Presence before Production

Well, the Bible says to give honor to whom honor is due, and so we have honored the Lord, and I think it's appropriate. There's a difference between flattery and honor. Flattery spreads a net for your feet, and that's not cool, but honor is a virtuous thing. I think we ought to honor the pastor of this house, the refuge. Can we give Jay and Melanie Stewart and all the ministry staff? I'm happy to have my family here, my wife Cecilia, my daughter Madeline, and I think somewhere up in the stadium seating is my other daughter Lauren and Barrett and Kennan and Brooklyn and grandbabies. Ooh, Papa loves you. Pops loves those babies. Deeply, deeply honored to be here. I'm not saying that because it's protocol. I mean it. This church is very meaningful and impactful to us. Just yesterday, the church opened its doors, and right there in that area, we had hired a Washington, D.C. photographer that came down here and took pictures for the Ebenezer Experience Tour. Phenomenal photographer, and I believe that people are going to see the pictures, and they're going to say, well, that looks pretty cool. I think I'll go. They'll hear the gospel, and they'll give their hearts to Jesus, and the refuge was part of that. I want to thank the refuge for your monthly support. For these three weeks in a row, this is a phenomenal church, and the other churches I'm going to are great, but they're small. One's a Methodist. One's a Baptist, and next week, if the Lord tarries, I'm going to be in a Florida panhandle church 28 miles from the nearest hotel. The pastor said, you can just stay with me, buddy. I hope it works out. I don't know the guy. I hope that's going to be all right, but this church supports me. That's why I can do that. I also want to thank the refuge for our administrative assistant who goes here, Danielle Haithcock, who has done a phenomenal job helping us in the ministry. All the stuff you'll see on these slides are her work. She designed this hat. I gave her the green light to do it. I didn't like it, but everybody that sees it goes, that's awesome. That's cool. I'm old. I'm a hundred years old. If you go by the table, the table helps us keep rolling. We support 23 missionaries, 17 of them at a hundred bucks a month, more than $20,000 a year. If you go to that table and see maybe the

devotional book that I wrote, or the book on fundamentals and family life, or the third chair, the first book that I ever wrote, the photograph was taken by the local photographer here. If you see that and you don't have the money, whatever the price thing is, just tell the person at the table. Joe said I could have it for a nickel, a quarter, a dollar, a cough drop, but not the one at the bottom of your purse. It's sticky. It's got hair and lint. It's gross. I don't want that. Maybe the novel grabs you. This book, I've gotten a tremendous critical feedback, and you can have it, and it's a win-win-win-win. What happens is you get a book. I'm not asking you if you want to bargain, but I mean if you don't have the budget, get the book. You'll win. The guy that comes up or the lady that comes up behind you that says that, you know, they want it for a, and they'll make up the difference. They win because of giving and receiving. The missionaries win, and then our ministry wins because they don't have to dip into the general fund. So, that's the name of that. Now, we have a screen that Danielle made of our new book, Whispers and Wonders. I don't even know if I'm allowed to do this from the publisher. I may be asking for forgiveness instead of permission, but if you'd like the book, there are 30 stories of supernatural intervention. 29 involve something that happened to me. One is one of my best buddies, Lee McBride, who was here on Father's Day, a story about his life. And one of the stories your pastor is in, it's about a whisper that God gave to me years ago for a pothead car salesman, smoking, telling dirty jokes, and cussing. God gave me a bird and a whisper to pray for that guy, and I started praying for him. He got born again, and then he went on a mission trip a few weeks later with your pastor and myself. If you go to my Facebook, you can see your pastor, a picture of him preaching in a suit under candlelight outdoors, and he has a full head of hair. He looks like Joel Osteen. I mean, it's unbelievable. And I had more hair too, which I've never had much. But he went on that mission trip, and he's walking down a dusty road with Pastor Jay Stewart. Jay looks at my buddy, Jay Mooney, and says, God's calling you to the ministry, man. You're

