Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
can somebody praise the Lord God Almighty in this place hallelujah hallelujah glory to your name Lord Jesus glory to your name glory to his name hallelujah yes hallelujah we praise you Lord God Almighty creator of heaven and earth the one who died on that cross and rose from the dead we worship you this morning the name above every name the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth God in the flesh live the sinless life you willingly let man sinful wicked man beat you and nail you to a cross but your shed blood made the atonement made the way for our sins to be forgiven God we are grateful Lord I'm grateful for the day that you opened my eyes that you drew me you convicted me you showed me that you did that because you loved me and you wanted me to be forgiven cleansed saved from my sins and saved from eternal separation from you and I thank you Lord you opened my eyes because Satan and the demon spirits had me blinded and I thank you for the day you opened my eyes and brought me to know you as my lord my savior my god my redeemer my healer my deliverer and I thank you for all that you have done and all that you are doing and all that you will do and we thank you and we pray this in Jesus name amen amen you may be seated this morning we welcome everyone hallelujah hallelujah well how much better we appreciate everybody here for the wedding that we're going to have immediately after the service this morning this was totally at the request of Craig and Chitra to have their wedding on a Sunday they wanted to be in church because they both love Jesus in fact they're both students in our school of ministry and that's awesome God has done amazing things in their lives just absolute miracles and I couldn't be happier today I couldn't be more honored to be the one doing their wedding today because I've seen them now over several years
how Jesus has changed their lives and and folks I just want to say this to you I don't know where everybody is in this place but I could just tell you right now one of the proofs that Jesus Christ is real that he is the savior the redeemer the atonement for our sins the one who died the only one who died for our sins and rose from the dead is because of changed lives but I'm gonna give you more evidence than that today but he changed my life because let me tell you there was a time that this boy was blinded I was living in sin living for the devil living in wickedness I was a drunkard I was a drug user I was uh sexually immoral just doing all kinds of crazy stuff just just a hellion as somebody would say some yeah down here in the south we just called it a hellion you know I was a hellion matter of fact if there was a party somewhere it's probably because I was planning it and started it and got everybody to come to it I was kind of a ringleader here in the Opelika area and in fact one of my friends my old friends from 40 years ago called me this morning and he was like I was talking about you last night he goes you were one of the craziest you know he still he still hasn't come to Jesus but let me tell you he knows he said I know I because he knew me he said I know something supernatural and real happened in your life because you changed see they couldn't get me anymore they can try to hand me a beer didn't work anymore they try to give me some drugs nah didn't work anymore they wanted me to go out and go to the bars and to the club no didn't work anymore because Jesus came in I met Jesus see I don't just talk about Jesus some historical figure some teacher some prophet no I met him myself in 1987 as God almighty in the flesh who came to save me from my sins not in my sins but he came to save me from all of that depression and darkness I was living in and even though I had the time I had a modeling contract I had I just done screen tests I was supposed to be in the first Die Hard movie with Bruce Willis that was I had a part in the movie I was headed to Hollywood I was already signing autographs for people it was crazy I was making $200 an hour as a model in 1986 think about that $200 an hour it's pretty good money that's money good money today so of course it doesn't buy as much as it used to right um it was it was you know everybody in the world everybody in the that did not know God did not know Jesus they thought oh man this is most wonderful thing the way your life is going but I was getting the more I ran after the world and its system the more darkness that came into my heart my mind I got more and more depressed and uh it wasn't until I came into a real
what the Bible calls born again encounter with Jesus Christ where he convicted me which that means he convinced me that I was a sinner and the only remedy for the sin is that the true God there's many gods out there there's many claimed to be gods but there's only one true God he's not confused matter of fact the Bible says and put this verse up first Corinthians 14 God is not the author of confusion I'm going to tell you right now the creator did not give us 15,000 different confusing ways to find him there's not many ways to God he's one God he made one way now I know some people get confused say I don't understand you Christians because y'all talk about the Father Son and Holy Spirit let me just explain that to you God is one God but he has three distinct parts to him and he made us the Bible says that he made man in his image and 1st Corinthians I mean 1st Thessalonians 5 23 and you can put this up after that 1st Corinthians 5 23 says this about human beings and even people who are in other religions who have experienced supernatural things understand this right here that the human being a human being has three parts we have a spirit we have a soul and we have a body and these are three distinct things the spirit and soul are not the same thing and through the spirit man we can see in the spirit world sometimes that's where visions and dreams and where we see sometimes allowed to see angels we're allowed to see demon spirits we're allowed to see things people in in different religions do meditations and go into altered states of consciousness and they do see and experience the spirit world people do travel their spirit outside their body but it's either by you know the Lord either comes the Holy Spirit gives you that ability and wants to show you something or you're doing it by demonic power but what I'm saying is the spirit man every human being has a spirit and we have a soul the soul is our consciousness it's who we are it's our personality it's our mind will and emotions our intellect it's our consciousness which science can't recreate and then there's the physical body so we have three parts you don't see three pastor deen standing here but pastor deen has three parts spirit soul and body god has three parts the father son and the Holy Spirit but when you see god if he was to stand here this morning let me tell you what it would be you would see Jesus the Bible teaches very clearly that Jesus Christ is God who became man so that he could live like us be tempted in all ways like us yet not sin and then pay the penalty for sin
