The Harvest Heart - Part 3 - Pastor Philip Steele - May 31st, 2026

Hi, my name is Michelle Steele.

Pastor Philip and I want to thank you for listening to this message from Life of Faith Church.

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And let's go to Matthew chapter 5 today.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

I want to continue with what we have uh started.

I've entitled this A Heart for the Harvest.

And uh we're in the middle of our month of influence.

Well, we're actually getting towards the middle of the time.

The end of May.

And uh June 14th, of course, is our Salvation Sunday.

And uh we're believing for uh newcomers to come to be born again by the power of God, or just save newcomers, just looking for newcomers and uh looking for people that uh to be touched by the word of God and by the gospel, and uh either as uh you leave or when you came in, we are giving every person each week these tracks, the purpose of your life, and uh we're just asking you to pray about who you can share these with, who can you invite for that Sunday uh morning to bring them to church.

And uh we also have a uh a uh Salvation Sunday goal uh sheet that we put out.

These are also uh in the media center.

You can grab one as you go out, and uh what we're uh asking uh each member to do if they can uh to uh pray for it, to believe God, to invite somebody, to uh bring somebody with you on that Sunday.

Um but nonetheless, a heart for the harvest, and in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 13, Jesus makes a statement concerning uh two things, and we'll read down through verse 16.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

He says, You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted?

It's therefore good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden underfoot of men.

Then he says, You are the light of the world.

A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.

Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it gives light unto all that are in the house.

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Jesus said that we are something.

He said, We are salt and we're light.

We're salt, say it out loud, I'm salt and I'm light.

Now we're gonna look at this uh uh a little bit in the beginning of the message in depth, but he says, we are salt and we are light.

Salt and light are influencers.

All right, they they they influence things in in whatever area.

All right, the the the minimal influence of salt is that it influences the taste of your food.

It'll take something bland and give it a little more taste.

Right?

That's the minimal influence.

Salt's very powerful.

We'll get into that.

But then he says, your salt, but then he said your light.

And he said that light, the light, lightens the house.

All the way through the four gospels, Jesus always used a house indicative and describing a man's life.

All right?

When when he he said uh a man that hears the word and doesn't do it, he said he's like a man, his life is like a man that built a house on the sand.

And what did he say?

He said the floods rose, the winds blew, the storm came, and that house was destroyed.

But he said, I'll also liken a man that hears my word and does it to a man that builds his house, his life on the rock.

And the same storm comes and the same flood and the same winds, but that house stands.

That man's life will be unaffected.

Everybody is going to face challenges in our lives.

Everybody's gonna face things in our life.

It depends on what you're founded on.

And he said, when you hit that that the light lightens the whole house.

Your life is full of light.

And then he goes on and he says, and here's the thing: once you start lighting your life, you become like a city on a hill and you cannot be hidden.

And he said, People will see your good works, people will see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven.

Hallelujah.

But how?

By just letting your light shine.

You know, there's a lot of truth to that song we used to sing in Sunday school.

This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine.

Hide it under a bushel, no, I'm gonna let it shine.

Right?

Then we'd sing what we sing.

Won't let Satan blow it out.

I'm gonna let it shine.

Say out loud, I'm gonna let my light shine.

Oh, hallelujah.

So as our light shines, we become like a city on a hill.

We can't be hidden.

As our light shines, people begin to see what God has done for us, and they'll glorify Him.

We talked last week about how the greatest thing that you can tell people is just what God has done for you.

Now you have become a light.

Every time you come back into your job, it'll be in their mind.

You know, they told me this is where they were, but you know, they got saved, they got God in their life, and this is where they're at today.

Things changed.

Everywhere, every time you come in, your light comes in before you.

Oh, hallelujah.

Then he said, You are the salt of the earth.

You are not going to be, but you are the salt of the earth.

Amen.

That's our identity.

My identity is the salt of the earth.

Salt in the first century A.D.

was one of the most valuable commodities in the world.

You know, I've heard preachers preach, well, you know, yeah, we're the salt of the earth.

You know, we get we get into the we make the earth, we make the world uncomfortable, and we do this and we do that.

But that's not what Jesus is talking about.

It was one of the most valuable commodities in the world.

Salt was so valuable that people paid themselves wages in salt.

Roman soldiers had their wages paid to them in salt.

Well, why?

Well, number one, because there was no refrigeration.

If you wanted to keep anything long term, you had to pack it in salt.

It had to be kept alive, it had to be kept from perishing.

Amen.

Valuable substance.

The highest purpose for salt in the first century was to preserve and protect.

And if you wanted something preserved, and if you wanted something protected, you had to pack it in salt.

Amen.

You know, if if there's something I see so very often is this is that the church kind of takes this quiet martyr syndrome on.

You know, the church kind of gets over in this martyr syndrome.

You know, everybody's against us, and and and you know, nobody likes the church and and and and all these evil people.

Listen, listen, that doesn't matter at all.

There have always been evil people.

Jesus said, You be hated of all people for my sake.

And he said, but don't worry a bit about it because your father will take care of you.

Don't, he said, don't wonder, don't, don't wonder that the world doesn't understand you.

They don't understand me.

And he said, Here's why.

You're not of the world, just like I'm not of the world.

Amen.

When when I talk about being an influence, I'm not talking about fitting in.

I'm not talking about falling into a mold.

I'm talking about letting your light shine and being the salt influence that God called us to be.

Amen.

So you would pack that thing in salt and protect it.

So God looks at the broken society in the world, and what's his response?

Pack the world with believers.

God looks at everything that's going on in the world and he puts believers right in the middle of it.

Oh, hallelujah.

If we're the salt of the earth, God is calling us to keep back the decay in the spheres of our influence.

Amen.

This is you being in influence.

When your child's not thinking right, and you go in their bedroom at night and you lay your hands on them and you say, No, you don't, Satan, you're not gonna have this one.

This one is bought by the blood of Jesus.

This is the righteous seed.

I'm not gonna let you have this child.

Amen.

This is you being an influence when you get up every day and you get in your prayer closet and you say, Father, today, let your will be done in the earth as it is in heaven in the name of Jesus.

I will not tolerate those things coming against my family.

I will not tolerate those issues coming against my children.

I will not tolerate the plan of the devil in the lives of the people that you've given me the governance over in the name of Jesus.

I will not allow it.

I'm pushing back the decay, I'm pushing back the brokenness, I'm pushing back the pain, I'm pushing it back.

I'm gonna be the influence that you've called me to be.

Hallelujah.

Do you see that?

It's never a situation where you say things like, I don't know what I'm gonna do, and I don't know what I'm gonna do with this one, and and and little whatever their name is.

They just, you know, they're deciding that they don't want to go after the things of God.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You're the one that pushes back the decay.

