In this sermon, the speaker shares a personal story about neglecting his children and realizing the importance of giving them attention. He then relates this to the parable of the talents in the Bible, where the master returns and calls for an accounting from his servants. The speaker emphasizes the importance of having a right relationship with the Lord and being productive and fruitful in our service to Him. He also highlights the tragic steps that can lead to being bound and muzzled in our ministry, such as having a wrong relationship with God. The sermon encourages listeners to have a happy and well-adjusted relationship with the Lord and to be productive and normal in their Christian walk.

Jesus, I need your help. I need the touch of God. I thank you for the anointing. I thank you, Lord, that when the invitation is given, young married couples especially will come down this aisle, make a full surrender to Christ. Young people, all those in this building tonight, O Lord, who will fall under the touch of God's conviction, in Christ's name I pray. Amen. There are exactly three references in the Bible to the word muzzle. The first being in Deuteronomy 25.4. You're very familiar with it. Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Now God's humanitarian law had made provision, made provision that the oxen that were treading at the treadmill should not have their mouth muzzled so that they could partake of the corn they were treading. The oxen was allowed to eat the corn he was treading. God's humanitarian law makes it possible because the labor is worthy of his hire, whether it's a human being or one of God's animal kingdoms. Paul the Apostle, reading this Old Testament truth, moved on by the Holy Spirit, brought to the attention of the church world one of the most marvelous revelations ever given to mankind. This revelation has been so, has meant so much to my ministry and to my life. I want to take time tonight and share it in as much depth as I possibly can and make it very, very simple and clear for the young people. Paul the Apostle, as was his habit, went into the Old Testament and animated these Old Testament truths and made them applicable to his, to everyday life and especially to the New Testament church. Paul the Apostle in 1 Corinthians, the 9th chapter, the 9th verse, for it is written in the law of Moses, he's speaking of Deuteronomy 25, verse 4, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treaded out the corn. Let God take care for oxen, or safety it all together for our sake. What Paul is trying to say now is, has God recorded this truth in the Old Testament just to tell us how concerned he is about taking care of oxen? Has this been written only to demonstrate God's care for the animal kingdom? Or is there a greater truth? Is God trying to say something to me? Is he trying to say something to you about the way I live, about the way I minister, the way I exist, the meaning of life itself? Is there something hidden here? Paul elaborates, or says it all together for our sake. Paul was convinced, there is only one reason this is recorded, all together there's no doubt about it, Paul says, I am convinced this truth is mine, it is ours. God is saying something. For our sake, no doubt, no doubt this is written, that he that plows should plow in hope. Now see this immediately takes it away from this aspect of giving the priest some more money, or just having to deal with finances. If we speak if only of muscling the minister, after all this truth, we miss the greatest part of the truth that God's trying to reveal to us. He that plows should plow in hope, and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. Let me make it applicable first to the Sunday school teacher, to every Christian worker, if you're going to work without any hope of results, you have the wrong motivation. Every man who ever tries to do anything for God should expect to have results. I'm sick and tired of hearing people say, well I'm doing wrong because God told me. I don't do anything anymore unless I believe, and I'm convinced, and I've told myself until I believe with all my heart, God is in it, and God is going to bring glory to his name, and there will be results. If you teach your Sunday school class without any hope of changing the life patterns of those people you testify to, if you stand there with an emptiness and a helplessness, as if to say, I'm just being obedient to the Lord, but I don't anticipate any results, you have the wrong motivation. He that plows should plow in hope, he that plows should be a partaker of this hope. You should taste it, you should experience it before you preach it. And how many empty testimonies there are in the church, falling dead from the lips of people who've never experienced the life itself. I have ministers come to New York from all over the world. I have most educated intellectual ministers, some of them with many degrees. They want to go out and see our street rallies, and they are absolutely horrified