The BRUTAL Truth About Lukewarm Faith - Pastor Greg Locke

0:00 Father in heaven, today, would you anoint the word to our ears, to our hearts, to this house, and to our homes? He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what the spirit of God says to the church today, both in house and online. Gather glory unto yourself. Release wisdom, knowledge, understanding, mercy, and grace. over your people today to not just hear a good message, but to live a godly life because of the authority of the word of the Lord. In Jesus mighty name we pray. And the people of

0:48 God said and shout it out. Amen and amen. You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. You may return to your seat. Thank you for worshiping with us unto the King. [Music] You know, I I think it's a beautiful thing when you understand the opportunity we have to minister unto the Lord. The Lord wants to hear our singing, our praying, see our dancing, our shouting, our flagging, our kneeling before him. It's one thing to be ministered to by others and by the Holy Spirit. We need that. But we are called to minister unto the Lord. And so, know this, when I preach, it's a ministry unto the Lord, not just a ministry unto the congregation. Because if I will minister unto him properly, then I won't have any trouble ministering unto you properly. Amen.

1:34 Church, I want you to go to the Gospel of Mark, of course, where we are in our series on hitting the mark, chapter number four. Last week, we dealt with the four different types of individuals that are in every service that are in this service now that are watching online. Four individuals in every church you've ever been in or ever will be be in. four individuals that are at every job and every place, every car lot. It's the four soils of your heart. And we talked last week about the 30fold, the 60fold, and the hundfold. So right on the heels of that as Jesus gave not just the first but the most important of all parables because he plainly said in read letters to his disciples and to all of us as followers and disciples of Christ today in this warehouse and watching

2:21 online that if we could not understand the simplicity of what he was saying and where he was going in that parable, how then he says shall you understand all things and all parables. So the second thing that comes out of the mouth of Jesus when he's giving these parables is a very very interesting concept and I fear that in the American church mindset we've lost much if you will in translation not because the translation is poor but because our understanding of the scripture is poor because we look at the Bible through an Americanized lens. But I must remind you, right, wrong, or indifferent, no matter if people like this or don't like this, if you do not

3:06 view the Bible through the lens of the Jewish culture, you will miss 98% of everything that the Bible is trying to teach you. This book is for Americans, but it's not an American book. Somebody say amen before I get started at 11:38. I It's a book that is scientifically accurate, but it's not a science book. It's mathematically accurate, but it's not a math book. It's historically correct, but it's not just a history book. It is the God breathed, God inspired life and life more abundantly for all of us. And it's not about a man plan in reading or listening to 20 chapters of the day. It's about a godly individual plan of applying the word of

3:51 God to our hearts. And we don't have a lack in our church at least of hearing the word of the Lord. But in every church, including ours, we have a lack of those that will obey James 1:22, what the Lord says in his word. It's one thing to hear a cute sermon. It's another thing to live your life in accordance to the scriptures. Can I get a witness? And so, we have to view this through its proper historical context. I'm going to read the passage. We're going to go back and develop it, and I want to illustrate it for you. Verse 21 is where we'll pick up the story. Mark chapter number four and verse 21. He Jesus said unto them, everyone that is standing around at this particular time. And here's what he said. Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel? You'll

4:38 notate that. This is a a question that already has an answer. Okay, the obvious answer is no. You do not burn a candle or a lamp in this context and put it under a basket, under a bushel. That's not what it's for. It's a rhetorical question. It's almost asking us in a in a nonsensical way, why would you even think this to be a fact. Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel or under a bed and not to be set on a candlestick? For there is nothing. Shout nothing. Okay. Nothing means nothing. For there is nothing hid what shall not be manifested, neither was anything kept secret, but that it should come abroad. If any man

5:28 have ears to hear, let him hear. Over and over and over, we looked at it last week. both Jesus and in Revelation 2 and three to the seven churches throughout the the Turkish Asia Minor area, the spirit of God. And now Jesus in red letters keeps saying, "Church here. Church here. Church here." Not listen, not just sit up straight, not just pay a little bit of attention, not just take notes and get a Bible highlighter. He says to hear, not just with your head, not just with your ears, to hear and absorb like a sponge with your heart. hear the word of the Lord. So says Jesus. And the reason he consistently says to hear this is because what he just said

6:14 is worth hearing. Now go back to verse number 21. I'm going to take my time and we're going to enjoy ourselves and describe the Bible. He says unto them, "Is a candle brought under uh is is it brought to be burnt under a bushel or under a bed and not to be sit on a candlestick?" Now, let me say a couple of things about this. Again, this is not uh an evil translation. This is not a misrepresentation. But when we think of a candle and a candlestick, we have something already in mind. But what we have in mind did not come around to the Middle Ages. That they did not start getting the beeswax and the various types of, you know, animal skins and the various types of wax and pull them together and make what we know to be wicking candles. So when Jesus is talking about a candle and a

7:00 candlestick, he's talking about a lamp and a lampstand. And we know that because of the other passages of scripture that support this one. And especially because in the last days, he says to those seven churches of Asia Minor, that they represent the candlesticks. They represent the candles, which we know to be the lamps of the Lord. So, when we had our our Hanukkah teaching this past Christmas time for our candlelight service, I brought in a couple of of relics and artifacts that we have in the museum that we've been working on. And two of the things I brought in were these Jesus lamps. Now, I brought in one that just is a wee bit younger in age historically than the original one that I brought in because it's much smaller, right? And I

7:46 I brought in the one that was literally what we would call a a Jesus timeline lamp. This is more of a Byzantine time. And so this would be a little bit after Jesus, obviously, but it's still the same concept. It's still old, hundreds of years old, in fact. And I pray I don't drop it when I get excited. But this this is a candle in the Bible. So, you need to get out of your mind a wedding candle, a poperri candle, uh, you know, let's go down to the store and buy that type of a Yankee candle. That's not what Jesus is referring to. He's referring to an oil lamp in which you put the oil, you held the handle when you carried around, a wick went in right there in that little insert hole, and you would burn it. That's why it's important to understand it's so small.

