Revival 2026 (Night 2) | Luke Hockenjos

I have to tell you this. I have not left this place all day. Uh yeah. So I just I don't know. I told you last night I'm add multiplied by 35 pi squared. Like I said, that's a spiritual gift for some of you and then to others that's spiritually annoying. I understand. I get that uh very much. But so I stayed here all day, slept in Austin's office. And and thank y'all so much for getting the house ready. But I got over there and I was like, it's too big. It's too empty. I miss my wife. if I miss my two kids, I'm sleeping on a couch in an office because it just felt homey. And so I I really I never left this place today. Got ready to leave at one point and the Lord was like just stay. Uh and so at about 4:00 I got kind of hyper and because the coffee had worn off, if you don't know people with what I have, um coffee and caffeine calms us down and and when it wears off, we are hyper. And and so I was running around this place and I was just having fun talking to the Lord, talking to myself. One of them talked back. Um

and then brother Gary pulled in and I started jumping up and down. I said, "Oh, there's a person." And so anyways, it is so good to be with you. Uh and it was just a good day. My my wife told me, she said, "I I really wish that I could just spend all day by myself and I'm I said, "No, no, you don't." Right? Like I got kind of lonely. I miss my wife, miss my kids and all that. And so I'm just glad that you're here and glad that we have a school assembly tomorrow at 10:15. I don't know. That's another school. That's another school. You You don't like that school? Well, I'm not there. Oh, if you go to that school, she loves you as much as she loves they don't love their food. Amen. So, it's good to be here. If we hadn't had the opportunity to meet, my name's Luke Hawken Jos. I'm just just a nobody from Louisiana who who the Lord saved almost 12 years ago. And uh I don't know how to do any of this stuff. I do know that I smell like a laundry mat because my shirt was wrinkled and I tried Fbreze wrinkle release and I used way too much spray. Austin needs an iron board for his baby shower or in his office. Yeah, we just just put it in his office. I don't know if you can iron a a Disney shirt, though. Right. Most of the characters don't like irons. You know what I mean? They run from them. But anyways, you haven't watched enough Disney movies if you didn't get that. Let's get into the spirit. Right. Okay. First Peter. Let's Let's go to First Peter tonight. First Peter, chapter 1. First Peter, chapter 1. We're going to we're going to I The way my brain works, I I try to let you know as much about me as I can in the short time that I'm with you. Uh I I don't know how to do a three-point sermon. I heard a preacher one time say that this sermon's an awful lot like a bull. It's got two points and a lot of bull in between it. So like I I I just my brain doesn't work that way. But all all I know is is the scriptures. When the Lord first saved me, I was a homeless drug addict, drug dealer before he saved me. After he saved me, I was a homeless preacher. Right? And I didn't all of a sudden get a home. It's true story. When when the Lord saved me, I owned a truck, suitcase full of clothes, a Bible, a notebook, and a pen. And that that was it. And so all I had was Jesus and a Bible and the Holy Spirit, which was all that I needed. And I just sat in a coffee shop uh 6 to 8 hours a day after the Lord sent me on about a two-eek journey all across the eastern United States going to all different kinds of places. That's a whole another story for a whole another day. Uh, and then for the next seven months, I just sat with the Lord at that coffee shop. I had no bills. Uh, had Wi-Fi at my house cuz my truck parked in the parking spot right next to the coffee shop. Uh, and and I just read the scriptures. And here's why. Because I had grown up in church, but I did not grow up with with Bible knowledge. I grew up with a lot of Bible stories, right? Like I grew up thinking that Noah's ark was this cute little boat that had all these big eyed animals on it. never understood that there were people that were dying on the outside of that ark because they were so hardenedhearted that they would not get into the boat when Noah preached for over a hundred years. Think about that, pastors. Noah preached for over a hundred something years and never had a single convert, right? Had never had anybody listen to what he was saying. Yet, he continued to preach faithfully. And I believe that when the Lord shut the door on Noah's ark and sealed it, nobody could get in, nobody could get out. I just have to believe that Noah sat on the inside of that boat weeping as he heard the people scratching, dying from the flood. Right? So, so I I didn't grow up with that. I had to the Lord had to show me that. And so, I just sat with the word. It said, "Meditate on God's word day and night like a cow regurgitates its cud." By the way, this is how annoying I got today. Those cows disappeared, right? Like they were there for a moment and then they were gone. I was like, "Feel all by myself." And and so I just meditate on the word. So this is all all that I know is the scriptures and and I just know that this is where God wants us to be tonight because I I grew up in a in a in a different environment kind of like this this place. I was grown up learning how to do certain things that do not equivalate with being a follower of Christ. If you haven't figured out by now, I make up my own words. I figured Webster's dictionary made up his own words, so I get to make up my own words. And so we're just going to walk through this text and and we're going to start in 1 Peter chapter 1:1 17, but then we're going to go back and this is where the text is going to be pulled out. And in verse 17, and this is what Peter says. He says, "If you address as father the one who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear." This is a word that we really have to focus on tonight because what I'm seeing happen in our world is