This message is one of the Times Square
Pulpit series.
It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times
Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
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Praise the Lord.
I want to read to you a verse
of scripture from the prophet Hosea.
I'm reading in the New American Standard.
King James reads a little bit differently.
Chapter 4 and verse 16.
I want to speak to you tonight, or
the title of my message tonight is, Like
a Stubborn Heifer.
Like a Stubborn Heifer.
I think I could explain it better if
you would ask me or ask somebody and
say, well, what is so and so like?
You know, what's she like or what's he
like?
And I might answer, like a stubborn heifer.
That's what God said about Israel.
Fourth chapter, prophet Hosea, verse 16.
Since Israel is stubborn, like a stubborn heifer,
can the Lord now pasture them like a
lamb in a large field?
Now if you're married to a stubborn heifer,
or if you live with such a person,
I pray for you and I pity you.
If living with a contentious woman is like
a dripping faucet, Proverb calls it a continual
dropping, then living with or working with a
headstrung, stubborn person is like being hit by
a tornado or trying to move a granite
rock.
Webster's Dictionary defines stubborn as refusing to yield
or obey or comply.
And here's another good one, resisting doggedly or
unreasonable, resolute or obstinate, hard to handle or
deal with.
Now if you've ever worked with or had
to deal with such a person, you know
that Mr. Webster is very accurate and he's
right on.
I remember when I was just a teenager,
a young teenager in the church that my
father pastored, we had a man who came
in, never been in the church before, but
he came in and in one night God
did a marvelous thing in his life.
He was saved, filled with the Holy Ghost,
spoke in a beautiful language, spoke in other
tongues just beautifully and was healed of a
back condition all in one night.
A marvelous healing.
The entire church was blessed by it, the
man gave his testimony within the church, came
back, was faithful, came and testified to his
neighbors, testified to his friends, it was just
a mighty, mighty work of God.
And as a result of it, he started
to get a lot of attention and started
to get puffed up and my father tried
to settle him down, tried to give him
the word, tried to teach him, but he
refused to listen.
He somehow felt because of this mighty work
that God had done that he was beyond
being discipled and somehow he maybe was up
above everybody else because of what God had
done.
And he started getting into manifestations and interrupting
the service, speaking in tongues, wouldn't listen to
the word.
And my father was patient with him, warned
him, set him aside and tried to show
him in the word to try to get
him back down to earth again, but nothing
worked.
And finally, one service again during the meeting,
he wasn't paying attention, he was speaking to
himself in tongues and my father at times
would speak out at him and tell him
to settle down, but he refused to settle
down.
And finally, one service, my father got up
and tried to ask him to settle down,
he refused to, and so my father said,
you're going to have to leave the meeting.
This is right during the meeting.
And my father asked for some assistance and
nobody moved, not one deacon or usher moved.
The only man who moved was the husband
of a Christian lady, a sister in the
church who came faithfully and he was a
visitor and he was unsaved and he got
up and helped my father usher him out.
And the man went back and got his
coat on and as he got his coat
on he was going out of the coat
room to go out the door.
A dear sister in the church who was
carrying a great big black Bible came over
and took the Bible and she banged him
over the head and she said, believe the
word brother, believe the word.
Let me tell you something.
There have been times and there have been
people when I've wanted, where's that sister in
her Bible, where is she?
I can't get through to her, maybe we'll
bang him over the head with it.
A stubborn person has a mule mentality.
Now, the prophet uses the term heifer to
describe stubbornness and he's correct in that a
young heifer is often hard to break in
and to train.
He has a very strong will and can
get downright obstinate.
Now we usually think of the donkey or
mule as the epitome of stubbornness, but so
is the heifer.
And then occasionally in a relationship, in a
marriage or in a relationship, you get a
heifer and a donkey together.
And can you imagine the outcome?
Can you imagine the clash?
Now the Bible addresses, did you know the
Bible addresses itself to this?
Listen to me, it's right here, Deuteronomy 22
and 10 says, you shall not plow with
an ox and a donkey together.