and this is what makes Christianity unique to all religions of the world because you've got out there all the other gods Allah and all krishna and all the gods of the world that claim to be God all want you to work and earn it karma or you got to do good works and you think that that's going to make you right and that God's somehow going to weigh your good works against your bad works and that's what's going to get you saved no you you can't do you can't save yourself through good works you can't save yourself through other gods you have to come to the true creator the one god who made one way and this is why Jesus said John 14 six he made this very clear Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life and no man comes to the father or is allowed to know truly no god unless you come through me he said that now if you know you you can't say Jesus was just a good man or he was a good teacher or he was just a good prophet because he made a statement that no other has made not buddha not Mohammed not anybody else he made the statement I am the way the truth and the life and no man comes to the father but through me now either he is truly god manifested in the flesh or he's a liar and can't be a good man or a good teacher or a good prophet because he's the one who claimed it now let me show you something not only did he say this but see the thing that makes again Christianity different than all the other religions is that it foretold him thousands of years before he came some prophecies are hundreds of years before he came but we're talking about very specific things one of the prophecies in fact put up Psalm 22 one of the prophecies was written by King David and the Holy Spirit the Bible says that the Holy Spirit came upon certain men and moved them by the Holy Spirit to write certain things and one thousand years before Jesus came before he was born he god became man before that happened David wrote this he wrote these words my god my god why hast thou forsaken me the very thing Jesus said when he was hanging on the cross but what's more interesting than that you say well Jesus could control that he might have known that prophecy so when he was hanging on the cross dying for our sins being executed he could have just repeated that but there's one thing he couldn't do and that was nail himself to the cross and this same psalm says they have
pierced my hands and my feet go down to that verse they have pierced my hands and my feet they surround me he said they even parked my garments they cast lots for my garments this was written one thousand years before Jesus and how do we know like historical fact that the old testament these old prophecies that are thousands of years old some hundreds how do we know they were written before Jesus came because there's a little fact of history that happened in around 250 to 248 BC and that was when Ptolemy the second philadelphius of Egypt had the entire Hebrew old testament what we call the old testament but the entire Hebrew scriptures were translated from Hebrew into Greek it's called the Septuagint version this is a historical fact so we know we had all of these prophecies written down copied even translated from one language to another 250 years before Jesus God in the flesh who chose to be born of a virgin supernaturally before he even showed up on the scene now tell me something was there ever a prophecy foretelling that Muhammad would be born or Buddha no not any this is what makes Jesus very unique in fact in Micah 5-2 which was written about 750 years before Jesus came it actually tells us where he would be born it says but thou Bethlehem Ephrata though thou be little among the thousands of Judah yet out of these shall he come forth that is to be ruler in Israel whose going forth has been from old from everlasting meaning he had never had a beginning he is eternal put up Isaiah 9-6 again 750 years before he came we get this understanding that the son would also be called the mighty god in the everlasting father see this is the mystery Jesus is not just the son of God that's just a manifestation of revelation that's basically a title he has many titles but again the mystery of of the scriptures the mystery that's hard for us to grasp is this about God becoming flesh see most all other religions say if you do enough good works you do enough meditation you do enough experiencing and transforming your consciousness that you can become a god see that's all other religions say oh you can you can become your own div you know divinity your own god and some say
