Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Watch Pt.1

Let's turn to 2 Timothy, and as you're turning just a couple of quick updates. Things are going very well in Africa as the preparation for the missions team, there's a lot of excitement. They're praying for you as you're praying for them, and we just encourage you to continue to prepare diligently. Those of you who are doing the vital job of intercession, we're believing for some great things. The last time we went over there we left churches where there were none. Praise God! Amen? Who knows what's going to happen this time? We're looking forward to personally visiting all of the churches. We'll be with all of the churches and meet with all of the congregations, so pray for us that we'll be able to bring the direction needed as we meet with all of the pastors. A lot of exciting things! We're continually getting reports of growth, numerically and in maturation; a lot of good things that are going on. Warfare, of course, taking place just like it is in every one of our lives, so hold each one of these overseers up and lift their hands up in this hour.

It's an interesting hour. We're going to talk about that a little bit tonight, this hour that we're living in. The warfare; it's surely not subtle anymore. The hour that we're living in is very plain, and yet at the same time, we've talked in the past, the vexation that comes upon every one of us. Every time we go out into the world we're being polluted. You can't step outside your prayer closet and not get polluted. We need to realize that, and we need to continually be washing ourselves with the water of God's Word and preparing ourselves for the hour that we're in. So, don't let this day overtake you. Don't be unaware of the time that we're in. We're going to talk about that a little bit: The need for watchfulness and not to be lulled to sleep in this generation.

A lot of exciting things that are going on! I was telling the pastors and deacons last night to continually pray for the direction. We're seeing some interesting things in these last weeks. I believe I mentioned a number of weeks ago that we're just looking for the mind of the Lord and just praying. I've not known how to pray clearly. I've just prayed in the Spirit. The one thing that I have prayed, that's been on my heart constantly, is "Lord just give us doors of utterance." Not just for me personally but for ourselves as a fellowship. "Lord give us doors of utterance, open up opportunities that we would not normally have." Has anybody besides me experienced that in the last couple of months? Anybody had chances to share the Lord that you haven't had in the past? Let me just see your hands; hold them up a little bit. Okay, are the rest of you praying, "Lord give us opportunity, give me a chance to share the reason of the hope that's in me"? Just to see people plucked as brands from the fire in this day. Since I've been praying that very earnestly--as I've said, not knowing exactly what Father's had--numerous, strange opportunities, that I wouldn't normally have, have arisen like I shared with you we went up and preached that funeral.

I never preach a funeral outside the fellowship. When they first called me, I actually turned them down, and the Lord spoke to me and said, "No, you're going." I said, "Okay, I'll come." There's always fruit in obedience. I did that same thing a number of years ago, and we've had some people hanging around ever since, Steve and Mary Scott. They called up, or someone called up who had known them, and asked if we would come and do a funeral, a tragedy they had at that time with their child. I said, "No," and the Lord said, "Yes," and I said, "Yes." Steve was saved in that service, the funeral service, and Mary. They've come to be part of our family and what a blessing they've been (praise God!) over all of these years. We went up there, not wanting to go, not knowing why we went, but the Lord answered and gave doors of utterance and lives were touched.

I shared some of the testimony with you of these guys--and we were able to just sit down with them and share with them for a long period of time--that we'd never had access to. The Lord's good! We shared with you last week, or the week before, how the chapel service opened up over there. It was phenomenal! Lives that were touched! In fact, this past weekend we went to Rockingham, and my intention was fully--I was going down there Saturday and coming home Saturday night. You get in a weird mode when you're doing some of what we're doing. You're mindset is--for me, now, to drive eight hours is like going down to Tyson's--you don't even think about anything less than eight hours. It's like, "It's only seven or eight hours down there." So, you go and you roll in, and one or two in the morning and go from there. That was our full intention. We go down there and while we were there one of the people who was at the chapel service in Maryland hunted us down and said, "Oh, praise God, it's good to see you! We've been telling everybody about that chapel service!" And they weren't kidding! A whole bunch of people had already heard about--it was like, the Lord showed up! They were fired up and they said, "We told the lady that's the head of all of the organization now."

