Transcript of a published sermon by Jack Cunningham, transcribed from YouTube. An attributed primary source — not Acts 2:38 Life doctrine text.
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Summary
Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the transcript below — the preacher’s words follow in full.
Summary
- **Youth convention, 1998.** He comes to the pulpit in a service already full of praise, gives honour to the ministers and their wives present, and thanks the district's youth committee — Brother Clayburn, Brother Smith, and Brother Morton. He has spent the whole day shut in his room, he says, with a very heavy heart, trying to get in tune with the Holy Ghost for this service, and he looks ahead to tomorrow's session: “Jesus, the Devil, and Disney World.”
- **The texts: Satan wants you, and hell is enlarging herself.** He has the congregation open Luke 22 and hold a finger in Isaiah 5, and he reads Luke 22:31 twice aloud: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.” Then Isaiah 5:14: “Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure.” His subject, announced soberly, is “Hell wants you” — he has the young people turn and tell it to a neighbour on each side — and Brother Clayburn steps out to pray before he begins.
- **Preaching to everybody in the house.** He aims the message at every young person present — those on fire for God, the lukewarm, and those in a backslidden condition — and beyond them at every youth leader, parent, and preacher in the house. Somebody's eternity will be decided tonight, he believes, before they leave. His own mind is made up to go to heaven and miss hell whatever it costs; his beautiful seventeen-year-old daughter is in the service and his wife is present, and he intends his family to go with him — and to do anything he can to help the hearers miss hell too.
- **Indifference, and what the survey says.** He fears indifference to eternity is creeping from the world into the church: heaven no longer excites, and hell no longer strikes fear. He rebukes the laughter he heard when neighbours told each other “hell wants you” — hell is not a laughing matter, and where your soul spends eternity is the most important decision of your lifetime. Then the evidence: Reader's Digest published a survey of 10,000 American young people; only 11 percent said they believed in a literal heaven, and only 6 percent in a literal hell. This generation has to shake the spirit of Laodicea, because someday the trumpet will sound, and they will either go to be with Jesus or split hell wide open.
- **A heaven and hell of this life only.** He and his wife heard a late-night radio interview with a California woman pastor — said to pastor many movie stars — who taught that heaven is a good life here on earth and hell is a bad one, with no literal place on either side. Against her he sets the Word: “let every man be found a liar, but let the Word of God be true.” An elder minister told him recently that as the pastors and evangelists of yesteryear die off, hell doesn't seem nearly so hot and heaven isn't nearly so coveted. Heaven and hell are real places, he insists, and a Judgment Day is scheduled for every man, woman, boy, and girl.
- **A heaven to gain and a hell to shun.** Hell was not prepared for you, he says — it was created for the devil and the fallen angels, and it is not God's will or plan for any hearer to ever see it. The pairs stand side by side: a city where the Lamb is the light against a place of eternal darkness; a street of gold against a brimstone path; a wall of jasper against a wall of pain and fire; a gate of pearl against the gates of hell. Above every young person in California, this audience is the most fortunate tonight: they are where they can choose to serve God and take advantage of the blood that was shed to cover their sins — “without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins” — in an atmosphere already permeated with the power of the Holy Spirit.
- **The morgue at Bakersfield.** For many young people in this state the choice has already been made and cannot be remade: right here in Bakersfield, wherever the mortuary is, young men and women — teenagers, people in their twenties and thirties — lie tonight on a cold marble slab or a stainless steel board. Yesterday they had big plans — what they would do tomorrow, where they would go next week, how they would spend their summer, who they would marry, what college they would go to; tonight they are in eternity, most of them without God, with no way to turn it around. Nothing is as important as being ready to meet God — not the car you drive, the clothes you wear, the school you go to, the job you have, or the bottom line of your bank account.
- **The choice stated in pairs.** One writer, he says, put it in a row of contrasts: “heaven is peace without pain,” while hell is pain without peace; heaven is joy without sorrow, hell sorrow without joy; heaven is light without darkness, hell darkness without light; heaven is life without death, hell ever dying without life; heaven is laughter without weeping, hell weeping without laughter — and “heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people,” while hell is a prepared place for an unprepared people. The choice, he says, should be easy — and Jesus may come at any moment.
- **Two deathbeds.** At the trumpet there will be two distinct sentiments in the earth: singing, rejoicing, victory, and jubilation among those ready to meet God; weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth among those who know Jesus has come and they have been left behind. He illustrates with what Mike Anderson told him. Mike was fifteen when his father died — Brother Gus Anderson, an old-fashioned one-God gospel preacher, strong on holiness, who had suffered severely and lost both of his legs before disease finished its work. On his deathbed Gus pointed out to his son the angels of the Lord come to carry him home, took his wife by the hand — “Helen, I want you to finish raising these kids” — and took Mike by the hand: now you're going to be the head of the house; take care of your mama and your sisters; be a preacher like your daddy has been. Walking out of the room, Mike passed another dying man, who screamed “get away from me, I hate you” at his family and cursed the Catholic priest at his bedside, then froze in a fear Mike would never forget — as if the man could see right straight into hell.
