You Just Never Know by Rev. Larry Booker

Oh [Music] [Music] [Music] I'm going to read one verse beginning was one verse but we're going to read in John 4 verse 4 speaking of Jesus and he must needs go through Samaria he had to go there it was it wasn't optional he must go through Samaria let's pray Lord Jesus we are mindful of you we ask in the name above every name you Jesus you are in this house tonight that you would anoint our every single heart our every single soul give us ears to hear what these sayings sing down feet into our ears quick enough hello God use us God in all of our tomorrow's mightily graciously powerful that name is Jesus in the name of Jesus amen amen amen god bless you so very very much you may be seated and to brother I think his brother Franklin after service please don't run off I don't consider myself a historian the history fascinates me and I have missed on 1311 so don't leave until I know what happened in 1311 one other thing before I go forward I've been wanting to look in this drawer all I love drawers like this oh yeah they no telling what's in this is but I know if the lights go out we're covered okay I like I like I like I like this I like drawers like that amen I know because I got a bunch of fruit is like my wife doesn't but I like him well in our text we're from in any familiar chapter of a familiar book thank God and we're finding that Jesus felt obviously in the spirit as surely as he was both led in driven of the spirit after his baptism by John to go into the wilderness that same spirit now is compelling him to go to a different kind of wilderness a region of Israel referred to as Samaria it used to be the name of a city now it was the name of a region that used to hold that city that northern city that capital city of backslidden the divided part of the nation referred to as Israel the southern was Judah and when he informed his disciples that this is what they were doing I guess I wouldn't doubt but what he felt the resistance from them and so for John to write this this I think is more than just him picking up being led of the Spirit and riding but he was there and he possibly felt the resistance even possibly verbal resistance like what are we going there for and and maybe they began to give him history lessons that he thought he had that he they thought perhaps he didn't know about this this place called Samaria that was abhorred by the Jews and it contained Jews but they were also Jews that that had had down through the centuries back from the days when Sennacherib had taken the northern kingdom is captive and some made their way back and he brought in Gentiles and and it had a history that was very checkered very colored and so there was not a great love loss between these areas they ended up going as we shall see to a place called psyche arm and psyche are in the Old Testament actually was very famous City it was not known as sigh car it was known as Shechem and it was there at Shechem which means a place of burdens that Jacob dug well that we shall hear about in just a moment that Joseph had his bones interred there when the children of Israel came out of Egypt but but but the past in the history became very very very checkered again back in about 25 was when Sennacherib did his thing some 25 BC and one of the things he did was when the Lions came out and began to just kill people they were warned that the people there they don't know the god of the land so they brought some some some priests at least somewhat knowledgeable of the things of God back and to teach the people how they should live so that the Lions wouldn't eat them and so the Bible said they feared the Lord but they still served their own gods then long about 333 BC it got even worse when a renegade priest bolted from Jerusalem basically he didn't feel like his political star had rise high enough and so he went to SCI car and started his own religion and said Gerizim is now the place where we need to come and worship so Jesus lets them know I feel over their resistance I must go to Samaria so they come there they go to psych R which no longer means Shechem was no longer Shechem which means place of burdens but it's Sai car and that name means place of drunkenness so I don't know how they came by that name if they came by it honestly then that's because that's what they did and they probably thought you know it's bad enough to have to go through Samaria but have mercy do we have to stop at the armpit and so that's where they stopped they go to Jacob's Well and Jesus is wearied with his journey this is the man Christ Jesus to humanity he sits on the well he apparently lets the disciples know to go their way on up into the city and now they have to begin to deal with these hated Samaritan and typically between the the Jews and the Samaritans was great it was very very very deep very alive very powerful now these disciples have to go and buy meat buy food from them and so all of this is probably abhorrent to them and while they're gone in the city while he's sitting on the well it's about noontime and about that time here comes a woman and to draw water now water was not drawn at noontime traditionally the women of the cities would go to the wells and they would draw waters in the morning enough water to meet the needs of the day then they would come in the evening and draw enough water to meet the needs of the night so noontime was not the time and yet that's when this woman came we can only conjecture why she would come at noontime my guess would be that when the ladies would go in the morning and when they would go in the evening they would of course check on the welfare one another's children ask how their families were doing maybe trade recipes find out every once in a great while I doubt it happened very much but they might have imbibed in a little bit of gossip and things of that nature I know it's hard to wrap our minds around but it's possible and and so we don't know what all they would gossip about but I have a feeling that this woman was probably the subject of many discussions in in in that area of the country and in sakaar particular so she finally decided she'd had enough of the furtive looks and the cold shoulders and the hushed tones and and in the end and all of that and so she said I'm not going when they go I'll go at noontime and I mean I have to come at midnight I'll come at midnight but I've had all of this I need and so she comes at noontime thinking there will be nobody there but there is and it's a man that's there and it's not just a man she can tell possibly by appearance certainly by apparel and most certainly by the blue ribbon at the bottom of his garment that this is a