Unbeknownst to us, unbeknownst to anybody except this one couple that was in Maryland, the ministry, International Christian Racing Association, the guy just pulled up and went to NASCAR--huge organization, ministered to thousands of people, just all kinds of people involved, and he just left! And nobody knew it. This guy told the lady that's head of this thing, he said, "You've got to go talk to these people!" They came to me and he said, "I asked her to come and talk to you." He said, "Now, I know you can't take this thing, but they need your help, they need you to speak into their lives and give some wisdom and some guidance." I said, "I'll be happy to talk to them." And that was that. Well, as the couple of days went on, people were coming up and just sharing. This one guy--I ran into a guy down there, I haven't seen a guy so excited about Jesus in years. If this dude had a tail, it was wagging, man. He was excited about Jesus! It was just so great to talk to somebody that was that fired up! I talked to him and talked--Well, actually, I listened to him and listened to him. As we were sharing some different things, I went down to their trailer. He said, "I heard about different things." We took him some of our books down and almost got mugged by his wife. We walked in, Greer and I went down to the trailer, went in with the books we had, and Imminent Return went like "whoosh!" She grabbed that thing! I'm talking she grabbed it, disappeared. Looked at her, and she's in her hammock reading that book. Twenty-five minutes later we went by, and she's in the hammock just reading that book.

To make a long story short, this went on and on. So, it comes to Saturday, we were supposed to have had two rounds in of racing on Saturday and it got down to a whole bunch of engines blew up and oil downs, and you're waiting and waiting. Well, we got two in the super gas car, the corvette; and we only got one round in, in the dragsters; and we had won in all three cars and they canceled the dragsters. So, we weren't going to get to run in our second round, and we were still in the race. I told Greg and Greer, "Let's just start packing up and head home." (People don't leave when you're still winning.) People said, "Where are you going?" We said, "We're going back to church." Jimmy and some of the other people said, "The people don't understand what you're talking about in a lot of these things." They said, "They don't have a clue how hard it is to win a round much less a race." What happens is, when I say, "A round," what happens is, after one round half the people go home, then half the people go home, and half the people go home, and it just keeps cutting in half. To win--and you have to win six or seven rounds to win a race. So, when we said last week that we won the race in Maryland, Jimmy said, "You need to tell people." It's hard to talk like that. He said, "You need to tell people how hard that was and how rare it is." He said, "You act like it wasn't a big deal. It's a big deal!" It is. People race every weekend, literally every weekend, for twenty years and never win a race. The Lord's just blessed us.

We're down there and we're still in it with the dragsters and I said, "Let's load up we're going home." The guy said, "Where are you going?" I said, "We're going back for church." The guy said, "Church!" I said, "Yeah, we're just going back." They couldn't believe it. So, we're loading up and all of a sudden I said, "Let's just load up and don't strap the stuff down yet; I'm not really sure that we're supposed to go home." I really sensed that we were not. The next morning we go to chapel and they had a guy down there preaching that they had asked to come in. They were actually trying him out to assume the oversight of this organization. I got a chance to talk to him afterwards, and he was just blessed! He came up to the trailer twice and I was sharing some principles with him, and the guy was really excited. I was thinking he was going to take this thing. It was between him and the lady that was the overseer; there was one thing I was after. (You know, I'm always after something. If you ever see me sitting around, I'm not in neutral, I'm after something.) What I was after was the opportunity to get distribution of all of our literature into every service around the country. We're talking North Dakota, Iowa, Texas, and Oklahoma. Well, everything from the Mississippi virtually this way and up into Canada, Alberta, Toronto area up into Canada. They verbally--to make a long story short--they verbally, by us staying around meeting with them, gave us approval to get all of our literature out, any books that we have, everything into the hands of every believer that comes to these meetings.

