In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of giving 100% to God rather than just 90%. He shares a story of a man who initially came to Jesus and got saved, but then realized he had been sinning by stealing. The preacher highlights that people's growth in faith depends on the measure of life they bring to Jesus. He also mentions the need for believers to recognize and repent of their sins, such as stealing from God. The sermon concludes with a mention of the preacher's interaction with a woman named Iris, who had spent time in prison but had a strong faith in God.

It's wonderful to think about what he's done for us, isn't it? And I like singing that calls to my attention what he's done for me, and what he's doing for me, and what he's going to do for me. It helps me. Back a couple of years ago, I was making a trip to Houston, Texas every six months to go through a series of tests. And it would take several days to go through these tests. And Mark and I were talking about getting someone to meet me in Houston and just travel around with me during the day while I would go from one laboratory... Well, I can't even say it. Say it for me. Yeah, okay. Laboratory. You might be wondering what's going on. Back when my tongue collapsed, if I try to say a word I don't use frequently, I can't say the word. And so I needed a little help on that one. I hadn't used it in a long time. But I would go to see this doctor and that doctor, and sometimes I'd have to sit in the lab. I worked it out that time. I got to just cut it off. I'd have to sit there maybe for four or five hours and have different tests run. And so I needed someone to just go around with me for a day. And Mark and I decided that Iris Urey would be the one to drive me around. Now, Iris is about 6'3", and she's a little heavy, but she is a girl that spent seven years in the penitentiary, three years in solitary confinement, and she really walks with God. And so we decided that Iris was the one to pick me up and take me to these different places. And it was all set up. And we were in one of the labs having some tests run, and I asked Iris a question, because I'm interested in what comes out of the mouth of babes. And she was just a baby in Christ. I said, Iris, why do you think so many people are leaving the Baptist church and especially going into the charismatic movement, meaning, you know, the subjective experience of tongues? And she says, because of disobedience. And I noticed, I just knew when she said because of disobedience that the Lord had really spoken to my heart through this girl. And I said, what do you mean by disobedience? She said, well, I mean this, Brother Manly, when you get saved, Jesus is all you want. And Jesus is all you need. And as long as you walk with Jesus, there is no desire for anything other than Jesus. Well, he is it. And when you become disobedient, you lose the consciousness, the expression of Jesus Christ in you. And when you lose the consciousness, the reality, the expression of Jesus Christ in you, then you, if you do not go back to Jesus, you start looking for an experience that you can have that will prop you up and let you know that God is somewhere around. And so, the more she explained, the more I got excited. Because I know in my Christian life, beloved, there has never been an experience that's more significant to me than just simply knowing Jesus Christ. And to know Jesus Christ right is to have life that is right. And I believe that Jesus is the issue. You know, we need to know Jesus. I have a hard time expressing what I want to say because I know a great deal more than I understand. And I can only explain to you what I understand about what I know. But what I know and I don't understand, I can't explain it to you. So you're going to have to get the explainer to explain it. That's right, and he will have to explain it to you. But I know this, folks, that a man that would turn aside for an experience beyond, outside of Jesus Christ is a person that's never tasted Jesus Christ as a living Son of God as they should have. And I believe tonight when you have tasted of Him and you've come to know Him as you should, I believe Jesus Christ is all that you need and I believe that Jesus Christ is all that you want. I got a letter some time ago from a man. This man said, Brother Manley, I've been following you for about six or seven, eight years. But he said the other day, I had an experience that got me in. Now if that man had said, I had an experience with Jesus, I would have been excited. I'd have known. But he told me about this subjective experience and what he did here and what he did there. And to me, I just felt in my heart that he'd been lost to the cause of Christ at least for a while and he can come back and get out of adultery, adultery and idolatry, and come back and find that Jesus is all in this world he needs. Now, folks, I get tickled. You have to excuse me making so many references to personal experiences, but I get tickled at this crowd that's telling me that they've got something I haven't got. And I'm all, you know, they just, well, I've got something you don't have. And I know what they're talking about, you know. And I said, well, since you've had that experience, what have you got that I don't have? You know, other than that experience. Or this experience or that experience. And I get tickled when they do not know my background. They say, well, you know, boy, after you're baptized with the Holy Ghost, you can just get healings all over the place. I say, well, if I had healings anywhere else more than I've already had, I wouldn't know what to do with it. You know, I mean, I just, and I'm not picking, I'm trying to get some understanding about what I know so I can tell you what I'm thinking, what I feel. And I get amazed at this situation. But I find that when you're properly related to Jesus