gonna be in the ministry. He's still a car salesman. He said, I ain't gonna be a minister. I'm gonna be a millionaire. And today, that guy heads up all of the ministries in the nation for a three million person denomination. He says in the story, there are whispers and wonders. He says, I was six steps to the altar before I knew what was happening to me. me. Maybe that's going to happen to you today, because in 34, 35 minutes or so, I'm going to shut up and I'm going to have everybody stand. And if you're not walking with Jesus, you feel like you're 100 feet away or a million miles. He's not far from any of us. I'm going to ask you in front of God and everybody to walk to this altar. Scores of people did it in the first service. They said, that's what I want. Now you might have two objections. You might say, Joe, you don't know what I've done. That's correct. I'm going to ask you a question. Have you killed a Christian lately? I didn't say if you thought about it, I'm asking you, have you done it? Probably not. The man who wrote a third of this New Testament, the apostle Paul was an accomplice, was an accessory to murder. He would hold the coats for the murderers. He would drag people off from their dinner table that were Christians. God knocked him off a horse and he changed the world. You haven't done anything that you cannot be forgiven of. And the other objection might be, well, what will people think if I walk? Because I've been coming for a while. People probably already think I'm a Christian. If I walk down there, what's people going to think? You know what we're going to think at the refuge? Hallelujah. That's why they cut the lights on today. We will celebrate you and we won't interview you. What is your sin? Because we don't want to know it any more than we would want you to know what our sin was. All we have to know is that Jesus forgives sins and he

nailed it to the cross. Praise God. So I'm taking the text from Luke chapter 10. I'm going to set it up with a story and an illustration. Then I'll read the text and then there'll be a lot of other scripture involved. Thank you, Pastor Jay. I honor you and this house and this staff. What a tremendous work God has done in this church. Father, I ask you for a couple of things in the first service and you answered and it's always important to come back and say thank you. I'm asking for the same things in this service. The love of Jesus could be felt. That's what we want, that people will feel the love of the stick and tangible. It is the love of Jesus that compels us. And I pray for the power of the conviction of the Holy Spirit, convicting us of sin, righteousness and the judgment to come. Not condemnation, that's the devil's job. It's the conviction, the power of the conviction of the Holy Spirit, Lord. We are co-laborers, Lord. That's what you said and that's true. But I want you to know, God, that you're not on my crew. I'm on your crew. So help me to preach what's in your heart to these people assembled and give them courage to respond. In the name of Jesus, amen. It was a minister's conference many years ago. I was speaking in closing one of the sessions of a keynote address of this conference and the whisper came to me, give an altar call for salvation. I don't know if you're aware of this. I'll show you some behind the scenes how the sausage is made for preachers. I bet he has had this experience where you're preaching but talking to God at the same time. So God says, give an altar call for salvation and I'm just talking to him. That's a bad career move, Lord. I mean, we are, did you get distracted? I'm at a preacher's conference. These are all preachers and they're spouses. It got stronger. And I remember saying, bow your

heads, I know who you are and I know where I'm at. I was almost irritated. If you're not walking with Jesus Christ, you don't know him as your savior, respond. The dude with the biggest ministry in the room on the front row said, I don't know Jesus. Do you know you can do stuff for God and not know God? That's what this message is about. I was at a church, a great church like this three or four weeks ago, North Carolina, in another city. And they had something, I've been at 258 churches. I've never seen this before. They had a selection of men's cologne in the corner in the men's room. I said, ain't no reason for anybody in this church to go stinking. I don't like to go to church and stink. I was sitting right back there two weeks ago, right against that rail, right where my son-in-law Barrett is sitting. And there were some people beside me and I'm like, I don't want them to smell my coffee breath. So I got out the icebreaker mints. I'd rather have a cough drop. I didn't have any. I got these icebreaker mints. I don't know if you ever had them. And the packaging didn't give me the sermon idea. It just illustrated something I'd already been thinking about for two weeks. This is a brand new sermon, by the way. You ever heard that phrase, you want to see God laugh, tell him your plans. Pastor Jay and I were talking when he invited me, he said, you evangelists preach the same thing over and over. I said, no, that's not fair. Last week I preached one for the 73rd time. And that was true. They don't get the bugs out until about 50 times. And I just laughed and made fun of him. And then God gives me this brand new sermon. So I've been cooking on it for about two weeks. I pulled out this packaging and it says one or many. And I don't know if you ever tried that, but it doesn't