when I ask them to give a testimony at the microphone before a group of gang kids and drug addicts. They say, well Reverend, these boys will do a good enough job, but I always force them into it, because I want them to see something. I want them to see that you can't preach anything you haven't first lived. That you have an experience that isn't alive in your own soul. And I had one very well-known minister go down to Coney Island with us, he took the microphone, he thought he was really going to tell them how to find Jesus. His words didn't get past the microphone, they fell right in front of him. The crowd began to walk away left and right, and we saw we were losing the crowd, the man thought we had enough dignity and purpose to get away from the microphone and turn over to one of my boys. This boy, he dropped out of ninth grade. He took the microphone, and I'll tell you in less than two minutes the crowd came back again, and they stood there in rapt attention to this boy, as articulate as he could possibly be, but in very simple terms began to explain what he had felt and witnessed in his own heart. And that gentleman stood there just shaking his head, and the man was startled at what had happened. He couldn't get through. You know, later he testified to me, he said, well Wilson, that's one of the greatest lessons I've ever learned. He said, that boy preached what he had experienced. He said, I've been preaching theory, theory, just something I have learned. Now let's go on. See, the word muzzle means to fasten or cover over the mouth to prevent biting, eating, or speaking, to prevent action. The Bible says, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox. Now, you and I are the oxen when Jesus said, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. My yoke is easy, my burden is light. He made all of us a type of oxen. My yoke is easy. Oxen wear yoke. And he made it very, very clear that we are laborers together as oxen in a vineyard, and that no one who ministers in his vineyard should allow themselves to be bound. Now, I want to talk about bondage tonight. I want to talk about muzzled people, those who are fastened, those who cannot be active for God, not only Christian workers. I want to talk tonight very, very clearly to those who are wanting to work for the Lord. I want to talk to young people who want to be used of God. I want to talk about those who are bound in fear and anxiety. I want to talk about a muzzled ministry. We go to the 25th chapter of Matthew for a tragic story of a muzzled Christian. You recall the story in the 25th chapter of Matthew of three servants who are called by a master, and they were granted talent. One was given five with instructions to invest it, and upon the master's return, they would be invited for the activities, and they would have to give an account. Another was given two talents with the same instructions, and another was given one talent. And I want to focus attention on this one talent servant, because one-third of all Christianity falls in this category if Bible statistics are true. Thirty-three and third percent of all Christian people will stand before God's judgment, bound, fruitless, and helpless as this one talent servant. And most of us have been given but one talent, and that is a innate desire to know and do the will of God. Now follow me very closely, please. This is not a sermon I'm preaching tonight. This is a message that flows out of my innermost being, because it changed and revolutionized my life. Listen very closely. The master returns, and the master of this parable is our master. These were all Christians. They were all servants of the master. And on his sudden return, he calls for an accounting. The man who had been given five talents per servant returns with a doubled investment, well-adjusted, happy, pleased. He was not a sad worker. He'd been productive and faithful, and he'd brought his fees to lay at the master's feet. The gentleman to be given two had doubled his investment, well-adjusted, happy, a great relationship with the master, confidence and trust and peace and rest. And he'd worked as an animated Christian, productive and well-adjusted and happy and normal. In fact, you can carry a great burden and be normal. Did you know that? You don't have to be a mystic to be used of God. You don't have to have freakish hours of prayer. You don't have to be way out somewhere to have the touch of God in your life. I think most of the most, I think the most productive Christians of all time have been well-adjusted, happy people who know what it is to weep and to laugh and enjoy the full orbit of all of the feelings that God has given to mankind. But now standing before the master is the one talent servant. Here's the muzzled Christian. I want to list for you tonight for your consideration the three tragic steps that lead to being muzzled, to being bound, fruitless. And I'm going to tell you something, friends. I can't conceive of anything more tragic than to stand before God