August 12, 2018 Sermon by Ted DiBiase / Campbellsville Baptist Church

well good morning it's a real pleasure to be with you here this morning my name is Ted DiBiase if you're a wrestling fan you may have remembered the million about a man how many in this room would say you remember that guy well then you would probably remember this yeah everybody's got a price for the Million Dollar Man I just got to get that out of my system once a day you know seriously though the last place I ever thought I'd be the last thing I thought I'd be doing with my life is what I have done for the last 19 years I've traveled the United States and Canada and literally around the world preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ it's that I came to a place in time in my life where I realized that God had a plan for my life and it it wasn't until I submitted his plan that my life has had the joy that I've had now one of the questions I'm often asked having been a wrestler is why of all the things I could have possibly chosen doing like why would I choose such an odd occupation let's face it folks pro wrestling is not a normal job is it what do you do for a living Ted well I run around in spandex and I hit people in the head with chairs what do you do it's just not a normal job but the answer to that question in a word was dad I was very fortunate to have been raised by a loving stepfather who came into my life when I was 5 years old my biological parents divorced when I was 2 and when I was 5 years old my mother remarried Mike DiBiase DiBiase is an Italian name and my stepfather and were my dad everything except dad no he's the dad that raised me he's he and it's his name I carry to this day but he was the son of Italian immigrants born and raised in Omaha Nebraska in a very poor ethnic neighborhood he's also the kid that came out of that poor ethnic neighborhood and in 1946 wrestling for the Navy won the AAU national heavyweight wrestling title they won the University of Nebraska we're later at eight times four years in wrestling worn football three years in a row he was a conference heavyweight wrestling champion storied career I didn't know any of those things about my dad from him he's never talked about it never bragged about it but what my dad did say to me was when I was very young was he said son he said he said don't follow the crowd don't do what everybody else is doing that's easy takes no courage to do that he said what takes courage does just stand up and cut your own path in life be a real man you know be the head not the tail be a leader not a follower they'll be led by Christ the other thing that my dad did was he took me to church now being Italian like most Italians my father was raised Roman Catholic so in my early life I was the award-winning altar boy I was the kid who showed up at the six o'clock mass when there was four feet of snow on the ground in Omaha there was nobody at the six o'clock mass with me and the priest and he lived there yeah he didn't have to trudge through the snow to get there but I took it very seriously I look back at it now and I call it a childlike faith yeah there's I have a lot of issues with Catholicism but my heart was true and at the end of the day if you're a follower of Christ you're gonna be judged by your heart Jesus said you'll recognize the tree by the fruit he said a good tree cannot bear bad fruit and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit and every tree that doesn't bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire thus by their fruits you'll recognize them so wanting to be so much like my dad I wanted to do the things he did I wanted to wrestle and play football and all those things were going along fairly well for me until I was 15 when I was 15 years old my dad had a heart attack during the match in Lubbock Texas and died he was 45 years old and my whole world changed that day this man who was such an inspiration to me someone who I totally looked up to it and wanted to emulate was now gone my hero I then had to move back to very small town but you like your small town Wilcox Arizona's down the southeast corner of the state and has three traffic lights interstate ken goes around it and my grandparents lived there my mother's parents my grandmother ran a truck stop so I knew Wilcox because I lived in Wilcox from the ages of two to five I didn't remember much about it but I knew it and we would go and visit my grandmother so I was not unfamiliar with the town but now you see I had started to do well in athletics and I had these big dreams dreams of college and professional football and wrestling and I'm looking around this little town going can my dreams come true here and like piers the kids I was now going to school with when they found out that I had such lofty goals and dreams they just thought I was out of my mind you see if you were cool in Wilcox then you on Friday and Saturday night you went out in the desert build a big bonfire and had a party got drunk got high and had a good old time but that's not what I did see I remembered what my dad said because all of the kids in his neighborhoods did the same thing to him when he voiced what he was going to do or want him to do and he was the one that came out of poverty in an ethnic neighborhood and excelled the other thing he told me was he sent he said son he says you can be anything you want to be if you're willing to pay the price if you're willing to work hard you can mean whatever you want to be and young people I want you to know something there is nothing I've ever had in my life that's that's worth anything that came in or was free nothing's free because it was handed you on a silver platter you don't care about it you don't have any sweat equity in it and I found that out when I suggested to my dad one day and allow us oh my gosh money for nothing and he looked at me and if it looks to kill he said so I says if you want money you're gonna work we were in Texas at the time there was a golf course about two blocks away they said you go caddy at that golf course this summer he says at the end of the summer I'll match whatever you saved and we'll buy you a new bike now between the golf course and where we live the apartments we read there was a 7-eleven and McDonald's he said no if you want to stop and get an icy grate your money you want to get a burger great your money anything in this house is free he was teaching me to prioritize at the end of the summer my dad did exactly what he said he would do he matched he actually more than matched my money and I had the first brand-new bicycle I ever owned now here's the first two things I bought for that bike