Don't give in to the decay, don't give in to the plan of the enemy.

Just listen, go and get in your place of prayer and fight the good fight of faith and make a declaration that you're pushing back the decay, that you're pushing back the rot, it's not gonna infect my family, it's not gonna infect my church, it's not gonna infect my life.

We're stopping it in the name of Jesus.

Why?

Because God packs society with believers.

That's why he tells the church over and over again who we are, the power we have, the authority we have.

And when he took the disciples to Caesarea Philippi, Caesarea Philippi was one of the most wicked places in the whole of Judea.

It was where they they had pan worship.

All right, the Greek god Pan, they would have pan worship there, all kinds of uh uh uh sexual orgies and all of this horrible stuff that would go on.

And it was right there in that environment that Jesus stopped with the disciples and he asked them the question.

He said, Who do men say that I am?

And you remember what they said.

Some say you're John the Baptist, some say you're Elijah or one of the prophets.

And Jesus said, But who do you say I am?

And they said, You it's Peter said, You're the Christ, the Son of the living God.

He said, Flesh and blood is not delivered this unto you, but my Father, which is in heaven.

Then what did he say?

And upon this rock of revealed knowledge of who I am, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against my church.

Will not.

Why?

Because we're the salt in the earth.

We're the ones that are pushing back the decay.

Listen, the church is not on the defense.

We are on the offense.

It's not the world is against us, it's that we're in the world and the world doesn't, the by Jesus said this.

Jesus said, the problem is the light came to the world, and men love darkness more than they love light, and because they love darkness more than they love light, they turned away from it.

Listen, the light is shining.

There's nothing wrong with the church.

The church is on its game, the church is doing what God wants it to do.

We've just got to realize this is what God wants us to do and go after it.

Hallelujah.

This is not just about making sure you talk to five more people a day.

It's understanding that everywhere you go, you're salt and light.

He said, all you got to do is let your light shine.

No matter what it is, no matter, listen, no matter how what God saved you from.

I told him Wednesday night, everybody in this room, you might say, Well, I don't have a very big testimony.

Let me tell you how big of a testimony you have.

You were lost and undone.

You were on your way to a devil's hell, and nobody could do anything about it.

You couldn't save yourself, nobody could save you, nobody could take you out of that trap.

But one day, the man from Galilee stepped into your life and shin the light of the love of God in your life, and you accepted him.

And in a moment, in a split second, you were redeemed and brought into the family of God.

What better testimony is there than that?

I was hopeless.

And everywhere you go, that light is shining.

Everywhere you go, that influence is being made.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

God put you on the job He put you on to push back the decay on that job.

God put you in the neighborhood He put you on in to push back the decay in that neighborhood.

God got you in touch with the friends He got you in touch with to push back the decay in their lives.

Oh, hallelujah.

Glory to God.

We're the salt of the earth.

We're the light of the world.

Too often, when the church teaches about evangelism, the implied message, intentional not, is that, well, you know, you're just not doing enough.

And what that does is it produces frustration and failed attempts at evangelism.

Alright?

You need to talk to people about the gospel.

We're trying to make it easy.

You need to give them a track.

You need to uh reach them however you can.

But the number one way you do it is let your light shine and be what you are.

Oh, hallelujah.

Look at Matthew 16.

Excuse me, Matthew 10.

Matthew 10 and verse 16.

Hallelujah.

That's you being an influence.

I think there's something to be said, and you gotta understand something.

When I say there's something to be said for and and and we call it old school, we call it whatever, listen, I I understand that there are things in what we call old school that that were done away with that should have been done away with.

I I understand.

But there's some things today that should be done away with.

But there's something to be said.

Listen, the way God has always done things, we believe that we receive what we say.

We decree a thing, we declare a thing.

But folks, listen, I don't care what you're dealing with.

If you're believing for a family member, a child, a son, a daughter, a grandchild, a granddaughter, a grandson, there is there is no substitute for a grandmother or a grandfather on their knees before Jesus Christ, saying, Father, I thank you that the righteous seed will be preserved in the name of Jesus.

I thank you, Father, that those you have given me, I will lose none of them in Jesus' name.

I thank you, Father, that my grandson is serving you with his whole heart and his whole mind.

I thank you that my granddaughter is serving you with her whole heart and her whole mind.

That is you being an influence, pushing back the rot, pushing back the decay, not allowing the devil into your family.

Hallelujah.

You're the gatekeeper.

You're the one that says, this far and no further.

Amen.

Do you see that?

Well, I don't see a change.

It's not your listen, looking for the change is not your job.

Doing your job is your job.

Hallelujah.

You know, when a pharmacist gives you something, maybe you go and you need an antibiotic for something.

And you go, he gives you the prescription.

He doesn't see if it works or not.

His job is to give you the descrip the prescription.

Your job is to be salt and light.

You leave the results to God.

My job is to be salt and light.

Amen.

I prayed for children and have them tell me, look, I'm never going to serve God.

What they didn't understand was that just up my prayer time for them.

The reason they were saying that was they were feeling convicted that God was tugging on them.

Why?

Somebody was praying, somebody was being salt and light, somebody was packing the earth with the influence of God's light.

Oh, hallelujah.

Oh, hallelujah.

And if and if I can say this and not have you misunderstand me, we need to declare the word.

I declare the word every day.

I confess the word of God every day.

But folks, it doesn't stop there.

You don't just say in the name of Jesus, all my kids are saved.

Laddie dot.

That's that's not how you do it.

You gotta declare the word over them every day.

But you might get woke up by the Holy Ghost at two o'clock in the morning to go pray.

And you might have to spend two or three hours in prayer.

Why?

Because the devil's trying to mess some things up.

But there's a praying mother or a praying father that's gonna pack the earth with the influence of God's salt, and we're not gonna let that happen.

No, sir.

No, we're not gonna do it.

Why?

Because we're the influence in the earth.

Oh, hallelujah! And that's that's you, right?

That's you.

That's when you when you're walking the halls around your babies, your grandchildren, and you're putting oil on their bedroom doors, and you're putting oil on their stuff when they're not there.

People say, Oh, that's that's old-fashioned, that's whatever.

No, that's you being salt and light.

That's you saying, Not in this house, not in this family, not in this generation.

Oh, hallelujah.

I say, oh hallelujah.

You know, when I was raised up, the last thing you wanted if you were trying to run from God is your mother giving your name to the prayer group.

That's the last thing you wanted.

Because they're gonna pray heaven and earth together, and they're gonna get you saved, and you're gonna be miserable.

Amen.

I think sometimes we don't pray like that enough anymore.

God make them miserable, kick every prop out from under them.