And I want you to look with me
tonight at the meaning of a stubborn heifer
because I believe there's something here.
One of the reasons for a lack of
spiritual progress in some cases is a refusing
to yield or to obey or comply or
a character trait that resists doggedly or is
unreasonable and unable to receive correction.
Now other pastors have addressed themselves to this
directly and indirectly, but the scripture does say
in the mouth of two or three witnesses
shall a thing be established.
And I believe it's important enough to address
ourselves to it tonight.
Now what does the Bible have to say
about stubbornness?
Now Israel was the most stubborn people in
all of Bible history and we'll look at
them in a moment, but this is a
New Testament subject and problem as well.
Paul wrote to Titus and he said to
the church, among other things in Titus 1
.7 he says to them not to be
self-willed, not to be self-willed, which
means stubborn.
Paul writes to Timothy to remind the church,
he says that you are to be subject
to rulers, to the authorities, to be obedient,
to be ready for such good deeds as
necessary, to malign no one, to be uncontentious,
gentle, showing every consideration for all men.
That's 1 Timothy 3.11. Now there's nothing
like a stubborn person in a group or
within a church to disrupt good unity and
good teamwork.
I've seen stubborn leaders in churches hold back
the work of God in that church for
years and years.
I've seen deacons, deaconesses, a deacon or group
of deacons who were self-willed and unreasonable
in wanting their own way, of subjecting their
own will upon an entire congregation.
I've seen such churches that have run out
of town more than one pastor and caused
numerous good members to leave because there are
certain unyielding individuals that impose their will over
a congregation.
Hosea 4.16 says, can the Lord now
pastor them?
He said, can he pastor them like a
lamb in a large place?
And listen, you'll never, never be in a
large place.
And the reason that some churches never grow
and become larger is because there are certain
self-willed individuals who hold sway and hold
power over it.
And they can never be in a, the
church can never be in a large place.
And you will never be in a large
place if you have a stubborn streak within
you.
I remember my dad warned, my dad took
over a church.
Well before I tell you that, let me
tell you, I knew a friend of mine
who was a pastor in a church that
had some very strong-spirited individuals and I,
and one of them said, one is here
before this man was here and I'll be
here after him.
And of course, that's true, he was there,
but God wasn't there.
And my dad, I remember my dad took
over a church, very strong-willed individuals that
wanted to stand in the way of God's
move in the church and he warned them.
He preached a strong message and warned them,
he said, listen, some of you stubborn heifers,
God's gonna remove you one way or the
other.
God will remove you because the work of
God is gonna go on.
And I remember him saying it, he said
it without anger, but I very clearly, never
forget it, it perked my ears up as
a youngster.
He said, listen, and some of them were
older in years and he said, some of
you are gonna die before your time, I'll
bury you within this year if you don't,
if you continue to be stubborn and stand
in the way of the work of God.
That's pretty strong stuff.
And he did, that's right, I saw it
happen, I saw it happen, they didn't want
to move on.
There is a kind of Christian who the
scripture says is obstinate like a rebellious city.
Don't turn there, but Zephaniah says, woe to
her who was rebellious and defiled.
She heeded no voices, she accepted no instruction,
in other words, nobody could tell her anything.
Another translation says she obeys no one, she
accepts no correction, she does not trust in
the Lord, she did not draw near to
her God.
Here's another interesting New Testament scripture, you know,
we often quote these verses, certain verses that
stand out and we quote them, but we
often don't see what they're tied into when
we don't read the verses that follow.
This is 2 Peter 2, 9 and 10,
it says, then the Lord, we quote this,
we're blessed by it, but we have to
understand what mainly it applies to.
He says, then the Lord knows how to
rescue the godly from temptation and to keep
the unrighteous under punishment for the day of
judgment.
And especially those who indulge the flesh in
corrupt desires and despise authority, daring, self-willed,
they do not tremble when they revile angelic
manifestations.
And that's talking about a man who's filled
with his own strong will, and it's talking
about not falling into that, not falling into
that kind of temptation.