really work good when you pull out the one and you're in church because it doesn't come out. She's actually having a seizure like that. I always go for the many. But that's the title of the sermon today, One or Many. Every time you pull out this packaging, you have a dilemma. And the dilemma happened in the Word of God in Luke chapter 10, and we're going to pick it up, verse number 38, for these two women. Now, it happened as they went and they entered a certain village. And a certain woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary who sat also at Jesus' feet and heard his Word. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she approached Jesus and said, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore, tell her to help me. Jesus answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, you're worried and troubled about many things, but one thing is needed. And Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her, one or many. When I get to heaven, I'm going to have to apologize to a couple of people. Simon Peter, you know, I'm going to have to work it out because I've made fun of him over the years and I shouldn't because he has a profound resume. And I got to apologize to Martha because when you hear this passage, it usually goes like this, Mary good, Martha bad.

The den is good, the kitchen is wrong. Discipleship is good and service is bad. But it's not either or, it's both and, as this passage illustrates. The Bible says in Luke 8, Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem. He was on a mission. So when he gets to this house of these people that he loves, he has been there before, he is on mission. He's not just, hey, let's drop by the sister's house and get her sweet tea. No, this is part of the whole plan. He's heading to a cross and he stops here in Bethany on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives. And he loves this family. Mary and Martha, they have a brother named Lazarus. You know, Lazarus was raised from the dead. I got a little bit of history with Lazarus. Thanks to my good friend, Scott Stewart, who was here. I couldn't find my picture. Would you mind putting this picture up of me as Lazarus? Their dad, Scott and Jay's dad, had me play Lazarus 30 years ago. And when Jesus said, Lazarus, come forth, that's me on the left. I look like a Q-tip. I couldn't really come forth the way they had me wrapped. I had to come forth like this. So you can take that picture off. So I got a little history with Lazarus.

I love when the Bible is funny. To me, the Bible is funny in a few places. One of the places involves Lazarus. The chief priests conspired together after Lazarus was raised from the dead and there was such a buzz. They had a committee meeting. They decided to put Lazarus to death. And I wish I was in that meeting of the chief priest. Reuben raises his hand. What you got, Reuben? All right, now, work with me. What if we find that Lazarus guy and we kill him again? And the other guy speaks up and says, you know, Reuben, they say there's no stupid idea. That's a pretty stupid one. Because what if we do that and he raises him from the dead again? Jesus is very connected to this house and this family. The Bible calls him the Lord. The Lord comes and sits down. Do you remember the children's book? Jesus came to my house and knocked upon my door. I'm sure I'd be more happy than I've ever been before. That's exactly what he does at this home. And Martha demonstrates beautiful hospitality. She does. She welcomes him. Mary positioned herself, not in the kitchen, but at his feet.

You don't sit at the feet of anyone unless you're a disciple. In the book of Acts, Paul says, I sat at the feet of Gamaliel. That is a posture of learning and discipleship. This is a very counter-cultural moment because the women, their responsibility was normally in the kitchen, but Mary didn't go to the kitchen and Jesus didn't make her go to the kitchen. She sat right down. So I've got a little easy, simple sermon today. Our homiletics professor in college, Billy Wilson, was a Navy chaplain, retired. I love the guy, ball-headed guy, talked out of the side of his mouth. He'd always say, boys and girls, it's the Word and the Holy Ghost. Love that guy. He said, now, here's the mark of a good sermon. A good sermon is when you tell your people something like, forgive your enemies. And that old boy that's in your church, he's driving a bread truck and on Thursday afternoon, he pulls out that rack of bread and he remembers, pastor says, I gotta forgive my enemies. Sermon in a sentence. That's the mark of a good sermon. So here's the sermon in a sentence. Every single day that you and I wake up,

