Modern American Christianity — Paul Washer

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It's a tremendous privilege for me to be here this afternoon with you. Before we begin with any further speaking, I would also like to go to the Lord in prayer. And I would ask you to pray. There's so much going on here this afternoon, so much that you don't understand.

But I'll tell you where I'm coming from. I'll preach as a dying man to dying men and women and youth. And I'll preach as though I will never preach again. And I will tell you things that you will misunderstand.

And I will tell you things that make you so angry with me. And I'll tell you things that you will deny. And I will tell you things and you will say I have no right to tell you what I'm telling you. But before you come to any conclusion about what is being said here this afternoon, you ask yourself one question.

You see, preaching is a very dangerous thing. It's dangerous for me because the Bible says that false teachers will undergo greater condemnation. If what I tell you today is not true. I'm in a great deal of trouble and have every right to do this with fear and trembling because I will stand condemned before God.

But if what I tell you today is true, then you're the one with cause for fear and trembling. Because if I correctly interpret this passage of scripture that I'm going to give you, it is as though God were speaking through a man.

And your problem will not be with me. It will be with God and his word. So the only question that really has to be decided here this afternoon is, is this man before us a false prophet or is he telling us the truth?

And if he is telling us the truth, then nothing else matters except conforming our lives to that truth. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.

Father, Father, I am so small and so pitiful, Father, in so many ways. You know, Lord, you know.

Oh, dear God, should false fire be the only thing ever placed on your altar or could fire come down from heaven amidst all the noise and the clamor? And the activities could fire come down from heaven, can these dead bones live?

You know, Lord, in your sovereignty, I pray and I beg before the throne of God that you would be gracious to us. That you would open up hearts and minds. Lord, we can't wait for them to open up theirs.

They never will. Open up their hearts and their minds and cause them to see biblical truth, breathe on them, grant them repentance, grant them faith. Bring them into your kingdom, Lord, for your own glory.

For the sake of your own great name, do this thing, Lord, as the brother said. Let it be so, Lord, so that no man will take credit for it, so that no man would lay his hand to the ark of God. And if he did that, you'd strike him down dead, Lord.

Oh, God, move among us, please, because we have no other hope. We have no other hope. These children have no other hope except that you move.

I will be teaching from Matthew chapter seven. You have your Bibles. Follow with me. Matthew chapter seven. Verse 13, Jesus said, enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction.

And there are many who enter through it for the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life. And there are few who find it. Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but every bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.

Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven.

But he who does the will of my father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles?

Then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts upon them may be compared to a wise man who builds his house on the rock.

And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and slammed against that house. And yet it did not fall. We had been founded upon the rock. Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

The rain fell and the floods came and winds blew and slammed against the house and it fell. And great is his fault. I stand here today. I'm not troubled in my heart about your self-esteem. I'm not troubled in my heart about whether or not you feel good about yourself, whether or not life is turning out like you want it to turn out or whether or not your checkbook is balanced.

There's only one thing that gave me a sleepless night. There's only one thing that troubled me all throughout the morning, and that is this. Within a hundred years, a great majority of people in this building will possibly be in hell.

And many who even profess Jesus Christ as Lord will spend an eternity in hell. You say, Pastor, how can you say such a thing? I can say such a thing because I don't do my Christian work in America. I spend most of my time preaching in South America, in Africa and Eastern Europe.

And I want you to know that when you take a look at American Christianity, it is based more upon a godless culture than it is upon the word of God. And so many people are deceived and so many youth are deceived and so many adults are deceived into believing that because they prayed a prayer one time in their life, they're going to heaven.

And then when they look around at others who profess to know Christ and see those people also just as worldly as the world. And they compare themselves by themselves, nothing troubles their heart. They think, well, I'm the same as most in my youth group.

I watch things I shouldn't watch on television and laugh about the very things that God hates. I wear clothing that is sensual. I talk like the world. I walk like the world. I love the music of the world.

I love so much that's in the world. But bless God, I am a Christian. Why am I a Christian? I don't look any different than most of the other people in my church. Why am I a Christian? Because there was a time in my life when I prayed and asked Jesus Christ to come into my heart.