God terminate every relationship that they have that's trying to bring them away from you.

Yeah, but they love that guy.

Yeah, but he's not saved.

He doesn't want to go to church, he wants to pull them out of the house of God.

Get rid of him, God.

Get rid of him, move him out of there.

Ever how you gotta do it.

Give him another job in another state.

Bring some other fine, pretty young thing along that doesn't care anything about God.

Do whatever you gotta do, but get rid of him.

Yeah, but I just want her to be happy.

But she might go to hell.

That's not what we want.

Kick the props out from under them.

Pull everything away from them that they trust in, other than you.

Amen.

I think we gotta pray that way.

I think we gotta pray that way and declare the word of God.

All my children will be taught of the Lord, and great will be the peace of my children.

Father, break that stubborn streak in their life.

Show them they can't have a good life without you.

Show them, Father, that you're the source of every good thing, everything they're depending on that's not of you.

Break it, Father.

I kick it out from under them in the name of Jesus.

Break that pride in their life.

Show them they can't make it on their own.

Glory to God.

And you get grandparents praying that way, and you get parents praying that way, they Don't man, they don't stand a chance.

Hallelujah.

Amen.

And don't be ashamed of that.

My mother was never ashamed to tell me how she was praying for me.

She'd look at me, and her favorite word was doggone you.

And she'd say, I'm praying for you, doggone you.

And you're gonna live for God, doggone you.

I thought, you know, if she wasn't saved, she might cuss.

I don't, I don't know.

But it worked.

I say it worked.

Doggone you, it worked.

You know, Brother Hagin said something one time.

Another man said it, Brother Hagin parroted it.

They were talking about John Alexander Dowie, and John Dowie uh was from Australia and he was mightily used by God uh in the realm of healing and miracles.

But he got off towards the latter end of his ministry.

He started believing he was Elijah.

And and uh he had founded Zion City, Illinois, which still exists to this day.

He founded Zion City, Illinois as a city of healing and and peace, but he he got off.

But yet you you take a man like that, and they brought a lady to him one time that had a cancerous tumor on her face.

Of course, back in that day, that you know we can say you know that there wasn't as much medical advancements as today.

It was hanging there like a purple eggplant on her face.

And the doctors said there's nothing we can do.

That the doctors brought her to John Dowie and said, but we we think he can.

And he looked at her and prayed and just reached up and said, In the name of Jesus, and just started peeling that tumor off her face.

And in a few moments, he was holding that tumor in his hand.

No scar, brand new skin.

Now that's powerful, powerful healings and miracles.

But here's what Brother Hagin said.

One one another man said it.

He said, you can follow Dawi's faith, you just can't follow his doctrine.

Because he had no problem believing for healing.

Just couldn't follow his doctrine.

You know, folks knew how to, and they still do, but you gotta understand, for the sake of what I'm teaching on, they knew how to pray.

If they didn't know to do anything else, they knew to pray.

Get up out of bed and pray.

They'd fast till the belly button touched the backbone and pray.

They may not have even understood why they were fasting, but they were fasting and praying because that's what they saw in the word.

And you couldn't go with all their doctrine.

They might be praying for you and then tell you God will break your leg to teach you a lesson.

Well, God's not doing that.

You couldn't follow their doctrine, but they had faith to pray all night if they had to.

Because they're pushing back the rot, they're pushing back the decay.

Matthew chapter 10 and verse 16.

Matthew 10 · chapter mention

Notice what Jesus said.

He said, Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.

Be therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

Be wise, have discernment, good judgment, be intelligent.

Hallelujah.

Then he said, and harmless as dust, unmixed.

See, there's that godliness again.

There's no worldliness in us.

Not one amen.

There's no worldliness in us.

We're not of this world.

We're of the kingdom.

You you want to know why you don't sin?

It doesn't attract, it doesn't attract you.

You're not attracted by it because you're not in this world.

Or you're not of this world.

I'm unmixed.

Amen.

Innocent, harmless, simple.

Be harmless, be innocent, be as simple as a dove.

So as salt and light, we use good judgment.

We're intelligent, we're harmless.

Why?

Our purpose is innocent and simple.

We want to see people born again.

That's our purpose.

We're innocent and simple.

Amen.

We're not just to get people born again, numbers, but we reach the ones God sends us to.

This is important.

Hallelujah.

Just like you know, Jesus said, don't cast your pearls before people who don't want them.

There are people that are not ready, and they keep rejecting the gospel.

They're not ready.

You know, I said Wednesday night, the problem is there's no red, yellow, or green light on a person's forehead.

So I gotta be led by the Spirit as if they're ready or not.

Your efforts are frustrated when you're not going where God wants you to go.

Oh, hallelujah.

I remember one time we were evangelizing, uh, my parents had a church in uh Goodlitzville, Tennessee, and we were out in the neighborhood, and uh it was it was a lot more effective than it is today, before people came even more private today than they were knocking on doors.

And that there's a couple of ladies they went to this man's uh trailer, and when they knocked on the door and said what they were there for, he immediately began, you know, arguing with them.

Well, I don't believe in God.

And and you know, there's so many gods, and there's so many this.

And they came and got me and said, Well, he don't believe, and he don't this, and he don't that.

And here's my mindset.

Well, he's told you he don't believe.

I can't make him believe.

I'm not gonna go argue with him.

I've had people come and say, This guy wants to argue this, Pastor, will you come talk to him?

No, I will not.

Why I'm not gonna go argue with him.

If he wants to argue, he's not open.

Amen.

I had a guy come to me.

We had a ministry on the on the streets in in Kansas City called Jesus on the Avenue, Independence Avenue, uh uh, bad area of town there.

And we were there for a number of years.

And uh a guy came up one time and and I was talking to him, and I said that, you know, talk to him about how Jesus loved him.

He goes, Oh, I don't, I don't, uh, I don't believe in God.

I said, You don't?

He said, No, I don't believe in God.

I said, Well, uh, you know, we we talked a little bit.

You know, when somebody says, I don't believe in God, you know, you can say, Well, look at the sky, look at the stars, look at this, look at that.

You know, you ought to believe in God, but that's not gonna do no good.

Because they have a reason that those stars exist outside of God.

They don't believe in God.

But this man, he was kind of easy, because this man said, He, we began to talk about some things, and he said, Well, you know, he said, uh, I really had some hurt not too long ago.

I said, Well, what happened?

He said, Well, my grandma died.

And I said to him, I said, Well, let me ask you a question.

Did your grandma go to heaven?

And he looked at me, he goes, Oh, yes.

I said, I thought you said you didn't believe in God.

And he said, I see what you mean.

Right?

But here's what I'm uh I want you to understand.

We're not out to just get people born again in the sense of numbers, but to reach those that God sends us to.