- **Left behind, and the gulf that cannot be crossed.** Two will be working in the field, two grinding at the mill, two sleeping in one bed — one taken and the other left behind; and he has heard it preached that the greatest revival the United Pentecostal Church will ever know will be the day after the coming of the Lord, when the left behind crowd the church buildings hunting an altar — too late, because once eternity begins there is no turning back. He retells Lazarus and the rich man: the rich man in hell, in torments, begging Abraham to send Lazarus to “dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue,” and Abraham's answer in Luke 16:26 — “there is a great gulf fixed” — so that none can pass either way. Ecclesiastes 11:3 seals it: “as a tree falleth so shall it lay” — the condition of your heart when you enter eternity is how you will spend it.
- **Johnny Rivera.** He was voted into his first church at nineteen years old, in the Bronx, New York City, and Johnny Rivera — his interpreter for a congregation of largely Spanish-speaking people — was the best interpreter he has ever preached with: when Cunningham got excited, Johnny got excited; when he screamed, Johnny screamed; down in the altars Cunningham spoke English in one ear and Johnny spoke Spanish in the other. He met his wife there, married, and left for the evangelistic field. Invited back about a year later, he preached all week and wondered why Johnny had not been in church: Johnny was backslidden. On the Sunday night Johnny came in late — hair grown long, a beard and mustache, clothing unlike the minister he had once been — and after the service Cunningham put his arms around him at the back and pleaded with him in tears to get right with God. Johnny pulled out a wad of money too thick to close his fingers around, showed him the brand-new Cadillac sitting at the curb, and promised: “one more big deal,” and he would turn his back on that lifestyle and find his way back to God. About two o'clock that night the phone rang — his wife's father, weeping: Johnny had picked up a rider on his way home from church, and while they drove, the rider pulled a .357 pistol, held it to Johnny's head, and blew his brains out in the Cadillac.
- **Nobody knows tomorrow.** There is not a person in the house who can guarantee another morning, another good day, a future in this life — whatever their name, education, or money. That is why today is the day of salvation and now is the accepted time: when God knocks on the door of your heart and the Spirit of conviction comes, you cannot dare to tell him “some other time,” because you have no guarantee there will be another time — and the answer you give God tonight may be your final answer for eternity.
- **The girl who wrote in the hymnal.** In Florida a pastor pointed out a couple to him — the mother played the organ, the father was a Sunday school superintendent — whose daughter had grown up in the church, born and raised in a Pentecostal home, with her parents involved in everything they could be involved in. She had started dating a boy who didn't love God, and every Sunday night the two of them sat on the back row, playing, laughing, making fun, and talking through the service. One Sunday night, as the pastor preached about eternity with tears running down his face and her mother turned in the hymnal to “Why Not Tonight,” the boy and girl walked out laughing and let the door slam behind them. One mile from the church a dump truck ran a stop sign and hit the passenger side: the boy was thrown clear into a field, but the girl was pinned in the nearly smashed car. At the emergency room she hung between life and death, her mouth moving in a whisper: “Daddy, give me the book.” The boy, not nearly as badly hurt, knew what she meant — when the song began she had found the page in the book, taken a pen from her pocket, and written across the page in great big bold letters, “just because I don't want to.” Her father rushed back to the church, found the place where they had sat, found the book and the page, and hurried back to the hospital — only to find that while he was gone, his little girl had slipped into eternity without God.
- **Nobody goes to hell by themselves.** One of the saddest things about eternity, he says, is that nobody goes to hell alone: big brothers are influencing little brothers, big sisters little sisters, and young men and young ladies are influencing whole peer groups — if you worship, they'll worship; if you pray, they'll pray; if you tell them it's okay to live for God, they'll live for God. Preaching in New York City, he and his wife picked up the Sunday morning newspaper and found a headline he will never forget: “I want to go to hell with my daddy” — the words of an eight-year-old boy who told a reporter he was not going to church that morning because he wanted to go to hell with his daddy. If parents will not live for God for themselves, he pleads, they should think about their children, and what chance those children have of making eternity with God.
- **The Texas sisters.** In Texas a mother and father who belonged to one of their United Pentecostal churches backslid and took the youngest of their two girls out of church with them — but the fifteen-year-old went on trying to live for God: she let her hair grow long, wore modest apparel, and didn't listen to rock and roll music. One Sunday night, while Brother Charles Mahaney was preaching, the backslidden mother walked down the center aisle, found her girl praying in the altar with the other young people, and took her by the hair of the head and pulled her up the aisle; at the back door the mother pointed her finger and declared that her girl would be sixteen years old next year and would not be made to live the way these people live. Some twelve months later the pastor's phone rang in the middle of the night — the mother, weeping: a horrible thing had happened; her baby was dead. At the funeral home the mother had everyone leave the room but the pastor and the family, and they opened the closed casket: the girl, now sixteen, who had died giving birth to an illegitimate child, with a little baby bundle lying on her chest. Riding home from the graveside in silence, the mother took her husband's arm and said something good was going to come out of this — she and dad had decided they were going to come back to church; and then the fourteen-year-old sister let out a scream: her sister was in hell because of them. Cunningham turns it on the youth leaders in the house: if you are not going to live the right kind of life in front of our young people, resign your job tonight.
