Back to Bethel — John R. Rice

Have you found it? All right. But that's in the Old Testament. All right, now, are you ready? And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there. Make there an altar unto God, that it appeareth to thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.

Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments, and let us arise, and go up to Bethel. And I'll make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.

And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods that were in their hand, and all the earrings that were in their ears. And Jacob hid them under the oak bushes by Shechem, and deterred him. And the terror of God was upon the citizens around about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.

So Jacob came to love which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him. And he built there an altar, and called the name of the place El Bethel, because there God appeared unto him when he fled from the face of his brother.

The Meaning of Bethel and El Bethel

The word El Bethel means the God of Bethel. The word Bethel means the house of God. Beth, Hebrew for house, El for God. Bethel, house of God. El Bethel, the God of the house of God, because God met him there.

Now the Lord said, God sent unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make there an altar unto the God that appeared to thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. God said, Come on back to Bethel, Jacob, I want to bless you again.

Come back to Bethel. Now you remember the story of Jacob. There were two brothers, Jacob and Esau. And God had chosen the younger, and the younger knew it. And Jacob said, I want that birthright. Oh, he said, I want to be the ancestor of the Messiah.

I want to head the chosen nation, Israel. But Esau said, I don't care about that. If I can get out here and shoot me some deer. And my old pappy, he likes the venison, I bring him. And a lot of pretty girls around here.

And I don't care. So Jacob came in one day all hungry. He said, Hey, I see you cooked up a wonderful lot of chili here. Or stew with tomatoes in it, because it was red. And so he said, Give me some of this.

I'm sure hungry. But Jacob said, I'll trade it to you for your birthright. Well, he said, OK, who cares about a birthright? I'm about to starve anyhow. And so he traded him the birthright. And then a little bit later, Jacob, he was afraid.

You know, we're all so often afraid God will let something slip. And God's train won't get in on time, Brother Tom. So we have to fix things up for God sometimes, we think. And so Jacob, he and his mother got together to deceive his old father.

And he pretended to be Esau to get the blessing. And God gave Jacob a blessing through his father Isaac. He could have gotten the right blessing without lying and cheating. God had planned for him. But now Esau said, I'm going to kill him, the dirty cheat.

His name's Jacob, which means schemer. And that's what he is. He's a trickster, a horse trader, a schemer. And I'll kill him as soon as Dad dies. And so his mother said, Jacob, you better run over yonder and stay with my brother Laban.

And so Jacob went away from home. And Jacob has a sensitive conscience. Jacob was pretty mean, but he had something in him that was seeking after God and sensitive to God. And so he said, I wonder if God has quit me because I lied and cheated.

And now I'm running away from home. I'm afraid I won't ever see my mother again. She protected me. And it didn't, I think. And then she said, now, I wonder if God's going to keep that promise about a wonderful country here and feed like the sands of the seashore and like the stars of heaven.

I wonder. No money. Couldn't go to a hotel. Couldn't go to an inn. And so he camped out, had no pillow but a rockbird pillow, and went to sleep. And that night the angels of God came around him. And there was a vision.

And lo, a great light and a ladder from earth to heaven. He didn't know it, maybe, but God has a ladder from earth to heaven. Jesus Christ is that ladder. God had to come down, be born of a virgin to save man.

God had to come down, die on a cross so man could spit in the face of God and hate God and curse God. And so the dear Lord Jesus had to come. And Jacob saw it. Maybe he knew what it meant. And God conjured the angels of God ascending and descending.

Did you notice? They ascended. His brother Tom. They live down here on earth, the angels do. Their main business is down here. They go to heaven to report, but they come back down here. Their main business is looking after the saints of God.

And Jacob woke up and he said, I didn't know God was in this place, but he is. God said, Jacob, I'm going to be with you. I'll give you this land, all this land of Canaan for possession. And I'll make your children as a sand to the seaside and then be all the nations of Europe a good land.

And Jacob got up and said that God was in this place and I didn't know it. And so he said, I'm going to make a vow. First, God, you be with me. Give me food to eat and clothes to put on and bring me again to my father's house.

I'm awful lonely. I'm out here in the country by myself. I sure would love to see my old dad. If you bring me again to my father's house, then he should be with me. Then he said, God will be my God. And this place will be to me the house of God.

I'm going to put up a stone here. I'll put all on the head of it. That's to me the house of God. And then he said, I'll surely give a tithe, one-tenth of all that God gave me. And so he went away. And now the years go by.

