3 Encounters With Jesus (Pastor Jeff Shipley)

Now I want you to pay attention. It wasn't anything in Israel. It wasn't their military size.

It wasn't the type of people they were going to be. We're going to be in Acts chapters 8, 9, and 10.

Now don't get scared. I ain't doing every verse. Oh, wait a minute. I need my glasses. I ain't doing every verse of these, but I wanted to talk to you about this, and I thought this was apropos.

So what we're going to talk about is the reality of total depravity.

Now let me explain to you doctrinally what total depravity is. It means this, that 100 % of mankind is 100 % depraved.

100 % of mankind is 100 % depraved.

Thank you. What I'm saying is this, there is nothing in you that can move you one inch closer to God.

I know there's so many people, even today, I was talking to a young man, he's a police officer in some godless county, and he was sitting there and I said, if I shot you in the head right now, would you go to heaven?

He said, yeah, I am a good person. I am a good person.

I'm like, you a cop. All you do is violate people's rights. You ain't no good person. You know what

I'm saying? There's a piggy right there. Guys, what we've got to understand, please, and listen to me on this, because you people are lied to every day.

You people are lied to every day, and some of you kids eat it up. You're taught it in schools.

Do you realize that you're taught Darwinism? Do you understand that Darwinism is the most racist thing in the entire world?

Black people are subhuman according to science and Darwinism.

You're lied to all the time. Guys, how many races of people are there? One. There's only one.

Pastor, how can you say that? Well, it's called truth, common sense, and the word of God. Let's look at this.

I want you to understand that we all come from different backgrounds. Let's see. Now, wait a minute.

I done messed up. Where's my little thingamajigger again? Oh, there it is. Alright. So, if you look at Genesis chapter 10,

Noah got off the ark, his three sons, they did their thing, and they all went in three separate ways.

And they repopulated this region, which was Pangaea at the time. And that, from those three family groups, we get all the different nationalities in the earth.

You have a guy named Ham. I always thought that he should be the Jewish guy, but, you know, just for giggles.

But you had the son named Ham, and Ham was over here. All of you folks with African descent, you're from a cat named

Ham. Sorry. And then the Middle Eastern folks, they are the smallest people groups.

They're Semitic. Have you ever heard of Semitic? That's not just Jew. That's also Arabs. They're part of that Semitic.

But anyways, so you have Jepheth, Shem, and Ham. Now, here's the thing. Those are three different people groups, right?

You can have a German shepherd, you can have a poodle, but they both are dogs, right? You have three different people, and from the natural progression in those different environments, their facial features and skin features change.

But they all can come back. And if you don't believe me, go look up the original scientific

DNA holder. They all trace ancestry of all peoples back to a singular

DNA strand. And by the way, guess what science named it? Adam. The Adam strand.

God, you just can't make this stuff up. Now, they all came from those three sons.

But here's the thing. Even though we have different backgrounds, we all have the same problem.

Because all of us come from Adam. Now let me explain. You see,

I, and this is on your little paper there, and this is not the sermon for today, but if you actually want to study the theology of imputation, it's a doctrine, it's not theology.

It's the doctrine of imputation. It basically states this. I was born in sin.

Where's Jensen? Where's Jensen? Where's Mercedes? Okay, stand up with Jensen.

Look at this baby. Now, first of all, look at his mama. Right away, she got tattoos.

She used to have blue hair. She has a tackle box pierced in her face. You know that child is going to end up in a trailer in Millington.

You know that? I mean, just right away. He's probably going to be sucking Pepsi out of a baby bottle, you know, and cheering for NASCAR by the time he's two.

But Father, forgive me on that one.

Baby Jensen's so cute, isn't he? Look at that fat little face. I love the little fat feet.

You know that they're fatter and taller because of the fat than they are longer and wider. I just want to...

They're so cute. That is a totally depraved, sinful human being.

Totally depraved. Why? Well, first of all, Romans 5 says,

Romans 3, 1 Corinthians, it says that our human nature is depraved from the word go.

