big old church. Actually, it's Hiles old church. That pastor there, he was Hiles old church. And he was telling this story. He said, hey, he said, this just happened. And they came to church and they invited them over to the preacher's house.
[16:23] People witnessed to him. And he told them this. He said, one Sunday morning, he come out and he said this to him. He said, you know, you guys are different. And he said, you know why I keep on coming back?
[16:36] He said, why do you keep on coming back? He knew this guy did not believe in God. He didn't care about God. His girlfriend didn't believe in God. He said, you know why we keep on coming back? He said, why?
[16:46] He said, because you make us feel uncomfortable. We're never comfortable here. He said, every other church that I went to, I was always comfortable when I left.
[16:56] I never came back. But I'm trying to figure out, why are you making me uncomfortable? He said, one Sunday, they had him come over to the house. And he sat down again and began to witness to him. And he told him, telling him about the Lord and telling him about how to be saved.
[17:11] And he said, yeah, I don't know if I disbelieve that. And he said, a few minutes later, he looked at him. He said, can we go to the church? He said, yeah, I'm the pastor. I have the keys.
[17:22] So they go to the church. This is Sunday between services. He said, in our church, when you're walking forward, there's a huge cross. And he went up to that cross, and he just stood there. And he asked him, he said, what are you thinking?
[17:36] And he looked at that cross. His girlfriend went to the bathroom. All of a sudden, tears started running down his face. He said, you know what I'm thinking? He said, what's that? He said, I'm thinking I need to get saved. He said, I got to lead him to the Lord.
[17:50] And his girlfriend come out of the bathroom. He said, what happened? She goes, I got saved. He said, I got saved. You say, his girlfriend was like, I want to get saved. And listen, in the meeting I was at where I heard him preach, he was flying back to marry them.
[18:04] They're getting married. He's discipling them. You say, why? Because the seed got planted. But all those years he heard, the devil had come by and stole that seed and stole that seed and stole that seed.
[18:19] And finally, somebody gave him a gospel track. And it began to hit him and began to make him, when he'd come to church, uncomfortable. And that seed began to fall down in that heart a little deeper. Let me say this.
[18:31] If you're a Christian here, the principle still applies. The pastor throws out seed and he preaches. And you walk out of here and the devil tries to come by and he takes those seeds away.
[18:42] Especially when you're hard. When you're dry. When you're out. You know what I want? I want this morning that God would come out through here and drop that seed on your heart.
[18:54] And it begin to sink in that heart. And begin to grow something instead of the devil coming by. And stealing that seed. He begins to explain that. Remember this. What you believe determines your behavior.
[19:07] I'm going to say it again. What you believe determines your behavior. You will always act consistent to what you believe. If you believe to be in church every time the doors are open, you'll be here.
[19:21] If you believe to exercise or lose weight, you'll be in the gym. Amen. You believe that, hey, I need to stay back from some carbs. You stay back from carbs. Hey, listen, you believe that, hey, listen, it's okay for me to smoke.
[19:33] You'll smoke. Whatever you believe in your heart determines your behavior. You will always consistently act on it.
[19:45] No matter how much you try to hide it, it'll eventually come out. You know what God wants you to do? He wants you to believe his word and apply it to your heart.
[19:59] Now look at this. You with me? Say amen. We're not done yet. Look at verse 13. And on the rocks are they which when they hear receive the word with joy.
[20:11] And these having no root, which for a while have believed and in time of temptation have fallen away. We've seen that many times. Boy, they get saved.
[20:22] They're excited about the Lord. They're growing in the Lord. Or somebody gets right with God and gets back in church and they're excited about God. And some temptation comes by. And they're out again. Look at verse 14.
[20:34] A couple things here.
[20:50] It proves to me that we can bring our fruit to perfection. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, temperance. We can bring that to perfection.
[21:01] But what happens is we get choked out and we don't ever bring it to where it needs to be. Because we are growing. In the other passage, it says this.
[21:12] It says that it chokes the word. You know what? Cares, riches, and pleasures choke the word of God. Now, all three of those are not sin.
[21:23] Would you agree? I got cares of life. My wife has some sickness. My kids get sick. Or I got to put food on the table. I got to figure out, hey, man, how am I going to take care of this bill?
[21:35] If I have to work. I got all these cares, right? You've got cares of life. And those cares of life come and go. Come and go. Boy, the kids are getting older.