8:32 You remember in Matthew chapter 25, he told the the wise virgins, actually told all 10 of them, wise and unwise, but especially the five wise virgins, "Make sure your lamp is full." Why? Because you only have enough to carry for you, not for everybody else. And so when he talks about a candlestick, he's referring to a lampstand. They would take these and not put it, as he says, under the bed, but they would put it beside the bed because they did not have nightlights the way that we have. They did not have incandescent light bulbs and they did not have LEDs and they did not have all of these things that you plug into the wall, right? And so they would take this, fill it with oil, they would put the wick in it and then they would either carry it around so they could make it to the bathroom without falling into a hole or they would put it beside

9:17 the bed on a lampstand. So please get out of your mind that he's referring to the type of candle that you would buy at a candle place. Right? That is the mindset, the Americanized way that we think about it. But it's important that you understand what it actually was because you can light a candle, burn it down, and never think about it until you have to relight another one. But when you understand the concept that this lamp is only as good as the oil that is in it, then you begin to understand the concept and the context of what Jesus was teaching. So I want to say a couple of things and we'll be into the verses. And again, we're just going to take our time and enjoy oursel. If that's okay, say amen. I meet a lot of people that want to

10:03 shine for the Lord. Oh, I want to let my light so therefore shine before men that they may see my good works and glorify my father which is in heaven. This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine. We know the songs, we know the verses, we know the stuff. I don't find people that have a lack of wanting to show light. That's not the problem. If I asked you, do you want your light to shine? All of us would say, of course, I don't want to hide my light. I want to put it on a candlestick so the whole room can be lit. I don't want to burn the bed down. I don't want to burn the kitchen down. You know, I don't want to put it under a bush or hide it under a bush. Oh, no. I'm going to let it shine. We know the stuff in theory. But I was out walking this morning thinking over this message and I felt

10:49 the Lord say to me, people in the church world, even ours, don't have a lack of desire to shine. They have a lack of commitment to being full of oil so they can shine. Everybody wants to shine. Oh yes, I want to burn for the Lord. There's only one way you do that, and that is to keep your vessel filled with oil. You can light a dry wick until the cows come home and it will only burn momentarily. And we have people that come to church and they go up like a rocket and come down six weeks later like a meteorite because they were bright for a moment but they were not

11:34 full of oil. Now I want to show you something in this context and then illustrate it if I may. Once he just talks about this candle not being put under a bushel, not being put under a basket. Again, that would be an asinine thing, would it not? It would be ridiculous to take a a lamp, even a regular candle, but to take one of these little lamps to fill it with oil, to put a wick in the insert to burn it, and then put it under a bushel basket. That would be ridiculous. But how many of us live that way? Oh, we're going to burn for the Lord. We're going to shine for the Lord, but we do it secretly. Listen, your secret life should be shown in your public advertisement of Jesus. There's something I know about someone that lives godly, not arrogant, that

12:21 lives godly in public. They are double godly in private. Because if you think for any second you can just come to a good church and keep your lamp full, you got another thing coming. It will not cost you something to keep oil in your lamp. It'll cost you everything to keep oil in it. Friends will walk away from you. Family will walk away from you. Church people will walk away from you. Churches will run you off. Denominations will label you. Religious people, institutions, and organizations will demonize you and don't even believe in demons.

13:07 If you keep your lamp full and you burn bright for the glory of God, know this. God is going to test as to whether you have deep levels of commitment or not. Cuz anybody can light a wick. But not everybody can stay full. Not everybody can stay burning. You know, it's funny. And I'm not going to ask who's already failed the man plan and who's still on the man plan and how many people are on the man plan. Here's what I want to ask. I want to ask why is it that I can put out 12 principles that at the end of the day are as simplistic nearly as breathing. And I know it's the first week so you don't believe that.

13:53 But as simplistic nearly as breathing and we think to ourselves, oh my goodness, that's such a deep level of commitment. I'm just trying to get you ready for what comes next. And I'm not talking about round two. I'm talking about what God is going to bring upon the earth and what the enemy is going to fight. And if you can't do 120 push-ups a day, I don't want you on the front lines because you going to jump in a foxhole and whine and cry to mama. I'm not trying to raise a church full of people. I'm not trying to pastor people that just want to walk around with a chip on their shoulders, always putting the blame on somebody else and every time they look in the mirror, they think they're hunky dory and this that and the other thing and greater than a bag of chips. Listen, I want to be around people that are authentic, that are genuine, that are honest, that are real, that have deep levels of commitment. And they say, "My goodness, of course I can

14:41 stay off video games for 153 days. Why? Of course I can read 20 chapters of the Bible a day. Why? Not because you're in some group covenant with Greg Lock, but because you're in a commitment to the Lord, and if you can't be committed into small things, God will never entrust you with the big things." And I say, church, you better keep your lamp oiled up. And I can't do it for you. Dear God, he knows I want to. I can only get you so committed. I can only get you so involved. I can only get you so in. I I I can only preach so much and pray so much and prophesy much and do so much. At the end of the day, if you do not stay filled with oil, it will not be on my watch. And it will not be