She will not have to teach that child to be bad. But she will have to teach it to be good.

Why? Because that nature is rebellion. If you ever had a two -year -old,

I always love it when people say children are so innocent. I know they don't have children. Because when you got a two - or a three -year -old, they are the most manipulating, conniving, selfish, rebellious, godless, heathens that you will ever meet, right?

Except for my daughter, all my children were godless heathens. My daughter was perfect. You see, because you cannot get perfection from corruption.

You cannot... If I had a nice, beautiful glass of water, and you were thirsty, and I went...

That's only a small percentage of the total volume of that water, but a little bit corrupts the whole thing.

I have been imputed with the sin of Adam. You really think

God says, Oh, look at those Baptists, look at those Pentecostals, look at those black people, look at those white people.

No! There's only two distinctions in God's Word. The lost, that's it,

Skippy. And we are going to leave this world, and when

I get you to heaven, you are going to be smoking a turd in hell.

Believe it. Believe it. Now, some of you are sitting there going, Oh, Pastor, I was brought up in church,

I'm a member of Bellevue, I'm a member of Witten, I'm a member of... You know, listen to this. What's the key word in all of that?

I. I. Acts 4 .12, For there is no other name given among men by where we must be saved.

At the name of Jesus. And there's exclusivity in that name.

But at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Jesus is

Lord. The question is, are you going to do it here and now? Or are you going to do it in fear and damnation later?

So, we all come from the same place. We all have the same problem, but we also all have the same hope.

And I'm going to give you three guys today in Acts 8, 9, and 10. Hunter, that's

Acts 8, 9, and 10. We're going to look at these three guys and their encounter with Jesus.

Isn't that a cool map? It took me an hour to draw that. Father, forgive me for that lie.

Alright, let's look at Acts 8. We're going to look at the brother first. They had a black dude in the

Bible. By the way, y 'all know there ain't no white people in the Bible. Isn't that amazing? But it's a white man's religion. I've never understood that.

But anyways, Acts 8 starting in verse 27. Now, there was a deacon.

His name was Philip. And he had chicks, little girls, who grew up into daughters and they became prophets.

For you Wednesday night crew, that should mean something to you. He had women who were prophets of God.

But anyways, this cat Philip, he's out and he's preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And God says,

Hey, you see that Ethiopian in that chariot over there? Go talk to him. So let's read here in verse 27 of chapter 8.

It says this, And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the

Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seating in the chariot, and he was reading the prophet

Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, Go over and join this chariot.

So Philip ran to him, and he heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, Do you understand what you are reading?

And he said, How can I, unless someone guides me? And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him in the chariot.

And you can keep reading later. Let's look at this guy. First of all, this guy was an

Ethiopian. He was of the tribe of Ham, and Philip was of the tribe of Shem.

Do you see any of that denoted or enunciated or anything in Scripture where it had to make that distinction?

No. It don't matter. The eunuch is sitting there, and it says he was in charge of the entire treasury of this woman

Candace. By the way, she is a historical figure. You can read that later. He was wealthy.

He was rich. He had a chariot. That's like a Maserati back then. Everybody back then either walked or rode mules in this part of the world.

This cat had a chariot. And he's sitting there, and he's reading the Word of God.

You see, he had just come from Jerusalem. He was of Jewish. We know that the

Jewish faith was strong in Ethiopia from all the way back to the time of Solomon. Here he was reading the book of Isaiah.

He had just come from worship. Now listen to me, some of y 'all out there. You are this guy.

You are hearing the Word of God. You want to believe. You want to be changed.

And you're trying, but you know that there is something missing. You see, you've got religion.

You want to have that understanding what you're searching for is peace in your life.

And you've tried so many different things. Well, the Baptist church didn't work. Let's go be Pentecostal.

Or this church will do this. Or this pastor. Forget all that garbage. The pastor of the church is not what's important.

It's who they worship and who they follow who is. See? There's something missing in your life.

And you can't quite figure out what it is. And you think if you go to enough

Bible studies or enough church services, if the music was just like this, if I felt just like this, then things would change.