[21:45] My son's 20 now. And what is he going to do? And how is he going to go? He's going to Bible school. My daughter's 16. And she had to get braces and all that. Those cares of life.
[21:59] But when we put those before God, that's when it chokes us out. A lot of times we need to go to the Lord about those cares of life. Hey, listen. Riches.
[22:10] There's nothing wrong with having a little bit of money. Now, listen. If you have a little bit of money, you want to support me as evangelist, that would be great. Hallelujah. Lord, lay that on your heart. Praise God. Listen to the spirit.
[22:23] But I'm telling you. Listen. You got. Listen. We get a little bit of money. There's nothing wrong with that. But, boy, when we put that money before God. And we have to miss church because we have to work.
[22:34] And we have to keep up and all that kind of stuff. And I understand I had people that had to miss church that had to work because that was the only time. And they worked. And we prayed. And God changed their schedule. And he did.
[22:46] Because they wanted to put God first. But when you make those riches. And you got to keep up with the Joneses and the Johnsons. And you got to have the boat. And you got to have all these things.
[22:57] And there's nothing wrong with having all that. But, man, if you have to work on Sundays and miss out on meetings and all that kind of stuff to have all that stuff. It ain't worth it. You need Jesus.
[23:09] You need the church. But then you got the pleasures. Boy, I love pleasures. Listen. I love a good, fat, juicy steak. Desserts.
[23:20] Man, what a pleasure that is. Hey, listen. In Pensacola, I like going to the beach. Beach. I like the beach, man. Some people don't. I like going down to the beach. I don't like where all the naked people are.
[23:31] I don't like going there. But I like to go out there. And I'd love my wife to fan me on the beach. Feed me grapes. Amen. Listen. With a sweet iced tea.
[23:42] I saw some of you ladies rolling your eyes. But listen. I like that. I like being pampered. That's my point. Who doesn't? There are pleasures of life.
[23:52] But if all the pleasures of life that you put before God, and that's all you want to do. You're worried about going to the fair. You're worried about going to the amusement parks. You're worried about all those things.
[24:03] There's nothing wrong with vacation. There's nothing wrong with doing those things. But I'm not going to let those things come before God. Before God.
[24:17] And here he says they choke them out. They choke them out. And so you don't bring fruit to perfection. Now I said all that to get to the verse I wanted to get to.
[24:28] If you're with me, say amen. And whoop whoop. All right. Verse 15. But that on good ground are they which in an honest and good heart have heard the word and kept it.
[24:44] And bringeth forth fruit with what? Christian cuss word. We are not patient in America, are we? Everything has to be fast.
[24:55] Matter of fact, Amazon even messed it up. Hallelujah. It has to be there. Where we lived, we added two days to get the Amazon there. It'd take five. I'd go to McDonald's.
[25:06] And man, McDonald's would tell me, sir, can you pull over there? And we had to wait every stinking time. I wasn't used to that. You know what God says? He said you can bring fruit to perfection with patience.
[25:21] We don't like to be patient. We don't like to be patient. James said let patience have its perfect work. If any man lack patience, pray. Pray. But what I want to focus on is what it said there.
[25:35] He says an honest and good heart. Wait a minute, God. We have a good heart? Well, the Bible says over there that the heart is desperately wicked and who can know it?
[25:46] But Jesus says over here, you can have a good heart. I know our heart is desperately wicked. But Jesus is saying you can have a good heart. I want to have a good heart, don't you?
[26:00] Because if you have a good heart, that's when that seed is going to go in. The heart is the type of the ground that he's talking about. And I want to preach on this.
[26:11] The fruit, your fruit is a result of your root. What is the root? What is the root problem?
[26:22] I'll tell you what it is. It's honesty. If you're ever going to have a good heart, you're going to have to be honest. And you know what we're not? We're not honest. We are not honest people.
[26:36] What you see is 10% up here. What I see is only 10%. Every Sunday, you see the pastor, them 10%. Listen, number one, we need to be honest about ourselves.
[26:50] You know how many people are not honest about themselves? You say, how do you know? Well, let me look up your Facebook page. And you'll put the best picture of you.
[27:02] I always tell teenagers this. I don't understand why an ugly girl will paint the best side of her face, put a fan on, and then take that picture like this. Right? A boy, he'll pump weights and everything and then take a picture like this when he's all swelled up.
