In this sermon, the speaker shares his personal experience of being transformed through discipline and obedience. He describes how he was initially undisciplined and did what he wanted, but through military training, he learned the importance of instant obedience. The speaker emphasizes that the reason many people in the church do not receive from God is because they take too long to obey His instructions. He then relates his military training to the Christian life, highlighting the need for believers to be always faithful and obedient to God's commands.

I want you to turn with me to begin with tonight the 2nd epistle of Timothy and the 3rd verse. Timothy chapter 2, verses 3 and 4, 2nd Timothy. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that woreth entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who has chosen him to be a soldier. You know one of the great problems of the church in 1982 is that somewhere along the road we've got the notion that it's a democratic form of government. We've come to a place that we'll vote in and vote out. We even come to where we have committees to decide whether we can go in all the world and preach the gospel or not. Somebody asked Mr. Montgomery who was a head of the British forces and second in command to Mr. Eisenhower in World War II. Mr. Montgomery was a born again Christian and somebody asked him how do you interpret the Great Commission and the general said you don't interpret that, you do it. Well that's the way with most of the folks is it doesn't need so much interpretation as it does of people that realize that we're under orders. We're not in a military or in a democratic form of government, we're in a military form of government when we become a part of the church. Now you weren't drafted, you volunteered but once you got in this book says that you're not your own, you have been bought with a price. Now in a form of democracy you have a choice and still be right. You know in this world we live in the democratic form of government you have a choice and still be right but in a military part you don't have any choice. I never had a sergeant in the four years I was in the Marine Corps, I never had a sergeant ever ask me how do you like to go on a hike this morning, amen. Nobody ever asked me would that be acceptable with me, they just said what time to report. Now the church, all the scripture, when you take them together show us that we are a part of a military organization, that is as far as its government is concerned and so being we are soldiers, we're soldiers for Christ and we need to get that into our minds. Here the scripture I read said endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that wore up entangled himself with the affairs of this life. Then again the Bible says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but are mighty through God. Put on the whole armor of God. It talks about the church as terrible as an army with banners. Oh ladies and gentlemen there's nothing more exciting on this earth than to be a part of the church. Our great preacher brother Schambach has said night after night we're in a warfare, we're not at a party folks, we're in a battle. This is not a debating club, it is a life or death struggle. There's a real enemy out there on that street tonight. There is an evangelical fervor to destroy everything that's good in this nation. There is a in your schools, in everything. There is the purpose of hell to destroy from this earth everything that's good and the only hope is a church that's militant tonight. One of the greatest preachers America has, I don't know whether he's still alive or not, but he's a black man from up here in New York named Bishop Washington. Now that has to be one of the greatest preachers ever picked up a Bible. My wife and I was driving through this country about 11.30 one night listening to XEG when the great preacher came on. Brother Bishop he began to address himself to Lyndon Johnson, he is president then, and he said Mr. Johnson or Mr. President if you got time to listen to a man that knows then listen to this man of God. America doesn't need bigger bombs, America doesn't need a bigger military. What America needs is the militant preachers, thy God men that are not afraid to proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said Mr. President the most successful preacher that ever lived on this earth was a man by the name of Noah. I slowed the car down to a walk. I said I can't afford to miss this. He's saying that Noah was the most successful preacher ever lived. Only eight people wound up on that boat, but as I slowed down Dr. Bishop, Brother Bishop Washington said everybody Noah didn't save, he damned. He never missed one human being. Let me tell you something folks, when the church stands up as what God intended to be, then that world is going to listen to it. Men listen to what they can't control. Men listen to what they're afraid of. That's the reason that hippie crowd has disturbed the nation, throwing their garbage cans in our streets. Amen. The government didn't know what to do with them. Well I'm telling you there is nothing that can control God. There's nothing that can control the church. There's nothing that can stop the church that'll walk with God. Bishop Washington said, Mr. President, when Nineveh was so rotten that a turkey buzzard had to hold its nose to fly over it, all God had to find was a preacher. Thank God when Jonah hit the main street of Nineveh with a message of repentance, 600,000 people