it's going to be through multiple reincarnations let me tell you something I don't want to be reincarnated I want to be resurrected amen and that's the beautiful thing about Christianity we don't come back as a as a roach or a cricket or a cow or anything else we come back as we are the spirit and soul if we are with Jesus the spirit and soul immediately in heaven the body goes in the grave but at his coming when Jesus returns he says he will resurrect our bodies and we will give an eternal immortal incorruptible body that to me is way better than maybe coming back as a cricket right you don't have to go through multiple again that is that whole system of reincarnation is about working trying to work your way to be right with God you can't do it see that's the thing about it man cannot do this by himself he has to have the creator step in oh I'm glad he stepped in for me it's kind of like this think about this things think you're the worst serial killer that ever lived and they got your own videotape I mean it's it's a done deal you're standing before the judge and says you you you got the death penalty you're to be executed we still do that here in Alabama I don't know about other states but we do it here in Alabama and somebody steps in and says no I'm gonna step in and be executed for them so that they can have another chance at life this is what Jesus did this is what God almighty the creator he took on a human body so he could step in and pay the death penalty for us there is no other God who did this the one true God came for us and he made a way for us and it's the only way it's the only way your sins can be forgiven it's the only way you can have eternal life he is the only way and I know that upsets a lot of people because a lot of people go oh you need to respect all religions I don't have to respect what I know is not true and I don't care what kind of supernatural things you experience because witches and satanists and people that are getting to witchcraft in the occult world have supernatural experiences and I know this because a lot of them have come to me for help because the demons that they've opened doors to are tormenting them and I cast them out in the name of Jesus Christ oh I have cast demons out of thousands probably at this point over the last 36 plus years demons are real satan is real but Jesus Jesus is king he is king of kings and lord of lords
and he is the god who gives us power let me tell you something right now anybody in here if you want to test if you're having supernatural experiences and you're doing stuff like things coming to you in your dreams and you're having communication with dead people or you're experiencing spirits coming to you just test them just start talking about Jesus Christ and see what they do start talking about Jesus they will run they will completely freak out because Jesus has all authority over all the powers of darkness amen Isaiah nine six seven hundred and fifty years before Jesus came to God was born of the Virgin Mary what does it say here for unto us a child is born and unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and this talking about when he returns his second time the first time he had to come to be the sacrifice for our sins the second time when he returns and we're getting real close to that when he returns he's coming back and the entire kingdoms of the world will be taken down and he will rule and reign on earth as the king for one thousand years and then after that for all eternity he says the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called counselor the mighty god the everlasting father and the prince of peace now this is talking about Jesus as clear as it gets in fact let's put up um let's put up Isaiah 714 please you know why I don't need any notes on this because this is not a lecture to me this is my life this has been made real to me for 36 years but this is the prophecy here again 750 years before Jesus would come therefore the Lord himself should give you a sign behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and his name and shall call his name Emmanuel Emmanuel means God with us not a god the god go to John 1 please John 1 verse 1 the apostle John who was with him for those three plus years as he walked on this earth as a man and did his ministry this is what it says about Jesus in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God the same was in the beginning with God all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made now if you drop down to verse 14
it tells you who is this word and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth the word of God who was with God and was God became flesh and it says in Genesis that God Almighty this God who is three parts but one God made man in his image and then he he made Adam and this is what I want to turn to Genesis chapter two I want to show you something because I'm going to show you the ultimate this is God's love affair let's let's let's go to it Genesis chapter two I'm gonna get there myself I might actually read this from the bible this morning and let's look at let's look at verse four these are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens and every plant of the field before it was in the earth and every herb of the field before it grew for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth and there was not a man to till the ground but there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul and the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden and there he put the man whom he had formed and out of the ground he made it made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food the tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the river went out of Eden to water the garden and from then it it was parted and became four heads and the name of the first is the paisan which compasses the whole land of havala where there is gold and the gold of that land is good and there's bdileum and onyx stone and the name of the second river is gaihan that compasses the whole land of Ethiopia the name of the third river is the hita cal which goeth forth toward Assyria and the fourth river is the ufretes and the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden and to dress it and to keep it and the Lord God commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die for the Lord God said it is not good that man should be alone i will make him a help meat for him and out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them and whatsoever Adam called them every living creature that was the name thereof
