Cornered by Christ

I want everyone to stand if you would, everyone stand. Those of you in the chapel, I would like for you to stand. Those of you in the cafeteria, choir room, I want you to stand. Those of you at home, I'd like to ask that no one slip out of the sanctuary for the next few minutes, listen to the word of the Lord. I believe that the Lord has brought everyone here for this time. I don't believe it's a mistake that you're here and if somebody handcuffed you and shackled you and brought you in this place, it's because you're supposed to be here. We've had people come to this revival, one particular night a man came, sat right in this section over here, he came out of anger. He was furious because his homosexual lover who had gotten saved at the Brownsville Revival was going to be baptized that night and this man came and he sat back here upset and he watched his homosexual, his former lover testify how God had delivered him, set him free and then the man remained. The man remained and the reason we know this story is because a few weeks later he was in the baptismal pool testifying how God had changed his life. And so you can come here, you can come here out of anger, you can come here and not want to be here, but friend I'm telling you, God has brought you here. I believe that without a shadow of a doubt, God has brought you here. I want everyone to pray the same prayer we've been praying since Father's Day. Regardless of who you are, regardless of how righteous you might feel you are friend, we got some holy people in this place. We got some people that are really holy and they're humble and some folks that are really holy, they think they're really holy, they're a stench and you get around them and you can smell it on them. Now I want to ask you sir that you're so righteous you're holy, I want to ask you something. Is your shadow healing the sick? Do people come to your house early in the morning? Do neighbors line up up and down your sidewalk early in the morning because they know you're about to go out to get the morning paper? And when you do, your shadow is cast across the lawn and your neighbors line up their sick relatives out in the grass because your shadow, because you're so holy, so righteous, you've got so much Jesus that healings are just commonplace. I doubt it. So what I'm saying to you friend is there's more. There's more. Nobody has arrived. There's not a perfect man in this place. Everyone should be going after God. So we're going to pray Jesus speak to my heart, change my life and everyone's going to pray that prayer. Everyone pray this prayer right now. Dear Jesus, speak to my heart, change my life, in your precious name, amen. You may be seated. Hallelujah. I want to read you a story. How many love stories? Many of you know that coming to this revival, I'm a collector of old Christian books and that's my only hobby. So if you've got any hanging around the house you don't want, P.O. Box 29, Foley, Alabama. But most of my books have to do with revival or revival related people and I've got several thousand and some of them are 200 and 300 years old. And for example, I brought out here one night of the Fox's Book of Martyrs. If you buy it in the local Christian bookstore, it's usually a volume about this big, maybe a little bit bigger. I've got the original volumes in my office. They're this tall, this wide, this thick and there's three of them. They're leather. It's fine print pictures of Christians being martyred and killed from back in the 16, it's 1684. It's one of the first ones that came out in that large volume. And the reason I love the old books is because that was before other people got a hold of them and took out what they wanted to take out. It's like this book right here. This is called Pioneer Life in the West. Pioneer Life in the West. And we've all seen westerns. We've all seen the shoot-em-up cowboy shows and we've all heard about Wyatt Earp and Wild Bill Hickok and all these wild shows and stuff. We think we know what the West was like but I want to tell you how the West was won. The West was won by the Holy Ghost. And this is just going to be a quick story. This is an example and I'm going to go to the Scripture in just a minute so you critics bear with me just a minute. One lady in this place, she came one night and I pulled out the 1828, it was a copy, I got an 1848 Webster's Dictionary and it's full of Scripture. And those of you who've got the old dictionaries, you'll see that they'll have a word like walk and it'll say to put one foot in front of the other. Well, everybody knows that. And then it would say this, to walk in the Spirit, to walk after the flesh. I mean, it's just a whole paragraph of Scriptures. And one lady was in the service one night and she saw me pull out that thing and she just saw me put out that dictionary. Didn't even wait to see what was going to happen. She saw me pull out a dictionary. I began to share just a couple of words from the dictionary. She began to fume. She got up and walked out, spread on the internet that I don't even preach from the Word of God. I pull out a dictionary every night. People are a trip. I mean, they are. Some of you can come in this place and watch somebody shake like this, their right hand will shake. They've been delivered from pornography, drug addiction, alcoholism. You didn't even hear the testimony. Why? You just can't stand that. You're the one that would be in the temple when Jesus walked in. Healed a blind man right before your very eyes. You'd have been one that said, you can't do that on Sunday. Just listen to a little bit of this. This is how the West was won. And I'm going to talk tonight, this message is entitled, Cornered by Christ. Cornered by Christ. And many of you are experiencing just what this man experienced when he visited a little place in Kentucky. This man wandered into a place that he should have never wandered into, friend. It was called a move of God. And some of you have wandered in this place and maybe you came late and you're sitting in the choir room. I want to tell you, friend, it doesn't matter where you are in this campus. You can be sitting in the bathroom. The Holy Ghost is here. He's all over the place. Listen, this is the West. About this time, a great revival of religion broke out. And by the way, back then when they said the word religion, it meant Christianity. If you said religion to anybody, it meant Holy Ghost on fire Christianity. About this time, a great revival of religion broke out in the state of Kentucky. It was attended with such peculiar circumstances as to produce great alarm all over the country. Reminds me of this revival. It was attended, listen to that. It was attended with such peculiar circumstances as to produce great alarm all over the country. This revival, by the way, friend, and I'm not comparing it with any other revival. I'm just saying to you, this is stirring up the soup. I got a call today from Arizona. How many have heard of the comedian George Carlin? He's been out there a long time, just about as nasty as they come. And he was on a talk show, and they were talking about the Brownsville revival. This was yesterday. I got a call today from Arizona, and this pastor was watching that thing. He said, Steve, it was hilarious because they were reading the New York Times. This revival has been in the New York Times, and they were reading the