[27:19] Because he wants a different perspective. He wants people to look at him a different way. Why is it that we get on social media and we brag about ourselves? Now, listen, I'm not saying you need to get on there and say, look how bad you are.
[27:34] I'm not saying. Listen, I like to come to church looking nice. Amen. I'm not saying come looking like a bum and your hair all just. But listen, we are not honest about ourselves. We think more of ourselves than anybody else does.
[27:48] I would hate to ask everybody what they think about me. I don't want to do that. But we think ourselves something. We'll look in the mirror. I remember the old preacher used to say, I don't understand how two ugly people think they're the most prettiest people in the world.
[28:02] Right? It's okay to laugh, okay? I'm ugly. Amen. I got a pretty wife and I made it. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. But I'm telling you, I don't understand why we get on and we want to promote.
[28:19] Man, people get on that social media and what they'll do is they'll talk everything. And listen, Christians put their sin on there and they put stuff on there. I'm like, what in the world are you doing?
[28:31] What are you doing? Trying to be cool. Trying to be with the fad. Trying to be with that stuff. I'm not saying, listen, I don't want you coming out to church and telling me all your problems. Amen? I'm not saying we need to go around and be, oh, I got all this.
[28:44] I'm just a loser. Eeyore mentality. Don't want to be that. We have joy of the Lord. But we need to be honest with ourselves. Folks, I'm a special ed kid with dyslexia.
[28:58] Every morning when I read my Bible, I have a grown man read me the Bible. Say, why? I'm an audible learner. Now, I can read. I've read over and I've gotten better.
[29:09] And I'll read to myself sometimes. But, boy, I have that there. And you know how? I had a teenager. I had 70 teenagers. And I was a horrible reader. And they had to help me read.
[29:22] Now, how humbling that is. Supposed to be their Sunday school teacher. God took it. You know why God, I believe God gave it to me to humble me.
[29:34] Because, listen, I know this. I know my gifts. I know the mind God's given me. I have some smartness to me. I know it don't look like it. But I have some of that.
[29:45] And God has given it to me. And he's given me this other thing to put a thorn in my side to keep me humble. But the problem is, we get so puffed up with our gifts. Especially if you can sing, play the piano in a church.
[29:58] I've seen it over. If a young man can preach. You know, we think highly of ourselves, don't we? When's the last time you just realized, this is who I am?
[30:11] I'm a saved sinner. Amen. God's had grace on God. You've given me these gifts. And you've allowed me to be able to use them. Help me to use them. And be humble with it. God, please watch over me and protect me.
[30:23] You know what happens? We have a perspective that we want everybody to see. I'll never forget, as a teenager, back in the day, some of y'all won't remember this. But some of y'all will. There was a little black box about this big.
[30:35] And about that high. And it had Kodak on it. Yellow thing said Kodak. And I told my mom, I said, Mom, can you come outside? I want to take a car. I got a Camaro Fastback 1980 blue Camaro.
[30:47] And I said, I want you to take pictures. So I got in the car. Threw my hair back. And she said, click. Zip, zip, zip, zip, zip. How many of y'all know what I'm talking about? The little boxes you get.
[30:58] And you take pictures. And you buy those boxes. Man, it was the coolest thing. And now we got our phones. We get it right away. And boy, it was a click. Zip, zip, zip, zip, zip. Zip, zip, zip, zip, zip. And so here I am on the car. Then I laid on the car.
[31:10] Got in front of like almost a gang sign. You know what I'm saying? I'm doing all this stuff. I'm in the back of the car looking to the sky. So she'd take this side picture, man. It was crazy, man. It was so foolish, amen.
[31:21] But I had them take it. I had to take the pictures. And boy, we went down to Walmart. Walmart was this new thing that just happened, amen. And Walmart showed up. And we went down there. And the Sam's Club was another one.
[31:32] We went down to Walmart. Walmart didn't even have groceries in Walmart. Oh, my goodness. Some of y'all remember that. They didn't even have the groceries in Walmart. But they did have a one-hour develop pictures.
[31:44] And boy, you used to have to wait a day, a couple days. But boy, this one hour. Man, I went in there. And I took that little box. And I gave it to them. And they said, what do you want, a couple days or not? I said, I wanted an hour. So we waited an hour.