It was such a burden on my heart, because having been there, they're like sheep without a shepherd. They're people that are excited about Jesus, but have no teaching, virtually. Not only are we going to be able to get out our literature, but any teaching tapes. We're going to be able to supply whoever oversees this thing with ministry that we believe will prepare them for the coming of the Lord. It's exciting! It's something that we've been believing for, for a long time. Through this sequence of events, Maryland, down here, staying over when we didn't have any intention to, the Lord opened that door and lives are going to be changed and affected for the kingdom of God. It's a great testimony! We just encourage you to continue to pray. It's not a done deal yet; it's a verbal thing. Whoever they get to then come and oversee it is going to have to agree with this director that's setting it up, so be in prayer. It may not sound as exotic as Africa, but it's souls. Many of these people are backslidden Christians who have been destroyed by the age that we're in, whose hearts are being pricked. It's a real mission field, so we just encourage you to continue to hold those folks up in prayer.

Okay, are you in Timothy yet? 2 Timothy, chapter 4, (verses one through three). "I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come [and has] when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;" That describes the generation that we're in; "shall heap to themselves...". You see, the churches are being run today by the same marketing that's taking place with all other products in the world. The big mega-churches are hiring consultants that deal with demographics, marketing. They would tell me what style of suit to wear, and how I need to comb what hair is left--I'm getting more hair by the way. I'll let you know in a little longer; but Waleed was selling me this stuff. I think he makes it in his basement. I'm growing new hair! I've got new hair coming in! Now, don't tell Hope because she still thinks Greer's pulling it out while I'm sleeping. You all remember that story, right?--Whatever hair's left they tell you how to comb it.

You hear the stories that I shared with you; statements that are made like that by Doctor Dobson the other day when that tape was playing. He said, "It's so good! We need to hear this; people need to hear this. We all know that the pastors can't really say these things from the pulpit because people would be offended and would leave." And all it had to do with was marriage. It had to do with responsibility of husbands and wives; how to conduct your home. You can't talk about that in the church? The verse that just precedes this, in chapter 3:16 says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." What do we come for if we're not going to let the Word become profitable to us? It's profitable for our instruction, for our reproof. Everybody wants to come to church and feel good about themselves. You should leave feeling bad, knowing that there's work that needs to be done. And you should leave feeling glad because God provides the grace and the ability to finish the work that's taking place in us. Sad because we are a sad case, and glad, because greater is He that is in us, faithful is He that has called us who will do it, the Scripture says. Glad that He's given us all things that pertain to life and godliness, as we partake of the divine nature that's been provided by the blood of Jesus. People just don't want to hear the truth. We're living in a day when people want to be told a lie. They want to be told how great they are. They want to be told how great the world is. They want to be told that everything is going to be okay. It's not! Evil is going to wax worse and worse. This world is not going to get better, it's going to get worse! We need to come to grips with that!

The utterance that was given is right on for the age that we're living in. How many of us are honest with ourselves? Listen to the teaching of Jesus, The Parable of the Sower. In the Luke passage He says it this way: The good seed--the seed that produces thirty-, sixty- and one hundredfold--is that which falls on the good ground. What is the good ground? It says "An honest and good heart." The utterance said, "Be honest. Come to grips with where you are, come to grips with the condition of your heart." What kind of shape are you in tonight? "Well, you know, I feel a little dry." Then stir up the gift that's in you. Are you feeling a little bit dry? Then begin to pray in the spirit, for out of your innermost being shall flow forth rivers of living water. When's the last time you prayed in tongues (and I don't mean just made some noise), I mean you prayed out of your spirit, not out of habitual noise making? When's the last time you tapped into the Holy Ghost that abides in you and allowed Him to pray through you and make intersession for you because of the condition you're in, instead of praying about new house, new car, peace of mind? How about a new dwelling place for the glory of God? How about a cleansing of the temple of the Spirit that lives inside of us? We are the temple of the Holy Ghost. Are you praying that God would be glorified, or that life would be made easier on you? "A good and honest heart," Jesus said in His parable.