15:26 for a lack of me not trying to keep you filled up. Does that make sense? So once he talks about don't put it under a bushel, then he says this, this is the craziest thing or under a bed. Now I I understand the immediate interpretation, but I got to make a little bit of an application. I think that's that's kind of crazy. Jesus said, "Now don't get your oil lamp, set the wick on fire, and put it under your bed." Well, of course you ain't going to do that. You'd burn the bed down. You'd burn the house down with you in it. He says, "What you need to do is put it on a lampstand beside the bed and then before you go to sleep, just blow it out." But

16:13 I find it interesting of all the things that Jesus says to them and to us as a last days congregation. He says, "Don't put it under the bed." And I won't surmise and guesstimate what Jesus is trying to say. I I'll not shove words in the mouth of the Messiah. But I will say I believe the application beautifully could show us that the problem with many of us is that the reason he mentions the bed is because you've not woke up to the reality of how dry your life really is yet. People come to church empty as a burned out volcano

17:01 and leave dry as a bird's nest. Well, you know, I just don't know about all this 20 chapters a day. I just don't get a whole lot out of it. You know why? Because you're dry. And the more you read, the better it'll be. Listen, just keep showing up when you don't feel like it. If you think I feel like preaching every time I grab a microphone, you got another thing coming. There are times I don't want to crawl out of bed like you don't want to crawl out of bed. There are times I don't want to have to worship through it. I don't want to have to pray through it. I don't want to have to preach through it. I don't want to have to do deliverance through it. Sometimes I think, dear God, I need deliverance myself and I'm doing it on somebody else. But the only way I can effectively transmit to you what God puts in me is

17:46 to make sure he keeps putting it in me. I got to be full. And some people are so asleep that they got their lamp under the bed. Some of us in this room proverbally in the spiritual realm live consistently with our finger on the snooze button of life. Listen, after five times, dear Lord, get out of bed. And God consistently tries to wake us up out of our snoozing, but we just keep hitting the button. I want to be comfortable. I want to be comfortable. I want to be comfortable. I want to be comfortable. Somebody sent me

18:31 the best message, one of the top 10 best messages I've ever received in my life. And guess what? It came through Twitter the other day. And I say that because don't nothing good come to me from Twitter. 203,000 people and most all of them are mad, especially when I say something about the Jews in Israel. But they sent me a message the other day and they said, "You make me very uncomfortable with where I am in my walk with Jesus." Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Winner winner chicken dinner. I've done my job. Praise God. Let's go on vacation. Huh? That's what I want. I don't want a casual, cool, calm, collective, laidback church where you just come in and you're like, "Oh my goodness, I'm just going to get in where I fit in. I'm not going to have to do

19:17 anything." We want you to be uncomfortable because you're not doing anything. And by the way, Ricky's worked very well to get the air. The air is not a Greg Lock or a Global Vision or Ricky problem. It's a Herk Reynolds problem. So, we're working on that. So, we apologize. But like Paul said a moment ago, no need to apologize. I'm from the tent days. Praise God. If you old school from the tent days, this is like Eskimo. I need a jacket and a scarf and some gloves right now. I'm cold. But what I'm saying is everything doesn't have to go your way in the church world. And the reason people are church hoppers and they go from one church to the next church to the next church to the next church, they always say, "Well, I'm I'm looking for something. I'm looking for something. I'm looking for something." You know why you can't find it? Cuz you

20:05 go to every church you go to. Rewind. Cuz you go to every church you go to. You're like, you know, I'm going to make it appear like I'm just burning bright for Jesus. But, you know, I'm I'm going to leave Global Vision because I just I just don't feel like I'm getting filled up. So, you take your empty vessel to another church and you say the same thing about that pastor. And then you say the same thing about their elders and you say the same thing about their deacons and you say the same thing about their worship team. And then you go to another church and you say the same thing about them. And then you go to another church. You've been doing this since Sunday school. Why? Cuz you've been dry since Sunday school days. And and people are looking for a place to spoon feed them and force feed them. You know, they used to tell me at the children's home, "Babies get fed. Everybody else feeds themselves. If the

20:52 only time you eat is when I open the Bible on Sundays or Wednesdays, you are a malnourished believer. No wonder you're mad. And right after he says, "Don't put it under the bed." Watch this next phrase. This fascinates me that these even correlate together. I read things in the Bible sometimes and I'm like, "Wow, I never would have put those two together." Well, Jesus did. So, after he talks about staying full, burning bright, not hiding your witness. Watch this. For there is nothing hid. That's an uncomfortable truth. You see, if you're burning for the Lord properly and not hiding

21:37 your candle and lampstand, the Bible says that the light that you illuminate will not allow things to be hid, get this, in your life or in the lives of others. You know why some people don't like to hang around you? It's not cuz you're a bad person. It's cuz they want to do bad things and you convict them and get their demons stirred up when you walk in the room. So they'll come up with an excuse as to what's wrong with you because they don't want to fix what's actually wrong with them. But here's what the Bible says in Numbers 32:23. Be sure I said be sure your sin will find you out. He that coverth sin shall not prosper,

22:24 but who so confessth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Proverbs 28:13. And the church has been conditioned to cover their tracks. H Oh, listen. I I know I'm not going fast. I want it all to sink in today. The church has been conditioned to be so empty of oil, but pretend to call what we have light that because of the lack of real light, we can live in true darkness and it never even bother us because we done hidel. We done hidelush.

