On Eagles' Wings Pt 125 — Don Courville

Setting Our Hope in God

Well, has God been working in your life? Are you encouraged? Have you been filled with the Spirit? Is Jesus your life? Are you blessed by him? Glory be to God. Father, we commit this time to you. Holy Spirit lead us, direct us that we might know what you want us to know, that we might set our hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that set not their heart aright and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.

Oh, Father, we don't want to be like the children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. Father, help us to be bold in the power of the Spirit of God, and we pray that your word would go forth today in power over this program.

In Jesus' name, amen. Well, last week I told you that I was going to let you hear a little bit more of Charlie Orr, who I shared with you two weeks ago, and I got to go in there, and we couldn't get Charlie in.

But today we're going to try to get Charlie Orr, a young revivalist from Georgia who's just getting started in his ministry. God saved him out of a terrible life of drugs, and he went into the pastorate a few years later, and then God has now called him into revival ministry.

And I shared with Charlie how I would play some of his tapes for you to try to encourage you to invite him into your church. If you really want to see God work, and you're willing to pay the price, this man shoots straight and he shoots hard, and he knows what's going on in this area.

Well, here's Charlie. We're going to finish up a little bit more. I don't know if we'll get through the whole message on counterfeit Christians, but we'll play you a little bit more at least. On counterfeit Christians by Charlie Orr, revivalist from Georgia.

Following the Shepherd's Voice

Number four, they want to follow their shepherd. They want to follow their shepherd. John 10 3 says, he called his own sheep by name and leadeth them out. My sheep and my boys, I know them, and they follow me.

John 10 27. I want to say this, if you really want to God's sheep, when he calls you and tells you to do something, you follow him. Jesus. Where's God led you? Preacher, all kinds of places. Why does he lead you?

Because he knows the best way for me to go. Now, I wanted to be a college basketball coach after I got saved. I wanted to go back and get my master's degree, and I wanted to be a college basketball coach.

God wouldn't even talk to me about that. He had designs on me to be a preacher. And on November 17, 1977 at Second Baptist Church in Great Falls, South Carolina, God put his hand on me and so convicted me I couldn't even take notes, Brother Jewel.

I was so under conviction, I'd been saved about two and a half years, and I was convicted and weeping, and I threw up the white flag and told God I'd preach the gospel. Amen. I didn't want to be a preacher.

Why? Because preachers get a hard time. Right. I tell you folks, I wish some of you would be a preacher for a week. You'd thank God. Amen. I only have this here and drink coffee and preach sermons. Where's your head at, folk?

Where have you been? Had to fight the devil and demons and hypocrites and back biters and didn't have a family and trust God? Hey, listen, folks, I know this. I'm called a preacher. I know I got the right one.

Why? Because God hunted her up for me. I waited on God for that baby doll. Saved, raised in a Christian home, sings. She didn't want to marry a preacher. God had to wring her out to get her to marry me.

Amen? You know why? Because God knew exactly who I needed. And see, he led me to her. There are a lot of girls who came by with cow fits. Nice looking. Played the piano. You know what happened? Got around them and God said, don't even date a preacher.

There's a trap. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. God never leads me to sin. He tells me when to get my hair cut. He tells me what kind of clothes to wear. He tells me the kind of people to fellowship with.

Why? Because he's my Lord and your Lord. Isn't that good to have a God like that? All you had to do was walk with him. There's a boy on this train station platform. About eight years old. He was just going around there going, woo boy.

Good boy. Just jumping around there. And this old revivalist, James Stewart, saw him. And he was just running around. He said, son, where are you going? He said, I don't know. Woo wee. Yippee. Where are you going?

I don't know. Woo wee. Yippee. He said, son, where are you going? I said, I don't know, but there's my daddy. Ask him. See, you don't need to worry where you're going. You just need to walk with him. I have a problem, Brother Jules.

These people are always trying to do what they want to do and never ask God for his opinion. That's the difference between Christianity and religion. Christianity, God starts it. Christianity, God starts it.