New York Times. And the New York Times is preaching hellfire brimstone. And so they're talking about the Brownsville revival, and George Carlin goes, that's a bunch of nitwits down there. And the guy looked over and says, I don't see you attracting 3,000 to 6,000 people a night. Shut him up. And they got into it, friend. My friend is sending me a copy of this thing because he said it's a popular show. And they had a congressman on there and some Hollywood actor, basically all just, you know, nonbelievers. But they can't deny that America is pouring into this church. And then filtering out all over the churches all over America, something's going on, and they can't deny it. Well, how the West was won. It was reported that hundreds who attended the meetings were suddenly struck down and would lie for hours. This was printed in 1865, by the way. It was 1863. It was reported that hundreds who attended the meetings were suddenly struck down and would lie for hours and sometimes for days in a state of insensibility. And that when they recovered and came out of that state, they would commence praising God for his pardoning mercy and redeeming love. Well, this old man, he made a mistake. He was a young man at that time. He made a mistake. He heard the rumors and decided to come. I shared with you last night that the New York Times told me yesterday that they had been inundated, day before yesterday, inundated with phone calls. That was yesterday. Phone calls from all over America. People, they read the New York Times and they read about the falling, the shaking, the miracles. They read about things like being delivered from drugs. They read about you can't, just because a man walks, you can walk into a McDonald's and it won't make you a hamburger. You walk into a church, it won't make you a Christian. They read stuff like that and they started calling the office of the New York Times saying, how do I get there? How do I get there? And so, that's what was happening here, friend. You need to remember something. Pastors, those of you that have a problem with manifestations, they will draw the unbeliever. Let the stale, dry, dead religious folks out there dry up on the vine, friend. Let them bark and howl and scream and say it ain't God, but you'll watch someone stand up on a talk show and go, I want to talk to you just for a minute about that. You know, if God's real, I think he could shake a man. You know, if God's real, then he should be able to deliver people from drug addiction and all that kind of stuff. Boy, I'm never going to get through this story. I can tell that right now. But listen, how the west was won. Here he goes. He decided to go. A vast crowd supposed by some to have amounted to 25,000 was collected together. This guy went. The noise was like the roar of Niagara. The vast sea of human beings seemed to be agitated as if by a storm. I counted seven ministers all preaching at one time, some on stumps, others in wagons, and one, now of Cincinnati that I know, was standing on a tree which had fallen, lodged against another. Some of the people were singing, others praying, some crying for mercy in the most piteous accents, while others were shouting. While witnessing these scenes, a peculiar, strange sensation came over me that this guy was unsaved. And I felt as though I must fall to the ground. A strange supernatural power seemed to have pervaded the entire mass of mind there collected. I became so weak. Can anybody relate to this? I became so weak and so powerless that I found it necessary to sit down. Soon after, I left and I went into the woods, and there I strove to rally and man up my courage. I tried to philosophize in regard to these wonderful exhibitions, resolving them into mere sympathetic excitement, a kind of religious enthusiasm inspired by songs and eloquent teachings. My pride was wounded, for I had supposed that my mental and physical strength and vigor could most successfully resist these influence. How many know, friend, you're fighting a losing battle? Those of you that didn't understand any of that, he went to the meeting, he felt weird, so he sat down. He got up and still felt weird, so he ran into the woods trying to get away from the weird feeling, and it was pride. He tried to muster up his strength. What is going on in my body? How come I can't fight this? You can't fight the Holy Ghost. The scene that then presented itself to my mind was indescribable. By the way, he went back over to where all these people were at and stood on top of a log to get a good look. At one time, I saw at least 500 people sweat down in a moment. This is how the West was won. How many know that alcoholism was rampant in those days? God was taking care of America at the get-go. He was going, hey, listen, I'm going to tell you who's Lord. Five hundred sweat down in a moment as if a battery of a thousand guns had been opened upon them, and then immediately followed shrieks and shouts that rent the very heavens. My hair rose up on my head. My whole frame trembled. I love people that will run it off to theological books. Want to know why? He was a heathen. He didn't know what was going on. All he knew, his hair was sticking straight up. His whole body was shaking. The blood ran cold in my veins, and I fled for the woods a second time. And he said, I wished I had stayed home. Friend, it goes on and on. He sat in the woods, musing over what was taking place. And before long, the Holy Ghost nailed him. It's about three or four pages long, so I'm not going to read any more. The Holy Ghost nailed him, and he became convicted over the sin in his heart. Friend, listen to me. This was the Cain Ridge Revival. How many have heard of it? If there's ever a revival, people ask me, what would I like to go visit in church history? I've read about them all, friend. I've read about them all. This is the one. I'd love to be in the middle of them woods. They say drunken men got on horses and started riding through the crowd to disrupt it and were hit by the power of God, thrown to the ground. Some of them lay unconscious for days. Touch not mine anointing. Do my prophets no harm. Well, now turn with me to Acts chapter 9. I'm going to show you just a couple of scriptures. This is rapidly becoming one of my favorite stories in the Bible. I don't think a week goes by where I don't refer to it in one message. It's probably the most violent in the Bible. Everyone look this way. We're dealing for the next few minutes, friend, about being cornered by Christ. And I'm going to put this in layman's terms just like I do every night. Being cornered by Christ is being arrested by the Lord. It's falling under conviction. You can call it anything you want in this place. You can say, I just feel funny. Honey, I think I want to go out in the foyer for a few minutes. I don't feel that good, okay? You ain't sick, Bubba. It's called the Holy Ghost. Just, it comes all over you. And when someone stands up in the baptismal pool and talks about being delivered from a sin, a sword pierces your heart because you know that's in your life. And you start feeling funny. You start feeling queasy. And the devil says, aren't you thirsty? Don't you want to drink a water? Don't you need to go to the bathroom? Wouldn't you like to just go sit in Shoney's for an hour? The devil says all those things to get you out of this place, friend, because he knows what's going on. You're