we have the same dilemma. We can go with one or we can go with many. I see. Three ones in this passage. The first is this. There is one thing, one thing, Jesus says to Martha, one thing is needful. She welcomes, Martha welcomes him. Now listen, when she welcomes Jesus, he's not alone. Jesus was a friend of women in the ministry. He was a friend of men in the ministry. They were disciples. Luke chapter eight says women traveled with the group and ministered and provided for needs out of their funds and such, there's a group of people coming to the house. You remember when we were growing up, we were so bored, we had three channels, if the doorbell rang, we sprinted to the door to see who was there because we just needed some activity. Now if the doorbell rings, you dive behind the couch and make your, don't you go to that door. Don't you dare go to that door. Don't make a sound. So they open and all of these people come running in. So Martha's frustration is not necessarily irrational. Can you see it? You've seen it at Thanksgiving when all the guys go in and watch the cowboys and the lions and your mad grandma or aunt stomping around, blowing the dishwasher so loud.

That's Martha, she's mad that she's doing all of this because it's not like you drop by and say, hey, make yourself at home, there's a Coke in the fridge. No, no, no, no, the washing of the feet, seating, meal preparation. There's a lot of work to be done and Mary is sitting at Jesus' feet. What does that mean? One thing. Martha, Martha, you're troubled. One thing is needed. One is a powerful number. Deuteronomy says, here, O Israel, the Lord our God, he is one. One is important. One is a very powerful, powerful number, prioritizing relationship. Here are the many things. Here's the many things of Martha. Activity, worry, distraction, responsibility. Here's the one thing with Mary. Jesus Christ himself, his presence, his word. That's the one thing. It is essentially being with Jesus before doing things for Jesus. The psalmist got it. David says, one thing, one thing I have asked of the Lord and that I will seek after, that I can dwell in the house of God. Years ago, I had a job as a state.

I was a youth director for Georgia for denominations, 225 or 30 churches, maybe more than that, headquartered in Macon. I had a responsibility and I inherited some debt and it was like somebody standing on my chest every day and we were involved with Bible quiz and fine arts and youth camps and youth conventions and missions trips and keeping all the youth pastors happy and my desk was piled with stuff and I was overwhelmed and I've never done this before nor since. I took my hand on that giant desk and I threw everything onto the floor and I'm a little OCD so that was out of character and I grabbed a directory, put it on the desk because we didn't have technology. I called 235 or however many churches. I tried to get ahold of every youth pastor on that Wednesday and just say, hey, I know it's game day. I didn't get all of them but I called as many as I could. I know it's game day for you and I'm praying for you. When Cecilia and I would go back to Georgia, I never really got a lot of comments about the camps or convention but I had a lot of people say, you know that Wednesday you called me? That meant the world to me. This is what Mary has done. Essentially, she has cleaned off her spirit, her mind, all the clutter and she says, there is one thing that I am going to do today

because he's marching to a cross. So when he walks in, there's a different sense. This is a big deal. There is something in the atmosphere. Something's happening here and I'm not going to the kitchen today. I'm gonna sit right here at his feet. It's not merely a task, it's a person. Seek first the kingdom of God, Matthew 6.33. That's what the idea is. And all these things will be added unto you. It's the idea of first fruits. See, we don't really wanna do stuff for God until we've been sitting with God. I love Simon Peter. One of my favorite scriptures is, Peter, not knowing what to say, spoke. I've done that a bunch. Out of school. He's on the Mount of Transfiguration. Jesus is telling Peter, in his lifetime, you are the rock and I'm gonna build a church upon your confession. But then he's on the Mount of Transfiguration and God beams down Moses and Elijah. You remember what Peter said? It's classic. Woo, look at here. We're gonna build three tabernacles. Gonna build a tabernacle over here.

Gonna build a tabernacle. And God hovers over and essentially says, shut up. He said, this is my beloved son. You gotta listen to him. Before we build a tabernacle or do anything else, we gotta listen to him. That's what Mary's doing. at his feet, listening to him. That is the one thing. And when you and I do the one thing, there is nothing like it. Nothing like it. My, I got two other grandkids. They're down in Charlotte. Ezekiel James, Maggie Marie. Zeke comes in, he's 10. He comes in from school. He's using that cool boy vernacular. And I love to give it right back to him, man. We'll be out getting a hamburger, a cheeseburger, something like that. And I say, Zeke, man, this burger slaps. And he starts shaking. He said, these fries go hard, man. This Coke, it's delicious. No cap. Come on, Pop, quit. Listen to that music, boy. It's a banger. Drives him crazy.