and Adam gave names to all the cattle and the fowl of the air and every beast of the field for Adam but for Adam there was no help meat for him there was no mate for him that's what he's saying and the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept and he took one of his ribs now remember this God caused a deep sleep to come Adam he literally opened Adam's side and surgically supernaturally but surgically physically took a rib out of his flesh took one of his ribs and look it says closed up the flesh and the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman and brought her unto the man and Adam said this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh and she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh and they were both naked and the man and his wife were not ashamed now here's where the serpent satan comes in he's one of the fallen angels who rebelled against God his real name was Halel in the beginning Halel but he rebelled and now he has many names he is the serpent he is the devil he is satan he is the great dragon he has many different names the adversary it says now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made and he said unto the woman yahath God said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden and the woman said to the serpent we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden but of the fruit of the knowledge which is in the midst of the garden God has said you shall not eat it neither shall you touch it lest you die and the serpent said unto the woman you shall not surely die for God doth know in the days you eat thereof then your eyes shall be open and you shall be as gods see this is nothing new the devil wants you to go down the road a road of doing your own thing so you would say you think you can become your own god knowing good and evil said when the woman saw that the tree was good for food that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree desired to make one why she took the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also to her husband he did eat and the eyes of both of them were open they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons and i'm not going to keep reading here's what i want to tell you the lord god comes into the garden he says what have you done and this is where mankind this is this is i guess metaphorically speaking this is the pandora's box that got open the first woman the first man disobeyed god and they ate of this tree of the knobs of good and evil isn't it interesting that one of our main companies apple is the fruit with the bite out of it you think that's any accident no the world's elite they know they know the wars between the god of
abraham isaac and jacob the god of the bible and between all the other so-called gods that are fallen angels and demons they don't understand what the war is they've picked their side and yes i'm gonna say it plainly i don't care if it makes you mad there is only one true god creator and anything else that claims to be a god is a demon or a fallen angel that is the truth i'm sorry if it hurts your feelings but i've cast out many of these so-called little g gods out of people they like to possess people they like to manipulate and control people but mankind opened this door and so guess what because man basically signed over man was given dominion over the earth and to to have it to to be blessed with it and when man sinned and and obeyed satan the devil instead of god almighty the doorway was open now and he handed over the legal deed he signed it over to satan that's why the bible calls satan the little g the little god of this world that's why he has so much control that's why when he came to tempt jesus he said bow down and worship me if you bow down and worship me i will give you all the kingdoms of the world for they're in my power to give to you this is why you see so many of the famous pop stars and singers and rap rappers and everybody else worshiping the devil and admitting that they sell their souls to the devil to get fame fortune money and power and guess what it's not just the entertainers it's the politicians most of the big time bankers have all made these leagues these covenants with the devil with satan with the little g you hear what i'm saying and this is where the war is the war is what are you going to do to deal with your sin because the bible is clear and everybody knows this in their heart and conscience all have sinned and come short of the glory of god meaning all have disobeyed god the creator in some way and therefore we are all guilty we are all criminals in in god's eyes and we all deserve death which he's talking about eternal death but you don't cease to exist see you never cease to exist once you're once you come to life in your mother's womb you will never cease to exist you will either spend eternity in heaven and then in the earthly kingdom with god forever or you will go to an eternal hell damnation punishment because you rejected the offer of love and forgiveness and salvation that god offers and you chose your own way i tell people all the time death only
means separation if you die right now your body dies yes but your spirit and soul will immediately either be with the lord jesus christ god almighty the creator or it's going to be in hell there is no in between with catholics there is no purgatory that's not that's not true there is a heaven and there is a hell i've seen both of them god has allowed me to see both of them but i don't have to see them to know that they're true it's in the bible and i believe this book you know i believe this book because there i gave you just a few there are over 300 prophecies in the old testament that foretold the coming of jesus christ what he would do and who he is what isaiah 53 real quick verse one let's read this here's another 750 year old prophecy of jesus coming and what he would do for us let's read this who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the lord revealed for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant as a root out of dry ground he hath no form or comeliness and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him mean when jesus took on a human body he looked just like the rest of us there was nothing special and he wasn't a white man and he wasn't a black man he was a light brown man all right let's stop with his arguing he was by his flesh was jewish all right he was an israelite it says though he would be despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him he was despised and esteemed him not remember the entire religious establishment of israel that should have recognized him as the messiah as the savior the one prophesied they were jealous of him they hated him they hated that he exposed their sin and hypocrisy and so they plotted to kill him that's why it says he was despised and rejected by his own people and then it goes on and says surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we did esteem him stricken and smitten of god and afflicted this talks about how he was beaten and it says but he was wounded for our transgressions that means our willful disobedience of breaking god's law and we know god's law in our heart we know adultery is wrong we know murder is wrong we know lying is wrong why do we know those things are we don't even have to know anything about god to know those because the bible says god wrote those laws in our hearts we know when we break it's called our conscience we know when we break them but you notice if you keep breaking them it gets easier and easier to do right but he says he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned everyone to his own way and the lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all see because he was god in the flesh because he lived
