Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
Lord, you have mine, and I will search for you. Jesus, take my life and lead. Lord, you have mine, and I will search for you. Let me be to you, a sacrificial. Praise your name, Lord. We sing these songs, Lord, that you have our heart. Lord, that question is, do you really? And Lord, help us always to examine our hearts that we may know where we really stand so that if we need to correct anything, we can correct it.
Because Lord, we don't wanna go through this life and think we have you or have a version of Christianity and end up finding out that it was wrong all along. Or the devil is into deceiving people and he has deceived multitudes upon multitudes, Lord. And we don't wanna be deceived. So Lord, lead us and guide us into all truth, I pray. Help us learn what it means to obey from the heart. We thank you for that, Lord, and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen, amen. You may be seated this morning. We'll welcome everyone. Fire and Grace Church, those watching and listening out there all over the place. Now, my wife does the music. She has no idea whatsoever what I'm gonna be talking to you about today, but that last song probably couldn't have been more perfect. Lord, you have my heart, really, really. So we sang these songs, but is it reality in our lives? Good songs now, good worship songs, but does the Lord really, really have our hearts? We're gonna find out this morning. Is that all right? This is kind of a continuation of last week. Not that I planned it really that way, but it's kinda how it's working out. And last week, if you've forgotten, and if you didn't hear last week, you'd need to. It's probably one of the most important messages for believers to understand is the motives of our heart. And last week, I talked to you about the motives of your heart toward sin. How that you should hate sin and love righteousness. And not that a Christian will never sin, but it should be the exception in your life and never the rule. As it says in Romans 6, Paul said, sin shall not have dominion over you if you're not under the law, but under grace. Meaning, grace doesn't mean God just overlooks what you do. Grace means God will give you the power and the help that you need to overcome habitual sin in your life. But there's really two things. There's sin, and we could say, well, anything that's not of God is sin, but there's really two kinds that I wanna talk about. Last week, I talked about primarily the sins of the lust of the flesh, the things that the flesh desires to do. As we talked about, Paul spoke about that in Romans 7. David in Psalm 19, how even as believers, God said of David, he's a man after my own heart. We know Paul said the Lord made me an example that you should follow. But they both admitted that they still had struggles with sin. But there is a difference. Everybody likes to point out David's sin of adultery. Yes, he committed adultery, but David did not live as an adulterer.
He did not live in that lifestyle habitually. He truly repented of that sin. And so last week, that's mainly what I was focusing on, the struggle we have, even as born-again Christians, that we're still gonna struggle with the flesh nature, with temptation, with sin, and we may mess up, but we don't lay there. We don't wallow in it. We don't embrace it. We don't make it become a lifestyle. But there's another aspect where God wants us to, it can be, I guess some have called it sins of omission. I'm gonna call it where we don't obey God. And you're gonna hear some verses this morning that I've covered in the past, and maybe some that you haven't heard before. But this thing of obeying God from the heart, this is a New Testament phrase. And obedience, I'm just gonna put it to you this way. If I had a chalkboard up here, or a whiteboard, I would write these words. Faith, and I've said this many times, faith equals obedience. Unbelief equals disobedience. And here's the two things that as Christians, two aspects of God, we are supposed to obey. We are supposed to obey the written word under, now under the New Testament context. We're to obey the written word of God, and we're to obey the leading of the Holy Spirit. Now if we don't do those things, we can talk a big game, all we want to. We can talk all spiritual. We can act all, you know, pious and devout, and everyone around us can think that we're holy. But if you're not obeying the Lord from the heart, then number one, I'm just gonna say this, you can talk that game all you want to, but you really don't love God. It's real simple. Jesus said, if you love me, obey me. It's John 14, matter of fact, go ahead and put that verse up. He said, if you love me, obey me. I mean, it's real simple. He asked in another place in Luke, he said, why do you call me Lord, Lord? And you do not the things that I say. The whole thing about Jesus calling the disciples and even those afterwards, the entire thing was, will you deny yourself and take up your cross and follow the Lord? Will you obey the Lord with your life? That's it. And what I'm gonna talk about today is not just obedience, but obeying the Lord when he tells you to do very difficult things. Even things sometimes that will appear to those
that don't understand what's going on, they will appear crazy or will appear mean or will appear that they don't make sense. I think about Genesis 21 where, Hagar, Abraham basically gets ahead of God and he goes in and takes Hagar kind of as a surrogate and has a child because him and Sarah can't have a child, but God had promised that Abraham and Sarah would have a child and so by the Egyptian Hagar, he has Ishmael and then as Ishmael gets older and Isaac is born and there begins to be a conflict there and it says, cast out the bond woman. Now think about this and Abraham was very grieved about this because he loved Ishmael, but the strife and the problems it was causing in the household, he finally had to, he had to cast her out into the desert and then the Lord comes and says, don't be afraid, do this, this is what you're to do. So the Holy Spirit, the Lord directed him to basically give Hagar some water and say go. Now anybody like in the church world and we go, that is just mean and nasty. What kind of pastor is Abraham? Take and give this woman with a child a little bit of water and send them out there, but the Lord sent that. The Lord told him to do that and that was a hard thing and that's chapter 21 of Genesis. Then you get chapter 22 and the Lord tells him to take his son to Mount Moriah to offer him as an offering, to test him it said. And what was the test? To see whether Abraham loved the Lord more than he loved his son. He's like, oh well God, God won't test us. Oh yes he will. He doesn't tempt us with evil, but he will test our hearts. A lot of people say well, the Lord told Abraham to go kill his son. That's not what it says. Said go offer him. Never said go kill it. But it was a test. And Abraham passed the test because he proved that he didn't love anything more than he loved the Lord. Now Abraham was interesting when you start looking at Abraham and we're gonna look at some scriptures about him this morning. But when you look at him you gotta remember the Bible says that we who are of faith, who walk in faith, who have this new covenant, new testament faith in Jesus and this born again experience that we are the children of Abraham as well. And then Jesus said in John eight he said Abraham saw my day and was glad. And when did that happen? Well we have the story of Melchizedek who was king of Salem, king of peace, king of righteousness. And this Melchizedek appeared to him, said who was without father and mother without beginning of days or end of life.