But in talking about stubbornness, of course, Israel
was the most obstinate, stubborn, unyielding people.
I read this verse, I'm going to read
it to you, and I had to read
it again, I read it out of the
New American Standard.
And I looked at that, and it just
spoke to me because this is what God
said about his people.
He said, for 40 years I loathed that
generation.
He uses the word loath.
Now, the King James uses the word angry,
but a more accurate interpretation is that the
Lord said, I loathed that generation.
And I thought, why?
Think of it, God said for 40 years
he loathed that generation.
Why?
Because they were a stubborn, rebellious, unyielding people.
Psalms 95, 10, it goes on and says,
and God said that they are a people
who err in their heart and they do
not know my ways.
Psalm 78 and 8 warns that we be
not like Israel who were a stubborn and
a rebellious generation whose spirit was not faithful
to God.
Now, there was a word that the Lord
used to describe Israel, and it was first
used when they fell into sin.
You know that Moses went into the mountain,
left the people for a period of time,
came back down off the mountain, and they
had made this golden calf, and Moses asked
Aaron for an explanation.
He said, well, he said they just brought
all their jewelry and we threw it in
the fire, and all of a sudden out
came this calf.
You know?
And God used a term, Exodus 33, 5,
for the Lord had said unto Moses, say
unto the children of Israel, ye are a
stiff-necked people.
Now, there's the word.
The word is stiff-necked.
God said ye are a stiff-necked people.
The New American Standards calls it an obstinate
people.
The word also means headstrong.
In the New Testament, Stephen, in his message
to the Jews, in Acts 7 31 says,
ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in hearts and
ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost
as your fathers did.
As your fathers did.
He was referring back there into Exodus at
the time of the golden calf.
He says, as your fathers did, so do
you.
And throughout the Old and New Testaments, stubbornness
is associated, stubbornness and stiff-neckedness is associated
with backsliding.
In Hosea 4 16, in the King James
says, for Israel slideth back as a backslidden
heifer.
And literally this means that, refers to he
who turns aside from the way that has
appointed him so that he does not walk
in it.
To be stiff-necked is to be like
a heifer that goes on a crooked way
and curves itself under the yoke so that
man cannot plow it.
In other words, the heifer refused to keep
his head in that yoke and he kept
trying to go down, kept trying to get
out from underneath it.
And so Israel would know, they knew exactly
what God meant when he said, you are
stiff-necked people trying to keep your heads,
curve your heads from underneath the yoke.
And you know, unfortunately today the church still
has some obstinate, obstinate stiff-necked and mule
-headed people, a people whose necks are never
straightened.
They're always, they're always trying to find a
way to get away, a way to get
away from the straight and narrow path and
from a path of obedience.
And they're the kind, and you know what
they are, they're the kind of people that,
they come to church, unfortunately they keep coming
to church.
They keep coming.
I know, I minister, when I would travel
I would minister, it would take me about
15 minutes in a service and I would
begin to pick out the remnant.
Because thank God, mostly everywhere you go there's
always a remnant, praise God.
And I'd look down and I'd pick out
some faces, it's kind of hard here because
of the light but I consider you're all
the remnant here, for the most part.
But I'd address myself to that remnant but
always, I could pick out very soon the
stiff-necked.
I could pick out the stubborn, I could
pick out the controlling spirit or spirits.
Many times, sometimes it wouldn't happen but sometimes
the Holy Spirit would reveal it to me
and I could pick out the stiff-necked
people and those who had a controlling spirit.
Sometimes it was in their body language, sometimes
it was just a witness of the spirit.
But they come.
And I guess what they're looking for is
for some spiritual Bengay to soothe their neck.
You know, they've had it curved down and
trying to get out of it so long.
And there are enough pastors around who will
dispense some of that spiritual Bengay just to
soothe them a little bit in their compromise
and say, it's alright, you don't have to
put your, it's been said right here, don't
go to Times Square Church, they'll put your
neck in a noose.
Well, bless your heart, we sure will.
I like what Billy Graham said, yes, he
said, I'm narrow-minded, I'm married to only
one woman.