But they all use the little phrase, fire. This burrito's fire, Pops. This is fire. Preachers do that, too. You gotta come service or not. It was fire. Well, listen to what the guys on the road to Emmaus says. Jesus walks with them, and then he's gone. And they say, oh, how our hearts burned within us as he opened up the scriptures to us. And what scripture did he open up? The Old Testament. Just like the refuge is going through the Old Testament over the last several months in the future. That's so awesome, because when God opens up the scriptures and speaks to us, it is fire. Paul got it. Philippians three. But one thing I do. But one thing I do. Forgetting what's behind, I abstrain towards what's ahead. I press on to the goal. The same apostle who wrote in Corinthians, I make it my goal to please him. It's the idea sort of like what Charles Spurgeon preached a sermon, and he quoted Martin Luther that said, work, work, work from morning till night. I have so much work to do. I don't think I can do it unless I pray for three hours.

That's the idea. One thing, number two, one choice. One choice. Martha made a good choice when she said, come on in. Bienvenido, welcome to our home. That was a good choice. Mary made a better choice. She chose something else with intentionality. Martha's problem isn't just busyness. It's what the busyness does to her heart, and that's a choice. Look at the progression. Here it is. Serving. Distracted, like pastors mentioned. Worried and upset. Resentful. Comparing herself. That's a fool's game right there. Comparing herself to her sister. Just like Jesus told Peter, quit worrying about John. That's my business. You follow me. Then she progresses to questioning Jesus's care, and then eventually telling Jesus what to do. That's a remarkable progression. I call it a choice. Mary had a better choice. Martha's external activity eventually produces an internal distortion.

She becomes frustrated with Jesus. You ever been there? You've asking for stuff, and you just get busy, and you get frustrated. Nothing's happening. Of all these churches that I've been to, there are certain churches that if they would give the volunteer of the year award to certain people for being the most faithful in church at the volunteer appreciation banquet, some of those people are patently unhappy because they've missed the one thing. One thing, and she has chosen this. So the message is not serving Jesus is bad. Sitting around reading the Bible is good. That's not the message. And look at the way Jesus treats Martha with tenderness. She comes in, tell her to get up and go help me. She's lazy. And Jesus doesn't go, Martha. He says, Martha, Martha. He treats her like a child of God. That's how he treats us. First John 3, one, how great is the Father's love towards us that he has called us children of God. John 15, 15, I don't call you servants anymore, Jesus said. Now I'm gonna call you friends. He treats her like a friend. He says, I see you distracted, burdened, worried. I see all those things that are happening in your heart.

You're distracted. That's the idea of being dragged. James says, a double-minded man is unstable in all their ways. I've met some double-minded people. Sunday through Wednesday, they're all in for Jesus. Thursday through Saturday, it's a coin toss. That's a train pulling you from two different directions. You remember Pastor's sermon from two weeks ago and he preached about how long will you waver between two opinions. The word hobble that he used in his sermon, that's the word hobble. That's what happens to a lot of people. Just before this passage is the Samaritan story. And the question that the Samaritan story asks is, how am I supposed to love my neighbor? Mary and Martha's question is, how do I love Jesus? And the answer is, listening and serving. That's the answer. So Luke isn't presenting some kind of passive spirituality. Mary's not just taking a break because she's lazy. She's receiving the word of God that will shape her life. Dr. Luke says in chapter eight, that the word on good soil produces a crop. That's what's happening in this girl's heart. That's what's happening in this lady. Men's ministry talks about accountability partners and I'm for it. Get some iron, sharpening iron and help you.

