The transformative power of serving Jesus Christ, stating that the longer one serves Him, the sweeter the experience becomes. It highlights how a deep love for God leads to a profound sense of peace and fulfillment, contrasting this with a life of brokenness before finding Christ. The message draws on the analogy of navigating complex highways to illustrate the different paths to heaven, advocating for the "overpass" of Christ's return over the "underpass" of death. It concludes by stressing the importance of being "born again" through faith in Jesus, particularly referencing John 3:16 as the core message of salvation and eternal life.
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Thank you. Since I started for the kingdom, since my life became strong, since I gave my heart to Jesus the longer I served him, since we may be proud. every thing is of my need when your praise be gone every day my way is Christ, the longer I serve him, the
sweeter he grows. The longer I serve him, the sweeter he grows. The more that I love him, the more love he grows. These days I shall burn my heart Over plough, the longer I serve him, the sweeter he crowns. The longer I serve him, the sweeter he crowns, the more that I love him for love. I believe you know that He made my heaven, my heart, my hope is close.
The longer I've been, the longer I've been, the longer I've been, the deeper I've been. I will serve me because I love me You have given me to me before you found me you have given life to me are they broken pieces ruined lives are why you die time shall Your touch was what I longed for.
You have given my to me. Okay, we'd like to all try that song together. It's easy, it's too simple. And we've got the words right now here on a card. So here comes Don Wobbley and he's going to hold the card for us. Let's all try it together. We'll do it twice in a row. In case you don't get in with it the first time, by the time we're through with it, you'll know. I will serve you because I love you.
You have given life to me. I was nothing before you found me. You have given life to me. Are we broke and beaten, True as lives are one you died on top? The joy that I was what I longed for. You have given mine to me.
I will serve thee because I love thee. You have given me. life to me. I was nothing before you found me, you have given life to me. Our way, road and treatment, Blue and white are why you died on Calvary.
Your last but where I was born, you have given life to me. Well, we want to say just a couple of words of welcome to all you nice people who have come tonight. We might just say a few words in the way of introduction. And first of all, we don't feel qualified to come here and entertain you because we just hate that good. But what we have come for is to share the message of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we enjoy music. I think that's probably obvious. And we do the best we can.
Mainly, our desire is to let the Lord Jesus Christ be known. And many people can get a great deal from the message in song. And also the spoken word and the testimonies that we'll be giving along as we go through the program tonight. Now, if there's any of you who don't know us or never have met any of us before. maybe just this wee introduction. To my left is my son Merlin and then it's Lavon and Gloria. Those are the three that my wife and I have had great joy in and my wife is the most important of the whole association, our family association.
She's the chief critic. Now we want everybody to relax. This is not going to be a stiff formal service. We're going to be able to smile tonight. Nice to see some smiles on your face already. Smile, Cal. We want you to enjoy yourself here tonight. We don't want to make the message light. We want the message to have its full weight, but nevertheless, many of us, maybe all of us, I don't know, maybe half of us, but there's a lot of us here tonight who are Christians. And you know Christians have a right to be happy, don't they? They never have any excuse for being light, but Christians do have a right to be happy.
Why not? We're going to heaven. And you know, one of the nice things about being a Christian is to not only think you're going to heaven, but to know that we are going to heaven. And I certainly rejoice in the fact that we can know, the Bible says we can know that we have eternal light. Those of us who will be participating in these meetings, Do know that we are saved and going to heaven. Just a couple of days ago, I celebrated my thirty-fifth anniversary. Thirty-five years ago, on the ninth of May, I trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior. That took place in an upstairs bedroom of a farm home in Jasper County, a few miles from here.
I know the spot. I know the time. And I can remember the occasion. Now the only reason I happen to remember the time is because I wrote it in the fly leaf of my Bible. If I had forgotten the date, it wouldn't have anything to do with my salvation, would it? My salvation would be just as good, but I was there when it happened. So I thank God for that wonderful night many, many years ago when I trusted the Lord Jesus. And all three of these young people have done likewise. Well, we're going to continue on with whatever comes up on the program tonight. You did real well in singing. We'll give you another chance at that just a little bit later on. But let's get on with the next number this evening. After we have spent a little time singing and doing a little playing here, then we're going also to have a message by Brother Don Wellborn tonight.