23:11 So let let me illustrate it like this. I probably shouldn't do this, but I I I got more of them, so it it'll be all right. And uh I go to Israel a lot, so I know where I can buy these. I'm going to fill this ancient oil lamp up. I might need somebody to get this off because I've only got one hand. Got that, baby. I know it. I'm I'm going to use it all up. Let's put that Can you open it up somehow? We're gonna pour that right in here. Oh, yeah. That That thing ain't had oil in it in 500 years. Praise God. It does now. Good. Okay. Thank you. I'm not going to burn it. Don't worry. I'm just going to illustrate. I don't even know if that hole right there has been clogged up for 500 years

23:56 or not. Nope. It's good. Let me come down here. Am I good? Let me tell you why people have a hard time staying full. Because let's say you come to a service, you get convicted, you come to the altar, Lord does something great. He did some great stuff this morning. So I won't minimize that. And then all of a sudden, you just feel full to overflowing. Woo! You just feel like you about to bust wide, slam open, as we say. So here's what happened. You go throughout your week, you got your full lamp. But here's what nobody ever preaches on for some reason. When you wake up tomorrow morning

24:43 at 3 or 4 o'clock, God woke you up probably because he wants you to pray and spend a little time, but you decide, you know what? I'm just going to get on my phone for a little while. My wife's not up. You start looking. You know what happens every time? You lose a little of that oil. Then you go throughout the day and you see somebody at work or at church that you can't stand. You should have forgave them a long time ago. That feeling rares up inside you. Oh, I just that person a little more oil comes out of you.

25:32 You start burning a little dimmer. You start making decisions. Well, you know, nobody's really going to know if I steal this or don't give this or if I don't obey in this area of my life. And you let a little oil out. And we are such leaky vessels that we come to church. How dare we and pray for God to fill us but disrespect the value of what he puts in us and then all week long go around leaking out what God's tried to put in us so we can

26:19 burn with the power and the fire of the Holy Ghost. And we are disrespecting the very oil that Jesus wants to get. He shed his blood so you could have the oil of the Holy Ghost. And we come to the altar. Give me oil in my lamb. Keep me burning, burning, burning. Give me oil in my lamp. I pray. Hallelujah. And then we have secret sin in our life. No commitment in our life. read the Bible like it's just some kind of boring comic strip. We have no time to pray. All we do is criticize everybody else for everything they're doing that we know we should be doing. Let me burn, Lord. Let me burn. And God

27:04 says, "You would burn. You would burn. You would burn. But you just barely trickling right now because you ain't got nothing left to burn." And every day we empty ourselves out on irreverent, foolish things, disrespecting the actual cost and the value of the oil that God wants to place in us. Don't ever again ask God to fill you up if you're going to empty it out on things that don't matter for eternity. Everything will be brought to light. Well, I've been trying to serve the Lord and I just can't figure out why my life's falling apart. You lie like a rug.

27:49 You out drinking, doping, porning, cussing, rebel rousing, acting a fool, thinking on evil, illicit, wild, crazy, sexual things in your mind all day long and then tell God he's the problem. What's wrong with us? We have conditioned the American church to be comfortable in disobedience. And pastors are cool with it because when I say stuff like this, people like, I'm I'm glad they already took the

28:36 offering. I wouldn't have gave nothing to this church if I thought you going to say that. Well, I'm going to say it next week, too. So, don't come back. I'm not going to disrespect the value of the oil that God wants to put in me. I want it tripping from me. I'm not saying you going to be perfect. I'm not saying I'm perfect. But what is wrong with us when we continually live in a backsliding disobedient state and then we say, "Oh God, feel me. Oh God, feel me. Oh God, feel me." We use church as an opportunity like a like a priesthood like Catholics to live crazy on Saturday and come to church and be like, "Oh, it's all good as long as I go to church." If you ain't all good on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, I don't want to hear nothing

29:22 about it. Talk to the hand cuz the ears ain't listening to you. We got to learn to be holy. We got to learn to be righteous. And by the way, if you're going to be holy and righteous, you better hang around holy and righteous people. I'm not saying you can't bring people up. I'm not saying you can't disciple people. I'm not saying you can't help people. I'm not saying you can't do deliverance on people. You can't pray for people. You can't go to a meal to bless somebody. But you hear me and you hear me well as your friend, as a spiritual father, and as your pastor. Stop getting wisdom and counsel from wicked people. If you are not living right, I do not want you telling me how to handle my marriage. Help me, Holy Ghost, before I jump all over this building.

30:08 If you living like hell, don't tell me how to have heaven invade me. Some pastor that won't preach, won't stand up against all this LGBTQ queer crazy nonsense. They want to tell us how we supposed to run our church, how we supposed to do our church. If you can't figure out what bathroom you supposed to go to, don't tell me I'm too bold, I'm too crazy, I'm too fired up, I'm too abrasive, you've lost your mind. My oil cost me something. I ain't throwing it on the ground. There's some value to my substance. I'm not just going to give it away to everybody. By the way, help me, Holy Ghost. I'm gonna say this right now. Tomorrow, I have the privilege. men. We