being cornered by the Lord. You're being convicted, friend, by the Holy Ghost. You know what convict means? Listen in the chapel. To convict means to be found guilty. Now, I've been in jail a bunch of times. And every time I went to jail, I deserved it. I knew why I was in jail. Because I'd committed grand theft auto. I'd stolen a car. I was in jail. Every time I was in jail, I didn't sit there and go, man, what on earth am I doing here? I didn't do... Every single time, friend, I knew why I was there. And every single time I stood in front of a judge and I looked at him walking in with that black robe and that hammer on his desk, and you could tell he just really didn't care that much. He was doing his job. He would walk in and sit down, and just the presence of everybody in that place convicted me. I would look around and I'd see everybody looked so perfect, and I was so rotten. You want to know why? Because most everybody was so perfect, but I was so rotten. I was the convict. I was the one guilty for all that stuff, and the judge would sit there and he'd go, the state of Alabama versus Stephen Hill. Oh, dear God, they got the whole state against me. Stephen Hill, you're charged with grand theft auto. How do you plead? And my lawyer would come up. We enter a plea of not guilty. Dear God, man. Guilty as guilty can be. We enter a plea, your honor, I'm not guilty. But friend, I knew, I knew I was guilty, and I was convicted. If I wasn't guilty of anything, I'd walk in that courtroom like everybody else. Are you listening? I'd walk in that place and say, hey, not guilty. I didn't take that car. It got my fingerprints on it, man. I didn't take the car. I'm not guilty. You can see it on a man's face, friend. You can see it on a man's face. Boy, I can preach on that. The eyes tell what's going on inside you, man. I've walked into buildings before and looked at people straight in the eyes, and they'll drop their head, and I'll say, lift your eyes. Look at me, man. Look into my eyes. I'll say, do you know Jesus? And you can tell if they're lying, man. You can tell if they lie to you. They say yes, and you go, don't lie to me. Okay, I don't know him. I don't know him. I'm not talking about church. We do this all the time in the community, friend. Try it sometime. I'm serious. While you're at the Walmart checkout counter, just go, psst. Listen, before I run my stuff through, do you know Jesus, and don't you lie to me? I'm going to tell you why you can talk like that these days. Read it, critics. I'm preaching from the Pensacola News Journal. This is the Pensacola News Journal last month. Is there a heaven? Ninety percent of North Americans say absolutely. Their prospects of going to heaven, 77%, say they're on their way. Is there a hell? Seventy-three percent of North Americans believe there is a literal, burning, hot, sulfur-fuming, fiery hell. I'm telling you, the majority of North Americans believe there's a burning hell. Is anybody listening? Do you believe in the resurrection? This is a newspaper, not me. Do you believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that he was God himself, and he rose from the dead? Lord have mercy, 87% of North Americans say he is a living God. He is alive today, and that is why, listen in the chapel, in the choir room, in the cafeteria, that is why you can look people in the face and say, do you know him? That's why you can say that to him because deep down inside, deep down inside, some of those folks remember, he may be 62 now, but he remembers when he was 13, 14 years old, giving his heart to Jesus at a youth camp, a Methodist youth fellowship camp. He was there, gave his life to Jesus, and his heart was changed. But then he backslid years later and stayed away from God for all these years, and now you're at the mechanic shop with him, and he's fixing on your car, and you look at him and say, do you know Jesus Christ? No one ever confronted him like that. Everybody patted him on his back and said, you're a great mechanic. You're a good father. You're a great provider. But no one ever walked into his home and looked in his face and said, do you know him? Do you know Jesus? I'm a Lutheran. I'm a Methodist. I didn't ask you that. Do you know him? Do you know Jesus? Well, friend, it's getting confrontational in here. That's how the West was won. It was confrontational. Want to be convicted? I'm going to do something tonight, friend. It's Friday night. I can do what I want. But there's some stories in the Word of God, for example, in Acts chapter 9. You know the story about Saul still breathing threats and murders against the disciples of the Lord? Verse 1, he went to the high priest and asked for letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus so that if he found any belonging to the way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. And it came about that as he journeyed, he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him, and he fell to the ground. Didn't we just read that somewhere? And he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but rise and enter the city, and it shall be told you what you must do. That's one example right there, friend. Let's look once again. Let's turn to Acts. Flip it over a little bit and see which one. I've got 42 scriptures written down here. Let's turn to 16, and we're only going to give three. Why, somebody said. Because there's some folks in this place that need to give their hearts to the Lord real quick. And we're not speeding through the Word, friend. The Word's being preached, but there's some folks sitting on ready. They're sitting on ready. I'm talking about being cornered by the Lord. Now, I'm going to use a 1997 illustration for this. How many of you have heard this sound right here? How many of your heart starts doing this? Oh, no. You know what that is? The first thing you do when you hear that sound is you look at your speedometer. And you can be going 55 on a 55, but you still feel guilty. You're going, dear God, they're going to get me. They're going to get me. What have I done wrong? What have I done wrong? Have I abandoned my kids? What did I do? Did I run over my cat? What have I done? They're getting closer and closer, not speeding by you, friend. This is what the Lord does, friend. Some of you, He is nailing you tonight. He's going to tell you to pull over. He's going to tell you to pull over. Now, friend, what I just shared with you about Saul of Tarsus, the Lord did exactly that. He said, Saul, pull over. Pull over. Nailed him, friend. This ain't no siren going by you, boy. This siren stopping right at your residence. Pull over. You are under arrest. That's the work of the Holy Ghost in Acts 16. You read this story when you get home. I'm just going to share a part of it, friend. You remember what happened with Paul and Silas in jail? They were down there singing praises to God, worshiping God at midnight, and suddenly what happened? An earthquake. The jail started to shake. Friend, if God can shake the jail, He can shake you. Started to shake the jail. The jailer freaked out. He didn't know what was going to happen. He had already heard about what happened when Peter got out of jail. Remember, Peter slipped out, and they killed the soldiers that were supposed to be guarding Peter. He had probably already heard that, friend. Maybe it happened before in other areas. So he freaks out, and he