What happens when you witness
Category: Evangelism & Soul Winning
Speaker: Clay McNeese
Date: June 7, 2024
I appreciate it by the Larry and Ms. Barb. They’re a blessing always. They really are. Only them in the Lord knows what all they go through to make sure they can be here for the Larry with his medicine and whatnot. I appreciate them. They’re awesome. They’re a blessing. And it is special that they, their former past 22 years. That’s just, that’s the Lord putting all that together. We needed someone to sing tonight and she said, well, I can do it. And just in times the Lord worked all that out.
And that’s awesome. I just tickled to see it. And I love it. Praise your Lord for preachers. It’s just saved faithful for the Lord down through the years. And we’re privileged to hear one tonight. And I love his spirit and just faithful for the Lord, excited about the Lord, excited about serving God. And he’s not pastoring, but he’s still preaching all the time. He’s just faithful for the Lord, just keeping that. And I love it.
And I’m excited about tonight. You’re in for a tree. So do this. Now do this. Stop. Let the Lord say, Lord. In your heart, you say, I need something tonight. I know you’re hungry. And say, Lord, I need something. And he feels the hungry. And you tell him that. And God will speak to you through his word and through his preacher tonight. We’re excited about Brother McNeese coming and preaching forth.
I wish I lived a little bit closer. Of course, it’s not all that far. It got closer every time. It fooled me. And we live in Birchwood, Tennessee, on the side of a little mountain. The Lord let us have a little cabin. And the reason he did, I ask him for it. You know, if you’d ask God, you might be surprised what he’ll do for you.
And I’m serious. I did ask him because one day the word of God got a hold of my heart and said, the man doesn’t care for his own, worse than infidel. And it bothered me because we had six children, and they all went to Bible College and graduated. We had three in college at one time. And that’s about the time I prayed that prayer.
And I walked out on the sidewalk, and I said, Lord. I was just praying. This is very sensitive to me. And I cry easy. So don’t worry about it. I mean, I am losing my mind, but it doesn’t bother me, so don’t let it bother you. But I walked out there, and I said, now, Lord, I said, if something happened to me, my wife wouldn’t have anything. And I said, I’m asking you to help me. I had an uncle—well, I had several uncles, and they were all, we were all real close, worked with them and everything. And a couple of them said, now, if you’re—one of them offered to build this cabin at one time. But it just wasn’t right. Well, I paid him a visit. I handed around. He never said anything. So I ate and left. But anyway, I said, Lord, wish you’d help me. You know what he did?
It’s a long story. We live on 130 acres. It belongs to 20 members, and we’re one of those members. Thirty-acre lake in the front yard. And that’s just God. Just God. And if I told you how much I paid for it, you wouldn’t believe it. $15,000. That’s right. He knows everything I do, so I have to be real careful. I’ll tell you one thing: we love Barb and Larry. They are dear, dear friends. I mean that. What a big help. What a difference it makes to have a man like that in your church.
And we were out on the boat fishing one day, and I said, you know, Brother Larry, I made him our song leader. I got him playing specials. He was just—all he was doing when I got there was coming to church and tithing. He was a good tither. You get big points for being a big tither.
Reminds me of a story about the fellas, they went on this fishing trip, and they shipwrecked, got a storm, and they’re out on this little island, and they had nothing to eat, nothing to drink, and they were all worried. There’s one guy just singing, walking around, fishing. They said, “Man, are you not worried?” He said, “Nah. He said, don’t worry, boys. He said, God just blessed me, and I’ve got a new business, and I’m making money hand over fist, and said, I tithe about $2,000 a week. He said, my pastor will be here in just a day or two.”
He’s going to let him be lost. But we just thank the Lord. I’m telling you, you know what? You can’t beat just serving God. Be real. Now what the preacher said while ago, “God speak to my heart.” Here’s a good prayer. I tell people sometimes, I want you to tell the Lord, “If you speak to my heart, I’ll obey you. I’ll do it.” That song we sang, “Trust and Obey.” That is quickly becoming one of my favorite songs.