Jew and not just a Jew but this is an observant Jew of mosaic law and what's a guy like that doing here this is sy car this is Samaria and so she knowing he's religious knowing he is a man knowing he's a Hebrew she does not expect any conversation to ensue maybe he's lost or something how he got here god only knows and so she goes about she's setting about to get her water and he asks her he breaks decorum decorum in in those days and that time it was not considered proper for a man to speak to a strange woman and an especially a Jewish man to a Samaritan woman and so he asks for a drink of water and so she she says how is this I want to know how is this that you being a Jew amen our daring basically to ask drink of me which am a woman of Samaria she furthermore points out the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans so she probably thinks that she has stopped whatever he was doing and but he answers her and says basically lady if you knew the gift of God and you had any idea who it was that was talking to you you'd be asking me for a drink and I would be giving you a drink of living water now this is odd she maybe even glanced over into the well that water was anything but alive and and he's not even got a bucket he's and she said she said you don't have anything to draw with and this well is very deep so where are you going to get this living water and by the way does that are you greater than Jacob you want to talk about Jews let's talk about Jacob are you'd read greater than he that gave us the well he drank of this his children and his cattle so Jesus takes the conversation up and he says well you drink of this water and you're going to get thirsty again but you drink of the water that I have to give you and you will never thirst he said whosoever drinketh and the word drink F means it's a progressive progressive word meaning you you you you don't just take one drink you get you get drinks again and again and again and if you get hooked up to the well I'm talking about you will never be thirsty Amen because the water that I'm offering you will be in you a well of water springing up and not just springing up and in quenching thirst but bringing you everlasting life now she didn't go too well expecting any conversation like this whatsoever so she says now sir alright give me this water that I don't thirst and I don't have to come back here anymore he says God I'm glad to do it go get your husband she said well I I don't have a husband and he says basically well you think fast on your feet don't you because actually you have had five husbands and the guy you living with now you're not married to so you said well I have no husband now she did she she's like she she was wishing the ladies were there to gossip about it this this this is not cool and and so and so here she is and she she all of a sudden she wants she wants to discuss other matters so she says hmm okay I perceive that I'm talking to a prophet and so I have a theological question I've been waiting a long time to ask and this is a really good time to change the subject our fathers worshiped here it garry's him in this mountain but you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where people are supposed to worship so dumb and Jesus said woman believe me listen to me woman believe me the hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor at Jerusalem will people be worshiping the Father and to you miss Samaritan you worship you know not what we know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews so it don't matter where you worship you don't even know what you're worshipping salvation is of the Jews apparently Jesus hadn't had the advantage of some of our soul-winning classes of how to approach people and work your way into a conversation so he says that's the bad news but here's the good news the good news is the hour cometh and now is when true worship shall worship the father in spirit and in truth it's not Gerizim it's not jerusalem it's not amen latitude and longitude but there is a meeting point it's the Spirit of God and the truth of God and if you can get in the spirit and get in his truth Amen that is what will constitute being a true worshiper because the father is looking for people to worship Him God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth now we've read this so much we're so familiar with it but we need to stop you need to pull back what if you were that woman what if this had been your world all your life and I don't know how old she was but but she'd had five husbands they might have been short-term a man she's living with a guy that's not her husband she's the object of much discussion she can't even go to the well at the proper times Amen here she's meeting a a Jew and observant Jew he has the temerity to begin talking to her she tries to shut it down he refuses he exposes all about her and now he's talking about true worshipers spirit truth well springing up in people and she didn't expect any of this she just came to get some water and in my mind's eye I see her she takes a step forward and she's looking at him and packed back in her mind can I use the phrase the dominoes are starting to fall she takes another step and she says one of these days and the signs coming and when he comes he's going to tell us everything and Jesus does something that hitherto he had never done any time not to a disciple not to Nicodemus not to anybody not to his mother not to his brother not to the high priest when he was 12 whatever all ground he covered he didn't go here and so I don't know that he took a step forward but I'll guarantee you he looked her straight in the eye and he said he that is talking to you is the one you're looking for I am he can you imagine what's gone this is what they've been waiting to hear since Adam and Eve this is the one that Moses spake up this is and she lets go of her waterpot and she takes off running up the hill well somewhere while this had been going on the disciples had come back with the goods they had got and they are kind of blown away to I mean is that jesus said wetland he's talking to a woman and he just Samaritan Welman and and and they get closer but but but she's not paying attention to them and he's not paying attention to them this is very in-depth conversation and they're and they're watching this I don't know I don't know how close they got I I don't you well you better believe they were interested you better believe they were curious and John he likes you best get close come on get a balloon and I don't know what they caught or didn't catch but all of a sudden she drops the water pot and she takes off running and they're checking all this huh finally