pulls out his sword to kill himself, and Paul cried out in verse 28, Do yourself no harm, for we are all here. And he called for the lights and rushed in. Trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. Friend, the Lord pulled him over. I hope you can get the picture, friend. This is for every dense person in this place. It's for every single person in this place, friend. I want everyone to understand this. The Lord is cornering some of you tonight. This isn't one of those nights where you're just going to hear the siren, and He's going to drive on by. He's pulling you over. And the Scripture is full from Genesis to Revelation when He gets a hold of people. He gets a hold of people. Remember the story about the adulterous woman? Y'all remember that? I can feel it right now. Dog, run that thing for me. Here they are. They got the adulterous woman and throw her at the feet of Jesus. And they're going, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you. And she feels it. She feels horrible. She's half naked. She's been committing adultery, and they're all standing there. You, look what you've done. You deserve to die. You deserve to be stoned, and Jesus goes. Those of you without sin, cast the first stone. Whoa. Turn the tables on them. Whole different ballgame now. I never even thought about this until today when I was working on this. Do you know those men could have done? They could have repented. The Bible says they all left, but they could have gone, because they were all guilty, every one of them. That's why they all left. They could have gone. Dear God, forgive us. Forgive me. I'm hurling abuses at this woman. I drug her out of that bed with that man to accuse her, but I am the one, Jesus, with sin in my heart. She has committed the very act of adultery, but I have committed it in my heart hundreds of times. Forgive me, Jesus. He's pulling you over tonight, friend. Is this making sense to anybody but me? I hope it's making sense to you, friend. It's awfully simple, but we need that on Friday night, especially after standing in line all day. Don't weigh me down, Brother Steve. I'm sunburned or rainburned or whatever you got. But the Lord has his way, friend, of nailing you. I'll never forget the opportunities I had to receive Christ, and I turned him down. I'm going to share three quick points with you, friend, and then we're going to pray together. Number one is this. If you're a note taker, take it down. If you're not a note taker, don't take them down. But if you're a note taker, I'm going to be finished in about five minutes or more. If you're a note taker, I'm going to say this slow, note taker, so you don't live in frustration all the days of your life. I had a man call my office not long ago. I thought, friend, that he needed deliverance from a $300 a day crack habit or something the way he was panting over the telephone. He goes, Brother Steve, I got to talk to you, man. I said, what is it? He goes, last night in the service, what was point number three? You know how them people are. You got to give them a title and three points, Pastor. If they don't have a title, if they got title and two points and missed the last one, they ain't going to sleep at night. They're going to bark at their wife. Point number one, when Jesus Christ corners you, it is a sign of his love for your soul. When Jesus Christ corners you, when he pulls you over, it is a sign of his love for your soul. He cares about you, man. He pulled me over on October 28, 1975. He nailed me, friend. He slapped the whole book at me. He read my license plate. He ran a check on me, and it was a long list of offenses, friend. He pulled me over. He nailed me. You want to know why? Because he loved me. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. He loved me. That's why he pulled me over. I have a friend who's a policeman. Matter of fact, I have a lot of friends now that are policemen. You know, I used to never be able to say that. God has restored the years at the locus of Eden. But he's a great cop. And he tells me, he says, Steve, people don't understand. I don't pull them over because I want to. I pull them over because they're going 79 miles an hour in a 35 mile an hour zone. I pull them over because if they kill somebody, they're going to prison. If I don't pull them over when they're driving drunk down the road, they don't understand, Steve. They may spend the rest of their born days, that businessman may spend the rest of his life in prison for manslaughter. Not even talking about all those he killed. Friend, I want to tell you, it's an act of love. It's an act of caring. That's what it is. They don't get their jollies. Now, there's some out there, I'm sure, that are corrupt, but the majority of them will tell you, they do it because if things are being done wrong, it needs to be made right. Jesus pulled me over because he loved me. He had a plan for my life, friend. He loved Saul of Tarsus. He had a plan for his life, and he shared it with him immediately. He said, I've got great things for you. I'm going to show you how you're going to suffer for me. I'm going to tell you what you're going to do, Paul. It's going to be a whole different life. I love you. I'm going to mightily use you, but Paul had no idea, friend, that he was going to be used of God to write most of the New Testament when he was being thrown to the ground, pulled over by the Holy Ghost. What love. What love, friend. Jesus loves you. He's got a plan for your life. It's my life. I can do what I want. No, it's not, and you can't. It's my life. When I watch these kids stick their face in their parents' face and scream at them, you know what I want to do? I want to wind back, because I used to do that all the time. I used to curse my mama. Curse her. Did you know that there was a time that my mama gave birth to me and took me, and the doctor whacked me on the hiney and put me on her breast, and the warmth of her body made me stop crying, and then it wasn't long after that that she began to give me milk from her breast, so I might be nourished and grow up and have life. And thousands of times when I was sick or hungry, she would wake up in the middle of the night and spend all night with me. You know what I'm talking about, mamas. Tenderly love on me and care for me. I'm talking about the love of God, friend. He brought you into this world. He gave you life. Listen in the chapel. Listen in the choir room. He brought you into this world. He's the one that allowed you to breathe when the doctor whacked your rear end and you went, ah-ha! That was God. He lets you breathe. You could have choked and died, but he lets you breathe. He's the one that gave those doctors the mind to where they could obtain the wisdom and the knowledge to bring you out of that birth canal to clip the umbilical cord and to help you to live, friend. He did that. God did that. It's all God. Everything is God. He's the only one. And he's pulling you over. He's pulling you over because he loves you. And for years, I would spit in my mama's face. I would curse her. Many of you have met her. She comes to the revival all the time. My mama, boy, when I was the worst, I've shared this story in here. One night, she came in, and I had a downstairs bedroom in our two-story house, and we had just robbed a major, had just a major robbery, and we had stolen cases of pharmaceutical narcotics, Class A