One Person Can Make a Difference

I'm going to start off with just a little bitty story that really has nothing to do with anything I'm going to preach about. This last weekend I was in Austin with my daughter and Patty, and we were sitting there, and I was checking on the national finals, and the header on the team roping that won that the finals that night was a guy named Lightning Aguero, and I thought, I told, I said, you know, I bet you money that her, their parent, his parents decided he was going to be a roper from day one, and it, and that's what he was. My daughter, she looks at, why would parents name their child something like that? I said, child, you are lucky. I said, if it had been up to me, your name would have been Fuego, fire. I had this, you know, whenever she was, you know, Patty was having little issues and everything, and she was just going to be a little firebrand, and I wanted to name her Fuego. Well, I got vetoed.

Gianna's name was going to be Doodlebug, and that is her nickname, you know, because she was, when she was little bitty, she'd get down there, and she's just a little turd roller. She'd get down there, and she'd just put her head down and just roll things and all that, and so, like I said, that really has nothing to do with my sermon today, but it does because it's about God's love in her lives and all that. I'm going to get started with our scripture. Starting in Mark 5, verse 1, you know, Jesus heals a demon-possessed man. He has come from the other side of the lake, and as he came off, there was this man who's possessed by demons. You know, this comes in scriptures in three different chapters, three different books. Matthew has it down as two different demons, as two men possessed by demons, but it's all, everything else lines up with each other.

So they arrived at the other side of the lake in the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus climbed out of the boat, a man possessed by an evil spirit came out from the cemetery to meet him. This man lived among the burial caves and could no longer be restrained, even with a chain. Whenever he was put into chains and shackles, as he often was, he snapped the chains from his wrists and smashed the shackles. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Day and night he wandered among the burial caves and in the hills, howling and cutting himself with sharp stones. When Jesus was still some distance away, the man saw him, ran to meet him, bowed low before him, and with a shriek he screamed, why are you interfering with me, Jesus, son of the Most High God?

In the name of God, I beg you, don't torture me. For Jesus had already said to the spirit, come out of the man, you evil spirit. Then Jesus demanded, what is your name? And he replied, my name is Legion, because there are many of us inside this man. When the evil spirit begged him again and again not to send them to some distant place, there happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding on the hillside nearby. Send us into those pigs, the spirit begged. Let us enter them.

So Jesus gave them permission and the evil spirits came out of the man and entered the pigs and the entire herd of about 2,000 pigs plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned in the water. The herdsmen fled to a nearby town in the surrounding countryside, spreading the news as they ran. People rushed out to see what had happened. A crowd soon gathered around Jesus and they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons. He was sitting there fully clothed and perfectly sane and they were all the same, all afraid. Then those who had seen what had happened told the others about the demon-possessed man and the pigs and the crowd began pleading with Jesus to go away and leave them alone. As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him, but Jesus said, no, go home to your family and tell them everything the Lord has done for you and how merciful he has been.

So the man started off to visit the 10 towns of that region and began to proclaim the great things Jesus had done for him and everyone was amazed at what he told him. Father God, this morning I pray that you will that you will speak through me, that you will open up the hearts of those to hear what the words that you have for them, Father. I pray that you put me aside, that whenever I'm speaking the words only come from you and you are the only one seen up here, Father. Father God, we thank you for all that you do for us, each and every one of us. In your name we pray, amen. This demon-possessed man, he was uh, man, can you imagine enough demons to drive 2,000 hogs crazy? That's a lot of demons in one man.

And Jesus healed him, but everyone was afraid of that healing. So Jesus sent him off to tell of what he had done. Turn to, if you turn to chapter 6, the very end of it, this is right after Jesus walks on water and Peter reaches out for him and tries to walk on water himself. Verse 53, after they had crossed the lake, they landed at Gennesaret. They brought the boat to shore and climbed out. The people recognized Jesus at once and they ran throughout the whole area carrying sick people on mats to wherever they heard he was. Wherever he went, in villages, cities, or the countryside, they brought the sick out of the, out to the marketplaces.

They begged him to let the sick touch at least the front fringe of his robe and all who touched him were healed. One person made a huge difference because he was touched by Jesus, he was healed, and then he shared his testimony with those around him. See, I titled this thing, One Person Can Make a Difference, but basically it's a gospel. Each and every one of us have a gospel inside of us. Mine's a gospel according to Winnie. It's how God has touched my life and how he has used me to further the kingdom. That gospel's inside each and every one of you, and I pray you are able to write that out and to share it with the world.

You don't have to put it on paper, but write it in your heart because he's been doing things for you. See, for me, he's done things for years, a long, long time. You know, I kind of, I grew up in the church, but I'm going to tell you, we weren't really a spiritual family. You know, I was dropped off at Sunday school and then picked up. Every now and then, my parents would go to church. We'd meet us there and we'd go through church, but typically we were dropped off and picked up. My grandparents, neither side, I never saw, went to church with either of them, any of them.

My dad's parents, they, I don't, I know to this day that they both died without knowing Jesus. On the other side, I've had, I got some, been told some things that there's a chance my grandparents knew Jesus. But my granddad, I had an uncle that passed away. My mom's brother died in a car wreck when he was right out of college, and my granddad became an alcoholic because of that. See, when things happen in our lives, we get choices, bad things, good things. We have choices on how we take those things. We can either go to God, or we can go to something else, like the bottle.

