Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
Come on. Asking you to move, Lord. Asking you to fill us, God, with your fire. God, fill us with an unquenching fire from the throne. God, from the altar of God, fill us, God, with the fire that quenches all impurities. Take out all impurities out of our lives, God, out of our God, just out of us, God. Everything that is not pleasing to you, God, needs to go from us now. Lord, we just ask you to be here this morning, God. Anoint the service. God, open our ears and open our hearts to receive you, Lord. That we might walk away changed today. Yes. God, that we might walk away and be able to share with somebody what the true gospel of Jesus is. God, we thank you this morning. God, we ask you to bless those listening by radio. God, open the ears of their hearts and to hear, God, the message this morning. God, thank you for being here this morning. God, continue to minister to us as we get into your word. Jesus' name. Amen. Well, I do have a word for you this morning. Sorry about my voice. I've been battling a cough for a few days. But, then the word I have may not be for everybody. May be for everybody. It may be just for somebody listening and nobody here in this room. I don't know. But, all I know is I had two other messages prepared and God told me to do this specifically. So, I know this is a word for somebody today. And what we're going to look at is counting the cost of being a disciple. You know, I've heard it said that back in the the early church, and I hadn't had a chance to research this, but in the early church, and even when Jesus was here, being called a Christian was really a negative sense. They called you a Christian as being a bad thing. Because back then, they called everybody disciples. You were a disciple of Jesus if you were really truly following him. And the people that hated Jesus called you Christians in a mocking way, mocking you for following Jesus. So, we're going to count the cost and look at some people that counted the cost in the Bible and what they decided. And for some of us here today, it's time to decide. It's time to count the cost and get off the fence for one way or the other. I'm telling you, in 2014, this church is going after revival. We believe it's coming. We've been
praying for it. We feel like it's coming, and it's been promised to our pastor that revival is for us, for him, for this church, for his ministry, for all of us here. So, in 2014, we're going after revival. And we're going after a move of God. And that's what we should be, you know, with all the things that are coming, there is an end-time revival coming. And we as a church in Fire and Grace Church and Dean O'Neal Ministries is we're going to be a very pivotal part of a revival for our area, our state, the Southeast, who knows what God will do. You know, he's done things with this little church that we could never dream of. I mean, we when I logged on this morning to the radio station, we had somebody in Brazil and somebody in London, listening to our message, pre-recorded message on the radio station. So, I mean that to me is pretty awesome. But there's some people that even sit in our congregation and listen to our messages that are still riding the fence of their faith. And it's time to count the cost and decide whether you want to go all the way with Jesus, or you want to go live in the world. Cuz one road leads to eternal salvation and eternal life, and one road leads Both the roads leads to eternal death and damnation. There is no fence riding with God. You You don't have one foot in the world loving the things of the world and one foot with God and loving the things of God. It's one way or the other. So, it's time for us Some time for somebody to count the cost and do something with it. Cuz you either decide to go all the way with God, or you decide to go and live in the world. And it's time to get off the fence. So, let's turn to uh Let's turn to Matthew 4 right quick, and we'll go to verse 19. We'll start here. We'll look at Jesus calling the disciples. Just a few of them first. Matthew 4 verse 19. And he saith unto them, Well, I will just back up to 18. Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee saw two brethren, Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, "Follow me, I will make you fishers of men." And they straightway left their nets and followed him. And going on from thence, he saw two other brothers named James, the son of Zebedee and John his brother in a ship with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets and he called them and they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him.