padlock in a chain in an oil can I was gonna make sure that that that chain was well properly and I was gonna make sure that it was locked up because every time I looked at that bike I thought about how many times I walked that golf course nothing in life that's worth happiness free well everything's going along good until my dad is gone and now I'm putting those principles that he taught me that the Bible teaches me I'm putting those principles to work the other horrible thing that happened was that my mother in her grief and her despair fell and Alcoholism virtually overnight I'd go home and hear my mother say things like I wish I would die I was sure I did I have nothing to live for anymore and at the time I felt sorry for that hurt me so if there was ever a kid that had the opportunity to get on the pity party and feel sorry for himself it certainly was me but I didn't the two things that kept me straight were the principles that were taught to me by a father and every child needs the admonition of a father those two things and and my relationship of God on many of those weekends that the kids were out in the desert getting drunk getting high I would go to the cemetery the desert cemetery with my dad very apartment grandmother's old Rambler signed the lights on his grave and I paced back and forth in front of that crowd that grave and pray and ask God to give me the strength and the skills that I needed to achieve the goals I'd set and I'm here to tell you God's Way faithful I was the first kid to graduate from this little school in South Southern Arizona with the full scholarship to play Division one college football I initially signed with the University of Arizona thought that was the only good be the only offer I had but then I ended up going to a place called West Texas State University announced called West Texas A&M back then they were we're they were Division one school in the Missouri Valley Conference and I chose that school over Arizona because there was a very well-known wrestling family who lived in that area the funk family because I'm smart enough know that even though I was getting a scholarship to play football and it'll put me through college I might not be fast enough for the NFL and that turned out to be true so so far so good you know if this was the end of the story great job Ted you stuck you stuck to your goals and your principles and God showed up a big way and pat on the back it's not the end of story you see folks when I got to college I was 18 years old and after doing things right and having this success two things crept into my life and those two things then pretty much controlled me for the next 20 years my pride and my ego eg Oh ego your ego will always edge God out the Bible clearly says pride goeth before the fall I'm every testify to that I started doing things in college I wouldn't do in high school going out and having a beer with the boys after all I'm a young adult now young adult 18 years old after all Bible doesn't say you can't have a beer it says drunkenness is a sin and I reason I can have a couple of beers and not get drunk well we all know where that leads waking up on a Sunday morning with a hangover unfortunately Friday and Saturday night always go before Sunday so pretty soon I'm not going to church anymore but I'm becoming cool by the time I was 26 years old I had failed to complete college by one year I had been married and divorced with a son but mine I was a professional wrestler and folks I believe what God said the Ted was okay son I'm gonna let you have what you want you go climb that material ladder of success you go become that big famous wrestler you want to be get all that stuff and find out what life is like there without me and somewhere down the road you and I are gonna have another conversation about this how many parents in the room of teenagers now at some point is it an amazing how our children become teenagers and all of a sudden they think we're stupid and clueless they just were not hip we're not cool you got a smartphone that's smarter than you what do you mean you don't know what Facebook is don't you wanna grab them and shake them look you little I only have 30 years of life experience on you you see what our children don't understand is we've already been down the road we know what's coming and we give them rules and we give them boundaries because we love them and we're trying to protect them let's take that up one notch our Heavenly Father he says I'm only the god of the universe and I've only been around for eternity and I've given you a standard to live by to his word the Bible if we'll just follow the rulebook we will have life as jesus said and have it more abundantly but we've all been teenagers some teenagers in the room right now unfortunately some teenagers never grow up it took this one until it was 38 years old to fully come to realize what it really means to be a Christian and to walk in that relationship you see folks is genuine Christianity is not a religion it's relationship and if you're not walking an intimacy of that relationship you're practicing religion no matter where you hang your hat religion will take you straight to hell because it's just about ritual and I have found finally that the difference between heaven and hell is about 18 inches you see because from on the time I was very young I have believed the Gospel message yes Jesus Christ is the son of God he died on a cross he rose from the dead he sits at the right hand of the Father and he will come again in glory to judge the world and take home those who place their trust and open in but the difference between heaven hell is moving it from here to here you seek is when it gets in here it has no choice but to come pouring out of your life again it's not about performance it's not about going on mission trips it's not about doing all these good things so yes we are called to feed the hungry clothe the naked take care of widows and orphans but the point I'm making is that you can do all of those things you can still go to hell because you will be judged by the attitude of your heart why did you do it did you do it to bring recognition to yourself oh boy he's on all the trips you know Matt he's a you know are you doing it for your glory or for his are you doing it out of obligation yet Sunday morning gosh Ted that's a great message but well it's not quite football season but it's almost here right when you show up on Sunday morning are you one that keeps looking at your watch to see if the pastor's gonna go a little bit too long for you because you're worried about getting to lunch or you need to be sitting in front of your big-screen