Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
Lord praise this morning. Glory to your name, Lord. Glory to your name, Lord. We thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for all you have done. We thank you for all that you're going to do. We thank you that you died on that cross and shed your blood and rose from the dead, Lord, to deal with our sins. You have the keys of hell and death, Lord. We thank you that you are the one that can give forgiveness of sins and eternal life if we will repent, turn away from our sins and follow you. Lord, I thank you for the truth of your word. Lord, I pray for the anointing today upon your word. Lord, thank you for everyone here today. Those watching this and touch every heart change every life. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. You may be seated this morning. Good to have everybody here. Wow. Ah, we may have to rent another place before we can even get something going. We're running out of room in here, aren't we? Um, there are a few seats couple up here to a three if you need them. Y'all get to be in the front row. All right. Well, anyway, welcome everybody to Fire and Grace Church this morning. Um, of course, we're having our Thanksgiving fellowship afterwards, so I will take as long as possible. Keep you just dreaming about that food down there. Um, I hope you have your Bibles with you this morning. Let's turn to Matthew 23 this morning. Uh, this is almost a continuation, I think of last week. Um, I was sent something this morning that just confirmed to me what I need to talk about today. But if you remember where I started out last week talking about the Pharisees and what they represent to us. And remember, in Matthew 23, Jesus said that the Pharisees sit in Moses seat, therefore observe and do what they say. And I explained to you that the old covenant was still intact. It wasn't old at that point. It was still the covenant in which they were walking under. And Jesus was saying to the people, he was saying, Yeah, they sit in the place of authority. They are the teachers of the law. And if they teach you what Moses said, then you observe that you do that, he said. But they say and do not, right? And he started exposing them for what they were. Now he said part of it, he said, they their works they do to be seen of men, all their works they do to be seen event, right? They pray in the marketplaces. They they just wanted to be seen. So they were about really, they got into religious pride thinking they were better than other people. Um, it's just sad. They thought that nobody could know the scriptures like them. They were marveled at Jesus and the apostles because they knew the word, but they hadn't been to
their schools. Um, everything we see in the scriptures about the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Now, what's interesting, the difference between those two groups is that the Pharisees actually believed in the supernatural. They believed in angels and demons. They believed in miracles. They believed in the resurrection of the dead. They believed that it says the Sadducees did not believe in the supernatural. Isn't it interesting that we have Christianity? We have segments of Christianity that are the same way. We have parts that believe in the supernatural and parts that don't. They think God quit doing those things, right? Cessation ism. Uh, that's one of the biggest errors that there is. God has not changed. The power of God is still for us today. Um, but even though Jesus looked at the Pharisees and he said they sit in Moses seat, he said, observe what they teach you from the scriptures, but don't do like they do. Now I want to get to this scripture where you could like I said last week, I could preach this whole thing and take. I could do a series of about, you know, eight weeks through this. Just this one chapter. But I want you to go down with me and let's put up verse 27 and we're going to read a little bit there through there. Actually, we're going to read through verse 36. Okay, gonna read a little bit. All right. He says in verse 27. He says, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Somebody say all uncleanness. Mm hmm. Even so, you also appear or outward. You also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. He says, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you build the tombs of the prophets and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous and say, if we had been the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. He says, Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves that ye are children of them which killed the prophets. Fill you up then the measure of your fathers, you serpents, you generation of vipers. How can you escape the damnation of hell? See, these are people who were convinced they were right with God, but they were not convinced. I mean, absolutely, positively convinced that they were on their way to heaven. And Jesus said, How do you think you're gonna escape the damnation of hell? He says, Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets and wise men and scribes and some of them you shall kill and crucify and some of them shall you scourge in your synagogues and persecute them from city to city that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous able unto the blood
of Zachariah, the son of Barakiah, whom you slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation. So the judgment of God, he says, gonna come upon you. Now think about what he's saying to these men who absolutely thought that they were righteous, that they were right with God, that they were on their way to heaven. And he tells them, No, you say you wouldn't even partake of what our fathers did to the prophets. We're, we're better than our fathers. And he goes, No, you're not. Because I'm going to send you prophets, and wise men, and scribes, and you're going to crucify them, kill them and persecute them from city to city. And you're going to prove who you are. Now, what blew me away this morning, I want to back up to the scripture here where he says, woe unto you scribes, verse 27. One to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, pretenders, actors, for you alike unto whited sepulchres, tombs, graves, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and of all and cleanness. You appear beautiful outward. Oh, Lord. You know, Matthew seven, in fact, let's just hold your place here in Matthew 23. Let's leave Matthew seven real quick. I got a video clip for y'all this morning. Y'all ain't gonna believe Matthew seven, and go down to verse 15. Now, this is Jesus again, we're still in my Bible, it's in the red. So right, we're reading the red and praying for the power. That's what one of my pastor you say read the red and pray for the power. Jesus said here, beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly, they are raven wolves. Now again, what's he trying to tell us? There are going to be people who come to us who appear on the outside to be righteous. They appear on the outside to be sheep, part of the body of Christ. He's not saying the wicked world. He's not talking about that wicked world out there. He's talking about the church world. And he says, beware of this. That means pay attention. Have some discernment. Look beyond what's on the outside. What's really at the root? What is inside? What is be what is hidden in there? And here's how you know what is hidden in some of these fake whitewashed tombs that they call churches and pastors out here today. Here's what they they this is what Jesus said. He said out the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks,