And it goes on from there, the straight
and narrow way, yes.
That's where freedom is.
The Lord told Jeremiah, you know the story,
Jeremiah gave Israel an illustrated sermon on how
he felt about their rebellion and backsliding.
Jeremiah 27-2, thus says the Lord, Make
for yourselves bonds and yokes and put them
on your neck.
The verse previous to it says that this
took place during the reign of Zedekiah.
And in 2nd Quran, it goes 36-12
-13, it tells us what kind of king
and heart Zedekiah had.
Listen to it, and he said, or excuse
me, and he did evil in the sight
of the Lord, his God.
He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the
prophet who spoke to the Lord.
He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who made
him swear by God, but he stiffened his
neck and hardened his heart against turning to
the Lord God of Israel.
Now, there are many, many other things that,
that's not the full word on what the
scripture says about a stubborn and stiff-necked
people, but it is a characteristic that is
carried through from Israel on into the New
Testament, and we'll see that in just a
moment.
But I want to talk about what is
the cause of stubbornness in the heart.
You see, a stubbornness towards God is twofold.
It's vertical and it's horizontal.
It's upward and it's outward.
And when we rebel against God's rule, we
inevitably rebel against church structures and people with
whom we have to deal on a day
-by-day basis.
And with this in mind, I'd like to
look at a few causes of stubbornness.
It's been addressed, as I said before, from
this pulpit by other pastors.
But behind and underneath stubbornness is a need
for certain people for the most part to
always, they always have a need for the
most part to want to be right.
You know, when Lucifer offered or said to
Eve that the forbidden fruit would make her
godlike, at the basis of this was an
appeal to the desire to be a master
of one's own destiny and to be always
right in one's own eyes.
And you see, by the time of the
Book of the Judges, man's rebellion and stubbornness
had reached its zenith when the scripture says,
and every man did that which was right
in his own eyes.
You see, there is that which is within
man that wants to be godlike in intelligence
and wants to have a sense of independence
because, you see, God is totally independent of
anyone or anything but himself.
And there's a desire within man to want
to be godlike in intelligence and in independence,
but of course not to be godlike in
truth or in righteousness or in holiness.
And man wants the power of God to
rule but not to be ruled.
Now Proverbs 21 and 2 says, Every way
of a man is right in his own
eyes, but the Lord pondereth the hearts.
And there's another translation by Moffat, listen to
it.
It says, Man's ways are always right in
his own eyes, but the Eternal has the
verdict on his life.
Now if you live with someone or work
with someone who is very stubborn, chances are
there is a need within that person to
always be right, to want to control the
situation, and be always in command of others
and of events having to do with others.
And at the heart of this, you see,
is the spirit that originated in Lucifer.
Many people are drawn to witchcraft for this
very reason.
They want to control people, they want to
control events.
And the Bible says that such stubborn people
are fools.
Proverbs 12, 15 says, The way of the
fool seems right in his own eyes, but
he that listens to advice is wise.
But let me take this just a little
step further.
Another cause of stubbornness is that it is
often the flip side of a hurt.
It's the flip side of a hurt.
You see, a person who has been hurt
or wounded by another person often gets even
by returning the hurt with stubbornness.
Anger and hurt are twins.
They're opposite sides of the same coin.
And in fact, stubbornness is the third person
of that unholy trinity.
You have hurt, you have anger, you have
stubbornness.
Now, Israel sinned in the wilderness because they
had an unjustified hurt and anger towards God.
You see, a hurt often rises from a
perceived right that is taken from us.
If someone violates what we feel is our
right, if they withhold a felt need, we're
hurt.
And Israel was hurt and was angry because
they felt Moses and God had forsaken them.
Listen to Exodus 32, 1.
Now, when the people saw that Moses delayed,
Moses delayed to come down from the mountain,
the people assembled around Aaron and said to
him, Come, make us a God who will
go before us as for this Moses, the
man who brought us up from the land
of Egypt, we do not know what has
become of him.
You see, Israel unjustly felt that God had
forsaken them.