Now, I want to read that in the amplified version right quick. Cuz it does give us a little bit different wording and maybe even a little better look at it. Let me get there right quick. And here, we'll go we'll go to 18 again. As he walking by the sea of Galilee, he noticed two brothers, Simon who was called Peter and Andrew his brother, throwing a dragnet into the sea for they were fishermen. And he said to them, "Come after me." And this is in brackets, "As disciples, letting me be your guide. Follow me and I will make you fishers of men." And at once, they left their nets and became his disciples. Sided with his party and followed him. And that was in brackets. And going further from there, he noticed two other brothers, James, son of Zebedee and his brother John in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets and putting them right and he called them. At once, they left the boat, their father and joined Jesus as disciples. And there again, in brackets, sided with his party and followed him. So, these guys, somebody walks up and says, "Hey, hey, follow me." And they just pick up and go. How do you think they they realized who he was? I mean, I think the Holy Ghost. God put on them that the this is my son. Y'all need to go with him. As soon as Jesus spoke the words, they knew who he was by revelation of God. So, and then later on there's You know, later on uh in John Uh let's see. Later on, Jesus had all of his disciples. And there was multitudes of them at that time. And uh I think somewhere somebody says somewhere around 72 or something like that disciples. And he started preaching to them. And they started going This is too hard. I can't handle this. And they all started counting the cost of what it was going to take to follow Jesus. And they left him. They said, "We cannot handle this. We cannot take this kind of preaching." And they left and left him with the 12, the final 12, which were mostly all of those that he knew were going to be with him anyway. Plus one that he knew was going to be a
devil. So, let me see. Yes, John 6:60. If you want to turn there, we'll read that right quick. Many therefore of his disciples, when they heard this said, "This is a hard saying. Who can hear it?" When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, "Does this offend you? What and if you shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth the flesh and profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. But there are some of you that have that believe not." For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him. And he said, "Therefore said I unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given unto him of my Father." From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. Then Jesus said unto the 12, "Will you also go away?" And then of course they said, "Well, where else will we go for you have eternal life?" So they started hearing his preaching. Many of them it says. Started hearing his preaching. And started going, "Woohoo, we can't handle this." And started counting what it was really going to mean for their lives to walk with him as a disciple. And apparently they decided it wasn't going to be worth it. I'm here to tell you that it is worth it to give it all up, to go away from the world. We've heard Pastor Dean's testimony. We know what he was looking for in the world. But when God got a hold of him, imagine you know his zeal today for the word of God. Imagine what his zeal was for the world if his zeal for the word of God is like it is today. I mean that's some of the greatest preachers are some of those that have come out of the darkest places in the world because their passion, I mean Steve Hill, his passion for selling drugs and drug abuse and alcohol and stuff was tremendous. And his passion for God is even bigger. You know, um So, we we got to count the cost. What is it going to mean to be a disciple? You know, Paul said, "Follow me as I follow Christ." So, why should we not apply that same principle to our spiritual fathers and spiritual mothers? If we believe that they are heading and following after Christ in the most godly way,
then why should we not be following right in behind them? You know, Steve Hill did a sermon called white cane religion where he put on dark pair of sunglasses and had a cane from for blind people. And he said, "Does the someone you're following know where they're going? Do you know where your spiritual father, your spiritual elders are going? Are they leading you towards Christ? Then you should be following them. There should be no doubt of where they're going. There should be no doubt of why you're following them. You should be following them to Christ because that's where they are leading. And if that is too hard, then it's time to stop and step back and count the cost of why you're doing what you're doing. Is Jesus worth the price that you have to pay in this world to lose moms and dads, to be split families, to lose your aunts and uncles because of the truth that you speak? I mean, Jesus said, Let's just look at that right quick. Oh, I didn't write that in scripture reference down, but Jesus said that if you don't lose your mother, your father, your children, your friends, your family, your possessions in this world to follow me, then you don't have me. So, are you willing to let go of everything in this world? I mean, you know, I I dread the day that we all start being gathered up because we're Christian and put in concentration camps and beheaded and killed. You know, is that for all of us? Who knows? We'll just have to wait and see what all that has plays out. But, am I going to deny God, deny Jesus, deny my walk with God because they take my children and kill them because of my belief in Jesus? Where Where is my confidence in where my children are going? Why do I even want them to live in this world when there's heaven waiting for them? I mean, if they die right now, they go to heaven. Why would that not be glorious? Why would heaven Why Why would I want to keep my children out of heaven? I want to go. I want to experience the things that God has. I want to experience what heaven's all about. It's nothing