TV at noon because that's when kickoff comes you see if that's your attitude you might as well just stayed at home just coming to church don't do you any good if that's why you're there out of obligation and it took me a long time to figure that out so I'm beginning to grow in stature and recognition within the inner circles of the wrestling industry in 1981 I went to Atlanta Georgia to what was then called Georgia Championship Wrestling which later became WCW World Championship Wrestling and in Atlanta I met a young lady a Christian girl Melanie Melanie and I fell in love and on New Year's Eve the last day of 1981 we were married and God had brought this beautiful Christian woman into my life I didn't want to make any more mistakes I didn't want to have any more children that I couldn't see except on weekends of special occasions I wanted to do things right it's funny how God starts coming back into the equation here Melanie said Melanie said to me she says okay Ted you know you're Catholic and I'm a Baptist let's compromise and go to a non-denominational Church which are all Protestant duh football but the point is and I hate to say this but it's the truth it's the first time I heard the gospel preached straight from the Bible it's the first time in my life that I heard that my eternity hinged on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and not not all these do's and dos it's the first time in my life that I walked a mile still at a platform like this one I said a prayer we called a sinner's prayer I had a emotional experience that day but folks here's what I didn't do sometime between that Sunday and the next Sunday I didn't get to the Christian bookstore and buy a Bible and die there relationship you see when I look back at it from where I am now I realized that I never said this but what my actions were saying that God was yes Lord I believe I believe the Gospel message and I want what you have to offer but what I was telling God but through my actions that one of my way I want to have all this stuff well gang it's either God's way or the highway so guys kept letting me go wellness in spite of me God blessed Melanie and I with two beautiful children art boys Ted jr. and Brett God gave me back the son my son Michael from my first marriage I got him back when he was 11 years old folks I couldn't have been more blessed and in reality I couldn't have been less grateful because I was driven by pride and ego so in 1984 we came back to Mississippi where my parents my in-laws retired and I moved to Clinton Mississippi just outside of Jackson joined morrison i'ts baptist church once again ted walks the aisle once again Ted stands at the platform and says that prayer once again Ted is baptized and my pastor said to me he said Teddy says I want to encourage you he said God's planted a seed in your life and he said I want you to nurture the seed I want to encourage you to get in a good group of a few men that you know and that you trust that you can be accountable to because if there's no accountability in your life it's only I'm not a question if you'll fail or fall it's only a question of when it'll happen and he encouraged me to get in the Word of God get in the Bible he suggested a couple of good devotionals for me to start with he said word read the word every day start your day and then your day he said just know this the devil will come quickly to pluck the seed God has planted in your life you see when we're walking in the world devil don't care about us he's already got us but when you scream out in Jesus now you got his attention now he will come quickly and he said Ted he will attack you at your weakest point well gang I wants you to know within a month of this rededication of my life so to speak I got the biggest break of my wrestling career I'm now going to what was then the WWF now called the WWE and I'm sitting at the top of what they call Titan Tower WWE headquarters in Stanford Connecticut and that's Vince McMahon the owner lays out this scenario for me says Ted he says he says I've got a an idea for a character and I says you're the guy he had seen me wrestle as both what we call a good guy and wrestling is called a babyface in the heel or a good guy and a bad guy and I've been both he says you're very articulate you carry yourself well he says this is it this is you can do this and he said one thing everybody hates is someone who by virtue of their wealth thinks they're better than everybody they bully people with their what they think they can by anybody or anything they bully people with their money and I kind of start chuckling I said I can't stand guys like that myself and they said in an effort to market this character we're gonna try to make the public bleed you're really rich I said how you gonna do that this is what we're gonna fly you everywhere first-class sometimes that'll be private jets and they'll be limousine service for you everywhere you go everyday airport to hotel hotel the Coliseum Coliseum to hotel back to Airport you won't be staying at the Holiday Inn or the Red Roof Inn anymore it's the Hilton the high in the Marriott only the first-class hotels a tough job but somebody had to do it I'm going Wow now this is a time when there were only two other guys in the wrestling industry that got that kind of treatment one was Hulk Hogan and the other one was Andre the Giant well folks Andre the Giant was seven feet four 450 pounds he ain't going coach anyway he couldn't get in the coach seat but my point is this the devil came and attacked me at my weakest point my pride I just been baptized a month earlier Bible says Jesus was baptized but when he came out of the water the spirit drove me in the desert where he fast and he prayed for 40 days and 40 nights and the devil came to tempt him and when the devil tempted Jesus Jesus rebuked him three times and it quoted Scripture now understand the devil is talking to God because Jesus is both fully God and fully man so Jesus didn't have to quote scripture all he had to say was scram why he caught scripture to show you and me the way that's where our power is that's where our strength is that's the way we fight him off you see Jesus was a total unity with the father Ted was not the problem was I still wasn't letting go we talked about committing our lives to Christ well here's here's what I got to tell you before you can commit your life to Christ you have to surrender it first and you're either all-in and you're not in there's no halfway and I still didn't get it wrestling at this time was becoming the phenomenon that nobody ever envisioned that wrestling would go to the heights it's go to gone through