They felt denied of a right.
And they rebelled and so they assembled around
Aaron.
And that's a picture of an angry, stubborn
people taking matters into their own hand and
demanding that their leaders satisfy their needs.
And be careful when you start thinking or
acting like Israel did here.
That's when we think God has unjustly delayed
coming down from the mountain to answer our
prayers.
You may be asking God to restore your
marriage.
You may be asking him to save an
unsaved loved one.
You may be asking him to open a
certain door or supply a certain need or
answer a special request or whatever.
And when God delays, you can become like
Israel and feel hurt and denied or forsaken.
And this can lead you to find an
Aaron and surround him and demand that he
make you a God to satisfy your need.
And then, of course, there is a stubbornness
that arises towards specific persons who have hurt
us.
You know, the Lord showed me a long
time ago in marriage that at times when
I was obstinate or stubborn over a certain
thing with my wife, that that stubbornness was
a payback.
It was a payback.
A payback for a right that I felt
that she had denied me.
Or for a hurt I felt that she
was guilty of inflicting on me.
And so my stubbornness might come out the
next day or it might come out the
next week.
And she sometimes had no idea why I
was being so stubborn and strong-headed.
Sometimes she did, but sometimes she didn't.
And this is a game called, you didn't
do what I like.
You didn't do, you didn't meet my wishes.
You didn't give me my way.
And so, I'm going to get back at
you.
You want to go shopping?
You want to go get a new dress?
Well, this heifer not moving.
I say that because early in our marriage,
my wife didn't drive the car.
And she had to wait for me.
She'd wait all day long.
I'd come home and she wanted to go
somewhere.
And sometimes I'd just get stubborn and this
heifer wouldn't move.
The cart wouldn't move.
And she didn't know what was going on.
It was payback because of some right that
was denied.
Proverbs 18, 19 says, A brother offended is
harder to be won than a strong city.
And their contentions are like the bars of
a castle.
Oh boy.
Bars of a castle.
When you're stubborn, you build a fortress of
walls around you.
And you say, I'm not coming out and
you're not coming in.
And worst of all, is that that leads
you to have a broken relationship with the
Lord.
You know, it's very interesting.
In Acts chapter 16, verse 14, Jesus said
to Saul, He said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou me?
Now you remember that Saul was on the
road to Damascus.
He thought that he was set on his
own way for God.
He thought he was going for God.
He thought he was doing God's service.
And listen to me, we are never free
from the snare of being deceived into thinking
that we're on a path as Saul was.
Believing that he was on God's mission and
doing God's will.
And yet, at the same time, was persecuting
Christ.
This is the end of Sidon.
Until you and I are baptized totally into
Jesus Christ, we will fall into such a
snare as Saul.
You see, stubbornness and self-will will always
stab Jesus Christ.
Whenever we are obstinate and self-willed, and
we set upon our own ambition, we hurt
Christ.
Every time we stand on our own rights
and insist that this is what we are
entitled to do, we are persecuting Jesus.
He said it, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me?
I want to tell you the most crushing
revelation that can ever be discovered is to
find that you are standing up for some
personal desire and you realize that it's not
of God and God reveals that to you,
that spirit in you.
That's a great, that's a tremendous revelation.
You see, one of the characteristics of a
heart unit to God is to have a
teachable spirit.
There is no place or position in God's
kingdom for stubborn, unteachable people.
The qualifications for leadership and service in the
New Testament church had to do with, first
of all, having a teachable spirit.
Ephesians 5, 7 says, We are not to
be partakers with evil doers, but walk as
children of light.
And the next verse says, proving or learning
what is acceptable or pleasing unto the Lord.
I've said so often when I preach how
I thank God for the heritage that was
handed to me by my parents.
One thing that I learned from my mother
that she constantly stressed is that I would
have, she would say to son, I pray
that you have the fear of God.
A fear or reverence for God.
Not to take the things of God lightly
and I thank God I received that from
my mother.
If there's one outstanding thing among many things
that was handed down to me by my
father, it was this, son, have a teachable
spirit.