right? So eventually, and I say this all the time, eventually a wolf who's dressed up like a sheep will have to start doing wolf stuff. They have to. It is their nature. So it has to leak out every now and then. And that's why he said we have to pay attention. And I'm going to show you something today because I don't I don't even know what to call this today. Whitewashed tombs, mega death, because let's get that clip ready. Just have it ready. It's only 17 seconds may have to play it twice. Well, let me just go ahead and tell you we've had, you know, first, Timothy four talks about the judgment will begin at the house of God. And you know, with this church and we believe that we're getting very close to the second coming of Jesus. And so judgments are beginning to fall. And if you said judgment must come first to the house of God, what will the end be of those who do not obey the gospel? Right. Well, how many of you heard of this rash of these big time ministers falling, getting busted? Well, I tell you what, let's just put up the picture. We'll start with the Robert Morris Gateway Church, one of the largest churches in America. I got two pictures of him here, but he molested a 12 year old girl, tried to cover it up for years, lied about it. When the girl finally grew up, became a woman and was dealing with all that pain and demonic stuff that he did to her, that went on for some time, actually, but between the time she was, I think 12 and 16, he manipulated her. This was a friend's family. That's not him. Robert Morris, the white. Oh, this guy right here. We'll deal with him in a minute. Let's go in the order. They'll get it in a second. It's a picture of a man and a woman there. So there's the situation. Of course, he had to step down. You can put up the news clip from, I think it's NBC News. Lawyer for mega church pastor, blame 12 year old girl for initiating inappropriate sexual conduct. Now, if you did something
like that to a 12 year old girl, and then for years you're going to send lawyers to fight her saying, Oh, the 12 year old girl seduced me. You are a sick, twisted, evil piece of crap. Yet for years he appeared beautiful outwardly. Gateway Church, one of the biggest churches in America. Good buddies with the mega church pastor here in Alabama that I'm gonna deal with. It's a club, and this club you don't want to be in, but whitewashed tombs full of dead men's bones. They appear outwardly righteous and beautiful, but finally what the Lord is doing now, he's ripping back the veil, the curtain. Many more are going to be exposed and fall. Tony Evans, one of the biggest pastors for years out in Texas, I think it's Dallas, Texas, Oak Cliff. He got busted for sexual sin misconduct. He's the black gentleman. Boy, I remember listening to him for years. I'm gonna tell you what they have in common in a second, but you have him. He has to step down. I love how they don't want to tell you what they did. It's just we had an inappropriate relationship. Let's just try to, you know, it's funny how the church world does the same thing that the liberals do. They try to water down the language a little bit, you know, turn homosexuality and being gay. No, it's filthy. It's an abomination, but of course, you know, then we have Mr. Andy Stanley. This guy, no, that's Mike Bickel. Well, we'll just go with Mike Bickel. Now, this guy here ran the biggest, one of the biggest ministries in the world. IHOP, Kansas City, International House of Prayer. I warned about him in my book in 2012, and of course he was seducing young girls, prophesying over the telling them that they were going to be his wife and his wife was going to die, and he has the nerve to get up there and preach the gospel. Has the nerve to get up and teach the Word while he's buying apartments for young girls so he can go visit them while he has locks on his
office doors so he can bring women into his office. It's sick, and it went on for decades. Sick. Then, of course, there's Andy Stanley. Now, I'm going to tell you what I believe about Andy. I think Andy's gay as the day is long. He certainly has the most gay, effeminate mannerisms. Ain't nothing about him that says man on it, and I'm sorry. I'm just being honest, but this guy right here, the Bible says that the Bible says it's not an adequate starting or returning point for many adults. This guy, his error has already come out to everybody. I mean he says we don't need the Bible. Let's put his quote up there. Let's just go to this quote. Now, this guy has 40,000. I think the other church has about, the Gateway was about 40 or 50,000. The truth is Christians are not expected to believe what we believe based on a collection of ancient manuscripts written by men who never met each other over the course of hundreds of years in a time when everybody was superstitious and everybody believed in the gods, and there was no modern science. The foundation of our faith is far more substantial than that. It is far more substantial than that. So we don't have to believe the Bible. I know, look, here's the underlying thing before I get into this, before I show you the clip. The underlying issue of all this is that these guys are in sin, and they love their sin, and they have created doctrines, false doctrines, theology, and a whole method of ministry called seeker-sensitive to create church growth, but no real change. And I can tell you this, with mankind it always comes down to either coming clean with God or grabbing the fig leaf to cover and hide, and that's what they do. Now, let's get the clip ready here. Well, first, I tell you what, let's put up the info about this. This is the largest megachurch, one of the largest in the country, and the largest in Alabama. Campuses everywhere. Chris Hodges, Church of the Highlands, it should be called Church of the Lowlands. Church of the Highlands is a non-denominational, evangelical, Christian, multi-site megachurch based in Birmingham, Alabama.
It is the largest congregation in Alabama with an average of 60,000 attendees every week. As of 2023, the senior pastor is Chris Hodges, another effeminate acting man. Let's play the clip though. I want you all to hear it. 17 seconds. We may have to play it twice. How do I get right with God? If we confess our sins. You don't have to get, you don't have to stop sinning. He wants you to. I believe that's his goal, but didn't say, if you, if you confess your sins and never do it again, there's not a place in the scripture that says that. Let's play it again. How do I get right with God? If we confess our sins. You don't have to get, you don't have to stop sinning. He wants you to. I believe that's his goal, but didn't say, if you, if you confess your sins and never do it again, there's not a place in the scripture that says that. You get right with God. You don't have to stop sinning. Now that, now God wants you to get a little effeminate as, as Arnold would say, girl, eight men, they got a girly, weak, effeminate. They love to dress up their little tunes. But let me tell you right now, I have known for years that this is the actual foundation and core of what Church of the Highlands believes. I've known it. One of my former elders that used to be here, that moved away, Kevin Wilkinson. I remember when I think they first came, started coming to Opelika and Auburn area. He actually called the church multiple times asking them, do you guys believe once you're saved, you're always saved, no matter how you live. And he could not get a straight answer out of any of them. It's simple. Yes or no, right? He would, they even got some of their staff, pastors on the line, and they would never answer the question. But I knew it. Because let me just go on and tell you right now, you do not, for the most part, 99 times out of 100, you're not going to build a megachurch if you tell people they have to repent and stop the sinning. See what he did right there. Think about the people in this church that have a problem with alcohol, and they're getting drunk on a regular basis. What did he just tell them? God, you don't have to stop sinning. Just confess it. Let me tell you what that is. If you