with no fruit, having accomplished nothing, having just survived, having just existed as a Christian. I don't know anything more tragic than that in my way of thinking. But here he stands. Listen to the three tragic steps that led to his muzzled ministry, the three tragic steps that lead to the binding of every one of God's children, if they allow it. Step number one, a wrong relationship with the Lord. Now listen to this man as he stands before the master. Here's his confession. The same confession that the other two had made. Lord, I knew thee. See, they all knew him. They were all in close relationship. They were all his servants. They knew the master. They had worked for him. They were under his employ. This is the type of the Christian, not the sinner. Lord, I knew thee. But now look, look very closely at his relationship. The other two had a happy relationship. The master was easy to work for. They were well adjusted. They were pleased. They were productive. But here he stands now, and in his own mind, he has concocted a relationship with the master that has so perverted his ministry, that is so bound him, he has to burn it out. Lord, I knew thee. Thou art a hard man. Thou art a hard man. Now friends, this is the very trick the devil uses against those who are spirit filled. He'll not try to tempt you on morals. He'll not try to get you to go out and taste the hidden sweets of the world. He won't try to have you gavel around in the con game. He won't try to get you to cheat your fellow man. He won't get you to gossip about your pastor and the church activity. He's more subtle than that when it comes to the spirit filled life. He uses an attack far more subtle. If he cannot get you to turn your back on your loving master, he will sneak into your life and pervert your image of the heavenly father until he who has loved you and saved you from sin and degradation, suddenly begins to appear in your heart, in your mind, in your life as a hard driving taskmaster who is there to cut you off at every little failure. There is a sculptor in Mexico who sculpted his image of God and God had a baseball bat in his hand. This was his picture of the heavenly father. He was going around hitting people over the head, getting them to submit themselves, seeking obedience by hitting them over the head with a baseball bat. Now friends, we have a lot of Christians who have fallen prey to this trick of the devil. They come to church and worship, but their worship, their activity and everything else is under a pail of bondage. They do not have the right relationship with the heavenly father. They do not cry Abba father. They do not see him as one who loves. They do not see him as one of tenderness and compassion and pity. They stand there or they exist in the Christian activity in the Christian world with a picture of a heavenly father with a sword in his hand, going around cutting off all of the wrongdoers, going around bringing condemnation, striking fear at the heart of every wrongdoer. And there are a lot of people, friends, that have been saved for years. I get around and I've met some people that have been converted for years who have never really come into a right relationship with the heavenly father. Their relationship is one of looking at him as a hard, difficult father. This happens to deserve it. Thou art a hard man. Isn't it significant that the other two did not testify to this? And you can never be useful to God's kingdom. You can never be productive and fruitful if you serve the Lord only because of your concept of one who will judge you if you do not be, if you are not obedient. How many people are there doing things for God in the church, working in Sunday school, not out of their love for the Lord, but out of their fear of God and nothing else? The only motivation is that if I don't do it, God may judge me. God has never intended that Christian people, young people for that matter, and listen, I'm going to preach about it tomorrow night at Melody Land, God willing, called Teen Terror. And I've been shocked to find out, and I've been interviewing hundreds of young people, asking what their three major fears were. I'm going to preach about it tomorrow night. First of all, there's the fear of being left out, the fear of being tied down, and then there's the fear of hell. Now that's a healthy thing, but friends, along with that fear of hell is the fear that so many young people have from various denominations, and I've been shocked at it, how many young people have been coming to the altar in our crusades and standing there, and even after they say, Jesus, come into my heart, and they cry, they look up and they say, I'm scared to death of God. I'm frightened. Now the scripture said the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and don't you forget that. It's the beginning. It is not the premise upon which we stand. It is the beginning. Perfect love passes out all fear, and that's the second step that leads to a muscle of ministry, a fear complex. Thou