30:54 can't meet in the morning cuz we got to fly to to Pastor Brandon Hubers. I'm going to be preaching to Montana deliverance conference tomorrow night. I'm excited about it. But listen, I I love him and I can't wait to get there. But it reminded me of something cuz we about to be doing some more of this. Brother Samuel and other people in our church. You You know where the green whales are today? Let me tell you where they're at. I sent them to a church in Mississippi that wants to be under our covering. So, we started this whole new thing. I said, "Listen, all kind of people want to be under our covering for some reason." But I said, "Before we have anybody else come under our covering, I'm going to send you to their church. Make sure it's a good fit." Cuz I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to tell you something. Now, we like like tomorrow and various times, we go and we preach for people that we've

31:40 laid hands on and we love them. But I'm going to tell you something I've done in the past and dear God, I'll never do it again. I disobeyed where the Bible says, "Lay hands suddenly on no man. I've given my oil away to some crooks I laid hands on who wouldn't spit on me today if I caught fire. And I ain't just going to lay hands and let anybody be under the cover of this church. Hey, our oil cost us something in this warehouse. It cost us some hell up in this place. I ain't just going to lay hands on any willy-nilly that's going to be disloyal and just run off and do anything they jolly will please. I'm done with that. Lay hands on people long as you giving them a paycheck. Oh, Greg Locks, my pastor. Let us go through a little bit of financial difficulty. Tell them you got to cut them back or you got to cut them off all together. And man, all of a sudden, you

32:28 a devil. You a rebel. You never help me. I'm going to tear up my ordination papers. yada yada yada. Hey, my oil costs too much to mess around with immature little babies that ought to sell cars and get out of the ministry. Yes, I'm fired up. I've wasted much of my life trying to disciple demons. Trying to keep happy people that have been under our covering. I'm done with it. I done spit spilled my valuable oil out on people that don't want it, don't respect it. I'm not talking about I'm some great, holy, high, wonderful reverend of a man. I'm just telling you,

33:15 I've spent my life trying to stay full. And when I get emptied out, it's gonna be on things that matter. It's not going to be on wicked stuff, just throwing it out. You see, there's value to what God's put in us. And oh, we want to burn. We want to burn. We want to burn. We want to burn. You cannot burn. You'll smoke a little bit, but you can't burn when your lamp's empty. So, I find it interesting that he makes this Holy Ghost connection moment and says, "You got to have your lamp full, but know this. When it is full and

34:00 you're burning bright, all things will be made manifest." I find that an interesting word, too. That's a deliverance word. And this is not a deliverance passage, but you know this. If you full of the devil, it's going to manifest one way or the other. You going to repent and it's going to come out. Or I'm going to preach and you going to get crazy. Woo! It's going to come out. But it's going to manifest. Why? Cuz when the light is shed on a situation, it brings the darkness out. And by the way, don't let that scare you. The best thing you can ever do is come from darkness to light. Because once it's exposed and once you repent, the devil can't use it against you anymore. When you ain't in shady places, you ain't got to go to bed at night with shame and guilt looking over your shoulder. I don't live like this. I can walk around with my shoulders held up high, my head throat up high like I'm

34:46 10 foot tall and bulletproof. I'm not perfect. My wife ain't going to find shady stuff on my phone. She ain't going to find out I've been running around with somebody. She ain't going to find out I've been stealing money, been doing all manner of nonsense and evil rebel rousing and wickedness and drinking and carousing and womanizing. Hey, let me tell you something. It's great and wonderful to live every day with a conscience that's cleared before the Holy Ghost. That's a power. Hey, that's a man plan right there. Benjamin Franklin said, "A clear conscience is an everyday Christmas." And by the way, remember what Paul said? Paul said, "My conscience is cleared. My hands are clean before all men." So, it's one thing for me to want to live holy, but you know why I preach like this sometimes and I sound like a granddaddy, right? Not just a daddy. No, no. my mouth. My granddaddy walks out.

35:32 He was old school crazy. Whoop you with a belt and that didn't work. Cut your own switch. DCS show up, it'll whoop their butts, too. I'm telling you right now, my granddaddy didn't play no games. So sometimes I open my mouth, my granddaddy comes walking out and I talk to you like this because listen, I'm not going to stand before you for what I did and did not say. I'm going to stand before Jesus for what I did and did not say. And it's not going to be on my hands that I let you fornicate, that I let you live wicked, that I let you live ungodly, that I didn't let you read your Bible and pray and fast. Hey, I'm not going to let you lose your oil and then blame me for it at the judgment seat. Absolutely not. I'm going to stay filled up. And I want you to stay filled up.

36:17 But y'all keep on pouring out the value and wonder why God doesn't see fit of you being a good steward to keep pouring back into you. I just feel like the Lord has left me. Stop that. That's like this old man, this old woman. They've been married for 60 years that's driving down the road and he's just driving. She's enjoying himself. And she's shoved over up against the door. And she said, "Oh, honey, I remember when we first got together, I was snuggled up beside you. Your hand was around me and my hand was on your knee."