somebody says um you want you want something to eat and he says I have meat to eat that you know nothing about my meat is to do the will of him that sent me that's how I subsist that's how I go grow and become this is why I had to come to Samaria is to do the will of my father and so they're like what's he talking about I don't know said give me some bread and and so meanwhile this lady is running and she goes up into the city now the women are probably needing bread maybe they're even working in the fields God knows what those poor women were to Manor sitting under the shade tree playing checkers and and so they come she comes running into this nut she didn't she didn't come strolling chinzy sir sir hold the move hold the moon there's I want to give you an invitation to church here she didn't say there's a really interesting speaker down there - well you might might enjoy that you ought to go sometimes he ever get a chance he's really interesting he may be there if you hurry Davis said Yeah right get out of here go back to number four or three or whoever you with now that's not what she did this woman's soul all of the buckets had been kicked over amen all of the furniture had been thrown upside down she's her mind is blown her spirit is blown her heart is blow and she's running into that city and Jesus hey I just found the Messiah do you look at me do I said I found them Assad he's down there by the well if you got a brain left in your head and you're gonna get up and you're gonna go down to the well I tell besides he told me everything I'd ever thought he saw that you better get that is there you have it now I don't know what exactly she said but you better believe she was excited about I found something you been looking for a long time do you hear me and she was so into it that it's hard to brush that off he's like because I her fifth husband her six boyfriend must have drove her nuts she said doctor said that you did that eyes that it's a messiah any SS or whatever they spell it in German and so finally somebody says we'll finish this game later and someone else others are getting up there she said I'm going anyway another party care by level and so meanwhile back at the well the boys are there and they're there eating a brand new tummy and I'll suddenly hear commotion Jesus has been leaning on the well watching watching waiting knowing and all of a sudden here's a wild lady running down the hill and behind her a bunch of man that are trying to act cool but they keep it and she was hurry on your head hurry up and they get in there and she goes from one foot to the other she'll serious hit you thank God ask him Baba come on ask him something mr. know-it-all and also the anomaly Jesus is raised from the well looking at men over here is Peter and John and the Apostles in there watching all this and they don't know what to make about this is this is like weird and and and and so somebody asks a question and Jesus gives them quite an answer whoa and he asked them a question whoa and somebody else speaks up and and he answers that and follows up with another question of his own if he held through his standard fare and it's like it and so after a while this is going back and forth and the disciples are watching this and any and that and the verbage and they're getting close in this conversation they're right there these are Samaritans that's their that's that's that's their that's their master Ying go touch him and and and listening to all of this and now the men are beginning to step back and the woman she's going from one foot to the other told you come on mr. smarty britches ask him something else and finally they said we have come the Messiah we believe it you him and they looked at that one said we don't believe because of you did you mark that down you got nothing to do with this but it's because we've heard him ourselves now this is new to them to the Apostles he's never told him this yet and it and in my mind's eye and I'm about to start preaching and my mind's eye I can see Simon Peter he hears this he sees as he sees the woman you got to understand these people are of the wrong theology these people are of the wrong nationality this woman is of the wrong gender we don't discuss theology with women furthermore she's of the wrong morality especially women like you she had nothing going for her gender morality wrong nationality wrong theology she was living in Samaria the wrong geography there was not but Jesus must go through Samaria and of all peoples on the face of Israel he wasn't in the temple he was in Samaria with a lowly wretched woman and he said something to her he'd never said to anybody else to wit I'm the Messiah you're looking for and now these men are proclaiming he's the Messiah and here's the Apostles with the bread crumbs fallen from the fingers then and Simon elbows John and says John you just never know you you just never know you may think you know you may think you know who is going to accept this you may think you know who's going to reject this you may think you know who's open to this truth and you may think you know who's going to be a rejecter but I'm here to tell everybody listen to me you just never know we have no idea we have no idea who is going to accept this and who is going to reject this we may think we've got it down but Simon Peter and them boys they walked away from there hey hey hey hey this is a different world this this is a different world amen I'm gonna everybody look around look look to your left look to your right look at your neighbors I want everybody take a good look at all your neighbors okay there's a reason for this I'm gonna read your scripture all right first Corinthians 1:26 for you have just seen your calling brethren you see your calling brethren and all don't get upset how that not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called but God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise God have chosen to weak things of this world to confound the things which are mighty that little Samaritan woman confounded her City and it confounded the Apostles but he delights in choosing things like that he chooses the base things of this world and the things which are despised hath God chosen yea and things that are nothing to bring to nothing things that are and why does he do it so that no flesh should glory in his presence it's just the way he does it it's just a way that when it comes to who's gonna be saved and who's not you just never know you don't know a [Applause] very great evangelist he's right now starting a a fact of Stephanies names every Prato me you know every product Audra Prado is a brilliant man his father was a Berkeley professor