Oh, 35 years or more go by. And he worked seven years for one girl. Gets her. Then he worked seven years for the other girl. And then he raised a wonderful crop of boys. Twelve boys and one girl, Bartholomew.

And he's done long, hard work. And works at night. And winters cold. And summers heat. And labors cheap. And God takes up for him. And helps him. And then he goes back to meet Esau. And Esau forgives him.

Jacob’s First Bethel and the Blessing of Continued Fellowship

And now then, they sit around. But they've had trouble. And God says, Jacob, don't you want to come on back again to Bethel, the place of blessing? And so he came back. God said, come back. You know, Jacob had his Bethel.

I'm glad he did. I've been working for some time on a book of saints. Bible saints at crisis. How great men of the Bible were revealed by some great time of crisis. Elijah on Mount Carmel. And David there with Bathsheba.

And Paul in his dying message to Timothy, in 2 Timothy. I'm now ready to be offered. John the Baptist at his birth. And the words of the angel. And now here is Jacob. And God said, come on back to Bethel.

He had his Bethel. Long the time. But he met God. And God was there. And now God said, Jacob, you don't have to have just one time of blessing. Oh, somebody said, I got converted way back. That was the happiest day of my life.

And I'm sorry for you. I'm sorry for you. I've had lots of days happier than my conversion. Somebody said today, we were having testimony meeting. And somebody said today, well, I can't put my finger on the time I was saved.

But I was. And I thought in my heart, well, hallelujah, I'm saved today. That's happier than I got saved one time. I'm saved now. I've got a heavenly Father. I've got my name written down in heaven. Brother, I'm an heir of God and a joint heir of Jesus Christ.

I've already received the atonement. Brother, I'm going to heaven. I'm saved today. That's funnier and happier than the fact I got saved one time. I'm saved now. And so the Lord said, Jacob, you don't have to go on what I gave you 35 years ago.

Come on back. The angels are still around you, Jacob. You don't see them. Don't you want to come on back and see them again? God said, I've still got the ladder from earth to heaven. It's invisible. You don't see it, but it's there.

You sat back down and said, God's in this place. I didn't know it. God said, I'm still here. I'm still all around. Don't you want to come back and make it real again? Don't you want to come back and get on the mountaintop again?

Don't you want to come back and get all your sins forgiven again? Don't you want to come back and renew your vows again? Don't you want to come back and have all your backsliding forgiven and get cleaned up again?

All right, come on back, Jacob. Back to Bethel. Back to Bethel. I've had my Bethel schools. I remember the time when I was converted. Nine-year-old boy, no mother. I remember how I walked down the aisle.

The preacher preached on the prodigal son. I didn't know much, but I knew that prodigal son got home. And the good old preacher told how, when he was a boy, he ran away from home. Got a job as a predator devil.

And I spilled all the great pot of type. You could set the type by hand, not these line of type machines. And boy, it'd take you two or three days to pick up a full pot of type and sort them back, all the H's together and the T's together and the X's together.

And they'd separate the capitals from lower case. And so he got fired and got no pay. Went home hungry. His father received him and fed him and blessed him and kissed him. And that good old preacher said, and that's when God knew anybody came.

So I stood off my pew back yonder and came down here and trusted Christ. I remember later the time when I first got full assurance. I found in the Bible. Nobody told me. I don't know why. Nobody told me.

I found in the Bible. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. Well, I said, bless God. That's what I did and then I got it. I've got everlasting life. And by the time John 3, 36, when it dawned on me, I have never, as far as I know, I've never had a second doubt.

I'm born of God. I have everlasting life. God says it in the Bible. That's where to get your assurance of salvation, in the Bible. And then it doesn't change. Well, I've had my high times too. I remember the time when I went off to college.

I had hard times, depression times, out in the cattle country in West Texas. I had a place where I used to go to pray. Out to the woodpile, through the peat patch, and through the fence, down in the breaks, as we call them, over there.

You have, in this country, you have a ravine. You've got all kinds of grass and so on. So don't go out in Texas. You've got breaks away and it's bare ground. And there's a chaparral bush. I remember that's a ground packed hard where I knelt many times to pray.

And I knelt down there and said, Lord, I don't go to college. I just have $9 .35. But, Lord, if you want me, you can have me. I said, Lord, I'll be a gospel singer, or I'll be a foreign missionary, or I'll be a preacher, whatever you want.