Religion, man starts it. That's the sheep. We belong to his flock. We're fed by the shepherd. We're familiar with the shepherd's voice. And we follow the shepherd. Now, is that you? Number two, let's talk about the seed.

The Seed and the Stubborn Heart

The seed. What about the seed? Well, over here in Matthew chapter number 13 and in verse number 3 through 9, it talks about the seed and the soil. And it says here there's the first kind of soil that the seed can get on.

It's the stubborn heart. Notice in verse 4 of chapter 13, and he went and sowed and some seed fell by the wayside and the fowls came in to buy them up. And they come to church and they hear the word, but because their hearts are hard, the seed doesn't last very long because the demons come along and take the word of God away.

Those are the stony hearts, the hard hearts, the stubborn hearts. And I always had a crowd, Brother Jewel, in my church. You couldn't move, you'd dynamite at them. You know, they were the stumps in the water, daring you to move them.

Bless me if you can, preacher. I've been here longer than you, preacher. I'm a pillar in the church. Yeah, I could tell how stiff he was. Never moved, but he's there, there. The devil had him there. Those are the people who have stubborn hearts.

Have you ever met people, brother, that go so stubborn? Rebellious. Arguing with the word of God. Getting bucking up on the preacher. I've met them. You've seen them. Too busy to hear God. Running here and there.

Rushing here and there. Going here and there. Too busy for God. That's our trouble. We don't have time to wait on God, no. That's why we have so little comprehension of Him these days. We don't have time to wait on Him, no.

The Shallow Heart and Superficial Decisions

Then also, the stubborn heart, number two. You have the shallow heart. Notice verses five and six. Some fell upon stony places, or little soil, where they didn't have much earth. Forthwith, they've sprung up because they had no deepness in the earth.

When the sun was up, they were scorched because they had no root, and they withered away. Notice the explanation of that is found in verse 20 and 21. But he that received the seed into stony places, is he that heareth the word, and immediately with joy receives it.

Yet he hath not rooted himself, but lasts for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word by and by, he is offended. Here's somebody who has a shallow heart. Here's somebody who makes an emotional decision.

Amen? They're emotionally moved. He hears the word. It's planted for a moment, seemingly. But when the true test of walking with God comes, when somebody makes fun of them, or tribulation comes, there's no root in it, and they don't last.

That's that crowd that'll make a decision emotionally. They'll cry and thank God for the emotions being moved, but you can't find them after a month, and they say they're saved. I always had a crowd on my church road when I used to pastor.

I didn't know where they were. If they showed up, they'd have a heart attack. Yeah, but they've been saved. Yeah, preacher, I remember when I got saved. I walked down and shook the preacher's hand and prayed a prayer and was baptized.

I know I don't go to church, but I know I'm saved, phony baloney friend. Don't you let anybody fool you if somebody's not in the house of God and is not convicted about being in the house of God and could care less about being in the house of God.

I don't care how many prayers they've prayed. I don't care how many decisions they've made. They need to be in the house of God. If they're not there, they're probably not God's child. They had a superficial decision that didn't last.

See, the super soul winners have done as that, you know. I inherited a church where they sent out 50 or 60 people a week to soul win, and they had 50 or 60 decisions a night. Here's what they'd say, Brother, you're a sinner, aren't you?

Yeah. You want to go to heaven, don't you? Yeah. Why don't you pray this prayer for me, this Savior? Okay, they'd pray. Folks, there needs to be holy ghost conviction where somebody is so convinced they're lost, they know hell's ready to swallow them up, and where they're willing to repent and get right with Jesus any way they can, friend, and have faith in a person who changes them.

And that's when a person gets saved. And we've birthed a bunch of illegitimate children in the kingdom of God, and we're trying to get them revived, and we need to have them resurrected. And endure it for a while, and when the calls come, they fold up.