- **The choice is yours — and thirty seconds.** He restates his texts — hell enlarging herself, Satan desiring to sift — and presses the decision home on every hearer personally: “I'm not gonna go to hell for nobody or nothing” — not for what mother or father, boyfriend or girlfriend, or the youth group does. No one else can decide where you spend eternity; if you go to heaven, it is because you want to. Preaching about eternity in another district, he was confronted after church by a big, strong, muscle-bound young man who got in his face and told him, “you're just trying to scare us” — and no, he said, “I'm not afraid of hell.” Cunningham took him by the necktie and told him that just thirty seconds in hell would make him wish he could come back to this night, fall on his face before God, and purpose in his heart to make heaven his home. And the excuses answer themselves: if you live for God you will have to quit smoking, drinking, partying, and promiscuity, and dress differently from the world — but there are no cigarettes in hell, no Miller beer in hell, no drugs in hell; if you would have to quit those things to go to hell, it makes good sense to turn your back on the world in order to go to heaven.
- **The altar appeal.** There is no altar room, so he calls them out of where they are into the closest aisle, all over the building: if you don't have the Holy Ghost, or you are backslidden in your spirit, step out; and if you are standing beside somebody who is not right with God, take them by the hand and bring them with you. The aisles fill, and then he sends the young people still standing to find someone who needs prayer — he wants about twenty-five young people around every young person who needs prayer — to lay their hands on them, help them repent, and help them pray through to the baptism of the Holy Ghost. This is no time to play church, he says, because people here tonight are deciding where their eternity will be spent. The sermon's captured span ends in the middle of that appeal.
Scriptures: Luke 22:31; Isaiah 5:14; Luke 16:26; Ecclesiastes 11:3
Scripture index: Luke 22:31; Isaiah 5:14; Luke 16:26; Ecclesiastes 11:3.
Transcript
the sick and they shall recover would you clap your hands to the Lord everybody he is in this place tonight hallelujah we give you honor and praise and glory it all belongs to you Lord Jesus blessed be the name of the Lord forever let's be the name of the Lord forever hallelujah hallelujah praise God there is a tremendous presence of the Lord here again tonight when that choir just absolutely awesome go ahead and give him a good hand clap fantastic I also think you have an awesome youth committee in this district brother clay Vern brother Smith brother Morton aren't these guys fantastic yeah I think I think brother Smith has a fan club sitting right over here somewhere somewhere every time his name is mentioned people start squealing in holler didn't God good are you glad he is at youth convention 1998 let me say tonight sincerely that I give honor to the ministers and ministers wives that are present in this meeting I want to say on behalf of all of the young people and staff in this meeting thank you for loving young people enough to come to Youth Convention god bless your heart good to be with brother and sister hopper good to be with brother Tom tremble my good friend I love him he's a great Christian did you all enjoy his ministry today did you hear him hallelujah I'm wondering what that's going to be tomorrow what's it called Jesus the devil and Disney World I'm anxious to find out what that's going to be about I have had a very very heavy heart today woke up early this morning did not leave my room even one time today I have spent the whole day today trying to get in tune with the Holy Ghost for this service tonight you have a Bible I want you to turn to the 22nd chapter of the Book of Luke if you're standing by someone that doesn't have a Bible I want you to share with them so we can all follow along together in the word of the Lord we're going to read Luke chapter 22 and then we're going to read from Isaiah chapter 5 I want you to find both of those places put your finger in Isaiah 5 and hold it we're going to read from Luke chapter 22 first of all I want everybody that knows
how to pray in the Holy Ghost I want you to in the next moment or two when we ask for prayer I want you to immediately just begin to pray in the spirit I want you to pray that God would break every stronghold here tonight that every wall of division would come down that every devil that has been sent from Hell to divide to distract or to destroy would be defeated tonight Jesus neck eyes eyes a a chapter 5 hold that we're going to read Luke 22 first Luke chapter 22 verse number 31 and the Lord said Simon Simon behold Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat let me read it out loud again you follow along and the Lord said Simon Simon behold Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat Isaiah chapter 5 verse number 14 says therefore hell hath enlarged herself and opened her mouth without measure and their glory and their multitude and their palm and he that rejoice it shall descend into it Simon Satan have desired to have you I'm going to preach tonight by the help of God from this subject he'll wants you don't clap your hands for that turn to your neighbor look them right in the eye and very soberly tell them hell wants you turn to the person on the other side of you and tell them the same thing again soberly hell wants you brother Clayburn would you step out here and pray for us every head bowed and every eye closed please those that know
raise your hands and say Lord let your will be done first foremost in this place tonight in the name of Jesus everybody said in the name of Jesus in the name of Jesus put your hands together and worship him again in a clap offering he is here in this place tonight mashiki of hallelujah hallelujah thank you Jesus god bless you you may be seated I want you to know what the offset of my message that tonight I intend to preach to every young person in the house I am preaching tonight to those that are on fire for God to those that are lukewarm in their relationship with God and to them that are here tonight who find themselves in a backslidden condition I've come to preach to you tonight I'm preaching to every youth leader I'm preaching to every parent I'm preaching to every preacher that is in the house