Have a spirit to learn.
Learn.
Be clay in the potter's hand.
In fact, we sing a song like that.
It became my very favorite song because it
related to what my father would say.
And I remember how he used to, in
the context in which he would teach this
to me.
Being the youngest, I was still at home
when some of my older brothers and sisters
were gone.
And some were off to college and some
went off to marry or were courting and
later got married.
And mom and dad would discuss.
They would talk about my sister Juanita and
some of the problems in her life.
They would talk about David.
They would talk about Jerry.
They'd talk about Ruth.
Mostly they talked about David.
Careful.
My father would turn to me and again,
not in a condescending way whatsoever.
I never heard anger in his voice.
But he would share it with mother because
mother was a praying woman.
Both dad and mom.
Mom didn't say a lot, but she went
to the cause of the prayer.
But sometimes when they would discuss it, my
father would turn to me.
He said, now son, I want you to
listen to this now.
You can learn.
Learn from their mistakes.
I did my best.
Didn't always turn out that way.
But you know, my father in this regard
was like Solomon who writes.
He says, a wise man will hear and
will increase in learning.
And a man of understanding shall attain unto
wise counsels.
Proverbs 9.9 says, give instruction to a
wise man and he will be yet wiser.
Teach a just man or a holy man
and he will increase in learning.
I've been in a position where I've had
for years in ministry where I've had to
hire people for positions.
And sometimes fire people.
And I have found people, I've learned is
that some people who are highly gifted, intelligent,
capable.
But who are strong-willed and self-willed
and stubborn are less qualified than those who
are less intelligent or less capable.
But if they have a teachable spirit, God
can use them.
And I'll take them any day.
I'll take them any day.
It's easier to mold clay than to chisel
a stone.
And when Jesus said to some of his
listeners or what he said to them applies
here tonight, listen.
Matthew 18.3 and he, Jesus said, I
tell you the truth.
Unless you change, unless you change and become
like little children, you will never enter the
kingdom of heaven.
And we enter it, we start by being
like a little child.
And we continue on our path in the
kingdom of God by having a childlike spirit.
Saying, yes Lord, I need to learn.
I need to learn.
I want a teachable spirit.
I visited a young minister like one of
these young men on the platform tonight.
Had a church and ministry.
And he was showing me around his church
and all around his facilities.
And he began, at one point he told
me something that he did.
And I said, boy, I like that.
I said, where'd you learn to do that?
He said, last year when you were here,
you told me about it and I did
it.
I thought, that's interesting.
We went on and later on he told
me about something else he was doing.
I said, hey, I like that.
That's interesting.
When did you start doing that?
He said, last year when you were here,
you mentioned it and I started doing it.
And I said to myself, I said, I'm
going to invest my life in that young
man.
I'm going to give him my time.
Because he's got a teachable spirit.
And I want to tell you, I've met
some people in this church that scare me.
They scare me.
You know why?
Because they have such a teachable spirit.
Almost anything I say, they say, yes pastor,
yes pastor.
And I realize I better give godly advice.
Because they're so willing to learn.
Oh, I thank god for that spirit.
I see it in this congregation.
And thank god for it.
Turn with me to Titus.
Turn with me to Titus and while you're
turning there, I want to say this to
you.
When you go home tonight or tomorrow morning
or whenever, I want you to go through,
I want you to read the book of
Titus.
As I was studying this message, the Lord
said, go to Titus.
I went to Titus.
And what is interesting about Titus is not
only what is said, but who it's said
to.
Paul writes, sends a letter to Titus.
And tells him in chapter 1, verse 5,
or verse 4.
After he gives his customary greeting, he says,
To Titus, my true child in the common
faith, grace and peace from God the Father
and Christ Jesus our Savior.
He says, For this reason I left you
in Crete, that you might set in order
what remains and appoint elders in every city
as I directed you.
Now let me read it again.
Look at it again.
For this reason I left you in Crete,
that you might set in order what remains.
What remains.
Now what he was referring to was the
fact that there were two kind of people
in the church in Crete.