But gentlemen, there comes a time when it's just about us living for God, living for Jesus all in. Forget about the accountability partner. We've got to be the one that makes the decision to sit at his feet and choose the one thing. So she sat at his feet because she needed to know his word, his ways and his will. The church that Pastor Jay and Scott, myself and Cecilia and Melanie grew up in is pastored now by a contemporary of ours, Paul Thomas. He was in the youth group with me. I think Pastor Jay had already gone to Florida to Bible college and he was a Sunday school superintendent. I think for years, he was a great Sunday school teacher. He ran a fence company. He owned a fence company. And one day it was on a Saturday, it was his birthday. And he had to take a bunch of old ladies to a Sunday school convention. And he said, I was not happy about it. I did not really want to do that, to be honest. And as they're going to the Sunday school convention, someone asked a woman named Amy Lotz, Ms. Amy, how long you been teaching? She said, I've been teaching for 70 years. And without thinking, Paul was a little bit like Simon Peter, spoke without thinking. He said, how old are you? She said, I'm 84.

I started teaching when I was 14 years old. And then without thinking, he said, you don't need to be going to this thing. You need to be teaching the course. And she said, oh no, Paul, no. When I get there, the Lord is going to teach me something. And I'm so excited to learn. That dude repented of that in that van and said, I'm going to be like Amy and I'm going to learn. And then with just eight years of ministry experience and no pastoral experience, I guess he learned because now he's leading that great church that's just like this church. So many people that he's discipling. One thing, one choice, one result. Number three, one result. He says, Martha, Martha, you're troubled by so much. She's chosen the best thing and she's got the good portion. She's got the good part. One translation, better part. Another, best part. One right thing. Another, what? She's chosen what is best and what is most important. Lots of different translations, but there's almost uniformity in the translations when it says, it shall not be taken away from her. In other words, she's rewarded. She's sitting here, you're troubled, but she's going to get a result

that leads to a reward every single time that happens in our lives as we seek first the kingdom. All these things will be added unto us. Martha's working for something that is temporary. Mary is receiving something that is eternal. And when you and I take care of the one thing, people gonna know it. They're gonna recognize it, Acts 4.13. When they saw Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and ignorant men in the King James Version, they marveled, took knowledge of them and perceived that they had been with Jesus. When we get that one thing right, it's gonna make a difference in the earth. People are gonna know it. They're gonna feel it. They're gonna sense it. It's one result. Now, now this is the really cool part. This is why I have to say I'm sorry to Martha. In John 11 and 12, in John 11 and 12, Lazarus comes out of the tomb like a Q-tip, okay? And there is another meeting with these three people in the home. And Martha is not offended about what Jesus said. So many folks today, they get corrected by the Holy Spirit or by authority and they internalize and they get offended. How dare them?

The Bible says that when Lazarus died, John 11, 20, Martha, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went out to meet him. She wouldn't have. gone out to meet him if she was offended. And apparently what happened in the kitchen and the home earlier took root in Martha's life because she grew and she learned so much so that now Jesus is treating her like a friend and like a child of God and like a disciple because it is in that moment, the revelation, the profound theological revelation Jesus gives to Martha when he says, I'm the resurrection and the life. If you believe in me, you'll live forevermore. That's what happens on that road in John chapter 11. She's not spiritually inferior. Then we see Mary finding herself at Jesus' feet again, but this time it's not as a disciplined learner. She has broken an alabaster jar of precious perfume, worth a year's wages, and she's anointed his feet. She's poured it over Jesus. And Judas says, how dare you? We could have sold this perfume and given it to the poor, but he didn't care about that. He was a thief, put his hand in the money bag. Do you remember what Jesus said? Jesus, oh, she's preparing my body for the burial because he's on a mission. You know what Jesus said? He said, wherever the gospel is preached,

what this woman has done will be spoken of because of her sweet worship. Now, I looked up some women who had done things. I just asked my new friend, Chet Jepitee, give me a few women from the 1700s who've done significant things. There was Phyllis Wheatley, an African-born lady who did profound things for African-American women. There's Mary Wollstonecraft, 267 years ago, an English writer and philosopher that helped women's rights. Olympia Degoose, who 278 years ago was a French playwright. Same thing, none of you have heard of them. But my friend, Chet Jepitee said that 1,996 years ago, in a room, in a room, a woman did something. That's 728,540 days ago, a woman did something in a room. And here on August 23rd, 2026, we're talking about it in Kannapolis, North Carolina. That's a reward, that's a reward. Not just to make her famous, but to inspire me to lavish on Jesus, worship and service, hallelujah. Her sinning was not pointless. She was learning the Word, which would help her learn His ways, which would help her learn His will, hallelujah. So in conclusion, every day, one or many, that's our choice. He wants us before He wants our work. Martha invited Jesus into the home. Mary invited Jesus into her attention, into her heart and her spirit.