Because you realize, and this ties in what I’m going to preach, a lot of people get saved, and I’ve heard people pray, and I’ve prayed that way myself, especially before I first got called to preach, and Lord use me, help me, show me what you want me to do. You know what? If you’ll just do what God already told you to do, you’ll be doing good. Just make a little list: What has God told me to do? You know what the first thing God told me to do? Get saved.
Yeah, he said, “You’re lost. You’re lost.” So I’m here tonight. If there is an unsaved person here, no matter your age, God says to you, “Get saved. Get saved. Come to Jesus.” And the devil has some lies that so many people believe. You know, the lie that really keeps a lot of people getting saved is, “You’re not ready.” You are ready. If you don’t believe it, just die. You wind up in hell, you’ll know you was ready to get saved. Huh? Yeah.
When the Lord put me in the church there in Maryland, I’m from North Georgia, country boy, pulpwood cutter. I mean, all kinds of stuff. And they make jokes on TV about people from over in the Gimmer County Mountains and North Georgia. That’s where I was from. And they thought that was funny. And I told the church, when I first preached there the first time, I said, “Listen, I’m just a country preacher. I’m just an old country boy.” Everybody says that, but I’m telling the truth. So we’re just trying to give you what God moves on our heart with. My prayer tonight is that God would empower me with the Spirit of God to be a blessing to you and somehow he’d be glorified and magnified.
If you would, open your Bible to John chapter 15 and verse 26 and 27, and if you would stand, and we’ll read these verses. And I love coming to this church. This is a blessing. My goodness, what a—the church is beautiful. Y’all done a wonderful job. In verse 26 it says, “But when the Comforter comes,” y’all know that’s the Holy Ghost, amen, “whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. And ye also shall bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning.”
There’s another verse in Proverbs, chapter 16, and it—but it says, “He that winneth a soul is wise.” I think that’s chapter 11, verse 30. “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life.” The righteous shall have fruit, amen. And he that winneth a soul is wise.
Heavenly Father, thank you tonight. I love you, Lord. I ask you to help me to be a blessing. I pray you to empower me with your Spirit. God bless your people here tonight. And we’ll praise you, Lord, as you let us serve you in these last days. Help us, Lord, to show others this glorious Christ in Jesus’ name. Amen. Thank you. May be seated.
I’m going to bring a message. The title is, “What Happens When You Witness?” What happens when you—there’s so many directions that go with this, and it’s all good and needful. But I’m going to tell you something. Now, you know, preachers, we try to get our people to do right, and we’re doing for their good. But I’m going to tell you something, there’s a maturity that you have not reached unless you are wanting to help get people saved and get people in church and get people where they can be blessed of God.
And yet there’s another group that has made soul winning a bad name because they’re carnal and they’ll run out and they’ll misuse the scriptures, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s not good. And listen, when you do for the Lord, you do it in earth. When you sing, you sing for God. Amen. Whether it’s the special or in church. Whatever you do, be real with God about it. Don’t play games with God. He’s the dearest friend you’ve ever had, and the dearest one you’ll ever have. But God has told us, “Ye shall witness.”
And so as we look at witnessing, and we look at this, the thing is, I know when I preach this to you, it is in your heart to do that. So I don’t have to convince you of it. I have seen people get saved, Brother Larry, we’ve seen it. And I’m thinking one lady in particular where I was pastoring in Missouri. And she was a wonderful lady, lovely lady, and wealthy and everything. It came to our church. Just lived there 100 yards from the church.
And she was always spruced up, you know, drove a Cadillac convertible. She was our friend. Our kids played together. One Sunday morning she came in, and she plowed that altar up. And she was just weeping. And mascara flying every which way, Bondo, all kinds of body filler—not really—but it was pretty rough. And she was just weeping. And, boy, I thought, wow. And I went down, and she got saved. She came to the Lord. God forgave her of her sin and saved her soul.
