[0:00] And it came to pass that as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee withers of ever thou notice.
[0:14] Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, birds of air, have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where the ladies did.
[0:27] And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.
[0:47] And another said, Or also said, Lord, I will follow thee, but let me first go beg them farewell, but you're at home at my house. Jesus said unto him, No man having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
[1:08] I wish I could get everybody that I know before I leave the earth to put him first. I don't know if I can get saved so hard to put him first.
[1:26] But very, very few do. To be honest about it, very few saved people are going to put him first. I have a perspective, a vantage point, very few have, maybe nobody here has.
[1:45] But I've been an observer of Christianity for over 70 years, and a participant most of that time. I'm one of those guys that my family got in, and we just stayed in.
[2:00] We never got out. If anything was going on, we were there. We didn't miss anything. We were in the middle of it.
[2:12] So I don't understand the other kind of life. I don't understand it. Lisa, it would be, it would be unbelievable to us to think about being at home on Sunday, not going to church.
[2:31] I can't even imagine that. As I was raised, I raised you guys, but don't be prepared. We just, we just center our lives in.
[2:43] Folks, I could just stand here and enumerate a hundred ways that things have worked out that wouldn't have worked out had we not been faithful.
[2:57] God saves his pets for them to give him their way. Amen. Good. If I could just convince you, putting him first is the smartest thing.
[3:11] Amen. Anybody ever give? You'll have more in this life than heaven is going to be unbelievable to you because we can reward us after this life.
[3:23] Amen. We get plenty of rewards down here, but the real ones are coming later. Amen. Old Dr. Rice was asked one time, how does a real, great, good Christian and then the poor Christian that gets into heaven by the skin of his teeth.
[3:43] Don't they both have heaven? I mean, heaven is heaven, isn't it? Won't the sorry Christian enjoy heaven as much as the great Christian?
[3:54] And Dr. Rice said, no. No. We'll be rewarded according to our works. The Bible says that many times.
[4:08] And the person said, how do you explain that? He said, well, I probably don't really know the real answer because I haven't been there yet. But, I think of it like this.
[4:20] He said, the real great Christian can be likened to a God and the little, the little Christian that barely got in would be a baby food jar.
[4:35] Wow. Both of them would be full of heaven. that will be able to enjoy any more than their capacity. And they'll be full.
[4:50] But the guy with the gallon doesn't enjoy no longer. God will fill you up to your capacity. But you can command capacity.
[5:04] There's no way that any of us can take you whatever you want to be like. But we can certainly tell you that it was 10,000 times better than the best thoughts we are now.
[5:15] Yes. I wish you'd all jump in. I wish you would. After watching Christian hundreds and thousands of them.
[5:29] Some intimately, some in a distance. Here's where I have really, really come to conclude. Christianity just really doesn't work like it's supposed to unless you make Jesus your Lord as well as your Savior.
[5:48] That's good. so many people go into heaven and the Savior are on me. They'll make it.
[6:00] But those who made him Lord and Savior are going to be miles ahead. I've also concluded this.
[6:14] There's very little difference between a good moral unsaved person and an uncommitted Christian.
[6:29] They're just about the same. That shouldn't be. them to be a Christian who's going to have as many problems, make as many stupid mistakes, fall apart when tragedy strikes, blame God for everything, love the world, chase money or success and end up a total disillusioned mess.
[6:52] Just like the unsaved person. It's the truth. You can't argue with 70 years of it. It's ain't it too much.
[7:04] I have walked out of homes over and over and over and stopped on the steps and thought this, dear God, if you would make me a dictator over this home and let me go back in there, I could fix this mess and they would know what happiness is.
[7:31] But we all make our own messes. we have to live with there's no magic wand that a preacher has. Boy, I wish I had one.
[7:43] Wow. I got a sermon. If I could make your decision for you, you'd be a lot better off. Many of people have a lot of people.
[7:56] We are our own biggest enemies. These people wonder why going to church occasionally and dropping a dollar in the clay doesn't get their kid healed or their car repaired or whatever.
[8:13] They really think God owes them something. They get offended when he doesn't come running every time they play him. Oh, the devil talks his own once in a while and they think God answered prayer.
