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conference session

Give Me a Man for the Cause

1993 · Louisiana Camp Meeting

Louisiana Camp Meeting 1993

Transcript of a published conference session by Marrell Cornwell, transcribed from YouTube. An attributed primary source — not Acts 2:38 Life doctrine text.

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Summary · Transcript · Scripture Index · Download transcript (.txt)

Summary

Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the transcript below — the preacher’s words follow in full.

1. Preached straight, or be dismissed

  • Cornwell opens with call-and-response and jokes that the elections are over and he is not politicking; he also ribs "brother Tenny" (as captioned) for choir directing, and repeats the warning credited to brother Tenny and "brother mang" (as captioned): if he doesn't do good, he won't get paid.
  • He warns the thin-skinned to leave for the concession stand: he did not come for anyone to enjoy something; he came with a direct message. The next service starts at 11:00.
  • A preacher who left Louisiana calling it a burned-over field is answered: when was it burned over — we haven't seen any smoke. Louisiana is not a burned-over field; there are souls that want to be saved, and if we don't save them, nobody else will.
  • Deadbeat preachers and preachers who criticize their own people are dismissed in Jesus' name; he came to preach to the folks who want to be preached to.

2. The text: give me a man for the cause

  • He reads his text: the Philistines and Israel pitched against each other; the champion stood and cried, "why are you come out to set your battle in Array Am not I a Philistine, and ye the servants to s... choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me" — "I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man." He passes over the cheeses David brought ("the cheese is not important") and takes David's word: "What have I now done? Is there not a cause?" His refrain: give me a man for the cause.
  • He tells the congregation the brochure lists his subject as soul winning and that he is not sure how to title the sermon — "you can title it later."
  • The greatest need in the United Pentecostal Church is not more philosophers, not more preachers, not more saints — it is more soul winners.

Scriptures: 1 Samuel 17

3. Soul winning has to be birthed in you

  • The first of his four things: you will not learn soul winning at a Bible college, a camp meeting, or a seminar. You can learn to teach Bible studies, run bus routes, and teach Sunday school — but being a soul winner has to be birthed in you.
  • He has laid hands on people across the country praying, "God, give them the baptism of soul winning." A church can do without deacons, superintendents, and teachers; it cannot do without a soul winner. It only takes one soul winner for a church to grow — if your church is not growing, there is not a single soul winner in it.
  • He tells his own conversion: saved and baptized in a little church up in North Louisiana that was splitting apart with infighting and moral problems; he was too naive to know any of it, and God moved anyway — God will overcome every gate of hell to find a person who wants to be born.
  • On a Wednesday night, in the deadest service he ever entered, something was birthed in him at that altar: he did not know the term "soul winning," but the spirit of it was born in him that hour. A few weeks later, alone in an old church's little Sunday school room, he had a vision of hell — a deep pit of black fire, people being thrown over the precipice — and understood why that spirit had been birthed in him.
  • Too many Pentecostals want position and recognition; he wants to be recognized by Jesus.

4. Sermons are not soul winning

  • Skill is no substitute: neither can he sing, neither can brother Tenny; if we spent half as much time soul winning as practicing one song we already know, God would move. Preaching has become entertainment — people come to walk away saying what a great sermon it was, when what they need is something that digs the heart.
  • An evangelist who preached at his church — the only preacher lately whose sermon you could take notes on — asked how long Cornwell spends preparing his sermons. Tempted to lie, he answered: about 30 seconds; the thought came while teaching two Bible studies. Then he asked the man how long he spends soul winning every week: "Well, that's not my ministry." If your sermon is more important than the people you preach to, you have something backwards.
  • He is sick of sermonizing. We will be judged by what we do in this life; he quotes, "to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not it is sin" and expressly says he won't tell where it's from.
  • A four-year theology degree without ever winning a soul is a contradiction: the angels can sing and play better than we can, but they cannot win souls.

5. The mountain and the multitude

  • He walks the Gospels' two ways of teaching. In Matthew 5, on the mountain apart with his disciples, Jesus taught the hard sayings — give away the second cloak, pluck out the offending eye, cut off the offending hand ("in 1993 every one of us in here be blind").
  • In Matthew 13, he went out of the house, sat in a boat by the seaside, and taught the multitude in parables — the sower story. The disciples buttonholed him afterward: why the soft-soaped farming stories for the crowd and the hard sayings for us? His answer: it is given to you to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; it is not given to the multitude.
  • In Matthew 10, those twelve disciples were given power over unclean spirits, to cast them out and heal all manner of sickness and disease. In Matthew 17, a man brought his child to the disciples and they could not cast the devils out; Jesus said this kind comes out only by fasting and prayer — and Cornwell takes the fasting and prayer to be what keeps our own spirits right, not what casts the devils out, so we quit questioning what Jesus is doing.
  • When the disciples questioned Jesus in chapter 13, they lost in chapter 17 what they got in chapter 10. The hungry young man or woman in the service is hungry for one thing: the Lord trying to birth the spirit of soul winning on the inside of them.