like this place. Thank God. So, do I Will I weep for my children if they die? Yes, but am I going to deny Christ because to save my children's life? No, because they're going to heaven. And then when they kill me, I'm going to heaven. Because we love not our lives unto the death. So, is dying for Jesus worth going to heaven? That's a cost you have to count yourself. I can't tell you. Is losing the relationship with your mom and dad worth you going to heaven? Because you speak the truth. Now, I've spoken the truth to my parents. They've not changed. They got blinders over their eyes. They can't see. My dad's universalist, universal salvation. He believes Jesus died for everybody and everybody's going to heaven, no matter if they're murderers or Hitler or nobody. Everybody's going to heaven. Try to speak the truth. My dad shuts down. Have we lost our relationship over it? No. Because they just they don't get it. You know, they don't see it as they just think that I'm in a crazy church and that that's just the way I believe. So, you know, but I speak the truth to them. You know, they're not saved. They're not going to heaven. So, their blood is not on my hands. You know, do we do we worry about our earthly relationships to sacrifice our heavenly relationship? I mean, where where is your cost in walking with Jesus? I mean, there's Is our salvation free? Well, yes. But we have to do something to maintain it. It cost us something to maintain our salvation. We have to do the commandments of Jesus. If you don't do the commandments of Jesus, you don't have salvation. We all understand that in this church, that we are not once saved, always saved, no matter how we live. You have to maintain. And doing something that God told you to do is not works. That's what they try to make it into. They try to make just because you stay out of sin, that's a work. No, it's not. Feeding the poor is works. Feeding the poor does not get you to heaven. Feeding poor is good.
But it's not your way to heaven. So, what is your cost to pay for keeping your salvation? You know what Jesus said? Keeping his commandments. Is that too difficult to do? Something you have to decide. Let's look at Luke 14 real quick, and this is the one place in the Bible that I can find where it's it's talked about counting the cost. Luke 14. Let's just start at verse 25, cuz that's where my Bible That's where the There's a title there. Says love Jesus more than yourself is the name of this little section. We'll start with 25. And there went great multitudes with him and he turned and said unto them, "If any man come to me and have not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you intending to build a tower sits not down first and counts the cost whether he has sufficient to finish it. Lest happily after he hath laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, all that beheld it began to mock him saying, "This man began to build and was not able to finish." Or what king going to make war against another king sits not down first and consulteth whether he be able with 10,000 to meet him that cometh against him with 20,000. So, right there. You're going to build your tower. And that's our Christian faith. Are we going to build our Christian faith? But if we don't count the cost and have enough fortitude within us to get past the laying the foundation of the gospel of Jesus to build the tower, become mature Christians past being children and drinking milk to eating meat and steak and of the word of God. If we cannot get past that foundation of salvation to build our tower of faith. Have we sat down and counted the cost if we get a little above the foundation and give up? It's time to count the cost of your walk with Jesus.
Are you willing to go further and deeper and dig and study and pray more and study more and fast more and walk with God more and seek him more and become a more mature Christian than what you are now? And if you're not willing to do that, it's time to see if you have enough money in your purse or not. The cost is great, but it's easy. Jesus said his yoke is not hard. It's not hard to bear. I mean people say because we're Christians we can't have fun. Well, that's not true. We all know that. I mean, so they think because you're a Christian, you have to give up having fun. Give up everything and be a stick-in-the-mud. Well, are we sticks in the mud around here? I might be, but y'all aren't. But you know, there's you know, what is it that keeps you going in your Christian walk? What is it that makes you get up every day and pray and study? Or are you caught up in I'm too tired. Um not ready yet to start studying the word. I'm not I just don't understand it. Well, you know, I didn't understand the word 5 years ago, 6 years ago like I do now. It takes getting under a spiritual father or spiritual mother that can open the word of God to you and show you what this King James language is all about. Cuz in this church, the King James Bible is what we believe is the true word of God out of the out of all of the Bibles. I mean, we can get into that discussion another time, but this there's a lot of evidence shows that the King James translators had superior doctrine, superior beliefs. They believed in the truth of the scriptures. Where a lot of the other Bibles have been taken and changed, words taken out, things like that. So, now, not to say that Now, I have to watch myself because I'm not called to be an evangelist. I'm called to be a prophet and a teacher. An evangelist just wants to get the word of God in everybody's hands, which is wonderful. Hallelujah. Praise God. I step back and look at it and say, "Huh, wait a minute.