[8:30] But he didn't. He doesn't answer the prayer. He doesn't come to your rescue.
[8:40] you. He lets you ride out the storm by yourself. He really does. He will not play his second position.
[8:52] He has to be first. Well, the moment you make him second to anything, he leaves. Now, he's still your Savior and the Holy Spirit is still sealing your thought.
[9:07] But the thing that the Bible teaches is having fellowship with him. Dwelling in the secret place of the Messiah, abiding under the shadow of the Almighty, having intimate, close contact with him is so much different from just being saved.
[9:26] There's a step up that everybody can take. It would be the greatest thing you ever did for yourself. These uncommitted Christians are like Sam can you imagine what Samson could have been?
[9:43] I thought many, many times I'd love to have the opportunity to have. He never saw anything he couldn't lift, or any task he couldn't perform, or any of ten people that he couldn't lift.
[10:01] He never saw a problem too big for him. He was one of the most gifted men that ever lived because he was physically impossible to best, and he was filled with the spirit.
[10:22] Would you like to be that? Wow. He made the biggest mess of it as you can make. man, he put women above Jesus, the Lord left him.
[10:42] And they put his eyes out, and they tied him to a pole, like an old cow, and he walked in a circle, pushing a pole that was attached to the stone that was grinding mill, primitive, but that's the way they did it.
[11:03] And who knows how many hundreds of circles he made with his eyes put out, grinding grain like little rocks, because the Lord left him.
[11:17] The day he put somebody else through. One day in that grinding mill, he prayed a prayer that the Lord answered.
[11:32] Lord, one more time, just one more time, please me, and empower me just one more time. Let me die for my two eyes.
[11:48] And God said, I'll do that. I'll do that. And he did. And Samson was given his power, his physical power, one last time, and pushed the pillars over that held up the great building for the Philistines, and it fell down on them.
[12:12] And that potentially great, great man died amongst all those ungodly people. For one reason, he said, Jesus, I want you to play second fifth.
[12:30] The Lord said, sorry, I'm gone. It's going to happen to you. I'm not, I'm sad, I don't want to say that. This is my anniversary in your time.
[12:42] You've just given me wonderful gifts. I would like to tell you that everything's going to go to you. I'm looking into the faces of folks I love and folks I know.
[12:55] You're going to hit a wall on these days. And you'll blame God or the church or the preacher or somebody else. but God is not with you.
[13:09] He's not with you. And one day, you'll be a Samson lying under a pile of rocks. It's inevitable.
[13:22] It's inevitable. It says that Samson was living his life, but he wished not, the word wished is a little word that means he knew not that the Lord had departed from him.
[13:38] We live our lives knowing not that the Lord has departed from us. And when he departs from us is when we put something ahead of him. Look at these verses again.
[13:51] It says that the Bible was the first man, in verse 53, they were walking along. A certain man said unto Jesus, Lord, I'll follow you.
[14:02] Where do you go? Jesus said, well, by the way, I don't have anything to give you. I don't even have a place to sleep. I don't have any goods to give you.
[14:16] I can't pay you a salary and you never hurt the man anymore. A lot of people just want what God can do for them.
[14:28] if he's not doing something, I don't need him, you know. I'm like Congress after 9-11, out on the steps of the Capitol, thinking God bless America.
[14:43] But once we get over it, we don't need him anymore. That's so many Christians. So many Christians. The second one said, when Jesus said, follow me, he said, oh, I will, but suffer me first to go and bury my father.
[15:02] His father wasn't sick. That just means let me stay at home until dad dies, and then I'll come. Dad was God.
[15:17] Jesus said, let the dead bury the dead. You ought to go preach. You know how many people were called to preach and never did preach? And then the third one said, Lord, I'll follow thee, but I want to go say goodbye to everybody.
[15:30] Oh, after all, they're more important than you are. I don't know how long it's going to take me. I'll get around to it.
[15:44] And he said, no man had him put his hand on the plow and looking back. It's fit for the kingdom of God. In all these cases, Jesus said, it's me or nothing.