I want you to know that the greatest heresy in the American evangelical and Protestant church is that if you pray and ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart, he will definitely come in. You will not find that in any place in Scripture.

You will not find that anywhere in Baptist history until about 50 years ago. What you need to know is that salvation is by faith and faith alone in Jesus Christ and faith alone. And Jesus Christ is preceded and followed by repentance.

A turning away from sin, a hatred for the things that God hates and a love for the things that God loves, a growing in holiness and a desire not to be like Britney Spears, not to be like the world and not to be like the great majority of American Christians, but to be like Jesus Christ.

I don't know why you're clapping. I'm talking about you. I didn't come here to get amends. I didn't come here to be applauded. I'm talking about you. People so many times come up to me and they say, oh, I'd love to follow you into Romania.

I'd love to follow you into the Ukraine. I'd love to preach where you preached and planted churches in Peru in the jungle. And I tell them, no, you wouldn't. They say, yes, I would. I said, no, you wouldn't.

Why? Because you'd be excommunicated from the church down there. What we need to see, I'm not trying to be hard for the sake of being hard. Do you realize how much love it takes to stand before five thousand people and tell them that American Christianity is almost totally wrong?

Do you know what it's going to cost me to never be asked back again to something like this? To be unpopular. Do you know why you do it? You don't do it because you get paid well. You don't do it because men love you.

You do it because you love men. And because more than that, you want to honor God. I want to tell you something, we are going to go into scripture and I want you to look at it as it really is. Stop comparing yourself with others who call themselves Christians, who compare themselves with others who call themselves Christians.

Compare yourself to the scripture. When someone, a young person, comes to a pastor or a youth minister and says, I'm not sure whether or not I'm saved. The youth minister will usually throw out a cliche.

Well, was there ever a time in your life when you prayed and asked Jesus to come into your heart? Well, yes. Were you sincere? Well, I don't know, but I think so. Well, you need to tell Satan to stop bothering you.

Did you write it in the back of your book, the back of the Bible, like the evangelist told you when you got saved to write down the date so that any time you doubted you could point him to the Bible? What superstition has overcome our denomination?

Do you know what the Bible tells Christians to do? Examine yourself, test yourself in light of scripture to see if you are in the faith. Test yourself to see if you're Christian. Do you realize if I dismissed us right now and told everyone to go knock on every door in this city, do you know what we would find out?

Ninety nine percent of the people, at least in this city, believe themselves to be believers. If you go back to your hometown and knock on every door, because I went back to my hometown after I got saved and knocked on every door.

And you know what I found out? Everyone in my town is a Christian. Eighty five percent of them do not go to church, and those who do go to church are not concerned about holiness. They're not concerned about serving.

They're not concerned about being separate from the world. They're not concerned about the gospel being preached among the nations. But bless God, they're saved. Why are they saved? Because some evangelist who should have spent less time preaching and more time studying his Bible told them they were saved.

And he did it so that he could brag about how many people came forward in his next revival. I love you. And there are men here who love you. And I want to go into scripture now, now that I've shocked you into life, I want you to listen to me.

Listen to the word of God and begin to ask yourself some questions.

First of all, enter through the narrow gate.

For the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction. And there are many who enter through it. There is a narrow gate. And, you know, historically, one of the reasons I'm a Southern Baptist is because the Southern Baptists have always been quick.

When other denominations have failed to realize this, the Southern Baptists have always been quick to realize that there is one gate. There is one God. There is one mediator between God and man, and his name is Jesus Christ.

It's not multiple choice. Not every road leads to Rome. As a denomination, we have always told people what Jesus told people. I am the way, the truth and the life. And no one comes to the father except through me.

So I praise God for that, that the only way any human being on this earth will ever be saved is through Jesus Christ. That is all because you need to realize the Bible says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

And you have no idea what that means. That we were born radically depraved and God hating, that we would have never sought God, never come to God. We have rebelled against God, broken every law. It's not just an issue that you have sinned.