a sinless life he's the only one that could take all of our sins and evil things and iniquities and transgressions and all the things we've done wrong he's the only one that could take them upon himself and then take the punishment and he was whipped and he was beaten he even said don't you know he told peter the apostle peter i could call 12 legions of angels and they could deliver me and destroy the roman armies and everybody else he said but i laid down my life willingly no man he said no man takes my life from me i lay it down i give my life for the sheep there's no other god and there's no human being that's a teacher or a prophet or a guru or anybody else there's no man that could do that for you it had to be god himself coming in the flesh there's no other way it could be done and if you try to go another way you are being deceived by satan that same serpent that beguiled and deceived eve you're being led astray if you think you could do it in your own good works if you could think you can do it through karma if you think you're going to do it through reincarnation if you think you're going to do it through buddha and meditation and trying to become a better person through meditation all of that's a deception there is one way and it is faith in the blood of jesus christ that was shed as an atonement for your sins you must believe that he died for you rose from the dead on the third day that he is god almighty in the flesh that he lived that sinless life that he paid the price for you you have to believe it and then you have to call upon him you have to ask him to forgive you save you and be your lord savior and god you have to choose that path and you know i know some people say oh i hate preachers and i hate church that's fine but god said this about this he said he has chosen the foolishness of preaching to save those that believe because it is the hearing of the word of god preached it is the hearing that brings faith it is the hearing that brings the holy spirit to convict you and convince you but it will be your choice i remember in 1987 when the holy spirit began to convict me and say you what you're living in sin you are separated from me you're going to end up in hell and separated me for forever if you keep going the way you're going and i remember that feeling for about three weeks the holy spirit just just dealing with me i wasn't in church service i was at work every day and i just holy spirit working on me working on me and then he revealed to me i saw he gave me a vision i saw a road and i saw it fork and i saw this road with jesus hanging on the cross for my sins and that road i saw light and glory and then the other road
i saw strewn with liquor bottles and drugs and i saw that lead to darkness and the lord spoke to me the first time i ever heard jesus speak to me in my heart not like you hear me but down in here it was loud clear he said son you can have everything the world has to offer and go to hell or you can surrender your life to me and live forever and i said jesus right then i made a decision i said jesus i'm going to go with you and i'm going to go all the way i will not be a hypocrite and i walked away from the modeling contract and i walked away from the movies in hollywood i walked away from being rich and famous i walked away from that and you know what i don't regret it one bit because i would have died in hollywood i would have died with a needle in my arm or an overdose of some kind of cocaine because i was snorting cocaine and doing all kinds of crazy stuff i would have been dead and inhale separated from god forever if i hadn't have listened to the holy spirit tugging on my heart and i'm going to tell you right now you are not here by accident you're not here some of you are you think you're only here because there's a wedding today but god brought you here because you could have not come to a wedding you could have just said oh well you know she's getting married in that church i ain't going to a church because i'm not i'm not doing that i don't want to hear that crazy preacher in alabama see it's not about me i believe the holy spirit brought each of you here for a reason today because god orders the steps of people and he'll bring you to a place isn't it amazing how he will bring you to a place where you have to hear the truth even if you don't like it or he'll bring somebody to you i know some of you had some of these irritating christians come to you at work on social media stop preaching to me stop i don't want to hear it let me tell you what that is that's demons they don't want you to hear they don't want you to hear that god loves you now let me show you something remember i said don't forget that what did god do he looked he looked at Adam and he said it's not good for man to be alone and so he put a deep sleep on Adam and he opened him up the first surgery taking that DNA so he could keep that DNA human DNA and he takes that rib he said i don't believe this fairy tales what do you believe you believe a big bang you believe nothing exploded and made everything that we have and all the order you know that no that's a miracle if you believe that you believe in a miracle right so you must believe in miracles but i i believe that god literally took a rib from Adam now let's go to go to john the gospel of john 19