Now who might that be? The king of peace and the king of righteousness who is eternal. And he says that Melchizedek brought what? Bread and wine and this is when Jesus sat down with Abraham like he showed the apostles with Elijah and Moses and he shared the gospel and what was gonna happen. And so Abraham knew what was going to take place. And so Abraham by pure revelation he understood the gospel and he actually walked in a measure of what I will call New Testament, New Covenant relationship with God. What was the key to Abraham's faith? What was the key to true faith? He heard what the Lord said by his spirit and then he would obey the Lord even if it was difficult. And I wanna tell you right now if you want the Holy Spirit in your life, you want the anointing and power of God upon your life, you're gonna have to learn how to become habitually obedient from the heart and you're gonna have to obey the Lord when it's difficult to do. I know some people right now that are like I'm gonna say some unmarried people who are in relationships that the Lord is saying, you're not supposed to be in that relationship. But, oh, but we got engaged. Oh, really? You're gonna compound the problem? And this is what I'm talking about. Sometimes the Lord is saying, you gotta walk away from this relationship. Sometimes it's a job you gotta walk away from. Sometimes it's a church or ministry you gotta walk away from. Sometimes it's a state you gotta walk away from or a city you gotta get out of. Sometimes it's just difficult things. Sometimes I know when the Lord has come to me and it's like, Lord, you know, when I was in the pastor in that church in Washington, D.C. in 2008, I'm like, Lord, if I speak up against this problem and in this church, they're gonna fire me. And I kinda really need the job right now, if you know what I mean. And the Lord was like, yeah, they're gonna fire you. But then you have to make up your mind. Am I gonna obey the Lord and do the right thing even if it cost me, even if it's difficult? And see, this is Christianity, y'all. I want you to turn with me. We're gonna start, we got, there's so much. We go, did they put, okay, you got that? Y'all see that? John 14, 15, if you love me, you keep my commandments.
I want you to go with me. Oh goodness, let's go first to Acts chapter five. And let's just go down. Oh, this of course is when the apostles were arrested by the high priest, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and they were commanded to not preach Jesus anymore and the gospel anymore. And of course, we know they were set free out of the prison and went back to teaching. And so let's go down to verse 28. And they're brought before the high priest again. And they saying, did we not, or did not we straightly command you that you should not teach in his name and behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. And then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses of these things. And so is also the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him. Don't underline that spirit. They're speaking to the religious leaders of their land. As Jesus said to those who set in Moses seat. And he says that we are witnesses of these things of Jesus being the Messiah, dying for our sins, being raised from the dead to bring repentance and forgiveness of sins to make that possible. And he says, and so also is the Holy Ghost whom God has given to them that obey him. And when they heard that they were cut to the heart and took counsel to slay them. Now, why were they cut to the heart? Because this anointed message from the apostles cut through all the religious crap, all of their deception, all of their self-righteousness, all of their own ideas, all of their good works, all of their tithing, all every little thing they tried to do, keeping the law, he cut through it all and said, you wanna know something? See, they had just healed somebody, the crippled man at the gate. And the power and the anointing of God was bringing thousands of people were coming and getting saved and giving their lives to Jesus. And it was shaking the whole nation.
And they just flat out tell them, you guys don't have the Holy Spirit like we do because God gives the Holy Spirit to them that obey him. Plain and simple, no crap. That's the way it is. And I go back and people tell me all the time, they say, Pastor Dean, you know, we just, when you preach, the anointing's on your preaching and I tell them all the time, it's one thing, it's not because I'm more holy than anybody else or better than anybody else, but I can tell you one thing that I've tried to do my entire life since I came back to Jesus in 1987 is when the Holy Spirit tells me to do something, to do just that. And sometimes it's hard things, difficult things, things that other people don't understand why I'm doing it. People turn against me when I do obey the Lord and do certain things. They don't understand these things. I mean, it's wonderful when you obey the Lord, do something where everybody just, oh, we love that. It's a whole different thing when, why did he do that? That seems a little mean. Why did he throw Hagar out of here? Right? Maybe the Lord said to do it, but I want to back up to verse 32. When he says there that he is given the Holy Spirit, God has given to them that obey him. Guess what my Greek verb says here. It's a present participle, means a present tense Greek verb. What does that mean? Ongoing, continuous action, taking place in the present. Any somebody who is habitually obedient to the Holy Spirit, to God's word and to the leading of the Holy Spirit will be given the anointing and power and presence of the Holy Spirit. And that is the grace also, the Holy Spirit is the spirit of grace. That is the grace and power of the Spirit to live this life, not just do miracles or speaking tongues or operating the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Oh yeah, all that's true too. The first thing we need is the grace and power from God, the help from God to live the Christian life. And if we don't have that, then we're in trouble. And I'm going to tell you right now, this right here, we think that this was, all of this is about 2000 years ago. No, no, no, no. Right now today in Alabama, in the belt buckle at the Bible Belt, you've got this same thing going on. You've got a bunch of churches all over the place, big, small, make churches, everything else. You've got all these things and you've really come down to two groups of Christians. You've got a group of Christians that know how to act religious,
but don't obey the word of God and they don't obey the Spirit of God. And then you've got a bunch of them that just play these games. So you've got these two different sets of people and it's real simple. True Christians who are doing what they're supposed to be doing will be seeking God, hearing His voice, obeying His Word, and obeying the leading of the Spirit. The ones who are not go to church, tithe, serve, you get what I'm saying? But disobey the word. Don't have no understanding of denying themselves and taking up the cross and following Jesus. This is the difference. Let me give you another passage. Let's go to Hebrews. Somebody say, I love the word of God. Hebrews chapter five. You know, some folks love it until it stings them, but it's got to sting you sometime. Now, I'm gonna read verses. I'm gonna tell you, I will get hate mail and I'll get people accusing me of all kind of stuff because there's such a misunderstanding of what it means, salvation by faith versus salvation by works. There's such confusion about that. But I'll show you the difference as we go through this, but I'm gonna just read this verse here. Now, this is Hebrews chapter five and we'll just start at verse six. Well, no, verse five. All right. He's talking about Jesus being the high priest. He's talking about Aaron. He says, so also Christ glorified not himself to be made a high priest, but he that sayeth unto him thou art my son, today I have begotten thee. And as he sayeth in another place, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he feared. Now, listen to this. Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. What? I thought all I had to do was believe and I'm eternally secure forever. I'm sorry, but your Baptist church taught you wrong and your Presbyterian church.