Scriptures: Matthew 5; Matthew 13; Matthew 10; Matthew 17

6. Find out the extent of your ability

  • The second thing: after soul winning is birthed in you, find out to what extent God gave you ability. Preachers who are tired at nine in the morning need to see a doctor and get some vitamins; most of us have never found the limit of the ability God put in us.
  • In 1980 he taught a Bible study in a house where he had to move beer cans out of the floor to set up his chart; the little couple sat with a cigarette in one hand, a beer in the other, and a Bible he had given them in their lap. To the critic who said he would never have taught them: how many souls have you won lately?
  • That night he wept all the way home; he and his wife got down on the floor at the end of their bed, and he decided to give himself one year to soul winning — to find out what God can do with one Pentecostal in one year's time. No flushing commodes, no sweeping floors, no cutting grass — nothing but soul winning. Bible studies every day of the week, some as late as 2 a.m.
  • On December 31, at the watch-night service, he counted the people sitting on the pews they had won to God in that year: 106. We are living beneath our ability in Jesus Christ; that year was the single greatest year he ever lived for God. He has won an atheist, doctors, and bums to the Lord — he weeds nobody out.
  • Do not come with the line that a holiness-preaching church cannot be built: it is our message of holiness and righteousness that people need.

7. The paragraph that gets him in trouble

  • His sermon notes carry a starred warning — "if you preach the next paragraph you will get in trouble" — and he dares the congregation before he preaches it: how many churches have baptized 26 people this year? That is only one a week.
  • Why can the "cats" perform only on a stage with a television camera, and not in intensive care units and people's homes? Exercise the gifts where people can get something real — then perform on the platform all you want.
  • How many pastors have baptized somebody they personally won to God — knocked that door, drove that bus, brought them to church, gave birth to them in the spirit? The devil has us beat down: 47 hours in a prayer room for one little sermon nobody will listen to, while deadbeats sit on the pew. Go find some live ones; get new blood in the church.
  • A preacher who doesn't want rich folks in his church because they'll run it: "I'd rather have the rich people running it than everybody else ruining it." The gospel is for everyone.
  • We demand baptism in Jesus' name, one-God doctrine, the Holy Ghost, holiness — why can't we demand that our churches be soul-winning churches, our pastors and evangelists and people be soul winners? If a hundred thousand preachers got fired from their pulpits tomorrow, the called ones would find a gravestone in a graveyard and preach. Louisiana is not a burned-over field; it's an unplowed field.

8. A clear presentation of the gospel

  • Turning it outward: your town is not a burned-over field either — everybody in your community needs a clear presentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And here is what you won't agree with: most preaching does not present one. Even evangelistic preaching is for us; people sit on our pews hungry for God and don't know what they're hungry for — they don't know the Acts 2:38 message.
  • He tells of his own conversion night: TG McNeely (the captions also render the name "TG MCN") preached on the pale horse rider out of Revelation and scared him into the altar; he made up his mind to get saved but didn't go back to church until McNeely left.
  • He decided to try that judgment preaching himself a few weeks ago, preaching from 1982 notes, mad at his own people — "it's a wonder the way some of you live that God don't send you straight to hell" His little boy, four years old, playing with toys between the pews, jumped up on the pew and said, "Daddy, God ain't going to kill nobody — he loves us." It ruined the best judgment sermon he ever preached. (The children in the story are Cornwell's own and are not named in the recording.)
  • The Acts 2:38 message cannot be covered in a sermon: repentance, baptism in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins, receiving the Holy Ghost with speaking in tongues, living for God — it takes several Bible lessons. In a home, over 12 or 15 or 20 weeks with the Bible study chart, they know why Jesus died, why the blood was shed, why they're baptized, why they need the Holy Ghost — so we have to quit depending on the preacher to do everything and get somebody into the homes with the Bible.
  • Demand it of yourself: "I'm not mad at brother Cornwell; I'm not mad at the preacher at the camp meeting; I'm mad at myself — I've been living beneath my privilege."