[15:56] You don't put anything else in front of me. I don't need you. I'll just keep walking on down the road without you unless I'm first with you. Hear that now. That's what he said.
[16:07] That's what he meant. I'm just going to give you a couple of points here. Two areas, maybe, two angles, where anybody said they do it.
[16:19] Number one, it's earth. first. I want to read you. Turn with me to Matthew 10. This is the last time I'll read anything. Matthew 10, 32. I want you to see it from his lips.
[16:36] Matthew 10, 32. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess all through my father. It's in heaven. Whosoever shall deny me before men, him also I deny before my mother.
[16:50] Think not that I'm coming to send peace on her. I'm coming not to send peace but a sword. I'm coming to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother.
[17:03] It's a strange language. And the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foal shall be of his own household. Well, what does he mean?
[17:16] I'm going to set a man against his father. A woman against her mother. What does he mean? He means there are going to be some people that love me more than their family.
[17:29] There are going to be some women who will break their relationship with mom and all that relationship with Jesus.
[17:42] Imagine that. There are people and families that will not put the family member before Jesus and when it comes to it. I got a bunch of packet of stuff from a Christian Jew last week.
[17:57] I read them through them. Most of these guys have the same testimony. Now, I might have him come here. But he said he was 17 years old and one of his buddies told him about Jesus.
[18:09] and he received Christ to that Savior. His family through him out.
[18:21] This only. There's never been part of their family since 17th in the Provincy. There's a fellow that put Jesus ahead of his entire family.
[18:36] Do you think he might be blessed with that? That's what that's talking about. We've had people come here and they wanted it.
[18:49] They saw it. But somebody in the family criticized or said they're nothing but a set. You don't want to get mixed up with that.
[19:02] So they put family ahead of the Lord. And I can't name them to you boy. They just fell aside. Haven't served God at all. He will not be second filled.
[19:14] And sometimes it costs a lot to put him first. But those who do are rewarded so many ways.
[19:24] Verse 37 Matthew 10 He that loved the father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. He that loved his son or daughter more than me.
[19:36] He's not worthy of me. He that loved his son or daughter more than me. Not worthy of me. My kids were born in the border almost seven years of the week and the next Sunday they were in church.
[19:53] And they didn't miss any church. I was afraid to sit at home and say, well, I better not take the little thing out into the public yet. My cat gets a little bit older and that's putting baby before God.
[20:10] That's what that's preaching against right there. Take your baby on and take care of me. He that put his son or daughter above me is not worthy of me.
[20:24] He that takes not his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. That's giving it all to him. He that finds his life is going to lose it. You out there searching for your own life, your own way, he that loses his life for my sake shall find it.
[20:42] Now, I have a great shakes as an example, but I had my own life picked out and laid out. I knew what I wanted to be. It wasn't a preacher. I didn't have a personality to be a preacher.
[20:59] Several things wrong with me being a preacher. I was timid and bashful. I was very sensitive.
[21:11] I didn't want anybody to hurt my feet because I've seen other preachers where their feet hurt. I knew people dislike me and I seen other dislike the future.
[21:22] And I saw that in the home of the back. And I said, I want that. I can't take it. I'm not built that way. And so, I found my own life.
[21:40] I wondered where I would be today if I stayed on that path. I shuddered for the day. Because the day that I decided I would do what I want instead of what you want, he walked with me.
[21:55] And I would have owned my own. I would have been. But thank God that August night in 1960 when I finally prayed and said, Lord, by the way, you know you didn't make me a preacher.
[22:11] I'll have a personality. I'll have the gifts to do it. And you understand that. So I said, okay, then I'm becoming an engineer. Is that all right with you? He said, no.
[22:26] No, it's not. By the time you have to be. That wasn't easy for me to be worried. Didn't come naturally.
[22:42] I just saw my mind because Chris put it in his book and I've been proofreading the book. He told my story. Now I remember standing preaching my first sermon.
[22:56] I was afraid. I don't know what I thought they'd do. Stone, pear, tomato, I don't know. It was difficult. I'm not made like that.
[23:11] But you know what it says? He that loses his life for my sake she'll find it. Yeah. Yeah. And I found it. Looking back over all these years his choice was much better than mine would have been.