came to Christ. Listen to me folks, the church has a military organization under orders tonight. We're of another kingdom. This Bible makes it plain. We are in us the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God come of not with observation, but the kingdom of God is within us. Wherever that church is, then the boundaries of God's kingdom are established. You know tonight, if Mexico or Canada were to invade this nation, they'd find themselves in trouble. There'd be a war. Amen. We love both of them, but if they become our enemies and were to cross those borders, you would find a warfare. Well, when we set this tent up in the Bronx and declare this to be the kingdom of God, then the world of darkness has set itself against us tonight, and we must rise up in the power of God's Holy Spirit. No wonder they wanted to kill Paul. No wonder they tried to kill Peter. They are saying, this is no longer the devil's territory. It's the kingdom of God. Hallelujah. Let me tell you something, folks. We're not the squatters. I said, we're not the squatters. They're counting our money. They're sitting on our property. This Bible said the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Hallelujah. I said, hallelujah. When the church will rise up to take it. We're in a war tonight. We're soldiers. Paul told Timothy, you got to learn to endure hardness as a real soldier. A lot of the theology you hear preached today is a cheap grace sold on the marketplace of religion. They'll try to tell you that if you've got any problems, it just means you're out of the will of God. I'm here to tell you if you're not having problems, you're outside the will of God. If the devil's letting you on, that means you're no threat to him. I never knew anything about a warfare until I come to know God. Amen. But you step out on the front lines of evangelism and you say to the devil, you're not going to have the Bronx any longer. We're going to establish a beachhead here and we're not going to be pushed out. We're going to win. We're going to fight. We'll fight you in the marketplace. We'll fight you under the tent. We'll fight you on the street. We'll fight you in our schools. We'll fight you on every corner. We're here to say, my God, heaven is going to rule. Heaven's going to rule. Now folks, that the devil isn't going to lay down and play dead. Oh no, he's going to strike back. There's going to be a war. Now I can tell you if we'll stand with our Lord's girt about with truth, we'll rob him from our streets. We'll see America become a place that's safe again. Our women are not safe on our streets anymore. I read in the book of Psalms, the nation that forgets God will be turned into hell. Let me tell you that word turned into is the same phrase that Samuel used when he told Saul, you're going to meet three folks when you leave here and the spirit of God is going to come on you and you're going to be turned into another person. Now what David said was that nation that forgets God, its nature is going to be turned into hell. Our schools are hell. Our homes are hell. Our streets are hell. We forgot God and hell has come to our streets. And God's looking for a good, a few good folks that are not afraid to say we're going to push that devil out. We're going to have our cities back. We're going to have a safe place for our children to live and the weapons of our warfare are not guns and bombs, but on our knees we're going to prevail with God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. In our churches we're going to preach a gospel that says to the devil, you have no right here. Amen. That says to evil, there's a cross that stood between you and righteousness. There's a Christ that died and rose and is our host tonight. Oh church, hear me. The opportunity for victory has never been greater than tonight. Every revival in history has come on the heels of a moral midnight. You hear me? That the revival in Hezekiah's day came at a time in the darkest hour of the nation. Pentecost came on the heels of history's darkest moment. Calvary. Amen. You hear me? Every revival. The nation's never been in a lower crisis, a lower situation morally. One in ten in this great land has become a homosexual. We aborted two million babies last year. We've got hundreds of thousands of girls 10 or 12 years old that have become impregnated. Alcohol and drugs have reached our grammar school. Divorce has reached 53 percent. Violent crime has made our streets unsafe. There's never been a darker moment, but there's never been a time when the Bible and the gospel and the church could be more effective than it can tonight. He said to Timothy, endure hardness. Don't let that soft pedal religion tell you that you're not going to have to face the devil. Oh no, he's a defeated foe, but that must become a reality in every age. Amen. I don't have to win the victory, but I do have to enforce the victory. That was one at Calvary. Yes sir, I have to enforce that victory. Amen. If you let him, if you let him, he's a usurper. He'll come in and take territory. That is not his, but we as a church of the living God must, I said we must enforce the victory won at Calvary. There's three things that I want to suggest to you tonight that is going to require for you to be a soldier. And there's three things that I want to tell you tonight that if you are a soldier, you can expect. And I want you to hear me out. Number one, whether it be a soldier in the army of uncle Sam or whether it be a soldier in the army of the Lord