Living In Sodom

Just remember you were here on, what's today, August the 20th, 1997. You've been here one day, one service. We've been here since Father's Day of 95. Every service is different because the Holy Spirit knows everyone who is here for that particular service. How many are here for the very first time? Lift your hand up high. Put your hand down. The other day, last Saturday night, I asked the people how many were there for the first time last Saturday night thinking that most of the people had been there all week and it looked just like what happened just then. Most of the people were there for the first time and every single night is different. The Lord knows who you are. He knows why you're here. Some of you fought hell to get here. Some of you, and I'm talking about not just financially, the devil tried to stop you from getting here. Some of you here, some of you that are here, you fought to keep from getting here. You didn't want to get here. Some of you made a deal with somebody else and they finally, it came time for you to make good on your deal. You told them a long time ago you would go to Brownsville if they did so and so and they did so and so and now it was your time to make good on your part and so you're here. You don't want to be here. You're a Brownsville hater. You're a God hater. You hate me. You hate Lindell. You hate the music. You hate this church. You can't stand anything about this place, but you're here. I want to tell you, your friend did not bring you. God brought you to this place. Everyone is here under divine appointment. That means you're supposed to be here. You're supposed to be in this place, friend, and God's got a message for you. We're going to pray a prayer, the same prayer we've been praying since Father's Day of 95. I want to let you know how I look at revival as the evangelist and pastor looks at it the same way as a pastor in Brownsville. We don't take any service lightly. Every service I crawl into this building and I say, Jesus, would you just come down one more time? We don't ever take for granted the presence of God, and you shouldn't either. I don't ever take for granted preaching the Word of God. I know tonight's message could be the very last message that I preach. I could drop dead of a heart attack. I could be killed on the way home. This could be the very last message. And every morning when I get up to prepare a message, I know that this could be the very last one, and nothing is frivolous. You don't take anything for granted. Every point has got to be crucial. Everything that's said has got to be from the Holy Ghost. I don't want anything. I don't want to taint the pure message that comes from God tonight. And that's why we pray over these times and we spend time before the Lord. And you should be the very same way. This is not a frivolous time. You're in the presence of God. We're going to ask the Lord to speak to our hearts and to change our lives. Those of you at home that are watching this haphazardly, maybe you just flipped on the television and here we are and here you are and you got a Miller in your hand and a cigarette in your mouth and you'd rather watch something else. I want you to sit down, sir, and I want you to pay attention to what the Holy... As a matter of fact, I want you to stand up with everybody else, and I want you to pray this prayer with us. We've been praying this since Father's Day. It's a very simple prayer. Even if you don't know how to pray, you can pray this prayer. Everyone out loud with me right now. Dear Jesus, speak to my heart. Change my life. In your precious name, amen. You may be seated. I've been sharing off and on. Don't be distracted by people moving around on the platform, please, and ushers, please fill these seats quickly. If you've got a seat next to you, would you lift up your hand if you've got a seat that can be filled? Okay, because we have hundreds of people that are all over the place that need seats. Ushers, please help me with that. I'm not going to preach until those seats are filled. But I've been sharing with this congregation, the people that come to this revival, we've had 1,700,000... You can put your hand down. They'll find it. We've had 1,700,000 people come here from all over the world. How many are here from outside the United States of America? Lift up your hand. Stand up if you're from here, from outside the United States of America. God bless you. You may be seated. God bless you. This won't pertain to those outside of America, what I'm about to share, but it will for those that live in the U.S. of A. I believe we're going to experience over the next few years a major change in government policy. We're going to live through changes in the law. It's going to come to pass, friend, over the next few years where you'll be able to pray in school. Listen up. It's going to come to pass in America. It's going to come to pass where if a child brings his Bible to school, he'll be able to open up his Bible and not only open it up, but during a break in class, he'll be able to talk, read the Bible out loud, be able to talk about it. These things are coming to pass, friend. I want to tell you why. We've done some research. We were on the phone with George Gallup the other day of the Gallup Poll people. Eighty-four percent of North American adults, eighty-four percent, believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Eighty-four percent. Now, mind you, mind you that most of them don't live for God, but they still believe that. Ninety-four percent of American households have Bibles. That means only six percent of American households, if you randomly walked into 100 homes, you'd only find six nationwide. This is the poll. It's plus or minus three percent. You'd only find six homes that did not have a Bible. That's interesting. Ninety-three percent of all North American teenagers do not believe in evolution. They believe we were created. Ninety-three. That means seven percent out there believe in evolution. Ninety-three percent believe that God breathed. He made us. He touched us, made us out of dirt. This is interesting, isn't it? But let me tell you what's happening here in the government. This is why. The government's waking up to the fact that America wants to get back with God. Now, this is just, this is from, this is an API article. This is from Washington. Federal employees will be free to express their faith at work in ways that include wearing religious jewelry and discussing their beliefs under guidelines issued by President Clinton on Thursday. This is last Thursday. Listen. Religious freedom is at the heart of what it means to be an American, Clinton told the gathering of religious leaders. These guidelines will ensure that federal employees and employers will respect the rights of those who engage in religious speech as well as those who do not. But listen to what you can do. Clinton ordered it requires federal agencies to allow workers to engage in personal religious expression and reasonably accommodate holy days even if that creates some hardship for the agency. They also prohibit agencies from discriminating on the basis of religion and bar federal workers from using their official positions to campaign for or against religion. Listen to this. A Christian employee can keep a Bible on his desk and read it during break. Workers will be able to discuss freely their faith, even proselytize. Is anybody listening? This came from the top in America. And it says workers will be able to share their faith, even proselytize. That means during work you can turn to the person working on the computer next to you and legally in America. Is anybody listening? Legally in America, no fear of losing your job because you can't lose your job. Why? Because it's been put into law. You can turn to your neighbor and say, Listen, I know you're going through a hard time. I'd like to let you know how Jesus can help you. Listen what, listen. Come on, Lord. Come there. Do it again. He goes on to say, As long as the one you're speaking to doesn't object and will listen, you can go on and on. Friend, keep it up. What's happening is there in America, we've already shared this. I've been sharing it for the last two years. But at the beginning of this year, I talked to you about there's a religious fervor sweeping this nation right now. Politicians are waking up. People are waking up and understanding that Christians who are in the millions upon millions in America are rising up and they're beginning to speak. I was on the phone, and this is a prelude to the message tonight. The message may be a little bit difficult for some of us in this room, but everyone needs to listen. I was on the phone today with the New York Times. They did an awesome article on the revival, gave us front page coverage. And since then, we've had every major media come through here from Time Magazine. Time is doing a cover story on it, 20-20, 48 hours. The media can come and go. We're not here after the media. We've never invited anybody. But the New York Times told me today, he said, Steve, what's being preached from that pulpit needs to be in every home in America. And this is not... We're talking about hellfire. We're talking about the cross, the blood, get right with God, get the sin out. We're not talking about a lukewarm, cushiony, sweet, powdery, puffy, ear-tickling message. We're talking about the truth. And he said, America's ready to hear it. This was today. He shared that with me. This is the number one reporter for the New York Times, by the way, the one who won the... What's that award? The Pulitzer Prize for the New York Times. And basically, anytime he does a story, he gets to pick the stories he does because he's that good. He said, Steve, the nation is ready for what you're preaching. Well, if we're ready, then turn to Genesis 13. This is entitled Living in Sodom. We had a major magazine come, a secular magazine. Many of you know which