The Bible's Biggest Runaway — Greg Locke

Amen. Thank you so much. The book of Jonah, chapter 1 in your Bible tonight, please. The Old Testament minor prophet book of Jonah. Good to see you tonight. I've enjoyed myself thoroughly these past few services that we've had together, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of last week, and now Monday, and here's Tuesday of this week, and then have one more service tomorrow night, our music service, which I'll be preaching in.

I've enjoyed my time here, enjoyed the time here last year, and I appreciate Brother Duffy and the camp staff allowing me to be here. I hope that I've been just a little bit of a help and a blessing to you, and I've had the privilege of talking with many of you, counselors, some of you, praying with some of you even today, and that's been a blessing to me.

I'm not just here to preach. I'm here to be a friend and here to be a help in the best way that I possibly can. I've just got a message that the Lord just kind of laid upon my heart and just kind of changed it.

Basically, before chapel service, I just was kind of praying about what the Lord would have me to preach, and this was not going to be it, but I just feel like this is the direction that the Lord would have me to go, and so I hope by obeying the Spirit of God tonight, it'll be not only a blessing to you, but if there's an area of convincing and convicting that you need in your life, I hope that the Spirit of God would use that as well.

Let's all stand, please, out of respect for God's Word, as we look together at Jonah 1, and verse number one. Jonah 1, verse number one, the Bible says, Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amittiah, saying, Rise and go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it, for their wickedness is come up before me.

But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarsus from the presence of the Lord and went down to Joppa, and he found a ship going to Tarsus, and so he paid the fare thereof and went down into it to go with him unto Tarsus from the presence of the Lord.

But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken. Then the mariners, or the sailors, were afraid and cried every man unto his God and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea to lighten up them, but Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep.

Verse number 17, would you look there, please? Jonah 1, verse number 17, the Bible says, Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Jonah Runs From God

And tonight I want to bring you a simple message entitled, The Bible's Biggest Runaway. Thank you very much. You may be seated. Let's bow our heads and hearts and ask the Lord to bless our time together.

Now, Father, I pray for these people as they listen to the Word of God. I thank you for their receptiveness and their listening ability all week long. And Lord, I appreciate that so much as a preacher, and I pray you'd bless them for it.

But Lord, tonight I pray that they would listen intently again and that you would bless them and, Lord, that you would convict in areas that need conviction and change. And Lord, more so, I pray very humbly tonight as thy servant that you would help me as I preach the unsearchable riches of Christ.

For it's in Jesus' name that I pray and ask these things, and I know that I have that which I ask for. For I pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. I remember when I had a teacher by the name of Miss Grandstaff.

She was my fifth grade teacher. I knew her very well because I spent two years in her class. The first year I was in fifth grade, I was at the Gladeville Elementary School of Nashville, Tennessee, and I had a good friend by the name of Matthew Ray.

Now, I had several other friends, but Matthew Ray was probably the buddy of the decade, if you will. I mean, we were close. We did everything together. I mean, he was always at my house, I was always at his.

And from fifth and sixth grade, I mean, we were the best of friends. I remember one day, which was not too unusual for he or myself, we got in trouble and had to do back then in public school what they called write-offs.

Now, when I first went to public school, they didn't fool with the write-offs. They'd pull out a big paddle and they'd just wear you out if you got in trouble. But then they got to the place where they started passing rules and regulations, and moms and dads didn't want that anymore.

So they made us do write-offs. They had these little science cards and these little history cards that came out of this little bucket, this little barrel, and you just kind of pulled one. You didn't get to pick which one you wanted, and I probably wrote all of them four or five times a piece.

But I mean, there was a bunch of them, and I'd pull one out, he'd go and pull one out, and she would send us to different rooms to make us do these write-offs. Now, that meant we was going to have loads of homework because we didn't get any of the seat work or any of the classwork done.

And so I remember my first year in the fifth grade, she sent me, I don't know, this was probably middle of the year or something like that. I got in trouble for doing something. Can't remember what it is.

Surely it wasn't my fault for sure, but I got in trouble. She sent me to the first grade class. Now, as a fifth grader going to the first grade, that's kind of humiliating, and I guess that was kind of the point of it to keep me from keeping continually to doing that and going back.