Scriptures: Acts 2:38

9. The men who keep going

  • He will not call the names of the preachers present — preachers are there to hire them, and they are not for hire.
  • One of his assistant pastors has an incurable disease (the captions render it "penus"): without his cortisone steroids his skin literally falls off his body, and the doctor said he is 72 hours away from death if he quits the prednisone; several times in the last month they have taken him out of the service and laid him on a table to help him breathe. Every week, that man teaches 15 Bible studies a week.
  • The other assistant pastor is a young man of about 23 or 24 out of Texas Bible College — Cornwell jokes, as captioned, about "Texas Bridal College" and the wife he found there, and warns the students: go to be on your knees fasting and praying, not to get married. The young man had been their youth pastor, an utter failure at it; driving home from district conference two years ago, Cornwell asked him straight, and he admitted it — he never wanted to be youth pastor; he took the only job available just to be around Cornwell. (The caption track ends mid-word inside this story; the sermon's close is not in the captions — see packet.md.)

Scripture index: 1 Samuel 17; Matthew 5; Matthew 13; Matthew 10; Matthew 17; Acts 2:38.

Transcript

you Hallelujah everybody say praise the Lord praise the Lord everybody say brother Cornwell is going to preach to me don't shovel what I'm going to say behind you cuz it ain't for the fell behind you it's for you amen the elections are over I'm not politicking you wouldn't vote for me if I was Amen brother Tenny said uh brother mang said if I didn't do good I wouldn't get paid so I might as well just let her rip I enjoyed brother tenny's choir directing I I really enjoyed that he sang the same key that do g flat hallelujah praise God 1 Samuel chapter 17 amen I feel the Holy Ghost here sir and uh I want to be able today to do the perfect will of God and I want you to know that I'm friends with everybody here I I don't think that I have an enemy in the crowd and uh I just want you to know that I I love you and I appreciate you I was born and bred over at far Louisiana and uh you know I I left Louisiana and God has brought me back here today and I love you but if you're thin skinned you ought to be uh over to concession stand you you be in the wrong place I was preaching in a certain District north and east of here and I made this statement that I'm going to make here if you want to get some something accomplished in a man's life send somebody to preach to him that he doesn't like we don't we don't listen to our friends our friends lie to us they tell us how nice we are how good we are how beautiful we are lying the whole time and we love it amen and so I just want you to know that if you're thin skinn today and and and you can't uh handle just being preached straight at uh the next service starts at 11:00 and I think that they're cooking the hamburgers now if I can see over there because you're not going to enjoy it in here this morning because I didn't come here for you to enjoy something I come with a direct message I feel from the Holy Ghost amen we had a a preacher come through our city some weeks ago and and we was having some fellowship and I asked him why he was leaving Louisiana he said well he said Louisiana's a burnover field I said when was it burnover I said we haven't seen any smoke amen if you have the attitude that Louisiana is a burnover field you are dismissed presently amen you say preacher I don't like you with ditto I don't like you either amen because you've been lying all over the country Louisiana is not a burnover field I can't say that there's not a flame here but it ain't burn turn over there are souls that want to be saved and need to be saved and if we don't save them nobody else is going to do it amen if you're a preacher here today I really love you I I really do and I and and I don't want you mad at me after the service so if if you can't handle this you can be dismissed amen there's nothing worse than a deadbeat preacher and there's nothing worse than a preacher that's going to criticize especially those that that that criticize his people that criticize so you're dismissed Amen in Jesus name 1st Samuel 17 you say preacher I don't like your attitude I didn't come here for you to like my attitude and if I can make you mad enough to leave then I can preach the precious folks that want to be preached to here this morning you say but this is Louisiana camp meeting what difference does that make amen all camp meetings are good when Jesus is there amen now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle and were gathered together whatever that name is that belongs to Judah and Pitch towards whatever that name is and Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together and pitched by the valley of ela and set the battle in Array against the Philistines can I have an amen verse eight he stood and cried under the armies of Israel and said unto them why are you come out to set your battle in Array am not I a Philistine and ye the servants to s