The Sensual Heart and Worldly Christianity

Then you have those who have a sensual heart. Verse 7, Some fell upon thorns, and the thorns sprung up and choked them. And verse number 22 gives the explanation of that. He that also hath received the seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word, and the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches choked the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

Here's somebody who is unseparated and unrepentant. And they received supposedly the word of God, but see, the world still has a hold on them. That's that crowd that loves the pleasures of this world and loves the possessions of this world.

What do you mean, preacher? Folks who have a better time outside of there rather than here. And what we've done today in order to get a crowd, we've had to worldlyize our churches. What do you mean? Oh, we've got to have a ball team, and we've got to have this, and we've got to have that to get them.

I thought you were supposed to get them with God getting them and get them where they become disciples and cross-bearers and true disciples where they don't want to be entertained. They just want to get into the presence of God so they can meet their king and worship him and pay the price.

See, I had a bunch of men, boy, when deer season came around, brother, you couldn't find them. Up there, 4 o 'clock in the morning, freezing to death, painted up, trying to kill a big buck. And that big buck up there in that tree, freezing to death.

You couldn't get that crowd to have an early morning prayer meeting and save your life, but boy, they'll shift their schedule, take a vacation, send those words of starvation to death, freeze to death.

They kill one old buck, and then they get mad because it's not a big one. Isn't that something? I'll tell you, I just wonder about that crowd. I'm not saying they're not saved, but, friend, when they get more excited about killing a buck than seeking God, there's something wrong.

Another crowd bowed down to slimy fish. Amen? Rather than hunting for men. Ladies, you'd rather knit and crochet. People would rather have green stuff than God. There's nothing wrong with having money.

God gives people the ability to make money and give to the kingdom. That's amen. As long as money doesn't have you, that's fine. You can have all you want. But you've got to be willing to let it go whenever God tells you to let it go, too.

It doesn't mean much to you. You know what's happened to America? We're materialistic and self-centered and pleasure-oriented. I went to a church. God helped this church. To visit it. Thinking about joining it.

Visiting it. First Sunday we went there. Looked at the bulletin. Sunday night. Super Bowl Sunday night. Going to put up a widescreen TV. Shoot the Super Bowl up there. Eat popcorn and peanuts and Coca-Cola's.

And then at halftime, give an invitation and get people to Jesus. And the preacher said, this is a great way to get our lost friends because this is a way of getting them to come to church. Because I know some of you wouldn't come anyway because you can watch the Super Bowl.

How in the world can our God, you know, try to compete with Spud the Dud? My children are ten and seven. You know what my son did when he looked at that little pamphlet? He said, Dave, this is a liberal church, isn't it?

And it is. And we didn't go back. Super Bowl Sunday. I know a pastor that calls Super Bowl Sunday family night so they can go home and watch it. I know two preachers that are friends of mine that call Super Bowl Sunday family night because they were afraid the crowd would run short.

We had our biggest crowd Super Bowl night in Maryland. You know why? Because I told them if they stayed home, I said, what did they even say to watch that junk? Nude cheerleaders and beer and all that sloth and cheering for teams.

What they did, but boy, you're bowing down to your God. The God of athletics and sports and entertainment. Bowing down to that TV. Amen? Bowing down in front of that softball team. Football team, athletics.

Bowing down to the God of sports. Now, you've got the athletes that stand up and talk about being Christian. I'm sure there's some, but I think a lot of them are just shallow as can be and doubt they're saved because, listen, a lot of that crowd would not do what they're doing if they were saved.

Christian movie stars, God help us. Christian beauty queens. How in the world can somebody say, walk out on the platform, dress like a nudist, let men lust after the state, God let them do that junk. Is that good preaching?

It's the truth, folks, and I'll tell you why, folks. We've got people in our churches who've had central hearts, but they've never been saved. Let's have a softball team. We'll get lost people out there.

See, we can win over Jesus on the softball field. Follow me, belong to me. So once you've got the worst players in the city, they used to go out to the best so they can win the trophy. Then they got there and get in fights.

