In this sermon, the speaker reflects on the lack of life and hope he sees in people's eyes, emphasizing that the only source of hope is Jesus Christ. He warns that missing Jesus means missing out on life and facing judgment. The speaker urges listeners to accept Jesus as their Savior and not to ignore the Holy Spirit's attempts to lead them to Him. He concludes by emphasizing that Jesus is the missing ingredient in their lives and encourages them to invite Him in.

Well, I'm glad to be back with you again today on Eagle's Wings. You know, yesterday I was over in Denver in the airport, had some time waiting there, and I was just watching people, walking around, watching people. And the truth of the matter is, I don't see much life in the eyes of people. A lot of darkness, a lot of confusion. One lady sat down across from me in the chair, and I, and every now and then, didn't want to be very conspicuous on it, but I would look at her and I'd watch her eyes. And out of her eyes, I got one message, and that was lost and hurt, lost and hurt. Out of all the confusion, out of all the hurt going on in this world, there is hope. And out of all the pain that's going on, there is hope. But it's only in one person, and that's in Jesus Christ. And my friend, if you miss Jesus, you miss life. You miss Him. You only have one chance. This is it. One crack at life. And the problem is, the Bible says, as it is appointed unto man once to die, after this judgment, one man said, if I could just find out when that appointment is, I would miss it. I would make plans to avoid it and not be there. But you can't do that. You can't miss your appointment with death. Don't miss Jesus before that appointment comes. One of the things that saddens my heart is that I can see that same look in those same eyes in the churches that I go into around the country. I've been in about, what, I guess three, four, three churches preaching this year. And I would only say that there's been one where I said there was a good spirit, where there was purity. And the one that I'm in now, the one that God's placed me in to be a servant under a pastor and to help him bring revival in his church, in his town, God is moving to purify us to where we have one spirit. Been studying in the Word of God how we're supposed to have one mind. My friend, that only comes from the Holy Spirit. I have so many things that I want to share with you. So many areas I could take off in. I've been studying in 1 Peter on this one mind. So essential. That's why we have all this division and confusion in our churches, because we have other minds. We have other intellects feeding our minds, giving us thoughts. And we're throwing these thoughts around and we're following out because action follows thought. We're following out these thoughts. And many of us do not understand that we're being demonized. We're being influenced by demons. We're being influenced by philosophies of demonic beings that come into our lives from so many different areas. And we are being flooded and confused and polluted in our churches today. My biggest concern right now and concern that God is burning in my heart to share with you is that you would be born again. I shared with you last week a little bit from a message from a revivalist, a young revivalist. He's got things to learn. He's just been going for a short time. And one of the reasons I'm sharing Charley Orr with you, and I'm going to share a little bit more on that message about counterfeit Christians today with you. But I told Charley when he left here, I said, Charley, would it be all right if I played some of your messages to promote you? You're just starting out in your ministry. I believe that God is going to use you, and I want to encourage you in your ministry. Maybe one of the churches listening to this man today, God might prompt you to get a hold of Charley Orr and invite him into your church. But before you do that, you pray and ask God if you're willing to pay the price, because this man shoots straight and he shoots hard. He was just getting warmed up to us, but he speaks the truth. And God's taken him through the trials of life. He's taken him through the deep waters. And if we get into his testimony later on of how God took him and broke him, you'll see that he's gone through some stuff. But right now, the message that he's going to share with us is on counterfeit Christians. But I want to say some things before we get into that. And I'd like to give you all the time I could on Charley Orr, but I want to give you some Scripture. And I want you to listen to this. Jesus said, Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. You cannot get away from the fact that doing now we don't do to be saved, but the doing gives evidence that we exist in Jesus. Oh, Theodore, a great Bible teacher of past days who's now gone on to be with the Lord. Used to say that the doing will come out of the being. But so so much of our performance today, we're just performance oriented. And it's we're trying to do to show that we're spiritual. We're trying to show others that we can do it. Preachers and laymen alike. We're trying to show each other up that we are spiritual. I can keep up with you. I can be just as busy as you. But the fact of the matter is sometimes we miss Jesus on the way. And a lot of the stuff that we're doing, we have no business doing. And I can go into a church and I can tell if that church is on a spiritual track or if that church is on a on a doing track out