And so I was in the first grade class, and here I am, I've got my little write-offs, and I'm just writing 90 miles a minute as fast as I can. And so all of a sudden, the door opens and here comes Matthew Ray.

He comes and he sits down across the room from me, and he's kind of sitting there, and we're kind of looking at each other every now and then, just kind of giving each other the eye, you know. And I don't know where in the world this idea came from.

I'm going to be honest with you. I don't know if it was my idea. I don't know if it was his idea. I don't know whose idea it was, but apparently we came up with the idea about the same time. The first grade class ended up going to lunch.

And so here I am sitting by myself. He's sitting by himself. And so here we are. It's not even our lunchtime yet. First grade obviously went first. And so here we are, and I'm sitting down. I'm writing.

He's writing. All of a sudden, I don't know where it came from. Beautiful day outside. I look at him. He looks at me. And the idea pops into both of our heads simultaneously at the same time. Let's run away from school.

Now that's the dumbest thought I've ever had, and the dumbest thought he ever had. I don't know who thought it up, but it was ridiculous, that's for sure. And so I said, Matthew, listen. I got a plan, all right?

I said, let's do the little Mission Impossible. I said, I'm going to go to the bathroom. I said, when I go to the bathroom, I'm going to wait five minutes. I said, I got my little clock here. I said, I'm going to be in there five minutes.

When I'm there five minutes, you tell this teacher you got to go to the bathroom. I said, surely she won't think anything about it. I said, we'll meet in the bathroom, and then we'll have plan B in the bathroom.

I said, we'll figure out where we go from there. And so I went to the bathroom, and I waited, and I waited. And I was sweating bullets, and I thought for sure I was going to get caught. And I washed my hands about 15 times, and finally five minutes passed, and here comes Matthew Ray.

I thought, wow, that teacher was pretty gullible letting us both go to the bathroom within the same time frame. And so here he was. He said, what do we do now? I said, well, I thought up the first part.

It's your turn now. He said, well, let's go to the gym. And so we went to the gymnasium. And people were in there. They were playing basketball. They were playing volleyball. And we still had our little write-off cards, and we still had all that big old stack of notebook paper and pencils and erasers and stuff in our hand.

And so we figured we need to ditch that. And so we walked through the gymnasium, Gladeville Elementary. When you walk outside to the left and the right, there's these big, huge module-type buildings, these little mobile home-type things that they had computer classes and all kind of different classes.

And so we just kind of walked over, and they had a little garden area. So we just took our stuff, and we just kind of threw it in there. And so then we walked across the parking lot a little ways. It wasn't too far from here to the light pole out there.

And they had a great big old chain-link fence. And so we hopped the chain-link fence. And when you hop the chain-link fence, you're right in the woods. And so we start moseying around through the woods, and we start messing around.

He starts telling me what a great hunter he is. And we're talking about how we're going to live out in the woods for the rest of our life. And he did a real silly thing. This is a gospel truth. He got down on his knees, and he put his ear to the ground.

He said, I think a deer will be coming by very soon. He said, my granddad taught me how to hear deer running. I thought, you idiot. Get off your face. You're stupid. And so he's down there listening for deer.

And he goes down to the water. You know, I mean, he's just a real Rambo. He scoops up the water and puts it in his mouth. You know, he's trying to impress me and all this kind of stuff. I was just interested in getting away from school.

And so we're running around. And so we pull out a little wallet, you know. And we put our money together. We probably had about $2 .50, $2 .25 together. And we thought we was going to live on that high on the hog for the rest of our life.

And so there's a little Southern Baptist church over there. We went and hid in the parking lot for a little while, you know, between some cars and let everybody go by. And then we went from there. We went to this little store that they had, and then we went from there about a half a mile.

We finally got down to the ball field. And in the ball field, there was more woods. And so then we cut through those woods. And we got on this little field. And buddy, we just kicked back and was relaxing.

Now we said, what are we going to do? After school today, so people don't think anything. We had our heads on. We'll go to the store and we'll get our $2 .25 together. Bag us a couple of bag of groceries, you know.