That's not what the Bible teaches. You want to inherit eternal salvation? Do you obey the Lord from the heart? And guess what? This verb obey here, present tense Greek verb, ongoing, continuous action taking place in the present, habitually, a lifestyle of living in obedience to God. Shall we read it again? But wait a minute, Pastor Dean. Tony Evans told me, Pastor Tony Evans out in Texas told me that I was once saved, always saved, no matter how I live. Well, we find out, guess what? He's been preaching that for years and been living in sin. He just had to resign for sexual immorality. Oh, this Pastor Morris that got exposed for the big mega church pastor, gateway church, that just got exposed because he was molested a 12 year old for a number of years. When he started in the ministry, come to find out, I went to his church's website and they teach. Once you're saved, you're always saved, no matter how you, isn't it amazing that these places that teach this false doctrine of grace, you end up with so much sin, even in the leadership. You know why? Because it takes away the fear of the Lord. It takes away the understanding that if you live disobedient, ungodly, habitually in sins that are unto death, that you are going to go to hell. You will be separated from God. You will not be with him in heaven. And to me, it is the most damnable, dangerous doctrine ever been that Satan's ever put in the church world is that you're eternally secure no matter how you live. Just get saved, accept Jesus and you're in once and for all forever. And that there's no repentance required, no obedience, no relationship to be maintained. Now, what we forget is that this, a covenant is a contract. And guess what happens? When there's a contract, each side, each party of the contract has responsibilities. And if one side does not live up to the responsibilities that they agreed to in the contract, then guess what happens? Bad things, right? And you can lose what? The benefits of the contract, if you don't adhere to what? The requirements of the contract. But then we've got people out there, there's no requirements. They'd say, Jesus paid for it so therefore we don't have to do anything. Nowhere do I see that in the Bible that we can just live however we want,
do whatever we want, choose our own path and our own plans and our own will and that we can just go that direction and think that we're right with God. It's a deception. But let's read that, I'm gonna read it one more time. Though he were a son, verse eight and nine, Hebrews five, eight, nine, though he were a son yet learned to obedience by the things which he suffered and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. Somebody say obey. Wait a minute, Pastor Dean, I thought it was just believe. I'm gonna pound this in your head. Well, I'll just believe, no. You better walk with us. Let's go to 2 Thessalonians chapter one. And I'm already, it's already hot in here. It's supposed to be 100, 101 today. And that's not even the heat index. Now look at this. This is 2 Thessalonians chapter one. And we're gonna start at verse six here. And they were, you know, the Thessalonians wonder under a lot of persecution and the Lord says to them, seeing it as a righteous thing with God to recompense or pay back tribulation to them that trouble you. And to you who are troubled, rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. Now let me stop right there. Do you see that? Jesus is coming to take vengeance upon and it's eternal vengeance on those who what, believe the gospel or obey the gospel or don't believe I should say. Don't obey. Which one is it? Don't believe or don't obey? Don't obey, right? Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction? Now that right there is talking about hell and hell is eternal. You're not there. You don't cease to exist. You're not annihilated. It is eternal punishment. But look what he says. Let's back it. Let's back up again. He says he's coming in flaming fire, verse eight, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And guess what? Guess what's the word up in the Greek? Obey, guess what it means. Obey. King James got it right. Obey. Imagine that. Let's go to another one.
Let's go to First Peter chapter four. Now let me tell you what we're seeing now is this passage I'm about to read to you. In First Peter four, we're seeing this because we're seeing these pastors who've been having adulterous affairs, who've been in sexual sin with minors, pedophiles. We're seeing all this get exposed. Mike Bickel, this guy Robert Morris, Tony Evans. I mean, it just keeps on. And what we're gonna see is more and more of these things. Ravi Zacharias, who else? Who else has been TD Jakes? Lord, I mean, you think we're seeing a lot now. There's gonna be an avalanche of these things. Why? Because this is what's happening. Verse 17. Verse Peter four, 17. For the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God. And if it first began at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Say, Pastor Dean, that's scary. But does it say just believe or obey? Judgment begins at the house of God. That's the church, folks. What shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel? You say, well, what is the gospel? I'll tell you what the gospel is. You want a simple definition? It's everything Jesus did and everything Jesus said. I hate when people go, oh, it's just good news. No, it's not all good news. If you want to continue in sin, wickedness and disobedient, it's bad news for you. Some of these things that we just, the Christian needs, the Christian cliches that get us kind of cemented down into false doctrine. But notice again, it uses the term obey. And guess what? Those that obey not, that right there, that verb, guess what it is? Present tense, ongoing, continuous action taking place in the present, habitual obedience. Now, let me show you something about obedience. Now, a lot of people say, oh, Pastor Dean, you're preaching work salvation. You're preaching Lordship salvation. No, I'm not. I'm gonna tell you why. Let's go back to the Garden of Eden for a second, okay? Because this is, we go back to the beginning
to get the foundation of everything, right? So Adam and Eve were created brand new. Hey, it was fresh as you get, right? Brand new, new creatures having never sinned. So they were created new creatures without sin, all right? They were placed in the Garden of Eden, a beautiful place. They were given dominion over the fish of the sea and the fowl of the air. And they could eat of every tree in the garden, but there was one tree that they were not to eat of it. They were not to touch it. They were to stay away from it. Now, let me explain to you how that works. Come here Sal, you can be my tree for a minute, all right? So Sal's the tree. You're the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, right here, right? Put your hands up like a tree branch. There we go, all right. Now, if I'm sitting right here, now if I, God's told me don't eat of this tree. If I never get my butt up out of this chair and walk over to that tree and pick something off of it, I'm obeying God, but I'm not doing a thing. I'm not working. Unounce, am I? I have to actually, to go partake of this tree, I have to get up. I have to walk over there. I have to pick the fruit off. I have to eat it, chew it, swallow it. I'm working. That's why it says the wages of sin is death. When you're sinning, you're working. All right, you can see that, bro. When you're obeying, you're resting. You hear me? Now, let's go to this. Let's go to James. Oh yeah. James chapter two. Now, hopefully, you're gonna understand something here. All right, everybody in James two. We're gonna go down to, oh, let's go on down to verse 14. Now, this is as much inspired in your Bible, the book of James as the book of Romans, right? Now, let's just get this state. Though Paul emphasized faith, that we are saved and justified by faith, he was saying without the works of the law, meaning we don't go back into the old covenant, right? And he went on to say, Paul did in Romans six,
that, what, shall we sin that grace may abound? God forbid. So he was not teaching, oh, just believe in your secure, nor was he teaching that you shouldn't overcome sin in your life and live a holy, obedient life. In fact, I always read Romans six when we do water baptisms, because I say that the bottom line on this, identifying with the death, barely resurrection of Jesus is also you saying, I'm gonna walk with him in newness of life. I'm not gonna live habitually in sin the way I did in my old life. That's why the baptism is just a symbol of what should have already happened in your life, true repentance and a decision to walk with Jesus and not live according to your old lifestyle. So a lot of people wanna get baptized and thinks baptism is what saves you. Baptism is not what saves you. Repentance is what saves you. Walking in an obedient relationship with Jesus, that keeps you in that relationship with him. Let's read this. He says, what does it profit my brethren? Though a man say he hath faith and have not works, can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked in destitute of daily food and one of you say unto them, depart in peace, be you warmed and filled, notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful for the body, what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead being alone. Now, he's not saying here that if you don't give to the poor, you're lost, you gotta do that work to be saved. What he's saying is, is that reveals. You see a brother or sister have a need and you could meet that need and you do nothing. What that is revealing is where your heart is. It's showing that your heart is not in a good place with the Lord. That's all it's revealing. And then he says, even so faith, if it has not works, is dead being alone. Verse 18, yeah, a man may say thou has faith and I have work, show me thy faith without thy works and I will show thee my faith by my works. Now we can say works here are corresponding actions. I will show you that I have faith. You will see it by what I do, by what I say, by how I live my life. This is why I say faith equals obedience and unbelief equals disobedience. Let's keep reading this though. He says, yeah, yay, a man may say thou has faith and I have work, show me thy faith without thy works and I will show thee my faith by my works. Thou believe us that there is one God, thou do us well. The devils also believe and tremble. So he's letting you know, just believing in God, just believing in Jesus, this is not where this stops. That's the beginning. He said, you believe there's one God, you're headed in the right direction. But that's not where this stops. And then he throws this in here.