"[The hour that we're in,] heap[ing] to themselves teachers, having itching ears; [The prophets say it this way, "Prophesy smooth things to us, don't say, 'the burden of the Lord.' We don't want to talk about how hard it is to become holy. We're talking about easy life, we're talking about abundance, we're talking about blessings." They will not endure sound doctrine.] And they shall [in fact, verse four says] turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables [or lies, fairy tales]." We live in a fantasy world. We've shared with you how people sit around and play games on computers and think they're bad. "Bad dude, man," "My virtual reality guy beat up your virtual reality guy!" Fables! What have you done? Fables. The false image of ourselves--As, again, the utterance went forth--The false image, the way we perceive ourselves up against reality of who we really are in Jesus. How prepared are you to stand in this generation? How bold are you, as we go out into all the world and proclaim this gospel? How ready are you to shout from the housetops, without any apology for what you've heard in secret? In the market place, on your jobs?

I want to tell you something: It is right around the corner that you are going to be forbidden to speak the name of Jesus on the job. Some of you have already been told, "Don't talk about religion and don't talk about all of these things." "I can't help but speak the things that I've seen and heard." How prepared are you when it's going to cost you your job, to, just like Daniel, throw open the windows and pray to God and speak the name of Jesus when you're told, "If you do, you're going to get fired." Daniel was told, "When you do, you're going to die!" Are you ready for that? Do you understand the hour that we're in? What I want to talk about over the next couple of sessions, tonight and Sunday, is watchfulness. Watch! Watch! Not just--and we're going to talk about the coming of the Lord, but I want to talk about the watchfulness or the awareness of the hour that we're in so that we can be prepared when the Lord comes back. Are you ready for the return of Jesus? You say, "Man, am I ready!" No, I don't mean that way. I mean are you prepared? Are you strengthened, are you washed? The Scripture says it this way, "When the Son of Man returns, shall He find faith upon the Earth?" You see, He's only coming for those who believe. "Belief" is a verb; it has action, it's not just mental assent. What are you doing with what you believe?

Paul goes on and says, "Look man, we're living in this hour when men are being turned from the truth unto fables, they're believing lies, they're soliciting lies, inventors of evil (the Scripture says), not only doing these things; but taking pleasure (making heroes) out of the people that reject the Word of God." That's one of my pet peeves, and I shared it just recently. We talk about some of the kids here on the basketball team; we talk about, "Street creditability." I want to tell you something: Those people that you idolize are the enemies of Jesus Christ! They hate the Jesus that died for you! They mock, by everything they do, the treasures that you and I should be counting dear! Everything they want, everything they believe in, everything that they idolize, should be the opposite of want you do. Are you watching? Are you even aware of the seduction that's taking place in your minds? What am I saying? "Well, we shouldn't play basketball." I'm not saying that we shouldn't play basketball, I'm saying play it for Jesus, not for yourself, not for some image. Don't emulate some turkey out there who's a mockery to everything sacred. What we do, we do as unto the Lord; we do it differently than the world does it. Are you aware of how much you are like them?

Paul makes a great distinction here and he says, "I want to tell you, I'm different." Verse five, "But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions..." Listen! You're going to have to get this down! "...all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall [say it with me] suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12). As we've said many times, the Greek for "all" is...all but you? Where was it that you got that special dispensation of grace? In this world that we're living in, that Paul is speaking of right here, that age that you and I are in at this moment--parents hear me!--the age in which we are raising our young people and our children, in this hour that Paul is talking about, what are we doing to prepare them to stand? How aware are you? And how much are you contributing to their idolatry and their weakness? What are our treasures? Where's the fruit of--Now, remember we're not going to get off on legalism--Where is the fruit of your affecting those around you for righteousness? Are you known by your fruit to affect for good? Because you can't get good and salt water out of the same well; you can't get good and evil fruit from the same tree. What are you known for? What's your reputation? Now, if it's righteousness, let me tell you what's coming: "...all that will live godly in Christ Jesus..." You see, we're not talking about pseudo-morality; we're not talking about what is socially or un-socially acceptable. You see, it's not about how you live; it's about whom you're living your life for. "I do what I do for the glory of God. I do what I do by the power of God. For to me to live is Christ; without Him I can do nothing." "...all that will live godly [god-like for the glory of God] in [say it] Christ Jesus..." That becomes what will bring the persecution. It's not the good living, because we're not just talking about good living; we're talking about godly living.