And man, we'll just live out here tonight. We'll have ourselves a big weenie roast. And nobody will know where we are. Man, we were just all excited. Here we are, run away from school. Well, all of a sudden, we were just kind of out there.

And I guess probably two or three hours had passed. The sun kind of started getting just a little bit more dismal. It started to sprinkle rain a little bit. And I thought, great. First time I've run away from school.

It's going to pour down rain, you know. And so we're sitting out here in the woods. And we're sitting inside these little, these stools made out of kind of a wood type thing. I don't know who left them out there, but they're pretty convenient.

So we just kind of kicked back, you know.

All of a sudden, I hear the boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Well, I looked out on the highway. And at this time, my brother had one of these crazy lowrider things. I mean, that thing was to the ground. You couldn't drive over pea gravel, that thing. I mean, you'd have tore the bottom out of it.

And he had them big old speakers. He had this little shelf that went all the way across this little cover that went all the way across the back of the bed of his truck. That thing was full of these big wolfers and sub-wolfers and all this kind of 18-inch mess, boom, boom, boom, boom.

I mean, he's just going down the road. That thing just started bouncing off the ground. And I thought, that's my brother's truck. I said, that is my brother's truck. I said, they have called him, and he's coming to get me.

And so I kind of popped up like a little rabbit, you know. And I'm kind of looking around. And all of a sudden, his car stops. And he jumps out. And my cousin, my first cousin, Tony Sparkman, jumps out.

And man, they just come barreling through those weeds as fast as you can. They're screaming and yelling and hollering like a bunch of wild banshees. And man, I'm running all over the place. And I'm running in circles.

I know I'm fixing to get caught. And so I said, run for the woods. Run for the woods. And so we're running for the woods, you know. And they're diving after us. And I fall over. And he falls over. It's like a big slow-motion scene, you know.

And my brother jumps on me. And my cousin jumps on Matthew, man. They shake us all up, beat us around for a little while, and throw us in the truck and take us back to the school. And man, you talk about humiliation.

They walked us into the office. And man, all these kids were getting ready to go to lunch. They was all looking at us. They knew what we did. They knew we got busted, man. They had the police there. His mom was already there.

My mom was already there. I thought, what in the world are these people going to do? Well, I'll tell you what they did. They kicked us out of school, not only for that day, but for three more days. They gave us continual, continual write-offs.

But I will never forget what Miss Allgood, who at that time was the principal of Glaveville Elementary, I will never forget what she told me. She said, Greg, you're nothing but a little runner. She said, you always run from your problems.

She said, every time you face a problem, she says, you're always running from your problems. She said, you're nothing but a little runner. And she said, it's time you learned to quit running. And here was a man in the Bible by the name of Jonah that was nothing but a little bitty runner.

All he did was run from his problems. When things got bad, instead of running to the Lord, he ran from the Lord. And there are several things in this portion of Scripture tonight that I think are very apropos to our Christian life that I want you to see.

Jonah Pays the Price of Disobedience

Please look at Jonah chapter 1 and verses 1 and verses 2. Would you look there? Simple outline tonight. I want you to see, number one, Jonah ran from God. Jonah ran from God. Jonah chapter 1, verse number 1.

Look what it says. It says, now the word of the Lord. Now, it doesn't say the word of a preacher. It says the word of the Lord. And that's what matters. That's what counts. He says, the word of the Lord came unto Jonah, the son of Amittiah, saying, here's the command, Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and try against it.

Why? For their wickedness is come up before me. Now, look at the first part of verse number 3. But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarsus from the presence of the Lord. God came down to Jonah one day and said, Jonah, I want you to be my man, my itinerant evangelist for the city of Nineveh.

And he said, no way, Hosea. He said, I do not want to go to the city. Now, there are several reasons, more than likely, that he did not want to go. They are not part of our outline, but let's just bump heads for a little bit tonight, shall we?

There's only one other place in your Bible, in the Old Testament, where the word Amittiah, speaking of Jonah's father, is used. Now, this is not, alright? This is opinion. Believe what you want to. But I've read several history books about the Bible.

