The Fear Of God

Greetings of love to everyone this morning. I see everybody is really bushy-eyed and ready for the word, right? And it would be wonderful if I would just step aside and let each one of you come up here one at a time and give your testimony for the Lord. Wouldn't you like that? Thank you for not calling, huh? Well, I think we all have something to say to the Lord.

You know, as you heard my life story. Yes, I didn't say everything. I'm 72 years old.

You want to be another 72 years here? And I'm sure you wouldn't. But this is the way the Lord has brought us together. I am happy to... And my wife and I have been happy to be here with you this week and get to know the brethren and sisters from here.

Well, from a number of different congregation, I understand. And I'm glad to know you all. Glad for being in some of the homes.

And for all the meals that you gave to us, I didn't lose any weight. So I blame that on you, not me. Okay? And we had good eating and good sleeping quarters.

Now, we like to return that favor. We like if you come visit us now. And we have room for everybody if you all decide to come altogether.

We'll make room. Our congregation loves visitors. And it would be wonderful to get together and sing the Psalms of Zion.

I love singing. And I'm getting older and I can't sing. My voice gets raspy and I sound like an old grandpa.

Well, I'm a great grandpa. And, you know, I just can't do it the same like I used to. Yeah.

But I still like the Psalms of Zion. I like the beautifulness. In my growing up experience, the Roaring Sixties, they were roaring.

And I was involved in that type of music that was the rock and roll of the time. And I just liked to do it. But when I heard that song, like I was telling you, that young man leading that song in that congregation, I looked all around and not an eye was dry.

But what I didn't tell you is my uncle leaned forward. He didn't smack me anymore. He leaned forward and I looked at him and said, I can't understand.

He said, they're shedding tears for you, for you three boys. Why would they shed tears for us? I didn't understand. But praise the Lord.

It wasn't going to be that long till I was going to understand those tears. And the brothers and sisters, you know, one of the things we lack today in our churches is the tears. Where did they go? As a young man, I remember having revival meetings and the people came up and they were drenching in tears.

Have people changed? Has time changed? Why has it changed? What changed? What really changed? Well, and I'll let God take care of that because I'm not the one to save people. I just called them to come to the altar and come and make their needs known. And dear ones, but we need to come in all brokenness, in contrition, that Psalm 51 says, and the Lord will see those tears.

I believe that. He will see those tears. And if there's someone this morning, in the sound of my voice, who has not made that choice, that you may do so.

To the young people here, I have a verse I'd like to leave with you. I'm going to go to the book of Ecclesiastes. A lot of preachers like preaching out of Ecclesiastes 12.

What's the first word in the book of Ecclesiastes 12? Or the first two words? All right, look them up quick. If you don't, I'm going to give you a Bible lesson here. What are the first two words? I know some people know it.

Remember now. Who are you supposed to remember? Remember now, Renee Rivera from Anvil, Pennsylvania, right? Oh, has to be him. Remember who? Thy creator.

Thy creator. Remember now, thy creator. And my second, come into the message, you're going to see why.

I wasn't planning to use this verse until I was sitting there. Oh, I said, okay, Lord. Remember now, thy creator.

In the days of thy youth. And if there's a youth here that has not given themselves over to the Lord yet. And you're just waiting and waiting.

And you say, well, maybe when so-and-so does it, I'll do it. But let me tell you something. Why are you waiting on so-and-so? Because remember now.

Now. And the interesting, the word now in Spanish means two things. For the Puerto Ricans, it means one thing.

And for the other Spanish-speaking people, it means another thing. But for the Puerto Rican, now means this moment. Or 50, 60, 80 years from now.

Slow, slow. But then there are those in Central and South America that now means this moment. And let me tell you, as I look at God's word, I'm convinced, I am convinced that he's saying remember now this moment.

This moment. Remember today. Remember today.

We never know when it's, when we're going to give the last breath. We don't know. I don't know.

You don't know. But the thing is to be prepared for that, right? All right, I'm going to give you my message title. The title of my message is called The Wake-Up Call.

The Wake-Up Call. I want you to help preach here this morning a little bit. What do I mean by the wake-up call? Anyone? Oh, that, huh? Excuse me.

Okay, wake up. Now that sleepy, oh sleepy head. What does he say about us? Do you know that you sleep an eighth of your lifetime away? What do you do in bed? Besides snore.

What do you do in bed? You just lay there, right? It feels good. It feels good. But we sleep our life away many times.

And we're going to see that in just a little bit. What else can you say about the wake-up call? Who said that? Okay, it's now. Now.

It's urgent. It's a matter of life or death. Right? Yes.