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac upon his son upon the altar? See as thou how faith wrought with his works and by works was faith made perfect. And the scripture was fulfilled which says Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness and he was called the friend of God. You see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith only. Now let me tell you right now, I'm just reading scriptures and there are people out there who say this teaching is heresy, that this is false doctrine. This is where you get from a lot of Baptist churches, a lot of Presbyterian churches, now Methodist churches. You get this idea, no, no, no, there's no, there's nothing else involved in walking with God. Just you believed when you were nine years old and got baptized, you're good. You're secure forever. Now men, think about telling your wife, look, I gave you a ring, I said the vows, but I'm gone. You'll see me maybe once a year and I'm gonna go have all kinds of, you know, girlfriends. Now what kind of woman is gonna go, yeah, let's stay in that. No godly woman for sure, all right. But this is what a lot of Christians think they can do. Oh, well, I got saved when I was nine. I got baptized in water. Some of us, oh, I got baptized in the Holy Spirit. They have this speaking out, I'm good. And this is why Jesus said, not everyone that sayeth to me, this is Matthew 7, he said, not everyone that sayeth to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he that doeth the will of my Father. Now let's look at this real quick. What was, why, look, 1 Corinthians 13 says, you can do all kind of wonderful works. You can give your body to be burned. You can give everything you have to the poor and not be walking in love. So it's not talking about just good works. Let me explain it here. You see, when you don't have a relationship with God, yet you wanna be religious, and you don't really wanna obey God, you wanna do it your way, you will decide what good works you do. It will come from your own mind, your own reasoning. You will decide what you do. See, this was the difference between Cain and Abel. God had already revealed to them that they must offer a blood sacrifice, a lamb without spot or blemish. And Abel just accepted. This is what God's way said to do it, and we're gonna do it that way. Cain said, no, I don't like that because I gotta go to my brother and get a sheep and I'm a farmer, but I'm gonna give God what I did with my sweat, my blood, my tears, where I tilled the ground and brought this,
I'm gonna go offer this fruit to the Lord. And the Lord rejected it. Why? Because you don't get to pick. You don't get to pick your righteous deeds, your good works. You see, Abraham heard from the Lord what to do with Isaac to go offer his side. He heard from the Lord, from the Holy Spirit, what to do about Hagar the bond woman. He heard from the Lord to leave his homeland and go into the land of Canaan. He heard from the Lord to separate lots company from his company. You see, Abraham's faith came from hearing the Lord's voice and walking with the Lord in a real relationship and obeying the Lord. And this is the difference. You see, I could sit down, y'all know the needs in the world are endless. Nobody can meet all the needs in the world. No church can, no pastor can meet all the needs in the world. Nobody can, no Christian can. So if I don't have the ability financially, physically, mentally, emotionally, there's only 24 hours in a day, seven days in a week. If I don't have the ability to meet all those needs, but yet God has some things he wants me to do, what do I have to do? Go out and try to meet everybody's need? No, I will exhaust myself and I will actually be in sin and error trying to do all this stuff. What I should be doing is fasting, praying, studying, meditating on the word, drawing close to Jesus, getting the sin out of my life, getting the flesh under control, and getting to a place where I hear his voice and I am led by the spirit. And then what the Lord can do is then he tells me, here's the need I want you to meet. Here's what I want you to do. You see? And this is what it means to walk in faith, is to hear him and obey. And yes, God speaks to us primarily through the scriptures. He will bring the scriptures off the page. And yes, we're to obey the moral standards and commands of the new covenant. We're to walk in that holiness. We don't have to ask the Lord, should we stay out of fornication or adultery or drunkenness or idolatry? It's already written. But we don't know some things about like, maybe where the Lord wants us to live or where he wants us to go to church. And we need to hear from him. We need to know. You know, I confronted a pastor down in Miami one time, face to face, boy, this was fun conversation. Basically it was Baptist pastor, but now a lot of them, it's all community churches, right? They don't wanna tell you what they are. They wanna hide behind this nebulous whatever.