one it is. I'm not going to say it out loud tonight in this message. But the young man that came and did the article, it was a phenomenal article. It's a major, major magazine owned by a... It's owned by a pornographic magazine company in the United States that is one of the most well-known. And this magazine is a music magazine that is the number one magazine among the kids. Enough said. It sells millions. They came and did 12 pages on the revival, full pages, full pictures, unbelievable story on the revival. And the man throughout the meetings, he was here for five days, sat right in this section over here, was seriously under conviction all the way through. Seriously. As a matter of fact, all through the story, he's being tugged upon and pulled upon by the Holy Ghost. He meets other punk rockers that have been saved and sees the change in their lives. He sits under the preaching, under the music night after night. He hears Charity sing Run to the Mercy Seat. He calls the shots the way he sees them. He's a secular reporter. And he puts in the article a statement about where he's at in his own spirit. He says this, After years of living in Sodom, I'd forgotten about America's hatred for Sodomites. He's a Sodomite. After years of living in Sodom, now he puts this in a nationwide magazine, openly confessing that he was on his way to a gay bar. And this is no secret. It's public knowledge. And I read that. After years of living in Sodom and after sitting under the gospel message for days and days and days and hearing the gospel being preached in a way he had never heard it and watching drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes, millionaires, junkies, you name it, come running to the altar, weeping and wailing and burning with a passion to get right with God. He makes a statement after years of living in Sodom. And friend, I can't get that off me. I love this man. He needs Jesus so bad. I got a call into his office. We're begging him to call us back. I want to follow up. I want to thank him for the awesome article that he wrote. Genesis 13. We're going to read a few verses. Stay with me. So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, he and his wife and all that belonged to him and lot with him. Genesis 13. Now Abram was very rich in livestock and silver and in gold. And he went on his journeys from the Negev as far as Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the altar which he had made there formerly. And there Abram called on the name of the Lord. Now Lot who went with Abram also had flocks and herds and tents. And the land could not sustain them while dwelling together for their possessions were so great that they were not able to remain together. And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock. Now the Canaanite and the Perizzite were dwelling then in the land. Then Abram said to Lot, Please let there be no strife between you and me nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen for we are brothers. Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If to the left, then I will go to the right or to the right, then I will go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes. I want to stop just a minute. Everyone look this way. Some of you have never heard the Bible before, okay? You're here. We have people that come to the revival that have never ever opened up a Bible. They don't have a Bible tonight. Let me just share with you what I'm reading, friend, before we go any further. The Bible is full of stories, true stories from which we can glean. We can reach into these stories and pull out principles for our own lives. And this is a story. Whether they had 2,000 cattle or 200 cattle makes no difference. So don't get lost in all the little details of Lot and Abraham. Just listen to the story, especially if you've never heard it before. Just listen to the story and I'm going to give you the parts that I believe are important tonight. And Lot lifted up his eyes, verse 10, and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere. This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go to Zoar. So Lot chose for himself all the valley of the Jordan and Lot journeyed eastward. Thus they separated from each other. Abraham settled in the land of Canaan while Lot settled in the cities of the valley and moved his tents as far as Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly and sinners against the Lord. Now turn with me to chapter 18, if you would. Just a few pages to your right. Chapter 18, verse 20. By this time we have found out that Sodom is a wicked place. Chapter 18, verse 20, And the Lord said, The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave. I will go down now and see if they have done entirely according to its outcry which has come to me, and if not, I will know. Then the men turned away from there and went towards Sodom while Abraham was still standing before the Lord. Verse 23, And Abraham came near and said, Wilt thou indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? For those of you that don't understand this, Abraham is talking with God. Suppose there are 50 righteous within the city. Will you, O God, indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the 50 righteous who are in it? Far be it from thee to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from thee, shall not the judge of all the earth deal justly? So the Lord said, If I find in Sodom 50 righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place on their account. Verse 27, And Abraham answered and said, Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am but dust and ashes. Suppose the 50 righteous are lacking five. Wilt thou destroy the whole city because of five? And he said, I will not destroy it if I find 45 there. And he spoke to him yet again, And suppose 40 are found there. And he said, I will not do it on account of 40. Verse 30, Then he said, Oh, may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak. Suppose 30 are found there. And he said, I will not do it if I find 30 there. And he said, Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord. Suppose 20 are found there. And he said, I will not destroy it on account of the 20. Then he said, Oh, may the Lord not be angry, and I shall speak only this once. Suppose 10 are found there. And he said, I will not destroy it on account of the 10. And as soon as he had finished speaking to Abraham, the Lord departed, and Abraham returned to his place. Now chapter 19, verse 24, and this is our last portion of Scripture tonight. By the way, I just read you about a man who was praying for somebody else. Everyone look this way. Abraham didn't want to see Sodom destroyed. He didn't want to see the cities destroyed. He didn't want to see the righteous die. And there's people out there, friend, that are praying for you. There's a grandmama out there, brother, that doesn't want to see you die. She doesn't want to see you die in your sins. She doesn't want to see you go under. And she's pleading to God. She's praying. Some of you have made serious mistakes in your life, and you're living those mistakes right now. And there's a grandma, there's a grandfather, there's a young child, there's a mommy, there's a daddy somewhere praying, just like Abraham was seeking God. There's a grandma somewhere going, Don't let it happen to my son. Father, get him out of that bar. Get him out of that drinking establishment, Jesus. Deliver him. I remember one night when my mama came home. I was downstairs in my room, and I was a drug addict at this time, and a mainliner used to pump needles in my arms, and we just robbed a pharmacy and had all these morphine vials, class A narcotics. And about 25 of us were stoned out of our minds. We'd stuck the needles in our arms and pinned the needles in the ceiling like darts. My mom walked in, and we were all taking more than we could possibly handle. We were all passed out. My mom walked into the room, and it was a downstairs basement room that I had moved into, and she looked at the ceiling of the room, and she looked at all the corpses on the ground. It was about 12 o'clock at night, and she said, Oh my God. My mama, I'd already lost my father when I was 16. By this time, I was like 28 years of age and heavily on drugs. And I remember that she started going up the stairway fast up to the first floor of the house, and I thought for sure that she was gonna call the cops. So I made my way up to my feet, and I stumbled up the stairway, and I passed the telephone, and she wasn't at the phone. And I went back to the back room in the hallway, and the door was shut to her room, and I listened up by the door, and she was doing this. Jesus, save my boy. Jesus, don't let him die down there. Don't let my boy overdose, Jesus. Save my son. Friend, I want to tell you, somebody's praying for you. Somebody's praying for you. My mama comes to this revival all the time, and she sees it different than anybody else. She sees it different. She knows the answer to prayer. She knows no matter how bad off somebody is, God can save them. And I'm not gonna get into the history of Sodom. I might do this later on. That's where we get our word, sodomy. But sodomy is a filthy word. You can go look it up yourself. To sodomize is a sexual act. It's happening all over America even right now. Some man is sodomizing some little boy, even in this city as I speak. Gays are lining up at the bars trying to find a fresh piece of meat for tonight's party. Sodomy. Sodomy. Why would they call it sodomy? Because Sodom was a wicked city, friend. And when it came to naming a wicked sin, what else could you call it but sodomy? The town that was notorious for sin. I want to give you a few points tonight. Some of you can already feel this coming. I can tell you're not even looking at me no more. I came to get blessed, see? God's going to bless you, friend. But you're going to get the sin out first. That's the greatest blessing. You know, the letters we get, we get letters from all over the world of the power coming down. But the greatest letters we get and the ones my secretary lays on my desk are the ones where the sin came out. And those are the happiest letters. The happiest letters we get are the ones that came here and the sin was eradicated, dealt with here at this altar. And now they're in heaven. And once you get the sin out, friend, without holiness no man will see the Lord. But with holiness, friend, you're going to attract God. You'll attract him. And then the power starts coming down. Let me give you a few points. Number one, basic, fundamental in this story. Everyone has a choice of where to pitch his tent. Everyone has a choice of where to pitch his tent. Lot chose to pitch his tent towards Sodom. Now those of you that have preached on this, I have never preached on Sodom in 22 years, ever. I prepared this this morning. So if you're a preacher here and you've got 46 different points than I got, keep them to yourself. Everyone has a choice of where to pitch his tent. We read in the Word of God that Lot made his choice. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan. And Lot journeyed east and they separated themselves the one from the other. He chose the well-watered plains of Jordan. It was a wonderful reward for any man. Face this way, folks. Don't be distracted. It was a well-watered, luscious, green place. Vegetation for his cattle, abounding with fertile crop-producing soil. Even as the garden of the Lord, the Bible says. Everyone has a choice of where they're going to pitch their tent. This is going to hit home in just a second, friend. But you better be careful when you're making that choice because there could be some drawbacks. There could be some repercussions to the choice that you're making. The Bible says in verse 13 here, but the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. It's one thing to be a sinner and wicked. It's one thing to be a sinner and wicked before the Lord. It's another thing to be wicked and sinner before the Lord exceedingly. These folks irritated God. They were sitting on a volcano. Spiritually speaking, friend, God's wrath was rising as he looked towards Sodom. It was constantly rising, and as Jonathan Edwards would say, he was holding back the dam. God was holding back the dam of the wrath on Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. But Lot chose. Everyone's got a choice of where they're going to pitch their tent. It can be a great neighborhood, friend, but bad neighbors. Is anybody listening? It can have material blessings, but be morally cursed. Lot did what so many of us do today. We make our decisions without a full understanding of the details and oftentimes choose to remain oblivious to the possible consequences. Stay with me just a second, friend. This is going to make sense. Some of you are thinking, well, when he's going to preach Jesus? Before this service is up, friend, we preach the cross, the blood. We preach the crucifixion here. We preach if Jesus be lifted up, he will draw all men. But right now, I'm going to touch on something that Jesus would touch on. Matter of fact, he spoke about this city. Jesus came, why? To take away the sin of the world. Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. John the Baptist does not point to the man walking up to the river saying, behold the Lamb of God who will provide you all the things you need on the face of this earth. Behold the Lamb of God which will give you a nice home in Akron, Ohio. Behold the Lamb of God who will clothe you and feed you. He said, behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. And that's what we're talking about right now. This is gospel. We're going to talk about sin for a few minutes, friend. But people make decisions and they choose to remain oblivious to possible consequences. Some of you are like the man when your radiator light or when your oil light came on and just kept staying red. You put a piece of duct tape over it hoping it'll go away. Before you buy a car, how many want to know the truth about the car? Is the odometer correct? Has it had Bondo work? Has the chassis been hammered and welded back into shape? Before buying a house, don't you want to know the truth? Are the neighbors hoodlums? Look this way, friend. Hello. Before you sink $265,000 in a house, find out who lives next door. Why are they selling the house? You can't understand why it is such a bargain. Something's up somewhere. Maybe the folks are not just moving. Maybe there's a reason they're moving. They know something you don't know. Investigate. Talk to the neighbors. You might find out that the mafia live next door or a child molester moved in across the street. Before investing in mutual funds or buying certificates of deposits, before you find out what kind of return, you ought to find out is the bank about to close? Do they care about their customers? Friend, I'm saying this, but some of you don't even pay attention to details. You blindly walk into everything. It's your choice where you pitch your tent. Young people, you better listen because school just started back and some of you have already taken your tent and I can hear the poles clattering and I can hear the stakes coming out of the bag and you're pitching your tent in the wrong direction. Already in the chapel, listen up to me. You're pitching your tent in the wrong direction. Two, three days of school and you're already going after the wrong crowd. I can feel it. I can see the little girls pitching their tent towards Sodom. Go to school. What do you go to school? Where do you dress the first day of school? You ought to dress all covered up. But no, some of you young ladies visiting went half naked. Why? You want to be noticed. You're pitching your tent towards Sodom. You want to be noticed. You didn't get noticed the first day, you're sure going to get noticed the second day. Lower goes the cut, higher goes the hem. Whatever it takes, I'm going to be noticed. You're pitching your tent towards Sodom, friend. Many of you make choices using your natural senses. Whether ever requesting counsel from your spiritual man, you use your natural senses. Seeing, it looks right. Hearing, sounds right. That's Sodom, friend. When Lot looked that way, it was luscious. It was green. It was perfect, but it was wrong. It smelled right. It touched right. It tasted right. Sensual choices are sinful choices. You can write that down and live by it. Sensual choices are sinful choices. Let me give you an example. Bring that out for me, Charlie. This is what you might call an up-to-date illustration. Last week, the largest food recall in U.S. history occurred. That's 1.2 million pounds. That's a lot of burgers. Of frozen beef patties were pulled from the store shelves and Frigidaires all across America. You know what that is? That's a hamburger. That is a round hamburger. That's a quarter pounder, man, on your stove. It looks good. Sounds good. It's frozen just like they're supposed to be. It's got the right color. Doesn't smell rotten. Smells good. Looks right. Everything's perfect. I'm telling you, some of you, this is exactly how you make choices. He looks right. He even lifts his hands in church. She smells like Chanel. Everything's perfect about her. Friend, you're heading down Sodom's road. You're going the wrong way. That's not how you live life. There's more to it than that. There's something called prayer. There's something called direction. There's something about what should I do, Jesus, in this situation. I'm going to go ahead. I'm going ahead and warning some of you right now. There's some people in this room, you are shocked that we're preaching this. You have been stripped naked spiritually in the last five minutes. You know something's up in your life. You know that you have turned and you can see Sodom right in front of you and you're moving towards it. You got your backpack, your tent. You're moving towards Sodom and God has sent somebody along, friend, to warn you. I'm warning you, friend. These frozen patties, and I'm not going to name the company, came out of Arkansas. They were shipped all over the nation on June and July, but something happened. Sixteen consumers in Colorado got sick. Many of them were hospitalized. Some of them could have died by something called E. coli O157H7, a bacteria that can be fatal. Just a hamburger. It looked right. It was round. It was red. It was in my grocery shelves, but then something happened over the airwaves, on the television, on the radio, in USA Today, Time Magazine. You name the paper, it came out. Warning, warning, warning, warning. Stay away from that frozen food. It was called the USDA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They've got a department called the Food Safety Inspection Service Division. I thank God for that division. This is your tax dollars at work, friend. The Food Safety Inspection Service said this. They are the public health agency responsible for ensuring that the nation's commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged. Somebody's watching over your soul. In America, somebody's watching over your body, man. There's some people out there that work day in and day out so you don't die. And as soon as they felt, as soon as someone got sick, some type of poisoning in their stomach, they were on the case. Two people got sick. Three, they were there in a heartbeat, and it didn't take them long. They all bought the same hamburger meat, and then it swept the nation in a matter of seconds, and everything was pulled, and many of us didn't even know it happened. Didn't even know it happened, but the government was out there protecting us, man, watching over us. Well, the same spiritually, friend. There's somebody watching over your soul. There's somebody caring about you. You're oblivious to it, but there's somebody seeing. He looks out there, and he sees the