art a hard man, so I was afraid. Now wherever you got your fear, you didn't get it from God, so why put up with it? Because the scripture said, I have not given you the spirit of fear, but of love and power and a sound mind, and I think I've already elaborated on one of the four little words that I quote all day long. I quoted on the airplane. I quoted it before I came in here tonight. I think four of the greatest words in the English language, four of the greatest words that David ever preached. I will fear no evil. I will fear no evil. I used to think that, you know, I'd hear, when I was a young man, my dad was a priest, and granddad, preachers get together, and I always had my ear up the door when my dad had bands in the stand. They'd talk till midnight, one or two o'clock, like preachers do, you know, about the things of God, of course, and I'd stand up, and I'd listen, and I'd hear all these stories about men who'd been used of God, and they'd reach a certain peak, and then they'd fail, and I used to think there was a ladder that you'd climb, and there was a rung on that ladder that looked all right, but it had a crack, and as soon as you hit it down, you went, and so I said, Lord, when I was a young preacher, I want to just go up to that rung, and then I want to sniff it out, and then I'll know it's that, and then I'll just stop right there, and it was that fear of failing God because of an amount of success in a ministry that finally you just couldn't, it would overcome you, it would take you over, and brothers and sisters, the fear of pride is evil. I will not fear it. How many fearful Christians and friends, I don't care how long you've walked with God, how much you've taught faith and positive action, this is going to be your constant battle, overcoming the subtle fears of the enemy that come in to bind us and muzzle us. Every Bible school I go to, when I give the invitation, I preach along these lines, the altars are filled because right in our Bible schools, we have young people who want to be used of God, but they fight constant daily fear. It's a constant battle of fear. I have young boys that used to be drug addicts and alcoholics, and they sit in Bible school, and the enemy brings in their past and paints a picture of their past and all these fears. Well, maybe I'll revert, or maybe my past will haunt me. Someone will dig it out after God blesses me, and all kinds of fears. Listen, I could write a book on all the different colors and brands of fear that people whisper into my ear, the kind of fear they battle. Some of them seem so insignificant, but they become so big to that individual. I was working in New York City for almost eight months, when this whole thing came upon me in this most subtle fashion, and it came about in a way that I never expected right at the height of my going to New York City. I was going in every weekend, driving 300 miles one way, coming back tired, would walk the streets for three days. Come home on Saturday and preach all day Sunday, and I'd cry and pray, and I would weep. I walked the streets of New York three and four o'clock in the morning. I had an old Chevrolet automobile, and I didn't have money for motels or hotels, so I'd put a shirt up. I'd roll the window down, put a shirt over there and roll it up. That was my curtain there, and get another sweater or something and make a curtain over here, and even when it was cold, I'd turn on the car heater and fill it up with gas. It was easier to buy gas in a hotel, and I'd go to sleep three or four o'clock in the morning, and I'd sleep in these streets in this little car, and I had really given myself to the ministry that I felt God had called me to. You know, it's the same thing. I walked those streets, and I dealt with prostitution. Nobody tried to touch me. Not once was I ever tempted by the elements of New York City. I walked through Times Square. I walked through hell itself, and not one time. The fear of God, the marvelous presence of the Lord everywhere I went, I felt like I was full of divine destiny. I moved on a destined pattern. I'd walk the streets knowing that I felt as though the Lord himself was right there. Every move that I made, God led me. You read my book. God led me as though the angel of the Lord stood right there. It was the most glorious time of my life. I moved as though I was just on a divine pattern. I was just a vessel. All I had to do was just go. The Lord whispered in my ear, so to speak, every move. I was in another world, a world that was practical, and yet it was a world so divinely led of God, and it was in the middle of this. Listen closely. Right in the middle, when I was living what I felt was the most glorious spirit-filled life that I'd ever experienced, the resurrecting joy of the Lord, everything that I needed and wanted. I thought, Lord, you just keep me in this way. You just keep me yielded, and friends, I would drive to New York City, and I can take you to spots along the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Route 