[31:55] And my mom shopped around, got those pictures. And remember, I got in the car. And I was looking at how cool I was around my car, man. I was so cool. It was cool looking at me, laying on it, driving. I said, all the guys are going to like this, man.
[32:06] We're in school. So I take it to school. I get on the bus. And I take it to school. I'm showing the guys. They're like, man, that's cool. When are you going to drive it to school? When are you going to do this? And at that time, gas was like 80-something cents a gallon.
[32:17] I told them, it's just too much money. It's too much money now, man. Well, I said, no, I'm just trying to save money on gas.
[32:29] I said, you know, I just don't take it out very much and all that kind of stuff. And I tell them, man, that's cool, man. I wish you could pick me up and take me to school. And boy, everybody would like it when you go to school and all that kind of stuff.
[32:39] But you know what's so funny about that story? See, there was no Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, or whatever. None of that. You know what's so funny? I never drove the car because it never ran.
[32:54] See, my dad got the car, and he said, son, you can have it if you fix it. I'm not going to help you. But I never got the motivation to fix it. Dad would buy the parts, but I would never got the motivation. So one day I came home getting off the bus.
[33:04] Somebody was taking the car because dad gave it away because I wouldn't fix it. I never rode the car. But I had a perception of what I was and what I thought I was for others to see.
[33:18] But we're all the same way. And we need to get to the place where we say, you know what? I need to be honest about myself. Hey, listen, you get honest about yourself, you'll get honest about your sin.
[33:32] If you get honest about yourself, you'll get honest about your sin. You'll get honest about your sin. Listen, you won't be playing the blame game. That's what we do. Well, Johnny made me do it.
[33:46] Aren't we like that? We blame our wives, men. It's the woman you gave me, Lord. Well, it's that big oaf you gave me, Lord, the wives blaming the husbands.
[33:58] It's our children, God. No, you need to get honest about your sin. If you're here today, you can get honest about who you really are. And listen, I was a grown-up in church.
[34:10] I was a lost sinner on my way to hell. I wasn't a gang leader. I didn't smoke dope like my daddy did. I didn't drink alcohol. But my heart was wicked towards God. And it needed salvation.
[34:21] And I had to get honest about myself to get honest about my sin. Are you honest about your sin? I remember when the altars would be flooded.
[34:33] I remember when people would get saved. Listen, I remember. Hey, listen, I don't want to have the Saul mentality. It's the people, Lord. I want to have the mentality David said when he sinned against the Lord with Bathsheba.
[34:48] And Nathan came in and told him that story in a parable there. And told him about that traveler coming through and taking that one man's little sheep. And he had plenty of sheep.
[34:59] But he took that one little man's sheep. And David got mad. And David said he'll pay fourfold. And Nathan looks at him and says, there's a man. You know, the Holy Spirit's going down through here today.
[35:11] He said, you are the person I'm talking to today. You're the one. That's sin right there. Or listen, you need to get saved today. Or you need to yield to me this. And the Holy Spirit is speaking.
[35:22] Thou art the man. Thou art the woman. We've gotten away from that, haven't we? The Holy Preacher gets up here all night studying. He goes to preach. And then nobody comes to the altar.
[35:35] Wait a minute. He speaks plainly like I said this morning. He's speaking to us. Listen, I tell people, when you go to the altar, sometimes the Lord might have taught us.
[35:46] That preacher said something in his message. Had nothing to do, just a side note of his message. And the Lord dealt with you with that. But you don't want to come forward because you think everybody's thinking about you're going down there because of the message he preached.
[35:58] It doesn't matter what anybody thinks. I tell it like this, Brother Toby. He said, I taught my church this. When God up in heaven, if we believed how holy and righteous and big he is, would come down and meet in this place right here.
[36:12] Now remember, Sunday morning, there's all kinds of his children having service. That he would take time out. And he would speak to your heart. And he talked to you.
[36:26] When you stepped out of that pew during the invitation, you're coming down as a testimony to everybody that, hey, listen, he might not have spoke to you, but he spoke to me. And when you get on that altar, it's none of your business what we're talking about.
[36:43] I don't know what you're down here praying for. I don't know what God's talked to you about. See, all week long, God's been dealing with you with something. Sin, maybe yielding to something.
[36:54] Maybe just to praise him. Maybe just to worship him. I don't know what it is. But when God speaks and you don't move, guess what happens?