of God tonight I believe with all of my heart that tonight somebody's eternity is going to be decided I believe that tonight before we leave this house of God somebody is going to determine in their own heart and in their own mind where their soul is going to spend eternity now I want you to know just at the beginning tonight that you're looking at a fella that has his mind made up I've got my mind made up that I'm going to go to heaven and I'm going to miss hell whatever it cost me hallelujah I have a beautiful 17 year old daughter that's in this place tonight my lovely wife is sitting with sister Claybourne in the back tonight not only do I intend to go to heaven I intend for my family to go to heaven with me and not only do I intend to go to heaven and intend to take my family but you look at it a preacher tonight that has decided I'll do anything I can do I'll do anything I have to do I'll do anything I'm able to do because you tonight to miss hell for eternity hallelujah I'm afraid that there are too many of us I'm not preaching to the world or to outsiders I'm afraid that there are too many of us who are indifferent who have become indifferent to the subject of eternity we really don't think about a heaven to gain and a hell to shun at any cost like we ought to I'm afraid tonight that that indifference that has long been resident in the world is creeping into the church today to the point that when you talk about heaven nobody gets excited and when you talk about Hell it no longer strikes fear in the hearts of men and women that are not living like they oughta live before God I've come to tell you tonight that there is a heaven to gain and that there is a hell the Sun no matter what it costs you it is absolutely appalling to me that when I asked you to turn to your neighbor and tell him he'll want you that nearly every face has zeroed in on they said it with a smile on their face I heard laughter coming from the congregation while people said to one another hell wants you I don't understand how best friends can look at one another and say hell wants you with a smile on their face I don't understand how two young ladies can look at each other and say hell want you and laugh I'm here to tell you tonight that hell is not a laughing matter I'm here to tell you tonight that where your soul spends eternity is the most important decision of your lifetime Reader's Digest published the findings of a survey taken among young people in America 10,000 young people were surveyed and they were asked do you believe in a literal heaven and only 11 percent 11 out of every hundred said they believe in a literal heaven 89 percent of those 10,000 young people said no I do not believe in a literal heaven and when they were asked do you believe in a literal hell only six percent of them said there's a hell while 94 percent of them said there is no hell I'm here to tell you today that some way as young men and women of POD you've got to shake the attitude that's in the world you've got to shake that spirit of Laodicea that's so prevalent in this last day you've got to shake that cold hard hearted spirit that has gripped this generation and understand that it's all about one thing the trumpet is going to sound someday and we're either going to go to be with Jesus or we're going to split hell wide open my wife and I were listening to the radio late one night and the late-night radio host was interviewing a lady pastor from here in the state of
California this particular lady is said to pastor many movie stars in your state and when she was asked about heaven and hell this woman said heaven is if you have a good life here on earth and hell is if you have a bad one she said there is no date of pearl there is no wall of Jasper there no City Foursquare there is no creaming fire there is no pyre and brimstone there is no place where the worm dieth not she said it's just a good life or a bad life and that's all there is to it I'm here to say again tonight that let every man be found a liar but let the Word of God be true God tells us that the trumpets gonna sound and we're going to go to meet him in judgment and it's there we're going to find out where we're going to spend eternity honey you may be seated one elder Minister friend of mine said to me recently he said brother Cunningham as the pastors and the Evangelist of yesteryear died off he said hell doesn't seem nearly so hot and heaven isn't nearly so coveted hear me young person hear me generation when I tell you that both heaven and hell are real places and that there is a Judgment Day scheduled for humanity and every man woman boy and girl is either going to go to heaven and live with the Lord for eternity or they're going to go to that awful place called hell you may or may not agree with what I'm gonna tell you but listen to me anyway hell was not prepared for you hell was not created for you it is not the will of God for you to go to hell it is not in the plan of God for you to ever see hell hell was created for the devil and the fallen angels hear me tonight that just assures there's a heaven to gain there is a hell to shun just as sure as there are angels of the Lord that will assist you in your relationship with God there our demonic spirits that have been sent from Hell to damn your soul to an eternity without God just as sure as there's a city where the lamb is the light there is a place of brightening eternal darkness repaired for them that do not know him just as sure as there's a street ago there's a brimstone path just as sure as there's a wall at Jasper there's a wall of pain and fire just as sure as there's a gate of peril the Bible talks about the gates of Hell hear me tonight when I say it again there's a heaven to gain and there's a Hell to shine no matter what it cost you above every young person in the state of California you are the most fortunate tonight you are the most fortunate young people on the west coast in the United States of America because tonight you are in a place where you can make a choice to serve God and by making that choice to serve God you're making a choice to miss hell you are fortunate tonight because you're standing in the presence of a living God a God that doesn't hate you but a God that loves you a God that doesn't want you to be lost but rather he's made preparation for your salvation you're fortunate tonight because you are here where you can take advantage of the blood that was shed to cover your sins and without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins you're fortunate tonight because you're in a place where the very atmosphere is permeated with the power of the Holy Spirit and if you want you can reach out to God and get it tonight somebody shout yes somebody shout yes you may be seated the sad reality is is that for many young people in this state the choice has already been made and now there is no way for them to go back and remake the choice again right here in the city of Bakersfield California