And Josephus kind of thinks this, that, and the other. But most people that write will say that at one time, Amittiah, the father of Jonah, was slain in a grievous battle by the Ninevites. And so, if that be true, if it is fine, if it's not fine, but if that be true, then no doubt Jonah did not want to go to the same city where several years earlier his father had been slain.

Now, think about the Ninevites for a moment. The city of Nineveh was the capital city of a place called Assyria. The Assyrians were a wicked, vile, godless bunch of rebels that spit on the Bible, spit in the face of God.

I mean, these people were ungodly. I'll tell you how ungodly they were. Not only were they immoral, but if they had a beef against you, if you said something or did something or wore something they didn't like, if they didn't like the smell of your cologne or your perfume, they'd just chop your head off and they'd put a pole through your body.

They'd put some type of jelly upon you that lights you up and you'd be the street lamp for the city of Nineveh. That's a pretty wicked group of people. And so, Jonah thought to himself, hey, I'm not going to go be live fish bait for these people.

I don't want to go preach there, God. And God said, go, and Jonah said, no. And because Jonah ran from God, I want you to see several things in the progression of Scripture here that happened in his life.

Verse number 3, look at it. Well, it says, "...but Jonah rose up to flee into Tarsus from the presence of the Lord.". The first thing that happens when you directly disobey the will of God is number one, you run away from the protective presence of Almighty God.

Now, it just makes sense to me. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that America is in a mess. And if you don't think America is in a mess, you've got your head in the sand like an ostrich.

I mean, sodomites and abortions and ungodliness. I mean, we are in a rampant, rampant wicked society. And it would just seem logical to me that in this day and age, we shouldn't be running from the presence of the Lord, but we're going to need God more.

We should be running to God. But here was a man that ran from Him. And because he ran from Him, number one, he got out from under God's protective presence. But I want you to see number two, that he paid the price of his sin.

Real simple outline. Look back at the Bible, would you? Verse number 3, "...Jonah rose up to flee into Tarsus from the presence of the Lord and went down to Joppa, and he found a ship going to Tarsus, so he paid the fare thereof.".

Now, unless you misunderstand your Bible, you've got to understand that Tarsus was one of the highest rated fisherman cities of this day. He did not pay 50 cents or $5 to get away from God. He paid a hefty sum, and if you look on a map sometimes, you'll find out that Tarsus and Nineveh was about 1 ,500 miles apart.

He paid a big price to get away from God. And if God tells you to do something and you say no, or if God tells you not to do something and you do it anyhow, not only will you be out from under the protective presence of God, but secondly, you will always pay the price in your mind, in your heart, in your body for your sin.

There has never been anybody that has never had to pay for their sin, and Jonah was not the exception. It cost him to run from God. But also, spiritually, there's something else I want you to see. Back at verse number 3, would you?

"...But Jonah rose up to flee into Tarsus from the presence of the Lord and went...". What's the word? "...down to Joppa, and he found a ship going to Tarsus, so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it to go with him unto Tarsus from the presence of the Lord.".

Look at verse number 5, would you? "...Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his God, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down in the sides of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep.".

Three times the Bible says that Jonah went down when he ran from Almighty God. Somebody says, well, I'll tell you what, Brother Locke, I think I can live any way I jolly well please. I think I can live my own life, and I can be my own boss, and I can do my own thing, and my life is just fine.

Not according to the Bible, because when you directly disobey the will of God, your life does not get better, it does not progress,.

It gets worse, it degresses, and you don't go up, up, up, you go down, down, down.

And here's a man that had no joy, he had no assurance, and he had no peace, because his life continually went down because he would not submit himself to the will of God. Stand and also submit, please.

I beseech you that by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living, not a dead, a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. It's just reasonable for you and I to give our life to Christ, since 2 ,000 years ago He gave His life for you and for me.

And then he says in verse 2, be not conformed. That means don't look like, smell like, talk like, walk like, act like. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.

But did you notice what he said in verse 1? He said to present your bodies a living sacrifice unto God. I believe what Paul had in mind when he wrote that through the inspiration of the Spirit of God.