we've taken the term Christian and instead of having it with a biblical value, it has more of a cultural value. And instead of Christian being considered holy, Christianity is starting to become more popular. And can I just say this? Christianity was never meant to be popular. Matter of fact, in the book of Acts, when they first started being called Christians, it was not a term that people were looking to have on them unless they truly followed after Christ. Here's why. Because the first church was brutally persecuted. Neero, the emperor of Rome, hated Christians. And he would take people that were followers of the way and he would dip some of them in oil and he would put them and he would use them as lamps in his garden. The coliseum. I've been there before toward Europe with a choir and stood in the coliseum as a lost person. But now looking back where I stood, Christians were thrown into the coliseum and they were just a game for people to play with and they would bet money on how long it would take for an animal to devour them. Yeah. Now today we call people Christians and there's no evidence of Christ. And I believe if there's no evidence then there's no Christ. And I also believe we are starting to lead people to hell, making them think that they are truly Christians when all they do is show up for a revival. All they do is sing in a choir. All they do is carry a Bible. And this verse in 1 Peter 1:1 17, he says, "If you address the one who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during your time on your stay here on earth." Now, how do we conduct ourselves in fear if we address the one as father, the one who impartially judges the work that we do while we're on this earth? Now, before we go any further, I know what the Bible says. The Bible says that we are not saved by our works, right? We're not saved by our works. We're saved by grace alone through faith alone that is not of works of ourselves so that no one can boast. We're not saved by our works, but we are saved to do the work of the Lord here on this earth. and the work of the Lord. Can I I'm just going to say this if you don't like it. Austin invited me right. He's the guy right here. We have stopped working for the Lord and we've started working for tradition. We work in a way that no longer glorifies and leads people to heaven. We glorify ourselves. Right? We want to be the best church with the biggest numbers with the best congregations and all these things. When he says, "If this is what you want to do, this is how you conduct yourself." Peter answers that question in verses 13 of how we conduct ourselves in fear while we're here on this earth. Very first thing he says, I might I might preach the fastest message I've ever preached in my life. I don't know. It says, "Prepare your mind for action." Now, this is where we really need to talk about a moment, right? What how do we prepare our mind for action? Now, Peter, I heard a preacher say one time that he really liked Peter because Peter liked to cuss and fight and he carried a knife, right? Like, uh, and I really kind of feel like Peter and I one day in heaven, we're going to get along really well because Peter was an uneducated hick fisherman, right? Like you need to you need to know that Peter, if you study Jewish tradition, a lot of the Jewish boys as they were growing up, they would approach a rabbi and they would say, "Hey, Rabbi, I want to be your disciple." And then they would be put through some test. And if they did not meet the test requirements, if they did not meet the rabbis requirements, they were told, "Hey, go get a trade. Go become a fisherman. Go do something else because you're not cut out to be my disciple." Jesus was a rabbi. He was a teacher. And we don't see the disciples seeking after Jesus. We see Jesus seeking after the disciples. And notice that he went to the fishermen. He went to the tax collectors. He went to the people that nobody else thought anything about. Jesus went to them and he said, "Follow after me." Peter was a fisherman who the Lord said, "Follow." And Peter left his nets behind and he followed Jesus. Now, Peter also denied Jesus three times while he was in the temple standing by fire. And remember what Jesus said when when Peter said, "Lord, I'm going to follow you even unto death." Jesus said, "Hey, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times." And you remember the story, right? Peter denies Jesus. He cusses on the third time in some of the translations. And the Bible says that the rooster crows and Jesus and Peter lock eyes. Imagine that stare. Peter realizing that he had denied Jesus and Jesus knowing that Peter was going to deny him. I don't think that Jesus was shaking his head when he looked at Peter. I think that Jesus was looking at him with the eyes of mercy and grace and love, knowing that what was coming next would forgive Peter for what he had just done. Now, if you also remember when Jesus is resurrected, right, after he surrenders his life over, the Roman soldiers did not kill Jesus. Nothing could kill Jesus. Jesus surrendered his own spirit over unto death because that's what was needed for the sacrifice and the penalty that was needed for our sins. And so when Jesus is resurrected and there's Mary and them out the tomb, right? And the angel says, "Why are you looking for the living among the dead?" Jesus says, "Go and tell the disciples and tell Peter." Peter was one who had walked with the Lord, who had denied the Lord and then had been redeemed by the Lord when Jesus was cooking. That's how you know Jesus was Baptist. He was frying fish on the side of the water. You know what I mean? If you're not Baptist, that's just a joke that that we make, right? Like that's how you know Jesus liked to eat. Fried fish on the side of the road. And man, isn't it amazing that they looked upon the sea and they knew Jesus that was standing there and when Peter recognized him, he bailed off into the water, right? Bible says he girded everything up and he jumped into the water just to get to Jesus. So this is who's writing