his mother became a professor at a major university his father now works in the United Nations they they are brilliant brilliant brilliant people and he would have none of it by the time he was a teenager he was a tattoo artist he was a druggie he was he was messed up he was he was involved with gangs and his parents were utterly brilliant but he wouldn't none of it longed for God saved re Prado and now he's got the intellect but he's diving into the Bible because he knows that's where it's at I don't know how many people receive the Holy Ghost in our church from Brother prophet comes and is exist but he told us one time he said I used to struggle with people receiving the Holy Ghost and he said you know I'd lay hands on a lot of people but it wasn't like a lot of people were getting at him and he said this troubled me greatly tremendously it troubled me and he said I went to God and I started praying and I started fast and I said god I just I just I just want to know I want to know now why are not more people receiving the Holy Ghost when I lay hands on some of them are crying and some of them are praying it I want to know God why and he kept praying for a couple of weeks and finally he said one day God spoke to him and said because you don't expect them to he said god I want them to I would he said no and he began to deal with him that until you believe listen to me that I can fill anybody with the Holy Ghost you're going to be throttled you have to come to the place you believe God can fill anybody God can save anybody and he said when I took that to prayer and I he can save anybody he can fill anybody he said business picked up business business picked up hallelujah Almighty it is just when it comes to this stuff you just never know you just never know amen he chooses things that are not to bring to nothing things that are or think they are this is why in Acts chapter 9 there was a certain disciple of Damascus by the name of Ananias and he has he has a vision I don't know where he was when he had the vision I don't know how it happened he might have been eating his breakfast but he may have been praying I can see him going through a prayer room set aside and and loving God and pray using and he loves Jesus he's got this revelation and an instant maybe he's singing Jesus use me please Lord don't refuse me he's 11 surely there's a word that I can do even though it's humble oh lord help my will to crumble the Ananias ooh yay Lord I want to use you yay Lord there's a street go straight go there there's a man praying yay Lord I want to lay hands on him I'm gonna fill him with the spirit Gary Lord his name is Saul Saul whoo Saul of Tarsus Tarsus salt yes Jesus use me please Lord don't refuse me surely there's some other work that I can do so Anna nice he's a chosen vessel I don't know if you really understand lord I thought you were omniscient this guy has come to our city with letters of intent under his arms from the high priest he's here to get people like me thrown in jail in prison he's out compelling people to blaspheme and putting them to death de8 or however you spell in Aramaic and-and-and-and you got it yes and he's a chosen vessel go lay hands on him get him this message he's going to stand the four kings in person he's going to find out how much he has to suffer for my name now that is not who he thought Jesus would fix send me to a peasant send me the sidecar send me to send me to a messed up woman but don't send me to him he said it a fee the Camellia this is a Hebrew the Hebrews he's probably a member of the Sanhedrin this guy knows too much this is this is this is a high doctrine of the Arnold theology he now knows apostolic Scott you don't know who he's going to save I'm telling you you just never know you may think you know you may got it guess but I'm here to tell you we never know we don't know what's turning down on the inside we don't know what's happening this is why in Ecclesiastes 11 begin reading at verse 1 it upon the water pass your bread upon the waters that's plural the white-eyes for thou shalt find it after many days gonna come back after many days cats out there yes give a portion to seven leave a portion to seven and also they give it to eight for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth we talked about this we don't know what he was going to be upon the earth we don't know what tomorrow holds cast that Bread out there maybe right now today they don't think they need it who knows what they're going to be thinking I'm all right who knows can I just tell you something in California California it's a trip it's a trip when 9/11 hit our church grew 25% we have people stopping us I people say are you a preacher yes is this the end of the world and I said it could be and it could be and it could be the end of their world and it could have got run over by car the next day and at the end of the world and I say it could be it's a good time to get to know who Jesus is give a portion to 7 into 8 you don't know what evil is coming upon the world read if the clouds be full of rain if the clouds are full of rain they empty themselves upon the earth they empty themselves upon the earth if the tree fall toward the south the tree falls to the sour toward the north or the north in the place where the tree falleth in the place where that tree falls they were not cranes in those days where it falls it falls there it will be that's where it's going to be he that observe earth the wind shall not so well I'd so today but you know the wind's blowing listen you just never know let maybe the wind will carry some of that seed and take it where God wants it to go read either regard to the clouds shall not read and he that LAN is just too cloudy today won't be reaping read as thou knowest not what is the way of the Spirit you don't know I don't know none of us know the way of the Spirit we don't know what he's doing we don't know where he's moving we don't know who he's talking to we don't know who had a dreamless we don't know right we don't know what's going on like the lady Angie that's in our church now she used to walking from the church where the kids go on a walk every day and as she was walking by the church one day she heard Angie and she turned she said the voice was coming from inside the building she could feel it coming out Angie and the third time Angie was she went to the next service she and all her kids got the Holy Ghost that service right we don't know you hear me we don't know you just you just never know what God's doing just like the couple that that three months ago walk in and when he walked in he grabbed his eye by his arm and he sat down and talked to my son Joel who's