Was in the Old Testament, when they had the burnt offering, they would have this animal upon the altar. They would slice that animal's throat, a lamb of the first year, just without blemish, without spot, a perfect lamb.

He would slice it from ear to ear. The blood would then begin to bush out, and I don't know what they used. They didn't have gasoline, I'm sure, but they used some type of Old Testament gasoline. Some type of Old Testament lighter fluid, alright, if you will.

And they put it all over the body. They doused the body of this animal. They would then set that animal's body on fire. They would set it aflame. Now, no doubt, if your neck has just been cut, and if you have just been set on fire, your nerves are going to be going crazy, my dear friend.

And so that animal many times would twitch and would begin to just kind of gyrate and convulse back and forth, and many times that would fall off of the altar, making it lard, an unacceptable sacrifice to Almighty God.

So in the Old Testament, they had what was called flesh hooks. They had long poles that were anywhere from five to eight feet long. On the end of that pole were these two great hooks that came out of kind of one little stalk, and they came out and had two hooks on it.

And they would take those hooks, and when that animal began to convulse, and when that animal began to get to the place where it was going to roll off the altar and thus be unacceptable to God, that prophet, that priest would then take that staff, they would put the flesh hooks into the side of that animal, and while it was bleeding, while it was on fire, while it was convulsing and jumping around, it would hold that animal upon the altar so it would be acceptable to Almighty God.

And I believe what the Apostle Paul is saying in Romans 12, 1 and 2 is, child of God, stay on the altar and present your body a living sacrifice. Don't get distracted. Don't get to the place where you begin to convulse and you roll off of the altar and begin to live your own life in your own way.

Why? For you belong to God. And he said, stay on the altar. And here was a man that would not have had so much trouble. He would have had not so much blight upon his testimony, if you will, if he would have just obeyed the Spirit of God willingly.

But look how much trouble he got into when God said, go, and Jonah said, no. Now, I don't know what your situation is tonight. Perhaps there'll be a young man here. God's cut his hand on you. He wants you to be a gospel preacher.

Many young men stood up last night and said, hey, God's calling me to preach. God wants me to be a pastor, a missionary, evangelist, whatever it is. Perhaps there'll be more in this room that you know God wants you to be a preacher, but you say in your heart, I just don't know if I can be a preacher.

Or a matter of fact, God, I don't know if I want to be a preacher. How about since you belong to God, you take your hands off your life and say, God, you can have me lock, stock, and barrel. You can do with me what you want to do.

Anytime you want to do it, take away anything you want to take away. Give me anything you want to give me. I will do thy will. And those that say, God, your will, not mine, are those that God uses in a big and a wonderful and a blessed way.

But here was a man that had a rocky boat, if you will, because he would not obey the Spirit of God. But that's not the crux of my message. I want you to look at verse number 6, if you would, please. In verse number 6, the Bible says, So the shipmaster, meaning, obviously, the captain of the ship, the main fellow in charge.

So the shipmaster came to him and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise and call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us that we perish not. And they said every one to his fellow, Come and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us.

So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah. Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us. What is thine occupation? And whence comest thou? What is thy country?

And of what people art thou? Now listen to his answer in verse number 9, would you? And he said unto them, I am in Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.

Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he had fled from the presence of the Lord. How did they know? Well, look at the end of the verse, because he had told them.

Jonah Ruins His Testimony

Number one, I want you to see that Jonah ran from God, but more importantly than that, I want you to see number two, Jonah ruined his testimony. Here was a man that had an opportunity to preach and to witness and to be a solid witness and testimony for Jesus Christ.

And here is not only the only Christian on the boat, but the only preacher or the only witness on the boat. And he's not preaching, he's not witnessing, he's not teaching the Bible. He doesn't even have a good testimony.

The Bible says he's lost his burden, and he is asleep in the hole in the very bottom of a ship, and the shipmaster, the captain had to come and wake him up and rebuke him and say, What meanest thou, O sleeper?

Why don't you wake up and call upon your God, big boy? You're the one that's supposed to be a Bible believer. You're the one that's supposed to be the big Christian man. You're the preacher, boy. Why don't you wake up and call upon your God?