Jesus Christ, the first absolute of that is you must be found faithful. I said you must be found faithful. Our evangelist talked about that last night. God is looking for faithfulness. You hear me? God is looking for faithfulness. You can't have soldiers that are unfaithful. I was in the war, World War II, in war with Japan. If they had ever caught me in the camp with the enemy shooting crap with a Japanese, I'd have been hung from a coconut tree. Yet there's a lot of people in this tent tonight. You claim to be Christians, but you play with the world. That's the enemy of God. We've listened to the extremism that made world. And it's a certain look or a certain place you go. Now you listen, man or a woman that belongs to God is going to dress decent and they're going to go to right places. But a wrong dress and a wrong attitude is only a product of worldliness. Worldliness isn't a certain look. A worldly person is a person that's influenced by that system. I got people in the church at Beaumont. They don't show up on a Sunday morning. They say because grandma come to see me and she's not saved or I gotta go to work early tonight or a thousand other things. I've had people that were choir directors that give up the choir because their business got too big. I said you're going to hell as much as if you drank liquor. You're influenced by a system that makes you a worldly. I spent a lot of time in Vietnam during the war and I saw young men that grew up born in a Pentecostal atmosphere, slept on Pentecostal pallets, all their lives been in the church and they wasn't in Vietnam 30 days until the devil shot them down. I don't mean with a machine gun. I mean they become a part of that prostitution, that drug outfit. I'm talking about Pentecostal kids. Yes sir, they grew up in our churches. You know what is wrong? They grew up in an atmosphere in the church that gave the world some sort of sophistication. They made them kids believe that the world really wasn't its enemy, just a misunderstood friend. We'd take the singers from Nashville, Las Vegas and Hollywood, let them sing in the pulpit on a Sunday, sing in Las Vegas on a Monday, then wonder what's wrong with our kids. They didn't know who the real enemy was. They never knew. That world's no friend of grace to lead us to God. Amen. The whole effort of it is to destroy us. God said if you love the world, then you hate God. I said if you love the world, then you're an enemy of God. That's what this book says. You hear me? I'm talking about faithfulness. You know what faithfulness in its most common denominator is a commitment. You hear me? Faithfulness is a commitment to a cause. I must first recognize that I serve a cause that's bigger than I am, that's worth my life. John said that Jesus wouldn't commit himself to certain people because he knew man. That's right, he knew man. Listen, commitment or faithfulness is a product of my will. Yes sir, you hear me? It's a product of my will. We are, every one of us under this tent tonight, we are the product of ideas that come to us that we accept and believe. I commit myself to what I believe in. Did you hear me? I commit myself to what I believe in. Jim Jones led 900 people to British Guyana. They were committed to the wrong thing, but they died for what they believed in. Listen, instead of those early preachers, they loved not their lives unto death. They were committed to something. Let me tell you something, faithfulness is a commitment to something that's worth giving our lives for. I'm a product. I'm a product of my will. You hear me? I must will to be faithful or will to be unfaithful. A man stopped me in the aisle of the church one night, and he said to me, Pastor, I want you to pray for me. There's a sin in my life, I can't help do it. I said, you're going to have to quit lying before anybody helps you boy. I'm going to tell you, I don't know what your trouble is. If it's smoking cigarettes, it didn't jump out of your pocket and light itself, you willfully lift the thing up. Amen. Whatever it is, you did it. Amen. Don't come trying to tell me that there's something you can't help doing. You will to do it, and you could will not to do it if you belong to God. I'm a product of my will, and my will is governed, not by what the psychiatrist says. You go to a psychiatrist, and he'll tell you if you've got troubles, it's some traumatic experience of your youth. Your mama stubbed your head on the floor when you were little or something else. He don't know nothing about it. You don't need to spend your money with him. He don't know one thing about it. I'll tell you what your problem is. You are a product of what you will to do, and your will is governed by your devotion or lack of it. I've been married to that lovely lady on the platform for nearly 36 years. In those 36 years, I've never been unfaithful to that girl because I love that girl. I love that girl. I've never been unfaithful to her, and if I love God, I'm faithful to God. I said, if I love God, I joined the Marine Corps right after Pearl Harbor. I was just 18 years old coming in from work one morning, just got out of high school the May before, and they said we was in war. I went and told my mother, I'm joining up with the service. I've got to get out there. Amen. This country's at great stake. I reckon that what the freedom we have was worth dying for. Amen. I said I'm going to join up. I joined the Marine Corps. They gave me the first religion I ever had, and only religion I ever had, and I was born