choose you a man for you and let him come down to me if he be able to fight with me and kill me we will be you know how that is and verse number 10 and the Philistines said I defy the armies of Israel this day give me a man give me a man and I won't talk about the cheeses that David brought down because the cheese is not important verse 29 David said what have I now done is there not a cause give me a man for the cause now on the brochure that I got uh my subject is soul winning so I'm not sure how to title this so you may be seated you can title it later the greatest need in the United Pentecostal Church is not more philosophers I mean we got philosophers sitting on every Pew we got preacher Phil philosophical preachers on every Pew we debate more schisms and isms than I I care to deal with this morning what the United Pentecostal Church needs is more Soul winners we don't need more preachers we don't need more Saints we need more Soul winners now when the Lord was dealing with me about coming here there there's four things that I want to cover in the next few minutes if the Lord will permit but if we are going to be Soul winners there's one thing that has to happen you're not going to go to a Bible College and learn Soul winning you're not going to go to a Louisiana camp meeting and learn Soul winning you're not going to go to a seminar and learn soulin it you can learn how to teach Bible studies you can learn how to run bus routes you can learn how to teach Sunday school classes you can learn how to find the right book that's got the right sermon to fit on the right night all you want to but the truth of the matter is if you are going to be a soul winner it's got to be birthed within you all across this country I have laid my hands on people and I have prayed this prayer oh God give them the baptism of Soul winning we talk about being born again and the new birth but there's a birth that we need in this hour that's greater than any that I have heard of lately we need to be born with soul inning amen we got enough demon I mean deacons in churches we got enough boards in churches we got enough garbage in churches where are the soul winners at where are the people that really build churches where are they at the church can do without the deacons than the demons we can do without the Sunday School superintendents we can do without the Sunday School teachers a church cannot do without a soul winner somebody give me a witness here all right I've got you mad now I want you to listen to me God needs to B Louisiana with the baptism of sa winning oh Hallelujah Soul winning is not something you can learn it's got to be birthed in you and then you can learn what to do with it amen every once in a while I get phone calls and go something like this uh brother corn my church is going down I cannot get my people involved in the work of God I want to know that that nothing is happening here and I want to know I cannot get these people I cannot do this I cannot get these people I said hold it just a minute let me let me just knock you off your seat it only takes one Soul winner in a church for a church to grow lock your seat belt I feel the turbulence coming I said it only takes one Soul Winter for a church to grow if your church is not growing there's not a single soul winner in that entire church and I tell you some something else a great Soul winner can win more people to God than most preachers and Saints can run off the truth of the matter is our churches need to be born and birthed with people that have a soul winning spirit in their life and in their heart can I have a witness now I got I got saved and baptized and I won't tell you where but a little town way up in North Louisiana the church that I got uh baptized in uh was was splitting in a 47 7,392 different ways there were there was infighting there was uh moral problems in that church there was bickering and squabbling and gossiping and backbiting and knife stabbing all kind of junk and I I I went into that church and got convicted and I got baptized in Jesus name and that's where I was converted not you know nothing no reflection on that church that was just the situation at that particular present time that I was there but you know in the middle of all of that that was going on I was so stupid and so ignorant

and so naive that I didn't know all that junk was going on and I praised God that I didn't know all that junk was going on and I found out that God can move in stupidity that God can move when adulter is going on that God can move when people are stabbing each other in the back that God can move no matter what the situation is if there's a heart that wants to be born and it was on a Wednesday night in the deadest service that has ever entered Louisiana I was sitting on that Pew and on Wednesday night when the service was over I never will forget walking down the uh the side aisle and kneeling at the right side of the altar about right over here and uh I was just a young kid I I didn't know what being called to preach was I didn't know all of the the semantics that you're supposed to use I didn't know all the political words I wasn't politically correct but there was something happening in here that I didn't understand I still don't really understand but at that altar that night something was born in me I laid on my face that night when the lights were out I didn't I didn't know how to ask God for a burden for Souls I didn't know how to ask God to help me to be a soul winner I didn't know the term Soul winning I didn't understand anything about what was going on but there was something birthed within me that wanted to reach out to somebody that didn't know God Amen I want you to know that night when I got up from that altar I didn't know what I had I understand a little bit better now but Soul winning and the spirit of Soul winning was birthed in me that hour when I got up in that altar I knew that there was something different I didn't know exactly what it was a few weeks lat later uh in the month of July I walked down to a church it was an old church I had to use a screwdriver to break in and I went into a little old 8 by8 Sunday school class where they had six theater seats it look like that it had been dusted out in several years I guess it had been the previous Sunday but I didn't know that it was hot it was it was humid but there was something that had happened a few weeks before that still had not really satisfied my spirit something was stirring that I didn't understand stand and I laid on that floor that afternoon I sweat my clothes down but there was something more than the sweat it was the tears that soaked into those pine board floor and that dust and in that afternoon I had a vision of hell I had a vision of a deep pit that looked like black fire and there was a cliff and there was something grabbing people and throwing them over the precipice and it was breaking through the crust of that black flow and then I realized that I had a vision or was seeing a vision ision of hell it was then and only then that I understand why that God had birthed a spirit within me I want you to hear me today there's too many lazy Pentecostals there's too many people that's concerned about more things than God's work you want to position in the church you want to be imported in the church you want to sing on Sunday night you want to give the best testimony but where in the name of God is the soul winners at oh the pastor didn't recognize me this week Boney who cares if the pastor recognizes you I want to be recognized by Jesus we need to have the spirit of soul and bur in us all over again and have a witness you say well I would do a great work for Jesus but I'm not I can't sing neither can I neither can brother Tenny but I I I don't I don't play an instrument that's great you won't be wasting all your time on the piano if we spend half as much time Soul winning as if we did practicing one song that you already know I wonder what God would do through US spend 6 hours practicing song and getting the notes down right and then come to preach the people that's already saved and almost half reprobate amen we've been preached too so much that we we we enjoy preaching many of you didn't come here to get a burden today you come because preaching is entertaining you want another preacher to preach something that you can walk out of here over lunch today and say wow didn't he preach another great sermon we don't need another great sermon we need something to dig our hearts we need something to speak to us and say we got to be a soul winner in this