not a pastor and he said I had a dream about two months ago I saw this building when I walked in i grabbed my wife we sat down and he said this is what we've been looking for they got the Holy Ghost now that baptized in Jesus name I'm not bragging I'm just but I'm telling you we don't know what God's doing we don't know who God's dealing with we don't we may think we know but I'm here to tell you you Jeff you don't know what God's doing where he's doing it right we know not the way of the Spirit nor how the bones do grow in the womb we don't even know how the bones grow in the womb of her that is with child even so thou knowest not the works we are the works of God who make us all yes in the morning Salani sow thy seed and in the evening with whole night don't withhold your hand for thou knowest not whether shall bone just never know whether this will prosper yes or that or that's going to progress are they both or whether everything's going to prosper you just never know it just you just never know that's what I mean telling we can't we don't know it could be like and I heard Nathaniel ershon say this the elder he had a milkman those days there was milk men and he said they had a milkman he had the same milkman for eighteen years one day and he'd talked a lot through the years and he was going out the door Nisei why don't you come and visit our church sometime you'd love it and the man said his milk cartons he said Reverend I've been waiting for you to ask me for 18 years we just never know you know here several years ago my mom and I my brother in his wife we were sitting in the Chinese restaurant in Pueblo Colorado where I was raised where I graduated from high school I graduated with a d-minus average I made the top 99% of our class possible I graduated with 1/2 1/2 credit to my good and for my ninth grade year till a year after I graduated we ruined over 70 flights on to my fistfights gang fights I can't give you the I can't give you the Apostle Paul five times those I've eaten with but I can tell you about how stupidly were my ninth grade year till yeah after I graduated except for one six-week period of time I was drunk or stoned every day for kicks we got in the prairies and shoot tin cans off each other's heads and cigarettes out of each other's mouths with 22 pistols and rifles we'd ride on the hoods of cars going down curvy dirt roads in speeds and excess sometimes of 100 miles an hour just you had the most guts or the best grip that was our world that was our world that was and so we're sitting in this Chinese restaurant I'm pastoring in Rialto God's being good to me my brother says Larry there is a woman back over your left shoulder about four tables back and she keeps turning around almost completely in her chair staring at the back of your head I said really so I you know like dropped a napkin and I look and she stared and she looked vaguely familiar but I couldn't pull it up and Bernice when she's standing there she said are you Larry Booker I said yes she said you don't know who I am do you I said I know I'm supposed to and you look familiar and her first name is Judy and I went I said Judy how you don't you Asst I want to know something are you a preacher I said yes I am she said I heard that she stood back up she looked at my brother in his wife and my mom and said you do know he was not voted the most likely to be religious in our in our school and they said oh we know I watched my mother's hair turned gray from a ninth grade year to my senior year because she'd stay up to two or three in the morning many a morning waiting to hear my name called on the police radio which she heard quite often as on probation from the Thomas 14 till I was 21 and I was I was not but there are some things that other people didn't know about Larry Booker they didn't know the dreams God would give me the dreams of being in my aunt Ida's house and all the windows sealed closed walls vaulted walled up in the inn and water beginning to come into the room and and get to my chest and now I'm treading water and I'm treading water lest I drown and I'm getting closer and closer to the ceiling and and they didn't know the dreams and that happened more than once where we're now scorpions began to come from every direction towards and then my lip is up against the ceiling and the scorpions are starting to crawl on my face and I'm terrified and I went up in a cold sweat to hear a voice out of the darkness say Larry you are drowning in your sin because God was dealing with larry booker and nobody knew that and i wasn't sure what was happening and they and they didn't they didn't know that big bad tough larry booker would sometimes get when i was alone in my house i would kneel down this happened three or four times and and i would kneel down i put my head between my knees and i met I meant what I said was everything in me and I didn't know about salvation I didn't know about mercy II didn't know about the blood I knew nothing and I just I thought if you did more good than bad you had a chance and so and so I would put my head between my knees and I would say I would say God yeah and I was as serious as I could be a minute and I was terrified I said God if I'm going to end up doing more bad more evil than God men just kill me right now I would freeze I thought the Lightning would go and when it didn't I'd get up and say maybe there's hope for me but they didn't know that at school they didn't my probation officer didn't know that they didn't know what was going on down inside larry booker they didn't know about again being out of my Aunt Ida's and in heaven who dream there was a pond where we always fished in I voted and this this pond all of a sudden I saw the clouds form a magnificent Palace it was a sunset clouds glimmering shimmering beautiful gorgeous and I knew I knew it represented heaven and then in the distance I begin to see dark dark ugly building clouds and as they are rolling in these clouds begin to dissipate in these classes black dark clouds form a hideous foreboding ominous castle with bars and I knew that represented hell and I was going and I'd wake up in cold sweat but people didn't know that life-of-the-party laugh and giggle carry on but you just never know you don't know who God's dealing with you don't know what's happening so I'm I'm not I'm cutting through this so much but I'm I'm living in Denver Colorado now every morning before I go to work I go to a large Basilica on Colfax Avenue and I go there every morning I'd like candles I'd even pay for the candles I'd say I give a dime for candle I said god I don't know what these candles are doing that let him do something for me I'd go there every night I