wherever the mortuary is wherever the morgue is there are young men and women teenagers young 20s and 30s that tonight are laying on a cold marble slab or a stainless steel board yesterday they had big plans for their life yesterday they were talking about what they would do tomorrow where they would go next week how they would spend their summer who they were going to marry what college they were going to go to but tonight they Dinard eternity and the sad reality is most of them are without God and they lay on a slab ready to meet their maker and there's no way to turn it around you hear me when I tell you that the only thing that really matters in life is whether or not you're ready to meet God you hear me when I tell you it's more important than the kind of car you drive it's more important than the kind of clothes you wear it's more important than the school you go to it's more important than the job you have it's more important in the bottom line of your bank account nothing is as important as being ready to meet God pop your hands and shout yes you have a choice tonight it's a choice of one of two places it's a choice of heaven or hell everybody said heaven everybody said he'll say heaven say hell I'm here to tell you the choice ought to be easy one writer pinned the words heaven is peace without pain while hell is pain without peace heaven is joy without sorrow while hell is sorrow without joy heaven is light without darkness while hell is darkness without light heaven is life without death while hell is ever dying without life heaven is laughter without weeping while hell is weeping without laughter and heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people while hell is a prepared place for an unprepared people the choice my friend should be easy do you believe Jesus is coming again do you really believe that any day now any moment now the trumpets that sound and we could be caught away you may be seated at the time of the second coming at the time when the trumpet is going to sound there are going to be two very distinct sentiments in the earth at that time among those who are ready to meet God the Bible tells us there's going to be singing there's going to be rejoicing there's going to be victory there's going to be joy there's going to be jubilation but among those who are not ready to meet him it's going to be a different story the Bible said there's going to be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth there's going to be sorrow there's going to be pain and there's going to be suffering among those that know that Jesus has come and they have been left behind I don't know what Mike Anderson is to you what an uncle ursin is that right your wife's uncle I was preaching with brother Mike Anderson his wife's uncle and he was telling me about the time that his daddy died his daddy was an old-fashioned gospel preacher one God from the top of his head to the sole of his feet and acid strong on holiness that was brother Gus Anderson he believed it with all of his heart Mike Anderson was 15 years old when his daddy died that old gospel preacher he had suffered in his body severely he lost both of his legs and then finally disease moved into the by the Horgan's and he died Mike was with him the day that he died he told me brother Cunningham I'll never forget it I walked into my daddy's room and my daddy pointed out to me son the angels of the Lord are here to get me the angels of the Lord are going to carry me home before very long he said brother Cunningham I was sorrowful at the passing of my daddy but he said I stood there at 15 years old recognizing that there was a special
presence of God in the room with my daddy he said I realized I was standing in the presence of the very angels of the Lord he said right before my daddy passed he took my mother by the hand and he said Helen I want you to finish raising these kids to live for you and to be used of you he said my dad reached over and took me by the hand and said boy now you're going to be the head of the house you've got to take care of your mama and your sisters and I want you to be a preacher like your daddy's been a preacher he said it wasn't long after that until the angels of the Lord took my daddy and he was no more he said I'll never forget in my lifetime I walked out of the room my mother and my older sister standing around the bed with my father's corpse and he said I walked out in the hallway I didn't want to be there and he said I wondered down the hallway just just thinking of all that had happened and he said I went by the room of another man that was also dying he had a Catholic priest at his bedside he had a couple family members with him and he said the last words that that man screamed at them was get away from me I hate you and he said he began to curse the priest and purse his family and then all of a sudden he said a fear came upon that man and he said brother Cunningham it's a look that a man would never forget in his lifetime It was as if that man could see right straight into hell and he knew where he was gone I've heard it preached all in my lifetime that the greatest revival the United Pentecostal church will ever know is going to be the day after the coming of the Lord the Bible said two are going to be working in the field one is going to be taken and the other left behind two are going to be grinding at the mill one will be taken and the other left behind two will be sleeping in a bed a husband and a wife and one will be taken and the other left behind and when those that are left behind realized that the trumpet sounded Jesus pain and I've missed the rapture of the church I'm telling you you're not going to be able to get into our church buildings they're going to come from all over the city they're going to try to find an altar to repent they're going to throw themselves in an abbess tree kind of find remission of sins they gonna thank God to fill them with the baptism of the Holy Ghost but honey it will be too late see the saddest reality about eternity is this once