this. Matter of fact, even Peter, church history tells us that when they persecuted and crucified him, he said, "Hey, crucify me upside down because I'm not found worthy to die the way that my savior died." So this is a man's man writing this message to the Christians. And he says, "Prepare your mind for actions." But it is not a physical action that Peter is saying, "Prepare your mind for." Because the battle that we fight, you got to catch this. The battle that we fight as Christians today is not a physical battle. It It is not an earthly battle that we fight with weapons because our battle is not against flesh and blood. My battle, listen, my battle is not against a member of the LGBTQ. My battle is not against a man that put his hand on a Quran in New York City. Can I Can I just say this? This isn't me chasing a rabbit. This is just me making a statement. I don't care what hand you put on what book because the God that I serve is the God that is above all, greater than all, more powerful than all. And I am not fearful of what man does because I know who is in true control. and I know who has true victory. And you can keep watching the media all you want and you can get fearful about all those things or you can look upon the Lord and say, "God, I don't know what they're doing, but I know what you're capable of doing. God, send missionaries to New York. Send a revival to New York. Lord, save that man who thinks he is doing right and show him what true holiness is in Jesus Christ." Because our battle is not against him. It's against the darkness and the principalities of the world that is unseen. And when Peter says, "Prepare your mind for actions," he's not talking about a physical action. Let me just say this, man. God does not need you and me to bow our chest up and to fight for him. Remember what happened when Peter pulled his sword and he went to cut the ear off of the one who was trying to arrest Jesus? He says, "Peter, put your sword away because he that lives by the sword will die by the sword." He He doesn't need us to respond in the way that the world's looking for us to respond. He needs us to respond in a way that points people to Jesus. There there's a book that you can read called The Voice of the Martyrs. And these martyrs that are dying for their faith in Christ who I believe are going to get a special crown in heaven. But I also will say this, if that's a crown that I'm if I'm plann to have, then Lord, let me have it, I guess. But there's also a side of me that I just like to see other people throw that crown. That's just me being honest, right? If God has required of me to die for my faith, then I'll die for my faith. But these people, man, were just soldiers for the faith. Because you know how they responded? They didn't respond with violence. They said, "Hey, if this is what we have, God, then we will preach you all the unto death. There's stories of men being burnt at the stake. And while they are burning alive, they're not shouting out evil threats towards their people, towards the people that are burning them. They're shouting out praises to the Lord and singing hymns all the way unto death. When Peter says prepare your mind for action, I believe what he's saying is focus on the Lord. How do we prepare our mind for action? I'm glad that you asked because Peter follows that after that comma, right? We prepare our minds for action by keeping sober in the spirit. That word sober is not just talking about staying off of alcohol, right? Cuz I'm sure none of you have ever been drunk, right? Like maybe you have. I don't know. Whatever. I'm just kidding. I I've been a little bit in my life before Jesus, right? But like when he's saying keep sober, y'all didn't laugh at that at all. Like that that joke did not land here in Alabama. It landed in Mississippi, but not in Alabama. Right? So like keep sober in spirit. If you've if you've never been intoxicated by anything, let me just tell you what happens. Your your vision is impaired. What you see is impaired. You're not seeing clearly. You're not thinking clearly. You think that you're able to do things that you really cannot do. And when Peter is saying, you prepare your mind for action by keeping sober in the spirit. How in the world do we do that? Like what? How is it possible for us with everything that's happening in this world to prepare our minds for action and to stay sober in the spirit? Because let's be honest, the world is just absolutely crazy. Can I just tell you this? It was absolutely crazy when Peter was writing this. Come on, brother. The world's always been crazy. Ever since the fall, ever since Adam and Eve in the garden ate from the tree that they were not supposed to eat from, their disobedience is what led us to the fall of man. The world has always been crazy. Read the Old Testament. My goodness, right? Like there was horrific things that were happening back then. People were killing little children so that they would not become king. And there was just all these things taking place. There was dark worship that was happening. The world was just as crazy when Peter was writing this as it is today in 2026. But here's what you and I have to understand. Regardless of how crazy it may seem, the light of the world is still here because Jesus says, "I am the light of the world and in me there is no darkness." Church, you got to hear this. If we are going to fight this battle that God's called us to fight, then we have to prepare our mind for actions. Not a physical action, but a spiritual action. How do we prepare our mind for a spiritual action and not a physical action? We keep sober in the spirit. Jesus says this in Matthew chapter 6, who of you by worrying can add a single moment to your life? But we worry a lot, don't we? Let me ask you this. Grandparents, parents, you ever had the thought, man, I'm so worried about what my kids are going to grow up in because they're growing up in something so crazy. My dad's not a theologian uh by any means, but my dad's an old welder. Uh I grew up as a welder's helper. Uh he had a old uh