narcotics of morphine. And I had all my friends over, 20, 30 friends, we were laying in the room, and we'd all run up the drugs, and we were wasted. We had all done more than a horse could handle. And we'd taken the needles, and we flipped them into the ceiling, and they were all sticking in the ceiling. Some of them had blood dripping off them. It was a horrible sight, Frank, because we all looked like we were dead. My mom came home. She walked into the bedroom, and she looked at all the corpses lying all over the room. She goes, oh, my God. She ran up the stairway as fast as she could, and I heard her, and I thought she was going to call the police. So I stumbled up from the floor, and I started working my way up the stairway, and I tried to stay right behind her, and she went past the telephone, went down the hallway, and slipped into her room, and she fell on the side of the bed and put her hands, this dear Lutheran woman, folded her hands and put them on the mattresses, and she said, Jesus, save my boy. Save him. Save my boy. I heard that, Frank, and it ripped my heart apart. When everyone else wanted me dead or in jail for life, my mama still wanted me saved. Save my boy. Save my boy. I want to tell you, Frank, God's pulling you over because he loves you, and he's got a plan for your life. You don't know what that plan is. You have no ugly idea what that plan is, but he does. He had a plan for Saul's life. He had a plan for the jailer's life. God knew it would take an earthquake to get ahold of that jailer and to save that jailer's family. Friend, we could talk Scripture all night long. There's so many stories. How many know that? The Scripture's full of stories like this where people were arrested by the Holy Ghost. The second point tonight. You got the first one? When Jesus Christ corners you, it's a sign of his love for your soul. The second one is this. When Jesus Christ corners you, it is to provoke a response. To provoke a response. I want you to run that again. I want you to listen to this. This is going to happen tonight all over America. Why do they have sirens? Why not just a light? They're provoking a response out of you. Slow down. Pull over to the side of the road. Pull over to the side of the road. And all over America. You know what's going to happen? People are going to slow down. They're going to pull over. And as soon as that squad car slows behind them, they're going to floor it. And they're going to get away. Some will get away tonight. Others won't. They'll go to jail. Not only for the crime that they would have committed that they were being pulled over for, but also for resisting arrest. When Jesus Christ pulls you over, it's to provoke a response out of you. And some of you tonight are so stubborn. You're so bullheaded that Jesus is going to stand right in front of you and say, I love you. I have a plan for your life. This is your moment in history. Are you going to receive me as your Savior? And you're so stubborn. You're going to go, no, and you're going to floor it. Saul of Tarsus could have looked up into the heavens and said, Who do you think you are? Bright light in my eyes. God, because of this embarrassing moment you threw me down to the grave, I'm going to persecute more followers than I've ever persecuted before. Strike me with blindness. I'll get through it somehow. And I'll slay your church. Thank God he didn't do that. It's to provoke a response out of you. When a Lutheran minister walked into my bedroom on October 28th, 1975, he grabbed ahold of my hand. He said, Steve, after years of drug addiction, he said, Steve, Jesus Christ loves you, friend. And he pinned me up against the wall. And he said, Jesus Christ loves you. And I looked at him and I said, I don't believe in God. And he said, that's okay. He said, pray with me. I just said I didn't believe in God, man. This guy didn't care. He said, pray with me. And I said, I don't know how to pray. I've never prayed. And he said, that's okay. Boy, I felt the corner closing in, friend, when Jesus corners you. I call this moron level, friend. Any moron can understand this man. He didn't share the four spiritual laws. He didn't talk to me about Revelation or Daniel. He didn't even share John 3, 16. He said, Jesus loves you, man. Pray with me. And I said, I don't know how to pray. He said, that's okay. Just say the name Jesus. Jesus was provoking a response out of me. I'm talking about, friend, this man was prodding me. You know what I could have done? I could have looked at him, Hazel, and I could have said, get out of my face. Get out of my room. I never want to see you in here again. Who do you think you are putting your face in my face telling me God loves me? Look at the junk I've been through. My father died when I was 16 years old. I've had to live on my own. I don't know what it's like to have a good family. Get out of my face, Christians. Slapped them around and kicked them out of my home. But no, friend, Jesus was provoking a response out of me. This is where it's up to you, friend. You can be backed up into that corner. You can come out lashing out like a lion. Let me tell you the incredible thing about Jesus. This is my last point. Charity's going to sing. The third point is this. The fact that he has cornered you, the fact that he has cornered you once does not guarantee he will corner you again. The fact that he has cornered you once does not guarantee that he's going to corner you again, friend. Some of you think because of this fabulous meeting you're in on this Friday night that you have all the time in the world because you felt pretty good here. This feels pretty good. You clapped during the singing. You listened to the preaching. You felt pretty. You even sang some of the songs. This is cool. I feel God in this place. And the Lord's nailing you, nailing you. Play that one more time, Doug. Here we go. Started hearing that about 15 minutes into the baptism. Remember it? People started preaching at you from the pool. That must be for somebody else. God's going to pull somebody else over. Well, now it's around preaching time. Man. No. It's you he wants. He's after you. And you can floor it and drive off, friend, but let me tell you something about the Holy Ghost. Now, the cops will follow you. They'll bring out all the troops. Here's what I've seen about the Holy Ghost. Now, he'll work on you, but the Bible says, and if you ever want to memorize a scripture, Genesis 6-3 says this, my spirit will not always contend with man. My spirit will not always contend with man. What the Holy Ghost is saying to you tonight, friend, is maybe, just maybe, you ain't going to have another chance. Maybe, just maybe, he'll let you die in your sins. God would never do that. Friend, it's obvious. You have a very, very low knowledge of God. If you'll read from Genesis to Revelation, God does anything he wants. See, God has done stuff like this. He's just opened up the earth at times and just swallowed whole families up. Children, puppies, cats, mama, grandma, all, all, all, just kill them all. Why? Because that's what he wanted to do at that particular time. He just decided to kill them all because there's too much sin in the camp. There's too much unbelief. There was too much division. There's too many people that wanted to, had one hand in his and one hand in the devil. And he was saying, those of you in the middle, the earth is going