[23:28] And look at the blessings that came to me because I put him first. I'm no great shakes as an example. I just did what he said. Look what he's done.
[23:42] Just look at the blessings. I wish I could tell you. And I'm not going to hit a wall one of these days if you could go on a stable. You are.
[23:55] He's not first with you. You're going to hit a wall. You're going to find yourself blind in a prison house and find new grain and wondering what happened.
[24:08] I'll tell you what happened. You decided to choose your own way. Put something above me. And I'm begging you this morning not to do it. I didn't do many things right but that's one thing I did right.
[24:22] I decided to do it his way instead of mine. I had to give up the world. But the Bible says in James 4, Lord, you love the world.
[24:34] Love the Father, not any. You know the Lord He doesn't miss words. Any man who loves the world is an enemy of God. Mercy.
[24:46] We preach that hard. You don't even have any love of God. You love the world. That's what he says.
[24:56] My goodness. Better listen to it. How far into the Ten Commandments did we get when he said that's what I have nor the God before me.
[25:08] How far into the Ten did we get. That's the first one. That's the first one. Nor the God before me. When that man said to Jesus, what is the greatest commandment of all?
[25:22] He said, I should love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and full of my atmosphere. He asked me first that's what I'm telling you this morning. Or he's not going to be there.
[25:34] Many of you are going along as a saved person thinking God's going with you. You're not. He's not going to be there. He left you back in the room. You chose something for me. And you're on your own. You're on your own.
[25:50] You say, well, if nothing's happening, just keep on living. Just keep on living. The devil is marked out a path down the way when he gets all the details in place and he's going to hit you and you won't have any protection.
[26:08] Samson wished not that the Lord had departed from him. And I'm looking into the faces of the people today and every day we preach, every time and place, people who do not know God has departed from them.
[26:23] Save people. That's that word. Save them. Whatever you spent the time for is your God. I'd be afraid to do that.
[26:39] Whatever you gave your time to on any Sunday morning or Sunday evening or Wednesday evening, that's your God. He didn't say, oh, that's okay.
[26:50] We'll have other services. I'll be your second God. Oh, but you don't understand. I have to sacrifice so much to be faithful in church.
[27:05] You have no idea what you're sacrificing. No idea. Compare yourself to Abraham who was asked to sacrifice his only son that he'd waited a hundred years to get.
[27:23] He raised a knife and the angel had to grab his arm and say, oh, oh, oh, I just want to see if you want. Compare us to him.
[27:34] No wonder he's a friend of God because he put God first. Well, I have to make a living. I have a deadline here, you know.
[27:46] I've got this that has to be done at a certain time. I can't go to church until it's done. Go ahead. Go ahead. I'm just up here talking here in my head about it.
[27:58] This Bible is just here in the center of the shelf. God must be a liar. I don't know what he said. You seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and I'll add all these things to you.
[28:13] Yeah, it's wrong. I'll take care of the things. You go after the things and I'm gone. Pretty tough, isn't it? I wish he hadn't given me this sermon for today.
[28:26] I want him to be sweet today. Come on. I am being sweet, by the way. I'm smiling. I'm going to say it. One of the best pictures in the Bible of Christ and his church is marriage.
[28:43] Marriage. How many wives have you put up with this? Being a second bill. Now, sweetheart, I don't want you to be my wife, but I've got a couple of girlfriends on the side of me.
[28:59] He's good. He's good. Oh, boy. He's in love of the world. Love the Father's not here. So look at marriage.
[29:13] No wife will agree to that. She will leave and so will be. When Peter backslid and went back to the fishing business, Jesus came out and gave him a second choice.
[29:24] But at that point, when he's out in that boat, having left the ministry, the Lord left him. And had he fallen overboard, there wouldn't have been anybody to rescue him.
[29:38] Jesus was on the shore. He called him to himself and said, if you love me, I'll let you through my sheep. And he asked you three times, do you love me more than these?
[29:55] These boats, these fish, these companions, everything, do you love me more than all this? That's what you are.