want to know what that is, where that false doctrine comes from, it's Roman Catholicism. You don't have to repent or change anything. Just make sure you go to the priest and go to confession and you and the priest will absolve you whether you quit doing it or not. See what somebody said the other day, and it's the truth. A lot of these people out here in this church world are Roman Catholic and they don't even know it. Rome has so infiltrated the Christian seminaries, they created their own Bible versions for all of the Protestant church world, and then you've got these guys, which some of these guys are just agents working for Satan and they know it. They might be Jesuits, they might be government agents, CIA, Mossad, Kabbalists, but they have infiltrated Christianity and they appear outwardly. Let me tell you, you start talking to somebody. We run into people all the time. Where do you go to church? Oh, I go to the Church of the Highlands. Oh, really? You're like, well, you have no discernment, right? Just first thing. One of the biggest debates that we had, one of the biggest situations we had in our church right after Skyfall 2019, a bunch of people left because I had a confrontation because of Jordan, at a football game with the Church of the Highlands, you know, person, because Jordan was passing out his biblical cosmology, flat earth tracks at the football game and he happened to hand one to this guy's daughter and he freaked out. I mean, this guy wanted to fight and I was about this close to give him a shot at the title, okay? This close. But the Lord helped me because I had to tell him, I said, you need to calm down, dude. You just need to calm down. And see, at the football stadium, everybody was down in the in the football stadium seats and all the kids were up top playing and running around and he said something about Jordan handing his daughter a track and I said, well, I better attract about flat earth than a pedophile snatcher because you're not watching her up there. He didn't like that too much. But when it came down to it, it really came down to the fact that he knew about our church. He was friends with one of the families in our church and he hated our church, basically, because he loves that, okay? And his
hatred came out. I mean, this dude, I'm telling you, he wanted to fight. It was that bad. And I just finally told him, I said, I'll tell you what, buddy. I said, well, I finally told him, he said, you need deliverance, man. Really bad. And we started to walk off and I think his wife said something and then my wife goes, yeah, they're still talking. So I walked back over there and he started again and I just said, look, why don't you just do this? Why don't you go back to your mega church and learn nothing? Because I knew what it was about. And what is interesting is that because that family, they were friends with this guy, they had to make a decision. And see, they were trying to live in both worlds. They wanted their kids going to the youth group at the Highlands, which I don't understand. I wouldn't send my dog over there. And then they went to church here. And you know what happened is they were trying to live in two worlds. And finally, they collided. And you have to choose because let me just go and tell you, if you hadn't figured it out yet, we ain't that, that right there. And I've gone through some of his sermons. I've gone through a lot of them. I know what it is. But when somebody sent me this, they said, just listen to the first 15 seconds of this video. This morning, I'm sitting there trying to drink my first cup of coffee. And I went, oh, I said, but there it is. There's your smoking gun. But he said, let's play it one more time. Can we play it one more time? In fact, slow it down. Slow it down a little bit. Can we slow it down? Is that possible? It's all right. If it's not, you can play it again. I'm just going to have fun with this this morning because there's 60,000 people that need to wake up, come out of her, my people. They just the Vatican, the Vatican and the doctrines of Roman Catholicism have made their way into all these churches. Why do you think Jesus said, come out of her mystery Babylon is this, is this religion, this false Christianity that presents itself as outwardly righteous and beautiful, but inside it's full of dead men's bones. Why is it full of dead men's bones? Because the doctrine they preach will not lead you to eternal life. It's going to lead you to eternal damnation. It's going to lead you to eternal death. Anybody tells you that you don't have to repent and stop the sin and say that there's nowhere in the Bible that says that we're going to address that in a second. Y'all okay with that? Yeah, it's all over the
Bible. You know, I wonder if my wife's okay. If I just go commit adultery one time, she said, no, no. Why do you think Jesus would be okay with it? Why do you think Jesus walked up to anyone and said, you know what, you don't have to stop sinning. Just believe in me. But see, that's what permeates the church world now. Just believe and you're okay. You're secure forever. Your sins are washed away no matter what you do. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Repent means to what? What Jordan? Admit it and quit it. And we're going to show you that. But listen, we'll just watch this again. If y'all can't slow it down, it's fine. We're just going to play it one more time. But if you can, we confess our sins. You don't have to get, you don't have to stop sinning. He wants you to. I believe that's his goal. But then say, if you if you confess your sins and never do it again, there's not a place in the scripture that says that you get rival. Not a place in scripture that says that right. Now, why do people I just I guess people want to follow these people because it's easy. It's comfortable. I won't say who, but somebody in our church was visiting and doing some things for a person who is high up in the Highlands. And they had to go to their house a few times. And of course, what they told me is that they interrupted a nice party of turning back the alcohol. And this is a person high up in the Highlands. They've also covered up all kinds of sexual misconduct by different people. And I know things that go back all the way back to the 90s and stuff about Mr. Hodges that I won't get into. Because I'm sure they'll try to sue me. Right. But I can deal with what he says and what he teaches. Right. Now, let's look at the scriptures. Let's go to John chapter eight. That was just introduction. John chapter eight y'all ready? Now, this is the Roman Catholics tried to remove this from their Bibles. And that's why the fake Bibles out there will say that this doesn't belong in the Bible. They don't they hate it because it