But it never does, does it? You just keep spinning right round, baby, right round like a record player.

Right? And you still don't get it. You see, the problem is you're searching for religion instead of the

King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You have no, might know Scripture.

I know God. You ever want to know people who know the Bible? Go to jail. Man, are you talking about jailhouse religion?

Them dudes up in there, homeless people. They have heard the Gospel 832 ,000 times.

Friday night, we were up giving out blankets and sleeping bags to the homeless people. Man, you start witnessing to them.

Don't quote the Scripture better than you. But there's something missing. Because they've never applied it and they've never surrendered their own will.

You see, we all have the same problem. But we also have the same solution. Read along with me here.

And in verse 35, Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with the

Scripture, the guy was reading, he told him the good news about Jesus.

You know why we're here today? You people say, well, we're here to worship God. We're here to do this.

We're here to learn. Yeah, all that's true. What we're really here to do is to love and minister to each other.

And this is how I want to minister to you today. I want to tell you about a man named Jesus who changed my life.

I ain't talking about religion. I don't care about stupid religion.

They're all stupid. But man, 34 years ago, I surrendered my life for the first time.

And I stopped doing crack. I stopped doing coke. My mindset, something got inside of me, guys.

And it freaked me out from the inside out. The way I thought.

The way I talked. What I felt was important. All of that totally changed.

The things that used to matter to me didn't matter anymore. Because 2 Corinthians 5 .17

says this, If any man be in Christ, he is a new...

Old things have passed away. Behold, all have become new. Has that ever described a time in your life?

Has that ever described a time in your life? Some of you said, Well, no, I've walked down the aisle when I was 12. But ain't nothing changed.

Guys, you're going to walk on the aisle and you're going to end up in hell. Well, I pray Jesus into my heart.

Jesus ain't no Labrador retriever. Okay? You don't go, Come here, jump in my heart.

That ain't how it works. You submit to Him. And Philip explained the name of Jesus to this man.

And this man got saved. Second thing, Acts 9. Let's talk about this guy.

His name was Saul. If you look at Acts 9 .1, it says this,

But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the

Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogue at Damascus so that if he found any belonging to the way, which was the name of Christians back then, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

So let me explain what's going on. Jesus has ascended into heaven. The Holy Spirit has fell.

And all of a sudden, everybody keeps saying, Oh, these Christian people, they'll die out because Jesus is dead.

The only problem is, a spear or a cross couldn't kill Him and the grave couldn't hold Him. He came out and people started getting saved left and right.

Then the Holy Spirit of God fell on God's people and they didn't want to just sit around and congregate in a church and drink coffee and eat donuts.

They wanted to go out and obey Christ by sharing the gospel with a lost and dying world.

And that's what they did. And they didn't do it by E .E. or the four laws or the

Roman road. They did it with their own experience through the Holy Spirit of God speaking through them.

The Word of God says, Don't worry about what you're going to say to them people. Open your mouth in obedience and God's Spirit will speak through you.

Yeah? Every single time. Paul could not stand it.

Here's another type of person. They hate change.

Hate it. And here's why. You are such a control freak. You have ruined your marriage.

You've ruined your children. And yes, usually I'm talking to women at this point. Because your husband is passive and not been the leader you're supposed to be.

Your insecurities have led you to become a control freak in your family and you can't figure out why your kids are buck wild and in a rebellion.

Well Skippy, there is a plan A on how God said the family should run.

Any deviation from that, don't mean you won't eventually make it, but the scar tissue that you and your children will have along the way is more than what it needed to be.

Saul hated it. He hated it. And I'm going to tell you another thing. And I've seen this in churches for the last 30 years of my ministry.

There are people who would rather rule the ruins than actually change and see the

Gospel of Jesus Christ preached. This person's got to look like me. This person's got to act like me.

They've got to think like me. They've got to be like me. I'm up here in my

What is this? Vest? No, cut! I don't know all the lingo. I'm not that cool yet. I love this thing, man.