truck dog that used to ride on the bed of his truck and then it got ran over and I replaced the dog. Right. But uh I got to ride on the Y'all laughed at that, but not the sober joke. I got to ride on the inside of the truck. And and from the time I was just a just a little boy. That that's that's what I grew up around. I I grew up in that lifestyle. And so my dad uh he had a welding rod go through his eyes. So he can't really see that. Well, my dad has recently his life has completely changed by Jesus. Uh there's a whole another story. I can tell you about it another day or I might tell you about it later. I don't know. But my dad was talking and I was talking one day. I said, ' Dad, I'm just worried to have a kid because of how crazy the world is. And my dad said, son, what's crazy to you will be normal to them. He said, ' Don't worry about it. It's going to be all right. Jesus says, who of you by worrying can add a single moment to your life? He says to seek first the kingdom of God and all of his righteousness, and then all you need will be added unto you. See, church, and especially you older saints, let me just talk to you for a moment because I don't know how it is here, but I know how it is a lot of other places that I go. We have done such a horrible job of teaching this younger generation of how to truly live out our faith. Now, we teach them how to dress and how to walk and and all the respects of the church. But when it comes to living out our faith, what are we teaching them? Because a lot of times we would rather argue about politics than we would pray for those that are lost and headed to hell. Come on. A lot of times we would rather pick on them and belittle them for how they're doing things that are not normal instead of telling them what we did when we were younger. Do you know that a lot of people middle school and high school grow up with an idea that the people older than them never did anything wrong? that we never sin, that we never fall in short because we have hidden our past in such a way that we never tell them that hey there was a time in my life where this is how I used to act and this is what I used to do but this is what God has done for me. See listen to me older saints let me just tell you this. The Bible says by the word of our testimony and the blood of the lamb. When was the last time you shared your testimony with a younger saint? Yeah. When was the last time that we said, "You know what? I'm going to help them prepare their mind for action by staying sober in the spirit, and I'm going to tell them what God has done in my life." Peter's writing this to the to the Christian church. He's writing this to people that were being persecuted, right? The people that were dying for their faith. This is the letter that he decides to write to them. Keep sober. Keep watch. Prepare your mind for action. not a physical action but a spiritual action. Why? Like why wouldn't God just let us fight, right? Like why why wouldn't he let us just God just turn me loose for one moment? You know what I mean? Like I'm sure a lot of us rough and tough guys, we probably think that way. Lord, if you just turn me loose, I could fix every problem in this world. You know, the greatest problem that we have today is Christians trying to solve problems instead of Christians trusting the Lord to reveal the problem and cause the problem to repent so that the problem can be restored. See, problems don't need to be fixed. They need to be completely changed. Lost people don't need to be fixed. They need to be made new in Christ. And how will they be made new unless we tell them? And how will they hear? Unless we go. A lot of times what happens is as Christians, we're so prepared to fight physically and we're so wound up by everything that's happening instead of focusing on what the world needs more than anything else, we try to forcefully tell them how they should change and then we leave it there and we walk on. Was riding with a fella years ago uh was a new Christian uh when the Lord first saved me, man, like you think I'm hyper now, right? Like I I was just ready to go. I I I traveled from uh Louisiana to Memphis to St. Louis to Chicago, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, back to Rustin. I I had no money. I I just had Jesus. And when he said go, I would go. When he'd say stop, I would stop. My family thought I was crazy. Kind of sort of was, you know what I mean? Uh and so just all of these things. And and I'd moved back to Rustin, living outside that coffee shop, and I was hanging around with these people. when and we went to eat one night and I'm riding with this older saint riding in the passenger seat and he begins to tell me about his uh stepson who was a homosexual and in my head I'm like, "Okay, I'm fixing to learn some knowledge. How do I witness to somebody that believes that way?" Because although we believe that it is wrong according to the scriptures, when people are lost, they don't believe that they're lost. They believe that they're fine. You could have told me every single day of my life that selling methamphetamine was wrong, but I thought that it was the way of the Lord because the enemy had flipped the scriptures in my head. Come back tomorrow. I'll tell you the rest of the story. But I'm riding with this guy and he tells me about his homosexual stepson. And I say, "Man, what do you tell him? How do you minister to somebody like that? I want to know. Like I I want to know how to love them well. I want to know how to share the gospel with them to where they'll hear it. And I'll never forget, he just kind of got angry and he said, I tell him he's an abomination and he's headed to hell. And he just kept driving. And in my young mind, I was like, why would he listen to that? Yeah. Why? Why? It is the truth. But here's the truth. Those people that don't not have a relationship with Christ, you can be straight and still be an abomination headed to hell. You know what I mean? Like even though that was true, I didn't think that that was how it was to be handled. Because why