again. When I signed up, the man asked me, are you a Catholic or are you a Protestant? I said, I really don't know. He made me a Protestant right there on the spot, and that's all the religion I ever had until I was born again. After they swore me in, you know, I never had folks more nice to me. You know, some just have a seat over there and got time for lunch. You go out, here's your little deal. You go to this restaurant here, and this is on the government, son. Oh my, I said this is going to be wonderful to be a part of these folk. Amen. But you know, when I raised up my hand and said I do, all that ended. He said, now snap to attention, boy. Straighten up that tie. We bought you $21 a month. You're not yours anymore. Your mama borned you. Your daddy raised you, but you belong to the Marine Corps now. Don't you ever forget it. You'll do what we tell you to do. Your life from here on in is going to be absolutely what we want it to be. I got to boot camp, and a great big old sergeant met me, had a world globe and an anchor on the thing, had underwritten Semper Fidelis. I said, what does that mean? He said, I'll tell you what it means, boy. That means always faithful. Always faithful. You become a part of the greatest fighting force this world ever knew anything about. He said, the gates of heaven are guarded by Marines, son, and whenever you step outside, you make sure your shoes are signed, your field scarf's on, your hat's straight. You walk down the street, keep your shoulders up. You walk with a spring in your step. You're a part of the greatest force this earth knows anything about. Let me tell you something, folks. I belong to God. I want to keep my shoes shined. I want to walk like a Christian. I want to be what God wants me to be. I want to be faithful to the Almighty God. The second thing, if you're going to be a soldier, it requires courage. Courage. Courage born out of conviction. I said, courage born out of conviction. Amen. There is no courage except that born out of conviction. There's a lot of difference in a man being a coward and a man being afraid. I never saw a man that when it really come down to it, really wanted to die. Amen. But I saw a lot of men because they had conviction stood in the face of death and hell. Amen. No matter what come against them. I want to tell you something, young people, you're in a high school. It's a jungle. You're in schools in this country where the police have to keep peace in it, where drugs are pushed on the ground, where the whole effort of the system is to destroy our young people. Want to teach them a sex education in the first grade. I talked to a smart, a liberal humanist that said to me, you didn't have any sex education in your school. I said, you're wrong, mister. They had sex education in the school I went to. I said, mama told me, daddy told me, and the principal told me that you don't have sex till you get married. That's the best education that a generation of kids ever got. I'll tell you one thing. There wasn't any pregnant girls in that school. It takes more courage to be right than it does to fight a war. Yes, sir. I was in that war. I spent over 30 months in the South Pacific. I lived in mud holes. I eat rock and food. Amen. Like you couldn't believe. Amen. We lived for a time without any help out there when we first hit the canal. Amen. It was a difficult situation, but as a Christian, I've found, ladies and gentlemen, it takes more moral courage to be right than it does to face a war. In a world that's gone mad, when sin is nothing, when everybody looks at everything, that's because everybody's doing it. When there's a bumper sticker on every car that says if it feels good, do it. It takes great courage to stand up and say, I'll not be a part of the system. And the third thing, it requires discipline. Oh God, that's a galling word in this generation, isn't it? This unbridled age, when everybody does what's right in his own eyes, when if you don't do what the kids want you to do, they'll burn the school down. If you don't do what the people of the church want you to do, they'll split it. When children murder their parents, when a man will leave his wife and children just because he wants to do his own thing, there's never been a more selfish age than this one. Amen. More unbridled, undisciplined age than the age we live in. The great preacher Paul said, the love of Christ constrains me. The Holy Ghost said to him, everywhere you go, they're going to put you in jail. They're going to beat you. You're going to be threatened. Everything you run up against is going to be trouble. But he said, the love of Christ disciplines me. I go anyway. I walk anyway. If it costs me my life, I'll do it anyhow. Discipline is the difference between an army and a mob. A well-disciplined band can take care of a great crowd. But discipline is the difference between that. I remember when I first got to boot camp, I learned to shoot a rifle as a boy. I could shoot a squirrel jumping from tree to tree with a .22. I could take that old .22 and strike a match 50 yards away. I thought all they need to do is get me to Wake Island. Amen. They just need me out there to shoot the enemy. I'm ready to go. But instead, they locked me up behind a fence, put me in a tent, and for eight weeks, I fell in, fell out, got up, got down. I eat when they said eat. When they said get up, I marched when they said march. I run when they said run. I parted the fleas along that old beach, wore the hide off my knees. It was fall in, fall out. One hop, three, four, you left. Left flank march. Right flank march. Rear march. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. I said, my God, what are they doing to me? I need a war fought here. And here I am out here on the parade ground. Amen. Fall in, fall out. Way in the morning, we'd get up and get out and run, swim that river. I did before mama got in charge of the army and begin to tell them how they could treat their boys. Amen. But let me tell you something. They knew what they was doing. I come up from America in a kind of an undisciplined attitude. I'd sleep when I wanted to sleep, eat when I wanted to sleep. If I didn't want to eat what they had, then papa just leave it for supper time. But I did what I wanted to do. But you know what they were doing? They were changing me, mister. They're automating me. They're bringing me to a place that I obey instantly. Discipline means instant obedience. And the reason most of the church never gets anything from God, it takes them three days to make up their mind to do what he tells them. One hop, three, four, you left. Four o'clock in the morning. Whistle blow. Fall out. Fall out out that four o'clock in the morning. Run up and down that beach. Amen. Run an obstacle course. Crawl under barbed wire. Amen. One hop, three, four. Fall in. Fall out. Oh, but listen. When we hit that Guadalcanal, August the 7th, 1942. Amen. We hit that beach. Them big silver bombers come over. Amen. One direction dropping their bombs on us. That artillery from the hills began to hit that beach. That old first sergeant said, hit the deck. Everybody that said, huh, it's dead tonight. You hear me? Everybody that said, what did you say? Ain't here to preach the gospel tonight. No, no, brother. I remembered then the parade ground. I remembered when he said left, it is automatic. When he said right, it is automatic. When he said hit the deck, I hit the deck. And because of that, I'm alive tonight. Many of you folks under this tent are dead spiritually because when God told you to fall in, you're standing around hollering, huh? You didn't have enough in you to obey him. Discipline. Discipline is a quality of life. It's what gives courage to life. You hear me? I said, that's what gives courage to life. It is this discipline of life. You know the reason that crowd out there runs in a mob, that drug shooting crowd, the reason they run in a mob, they're afraid to be alone. You hear me? They're afraid to be alone. That's the reason most folks wind up in a psychiatric ward. Amen. They're afraid. They have no commitment to nothing. There's nothing to discipline their lives. Life is an endless thing. It's nothing. It's blank on both ends. And they're afraid of life. But a man that's disciplined is not afraid of the night. Thank God his life is in control. When a man's committed to Christ, a woman's committed to Christ, they're constrained by God to obey God. You hear me? But when that commitment's lost, then fear takes over. The commitment is not to Christ but to success. Then fear comes. You hear me? Fear comes. I've been in places to preach for preachers and all the time I was there, I could feel them pulling on my coattail. They're so afraid I'm going to say something. Amen. That might disturb somebody. Oh yes, they're afraid. You know why? They are not committed to Christ. There's a board in the back room back there that's going to tell them what to say. When they get in the pulpit, they're walking on eggshells because they're not committed to Christ. Amen. They're committed to a little job. I said they're committed to a little job somewhere. And because they're committed to things instead of Christ, they're afraid. I said they're afraid. They're afraid they're going to lose their job. They're afraid the board might fire. They're afraid that they run off some member. And I'm going to tell you one thing, ladies and gentlemen, if our commitment to Christ is to Christ, we don't have to be afraid. There may be a board fire me from a church. I'm telling you, not powers or principalities, things present or things to come can take Christ away from me. If my commitment is to Christ, then I don't have to be afraid. The world didn't give him to me and the world can't take him away. Oh hallelujah. Yes sir. I used to read the scripture in Isaiah that said Jesus was as a root out of dry ground. I grew up on a farm part of my life. I've seen an old twisted root laying down that dry ground. And I said, what's the prophet talking about? Why would he say my Lord is as a root out of dry ground. But one Saturday I was meditating on it and God showed me, you take a root and you put it in dry ground, it'll die. Is that right? Amen. You take that root, you plant it in dry ground, it'll die. Because for that root to live, it must take something out of the earth. It can't live unless you take it out of the earth. You put water around it, water it, it gets that potassium and whatever it takes to keep that plant alive. But it won't do it unless you water it. Because it can't live folks without something of the earth. But it said of Jesus, he was a root out of dry ground. There was nothing of this world in him. There was nothing the world could take from him. I'll lay it down. I'll pick it up. Hallelujah. I don't owe this world nothing but the gospel. I said, I don't owe nothing but the gospel. Hallelujah. I said, hallelujah. I said, hallelujah. Oh, thank God. Thank God. Our commitment must be to Christ. Amen. If we're going to be soldiers, we must