Amen.

Look at look at Acts 13.

I want you to see something here.

You're pushing back the darkness, you're pushing back the decay.

Acts 13 and verse 45.

But when the Jews saw the multitudes, now remember the Jews rejected the gospel, and Paul said, Okay, we're gonna go to the Gentiles.

And man, they had a revival, and all kinds of people showed up, and then the Jews saw the numbers, they got upset.

When they saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming.

Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you, but seeing you put it from you, you reject it and judge yourself of unworthy of everlasting life.

We turn to the Gentiles because you reject it, because you'll have nothing to do with it.

So, what does that mean?

There are times that you share the gospel with people and they reject it, and here's your job.

And go on.

I can pray for them, but that there are people that every when whenever I'm around them, I know they need to hear the good news.

I've shared the good news with them, but I don't I don't I don't talk to them anymore because they've rejected it time after time after time after time after time, and I got to get to the place where I quit throwing the good news of the gospel at a pig's feet.

This is precious.

So it's not just numbers.

Do you understand that?

I'll show you this.

It's not just numbers.

The church is the only entity in the earth that has the ability to get the baby saved and then bring them to a place of maturity.

The church.

Amen.

So we want to go, we want to be where the Holy Spirit is directing us.

Amen.

I had a friend one time, and we would go on uh outreaches, and every year we would have an outreach in this certain park.

Uh that we had favor with the city, and we would have an outreach, and and we had we had shifts, different people would come.

And uh this guy, he would come, he'd stay all day.

But here was his thing: he he would go out in the park, and his big thing was telling you how many people he had gotten saved.

You'd show up and he'd say, Yeah, I already got 20.

Okay.

But that was what he was shooting for.

Just numbers.

If you were to ask him, well, where, you know, is that person that you talk to, are they ever going to come to church?

Are they gonna be a part of a body?

Well, I don't know.

Because there's no follow-up in place.

I have another friend that that does so winning.

And, you know, he talked to me one time.

He said, I used to be concerned about follow-up.

He said, and he said, I talked to somebody that told me, well, my job is to sow the gospel seed.

But the model in the book of Acts is that people get saved and then they get connected to the local church.

And then they're grown up in the things of God.

Brother Hagin was ministering in a church one time, and you know how Brother Hagin would tell stories, and he said he was he was in this church and he was preaching, and he said it was a it was a move of God, and he said, in one service, you know, Brother Hagin, in one service, one service, he said, six grown men, not just men, grown men.

And their and their families all got saved.

He said, probably, you know, 35, 40 people came into the, or 25, 30 people came into the church that one night.

And he said, after service, I was talking to the pastor, and I said, uh, uh, now, uh, you know, are are you gonna check on these these people that got born again?

And he said, the pastor looked at him and said, No, he said, uh, I believe uh, you know, if they got anything, they'll come back, and if they didn't, they won't.

And Brother Hagin said, I looked at him and said, This meeting's over.

And he said, Why?

It's such a move of God.

And Brother Hagin said, I'm not gonna work hard in the spirit and preach hard in the spirit and get people to come give their lives to Jesus that you're just gonna let die.

And he used the illustration.

He said, He said, You know, you don't bring a newborn home from the hospital and put it in the back bedroom and then say, Well, if it needs anything, it'll let us know.

We'd call somebody on you.

But see, a lot of people, that's their mindset.

I my job's just to sow the gospel seed, just to tell them about Jesus.

What happens after that's not my affair.

That's not Bible, that's not biblical.

They they they they have to have, there has to be an effort to get them connected.

Amen.

I I want I want I want to show you this.

Where you work is no accident, where you live is no accident.

Those in contact that you're in contact with on a daily basis is no accident.

Amen.

So be wise and be harmless.

Look at at Luke 19.

Oh, hallelujah.

Am I helping you today?

Luke 19.

And the verses that were coming from is verse 1 through 10.

And I and I don't want to take the time to read all of them, but this is, you'll remember the account of Zacchaeus.

And you know, Zacchaeus was a wee little man.

You know, a wee little man was he.

That's why I had to climb up in the sycamore tree.

Because the Lord he wanted to see.

But notice it says, verse 2, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was chief among the publicans, and he was rich, and he sought to see Jesus.

So Zacchaeus wants to see Jesus.

The Greek imperfect tense shows that he was repeatedly trying to see Jesus that day.

He's trying to see Jesus.

But he can't see Jesus because he's short.

And so finally he comes to this tree and he climbs the tree.

Jesus was passing by.

Jesus, verse 8 or verse 5 comes to the tree, comes to that place, looked up and saw him, and said to him, Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must abide at your house.

Today I must abide at your house.

And he made haste and came down and received him joyfully.

And when they, the people around, saw it, they murmured, saying, He's gone to be a guest with a man that's a sinner.

And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor.

And if I've taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him four times.

And Jesus said to him, This day is salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he is also the son, a son of Abraham.

For the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was lost.

Oh, hallelujah.

So Jesus said, I have to stay at your house.

What's Jesus doing?

He's being an influence.

Come down out of that tree.

I need to go to your house.

Oh, hallelujah.

Last Sunday we saw that Jesus referred to those that are lost as the sick that need a physician.

Right?

He said, when Matthew made him the great feast at his house, and the religious leaders said, Why is your master eating with the publicans and tax collectors?

And Jesus overheard it, and he said, Here's why.

Because it's not the well that need a physician, it's the sick.

And he said, I did not come to call the righteous to repentance, but sinners.

Is that right?

So I'm not calling you to repent, I'm calling them to repent.

They need to repent.

And for me to be an influence, I gotta be around them.

Oh, hallelujah.

Now notice.

Zacchaeus, well, let me say this.

Now, in this verse, Jesus refers to Zacchaeus as the lost in need of being found.

Notice what he said.

He said, For the Son of Man did not come but to seek and save that which was lost.

The people we're to influence are those who are lost, whether they know it or not.

Whether they're lost or not, we're supposed, whether they know they're lost or not, we're supposed to influence them.

You know, there's a saying, and I don't agree with it all the time, but uh people will take you through the Roman road of salvation, and they'll teach the Roman road of salvation, and that's effective and it's appropriate, but here's the first step of the Roman road of salvation.

You gotta get them lost so they can get found.

They got to understand they're lost.

Now they do.

They have to understand their lost.

But how do you get them to understand their lost?

By being salt and light, by being wise and harmless.

Oh, hallelujah.

Notice what Jesus didn't do.

You don't see Jesus say, now, Zacchaeus, you know you're a dirty, rotten, no good tax collector.

Right?

You know that this is not right, you know this is wrong.

He went to his house for dinner.

What's he doing?

Seeking to save that which is lost.