Like my home church, they got into a fight down there and had to call the police. They did. The mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law got in a fight and then all the daddies and in-laws got in a fight and had to call the police to break it up.

And then that's the first Sunday I joined my home church. I'd only been saved about nine months. Went there and they had a business meeting to keep the softball team out of the church because if we're going to act like that, we're not going to have it.

And two men stood up, one old boy stood up and said, Preacher, I'll let you know if you keep the softball team out, I'm going to have something to say about it. And I said, there's nothing wrong, we just made a mistake.

Both those fellas backslid as a donkey getting up there after the church, butt and bellies with the preachers wanting to fight with them. Preacher, I'll tell you what, I'm going to whip you right here.

I said, Lord, did I join the right church? I used to see this down in ballrooms every Friday night. Lord, what's going on here? Isn't that something, folks? The central heart. Hey, but the last thing is if somebody has the right kind of heart in which they have a spiritual heart.

The Fruitful Heart That Understands the Word

Verse number 8, But some fell on good ground and brought forth fruit a hundredfold, sixtyfold, and thirtyfold. Then verse number 23 says, But he that received the seed into good ground is he that heareth the word and understands it, which also beareth fruit brings forth some hundredfold, sixtyfold, thirtyfold.

Here's somebody that really gets saved. They receive the Word of God, their spiritual conception, and then their spiritual fruitation. You know, can I tell you somebody that's saved, somebody that's saved beareth fruit.

Somebody that's really saved and walking with God, they beareth fruit. What you mean? I hadn't been saved over a week, and I was telling people about Jesus, and I never had a course on soul winning. First fellow I ever witnessed to was a friend of mine that went to school with me.

I called him up, and you'd have to know the circumstance I was in, and told him I was in a lot of trouble, but I'd been saved. And the fellow had some church background and it didn't turn him off too much.

He came down and helped me out, and I told Bobby about being saved. Then I got on a bus to move in with the Baptist preacher. I got saved, and a sailor sits next to me, and the Spirit of God told me, tell him what happened to you.

And I said, friend, I got saved yesterday. He said, from what? Were you drowning? I said, no, Jesus saved me. He found him another seat in the back of the bus. Why? Because, see, God was in my life, and God was living through my life, and I suddenly saw that my life was not my own.

I wanted to be different for Jesus' sake. I didn't want to be ugly anymore. I didn't want to be nasty anymore. I wanted to have something that people could have. Amen? And, see, when you get saved, my friend, you get the goods.

In fact, I'm finding out this, Brother Joseph, when people really get soundly converted, they act more mature than most people who have been in the church for 30 years because they just love Jesus and have childlike faith and do anything God tells them to do.

Hello? God gave me about two rows of street people in Maryland God won to Himself. I'm talking about crack addicts, harlots, I mean, son, girls with tattoos, boys with hair down to here, and, of course, they got that stuff cut off before they were baptized.

Amen? Why do you do that, preacher? Because that's their sign. That was their glory, and that was their God. And I said, I'm not going to baptize you because that's going to confuse other people because they'll still think you're doing dumb.

And in every case when they were soundly converted, their hair went, and they were glad it went. What would they do? That crowd when I preached cheered me on. They'd never been in church. They didn't know how to act.

They'd go, Whoo! That's good! Beat on each other. Girls out there, I know this isn't right, but when they sang Amazing Grace, they'd be in the barroom and they'd wiggle a little bit to the music. A bunch of them old stiff deadheads said, What are you going to do about all those girls that are wiggling on the front row?

I said, Nothing. God tell them it's wrong. And he did. They'd go, Whoo! Preacher, that's good. I said, Lay it on us, preacher. Remember old Chad, old crack addict, played thrash rock music, had $20 ,000 worth of rock albums and memorabilia that he burned with five gallons of gasoline after he got his hair cut, that long scalp.