would kneel I would pray I didn't know what spread in how to pray I go to work I go home we party we get drunk one night all my buddies were there and I said hey guys what let's study the Bible do what yeah yeah come on it and so we got died by him yesterday we started at Genesis and we started reading and we were all expounding our views and but we found our pot line we shut the Bible it was Eve's fault and we figured it out and I drink some more and go pass out but if I could before I get in Ben I pray when I get up I pray I go to the Basilica I pray and I go to work I get off work and I come home I would pray and then I get drunk and get Hines you think that's that's wretched who how could be all I know is his mercy endureth forever that's all I know I don't know what to say but and then from the Animus Thanksgiving in 1971 and I graduated in May and as Thanksgiving and I'm back down in Pueblo and and anyway I mean I've got a Spitfire triumph sports car and I'm I wanted to go down to the Arkansas River it's 5:00 in the morning I wanted to see the Sun come up and think about God it's the truth I was so loaded and stoned and I started going through the city park and I'm putting the pedal to the metal and I'm going faster and faster and now I'm going as fast as that car can go even as I'm speaking I can feel this I remember coming to a curve and feeling the car lift the next thing I knew I was over 60 feet away and another part of the road having come to the trees roads but the car was on its top fiberglass top shattered but not broke out the windows all bent up in shattered but not holes in them the tires are bent it was like a pancake I'm standing outside the deathtrap my knee is bruised my thumb is cut and I'm fine I'm standing there looking and I look up and in the distance I see a police car coming and then I remember it's the only thing I remember I had just talked to somebody that knew everything I'd ever done and I knew I'd been spared that's all I knew and I knew I was on probation and I know my probation was revoked and I knew I was going to jail in prison and they set me in the police car they knew me by first name my phone had been tapped for years when we were 17 and 18 we would we would go up to Boulder Colorado by a thousand lots of LSD for nineteen cents a hit sometimes 25 cents a head we'd buy and buy thousand lots we turn into a friend of ours in Vietnam he would in turn sell them for $5 a hit then he would buy uncut heroin and he would he would put it in a truck disk and track the old eight-track player he'd put it in in records and anyway he'd send it back then we would cut it down 17 and 18 years old and we're dealing with this and so and so I knew I just talked to somebody and they tapped my phone they watched me they follow me when they could and so they knew I knew I was toast they put me in the car but I was sobbing not because I was going to prison I was sobbing because I knew I've been spared and I should be in hell but God had spared me and I'm crying because I knew served hell please get in the car the tow truck have calmly all the way the car I've got one thing left of that car my brother told me Larry I found something one thing left of your car the front triumph emblem and he embossed it in wood and next time I go to Pueblo he's giving it to me so I'm sitting in the car sobbing and the police get in Pablo police are not known for being sweethearts and he said where you want to go Larry what where do you want to go I should have went to jail not past gonna get $200 and there was no dick get out a free card I said really where do you want to go I said take me to my cousin Betty's she's a lab randome this mile away and I knew God had spared me that night I was getting stoned that night I was confront but there was something haunting me I went back up to Denver I I had to borrow a car from an old buddy and and I'm still trying to go to work but um finally I told my friends I said I'm done I said New Year's Eve I'm turning over a new leaf yeah yeah right everybody does I gotta I said no I mean it New Year's Eve came massive party in her house on Pearl Street midnight came everybody screaming I put out the marijuana I put out the cigarette I put down the booze I went downstairs I got on my water bed and I started calling on God saying if there's any way you can forgive me I'm so sorry I'm so Richard and crying and praying I don't know how long I was but oh I didn't I didn't have and it was supposed to happen but I started feeling good and it's feeling better [Music] I didn't know what people did I just really good I said Oh glory yes all right fella yeah well it's going up the vents and the party's upstairs it's starting to wind down in there and glory hallelujah and they're there look at her Stan and finally they start stomping it's only hey are you all right I heard him yeah yeah I get up the next morning and they're squinty eyes and I've got nice little duffel bag I'm loading it up I left a lot of stuff were they - they said where you going I said I'm going to Pueblo it was the first of the month I had to go see my probation officer ever first of and I said I'm going to put a little and I said then he they let me move to Denver I said the most safe to let me I'm gonna go to one or three places I'm going to I'm going to Guadalajara Mexico and I'm gonna write my life story or I'm going to the mountains in rent a cabin you rented for ten bucks a week snow no running water no lights no electricity and I'm gonna write my life story or I'm going to go to college and learn how to write but the d-minus average you need all the help you can get so I went to go see my probation officer I'm closer to being done than you think and I went to my probation officer and he looks at me like he'd been looking at me since I was 14 he said Larry how would you like to go to college what there's a man in this town that will pay your way to college he'll give you board credit card all your food you'll fix it it is only good at the college and you pay your way all you have to do is go to college I said you're kidding he said I'm not I had no idea who it was later I found out there was a girl I used to go out with it was her father he was a doctor the most well-known doctor in Pueblo most well-known doctor and he very very very wealthy hub he had some most expensive real estate in the world up in Vail now the kids have inherited it but anyway is a good name and he was putting my way through college and I didn't know it was him and and so there I was and and I and I wasn't drinking I I went to I had a Bible sin sighs I got it and when I was eight years old 1960 and so now I went down to a st. Vincent DePaul store