we'll show you something the gospel of john chapter 19 and for those of you who don't know me just let you know i'm known for mainly one thing and that is not beating around the bush i'm not subtle i don't believe we have time for beating around the bush and subtleties so we saw an in isaiah 53 750 years before Jesus and he would be wounded and beaten for our sins and our iniquities and then let's read this this is when it was fulfilled john 19 verse one then Pilate therefore took Jesus and scourged him that's literally the cat of nine tells the whip and they gave him 39 lashes he literally turned his back into hamburger meat and this is after the Roman soldiers who were not known for being nice had beaten him with their fists put a crown of thorns on his head and he allowed all this and so he was whipped with the cat of nine tails and the soldiers plated a crown of thorns and put it on his head and they put on him a purple robe and said hell king of the jews and they smote him with their hands Pilate therefore went forth again and said and behold i bring him forth unto you that that she may know that i find no fault in him then came Jesus forth wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe and Pilate said unto them behold the man and when the chief priest therefore the officers saw him they cried out saying crucify him crucify him and Pilate say then take ye him and crucify him for i find no fault in him the jews answered said we have a law that by our law he ought to die because he made himself the son of God and when Pilate therefore heard this that saying he was the more afraid and went again into the judgment hall and saith unto Jesus whence art thou but Jesus gave him no answer and saith Pilate unto him speakest thou not unto me knowest thou not that i have power to crucify thee and i have power to release thee and Jesus said thou couldest have no power at all against me except it were given thee from above therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin and then of course they crucified him they hung him on a cross they nailed him to it and he hung there for hours and the world this is recorded in history the world was dark for those hours that he hung on the cross never happened before there's no eclipse solar eclipse that can last for hours and this is
testified by Josephus and other secular non-christian historians that that event happened but see because he was God in the flesh he rose from the dead three days later physically bodily rose from the dead three days later and then it says he appeared for 40 days to his disciples to hundreds he appeared so they could be witnesses and even on the day when he ascended back into heaven it says 500 witnesses were there 500 these people went forth it wasn't just the apostles peter and john and james but these hundreds of people who saw him who saw the nail prints in his hands and his feet but saw his glorified body that was physical but still could walk through walls they saw him and not only gave their lives to follow him from that point on but many of them and i'm talking about many almost all of them gave their lives in horrific fashion were killed suffered and died because they would not deny jesus christ is lord king and god this is why they were put in the roman colosseum nailed the crosses do you know it's a historical fact that as christians were being killed by lions and tigers and bears and being crucified in the colosseum in front of thousands of people that this christians while they were suffering and being killed for their faith would be singing praise songs to god lifting up the name of jesus and many in the crowds of the roman colosseum said what do these people have that i don't have and many became christians to the point they found out that persecuting christians was worse than just letting them be free and to preach you know i saw this a few years ago when isis was taking over because of barack obama and their policies they allowed isis to take over the middle east and i watched christians i watched live leak some people can't do this but i wanted to see what was happening i saw the beheadings i saw the people being shot in the head i saw them hanging christians in one particular a pastor i can't remember if he was in syria now or iraq but i remember they had a crane a little small crane with a boom and they had a rope hanging on it and they had this pastor hands tied behind his back he was a born again christian they had his
hands behind his back and they put the rope around his neck and he's smiling he wasn't afraid he was smiling see that's somebody who knows jesus not somebody who knows about jesus as somebody that knows jesus i've been in nigeria i was marched out into the darkness by three muslim soldiers with ak-47s and i thought this might be the day and let me tell you there was no fear upon me i said lord if today's the day i'm good with that you see i tell people all the time you can pull out a dollar bill and whose picture is on there right george washington first president of the united states of america we know the history right you can say i know all about joy you might even be a history history major or history professor and you know say yes i know the history but the difference is you don't know george washington personally you never met him the difference between that is i don't just know about jesus i've met jesus cheetra met jesus that's what's changed teacher some of you think it's so strange that some so many changes have happened in her life that's because she met jesus not because some persuasive preacher she she already knew jesus before she came to this church she was a socialist she told me i was a so i was a communist she was a total unbeliever god revealed himself to her brought her to jesus she just came to this church and just started learning more about him she already knew him but that's what's changed her life that's what's changed craig's life it's jesus christ not meditation not buddha not christa not kali not any other god the one true god who died for our sins just remember that no other god died on a cross for your sins no other god was foretold hundreds and even thousands of years before he would come to do that it was told here so this morning i want to say this and this is a short message because normally i preach for an hour and a half so y'all are getting off easy today let me say this i know it's offensive to the world and to other religions to say there's only one way but i don't care because once you know it once you've experienced it once you've studied it like i have for 36 years and walked with him and seen him change lives