bacteria. He sees the suffering. He sees the disease, and I see possible death, friend, and I'm warning you right now, up front, get this hamburger out of here. Thank you, Charlie. Did that make sense? I hope so, friend. That's poison. That's what it is. That's poison in hamburger form. Some of you little ladies and some of you men, you go strutting towards the wrong person. I'm telling you, I see poison. I see red lights. I see danger. You're fixing to walk into a cavern. You're gonna die in that position, friend. You're heading the wrong direction. We're trying to warn you. Matthew Henry wrote years ago, those who in choosing relations or callings or homes or areas to live are guided and governed by, who are guided by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye or the pride of life, and consult not the interests of their souls. And Christianity cannot expect God's presence nor his blessing upon them. I want everyone to pay attention, friend. Some of you are like animals in this place, like animals. Your sexual organs drive you, control you, everything you do, they control you. You see a woman, you turn towards her. You see a man, you turn towards him. Lust, can't go to the beach without lusting over everybody there. Can't do this, can't do that. Why? You're like an animal. You haven't learned how to turn your head. You haven't learned how to close your eyes. You haven't learned how to control yourself. You can't turn on the television without watching something with a little lust in it, something with a little meat to it. I'm dealing with this tonight, friend, and we don't, every night's different, remember. But this is God-ordained. Number two. I have 263 points. I'm moving quickly. Number two. Take your time. Yeah. Pastor told me to tell you to settle down, quit moving around, and I mean that. Distractions. Let me tell you something when you have to get up and move out, unless it's absolutely necessary, you distract no less than 50 people. And there could be a man this close to getting saved, and you had to get up and walk out and get a drink of water. There's too much happening tonight, friend. This is too serious. Number two. Once you've chosen to live in Sodom, once you've chosen to pitch your tent towards Sodom, anything evil is free to come crawling around. How many have been camping? How many have been camping before? You're scared to raise your hands. Oh, no. I've been camping, friend, and I've seen some crawly stuff at night. But once you've chosen to plant your tent towards Sodom, anything evil is free to come crawling around. Chapter 19. Look at this just for a minute. Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. And he said, Now behold, my lords, please turn aside into your servants' house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise early and go on your way. They said, however, No, but we shall spend the night in the square. Verse 3, chapter 19, Genesis. Yet he urged them strongly. So they turned aside to him and entered his house and he prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread and they ate. I want you to look this way, friend. Look what happened. Those of you that have never seen this story, here's two angels and a righteous family in the middle of a cesspool. Look what happens. Look what's crawling around their tent. Some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. Before they laid down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter. And they called to Lot and said to him, Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations or we may have sex with them. Bring them out so we can sodomize them. Where are your guests? I'm telling you, friend, once you've chosen to live in Sodom, anything evil is free to come crawling around. Your tent is firmly planted in the midst of this wicked land. Don't be surprised when bugs start crawling around your tent. Don't be surprised if some slithery snake works its way past your tent flaps. Some of you are shocked at what is now outside your tent. You were once feeling safe and secure, but now all forms of wickedness is creeping in. Let me explain this, friend. For example, I chose one day to pitch my tent towards Sodom. I chose to do drugs and alcohol. I chose to go down that road. But what I didn't know is what came with it. When I began to live in Sodom, when I began to live in hell, you know what else came with it? Murder, killings, fights, jail, diseases. Everything else came along with it. How many know what I'm talking about? Just a little drink, just a little this, just a telephone pole wrapped around your car. Just a dead child in the morgue and now you're in jail for manslaughter. But I was just having a drink at Joe's bar. Friend, when you pitch your tent towards Sodom, all kinds of stuff comes creeping around your tent. All kinds of stuff comes crawling around, comes with the territory. I couldn't believe how quickly it got so nasty in the drug scene. I was from an upper middle class family. I had a good life. My mom was good to me. My dad was good to me. They took care of me, but I went bad. And within a matter of a few years, I watched my friends start to die. One of them, I remember, I woke up one morning and I was working at a newspaper company, preparing newspapers for the newspaper boys early one morning and I got the headlines and it said Bobby Kinnear found murdered and I looked at the body and it was one of my best friends had been stabbed 25 times and they found his body along the side of the road and I was shocked to see it on the front page of the paper. One of my buddies, one of the ones I partied with. Then I remember I went to a 7-Eleven store that morning to buy a pack of cigarettes and in came another friend named Randy and he's singing a song. He's singing this. I killed crazy. We called the kid Bobby. Bobby, we called him crazy because he did so many drugs. And he goes, I killed crazy. I killed crazy. I said, what are you talking about? He goes, I killed him last night, man. Stabbed him, me and Gary. Slaughtered him, man, with a butcher knife. I killed crazy. He's twirling around in the store. My friends, I'm telling you, friend, when you pitch your tent towards Sodom, anything's gonna come creeping around. It comes with the territory. Those of you that are running around in your wives, don't come to me with AIDS. Don't come to me with all your little diseases. Don't come to me with your filth because you asked for it, friend. The diseases, the sexual diseases come with the territory. Little girl, 16 years old, come to this revival pregnant, 14, pregnant. I'm telling you, when you pitch your tent towards Sodom, anything's gonna come crawling around. Now you got a baby. And where's the guy? Oh, he's long gone. He really loved you, didn't he, sis? Young people, once you decide to hang around ungodly people, I hope they're listening over there, Richard. Once you decide to hang around ungodly people, just remember the other stuff that comes with the package. When you're a principal, everyone listen. Moms and dads, young people, listen. When you're a principal, your teachers see you walking down the hallway with a scuzz bucket or a slime bag. How many know what I'm talking about? They see you walking down the hallway with trouble. Friend, you've pitched your tent towards Sodom. And no matter how much you talk to the principal, no matter how much you talk to the teacher, as long as you're hanging around those people, you're in Sodom, friend. And they know it, and you're always gonna be questionable. They're always gonna wonder if you're doing drugs too. They're gonna wonder if you're in bed with him all the time. They're gonna wonder when you're gonna come up pregnant. They're gonna wonder if you're dealing drugs. And when it comes time for the police to come in and arrest them, they'll arrest you right along with the rest of them. You don't have to have a bag of pot in your pocket or a joint of marijuana in your purse or a vial of crack cocaine. You don't have to have nothing, friend. You just gotta be around them. Guilt by association. And by the way, don't be surprised if one of your friends says, oh, the pot I have, it's Nancy's. Watch your friends, they'll turn on you. Oh, that's Nancy's. You'll go, what? No, that's yours, Nancy. Because see, he's already been in jail. He's gonna get in big trouble. This is your first offense. I've seen it before. Nancy, you carry the pot tonight. Nancy, you carry the junk tonight. Nancy, you carry the cocaine tonight. Don't be a fool, sis. Don't be a fool, sis. When you pitch your tent towards Sodom, anything evil is free to come crawling around. Is anybody listening? Well, why are you so serious tonight, Steve? Something's happening here tonight, friend. Something's going on here tonight. Third point, people who live in Sodom oftentimes find themselves compromising with the world. People who live in Sodom oftentimes find themselves compromising with the world, negotiating with the enemy. Verse 8 of chapter 19, listen to what Lot says to these men that are outside his house. Friends, this is unthinkable. You might correct me on this, but what I'm about to read, I'm gonna go ahead and tell them the story. Look at me, everybody. You can read it for yourself in verse 8. Sodomites came to his house. They wanted to sodomize the males that were in the house, the men. That's wicked. But what does Lot do? He squeezes his way outside, shuts the door and negotiates with them. He says, I have two virgin daughters. Let me give you them, ravage them, do anything you want to them. Just don't mess with my guests. Mike's a theologian. Is that just as unthinkable then as it is now? Absolutely. I can't imagine it. I have two daughters. I couldn't imagine. I couldn't imagine, friend, it can't even enter my mind, turning my daughters over to a band of men to let them rape them and violate them any way they wanted to. When you live in Sodom, friend, you'll start negotiating with the enemy. You'll compromise. You'll do things that you would never ever do. Peter said this about Lot. You can write it down and look it up later. 