There was a people who were teachable and
there were people who were unteachable.
There were donkeys in the congregation and there
were doves in the congregation.
There were people who were obedient and there
were people who were obstinate.
There were some of the, later on he
refers to some of them of the circumcision,
the Jews.
Who stood against Paul's teaching.
That not only are we saved by faith
but also we're saved by following the traditions
of men.
And they came into that, onto that, into
Crete and they were infiltrated it.
And so Paul writes and he says to
them, to Titus, the letters to Titus in
behalf.
He says, You set in order what remains.
In other words, there's some there that are
not my people.
They're not following, their attitude is wrong.
And so I want you to set in
order what remains of that which is a
godly character.
That which is of a teachable spirit.
And so then he goes on and he
gives instructions in the second chapter to older
women.
Verse 3, Older women likewise are to be
reverent in their behavior.
Not malicious gossips, not enslaved with much wine,
teaching what is good.
That they may encourage the young people to
love their husbands and to love their children.
To be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind,
being subject to their own husbands.
That the word of God might not be
dishonored.
And then he goes on, he talks to
the young men.
And then he ends up really in the
third chapter, in verse 10.
And he says, reject, the King James says
what?
Reject the heretic.
In other words, what had happened is some
of these people were so bullheaded.
They were so strong headed they would not
listen to pure doctrine and to Paul's teaching.
And finally he said, you're going to have
to just disassociate with them.
I'm writing to the church, I want to
set an order.
I'm writing to my own people.
In fact, look at verse 14.
He said, and let our people also learn
to engage in good deeds to meet pressing
needs.
That they may not be unfruitful.
And so there was the contrast spirit that
was in that church.
Now, some people might have said, well, you
know, there was an argument of spirit on
the island of Crete.
Because, well, these people had, that was their
nature.
They had Latin blood in them or whatever.
Or we might chalk it up to some
cultural or ethnic characteristic.
Have you ever met someone who tried to
excuse his temper or his bullheadedness by saying,
well, I got it from my father.
Yeah, they got it from their father, all
right.
Not the one they thought.
Or someone might say, well, you know, we
Irish, you know, that's the way we are.
Or, you know, that's the German in me.
Or Italian or whatever.
Somebody in this church, and I'll not tell
you of what ethnic origin.
He said to me, he said, you know,
when you get three of us together, you've
got to have three churches.
Because we all have our own opinion on
what the church ought to be.
But let me tell you something.
There's no culture, there's no race or nationality
that has a monopoly on stubbornness.
It's not Irish, it's not German, it's not
Swiss, it's not Jewish.
It's plain old sinful nature.
It's carnality and it's not of God.
And God says that he will only move
in a people that are not self-willed,
stubborn.
I want to tell you a story tonight.
I thought of it as these young men
were here giving their testimony.
I want to tell you, turn with me
to Luke 19, and I'm going to tell
you the story.
And I want to show you what the
Lord showed me through this young man's life.
Luke, let's see, Luke 19.
Just open to 19 and I'll share it
in just a moment.
Some years ago in Teen Challenge, there was
a young man, great big fella.
His first name was Alex.
I can't remember his last name except for
the last three letters were S-K-I.
He was a big Polish fella.
And I want to tell you, he was
stubborn.
He was stubborn, he was bullheaded.
And along with it, he had a temper.
Now there are some people who have a
volatile temper along with their stubbornness.
There are other people who are stubborn but
they have a smile on their face.
And they're gentle.
And I've had people in my office, we
pastors have had people in our office.
We've shared things with them and after they
left, we looked at each other and said,
you know.
And all along they're going, yes, yes pastor,
yes pastor.
And when they left, we turned to each
other and we'd say, they didn't hear a
word we said, did they?
And yet they yessed us all the way
down the line.
I tell you, they're the hardest people to
deal with.
The people with a smile on their face.
They have stubbornness, you know, sugar-coated.
But this fella did not.
His was not sugar-coated.
Stubborn and dangerous.