and do great miracles and i've cast out many demons so you're too late there's nothing you can say that can convince me no it's not true you're too late it's like trying to tell me i don't know what a ribeye steak tastes like i've had too many of them you can't convince me different i know they're delicious say oh pastor dean shouldn't eat meat god sent meat to elijah god sent meat to abraham i mean we could go down the list but our point is is it's too late you can't tell me what it is like like if i've had an orange you can't tell me you've never had an orange that's a that's a fairy tale you don't know what you're talking about no i've had the orange i know what it tastes like and the bible says it's taste and see that the lord is good i've tasted and i've seen and i know i know the bible is true from genesis to revelation i know it's true about creation see i don't believe your big bang nonsense it's nonsense i don't believe we evolved from monkeys that's nonsense cannot be proven there's no there's no scientific archaeological evidence to prove a missing link that man evolved from a monkey or anything else that's nonsense you believe that because the devil's trying to give you an alternative to not face the reality there is one creator and one way and the devil tries to give you all these other little little he tries to give you many ways that contradict one another so i want to tell you today you cannot earn forgiveness of your sins by good works you cannot earn it by trying to be a good person in whatever religion you want to say guess what you can you can be in christianity you can pretend to be a christian that still doesn't make you say you have to come to jesus and believe what he did for you and then you surrender your life to him and you have a supernatural encounter with him called being born again if you don't have that i don't care how many times you go to church how many times you've been baptized i don't care there's a lot of people going to churches every sunday that are not saved they're not born again they don't know jesus they think they do but what they really do is they have this they have a religious practice but they don't know him they haven't been changed by him they haven't been filled with his spirit they don't know the resurrected jesus christ personally and that's something you have to choose to do with all your heart soul mind and strength he is the only true lamb of god the savior that came to take away the sins of the world that's what john the babby said behold the lamb of god that takes away the sin of the world get this that means everybody see the beautiful thing about god there's no racism
he said all he said he made all men of one blood and he said all may come he said come he said come to me you can drink of the water of life freely just come she said come to me and those of you that don't know him in this room i tell you if you will seek him you will find him because he is not far from any of us he will reveal himself to you in a real way he will wash your sins away he will change your life he will give you the power to live the way he wants you to live and then he'll give you power to help people i'm going to tell this testimony because it's still five to twelve i don't even know how to act well let me tell you this testimony a few weeks ago we had a woman come named maggie and we're going to play her video she is too long to play this morning but maggie is 77 years old and she lives in arizona and she she had a horrific childhood i just can't even go into all that what she had and and the only religion she knew was roman catholicism and she knew that that was idolatry and that was messed up she knew it wasn't right even as a child she knew but that's all she she had she was dropped off at an orphanage her family was just she was in and out of that situation she went through horrific abuse and just just i don't even know how she survived the mercy of god she survived you say why does god allow this kind of pain and suffering well it it truly makes us better people when we fight through it and we overcome because there's no testimony without a test and so she she uh she because of her childhood she had such trauma and she had such anxiety and fears and torment that she had stomach ulcers so bad leading up into her 20s that by the time she was what 2026 she had to have her stomach three quarters of it surgically removed and then this was in 1970s and they tried to recreate a stomach with her large intestines and just to put it long story short it didn't work the surgery didn't work and so she developed what was called dumping syndrome meaning when she ate something it just go right through her like it's amazing she's a she she shriveled up to you know just a little skinny thing and she just couldn't hold food and digest food like and she had to be very careful what she ate she couldn't eat heavy foods like meat and potatoes and gravy like we do here in the south right so she started listening
somebody somebody sent her one of our videos she started listening to my preaching she found out about that jesus is still the healer and the deliverer and so this little lady 77 years old says i'm going to that church to get baptized and get delivered so she got on a plane by herself and flew from arizona to the crazy atlanta airport got here on a thursday we met with her on saturday to pray through deliverance now we started casting demons at her because she had opened doorways from generational stuff traumatic stuff that happened to her i know some people don't believe this but i'm gonna tell you she had demonic strongholds it doesn't mean she was running around like she just had the demons had strongholds in her life and so we sat down and we started praying through all the doorways in her life i started binding the demons in jesus name and commanding them to come out of her specific ones and there was a few times that they showed up they showed their face i won't go into it but they came up and came out it was it was evident that she was delivered from