2 Peter 2.8. He said, For that righteous man Lot in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul that he was tormented every day with their unlawful deeds. That means day after day after day these people warred with Lot. He had to be around them. When he was sitting at the gate, when he was walking in the marketplace, all that was on their minds was sodomy and lust. And I can name the sins, friend. I might tomorrow night. But it was always plaguing Lot. And now he finds himself compromising with the enemy. When you're living in Sodom, you'll do unthinkable things. You'll find yourself in pressure situations. You'll give in and do things you'd normally never do. For example, you've already pitched your tent towards Sodom. You're a virgin. You'll never do this. I'm doing this right now, friend, because school's just started. And I'm just spending a couple minutes with the teenagers. All right? I want you to listen to me. We have tens of thousands of young people that come here from all over the world. All over the nation they pour in here. And I want you to listen to me, young people. You pitched your tent towards Sodom. You're a virgin. And you make some mistakes. You haven't lost your virginity yet. But you've made some mistakes. You've gotten entangled with the wrong guy. You're at a football game and afterwards he takes you out to the backwoods and he's got you in the backseat of the car. What you should do is run as fast as you can, screaming bloody murder. I mean, friend, get out of Dodge. But what do you do? You compromise. You get involved in heavy petting instead. You tell him he can go just this far with you, which to you was unthinkable. You would never let anybody touch your body like that. But you're letting him do it. Why? You're in Sodom, friend. You're doing things you'd never do. You can't dream of it. What drug addict that now puts a needle in his arm won't tell you that years earlier he wouldn't dream of doing that. He would never stick a needle in his arm. The idea of doing that is detestable to him. But now it's a daily thing. What's happened, friend? When you're in Sodom, you begin compromising. You lower your standards. You do things you would never do. I hope you're listening, friend, because there's some folks in this place. You've pitched your tent towards Sodom. Some of you are so close to adultery right now it's scary. You know what you've done? Some of you are actually conversing with that other person on a sexual basis now. You're talking to them. Something you would have never done. You're married. You've got kids. You've got children that are depending on you, and they want to have children, and they want you to be their granddad. But no, your animal instincts are working on you again. Now you're off at some office party, in the back parking lot, talking with some secretary, and things are coming out of your mouth, and as they come out of your mouth, you know it's wrong. You're, what am I doing? Friend, when you're in Sodom, you do things that you'd normally never do. You're right in the middle of the cesspool. I've watched kids join in gangs. I have a bandana in my briefcase that I carry as a reminder. A kid came up to me and gave me this blue bandana. He said, take this. He said, I'm going back to South Carolina. He said, my gang told me if I go to Brownsville and get saved, and if I don't come back with that bandana, they're going to kill me. He said, take this bandana. I'm going back. I'm going back. Did you know how that kid had to join that gang? War. I guarantee you he was beaten bloody. He did things he'd normally never do, but his tent was pitched towards Sodom. He got in there, friend, and he started doing things, and when he got in there with the gang and had all the other gangs breathing down his back and all the other peers pressuring him, they said something like this. We want you to go out. We want you to rape someone in their mid-50s. We want you to rape someone in their 60s to be a member of this gang. We want you to go do this and do that. Unthinkable things. The kid could have been raised in a Christian home, but now he's got 22 men standing around him going, what are you, chicken? You don't want to be a part of our gang? No, we told you to go rape that woman, that woman right across the street there. You rape her when she comes home from the library tonight. You rape her, and you can be part of this gang. Happens all over America, friend. But what did they do? Why are they in this situation? They pinched their tent towards Sodom. And when you do that, friend, you'll do things that normally you would never do. What an unthinkable act. Blot. I'll give my daughters for you to ravish them. There's some folks in here that scare me now. I'm pleading for you tonight. Number four. Charity's going to sing Run to the Mercy Seat in just a minute. This is some good news. For those living in Sodom, the Lord will send someone to speak and offer you a way to escape. The Lord doesn't want anyone to perish, but all to come to repentance. Blot chose to pinch his tent towards Sodom, and now it was his choice to pack his tent up and move out. God sent him somebody. You know, remember another person that pinched his tent towards Sodom? Remember David? He pinched his tent towards Bathsheba. Remember that? Did things. Friend, I'm preaching the Word to you tonight. He did things. David was a king. He was a psalmist. He was a man after God's own heart. But once you get into Sodom, once you get down that road, what do you do? You do things you normally never do. David was in Sodom with Bathsheba. What did he do next? Murdered her husband. Dear God, David, the shepherd boy, a murderer. The one who wrote, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. The psalmist, now murdering people. That's what you do when you're in Sodom, friend. But there's good news. Along came Nathan. In 2 Samuel 12, Nathan came sent by God to warn David. And David repented. God sent a preacher to him. God's sending a preacher to you, friend. He's sending you somebody tonight to draw the line, to cut it off, to tell you, this is it. Pastor came to me early tonight, and I'm going to go ahead and share this, what you said in the back room. Working with this man of God right here sometimes is scary, friend. He and I get along so well. And we see eye to eye. See, we've known each other for 14 years. When this revival broke out, it was just like two friends getting together for a while. And so many times we'll be on this platform, and he'll turn to me and go, Dear God, Steve. And I'll go, Brother, do you feel that? He'll go, Yes. How many times has that happened, brother? Just many, many times. And we'll feel something going on in this place. And we both felt the same thing without even talking today. And he turned to me, he said, Steve, I don't know where this came from, Steve. It's just churning inside of me. But you tell him tonight to just do it. To just do it. That means, friend, the man of God is coming warning you in Sodom. Pack your things and get out. Just leave it. Leave it all. Leave your goods. Leave the garbage. Leave the articles of affection, whatever the devil's given you, and leave Sodom. This is love, friend. Trust me. This is a love message. You know, John 3, 16, everybody talks about the love verse. That's the, there's a lot of hell in that verse. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believed in him should not perish, should not die in Sodom, but have everlasting life. God sent his son to come down and take your hand, brother, and pull you out so you don't perish. There's hell in that verse. Number five. Just a couple points and we're closing. And I know as I was preparing this message, friend, trust me, about 15 more points came to my mind. But that's not what this is about. And I want to warn pastors and evangelists, we don't feel like we have everything all nailed down and perfect here. But one thing we have learned is you don't have to say everything that comes to your mind and you don't have to preach everything that comes to your heart when you're preparing a message. A lot of that is personal. A lot of that is just something God is working in your spirit and building around the message. So the points come out like volcanic fire. But, you know, the rumble, that burden, that passion is what causes that. And a lot of that is just all preparation. And you're not supposed to stand up and give somebody 82 points. A lot of folks can't handle that. There's people that walk into this place sometimes, they're so thirsty, they've been dragging themselves across the desert sands, they're dying. They're dying for something to drink and you want to shove a filet mignon down their mouth. They'll choke and die on a filet mignon. All they need is a drop of water on their tongue. That's all they need is a drop of water. They go, wow, I've been living inside of them. And there's a way out. That's all they needed, friend. But you want to kill them with explaining what color cattle Lot had. They don't care. Number five, don't expect everyone close to you to agree with the warnings of impending judgment. Don't expect everyone close to you to agree with the warnings of impending judgment. You'll see where his sons-in-laws were warned. Where's that at, Mike? I didn't write it down. Nineteenth chapter, verse 14. And Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law who were to marry his daughters, and said, up, get out of this place for the Lord will destroy the city. But he appeared to his sons-in-law to be joking, to be jesting. Some of you are going to go to that woman that you're about to have an affair with and you're going to say, Miss Sally, it is over. And she's going to laugh. Come on, baby, what you talking about? I'm saying it's over. I'm