and I got ahold old old Bible because I thought the older they were no more crumbly they were the more holy they were so I got a holy holy holy bible and and at the same place I got a little cross that glowed in the dark and and I had it around my neck and I had my holy holy holy bible and I'd read the book of Palms in Genesis and Shaggy and and I'm not read all this and I didn't know what I was reading but his read me I didn't understand nothing but I'm reading it and then one day I start reading in this thing called ax I mean that this Holy Ghost Holy Ghost polios Holy Ghost what's this Holy Ghost I had a buddy man his name is Eddie he was weird I talked about in the other day we called him special ed and I call said hey Eddie Eddie but anyway he was kind of religious is use a STONER but he was religious and I said Harry yeah man his grandpa was wrestlin preacher that made him special I said well kind of more special usual I said you know anything about this holy ghost in the book of Acts oh yeah man it's awesome I said you know about the whole it goes yeah man it's cool I said if you got the Holy Ghost yeah man I said how do you know you got he's not your God man longer he talked us Eddie have you been drinking I'm out of you I thought well I feel good when I take a shower that'll mean I got the Holy Ghost sorry I kept steady and I kept reading I kept saying God honking what this is but I wanted I wouldn't I wasn't I wasn't running with my buddies I wasn't drinking I wasn't smoking I wasn't anything I'll even throw this out there one night I was watching TV which was easy to do because my parents had three in the front room and one in every other room in the house even had one on a truck before that was cool and I was watching the wild wild west and this guy James Westby the guys hit on Hitchin posted to him in the watering trough and when he did I got convicted I said James that was not Christian I turned the channel that was not Christian mature that's really not Christian that I didn't have a preacher I didn't have a church to admit I shut it off and I never turned it on so one night I'm praying I'm praying and all of a sudden I'm feeling sup look I'm feeling something stronger whoo-hoo and I'm praying Oh God and all this up my mouth and I got scared like I don't know what this is weird and so I I got in a bed and I got my holy holy battle on my chest I got the cross and I pulled up the guy said Jesus I don't know what you're doing we have to do this some other time and I was serious we do this some other time and so I would I was doing that and I was going to college and and I was I took I took to poetry classes I took a psychology class I took piano and to creative writing because I want to be a writer and and and so I'm doing all this and and and so one day I'm going to have to catch the bus because I'd have to go down to the downtown and then wait 20 minutes catch another bus and so during my 20-minute wait I'm down in the basement of the downtown campus and watch these guys play foosball and a guy about this tall comes he stands at the far hand and he said I want you all to know that Jesus Christ is soon to come will they miss their shots you know and he stalks them a little more than always listening so when he leaves I thought I'd like to talk to that man and I heard I couldn't heard it clear if I had a phone to each year go to the restroom you'll meet him there so I make my way to the restroom big large campus restroom full the arms I lean against the wall three seconds time the war the door opens up him that guy walks I said hey I appreciate what you had to say out there I said I mean I'm a Christian myself and I wanted to say somebody he said comes up said have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed this is the holy yes I've been wondering have you spoke with other cops what other languages I said I took Spanish in the seventh grade he said nah man no as the spirit gives the utterance I don't you know I'm done it's under what then were you baptized as I ain't never been done you need to be baptized in Jesus name do you need repent be baptized in Jesus name for the remission of your sins well I looked up and I saw the clock and I was glad and that's time to go and he gave me a piece of paper and I and his buddies was there they coming about that time they were all peppering me but but I had to go catch the bus and so I caught the bus and I went home that night I called those people and they picked me up I'm cutting to the chase here I go and they were having church in the garage i sat in the back and I had two back pockets full of poems I was ready for him and some of them were religious poems and so I was sitting back there and you know I've been going off and on to different churches all my life from you you name the denomination I'd end up going there sometimes and I was ready for him I never understood one thing I ever heard preached at any church ever went to literally I never did understand one thing they were saying and they were speaking English not Aramaic well this guy got up to preach and I knew exactly what he was saying and I knew who he was talking to and he made no bones about it and so service was over and I didn't go to the altar thank you because I was a Christian and so they said let's go over to the house have some fellowship I didn't know what fellowship was I had no idea what fellowship was I went over there and they gave me some training can there was a some bread it was like banana nut bread no bananas no nuts and this and it was so dry I thought that was fellowship and this guy that came up he the first guy said hey now what do you think what do you think he's a he was talking about church I thought he's I'm at the fellowship just really pretty dry like where do you go to church ma'am so that long story short it was gotten way past 1:00 2:00 in the morning and everybody like wore out the Saints and it hands me a Bible and here we go on baptism Holy Ghost is and it was wrong a little brother his name was Wiley I found out and I just read enough Bible I could be dangerous and I had so many in it and so finally his face began to glow literally I didn't know what the Shekinah was but I do now it was the Shekinah but I didn't know what that was but I I said but what happens if and that's as far as I get he give me the answer for I could get the question out I say but what it and he give me the answer before I could finish it and then about five statements he had been me to the wall I went back into the garage I knelt down and I prayed and here was my deal I did not want to believe that acts 2:38 was the way to be saved and I put my head again between my knees and