some demonic spirits and then at the end of our prayer time i prayed and she didn't even tell us about the stomach surgery but at the end my wife and i were laid hands on her we're praying for that all any any damage done by her childhood any damage done to her physically mentally emotionally spiritually we said jesus you're the healer bible says by your stripes we were healed i said lord jesus please heal maggie so we go downstairs to have lunch she didn't tell us she said one of the things she could not eat was rice she started eating rice and she had no problem with it she's like oh then she says she didn't tell us so she flies all the way back the next morning to arizona and she takes care of this guy who has some problems and she cooks for him and she cooked a big old pot roast with gravy and potatoes and everything she ate that and had no problems and she's like i can eat and then she called us on the thursday just in tears saying jesus not only delivered me from the demons not only healed me from all the trauma and wounds that i had but he's healed and given me a stomach now that works she said i'm about to go eat some ice cream so i say that i share that with you to let you know again this is my life this is not a
religion to me this is not a creed this is not a it's real and it's about it's about god's love for us and see if we kept reading there in john 19 we see something when jesus finally said forgive them they know not what they do and he's hanging it says he died there he gave up the ghost he gave up his spirit he says a roman soldier came and stuck a sword in his side to make sure he was dead and when he pierced his side out of his side he said blood and water flowed because there's a sack of water around your heart and as you're dying too like he was it gets more fluid built up there and it says that blood and water flow well let me tell you what that see the bible calls jesus the second atom the first atom he sinned and blew it and got us all in trouble but the second atom came which was jesus who lived as a man and he came and when his side was pierced it was to bring forth what's called the bride of christ and what is the bride of christ the church and what is the church made up of people that have truly met him and been born again and that's why the book of revelation 19 says when he returns and he is the book of revelation foretells a cashless society in the last days where you will have something implanted in your hand or your forehead or you won't be able to buy or sell this is how specific the bible is about what's happening we're almost there he said these things will happen right before his second coming and jesus is going to come back but it says when he returns he will gather his people his elect his children those that are truly his from one end of heaven to the other he will all the from all over the earth he will gather them together and there's going to be a marriage supper in heaven at that moment and literally there's going to be the uniting of jesus christ the bridegroom with the church of jesus christ the bride we were made from the blood and the water that flows out we are forgiven we are washed we are cleansed we are baptized into him by what came out of his side and out of his hands and feet and we have to surrender to that the price has been paid for you it's like this think about this somebody you're in a jail cell and the lord somebody came in and he paid the fine and they opened the cell door for you and you decided to just keep sitting in there you see don't do that you got to choose to get up and say jesus i want you i'm gonna follow you and you got to walk out
of the jail cell you could sit in the jail cell if you want to the rest of your life until you die door is open jesus i am the door it's open amen all right let's stand for a moment i want us to pray before so i got us just a few minutes past 12 we're gonna pray and then we're gonna have a quick break and let me say this i i sometimes i give altar calls and i publicly invite people to come and accept jesus in church i'm not doing that today because you need to go home and you need to you need to read and you need to look at it and you need to seek him because you got to seek him on your own you got to find him it's not just saying a little prayer with me up here and you got to do more than that and i promise you though if you ask jesus christ god in the flesh you died for you and roseman if you ask him to reveal himself to you and you're sincere about it and you seek him you will find him and he will radically change your life amen it's not about church it's not about religion it's about knowing jesus christ as your god and savior that's what it's about amen let's pray father thank you for this day thank you for kreg and cheetra and what you've done in their lives by saving them and washing their sins away and delivering them from the their past and that they are new creatures in christ jesus they are not the same as they were before and that they have come together and you have brought them together because it's not good that a man should be alone and lord you said that if a man finds a wife he finds a good thing and obtains favor from the lord and a godly woman it says her price is far above rubies and i thank you for bringing a godly man and a godly woman together because that's a picture of jesus you bringing your people your church together with you at the end of this age at the end of this world so lord we pray that many many people will hear this truth they will surrender their lives to you they'll be washed and cleansed of their sins they will be born again they'll repent and they'll believe in your resurrection and they will follow you and become true disciples and that you will truly come in and transform their lives by your precious blood and by your precious resurrection power and i pray this in jesus name amen and amen hallelujah go and give the lord praise amen he's made the way for the gift of eternal life and salvation amen all right so right now we are going to take quick break if you need the bathroom
one here two downstairs men and women this is for anybody here but if you need the bathroom do that but do it quickly come back to your seat and we should have everything set up for the wedding all right god bless you