getting out. I'm getting out now. There's nothing wrong with what we're doing. What do you mean there's nothing wrong with what we're doing? I'm a married man. I have children. This is adultery. This is an abomination in God's eyes. And she'll laugh. She'll go, oh, come on, don't get religious on me now. Don't expect everyone close to you to agree with the warnings of impending judgment. Young people, if you have to flee Sodom alone, flee Sodom alone. If you have to run for your life, if you have to run for your life and you turn around and nobody's behind you, make it. Make it on your own, friend. Be the one who made it. Don't expect everyone to follow you everywhere you go. You know, it's interesting here, friend, and a whole message to be preached on this. God sent the angels to get Lot out of Sodom, but you know, they had to literally drag him out of there. They had to drag him out. And those of you that don't believe in aggressive altar calls, friend, these angels, these angels, these angels were on a mission, and I believe they would have popped Lot silly whatever it took to get him out of that place, friend. I remember one night I was preaching in this place and the Lord told me to go up in the balcony, and I said, I'm going to go up in the balcony and I'm going to carry the Word of God in my hands. And if I get close to you with this Word of God and you ain't right with God, you better run as fast as you can down to the altar. Folks, I ain't never seen so much trembling. I mean, walked up there and people freaked as the Word was going like this. They ran for their lives. That's what happened here, friend. This was aggressive. And some of you in this place, that's what God's done. He's literally, He brought you in here. He's drugged you in this place. He's pulled you in. This is like Lot's little home, a sacred little place right now. He's pulled you into this place, and He's got a hold of you. And He's shaking you. And He's saying, get out, get out, get out, get out. Get the sin out. Get the sin out, get the sin out. But I don't really know. I said get out. Don't expect everyone close to you to agree with the warnings of impending judgment. The last point tonight is the Lord will do what He said He will do. Hear me? Verse 24 of 19 says this, Then the Lord reigned on Sodom and Gomorrah, brimstone and fire, from the Lord out of heaven. And He overthrew those cities and all the valley and all the inhabitants of the cities and what grew on the ground. For those of you that are into archaeology, those of you that don't believe the Bible, I love biblical archaeology. And I love mysteries. You know, is there a boat out there or is there not a boat out there? Somewhere out there, friend, there's a boat. It's a boat. There's a boat out there. There's some gopher wood out there somewhere, friend. And when someone comes, they found Sodom and Gomorrah, I believe about 20 years ago. They found it. And what baffled them was it seemed to have been destroyed from above by fire. And there's a three-foot sediment of something on top of everything that destroyed it all. They found Sodom and Gomorrah. And of course, you know, they're saying, well, it is on a quake zone. And so it's, you know, possibly the earth opened up and spewed out lava. And maybe that's the way God did it. I don't know. And it shot up and came down on the city. But the bottom line is, there was a Sodom and Gomorrah. Past tense. The Lord will do what he said he'll do. And I'm telling you tonight, friend, if you don't flee your sin, you will be judged. Every idle word that comes out of your mouth, you'll be judged. Every sin, you'll be judged. Trust me, friend, you'll be judged. See, I was one of those, too, that believed I would never get caught for anything. But one day, the police came knocking at my door. Many times they did. And they had been watching me all along. And I'd been told how the narcotics agents had infiltrated our drug scene world. But I never believed it. You know? Because narcotics agents are so good at what they do. They will come in. For example, this guy right here. What's your name? Eric? Greg? Someone like Greg. Clean cut, sharp guy. Greg, it's 1997. Greg is chosen as the police force to be a narcotics agent in Cincinnati. For the next year, Greg trains how to do drugs, how to sell drugs, how to talk the talk. He's trained. He allows his hair to grow long, grows a beard, whatever. Learns how to wear the clothing. Then what does he do one day? He hitchhikes up to that city. Just wanders around, hitchhikes, and floats into the drug scene that way. Begins to know people. And the people check him out. Sure enough, he's hitchhiked into town. Where is he from? Florida somewhere, man. His papers. I mean, this guy, he's a bum. Came in on a boxcar. He's there for a year. This is what happened to us. Some of you that believe you'll never get caught in your sin. God's taking notes, friend. Greg's in that city. He goes to all the parties. He ain't making no arrest or nothing. He's just hanging out for a couple years. He knows everyone by name. First name. He comes over to my house. We're best friends. We hitchhike to California together. We get stoned together all the time. We have a blast. We're buddies. Two years later, there's a knock on my door. Greg's standing there in complete police uniform. Shaven, clean cut, with a warrant for my arrest. And I look at him, I go, this happened to me. I said, man. I told one narcotics agent, I said, you are good. You are good, man. You fooled me for three solid years. You're good. I don't care who you are, friend. Your sin will find you out. Your sin will find you out, friend. God will do what he says he's going to do. He said he was going to judge Sodom, and he judged Sodom. There's a whole lot more to the story, but we ain't going to preach it tonight. Everyone stand. Move your chairs, please, to the left and the right. Those of you up front. No one else moving around unless you absolutely have to. By the way, we have speakers in the bathroom. If you're thinking about sneaking out, please don't be distracted right now. Just stay with me just for a minute. Normally, we have what we call the Parade of Nations on Wednesday night, where we have the nations of the world come by. Last Wednesday night, we had the nations wrapped all the way around this building, people from probably 40, 50 countries. We have the same thing tonight in this building and the building next door. We're probably going to do that tomorrow night. Pastor usually does that. We just both felt there's an urgency tonight, and we didn't want to break the urgency. Every service here is orchestrated by the Holy Spirit. Maybe you came tonight to check out one of our services. You're a critic, and you'd heard somewhere that at Brownsville, they never preach against sin. People used to say that kind of stuff, but now you can watch the revival, and you can read it. You can hear it on the Internet every night. You can pull up tonight in Japan. You can pull up on the website. You can listen to one of the messages. And so a lot of people that blabbed about the revival a year or so ago pretty much keep their mouths shut now because the proof is everywhere of what's going on, and it makes you look like a fool, literally. And for some of you that came because you don't like the shaking, you came to criticize, take notes, so you can bring back a bad report to your congregation, let me warn you about something, friend. You're not mocking that little girl that's shaking. You're mocking God. You're not mocking that man. You're mocking God. You're not mocking the person that falls over. You're mocking God. So be careful. I'm just warning you. Some that come to this revival to criticize, and there's plenty of them in this nation, they don't like anything emotional. They don't like any enthusiasm. The most enthusiastic one on the face of this earth is Jesus. Man, He's got more enthusiasm than all of us combined. But you can't stand enthusiastic worship. You can't stand any of this, and you just can't believe this is God. I just want to warn you, friend. You probably would have been around 2,000 years ago, you would have been one of those that walked up to Saul of Tarsus, who had an experience with God that shakes us to this day. Saul of Tarsus fell from his animal, if he was riding him, if he was walking, he fell to the ground, it doesn't say. The Bible just says he fell to the ground, blinded by a great light, spoke to a voice. The voice spoke back to him. They had a conversation. His eyes crusted over. For three days he was blinded. The third day something like scales fell from his eyes. This is all in the Bible. It's even in the King James. But it's all in the Bible. Fell from his eyes. Now, friend, I want to tell you, that was an awesome conversion experience. That was very dramatic. But, you know, if somebody came up to you today and said, I was at the Brownsville revival, I fell to the ground, and I spoke into the ceiling. There was a voice in it that spoke to me. And afterwards I couldn't see. And they led me home, and for three days I was at home. And the third day someone prayed for me, and something like scales fell from my eyes. You'd look at them and say, you idiot, you've been deceived. You'd say that about Saul of Tarsus too, friend, the one who wrote most of the New Testament. Why? Because God didn't save him the way he saved you. God didn't do it in your religious thinking. God moved outside of your little religious circle and did what he wanted to do to Saul of Tarsus, and that's what he's doing here. I've watched God get, I'm sharing this for a purpose. I've watched jocks, football players, come into this place, God-haters. I'm talking about, they don't want nothing to do, they want women. They'll come into this place, and they'll stand here like snots, you know? I've watched them, you know like that? I've watched the power of God hit those men. I've