hour oh Hallelujah I feel like talking in tongues I feel like prophesying I feel I feel like giving tongues and interpretation today yeah I say unto thee get off your carcass and win some Souls sit down I'm going to walk on Dangerous Ground hallelujah praise God we need people who are concerned about people's Souls I had a an evangelist come to our church about a month ago I went out to trailer to see him and he was sitting at his computer he was working and what he preached for us it was great I enjoyed every minute of it in fact he's the only preacher that I've ever heard preach lately that you could take notes on his sermon and it was pretty good and so I went I talk to him he said uh brother Cornwell how long do you spend studying and preparing for your sermons if I was ever tempted to lie I was tempted to lie I looked at him and he was so educated and he he was so nice and he was so studious and his notes I he gave me a copy of his notes that he printed out on his laser jet printer and I told him that was a fine little sermon son I think I can do something with that and I just kind of ignored the question and maybe he thought I was hard of hearing which I am he said how long do you spend in preparing your sermons I thought now I taught two Bible studies the other night it was during those Bible studies while I was teaching them that God gave me a thought and I jotted it down on a piece of paper I said about 30 seconds and to this day I think he thinks I lied to him then I asked him I said how long do you spend every week Soul winning well that's not my Ministry let me just share something with you friend if you claim to be a preacher if you claim to be a child of God if you claim to be an evangelist if you claim to be a pastor and you don't have a burden for souls and for soul winning and your sermon is more important than the people you're going to preach to you got something backwards I am sick of sermons I am sick of sermonizing we got to have people that has got a red hot burden for people that's lost they're dying and they're going to a red hot hell and I'm going to tell you something if my Bible is right and it is we're going to be judged by what we do in this life amen to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not it is sin amen I won't tell you where it doesn't matter where but I was preaching at a at a Bible College a a Bible Cemetery not long ago and I said do you mean to tell me that you can have a four-year degree in Theology and you can walk across the platform and get a sheep skin and shake a preacher's hand and never wanton a soul I said if that spirit of God is in you that all you want is a sheep skin instead of The Souls of men there's something wrong with your theology You Preach against Bible colleges no sir I'm not preaching against Bible colleges I'm saying I wouldn't have the guts G grits or Grace to get a degree in theology if I didn't know how to practice what I had I don't care how good you can sing I don't care how good you can play I want to tell you something the angels of heaven can play better than you can and they can sing better than you can but they can't win SS and they can't do Soul winning and that's what we got to be doing you cannot build on Soul winning until it is birthed in you now let me give you a little theology to go along with all this I preached this somewhere forgot where I preached it so since I forgot I'll just do it again in Matthew 5 is a Sermon on the Mount Jesus seeing the multitudes when I of his house went up to a mountain apart from all those people and his disciples came to