He held that scalp up and sang Jesus Saved While He's Burning His Rock Albums. He took a picture of it. Old Chad said, Cheddar Testament, he said, Preacher, lay it on us. He said, I like it hot and heavy before you put me on the pew because I need it.

Yet I had a crowd that had been saved 30 years every time I said something. They looked at each other like prune faces. That's that crowd, and I know this crowd is a good crowd, but they just happened to be on my left in my church.

It's a little old group. I call it the devil's seat. They all congregated together. Amen? They sat together. You could see them. Isn't that something? But when you get saved, folks, you'll start bearing fruit and you'll want to bear fruit.

Don't you want your life to touch as many people as it can for the glory of God and you'll be changed from glory to glory and have God bear eternal fruit that you'll pay off up in heaven? Amen. Yes, I hope so.

Satan's Deception and Counterfeit Salvation

Amen. Well, the last point is this. Let's talk about what Satan can do as I close. I read in chapter 13, beginning at verse number 36, about Satan sowing the seeds. Let me tell you three things that Satan will want to do to you today.

Number one, he has opposition by deception. The very word devil means diabolos, liar. And the devil works in secret and in darkness. And he can be an angel of light. And I'll tell you what the devil will do.

The devil will give you false salvation experience if you're not sensitive. I'll tell you what the devil will do. The devil will move you emotionally. The devil will let you pray a prayer. And the devil will even back off you enough where you can act halfway decent and still be lost.

Now, won't you listen to me? That the devil can keep you in the dark about you really not being saved. He'll give you a position in the church, let you even act like you're doing right, and keep you in the dark.

But when you die, Jesus said, depart from me, ye that work iniquity. I never knew you because many will come to me in that day and say, Lord, Lord, didn't we do many wonderful works in your name? Didn't we preach?

And didn't we even cast out demons? Well, how can somebody not say cast out demons? Well, if the devil knows they're not saved, he'll just let the demons go and it won't be under the authority of God.

It'll be under deception of Satan. There was a man in Oklahoma who was a deacon in the church and the pastor said, his best man that taught his son is in class and sometimes even supposed to lead people to Jesus, he said, every time he heard a message about false salvation experience, a demon would whisper to him and say, now look at all the good works you're doing, look how faithful you've been, look how much money you've given, and look how your family's living.

But one night, the Spirit of God showed him that when he prayed that prayer as a child, it wasn't under the Holy Spirit conviction. It wasn't under the Holy Spirit conversion. It was under the guise of demonic counterfeiting and he came and got saved.

Satan's Imitation and the Wheat and Tares

Number two, opposition by imitation. See, it talks about here he plants his tares. Now, there's something unique about a tare. A tare is illegitimate wheat. And when they grow together, do you know the only time you can tell the difference between a wheat and tare is when the wheat matures.

Do you know why, Brother Jules, we don't see more lost church members exposed? Because the wheat is so immature it can't expose the tares. Hello? The phone rang, didn't it? There's not enough maturity in Christ's likeness to expose the rest of the crowd.

So in many churches I go in, you had to backslide to get in fellowship with the crowd. You do! Carnals, selfish, don't want to seek God. You talk about a prayer meeting that looked like a calf at a new gate.

Do you know what I mean? I mean, you talk about the deep things of God. What's he talking about? They're just showing how immature they are. Boy, the devil's got his counterfeits. Oh, Judas was the devil from the beginning, but the only person that knew that he was one was Jesus.

Now listen, folks, God's talking big time this morning. Then his opposition by destruction. You know what he wants to do? He said, he's going to take that sickle one day, separate the wheat and tares, and the tares are going to burn.

You know who the saddest people in hell are going to be? Those who were in church all their life, that prayed a prayer, that went through the motion, and when they take that last breath, and you say, how many of you right now have your heads bowed, eyes closed?

If you're for sure for heaven, it's if you're already there, raise your hands. Brothers, most of them go, that doesn't do any good, folks. Is Christ in you, the hope of glory? By the way, if someone is great, and is powerful, and is lovely as Jesus is in your heart, don't you think he can make a better difference in how you act?