to open up. I'm going to eat you alive because I don't want a divided people. Some of you in this place believe that God would never stop dealing with you. I wish I could bring Ananias and Sapphira up here. I wish they could testify tonight. They would stand before you and they'd say this to you. Those of you that know this story, this is a couple that lied to the Holy Ghost and they were killed in church by the Holy Ghost. Killed in church. They would say this to you. See, they sold a piece of land and gave part of the money to the church when they were supposed to give the whole thing. They would stand before you tonight and say, it wasn't the land that was divided. It was our hearts. Far before we divided up the money, our hearts were divided. One hand in the world, one hand in the church. What does God do? No, no, no, no. Ananias, Sapphira, my spirit will no longer contend with you. It's over. You're gone. See, they were part of the church, friend. You know what that means? God had pulled them over. God had pulled them over. But it's obvious they sped off. They sped off. They didn't deal with everything, friend. They had a divided heart. They had a divided heart. But probably expected because this loving God was doing such great things that he would always just sort of be there for them. That anytime anything went wrong, he was gonna be there. That he might even forgive their divided heart. No, friend. He didn't forgive it. Just because you listen to this last point, charity, I want you to get ready to come. The fact that he has cornered you once does not guarantee he will corner you again. Who do you think you are? Who do you think you are that God has to give you a second chance and a third chance and a fourth chance and a fifth chance when most of the world hasn't had the first chance? It's nauseating to me when I listen to these testimonies in this baptismal pool because it reminds me of America. I love them. But there's part of me that gets nauseated when I hear somebody say, for 10 years the Lord has been trying to get a hold of me. That means for 10 years the siren's been blowing. Lord's pulled them over. They've sped off. Pulled them over. They've sped off. Pulled them over. They've sped off. Who do you think you are that God is going to give you another chance and another chance and another chance and another chance? Now this revival's been going on a while. We've seen some stuff here, friend. We've had people get saved, leave out of the revival and die. We've had people on the way to revival get killed. They were coming. Matter of fact, one man was coming to get saved and on I-10, on the way here, he called ahead of time, told his family, I've had it. I'm not living in sin anymore. I'm coming to the Brownsville Revival to get saved. On the way here, he was killed. I personally believe he went to heaven because God knows the heart of a man. And I believe that man was on his way to give his heart to God. I believe God saw that. We've had people come in this place. We've had people come in this place and one man, his heart exploded after he left this place. Literally exploded in his body. Died instantly. One lady wrote me a letter thanking us over and over again in the letter for her son being saved in the revival because he got back to Orlando, was killed in a car wreck. He was delivered from drugs and alcoholism in this revival and just a short while later, he was killed. Those aren't scare tactics, friend. I live in a real world. I live in a real world. Cornered by Christ. Cornered by Christ. When he corners you, it's to show his love for you. When he corners you, it's to provoke a response. Let me tell you what's happening in America right now, friend. Just like what happened on that talk show out west. It's in your face from now on. It's in your face. That's why the New York Times printed what they printed. It's in your face Christianity. Matter of fact, they put the quotation of the day in the New York Times. I shared this with some of you in a big square in the New York Times which usually is set apart for politicians or some big shot in some area of the world or some actor. The quotation of the day was from the evangelist of Brownsville Assembly of God in the New York Times and it said, you can walk into McDonald's and it don't make you a hamburger and walking into a church won't make you a Christian. Friend, that's in your face. You want to know why the New York Times got away with it? It's truth. It says on the top of the paper all the news fit to print. Truth is fit to print. Everyone stand. Those of you with the chairs, I want you to move them to the left and the right. Chairs moving to the left and the right. No one else moving around. Do not leave the building. Stay inside the building. Just move to the left and the right. Move to the left and the right as quickly as you can. Friend, I'm gonna give this altar call. The gospel has been preached tonight over and over again. It was preached from the baptismal pool. It was preached in song. Richard sang a little earlier, Oh the blood, oh the blood of Jesus. You want the gospel preached, friend, it was preached for about eight minutes in that song. He was wounded. He was bruised for our iniquities, for our healing, for my salvation. Then Lyndle sang, I've been delivered, I've been delivered. The whole the devil had on me. He ain't got no more. See, you wanna know why? See, that's gospel. The Bible says that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. The whole the devil had on me. He ain't got no more. That's why people are dancing. They're jumping up and down. The devil ain't got ahold of them no more, friend. They're free. They're free. But for those of you that missed it while these folks are moving their chairs, Christ, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, came to this earth as a baby, lived 33 and a half years. They nailed him to the cross because he was perfect. But before he went to that cross, for you, sir, Sam, it was for you. Judy, it was for you. Rebecca, he did it for you. Linda, it was his love. He was beaten. They raked his back with a whip full of pieces of glass and bones off sheep. They raked his back. They plowed his back, ripping the flesh all the way to his buttocks. Flesh was ripped off, friend. He should have died during that lashing. He was spat upon. He was beaten. He was whipped. He was ridiculed. A crown was stuck on his forehead. Blood dripped down his face during the heat of that. Right at the time that he was gonna go through all his torment, one of his closest disciples was standing by and said, I've never even known the man. You've been through rejection, friend? Jesus has been there. He's done that. Don't even know him. Cursed. Peter did. Cursed and said, I don't even know the man. What was that look like when Jesus looked at Peter? My God, son, you said you would die for me and now you're whimpering with a little servant girl around a few ungodly sinners. You're denying me. Peter went off and wept bitterly. He was beaten. A beam was placed across his shoulders, not for himself, friend. He was a spotless, sinless lamb of God. He could've commanded 10,000 angels to come and slay the world and they would've come in his beckoning call, but he didn't do that. He drug that cross up to Calvary's hill and it's interesting to me that Golgotha was not a valley. Golgotha was a