him climb the mountain to get there in Chapter 13 Jesus saw the multitude he went out of the house and went down by the seaside and uh they put him in a little boat and he sat down and I want you to know he taught them satting down in Matthew 5:6 and 7 he said if you got two cloaks give one of them away your right hand defend thee quack it off he said if your ey offend thee pluck it out in 1993 every one of us in here be blind amen I know it's the truth the reason I said it and when he taught them in Parables about the SE went out the sew and the nice little farm story his disciples button hold him after the service and they said now wait a minute Jesus when there was only 12 of us on top of the mountain You Preach to us about whacking our hands off plucking our eyeballs out straight As the gate narrow as the way selling our second Cadillac and all that kind of stuff but when you preach this big crowd you soft soaped it you preached to them little farming Stories We want to know about that and Jesus in so many words words of course Jesus uses so many kind of different words that to say something we don't understand what he said so let me tell you what he meant he said it ain't none of your business how I handled it he said it's not given to the multitude to know it's given to you to know the secrets of the kingdom of God when you read the 17th chap the 10th chapter of Matthew those those 12 disciples was given power over unclean spirits to cast them out to heal all manner of sickness and disease in Chapter 13 they button hold Jesus about the way he handled a c and then in chapter 17 of Matthew there was a a man brought a little girl to Jesus said we took him to thy disciples and they could not cast The Devils out and Jesus said oh you have little faith and cast The Devils out and the disciples came and said Lord why could we not cast them out and Jesus said these come only by fasting and prayer and I got to thinking is it the fasting and prayer to cast out the Devils I don't think so I think the fasting and prayer is to keep our Spirits right and quit questioning what Jesus ising trying to do now some of us we want to go to be a part of the multitude and for the preachers to preach to us in Parables and good little stories and build us up and help us to feel good but there is a handful among of us that want to go to a mountain and we say Lord we don't care what you preach to us tell us what we really need to do tell us that we need to be knocking doors tell us we need to be driving buses tell us we need to be winning Souls tell us we need to be teaching Bible studies tell us we need to be praying I want to tell you something I'm not preaching everybody here today but there's a young man or a young woman somewhere that you're hungry and you know that you're missing something let me tell you what you're hungry for let me tell you what you're missing the Lord is trying to birth the spirit of Soul winning on the inside of you somebody shout amen I don't want to be among the questioning multitude and I want to tell you when they question Jesus in chapter uh 13 they lost in chapter 17 what they got in chapter 10 put that in your pipe smoke it now there's a second thing that has to happen after you are birthed with soul winning and that is you got to find out to what extent that God give you ability has anybody ever heard a preacher say lately I'm tired has any preacher heard another preacher say I'm weary I'm tired nine o'clock in the morning we're tired 12 o'cl we're tired 3:00 in the afternoon I'm tired well you need to go to the doctor and get some vitamins because I don't understand why people can be tired at 9 o'clock in the morning if they got a good night's rest now if you laid out all night and gossiped i't going to understand that but we don't do I know we don't do that kind of stuff most of us have never found out the limit or the ability or to the extent of the ability that God has given to us in 1980 let me give you an example in 1980 I went to teach a Bible study I'd been a soul winner when I was in college I was a soul winner when I was an assistant pastor I was a soul winner when I was an evangelist and I was a soul winner when I was a pastor but I had never learned what really God had done in me most of us have never reached the ability that

God has really put in us I went to teach a bible study this was a funny Bible study when I got there and I walked in with my Bible study chart I had to move beer cans and beer bottles out of the floor in order to set my chart up so it wouldn't be on a beer can or a beer bottle The Little Couple that I was teaching was a straggly Little Couple and they only had a refrigerator a stove and a couch and a couple of chairs over to at a table a small table and so I said I'll just sit here in the floor and I'll set my chart up and I'll sit in the floor y'all sit on the couch and I'll teach you move the beer cans move the beer bottles out of the way and so they said well would you like to have a Budweiser while you're teaching best Bible study come to think of it I've ever had and uh I was teaching that couple and both of them had a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other and a and a Bible in their La that I had given to them and somebody told me one time he said I would have never taught them I said how many Souls you won lately how big is your church when's the last time you baptized somebody you say I don't like you I just told you while ago I didn't like you either and when I got through teaching that Bible study that night and I I folded up my chart and I left and I backed out of that man's driveway I was weeping profusely I I couldn't I could not quit crying and I pulled out in the street went down the red light and that red light changed two or three times before I was able to move because there was a spirit of sobbing that came over me when by the time I got home that night my wife was already in bed she had been a little bit sick and didn't go with me that night and uh I I walked in the bedroom and I said I want you to get out of get out of bed get out of bed and she got out of bed and we went down at the end of our bed and and we sat down the floor and we hugged one another I said listen I I've have made a decision tonight I am going to give myself one year to Soul winning just to see what God can do with one Pentecostal in one year's time I just want to find out if we're right in sending missionaries and expect them to build a church in a year or a year and a half or two years and I said I'm not flushing no commodes at church I'm not sweeping no floors I'm not cutting no grass I'm not doing anything but Soul winning and we gave oursel to Soul winning for one year we taught Bible studies every day of the week we taught Bible studies on Saturday on Saturday night I preached on Sunday morning I went Tau Bible studies on Sunday afternoon I taught Bible studies after church on Sunday night on some of the second shifters we taught Bible study as late as 2: am in the morning we taught Bible studies to everybody that we could teach whenever we could teach them and I want you to know at the end of that year on December 31st in our our watch Night Service I baptized a couple that night that I was teaching Bible study I and I looked across that Auditorium and I got a piece of paper and a pencil and I started writing down the people that was sitting on those pews that we had won to God in that year through Bible studies my wife and I and when we got through there was 106 people that were sitting on the pews that we had won to God in one year I cannot tell you what happened to me except God reveal something to me that we are living beneath our ability in Jesus Christ amen we we have more than what we think we have we have more power than we realize that we have but you've got to discover for yourself the extent of the ability that God has put in you there's too many of us walking around and the devil is wearing us out and we are afraid to find out the extent of our ability did did did did I feel like I had sacrificed that year I want to tell you it was the single greatest year I've ever lived for God and I've had greater years since then knowing that I can go out and I can knock a door I can take a Bible study chart in somebody's home and a Bible if they'll give me enough time I'll win them to God I have one atheist to God I have one doctors to the Lord I have one the bums to the Lord I don't call anybody I don't weed nobody out if they feel they've got a hungry heart and they want the word of God I can win them to Jesus you say preacher you're trying to be arrogant I'm not trying to be arrogant I'm trying to tell you that the devil has lied to the United Pentecostal Church don't come to me with this Tommy rot that if my preacher didn't preach Holiness we could build a church that's a bunch of baloney I want you to know it's our message of Holiness and righteousness that people need to come to