I like what it stands for. And I like who stands with me. By the way, if y 'all want to join up, you don't have to like, you know, kill two people with a prison shank or something.

Just go talk to Brother David or any of the other dorks. There's John. Any of the dorks look like this.

Brother David's so happy. He just got a brand new 600 Honda and he's like so pumped up about riding it, you know.

He's like, whee, I get a real bike now. Saul was that kind of guy.

And he hated people because he was threatened by change.

And so his idea was this. Let's kill them. Let's just kill them.

Do you know Christianity is the only belief system that has been under 2 ,000 years.

You have to remember, the world's bigger than Bartlett, guys. Has 2 ,000 years has been under persecution and grown and thrived, right?

Paul said, let's kill them. And so he got letters of authority to go to the synagogue in Damascus, Syria.

And so he starts marching up there with a bunch of police officers to go arrest all the

Christians. And while he's walking, he's strutting. He bad. He bad.

He walking up there. And all of a sudden, Jesus meets him on the road.

And immediately, he's blinded. And it's funny. You can read.

I don't have time to read it all. But it's funny how Paul's attitude changes. I hate them stinking

Jesus people. Yes, Lord? Some of y 'all have been put in check.

You've been put in check. You know what I'm talking about. You had it all together.

You might have gotten a long face from the doctor. Or you might have had a financial...

God has tapped you on the forehead and said, hey forehead, you're being stupid.

You need to change. And some of you have run to the church or tried to morally change your life and it don't work, does it?

You see, because Paul didn't even know it, but Jesus Christ was already working in him. And when

Jesus walks up to Paul, Paul's sitting there going, I can't see. Jesus said this, and I think it's so powerful.

He said, Paul, why do you kick against the pricks? Some of your Bible will say goads.

Here's what Paul was fighting against. You see, the Holy Spirit of God was going, hey, a goad was a sharpened stick used to get animals moving, right?

Do you know what the word conviction means? Any of you in here? Christians, are you deaf or dumb?

Do you know what conviction is? Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh man, I do. And listen, you can resist it.

You can resist it. Oh, you can. For a while. And then it will just take you out.

Paul, the more he hated Jesus, the reason it was was because God was working in his life convicting him of the sin and the falsehoods that he was spreading.

You sitting out there today, what is the sin you're so in love with that you're willing to rebel against God and the conviction of the

Holy Spirit trying to get you to do right? What is it? Name that sin in your mind that is keeping you from the peace of God that you so desperately want and need.

How precious is it, man? How precious is it? Paul's blinded, and this is what

Jesus said. I'll read it to you. Jesus sat there, and it says to him, start in verse 10.

Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord had said to him in a vision,

Ananias, and he said, what's up, Lord? And it said in verse 11, and the Lord said to him, rise and go to the street called straight.

By the way, you little internet warriors, that picture on your little paper, that is that street as it looks today.

It's been there the whole time. Right? I think that's so cool. In the house of Judas, and look for a man from Tarsus named

Saul. Behold, he is praying. And he has seen a vision, a man named Ananias coming in, laying hands on him, that he regain his sight.

Now look at verse 13. But Ananias said, Lord, I've heard of this cat.

He is arresting people like me, and you want me to go see him? Okay, I'll go.

And so Ananias shows up, and he comes to a place, and he lays hands, verse 17, and laying hands on him, he said, brother

Saul, man, that's what I love about this. This cat was coming to arrest him, and put him in jail.

The Holy Spirit of God changes Saul, changes Ananias, and now he's his brother in Christ.

It don't matter what he used to do. It doesn't matter what he looked like. What was the most important is the same

God that's in me is the same God that's in you. And that's what makes us brothers. The Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me that you may regain your sight and be filled with the

Holy Spirit. Let me just ask you this this morning. How many of y 'all are filled with the Holy Spirit?

Now, Christians, before you raise your little Baptist hand, let me help you for a second. Being filled with the

Holy Spirit is measured in the litmus of your submission and obedience to Christ.

I know some of you grew up thinking that it's a really cool feeling.