Now, listen, there's a place to confront sin, and we talked about that last uh on Wednesday.

There's a time to confront it.

Remember what Jude said?

He said, Some you pull out of the fire, and you don't despise the garment that's stained with sin.

But notice they're lost whether they know it or not.

There are those that are sick whether they know it or not.

Zacchaeus' repentance followed the influence of Jesus.

Many don't see repentance because their desire is just to get another soul saved and not in being an influence.

I want to be an influence in that person's life.

I want them born again, but I want to be an influence.

I want to influence them to come into a fuller life in Christ.

I was talking, uh we were talking to our pastor one time and asked him, you know, if you were pastoring today, what would be your focus?

And he said, if I was pastoring today, he said, I would get somebody to help me with evangelism and discipleship.

Because that's what we need more than anything today.

To get people saved and get them discipled into the things of God.

The Lord has said to me for a long time, he said, the babies are coming.

And I could I could see in the spirit that the babies just lined out up outside.

Now they weren't little babies.

They were they were some were adults, some were kids, but they were baby Christians.

And he said, the babies are coming.

And he said, they need bottles, they need diaper changes, they need knees to bounce them on, they need bassinets to take a nap in.

Babies are babies, our babies are babies.

They all need the same thing.

Hallelujah.

We're far more influential as we're led by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit knows who's receptive and ready.

And he'll lead us to those that are ready to receive.

Hallelujah.

Notice in Acts chapter eight.

Acts eight and verse thirty.

And he got up and went.

And verse 29 says, Then the spirit said to Philip, Go near and join yourself to this chariot.

The spirit said.

Verse 30 says, Philip ran hit thither and found him, heard him read the prophet Isaiah, and said, Understandest what thou readest?

And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me?

And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.

Hallelujah.

He's reading Isaiah, and he's reading about Jesus.

And the Spirit said, Go join yourself to this chariot.

Isn't it interesting?

The Holy Spirit said, Go join yourself to this chariot as the man's reading about Jesus.

But he doesn't understand what he's reading.

Hallelujah.

Verse 34, notice.

And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray thee of whom speaks the prophet this, of himself or of some other man.

Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus.

And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water, and the eunuch said, See, here is water, what hinders me to be baptized?

And Philip said, If you believe with all your heart, you may.

And he answered, I believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

Amen.

The man believed and he was born again.

But notice, the Holy Spirit's throughout these verses.

Go join yourself to that chariot.

Now, listen, I know people say, Well, you know, Jesus just commanded us to go.

He did command us to go.

Go into all the world and preach the gospel, proclaim the gospel.

And what did he say?

He said, There will be some that hear it and don't believe it.

And there will be some that hear it and do believe it.

Is that right?

So you're going to have people that believe and people that don't believe.

But I can be led by the Spirit to go where the believers will be.

The people that will believe.

Amen.

So we, as Saul and Light, are led by the Spirit.

Our efforts are more effective when we're led by the Spirit.

Many will say you don't have to be led to go.

We're commanded to go.

That's true.

But I can be led about where to go and who to talk to.

I can be led about where to go, where to be, where to set up.

Amen.

The local church is to be the main agent of evangelism in the earth.

Why?

Because we can win souls and provide a place for them to be discipled and matured into the things of God.

The local church has to have a nursery.

And I don't mean just a nursery for the babies in the physical.

It has to be a nursery for those people that are born again on the street at the altar in conversations.

You have to know that you have a church that if you get somebody born again on your job, you can tell them, now come to church with me Sunday, and we'll get you involved in growing in the things of God.

So you're not going to come to a church where they're not helped and helped to grow.

Hallelujah.

Do you see this?

That's the purpose of the church.

That's the purpose of the church.

I can't listen, many of you were there, I'm not saying anything you don't know, but I have listened to message after message after message, Sunday morning message after Sunday morning message after Sunday morning message after Sunday morning message that Pastor Caldwell ministered, and I cannot think of one message that I did not hear him preach, that he did not end by saying, if you are here today and you are not born again, today would be the day to get saved.

And maybe there would be somebody that came up, and of course he would lead him to the Lord, and then he would say, Now, if you're here today and you don't have the infilling of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues.

Always, those two calls.

Always.

Always.

Why is that so important?

You would have called Agape Church a deeper life church.

You would have called it a place where you can go and mature in the things of God.

But the most important thing to him was getting people saved.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

This is important.

The local church is the main agent of evangelism in the earth.

Because we can win souls and provide a place for them to be discipled and matured in the things of God.

Remember when the Bible says that Paul and Barnabas, it says that the proconsul in that area wanted to hear the word of God and he sent for them.

And remember Elamis, the sorcerer, withstood them because he didn't want the man to hear the word of God?

And you remember Paul withstood him and said, You're going to be blind for a time, not being able to see.

And sure enough, that happened.

And it says the proconsul saw that and said, I want to believe on the Lord.

But then it says, and when he heard the word, he did believe.

Why did he believe?

Well, they preached to him.

He was open, he was ready.

The scripture before that said he wanted to hear them.

If I came up, Brother Joe, and he don't do this, but if I came up to Brother Joe and started telling him the good news, and he goes, I want to hear that, okay.

I'm not going to fight you to hear it.

Right?

But that doesn't mean in a couple days I'm not going to try to tell him again.

The local church is that place.

Look at Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

This is us being salt and light.

Acts 2, verse 41.

Acts 2:41

This is after Peter preached, it says, Then those that gladly received his word were baptized.

And the same day there were added unto them about 3,000 souls.

And they, who they, the 3,000, continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

So they didn't just get them saved and leave them to their own devices.

They're fellowshipping with them.

They're breaking bread with them.

They're praying with them.

Amen.

You know, I remember when I was a boy growing up in church, one of the greatest things that ever happened to me was having older brothers come along and say, I want to teach you to pray.

Come pray with me.

Right?

That was just how it was.

You didn't learn to pray on your own.

Somebody helped you learn to pray.

Somebody came along and discipled you in those things.

They didn't just leave you to your own devices.

Oh, hallelujah.

Do you see that?

Why is this so important?

Because we're influencing people.

We're being led by the Spirit.

Who to talk to?

I'm not just trying to invite people to church because I want them to have a better life.

I want them to come to church because it's a matter of life and death.

I want them to come to church because I believe what the Word of God says.

If I'm going to take the time to put myself out there and talk to somebody that I may or may not know about the things of God, it's because there's a greater purpose in my eyesight than just today.

You know, you're here today, partly because this is your church, partly because of a number of different things.

But here is one of the main reasons.

You're here today because you're living for something bigger than yourself.

You're living for a purpose greater than just you.

I've told you this story over and over again.

As long as you come here, I'll tell it over and over again.