then and even higher now we began traveling the United States and the world literally like rock stars well like rock stars the next show the next party the next girl by the grace of God I was never addicted to any drug or alcohol did my share but I had a real problem with women now I got a wife at home I have a wife at home that absolutely trust me a wife who thinks I am totally devoted to her in God the wife who is home raising our two boys and now accepting my son from her previous marriage raising him as her own loving them as their own a wife who so I'm holding down the fort and doing everything else because I am on the road literally 21 days out of every month god knows when the time is right to jerk the rug out from underneath you to get your attention and for me that happened in March of 1992 WrestleMania 8 took place in Indianapolis Indiana at the Hoosier dome you know you're getting old when the building's you used to wrestle then have been torn down the men replace the Hoosier dome is gone so WrestleMania for those of you aren't wrestling fans is like our Super Bowl and I'll be honest with you today it's getting to be just about as big I found out recently that three-quarters of the people that actually attend WrestleMania are from foreign countries that's incredible but this is the big night so after the show I go out on the town dress in my tailor-made suit big gold chain around my neck and a pretty girl on each arm in my limousine and I'm going to all the hot spots in Indianapolis because I am cool here's how you spell cool f oo l fool party to the wee hours of the morning had that limousine take me to straight through the airport caught a plane to detroit checked into the Marriott hotel went to a payphone in the lobby to call home and check in because this before we were all carrying these many computers paul home to check in with my old wife what a nice guy what a jerk what a selfish self-centered jerk but I had a big surprise on the other end of the phone that day my wife that trusting loving caring all working wife who's totally devoted to God had discovered that her husband's committing adultery and not just once or twice I don't want to talk about this on the phone I'll be on the next plane home she said no you won't you don't live here anymore click what do you think the first words out of my mouth were oh god help me now you want to talk about hypocrisy a hypocrite oh god help me oh yes Lord you're the guy I cried out to when I was 15 years old my dad died and my mom started drinking and I would go to that desert cemetery and cry my eyes out and you came to me there you brought me comfort there and you gave me you gave me the desires of my heart I got that scholarship and I went to college and I I abandoned you and in spite of that you brought this wonderful Christian woman into my life you blessed me with Melanie you blessed us with two more children you blessed me by giving me my son back from my first marriage and then you bless my career beyond my wildest hope or expectation and what did I do I abandon you again so folks why didn't I deserve from God well I deserved what the Bible says we all deserve hell and unfortunately I don't think there's enough preachers preaching hell anymore folks if there's a heaven there's a hell as a matter of fact no one and the entire Bible spoke more about Hell than Jesus here's a couple things he said he said enter through the narrow gate for wide is the gate had brought us a path that leads to death many there enter through he's talking about Hell but small as the data narrow the path that leads to life and only a few find it in another scripture if your arm your hand causes you to sin cut it off if your eye causes you to sin gouge it out better to go through life blind and crippled than to burn in hell folks did this again any plainer than that you know there's some and there may be selling this room that you know don't even believe there's a guy well I'm gonna say to you the same thing that I I said to I had an encounter with it with an atheist I had spoken somewhere and I was getting a cup of coffee and they just cut you guys were having a debate and one of the guy was a Christian he turned around recognized me I think was the first time I was ever recognized as being a Christian minister because he said he'd seen me on TBN this can you help me out here Ted so I asked this guy so could I ask you a couple questions he said sure I said you're read the Bible they said well no not really he says you know maybe a little bit here a little bit there I said but you've never taken the Bible and read it cover-to-cover and studied it and he said no okay I said here's what you just told me what you're telling me is you don't believe in a god you've never spent 15 minutes looking for and I told him I said let's just say for the sake of argument that you're right when you die you you cease to exist there's no God if that's true it won't matter but for the same sake of argument if I'm right and you're wrong you're wrong for eternity pal last time I checked that's a long time to be wrong and I'm sorry but only a fool will blindly go through life believing there's no only to find out he's wrong and I can give you the name of a couple of guys that were extremely intelligent that both were atheists and now are some of the greatest apologists for the faith Josh McDowell who I've had the pleasure of meeting he set out to write a book evidence the demands of verdict he was going to prove that although Jesus Christ was a historical person he wasn't God well he went and did all I said and this book is about that thick but he didn't get the verdict he thought he's going to get the other guy's name is Lee Strobel he was a journalist who covered trial juries and he said when he got married he and his wife even one were Christians but his wife gets saved and you know he's not comfortable with this and but he likes the difference he's seen in his wife and so he said he took it like he says I examined it like I would a trial they said I went all over the country and I spoke to the experts both in favor and not on both sides of the aisle today he's won the leading apologist for the faith because he too found out the Jesus Christ is Lord of all well the next person I called that day was the guy who's my closest friend his name is Hal Santos when I met how he was a youth minister down there in the Baton Rouge area and I met him in the gym where we worked out he's pretty big guy and he walked up to me and introduced himself and said he'd see me on regional television he says I just got one-twentieth for you Ted do you know Jesus he's pretty Bowl guy let's