would I tell them that and push them away when they're not ready to hear that? Why can't I just tell them, "Hey, Jesus died on a cross for me. He paid the price for me. He set me free and he changed me. Can I tell you more about Jesus?" You know why we're not reaching the lost people? Because we don't care about reaching them. We would rather just hit them over the head with a large King James Bible and pray that it sticks instead of trying to build that relationship that changes them for all eternity. You know how people got to me? They invited me to church. And when I showed up wearing a bandana on my head, they didn't tell me to take it off. You know what they told me? Luke, we're glad that you're here. Stay. They would take me to eat. I smelled like a brewery. They would take me to eat. The pastor and his family would sit in the middle of restaurants with me. They prepared their mind for action. They stayed sober in spirit. And then they fixed their hope. This is what Peter says. If you are going to address father as one who impartially judges, prepare your mind for action. Keep sober in spirit. Fix your hope completely. Amen. Completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Fix your hope completely. Isaiah says, "Those that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up like on wings of eagles. They shall run and not grow weary. They shall walk and not faint. Peter is saying, "Fix your hope completely. Not on the chaos of the world, not on the darkness of the world, but on the grace of the Lord God Almighty that will be revealed to you on the day of Christ Jesus." Let me ask you this, church, before we go any further. What is your hope fixed on today? Is your hope fixed on the Lord? The psalmist says, "My help comes from the Lord." Right? What do we fix our hope on? Because your hope better not be in Austin and Lindsay Bedwell. That's right. Although they are phenomenal people, wonderful people, right? They are not your hope. Your hope is Jesus Christ. If your hope's built on a pastor, it will crumble. If your hope's built on a church that burnt down and then was freshly rebuilt, it will crumble just like it already did once before. Peter says, "Fix your hope completely on the grace of God that will be revealed to you on the day of Christ Jesus." Fixing our hope on Jesus. Listen to me. You got to you got to wrap your mind around this means blocking out everything that's happening in the world. And it's not that we don't care about the world. We're just not a part of this world. We are called to live separate from this world in the world, but separate from the world. We should look so different from everybody else that is lost that when people see us, they know that there's something different about us. I'm tired of watching people call themselves Christians but look no different from the people that are lost. How can that be? And it's not about what you wear on the outside. It's about what's on the inside. Because I know some Christians that can't afford three-piece suits that walk around with Jesus a lot better than people that own three-piece suits. I know some Christians that walk around dressed nice and on the outside they look nice, but on the inside they look nicer because of their love, their joy, their peace, their patience, their kindness, their goodness, and their self-control. He says fix your hope completely. The word completely means totally, right? Like that is all that you're focused on is Jesus. You wake up in the morning and you think of Jesus. You wake up in the morning and you think of his goodness. But you got to listen to this next part. Prepare your mind for action. Keep sober in the spirit. Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you by the revelation of Jesus Christ as obedient children. Do not be conformed to your former lust which were yours in your ignorance. See, I I hear people say this a lot of times. I'm a Christian, but I still do fill in the blank. Like, I'm a Christian, but I still cuss. I'm a Christian, but I still get drunk. I'm a Christian, but I do this. If you have to put a tagline on the backside of your Christianity, then I don't think Jesus is on the front side of your Christianity. He says, "As obedient children, you know, when I got my weapons when I was younger, when I was disobedient, when I lied, oh, let me just tell you about my daddy son. He did not like you to lie." And it didn't matter if it was a little lie or a big lie. If you lied. So my dad's name is Spooky. And and we always got him belts. When he was born, he wasn't supposed to be alive. Came out kicking and screaming. Doctor said, "If that ain't the spookiest thing I ever seen, I've got Spooky imprinted on the back on my backside, right? Cuz when he would whip you, he wanted it to stick. Cuz he wanted you to remember the pain of the disobedience the next time you had the thought of being disobedient so that you would be an obedient child. Cuz I represented his name. I was born into his family. Therefore, I represented his family. If you are born into the family of God, you represent something far much greater than yourself. And if you are a disobedient child, the father will discipline you. And the Bible even says that he disciplines those whom he loves, not whom he hates. If you're not being disciplined in your disobedience, then I have to wonder what part of the family you're in. That's good, brother. Yeah. He says, "As obedient children, do not be conformed to your former lust, which were once yours in your ignorance." See, I think a lot of times we look at lost people and we're like, why do they do that? Why do they act that way? Don't they know any better? And here's the real answer to that. No, they really don't. So, I think we give lost people and I'm not being mean to them. I'm just I'm preaching a revival, right? I I believe revival is for the church. And and if the Lord saves, he saves. If he revives, he revives. This is what I'm called to preach. Lost people don't know that they're lost until they meet Jesus. That's right. And and we can preach to them all