We live in a generation where the churches are full of people that want to live in Disneyland; they want everything good, they want fairy tale endings, and, "We don't want people to be mean to people." We basically believe that people are good. Our churches are full of people that believe that man is good and the Bible teaches that man is totally depraved. That's the problem that we have. People are looking for goodness instead of godliness. To stand for godliness--to stand for the glory of God and not the glory of man, to talk about the eternal and not the temporal, to talk about treasures that are spiritual and not naturally obtainable and profitable--causes us to be perceived as the aliens that we are.

Now, watch. If you make that kind of a stand you will be persecuted! The world will hate you! If the world is embracing you and you are embracing the world, and you wanted to act like them and talk like them and pursue their pursuits: to be a friend to the world is to be the enemy of God. For you to believe anything else is to believe a lie. So many of us want to deceive ourselves--We lie to ourselves and we lie to our children. We say, "Well, you know, that's not what's really in their heart, they just want to be cool and look and talk and whatever." Well, what's wrong with being different? "Well, how do Christians dress?" I'm not going to get off on the dress thing again. "Do they dress in plaid skirts and uniforms of the parochial schools?" No, those are some of the orneriest kids you've ever run into. Parents, kids, are you ready to be different, to be distinct and unique like your God? See, the thing you've got to understand about God, "godliness," "holiness," means "unique." There is no other creature that's like a Christian and there is no other being like our God. Our uniqueness frightens people. Our absolute assurance of the truth creates schism and division. The world hates you and the professed Christian hates you when you will not bow your knee to their existential way of life and to their subjective form of living. The Word is truth, and as the Scripture speaks to us here and tells us in the midst of all of this spirit of antichrist, this spirit of humanism, this spirit of unrestrained defiance of the lordship of Jesus (or as Thessalonians says, the secret power of lawlessness), the Antichrist, the son of perdition, comes. That spirit is here: Lawlessness. Everybody's a law to themselves. Everybody is a god to themselves. Man has created their god in their image and they can make their god say anything they want him to say. They'll use Christian terminology and they'll twist these Scriptures to say whatever they want them to say instead of letting them interpret themselves.

Paul says this, look. In the midst of all of this, "watch thou in all things..." Watch thou in all things. Here's the question we need to ask tonight. Are you aware of what's going on around you? Do you even know what's happening to your own person? Do you know how you've been influenced? If you're not abiding in the mirror of the Word of God, if you're not looking into the mirror and continuing therein, you don't even know what shape you're in. Most of us have taken down our mirrors. We get up in the morning, we walk over, we start to get ready, we look and--I was just trying to think of a handsome guy. Who's a handsome guy today that people are thinking is good looking? We all know that beauty's in the eye of the beholder. Oh, the Kennedy kid that crashed his plane, everybody said he was one of the handsome guys. Let's just say for the sake of argument--You say, "Well I don't like him, I think that so-and-so is a handsome guy." Well, let's just use me! No, let's use him. What we'll do, we'll just use him and for the sake of argument we all think he's good looking, so there we go--We get up in the morning and we don't have a mirror and we get up there and instead of the mirror here's this picture of Arnold Schwarzenegger with Kennedy's head on it (because Arnold's ugly!). We believe that about ourselves! So, we walk like Arnold. We stand around, we go, "He went there." (pointing while flexing a bicep). Somebody asks you for directions. "Go down to the ..." (pointing and flexing again). They look at us and laugh, but we think we're Arnold. We conduct ourselves that way and we're lying to ourselves. We don't watch. We don't know how we're influenced by the world. We don't know who we are! And until you live in this Word, most of what you believe about yourself is a lie. Until you live in this Word, until you are saturated, until all that you want to know about yourself is found in this Word--"I come and I will not take anything as truth about myself except what comes from this Word; this is who I am" (Referring to the Bible)--then you probably believe a lie. Your momma is lying to you; you are not all that!