How did you feel when you got saved? By the way, after you got saved, did sin bother you? I’ve met a few people that sin don’t bother them. As a matter of fact, I’m seeing lots of them today that’ll teach Sunday schools, sing specials, go on the road for the Lord, go into professions with the Lord, and sin don’t bother them. Let me tell you something: sin does bother saved people. Can you get a very big amen right there? Sin bothers saved people.
But she got up, and here’s what my point is. She had no more—and got up, and we were coming around and shaking hands, and she stopped everybody and held her hand up, and she said, “Listen,” and said, “Would you all pray for Bud, my husband? He’s not saved.” I have seen time and time, preacher, when people get saved immediately within 20, 30 minutes or less, they have a request for somebody they love. You say, “Where’s that coming from?” It’s coming from Jesus. It’s coming from your heart.
And if you’re walking with the Lord and you love the Lord, you’ve been saved, friend, it is in you to get others saved. Because Jesus said in Luke 19:10, he said, “For the Son of man”—you can say it, you can quote that—“is come to what?” Seek, say it, “and save that which was lost.” That was the heart of Jesus, was and is. Jesus came to save a lot.
You know, he didn’t come to heal. Somebody would say, “Boy, Jesus is all there ought to be. Why don’t he heal all these people?” He’s going to. He’s got it under control. If I were you, I’d just trust him. Amen. But you see, he didn’t come to make wine. He did a lot of things out of compassion. And he did a few things where it would help people’s faith, believe so that they might believe.
You know what God said after he drowned those Egyptians? He said, “Now all of these don’t know that I am the Lord.” Amen. That’s the good I may sign my own Bible. My son says that. My son says, “I’ve never said that before.” That’s silly. Anyway, what happened? This is good. I need to just read this to you fast and then come back because if I don’t, I’m going to get hung on 9 and 3, and you’re going to get the rest of it.
What happens when you do witness? Here’s one thing that happens: You obey the Lord. Amen. You’ve obeyed the Lord in John chapter 15 and verse 27. “And ye also shall bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning.” And in Matthew 28 he gives us a great commission: “Go ye therefore into all the world. Go be a witness. Tell them about Christ. Tell them about salvation.” So we’ve been sent. We don’t have to wait to see how we feel about it. God’s already told us. And he wants all of us, if you’re saved, he wants you to tell others about Christ. All this.
What happens when you witness? You’ve obeyed the Lord. I’m going to tell you something: Witnessing is hard to—I don’t know if that’s the right way to say it, but you’ve got to be strong to witness. You’ve got to be a prayer warrior. These things come, and our education in Christ after we get saved. We grow in the Lord. How do you grow in the Lord? You come to church, and you come to Sunday school, and you come to fellowships, and you come to the work of the church. You come to all these things.
And in all that, you begin to learn. And God will begin to teach you, and you’ll learn more. You see, the Bible says in Luke chapter 6 and verse 45, “For of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.” When you get full of Jesus, you’re just naturally going to witness. I mean, you may not even realize anybody’s looking. I don’t know how many times I have people—and I’m not bragging, for my good grief, hey—listen, I’m just trying to be honest with y’all. I want to be a help somehow. I don’t think much of myself.
But I’ll tell you, how many times have you ever had it happen? You just be whistling or singing some song, and somebody says, “Man, you sure are happy.” “Why are you so happy?” “Well, I ought to be happy. I’m headed to heaven. I’m saved. My sins are—” Hey, if you can go to bed tonight and just lay down and say, “My sins are forgiven, I’m on my way to heaven,” woo, it’s shouting ground. Amen, brother.
You say, “You really believe the streets will go?” I don’t know, and I don’t even care. I’ll be real happy to be that close to Jesus. You’re going to get a mansion? I don’t know, and I don’t care. If I get a mansion, my wife has to live with me because it would be a mess in three days if I had. What good would a mansion—oh, anyway, I guarantee you there won’t be nobody disappointed when you get to heaven. Oh, what’s singing, oh what’s shouting on that happy morning.