doesn't work for them. All right. Now, let's John eight verse one. So Jesus went unto the Mount of olives and early in the morning and he came again into the temple. And all the people came to him and he sat down and he taught them and the scribes and the Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they say unto him, master, this woman was taken in adultery in the very act. Now, Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned. But what sayest thou? This they said tempting him that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself and said unto them, he that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again, he stooped down and wrote on the ground and they which heard it being convicted by their own conscience went out one by one beginning at the eldest. And even unto the last, Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst. And when Jesus had lifted himself, lifted up himself and saw none, but the woman, he said unto her, woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemn thee? And she said, no, man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. Could it be clearer? Go and sin no more. And the word there is a present tense Greek verb, the word sin, the verb there, which means ongoing, continuous action taking place in the present. So Jesus was saying, you can't live in ongoing habitual practicing sin. Go and sin no more. He was telling her, in fact, when they it says that she was caught in the act of adultery, the actual word adultery there it's it puts out a present tense again, a verb that she was caught in doing this, meaning she was, they knew she was an adulteress. So they knew where to catch it. Right. So she was a habitual adulteress. And Jesus said to her, go and sin no more. I'm not going to condemn you, but go and sin no more. That means repent. That means turn away from your adultery. Don't be an adulteress anymore. Why is this hard for modern Christianity to understand? I don't get it. This is actually the foundation of of our faith. Go with me. Let's go to First Timothy. I believe
it's 219. Let me get me. Let me get there. Maybe I'm wrong. Whereas let those who named the name of price depart from iniquity. Y'all look that one up for me. 219. Okay. Second Timothy to 19. Let's read that verse 19. And this he's in context talking about some false teachers. And then he says this nevertheless, the foundation of God stand. It's sure somebody say the foundation of God. Can I say it again? The foundation of God. What does foundation mean? What is a building without a foundation? What about a building with a faulty foundation? The foundation of God stand. It's sure having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his and let everyone that name it the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Somebody say depart from iniquity. If you call, if you say you're a Christian, you're not to go, oh, I'm forgiven, but I'm going to keep doing all this crap I was doing when I was unsaved. Where do we get that from? Wolves, Pharisees, whitewashed tombs. This is why Jesus said to them, you, you come past, you go around land and see to make one convert. And when you've made that one convert to your belief system, you have made him two fold more the child of hell than yourselves. Because now you've created in them a belief system that makes them think they're okay and right with God without them being right with God. What did he say? One of the most important questions of Christian, how do I get right with God? If the word repent and turn from your sins is not in that sentence after where, after that, that answer, they are of the devil. They are a wolf in sheep's clothing and they are Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Church of God, Assembly of God, non-denominational mega garbage. Oh, I just love the Highlands. Your pastor ain't even there. He's on the screen. Try to set up an appointment
with him. Oh, the foundation of God stand assure having this seal, the Lord know with them that are his, let everyone that name it the name of Christ, depart from iniquity. I don't even know. Let's go Proverbs 2813. Put that in. Let's give you an Old Testament verse on this. We read a few new ones. If you, if you say you're a Christian, there are, there are Christians out there right now saying, I'm a Christian homosexual. No, you're not. You're either a Christian or you're a homosexual, but I have these urges. Well, guess what? Everybody has urges to sin. It's called the flesh. It's called temptation. It's called demons talking to you. You've got to make up your mind to resist, to turn away, to call on Jesus, to get filled with the Holy Ghost. Amen. To get delivered, to renew your mind. Proverbs 2813. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whosoever confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. See what, what, what Mr Hodges was doing there, Chris Hodges of Highlands. He was saying he was reading 1st John one nine, which says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and it cleanses from all unrighteousness. His problem though, is, is that he didn't keep reading because in the context, even that you can't take out of its context because right, that's the end of chapter one, the beginning of chapter two, John says, I write unto you children that you sin not. We're going to look at that in just a second. But look at this. He that confesses his sin and forsakes it is the one who gets mercy, not just confess. We are not Roman Catholics running to a, a priest to confess our sins and keep doing it. We are new testament believers in Jesus Christ. And therefore, if we call ourselves in Jesus Christ, we depart from iniquity. We hate sin. We don't want to live in it. And we know that God will give us the grace and power to stop it. And I know some people when they first get saved still are going to struggle with some things, but you should be growing, right? You
know, guess what? When I came to the Lord, I stopped habitual drunkenness. When I came to the Lord, I stopped fornication and adultery. When I came to the Lord, I stopped these things. You see, you understand, I stopped getting into fights. You understand? I hadn't hit anyone since I was 19 years old. Well, you know, I was trained for two years by a fifth degree tongs, you know, man, I know how to hit folks. Yeah, but no, not, not a person, you know, I have been assaulted several times for preaching the gospel and never struck back. People think, Oh, Pastor Dean's a mean, angry, scary fellow. I think Pastor D used to be scared of me. She says true story. I know I'm scary sometimes. Somebody said, Oh, his bald head scares me. Like, what did it, what did this head do to you? Yeah. No, but what it is, let me tell you what it is. A lot of times it's just because how do you put it? When you have the anointing of a prophet, you make people nervous. Is he going to know what sin I'm in? Is he going to call me out? Makes people a little scared. And let me tell you, a lot of times I do know what sin you're in. And I don't say anything because I'm patient. And I know you sometimes people need some time to hear the truth and decide whether they're going to repent or not. Amen. My wife will tell you, she'll want to deal with it something sometimes. And I'll say, let's just wait a little bit. That's why she's fire and I'm grace. And that is true. And, and like I've said before, if you don't want to be found out what you're doing, don't get around my wife because she going to find it, figure it out. She going to discern it. The Holy Spirit is going to reveal it to her. I really believe she has the gift of discerning spirits on people. Oh boy, she'll, she'll know you. She'll tell me too. She said, uh, something right right there. You know, God told Moses, be sure your sins will find you out. I love what David Wilkerson preached that message years ago. He said, be sure your sins are fine. He said, first they're going to find you, then they're going to find your family.