you have entered into eternity there is no turning back once you have entered eternity there no more opportunities to change your mind once it started cannot you cannot turn around sixteenth chapter of the Book of Luke we have the story of Lazarus and the rich man the Bible tells us Lazarus who said at the gate of the rich man and beg for bread crumbs the Bible said he died and he went to heaven but the rich man the Bible said died and he went to hell the Bible said and in hell the rich man lifted up his eyes being in torments and say at the Abraham and see if Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom and he cried and said father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am tormented in these flames hear me tonight when I say it's Abraham's response to this rich man's plea for mercy that grips my heart tonight in the 26th verse of the same chapter Abraham said besides all this between us and you there is a great gulf fixed so that they which would pass from hints to you cannot and neither can they pass to us that would come from this it's impossible to send you any help you see again the reality is this once your eternity begins there's no turning Ecclesiastes 11 and 3 says it this way as a tree falleth so shall it lay and that simply means the condition of your heart when you enter eternity that's how
you're going to spend eternity do you hear me tonight I said do you hear me tonight I was voted into my first church at 19 years old in the Bronx New York City many of the people that we begin winning to the Lord were people that spoke only Spanish at a young man that was my interpreter now I've preached all over the world since I'm going to tell you that I've never preached with a better interpreter than Johnny Rivera he was the best when I got excited he got excited when I got anointed he got anointed when I screamed he screamed when I jumped he jumped when I talked in tongues he talked in tongues we'd go down to pray for people to get the Holy Ghost I'd speak English you won here he'd speak Spanish in the other ear I mean we covered all the bases if there was ever a young man that I knew had an anointing on his life Johnny Rivera had a great anointing on his life I met my wife there my wife and I got married we left there and went on the evangelistic field about a year later I was invited back to the church and preached for the Manny Alice a is now the pastor I preached all week long on Sunday night after preaching that service I wondered why Johnny had not been in church all week and somebody said Johnny is backslidden I was at the end of my message on Sunday night when the swinging doors of the back opened up and Johnny Rivera stepped inside he didn't look like he looked when he worked with me his hair had grown long he had a beard and a mustache he had on clothing that wasn't becoming of the minister a position that he had once held he looked so different than what I had ever known him before when I was done preaching I walked off the platform I walked to the back of that little congregation I put my arms around him and I went I said Johnny I don't know what's happened to you I don't know why you're away from God but Johnny you know what it is to live for God you know what it is to feel the presence and power of God in your life and Johnny why don't you get right with God tonight I pleaded with him with tears streaming down my face Johnny would you come down to the altar with me would you let me pray with you Johnny won't you get right with God tonight he looked at me reached in his pocket pulled out a wad of money you couldn't put your fingers around he said preacher and look how much money I'm making now I've never had this kind of money before he said look at the clothes that I'm wearing he took his arm and opened up the door that opened right onto the street of the Bronx and sitting at the curb was a brand-new Cadillac he said look at the car that I'm driving he said I know you're right but he said I just can't do it right now I said Johnny you can't afford not to get right with God he looked at me and tears begin to run down his face he said brother Cunningham I know you're right and he said I've got one more big deal I've got to do and when I do that big deal he said I give you my word I'll turn my back on that lifestyle and I'll find my way back God my wife's mother and father live in that city did live in that city my wife and I went to the room it was about two o'clock in the morning the phone rang it was my wife's father he was weeping on the other end of the line he said brother Cunningham something horrible has happened I said tell me pop what's going on what has happened he said brother Cunningham Johnny picked up a rider going home from church tonight we don't know all the details except for while they were driving down the road in his Cadillac the rider pulled a 357 pistol out of his pocket and held it to Johnny's head and cocked it and pulled the trigger and blew Johnny's brains out Johnny's dead I wonder if there's any young people in here tonight that hear what I'm trying to preach to you nobody in here knows what tomorrow holds there's not a person in this place that can give me a guarantee that I'm going to wake up in the morning that I'm going to have another good day there's not a one of you that can guarantee me you've got a future in this life I don't care what your name is I don't care how much education you have I don't care how much money you have nobody knows what tomorrow holds that's why the Bible says today is the day of salvation now is the accepted time when God begins to knock on the door your heart that's when you need to answer him when the spirit of conviction comes upon you you can't dare thumb your nose at God and say God some other time because you have no guarantee that there's going