start at a conversation that started a relationship and how Santos who left there and he went as a youth minister to a church in Fairview Heights Illinois which is right across the river from st. Louis and when that pastor retired he put Hal and there is the pastor of Houseman the pastor there ever since but I looked back down I see that God placed how Santos in my life in January of 1982 10 years later March 1992 in my darkest desperate hour I called how why relationship you see how Steven contacted me periodically he would call me and just talk to me and anytime I was in the area he would come by and see me and here's what he didn't do he didn't beat me up with the religious questions in other words my relationship with him was not based on performance so looking back what I understand is that he demonstrated to me the unconditional love of Jesus Christ now my pastor at home was a great guy I just didn't have that kind of relationship with my pastor at home nothing wrong with my pastor at home but I had relationship with how well he arranged for my wife and I had to fly to st. Louis pick me up at the airport took me on the longest 30 minute ride of my life my wife arrived ahead of me pastor how what am I gonna do what do I say to Melanie he said Ted Jesus said the truth would set you free but he never said it'd be painless and he never said it'd be easy he says if you'll trust Jesus to that trustee like you did when you were fifteen years old and your your dad died and your mom started drinking and you went out to that cemetery because he knew my story he says put that childlike faith back at him today and he'll forgive you Ted and he'll restore you he said you see he never left you you left him and all these years he's been trying to draw you back when I called how he said to me Ted I've been praying for you ever since we met and my prayer has been this he said God I know one day Ted's gonna hit the wall let me be there for him and then he said you know God will forgive you and God will restore ESA's but the Bible also says that you reap what you sow in other words there's forgiveness and there's restoration there's also consequences to the choices we make he said in your case Ted you might lose everything Melanie has every right to divorce you take it all and he says I want to encourage you though if the worst happens if you'll trust Jesus through the storm you're about to go through you're gonna come out of this storm on the other side with the peace in your life the Bible says surpasses all understanding and he said remember Ted Jesus is both fully God and fully men and being fully God he's the guy to put every star in the sky when you look up at night he's the God who knew and you would take your first and last breath and everything you would do in between and he's the God who if you were the only man who ever lived still would have stepped down off the throne of heaven and died on the cross just for you and my friends in a moment in time as God allowed me to look at my life and look at where he had been there for me time and time again and time and time again I had trampled his blessing and as I looked in the mirror that day I saw a man oh yeah I'm famous I'm I'm a big shot I'm I've got all the worldly success I can have in my field but I was a man who was willing to put at risk the love and devotion of a committed wife and the future the stability and the well-being of his own children to stroke his ego it doesn't get any uglier than that but in that moment when I tried to imagine a god that big who could love me that much that in spite of all of that he still loved me came changer scripture also tells us until a man comes to the end of himself you can't reason with him see I can sit here and preach to you all day long but unless you've come to a place where you will hear it to receive it I might as well preach to that wall but I have finally hit the wall I got out of that car what to the door of pastors house house and as I walked that sidewalk I prayed that prayer again but this time I was different I said Jesus you come on board the ship at Ed's life and take the hell I don't even know where we're going Lord and I don't care anymore no longer my will your will I don't ever want to come to this place I don't ever want to feel this rotten again as long as I live I'm probably gonna lose my family and that's what I deserve just give me the strength right now to be a man and tell the whole truth it was the most gut-wrenching day of my life as well with my wife and as my wife left the room she looked back at me through tears as she said who are you Ted where's the man I thought I married in those few words my wife was saying what I believe jesus said in Matthew 7:21 because what she was saying was this is the promise you made this is who you said you were but what I see is not the same well Jesus in Matthew 7:21 said this just because you say Lord Lord doesn't mean you'll enter the kingdom of heaven but only he who does the will of the Father in heaven for many will come in that day will come that day and say Lord did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and do many miracles and then I will tell them plainly I never knew you depart from me you who practice iniquity in another translations to you evil doers Church who's he talking to he's not talking to her murderers rapists and drug dealers he's talking to folks who go to church every week they sit in the pew and listen to the sermon and like I said earlier maybe they walked in and watch getting a little bit too long here pal that verse literally scared hell out of me it's not a performance it's our heart you may appear to be somebody but is that who you really are and that's who God judges he judges by the attitude of our heart and I had finally come to a place of true brokenness I had finally come to a place of surrender realizing that if I had all you know yes I've been a celebrity but not you know I'm not a huge star I'm not multi-millionaire but did I travel the world and Lear Jets and limousines I've had my likeness made into action figures we don't call them dolls and wrestling they're action figures matter of fact you can still get my action figures the classic series video games all that stuff but what did it really mean empty moan that day it meant nothing to me pastor how asks my wife and I to join him and his wife as they took their youth group to a big youth rally in Chicago which is about five hundred miles straight north on Interstate 55 from st. Louis and I said sure we'll go he handed me a little book the author of the book was Edwin Louis Cole Edie Cole - my estimation was way ahead of his time and