be faithful. We must be courageous. Our lives must be disciplined. By God, it must be disciplined. I'm going to run plum off that tape. I don't get to hold something here. Three things you can expect though. If you'll be a real soldier son, ain't nothing in the world does me better than to see young men like this that belong to God. You're going to be a preacher son. Amen. You've been called to preach. You've been called to preach. You know what? I always am encouraged when I see young men like that call to the ministry. I know God hasn't given up on the human race. Thank God as long as he'll take time to call men like this, he's still a hope for the human race. Amen. But I want to say something to you. It isn't easy. Amen. Schambach didn't get this tent the first year in preaching. There's a lot of times him, me, and Schambach and them four children would like to have a hamburger to split about six ways to have something to eat. There's a many a time he didn't know where that old car was going to get where it was going. I went to Beaumont the first year. All I had was an old Nash automobile. The side where I rode was bent in. Had to get out on the other side. It never started without pushing it. Amen. I'm here to tell you, if you're going to be a soldier, you'll endure some hardness. You'll be faithful to the cause. Thank God. Whether there's any money in it or not, don't make any difference. If you have to ride a bicycle or a jackass, it don't make any difference. The only thing that matters, I'm connected with the only thing in life that's worthwhile. You'll have to be faithful. Take a lot of courage. Have to discipline your life. You can't do what you want to do. All you've got to do to go to hell is do what's right in your own eyes. You got to walk with God. But if you'll do that, ladies and gentlemen, whether you're a preacher or not, you're a soldier. And if you'll do those things, if you'll walk with it, then you can expect three things. Number one, as a real soldier, you can expect hardships. I said you can expect hardships. Don't let that new evangelical voice, amen, that shuns all the hardships and the realities of life. Oh no, mister. Don't you listen to the soft spoken voice of a false prophet. Amen. If you commit yourself to God, if you're a soldier, you're going to run hard nose into the enemy. You're going to have difficult times, mister. They put me in that boot camp. They fell us out. You eat when they wanted to eat. You went down there and they put it on your plate and you better eat it. And they told you when to eat, when to get up, when to lay down. Oh brother, it is a constant, total different life. Total different life. I had a little boy from Alabama, slept under my bunk, cried all time. I mean, he rubbed all the hide off his knees and elbows like everybody else. He wanted his mama and he constantly cried. I mean, we never got to bed four hours a day and he'd keep me awake crying. One morning they blew that whistle at 430. I run out there putting my breeches on as a wet. Amen. I wanted to get out and talk to that first sergeant. I got to him and I said, sir, that boy under my bunk cries all the time. I'm trying to do everything you tell me to do, but I can't get him to sleep. Will you please leave him here today? My God, that sergeant invented words. I never heard a man cuss like he cussed. Man, I mean, I grew up with folks that knew how to cuss, but he cussed, cussed. I mean, I ain't never heard nobody say them words. I'm standing there trying to hold my breeches up and he's a cussing that boy. He said, let me tell you something. I ain't going to leave him in no bunk, boy. I'm going to either kill him, make a Marine out of him or send him home to his mama. Amen. You hear that now and you go down and tell him to get his so-and-so out here in this rank and tell him not to be long about it. Dry up his little tears and hit the deck and get yourself out here. He said, it's better now that we get rid of him or make a Marine out of him. Don't let him get on the front lines and with his sobbing out there, tell the enemy where you are. He can cost you your life. Well, the last time I saw him, he's dragging his sea bag, still a crying, going home to mama. I'm only here to tell you if God can't make a soldier out of you, he's going to drop you out. You ain't no benefit to him. I heard a silly preacher preaching about the apostle Paul and he said, he is wrong in not taking John Mark. I said, you don't know what he's talking about. He took John Mark and John Mark got halfway on the journey and quit him. And when it's time to go again, he said, I can't use that kind of a broken wreath. There'll come a time when John could take it and he took him with him. Let me tell you something, folks. If you're going to be a soldier, there's going to be some hardship. There's going to be some foxholes. There's going to be some devils. Everybody ain't going to love you. And second, you're going to have a chance to fight. You hear me? Oh yeah. If you're a soldier, you're going to get to go to war. We in a war, you know that? Oh, everything is meant to destroy you. I saw you stand up. You've been delivered from drugs. Isn't that right? I'm telling you that street out there wants you back. Hell wants you back. Yes, sir. There's a battle on for your soul tonight. You're the one going to make the difference. You hear me? You hear me? You're going to have an opportunity to do battle. I've been in the Marine Corps just about three months when they loaded us aboard ship and moved us out. We're several months getting there to the canal. On the canal, August the 7th, 1942, the 1st Marine Division struck back the first time at an enemy that had threatened our shores. Amen. For the first time, we went ashore. Amen. Listen, I stayed out there in that Pacific from Guadalcanal to Okinawa for 33 months I was there. Amen. 33 months I spent out there. There was no year and come home. No, no. There was out there to begin with till the duration. 