day long. We can tell them of his goodness, but until the Lord removes the veil from their eyes, they don't realize that they're lost. They think that we're crazy. And there was a time in your life when you were once lost, you were not born saved. That's right. You were not born a Christian. You were born into sin. And I think a lot of times what happens to us older saints, I'm I consider myself an older saint. Right. I'm I'm almost 36. To some of you, that's really young. To them, that's old, right? We forget that we were once lost. We sing songs like Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I'm found. Was blind but now I see. See, we forget that at once we were far from God as well. And when we forget that we were once lost as well, then we don't recognize those that are lost in need of a savior. And instead of trying to reach them for the gospel, we try to condemn them with the gospel. And instead of preaching the whole truth of the gospel, we preach the only side that makes us feel holier than them. Peter is saying, "Don't as obedient children, do not conform to your old lust, your old desires that were once yours in ignorance." Let me ask you this, Christian. Have you gone back any? Have you sliden back? We use that word backsliding sometimes in the church and and I I whatever like, but have you gotten so just comfortable in your walk with Christ that you no longer look for sin to repent of? That you no longer look for things to grow in that you no longer look for the Lord to reveal things that you yourself need to grow in. And when we're not doing that, what happens is we're so hyperfocused on everybody else's sin that we forget that although we are saved, we're still sinners and we still have things that we need to cleanse our own through the power of the Lord. He says he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness if we confess our sins. He says, "Do not be conformed to the former lust which were yours in your ignorance by preparing your mind, keeping sober in spirit, fixing your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. But like the holy one who has called you, be holy yourselves also in your behavior because it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy." We sing the songs, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty." And often times we lean on that crutch that says, "Well, I'm saved, but I'm a sinner." But you're called to be a greater. You were called to something greater than what you once were. He says, "Be holy, for I am holy." We will never be sinless. But we should strive to sin less. Because if we desire to look like Christ, Paul says, "Imitate me as I imitate Christ." He says in Ephesians 5, "We imitate the Lord as dearly beloved children by walking in his ways." These Christians, let me just ask you this tonight. If people were to look at your life over the past 24 hours, would they see the holiness of God? Or would they see the sinfulness of man? Would they see you striving to look like the father? Or would they not even know that you were truly a follower of Christ because you try to be so undercover in your faith? There's no undercover Christians in a place where we should be called to be free in our faith here in the United States. There's a story in a in a book I read one time of these uh people that got rescued from a foreign country where it was illegal to be a Christian. They got smuggled out. I think from my past life I'd be pretty good at smuggling people out of countries. But anyways, uh if if you don't know, whatever they were they were smuggled out of the country that they were in because it was illegal to be a follower of Christ. So these Christians smuggled them out. to get to the United States and they're so excited to worship where there is freedom to worship. And as the story goes, they go to worship one Sunday. They go back again, think they only made it about two or three times and they go to the people that rescued them and they said, "Hey, can you send us back because we would rather worship where there's persecution than worship where there's freedom because this isn't worship." Wow. Yeah. Let me ask you this. If people showed up to worshiping where you worship, would they see people worshiping in freedom? And I'm not talking, listen, I I I I rarely raise my hands. Uh and it's not because I don't want to raise my hands unto the Lord. It's because I got messed up shoulders, right? Like and and I raise my hands to my side. I I hold my arms sometimes. That is how I worship. I worship just the way that God has called me. And sometimes I raise my hands, sometimes I don't. Listen to me. There's God's not looking for how many times you raise your hand in worship. He just wants you to worship in spirit and in truth. And if you worship better sitting down, sit down. If you worship better laying down, lay down. But just worship in spirit and in truth and don't waste the freedom that God's given us by being here in this country. But if it needs to be taken away so that we truly worship, I pray that it's taken away. He says, "Be holy, for the one who called you is holy." Prepare your mind for actions. Keep sober in spirit. Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you with the revelation of Jesus Christ as obedient children. Do not be conformed to the former lust which were yours in your ignorance, but like the holy one who called you, be holy yourself also in all of your behavior. That's your thoughts as well. Couple uh probably about a month or two ago, I if you weren't here last night, I I'll tell you that I split and sell firewood. Uh I've been doing that for a long time now. When the Lord first saved me, I just started doing it. Uh I started with a mall and an axe. Now I have a 37 ton hydraulic splitter, but I still swing them all cuz I like having calluses. Cuz I shook a man's hand one time and he said, "Ooh, you have soft hands." I said, "Never again. Ain't happening." Uh, and so I split and sell firewood and it's just something that I do. I enjoy it. A lot of people say, "Well, that's hard work." I just like it. So I had loaded my trailer, 16 ft dump trailer with with some wood. Was headed to make a delivery. And man, I'll be honest with you, like I I've been walking with the Lord for about 11 years, 11 and some change, almost 12 years. And there's a part of me that was feeling pretty confident in my faith. Uh, and just really focused on the Lord and all these things. And I had not really been tested in a while. And so I have the GPS punched in to where I'm headed. Go get into the town where I'm headed. And I turned down a road and the road said uh private road, no entry. Well, in my head, I'm just thinking, okay, that's the deliveries down here. Uh, and so I pulled down the road, I called a customer and I said, 'Hey, I'm at a metal gate. Uh, I can't go any further. And he said, 'Oh, you went down the wrong road.' I was like, 'Well, what do I what do I do? And he said, well, I said, "Hey, there's a guy on a golf cart coming up." Uh, he said, "Well, he's probably fixing to tell you that you're in the wrong place." And it was the owner of that road. And I said, "Okay, I'll call you right back." and hunk foam rolled down the window. And when the man pulled up, he just started to cuss me uh at a very loud and anger angry way. Some of you have probably been cussed that way before. Uh and in my head, I kind of cocked my head a little bit. And I'm like, well, first off, I'm thankful my daughter's not with me. And I tried to explain to him what I was doing, and that didn't matter. And he just kept cussing and kept cussing and kept cussing and he kept going and building and building and building. And I keep a 9mm pistol in my truck. Uh, and just just being transparent. I believe transparency brings about transformation. And I I rubbed my leg where that pistol usually sits cuz that's how heated I had gotten. And and the pistol wasn't there. I said, "Okay." And he kept yelling. And for some reason, I I I wanted to yell back, but the I just couldn't. And I wanted to respond. And he said, "You're going to back all the way out of here." And I kind of got a little smart. He said, "You're going to back all the way out of here." And I said, "Fine. My daddy taught me how to drive." And I and and so I and it's a long road and I start backing down this road and this gentleman is following me in his golf cart. Nose to my you've seen my truck. I drive a 3/4tonon truck. I was fully loaded with wood. I And I even had the thought I can drop this thing and drive and no one will ever know what happened. You laugh, but according to the scriptures, I had the thought of murder in my heart. Therefore, I had committed murder. See, I I wasn't thinking holy. I was thinking sinful. I wanted to so bad. Backed all the way out. There was a vehicle that turned down the road. I went to kick the trailer into a driveway cuz like I said, my daddy taught me how to drive. Uh and and as I kicked the trailer, he went ballistic. And he said, "You're backing all the way out." Use some other words. And I said, "Well, there's a car." He said, "Well, he works for me." And I said, "Poor fellow, right?" like again, you know, just I was not thinking holy thoughts. My mind was not prepared. My spirit was not sober and I was not fixed on the grace of God. I was ready to fight. Backed all the way out and I wanted to flip him off so bad. I'm sure none of you have ever had that thought either. You never been drunk, never want to flip anybody off, whatever, right? But and and I just wanted to and I said, "Lord, just turn me loose. Give me five seconds because I'm not being mean, but I'm in the best shape I've ever been in my life. This man's in in his he's probably in his 60s to 70s. He's older. He's in a golf cart. Lord, just turn me loose for two seconds. Two seconds and I promise he'll never cuss another person again. You laugh, but there's a part of me not being funny cuz I wanted to kill him. Hear me when I say that. I wanted him to feel pain. backed out into the road and I pulled my hand up and I just saluted him and I drove off and I called my brothers that are my accountability brothers. I called him. I said, "Hey, listen. This is where I'm at. This is what happened. I want to kill him. Please pray." The Bible says you confess your sins to your brother so that you'll find healing. And then he says, "Confess your sins to the Lord and he'll forgive you and cleanse you of all unrighteousness." And so I made a phone call. I still felt angry. I made another phone call. Made another phone call. I called as many people as I could until I felt okay. Praise the Lord that I didn't respond. I responded how I wanted and how the Lord wanted me to. That was on a Thursday. The next Wednesday, I'm preaching at a church in a little bitty community close to where that happened. And I was going to preach this message. I preached this message a couple of times before that night. And I always shared this story in the message because it just goes. But the Lord went I went into the restroom. I was like, "God, I feel like you I'm not supposed to preach this." and preached a completely different message. While I was preaching the completely different message, a phone rang and the phone rang and it was a horse going and I made the comment. I said, "Well, good thing it wasn't a donkey, right?" Like that. Well, that is funny. You can laugh at that, right? I feel like I should have an applause and a quiet. But anyways, and and so I just kept preaching. Didn't think anything of it. The sermon's over. God bless. There was people at the altars handling business with the Lord. I can't bring you to the altars. Only the spirit of the Lord can do that. And and after the service, I'm talking with some people and I said, "Man, I bet that was your phone over there cuz I knew some horse people." And they said, "No." And they mentioned the person's name. And I said, "Well, he cussed me about a a week ago and I would love an opportunity to talk to him." That was on a Wednesday. On a Friday, my phone rang and it was a number I didn't know. I told my wife, I said, "I think it's that guy." I don't