22. Even today, when I drive past, I've got to stop my car and go up in the woods because I'd drive down the road, and the Lord was so real in the car. I knew I was so called of God. I knew the Lord was so real. I'd have to break down. I couldn't drive. I'd pull off the car off the side of the road. I'd run up the hill so I'd get away from the traffic, and I'd just fall on my face before God, and I can take you to a place on Route 22. There's a big old oak tree there, and I remember one day coming down, and it's though the Lord himself. You talk about Jacob wrestling with the Lord or his angel. I wrestled with the Lord and the glory and the presence of God. I didn't see the buildings in New York City anymore. All I could see were hungry souls, and they were being saved. Many, many were being saved. God was working. I played an organ also. We pulled into the pastor's road just in time to see an ambulance pull away. I hadn't met the pastor yet. Sirens, wailing, off it went. When we pulled into the driveway, we saw a woman standing there wringing her hands, an apron. I introduced myself. She was one of the parishioners from the pastor's church, and she said, Rev. Wilkins, there's been a tragedy. Please go to the hospital immediately. She gave me instructions. Jim and I went to the hospital. It was an hour or so later. On the third floor, walking down the hall, I saw a man standing in the hall, weeping, and I surmised it was the pastor. I introduced myself. He said, David, come in the room. He said, I want you to see what's happened. He was sobbing. His room was an oxygen tent. A little child, I think the child was three years old, and the wife had thrown herself across the bed, and she was sobbing, and her whole body just shaking and faltering. I looked inside the oxygen tent, and the little child's head was all out of shape, almost 80-page tire marks right down over her face. Her eyes were swollen shut. I said, what in the world? Who did that? Who is this? The pastor said, she's mine, my baby. He ran out of the room and went in the hall and said, what happened? He said, just before you came, just an hour and a half ago, he said, I was rushing to get my car to go to conduct a man's funeral. He said, and I didn't know she's under the back wheel, and I got in his car, started up, and I backed right over her head. He said, my God. He said, if she dies, that's all I've got. I said, how could it have happened? I was going out to work for the Lord. I was going out to conduct a funeral. She was playing under the wheel. I went into the room and unzipped the oxygen tent, laid hands on the child, and prayed. The child regained consciousness. They called the doctor, and he looked her over, and he said, I think she'll be all right. It was getting late, and it was time for us to prepare her for the service, so the doctor suggested the pastor and I go, and the wife could stay, so we went back to the house. It was about 6 30. Close to the 7, I was dressing. I heard a telephone ring. Jimmy was downstairs. We were on the second floor. I was in one room, the pastor in another. He was putting on his tie, and I could hear Jimmy cry, oh my God, no. I rushed downstairs, and Jimmy said, Brother Wilkerson, the baby died. You're to tell the pastor, and I sat down on that stair. The body went upstairs, and suddenly, I don't know how it happened or where it came from, but the enemy began to suggest to me, you see, he was out working for the Lord. He was doing everything within his power, but there must be sin in his life. Something has happened, and God has said judgment. This is the judgment of God, but I said, God, how could you let him kill his own baby, and suddenly this image of a father that I could not understand. I couldn't understand it. I said, well, Lord, I've been working for you too, and I've got three children. What about them? I had two at the time. No, it was three. Jerry also. I rushed upstairs. I went into his room. I said, Pastor, the call was about the baby. He didn't want to face the truth. I think he knew. He said, What's wrong with your baby? It's not mine. It's Jerry's. He's gone. He dropped his hands, and he stood there for quite a long time, and they let out blood currents, saying, My God, I killed my doll. I killed my baby. He ran to the window, I think with an intent to jump out and end it all. I tackled him, and Jimmy got him on his legs, and we just laid on top of him. He was crying out to God, pouring his heart out, but you know, something was happening inside. A fear, a horrible fear gripped my heart. This is what happens when you fail God, when you don't obey him. The first thing, I wonder where he's failed. Where's the sin in his life? You know, friends, I stayed next three days. We canceled the meetings, of course, and I stayed to help. I wish you could have been there at the funeral. Could have made the last impression on you that it made on me, and I still relive it. I walked into that funeral parlor, and I looked at those