Because you are going to affect everybody around you. Right. What did I say? Let's go to, uh, Oh yeah. First Corinthians 1534. We got to read that one. Y'all okay with this this morning. I know I preach this a lot on this issue because it is foundational. And I know I said, first Corinthians, um, but let's, let's, let's read 33 and 34. All right. Because this is, I think they go together really well. He says, be not deceived evil communications or behalf. That's company. You keep communicating with people. That's people you fellowship with evil communications, corrupt good manners. And then he says this awake to righteousness and keep on sinning. Oh, wait a minute. Y'all have King James Bibles. That's right. We better, better reread that. Right. He says awake to righteousness and sin not for some have not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. He's saying awake to righteousness and sin not does this sound nowhere. Remember Hodges pastor Hodges. No, the Bible doesn't say that anywhere about stop sinning. Doesn't say it anywhere in the Bible. That is a wolf talking, but they love him. 60,000 people attend a week and can't figure this out. It's just one of the saddest things that I have to watch in this world. And I've watched it for years and years and years. But remember me, go back. Let's go back to Robert Morris, Tony Evans, these mega church pastors, Hill song. What's his name? Brian Houston covering up his father's pedophilia molestation of little children in the churches of Australia, lying about it for years, face criminal charges for not alerting people and not basically turning his father in because he knew his father was molesting kids. What kind of sick individual do you have to be to let a pedophile keep molesting kids and you know it. And Brian Houston is good friends and buddies with Chris
Hodges. Remember, I told you it's a club. They probably ought to wear red shoes all the time. Some of you know what I'm talking about. Some of you don't. I know for a fact from people who were there and there was also news reports that where Chris Hodges was a youth pastor at New Life Church, mega church in Colorado Springs under Pastor Ted Haggard back in the day. That church was huge. It had about 15,000 I think at its peak and they made Ted Haggard. He was the head of the, what was it? The National Evangelical Association and he was a homosexual doing drugs. That was Chris Hodges pastor for years. That was his youth pastor when he was in Louisiana. But I know for a fact that they knew about a pedophile in that church and they let him, they covered for him and helped him escape prosecution. And this comes from somebody that went to that church for years on the inside. So this is what I'm saying. There's something seriously wrong. Why do you think Jesus said they are whitewashed tombs full of dead men's bones. They appear outwardly righteous. Why do you think they are? He said they are wolves. Have you ever seen a wolf when it catches its prey, what it does to it? But let me just say this to this false doctrine that you can just keep on sinning, just believe in Jesus and you can just keep on living in sin. It's preached in little churches too. It's preached in little churches who want to be big churches and maybe they went to seminary and that's what they were taught. So that's what they believe, or maybe they came up in it and that's what they believe. I don't know, but it's still damnable heresy to preach that. Amen. Hey, it's not even 12. We're rocking on. Now let's go to this, go to first John chapter two and you know something I never hear this preached on from them. Now let's well actually let's back up to verse nine in
chapter one. We're going to read that and then we'll read. Well, like I said, you got to keep reading. Remember when John wrote this letter to the churches, there were not chapter breakups. That's for us to help us be able to find stuff and remember where it is. So he was continuing his thought. And so I know that that pastor Hodges was teaching from this verse about confessing your sins. And he said, it doesn't say anywhere that you have to stop sinning. So we'll, let's read it from verse nine. He said, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all in righteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. My little children, these things right. I unto you that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And here by do we know that we know him or here is how we know that we know Jesus. If we keep his commandments, he that sayeth, I know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar. And the truth is not in him, but who so keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected here by know we that we are in him. He that say if he abideth in him, ought himself also to walk even as he walked. Now we know Jesus did not sin and the Bible is telling us we ought to walk as he walked. That means that should be our goal to stop living in sin. Now the difference here is again, when he says, I write into you children that you sin not, he's not, he's talking about, um, you know, at all. I mean, it's just period. Don't do it. Think about this for a second. And I've shared, I've shared this before. Do you think you can go five seconds without sinning? Can you make it five seconds? If you can't, we got some work to do. Right? Well, if you can make it five seconds, then you can make it another five seconds and you make it another five seconds. You understand sin is a choice. It's always a choice. It's something we decide to do to give into, but if you're a Christian, what does he say? Let not sin reign in your mortal body. Let not sin rule you. Romans six sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the law, but under grace, meaning you will have help. If you are sincere about following
Jesus, you will have help. He will give you grace. Grace means the power from God to help you do what he wants you to do. I can tell you right now, I couldn't do any of it in my own strength. I have to have his strength, but I also have to be willing to already come here and help me do this. I want to show some show them something. I think I've done this before. All right. Stand right here. Turn around face that way. All right. Now I'm going to try to push you forward. Don't let me know. Okay. All right. This is what I'm talking about. I'm representing the Holy Spirit and he's representing a person who is trying to be that God wants to lead and what the Holy Spirit does when we have sin in our life is he, he tries to get us to go in the right direction. Well, this is what you stubborn hardheads do right here. See now he won't force you. He just give you a little, Hey, Hey, Hey, you need to stop that. You need to repent. Okay. And somebody resisting. Do you think I could, could I, this is Kamari is a strong young man. That's why I got him up here. All right. But I, I, I couldn't push him around this room because he's pretty strong. All right. But if he's willing to go the way I'm pushing it, so start walking. It's easy. And then I say, Hey, let's go over this way or let's go this way, or let's turn around and go back this way. You see, that's what the Holy Spirit does. He's gentle and he just says, Hey, come with me, but you have to cooperate. Thank you, Kamari. You have to be willing and he will help you. He will guide you. Remember that prayer and that part of the Lord's prayer, lead us not into temptation, but delivers from evil. You're supposed to pray that and you're praying that the Lord will lead you away from temptation, not into it. Um, y'all okay with this? Now I want to go to Ephesians chapter five. See, let me just go ahead and say this, and I'm not trying to, this is not trying to puff myself up here, but this is the way the Bible ought to be preached and taught. You should go through it. You should make sure you're keeping it in context. You should make sure that you know the grammar, the verb tense. You can't just take stuff one verse and go and create your whole new doctrine that you tell 60,000 people. Let's read Ephesians chapter five, start verse one, and I'm going to end with this passage that I could