know how that happens. Sometimes I have discernment. I've walked into restaurants before and knew the waitress's name before they took our order and didn't have on a name tag. That was a fun day. And and so I just said, "I think it's that guy." But I didn't answer. And then my dad called immediately after that. And he said, "Hey, I've seen you, fella." I said, "What are you talking about?" He said, "I seen the one that that cussed you." Uh, and Luke, when I sat down at the table with him at the restaurant, he started bragging about how good you preached. He said, "Luke preached a heck of a message that night. It was wonderful." And my dad said, he looked at him, he said, "Well, I find that interesting considering Luke's the young man that you cussed the other day." And he said, "The guy's face dropped." And he called me and when he called me and I finally answered the phone, he began to talk to me. He said, "Luke, I want you to know that you did more good that day than you will possibly ever know." Cuz I went inside the day that you didn't respond. And I told my wife, I said, "That young man did not respond. He didn't get angry. He didn't cuss at me. There's something different about him." him. And I said, "Well, man, you need to know this that I did not want to respond that way. The only way that I was able to respond that way is because of my fear in the Lord and because he is holy and I am not and because he controls me." There was a How about you start telling people about Jesus instead of cussing them, right? Like those were the words out of my mouth. Why do I tell you that story? Because if I did not fear the Lord enough in that moment, I would have lost all credibility as a preacher because he didn't recognize me from the behind the pull pit. But if id have responded how I wanted to, he would have certainly recognized me and he'd have never listened to another word any preacher ever had to say. Listen to me Christians when I tell you this. How you respond matters. If you respond in a way that shows your flesh and shows your sinfulness, you lose your credibility and you lose your witness. But if you respond in a way that points people to Jesus, doesn't point people to your anger, it points people to his holiness. If you respond in a way, the Bible even says, "A fool is considered wise when he keeps his mouth shut." If you respond in a way where you've been prepared your mind for action, not a physical, but a spiritual. If you keep sober in spirit and you completely fix your hope on the Lord God Almighty and you do not conform to your former lust and you live holy because he is holy and you live in fear of the one who has saved you, your life will represent Christ in such a way that it will leave a legacy and it will leave an impact until the Lord returns or until he calls you home. And I don't know about you, church, I am tired of Christians not living out their faith, myself included. I think that it's time tonight that the church repents. The church gets back to its first love because this community doesn't need another politician. This community needs a church that is alive and active for the Lord God Almighty. that prepares their mind, keeps sober in spirit, fixes their hope completely on the Lord, and lives in fear of him so that they will honor him in all that they do. Let me ask you this question tonight. Do you fear God enough to respond in a way that shows him that says, "God, I I'll be I'll be obedient. You want me to give it up, I'll give it up. You want me to stop, I'll stop. You want me to go, I'll go. You want me to do, I'll do. God, whatever you want. I'm prepared. I'm sober. And I am fixing my hope on the Lord God Almighty. Have your way with me. Let me pray that we would. Father, I I thank you for this place, God. I I pray that that you're Lord, we don't we don't get to invite you into places, Lord. You're here, God. I'm so thankful that that you're in this place. Uh Lord, even when it was just me, you were here. God, I'm praying that your spirit moves in this place uh in a way feels like a rushing wind. Lord, I pray for those that are followers of Christ that think that you need us. God, you don't need us. You don't need us to do God. You need us to be obedient. And Lord, tonight, I believe that there's a lot of people in this place that have a lot of builtup just sin, Lord. selfishness, pride, arrogance, God, hatred, unforgiveness, Lord, all the things, Lord, that are separating us from you. God, I pray that tonight's the night of a mass repentance, Lord, that the Christians will fear you in such a way that honors you, God, so that we can walk in holiness, for you are holy, God, not in a trying to strive to be sinless, but striving to sin less to honor you in all that we do. God, help us to see that. Lord, if there's one here that's lost, God, a rough and tough person who thinks that they're too far gone. Lord, may they see that as long as we have breath in our lungs, we're never too far gone. God, I pray that they see that Jesus is for the rough, that Jesus is for the lost. He's for the broken. He's for the helpless and the hopeless. He He is for everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. God, I pray that tonight there may just be one soul in here who realizes they're lost and realize their need of a savior and they cry out to you. God, may that happen in this place tonight. Lord, I I pray for the Christians in here tonight that they will get so fired up for you, God, that that we will leave this place and Lord, we'll go to the homes that you lead us to. We'll knock on the doors that you lead us to, God. That we will not be silent about our Lord until you call us home. And Lord, if we're not silent now, even our death will still proclaim your name. Lord, Father, have your way.

Lord, we trust you, God. I I pray that in this time there's no distractions, Lord, that there is only fear and trembling before a holy God. We'll be with Miss Mary. She leads us in in worship through the spirit of God. Lord, we trust you. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.