The Lord has said this to me twice.

I was coming to church one day, and for whatever reason, this is when we were over on Markham, I had to go over here down Pleasant Valley for something I don't remember what it was for.

But I was going down Pleasant Valley and I saw people running and I saw people at the country club on the golf course and these different things.

And the Lord said to me, He said, Philip, today multiplied hundreds of thousands of people got up and gave no thought to my plan for their life.

They're living like there is no eternity.

He said, There's nothing wrong with running or golfing or swimming.

He said, but these people got up and they gave no thought to what I want for their life.

There are people in our neighborhoods that got up today and their only thought was, boy, it's a beautiful sunny day, I can go play golf.

We can go do whatever.

They didn't give any thought to the plan of God for their life.

And if you're gonna put yourself out there and get them thinking about the plan of God for their life, and right, and in some cases, do what may make you feel uptight or nervous, whatever it may be, but you're willing to go out there and say, have you ever thought about eternity?

Have you ever thought about your life and what God wants?

Hallelujah.

If you're gonna do that, it's because you're willing to live for something much bigger than just you.

Oh, hallelujah.

Amen.

And that has to be in the church.

That has to be in the church.

You gotta have that older saint, that older man, that older woman, that older brother, that older sister that will see somebody that's just been born again and come up to them and say, Hey, would you like to go get coffee?

Are you free on Thursday?

Can we go get a coffee?

Yeah, you're you're trying to build a relationship, but you're trying to get them rooted and grounded into the things of God.

Amen.

Do you see that?

And now they've done that, now they have somebody to contact outside.

He said 3,000 people got born again, and those 3,000 continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, in fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers.

They were praying with them, they were fellowshipping with them, they were eating with them, they were helping them grow in the things of God.

Oh, hallelujah.

Every person in every person needs three people in your life.

You need somebody that you're reaching down to, you need somebody that you're connecting with on the same plane, and you need somebody in your life that you're looking up to.

Everybody, everybody needs those three people in your life.

Why?

Because you need to be helping somebody, you need somebody that's supporting you, and you need somebody that can help you.

Hallelujah.

And that comes in the local church.

You remember in uh at the end of Acts chapter 4, it talks about uh Barnabas, and it said his name means son of consolation.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

And you'll remember it says that he had some property and he sold it.

And he and he brought the price to the church, and then you'll remember Ananias and Sapphira.

Well, we see Barnabas' heart for the church.

But do you remember what happened after Paul got saved?

He got converted, and they heard that Paul was converted, and and the disciples, the apostles, the leaders in Jerusalem were afraid because of what Paul had been, and they didn't want anything to do with him.

Remember what the scripture says?

It says Barnabas went and got him.

Barnabas went and got Paul and brought him to the disciples.

Why?

Because he needed what they had and they needed what he had.

How hard would it have been for Paul to do what God wanted him to do if the church was afraid of him?

But he had a Barnabas in his life that would go get him.

Oh, hallelujah.

Remember when Jesus was preaching, and remember it says that uh uh Nathanael or that Philip heard Jesus?

And what's the first thing he did?

Went and got Nathanael.

We found the Messiah.

Come out of Nazareth.

Remember what I said?

Anything good thing come out of Nazareth?

Right?

But then that wasn't enough.

Then he went and got Peter.

We found the Messiah.

See, it's easy to be salt and light when you're constantly cognizant of what God did for you and the impact that God had on your life.

I'm willing to get out beyond myself and live for something bigger than myself.

Oh, hallelujah.

Look at verse 46.

And they continuing daily, whoo.

They continuing daily with one accord in the temple, breaking bread from house to house, ate their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people.

And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

You know, the churches that God adds people to through salvation are churches that God knows will take care of the babies that get born there.

If the babies aren't going to be taken care of, God won't bring them.

Why?

Because He wants those babies to be taken care of.

Hallelujah.

So they didn't just win them to Christ and leave them.

They brought them into the body of believers so they could grow and mature.

Hallelujah.

You know, Reinhard Bonkey, C FAN, Christ for All Nations.

Of course, he's in heaven today.

In his ministry, there were 79 million documented salvations.

79 million.

Documented.

Not just, they thought.

Physical contact.

Cards filled out.

79 million people.

In in many of his meetings in Lagos, Nigeria, and other places, there were not attendance of a million people.

There were a million people saved in a meeting.

But here's the thing: every one of those million was personally contacted, touched, followed up on, and directed to a local church.

Because he said I wasn't just going to leave them on their own.

Now we have no way of knowing how many of them went to a local church.

But here's the thing.

Out of a million, I bet there was a lot.

But here's the thing: they had an opportunity.

So I want to get people saved, but then I want to direct them where they can get nourishment, where they can get help.

Amen.

The local church is the entity that can be trusted with spiritual babes.

The local church is the entity that can be trusted with spiritual babes.

And so ever what your level of maturity is here today, you're more mature than a baby.

Which means you're capable of helping them.

You're capable of nourishing them to some extent.

Hallelujah.

Do you see that?

Because of what God has done for you.

You know, there there are couples that come that need Jesus in their marriage, and they need to see marriages that have been together for 50 years.

That can tell them how to get through the hard places.

Well, you know, Pastor, it's Jesus.

I understand, but sometimes you forget about Jesus when you're so mad at the other person.

Maybe you never did.

I'll repent right now.

But they right?

They need to know that here's how you see Jesus in them, even when you're seeing horns and a tail.

This is how you see Jesus in them.

And who are they going to learn that from?

Somebody that's been there.

How are they going to learn to overcome the challenges that come into their life?

I know people right now that I'm helping learn to overcome challenges.

And if you looked at their life, they've been saved for 15, 20 years, but they were never taught by anybody how to overcome challenges.

There's something to be said when you just put your arm around them and you know they may be going through something, and you say, Look, I know you're facing a challenge, and it's not enough just to say, hang in there, God will bring you out.

No, let me tell you something.

Let me tell you something.

10 years ago, no, this is you.

I'm not, I'm not giving an actual event.

You you maybe you say something like, you know, ten years ago, I was facing this, and it looked insurmountable.

It looked like I couldn't get through it.

But let me tell you, God came and God did this.

Let me tell you how I did that.

There are people that will come to the church that are heartbroken and they don't know what to do with that heartbreak.

But you can put your arm around them and say, I was heartbroken, I was devastated over something in my life, and here's what God did for me.

That's discipleship.

I say that's discipleship.

The job doesn't end when we influence a person to be saved.

That's the beginning.

We talked about that last Sunday.

That I sow a seed, but it doesn't end there.

I gotta reap the harvest.

Oh, hallelujah.

Amen.

Do you see that?