And finally, some of the staff recommended that
I counsel him because he put his, one
day he put his, because he didn't get
his own way, he put his fist through
the wall.
And we were thanking the Lord for that
because it was a wall instead of one
of us.
And so, I called him in to counsel
him.
And the Lord showed me something regarding him
and other people like him.
And here it is in Luke the 19th
chapter, verse 29.
And it came about that when he approached
Bethpage and Bethany near the mount that is
called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples
saying, Go into the village opposite you in
which, as you engage, you will find a
cold tide on which no one yet has
ever sat.
Untie it and bring it here.
And when I called this young man in
to my office to counsel him, the Lord
showed me that he was like this young
colt.
No one had ever sat on him.
Nobody had ever sat on him.
Now, some of you have got some kids
in your house, no one's ever sat, or
I've seen some kids around here I wish
somebody would sit on.
But, you know, I began to question him.
And I said to him, I said, Do
you really want to change your life?
He said, Yes, I do.
And I made the mistake of asking him,
I said, Here's the way I put it.
I said, Where do you see yourself in
the future?
And I'm sitting in my office.
It says Executive Director over the door.
And I'm sitting at my big desk in
my chair.
And when I said to him, Where do
you see yourself in the future?
He pointed at my chair.
I thought, Boy, we're in trouble.
We're in trouble.
He's got this spirit in him.
He's like a young colt no one's ever
sat on and he wants to be a
director of Teen Challenge.
But, you know, the Lord spoke to me
out of this and said, You'll find a
colt tied on which no man yet has
ever sat.
Untie it and bring it here.
And if anyone asks you, Why are you
untying it?
Thus you shall say, The Lord has need
of it.
And I saw, and finally I said to
him a question that nobody thought to ask
him.
Nobody thought to ask him.
I asked him, Are you saved?
He said, No.
No.
And when he said that, I sat up
on my seat and I looked at him
and I pointed my finger and I said,
Listen, you get saved or you get out
of here.
He said, Yes, sir.
Yes, sir.
He said, Is that all?
I said, Yes, you're dismissed.
That was a Friday night.
I left town.
I had to go speak somewhere.
And I made arrangements for them to bring
all the Teen Challenge Feathers to a church
over in Inglewood, New Jersey on Sunday night
to be at the meeting.
And I told them, I said, I'm going
to be a little late, but I'll be
there at the meeting.
I want the Feathers to be there.
About five of eight or something, I come,
whatever time it was, I come walking into
the church.
Coincidentally, at the very moment, this young Alex
is sitting on the first pew on the
end, standing there, giving his testimony.
I could see by the look on his
face that something had happened to him.
And when he turned around, he saw me
walking down the aisle.
He said, Well, you told me.
You told me to get saved.
He said, I got saved Saturday night.
Here I am.
That young man had been untied.
If anyone asks you, why are you untying
it?
Thus shall you speak.
The Lord has need of it.
And listen, some of you, there are some
of you here tonight, you're like that colt
you've never been sat on.
But God has need of you tonight.
And those who were sent went away and
found it just as he had been told
them.
And as they were untying the colt, its
owner said to him, Why are you untying
the, you know, it's just like the devil
saying, Why are you trying to untie that
colt?
And they said, The Lord has need of
it.
And here's the verse.
Here's where I'm going to close.
And as he was going, or excuse me,
and they brought it, they brought it to
Jesus.
They brought that stubborn, they brought that colt
that had never been sat upon.
And they brought it to Jesus.
And they threw their garments on the colt
and put Jesus on it.
And put Jesus on it.
Oh, listen, my friend, put Jesus on it.
Hallelujah.
Let Jesus sit on it.
Hallelujah.
Let Jesus sit on it.
Glory to God.
And he'll break the stubborn spirit within you.
Hallelujah.
And you'll be that colt upon which Jesus
rides.
Hallelujah.
Let's stand together.
Thank you, Jesus.
And sure enough, nobody stood.
Thank God that's not this church.
And would to God that it never is
this church.
I've had the occasion to be overseas a
couple of times.
And...