So wake-up call. I'm going to take you to September of 2019. I woke up one beautiful Saturday morning early.

But I noticed something wasn't right. It just was not right. I got out of bed a little slowly.

And I got enough to the bathroom. And there everything was going like this. Kind of around in circles.

Well, I'm a VIP. I'm a big wig, right? And those, they go in circles. I hung on to the washboard and said, Lord, I don't know what's going on.

I just don't feel right. Anyhow, I washed my teeth and what not. I mean, I tried to even comb myself.

Got dressed. I didn't want to wake her up. But she knows every time I get up from the bed.

And she quickly went out. I went to my office in the house. Sat in my stuffed chair.

And I told the Lord, Lord, I says, Something is a matter. And I don't know what it is. I don't have control of it, Lord.

If you think I don't talk to the Lord like that, think again. Lord, I don't know what it is. There's something wrong.

But I couldn't tell. Was it here? Or was it up here? Maybe both. I didn't know.

I sat there and I prayed a little bit. It wasn't very long at all. She came out.

She asked me, Do you feel alright? I said, No. What's wrong? I don't know. I couldn't say.

I don't know. And then every now and then I felt a little pain in here. You know what that is, right? Just a little pain in here.

It wasn't tough, Nathan. It was just a little. Enough to make me miserable.

Enough that I couldn't stand up. Enough that something was wrong. So we have a son who is an EMT.

My wife called him right away. He said, Stay sitting until I get up there. Well, I knew what was going to happen as soon as she called him.

And he managed to. And he's on the ambulance, but not on. They live about 20, 20-some miles from us.

He had already called the ambulance. He said, Pick him up. He's having a heart attack.

And really, I didn't even know if they used to do it that morning. The two men that came or not. But I felt bad.

I finally said, Lord. And I was supposed to preach the next morning. And that had been on my mind.

Even when I was sleeping. Finally, my son came. He quit.

He got a stethoscope. He's checking me out. He looked into my eyes.

And he said, Just relax, Dad. Yes, right. Just relax.

And he kept rubbing and patting my arm. You're going to be all right, Dad. You're going to be all right.

Well, who said I wasn't? Finally, he says, I believe you're having a heart attack. And he took his hands and made me look into his eyes. And Daddy, you know what that is all about.

I studied to be an open heart surgeon. A cardiologist. And he says, You know what that's all about.

I could not diagnose myself. And they came. Anyhow, make a long story.

The one EMT that had come in the ambulance. He said, Yeah, well, they hooked me up to this and that like they usually do. And then he says, Let me tell you something.

This is the wake-up call. And they knew Nathan, our son, says, You know, this is your daddy's wake-up call. Well, he's ready to go.

I heard him say. He's ready to go. The wake-up call.

And there they are going like this. He finally took me through the door, took me to the hospital. We went through the emergency room.

And I don't know how many nurses. I don't remember. There was a whole bunch of them.

And, doctor, they were running around. And there was one lady that was barking orders. It was a little Asian lady.

I don't know if she was Chinese or not. She barked. They all jumped.

And in you go. And one nurse after another came to me and looked at me in my face and says, You know, this is the wake-up call. I can't.

I said, What do you mean you can't? I can't get up. Well, I was laying down in whatchamacallit. How can I get up? They had me strapped.

And then this little Asian lady comes up there. And she looks right at me. She says, Sir, this is your wake-up call.

Well, get me up. She said, Well, not so fast. But if I didn't hear that a dozen or more times that morning, I didn't hear it enough.

This is the wake-up call. The wake-up call. Again and again they would say that.

Finally, my son says, My father is a minister. Oh, things changed. I still heard it a little bit after that.

But not as much as before. The wake-up call. But that resonated in my mind.

I already knew the Lord would get me out of that bed. I knew what I was going to preach. He showed me one verse after another.

And I can't tell you how many verses He showed me. It was a lot of verses. The wake-up call.

Young people, this morning you had a wake-up call. You heard a wake-up call already this morning. And are singing again and again.

It's all about coming to Jesus Christ. It's all about doing it mañana. Like the Spanish people say.

It's all about doing it today. It's all about doing it now. Yes, but.

Yes, but. And we say that in Spanish. But, but, but, but, but, too.

We think we can wait. We think we're young. We're 20 years old.

We may even be 18 or 16, 15. We can do it tomorrow. Or this afternoon or this morning.

You can be 20, 30. Maybe you're 40. Maybe you're 50, 60.

And maybe you're even older than that. And you're saying, well, I still have time. I still can talk.

I still can breathe. So it's all right. I haven't heard the wake-up call.