sober persons sitting around, just shaking their heads, unable to understand it. Nobody knew what was in my heart, but when I approached that casket, looked at that wall of flowers, and a little cat and a beautiful little child with the pink print dress and white shoes, and they still hadn't been able to get those tire marks off her face, and I looked at the passers-by. They just sat there with their eyes closed in another world, and I asked the pastor to go with me in the next room. I said, pastor, what have you done? He said, why? He said, David, don't talk to me. He said, don't even suggest anything. He said, I'm too broken up, and I'll tell you something. I was trying to find an answer to my own sin. I was trying to satisfy something in my own heart. He said, I haven't failed God, if that's what you're thinking. He said, I don't understand this. He said, we're the best of friends now, and he understood why I made that question, and I understand it now. It took me almost a year to find out later before, when I saw him at a meeting, and he saw me. We ran and went in the room and had a good cry, and he told me the whole story of how he had planned to leave the ministry, and it was this that really had saved his ministry, and God has blessed him properly. He's one of the finest ministers in the country today. He's a very successful church. He's a real man of God, and I love him dearly, but you know, I left that place, and I went back to my house some 300 miles away. I wasn't even going to the driveway. I was scared to go in the driveway. I went inside. My wife was used to my being away, of course, but we had two children. She was expecting a third. This is what it was, and she said, I walked inside, and I gathered Bonnie and Debbie's arms, and I remember before I even said a word to her, I said, Honey, I said to myself, as I bobbed my head, Lord, I'll go to New York City every week. I'll walk the streets. I'll give you my life. I'll work my fingers to the bone, but don't touch one of my children. Don't touch one of them. As you know, my wife was expecting at the time, I recall now, and I had been going back and forth to New York City, and leaving her there to carry on the burdens of the work, because I had this obsession to go to New York, and I entered in from that day on. I got in the car the next day, and I headed for New York City, and this time as I walked, there was no joy. As I rode to New York City, the joy of the Lord had departed. Now, I was on a mission, and the enemy had succeeded in painting in my mind a picture of a judgy, wrathful, vengeful Heavenly Father who was ready to cut me down, or take one of my children, or do personal bodily damage to me for my own good, and cut me down to pie, and stick me into obedience. If he had to whip me into obedience, but I said, Lord, I don't have to be whipped. I'll go willingly. You know, you don't say those things in so many words, but these are those subtle thoughts that go through your mind, and I walked the streets more than ever, and this time I was a driven, obsessed man. I came home from New York City. I would come back, and I wouldn't smile. I didn't smile for the next three months. Anyone who cracked a joke, I walked out of the room. I said, God doesn't allow any joking. My wife didn't know I was her husband for three and a half months. My children were unattended. I was totally sold out to God. Oh, I loved him with all my heart. I loved him more than ever, but I couldn't understand what had happened. God now was a hard master. I had a ministry of fear and of bondage. I was working hard. I was working harder than ever. I was losing weight. I went down to 115 pounds. I came home near the end of three and a half months, and my wife wasn't there to meet me. I heard somebody crying and screaming in the bedroom. I went in, and she was laying on the bed, raving incoherently. I thought she'd lost her mind, and I stood over her, and I watched her writhing in pain. She didn't even know I was in the room, and I stood there looking on her, and a scripture came to me. A man who neglects his own household is worse than an infidel and is denied to faith. I heard a scream in my ear, You're an infidel. I laid hands on her. I was praying. I laid hands on her, and I prayed for her, and she fell asleep. I whispered. She didn't hear it, but I said, Honey, give me just one more night. I'm going to have it out with Bud tonight, or I've got to quit preaching. I can't go to New York again. I'll have to give it up. I said, I'm crushed under the burden. I'm weighted down. I can't even move, and I'm doing this, and I told her just before I left. You can imagine telling a woman who's expecting, If I don't go to New York, the baby could be born crippled, so I went off to New York City again. That was before this episode. I left that bedroom, and I went into my little study. I remember putting a green rug on the floor, and I began to pour my heart out to God. I said, Oh God, I can't take it anymore. It's so heavy. The