recognizing the anemic need for godly men in this country this book was called maximized manhood so I'm reading this book and basically dr. Cole says genuine manhood is synonymous with Christ's likeness in other words the more christ-like you are in character the bigger man you are so I want all you athletes to know that you know your masculinity is not judged by the sides your your biceps or how much beer you can drink as you get older the side your bank account your car your house ready that's done your manhood is judged by the size of your character the strength of your integrity the man is only as good as his word and his words no good he's worthless this is what I'm reading and a man before he's the breadwinner in his home is the priest gentlemen it's not your wife's obligation to have your kids at church on Sunday it's yours and you and I as men will be held responsible before God for the spiritual well-being of our families can we save them no but can we do all we can in inaction and in word to lead them that way that is our obligation I could promise you kids won't always do what you tell them to but ultimately they'll always do what they see you do well as I'm reading this book and understand I'm at the top of my game now it's like God whispered in my ear and it was like a it was the slap in the face it was the wake-up call he said Ted he says you were a bigger man when you were 15 years old when you cried out to me in that desert cemetery than you are right now and right now you have everything you thought you ever wanted what do you have that matters what does all that stuff mean to you if you don't have a family to come home to what does all that stuff mean to you if you're a liar and a deceiver and selfish and self-centered that you have poor character and no integrity what's it mean to you nothing a big fat zero I wanted to crawl under a rock we got the st. Louis I mean we got this Chicago went into this big Ballroom in our big hotel there about 1,500 teenagers from all over the state of Illinois what was I doing there I confess to God my wife and pastor how I want anybody else to get fast - no coincidences with God 1,500 teenagers at the time the demographic or the wrestling fan teenagers back then I had highlighted blonde hair in the dark can I stuck out like a neon sign and I walked in that room and I heard riffle right through the room there's the Million Dollar Man there's Ted DiBiase what is he doing here good question the speaker that day was a fellow who can really bring his name is Reggie dabs and he got to that place the invitation and he said something the effect of you're tired of living a line you know what you need you know it's Jesus then I wanted to challenge you to get out of your chair and get up here right now so with the Million Dollar Man a man who had been controlled and consumed by his pride in his ego and his image for 20 years when I get out of my chair and in front of 1500 people who recognized me as a television star and a tough guy to humble myself and go forward you betcha you see folks because God finally had me in a place where he wants all of us at some point in time in our life willing to run to him with reckless abandon I beat every kid in that room to the front of the building of course that wasn't very hard because pastor Howe had me strategically sitting on the front row it's more like I lurched out of my chair and I literally just fell on my face face down I didn't care that and I haven't cared since what anybody thinks I remember as I laid there crying that promised God that I would take care of my family because I was dead sure that I would have lost him but there was one more miracle in the house my wife came to me and she said Ted I'm not gonna make you a promise I can't keep I don't know if I'm strong enough to do this she said but I serve a God of restoration not divorce and because I loved God and I love Jesus and I want to be obedient that's the word she used I want to be obedient to this voice in my heart that's for whatever reason is telling me to give you another chance I'm gonna try I might not make it she and I'm not doing this for you you don't deserve it I'm doing this out of beat out of obedience to God she goes I have forgiven you and I want to believe that you were sincere I can't even explain to you how shocked I was that she would even consider it but I looked at her and having just read that book I said to her that dad said if you'll give me this chance I'll become the man you thought you married I will become the spiritual leader in my home I will come a man of strong character and integrity and God willing one day I'll regain your trust and respect that was March 1992 this next New Year's Eve Melanie and I will celebrate our 36 the wedding anniversary and you know what folks God doesn't just fix things jesus said I come that you have life and have it more abundantly my relationship with my wife today is second to none my wife is absolutely unconditionally my very best friend I still travel a lot it's all ministry and why I love FaceTime because I look at my wife every night and every morning as much as possible when I'm on the road we start and we end our day praying together when I'm home we starting in there today praying together because we are together I'm amazed at the number of men that I know that have never prayed with their wives as far as I'm concerned there's nothing that you can do is more intimate than pray with your wife God doesn't just fix things he makes them better if you trust him the other thing that my wife says when we go out and we speak together is you can't hang on to bitterness and anger ceases because when you hang on to bitterness is anger it's like drinking poison and expecting somebody else to die the only ones suffering from it is you and Jesus commands us it's a command forgive as you've been forgiven there's no parameters on that you don't forgive because somebody deserves it you don't forgive because somebody asks for it you don't forgive you simply forgive as you've been forgiven there's a lot of things that happen in life there's a lot of things in our flesh that make that real hard I spoke in the Bronx in New York and a young black man stood to his feet as I was sharing about forgiveness cheers were only down his cheek and held his hand like this just like to say I'm in agreement with you after everybody left the church he came to me he said I just wanted you to know Ted that today finally God has given me the strength to forgive finally mean I've heard this before and I know I've needed to do it but I just happened to be the guy that's why we keep watering it and he said but