It might be too late when you get that wake-up call. Then what are you going to do? What are you going to do? Well, I stayed in the hospital a couple of days. I think it was.

And I was ready to get out of there. And I told the Lord, if you, if this stops and I have to, when I preach again, I'm going to do that. And this message resonated with me again and again.

The first, my first thought was what happened back there in 1993. February the 26th of 1993, when a powerful bomb exploded in the World Trade Center of New York City. You remember that? There will be some of you here, I believe, that would remember that.

That created quite a commotion. Remember that? Created a commotion. People were saying, well, you know, these terrorists.

And the world's coming to an end. But you know, it wasn't until about 9-11. What happened there? Well, these two big tall buildings.

And people used to say, they are tough. They're not going to come down. Well, the Lord brought them down by the plane.

But you know, the Lord could have brought them with an earthquake, too. See? And you remember the hundreds of people, the thousands of people. And some of those people that were in those buildings, how they jumped many stories high.

Because they figured they'd rather jump, break legs, than be in there and burn like if they were in hell. It was a wake-up call. For some, it was way too late.

I fell. I feel that it should have been a real wake-up call for America. Those times.

You know, I remember going to my office there at my in-house program. Shepherd's Fold. I got there.

They had told my residents and the council of order there. I met a very bunch of very, very solemn men. And one of the questions they asked me, many of them, was, Did you hear from my family? Are they all right? And I told them, I said, This was in New York.

This wasn't in Pennsylvania. But then, I forgot. It was in Pennsylvania as well.

Remember that? People were found to death in that airplane. The wake-up call! I'd like to give you a wake-up call. And if you can't wake up, may I help you wake up.

And I'm not going to go over there and I'm going to shake you until your teeth rattle and your ears fall off or something. I'd like to do something better than that. I'd like if Christ would come into your heart and your mind.

Eighteen inches. I love preaching on eighteen inches. Eighteen inches.

He has to connect. But you have to be willing to have him connect you. Connect to you.

You have to be willing to reach out. Another little poem. I didn't read that quite right.

Because it does rhyme. Oh Christian awake, for the strife is at hand. With helmet and shield and sword in thy hand.

To meet the bold tempter, go, fearlessly go. And stand with the brave. With thy face to the foe.

What is this saying? This is saying that this morning we can face the foe. And I don't care who you are. I don't care where you come from.

I don't care what language you speak. I don't care what your nationality. But I do care.

I do care this morning that all can come and face the foe. But not alone. We need to put on the whole armor of God.

Correct? Yeah, I know you're all safe right now, right? Because you have the sword in your hand. But how often do you have the sword in your hand? You know. Are we covered from head to toe and able to face that enemy? Are we going to be like David that saw that man who when he saw him mocked that boy.

Yeah, that little fella. Why did he come up here? But I believe David showed for the valor not in himself but in God. And this morning you can do the same.

Turn with me to Romans chapter 13 to start. Romans chapter 13. The wake up call.

I like to read here just verse 12 to 14 of Romans 13. The night is far spent. The day is at hand.

Let us therefore cast... What's the next word? Off. I just talked about putting on the armor. But before you can put that on you have to take something off.

Cast off the works of what? Darkness. And let us put on the armor of what? Light. Light.

When I went to those seance meetings in Spiritist Center with my mother. There was a darkness in there. I couldn't explain it but I felt the darkness.

And I know one of those men that was supposed to represent Satan going right up to me. And I was sitting in the back. I wasn't interested in what they were doing.

I was interested in somehow finding some help from my mother. And I didn't know where to find that help. But anyhow this man came back there.

And he comes right up to my face. And he says this to me. He says, young man, do you want to have power? I was weight lifting that time.

I had power. And he says, young man, do you want love? Young man, do you want riches? Do you want money? Well, who didn't? Right? He said, I can give you all of it. He almost got smack in my face.

I grabbed him and pushed him and threw him over a couple of chairs. That's not what I wanted. That's not what I wanted.

But I would sit there. I finally got up and I sat there. And I just could not believe the power of the darkness.

Let me tell you something. If you think you're a match for Satan, you're wrong. You're wrong.

The Bible says, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Right? I believe that. And Satan can't touch you.

He can't touch you. And dear ones, tonight we can have that power. But let's understand something.

The night is coming. The night is far spent. It's going to dark.

And are you walking as a person that's putting on the armor of light? Verse 13. Let us walk honestly as in the day. Not in rioting and drunkenness.

Not in chambering and wantonness. Not in striving and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof. Do you notice again and again how often we have said it all comes back to Christ. It all comes back to what Christ did on the cross.

Right? It all comes back to that. But if you're making provisions for the flesh, you're in the wrong page this morning. You are in the wrong page.