Okay? I'm going to explain something to you about feelings. Feelings are always the desert that comes after everything else.

If you are relying on your feelings on how close you are to God, you are going to constantly be miserable.

You're going to be as high or as low as the song you're listening to or the sermon you're hearing or your attendance to a local congregation.

Ah, but that obedience to God. If some of you doubt your salvation or doubt your call of God, I promise you we can look at where your obedience to God's Word is and we will find what is the original problem.

You see, there is no greater sanctification or no greater calling than what our Lord said in the

Garden of Gethsemane, Lord, not My will, but Thy will be done. Ananias did what

God wanted him to do. Last one. Cornelius. Let's talk about the white boy. Well, he wasn't really white.

He was Italian. But Italians are the best race. I'm sorry. You know, it's just the way it is.

Acts chapter 10, verse 1. At Caesarea, there was a man named

Cornelius, a Syrian of what was known as the Italian cohort. By the way, this is the fifth legion and we have documentation of where this legion was and it was there at this year.

Hey, nerds, the Bible is not a joke. A devout man who feared God with all of his household gave alms generously to the people and prayed continually to God.

About the ninth hour of the day, he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in to him and say, Cornelius.

Let's stop right there. Guys, let's talk about Cornelius. We first had a black dude. Then we had a

Jew eating a bagel on a chariot. Now, all of a sudden... Yeah, that was the first guy.

The second guy was Saul who was going to kill Christians. Now we have a son of Jepheth. We have a guy from Italy.

We had a guy from Italy. And he's sitting in his house one day eating some tortellini. And he's sitting there and the

Spirit of God comes to him and says, hey, there's a guy named Peter coming to see you. He is my chosen vessel.

Cornelius is like, okay. Now let's look at Cornelius. It said he was already a believer.

Christians, so I'm talking to you right now. He was already a believer. He was a devout man.

He was in ministry giving alms. He was giving money to help other peoples.

He was in the business of praying and ministering. And even though he was a

Roman centurion who was there to guard and to police the population of the defeated

Jews, the Jews loved and respected him. You know what's funny? When I was a mechanic,

I was a hydraulics mechanic. And I remember when I first got there, no one liked me.

I don't see how. But they didn't like me. And I'm going to tell you why. Because the deacon of my church was the foreman there.

And he hired me. And they thought I just got the job because I knew him. Which was true.

They had me starting sweeping floors. And man, I'd sweep them floors, man. And then they had me be a case cleaner.

I don't know. Some of y 'all know what that is. My job was with a caustic tank and a pressure washer cleaning cases.

And I did that quick, fast. I was like going to mechanics, man. Hey, blah, blah, blah. And they started showing me stuff.

They started showing me stuff. And I started learning. And it was funny. All those guys hated me.

But eventually, they started coming up to my desk going, hey, mother, what is that? Oh, man,

I'm sorry, I forgot. You ever had someone do that to you? You're a Christian, they cuss around you and then they go, oh,

I'm sorry. You ain't offending me. But there is a cat you might be offending and you might need to talk to him.

About a year later, I'm a full -blown mechanic now. And I'm leading Bible studies during lunch hour in the lunchroom.

Like 18 people just like listening. Cornelius was like that.

Even though he worked for the man, even though he worked for the oppressing Roman Empire, his character spoke volumes.

Christian, you want to have a witness with your mouth? First, have one with your life. You can't just sit there and go.

I ask people all the time, are you a Christian? Yeah, I'm a Christian. Of course you are. You're white and you live in the

South. Or black. You live in the Mid -South, you're white, you're black, of course you're a Christian, right?

And then I ask them, are you a real Christian or are you just a church person? Some of them are like, no man,

I'm for real a Christian. Okay. Is there enough evidence of your public life to convict you of being a

Christian? Think about it for a second. Are you the cat with all the other dudes talking about, you know, the blonde chick at the water fountain?

Are you the guy forwarding those emails? You know, are you Michael Scott forwarding bad pictures?