I'll give a tithe. Now you take me. I'm going to college. I couldn't sell my horse, so I saddled up with Charles, California, and rode off to college. It was January 13th, and rain, falling, and nearly freezing as hell.

I started out to ride 140, 150 miles to college. I wish I could tell you the whole wonderful story, but I'll tell you that day on my knees under that chaparral bush, the Lord and I had a Bethel time. And God told me.

I didn't know then I was going to preach, but I knew whatever God said, I was going to do it. I said so, and I meant it. Before I got, when I got 25 miles, I found a man to lend me money for my first tuition, and so on.

Oh, how God. I remember God got a suit of clothes and didn't have any. I remember how I got finally to milk in the college cows. You didn't know cows went to college, did you? But, and then how I got to tutoring some boys in arithmetic, and then how I made my way through the long years, and how God took care.

Personal Bethel Experiences and Trusting God’s Provision

I remember when I proposed to Mrs. Rice, I told her, well, we may have to go to college. I know I can make a living going to college, and I don't know whether I can any other way or not. But if need be, we'll go to school.

I'll work and make a living. I know I can do that, because I've been trying. But I had my Bethel too. I remember the time in the University of Chicago. I was a college teacher. I was doing graduate work then in the University of Chicago.

I had a contract teaching in a senior college the next year. And I went down to Pacific Garden Mission, and there I put my arms around a poor, drunken bum, and wondered to Christ, boy, he smelled bad.

Hair was long, face unshaven, body smelled of beer and whiskey and dirt. And I put my arm around him. I brought him down and said, come on down here to pray. He didn't kneel down. I thought he would. He went right down to his face.

And I said, come on, ask God to forgive you. He said, Lord, if you don't save me, I'm going to hell. I said, nobody else wants me. I said, my wife's quitting me. I don't blame her. I'm not fit for a decent woman.

He said, my children, they're all ashamed of it. They want me around their house. I don't blame them. Who wants an old dad picking up cigarette butts in the gutter, asking for a handout at back doors, and too sorry to work and drunk all the time and can't get anything to drink?

He said, I don't blame them. I said, Lord, I can't get a job. Nobody wants an old bum like me. I can't work. I can't keep my mind about it. I drink every chance I get. And he said, Lord, he said, nobody else wants me.

If you don't save me, I'm going to hell. This is the last talk, Lord, if you don't take me in God's hands. And forgave him. Saved him. Next night I came back, he was banged up. Next day, I had a haircut.

Two days more, I had a job. Next thing you know, Brother Tom, he's bringing a man in. This old crony, the dirtiest bunch of bums you ever saw, night after night, they was getting saved. And that boy, he just had hallelujah all over him.

And I said, look here, Lord, this man is a college teacher. College teaching, stuff like this. I said, boy, boy, if you let me work this business, I'll do this all the time. Senator Carl, that's better than any other career.

And so I gave up my graduate work and gave up my college contracts and I came back to Texas and started a seminary and started a whole revival and borrowed $100 and got married and so on. I'm just saying that I had my Bethel too.

I had my Bethel too. I remember the time that God laid it on my heart to leave my pastorate, Shamrock, Texas. And I said, I felt I must be an evangelist. Sun Baptist don't have any evangelists, but God laid it on my heart I must be an evangelist.

Well, people said, you better wait. Look here, summer, you better wait until next year because of winter time don't have any meetings in this country. And I said, well, but God called me to be an evangelist.

Well, the church said, don't you want to leave of absence? No, I said, I'm leaving for good. I said, Lord, I'll tell you what, you look after my business and I'll look after yours. I said, from this on, I'll have no regular salary.

I don't mean the salary is wrong. A lot of better men than I am get a salary. God led me to trust Him without it. I gave up my insurance. I don't say insurance is wrong. I just said to the Lord, and I had an agreement.

You be my insurance, Lord. And I gave up $10 ,000 of government insurance. Brother Tom, I never did. I had hundreds of dollars put in. Could have come back to him. I didn't even ask for it. Maybe he said, I don't know, but I don't need insurance.

I got insurance. And I set out to be an evangelist. I remember another time. One day, after I was in full-time revival work, I had a big conference on evangelism in the Bethany Reformed Church in Chicago.

And I had Dr. Ironside, Hyman Appleman, Dr. Oswald Smith, and others helping me in the great conference there. I remember I took out of my own pocket $365 to pay the deficit. But I had a blessed time.