give you many more. Paul writes to them by the Holy Spirit. He says, but be ye therefore followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ has also loved us and have given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. But somebody say, but, so he's saying Jesus gave himself as an offering for us. How wonderful, but fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness. Let it not be once named among you as become a saint. What? Not one time. He says, let this be these things be in your life. Neither filthiness nor foolish talking nor jesting, which are not convenient. This is this for some of you is telling kind of dirty off color jokes that you tell and think it's funny. He said, neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor just which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks for this. You know that no whoremonger, that's a habitual sexual sin person there, no whoremonger nor unclean person nor covetous man who is an idolater hath any inherits in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things come at the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. I'm gonna stop right there. Now we could keep reading. Don't be partakers with them. Don't let these sins be once named among you. Christians are not to be greedy for money, position, power. This we should not. That's what covetous means. It means you you lust for things, not for God. See this church world out here, their gospel, their false gospel demands nothing of you except to make sure you attend so we can count you. Make sure you tithe so we can pay for this big nice building. But that's what they're concerned with. Nickles and noses, we say, and that's why they wear people out. Remember, it says the horse leech. I love this for Proverbs, the horse leech. The horse leech says, give, give, give, just give, give. Let me tell you here that all time. That's why you look, I have no
problem. Somebody the other day came visit our church from a good long way away and they said, you didn't take up an offering. How in the world do we give to your ministry? I suppose a little box around the corner. If you want to leave an offering, but I don't even talk about it. I don't even take up an offering. I told him, I say, you can go online or you can do that. Why? Why? Because I don't want to be a horse leech. Y'all find that Proverbs. I can't remember. Fortunately, they just suck in the blood out of people. Let me tell you something right now. If you got money in your pocket and your family does not have food and you're thinking about I got a tithe. I'm going to tell you right now you better go buy groceries for your family. I don't want to see that. You understand me, but not these horse leeches. Oh, they want to give, give, give, give, give. I'm sick of it. That's why I don't. I don't get, you know, and you know what I found? I found the less I talk about giving the more people give. Isn't that amazing? We're blessed. Our bills are paid. We're not in debt. We're not going in debt, right? Imagine living by what you have. Hmm. We could go to the bank right now. Any bank show them our giving over the last say 10 years and they would loan us millions of dollars. They'd be glad to and we'd be paying some serious interest. Right? It's about them shekels, right? It's about the, it's about the numbers, the interest. We're not going to do it, but look at back at this. Did y'all find the horse leech? There it is. Proverbs 30, 15, the horse leech has two daughters crying, give give. These are three things that are never satisfied in four things say not, it is enough. I remember Lord Creflo dollar in Atlanta. Like I said before, if you're a pastor and your last name is dollar, you should change your name legally. But when he said, I need y'all to give, give, give some more so I can buy a new $60 million private jet. I'm just surprised
God's mercy that he didn't just lightning bolt, take him out. Then you got Jesse do planets doing the same thing. I need a new plane because the first Lear jet is not good enough. Now I need something a little more, a little bigger, little more plush. Kenneth Copeland has his own airport and a fleet of planes and all of this money for all of this foolishness came from Christians because these horse leeches taught, if you give, give, give to my ministry, you're going to get, get, get more. That's the prosperity gospel, right? If you give, give, give, give, you're going to get, get, get, get. And let me tell you, Christians caught up in that are covetous idolaters because they want to get, get. I remember seeing back in the day, I went, I went to Tulsa, the Mecca of the prosperity gospel, and I walked into a friend of mine who was in one of the Bible schools there. I walked into his apartment and on the refrigerator, he had a picture of this huge mansion and a red Corvette, brand new red Corvette. I said, what's this? He said, that's what I'm believing for. That's what I'm confessing. That's what I'm going to get. And I thought to myself, your whole motive is wrong here. What if the Lord says to you, sell everything you have and go to Nigeria as a missionary and you're going to die there. See, that's Christianity. I'm so sick of this stuff. These white wash tunes full of dead men's bones. If I ever run into any of them, they better hope to God I don't run into because I'm going to point in their face and say, you are a viper. How are you going to escape the damn nation of hell? You are convinced you are righteous and you are leading people into hell. Let me tell you something. It's not hard to be a prophet. All you have to do is tell the truth. All you have to do is warn. I like Donnie what you had. You posted the other day. True prophet. I can't. How did it go? Oh, Amen. I want you to say it. It
said something like a true prophet is not brought to make men rich, but to tell the truth. That's it. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. What Moses say? Well, what would the God that all his people were prophets? And then in the New Testament now through the blood of Jesus, it says you may all prophesy one by one. Think about that. And all he's saying is you may all now speak by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and I can guarantee you if the Holy Spirit is speaking to you and through you, it will be to give warnings to people who are in danger of falling into hell or who are being led there by these whitewashed tombs full of dead men's bones. And some of these people how you know, you run into these people. You just need to tell them you go to church in a tomb. You think it's alive, but it's dead. There's that old Pastor Dean. There's some people get saved there. You know, I know a story. I've told this before guy got thrown into drunk tank. He was drunk as a skunk. They picked him off off the off the road. I know this personally who it was. This guy got picked up, thrown in the drunk tank for the weekend, and he was so drunk that he was barely able to stand, but he was a backslidden Christian. So he was living in drunkenness and he's thrown in the drunk tank, but he starts preaching the gospel to people while he's drunk and people start getting saved in there. So let me just go in and tell you, God can use a donkey or a man in a drunk tank to get what he wants to get across to you. But that does not mean that the donkey's right about everything or the drunk man is living righteously. Understand me? Because the ultimate thing we have to look at is not just where you start, but where do you finish? That's why Jesus said in Matthew 24, four times, don't be deceived. And he said, those who endure to the end will be saved. You have to endure. You have to be an overcomer. What do we have to overcome? Sin, habitual sin, being deceived that we can live in it. Nowhere did he say in here, nowhere does it say keep on living in sin. You're going to be all right. If you read the Bible and you get that message, your mind is being twisted by a seducing spirit or your pastor. Somebody say, Amen or owe me. Let me