of just works by the amount of time they spend praying. If you're not a praying church, then you may be very active. But I have a question for you. Who are you active for? Don't we understand that this that the devil will get us active any way he can, as long as we will not be active in prayer? You may even have a visitation program, a soul winning program. But let me tell you, if it gets right down to it, you look at the fruit, you look at the fruit that your church is producing and just see if you're getting the right type of fruit. You know, you get out there on your tree. If you don't take care of that fruit tree, cultivate it, prune it just right, treat it just right, give it just the right kind of moisture and watering and all the nutrients that it needs, it's going to come out with poor fruit or maybe no fruit. Well, you can't do anything that's going to produce the right type of fruit without prayer. Everything is to spring out of prayer. This is the Holy Spirit's leading. This is the Holy Spirit's teaching. This is the Holy Spirit's doing. And so if you've got a lot of activity without a lot of prayer backing it up and coming before it, then I doubt that it's the Holy Spirit's doing. Now, Jesus said, He that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me ye that work iniquity. A lot of the doing is iniquity, that self will. We're doing that which I want to do and not that which God wants me to do. And that is iniquity. You can even do something that's good. And if God hasn't told you to do it, then that's iniquity because it's in your own self will. Now, are you truly born again? Are you really saved? Someone said that the new birth is not by natural descent. Being born again into a Christian family does not ensure that one is right in God's sight. Do you think that you're a Christian? Have you just assumed that you're a Christian because you were born into a Christian family? It doesn't work in the spiritual realm the way it does in the physical realm. You have to be born again, as Jesus said. And somebody also said the new birth is not a mere making good resolutions. Daily, one can make a determination to conquer some besetting sin, but at evening admit failure. Some may even achieve by sheer willpower a conquest over some base habit, but remain unregenerated. You can have tremendous willpower to change your life in some area where you're morally wrong, but only by the Spirit of God can you be regenerated. And someone also said the new birth is not joining the church or observing the sacraments. One might go to church twice on Sundays with their Bible and faithfully partake of the Lord's Supper and not be regenerated. One might have been confirmed or even baptized and still be a stranger to the new birth. The new birth is not in performing good works. And this is what the Scripture clearly teaches, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is a gift and not of works so that no man can boast. So the new birth is not in performing good works. An unconverted person, in order to appease a guilty conscience, may perform many good works and do many commendable things in his area. And a person may tithe regularly. You may even exceed the tithe and still not be born again. And also someone said the new birth is not in imitating the life of Christ. One may endeavor to follow the example of Christ as seen in the Gospels and yet not be born again. And someone also said the new birth is not conviction for sin. Many have experienced this. You know, you can be convicted almost to where you think you're going to die, but until you repent of your sin and trust Christ as your Savior, you've never been born again. So you can do whatever you want. Many have experienced this. And you can even reform to a certain extent without having the witness to being a son of God. The new birth is not having gone forward in an evangelistic meeting. This is one that's probably got a lot of us. We thought that we were saved because we went forward. This is what happened to me. I thought I was saved because I went and talked to the preacher. I thought I was saved because that night I went forward and was baptized. But I never was saved until I was regenerated, born again by the Spirit of God, and a change came into my heart. I had cleansing and forgiveness of my sins. As the Bible says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. New things have come. Until you experience this, you can go forward all you want. This is why you can go forward in an evangelistic campaign and you turn around and go right back to your old ways. My friend, if you can go back to your old ways, you never have entered into the new way of being born again. And our churches are full of people that have had some kind of experience, some kind of an emotional experience, some kind of an experience, whatever kind, and there's thousands of them that you can have. But until you've been born again, you've been born into the Kingdom of God, you enter into the spiritual realm, and the Spirit of God comes to live within your heart. You can be baptized. You can do all kinds of things. You'll never get to heaven. Now, I wanted to share with you, before Charlie got going on this, some of the seriousness in this area. And I don't know, Charlie may not get on today. We'll just let the Lord lead us. I have my plans, and I continually have to yield my plans. I die daily, Paul said. That means he dies to his life, to the life of Paul, and Jesus will live his life that day. One