The issue is you've never done anything but sin. The Bible says in the prophets that even our greatest works are like filthy rags before God. And because of that, you know what we deserve? The wrath of God, the holy hatred of God, you say now, wait a minute, God doesn't hate anybody.

God is love. No, my friend, you need to understand something. Jesus Christ taught the prophets, taught the apostles, taught this, that apart from the grace of God revealed in Jesus Christ, our Lord, the only thing left for you is the wrath, the fierce anger of God because of your rebellion and your sin.

When I speak in universities, they're always quick to point out, no, God cannot hate because God is love. And I tell you, God must hate because God is love. You see, I love children. Therefore, I hate abortion.

If I love that which is holy, I must hate that which is unholy. God is a holy God. That's something that the Americans have forgotten. Many of the things that you love to do, God hates. Did you know that?

Pray for revival. You're going to have a youth meeting. You want God to move. But before you go there, you watch programs on television that God absolutely despises. And then you wonder why the Holy Spirit hasn't fallen on a place and why you have to create false fire and false excitement.

Because God's not in it. God is a holy God. And the only way you and I could ever be reconciled to a holy God is through the death of God's own son when he hung on that tree. Now, listen to me. If you're saved here tonight, you're not saved because the Romans and Jews rejected Jesus.

You're not saved because they put a crown of thorns on his head. You're not saved because they ran a spear through his side. And you're not saved even because they nailed him to a cross. Do you know why you're saved if you are saved?

Because when Jesus Christ was hanging on that cross, he bore your sin, the sin of God's people and all the fierce wrath of God that should fall upon you. Fell upon his only begotten son. Someone had to pay that price.

Someone had to die. It was God the Father who crushed his only begotten son, according to Isaiah 53. It says it pleased Yahweh to crush him. People say the cross is a sign of how much man is worth. That's not true.

The cross is a sign of how depraved we really are. That it took the death of God's own son. The only thing that could save a people like us is the death of God's own son under the wrath of his own father paying the price.

Rising again from the dead. Powerful to save. This is the gospel of Jesus. Now, what are you called upon to do? You say you go through the narrow gate. How do you do that? Jesus said the time is fulfilled.

The kingdom of God is at hand. What must you do? And Mark, he tells us, repent and believe the gospel. You say, Brother Paul, I got saved by praying and asking Jesus Christ into my heart. And I'm sure you did.

But you weren't saved by a magic formula or some words you repeated after someone else. You were saved because you repented of your sins and you believed. And not only did you do that in the past, you continue to do it even until now.

Because when Jesus, a proper translation of that verse he gave is this, the kingdom of God has come. The time is fulfilled. Now spend the rest of your life repenting of your sins and believing in me. Conversion is not like a flu shot.

Oh, I did that. I repented. I believed. The question is, my friend, are you continuing to repent? Of sin, are you continuing to believe because he who began a good work and you will finish it. He will finish it.

Now, we as Southern Baptists preach that you're supposed to go through that own one and only gate, which is Jesus Christ. But we as Southern Baptists have forgot something. And I want youth ministers and pastors and everyone to listen to me.

Parents, we have forgot a very important teaching in the gospel. It says that not only the gate is narrow, it says the path is narrow. What we basically do is lead someone to Christ, lead someone in a prayer, and then they spend the rest of their life living just like the world.

And if you deny me on this, I can bring the statistics to prove you wrong. Gallup poll, Barnum polls, every kind of poll you can possibly look at. When it questions the morality of the church in America against the morality of those who claim to be lost in America, the polls find no difference.

Now, that is statistics has nothing to do with religious interpretation. Those are statistics. Book after book is being churned out by theologian and philosopher and sociologist alike. What has happened to the church?

We find out that abortion in the church is just as prevalent as outside in the world. We find that divorce is just as prevalent. We find that immorality, you know, as well as I do. There are youth here right now who are practicing immorality and yet worshiping God in the same breath.

You know, there are youth here that are doing drugs and yet coming to youth group, you know, watching and doing things that are not appropriate for a Christian. And yet they're coming to the youth group, believe themselves satisfied, believe themselves safe.