But he was like, he had just come out in the conversation. He was against the gifts of the spirit. God doesn't speak anymore. The Holy Spirit doesn't talk to us anymore. You just go by the scriptures. Well, of course he had just become the pastor of this church in Miami that had been established for a long time. And I said, I asked him the question and I've shared this before. I said, how did you know the Holy Spirit wanted you to pastor this church in Miami, Florida? Got real quiet in that kitchen. I said, where does it say? You know, I can't even remember his name now. Let's just call him Boo Boo. Like Boo Boo, does it say anywhere in there, Boo Boo, pastor of this church in Miami, Florida? No, there's nowhere that's written in the Bible. So how do you know you're in the, I said, how do you know you're in the will of God? How do you know you're doing what God wants you to do? How do you know you're supposed to be here? No answer to that. And I thought to myself, with that kind of walk with God, which is not really a walk with God, with that kind of attitude, I sit and go, I'm like, you know, he may not even supposed to be the pastor. He may not even supposed to be in the fivefold ministry at all. He might supposed to be in California instead of Florida. How does he know? And then what's gonna happen is a lot of these Christians are gonna stand before God one day and go, here's my fruit and vegetables from my garden. And the Lord's gonna say, I didn't tell you to do any of that. In fact, you never obeyed me. You did your own works. You made your own choices. I was never Lord of your life. You were Lord of your life. Your own interests. You never did what was difficult. You never surrendered your life. You never took up your cross and denied yourself. See, Judgment Day, that's what it's gonna be. You know, the great Leonard Ravenhill used to say, it's not the things that I've done that scares me about Judgment Days, the things that I haven't done that I'm supposed to do. And he was talking about, if you want the scripture to back it up, the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, when the one that the Lord gave the one talent to and said, hey, all the Lord was looking for was obedience, faithfulness. He wasn't looking for how much fruit they bore, just that they obeyed him. And then when the wicked servant and the slothful servant went and took his Lord's money and hid it and buried it, because he was afraid. And when he brings that to the Lord, he says, take from him what he has.
You wicked and slothful servant, you knew what you ought to have done, but you didn't do it. Says, bind him, take him, cast him in the outer darkness that should be weeping and gnashing your teeth. This is where most of your Western Christians are going to end up. They're going to hear, depart from me. I don't know you. Because they're trying to offer God the fruits and vegetables. You see, the blood of Jesus stays upon us, the blood of the lamb, Jesus Christ stays upon us. When we walk with him, we walk in the light as he is in the light. This is what I try to tell people. Somebody, somebody give me a dollar bill, $1 bill. Anybody got a dollar bill? You got a $1? 20, I don't care. You're going to get it back. All right, here we go, right here. All right, now everybody, oh, so he's got a five. All right, so $5 bill in America is Abraham Lincoln. All right, now, the question here is, I'm going to ask this question. We all know, in America you should know who Abraham Lincoln was, right? Now there's some crazies out there, probably deny he ever existed, because that's where they go, the tutorial people. But, because all history's wrong, right? But we know about Abraham Lincoln. Historically, we know from reading history books, we know about him, but do we know Abraham Lincoln? And if somebody says yes, we're going to cast the demons out of you. Thank you, sir. See, there's a difference with knowing about Jesus and knowing Jesus. There's a difference in calling yourself a Christian and being a Christian, you understand? And on Judgment Day, all the religious garbage and all of your excuses and all of your little mental, theological, monkey gymnastics that you go through to justify yourself, to make yourself feel good, to make you think you got it. All that's going out the window. And all that the Lord's going to be judging you upon is did you deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me, that's it. Did you obey my word? Did you live the way I wanted you to live? Did you do what I called you to do? And this is why this is so important. It's so important because if you don't do
what the Lord tells you to do, there will be people will be lost because of it. And this is why it is a eternal crime. Think about in 37 years now, in fact, it was June of 1987 when I was convicted by the Lord of my sin and decided to repent and truly surrender to God. And said, Lord, whatever you want from me, I will do. From this moment on, I will surrender. My life was over as I knew it. I will surrender to you. 37 years of this. And I remember very early on where he showed me and he spoke to me and I was in tears and the Holy Spirit's all over me and he said, if you don't do my will, if you don't follow me, if you don't hear my voice and follow me, people will be lost. People will go to hell because you chose to not do what I wanted you to do with your life. Say, I don't want that kind of responsibility. Sorry, Jesus said you're either gathering with me or you're scattering abroad. And if you obey the Lord and you do his will for your life, you are going to affect the people you're supposed to affect. You're gonna plant the seed you're supposed to plant. You're gonna be the example you're supposed to be. You're going to bring as many people, even if you're not aware of many of them. We found out the other day, they're watching aren't they, Kamari? And Kamari's a young man. Let me tell this story real quick. He shared this Wednesday night. Kamari's a young man, living for God, started his own business in this town. God's blessing him in his business. He goes into a place to buy some materials this week. And he said the woman behind the thing made some inappropriate comments, like, you know, trying to make the move. Well, you know, that's the only reason to make comments like that. Sowing the little seed. And I love what Kamari said to her. He said, I don't live that way. He didn't say I'm a Christian because there's a lot of Christians that live that way. He said, I don't live that way. And she said, she said, I know. We've heard about you that you're a godly man. Don't tell me they're not watching you. He's new to this town, this area. And they're watching, they're watching you.
And if you're playing these little games, you're making people stumble. Or you just will never run into the people that you're supposed to run into. I think about all the people, just in the last, say, 10 years that sent me testimonies and emails. Thank you, Pastor Dean, for preaching the truth. Thank you for preaching the whole Bible. Thank you for preaching about creation, the true nature of creation. Thank you for teaching on repentance. Thank you for calling out my sin. Thank you for telling the truth. I hated you at first, but the Holy Spirit convicted me of my sin and made me miserable and brought me out of it. And I'd rather you hate me, hate my guts, and then eventually see the light and the truth and come to repentance and come to know Jesus for yourself. Because all I want is that anybody that's ever heard me preach or teach, all I want, all I long for and desire, is to see you in heaven when it's all over with. To see you in the kingdom of God when He rules and reigns over there. That's all I wanna do. I want you to make it. I want my enemies to make it. I want the witches and Satanists and false prophets and false teachers and full-blown enemies of the cross. I want them to make it. You know, Paul Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul the Apostle, was an enemy. He was an enemy. He was a persecutor, a murderer, and he came to repentance. So there's hope. There's hope. There's hope for, listen, there's hope for congressmen and senators and presidents. There's hope in a little bit. It's a sliver, but it's there. The will of God, folks, let me show you some of these here. We're gonna go through these kinda quick. It's only 11.55, so we're just getting warmed up. Let's go to Romans 6 real quick. Romans 6, we'll just start reading. Oh, goodness. I quoted some of this,
but let's just read this here. Verse 8. So when he's talking about being dead with Christ, he's talking about dying to our flesh, dying to our own will. He says, now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body. So what is that saying? Don't let sin, the lust of the flesh or the disobedience of the flesh, don't let that, what? Reign, rule. Now guess what? When it says let not, that verb, guess what that is? Present tense, Greek verb, ongoing continuous action taking place in the present. So don't let sin be a habitual lifestyle. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law but under grace. What then shall we sin? Because we are not under the law but under grace, God forbid. He says, no ye not that to whom you yield yourself servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey. Whether of sin unto death, and that's eternal damnation, the second death, or obedience unto righteousness. Somebody say obedience unto righteousness. Is that what the Bible says? He says it's either practicing sin unto death or obedience unto righteousness. Again, the word obedience, obey. And then he says this, all right, verse 17. He says, but God be thanked that you were. Somebody say were. Not that you are, but that you were the servants of sin. Somebody say were again. What does that mean? Used to be, past tense, not anymore. See, I was a fornicator, I'm not anymore. I was a drunkard, I'm not anymore. I was a drug fiend, I'm not anymore. I was an idolater because I worshiped myself more than anything else. I'm not that anymore. Now let's read this, he says, but God be thanked that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart. Somebody say obeyed from the heart.