burden is heavy, and suddenly a black inkiness filled that room, and I heard a still small voice instructing me to stand up. Now friends, I'm not a mystic, and I don't hear voices, but there are times in great crises when God's trying to work something in my ministry that God speaks clearly, and the enemy speaks too. We've got to watch. We've got to call the spirits, and I heard this voice say, Stand up. I want to talk to you, and then it came at me with all the fury of hell itself. You're a publicity seeker. The only reason you're going to New York is trying to be another Billy Graham. You want a name for yourself. You're not interested in drug addicts and gangs. All you want is the headlines. All you want is the publicity. You're a dirty filthy minded. You're no good. How can God ever use you? Aren't you ashamed of yourself? And I fell on my knees, and I said, Oh God, after months of all these trips and everything, and I thought my heart was laid, and now this is what you think of me, and suddenly a scripture came to me. Try the spirits to see if they're God's, and another scripture came immediately. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Suddenly I remembered that if any man sin, there is an advocate, and I stood up, and I said, Lord, I don't know what this is. I can't understand what's happening in my life. I don't know what's happening in my relationship with you, but I can't take it anymore. Even if I am all these things, cleanse me, forgive me, and the moment I said that, that spirit began to curse, and I knew it was the enemy. I knew it was the accuser that stood before God, tried to accuse me before the Heavenly Father that I was not worthy, that God was too hard. The enemy had painted that picture in my mind. I have lost my pure relationship with the Father. You know, suddenly, and I hadn't laughed in four months, I began to laugh, and I began to laugh at the top of my voice, and I could, the Lord said, David, you said your burden is getting heavy, then it's your burden, it's not mine, because mine is easy, my burden is easy, my yoke is light. He said, when you get my burden, it won't weigh you down. You'll be happy, you'll be well-adjusted, you'll do just as much. Now I'm going to show you something, and the scriptures began to pour just like the Lord had a dart, shooting all my balloons down, and I hadn't given my children attention for four months, and it was three o'clock in the morning now, and I remember going into the girl's room, the bunk beds, and I got Debbie out of the top bunk, and I just held her, walked out in the living room area, walking back and forth, just hugging her and loving her and trying to make up for all the time I'd lost, because now it seemed so different, and she was fast asleep, but so far from my affection, she held on like a wire. Subconsciously, she was holding on to dear love, and I stepped in the middle of the living room, and I suddenly, an impulse, drop her on the floor, right now, just drop her, let her go, and I was horrified, and I grabbed her, I would never let her go, she's my girl, and I love her. The Lord said, you're my son, whatever gave you the idea I'd ever drop you, whatever gave you the idea that I would ever let go of my love that I have for you, as much as you love her, I'm your heavenly father, I love you in a more pure love than you could ever love little Debbie, does she run every time, is she afraid of you, oh no no, you ever touch her, except for her own good, would you ever do her any harm, would you ever take anything from her, unless it was for her own good, are you an honest father, what kind of relationship do you have with her, I said nothing would I do for her, except for her good, I love her, I can feel my love going out, my whole heart in love to little Debbie, and suddenly the Lord began to speak to my heart, and if God marks iniquities among us who could stand, the Lord remembers our frame, He knows that we're but dust, and I laid her down, and I danced all over the house, singing and shouting and praising God, and I went over and woke up to Gwen, I said honey, it's all over, I'm not mad at God, and he's not mad at me anymore, everything's all right, and you know what I did, I ran all over the house crying, Abba father, Abba father, the spirit of the Lord had me cry father, and I'm going to tell you something friend, the past six years I have loved him, and he's loved me, I've not been mad at him, he's not mad at me, everything is fine, and I'm going to tell you something friend, there are very few Christian people who've learned this lesson, that God loves with all of his being, I don't care how you feel God, I don't care how weak you are, I don't care how fair you are, I don't care how much temptation you go through, God loves you, oh, he's loved, I'm no better than I ever was, but I have a relationship, what kind of relationship do you have with the father, I will fear, I said every day, I will fear, what kind of evil, no evil, Christians running around scared