And no one is saying anything except this. They're carnal Christians. They're really Christians. They're just carnal. That was a doctrine that started in a Baptist seminary that is not a Southern Baptist seminary several decades ago.

It is not biblical and it is not historical. My dear friend, there is no such thing as a carnal Christian. You say, no, wait a minute, Brother Paul. First Corinthians chapter three. Are you not carnal?

Paul said that. No, that's what Paul said. You need to read the whole book to find out what he meant. You see, one of our problems, youth, listen to me. Most of our Christianity is based on cliches that we read on the back of Christian T-shirts.

Most of our Christianity comes from songwriters. And not the Bible. Most of what we believe to be true is dictated to us by our culture and not by the Bible. The Bible never teaches that a person can be a genuine Christian and live in continuous carnality and wickedness and sin all the days of their life.

But the Bible teaches that the genuine Christian has been given a new nature. The genuine Christian has a father who loves them and disciplines them and watches over them and cares for them. My heart is breaking because, you know, as well as I do, young people, let's not be hypocrites about it.

Let's not hide it. There are so many. You know them. You might be one of them or you at least know that they're in your youth group. They come to youth group. They do all this stuff. But in their heart, they're as wicked as wicked can be.

There's no difference. There's no light. Everything that the world does, they do. And it's appropriate. It's OK. My friend, that's not Christianity. They're not in danger of losing their reward. They're in danger of hell.

They know not God. What do we teach? When was the last time you heard someone say there's not only a narrow gate into heaven, but a narrow way? Jesus indicates that one of the principal signs of being a genuine Christian is that you walk in the narrow way.

Do you know what the sign for being a genuine Christian is in America is? You prayed a prayer one time. Isn't that amazing? What are you asked if you doubt your salvation? Did you pray a prayer one time?

What does scripture teach? Examine yourselves. Test yourselves in the light of scripture to see if you're in the faith, because a Christian will be different. Now, am I saying that a Christian is without sin?

No, because in First John, we learn that Christians do sin. And if any man does not acknowledge his sin, he knows not God. He's not walking in the light. So what is the difference? What am I really getting at?

What am I getting at is this. If you are genuinely a born again Christian, a child of God, you will walk in the way of righteousness as a style of life. And if you step off that path of righteousness, the father will come for you.

He will discipline you. He will put you back on that path. But if you profess to have gone through the narrow gate and yet you live in the broad way, just like all the other people in your high school, just like all the other people who are carnal and wicked, the Bible wants you to know that you should be terribly, terribly afraid.

But you know not God. I fear men who have spent most of their life telling other men that they are saved. I fear you if you've done that. You don't tell men they are saved. You tell men how to be saved.

God tells them they are saved.

What we have forgotten to believe is that salvation is a supernatural work of God. And those who have genuinely been converted, regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit is going to be a new creature, the Bible says, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.

So we find out here in Scripture that there is a narrow gate in a narrow way. We go into 16, go into verse 15. Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

You will know them by their fruits. One of the things you need to realize is there's something a wise man told me a long time ago. He said, Paul. Your best friend is the one who tells you the most truth.

In America, we have become so thin skinned that no one can rebuke us. No one can tell us we are wrong. And ministers and leaders alike have bought into this lie. We do not want to offend. We want to be seeker friendly.

What you need to realize is there is only one seeker and his name is God. And if you want to be friendly to somebody in your church, you need to be friendly to God. And you need to be more concerned for the glory of God than you are the attitudes of men.

But another thing you need to realize is the person who loves you most will tell you the most truth. One of the greatest distinguishing marks of a false prophet is that he will always tell you what you want to hear.

He will never rain on your parade. He will get you clapping. He will get you jumping. He will make you dizzy. He will keep you entertained. And he will present a Christianity to you that will make your church look like a six flags over Jesus.

And keep you so entertained you are never addressed with great issues such as these. Is God working in my life? Am I growing in holiness? Have I truly been born again? Listen to me. If everyone in this town believes themselves saved and we know that's not true by Scripture because the Bible says that you will enter in.