Notice verse 13. You probably know what all those things are. Drunkenness.

We all know what that is. Rioting. And what about all the riots today? And some of them turn rather fierce.

What about the chambering? What does that mean? You know that? Bedroom sexuality I'll call it. Bedroom sexuality. Wantonness.

What is that? That is unbridled lust, desire, flesh, sensual. We know what strife is when there is a problem between two or more parties. Envying.

I want what you have. And I'm going to get it one way or the other. Are these qualities that would take us to heaven? No.

It won't. But it does say, put you on the Lord Jesus. This morning, young people, you must, you must be able to see that this is what God wants from you.

Let's turn to another scripture here real quick. Turn with me to 1 Thessalonians 5. 1 Thessalonians 5. Just read a few verses here. And then we're going to continue.

Chapter 5. Let's start in verse 1. Just read maybe to verse 10. But of the times and seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourself know perfectly that the day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night.

How many believe that the Lord Jesus is going to come? Let me see the hand. Okay. You know, I could ask the next question.

Is this, how many are ready for when He comes? Okay. Everybody's raising their hand. They didn't ask.

Yes, I hope you continue. But if there is someone here tonight, fret not. Because there is, there is the Lord that will put in your heart that you will know that He is coming and you are sure of it.

Verse 2. For yourself know perfectly that the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say peace and safety, then some destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child. And they shall not escape.

Right now in the gulf there in, why can't I think of the name here? The country, the last country that the United States sent those, all that Navy in, all that power. Where was it? Where is it? Huh? Iran. Oh, you know, there was a lot of power there.

You know, that brings security, doesn't it? Does it? No, it doesn't. But you know, I hear people say, even including amongst Christians, they say, oh, we show them the power. Really? Really? You didn't show anything.

I'm sorry. You didn't show anything. But dear ones, this morning it should not worry us.

That's not what should worry us. What should worry us is we are not ready. That you have to understand that the wake-up call is now.

Verse 4. But ye brethren are not in darkness, that the day shall overtake you as a thief. You are all the children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the night, not of darkness.

Therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep in the night and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love.

And for enhelment the hope of salvation. Let us put on. Let us put on.

Let me tell you something. I can just spend an hour just explaining some of this. But you know what we're talking about.

Verse 10. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Who died for us that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him.

Verse 11 says, Wherefore comfort yourself together and edify one another even as you also do. Dear ones this morning. The reality is that God has given us the wake up call.

Now let me ask you three questions this morning to continue on with the message. The first question I'd like to ask you. Are you ready to die? And you say, now how come you're preaching a funeral sermon? No, I didn't ask you if you're dead.

I asked are you ready to die? Are you ready to die this morning? I'm talking to all those that this morning have not noticed the wake up call. Are you ready to die? I'm not concerned this morning about your age. I'm not concerned this morning of who you are.

I'm not concerned this morning about your pocketbook. I'm not concerned this morning if you have good health or not. I'm not concerned this morning if you're busy in the kingdom of the work of Christ.

I'm not concerned this morning if God still needs you or not. I'm not concerned about that. I'm not concerned if you think you're indispensable because we are not indispensable.

I heard a preacher say he can't leave his church because he's indispensable. Oh really? Let me tell you something. In our congregation, there's five of us in the ministry.

Man, I'm so glad the Lord called those brethren because I'm not indispensable and neither are they. But let me tell you something. Some people really think that they're indispensable.

I'm not concerned this morning if you're really ready to die or not. I have talked to people in their deathbed and I'm going to tell you about one here and what his outcome was. But there are so many people that they wait for the eleventh hour.

And sometimes the Lord gives them the opportunity to do that, right? But did you ever see someone die realizing that they're going to hell? Did you ever see someone like that? I tell you, I start sweating when I even think about it. But I had a friend in Lebanon there in the city. We lived in row houses.

And our neighbor was an elderly man, 80 plus years, maybe getting into 90. Anyhow, John was a nice man, nice to talk to. And I would sit down and talk with him often.

And he would say to me, he said, I like the way you're such an insistent young man. I wasn't sure what he was trying to tell me by that. He said, you're always talking to me about the Lord.

Well, what do you want me to talk to you about? I don't know how to talk to you about anything else. Well, yeah, well, you can keep talking, he said. I finally asked him, I said, John, one day, John, are you ready to die? Are you ready to die? He looked at me and he chuckled a little bit.

He said, Rene, he said, look, I don't drink. I don't smoke. I don't swear.

I'm not a womanizer. I have my wife. He says, I work.