37:03 And every now and again, we'd pull up to a red light. You'd whisper, "Sweet, nothing's in my ear." And we used to be so close in this car. He said, "Woman, I've been in the same driver's seat for 60 years. You're the one that slid to the door, not me." And we trying to blame go blame God for moving. He's been in the driver's seat the whole time. You're the one sliding over to the door. You're the one that got uncomfortable. You're the one that didn't want to be seen with Jesus in public. You're as close to God as you want to be. You know as much Bible as you want to. You're as holy as you want to be. You're as righteous as you want to be. You're as separate from the world as you want to be. You're as man planned or woman planned up as you want to be. You this very moment are as spiritual as you set your heart and your mind to. So, one of the good things I'm going to do in this church is take away the excuse, the criticism, and the crutch of

37:49 why people live the way they live. I'm not going to let you blame your spouse. I'm not going to let you blame your pastor. I'm not going to let you blame the president. I'm not going to let you blame Gentiles or Jews. I'm not going to let you blame white people, black people, green people, beige people. I'm not going to let you blame the government. Not going to let you blame your parents. Listen, you have got to get to a place where you take personal responsibility for the decision that you made, whether it's good or whether it's bad. Because God forgives sins, but he doesn't relieve consequences. You got to man up and woman up. So, where all it came from, I don't know. I'm just excited. These push-ups got me going, boys. Got me going. But what's wrong with us?

38:34 Holiness is lost in our culture. Godliness is frowned upon. in our culture. Listen, there have been times in the past and there will be times in the future that God says, "You know what? Sit that person down. They're not authentic. Sit them down. I'm not playing with congregants lives. I'm not playing Russian roulette with demons. Just spin the barrel and see what

39:20 happens. Could be good, could be bad. We got hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people coming from all over the world for an open heavens conference. You think I'm going to pray for open heavens and then live in rebellion so God closes them before the conference even starts? I'm I'm not trying to raise perfect kids and pastor a perfect church. But Jesus said, "Be ye therefore perfect even as I am perfect and as my father in heaven," Matthew 5:22, "is perfect." What it means is you strive to be as much like Jesus as you possibly can until the day that you're fully like him. But until then, we're going to have bumps. We're going to have warts. We're going to have problems. We're going to have inconsistencies. We're going to have sin. But you ain't got to live in it. Well, you just don't know my situation.

40:05 Nope. And I don't have to. God does. I know this principle applies to everybody that's in this room. And I know God wants to fill us up, but he's not going to continue to fill us up when we continually disrespect what he's putting in us. We have a responsibility to live by the power and the influence of the Holy Spirit. You see, churches have by and large learned how to fill a building with a crowd. And did you know that every one of us, we've all been guilty, so let's not pretend like we haven't. All of us have

40:51 been guilty of thinking that numerical growth equals Holy Spirit power. I know churches that do some of the most ridiculously evil and carnal things on the planet. Not all of them that have crowds that would make our good crowd look like a Sunday school class. But just because they have people in the pews and rumps in the seat does not mean they have people in the seats that are filled by the power of the oil of the Holy Spirit. So I had to come to a crossroads in my ministry and I say my ministry not that this is

41:38 my church but in the ministry God called me to I had to come to a crossroads and say okay it's this or this. I had to ask myself the serious question because I mean we were doing all them them programs, you know, we had a an associate pastor way back in the day and some of y'all will know and that's the name that we speak not of, praise God, but nonetheless, they they had us doing this program called 24 to double. If you do these seven things in 24 months, you'll double. And I mean, I bought into all that nonsense. We mailing stuff out. And and I'm not I'm not against marketing to some degree. Jesus said, "I must be about my father's business." And so I get the business, you know, understanding of the ministry. You got to you got to be wise with that. But I mean, we tried to do all I'm going to grow the church. Oh,

42:23 going to be the fastest growing church. And then all of a sudden it happened. And during a pandemic, if you will. We were one of the fastest only fastest growing churches on the planet. Magazines calling, newspapers calling, news people showing up. We should have done married CNN. They've been here eight times to date us. Movies, books, hate pieces, hit pieces, love pieces, good, bad, the whole deal. And I had to get to a place where I had to ask myself a serious question. Am I going to keep up

43:15 with a continual charade to make consumers happy that are eating up all of God's resources but not contributing jack to the kingdom? Am I going to spend my life trying to slop hogs and feed goats when God says you got one job and that's to feed sheep, son. to pastor the sheep in the fold. So I had to ask myself a question one day. Am I going to preach and build a persona that keeps the church filled with people?

44:01 Or am I going to preach in a way that's going to fill the people that decide to stay as the remnant? And I think you know the answer to the question. I had to get over Numbers a long time ago. There's a whole book in the Bible called the book of Numbers. And I'm not in it. I think everybody in this room knows me well enough and those especially that that know me on the road. I would preach like this if two people showed up today. Now only one of them would show up next week. Praise God. Listen, I I've preached like this when nobody knew who Greg Lock and Global Vision was and no Facebook page.

44:47 I was ranting in my truck long before Target jumped on the scene and Donald Trump. I was crazy preaching to a handful of people way before he came down the escalator. And I had to ask myself, am I going to allow that stuff to change me? And now I find myself in the biggest fight of my life every day over a country that I don't even live in. I will live there one day. And by the way, so will Jesus because he's not coming back to the White House. He's coming back to God's house in Jerusalem. But nonetheless, and I look back now and I'm thinking, "No wonder God let me be so crazy all of those years." He knew that the worst was yet to come. You see, y'all got all these double for your trouble prophets. The best is yet

45:34 to come. The best is yet to come. You know why? Because the worst is yet to come. All hell about to break loose. All hell about to break loose. And when hell breaks loose, heaven comes down. And I'm just trying to prepare people. Just trying to prepare. I'm just trying to get your oil filled up. If if that means I got to give you 12 principles for 153 days to keep you full, to keep you focused, to keep you going, okay, that's fine. This is your moment where right now we're all sitting in a high chair together. We're feeding each other. We got our bibs on, but I have 153 days. Listen, I ain't holding your hand. Your wife ain't going to hold your hand. Let me tell you what my wife ain't got to do. Read your Bible, honey. Are you going to walk today? Am I going

46:20 to eat? What do you mean? Am I going to walk today? Of course I'm going to walk, right? She ain't got to ask me them questions. Well, are you going to are you are you going to preach the Bible today? She She don't ask me those questions. Well, honey, I just I think you ought to learn to just really say what you mean. Be a little more bold. Did anybody ever teach you about fasting? Listen. Ah, help me God. I love everybody in this room. Me and Listen to me, okay? Listen to me, man. Listen to me. Listen to me. Listen to my heart. If your wife has to beg you to be spiritual, you're not. I I listen I I got a spiritual wife and I know all men should have a spirit.