How do you know that you're saved? How do you truly know that you are saved? Because someone told you? Because you prayed a prayer? Because you believed? Well, let me ask you a question. How do you know you believe?

Because everybody says they believe. How do you know you're not like them? Do you know how the Bible teaches you that you know you are saved? Do you know how Baptist theology up until about 50 years ago would have told you how you know you have been saved?

You know you have been saved because your life is in a process of being changed and your style of life is one of walking in the paths of God's truth. And when you step off those paths and disobedience, as we all do, God comes for you and puts you back on the path.

One of the greatest evidences that you have truly been born again is that God will not let you talk as your flesh might want to talk. God will not let you dress as the sensual world and the sensual church allows you to dress.

God will not allow you to act like the world, smell like the world, speak like the world, listen to the things that the world listens to. God will make a difference in your life. He says here. As we go on, verse 17, so every or let's go to 16, you will know them by their fruit.

How will you know a false prophet in the wider application here in all of Scripture? How will you know if someone is a genuine Christian by their fruit, by their fruit? My dear friend, look at your life.

Look at the way you walk. Look at the way you talk. Look at the passions of your heart. Is Jesus in there somewhere or is he just some accessory that you add on to your life? Is he just something you do on Wednesday or Sunday?

Is he something that you give a mental assent to? Is he an accessory or is he the very center of your life? And what is the fruit that you're bearing? Do you look like the world, act like the world? Do you have an experience the same joys that the world experiences?

Can you love sin and relish it? Can you love rebellion and relish it? Then, you know, not God. You will know them by their fruit. God has the power to change. Let's imagine for a moment. Jesus teaching this passage and you're sitting out there listening.

And he looks at you. He says. Thistles. Thistles. Do you find thistles on on fig trees? And you respond, of course, not Jesus. I mean, you're not an agriculturalist. You're not a farmer. I mean, you're a carpenter.

But I mean, everybody knows Jesus. You don't find thorns on fig trees. Well, well, then let me ask you another question. Do you find figs, good fruit on thorn trees? Why, no, Jesus, that's absolutely ludicrous.

I mean, you're never going to find thorns on a fig tree and you're not going to find figs on a thorn tree. Jesus to say that that could be possible. Anyone who tells you that, Jesus, you can mark it down.

They're either crazy or they're a liar.

And then Jesus responds to you. Well, then those who call themselves my disciples.

And bear bad fruit. Would not it be the same to say that they were either lying. Or out of their mind to make such a statement. Let me take it a little further. Let's imagine that I show up late and I run up here on the platform.

And all the leaders are angry with me. I said, Brother Paul, don't you appreciate the fact you're giving the opportunity to speak here and you come late? And I said, brothers, you have to forgive me. Well, why?

Well, I was out here on the highway and I was driving and I had a flat tire and I got out to change the tire. And when I was changing the tire, the lug nut fell off and I wasn't paying attention that I was on the highway.

And I ran out and I grabbed the lug nut. And as soon as I picked it up in the middle of the highway, I stood up and there was a 30 ton logging truck going 120 miles an hour, about 10 yards in front of me.

And it ran me over. And that's why I'm late. Now, there would only be two logic. I know no one studies logic anymore, but there would only be two logical conclusions. One, I'm a liar. Or two, I'm a madman.

You would say, Brother Paul, it's absolutely absurd. It is impossible, Brother Paul, to have an encounter with something as large as a logging truck and not be changed. And then my question would be to you, what is larger, a logging truck or God?

How is it that so many people today profess to have had an encounter with Jesus Christ and yet they are not permanently changed? Let me give you a few things to think about. You know, I'm telling you the truth.

How many times do you go and rededicate your life over and over and over again? How many times do youth groups go to things like this and get fired up and go back to the church and it lasts about a week and a half?

And yet, oh, it was a great move of God. No, it wasn't. If it doesn't last, it wasn't a great move of God. It was emotion. It was so many things, but it wasn't a great move of God.

Has God worked in your life? Is God working in your life?