[30:08] Thank God, Peter went back into the ministry and became a great preacher. Sometimes he gives a second chance. Isn't that good?
[30:21] Jesus won't play second fiddle. You may go to heaven, but you're more or less on your own down here if you have something that you put before him. Well, in service now, what about salvation and all?
[30:34] I'll close it just tomorrow. It's a little scary, but I'm going to be honest with you. You probably will have three to five actual chances to get saved from the Bible.
[30:50] I didn't say that first either. A lot of people believe that. We get the idea that we can just put him off and put him off and do what we want to do and do what we want to do and get saved at our own leisure.
[31:03] But you don't get saved until he's there convicting you and drawing you times. That's right. Yes, sir. And he will do that maybe three or five times. And you think, oh, I'll still be saved down the road but you won't be to die.
[31:21] I'm thinking of a man called Felix in the Bible in Acts 24. First time he heard the gospel, he actually trembled. And he said, now, Paul, I really want this but not today.
[31:35] I want it, but I want a more convenient time. I'm not ready. Can you read that? He came back to church over and over and over and over and he got colder and colder and colder and never again was convicted like he was that first time.
[31:57] Felix trembled when he was called to salvation in his head. That's not it. Agrippin, the same thing.
[32:08] King Agrippin in Acts 26, 28. Almost I persuade us to be a Christian. We have a great song called Almost Persuaded. Great invitation song.
[32:21] But Agrippa never came close again. That was his chance. That was his opportunity. He's in hell today. Sometimes you only get one chance.
[32:32] Brother Parson and I were knocking on doors the other day and I had to be my retract. He walked up to a middle-aged man, probably 60-year-old. He was out in his garage and he walked up to him.
[32:45] And I said, Sir, we're basically from out of back to the church and I asked him I would love to talk to you. We're giving these little forthovers out of our church.
[32:57] And he looked at me and he said, get out of here. I am not at all interested and I don't know what you have. Very hard.
[33:08] And I said, yes, sir. And I went back and Parson said, a billion years from now, he would remember that.
[33:22] That was his chance. God sent two preachers to his door. And he would remember that for all eternity. but God probably would never send anybody back because of what he treated those people.
[33:41] We have no idea. We think we're in charge. We do it ourselves whenever we want to. No, you do it when he wants you to. One older preacher said he gets weary of begging these proud sinners to please take care of as though they were doing him some kind of great favor.
[34:04] If you have conviction in your soul, you have to thank God he gave you a chance to take him. He's the one running the show. man or woman, boy or girl, he said not now, maybe later they're smugly telling Jesus I am in charge here and you're not.
[34:25] I'm not afraid of death which lurks around every corner. I know I'm not ready to die, but I'm not going to die. I'm in charge here.
[34:37] And hell is full of that kind. Full of that kind. James, the Lord's little brother said, you that say tomorrow I'll do this or that, you better say it tomorrow will.
[34:52] Because your life is a vapor. Pair with the rich food in Luke 12. Oh, his crops were over flowing.
[35:02] Had to build new barns. Was focused on the material. Sold as many things laid up for many days. Wow, look how rich you are.
[35:16] The Bible said, sir, you don't know this, but your soul is going to be required of you tonight. Then do those things to you.
[35:30] He won't play that fiddle with your friend. He won't do it. You're living your life, aren't you? Doing what you enjoy.
[35:41] making your plans and tossing him from front of me once in a while. You know, I probably ought to go to church today. Oh, not tonight.
[35:54] Not when you don't be a fanatic. But I probably ought to go once in a while. Did you know you're on your own? Did you know he's not with you?
[36:07] Did you know when you get in that car and I have a train of you? If the devil decides that's the time to take you out, you won't have a lot of temptation. Because God leaves when you put anything else in heaven.
[36:21] That's my point today. It's a terrible point. It's a hard point. It's a fearful point. But I'm trying to tell you, Samson did not even know that God had departed from him.
[36:35] And you don't either. God departed from him the day he put wind before God. What have you put before God? Is there one person in here who knows that you put something ahead of God and he's not first with you?
[36:54] You're going to do what you want to do. He's not there. He's called. Stand with me. It's about last.