33 months. I slept in hog pens. I slept in ditches. I eat more trash. You don't know what hell is, mister, till you smoke one of them Japanese cigarettes. We were cut off out there. And the only supplies we had on the canal for two months is what we took off the Japanese. All we had to eat for a while was fish head and rice. Amen. Slap that rice in that pan. That old fish eye looking up at you. I went through there the first time. He filled that plate up with that fish head and rice. It stunk. I couldn't eat it. I poured it out. But the next day I eat it. And the next day I looked around. See if anybody had anything left. As a soldier, as a soldier, you may not always eat at the Piccadilly. No, you may not even get to McDonald's, sir. Amen. There may be times that the ration is a little short, but that don't take anything away from the war effort. We've lived to see when folks teach us by the gospel that happiness is things. Make us believe that our faith is demonstrated by the kind of cars we drive. If I listen to that nonsense, I think that God didn't love most of the folks under this tent tonight because most of them don't drive big cars. Most of them don't live in big houses either. But I've never been anywhere in my life that I've felt the love of God anymore than right here in this Bronx. That's right. Ah, the new evangelists, they've told us that happiness was things. Oh, yeah. God make you happy by giving you things. No, no. God will make you happy by giving you himself. Amen. Oh, yes. If you're happy on things, you've missed it, but it don't make any difference what you got. The apostle Paul spent most of his time in jail, but he said, I've learned to be content wherever I am. You're in a warfare, and the supply line ain't always as sufficient as it is at other times. Samuel, when the man that wrote, Mr. Bunyan, that wrote Pilgrim's Progress, when they threw him in jail, they put him in a cell they couldn't sit down in. They even keep him there weeks at a time. When he tried to sit down, his back had hit the wall here and his knees hit it there. Couldn't even sit down. Kept him there for weeks. Wouldn't even remove the human refuse from it. He's in a war, I tell you. Never a greater Christian ever lived than John Bunyan. Don't talk to me, brother, about all this stuff. God gives it to you good if you don't serve him anyhow, because you got him. They kept him in that cell for weeks. Wouldn't even move the human refuse. Fed him like an animal. Every day when they come to give him that slop, they'd say to him, if you don't recant, if you don't deny what you preach, we'll let you out of the cell. He said, why should I want out of the cell? Anywhere that Christ is is a kingdom now for me. Hallelujah to God. I know what it is to abound, and I know what it is to be amazed. I've been happy both places because I serve God. I said I serve God. Hallelujah. Happiness is Jesus. Oh yes. Oh yes. You're going to have hardships. You're going to have an opportunity to fight. You're going to face the enemy. You hear me? You're going to face the enemy. And God says to you, when you face the devil, when he lays a hold of you, all you give him is your name, rank, and serial number. Amen. Don't divulge any information to the devil. Just tell him who you are. When they hanged Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they said, who is your God? How come you won't bow? They gave him a name, rank, and serial number. He said, unless you bow your knee, we're going to throw you in the fire. Who's the God going to save you? They said, we don't know whether God will get us out, but we can tell you now, King, we love him too much to bow. Thank God we'll die before we'll bow our knees. This cheap gospel that tells you that you're not going to have any difficulties is going to leave you empty. I was in a meeting one time, and the man preaching, he shouted out. He said, my faith has got me a jet airplane. What's yours got you? I wanted to shout, my faith delivered me from the vanity of wanting one of them. I rode up here for $200. It cost $700 an hour to keep a private jet in here. It would cost me $4,000 to fly up here and eat. Yes, sir. What I'm saying is, it isn't always going to be easy. You may not always ride in the sleeping part. You may not always be up in first class. God may put you in the economy sometime. You're in a warfare. You'll say, you don't know. I'm working at a job. It's a very difficult job. I don't know. That's what I'm telling you. You're a soldier, and God lives in you, and it don't make any difference where you are. God's got to have somebody in there to wash them dishes so he can tell that man that owns the restaurant, God's real, and if you're faithful and do your job, he'll make you a corporal after a while. You'll suffer hardship. You'll have a chance to fight, and you can be a part of the greatest victory this world ever knew anything about. Hallelujah. Oh, if you're a good soldier, I can tell you now, you'll be a part of the greatest victory this world ever knew