Why does he say from the heart? He says, you've obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine that was delivered you, being then made free from sin, that you became the servants of righteousness, but you obeyed from the heart. You see, here's the thing, when you love God and you appreciate what he's done for you, dying on that cross, being beaten, whipped, mocked, the crown of thorns, nailed to a cross, hanging there, the sinless, sinless, son of God, hanging on the cross for your sins. When you understand the price that was paid, you will not play games with sin. You will not play games with disobedience and rebellion. You really, from the heart, you will be thankful and you will love him because he loved you and did that for you. And if you love him truly from the heart, you will want to obey him in everything. And if you don't, something is wrong with your heart. Uh-oh, I remember years ago, David Wilkerson's assistant pastor, I can't remember his name now, Bob, something. I can't remember his name. I remember though, I had his series, he did. He was a teacher. He actually went on to teach at the Brownsville Revival School of Ministry. He's one of the professors there later on. But for years, he was David Wilkerson's associate pastor. But I had a 14 tape series, teaching series. And this guy was an anointed teacher. 14 tape series on the heart. That was it, the heart. And I remember one of the scriptures. In fact, let's go to Psalm 36. I remember this from that series. Man, I listened to that, like cassette tape. Some of these young people don't even know what a cassette tape is. He says here, the transgression, this is verse one, he says, the transgression of the wicked sayeth within my heart that there is no fear of God before his eyes. For he flattereth himself in his own eyes and tell his iniquity be found to be hateful.
He says the transgression of the wicked says to me in my heart, I know there's no fear of God in them. And we could put it this way in the new covenant, there is no love of God in them. Because if you wanna be a transgressor, that's a person constantly disobeying, violating God's words, his commands and not being obedient to his Holy Spirit. And if that's the way you're gonna be, it says there's no fear of God in your eyes. Yet, here's what many of these Christians do that they don't live in obedience, they flatter themselves in their own eyes. But I go to church, I sing in the choir. I've been baptized, not sprinkled. I don't pray to Mary like those Catholics do. When I ask somebody, do you know Jesus? Have you been born again? And they start, well, I go to church. That's not what I ask you. Do you know him? Do you hear him? Do you follow him? Do you obey him? Are you a disciple of Jesus Christ? Not just a believer. Some scary stuff in it. It's nice to be scared straight though, right? Go to Ephesians chapter six. Yeah, we think of Ephesians six, we always think about it. It's all about the armor of God. Let me tell you what's before that, the armor of God in that. Ephesians six, we're gonna get this phrase again. You're gonna hear it. Now he's talking about here being obedient to bosses and those in authority. But let's just look at verse five. Let's read this here. He's a servant, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling in singleness of your heart as unto Christ, not with eye service as men pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. Y'all see that? Doing the will of God from the heart. Let's read a couple more verses here. Go to first John. You won't be able to say you didn't get some scriptures this morning, right? Go to first John chapter five. Now I read this verse a few weeks ago, which y'all probably need it again. Say, I need it again, Pastor Dean.
Make me feel good, come on. He says here, the Apostle John says by this, somebody say by this. We know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. What? By this we know. By this we know, I'm gonna back up. By this we know that we love the children of God. You know these people talk about love all the time. He's Dan, Molarite people. Love, it's just love. I'm gonna go out here and love people. Okay, that sounds nice. That sounds spiritual. It sounds pious. My question is though, do you love them enough to obey the Lord and be an example in front of them? Do you love them enough to tell them the truth even if it's gonna upset them? See, love is not going out and making everybody feel all mushy-gushy. See, a lot of this so-called love in the kingdom of God is emotional. It's soulish, it's not spiritual. But he says by this we know that we love the children of God when we love God. How do we love God? Keep his commandments. And then he says this, this is the love of God. He says this is the love, for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous. This is the love of God. All these people wanna talk about all this stuff. You wanna get all deep, right? You wanna understand love. Love is simply this. Keep his commandments. Do you obey him? Do you obey the Lord? Or are you a rebel? Listen, if I gave in to the rebel side of me, I'd be laying on the beach and Gulf Shores and somebody else would be preaching. You get what I'm saying? But I want to do what God wants me to do because I know as Paul said, it's more needful for you, right? And if I love you, then I'm gonna obey God because if I'm obeying God, that's what's gonna help you. If I disobey God, I'm being a bad example and I'm not helping you. So therefore I don't love you and I don't love God. It's not complicated. Children, you wanna prove you love your parents? Obey them. It's that simple. And yeah, even if you're grown, I see y'all looking at each other. You're supposed to still respect your parents even when they're old and you're grown up, right? Especially, look, God's giving you Christian parents
that love the Lord and are trying to serve him and walk with him. You better respect them and obey them. They're looking out for you. Go to Titus right after the Timothy's. Go down to verse 10, all over the Bible today, right? Verse 10, what does it say here? For there are many unruly. Now this is, let me back up. He sends Titus to Crete. He says, look, verse five. For this cause left out of the in Crete that thou should have set in order the things that are lacking and ordained elders. And then he gives the qualifications for an elder. And then he says this, the problem, there was a problem there in Crete the Christians, he said, for there are many unruly. What's unruly mean? Rebellious, not submitted, not obedient. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they are the circumcision whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre sake or money. One of themselves, even a profit of their own, the crease say this, the creations are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. I love this. This witness is true. Wherefore, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth. And he says, under the pure, all things are pure, but under them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient unto every good work reprobate. They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him. See, you can say Jesus is my Lord and that your life, everything in your life can deny him, reject him. Is that you? See, this is why Paul go to 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter 13. Y'all okay with going through the Bible a little bit? 2 Corinthians 13 verse one.