I need you to understand what I have forgiven and I didn't excited see this coming folks he said I'm from Rwanda and in my country there was what they called ethnic cleansing and these militia came into my village and I came into my home and they held me and they forced me to watch them repeatedly raped my wife and then after doing that they forced me to watch them kill her and my son and they killed them by hacking them to death with machetes I feel my arms around this guy's neck I'm I'm balling I'm I'm crying and I remember thinking because all I could see was my family my wife my kids god I couldn't do it that's what I said god I couldn't do it and he spoke to me he said not in your strength son but in my strength all things were possible I watched that young man walk out of that church with a totally different countenance and I marveled it by God so I want to ask you today where are you have you ever given your life to Christ if you have it why not if you're Ananda believer that I challenge you don't don't take my word for it a matter of fact God says that in the Bible he says what you search for me and you search for me with all your heart you'll find me and I can line you up a number of guys that were very intelligent non-believers and they tried everything they could to disprove it only to become believers if you haven't given your life to the Lord today is that they have the Lord Jesus said I stand at the door and knock if you'll come in if you'll open the door I'll come in and I'll sup with you maybe you're here today and through my message this morning that you found out that even though you might have gotten off to a good start somehow you've let the cares of the world and the busyness of your life and maybe the culture around us today choke out what you once had maybe it's become a little bit too much of routine and maybe today's a day and there's a lot of reasons I can tell you as a minister as a minister there are times in my life when I get so busy doing the work I'm doing and trying to attend to it that interferes or I allow it to interfere in my personal relationship with God and there are times when God has to through and he has his ways of doing it remind me hey Ted you know what if you spent a little more time with this with me I can make this a lot easier so I think there's times when all of us need to make that recommitment but how about you today maybe today's a day where you drive that stake in the ground unless David said restore me this day Lord an upright spirit or maybe today you need to seek forgiveness of a repetitive sin you know that sin that you've committed that sin that one that goes away for a week or a month and then it rears its ugly head it's back or maybe even worse it's there every day drugs alcohol addiction pornography pornography is one of the biggest drugs of choice in the church true I've had it said that way a lot of churches do these large gatherings across the country and they gather at hotels and I can't remember what year it was but they basically said that of all the conferences held at these hotels that the conference's were the more the most pornographic movies were rented were Christian conferences that's pretty sad didn't it the devil knows how to turn your your knob he knows your weakness we got to be ready all the time so maybe today he not only seek forgiveness who say Lord deliver me from the bondage of this in my life and ask him to cross your path with those who can help you if you need to help or maybe like so many men that I speak to there's men out here that suffering from the father wound you didn't have a good relay that what I had I realized how fortunate I was to have what I had there's a lot of guys I speak to that had never known their dads or they never had a good relationship or no relationship but if that's you you can't hang on to that anger and bitterness too you got to let it go and I would say to you there are men maybe in this room on the other side of that maybe today through what I've said to you you realize you need to be a better dad that's why I challenge the men yesterday at the big men's conference but I know this whatever you need is in the house and his name is Jesus so with that said would you all bow your heads with me close your eyes and I'm gonna pray a prayer I don't ask that you pray what I prayed I just ask that you speak to the Lord from your heart today and even more importantly than that listen to his response to you in obedience respond let's go to him in prayer Lord Jesus I I come to you now Lord and I I confess to you that I'm a sinner lord I realized today the end and of my own strength and power well the truth is Lord I realized today that I'm powerless today lord I realized that everything I would ever need in life the answer to every question the answer to every problem can be found in one place and that one place is you Jesus so today lord I ask you to search my heart reveal to me any unconfessed sin in my life that I might confess it now and I confess my sin today Lord and I ask you from the bottom of my heart to forgive me and that you would come into my life today not only a savior but Lord and Lauren I come today to say forgive me Lord for allowing the busyness of my life and the carriage of the world the culture around me forgive me Lord for allowing those things to choke out what I had with you today Lord I want to renew my relationship I want to pledge to you that from this day going forward there will be no no other relationship more important to me than ours because as the Bible says apart from you I can do nothing so forgive me Lord and restore me today the Lord I pray and I ask you to not only forgive me today but Lord delivered me from the bondage of this particular sit-in of my life I'm tired and I'm weary and I feel like I've I've come to you so many times and asked forgiveness that you don't want to hear it anymore so today Lord helped me to do whatever I must do to deliver that you would help me deliver myself from this bondage and where I especially lift up those who carrying or carrying around bitterness and anger and just as you spoke to my heart that day in the Bronx help those who are carrying anger and bitterness to let it go and to lean on your strength not the road finally Lord Jesus I say thank you thank you for answering every prayer cry and plea in this room thank you for your promised forgiveness thank you for restoration for restoration but most of all a large thank you for loving all of us enough to take our place on the cross and die for our sin we pray this prayer in your precious matchless name the name that is above every name the name of Jesus amen