And he gave me a whole list. I don't know how long that list was. He said, and I'm a good moral man.

He said, don't you think those are qualities that get me into heaven? I sat there and I could hardly contain myself. I said, John, that's not enough. You haven't told me what the Bible says you must do.

He said, what must I do? I said, what's your relationship between you and God? I can still just laugh. To me, it was kind of a hideous laugh because of the subject that we were on. But he said, oh, well, I hope I don't die.

I hope he gives me many more years to come. Like I said, he was in upper 80s, maybe in the 90s. I don't know how old he was.

But I do remember he thought he had time. He thought he had time. And this bothered me.

So every time I saw him in the porch or I saw him or went over there and said, John, are you ready to meet God? Are you ready to meet God? He said, don't you have anything else to tell me? Yes, well, I can. What's that? He says, the Lord's coming. Are you ready to meet him? He just shook his head.

And he was very courteous. He would listen to me. One day I came.

I could just come walk through the door at my home. My parents were both together at that time. I went up and showered.

And my mother said, Dolly, which was the next door lady, called. And she wanted you to call her right away. So I called her.

And the first thing she said, Renee, please come quickly. Come quickly. Where are you at? And she says, I'm in the hospital.

John is in bad shape. John has died. And the doctors are saying he can't live, Renee, please come.

She yelled. I'll be there as soon as I can. I got out of the kitchen where I had been calling, ran out to the car, and went to the hospital.

Which didn't take that long to get there. And here she was at the door waiting for me. Let's go up.

And I thought, well, it's strange. Why would she be at the door, right? So as we went up the elevator, I said, well, how is he? Bad. Is he talking? She said, you have to hear it for yourself.

I said, all right. So I got there. And when I got to the room, he was mumbling something.

I couldn't hear him. There was a nurse there that had a basin of ice water. And she was taking a rag, and she was dipping that, not a rag, what do you call it? Washcloth? Yeah, okay.

Excuse me for getting my terms mixed up. But anyhow, she took this washcloth, and she was dipping it in that ice water, wringing it out. And she was putting it on his feet.

And she got another one, and she brought it up to his forehead. And he kept mumbling. Finally, I went up to him, grabbed a hold of both of his hands, and I said, John, it's still not too late.

And you still have breath. You're breathing. You're breathing heavy.

But the Lord's knocking at your heart's door. And he's saying, John, John, it's not too late yet. And he shook his head a little bit.

Oh, he says, do something for me. And I said, what do you want me to do? I was hoping he'd say pray. He didn't say that.

He said, I want you to get a cold washcloth and put it on my leg, please, please. He says, I'm burning. And then I looked down at the nurse, and the nurse was crying.

She says, he's very hot, she said. Well, I knew what was happening. I held his hand, and his hands were like an oven.

I said to him, John, you can still give your heart to the Lord. John, the Lord loves you. John, the Lord wants you to be part of His kingdom.

You can be with the Lord now. You can be with Him. If the Lord decides to take away your life, you can go and be with Him forever and ever and ever.

I was desperate. I was desperate. And then all of a sudden, John starts yelling, do something.

Somebody help me. Somebody. I'm burning.

I'm burning. My feet are burning, and it's going up my legs. Please.

He kept yelling at the top of his voice. It wasn't long before he shook. The nurse that was there, she screamed and went out the door.

She screamed. She had seen what he looked like. He kind of half sat up a little bit, and he looked like he saw something that he wished he would have never seen.

The last word, John, I heard from him was, I'm burning. I'm burning. Can't you see it? I'm burning.

It was kind of a dramatic thing for me. I've seen other people in deathbed, but this one was really close to me because he was my neighbor, and there John was. I'm burning.

I'm burning. Young people today, this is the wake-up call. Anyone, if you do not know Jesus Christ, do you want to say those words to yourself? I'm burning.

I'm burning. I preached in hell numerous of times, not that I enjoyed the subject. I know the devil fights it, but hell is not a beautiful place.

What did John see? He told me what he felt. But what else did he see? Are you ready to die? And I believe this question is very important, and we consider it for a couple of reasons. Number one, it is established for men and women to see death.

You are going to die. It is in Genesis chapter 2 and verse 17. God told Adam and Eve, the day you partake of that fruit, thou shalt die.

Thou shalt die. Was God just saying, maybe you're going to die? Was he saying, well, maybe I'll think about it and let you know? No. Thou shalt die.

It is in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verse 2. I read that verse this week, where it said like this. There is a time to be born and a time to what? Die. Die.

It is in Ecclesiastes chapter 8 and verse 8. It says like this. There is no man that has power over the spirit to retain the spirit. Neither has he power in the day of death.