Christ, there are some things that will be automatically expressed in your life. When Christ is really real in you, there will be life, there will be life in you. I mean, folks, life is life. There'll be life in you. And I not only believe that there'll be life in you, but when you're properly related to Jesus, there will be character in you. And then not only will there be character, but if the life and the character is there, there will be reproduction. You say, what are you talking about? Well, they were, in the Old Testament there's a story about Aaron's rod. And the people were questioning the fact as to who was the chosen or anointed man of God, priest of God. And so they, with this controversy, decided to take twelve rods and place them in the tabernacle. And they took these twelve rods, one from every tribe, Aaron's rod, placed them in the tabernacle. And the next morning, the next morning when they pulled those rods out, the rod that had the touch of glory, the rod that had the touch of God, the rod, beloved, that God dealt with on that rod was a great big old bud. That's life. And on that rod was a blossom. And folks, that's character. And on that rod was a almond. And that's reproduction. And I believe with all of my heart that when Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, is real to us, I think there'll be life. I believe there'll be life in us. And I believe that life, folks, life is life. You can't have an insufficient amount of life. I mean, it starts and it stops where it starts and it stops. You know, you just, if you've got life, you've got life. Right? And I believe Jesus is that life. And if we know Him right, we have life. I mean, folks, you can't deny life. If you've got life, you've got it. I mean, you might want to get sick. It doesn't change that life, it just changes you. Amen. If you've got life, you've got just as much where you're well or sick. Yeah, that's true. Well, you've got life. Properly related to Jesus Christ, there's life. There's real, genuine life. And these folks that's forsaking life for an experience to prove to them they've got life do not have life. Or they're deceived about the life they've got. Right? You just think about it. While I'm getting warmed up here. Not only is there life, but there is character. That blood. Properly related to Jesus Christ, if we are properly related to Him, there is the fruit of the Spirit, the character, which is the character of God. Amen. You just get right with God, rightly related to Jesus, and that character of God will be just expressed in your life. And then when you get the character of God, something else will come out of your life, and that will be reproduction. I cannot believe in my heart that any man or woman, boy or girl, could possibly be right with God without being a person that God's using to win people to Jesus. Yes, sir. And these three different expressions, I believe, is found in the life of a person that is rightly related to Jesus. Now, there's many ways to say what I'm talking about. You see, when you're rightly related to Jesus, you experience what is known as your first love. The psalmist said, My cup runneth over. There's an abundance of grace, just matchless grace, where God is so real that there's nothing as real as Him. Now, I find in my traveling around over the country and talking to people that the number one problem with the people of God is they do not know how to maintain their walk with God. They do not know how to maintain their fellowship. They do not know how to stay in that first love. They do not know how to walk in a relationship with God whereby there is that constant life expressed in the blossom and the almond, the reproduction. They can't stamp that life out. They can't backslide the life out. They can't get the life out of them if they once have been saved by the grace of God. But they do not know how to stay in a relationship with God that will keep them, my dear friends, not only budding but blossoming and reproducing all the way through. They just do not know how to do it. And you can say what you like, my dear friends. That very likely is the number one problem with every person right here. Because you'll come here and spend a week or a few days and God will speak to your heart and you'll find a thousand things you need to get right with God about. But if you actually knew how to walk with God, you really knew how to walk with God, you would be revived when you came here. And that's so interesting. So the Bible teaches us, what I want to talk to you about tonight is just a couple of things. The Bible teaches us how to walk with God. Now the first chapter of the book of John, 1 John, excuse me, 1 John, the first chapter. This then, the fifth verse. This then is the message which we've heard of him. And declare unto you that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as he's in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Let me read the next verse. My little children, these things write unto you that ye sin not. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sin and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Now, I believe in this portion of scripture, God teaches us some things we can do to maintain our walk with God. Now, I can't say it all here tonight, but I believe that if a child of God can keep their obedience up to date, can keep their obedience up to date and their sins confessed up to date, I believe they can live a life of first love, a life of revival, a life of victory, a life of blessings. Now, I realize that we can say it differently than that, but I just want to deal with this matter of keeping sins confessed up to date, and I want to deal with this matter of keeping life, obedience to life up to date. Here's a lost man. Here's a lost man without Christ. This lost man becomes convinced, convicted, and this lost man has a decision to make. What will I do with Jesus? And this lost man responds to Jesus and comes to Jesus, and this man believes from the heart that proof has been delivered him or her. And when this lost person believes on Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, the Lord Jesus comes into that heart, and that spirit of that lost man and the spirit of God is made one spirit for eternity. I mean that life is one with God for eternity. Now, here is this lost person. This person has responded to the Lord Jesus Christ, and whether you believe it or not, this lost person has responded according to the life that they've been given. I've seen one lost person come down the aisle that not only drank but smoked, and when that person came to Jesus, they knew that all of that junk would have to go. And you know what? That person received victory to the measure of life. And I've seen other people come down the aisle that drank, smoked, and didn't think anything about smoking, and all they got delivered from when they got saved was cigarettes or liquor and not the cigarettes. And it had to be another crisis on down the road. Now, what I'm saying to you is this. People come and they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and they get the victory to the measure of the life they have. You can take a person and let them come to Jesus with a lot of life, and my dear friends, they will be bigger or greater or more mature Christians in one week than some people are that's been in the church for 50 solid years. Now, here is this person that's come to Jesus. Well, in the average Baptist church, you could probably stay a lifetime and not realize that it's wrong to steal. But anyhow, here is this man. Here is this man, and all at once in the message, the preacher's preaching one day, this man realizes that he has been a thief. He's stealing from God. He's stealing from God on his finances. He's been borrowing God's, using God's money. And he's a thief. The preacher stands up and makes a very illogical statement. He says, if you give your 10% to God, he said that 90% you have left will go further than the 100%. Now, that's unreasonable and illogical, isn't it? But you and I know because we have experienced it that brother, you can give your 10% to God and 90% will go further than 100%. We know that. But the devil's sitting right there on this old boy's shoulder that's just been saved and says, that preacher's stupid. He's not only illogical, he's unreasonable, and he is stupid. Do you know good and well that 100% will go further than 90%? This old boy says, well, live or die, sink or swim, go whatever happens, I'm going to trust Jesus with this man. And I'm going to give to God what he calls on me to give. So this man has been in the church now six months. The first light was Jesus saved. The second little crumb of light he's gotten, first little glimmer of light he's gotten is that he's been sinning. And he's been sinning because he's been stealing and now he's going to obey God and give. So he comes to Jesus just like he got saved by the grace of God. He came to Jesus just like he got saved. Well, six more months pass, and the preacher's preaching, and he's preaching something about Jesus, and all at once there's an old boy that says, you know, I've been smoking and dipping and chewing, and that's sin. You know, I've been desecrating this holy temple. He said, well, Brother Manley, I don't see anything wrong with that, but what are you arguing about? I mean, I'm just giving an illustration. And you hear this old boy says, well, I'll tell you what. God didn't give me this habit, and I'll just quit it on my own. I won't go down to the altar and throw my cigarettes down and say, if y'all pray for me, I'm going to quit smoking, I'm going to live for Jesus. I'll just take my pack out and put it up at the house, and if I happen to go back, I will not have made a fool out of myself. And so I, you know, this sort of thing. And so he walks out that night. He puts his cigarettes up on the dresser. He gets him a Bible and sticks it in his pocket. Next morning he gets up. He drinks him a cup of coffee. You say, Brother Manley, that coffee is as bad as that cigarette. We're not talking about how bad junk is. We're talking about being obedient to life. Amen. We're talking about being obedient to life. Amen. So this old boy goes out and gets in the car. There's a bunch of boys smoking. He wants one so bad he can't stand it. He just can't stand it. He wants a cigarette so bad. He may have a great deal of determination. He may last a week. He may last six months. He may even last a lifetime, but he still wants that cigarette. Now, folks, that's not Christianity. That's religion. All he's doing is quitting something on his own. Now, I would advise you, if for no other reason you all just quit on your own because it's sensible. But I tell you what, Jesus can handle that situation. Now, the other old boy, we bring in another boy in this message. This old boy says, You know, this smoking is wrong. It's a sin. And this man is confronted with a fact. What will I do with Jesus? Will I trust Jesus like I did on salvation, like I did on finances? Will I trust Jesus? Seek, swim, or live, or die, whatever. From my heart, I trust Jesus. He simply comes to trust Jesus. Now, I told you about two old boys. Tell me, who's the first one to pull up when he takes things in his hand and tries to quit smoking? Self, that's right. Satan, that's right. The world, that's right. You can just lump it all in one statement and say he's pulled the devil. Right? Now, the second old boy that I talked about, he's gone through these three statements, three phases. Who's he full of? See, he's been obedient to the light. He's been obedient to every speck of light he's received. Now, he's full of Jesus. I guarantee you, folk, you squeeze him, Jesus will come out. If you