and amen now folks this is just something I do heads bowed eyes closed with nobody looking around I think the choir is gonna play a song as I do this but I'm gonna ask these three questions again eyes closed heads bowed this is just between you and me so the first question would be this if you happen to be here today and you have never given your life to Christ but today for the very first time you said yes I know I need Jesus if that's you today and you've made a first-time decision with eyes closed and heads about you simply raise your hand high in the air where I can see it and I can acknowledge that are there any first time believers in the room [Music] all right second question if you prayed with me just now and for whatever reason and there are a number of them you would say yes that I need to rededicate my purpose to the relationship did it become number one absolutely in my life if that's your prayer today would you with eyes closed heads bowed raise your hand so I can acknowledge that decision god bless you bless you god bless you thank you god bless you god bless you thank you thank you third question two parts if you hear today and and you're confessing the sin a repetitive sin and you've prayed Lord I mean not only forgiveness but I need to be set free from its bondage if that's your prayer again with eyes closed and heads bowed nobody looking around would you raise your hand so I could acknowledge those decisions god bless you several hands thank you thank you last part of that question if some for some reason something horrible has happened in your life and you've hung on to it you've refused to forgive but today through this message God has laid it on your heart that you need to let it go and that in his streak you can let it go if that's your prayer to that eyes closed heads bowed would you raise your hand for me god bless you bless you god bless you god bless you thank you thank you thank you okay folks look up here while God's working in here today that's for sure I shared with you about going to Chicago for a reason it was a major moment in my life because God simply wanted to know one thing if I was willing to humble myself the beginning of all true repentance is humility and pride and arrogance had controlled my life for 20 years he wanted to know if I'd go forward so I'm gonna challenge you the same way if you prayed today with me and you raised your hand for any reason that I want to challenge you to come forward and stand at the platform today because I want to pray with you again so if you prayed and raised your hand would you please come forward that takes a little courage that's awesome [Music] they're coming for I'll share a story with you pastor shared with me about a young man who stood up in his congregation I said pastor I believe the gospel and but I'm not gonna come up there today and be a hypocrite he said what do you mean he says well I'm a young man I got a lot of living to do there's some things that I want to experience that God won't like basically the pastor said this to me says what you're saying is you're going to deliberately knowingly sin that's called testing God or tempting Christ and there's nothing more dangerous than you can do because you're not guaranteed another opportunity this is a true story and I know several like it this young man left the church got in his car with a convertible with the top down and not more than ten blocks from that church as he crossed an intersection in Phoenix Arizona the car ran the light and jumped the curb went airborne it took his head off too late I always say that in case there's somebody sitting out there and your hearts beating fast and something inside of you say it go that something is the Holy Spirit please don't put off another moment what you know you need right now you may have another no other opportunity so is there anybody else that needs to comfort any reason you say well it's just a small thing small things become big things if we don't address anybody [Music] god bless you god bless you give him a hand that takes courage that's awesome that's awesome well folks god bless all of you for whatever reason you have come forward what I'd like to do now is a body of believers is lift up everybody that's come forward today so would you all stand with me we're gonna we're gonna pray for the for everybody that's come forward today but I'll say this before we pray if you need counseling and private prayer we're gonna be here to do that as well but this is this is a group prayer father God we come once more to the throne of grace and Lord you said that wherever two or more of us would come together in agreement asking anything as pertaining to the will of the Father that you would hear our prayer that you would grant our request so Lord we come today and we lift up these who in obedience to your voice in their life that they have come forward and Lord your word also told us so you know us so intimately that you know I need before we ask that you know every hair on our head so father we just ask that you would work in each life standing of this altar as only you can then you would touch them as only you can that you would heal him as only you can the Lord that you would let them know and understand that unconditionally not only is their sin forgiven but your word says and declares forgotten never to be remembered again as far as the East is from the West the Lord I pray for all of them that you would cross their paths with those who can help them walk this journey for whatever their whatever their reason is Lord that you would bring the help to them than only you can bring and the Lord I pray that it is all of us as a body of believers to leave this church today and I always pray this Lord that you would continue to open our spiritual eyes to see the path you have set before each of us that you would open our ears to hear clearly your voice above the above a dark dying world the Lord that we might truly be the salt and white you've called us each of us to be and once again Lord we thank you for all of this all of the decisions made the day all of the forgiveness today was not one today but 2,000 years ago at the cross all praise honor and glory are yours and yours alone that we give that to you now we thank you again the powerful name of Jesus and all God's people said amen let me men amen

Channel: Campbellsville Baptist Church

Views: 372,528

Keywords: Campbellsville, Baptist, Church, Sermon, Religion, Gospel, Pastor, Ministry, Campbellsville Baptist Church, Christian, Preaching, Ted DiBiase

Id: fE7G4cGTI94

Length: 66min 31sec (3991 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 13 2018