And here was the only Christian on the boat. For the Bible says these other men were calling upon their gods. Little G, these were a bunch of heathens. But here was a man by the name of Jonah that knew Jehovah God.

He knew him intimately, and now he had ruined his testimony because he had ran from the presence of Almighty God. And he lost his testimony in front of those people that he could have won, that he could have told about Jehovah God so they wouldn't have to serve the little G but the big G, and he could have told them, but now he had lost his testimony, and these men were rebuking him for the life that he was living.

Now, you won't be saved very long before you realize two things. Number one, your testimony as a believer is very vital, but number two, your testimony is the hardest thing you'll ever hang on to as a child of God.

You know, the Bible says in Matthew 5, verses 14 -16, a city that is hid on a hill cannot be hid. Let your light so therefore shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Now, wait just a minute. He did not say, let your light shine so they can glorify you and me. He said, let your light shine so they can glorify Almighty God, and we have a command. We have a mandate as God's people that we let our light shine and that we tell a lost and dying world about Jesus Christ not only with our lips, but also with our life.

You see, Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees, ye draw near unto me with your mouth, but your heart is far from me. And let me tell you what bothers me as an evangelist as I crisscross back and forth across America.

I meet people that on a regular basis, they pay lip service to Almighty God. But if they were to go to court for being a Christian, there would not be enough evidence to convict them of being one. And let me say very reverently and very boldly and unashamedly, I won't roll my eyes or apologize twice for saying it, my dear friend.

If your lips and your life don't match up, shut what your lips say until you learn to live the life, my dear friend, because your walk will talk a whole lot louder than your talk will. And God commands and God deserves the fact that His people have a testimony not just with their mouth, but with their life, and we live for the King of kings and Lord of lords.

And how fine it is, not only this summer, but for the rest of your life, you'll be a witness and you'll be a testimony to Jesus Christ. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10 and verse number 31, whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Now, most of your Bible college students, you know what the word glory means. The word glory means opinion. And God says you live in such a way that you give the lost world a good opinion of who I am.

I remember when I was in high school, I'd just been saved maybe for about a year and a half, something like that. I was at an A .C .E. Christian school called Bellwood Christian Academy. They're in Murfreesboro.

I transferred after about a couple of years after I was there. I transferred to Franklin Road Christian School where I graduated eventually. But when I first went there, I was about five years behind because of what I was saved out of and all that kind of stuff.

Don't have a good time in that, but I don't have time to get into that tonight. But I was about five or six years behind in school, especially in my math and English and things. And so I had a lot of catching up to do.

And so I remember when I first got there, you know, I just got saved and people said, oh man, you're not going to make it. You're not going to make it. I was doing my best not only to prove them wrong, but to prove myself wrong.

I wanted to know that I could live for God. And then I was struggling to read my Bible. Here I was living in a children's home and I was away from all my friends and my family, this, that and the other.

No, and I was just struggling to live for God. And I remember they wanted to put me on the basketball team. Now, I told coach Mike Harris, I said, listen, I said, it's going to be a bad move for you to put me on the basketball team.

He said, oh, listen, man, I won't make you sit the bench. And he said, if you feel like sitting the bench, that's fine. He said, just get in there and play the game. He said, you'll love it. They took me to the first game.

I shot my first shot. And he realized, hey, we probably don't want you on the basketball team, friend. And I was more of a detriment than I was a help. That's for sure. You give me 15 ,000 rubber basketballs and I'll shoot enough bricks to build a mansion house.

I cannot play basketball. I don't know anything about the game. And so I said, listen, brother Harris, I said, what if, what if instead of playing basketball, what if I could be the school mascot? He said, well, we've never had a school mascot.

I said, exactly. I said, let's try something a little bit new. I said, why don't you let me be the school mascot? He said, well, if you really want to do that, I said, I really do. I said, let me talk to the cheerleaders, the ballplayers.

So they all came in one day and we had kind of a little service together. No one's kind of talking. I said, listen, I'd like to be your new mascot. I said, I've been talking to the Lord about this. And I talked to the coach about this.