watched the power of God throw them down to the ground. And next thing you know, friend, they're not interested in girls. They're interested in Jesus. They're after God. They want the Lord. We've seen it. We've seen God get a hold of the snotty wealthy too, the know-it-all intellectuals. Wham! Knock them cockeyed. Next thing you know, they're studying their Bible, they're tithing, they're getting right with God, they're praying for the sick, and now a year later, two years later, they're more on fire for God than you ever will be. What is that, friend? It's called the power. And I'll take the power. I'll take the power over all our programs. I'll take the power, friend. I'd rather the power come down than try to talk to somebody into Jesus, you know, and come on, man, you know, come on, live for Jesus. Give me the power. I'd rather have the power, friend. Tonight Charity's gonna sing Run to the Mercy Seat. This is how it's gonna work. I want everyone to listen. This has been a very hard message. It's been very cutting for some of you. It's very direct, but it's decision time. And what you're gonna have to do tonight, friend, is go around your tent, pull up the stakes, take the poles down, fold them up, put them in the bag. Take your tent, fold the sides over, roll it up, put it in the bag, and you're gonna leave Sodom. That's what you're gonna do. That's what you're gonna do. You're gonna choose to leave tonight. You're gonna do it quickly. I don't want anyone to come until Charity begins to sing. You're gonna do it quickly. Those of you that are backslidden in this place, your tent's pitched towards Sodom, friend. You're backslidden. You look out the front of your tent and you don't see the cross. You don't see Jesus. You see sin. You see parties. You see reveling. You see people doing things that aren't right. You look out the front of your tent and you see movies with sexual explicit scenes on them. You look out the front of your tent, you see a boyfriend and a girlfriend that doesn't want anything to do with God. That's what you see out of your tent, friend. You're in Sodom. You've pitched your tent towards Sodom. If you're in this place tonight, you call yourself a Christian and you can sit in front of a 35-inch screen and watch a woman take her clothes off or watch a man take his clothes off and crawl into a bed with another lady. You're a sinner. You're not a Christian. You're a sinner. You need to change your name. You need to call yourself heathen. Now, go ahead and get mad if you want. You can get upset, friend. You can get upset with me. But some of you call yourselves Christians. I'm a Christian. I've always been a Christian. And you're involved in so much filth and the world is just shaking their head at you going, that doesn't make sense. That doesn't make sense. What you need to do, if you can sit, if your kids can sit there and watch you watch an R-rated movie and then see you in church on Sunday, you need to turn to your kids and say, Son, Michael, look at me. Daddy is a heathen. This is not what a Christian does. This is not Christian because little Michael is confused because he saw Daddy serving communion on Sunday. And now Daddy's watching this. You need to say, Son, Daddy's a heathen. Daddy is not a Christian. Daddy's not a Christian. A Christian would never watch this. See, Son, sin is anything Jesus wouldn't do. And Jesus would never watch this, Son. So I just want you to know that Jesus is not in this house right now, Son. The Holy Spirit has flown off because I've allowed filth to come into my home, in our home. You may not like this type of preaching, friend, but this nation, that's why the New York Times said to me, Steve, this nation is ready. That's why the world comes here and films this revival. And they sit here and we watch them cry. Why? We watch them cry their eyes out. Why? They know it's the truth. I've had them call me afterwards on the telephone, off the record. One reporter asked me this, How much time do I have, Steve? And I said, Not much, man. He was talking about the second coming. He's living in sin. Another reporter, major newspaper, called me back. He said, Off the record, Steve. He said, I drink. How wrong is that? He said, Steve, you believe in total abstinence, don't you? I said, You better believe it. You better believe it. Secular reporter, off the record, talking about Jesus and sin and his life. They know, friend, this is the truth. But you get some Christians. That's a different story. They call it meddling. They kind of, Do you think you are holier than me? Who are you to judge my life? Who do you say I can and cannot do this? Friend, I preach the word. I preach the word. Jesus came to take away the sin of the world. And every time, every time you hit that remote and you allow that to come across your screen, you're driving the nails in deeper. He's going, Father, forgive them. For they know not what they do. You're hammering the nails in deeper with his legs. You're pushing the crown further on his forehead every time you do it, friend. See, he died to take away that sin. What you're doing is you're spitting at him. You're spitting on him. You're spitting at the cross, friend. The work he did, the atoning work at the cross, you're spitting on him. So those of you that are backslidden, you're going to come quickly. When charity begins to sing, you know you're doing things that Jesus would never do. Some of you are already looking around to see if there's room to get out. There is. There's always room to get out. And if you don't think, if there's a 472-pound man standing next to you, tell him to move over because you're going out. You're going down there, and you're going to get prayer. You're going to repent of your sins and get your life right. So if you're backslidden, you're going to come quickly. A backslidden person is someone who knew the Lord. You knew him intimately. You knew him before, but now you've slipped away from him. A backslider is not... You can tell you're backslidden, friend, when little things don't bother you anymore. You slip into little things. They'll bother you, but there was a time in your life when those things would grieve you. But now you're backslidden. Another group of people, and you need to hear this tonight, friend, are the religious folks that are here. Religion will damn your soul. Religion is hanging around the cross. Christianity is getting on the cross. Religion, America, hangs around the cross, friend. America goes to church. America hangs around the cross. Half this nation goes to church. They don't know the Lord. They hang around the cross, though. Everybody hung around Jesus. Why not? It's cool. Awesome. A little bread, a little fish. A few miracles here and there. Maybe you'll heal your mama, you know. Hanging around the cross, and Jesus finally said, drink my blood, eat my flesh, or get out of my face. And they all left. Wow. Pretty surface stuff, wasn't it? Surface. And a lot of religion, that's all it is, is surface. You can go to hell with a choir robe on, friend. You can go to hell with baptismal waters dripping off your face. You can go to hell with a communion cup in your hand and a wafer in your mouth. You can go to hell, friend, if you don't know Jesus. I'm gonna say something to those of you, and this is gonna make some of you mad at me. You're already mad anyhow. But if you're not on fire for Jesus, I'm talking about white hot, I question whether or not you even know him. I'm gonna say that. I don't say it without any reservation, friend. I say it with a clear conscience. I'm a married man, 18 years. My wife and I go out on a date every Monday. We are infatuated with one another. We love one another. We've got children, three kids, and we go out on a date every Monday. Why? I have a relationship with my wife. I love my wife. And if somebody came up to me and said, you love your wife? I'd go, yeah. And Jerry was standing close by, spent time with her. Yeah, you know, yeah, yeah. You really love her? Yeah. And my wife's over there going, dear, dear, what a liar. You know what I'm saying? And she goes, we never go out on a date. We never do this. We never talk. We never do anything. But he says that we're lovers. Well, it's not that way. My wife and I are lovers. We love one another. We're infatuated with one another. But some of you with Jesus, someone says, you're a Christian? Yeah, I love him. I love him. You really love him? Yeah, I love him. I love the Lord. He's coming back for me. But you don't talk to him. You don't worship him. Your life is spent in spiritual adultery. That means you're making out with everything else in the world but Jesus. You spend more time sports, boating, you name it. That's your love. Jesus is just there when you need him. And you call yourself a Christian. The Bible says you're supposed to be the bride. A bride. I've never seen a sad bride, you see. I've never seen a pitiful bride. Brides are always exuberant. They're excited. They're always can't wait for the wedding day. Can't wait for the groom. And you're supposed to be like that, friend. Infatuated, waiting for the coming of the Lord. Everything you do should be centered around Jesus. If you're not like that, friend, God's nailed you tonight. You need to repent of your sins. Jesus said if you're lukewarm, I'll spew you out of my mouth. And those of you in this room that have never known the Lord, I love you dearly. I love you so much, friend. But when are you gonna wake up? Jesus loves you. Buddha never died for you. Those psychics, they don't care about you, man. If they cared about you, it'd be 1-800-PSYCHIC, not 1-900. They don't care about you. They don't love you, man. They want your money. But you trust somebody on the other end of some line that is there for the almighty dollar. If you don't believe that, tell them you're broke. And say, no, I'm really broke. As a matter of fact, the credit card I gave you over the phone is