[37:07] You step out those doors. There's these birds come by, as he talks about, and steals those seeds. But when you get honest with God, now listen, I'll tell you this.
[37:21] I know you don't need to come to the altar every Sunday. But I told my people, when you haven't been in a while, there's a problem. Well, I can do it at home.
[37:33] Yeah, I know. But this is publicly. It's a different, it's so much different. When are you going to get honest about yourself and get honest about your sin?
[37:45] Stop the blame game. He that covereth this sin shall not prosper, but whosoever confesses, forsaketh them shall have mercy. He got blind pride.
[37:56] That blind pride, boy, I'll tell you what, I had a man in my, came to our youth camp, the camp that you used to come to in Pennsylvania. He was evangelist. I let him be, we'd have, we have teams.
[38:08] And so we split them up in teams and we have team captains. Well, at the end of the week, I get the team captains' bags back. Well, it was almost a year later, I'd never look into the bags and check them out.
[38:18] I'd just put them away. And then when it gets close to camp the next year, I pull them out and start taking stuff out and everything. Well, I found a pack of cigarettes in there. So I called this evangelist preacher.
[38:30] And I said, hey, brother. I said, I got your bag back and I found a pack of cigarettes in there. I said, why are you smoking? I knew it was him. Oh, no, that was one of the kids.
[38:42] I said, you're a lying dog because you should have, you would have came to me about it like you came to me about the other situation. He said, no, preacher. I said, no, you're a lying dog.
[38:54] You're lying to me. You were smoking on the property and I had you as team captain. I had you preach at the camp. You're a hypocrite. He finally broke down. He said, you're right. But his pride was trying to give me the lie.
[39:09] See, we lie to ourselves so much, don't we? We're so blinded by our pride. You know what I don't like about myself is Samson's pride.
[39:21] My pride, man, I'm battling it every day. Listen, living in America, oh, my goodness. You're number one. You're everything.
[39:34] Love yourself. I mean, that's what we're pumping our kids. We've become victims instead of being victorious.
[39:48] You say, why? There's so much pride. We got so much pride. I got to be careful, get proudful about my kids living for God.
[39:59] I got to be careful when God uses me or uses my wife. The pride wants to. It just wants to build.
[40:09] It's that flesh. And the spirit inside of you go, no. No. Humble yourself, boy. No. I got to get honest about my sin.
[40:22] No. God, you're holy. You're righteous. Lord, if it wasn't for you. I tell my church this. Anything that I do good is because of Jesus. Not because of this flesh.
[40:35] Anything that I do for God is because of Jesus and his word. Thank you, Lord. Lastly, you're honest about yourself?
[40:48] You're honest about your sin? Are you honest about your standing in state? You say, what is that? All right? Standing is established, settled.
[41:03] You might be here. You might be lost. You're not in good standings with God. If you're saved, you're saved.
[41:13] You're sealed until the day of redemption. That's your standing. Your state, if you're saved, stay. I'm not talking about Delaware. I'm not talking about California state.
[41:23] Where are you at in your spiritual walk? Where are you at? Could you be doing better? Are you right on?
[41:35] How's your standing in your state? I tell you what, I want to be in good state with the Lord. My standing's fine.
[41:46] I got saved when I was four, and it was sealed until the day of redemption. I thank God for that. And I want to be able to live for God. If you're lost here today, you know what we'd love to see?
[41:57] We'd love to see you get in the standing of God. We'd love to see you get saved today. Let's not join this church. Listen, if it was baptism, I'm with my daddy.
[42:08] I would buy a fire truck, squirt everybody down. Hallelujah. It's not in telling the priest your sins.
[42:19] Jesus becomes our high priest. It's not in religion. It's not putting your money. It's not being joined in this church or putting your name on a pew. My grandfather put his name on a pew.
[42:30] He thought he was going to heaven because he paid to put a name on his pew. It's not that. The Bible says, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God is risen from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
[42:43] I always ask people this. Have you ever told a lie before? Yes. What's that make you? A liar. Makes you a liar. Have you ever stole before?
[42:56] And some people say no. I was like, no, wait a minute. You just said you were a liar. Have you ever stole before? What's that make you? Not a stealer's because they're in Pittsburgh.
[43:09] Makes you a thief. That's it. Have you ever looked upon a woman or looked upon a man and lusted after them in your own heart? Just those three.