I stayed in the Roseland YMCA, South Chicago. And one night, I stayed on my face until 2 o 'clock in the morning. And I said, Lord, we're going to bring back citywide mass evangelism. I don't care if it kills me, whatever it costs, at any cost, we're going to bring it back, great mass evangelism again.

And God's streams have begun to move. Before long, I was in citywide campaigns in, well, Binghamton, way back yonder, then Buffalo, then Cleveland, San Pedro, Wood Winston, Salem, and Durham, and Greenville, South Carolina, and all over this country, and so on.

I've had my Bethel too. Well, God isn't done with Bethel. Come on back, John. There's Bethel still for you. God's still back there. Come on back to Bethel. All right. So the Lord said, come on back to Bethel.

Why Jacob Needed to Return After Thirty-Five Years

I want you to consider some reasons why Jacob needed to come back to Bethel. For one thing, it's been 30, some 35 long years. I wonder why. I wonder why. Brother Anderson, why do you suppose? I think Jacob meant that well, but he's so busy.

He's got a big family. And Laban's trying to scheme him out of everything for over 20 years. And you've got a big lot, hundreds of sheep, you're going to lose some of these lambs if you don't sit up with them in the springtime.

And so much. You've got 12 boys. Those big rambunctious boys you're going to keep on your toes just to make a living for them, keep them straight. And all that, 35 long, long years or so. I wonder why I didn't go back to Jacob.

That's too long. That's too long. Let me tell you now. Somebody said, oh, I remember way back yonder I had the best time. That's too long. Come on, have some more good times. That's too long. Too long.

Don't wait again. Come on back. Give the blessing. Have the power. Have the tears. Have the joy. Have the holy vows again. Come on back. 35 years. That's strange. I had nothing but one walking stick. That's all I had before.

Maybe a stale sandwich mama fix for him. That's all. Now he's got flocks and herds and riches and 12 children and four wives. That's a good many. And all the servants. And now the Lord said, come on Jacob.

Come on back to Bethel. 35 years. I wonder, some of you. Let me tell you. Hard work. Did you know Brother Tom, he works so hard being a good preacher. It's not bad. He works so hard running a magazine for the Lord.

That's not bad. He works so hard daily radio program. He can work so hard building a seminary. He can work so hard the day school. He works so hard for the Lord that life gets a little tough. And God makes him a long way off.

You know that? And I don't, I'm not saying Jacob was wrong to work hard. I'm just saying the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the world. Let me tell you. All you can work hard is your job.

The truth is, I have a good deal of respect for a fellow who got up and got some zip and go get it and sell and work and slave and stay awake at night. God bless you. But let me tell you. If you don't look out, you're going to get to be a hard-boiled self-made kind of a fellow without God.

No peace, no joy, no blessing. You need to come back to Bethel. They never mind about all the money making. They never mind about all the business. They never mind about all this go-get-em business.

Come on back to Bethel, Jacob. Long years. You need to do that. Why did Jacob need to come back to Bethel? Another thing is, Jacob had a big family. He had a big family. Well, there's several reasons why you need to consider.

Returning to Bethel for the Sake of the Family

One thing was that he had a poor wayward daughter. And she was the only daughter. You don't know how my heart goes out to a man whose daughter goes wrong, breaks his heart. I have six lovely girls. But he had a girl, a pretty girl too.

And they camped and was all busy working hard, take care of the cattle and the sheep and the camels and the goats and the donkeys. And young friends of the land saw his daughter and fell in love. Got her out neck and heart in, led her into singing.

Jacob heard about it. The boys heard about it too. Oh, Jacob felt bad about dying. Ruined her. Jacob, you better come on back. You ought to have come back a long time ago. One reason, some of your children, you're going to lose them.

For God, it's been too long since you've been to Bethel. Too long since the warm flowers and the tears and the full moon and the family altar. Too long from the time that all the sweet communion, fresh every day.

You better come on back to Bethel, poor old Jacob. Diana's a good evidence you need to come back. Not only Diana, there are the boys, the Samaritan and Levi. Why, they said, for that young prince, we'll fix him.

So they went out there and they said, I'll tell you what, let's do, let's make a trade now. Tell you what, if you people, all of you, see all these flocks and herds we got, we'd settle down here. Well, the young shepherd said, if I could have this girl, I'd give anything you say.