hill. If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me. And it was placed on top of Mount Calvary, not behind it, nailed to the cross. His feet pierced. His hands pierced. Bleeding, his back scraping up against that wooden beam, friend. His back had been lacerated. Bones were sticking out. And then from the cross, already they had taken his loincloth off and most theologians will tell you he was totally naked. And I've done some research on crucifixions in that time, friend, over and over in my library and almost every one of them agree he was naked. That means, friends, his private body parts that we're so ashamed of anyone saying were in front of everyone. That's why you'll never see a true picture of the crucifixion hanging in your foyer. It's always covered. No man could look upon that. A blood feast. Then on top of all that, he looks from the cross and he sees today, what's today, May 30th? Is it 29th or 30th? May the 30th, 1997, Friday night at Brownsville. He sees every one of us and he sees some of us in hideous sin. He sees some of us in the pits of debauchery, lasciviousness, drunkenness, vile cursings, pornography. He sees us. He sees every one of you that sit in front of that tube and watch people just taking their clothes off in front of you and your hormones begin to rise. He sees that. He died for that sin. He says this, Father, they know not what they do. One of the last things he said from the cross was, It is finished. Friend, he made it clear to the world from this point on, man has a sacrifice. From this point on, if you look to the cross, if you look to the blood of the Lamb, if you look to the wounded Savior, you can be forgiven for adultery. You can be forgiven for pornography. You can be forgiven for masturbation. You can be forgiven for drunkenness. You can be forgiven for drug addiction. You can be forgiven for hatred and bigotry. You can be forgiven if you look to the cross. It is finished. And he went out, friend, when the earth shook and the rocks split open and the veil of the temple was ripped, sirens were going off everywhere. And nailed him right there in the centurion and those around him said, Surely, they were cornered, friend. This was the Lamb of God, the Son of God. Even in his death, he was nailed. How can you neglect so great salvation? How can you turn your head from the Lamb of God that takes away your sin? Greater love has no man than this, that he lay his life down for his friends. How can you? How can you at home be watching this broadcast, feel the presence of God in your living room, feel the presence of God in your family room and have in your hand a miller and in your lap a bowl of popcorn and turn to your wife and say, Man, this is a good program. Friend, it ain't a good program. It's the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He loves you and he's shedding blood for you. It's not just another program. The Holy Ghost is cornering you right there in your living room. You better pay attention. You ain't got no guarantee he's gonna pull you over again. Right now, I'm gonna give this altar call. Every one of you that are backslidden, you're away from God and you know it. You know that you're not right with Jesus. You're gonna have the opportunity of a lifetime right now. He will wash your sins away. You are doing things that Jesus would never do and you know it. That's what sin is. Anything Jesus wouldn't do. When I give this altar call, you better come running, sir. You better come running, ma'am, from the balcony, in the chapel, in the choir room, in the cafeteria. You're gonna come as quickly as you can and those of you at home, you're gonna fall on your face in front of that set and you're gonna say, Jesus washed me, washed me, washed me, cleansed me. Those of you that are religious in this place, I want everyone to listen up. We ain't finished. Religion will damn your soul. Religion is hanging around the cross. Christianity's getting on the cross. Religion is hanging around the cross. Christianity's getting on the cross. America is sick and tired of religion. They're so tired of walking in church one way and going out the same way. They're so sick and tired of sermonettes and non-convicting messages. Why is America flooding this place? I asked you why. They know what they're gonna be confronted with in this place, friend. The word's out. Did you hear me? The word's out. This is not just a refreshing. This is a serious, in your face, as a New York Times man said to me, camp meeting. He said, what you got going on down there, son, is a Holy Ghost camp meeting. That's what this is, friend, and it's in your face. It's in your face. Religious person, you can go to hell with baptismal waters all over your face. You can go to hell with a communion cup in your hand and a wafer in your mouth. You can go to hell with a choir rope on. You can go to hell, like this man said, from the pool with a certificate of ordination hanging behind your desk. If you don't know Jesus, friend, you're going to hell. Don't tell me you don't believe in it because I've already shared with you the polls. Most Americans believe there's judgment coming. Religious person, if you don't wake up in the morning with Jesus on your heart and go to sleep at night with Jesus on your heart, if you're not eating, drinking, and breathing Jesus, if he doesn't consume you, then you need to question your salvation because I do tonight. I question whether or not you know him. I can talk to somebody for two seconds, two minutes. Friend, I'll know all about their life. I meet them all the time, everywhere I go because people know about this revival. I've watched people. I'll be walking through Walmart and they'll do everything to get away from me. They'll see me coming. They go, dear God, he's coming up the Pepsi counter. You can see it. Why? It's confrontational, friend. And I have other people walk up and apologize to me. I've had people come up and say, hey, brother Steve, listen, I'm not living the way I should. Hi. That's what they'll say to me. I'm not living the way I should. Listen, but I'm gonna get right. I'm gonna get right. Hey, man, I'm just here buying some hamburger. What are you doing? No, I'm gonna get right. Friend, these are religious people. They go to, you can trace their trail back to a little Methodist church or a little Pentecostal church and they sit in that pew Sunday after Sunday and like the man said from the baptismal pool a couple weeks ago, I would sit through church, get in my car, go home, hook up my boat, get a six pack of beer and get sloppy drunk. Hello, America. That is America in a nutshell. If you could only hear, pastors, what's going on inside those closed windows as they leave your church, you better have a blanky, blank meal ready for us. Honey, why don't we just spend some time with the kids? I ain't gonna spend no time with the kids. I'm gonna watch a football game. Well, what happened to that man in there that was singing amazing grace, taking up the offering or even singing a song? Friend, I'm telling you, if you're religious, you're going to hell. This is a relationship thing. Do you know him? And for those of you in this room that have never known the Lord, come tonight and meet the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Meet the one who can change your life forever. He can turn you around. He'll turn you around. He'll set you right side up, friend. He'll