47:06 Listen, I know I know I know I know women got their own issues. Dear God, they got their own issues. That's why you better not all this Solomon stuff. You can only handle one. You don't need a group of them. Praise God. You don't need more than one, right? You just don't. But men, I'm telling you, if your wife has to beg you to be spiritual, are you even saved? What in the name of God's wrong with you? Wife have to remind you to pray. Wife have to remind you to live holy. You always have to be uh uh you know, listen, it'd be a real good thing, right? I ain't going to do it. So, don't embarrass nobody and don't jump up and get all crazy on me.

47:51 You know what some of you guys and and by the way, some of you gals, cuz you ain't off the hook either. You know what some of y'all ought to be able to do right now without even looking, without changing nothing. I mean like right now if you cannot this second don't do it. I ain't got time for it. I'm hot. If you couldn't swap phones with your spouse right now without touching one button on it, you need to get your heart right with God and stop playing games with the oil God supposedly put inside you. Right. Listen, I I used to hand it to her all the time before I preached. The only reason I carry it now is cuz I got to walk boys and I walk like 3,000 steps

48:37 per sermon. Praise God. Amen. So, I'm getting my man playing in, but listen, I can hand that woman my phone and not at all be embarrassed by what she would see. I don't know what's wrong with us. Oh God, give us power. God says, "Okay, let me put you in the process." And everybody wants the power, but nobody wants the process. Process is humiliating, embarrassing, no fun, a lot of repentance in the process. A lot of humility in the process, a lot of confession in the process, a lot of growing out of immaturity to maturity in the process. But you can't get the power without the process. And by the way, if God gave you the power without the process, it would make you explode. And what you thought would bless you will end up destroying you. Because without

49:23 the process, you can't respect the power. And if you give a person power without process, the power will destroy them and everybody around them. And God says all things are going to come to light. All things are going to come abroad. Nothing can be kept in secret. Then he says, "If any have ears to hear, let him hear. Pay attention." He says, "Your sin will be exposed. Your tom foolery and wickedness will be exposed. Your ungodliness will be exposed. You can whisper online, but God said it'll be shouted from the housetops. We'll give an account of every idle word that comes out of our mouth. I want to say this. I'm gonna read a

50:08 verse. I'm gonna say something. You can go ahead and hit them keys, brother. It'll help me. Go back. Look verse 21. He says to them, "Is a candle, a lamp, brought to be put under a bushel, be hid under a basket, or under a bed?" No. Should it not be set on a candlestick? Yes. Why? Because it will expose. It will illuminate. It will bring revelation. It will bring light, illumination, comfort, warmth. That's what it does. That's what a fire will do. It it gives you and others light. It warms you and others. It's a combustible situation where once

50:53 it begins to burn, very little can stop it if you'll keep feeding it the fuel and the fire will grow. Our God is a consuming fire. But I want to say this. I was reading some time ago, and maybe I've shared this story before. I don't quite remember. But a couple years ago, I guess I was reading a book and it had this little story in it. And there was a man who was working at a train yard where the rail road would intersect. And it was his responsibility if another train was coming in the opposite direction or if there was an obstruction on the track. It was his responsibility to go out with

51:44 his lantern, with his lamp, and wave his lantern close to the tracks so that the conductor of the train would see the light in the lamp and immediately know there's an obstruction on the tracks. They've not been switched. Another train is coming in the oncoming direction down the same track. They would know immediately there's danger ahead and it could be easily averted and certainly was for many many decades of this man's career. But one night the unthinkable happened. He woke up from a nap. He was startled and he heard the train and he got his lamp and he ran out there as quickly as he could. He began to shake the lamp and he began to scream and shout and pray and warn. But the train just kept

52:31 coming. They had never done that before. And it kept barreling and barreling and barreling until finally the inevitable collision happened and many lives were lost. This man was arrested, detained. A long, lengthy, horrendously expensive court battle ensued. But finally, the man's lawyer stood up one day and he said, "I would like to call my client onto the witness stand." That little old railroad worker went up

53:18 there and he sat down and his own lawyer looked at him and said, "Sir, where were you on such and such a night at such and such a time?" And he told him, "What were you doing just moments before the collision?" Taking a nap. Told him. Has it something you had done before? Yes. I always hear the train. Always know what to do. I've never missed responsibility ever. What did you do next? I grabbed my lantern. Did you take your lantern to the same place you always take it? Yes. Did you shake it? Yes. Did you holler? Yes. Did you wave it frantically? Yes. The jury says he's not guilty. Case dismissed. Some applauded.

54:05 Some wept. But as the little old man was walking out, his lawyer walked up to him and said, "Just make sure that the one thing they never find out is that you forgot to light the lamp before you shook it." And I refuse to live the next 50 years of my life pastoring people waving empty lamps. Waving, waving, preaching, preaching, praying, praying, singing, singing, dancing, dancing, jumping, jumping, but you never let your lamp.