He'll be coming up a little bit later on this evening. So we hope that you enjoy it. We hope you realize that we're here because we're sincere and we're here because we want to share the message of the Lord Jesus with you in this way. In love is like a golden river, a clear and coolly tree.
Loving on and come and give me, it's all ever sweet. In love is like an eighth rose tower with a steady beat. Raising drops of joy and give me, it's all ever sweet. And they did not ever sleep, did not ever sleep, but it was like an April shower, did not ever sleep. Because it will be, it will be, it will be.
It will be, it will be, it will be, it will be, it will be, it will be, it will be, it will be, it's like a wind that will spread. And all, never sweet, while his love is bright A rose and river and his love is bright An April of the hour and his love is bright A witness with breath And his love is bright And all, never sweet Next we'll call Bethlehem Galilee and Gethsemane I'd like for you to read or listen to the words of this verse Death and hand, he was born dead.
I believe, I believe. Galilee, he walks there. I believe, I believe. Gethsemane, my Savior, Savior. Come your glory. He died at home. Sons are good, heal us better. I believe, I believe.
Now He lives and reigns forever. I believe, I believe. Thank you. I think it would be nice if everybody would sing.
How about number four in your book? No, I think I'm not sure. Number four. There'll be a few more songs by the trio, but we'll give them a little rest and see how you do. Everybody get right in on the second verse and sing now. Let's really let her go. Let's relax and get those vocal cords vibrating a little. Verse two.
Blessed be the name of the Lord. Bless to be the name of the Lord. Bless to be the name of the Lord. Bless to be the name. Bless to be the name of the Lord. Bless to be the name. Bless to be the name of the Lord. Reaching that Savior and the Son, one true and by the Father, thou wilt give us our way and stand, for thou canst die for all.
Blessed be the name, blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord. is the council of the mighty prince of the sea, of all the kingdom conquerors, who we shall never be.
Blessed be the king, blessed be the king, Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Perhaps you would stay standing and will have a word of prayer. And I'm going to ask Brother Alden, a soul with us tonight, if you would lead us in the word of prayer, please. Our Father, we thank you tonight for indeed the spread that we have of singing these choruses. together in these hymns, these hymns that speak of the Lord Jesus and his value and his worth. We thank you, O God, that it is a privilege that every Christian enjoy being able to tell forth the story, whether in song or in word.
We thank you, O God, for the goodly number that has been saved, and yet we pray tonight for those who may be here and have never yet taken Christ as their Savior, that they will see or hear something tonight that will speak of the Savior and to have an attraction to them that they might indeed receive Christ for their very own. We ask that blessing upon us as we continue now in thy presence in the Savior's worthy name. Amen. Okay, you may be seated. Now we'll take the next couple of minutes to take care of a little business here. And first of all, Bruce, on that rack back there there is some sheets of paper there's I think two stacks would you bring yeah right bring them to me both of them both stacks now tomorrow evening in the will of the Lord there'll be another meeting here same time Same place, same station, but a different program.
Same message, however. Thank you, Bruce. And we want you all to come back and just think if everybody said, well, those folks are really sincere. They really want to get the message out and they really want to share the Lord Jesus Christ with other people. That's what we really want to do. If you just invited some of your friends to come, you might be able to get them to come to something like this, whereas if you said, well, we're going over to a church service tonight, then about immediately the bottom jaw hangs and who wants to go to church on Saturday night and all that kind of thing. Well, you just use a little different technique if you'd like to have your friends come and get in on a message of salvation and enjoy something along the way.
You just tell your friends and your neighbors and your folks what we're doing here. We've got a little bit of extra equipment that's rather unusual, perhaps, and at least we're here to share this message in song. And you invite your folks to come along tomorrow evening, Saturday night, eight o'clock. And the meeting will be over all we will sure be through by midnight or shortly before. I would say probably at least three hours. So if you can at all spare a little time tomorrow evening, you come along. Then again on Sunday night. Now the farmers maybe will be in the field tomorrow, but you're not supposed to work on Sunday.
So we'll have a meeting here Sunday night and probably most of the farmers won't be in the field and that won't be a reason or an excuse for staying away. So if you have to be in the field and you can't make it tomorrow night, We're not going to pray for rain. We feel sorry for you farmers. We know you'd like to get in the field. But, well, if you can't be in the field, you'd be sure to come to the Lyman Gospel Hall and we'll hope to be here if the Lord hasn't come. I don't know when the Lord is coming. It seems like it's getting awfully, awfully near. It really does. We've been having some lessons in prophecy back home and the more I teach prophecy and the more I look at it, the less I seem to know about it, but I know at least it does one thing for me.