It is in either or, it's both and, hallelujah. That room was important. You know, I don't have many regrets in life. I'm gonna tell you one that I do have. I was 21 years old. I was in my girlfriend Cecilia's house. There were eight people there that it won't mean anything to you, but all those Columbus people will know. My in-laws, future in-laws, the Griggs were there. And the Browns were there, Doug and Ann. And Bobby and Julia Barefield were there. Bobby Barefield is the man responsible for leading Lee McBride, who was in this pulpit on Father's Day, to Jesus and his whole family. And he's one of the funniest men I'd ever met in my life. Mike and Gene McBride were there. And I was listening to story after story. They were holding court. We were laughing, reminiscing, talking about God. It was glorious. And then a mutual friend of ours named David showed up and said, we gotta go to the movies. Come on, we gotta go to the movies. Talked us into going to the movies. You can go to the movies every day in almost every city in America. And then I'm sitting in the theater and thinking this is the stupidest movie I've ever been. Why did I leave that kitchen full of heroes

to come and watch Pee Wee Herman's Great Adventure? And I'm gonna tell you something about that room. Of those eight people, only two are alive today. Once that moment passed, it passed. This room is unique. Now, we'll have service if Jesus doesn't return next week. And there'll be people here, and it's a great church. But this constitution of who we are assembled here together like this will never happen again. Mary sensed that, and she said, this room is special. This room is important. This room is valuable. And I'm gonna sit right here with the one thing. that is essential. So it's not either or, it's both and. Faith without works is dead. Hey, what, just in this context of this church, what if we didn't have all the people serving? What if there's nobody in the nursery and all the babies are crawling around right here? Could you pay attention? What if we got to the campus and there were no parking attendants? There'd be people parking in the grass, taking five and six different, just chaos. No, we love having service and we thank God. What about the media people, the sound, the work? But here's the deal. They don't come to the drums, they don't come to the computer,

they don't come to the parking lot just because it's the nursery, the parking lot. They come because there's a relationship with the one thing and everything in life flows out from that. We give all of them a hand for their service, praise God. This room is not inherently better than the others. It's a place where we worship and love Jesus so that we can go out and we can do his work. John the Baptist had the secret sauce. He must increase, I must decrease. That's ministry, life, anything. He must increase and I must decrease. Joshua said of serving the Lord, seems undesirable to you, choose you today whom you'll serve. One of the saddest scriptures in the whole book. John 666, Mark of the Beast, 666. This was a hard saying from that day. People said this is a hard saying and they walked away from Jesus and Jesus looked at the disciples and said, are you guys leaving too? And they said, where are we gonna go? We're locked in on the one thing. You have the words of life. We ain't going nowhere, praise God. Praise God. Enter by the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction.

And there are many, many that go on it. But narrow is the gate and difficult is the way that leads to life and there are few who find it. Once the band comes up, I'm gonna try to land the plane and ask you to remember the problem Jesus had with the church in Revelation chapter two. You're doing a lot of great things, he says. I know your works. I know what you're doing and it's good. I have something against you. You forgot your first love. Remember the height from which you fall and repent and do the things you did at first. I was thinking about this service. I was in my prayer closet and the scripture from Isaiah came to me. I had an image of meeting Pastor Melanie at Cecilia's house for the first time. We'd only been dating a couple of weeks. And the scripture came to me as I had that image, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. I had an image of me walking in and meeting Pastor Melanie as a newly born again Christian. I'd been born again about 11 minutes. The garment of praise for this. I had the garments of praise but they still had the tags on it. I mean, that was so new. I still had the tags on it, man.