54:54 And we've raised a generation of people that shake lamps that have no oil and have no light. And we're trying to stop the locomotive of sin from wrecking people's lives and dragging them straight to hell. And all we're doing is screaming at them in the dark. Oh, I shook it. I shook my lamp. I shook my lamp. I shook my lamp. Yeah. Just don't ever tell them you didn't light it. Father in heaven, light our lamps today. God, right now, may a spirit of

55:39 conviction come over this house so great and so heavy that people are driven to their knees. I ain't begging anybody to come. If God's on you right now, come on. Come on. Come on. Quit wasting your oil. Quit devaluing what you praying for God to put in you. You better respect it. God will set it on fire if you respect it. Come on. Come on. Right now. All over the room. All over the room. God, help us. God, forgive us. God, may we repent today of our disobedience. May we repent for praying for one thing and doing another. Sing our songs about putting oil in our lamp and then doing nothing with it. God, today break us, bend us, mold us, make us. God, don't let us shake empty vessels. Don't let us shake an unlit lamp. God, today light us up. Light us up. Fill us up. Lord, fill us up to overflowing. Lord, may we be like those

56:26 five wise virgins. Put the oil in the lamp because the king is coming. The master is coming. The husband is coming. The bridegroom is coming. Lord, the days are short. The hours are shorter. The world is rocking and reeling for the coming of Christ. And the church is asleep at the wheel, screaming at people in the dark. God help us. God help us. All over the room right now as these are praying, would you slip out? Come on. right now. Slip out of your seat. I don't care if you've been here many, many times or this is the first time you've been here. It's time for us to lay our hearts bare and open before the Lord and say, "God, today, I'm not living in disobedience. I'm not living in sin. I'm not living in open rebellion to the things of God.

57:12 No more, Lord. No more, Lord." And for some of you, listen, we are trying to live right. We are trying to live holy. I want you to come and fall on your face and say, "God, fill me to absolute overflowing so the value that I have in me will spill out in all the people around me." Let me tell you something. We've we've conditioned ourselves to think the only reason we should go to the altar is for what is wrong with us. Let me tell you something. Sometimes you come to the altar so you can keep what's right with you. This is not a place of just confession. It's a place of consecration before the Lord. Don't spill your oil on things that have

58:01 no value. Learn the value of the substance you possess. Learn the value of it. You won't have to go around trying to fill everybody else up if you stay full. It'll just spill out of you and people will be blessed just by being around you. You get filled with the oil of the Holy Ghost and the demonic will not continue to take territory in your life. It's time for you to take territory back

58:47 from the enemy. Take back what the enemy stole from you. And I'm going to tell you something. If he stole it, you gave it to him. Don't open yourself up to it. Today's been a pastor. Talk to us like dad day cuz God wants his kids to be holy. filled, clean, cleansed, righteous, separate from sin, apart from the world. Don't Don't settle for average anymore. Don't settle for lukewarm.

59:35 Don't settle for apathetic or pathetic. There's a sweet aroma of worship in the house today. Just take your time. Fall before him. They're in your seats wherever you are. Beg for the touch of the power of God to fill you. No more shaking empty lanterns.

1:00:23 just let him wash over you today. We had a number of people baptized earlier. If you're still waiting for water baptism, slip over there. We'll see you baptized in the Lord's name. Don't miss out an opportunity. Maybe this is the thing that's keeping your oil from being full to overflowing. That level of disobedience. You're born again, but you've never followed in water baptism. Do that today. Don't besmerge that. Do that today.

1:01:09 Lord, just continue to send a spirit of conviction. I pray Lord that people would only hear and remember what is of you, nothing of me. build our church into people that are battlers for the kingdom, builders for the kingdom, not bitter because of our own kingdom. Lord, just take what's been said, even the difficult, seemingly harsh and abrasive words that

1:01:56 have to be said at times. and God just prophetically deliver them into our hearts. Lord, I say with the Apostle Paul, of which I am not, but I say with him, my hands are clean, my conscience is clean. I will go to bed tonight knowing that I've preached the truth, no matter who hates me for it. But Lord, you've given us a church that loves the truth. Hungry for the more of God. Not more for us, more for you, Lord. So take the word of the Lord and these

1:02:47 scatterbrain thoughts from my heart today. drive them so deep within us that we can't help but be connected to the heart of the father. Would you stand with me all over the room? We're just going to let the Lord have his way. We We never at our church. We never have an official dismissal. We're going to let people keep praying, people be baptized. that there's more salvation or healing or deliverance or restoration that needs to happen, then stay here or come here. But we're just going to let the Lord flow. If you got to get your kiddos, if you got to slip out, you will not be disrespecting the house. We're just going to let the Lord go as long as he wants to. We just say we'll see you back

1:03:33 at the next appointed time. We want you to be here Wednesday night for what the Lord's going to do in the house. Men, again, I have to leave very early in the morning for Montana and so we'll be flying out and so I'll not be here in the morning. Use that opportunity, but spend extra time reading the word, praying, getting your steps in. You see, these these steps that I'm giving you are not about steps in an app. They're to get you committed to be stepping with the Lord every day. Walking with the Lord every day, every day. Every day, every day. So, while these are praying, the team's just going to worship. You can get around. You can love each other. You can pray for each other. If you have to slip out, you do that. But let's just let the Lord have his way

1:04:21 here in these moments.