I said Jesus gotta be some other way and I lift up my head in there in glitter on a three by five glitter then Peter said unto them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ with it and I bury my head and finally I got up and I and I said Wiley I'll see you later I need to go home so he was starting the car and I pulled the cross from my neck and I threw it in the trash and I went home when the next day I called my buddies and I went back to drinkin and druggin and it was seven times worse musicians come and uh Larry Booker was back in the field he was back to drinking him back to drugging back to fighting back to rattle around and what people didn't know is that when big bad Larry Booker would go home he would sob by his bed every night like a wounded animal my mom told me years later she said Larry we would hear you down there groaning and I'd say to your dad go talk to Larry he said I don't know what to tell him we'd hear you groan and moan I was so wretched and then I'd get up the next day and I before I get to college I'd be stoned my world was in kid my world was a wreck cutting through to the chase ice one promise I had never broke in my life I made to God in the ninth grade and I broke every promise I made a night that I freaked out I said I will never shoot up anything in my arms and finally one night I was back in Denver now old buddy that was back from Vietnam everybody was around the house stoned out of their mind he shot up everybody but one and I made him shoot me up I said Joe I'm telling you loaded up you hear me and he said I've waited a long time to do this Larry and I didn't feel nothing nothing I slapped him awake I said do it again I said do it again and after shaking him like a rag doll and he was sobbing he filled it up and did it again and he cried because he killed a friend in Vietnam doing the same thing and I felt nothing after a while people rousted about we drove back to Pueblo and I got by my bed I said Jesus yes you will get me I'll do anything in the world for you anything in the world please get me out and six hundred and fifty miles away one of my old running buddies Larry he went to a little church on the wrong side of the tracks he got baptized he deceived the Holy Ghost and he was praying for me that night and while I was saying God I'll do anything the Lord spoke to Larry ins that arise go get Larry he's ready now and he drove all night long pick me up I blew it again before I got out of town I sent it back to Pueblo listen to me folks you just never know you may think you know but you don't know who and you don't know how far he's going and it was Easter Sunday 1972 I was smoking a cigarette my buddy's asleep in the car taking me back to webelo I mean I could Bartlesville Oklahoma and I thought God you cannot save me there's one in the morning we're driving and I heard his gentle voice give me a chance and I put out the cigarette we got in about five I went we went to church that night and my hair was down to here my pens were conglomeration of patches I had no shoes on my pastor thinks I had sandals he knows I didn't have socks at a pond you know glasses I went to the altar I sobbed I wept i wailed for an hour and a half people that were there said we've never heard anybody go after like you and this man that would become my pastors he said son how do you feel I said I don't know he said maybe you think maybe you haven't forgiven yourself maybe God has forgiven you I said I don't know and I began to pray and this time I felt something lift he took me out to a cow pond they baptized me it's early April April 2nd he was cold water they baptized me in Jesus name when I came out of that water I felt what I felt in my bedroom but I remembered how rotten I was so I didn't get the Holy Ghost let's stand and that was on Easter Sunday night with five nights later I went to an alternate fellowship meeting and that night God fill me with the Holy Ghost and His mercies in turn forever and brothers and sisters please listen to me you just never know it may be the town drunkard may be in the town hair but they're out there you hear me they're out there it may be a backslider that you think is hopeless [Music] we had a man just pray through a year ago he was back stood for 41 years everybody had despaired but today's living for Jesus is there anybody that would like to be used of the Lord they would like to praise that God gave me grace I want to give a portion to seven I want to give a portion to eat I'm gonna cast some bread on the water I'm going to make some calls I want to I want to advise people I want to knock some doors I want to be sensitive in the line when I'm buying groceries God when I Drive by somebody if you tug on my heart help me because I know they're there I now they are there and he's hungry and he loves this church and he loves this area not just a city he loves this area and he has revival for this church for this people for everybody under the sound of my voice he's got revived if you'd like to be used of God and say God let me lift up my eyes and look on the field because white already it's ready the harvest this altars open come on down sir come on down ma'am and if you here tonight and you don't have the Holy Ghost my friend thanks for you he loves you and he's here to give you the Holy One I want you to use me I want you to put it in my heart God how God I want to call I want to pray I want to talk to people I want to do it God I want to see you move and you will come on sir come on ma'am he's here to help us because He loves us because he loves her because he loves Jesus Jesus God I want to be good to people help me to be good to people help me God help me God oh Jesus I want to go about doing good I want to use my trials and troubles to help other people I want to give a portion to seven and eight God you want to work in this area use us use that in Jesus name she did help us he is here too [Music] [Music] [Music] you below take all of me so the world can see it is inside my heart take my hand take my feet Oh [Music] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: The Faith Once Delivered To The Saints

Views: 3,193

Rating: 4.8125 out of 5

Keywords: Satan (Deity), Christianity (Religion), Monotheism (Religion), Oneness Pentecostalism (Religion), Pentecostalism (Religion), God (Deity), Jesus Christ (Deity), Holy Ghost (Deity), Holy Spirit (Deity), Religion (TV Genre), Religion (Literary Genre), The Bible (Religious Text), New Testament (Religious Text), Old Testament (Religious Text), End Times (Idea), believers baptism (religious practice)

Id: _qL-OX05tR8

Length: 83min 29sec (5009 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 09 2017