squeeze that old boy that took things in his own hand, all he did was just cease to trust Jesus. That's all he did. But that's enough. He just ceased to trust Jesus. That was the big issue. I mean, you can have this cigarette business if you want. You can say what you want to about that, but what he simply did was fail to trust Jesus. And when he failed to trust Jesus, then the judgment of God was on him, and he lost his fellowship. Amen. There was still the light there, because his spirit, God's spirit, and man's spirit, it's one spirit. There's still the light there. But there's no longer a blossom. There's no longer the blossom, the carrot of God. And there's no longer the fruit, because it's not coming. Now, you and I have got to learn how to maintain our fellowship. And we first do it by learning how to be obedient to the light that God has given us. You say, Brother Manley, I've been so long on the trail, and so far up the road, I just don't know tonight whether or not I can figure out whether I've been obedient to the light. I've got news for you. You don't have to figure it out. The Lord's got some recording angels that's already got it figured out. Amen. And all you have to do is just get honest and say, Lord, is there any light that I'm not obedient to? Is there any light that I'm not walking in? Is there any issue where I have backed off and rebelled against you? Show me, Lord, show me. Let me see that I've been obedient to the light. Right? And the Lord will put his searchlight on your heart and my heart, and he'll show us whether or not we're obedient to the light. Not only can we rob ourselves of what I'd like to call the glory walk by disobedience to light, but we have to keep our sins confessed up to date. I don't understand why you have to confess sins, but I understand you have to. Amen. I have some boys going around today who says, you don't have to confess them anymore, just believe it's all settled. But there's a little error floating around in that statement. Still have to confess your sins. He's faithful and just. Well, Brother Manley, I don't think I've done any sinning. Well, you may not think you have, but it's not what you think. It's what God thinks. And God lets us know that there's sin in our life. At the best, we sin. Now, we may not deliberately, willfully, knowingly sin against God, but at our best, beloved, we still need to be cleansed of sin. And we need to go before the Lord and ask Him, try me and prove me, search my heart and see if there be any wicked way in me. Expose me, Lord, let me see the sin that's in my life. And then confess that sin and get that sin out. Miss Bertha Smith tells a story. And this story should mean a great deal to this congregation because of the person it involves. Back some years ago, Curtis McCarley and his wife was invited by Miss Bertha Smith down to her house for, I believe, a lunch. They were, well, they drove down to Miss Bertha's for lunch and got to the door. And Miss Bertha met them at the door, met Curtis and Ollie. And Curtis said to Miss Bertha, said, How are you doing today? She said, Oh, I'm doing great today. They had lunch. They left, Curtis and Ollie left, got about halfway home and looked up and here came Miss Bertha, flying in her little old car. Zipped around them, stopped them and said, Brother Curtis, I need to confess to you. He said, What are you talking about? She said, Today when you asked me how I was doing, I said fine. I lied. I had just burned a pan of rose and I was very upset. And said I was lying. Now, folk, listen. There is no way in shape, as long as you stay in this old world and that body of flesh you're living in, as long as you stay in this old world and that body of flesh you're living in, as long as we are in this body of flesh, we will have to confess. There is no level of spiritual maturity taught in the Bible that literally exempts you and me from having to confess our sins one to another and to God and have ourselves cleansed by the blood of the Lamb of God. There's no way to get out of it. So we have to confess our sins. When we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And, Brother, I'll tell you what He does when we confess our sins and He forgives us and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. He puts those sins in the sea of forgetfulness and He can't even remember them. I mean, oh, Brother, I mean, He can't even remember. You bring it up to God. God said, you know that old sin I committed and I confessed six months ago. He'd say, what sin? You know, Lord, how I got mad and how I said this and how I said that. No, He says, I don't know. I can't remember it. He can't, God can't even remember it. That's right. Now, I know you can. I know I can. But God can't. Bless God, that's something, Brother. He can't even remember. Paul, he can't even remember how bad I used to be. And that's amazing, but it's really amazing. I can't even remember how bad you used to be. Amen. So the Lord lets us see, I believe, that when we confess our sins and we're obedient to the life that God's given us, then our fellowship is with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And, folks, if you can get anything better and more satisfying and more successful than fellowship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, just get to it. There's nothing better than fellowship with God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. If there is, folks, God hasn't told us all about it. He's misrepresented the truth. Yes, sir. If there is any subjective experience that's more real than the life that comes from Jesus, folks, I'll tell you what, there is no way to believe that there is an experience anywhere more real than just the person of Christ Himself. I'm not really preaching against anything, I'm just preaching for something tonight. Well, may the Lord bless you. I'm on the quit.