Are you that guy? Or are you really the guy that people know and they know you're a believer because it ain't what comes out of your mouth but what comes out of your life first.

Cornelius was that guy. But he still had some things to learn.

Peter shows up and it says here in verse 25, when Peter entered the room,

Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him.

But Peter lifted him up saying, stand up, I too am a man. Guys, let me tell you something real quick.

Some of us in the Christian world are more devoted and loyal to our denomination, preachers, or favorite teachers than we are to the

Word of God. I always love talking to Christians and they say, well, Votie Bachman says or Andy Stanley says or Adrian Wright.

Man, ain't nobody caring what they say. What's the Word of God? Why do you memorize man's word and you paraphrase

God's word? They don't care what Pastor Jeff says. What matters is what does the

Word of God say. Yeah? Cornelius hadn't figured that out yet.

He had heard of Peter. Dude, this is Peter? Oh my God, the rooster, the three fisher dude and the 150, oh my gosh!

Will you sign my... Peter's like, dude, man, I'm just a guy.

Christians, especially you visitors in here, I know that my physical appearance is awe -inspiring.

I get that. I get that. Every man's dream, every woman's desire, you know,

I get it. Hold on. I know that I'm the best pastor and preacher in the whole world.

I get it. I'm not. I'm a horrible preacher. I'm a good pastor, but I'm not a great preacher.

I'm not a great teacher. That's not what I do. That's not what I do. But you know what

I am? I'm someone who believes the same Spirit of God is in me. It's the same

Spirit of God that's in little Brittany. Same Spirit of God that's in Vicki. Same Spirit of God that's in Scott.

I love you, Seth. It's the same Spirit of God. He's not elect.

It's okay. Don't worry about it. We're the same. Listen to me.

I am not special. I'm not. This isn't ministry.

The choir nerds, they're not ministry. You see, I'm just a man trying to show you what changed my life.

I'm just taking God's Word and trying to explain it to you in a way that your life will be changed.

I didn't graduate high school, guys. I'm an idiot. I'm nothing.

Don't worship me or your denomination or your past or your background or any of that other garbage.

Don't worship your culture or your identity. Don't worship anything of this world.

Worship God. And it will change your life. Peter's like, Get up, man.

You're embarrassing yourself. But see, Peter had to make a change too. Watch this.

Even though he was teaching, he was learning, Christian. Let me say that again. Even though he was teaching, he was still learning.

Look at verse 27. As he talked to them, with him, he went and found many persons gathered together and he said to them,

You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.

This church was founded in 1948. 1948.

And a man named Mr. Whitten was a farmer who owned all this land.

He owned all this land. Right? And he gave this five acres to a little group of people and they called themselves

Whitten Memorial Baptist Church on two conditions.

Number one, and that's why I do not call this place memorial. I hate that name. I think it's detestable because it's a memorial to Mr.

Whitten. Like, how idolatrous can you get? But that's another subject for another time. He said the church has always got to be named.

You can have the land without money, but the church has always got to be named after me and no black people can come in.

You know what I'm saying? Like, you got to keep the race pure, man.

You know? White peoples. Zieg Heil. Well, I don't call it

Whitten Memorial Baptist Church no more. And dang, you can't swing a dead cat in here without hitting a

Korean, black, white, Mexican, Chinese, Mexicanese, whatever.

We even got cripples in here, you know? You know, there can a lot can be said about that, but I really don't need to.

But what I can say is this. If you are a believer and you are stuck in a mentality of divisions based on something other than saved, not saved, you still have some things to learn.

And black folk, you just as guilty as the white folk. So don't start all that bull crap about institutional racism, all the other bull crap lies that the media is feeding you.

And Mexicans, come on, man. Best thing about you is your food. Other than that, and you can do the yard work, but other than that, you're right out of there.

Guys, quit worrying about what church they go to. Quit worrying about what they look like.

Quit worrying about all that crap. Some of you still have things to learn.

I know that there are one or two ladies in here that are stressed out because I'm not wearing a suit and tie.