to be another time I was preaching in the state of Florida pastor pointed out a couple to me the mother played the organ the father was a Sunday school superintendent and that pastor told me this young couple had suffered a very serious tragedy in their life they had a daughter that had grown up in the church listen to me Pentecostal young person you're not exempt from the onslaught of the enemy they had a daughter that grew up in the church this girl knew what it was to be born and raised in a Pentecostal home mom and daddy was involved in everything they could get the family involved in in the church but this girl started dating a boy that didn't love God started dating the worldly boy mom and dad and the girl had several arguments and finally the decision was made if you're going to live under our roof you're going to go to church if you're going to live under our roof and eat at our table you're going to go to church with us that pastor said she came to church and every Sunday night her boyfriend came to church with her and the two of them set on the back row and they played and they laughed and they made fun and they talked and they wrote notes and they chewed gum and did whatever they could to distract the service this pastor said on a Sunday night he said I laid across the pulpit with tears in my heart my heart nearly broken I preached about eternity I preached about getting right with God he said this girl's mother came to the organ she turned in to hymnal to that old song why not tonight why not give your heart to Jesus why not tonight he said that boy and girl that boy and girl laughed and talked and played through the alder service tears running down the pastor's face the saints of God praying that hearts would be rent that the Spirit of God would bring conviction and in the middle of that they walked out laughing and playing and let the door slam behind him pastor said they drove one mile from the church they went through an intersection where a dump truck run a stop sign it hit the opposite side of the car on the passenger side it threw the boy on the driver's side out of the car and clear into a field but it pinned the girl in the car the dump truck nearly completely run overtop the car nearly smashed the car they got news back to the church your girl and the boy are in the emergency room would you hurry they got to the emergency room and they found that teenage girl she was just hanging between life and death that pastor said I walked to her bedside with her father and mother and he said the girl's mouth was moving she was mouthing words and whispering so gently she was nearly dead but trying to get a message to her mother and father he said that father got down close to his babies here and she was whispering the words daddy give me the book daddy get me the book daddy give me the book daddy would you go get me the book he said he come out of her room and went to the boy's room who was not nearly hurt as bad and he said she's asking for a book what is she talking about he said oh I know what she's talking about when your life began to play that song why not tonight he said your girl found the page in the book took a pen out of her pocket and in great big bold letters wrote across the page just because I don't want to why not tonight just because I don't want to that father got in his car he rushed back to the church he found the place where they were sitting he found the book and found the page and hurried back to the hospital only to find out that while he was gone his little girl had slipped into eternity without God little little did she know that her response to God that night was going to be her final response to God for eternity young person you never know when you're giving God your final answer you never know when God's knocking on the door of your heart and saying open to me and I'll come in and you say not tonight that
that may be your final answer to God okay Oh God's moving in this place somebody's heart God is pounding on the door of somebody's heart right now I thought my God my God you may be seated I have to make a conscious decision here I think I can stop right now in many many would make a right decision but I feel a prompting in the Holy Ghost not to quit until everybody from this row all the way to the back wall until the Spirit of God is touching every heart and every young man and every young woman I can possibly touch I want to someway touch your heart tonight one of the saddest things about eternity is that nobody hear me nobody goes to hell by themselves every person in this place is influencing somebody Big Brothers are influencing little brothers big sisters are influencing little sisters there are young men that are influencing great peer groups here tonight there are young ladies here tonight that large numbers of girls are looking to you and how you act they're going to act if you worship they'll worship if you pray they'll pray if you tell them it's okay to live for God they'll live for God I'm telling you you better be concerned about who you're taking to hell with you if you're not going to live for God you may be seated my wife and I were in New York City preaching we picked up the Sunday morning newspaper and there was an article there I'll never forget the headline read I want to go to hell with my daddy that was the words of the headline I want to go to hell with my daddy it was the words of an eight-year-old boy that when a news reporter asked him on a Sunday morning are you going to go to church today he said no and when the reporter said why don't you go to church that little eight-year-old boy said because I want to go to hell with my daddy I don't mean this to sound ugly please don't miss read what I'm about to say but if there are moms and dads here tonight that aren't smart enough to live for God for yourself why don't you think about your children and what chance do they have of making an eternity with God if you don't live for God a mother and father and their two girls in the state of Texas live for the Lord they were a part of one of our United Pentecostal churches the mother and father back slid took the youngest of the two girls how to church with him but the 15 year old girl went ahead trying to live for God she let her hair grow long she wore modest apparel she didn't listen to rock and roll music she did everything she knew how to do to be right with God one Sunday night brother Charles Mahaney was preaching in this particular Church and that backslidden mother who said the church was dictating to her daughter how she should live and that we were too strict and that were out of tune with how young people ought to live today that backslidden mother walked through the door the church walked down the center aisle found her young girl in the altar praying with the other young people and took her by the hair of the head and begin to pull her up the aisle by the hair of the head brother Mahaney said when she got to the back door that old backslidden mama pointed her finger and she said my girl will be sixteen years old next year and you're not going to cause her to live the way you people live drug her baby out of that church that pastor said some 12 months later