He says, this is the third time that I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses, shall every word be established? I told you before and foretell you as if I were present the second time and being absent now, I write to them which heretofore have sinned and to all other that if I come again, I will not spare. Since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you word is not weak, but mighty in you, for though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God, for we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you. Then he says this in verse five. Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know you not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you except you be reprobates. But I trust that you shall know that we are not reprobates. Now he's pretty clear here. Examine yourselves to see whether you be in the faith. Now why would he say this to a Christian church? He wasn't writing to the unsaved. He wasn't writing to the men of Athens in the street. In fact, he said this is the third time I'm having to come to you and deal with this crap. And he said, I'm going to not spare. I'm not gonna hold back anything when I get there. And he says right here, examine your own selves whether you're in the faith. You know how easy that is? Oh, would I believe in Jesus? I got saved in that Baptist church. I got saved in the Baptist church right down here when I was 11 years old. But let me tell you what happened after that. By the time I was 13 and 14, I was back in the world completely. Panography, alcohol, sexual immorality. Yes, starting at 14, I was getting into all of those things. So guess what? If I examined myself, if I knew how at the time, because Satan comes in and blinds you, but if I knew how, if I heard a sermon like this, and I had to examine myself when I was 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, I would have had to say, even though I got saved when I was 11, and I was truly born again and experienced the presence of Jesus, I would have to say that my works were now denying him. My works proved that I didn't love him. I loved myself. I loved the pleasures of sin. I didn't love God. I loved myself. And I wasn't helping anyone because I was an influence on so many people.
I influenced people in the wrong direction, into sin. So when I came back to the Lord and really repented and understood what it meant to walk in an obedient, true repentant relationship with him and as a disciple of him, see, that's when people started getting saved. That's when I started helping people. That's when I led my two best friends, Billy and Craig, led them to Jesus. And they are ministers to this day. Billy's a youth pastor down in Ufala, Alabama. Changed their lives. Because you know why? They knew the old dean and then they met the new one and they were like, wow, you were like us. You're not that way anymore. My best friend Craig looked at me in the eyes. When I came back from being gone a year in Arkansas, when I rededicated my life, got filled with the Holy Spirit, started casting demons out of people, helping that girl out of Satanism and everything. When I came back, here's what he said to me. And this is a guy who knew me from fourth grade on up. He looked in my eyes and he said, and he didn't go to church. He didn't know Christianese. And he said, it looks like somebody cleaned you up on the inside. He said, your eyes look alive. They look different. They look like there's light in them. This is what an unsaved person is saying to me, who knew me before. You can look at pictures of me in those years I was not living for Jesus and see the death and the darkness in my eyes and the difference when after I came to Jesus fully and surrendered to him. Now, this is no joke, y'all. I hope, I hope this makes sense. Does it make sense to you? Obeying from the heart. If you really, really, really love God more than you love anything else, you will obey him. The pastor doesn't have to scare you to death. Shouldn't anyway. Doesn't have to try to push you. That's why, y'all don't hear from me. I don't hound y'all about coming to church, right? Y'all ever hear from me, why didn't you come to church today?
I don't hound you about coming to church. I don't take up offerings and hound you about money, do I? I don't wanna try to make every decision in your life. I'm not a control freak. I, my hope and prayer is that you will love God and obey him, obey his word and obey what he's leading you to do and understand that sometimes those things are very, are going to be very difficult. And you need to understand too, for me, as some of you've already seen over the years, is that sometimes the Lord tells me to do things that are very difficult and that some people don't understand. I catch flack, you know, there are people that didn't understand me running for governor. Oh, he must be, he must be a free Mason. He must be working for the other side. He's going into politics. What's he doing as a pastor doing that? Guess what? I don't owe you an explanation of anything. Holy Spirit told me to do that. And the fruit of it is still coming forth to this day. There's people who's got their little panties in a wad because I've sent some people out the door. And sometimes you're going to know why I sent them out the door. And sometimes you're not going to know because I can't tell you. But I've had people get mad, get offended and leave because I had to send somebody out the door. And you know, it might just be a Hagar situation. I might, the Lord might've just told me you need to send them out the door. How about that one? I've sent some witches out the door. I've sent some disruptive Christians out the door. I've sent a CIA agent out the door. Some MK Ultra people that came here, sent them out the door. Some pedophiles I've sent out the door. And I give them opportunity to repent. We let a pedophile sit right here for what, a few months, not long. But we watched him, kept an eye on him. Gave him the opportunity to hear the gospel to repent. He did not. And then, you know, he basically resisted being saved and started trying to pay a little extra attention to the younger boys downstairs. And I said, nope, you're not doing that here. You're out of here. You had your chance. You gotta keep your eye on things, right? You can't let your children do whatever they want. I don't wanna upset the little tender hearted one.
No, you need to upset them. Certain friends, you can't let them have. Certain places they can't go. It's that simple. You know, a lot of people are like, Pastor Dean, y'all don't let faith do anything. You're right. Very little. She can do all that stuff when she's grown and on her own and makes her own decisions, not living in my house. My job as a parent is to protect her from this evil world the best I can. And I know she doesn't like that sometimes, but it's okay. We don't even let her go outside in the front yard without one of us. You know, I've had my older daughter Bethany who lives in Montgomery, she's, there's been two attempts on to abduct her. Two attempts, one in Walmart and one when she went to a store, during the campaign, one of them happened. There was a miracle of God that she got away from that situation. She called me and said, Daddy, can I come do some shooting, some target practice that said, sure, come on. We live in a dangerous world. See, my job is to be the sheep dog. He's a shepherd. I'm just a sheep dog. You know what the sheep dog's job is, right? The sheep dog, he loves the shepherd and he hates the wolves, right? I got a sheep dog named Bear. He loves us, man. He loves me, he loves my wife more than me. He loves all 140, 50 pounds of him, wants to get in your lap and just love on you. But let me tell you, if a wolf came in our yard or a bad person with bad intentions, Bear will kill them. I mean, he's that dangerous. He will kill a predator. That's a sheep dog. In fact, somebody sent me, who was it? I think it was Soren from Denmark. Somebody gave me a little patch for my tactical vest. And yes, I have one. And it says sheep dog on it. Soren did it. Thank you, Soren. That Soren can shoot, man. He was in the Denmark military. He can still shoot.