What's the word actually saying here?" And does it line up with what God really said? Where evangelists want everybody just get it, period. Don't matter. You know, so I have to check myself on that. You know, in NIV, if you can't read the King James and you want to read an NIV and you get something out of it, go for it. You know, but if you want to get deep into the word of God and really get into the meat of what it's talking about, get a Bible that's taken from the original Greek that the the Jewish scholars and scribes wrote it in that didn't change words and mess with words. Cuz you know, they when they translate the Bible when the Jews when the Jewish scholars make copies, you know, they didn't have photo copy machines like we do now. They have to write every transcript if they want to make a copy. And if they put a a drop of ink, a dot on the page that's not supposed to be there, they could be almost done with a page and a drop of ink gets on there somewhere that it's not supposed to be. They tear it all up, burn it, and start over again. That's how serious they are about the word of God and keeping it pure. Are we that serious about the word of God? Do we want to take the word of God for every word, every God, every time in that book is what God intended it to be? Do we want to take our Sharpie highlighter, a black Sharpie highlighter, and mark out scriptures in the Bible because it doesn't fit us? Then I'm afraid you are headed down a dark road if you start doing that. Do we Do we count the cost of taking the the Bible for what it means? God said what he said for a reason. Not for us to take out of take our own little interpretation on it, but what What did God say? That's what he meant. Are you willing to do that? Is that a cost you're willing to accept and pay to take the word of God as the word of God? If not, then you need to think about it. You need to seek God. You need to find out why things are the way they are. You You we all know the story in Acts 5 about Ananias and Sapphira. You know, they they sold a piece of property and they were bringing the money in to the disciples and they held back some. So, were they
Did they count the cost of holding back money that they promised that they said that they promised to give to God? Their penalty for not counting the cost for holding back and not thinking that situation through was death. I mean, they died instantly right there in front of everybody because they didn't give to God what they promised God they would give. You know, you hear a lot of people today saying, "I want to get back to an Acts church." Do you really? Do you really? I mean, that's that's pretty intense. Getting back to an Acts church, you lied to the Holy Ghost, you die. Is that a price that we're willing to pay to get to an Acts church? I don't know. You know, I don't want to I mean, I'm human. I I mess up all the time. Thank God for grace. Thank God for forgiveness. You know, cuz uh if I didn't have that, I'd probably be Ananias. You know, dead. Because I didn't follow through to God with what I promised him I would. So, do we want to get back to that? I don't. Cuz I'll mess up one day and just not even thinking about it cuz my flesh nature takes over sometimes and I don't walk in the fullness of the spirit. So, is that a price that I'm willing to pay. Die because I told a lie. Ooh. That's intense. You know, so you know, what's What's your cost? What's the What What are What are you going to count? I encourage all of us over this next week to go and seek God and pray more than we ever have. To fast more than we ever have and count the cost. You know, everybody knows what this church is about. Everybody knows what Pastor Dean's about. Everybody knows the direction that Pastor Dean is headed. Is that a direction that I want to go? Absolutely. I mean, there's I love them. I consider Pastor Dean my spiritual father. And I know where he's headed and God has put me here in this place in this time right now to be with that man. God called me to be a pastor. He told me I would be a pastor back when I was 20. I mean, wasn't saved, was not even walking, wasn't even thinking about walking with God, and God impressed on me that I was going to be a pastor. Now, my grandfather was a pastor.