to death, looking for demons on every rock, the wicked one comes and touches me, no he has nothing in me, that brings me to the third tragic step, the lack of vision, he said so I hit it, you know what he's trying to say, at least I didn't steal it, I didn't borrow it, I didn't ask for it, at least I held on to the end, and he was afraid of competition, he's afraid if he went out to the one with five cows, come on and outside him, now bidding, procrastinating, putting it off, you know it's shocking how many Christian people, especially young people, who think they can just float through life without ever obeying God and his call, I had a girl last night at Edmonton, come into the perm, sat there at this price, and I said did you come forward to accept Christ, he says no, I can't, I said why, she said because of that, and she held up a ring, I said well who is this, well he's a married man, he's left his wife, but he's a Catholic, and he can't marry me, and it's all mixed up, and I can't give him up, I want the Lord, but I can't give it up, she says I've been putting it off, and putting it off, and she said I felt real conviction tonight, she said evangelist Lauren Fox was up here a year ago, and he got me on a conviction, I should have done it then, and now you've got me on a conviction, I should do it now, but she said I'll just have to put it off, so she'll bury it, her decision will be buried, see, Adam said himself, this talent, this man hid his talent, but you can't hide from the call and the touch of God, and from the obligation, I'll tell you something, this church and this pastor didn't choose to sponsor the rallies at Melody Land, that was a divine call of God, God placed that burden here, there are dozens of churches, stronger churches, bigger churches all over Los Angeles, God could have chosen anyone, God chooses, the deacon board, the trustees, and everyone involved in this church, you can either bury it, or you can invest it, use it to the glory of God, and I know how I feel, if there were ever a time that I heard just one little sound, one little ripple of anyone saying well we just can't afford it, then my friend, you are partaker of one who buries the very talent and the vision that God lays at your disposal, what about all those that God has talked to about your life and about what he wants you to do, have you become insensitive to what God wants you to do because you've not had the vision that he wants for you, so I hid it in the earth, a fear of risking, a fear of getting too involved in the work of the Holy Spirit, a lot of people say that they like to come to a church like this because you know there's freedom, nice choir, everybody sings joyfully, makes them feel real good, but they don't want to get too close, a doctor took me out the other day to show me this big camp and everything, he said you know, he said I really enjoy that, then he's speaking of our two things, that's really something, I said you're coming out, he said no I don't think I'm going to make it, he got too much, he got a little too close, he couldn't take it, friends I want to tell you in closing tonight that it is absolutely imperative that you break that muzzle and break it tonight, there are people that should hear right now the sound of my voice that are all muzzled, bound and you'll never be able to be used of God in the position you're in right now, that relationship you have with the Lord is not one of true love, you haven't caught the vision, the right relationship and there's fear that has you bound and I suppose with this I'm going to close right now, if I were able to come and talk to you personally, invite you into the office here and have just a five-minute conference, there are young married couples here whose marriages have been wrecked and ruined because there's bonding, oh yeah, nobody would know the tragedy, nobody knows the tragedy, nobody knows the turmoil of some souls that are sitting here right now, nobody knows what is happening in the lives of some young people here right now and it amazes me that so few young people especially are getting out of Jesus what God intended that we get out of him, he brings such glorious joy and peace and I know something I believe I work for God as much as anybody else, I feel like I'm doing more for the Lord now than I did when I had that bondage and fear and it's such a sinful thing to get rid of that bondage and fear, you have to take the initiative, you have to say I want out of this, I'm bound, I'm muzzled, I'm not in the right terms with God, I'm not in the right relationship with the Lord, I know that and some of you sitting here now know that with every part of your being, you know that your relationship with God is not right, you know that you don't have the right relationship with the Lord and you know there's fear and bondage in your life, I know tonight, I know so clearly that the Lord is speaking to some people here right now about that bondage in your life with God, he's crushed, he's bound.