somebody shout amen somebody shout amen I put a a note here in my notes with a starb it says if you preach the next paragraph you will get in trouble there's a warning here in my notes you will get in trouble here how many would like for me to get in trouble I'm not lying read it right there you will get in trouble here it says it it right there somebody say I Dare You Dare y are glutton for punishment I'm not going to do it but here's what I ought to do I ought to ask every preacher that's in this Auditorium that if you want a soul in the last month to stand I'm not going to do that because I'm not here to brag on those that did it I'm just here to point out those that didn't I was going to ask how many churches has baptized what week are we in 26th a week has has baptized 26 people this year how many churches baptized 26 people that's only one a week and I know that there's probably a handful maybe that can stand and say we baptized 26 you probably baptized 26 in some Mass Revival ain't none of them left that one like a lead balloon didn't it it amazing how we'll go out to hear a if if it was announced there was a faith healer here today you couldn't hard to get in the building prophesy over you tell you all the things you've been doing wrong you already knew that you need nobody tell you I discerned something here well quit Discerning get up there and preach you discern something call me in the back room and tell me in private now this is a pet peeve I told you I was going to get in trouble but I want to know why all these cats can't perform in private and in the Intensive Care units and why they cannot perform out in people's homes they they got to have a stage and a television camera to perform in front of tell me somebody that's going to the intensive care and praying for people and going to Seck rooms and praying for people and then they can perform on the platform all they want to but don't get through performing in the spirit of Jesus and walk out and you don't want to talk to nobody until the next service when the lights are on so much for that you say You Preach against the gifts of the Spirit no I just want you to exercise them where people can get something real cuz I believe in healing we have healings but how many churches have baptized 26 people this year how many pastors have have baptized somebody that you personally W to God you knocked that door you drove the bus you brought them to church you're the one that witnessed to them you're the one that gave birth to them in the spirit the truth of matter is a large percentage of US cannot stand and say that why because the devil has us beat down that we've got to spend 47 hours in a prayer room to study for one little old sermon that nobody's going to listen to if you got dead beats on the Pew why don't you go out and find some live beats out there get some new blood in the church a preacher told me not long ago he said you got some rich folks in your church and I said I sure do he said I want you know I don't want no Rich folks in my church they they'll be ruining it I said I i' they'll be running it excuse me I said I'd rather have the the rich people running it than everybody else ruining it the truth of matter is that we only have a selected few people that we'll witness to or we'll try to find the gospel is for everyone I said the gospel is for everyone my God I feel a spirit of Prophecy coming on me right now we demand baptism in Jesus name we demand one God Doctrine we demand the Holy Ghost I said we demand Holiness don't we well why can't we stand in the pull pit and demand that our churches be so with in churches why can't we stand in the pull pit and demand that our pastors be Soul winners why can't we demand that our evangelist be Soul winners why can't we demand that our people be Soul winners oh preacher if we got the demand in that that' run us off hang on to your seat it's going to