Primitive Baptist pastor. So, I always thought, "Hey, I'm going to go back to Corinth. I'm going to take over my granddad's church. I'm going to pastor it." That kind of got changed. Hallelujah. Okay, let me tell you. Uh that is one dead church. I mean, I have never in my life experienced such deadness in a church as I have a Primitive Baptist church. Being in it and raised in it, you don't see it. But come out of it and experience the power, the might, the majesty of God in our worship services, in our preaching, in our teaching, and just feeling God's presence. And then you go over here and you you get nothing. Now, do they teach some things that are okay? Yeah. But, you know, and of course, they're five-point Calvinists. They believe it all, right down to the very last little bit. That is what we do not believe. So, because I know God called me back then to do ministry. I always thought it was to be a pastor, apparently. And I'm here right now in this church. I'm doing what God's called me to do. Just not the way I had thought it was to be done. There is no cost to count for me for being in this church, for being a part of what we're doing. Cuz I know that when a move of God comes and revival breaks out, that I'm walking away from job, work, I'm walking away from everything I know in this world to be in the middle of the move of God. I've already made that decision. I'm not asking you to. I personally have made that decision. When a move of God comes, I'm in the middle of it. Because I want God so bad. I mean, I hear all the stories and I watch the videos of the Brownsville Revival, and I see thousands and millions of people getting touched and saved and and set free. But I've never experienced that. Why did I not experience that? Because of the religion I was brought up in. I mean, if I walked up to my granddaddy and said, "Granddaddy, God called me to be a prophet." He would probably slap me because he would think I was talking nonsense. Cuz I mean, that's they don't believe that. They you know, they think all of that
was only for the original 12 apostles, you know, the first century church. They think it died after them. But I know beyond what I know, beyond what I know that God's called me to be a prophet, a toucher, and in the middle of his move when it comes in the end times. And it's coming. You know, we got September of this next year begins the next Jewish calendar, you know, they go September to September. So, starting in September on the Jewish feast days, we've talked about this a little bit, that on uh Passover and it may be I can't remember which one it is, but there's the blood moons. So, there's two blood moons this year and two blood moons next year, which becomes 2015 for us. So, four blood moons happen on four Jewish feast days. That's only happened less than a handful of times in history. And every time it's been tied to some major event with the Jewish people. And this time it's four in one year, one of their calendar years. So, what is that going to do? I mean, is that going to start Is that going to be the the what sets off World War III with between the Jews and the Palestinians, or is that going to be the peace treaty between Jews and Who knows? Blood moons are never good for the Jewish people. Within that same four, there's going to be two solar eclipses, which means that's in the Jewish tradition, solar eclipse is bad for the Gentiles, and the lunar eclipse is bad for the Jews. So, they have four moons that are bad for them, two sun eclipses that are bad for the Gentiles, all starting next year, y'all. Are we wanting to be in a position spiritually, emotionally, physically to be in the middle of a move of God when it comes? Could it come by the end of next year? Could it come next week? Don't know, but we have to be ready. And is it what we're Is it what we are looking for? I mean, are we ready to give up the pornography, the lust, the the lust of the world, the lust of the eyes? Are we ready to give up friendships and family members and relationships to be in a place
that we have that we're in the middle of a move of God? What is most important to you? And that's a cost that you have to decide for yourself. Now, I I each and every one of you. I don't want to see anybody veer from the path that this church is set on. I want us all to be in the middle of this move of God cuz I think we have a great group of people here that love ministry, that love God, that love being together and doing God's work. So, be in a place that is willing to move when God says move. Don't be in a place that it's so rigid and hard and that if you if somebody comes up and says, "Hey, I think your church services need to go every night because God is getting ready to move and that's your first step." Don't reject them. I mean, I've done that. I've went to a pastor during after a revival weekend service and said, "The Sunday service was awesome. God moved. I said, 'Look, be here tomorrow night. People will come. God's moving.'" No, thanks. The next Sunday, I was in worship and praying. God said, "Don't ever go back. They're rebellious, wicked people." I said, "Whoa." And we don't hear of anything much about that church anymore. We don't see anybody I mean, their website's pulled down, their Facebook page is pulled down. I do know they're still having services. But, they rejected what God wanted to do. And they're not living having the fullness of the church that they could have. You know, they just wanted a little pick-me-up pep rally service to get everybody fired up, but they didn't really want what God wanted. And it's it it breaks my heart to see good men and of God just not doing what God's called them to do. And it happens time after time after time after time with different people. Not with me necessarily specific I'm just saying as a whole. People don't want to hear what God wants to do. So they push you out of their lives or they reject God and then God says leave them alone. They don't want me. They just want to say they have me. That's not where this church is. That's not where this church is going. This