And and here's the thing in the time that we live in, you know, the generation, I say the generation that we live in, sometimes certain age groups, they're demonized.

Meaning this.

Ah, they don't they don't this and they don't care, and they're this, and and they're not whatever, and they're this and they're whatever.

I wonder how many people that say those kind of things have taken any time to try to help that person of that age group.

It's very easy just to say, well, you know, this generation that we live in today, they don't this and they don't that.

I've heard them say any number of things.

They don't know how to work, they don't know how to do this, they don't know how to push through anything.

Well, who's gonna teach them?

I say, who's gonna teach them?

When I started my first full-time job at 15 years of age, walked out of school in the ninth grade, started work full-time, knew if I wanted any money, I was gonna have to get it myself.

So I started working.

Working for a guy named Norman Potter.

Old cowboy, had cowboyed all of his life, had one eye, right eye, didn't have a right eye.

I mean, he had it, but it was blind.

So if you wanted to get away with anything, you stood on his right side.

Now he didn't disciple me in the things of God.

He was a believer, but he didn't disciple me in the things of God, but he taught me how to work.

He taught me how to work hard every day for a wage.

Now, I know some of you earned minimum wage and it was much lower than this, but this was many decades ago now.

And minimum wage was like$3.10.

I think what is it today?

$18?

$3.10.

And he sat in that white Ford pickup with me and told me, he said, now the ranch has hired you, and he said, We're gonna pay you three dollars and ten cents.

And he looked at me over his glasses, that one eye going and looked at me with his good eye and said, and that's good money.

And I expect you to work hard for it.

And I did work hard for it.

I worked 8, 10, 12, 15 hour days.

My father didn't teach me how to work hard.

Norman Potter taught me how to work hard.

That's not a knock against my dad.

My dad was a minister.

He taught me to love the Lord.

He taught me to work hard.

I had to have somebody disciple me.

I didn't know how to work hard.

But somebody came along and discipled me and helped me.

You know, the truth is there's lazy people in the world.

But if that lazy person comes to Christ, they can come to the local church and be discipled into a productive person that knows how to work hard.

By who?

Some of y'all that know how to work hard.

It's not just spiritual things you're putting in their lives.

Remember, I said there are people that are lost and they don't even know they're lost?

There are people that are doing things in their life and they don't even know that what they're doing is wrong.

I had a couple named, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh Rusty and um and Amy, I'm trying to remember their last name.

Uh, I forget their last name, got born again at the Kansas location.

Um, when they started coming on a Wednesday night.

I didn't know why they were coming.

They come up on the front row.

I thought they were front row mafia.

I thought they're excited about the things of God.

They just didn't know where else to sit.

Well, I didn't know what was going on in their life.

He was facing court charges.

They lived in a little apartment just down the road from the church.

And and he got drunk one night and was making a lot of noise.

Him and Chatterley, that's their last name.

And and and uh a guy from upstairs came down and just was asking them to be quiet.

Well, Rusty wasn't thinking right.

He's drunk, beat him up, beat the guy up.

I mean, beat him within an inch of his life.

They had to call the ambulance.

Well, that's why he started coming to church.

He's going through drug rehab and he's coming to church, and in the beginning it was, you know, to hopefully try to get some things lined out with the judge.

You know, I'm going to church and I'm doing all this.

But in the middle of that, something started happening.

He's coming sitting under the word, sitting under the Holy Spirit.

And one Sunday morning, they both got born again.

Saved.

Amen.

And immediately they want to get involved in church.

Well, you know, we we have some protocol, and so they had to wait a little while.

And so then they they signed up.

He signed up for the ushers, she signed up for the greeters.

Well, on there it says, you know, are you married?

Well, no, they're not married.

They're living together, but they're not married.

Now here's the thing: there they don't know that's wrong.

They don't know what's wrong.

What had to happen?

Somebody had to come along and say, that isn't right.

Not you're living in sin, you're going to hell.

Look, you can't be doing that.

You say, who did that?

I gave that job to two mature believers that worked in those departments.

One of them, Jim Molson, he talked to Rusty.

The other one was a lady named uh uh uh uh oh, I know her name.

Um Yolanda Pennington, and they both met with them separately and they said, Look, here's what the word of God says.

Living together outside of marriage is called fornication.

It's not a good thing.

And and look at our bylaws, look at our requirements here.

You can't be doing that and working in a department.

You know what both of them said?

We'll get married.

Why'd they decide to get married?

They were happy living apart, living together in sin.

Well, she was going through a divorce, her husband had been abusive, had had abused her, abused the family.

She's trying to get a divorce from him, so we got a mess going on.

She's not even divorced and living with somebody else, and it's a mess.

But you know, when they dedicated them themselves to the things of God, I started seeing a man that did not want to give this woman a break in any area, just quit fighting her.

Just quit.

Quit fighting her and said, whatever you want.

They got married.

Now he's got to go to court.

He's looking at 14 to 25 years in prison.

Because he did what he did.

He did it.

But you, if you you would never see such a change in a man.

Now watch.

Yes, it's the word.

Yes, it's the gospel, but he's around older men of God that are telling him how to be a husband and telling him how to walk in the things of God.

They were calling him out on pride.

I've heard them over and over again say, Rusty, that's pride.

That's pride.

Don't think that way.

That's prideful.

Right?

The day came to go to court.

It was it was about a year later.

The day came to go six months or so.

The day came to go to court.

I'm I'm in the car driving to the courthouse, Johnson County Courthouse, and I heard the Holy Spirit say, the judge is gonna ask you to speak.

And he said, When the judge asks you to speak, this is what you say, and the anointing's gonna be there.

I said, Okay.

And sure enough, we we got there.

And the judge said, Uh, uh, is there anyone that uh, you know, you want to speak?

And the lawyer, his lawyer said, his pastor would like to speak.

The judge said, Pastor, come on up.

And so I went up and I began to talk.

And I said to the judge, I'll never forget the Holy Spirit began to speak to me.

And I said, Judge, I said, Your Honor, I don't know everything that has gone on in this situation.

I know what I've seen in the last year.

They had showed the video the night, the the body cam video of the night when Rusty did what he did and the shape he was in.

And I said, Your Honor, I don't know everything here.

I said, but I can tell you this.

I said, the man sitting in this courtroom today is not the man in that video.

Not the man in that video.

Hallelujah.

The prosecutor tried everything they could do, and the judge finally stopped them, and he made this statement.

I'll never forget it.

He said, I must wholeheartedly agree with Pastor Steele.

The man who's sitting before me today is not the man that's in that video.

Yes, he had to serve probation.

Yes, he had to make restitution.

I'm telling you this, that was all the power of God, but it was also men and women of God that took those young people under their wing and said, This is how you live for God.