See, somebody that's true to say, brother, you don't have to beg them to come to church. You don't have to beg them to give. You don't have to beg them to sow one. Why? Because they got the goods and their God's at work.

A Personal Testimony of Conversion

My God has never left me alone since I've been saved, and I'm glad of it. He's been on my head every day of every week, every moment, every hour, even in the dark times. He's talking to me even in the silence.

Man alive, what a God. And the old devil, why? Because he tried to counterfeit with me. When I was growing up, I was sprinkled as a 12-year-old boy. Didn't miss a Sunday in Sunday school for six years, and even in spite of me sinning, I thought I was a Christian because I'd asked God in my life.

But it wasn't until 1975 when God put conviction all over me in a little house in Charlotte, North Carolina. Right at the brink of suicide, I saw myself as a rotten, good-for-nothing sinner, and I knew I couldn't save myself.

And I was sick and tired. You will never be saved if you get sick and tired of like it. Sick of it. Don't want any more of it. Gotta change. That's when God go changing my mind. When God brings conviction on yourself, and you feel like a dirty, stinking worm, a scumbag, you know, God, I'm amazed you're even talking to me.

That's the crowd that gets saved. In my church, I pastored. My associate had a wife that was a pastor's daughter, and she never could get victory. She'd get mad at me when I was preaching. She'd let me say this, and she resented me because she felt like I was trying to make her husband do more than he was supposed to, and I really didn't.

I slacked off on it because she fussed so much. May have been wrong in doing that, but I did it anyway. And she stood up one Sunday night and said, I just want to thank God I got saved at the age of three.

Now, right then, the Spirit of God pushed the button, said, there's no way in the world a three-year-old gets saved preaching. They can't have any conception of sinnership, and they can't have any conception of who I am.

Now, most three-years-old or four-years-old will pray a prayer, and I'm not saying they can't, but it's hard because how in the world can they even remember what they did? Most of the time, they pray because Mom and Daddy want them to.

And God just checked my spirit, and I called Terry, my officer. Terry said, you know, your wife's really had struggles with submitting to authority, submitting to the Word, submitting to you, and submitting to her Lord.

And I said, it just might be you've got a lost wife. And I said, how would you like to go to heaven and look down in hell and see her screaming, knowing that you might know she's lost? So he got under the burden of it and began to pray and fast.

I began to pray with him and fast. And we had a youth camp with Brother Lou Rossi. And Brother Lou got under the burden of it, too. And by Wednesday, that girl was so miserable. She was snorting like a bull, upset and mad.

Most of the time, the people who are the maddest are those who are most convicted. That's just the way of covering up for them being convicted. So they had to lash out at somebody. They said, you can't lash out at God, so they're going to lash out at the preacher or somebody else who brought conviction on them.

I just looked through that. She got mad by Wednesday. She was so miserable. They took her down to the basement of this great big camp and God smote her. And she fell on her face and said, God, I thought I was too good to be lost.

God saved me. And that girl got saved and stood up in our church the next Sunday and said, I've been deceived because my mother and daddy taught me how to be a Christian. Folks, you make a mistake when you teach your kids how to be a Christian apart from the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.

Let me make this statement. You check it out. It might be a mistake to teach your kids to love somebody they don't know. You've been listening to Charlie Orr, revivalist from Georgia. There's a lot of things in there.

Remember, don't keep putting your eyes on men. Look to Jesus. He's just a young revivalist. He may have some things you don't agree with. It may be that the Spirit of God was convicting you though. Well, our time is about gone.

You listen to what God is saying to you. If you haven't received Christ as your Savior, do it. That's the first step of obedience before God. You won't have any kind of revival of a relationship with God until you receive Jesus as your Savior.

Well, I've got to go. Until next time, may God bless you. And remember, Jesus Christ is all you need. But, is Jesus Christ all you want? God bless you.