I used to be our song leader. I got saved. They’re in our old home church out in the country, Dogwood Valley Baptist Church. Boy, we had a preacher. He was an old ex-Marine, and he passed with our 50-something year and just died a few weeks ago. And he was still the pastor. He’d been in bed, he’s dying. He had a son-in-law, he was a preacher, and he’d just tell him what to do. But let me tell you something: God is a wonderful God. And he has never tried to do anything but what’s good for you. Why do we argue with God?
And as a sinner, I argued with God. As a sinner, I argued with God. But after I got saved, I began to try to listen to God. So I got saved, and my preacher told me one day—I hadn’t been saved three months—he said, “You’re my song leader.” I did not know one song. I knew “Amazing Grace” because I’d heard Red Foley sing it and Elvis. They both sang that. And that was only real—I mean, I didn’t—now, I’ve been to church, but I didn’t pay no attention as a little kid, and that’s the only time I went.
But anyway, he said, “You’re going to sing.” My song lyrics. I said, “Okay.” Mama said, “Oh, it’d be fine, son.” And so, Mama’s a singer, and all of our family. And so the choir came up, place was packed. I mean packed. People have been getting saved. They were revival on. I was one of them. I got saved. So I got up there, and some little old lady in the choir said, “256,” and I said, “256. Let’s stand.” And boy, they sang, and I just waved my arms, and I’ve been a good song leader for 50-something years.
But then the Lord said, “I want you to preach.” And God called me to preach. And then, oh, God has just done so many wonderful things. How I praise him, how I thank him. And I love church. I love singing, love fellowship. I love the idea of the tent on the hill. And, I mean, I just like God’s people. I like doing things God’s in. Amen? I mean, it’s a blessing. But I’m going to tell you something: There’s something about somebody getting saved when you’re trying to help them.
I’m thinking an old boy out in Missouri. He’s big, boy, he’s tall. I don’t know what he weighed—over 400. Big guy. And he had a Corvair—what was it called? It was a convertible, burgundy, four-speed, and it was beautiful, like brand new. And he was a super good mechanic. But honest goodness, this sounds weird, but I just could see in my mind a couple of times him out there working on the bus route and being my friend, and I’d only met him once or twice.
And so I drove down to his house, then Bunsen, Missouri, and he was coming around the court there, and I stopped him, and I said, “Hey, I thought I’d come down and talk to you.” And he said, “Well, let me park over here.” We went over, and he took his wife home, and we went over at the little city park, and I began to tell him about Jesus. He stopped, and he said, “I didn’t realize”—he was a very, very intelligent man, very educated. And he said, “Did you come all the way down here to tell me about Jesus?” I said, “Yes, I did. God sent me. God tugged at my heart.”
I want you to know he got down on his knees, and I did, and he prayed and got saved, and we’d just hop and wrap him and hugged next. It looked like a circus had come to town, man. And right tonight, he’s serving God. He worked for Brother Rollaw for a while. He worked on his airplane, buses. But, oh, God wants to live through us. And let them see. I like that verse says, “Let your light shine.” Get this, church: It didn’t say “make it shine.” I have seen Christians that make their light shine. They make sure that you know everything just to have many—I mean, you know, and it’s all about them. No, get your light off of you and put it on some help. Put it out there where Jesus can help them. And then may the abundance of our heart have so much of the right in it that we’ll share it with the saved and the unsaved. And you’re going to feel a burden for your unsaved in-laws and unsaved friends and schoolmates.
I want to work this in somehow. It touched my heart to say, I was thinking about it when I was coming home from Germany in the Army. And I was lost. But my mama was a real prayer warrior. And so was my sister. And they were praying for me. Mama’s a great Christian. And then I didn’t know this: my best friend got saved. He’d been the basketball captain of our team there in Ringo, and we’d been best friends. And he got saved in Florida. He was in the Army too.
But I was on that ship, and one morning I woke up, and I slept down there close to the Coca-Cola machine because I was a Sergeant E-5, and that was a privilege. So here I was. Now, I looked down there, and there’s this black fellow down there, and he had a little Gideon New Testament, and he was just beaming. I mean, he was just smiling. Son, he had victory, and there must have been 35, 40 or more being around him, and being just like GIs will be. I mean, just like wolves with sheep. It didn’t bother him in the least.