his phone rang in the middle of the night it was that backslidden mama he she was weeping on the other end of the line she said pastor a horrible thing has happened my baby is dead my Potter is dead he said I know she loved the church and I know she loved you and she would want you to do her funeral would you please do the funeral of my baby he said I went to the funeral home they opened the closed casket the mother demanded everybody to leave the room but me and the family and they opened the closed casket and there was that beautiful blonde haired girl now sixteen years old and laying on her chest is a little baby bundle she died giving birth to an illegitimate child and the casket is closed he said without a word he said what he could say they went to the graveside riding in the same car there was not a word spoken all the way to the graveside he said he read the scripture over her body and the body is in turned into the earth and coming home in the limousine hears such silence there the mother the father a fourteen year old sister and he said that mother broke the silence by saying this pastor something good is going to come out of this she put her hand in her husband's arm and said me and dad we have decided we're going to come back to church and he said they know more than said that then that 14 year old girl let out a scream and a squeal yeah gotta go to charge yeah God my sister's in hell because of you how can you live for God now forgive my bluntness youth leader but if you're not going to live the right kind of life in front of our young people resign your job tonight stand with me will you Isaiah wrote therefore hell happened lives herself and opened her mouth without measure Jesus said Simon Simon Satan hath desired to have you that he might sift you as wheat young person in the Western District the devil only has one plan for your life he wants to destroy your life here and then he wants to send you to hell for eternity I'm preaching to somebody tonight that needs to make the right decision I'm not gonna go to hell for nobody or nothing I don't care what my mom and dad does I don't care what my youth group does I don't care what my boyfriend does I don't care what my girlfriend does I'm not gonna go to hell he done another shot on another higher kekova hoshanah Rabbah higher he come out of a ha shut up I don't care how everybody else is dressing I don't care what everybody else is listening to I don't care how everybody else is talking I don't care what everybody else is doing with their hair I don't care who everybody else is dating I don't care what anybody else is doing I'm gonna go to heaven whatever it cost me I'm going to go to heaven listen to me just a minute listen to me the choice is yours yours and yours and yours your best friend besides you cannot decide your boyfriend or girlfriend is not going to make the decision for you your mom and dad I don't care what their last name is they cannot decide where you're going to spend eternity if you go to heaven it's because you want to I was preaching about eternity in one district the big old boy come up to me after
church great big old strong muscle-bound thing come up to me after church got right up in my face said hey preacher you're just trying to scare us I'm going to hell aren't you I thought if he can be brassy I can - I took him by the neck time pulling clothes I said let me tell you something tough guy you think you're not afraid of Hell he said no I'm not afraid of hell I said hear me when I tell you just 30 seconds not 30 minutes not 30 days just 30 seconds in a devil's pill will make you wish you to come back to the night and fall on your face before dawn and thank God to forgive you of your sins and purpose in your heart to make heaven your home just 30 seconds and he'll say Oh preacher if I live for God I'm going to have to quit smoking cigarettes I live for God I'm going to have to quit drinking bye live for God I'm going to have to quit partying if I live for God I'm going to have to turn my back on promiscuity if I live for God I'm not going to be able to dress like the world dresses I Got News for you tonight there ain't going to be any cigarettes in hell not going to be any Miller beer in hell not going to be any drugs in hell I want all of you up in the balcony to hear me if you've gotta quit smoking to go to hell if you've gotta quit drinking to go to hell it just seems like it'd make good sense to turn your back on the world in order to go to heaven now here's what I want you to do I want everybody to listen here's what I want you to do we don't have any older room down here I'm sorry I wish we had a huge altar but we don't here's what I want you to do if you need God tonight you know you need God if you don't have the Holy Ghost or if you're backslidden in your spirit you used to have it but tonight you're backslidden I want you to step out of where you are and get in the closest aisle to you would you do that I want you to just get out in the aisle all over this building if you need God to touch you I want you to move out of where you are young person if you're standing beside somebody that's not right with God I want you to take them by the hand and say come on we're going to get out in the aisle and get prayed porns would you do that just grab them by the hand and say come on we're going to step out in the aisle and get prayed for hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah all over this building I want you in the closest I'll get out in the closest aisle there's some already in the older the olders nearly full already but get out in the aisle if you need God Oh Oh God come on young person I don't want to start this whole dirt Oh until you're at the aha aha ahaaa okay young people those of you that are still standing in the seats I want you to turn toward the highway I want you to make your way to somebody that needs prayer I want about 25 young people around every young person that needs prayer I want you to lay your hands on them I want you to help them repent and then help them play through to the baptism of the holy ghost this is no time to play Church
come on come on pour your heart out and everybody that knows how to play in the holy ghost playing the holy ghost there's people that decide to spend eternity tonight there's young people here who are deciding where their eternity
Scripture references as spoken: Luke 22:31; Isaiah 5:14; Luke 16:26; Ecclesiastes 11:3.