I saw that vividly in John. I saw it vividly. And it is in Hebrews 9 and verse 27, where it says, it is appointed unto man to how many times to die? Once.

How many times does a Christian die? Twice. Yes. Twice.

You're going to die. Your physical is going to go bye-bye. But we've got to die.

We die to the world. We die to the things that Satan puts upon us. We die.

We must die. We must die. I can't emphasize that enough this morning.

The old man must die. And the young man can die. Right? Again, I can tell you a story.

I have a story here this morning. Of men, young people, men and women that have died. Young.

19-year-old young man over on our way. Thought he's going to live it up. He's going to live it.

He wanted to see what the world was. It was a tremendous young man in the church. He had a lot of gifts.

A lot that the Lord could use a young man. One day he says, it's like that. He said, I like to go out and see what's out there in the world.

I like to. He said, well, that. Or his dad said, you don't have to go to the world to do that.

You can see it. You have eyes. He said, no, but I like to feel a little bit.

Well, he did. And it wasn't very long. Make a long story short.

It wasn't very long. He was out there with the young people of the town. It wasn't very long until he got into drinking.

I don't know if he got into drugs or not. We were in Guatemala. We just got home.

So I didn't know. Just got here to the States. And there it was.

We were at a funeral. And the next day after we were here, we had to go to a funeral of this young man. But the story is told that he got drunk that one weekend.

And he had a fast clunker car. But they were fast in that time. Not like these VWs and everything else.

But there was power there. And he put five people in his car. Five people.

Other people than himself. He got in. Let's go for a ride.

And he was not just drunk. They said he was stone drunk. Why would those other five people go into something like that? So they went.

He got in the car. And Pennsylvania, many of you have probably been there. It's a little bit like here.

The roads are straight like this, right? Yeah. He decided it was 35 miles per hour straight. They figured he might have been going, they don't know, 75, 80 miles per hour.

And as he made a curve, there was a big old tree before him. That movable object hit the immovable. I might have said that this week, that story.

I did? No, you heard it twice. Because that young man meant something to me. That young man died.

Because he decided he's just going to taste the world a little bit. It was my son, our son, that told us the same thing. Daddy says, I'd like to see what the fast lane is.

I played with him. You don't want to go out there. You don't want to go out there.

And he died at 20, a young man. So why is this question so important? Because it is established for men and women to die. Young people, death has no respect of age.

When God says that's enough, it's enough. Why is this question important? Are you ready to die? Because death separates. Death separates husbands and wives.

Death separates parents and children. Death separates siblings with each other. It separates.

It separates. Why is a question like this, are you ready to die, so important? Because we do not know when we will give our last breath. We do not know.

Interesting thing about this. I came across this verse a number of years ago in Job 16, verse 22. This is what it says.

When a few years are come, then I shall go the way, whence I shall not return. Death, you shall not return. You shall not return.

The Lord is not going to give you another opportunity because you had yours. Right? Yes, you had yours. And this morning, it is very important that we understand that.

What's the second question this morning I'd like to ask? And that is, what would your answer be? Okay. The wake-up call. Are you ready to die? What is your answer if God or Jesus this morning will walk in here, and he says, get off that pulpit, preacher.

And he'd take over. And he would start asking you these questions. What would you answer him? It doesn't matter what you answer.

Well, yes, it does. What you answer me. But it's more important what you would answer Jesus.

And the thing is, would you answer Jesus in a negative way? What would you say if Jesus stood here and says, give account of thy life? What would you say? Would you say something like, I'm not ready to go. I'm not ready to go. Or would you say, I really didn't have time to prepare.

Or would you say, I tried to be perfect. But here comes the good one. I'm only human.

I'm only human. Or would you say, I thought I had more time than this. But Lord, I'm only 20, 25.

I'm still young. Well, I'm 72. I think I'm still young.

But you can see I have a little problem walking, right? Or would you say, I didn't realize I was going to die so young. I'm going to just tell you a little bit about our 20-year-old son that was killed. I think a number of you have asked me.

So some of you heard this as well. But our son was 20 years old when he got involved in the rodeo. And he was a young man who was in the EMT, a fireman.

I don't know at all. Anyhow, one day he says he'd like to leave home just to see what life by himself would be like. He left.

And the next time I saw him, I noticed that he come with a cast in his arm. I said, well, what happened there? You don't want to know. Well, I did want to know.

He hesitated in telling me. And he did tell us what it was. But his brother found out.

He said it was from riding. He fell off the boat. So he kept this.

And the other time it was his broken leg. And I don't know what. I come back with all kinds of broken bones.