It keeps saying to me, this has got to be soon. This has got to be soon. The things that are happening all around us today in this country and then especially the things that are happening over in the Middle East. It's just got to be soon. that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming and coming soon. And you know the last promise in the Bible, behold I come quickly. You know what the last prayer in the Bible is? Even so, come Lord Jesus. Could you pray that prayer tonight? If the Lord Jesus should really say to your heart, behold I come quickly, I'm coming, I'm coming very soon. What would be your response? Could you really say, well, okay, Lord, I'm ready.
I'm ready to go when you come. Hallelujah. Let him come tonight. If you're not saved, you can't say that. There should be any persons here tonight who have never yet trusted the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, we want you to know before you leave this place tonight that you could be saved. I don't know of anything that's more worthwhile than telling people how to be saved and go to heaven and how to be prepared for these great events which are certainly coming on this world. Well, then, if the Lord does come tonight or tomorrow... and you would like to inherit the PA equipment and the electric guitars. There's a few dollars wrapped up here. You come up afterward and I'll will them to you.
The Lord comes tonight and you'd like to have all this equipment after the Lord comes. Well, you just see me and I'm sure the kids will agree to letting you have it. You think about that now? I probably won't have a rush of business on that one. But if it does come, I'm going to be in heaven. Thank the Lord. Of course, there's another way to get out of this world and go to heaven. You know, I was in Chicago one day and it was the first time I'd ever really got up enough nerve to go downtown Chicago. And I had just come into the possession of a brand new red plummet car. And it was my first trip, a break-in trip.
I was staying in Chicago having meetings and I said, this is going to be the challenge now or never. I'm going to see what downtown Chicago looks like with my little red lemon. So I got on the super highway and I shouldn't tell you, but I was fifty blocks south of where I was supposed to be before I got off of that thing. And I got down into a colored section and I got turned around and back up into the loop right into the middle of town. And I got down through there and all the way back home that night through rush traffic and all with my little Plymouth and not a scratch. So I had a great experience that day seeing what my little Plymouth would do in all the big traffic and me not knowing where I was gone. And that's just one thing you don't really care to do in Chicago is get down around there when you don't know where he goes, gone, and I didn't know where I was gone.
But I made it down and back. But you know, the thing that really amazed me was the maze of overheads and underheads, underpasses and overpasses and all around those. Sack one for another the way it looked, you know, to me, a boy from the country. It just looked like somebody had gotten their blueprint all fouled up when they started building that network of highways down the middle of town. One bridge over another and I wonder, now, which one of those am I supposed to be on? Overpass is an underpass. Well, you know there is an overpass and there's an underpass tonight. On the way to heaven? If the Lord comes, I'm going to go to heaven by the overpass.
If the Lord doesn't come and he says, I'm going to take you another way, it'll be by the underpass. We used to sign an autograph. It says yours until the undertaker undertakes to take you under. But that is the underpass. However, I'm looking for the overpass. I would much rather go when the Lord comes and takes us to heaven without dying. So we're ready for that. But if it goes your way, it's going to be all right. Well, I wasn't supposed to preach here tonight, was I? You folks waiting on me? Oh, I had something here I want to tell you about. Gospel thing. If anybody wants any of these to give to your neighbors and have a few of those left, they're not worth anything after these three nights are all over. I'll be at the back if you want to take some of those home to your friends.
You think that they might be an asset for the meeting tomorrow night and Sunday night. Good. One more little thing. There may be many of you here that will be interested in a real spiritual retreat. This is Memorial Day camp out. And this is the camp out that's going to accommodate people who like the camp and people who don't like the camp. You know, if you really can't take rough camp life at Veliska, you know where Veliska is? Okay. Right down the road here, just a few miles, there's an intersection of Highway seventy and thirty-four. Two miles west of that intersection, there's a campground called Camp Aldersgate.