bad. You'll hear it. They suddenly lost contact. Why? They don't care about you. The world doesn't care about you, friend. But I want to tell you about somebody 2,000 years ago that does. Jesus, 2,000 years ago, saw everything you're going through. Everything. Everything. He saw everything you're going through. Friend, he saw Sodom. He saw where you were living. He saw the direction you picked your tent. He saw me when I was standing at the front door and the narcotics agent was giving me the warrants. He saw it all, friend, with tears in his eyes. And he was saying, for you, I died, buddy. For you, I died. See, my problem was sin. I had to get the sin out. My problem wasn't drugs, alcoholism, or cussing or stealing. My problem was sin. My problem wasn't all the sickness that came from the drugs. My problem was sin. I had a sin-filled heart. When I got the sin out, when I got the sin out, when I repented of my sins, see, Jesus shed his blood on Calvary for you, friend. Most of us in this place understand punishment. I'm taking time with this and I'm going to do it, whether you like it or not. Jesus shed his blood. There was a time, I'll never forget this, I took my belt off like this. And my little kids, some of you here don't believe in punishment. I don't believe at all in beating children. But I believe, spare the rod, spoil the child. I believe in godly discipline. I want to tell you something. I have kids that respect me. They love me. And every day, a day doesn't go by when my kids don't hug me, love me, kiss me and tell me they love me and can't wait for me to see their homework. We have a great relationship. We love one another. But two of my kids messed up one day big time. I'm not talking about small time. They messed up big time. It was like the third or fourth time around big time. And I called them into the room and they knew it was punishment time. They knew they deserved punishment for what they had done. I said, Shelby, Ryan, I want you to bend over the bed. And I pulled my belt out and as they were bent over, I took this belt and I started popping my leg. And I had shorts on and I beat my leg as hard as I could beat it with this belt. And it began to well up. Welts began to form on it. It turned red and turned white in spots. And I just kept beating my leg as hard as I could. My kids were screaming. Ryan looked at me. He goes, Daddy, no, stop. Stop, Daddy, stop, Daddy, stop. And as soon as he said that, I beat my leg even harder. And it was stinging, man. Then I finally stopped. They were both squalling like little babies, squalling like they had been hurt. They had because somebody precious to them was going through an agonizing experience, putting it on himself. And I said, Ryan, and I took the belt. I said, Ryan Shelby, I want you to never forget this. Today, Daddy took your punishment. Now they knew that I would never hit them like that. They knew Daddy overdid it. He overdid it. Jesus went all the way, friend. And I told Ryan, I said, Ryan Shelby, don't you ever forget 2,000 years ago, Jesus hung on the cross. He took the punishment. He took your weapon for you. I said, are you ever going to forget again? No, Daddy, never. I'm telling you, friend, 2,000 years ago, Jesus took your weapon. 2,000 years ago, he went to the gas chamber for you. 2,000 years ago, he went to the electric chair. 2,000 years ago, Jesus died for you, friend. And it's time for you to do something about it. So if you've never known the Lord, you come down here and repent of your sins. You say, Jesus, wash me. Cleanse me. I repent. And the only thing that's going to keep you back tonight, everyone standing, the only thing that's going to keep you back tonight is pride. Look at me, everybody. Pride will damn your soul. Did you know that one of the sins of Sodom was pride? Pride, arrogance. You're standing there, you're going, what will people think if I go down there? Look at me, folks. Who cares? Who cares what your husband? And by the way, the very idea, the very idea that you're wondering what people are going to think is pride. You know what that is? When you walk in the room, you think, what's everybody thinking about me? Half the time, they're not even, they're clueless about you, friend. Hate to break the news to you, but people don't wake up in the morning with you on their mind. That's pride. That's pride. That's, wonder what everybody thinks about me. You spend two hours in front of the mirror because you think you're on show every time you go to church. Well, people are not coming to church to see you. That's pride, friend. And you think that everyone's wondering what you're going to be doing. They don't care. If you're a pastor and you slip out in front of parishioners, trust me, they're going to see their pastor go down in front of parishioners. They're not going to go, oh, my. They're going to go, that's cool. That's awesome. And then God's going to look at their heart. They're going to go, what about me? What about me? So, friend, don't let pride keep you back. Right now, charity is going to sing, run to the mercy seat. Everyone who has sin in their life, everyone you know that you're backslidden or you've never known the Lord, you know you're away from God, you know you've broken God's heart, there is sin in your life, you have pitched your tent towards Sodom, hurry right now. Hurry as charity sings, run to the mercy seat. Hurry right now. Come on, in the balcony, let's go. Come on, hurry. Hurry in the balcony, let's go. Sing it out, charity. Come on. In the darkness where everything is unknown, I face the power of sin on my own. I did not know of a place I could go Where I could find a way to heal my wounded soul. That was as good as I've ever heard you prepple. Good. Come on. He said that I could come into his presence without fear. Hurry. Hurry. And to the holy place where his mercy hovers near. I'm running. I'm running. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Where you living, friend? Where you at right now? Have you pitched your tent towards Sodom? What do you see out in the front of the tent? Do you see sin? Is it consuming you, friend? Jesus came to your house right now to forgive you, to wash you, to cleanse you, friend. Have you pitched your tent towards Sodom? I want to ask you right now to take up the stakes. Take down the poles. Wrap the thing up. Put it back in the bag and head out of Dodge. Leave Sodom while you have a chance. Right now, repent of your sins. Ask the Lord to wash you. Ask him to cleanse you. Ask him to wash you clean. Jesus, cleanse me. Wash me. Wash me. Wash me. He'll do it, friend. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Hurry. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Hurry. Hurry. God bless you. There is a place of mercy for you. Come on. Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on! God bless you. God bless you in the balcony! Come on down. In the chapel, let's go. Come on in the chapel. Let's go! Let's go! Come on! Come on! Come on! Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Come on! Come on! Jesus is calling, he said his grace would cover me. His blood will flow freely. It will provide the healing. I'm arriving, I'm arriving, I'm arriving to the RCC. Jesus is calling, he said his grace would cover me. His blood will flow freely. It will provide the healing to the RCC. I'm arriving to the RCC. Everyone at the altar, stay right where you're at. I'm arriving to the RCC. Everyone at the altar, stay right where you're at. No one turning around, no one moving out. Keep your heads down at the altar. Come on, team. Everyone at the altar, stay right where you're at. Keep your heads down. Folks, we're going to wait about 60 more seconds. Just as the angel pulled those lot out of that sin-infested city. Let the Lord pull you out of your sin right now. Come on. He's having mercy tonight. Come on. Hurry. Hurry. God bless you, son. God bless you, ma'am. Yeah. Come on. You got 45 seconds, friend. 45 seconds. Come on. Come on. Yes. I'm going to close this altar call. We're going to stop the music. Folks, there's people praying for you. I can feel this in this room tonight. If you're coming, you better step out now. God bless you. Yeah, come on. If you're coming, step out now. Hurry. Abraham prayed for Lot. Nathan went after David. There's intercessors going after you. Come on. God bless you. Come on now. Hurry. Hurry. Regardless if you're in the ministry, you might be in the ministry tonight and you've been flirting. You've been flirting with fire. You know exactly what we're talking about. Friend, it's time to repent. It's time to repent. Get it out. Get it out. Confess it. Confess it. Everyone at this altar, bow your heads. Everyone in the chapel, at the altar, those of you at home, bow your heads. We're going to pray together. Some of you have poured your heart out to God already, but others of you haven't. Some of you have never, ever prayed like this. You've never done anything like this in your life. This is not Lutheran. This is not Baptist. This is not Pentecostal. This is going after Jesus, period. That's all it is. You can't classify this. It's called repentance, and it's from Genesis to Revelation, friend. Everyone at this altar, bow their heads and pray with me out loud. Do not mumble. Pray with me out loud. Dear Jesus, thank you for speaking to my heart. Thank you, Jesus, for not leaving me alone. Thank you, Jesus, for coming into Sodom and rescuing me. Thank you for your hand. Thank you for loving me. Thank you for caring for me. I ask you tonight, Jesus, to forgive me. I have sinned. I have hurt you. I've hurt others, and I've hurt myself. Forgive me, Jesus. I repent of my sins. Wash me clean. Make me new. I ask you tonight to be my Savior, my Lord, and my very best friend. From this moment on, I am yours, and you are mine. Come live your life through me. I've packed up my tent, and I've moved out of town. In your precious name, amen. Glory.