I want her. I love her. I want her for my wife. Well, he said, that's a good idea. That's all right. Tell you what, if all the men of your cities, you be circumcised now to be like we Jews are, and then, well, we'll let her marry and trade and settle down here.

All right. And then, after a second day, when all the men were sore and incapacitated, these two men took the sword and went in and they took Dinah out of Shechem's house and they set out and killed every man in the city and took the women captive and all the property and plundered the houses.

And Jacob said, well, there's people around here who'll hate me and destroy me. Had these murderous boys. Jacob, you'd better come on back to Bethel. Your boys need it. Your whole tribe must need it. Let me tell you, some of you folks, your children need it, too.

And there was Reuben. Reuben was an older boy and Reuben had led one of Jacob's concubines into sin and went up to his father's bed. Well, let me tell you, it's pretty bad business to have as many camels as you have, Jacob, and your boys going wrong.

Pretty bad business having as many thousands of sheep and goats and fine, perfect cattle and your boys, your girls going to the devil. You need to go to Bethel. You better come on back to Bethel. Oh my, if anybody's got a family, you sure better hang around Bethel pretty close.

You're going to need help. And so, Jacob needed to come. That is all. Now, Jacob, you better come. Your wives need it. Why? Because his wives are idolaters. You mean Jacob's wives? Yeah. When they left Laban, why, Rebecca, the favorite wife, she got Laban's dogs, idols, and she hid them in her goods.

And Laban came up there frozen at the mouth and said, Well, you run off with all my daughters and my grandchildren and so on. Now, what about my gods? Well, Jacob said, if anybody's got them around here, we'll kill them.

Just say the word. Come on. Come on, look through everything. And so, Rebecca, she put them in camel's furniture and sat on them and so Jacob couldn't find her father's gods. And here, they said, the scripture says, going back to Bethel, so take all these gods and hide them under this rope.

We don't want to take our gods, these idol gods up here. Idolatry. Yeah, Jacob, you've been away from Bethel too long. Your wife's an idolater. You know that? And so, you need to come back. And so Jacob comes back to Bethel.

Jacob comes back to Bethel. And so we are. Well, let's see now. All right, we're going back to Bethel. So Jacob said, put away your idols. That's the first thing. You want to go back to Bethel? Let me tell you, some of you people right now, if you come into Bethel, you're going to have to say goodbye Venice.

Venice is not everything. I don't have to make so much money. I remember at Siloam Springs, Arkansas, one night, a man prayed. And I stood down here and people came from timely dedication, fine businessman, distinguished, well-dressed, iron gray hair.

He came down here. He said, it's my business. Oh, he said, my business, nothing wrong with the business. It's a good business, honest business. Only, he said, I just like it. He said, I've got plenty of money.

I could quit work right now. I've got enough to live on, have everything I want. We live where Winters in Florida. I don't need to work. I've got all the money I need. But he said, I'd just like to make it, he said.

And he said, I told God today, you can have the business. And I'm going to put soul winning first. I'm going to have God first. I'm going to seek first the kingdom. God can have my business. You're going to have to put away your idols if you come back to Bethel.

Some of you preachers here, you know why you don't have any Bethel anymore? You've got another God. It's our great denomination. It's our cooperative program. Yes sir. Yes sir. Now, of course, you don't much want anybody to say anything against Jesus Christ.

Oh, you wouldn't be very mad to do it, as long as they're loyal Baptists. But they sure better not say anything against the program, have they? No, boy, you'll be down on them then, won't you? Of course, you'd rather wouldn't say anything against Jesus, but if it's a good Baptist, you can get by with it pretty well, Brother Tom.

Yeah, good Baptist, and so on. Let me tell you, you're going to have to put away your gods. Put away your idols if you really have any Bethel. God said, I don't want you to have any idols in your past.

You come up here and meet here at this place of Bethel and come face to face with me. Put away your idols. Put away your idols. What is your idol? Are you pleasing people? Are you pleasing your wife? I knew one preacher pleased his wife so he couldn't move out of a certain house.

He was promontory. He wouldn't ever take away from that home. I've known a preacher that couldn't be an evangelist because his wife said, if you want to stay here and take care of these boys, you brought them in the world now.

And the mother-in-law said, yeah, that's right. You marry this girl now. Don't be gathering around over the country to stay here with and look after. And so, okay, he pleases his wife and his mother-in-law and lets Jesus Christ go to park and be an evangelist.