I sat there and I watched that and listen. I couldn’t hear what he was saying much, but he was telling about God and what God was—I mean, he was bearing witness—and I thought to myself, “Them people are fools. They better be careful what they say about that young man.” And I mean that made an impression on me.
The next morning I got up, and I went up on top of that ship, and they had those big old things that comes out and had our coming out. This is in January. Cold and big old waves out on the ocean. We were busting them things. It was stormy. I mean, I was sitting out there about daylight, and—now, there’s 5,000 men on this ship, not including the officers and wives and others that were on another level. And so this happening was really something.
But he came up, and there was that young black man just right there in front of me in the silhouette. He didn’t know I was there. He couldn’t see me. He didn’t care. And he’d hold that little Bible up to heaven, and he hugged it, and he kissed it. And I said to myself, “That’s the kind of man I need to be. That’s a real man.”
So God put a witness there for me that my mama was praying. When I got home, and then I found out that my buddy had gotten saved, I’d already spent a couple of days with him running around, and it doesn’t run in my mouth, and I didn’t know he was saved, and I was so embarrassed. And then so he got me going to church with him. I started dating my wife. Her daddy was a preacher, and we went to high school together. I knew her. And so there was another witness. And God began to work on my heart.
You know, here’s my problem. I’ll tell you real quickly. I wanted to get saved. I didn’t think God would save me. I thought I was too bad a sinner. Anybody else here thought you was too bad a sinner? I really did. Boy, I’ve done some stupid things. I’m going to tell you, and dumb, just crazy. It’s funny what we’ll do to impress the world. I mean, it’s ridiculous. Of course, all you got to do is look around, you see a whole bunch of it running everywhere, especially at Walmart.
Let me read your verse. Chapter 4, in verse 1: “When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John (though John himself baptized not, but his disciples), he left Judea and departed again into Galilee.” Here’s what I want to read. Look at this: “And he must needs go through Samaria.”
Why did Jesus need to go through Samaria? Because there was a young woman going to be at a well, and he went to witness to her. If you’ll read this entire event, you’ll find that Jesus was sitting on the well when the woman got there and he’s being wearied, and then cometh the woman of Samaria to draw water. And he said to her, “Give me to drink.” That didn’t happen in that world. Jews would not have anything to do with Samaritans. And she knew that.
And so he began to talk to her. And in verse 10, he said, “If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.” I want to stop and say something right now: If you knew who that was nudging at your heart right now, I’ll tell you, the way to heaven and the way to glory and the way to forgiveness of all your sins may be knocking at your heart’s door right now. Huh? Uh-huh?
I am trusting the Lord will knock at anybody’s heart’s door not saved. And I’m trusting that anybody’s in trouble because of sin and the devil’s tripped you up that it’ll bother you and you’ll want to get back and get right with God and live for God. But Jesus said, “I must needs go through Samaria.” The first thing he showed her was, get this: He showed her who he was. If you see Christ for who he really is, you will want him in your life. First, you’ve got to see him.
Boy, it is so sad to see what’s happening to America where “In God We Trust” and where our nation has such a history. But I’m telling you, sin is bringing a real payday down on America. But I’m telling you, there’s somebody still looking for you in his name, Jesus. He cares for you.
Well, let me give you some of this. When you witness, you’ve sowed the seed. In 1 Corinthians chapter 3, it said, “One sows, one waters, one reaps.” And then Haggai, God said, “Is the seed yet in the barn?” He says that to you and I. Where’s your seed? Is it yet in the barn? No, let’s get our seed out. Let’s get the Bible tracks. Let’s get the Bible. And when the bus loads up, let’s go out and just knocking on the door and telling people about Jesus. Oh, my.
What do you know about Jesus? I tell you, you don’t have to know everything. If somebody asks you a question, you don’t know, just say, “I don’t know. My preacher knows. Go see him. Come with me to church, son, and I guarantee you’ll find out.” But listen, God wants to use you to sow that seed. And so when you witness, you’re sowing the seed, you’re putting it out. And you know what God said about that seed? He said it would not return to him void. Amen.