He had a ball because they don't get to shoot guns like we do here in Denmark. So they pass your name, right? What are you talking about having guns? Okay, that's another thing. You want to be an unarmed libtard? Go right ahead. That's your free choice. What are we supposed to do? Obey from the heart. That's it. I think y'all got it today, right? Obey from the heart. And don't get mad at Pastor Dean when he obeys what he feels like the Lord wants him to do even if you think I shouldn't do it, okay? Because there may be some changes to some things coming in the days ahead. And guess what? You say, well, Pastor Dean, you said, you said we're going to do this and then we don't. Well, guess what? I'm not in charge. If the Lord says, I think we're going to this direction, Lord said, don't go in that direction. I'm not going in that direction. I will change. I will stop and turn around and go the other direction, whatever he says to do. Because sometimes we just got to step out. Sometimes we got to step, start walking. That's fine. But if the Lord says, stop, you stop. If he says, turn this way, you turn that way. If he says, go back, you go back. Thank God Abraham stopped, right? When he had the knife in there, stop. Some people say, we rebuke the devil and kept on. But what did Jesus say? My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. That's what we have to do. It won't always look pretty. People may not understand, you know, I know when my wife and I first about to get married I was in Washington, D.C. And I was about to take my little Georgia peach to Washington, D.C. Boy, her family was not happy about that at the time. But she knew, she knew that she was supposed to be married to me and she was supposed to go wherever we were supposed to go. And we were willing, I was already in D.C. And we were willing to go there and live there. And just, you know, as much as I hate big cities and especially Washington, D.C. with a passion. But we were willing to obey the Lord. And thank God because we're willing to obey the Lord. Again, not everybody thought that was a good idea. But we were, we were headed to obey the Lord. And he said, stop, right? Confront this problem. They're gonna fire you on November 30th, 2008. When they do, I want you to go home, start a church.
None of that's written in the Bible. But I knew because I know the Lord. I've walked with him long enough to recognize when his Holy Spirit is moving on me and when he's speaking to me. And when I know it's him, when I'm positive, it's him. Sometimes I'm not sure, sometimes, and if you're not sure, it's okay if you think, well, I don't know if it's him or if it's me. It's okay, you wait, you pause, you pray some more, you fast some more. You ask him to confirm it some more. You wait a minute. But once you know the witness of the Holy Spirit's on it and you know he's leading you, you're absolutely certain of it, then it always takes faith to step out in no way. But see, that's where God moves, y'all. That's where good things happen. That's where the power of God happens. Yes, persecution comes, but that's where the power of God comes. That's where people get saved, people get healed, people get delivered. That's where people get convicted of their sins and repent, where prodigals come home, where unsaved people get saved. That's when David said, you know, the Psalm 51, where he repents of his adultery and his murder, and he repents, and he says, oh, Lord, created me a clean heart, renew a right spirit in me. And he's just like, Lord, don't take your Holy Spirit away from me. He's saying all that there in Psalm 51, and then he says, he says, then, after you forgive me, after you clean me, after you renew a right spirit in me, after you do this, he said, then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will be converted to you. Go read it in Psalm 51. See, we get ourselves in obedience, and then we can bring others to know Jesus is the Lord and Savior. Amen, let's stand. Thought I was gonna quit shortly after 12, but that didn't happen. Imagine that. I wanna do that last song again. It's only three minutes. I know it's hot. Three minutes. We're gonna sing this before we go. Now, let me say this. Some days I give altar calls, not all the time, rarely. I'm not gonna do it today because here's the deal. Choosing to repent and choosing to become an obedient Christian. You can pray up at an altar at a church 500 times, and you leave never intending. You walk out the door never intending on becoming obedient. It's a simple decision. Do I fear the Lord enough and love the Lord enough? Do I respect the Lord enough that from henceforth I am done with sin, I am done with rebellion, I am done with my own plans and my own will. I am going to follow him.
And if you make, I made that decision in 1987, and it was a, how do I put it? It wasn't a flippant decision. It was, I'm gonna do this, and I'm gonna go all the way with you, Lord. I'm gonna do it right. I will not be a hypocrite, I told him. So you can make up your mind. It's your choice. But let it be known this day. Those of you watching and listening, those of you here today, you have been told, you have had it defined, taught, explained, that you either become an obedient Christian from the heart, or you stay a disobedient one and flatter yourself with your good deeds. Amen. Let's pray, I'm gonna pray first. Lord, I pray today that this word will sink down in the hearts of every lukewarm Christian, every prodigal that's walked away, fallen away back into the pig pen of their old life. Many that think they are Christians, they've never been truly born again. They've never truly ever surrendered. I pray today, Holy Spirit, you can evict them, draw them, reveal this truth to them, that they will finally fear the Lord enough, respect the Lord enough. They will finally do that enough to obey, to repent, to change the way they've been going, to come back out of the pig pen, come back to the Father's house, to receive the forgiveness, the cleansing of the blood of Jesus that comes when we choose to walk in the light. Lord, I pray this over your people here, those watching and listening, that they will obey you from the heart and walk with you and love you and deny themselves and take up the cross and follow you. I pray this in Jesus' name, Amen. Lord, you have my heart. I will search to take mine. Lord, you have mine. And I will search for what lets me be to you. A sack and I'll sing for sure.
Real quick, Fire and Grace School of Ministry, if you wanna be in the School of Ministry coming up this new semester, you gotta get your applications in by August 1st and that date is quickly approaching. So go to fgministrieschool.com and fill out the application and get it in ASAP. And then also prepare for Skyfall. And that's gonna be, I always have to look, October 25th through the 27th. I will say this, we may change the venue. We may not do it at the land. It may be too much to pull off at this point with the difficulties we are dealing with. But we will let you know. It will still be, those of you that have made hotel arrangements and planes already, it's okay. It's not gonna be anywhere far from here. So don't worry about that, wherever we find. So you'll still be fine. Anyway, just pray for that because we're just trying to find God's will on it. And just the Lord is like kind of checking us on some things. I think we just need to slow down and be willing to adjust. Amen. All right. All right. We all know the drill. Hugs him next before you leave. Yeah, hold on. Oh, bye.