of the problems is, when we get up in the morning, if we don't die that day to self, you can get up and take off and go through the whole day and live that day for all eternity that will come up as a big zero, wood, hay, and stubble. And someday you'll have the privilege of watching that day be burn up in smoke. You can be a pastor, a Sunday school teacher. You can be a college president. But if you do not walk in the Spirit and start that day by dying to self and letting Jesus live his life through you, and you die daily all through the day, I don't care if you do that for a hundred years. If you do not walk in the Spirit, if I do not walk in the Spirit, I won't have nothing but a pile of wood, hay, and stubble. And let me tell you something, that's going to make a mighty nice bonfire. How would you like to see 50 years of your life go up in smoke? That's what a lot of our works are today, smoke. We have Christians that are doing things not in the Spirit, and we have people that are doing Christian things that have never been born again. We've never been born again. Some while back, I shared with you in Exodus 12, 13, remember? God said, when I see the blood, He would pass over you. If you're not covered by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, He will have to judge you for your sins. It's the blood. You know, the shed blood makes salvation possible. When they would shed the blood of the Lamb, they were there in Egypt, been in bondage, and God showed them how to get out of bondage, and that was through the blood of the Lamb. And you may have been in bondage all your life to your habits and whatever. And one of the reasons that sometimes many professing Christians cannot get victory over sins is they've never been born again. But the blood that was shed by the little lamb that day over in Egypt showed the blood of the Lamb of God some thousands of years later that would be shed on Calvary. The shed blood makes salvation possible. But let me tell you something, my friend. Until they took that blood and sprinkled it on the doorpost, it was no good to them. The shed blood had to become the sprinkled blood. And it was possible, but it was not possessed until it was put on the doorpost. And you can know all about Jesus Christ. You can know everything that I know and know more than I know, and that wouldn't take much. But until you apply personally what Jesus Christ did for you on Calvary, until you apply that to your own life, you will never, ever set one toenail inside of the pearly gates. You won't even get to smell the fragrance of heaven. You won't even get a vision of the glory of God. All you will do is stand at the great white throne judgment of God. And that will not be a picnic. And God will open up the books. And He's going to show you your life. He's going to show you everything that you did. And He's going to show you all the times when He tried to get you to receive Jesus as your Savior, and you would not do it. You turned and walked away from this friend that tried to point out Jesus to you. You turned off the TV from the evangelistic campaign when Jesus was trying to get you to look at Him and see how He died on the cross from you. You walked away from a church service and went off to a picnic, or went water skiing, or went off on a trip. Instead of doing what the Holy Spirit was trying to get you to Jesus, time after time after time, He was trying to get you saved. And time after time, you were saying, well, I'm a pretty good old Joe. I'm a pretty good old Sally. I teach Sunday school. I even preach every now and then. I do all these things. I was baptized. And Jesus will say, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. I never knew you. So the shed blood makes salvation possible, but the sprinkle blood makes salvation possessed. So what are you resting on, the fact of Christ's death or faith in Christ's death? Are you trusting the fact that you're a pretty good person, that you're going to get to heaven? If you are, you're entertaining demonic thoughts. Demons put those thoughts in your mind to make you think that. How do I know that? Because that's the way they used to do with me. Only had one problem, and that was I had no peace, no assurance in my heart that if I would die, I'd go to heaven. The Bible says, but as many as believed in him, to them he gave the right to become the sons of God. I didn't have the right because I'd never placed my faith and the trust in the blood of Christ. And this is the record that God has given to us eternal life. Remember, it's a gift. And this life is in his son. He that has the son has life. Not he that does all kinds of good works. Not he that does the sacraments. Not he that ties, gives the church. Not he that's been baptized, whatever it is. But it's those that have the son. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become the sons of God. And this is the record that God has given to us life. And this life is in his son. He that has the son has life. He that has not the son does not have life. These things that have I written unto you that believe on the name of the son of God, that you might know that you have eternal life, and that you might believe in the name of the son of God. You see, it's not your doing that's going to get you saved, but it's your believing. What are you putting your faith in? Where is your faith? Is your faith in Jesus? Or is your faith in Jane? Or Joe? Or John? Or Sally? Or George? Or Mary? Is your faith in yourself? You don't have the capacity to get yourself to heaven. Why trust yourself? You don't have the capacity to get yourself through today or tomorrow. How do you think you're going to work your way into heaven when you're not even sure you can make it back home from wherever you're at or where you're planning on going today? And some of you may not make it today. God may be getting this message to you today. This will be your last time, your last chance. And he's trying to get you to Jesus. And you've been avoiding, and you've been avoiding, but if you hung on this far and you haven't turned me off yet, examine yourself to see if you're really in the faith. Paul said he stood in doubt. He stood in doubt of many of those that come back. They were his converts, but they were not God's. And one of the problems I've had through my life is I've led many to pray and receive Jesus without them ever coming to have conviction of sin. If you had some kind of experience without conviction of sin where the Spirit of God convicted you that you were a sinner, then you never repented. You never did really repent. You had some kind of an experience. And let me tell you, the devil is in the experience business. He is a con artist and giving you whatever kind of experience that will soothe your taste buds and make you feel good and make you feel like you're a Christian. And so we have counterfeit Christians today all over the place. Let me take you back over to another passage of Scripture. Turn back over to Philippians. I was looking at this in Philippians chapter 3 and verse 17. Paul said, Brethren, be followers together of me and mark them which walk. So as you have us, for an example, for many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. Do you understand the cross of Christ? Do you understand that at the cross Jesus died for our sin and at the cross when we receive him as our Savior, we die to sin? Did you die to sin when you received Christ as your Savior? Did there come into your life such a troubling spirit in the area of sin where you cannot be comfortable in it anymore? Then you were probably born again. If you can sin without being convicted about it and troubled about it, then you're not saved. And so Paul said, Mark them which walk. So as you have us, for an example, for many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. And our churches are full of people that are the enemy of Christ. And I know this is hard preaching. This is a hard message. But God has given me a witness in my spirit that it's time for revival. It's time to quit playing church games. And I can tell you if you're playing church games, if your church is not pure and if your church is not in unity and if souls are not being drawn to Jesus, your church is playing games. We have seen God begin to purify us and to such a degree it is hurt so bad. There's been so many tears. There have been people leave the church because we're asking God to draw the line. God, who's on this side and who's on the other side? Who's on your side? Who's going to walk in the spirit and be a part of your program and live by faith and pray and believe you to work and try to live godly by the power of your spirit? And who isn't? We ask you to draw the line. And he's been drawing the line. But you know what? As we've been seeing some folks leave our church, because we have a small building, we've been believing God we need a bigger building. God's been bringing in others. Last week he brought some Egyptians in. Just about blew us away. In walked these Egyptians. Man, our preacher, he just preached the word of God in such power and just a message. It was just what they needed to hear. And they were so open. They even said they'd be back. Praise God. Let me share some more verses with you. I know Charlie's not going to get on today. Our time's getting close to being gone. Let me take you over to Colossians 1. Listen to this. Colossians 1. And by the way, you pray for me. Sometimes I have so much trouble trying to get my messages recorded. Equipment. About all the equipment. The church equipment's been broke. I've been using it a lot. My equipment's been down. And I just told my wife, I wonder if God wants me to do this. And last Sunday I received a phone call. There's so much encouragement to me. And afterwards she says, there, God's confirming that he wants you to keep going. Sometimes I just feel like quitting. It gets so tough. I wonder. And I'm not perfect. I'm just like you. I live by faith. I have days when I don't. Make it so good. But thank God I have a heavenly Father that's like the prodigal son's father. He never did bring up his sins. He just forgave them and accepted them back. Our Father loves us. I love you. But would you pray for me? Pray for our ministry. Pray for God to work in this area. Where we are broadcasting that he would work in the hearts that are ready. That have ears to hear. He that has ears to hear Jesus said, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Now listen to what Colossians said. Starting in Colossians chapter 1, verse 9. I'm going to take you through 14 and skip down and pick up another verse. But in verse 9, he said, for this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you. I pray for you, my friend. Would you pray for me? And here's what he would pray. And to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. That you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. Isn't that sweet? Would you pray that for me? Would you pray that for yourself and your friends and your pastor? That we might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. Being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Strengthened with all might according to his glorious power. Unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness. Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. Now listen to this. And then he said, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness. If you've been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, you have been delivered from the power of darkness. And God has translated you into another kingdom. And it's the kingdom of his dear son. It's the kingdom of light. And it's the kingdom of fire. Last week my dear woodcutter friend called me up and was sharing on fire. And we've been doing some talking up here about fire. We have a book by, I think it's Leslie or Wesley Duell. There, I just reached over and got it. Excuse me, Wesley Duell. Talking about fire. Tremendous book. I can hardly wait to get to read it. But God puts us into this kingdom of fire. You know they were baptized by fire. And they lived by faith. And the fire God was on their life. And they were light. And he's translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. In whom we have redemption through his blood. Even the forgiveness of sins. And then he slips down to 23. And he says, if you continue in the faith. Grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you have heard. And which was preached to every creature which is under heaven. Whereof I, Paul, am made a minister. Many professors, the counterfeit Christians, they move away. They move away from it. And we're like the seeds back in Matthew at 13. I think it is. You know, some just spring up for a while with joy. They jump up. But they don't have any root. Do you have root? Now let me take you back over in the last few minutes to Revelation. Turn back over to Revelation chapter 3. Revelation chapter 3. Now I'm going to take you back to the back part of Revelation. But in Revelation chapter 3. In verse 5. The message to the churches. To Sardis. And I've been over there in Turkey. I used to live over there in Turkey. I lived among the seven churches over there. I studied among the seven churches. I traveled over there. Been to many times. Tremendous place. That's where God raised me up as a new believer over there. He sent me over there after I got saved. And I was taught by the Spirit of God over there about these churches. I didn't even know they existed before I got there. But he's teaching me. In verse 5 it says, He that overcometh the same shall be clothed in white raiment. And I will not blot out his name out of the book of life. But I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. Wouldn't that be a terrible thing? To get up before God and to have it shown to you. He says your name was in the book of life. When you were born I put your name into the book of life. But you would not receive my son as your Savior. And I had to blot your name out of the book of life. You know the overcomers are the victors. They're the believers. They're the ones that have been born again. Are you an overcomer? Are you one that's always overcome? There's the difference. If you've been born again by the Spirit of God then you're an overcomer. And don't let the devil talk you into the fact that you can't be an overcomer. You go back to Romans 6 and you look and you'll see there that he's delivered us from the old master. We have a new master. Are you in? Are you an overcomer? Slip back to Revelation 21 verse 6. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. And I will give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things. Are you an overcomer? And I will be his God and he shall be my son. Oh, it's a tremendous thing to know God. Oh, Paul said that I might know him and the powers of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. Let me tell you, my friend, it's a painful thing to know God because of the things we have to go through. But it is worth it. But it's also a painful thing not to know God. And it's more painful not to know God because the price of that pain is that you're separated from him for all eternity. A couple more verses. I know we're getting short on time. I'm about out of time. But I want to share this with you in Revelation chapter 20 and verse 12. And I saw the dead stand and small and great stand before God. And the books were open and another book was open, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works. It's the book of life. Are you in the book? Are you in the book of life? In Revelation 21 and 27, and there shall in no wise enter into heaven into it anything that defile it, neither whatsoever work the abomination or make it the lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. Are you in? Are you in? Are you in the book of life? And in verse 15 of chapter 20, and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Are you in? Are you in? Jesus says, come and let him that heareth say come and let him that is a thirst come and whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely. You can receive Jesus. Have him come in. Invite him in. Well, I've got to go. The time is way past, but let me leave you with this. Jesus Christ is all you need. But is he all you want? Let me encourage you to get Jesus into your life. He's the missing ingredient. If life isn't working, he's the missing ingredient. Till next time, God bless you, my friend.