I said, you're in the EMT. Who takes you out? He said, well, the ambulances are right there. Anyhow, he kept that this.

Within six months, he was a professional rodeo rider. He rode almost 2,000-pound bulls. And so one day, the beginning of that week, he was killed.

He says, I'm supposed to go so-and-so. And what are you going to do there? Well, there's a big rodeo, $50,000. I'm going after the $50,000.

Oh, I pled with him. Don't do it. And anyhow, he went out.

And he says he was supposed to. He was what the. I don't know what terms they all use there anymore.

But he was the first one that was supposed to start the rodeo fest and end by riding another bull. Well, he started, gave him one of the worst bulls. And this is what happened.

He said he was got on the bull. And he told these people, these men that were helping him and tying, helping to tie his hand. He said, give me the death knob.

Death. That man's. You know, I want to know.

Death man's not. The death man's not. That doesn't sound good, does it? I don't know what a death man's not was.

He said, that's when they really tighten it to the bull and you're in there. And you in the bull almost become one. But it has the rope sticking out.

So you pull on it's supposed to let loose. They said he come out here. What, seven seconds? About five and a half seconds.

He decided he better just try this rope a little bit. And he realized it wasn't pulling. It wasn't letting go.

And there he is jumping up in this bull. How do you know? Because we saw it in the video. And you can see struggling.

So here, all of a sudden, he pulled, but nothing. And now he starts sliding off of the bull. He slides off the bull.

The bull felt him, kicked him three times. Cut his liver and just smashed up his inside. He lived six days.

But he was comatose. So his heart stopped three times. But we were with him six days.

And what I was looking at, time and time again, we talked to him just like I'm talking now. And we can see the monitor change. We hope and pray that he understood what we were saying.

But only the Lord knows that. Anyhow, when I saw him the first time in that stretcher, there's something came to my mind. And this is what it was.

He would say to me, Daddy, he said, I'm not going to get old. I said to him, what makes you say that? He was just young. I'm 10, 12 years old.

Now I'm 10 maybe years old. Daddy, I'm not going to get old, he would say. What makes you feel that? Well, I just feel that I'm not going to get old.

I'm not going to become an old man like you. 20 years old. Full of life.

Full of life. Good looking young man. I'm not saying that because he was her son.

But it was the reality of what I heard. You remember our son, don't you? Yeah. His name was David Rene.

We couldn't talk with him. I well remember when his heart stopped the last time. And I saw the monitors.

He's gone. He had no excuses then. There was no excuses.

Nothing came out of his mouth. What would you answer him? The thing that I fought with in my heart almost all the time was, I wonder what he answered to God. He was a Christian.

He went to a church. He was baptized in the church. I didn't approve of his rodeo.

But there it was. Young people, what is going to be told of you? What will your answer be? What will it be? The Bible says three things. It says like this.

The Apostle Paul said these words. He said, I have fought a good what? And then he also said to God, God, I finished what? My course. And he said the third thing that was very important to God was, I have kept the faith.

I have kept the faith. Is that what you're going to tell God? Well, I hope so. I hope so.

God would love to hear that. But do you know what the wicked, the person that has not given himself to God says? They say, I'm not ready to die just like John. It was in the book of Second Kings 20.

King Hezekiah faced the words of the prophet. And the prophet looks at him and said, set thine house in order. For thou shalt die and not live.

This morning, or yes, this morning, still morning. I'd like to plead with you. If you haven't set your house in order, if you haven't set your life in order, do so.

Do so, because it might be too late. The third question I'd like to ask this morning quickly is, how many have ever been to a court? I think there's a few. Did you ever hear the judge say to a person that's before him, now I'm going to give you this sentence.

I'm going to sentence you to. And here comes the sentence. Have you ever heard that? My third question is, what will your sentence be? How long will you be in hell? What does the Bible say? Somebody answer.

Forever. And how long is forever? Ever. Forever and ever and ever.

It makes my hair stand up, and I'm supposed to be tough. How long is heaven? Forever and ever and ever. What is your sentence? It was the apostle Paul who said these words in 2 Timothy 4. He says like this in verse 8. Henceforth it is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me in that day.

But not to me only, he says, but unto all them that love his appearing. What would heaven be like? I don't know. I don't know.

I remember when my dad became a Christian. I might have said this as well. It was so wonderful.

David went along with me that time, right? He was living in Puerto Rico, so my son and I went down. He wanted to find what is really being a Christian about. So we got there, and he wasted no time.

I want to be accepted of the Lord. And so for the next 20 minutes, a half hour, I led him to the Lord. And he said, I want that.

I want that. I want that. You know what I felt like? I felt like going right through that hospital, right through the middle, and opening it up with my head.