And we have rented exclusively for ourselves, private, a hundred and fifty-six acres of campground there, and they told us that we can park travel treasures and tents and campers and and just whatever you want to park out there all over the place. It's all grassy slope and there's a lake nearby. If you like to fish, well, you can go fishing in Lake Viking. It's just across the road. If you like to boat, well, you can rent boats from the State Department over there on the other side of the lake. All right, I won't tell you all about this, but this is coming off Saturday, Sunday, and Monday of Memorial Day weekend. That's twenty-six, twenty-seven, and twenty-eighth.
There's more information on this, all the information you need. There will be time for refreshment, time for fellowship. There'll be time to eat. We're going to have some of Don's fish. And you're going to bring your fish and pole down. Oh, okay. I knew Don would do that. We may not have any fish, but we'll have Don and the fish and pole anyway. Not for dinner, however. And so you'd be sure and get one of those as you go out if you would like to. Now I said that you could come even if you don't have tentative equipment because there is a lodge and there is a fine mobile home that they rent out. This lodge has a nice big fireplace in it. It has kitchen facilities with stoves and refrigerators and deep freezes and all that kind of thing.
Plus a dining room. And at both ends of this lodge, there are bedrooms with bunk beds. and there's room for forty-eight people to sleep on the ground if they don't have camping equipment. I've already got about ten of those reserves, so you better check in with me if you're interested in coming and staying overnight. However, if you just want to drive down for the day, Saturday, Sunday afternoon or Sunday night or any part of Monday. You're welcome to do that. You can come and go as you please. It's going to be a very informal program. We're going to enjoy the fun and the fellowship of just being together as Christians. We're not going to establish a big eating program.
We're just going to throw our mushrooms off. Well, that'll be too late for mushrooms. We'll just throw whatever we can bring along together and eat so the ladies don't have to work hard. And then we're going to also have some time of Bible discussion, some time of learning and sharing together on the important subject of the Holy Spirit, His person, work, the gifts, and so forth. It may not sound real interesting, but that's a very important subject in this day when there's so much understanding anymore about the ministry and the gift of the Holy Spirit. All this charismatic movement that's going on today, we thought perhaps some things would come to the surface that would be a big help to all of us. So keep it in mind. Okay, let's sing.
This one's called The Coming of the Lord. To save the righteous, pray to God away. To stand and play, he goes to pierce the morning. So be ready for the Lord to come today. This could be your lesson for Jesus.
This could be your lesson for him to pray. Tomorrow it could be too late for praying. The coming of the Lord to be today. All the changing times now are this perfect journey Yet no one speaks to your very day The one thing that we know for sure to come on me And it's much closer now than it was yesterday This could be your lesson to find Jesus This could be your lesson for every break Tomorrow it could be too late for praying The coming of the Lord to be today This could be your lesson to find Jesus
This could be your lesson to pray Tomorrow this could be today for praying The coming of the Lord to be today today The coming of the Lord to be today. The coming of the Lord to be today. This one's called Tag Up Signs.
Sun by side we stand, waiting God's command, worshiping the daily need, living by His grace and moving on His name, Jesus will be a true meet me in heaven who joins us together meet me by the Savior's side and meet you in heaven who sees us together brothers and sisters I'll be there Soldiers that are green, you go where Jesus
means. We'll fight the foe and we will overcome. Thereby is our goal, to save every foe. Groundwork and victory, I'll be there. Please be in heaven, we'll join us together. Take me by the Savior's side. I'll lead you in heaven, we'll please come together. Brothers and sisters, I'll be there.
Meet me in heaven, we'll join hands together. Meet me by the Savior's side. I'll meet you in heaven, we'll sing a song together. Brothers and sisters, I'll be there. Praise as we are. Well, he says we have to have a little break.
Well, that means we're going to have a little rest here and that's going to give me a chance to do a little more talking. We know what we ought to talk about. Here's one thing I know we could talk about for a couple of minutes. I've been talking about meeting people in heaven, talking about going to heaven. Well, I don't suppose there's anybody here tonight who isn't really interested in that subject. I don't find very many people in the world who don't want to go to heaven. But what I do find is a lot of people in the world who don't know how to get there. An awful lot of people who do not know how to get there. Mind if I tell you a little story about a lady back home. This lady is an elder's wife.
She's probably in her early seventies. She has gone to church all of her life in a denominational setup there in Auschwitz, probably the largest one in town. Do you know what she told me the other day? She says she has never learned to memorize one solitary scripture in the Bible, not even John I thought everybody could quote John three sixteen. She couldn't. She has never, in all of her religious years of experience, has never learned to quote Bible verses. Not even John three sixteen. She can quote it now, but took her seventy years before she came to that place.