anything about. Oh, we've tried to keep the young people of our churches with ice cream parties, build $100,000 gyms. Amen. If we'd have stuffed their pocket full of tracks, put them on a street corner to face the devil, and to do battle with the enemy, we'd have never lost them. I said, we'd have never lost them. If we'd have put them in the battle, thank God, we'd have saw something in their lives. I said, something in their lives. It said of Joseph, they put him in that dungeon until iron came into his soul. Garibaldi, marching through Italy, came through Florence, whole crowd of young people hanging on the street corner. He said to them, follow me. They said, what's in it for us, Mr. Garibaldi? He said, cold nights, hungry stomachs, bleeding feet, and a part of the greatest victory Italy's ever known, and the young people followed him to the man. Let me tell you something, folks. I appreciate this country, and it's taking care of those that need to be took care of, but you can care that too far. Ain't nobody wants to die for a welfare state. Thank God I want to fight for something that gives me an opportunity of greatness. When I first joined that Marine Corps, and I got to get on with this, they didn't have no plan to get you home. You just outlived the war, they'd bring you home. 33 months, we come off the island of Peleliu, out of my battalion, only 80 of us able to walk back aboard that ship. I mean, all but 80 of us had died or been maimed up and crippled. We fought our way to the airport. We came back along that road, 400 boys. I knew every one of them by their first name, are waiting to be fed to the sharks. That's right, waiting to be dumped out there in that sea. Oh, listen, we have been out there for 33 months. We came back to our regrouping area, and when we got back there, we got into our tents, we're waiting on replacements. I sat in a tent one evening, kind of late, and I heard my name sounded in the street, Sergeant Clendenin, in the company street. Others had called. We went out there and fell in that company street. That old captain said to us, they put in a new plan while we was at war. Congress passed the bill that says if you got enough points, you can go home. And we've discovered you fellows have got enough points, you can go home. Amen. You can go home now. Can you be on the docks by eight o'clock in the morning? Well, I can tell you right now, five o'clock, I'm sitting down there. Amen. I'm sitting on the dock five o'clock in the morning. Brother, I'm going home. I've been out here in this hell for nearly three years. I'm going home. We aborted that old freighter. It just looked like a cattle car. They put bunks down the bottom. Hell wasn't six feet from where I slept all the way home. Amen. It was hot, hot, folks sick, everything else. 28 days dodging them submarines. When I got on that ship, I stretched out them trousers, washed them, put them under there. I slept on them all the way home. You know what I was doing? Pressing them. I'm going home. Got to look good. You never washed anything in salt water. You don't know what it is. I washed them shirts, that cap, that field scarf every morning. I'd pop them out, sleep on them another night. I'd go up and look every day. One morning I come up on deck. There's a shoreline out there. I said to that soldier, boy, where are you sat? He said, man, that's California. My God, heaven won't ever look any better. I said, heaven won't ever look any better. Oh, I hollered down that hole, boys, come on up here. It's California. Thank God wasn't long. There's that old Golden Gate Bridge. We're sailing right under it. Then it come over, the loud speaker, it said, all of you Marines that are returning home from the battlefield, you're going to be the first ones off. I was the senior non-commissioned officer. I was in charge of that bunch of men. I said, fellas, get ready. I put on them trousers, looked like a slip in them, but I pressed them, brother. I'm home. I tied that field scarf, looked like a shoestring around my neck. I'd shine, brother. I'd shine them bogans. We fell out on that deck and stood there. Listen, we stood there. And when it dropped that anchor, they said to us, now you can disembark. We fell in. And when we got to the edge of that gangplank, I looked over there and there's a thousand-piece Navy band. Oh my God, you never saw such a band. And the minute our feet hit that ramp, they struck up from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli. We'll fight our country's battle on the land as on the sea. I marched down the street of San Francisco, that Navy band playing. Thousands of people welcomed me home. I said, I'd go back tomorrow. It was worth it all, brother. I'd go back tomorrow. I'd go back and go through it all again. Well, let me tell you in closing, about 33 years ago, I climbed aboard the old shipper's iron. I started out for the port of heaven. Thank God, thank God, thank God, thank God. It hasn't always been easy. I've slept in spiritual foxholes. I know what it is not to have but one suit of clothes and the wife back there have one dress. There's been a lot of times it had been easier to quit than it would to go on. I'm going to tell you, it's about to drop our anchor and heaven's band is going to strike up the anthem. My God, folks, my God, folks, my God, folks, we're about to go home. We're about to go home. We're going to march down those streets of gold. Going home. We're going home. We're going home. We're going home. My God, we're going home.