And I had nothing but the one thing. That's all I had going from me. All I had was the one thing. I came out of the dirt, man. And I was so passionate for the one thing. Then I went to Bible college. Pastor Jay and I would fast on Wednesdays, I think, all day, or Fridays maybe. And then we'd go witnessing, street witnessing. We went to a Black Sabbath concert. For you young people, Black Sabbath is a band that used to exist on the earth. They'd open the doors. We'd be standing in the parking lot and the marijuana smoke would waft out and send up smoke signals to the neighboring tribes. And the people would come out. Ah! And there we were. Would you like to hear about Jesus? Would you like to hear about? He was aggressive. I was a little more passive than he was. We'd take on hell with a squirt gun, man. Because we were consumed with the one thing. Life has a way of distracting us. And Jesus calls us back to the one thing. The only thing that counts is him. Everything in this room is gonna pass away. First Peter says,

since all these things will be dissolved in this way, what manner of person should you be? The only thing that counts is the one thing. I remember I was working at a department store and saving up money to get married and proposing to my girlfriend. And there was a notorious bar that was on the way to campus. And it was kind of famous for a little weird perverted kind of stuff or whatever. And I remember driving my 1974 Dodge Dart Swinger Special three on the column green vinyl seats by that. And one night on the way home from work, I just pulled in. I got out. I was gonna go stand on. a bar and preach the gospel to those people. I walked over to that screen door like Clint Eastwood and put my three fingers around there and I heard a whisper. I'm not asking you to do this, Joe. Hallelujah, thank God, and I ran back to my car. But I was willing, because I didn't have a microphone, but what I did have was the one thing, the only thing that counts. Well, as I shared in the Unforgiveness Penitentiary, and I close with this, and we're gonna invite you to this alternate moment. I had to live with a lot of families in high school. And I lived with the McCatherins and the Ammons

and the Woods and the Heidel and some sweet, precious people that I'll never forget. The first family that took me in when I had nowhere to go was an old lady named Nellie Grindle. She lived in a big, drafty farmhouse in Columbus, right down there by Rose Hill Seafood. It was out of place, it was right in the kind of the ghetto. I was just glad to have a bed, a place to lay my head. I saw a knife fight right outside my window one day on the sidewalk, and I did something courageous. I locked the door and jumped under the bed. Nellie had a son who was 50, 55 years old, Herbert, and he had like a fifth grade education because his father, who was a pharmacist, gave him the wrong medication, I was told, and it kind of stunted his intellectual growth, but didn't stunt his spiritual growth. I'd come in at night, and I could hear Herbert praying, reverberating in that farmhouse. He kind of talked a little funny. He would pray, Father, I pray for Pastor Charles Heath, I pray for Pastor Hal Stewart, and I pray for Watson McKinley, and for Pastor Mark Northcutt. He prayed for city officials, he prayed forever. He prayed for the county coroner by name, Don Kilgore, appropriate name. I pray for that boy, Joe Phillips, and that girl, Sig Grace, comes in all hours of the nighttime.

I smile. Fast forward five years. I'm back in Columbus, I'm the youth pastor. We're always catching a call, you know, and so I'm on call this particular week for the hospital. It's Friday, I've got a lock-in, or a weenie roast, or some forsaken thing that I gotta do that night. I'm busy, I got a hospital list as long as my arm, all the way to Fort Benning Martin Army Hospital, all the way to Russell County, and I'm just trying to click them off, click them off, and do my work. I get to St. Francis Hospital, and I see Herbert Grendel's name on the list, and I'm just gonna make a quick hit. I get to the door, I open it. He couldn't afford a private room, but the bed in front of the curtain by the door was empty. The curtain was drawn, his back was to the curtain, he was looking out towards the window, he didn't know I was there, and the whisper came to me again, stop right here, I'm gonna teach you something today. So I stopped, and there's Herbert sitting in a chair with his fifth grade education, his mom has already died, and he's reading this large print Bible. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want any, he shall make it for me to lie down on green pastures. And then he'd take his Parkinson's hands,

and he would worship. And I just stood there and watched him. And then when the worship was over, he'd come back to the Word. He turned to Scripture. Who hath believed, I report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord been revealed. He shall grow up before him like a tree. There he goes again, there he goes again, and my feet were in concrete. I couldn't move. Nurses were putting their medication cart around me, I was in the way. And that day, I was getting a master class in one thing, sitting at his feet. And I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I knew that Herbert had the attention of God more than any televangelist on the earth that day. Don't you want the one thing?