Let me tell you, I'm just saying, put away your idols. If you want to come back to Bethel, put away your idols. Put away your idols. That is law. Jacob said, break off your earrings. Come on, take the earrings.

Take off the jewelry. Now, notice, God didn't require that. God said, put away the idols. God didn't say, take off the jewelry. But you know, Brother Tom, there are some times that even good things ought to be laid aside.

Nothing wrong with that. There are times a man is good to have good food. Brother Paul Raker is so nice and Mrs. Raker is so kind to us down here at his home. And he always wants me to stay in the home.

I guess he thinks I'd eat at the hotel. I'd eat up so much money. I don't know. But there are times in good things. But there are times when you better say, no steak for me today because I'm going to pray.

It's not wrong to eat. Sometimes you better be praying. Sometimes you ought to say, I don't sleep tonight for a good while. I'm going to stay awake and talk to God. It isn't wrong to get your rest. Ordinarily, it's good sense to get your rest.

But there are some times that to meet God and stay there as I have sometimes is a lot better. And over in our meeting in India, I just came last Monday night from India and we had two or three nights of prayer.

One night stayed until three thirty in the morning. I wasn't there all that time. Another night stayed until one o 'clock in the morning and prayed. And I'll tell you the truth is I, in my room, walked the floor and waited on God many an hour.

Oh, the blessings, the blessings. And there's some things you better lay aside. Not there, not there first. Not there wrong. But you just say, never mind. I don't want anything to be important besides Jesus and the power of God and souls.

You know, the Lord says, wherefore seeing where comforts abide were so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin. Now, the sin, lay that aside too. But every weight. You run better without some things even though they're good.

You know that? Yeah, you run better without some things even though they're pretty good. And if you're running a hot race for Jesus, okay, lay aside some of the good things too. And James said, we're going up here to worship God.

Now, why don't you be thinking about who's got the prettiest bracelet and who's got the prettiest rings and so on. I just came from India. And in India, the women, oh, millions of them, they have a hole pierced in the nose with a siren all here.

And they have ear buds and they have one here and one here. And I mean, they've got a hole pierced and they've got it screwed in there. And one through here disappears. And so they'll have a ruby here and a ruby here and a ruby here or so on.

And sometimes it's a ring. I saw some with a ring that big around two inches. A gold ring, very pretty, hanging from one side of the nose. And one little girl, they had a schoolgirl and she had a beautiful ring two inches across in her nose.

But she hadn't got plumb used to it yet and it kind of hurt hanging down. So she had a rubber band here inside of it and looped around her ear here holding it to one side. And so on. Well, now I don't lose a ring on my finger.

And so they used to it. But Jacob said, now, all right, take the rings out of your nose and take the rings off your finger, take off the bracelets we're going to worship God. And he said, Rachel, you're lucky.

And he's grinding at it. Oh, take the ring and put it on God. I may play a little and I may not, but from now on I wouldn't give a slap on my finger for God if I was going to have to talk about I'm going to be a soul winner, nothing else is going to matter.

He said, I'll leave God for the altar. Now God is wrong, but it's one of the ways that sometimes it might be laid aside. I knew one preacher that when he was in college he was a padback. He was a padback on the conference winning team football.

And they made the last touchdown of the season and his team was champion of the conference while the boys put him on the shoulders and carried him off the field. And after that, that man, he was the craziest guy about football.

Now, I know what you're talking about. I played college football. I loved it. I coached football. I loved it. I was always sharp in receiving the coach. But this preacher, he'd go to football games and he'd yell so he couldn't preach for a week.

He was just hoarse. And finally one day he put football on the office and said, I don't need to go to football games. I better be excited about soul. Now, I'm not saying that rings and jewelry are wrong, but I just say you better say, Lord Jesus, I don't care.

The Lord said, you know about husband and wife? He said, defraud not one another. You belong to each other. It isn't wrong. Husband has no power over his own body, but the wife. The wife has no power over her own body, but the husband.

But he said, don't defraud one another. Accept it with consent for a time when the wife has no power over her own. The wife has no power over her own body. You belong to each other. The wife has no power over her same drunken man, I had no mother, wild companions, I got cold back then, not anything good, I suppose, or very bad, but I lost my joy and I felt like I'd failed God.

And they were having a revival in a little Presbyterian church, in a plain, sharp preacher, and I went. And some young people getting saved, and backsliders coming back, and they sang, Pass me not, O gentle Savior, hear my humble cry.