Well, you know, that's a wonderful verse. I want to tell you if I didn't know another verse in the Bible, I could tell you tonight as I stand before you that I know I'm going to heaven. Just on the basis of that one verse alone. What does that verse say? Simply this. God so loved. That tells me that God loves. The world that tells me who he loves. God so loved the world that he gave tells me about a gift. tells me what the gift is he gave his only beloved son begotten son then it tells me who it's for that whosoever that's a big wonderful word whosoever tells me how you get it believe us in him tells me what you won't get should not perish tells us what you will get you'll have everlasting life one day I called at the hospital the phone rang and The nurse said, Mr.
Vandegraw, this was a couple of years ago now, she said, would you come to the hospital? There's a man here who wants to see you. And I said, who is it? I didn't know I had any friends there particularly or anyone that I needed to call on. And she said, his name. And I said, well, I don't know who he is, but I'll be right up. So as fast as I could change into my cleaner clothes, why I rushed up, walked into the room, and there lay the man. Of course, as soon as I recognized him, I remembered having met him before. It was a person who came around one night when we were having an open-air meeting in Oskusa. And he, that night, he talked to Brother John Elliott and myself, and he said he was going to go out and commit suicide. He was on the very verge of suicide that night. And he was very distressed.
He'd had a lot of things go wrong in his life, and apparently he had no peace in his heart with the Lord. Well, he never did commit suicide, but at this time he was laying in the hospital with a heart attack. And he began to weep when he saw me and I said, what's wrong, John? And he says, doctor says, I've got a very, very bad heart. Chances are very small for me living. And he says, I don't know where I'm going. And I thought to myself, well, preacher, what can you say to a man who is seriously ill with a heart condition? You can't preach a long sermon to him. You can't even preach a sermon with three points to him. What can you say to a dying man who is emotionally upset spiritually dead headed for hell what can I say to him you know the only thing I could think to say to him and I think it was the right thing I gave him John three sixteen and I think I've appreciated that verse more than I ever had before since that night when I shared that little verse with him went through it in detail and told him all about it the time we got to the end of the verse there was peace and light that had come into his soul I don't know if a man really got saved while he was laying there I went away thinking he had Next time I came back, which was a two days later, some of that peacefulness was gone.
And I said, John, what's happened? Why? He said you hadn't been here very long until Reverend So-and-so came and he told me who it was. He said, he came and he told me if I didn't get baptized and join his church, I wouldn't go to heaven. And then he said, another Reverend came in and he told me something else. He said, about three preachers hit this place after you were here and everyone told me something different. He said, I don't know what to believe. So I picked up the Bible that was laying on his stand and I said, well, let's see if the Bible still says the same thing it didn't the other day. I said, you know the other day when we read this book, this is God's book. It said, for God so loved. And we went through the verse again. I said, you know, it still says the same, doesn't it? It doesn't make any difference what Reverend So-and-so says. This is what God says. And he once again looked a little more pleasant, but never did seem quite to get the peace back that he had before.
Well, the Lord only knows whether the dear man is in heaven tonight because he passed away shortly after that. I never saw him in this world again. I only trust that the dear man entered into the real meaning of John three, sixteen, that he trusted the Lord Jesus, believed in him and has everlasting life. This is something you can have if you've never had an experience like that before. This is what the Bible calls a new birth, born again experience. You must be born again. Everybody here have been born again, going to heaven. Then some of these songs that we've been singing have meaning for you. And if you don't know what it's all about, we trust these songs will have a special message to your heart that the Spirit of God can use.
All right, I don't know what the next song is, so I'll let you tell them, Merlin. We're going to sing one more. It's a little chorus. It's called He Is Nice. And after that, we'll hear from you then. is like unto is all of mine, my Jesus, my Jesus, he is like unto me. is all of mine.
Jesus Christ, my Lord, be mine. Jesus, Jesus. Jesus, he is right unto this law of mine, Jesus Christ my Lord, divine. There you are. He is light. All right, Don, we're going to have the next part for you.
And after Don has given us a little message for the evening from the Word of God, we'll have a closing song before we're dismissed. Okay, Don?