Listen to what he says, "But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry." Do you notice that one of the things that Paul says that will help you in the day that you're living in is to be an evangelist? Just start heralding the gospel. Make yourself a target for the world. Clearly define what your role is. "The reason I live is to love God and keep His commandments; that's the whole duty of man." Is your life that clearly defined? Are our decisions made based upon the simplistic role and responsibility that each one of has? How watchful are we in preparing ourselves to be ambassadors for Christ? Emissaries, representing another kingdom, aware of our role, aware of the authority that's been entrusted to us. Ambassadors carry great authority. Make full proof of your ministry. Do you think you've done what God's called you to do? Will we hear, "Well done good, and faithful servant"? Paul said, "For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand" (Verse 6). You know, that day's on us. What have we done in preparation to finish this course? We don't necessarily have a lot of time.

I have a plaque coming that we want to have put under the picture out here in the coat closet as a memorial picture for Janet. On it will be, of course, Proverbs 31; and the other Scripture that I put on it is, I think, very descriptive of her life, "An example of the believer, in word and in deed, in all matter of conversation, in purity, goodness."

What are you leaving behind? What's your reputation? How watchful are you? How jealous are you of your image? You know, I have a lot of people that hate me. We have the little "Calvary Hater's Club." It reminds me of the Little Rascals; they had the "He-man Woman Hater's Club." Do any of you remember that episode? It was great; the "He-man Woman Hater's Club." There's the "Hate Calvary Temple Club," and they meet and have new leadership now. Anything that's said here--you know that anything that I say here is in their ears before the evening's over. Somebody here among us leaves every service and goes and tells everything that was said and done in this service. Now, I don't know who you are, but you can save yourselves some effort. Tell them that they can get it live on the Internet. We have nothing--I say everything--what I believe I say. This is what drives people nuts! Then they get mad because they believe different. I don't get mad because they believe different than I do. They have a right to be wrong! I don't try and stop them from being wrong if they choose it. We tried, they wouldn't listen, so now go do it; give it your best shot, but get a life! I said all of that to say this: I have a reputation, and what they say about me with scorn and disdain and hatred, I delight in it! It's the reputation I've been trying to get for years! I've worked hard to be hated this much! You've got to do something right to have this many people mad at you. I'm not through yet, because there's a remnant that has ears to hear and we're going to snatch lives as brands from the fire, praise God! We will not compromise God's Word for the approval of men, and we will not dilute the blood of Jesus with the impotence of human psychology and human empathy, but we will continue to do the work of an evangelist and herald the free gift of deliverance from pride and selfishness and sin dominating thoughts and lives until Father's through and calls us home. My course is set.

Paul says it this way, "Be watchful and be ready to be offered." Paul knew that his time was at hand. I don't know my time yet; I believe I'll know it when its coming, but Paul says, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished [the race] I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, [This is where we'll pick up on out next session.] but unto all them also [say it with me] that love his appearing." Are we Earth-dwellers? Have we been seduced? Is there any appeal to you at all from Egypt? The Scripture says, "The things that I used to love I now hate and the things I used to hate I now love." That's a life of polarization. That's a life of absolutes. How much of your life now is compromise? When you first got saved and you hated all of this stuff, and now is some of it acceptable to you? Have you "matured" enough to now delight in the things that you hated when you were first saved? Can you justify returning like a dog to its vomit? Can we somehow give credibility to our lifestyle of the pig returning to the mire? We're called to holiness; we're called to continue to go away from the world. I'm talking about the world's acceptance; I'm talking about the worlds philosophies. Listen to me! Their treasures cannot be our treasures. Their heroes cannot be our heroes. Their purposes cannot be our purposes. Don't confuse outward appearance, necessarily, but also don't lie to yourself about the motive of your heart.