make a change in your life. You'll never be the same again. You will never be the same again, friend. But I don't know anything about God. Come anyway. When I got saved, I knew nothing, and he turned my life around. Come to him tonight, witch, warlock, drug addict. Come to him tonight, religious person. Those of you that have never known the Lord, you've come running to this altar. Last night was so precious, and I'm closing with this. I was walking around this way. I prayed for a girl right here, and she was just with her eyes wide open, just looking at me, unsaved. Prayed for her right here. I walk around over here, walk down this side, and there she is again just standing there. And a friend of hers says, tell him, tell him, tell him. She's just standing there. I'm going to tell me. He's going to tell him. I want to get saved. I want to give my life to Jesus. I said, you're telling me you made it all the way through that altar call. Now you want to get saved? I want to get saved. I want Jesus Christ to come into my heart. I want to get saved. So right there, stuff happens in this revival, friend, all the time. You have no clue. People get saved out in line. She got saved right over there in that corner. What a holy spot that was last night. But talking with her, let me tell you something, friend. She didn't know nothing. All she knew is that God was in this place. She had no clue what was going on, but she knew God was here. Right now, Charity's going to sing Run to the Mercy Seat, and when she begins to sing, the only thing that's going to keep you back tonight is pride, friend, P-R-I-D-E. That is the most damn little characteristic you could possibly have. Pride says, what does my mom think? What does my husband think? What does my boyfriend think? What will she think if I go forward? What will he think if I slip out of the balcony? What will she think if I slip from the choir room down to the front? What about me in the chapel? What's my boyfriend going to think if I go down? Friend, you came into this world alone, and you're going to leave alone. It's about time you start living like that. It's up to you and you alone. Who cares what anybody else thinks? Make up your mind. Who are you going to serve? Right now, Charity's going to sing Run to the Mercy Seat. Break those shackles off of you and come as quick as you can. Don't hesitate. Don't wait. If you're away from Jesus, if there's sin in your life, and you know it, I want you to come right now. Hurry. Hurry. Hurry. Right now. Let's go. Let's go. Come on. Hurry. I need the Lord. Come on. Come on. Come on. Hurry. Let's go. Come on. Hurry. Hurry. In the balcony. Let's go. Come on. Come on. Hurry. Hurry. Hurry. Hurry. Come on. Hurry. Let's go. In the balcony. Let's go. Come on. Come on. Hurry. Hurry. Hurry. Hurry. Bring him around. Come on. Come on in the balcony. Let's go. In the chapel. Let's go. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Hurry. Hurry. Hurry. God bless you, Steph. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Go. Charity's going to start this song again. Cut it. She's going to start this song again. I want everyone to turn to the person next to them and ask that person next to you Do you need forgiveness? And if they ask you that do not lie and then both of you come down together if that person needs to be forgiveness right now Everyone do it ask the person next to you if they need forgiveness if they need Jesus Christ to forgive them Then bring it down bring it down right now. Come on sing it again charity. Let's go In the darkness Oh It will provide the healing I'm running to the mercy seat I'm running to the mercy seat Lord have mercy Lord have mercy Come running, come running Are you living where hope has not been Lost in a curse of a lifetime of sin Lovely illusions, they never come true But I know where there's a place of mercy for you He said that you could come and choose To rest without fear And to the holy place where mercy hovers near Come running, come running To the mercy seat But Jesus is calling His grace will be uncounted He will provide rest He will provide life again Come running to the mercy seat He said that I could come and choose To rest without fear And to the holy place I'm running, I'm running To the mercy seat But Jesus is calling He said His grace will cover me But till the Lord's praying It will provide the healing I'm running, I'm running I'm running to the mercy seat But Jesus is calling He said His grace will cover me But till the Lord's praying It will provide the healing I'm running to the mercy seat I'm running to the mercy seat Come on down, come on down I'm running to the mercy seat Friends don't rush this time People are still coming Bring them down, bring them down God bless you Some of you are saying Don't give up on me preacher Friend I'm telling you right now I'll keep calling you But you better make up your mind You better make up your mind Make up your mind Get out of your seat right now And come Then you'll help us One time through here bro Come on Everyone at the altar Stay right where you're at In the chapel let's go Cafeteria let's go Choir let's go Come on Pull them over Jesus Pull them over Jesus Corner of the Lord Come on God bless you again Come on Come on God bless you Everyone at this altar I want you to bow your heads Everyone at this altar Bow your heads Close your eyes Don't be looking around Everyone at this altar Bow your heads Close your eyes We're gonna pray right now I want everyone else In the congregation To be quiet please Tap that person on the shoulder Everyone at this altar Give your heads bowed right now Please have that person stop Everyone at this altar Bow your heads Everyone at this altar Bow your heads Close your eyes This is a sacred moment And I know whoever that was Has an intercessory prayer But the Lord would say unto you I know why I've answered your prayer I have heard your cry I have heard your cry There are miracles After miracle After miracle at these altars And if anyone was here in this place And you have not heeded God's call You will leave out of this place Knowing without a shadow of a doubt That you had the opportunity Of a lifetime You'll never be able to stand Before God and say God you did not give me a chance From this moment on You will be held accountable Everyone at this altar I want you to close your eyes And pray this prayer out loud with me And do not mumble Some of you are coming to the Lord For the very first time Others are backslidden Others are religious You've never known the Lord You've been in church all your life But you've never really had A relationship with him Regardless of your circumstance I want everyone at this altar Those of you at the altar In the chapel Choir room Cafeteria And at home Pray with me out loud right now Out loud Dear Jesus Thank you For speaking to me Thank you Jesus For cornering me Thank you For not leaving me alone You have spoken to me And tonight Jesus I hear your voice And I am obeying it I am obeying it I have sinned I have hurt you I've hurt others And I've hurt myself Forgive me Jesus Cleanse me Take this sin from me Wash me clean Make me new I ask you tonight To be my Savior My Lord and my very best friend, from this moment on I am yours and you are mine. I give myself 100% to you and from now on when I hear you speak to me, when I hear your voice, when I hear that sorry, I'll pray for you.