That Rusty Shatterley is now working in another church.

He's an elder in another church over their evangelism.

They both work with chariots of light, with Jerry Savelle's ministry.

They travel all around the nation with chariots of light, getting people saved.

And it all started in the local church with older men and women of God saying, Let me help you grow in the things of God.

Oh, hallelujah.

So that's the door of salvation when they get saved that they've entered into.

Now they have to be taught how to live as one born again.

And that's where we come in.

That's where we come in.

We can help.

I say we can help.

And so you have to be prepared.

You know, they they they they they don't know how to dress like a Christian.

They're not a Christian.

They don't know how to talk like a Christian, they've never been a Christian.

They don't know things they shouldn't watch and things they shouldn't do.

And I know this sounds elementary and it sounds simplified, but that's the job of the church.

That's the job of the church.

We'll always be teaching people to live by faith and teaching people to declare the word, but we're also going to be teaching people how to live successfully as a believer.

Oh, hallelujah.

I believe God.

Now they have to be taught as one born again.

I'll close with this.

We got four minutes before we pray.

You know, Pastor Michelle was raised in, well, around the Nashville area, Tennessee.

You know, she was 23 years old before somebody shared the gospel with her.

I don't know how that's possible.

But it was.

And uh, you know, she tells the story, you can get her book, Escaping Hell, which is being published in Polish.

They sent her a book the other day, and it was in Polish, the the publishers.

And they said, We've translated this in Polish.

Wonder if you have any interest in getting your testimony into Poland.

Well, yeah, is the sky blue?

But here's the point.

She's 23 years old before she hears the gospel.

And you remember in her book, Escaping Hell, she was in the back of that bar on Dickerson Road in Nashville, Tennessee.

And and just taking more and more and more, shooting up more and more and more cocaine until finally she overdosed.

And you remember she went to hell.

That's hence the name of the book, Escaping Hell.

And she said, I was standing in front of a man-sized skull that was flaming.

And she said, and arms were reaching out for me, trying to pull me in.

And she said, I stopped and began to scream no.

And she said, I turned around and I ran back to my body.

She came back into her body, came back to herself, fought the man off that had given her the drugs that was trying to resuscitate her.

And she ran out in the street, blood dripping down her arm, screaming that she had gone to hell.

The only church she knew of was a little Assembly God church over uh by her children's grandmother's house that they went to, and she went to church that night.

And when the altar call was given, she went up the to the altar.

Now, and this is not a knock against the pastor or anybody, but they kind of said a quick prayer with her and ushered her on.

And then after she was gone, the pastor's wife looked at a lady that we know and said, You know, that girl's got problems.

And the lady was like, Well, why didn't you help her?

Well, here's the thing that lady and her husband, they went and found her.

Zach and Dara.

Zach Reynolds' feet will always be beautiful in my home.

I don't care what anybody thinks of him.

They went and found her.

He drove an old 57 Cheville Chevrolet Bel Air.

I say old, it was old, but it was immaculate.

And he cruised down the road and they found Michelle.

They found her on the street.

And said, Come live with us.

And brought her in and put her on their couch.

And she said, I'd wake up in the middle of the night, and Darrow would be on her knees beside the couch saying, Lord, bring her out.

Lord, bring her out.

God, bring her out.

She said, one of the requirements for living there was I had to go to church and I had to pray and I had to read my Bible.

Amen.

And night after night she'd wake up and they'd be praying for her.

And then that revival came to Brick Church Pike in Goodlessville, Tennessee, where my dad was preaching.

And they brought her to that meeting.

And the first night she was sitting there, she was nodding out on methadone.

She was on the methadone program, trying to get off a heroin.

And my mother tried to talk to her after church, and Michelle cussed mom out.

I don't mean Christian cuss.

I mean cuss cussed.

But she came back the next night, nodding out again.

And Joe, my dad, walked up to her and said, Young lady, do you want help?

And she said, For a split second, I was in my right mind.

And I said, Yes, I want help.

Dad laid hands on her, cast that spirit off her life.

She went out under the power of God.

She said, I got up and wanted to find him.

I thought he knocked me down.

But here's the thing, here's the thing.

She went home.

Anything that she had, any drug paraphernalia, any drugs, she got rid of it, threw it all away.

We've been married 33 years this year.

She's been saved 35 years, was delivered in an instant 35 years ago and never went back in the local church.

There were two people, two older people, brother and sister Allen, James and Daphne Allen, that took her under their wing.

They would bring her back and forth to church.

They'd pick her up.

It was out of their way.

They lived in Old Hickory, Tennessee.

She lived off Brickchurch Pike.

They would drive all those miles to pick her up and take her back.

Why?

Because there are a lot of young men that wanted to bring her to church.

And Michelle read in the Word of God that you were not supposed to let your evil, your good be evil spoken of.

And she said, I'm a single woman.

I'm not going to be running around with these young men.

I got my eye on Philip Steele.

I'm her, I'm he's going to be my husband.

Well, the Bible says, believe for God's highest and best.

Anyway, I know I'm taking a moment, but bear with me.

They would take her back and forth to church.

And you know what they did while they were driving?

Talk to her about the Lord.

Talk to her about how to overcome things.

Talked her how to believe God.

Old Baptist couple that liked the moving of the Spirit and came to a Pentecostal church on Sunday afternoon.

Amen.

Those were the people that touched our lives.

At that time in my life, I needed more guidance.

I needed more help.

James Allen took me under his wing, would talk to me, help me get back in the ministry.

Amen.

Talk to his pastor, a Baptist pastor, and said, we have a young man at our church that's got a call of God on his life, and he's gone through some things and went through some challenges.

You know, we're having our spring revival.

Would you let him preach one night?

I'm a tongue talker.

And the Baptist pastor said, That'd be great.

And let me come preach it there.

Spring revival.

Changed my life.

In the local church.

Everybody needs somebody they're reaching down to, reaching across to, and reaching up to.

My wife and I are products of discipleship in the local church.

People that prayed over us, put their hands on us, loved us, corrected us.

Amen.

Glory to God.

Say it out loud, say, I believe that I am salt and light in the earth for God's purpose.

Father, in the name of Jesus today, Lord, I just ask if there's any, any under the sound of my voice, any watching online, Father, that are not born again, that they're not where they need to be with you.

Father, that they would make that decision today to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, so that their lives, Lord, not will just be more fulfilled, but they will walk in your plan for them and see the victory that you have prescribed for them in the name of Jesus.

Father, help us as a church to be accommodating, to be welcoming, to be loving, to be kind, to be compassionate.

Father, to correct when need be, but to help people grow into the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And we'll give you all the praise and the glory in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

And amen.

Hallelujah.

Let's stand up today.