get a little turbulent again the best thing that could happen to the United Pentecostal Church to the Southern Baptist Church to The Independent Baptist Church to the United Presbyterian Church of America to the United Methodist Church to the Roman Catholic Church to every Church in America as they stand in the pull pit on Sunday and say thus sayith the Lord and preach from the word of God and a 100,000 preachers get fired from their pull pits tomorrow because if they're called to preach it won't matter if they got a pull pit to preach in they'll find a gravestone somewhere and go out in the graveyard and stand on a tombstone and preach the gospel we've got too many lazy Pentecostals we got too many deadbeat preachers we got too many deadbeat evangelists Louisiana is not a burnover field it's an unplowed field he old amen thank you they got preach now I'm going to get paid when I first started preaching I didn't know you preach for money but I've changed my mind since then luciana's not a burnover field hear me look at me look me in square and eye your your Town's not a burnover feel you're lying like a dog to stand and say your towns a burnover field you say you ought not to call people Liars well if You' quit lying I wouldn't your Town's not a burnover field I I I personally believe that everybody in your community needs a clear presentation of the go Gospel of Jesus Christ you agree with that now this is what you won't agree with most preaching does not present a clear presentation of the Gospel told you wouldn't agree with it amen you know I read my text is there not a cause don't have anything at all to do with acts 238 the truth of matter matter is most preaching is for us and even when we preach Evangelistic we don't give a clear presentation of the Gospel there are people sitting on our pews and they're hungry for God they don't know what they're hungry for they don't know acts 238 and so we take a text on uh it's appointed a man once to die and after that the Judgment I was about half mad a few weeks ago I preach better when I'm about half mad some of our people wasn't living right and I decided to preach a judgment sermon so I went back about 1982 notes back when judgment was popular Hallelujah hey you I I got saved TG McNeely was preaching the night I got baptized and he preached on the pale horse rider from The Book of Revelation and hail followed closely behind and he literally scared me in the Altar and I didn't go back to church until TG MCN left I made up my mind to get saved but I wasn't going back to hear another like that and I had never heard a sermon like that I mean back in those days they get through preaching and then saying in this Sweet By and By and you can just see the casket coming down the aisle I'm telling the truth you know I'm telling the truth evangelist would come by say this is absolutely your last night to find God if you don't get saved tonight you're going straight to hell so I decided to try that again I have a little boy that's four years old him and my daughter are the loudest mouths in the church comment about everything you preach he was playing with little toys between the pews and I and I was mad and I said it's a wonder the way some of you live that God don't send you straight to hell it's wonder that God doesn't kill you he jumped up on the Pew and said Daddy God ain't going to kill nobody he loves us ruined the best judgment sermon I've ever

preached the truth of the matter is that most preaching doesn't give a clear presentation of the Gospel I'm not going to preach here tonight this morning about acts 238 that you got to repent of your sins and that you have to be baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of those sins and that you have to have the Holy Ghost and speak with other tongues and live for God I don't have time to cover all of that because it takes several Bible lessons to do it now are am I against the kind of preaching we do no I love it I come to church the same reason you do to be fed and to be blessed but when you go in somebody's home with the Bible study chart and you spend about 12 or 15 or 20 weeks in that home and then when you get to acts 238 they know why Jesus died they know why blood was shed they know why they're getting baptized they know why they need the Holy Ghost they know why they need to live for God somebody give me a witness here the truth of the matter is we got to quit depending on the preacher to do everything we got to have somebody in the homes with the Bible and the word of God and preparing hearts for when the preacher preaches conviction they'll know what they need to do before they get to church so what are you saying I'm saying we need to demand that our churches be Soul winning churches we need to demand that we be Soul winners if you're a preacher I'm not here demanding that you do it you need to demand yourself to do it you need to look in the mirror and say preacher I'm not mad at brother Cornwell I'm not mad at the preacher at the camp meeting I'm mad at myself I've been living beneath my privilege I don't really know what I can do for God but God if your birth Soul within me I'll find out what really the ability that you've given me is and I'm not going to call these preachers names because there's preachers here to call them and try to hire them and they're not for hire one of my assistant pastors has an incurable disease called penus several times the last three months we thought we was going to lose him he takes cortisone steroids he doesn't take the steroids his skin literally falls off of his body the doctor said that at any time you quit taking predisone you are 72 hours away from death and several times in the last month we've had to take him out of the service and lay him on a table and help him to breathe that's how sick he's been lately but you know every week he teaches f 15 Bible studies a week hang on now my time's almost up so I might as well get down the nitty-gritty 15 Bible studies a week we have another assistant pastor he's a young man about 203 or 24 years old he's out of Texas Bridal College well he got his mistress there you hate when I say that don't you some of you jerks just just go there to get married when you ought to be on your knees fasting praying and seeking God for the will of God never mind I'm not going to get that hold forget I said that erased that from the camera he was our youth pastor he was an utter failure as a youth pastor worst youth pastor we have ever had in the history of our church on a way home from District conference two years ago I said you're not a very good youth pastor are you and he said no sir I'm not I said you you pretty much bloated haven't you he said yes sir I have I said what is your calling he said I didn't really want to be youth pastor to begin with he said but he said I wanted to be around you and he said was the only job you had available and I took it just to be around you I said what do you really want to do he said I spend so much time with these rep probate young people he said they make me e

Scripture references as spoken: 1 Samuel 17; Matthew 5; Matthew 13; Matthew 10; Matthew 17; Acts 2:38.