You will know them by their fruit. You will know them by their fruit. Now we go on. Verse 19, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then you will know them by their fruit.

Look at this. You need to understand something about Hebrew literature. When you and I want to emphasize something, do you know what we do? We raise our voice. If we're writing, we put it in bold letters or we capitalize it.

But to a Jew, it's different. When he wants to emphasize something, he repeats it and he repeats it. That's why you find Hebrew parallelisms in the book of Proverbs. The wicked shall not live in the land.

The wicked shall be destroyed. He's saying the same thing, just in a different way to give greater emphasis. That's what Jesus is doing over and over again here. You will know them by their fruit. You will know them by their fruit.

You will know them by the path that they walk in. You will know them by their fruit. You will know them by their fruit. And he says anyone who does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

What is he talking about, my dear friend? He is talking about the judgment of almighty God that will one day fall upon the world. That will one day fall possibly upon you. Oh, dear friend. I cannot look into your heart.

I am so easily deceived by my own heart. But there is one who is not deceived. There is one who is not deceived and he's not deceived by a contemporary Christian culture. He knows. You will know them by their fruit.

Then he goes on. He says this, verse 21, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my father who is in heaven will enter. Do you know what your profession of faith in Jesus Christ is worth?

Absolutely nothing. Yes. Did you read that passage? Study it. Not everyone who comes to me and says, Lord, Lord, not everyone who professes. Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven. There are many people who are going to profess, Lord, Lord, but they are not going to enter into the kingdom of heaven.

My dear, precious child, are you one of them? Lord, Lord. Now, again, let's go back to Hebrew literature. He said, Lord, Lord. He didn't say Lord. He said, Lord, Lord. What does that mean? This fellow who is making this profession, he is not someone who just all of a sudden decided it's judgment and I better profess him to be Lord.

This is a person who emphatically declares to other people that Jesus Christ is Lord. He walks around saying, Lord. He dances up in front while the musicians are playing, saying, Lord. He sings the songs, Lord.

But Jesus said to him, depart from me. I never knew you. Do you know Billy Graham is one of the kindest, lovingest men? Yet Billy Graham has said he believed that a great majority of people who attend Bible believing churches are lost.

He said that he would be happy if even five percent of all the people who made professions of faith in his campaigns were even saved. When I'm in Nigeria, I was there last year visiting a mother whose son was in our church and was martyred by the Muslims.

In northern Nigeria, when someone professes faith in Jesus Christ, you pretty much know it's it's true. Why? They can die because of that profession. But in America. Oh, consider the cost. Think, examine your life in light of Scripture.

Do you know the Lord? Do you know the Lord? Because not everyone who says to him, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But what does it say here? Look what it says. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven.

But he who does the will of my father who is in heaven. What is the sign that someone has become a genuine Christian? I wish that we would start teaching this again. What happened to our theology? What happened to our doctrine?

What happened to our teaching? It went right out the window. No one wants to study doctrine anymore. They just want to listen to songs and read the back of Christian T-shirts. What happened to truth?

Truth tells you this. The evidence, the way that you can have assurance that you are genuinely a born-again Christian is that you do as a style of life the will of the father. You say, oh, you're talking about works.

No, I'm not. I'm talking about evidence of faith. And it goes like this. Your profession of faith is no proof that you're born again, because everybody in this whole country professes faith in Jesus Christ.

Barnard tells us that 65 to 70 percent of all Americans are saved. Born-again Christians. Most godless country on the face of the earth. Kill 4 ,000 babies a day. But bless God, 70 percent of us are born again.

How do you know that that faith you have is not false? A style of life that is concerned about doing the will of the father, that practices the will of the father, and when you disobey the will of the father, the Holy Spirit comes and reprimands you, either personally through the written word of God, through a brother or sister in Christ.

And God puts you back on the path again. If you're a genuine Christian, you cannot escape him. Let me give you an example. If I was your pastor and you were, let's say, 14 years old and I came back from preaching at one o 'clock in the morning and I saw you standing out there in a park or on a corner with a bunch of hoodlums doing things you shouldn't be doing.