church will stay in a pup tent down by the river with this group forever as long as we have a move of God. As long as God is moving within our midst. As long as God is healing and touching and changing lives and teaching us more and deeper things in the word. Well, this church didn't care anything about having millions of people. I mean we see what that leads to the candy preachers. But are are we willing to count the cost to stay in a place that truly hungers and seeks after God? Are we going to go somewhere that may not offend us or may not teach us the deeper things but doesn't care about a move of God. And what's your cost that you have to count? I know it's been a hard message this morning tonight. I I I didn't really and want to give it. I had a much nicer one that I wanted to to give on talking about the anointing oils and the the the different things that were in the anointing oil and how they tied into our lives, but this is what God has for our church today. This is the last Sunday of this year, y'all. Next Sunday is the beginning of a new year. It's the beginning of a bigger push towards God. It's the beginning of what could be the beginning of the rest of our It's the beginning of the rest of our lives. And it's has the greatest potential to be the most prophetic fulfilling year that we have ever seen in our lives up to this point. And when we thought this year was bad, just watching all the stuff just taking place with over in the Middle East and with our government and how things are falling apart and all that. I'm telling you, next year is going to be a greater prophetic year than what we've seen. And where do you want to be? Where do you want to position yourself? Are the things we're going to see and study and preach and teach, are they going to be scary things? Probably. But they're the meat of the word of God. And it's not just this church teaching some of this stuff. I mean, I I it Some of the stuff I've listened to from different researchers and pastors and teachers over the last 6 months would freak y'all out. Because let me tell you, I'm having a hard time grasping some of it.
Just because I've always taught it was I've always been taught it was a fairy tale. And it's not. And the evidence is piling up. I mean it can't even get into it. I mean what we think about Adam and Eve and all that stuff could even be changed. We could shatter that. I mean it's you know, we've all been taught that Adam and Eve were the first people first you know, they were the first humans on Earth. But was there people before us that were not human? Who knows? But that's the kind of stuff that I'm having my mind blown about. It's making me go back and research and restudy and relook at things and is there a possibility of some of this stuff? It's the word of God. So, it just get ready for this next year to be a year of talking that will just fill us with stuff that is going to be awesome. And it's going to move us in a direction that when things happen we won't be fearful. Because we'll go hey, we studied that. We saw that in scripture. So, let's get ready guys for this next year. Are we ready for the things to come? Are we willing to sacrifice the things that we need to sacrifice? Jesus will always be with us. He'll always walk beside us. He'll always lead us and guide us. He is our salvation. And there is nothing greater than that. There is no name above the name of Jesus. If we have Jesus, nothing upon nothing upon nothing can get us. As long as we stay true to the faith. Y'all, I hope I didn't just depress y'all too much this morning, but I know beyond what I know this is what God has for us. He's got some people that are riding the fence and he wants them to move. And it's time for this church to step into the calling that it's called to do. And that's what's coming next year. Let's pray, y'all. God, we just thank you for your word.
I just lift up those, God, that are needing to decide and and count the cost of the relationship with you, Lord. God, I pray you minister to us all, God, and help open our eyes and help us to understand the direction you've placed each of our families and our church the direction you've you've pointed us in and want us to go, God. God, I thank you for your son. God, which is a name above every name. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to glory of the God the Father. God, so with that scripture, God, we just we walk in the power of Jesus. We walk in the power of the Holy Ghost. God, we ask for your anointing as we go forth from this service, God, to to share with people that it's time to move off the fence of religion and step off into being disciples of Jesus or go to live in the world and there needs to be a line drawn in the sand today. God, there's too many that give us true Christians a bad name. God, they they live lukewarm lives and they live worldly lives, God, and they don't represent the holiness that you've called us to be. God, so open our eyes, God, to the things that we need to to change the things that we need to move out of and move into. God, that we can have the fullness of the calling of God on our lives. God, I bless each person that is here today, God. I bless each person that is listening. God, I thank you for this church and the pastor being God that is over this church, God. He gives so much of his time and effort and money and prayer and fasting to us in this church, God. Bless him today, God, as he as he is resting and taking a break and and spending time with family. God, bless him and watch over them, God. Lead us all and guide us into this new year in the calling you have on our lives. God, I ask you to keep us safe and watch over us in Jesus' name. Amen.