[43:21] You're lying. You're lying. Use the Lord's name in vain. That's another one I use. Blasphemer. You ever use the Lord's name in vain?
[43:33] You ever said, oh my God. That's using the Lord's name in vain. You're a lying, thieving, blasphemer.
[43:46] Fornicator. You know what the Bible says? If a man thinks on his heart on a woman, he's already committed adultery. You're a adulterer. And you took those, just those four, and stood before God.
[43:58] You'd fail the test. Oh, I'm a good person. No, you failed the test. You need Jesus.
[44:09] He died on that old rugged cross for all men. For all women. That you wouldn't have to die and go to a devil's hell.
[44:20] And today you could be in good standing with the Lord. If you came down to the old fashioned altar and asked the Lord to come in your heart and save you, we would love that. But what about you Christians?
[44:34] How's your state? I preached this message about 10 years ago at a Christian school. And a Christian school is a rough place to preach.
[44:47] I preached at Brother Toby's Christian school over there in Pennsylvania. Because they've heard it all. And I was in Philadelphia. Fishtown, Philadelphia.
[44:58] There was an Italian man. He's a short little Italian man. Kind of heavy set. They called him the godfather of Philadelphia. Pettichetti was his name. Every time I'd see him come in, my sons come home and he'd kiss me.
[45:08] Like the godfather. You know. On each side. When they'd give me my offering, it'd be in rubber bands and a white envelope. And it was all ones and hundreds of stuff, man.
[45:21] I was like, this is the mafia, man. This is crazy. But he had 300 people there in the city. His car's been burnt three, four times. They've stolen his cars. He loves those people.
[45:32] He'd win them the Christ. He had a school of 100 and some kids. Had me come in. I was starting to, I was right before I moved up to New York 10 years ago. He had me and God gave me this message. And I remember coming.
[45:43] He didn't know me very much. And I said, look, I'm going to have the invitation. I believe God wants to say something. Somebody wants to say something. None of the kids hardly moved to the altar. And I'll never forget, the piano was over here and it was a little Filipino girl.
[45:57] And she was a senior and she stopped playing. She said, she's crying. She said, I need to say something. And she got up and she got up. She apologized to all the kids in the Christian school.
[46:09] And said, I haven't lived for God in front of you. I've been a horrible testimony. She said, will you forgive me? I'm so sorry. That little girl's testimony started in another hour of invitation.
[46:23] Because she got honest. And she apologized. Other kids were coming to the altar. They were calling their parents. They were coming in. We were hearing the bell ring, you know. They were supposed to go to class.
[46:34] But the preacher was like, keep it going. And man, the parents were coming in. They were getting right with their parents. We had real revival that week. I was up in New York.
[46:46] And if I could get a piano player over here. Just play something softly. I was up in upstate New York. And before I even moved there. And I was preaching a message at a youth meeting.
[46:57] I didn't even. I don't even remember what I preached. But I remember the preacher getting up weeping. Man, he was weeping. He got up and he said, I want my church members to stand up. And he had all his church.
[47:08] It was packed house. He had his church members stand up. And you can start playing anytime, he says. And his church members stand up. And he began to apologize to them.
[47:19] He said, Brother Samson had mentioned in his message that preachers that use their pulpit as a whipping post. As a whipping post. And he said, I'm sorry.
[47:30] The last month I've been using this pulpit as a whipping post. And he said, church, I want you to forgive me. All of a sudden, an older lady over here raises her hand.
[47:40] She says, preacher, I want to apologize to you because I haven't been faithful to church. Preacher, will you please forgive me? And boy, they begin to weep.
[47:51] And other people begin to testify. And he got on the altar. And they all got around them. And they were praying with their preacher. And they're standing up hugging each other. I was up on the platform. I got up. I'm weeping.
[48:02] I said, anybody else want to testify? And all of a sudden, this man over here stands up. And he wants to testify. He'd just come back from Iraq. And he said, listen, I'm sorry, kids.
[48:12] And I'm sorry to my wife. He had six kids. And he said, I'm so sorry. I've been cussing and yelling at y'all. And getting angry with you. Would you please forgive me? I'm so sorry.
[48:25] And then all of a sudden, his boy stood up and said, Daddy, no, I haven't been listening to you and running my mouth back to you. Will you forgive me, Daddy? And that family fell on the altar.