tell you, I've had the battle. I understand the battle. I mean, I'm no different. I tell people all the time, just because I'm a pastor does not mean I have an easier walk. I still fight the devil and the flesh and witchcraft and everything else coming at me. And I'm tempted to fall all the time. I'm tempted, but I don't want it. I say no, sorry, devil. Try it all that stuff. Don't want it anymore. I love my wife. I love my daughter. I love my church. I love Jesus more than I want to go and be an adulterer. Look, I've, I've told y'all if you had to say Pastor Dean, what's your favorite thing in the world that you'd like to drink the best? I would say a beer. I used to love Coca-Cola, the real thing, but even more than that, I would like to drink a beer not to get drunk. Just I like the taste of it. Somebody say, how in the world do you like the taste of beer? I do, but I don't do it. And yes, sometimes when I'm out working in your yard, cutting the grass in the heat, I was like, I don't want anything sweet to drink, but I don't do it. You know why I love my wife. I love my daughter, love my church. I love Jesus. And I don't want to be a bad example and make anybody fall because I can't get myself under control. I can't get the Bible tells you, Paul said, whoa. And to me, he said, he said, I could preach the gospel to you and not make it to heaven. He said, unless I keep my body and bring it under subjection, I myself could be a castaway. First Corinthians nine, Paul was saying he could be a castaway, a reprobate. And he said, and Paul would say, oh God, you know, I don't want to be one who preached to others and then not make it. I can tell you right now, I promise you, anybody that said in this church long enough, sometimes maybe one service or watched one video, my blood, their blood rather is not on my hands. I am clean as Paul said, I'm clean. I've told you, I have warned you, I have taught you. If you keep on doing
this stuff, the pornography, you're not going to make it. So don't listen to these whitewashed tunes. You know how I figured this out. I figured this stuff out when I was 19 years old. You know what I did when I was 19 years old? I gave my life to Jesus. I repented of my sins. I started following him and I couldn't go to church for a year. Hallelujah. And I just read the Bible every day for that year. And I came out of there thinking all Christians went by this. How naive I was. I thought, wow, let's go to the Methodist church. We were I remember led my best friend to Jesus and his dad used to go to the Methodist church. I said, let's go to the Methodist church. We'll go down there thinking they would teach this. That's what I was sitting in there going, oh, what is this? That's not what the Bible says. And I'm 19 years old. I'm going, what's what's wrong? So we go to the Baptist church. First Baptist. FBC, I call it First Baptist Country Club. So what it stands for. And I heard this once saved, always saved. I was like, what? My friend that I led the G started believing that ends up going back to his drinking and back to his fornication, his premarital sex, all because he heard that pastor say, oh, once you once you come to Jesus, you're good. It don't matter what you do after that. And I end up as a 19 year old sitting in the office of First Baptist church in Opelika, talking to a pastor that has a doctrine of divinity and watching him tremble as I just read through the scriptures and ask him questions. He was shaking, come to find out. Oh, the Lord gave me a prophetic word about him that he was cheating on his wife. And the Lord gave me the name of the woman. I told him the name. So what he did was he sicked his deacons on me and they tried to slander me all over town. And that was before social media, because if it had been a social media, they would have slandered me all out there and I could have sued them if I wanted to. But it was just slander all over town. Well, guess what? It took about two years. And then he was arrested by the Opelika Police Department because he was arrested because he was doing obscene phone calls to women in the church.
Then they found out that he was cheating on his wife with more than one. And it all came tumbling down. Now, of course, what they do, they didn't skip a beat. They brushed him on out the door and sent him to bad pastor rehab. And they brought in another one just like him. And another one that teaches the same lies that appear righteous outside. And that's why when I was 20, the Lord sent me back to that church, me and my brother, to give them a prophetic word on a Sunday night because they were on live TV on Sunday nights and Sunday morning. We didn't even think about that when we did it, but my brother went first. He walked up like when the service was ending, he walked up to the stage. And I don't know why that same pastor that I'm talking about that got called handed him the microphone. I was like, what the heck is going on? But we knew the Lord sent us. We even had a dream about it. And we knew the Lord sent us there. Handed my brother the microphone and my brother stands up and says, if you do not repent of your sin and stop it, your name is going to be blotted out of the Book of Life. Revelation two, the moment he finished, I stood up about midway toward the back on the ground floor. I was right past where the balcony was. So the balcony could hear me. There's about 2000 people there and live television. And I said, the Bible says, if you're a lukewarm Christian, you were in the Lord's body and he's going to spit you out of his body. You are not once saved, always saved, no matter how you live. And we turned. Alan was on that aisle walking down. I was on there. We walked out the back doors. And let me tell you, you could have heard a pin drop in there. In fact, when we went out the doors, you could hear it echoing. And people talked about that for years to come. The warning was given. The rebuke was given. The correction was given. But did they change anything? Now, it's still a whitewashed tomb full of dead men's bones. There's still wolves in sheep's clothing. Anybody that tells you you don't have to repent and live a holy life is a liar. They're a wolf. They're deceiver. I don't care how loving and gentle and sweet they appear. See, some people, some people, they listen
to somebody else. Send them one of my videos. Oh, I don't like him. You know what a lot of it it just has to do with a personality. They they have heard so many effeminate, weak, girly men preachers with their skinny jeans and tattoos. And they've heard so much of this that when they hear somebody actually stand up and say no, that's not the way it is. I remember that same family that ended up leaving going back to the Highlands. When they first heard me preach, one of the first time they said, man, you're like John the Baptist. I thought, why? Because I say repent. Maybe I am. Maybe I am in that spirit and anointing. But guess what? John the Baptist came in what? The spirit of Elijah. What did Elijah tell the people of God? Why are you between two opinions? If the Lord God is God, then serve him. If Baal is God, serve him. Quit being in the middle of the road. Quit compromising. Quit living in sin. Decide. And we're going to find out the prophet that is true because God is going to answer by fire. That's why when you walk in those churches, there is no fire. I hear people all the time I go to this church and I feel nothing. I feel dead. I feel empty because you're in a tomb. You're in a white enseplicker with dead men's bones in it. That's why you feel nothing. You feel death and emptiness. And you walk into a church that preaches the truth. And you know what? You may be uncomfortable, but at least you're feeling something. That's life. That's something that's going to help you. Remember, I had Kamari. Come here, Kamari. One more time. Come here right here. Don't let me push you. Come here. See, that's life. If you feel uncomfortable in church, right, because the Holy Spirit is doing this right here. You say, Oh, I don't like that. The Holy Spirit is hard headed. He even told Paul, Paul was kicking. Paul turn around and kick at him. That's what Paul would do. It's okay. If you're uncomfortable in church, that means that you need to get something right with God. If you feel convicted, guess what? Conviction is not a comfortable feeling. Admitting you're wrong. Admitting you've been deceived. That's not comfortable, but it will save your soul. It will give you eternal life if you will submit to it and give into it. And there are people tell me, I've had people tell me, Pastor Dean, I don't know what it is, but when I listen to you, there's something different.