I was so happy. Yes, yes, yes. We prayed for this years upon years.

Later on, my mother accepted the Lord, and it was the same way. One thing my mother asked me, because she was on the bed. She said, am I? I want to be baptized, so if I die, I won't go to heaven, right? And that was real to her.

That was real to her. I said, no, Ma, but why don't you baptize me? I was planning on it. But I wanted to talk to her some more, and I wanted her to just enjoy life there in the home.

And I never got to baptize her. I felt bad about that. But I told her this.

I said, the thief on the cross didn't get baptized either. Oh, and the Lord received him, right? Yes, he did. I said, you can just rest assured.

I can still see the smile on her face. Okay, okay. There was a rich man in Luke chapter 16.

I'm not going to turn to it. He had everything. He had the dress.

He had the money. He had the palace, or his home. And the Bible says that he had banquets many times, probably every day.

And he fared sumptuously. In other words, he was well to do. Lazarus, what was he like? Tell me.

He was a beggar. What did he eat? McDonald's? Oh, crumbs. I thought he said bums.

He ate crumbs, yes. And where did he get the crumbs? Rich man's table. Rich man's table.

That tells me he was under the table. But there we have this rich man. He had it all, but he didn't have one thing.

What didn't he have? Tell me real quickly. What didn't he have? Right, a relationship with God. He hadn't made that choice yet.

He hadn't made that choice. And you know, there's a lot of people. And this morning you can say, well, I have it all.

And you probably do. I'm not going to take that away from you. And you might say, I even, you know, I have a good brain.

I'm not going to disagree with you. But do you have the most important thing? Are you on the side of the Lord this morning? Are you on that side? The Bible says, again going to the recompense of the wicked. It says, how are they brought into desolation? As in a moment they are utterly consumed with terror.

That rich man opened his eyes, and it says he suffered. He was suffering. And he wanted Lazarus to give him some what? Just a little bit.

My throat's thirsty right now. What would that man in hell, moment after moment, be like still crying out for just one drop of water, right? You know, one drop doesn't really do much. I mean, especially if you're like me.

I can't even see where it's at. There it goes. It doesn't help much.

I can suck and still it's not going to help. One drop of water. That man is still in torment in hell.

Water, water. Where will you spend eternity? Back to the three questions. Are you ready to die? Secondly, what would your answer be? And thirdly, what would your sentence be? Turn with me to Ecclesiastes chapter 12.

Ecclesiastes 12. I like to read two verses there, 13 and 14. It says like this, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter.

Fear God first, and keep his commandments. For this is the whole duty of man. It is your responsibility.

What do you have to do? You have to come to know that. Fear God. Not a fear that drives you away from God.

But it's a fear that drives you toward God. It's a reverential fear that you must have. And then in the next verse, 14.

It says, God shall bring every work into judgment. Everything you did, everything you have done, is going to go before you. I believe in eternity.

You're going to know, if you didn't think you knew what you were like, you will then. Because I believe those in hell have the five senses. I believe that they have a mind.

I believe they're in hell and they're tumbling. And I believe that they're suffering from all of that, as much as from the fire. God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing.

Whether it be good, or whether it be evil. Whether it be good, why? Because God knows that even evil men can do some good. The conclusion of the whole matter.

This morning, this morning, are you heeding the wake-up call? I trust that you are. Let us bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father in heaven, we pause before you this moment.

We thank you, Father, for the opportunity we have of being here in this tent with all these lovely people. We pray there, Father, that you may have had your own way. It's not about me.

It's not about all that we have done. But, Father, it's all about you. And, Father, the fact that you sent your Son, Jesus Christ, to die for everyone in this tent.

And we pray, Father, for those that have come to the age of accountability and up. And, Father, have not made the choice. Father, that they may heed the wake-up call.

That they may heed that this is the time, this is the day of salvation. And, Father, help them to tarry not. But, Father, they might say, here am I, here am I. Father, we know that we are living in perilous times.

We do know that we are living in times where the church is being tried. And, Father, we pray that we might be able to stand. Help us to identify with what is right and good.

Help us to identify with the things that are holy. Help us to identify with you. Help us to identify with the cross.

And, above all, Father, that we might identify as your children. We pray there, Father, that you might be with each and every one that is here. And if there be someone, Father, in the sound of my voice, who has not responded to your call, we pray that they may do so before it's ever too late.

Give strength. Father, that we not look at the person beside me. Or that we might look, well, my best friend is here.

And what would they say? Or what would my parents say? Father, it's what they must say before you. We pray that you might give strength and help us to answer to the call. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.