I brought a little thing to give the preachers to the friend this morning. He’s a missionary. It’s called Bibles in the Battle. Bibles, and they take up Bibles. You know how it is, churches, you’ll get 150 Bibles stacked up here. I bet I’ve got 25 Bibles at home that are mine. I’m sure I do. But I love every one of them. They can’t have them. I’ll go buy them a new one, but I don’t want to let mine go. But what a good work, sowing that seed, getting a seed out.
Thirdly, it creates an expectancy in you. A hope that you—that friend you’ve invited to church may come. That friend, that phone number you rang on Saturday night and said, “Hey, go to church with me tomorrow. We’ll pick you up.” Listen, let’s get busy witnessing and drawing them that they might come and be saved. But if we’re not, if we hadn’t invited anybody, how can we hope for it? That may happen. It may happen because somebody else, praise the Lord, I hope it does.
Me and a preacher was riding down in South Missouri, and we stopped to eat, grab a bite to eat. And Lord help me, I ain’t bragging on myself, but I sure did enjoy that. And a little young girl came over the way on it. She was about 17, I guess, and they was busy. And I said to her, I said, “You know, I don’t want to disturb your work, but would you mind if I ask you a question every time you come to our table?” She said, “No.”
First one, I said, “Do you believe the Bible’s word of God?” She said, “Yes, I do.” She went on to her dog. She come back, and I said, “Do you believe that Jesus is the Savior?” She said, “Yes, I do.” And she come back, and I said, “Do you believe you’re a sinner?” “Yes, I do.”
And so I tried to help her see who Jesus was, and then you’ve got to help them see who they are. This woman, then she saw who she was. She said, “I’ve got five husbands.” And Jesus said, “Yeah, I know. The one you live with now is not your husband.” He wasn’t being mean. I’ll tell you something: Jesus told the truth. If you want to really get in trouble, just tell the truth. If you want to not win the most liked, you tell people the truth. They don’t like truth a lot of times. Truth can be pretty tough. But you can do it with compassion, amen? Do it with compassion. Be truthful. Be truthful. It’ll give you the right kind of friends, I’ll tell you that.
But we see that she saw who she was. And then when she saw what he could do, she received him and ran back, left her water pots and ran to town and said, “Look, come see a man who told me all things.” You see when Jesus visited me behind that pew that Sunday morning, the sergeant just back from the army, and our preacher was up there bragging on me and the little kids were singing, and I was sitting there just—I was crying. I had a hold of that pew. I looked at the back door. I said, “Lord, if I can just get out that door, I’ll be all right.”
And then it dawned on me, you get out that door, that may be your last chance to go to heaven. And I went forward and got saved that day. And I’ve never been sorry. You know something? I’ve never met anybody that said they’re sorry for getting saved. I’ve done a lot of prison work. As a matter of fact, tomorrow we’ll be with the Rock of Ages Prison Ministry here at Franklin. My wife will be speaking to the ladies early in the morning, so pray for her. And then pray for me because I’ve got to live with her.
Fourthly, it builds spiritual muscles. It’ll make you stronger and give you scripture in Ephesians 6:10. And then it makes you more efficient with a sword with the Word of God. And you’ll be able—if you can’t remember the right scriptures, you can get the card preacher will provide you something. I’m sure y’all have done training for that. But listen, we need to be a group of people that love God that witness about our Savior. Let the whole world know what Jesus has done.
Last of all, it gives you a satisfaction of knowing that you did what you could. Paul told him in Acts 18:6, he said, “I have purged my blood, your blood, I’m clear of your blood, and I’m done. I’ve done all I could.” You know, God has done all he can for you. His Son went to Calvary and died and shed his blood. He said, “It is finished.” It is finished.