And I said, it's called the anointing of the Holy Spirit. I mean, it even happened to me during my campaign for governor. I would be I would just get up and start. And here's what's wild. I would have room full of people that were just some of them hated me just because they they didn't even know why. But Jordan said it. He'll see. He'll tell you. He said you cap. You would capture the whole room. Well, it wasn't me. The Holy Spirit would capture their attention. That's why I got I was remembering trustful speaking to the Republican women to trustful. And there was about 70, 80 people there. And I got through. I just got up and went off. It was during covid and the vaccine. And I just went off on it like let it rip potato chip, right? And when I finished my about 10 minute speech, maybe 15 minutes, I don't remember the whole place stood up and erupted in cheering and clapping. And the ladies told me what the president at the time of the club, they told me, they said, and we've been doing this club for like 10 years. We've never seen this happen for any politician. Oh, it made the other candidates angry like when we were in Birmingham doing the debate. And when I finished with my closing remarks, the crowd went crazy for me. And Lou Burdette was sitting next to me and he had to follow me. I had sorry for him. He looked like he's about to throw up. He's like, I can't top that. I can't deal with that. But it's the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It's the Lord giving you what to say. And it's that anointing that will capture people's attention in their heart. I feel sorry, but, you know, I feel sorry for these churches where they walk in and they walk out and then they felt nothing. You know, I love what John Kilpatrick, Pastor John Kilpatrick and Dr. Michael Brown said that when they were at the Brownsville Revival and I was there many nights, so I know what they're talking about. They would be sitting on the platform and the evangelist Steve Hill that God was using for the revival would be preaching. And every night in some way he preached against sin. He preached repentance. It was strong repentance message right in that revival. And, you know, Pastor John was fully saved, living the holy life. Dr. Brown loved the Lord, living the holy life. They said when Steve would get to the end and he would start slamming sin real hard and calling for the people to repent and come to Jesus, they would say, we would feel so convicted we want to get up and go down and get saved when you remember. No, I'm already saved. But that that anointing, that pull on the hearts of people is so strong that even born again
Christians were saying, oh, wow. I've seen I remember the Holy Spirit coming in that place so strong with the fear of the Lord that people would just get out of their seats and lay face down on the floor because the fear of God was there. And the Bible says by the fear of the Lord, but men depart from evil. I guess I need to quit. Y'all want our thanksgiving fellowship, don't you? Say I'm going to give thanks to God that I heard the truth this morning. Amen. Don't be an idolater. Don't put anything in front of Jesus. Don't be covetous. Don't be a whoremonger. Don't be a fornicator. Don't be an adult or don't be a drunkard. If you come to Jesus, you depart from those things. And if you struggle with them, you find out why. Do I have a demonic stronghold? I need deliverance from. Is there some wound in my spirit from my childhood that I need help? You might need help, but make sure you go after that help. You pursue it. You say some of you say, well, Pastor Dean, you hadn't got with me yet. I wanted you to pray with me. We'll get to you. There's so many hours in the day we'll get to you. But a lot of it you can do just with you and the Lord. I did a lot of it. And when I was going through it all, I did a lot of self deliverance in the day binding the demons that came in and cast them out. I remember when I bound the demons that came in through my Ouija board plan, I felt them come up and whoosh out of me. Self deliverance is a good thing. Sometimes you need help. That's OK. Find somebody that knows how to do it and help to get to help. Amen. Let's stand. I'm not going to go. I'm not going to do a song. Y'all don't need another song this morning. And then you say, Pastor Dean, I'm good. You know, as we I'm going to close out in prayer and prayer over the food. But as you say, Pastor Dean, well, I'm good. I know I'm living for the Lord and everything else. I'm I, you know, I didn't really need this today. I know there are people that need it, but I didn't need it. That's good. Hey, I praise God for that. You know that you're part of the 99 and not the one. But what the Lord wants you to do with this, he doesn't want you to just hear it and go, OK, I'm good. He wants you to go preach it to others. That's the key.
Go preach, be bold, be strong, tell people the truth. Even if you know it's going to upset them, even you know if it's going to cost you maybe a job or a situation or some promotion. You got to make up your mind to tell the truth. And let me tell you what, I've spent many years preaching this. This is this is nothing new for me. I went into prisons preaching this. I've preached this on the streets. Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. Turn from your sin and call on Jesus because he died on that cross for you and rose from the dead. You've got to call upon him and you quit the sin and he will give you the grace to do it. If you're serious about it, you hear me? You can do it. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, Father. God in heaven, I ask you to just move by your Holy Spirit and convict. There are people out there even listening, watching, even now. They're in sexual sin. They're not married in their in sexual sin, Lord. There are people in the homosexuality or people in the pornography. There are people cheating on their spouse. People coveting stuff. People who have idols like praying to Mary. Lord, deal with it. Convict them. Convince them, Holy Spirit. Draw them. Push them out of it, Lord. Prick their heart. Convince them. The word you said, Lord Jesus, you said the Holy Spirit will come to convict us of sin and righteousness and judgment to come. Holy Spirit, convict them of sin, righteousness and judgment to come. Bring them out of darkness. Bring the prodigals out of the pig pen back to the Father's house. Convict them, convince them it's time to leave that pig pen of drugs, marijuana, meth, alcohol. Convince them, Lord, that it's time to get up and go home. Lord, those that have unforgiveness towards somebody else, that hate somebody, that hurt them. God, show them that they must repent of the sin of unforgiveness and hatred and bitterness and truly forgive that person that hurt them. Lord, we pray for this this morning. I pray it all in Jesus' name. And Lord, we ask you to bless this food and this time together, this fellowship.
We pray for your presence to come even into our fellowship time and our eating time. We do give thanks to you that we can gather together in peace and freedom, that we don't have to worry right now about being attacked and persecuted and carried off to jail or carried to a guillotine. We thank you that we have some peace and freedom still in this country. And we give thanks to you. We give thanks to you for America, for everything that we have, the freedoms we have. And we ask you, Lord, to help us fight to keep them. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen, amen. All right. Hug some necks if you have to leave. I don't think anybody's leaving today. But if you are, hug some necks before you leave and God bless.