I just got a cool pair of shoes when I was out west. I got a brown pair of alligator shoes, (it's horrible to have a pair of shoes that you have to feed). I bought these shoes and I was comparing them with another pair, and I was looking at these two shoes and they were pretty pricey. I'm looking at the cheaper pair and I'm looking at this pair and I'm trying to make the decision, and I'm leaning toward the less expensive pair. I didn't like it as much, but just for the sake of money. We go over to the guy that sells the cheaper pair; he says he was a brother in the Lord. (We were witnessing to him.) I go back and ask him, "Hey, got a question." Now he's selling this thing. "Is your stuff better than their stuff?" He said, "No it's not as good as theirs." You don't always get that from somebody trying to sell you stuff, right? He said, "Their stuff's cool! This is really good stuff, but their stuff is like way cool. Dion wears their stuff." See, the guy I'm talking to is a brother. He said, "Dion wears their stuff and Holyfield, Mike Tyson." You see, Mike and his shoes bite. Now, what am I saying? I didn't buy the shoes because Dion wears them. I couldn't care less about Dion, unless he was paying for them. I liked them; they're cool! (We're talking mid-life crisis here, folks.) Now, the guy looks at me and he said, "You can pull them things off, man." This is the guy, now, that we didn't even buy them from. I said, "You're right!" Why are you doing what you're doing? You can lie to yourself and say, "Well, I just like that", or you do it for everybody else. You do it to be something you're not. Why not wear them and be what you are?

Are you ashamed of the gospel? Are you ashamed to be identified? In your watchfulness (as I end with this for tonight) I'm not just talking about watching for Jesus and hoping somehow that we get out of this mess. Are you watching the condition that you're in? You're going to get out of this mess if you're watching. I'm not just talking about watching for Him to come back; I'm talking about watching your own life so that you're ready when He comes back. Beloved, don't miss the point! We can get so bogged down by behavior and externals. I want to close with this; I want to ask you one thing: What is your pearl of great price?

Father, we thank You for the Word this evening. As we live in this day of vexation, we live in this day of evil when men will not endure sound doctrine, when they lie to themselves about their Christianity, "I'm right with God; what I'm doing, I'm doing for the Lord." I would venture to say virtually none of our motives are one hundred percent pure. Can you at least be honest enough to see that and hate it and cut the percentage on a daily basis that identifies you with self, self-will, self-glory, selfishness, and begin to say, "Nothing I have is my own, I've been bought with a price?" Watch and pray that the day does not come upon you unawares.

Let's stand before the Lord tonight as Gary plays for us for just a moment. You don't have to be a spiritual giant to realize that everything around us is falling apart. The economy is smoke and mirrors. Everything material can go down in a day in this hour that we're living in. Do not trust in anything from an economical perspective, it's all smoke and mirrors. It's all operating in faith. We, as a nation, are bankrupt and the rest of the world turns away and doesn't want to believe it, because the moment they all say, "You guys are broke," they all are also. So, we pretend, and we pretend that it's our right to have a seventy percent divorce rate. We pretend that it's our right to have gays get married. We pretend that it's our right to kill babies by the millions. We pretend that it's our right to flood the airwaves with pornography. We pretend that everything's okay, "It's going to be alright." We're not sick; we're dead. I'm talking about the human race, and only those of us that were crucified with Christ have then been raised and are alive with Him. I see dead people, but I see them as dead and not alive. You can only see dead people alive when you're dead.

As we sing this and rejoice in the goodness, the free gift of God, the eternal life that's ours, be watchful, be honest with who you are and the condition of your heart. Thank You, Lord. "Purify my heart..."

Hallelujah! Come quickly, Lord Jesus! Make us ready. Be glorified in our lives. When You come, will You find faith upon the Earth? Yes, Lord, there will be a faithful remnant; by Your grace cause me to be one. I ask, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen, amen.

Before you go, turn to somebody next to you and say, "Watch!" Amen, go in peace; God's love go with you!

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