And now, I just wonder who I was praying for you. I had my mama, my sister, my buddy, that black guy didn’t know I was in the world. I had a church full of people. They called my name on Wednesday night: “Pray for Clay. He’s in the army. He’s not saved. Pray for him.” God will save him. That’s my little home church. That was my little Rutherford County Church. I’m going to tell you something, church: If we don’t do it, who will? Not only witness but pray. Not only pray but worship. Seek the fullness of the Spirit. God said, “Be filled with the Spirit.” That’s a command. Amen.
It feels good to know that you’re full of the Spirit. And, brother, that’s all to the credit to God, not to me. God gave me that. He told me to be filled with the Spirit. And when you get filled with the Spirit, you’ll have the boldness to speak to unsaved people about their need. And I like that song, “Jesus Cares.” Does he care? Yes, he cares. And he did something about it.
So what happens when you witness? A lot of things happen. I know I witnessed one man. I hadn’t been saved long. I didn’t know much. But I knew I loved my uncles. I knew I loved my family. I went to my uncle and I worked with so much and looked up to so much. I was scared to death. The devil had done told me he’d cursed me out and run me off. He didn’t even curse. But he told me he’s going to—you know, the devil just tells you all. You know, when you start to do something for God, the devil just tells all kinds of lies.
I never will forget walking up out of the porch, knocking on the door. He’d come out on the porch. He’s a country fellow. I had about 16 coon dogs. I said, “J.T., I got to tell you about Jesus. Can I tell you about Jesus?” And I stood there, and he didn’t open his mouth, and I gave him the Romans Road and quoted scripture, and I said, “Would you pray with me and ask Jesus to save you?” He said, “No, not now. I’m not ready.” I said, “Okay.”
And I left, and I was just sick. I just knew I was going to hear it. He didn’t want me to come back. But I got just the opposite. He called my mom and said, “Come over here and talk to me.” Prayed for me. Why hadn’t he been back? It’s been two weeks. When about three weeks, we were up singing our old quartet—me and Mom and my sister and him—and we were singing on Sunday morning, and he came in the back door of the church. He didn’t go to church. First time I’d ever seen him in church. Sitting down on the back row, and he just sits there. And I could tell he was crying. That big old tough lumberjack. Oh.
He got up, run outside. The preacher’s sitting right there, and I said, “Brother Roy, go get him.” Like a bird dog. Brother Roy went out there like a plod hound. A few minutes here they come in, plowed up at the altar, and Uncle J.T. got saved. Oh, glory.
You’ve got some of it in your heart tonight. Some young girl is going to ruin her life if she don’t find Jesus, if you don’t let Jesus save her. Some young boy don’t know which way to turn. Boys, you need the Lord. I have never, ever had a good time like I’ve had serving the Lord. I have the best time, don’t I, Larry? I taught Larry how to eat Vlasic sausages. We was in that boat, and I popped that lid off. Larry looked back and said, “What is that?” I said, “Brother Larry, you never eat any Vlasic sausages?” “No.” So I gave him one. I thought he was about to give it back to me, but we’ve had some good times.
You can’t have a good time if your heart’s heavy, if you’re dreading life, if you’re scared. You say, “You’re trying to scare me?” I would if I could. The Bible said that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If you don’t fear the Lord, my friend, well, I’ll just tell you what the Bible says. It says you’re a fool. And I fit that full category in a lot of ways. I have. I’m hoping I’ve lived past. Let me tell you something: He cares for you.
Would you bow your heads with me? Oh, Jesus cares. Musicians come, singers, preacher, however you do it. You come on, brother. I’m going to tell you right now, Jesus wants to save you. He wants to forgive you of your sins. He wants to help you have victory if you are saved and not living right. Wouldn’t you come to him tonight and just say, “Lord, help me one more time”? Can I tell you, God will help you every time from now on? Because if you’re his child, he’s not going to leave you nor forsake you. Father, bless now in this altar call. May the power of God, may the Holy Ghost walk up and down these aisles and knock at heart’s door. People don’t even want you to knock at their door. Knock anyway. Help them to see they need Jesus. And we’ll thank you in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Original File: What Happens When You Witness - Brother Clay McNeese Sunday PM 72819