Love. Just grow up. Mature in Christ.

I beg you, mature in Christ. If you are a

Christian and you got it all down, you are the godless heathen making the job of witnessing so much harder for the rest of us.

Be humble. Be humble. Some of y 'all are so worried about being, you're only known for what you're against.

I hate them. I hate them. I hate those. Oh, I hate them. I don't like them. Oh, we need to not play with them.

Oh, they're horrible people. Oh, they're godless pigs. They're gay. Okay. But I ain't got to hate you, man.

I'll tell you, you're wrong. I just don't hate you. The people

I have to work on loving are the most, I'll be honest with you, are fellow Christians. I'm just being honest, man.

I go into pastor's conferences and it's just like there's just something in it because they all show up.

They're all wearing the little, you know, and they look so, and their hair's just right, and it's just,

I'm like, hey, man, how you doing? Yeah, I know. God bless you.

Yes, we did baptisms this year. No, I don't care. I don't keep up with how many we run in Sunday school.

And all the other little stupid pastor questions where they're trying to gauge whether you're real or not. They drive me crazy.

I'd rather be with a bunch of thugs than a lot of modern Christians today. Yeah, right?

I'm in good stead, right? Guys, grow up and mature. We'll close with this.

Hunter, do your thing. God said, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

How many of you in here have ever been to prison? Raise your hand. Wow! God!

We got chicks who have been to prison. Hardcore, man! Right?

How many of y 'all have ever done illegal drugs? Good God, y 'all dopeheads, man.

How many of y 'all have ever fornicated?

The rest of you didn't raise your hand. You're a liar. I get it. You are. Do you have?

Oh, no, I haven't. Oh, yeah! You just don't know what it is.

How many of you have ever been guilty of adultery? If you're married and ever lusted after another person, you're guilty.

All of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You ever lied?

You ever stole? Yeah, we could go on and on and on. What we got to start recognizing is the same bull crap you're struggling with is the same crap

I'm struggling with. I told every one of my boys when they hit puberty, I sat down and had a talk with them.

I said, there's no thought that's going to go through your head. There's nothing that you're going to dream about. The daddy and all the other dudes you know have done the same.

You're not crazy. You're not stupid. You're not weird. Sinner, there's nothing that you've done that's going to keep you away from God.

I don't care what you've done. I don't care if you've been a pole swinging dancer. Okay?

I don't care. I don't care if you've had an abortion. It does not matter what you have done.

What matters is what Christ can do in you. Okay? We all have the same problem.

But praise God, we all have the same hope. And His name is Jesus. Listen right here to the last verse that I'm going to read to you.

It's at Acts 10. Verse 43. To Him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.

Do you want to be forgiven today? Not by me, not by a church, not by a religion. Do you want to be forgiven by God?

Are you feeling convicted right now that you and God are like this? I promise you, it's not through me.

I'm not going to lay hands and go, somebody stole my Honda or any of that other garbage. I'm talking about you submitting and publicly confessing

Jesus Christ is Lord. You will be saved. You will be.

Pastor, I'm not sure. Well, that's why God made fat, bald pastors. I'm going to show you in Scripture where it says you can do this.

Well, Pastor, you don't understand my situation. I may not, but I promise you

I've got someone here who does. You can't tell me something, okay?

I don't care if you've been... Well, I ain't going to say that. I don't care what you've done.

I've got somebody in here who can talk with you. If you're in this room and you need that peace, or here's the coolest part, if you've got questions that no one will answer, come on to my office,

Skippy. I live for that. Live for it. I love doing that. Well, I don't believe in God because the

Alpha Alexandrian... Yes, nerd. You come. We'll talk. Yeah? Lost books of the

Bible. They ain't lost. They're in my office. Okay? Seriously. I've got them all. I've got them all.

So come. Ask. Well, Pastor, I have doubts. You can't have faith without doubts.

It's okay to have doubts. What you need to do is surround yourself with a group of people that will walk you through those doubts with the

Word of God. So wherever you are today, if God has convicted you, you come.