[48:36] Boy, they started going around the room. People started testifying, saying different things. And they were apologizing right there. It was real revival. People were getting right with each other. You say, what happened? They got honest.
[48:48] See, we got honest. When the preaching comes and meets with us. We got away from old-time religion. Boy, we got so much junk in our hearts and our minds.
[49:00] And we just come to church. And the seed bounces off that hard, dry ground because we're out. I miss the days when people would just. I had a lady in my church.
[49:11] She was a backslidden preacher's daughter. A Spanish lady. She'd come down. I'd get preaching. Boy, she'd come down. And I could hear her. Oh, God. Oh, God.
[49:22] Help me. God, I'm sorry. I missed that. You say, why? We're not honest. We're not honest. I told you that whole story of that church because I want to tell you this one.
[49:35] There was a boy sitting over here about where Samuel was sitting. 14 years old, Samuel. I didn't know that his mom and dad were sitting behind him. This boy, he didn't look sport.
[49:48] He didn't look sport. He looks a little nerdy. He stands up. Takes his glass. Tears running down his face. He's looking up to the ceiling. He says this.
[50:00] He says, I haven't been listening to mom and dad. Tell me to make my bed and I'll wait for an hour. I haven't been taking out the trash like they tell me to and they got to get on me.
[50:11] And he said, I want them to know that I'm sorry. And would they forgive me? But before he could even get sorry out, his dad is back there weeping. He cups his hands and he goes, forgiven.
[50:24] Forgiven. Forgiven. Forgiven. You know what's so amazing about our God?
[50:35] The Lord spoke to my heart when I saw that. Listen, we get in church and God gets moving and the altar call is being called. As soon as you step out of that pew, you know what you're going to hear?
[50:47] Forgiven. Forgiven. You know what God wants is people. To get honest with them. Why don't you stand? The altar's open.
[50:57] Why don't you come? Maybe you're here lost. You don't know. Hey, you don't know where you're going to go when you die. Why don't you stand? Everybody stand, please. Stretch your legs.
[51:09] Why don't you come down? If God's dealt with your heart, why don't you come? Why don't you get honest with God? Why don't you come? If you can't get on your knees, you can come sit on the front row. Why don't you come?
[51:20] Why don't you come? Heads bowed. Eyes closed. Heads bowed. Eyes closed. Say, preacher, I heard the message. And I don't know if I'm saved here today.
[51:32] I don't know where I'm going to go when I die. Would you raise your hand and be honest today? Say, I'm not saved. Would there be anybody like that? We don't want to see you die and go to a devil's hell.
[51:46] Give you an opportunity to raise your hand. Preacher, I don't know where I'm going when I die. Would you raise your hand? Do you know where you're going?
[51:59] Sir, do you know where you're going? Listen, if you're not saved here, please come talk to the pastor. Talk to me. I can show you out of the word of God.
[52:10] Well, I'm not scared. I've had people that were scared and then they called me later and we led them to the Lord. But you get honest about where you're at with the Lord. Heads bowed.
[52:22] Eyes closed. You're a Christian here. And you said, preacher, really touched my heart. I haven't really been honest with myself and honest about my sin. Would it be anybody?
[52:33] Raise your hand. Raise your hand. I pray for you. Anybody? One. God bless you. Anybody else? Two. God bless you. Anybody else?
[52:47] Father, we thank you for this morning. God, if there's somebody here that's lost and on their way to hell, Father, please. Help them. Don't let them leave this building.
[52:57] Don't let them leave, Lord, without knowing where they're going to go when they die. It's not in this, joining this church. Not in baptism. Nothing like that. But God, if there's Christians here that haven't been honest, help them start getting honest with you.
[53:13] Lord, we got so far away from being honest with you. Lord, when we're angry, Lord, just, I love being able just to talk to you, Father.
[53:24] And I'm glad I can come to the throne of grace in the time of need. God, help this church. Bless this church. I've known this church for a long time. For a long, since I was a little boy, I've known about this church.
[53:38] Prayed for this church. When I would hear things that were happening, my daddy was friends with the pastors. And God, I ask you, Lord, that you please help this church, help this pastor and his family as they grow together.
[53:58] Use them for your honor and glory. God, help the cares of this life and the pleasures of this life and the riches not get in the way that choke the word out of this church. Bless them. Put your hand upon them.
[54:09] Well, bless the ones that were honest today. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. Amen. Amen.