My granddad chose to go to the bottle. But I did come to accept Jesus while I was in junior high.

I took confirmation. Now, whether you want to say that that took or not, that's kind of up for debate. You know, kind of, I was kind of like Bill. It's what you did. You grew up in the church. You took confirmation. You accepted Jesus.

You got baptized. It's just what you did. When I got to high school, though, I found I liked alcohol, and I'd drink. My senior year in high school, me and a buddy of mine would go out, and each, on Friday night, we'd each buy a case of Coors Light and a fifth of Lord Calvert. By Sunday afternoon, we were finishing it off. Every single week. Got to college, and it just kept going.

I was the life of the party. I knew how to dance, so I'd go to the bars, and I was, I could stack them up. I was fun to be around, and so I had lots of friends. But I didn't have anything to do with God. I didn't need Him. Got married. Had our first child.

I remember when she was born, I actually cried out to God. Because Patty had a cesarean c-section, and when Bailey was born, it was silence. I remember sitting there going, aren't babies supposed to cry? I remember looking at the doctor, the pediatrician had her, and looking at the doctor, and the doctor had a worried look in his eyes. I remembered my upbringing a little bit, and I cried out to God. But that was quickly forgotten. I like to drink.

I had lots of cattle. I had cattle all over the country. Lived in Freona, and I had cattle. I probably had 2,000 head within 30 miles of Freona. We had a ranch at Clarendon, and I had a ranch over here in Florida, and I'd travel every day all around that. And then I met a man. Ranch in Clarendon, we had a manager there. Just hired.

Guy my age. He had a son who was the same age as my daughter, but his son was different. His son—actually, to be honest, his son was born to die. He was born with a genetic defect. This child—my child was running around, talking, and all full of life. This one laid in a crib, moaning. Couldn't walk.

Couldn't feed itself. Couldn't do anything for itself. And I remember the second time in my life that I cried out to God, God, thank you that I don't have to go through this. I prayed for that child to be taken away—taken back to God so that they would not have to go through all that was going on there. I was selfish. God doesn't honor that, and he didn't. I remember one night, I was coming back from Clarendon, heading to Freona.

There's a roadside park between Silverton and Clarendon, right on the edge of the Cap Rock. I'd always pull in there—check tires—and I pulled in there, and I started crying. I started sobbing because I realized that I was the one that needed Jesus, that I was the one that needed him. See, I look at the Scripture in Matthew where you have the narrow gate to go to heaven and then the narrow path. I believe I had entered that narrow gate, but I was not on that narrow path. I was in a pasture that I was looking for a gate to get out of that thing, to get away from God, but I was still there. And in that moment, when I turned to Jesus, he was right there with me.

I went home that night—it was a Saturday night—next morning early, went to take care of cattle. I had to do it every seven days a week, and I found myself right before church started, driving through Freona, Texas, and I don't know how I did it, but my pickup turned, horse in the trailer and everything, boots and spurs on, and parked right in front of that church. And that was an amazing thing from God because there was actually a parking spot big enough for me and my trailer right in front of the church, and I walked in right after church started. My down the aisle to sit with my wife and daughter. Patty always tells a story about how my mom was not too happy with me because I wasn't dressed right for church, and she nudged her and says, don't say a word, he's here. They'd been praying for me, and that changed my life right there. Whether my first acceptance of Christ was right or not, that second one absolutely was.

I was right with God, and life started changing for me. Things that you may not think would be good were good. Bailey, Gianna came and was born, and I remember being the pallbearer, the man who saved my life, that little boy. He finally left, but he didn't leave this world until I saw his daddy, his earthly father actually hold him in his arms, and love on him. That child had a purpose. Imagine that, someone who cannot speak, who cannot walk, can bring someone to Jesus. Life went on for me.

Ended up, you know, going on a walk, which was another thing that just absolutely rocked my world and changed my life. I remember after going on that walk, my pastor, my mentor, Wendell Horn, said something about me preaching. I said, no way, I ain't gonna do that. I'm gonna step up in a pulpit. He just kind of left it. About a month later, I came to him and said, okay, what do I need to do? He said, well, there's a lay speaker training coming up.

So I went through lay speaker training. Went through several of those and ended up teaching lay speaker training in this area. I was head trainer for the Plainview District, which doesn't really say much, but I was still the head trainer. Became the district lay leader and everything. One day, Wendell asked me again, when are you about ready to surrender to preach? I said, no way, it ain't happening. A couple months later, I walk in and talk to Patty and said, I think God wants me to be a preacher.

She looked at me and said, I'm afraid you won't figure that out. See, God had a hand in it. People knew, could see in me what he was doing. God was asking me to change lives, to plant seeds. I've got to tell a story because about that time, God talked to me in a very unique way. I decided I needed to be a better dad.

We had moved to Florida. In fact, we'd had a big tornado in Freona that Patty said, okay, it's all right, we can move. So we moved to the ranch. Before that, she didn't want to. We'd moved there and it gave me extra time. Instead of being gone from four o'clock in the morning till almost midnight every night, day, I didn't leave the house till about 730 in the morning once it got light. And when times were slow, I was home at noon and I got to spend time with my kids.

Well, about that time, my girls were into princess movies and all that kind of stuff. All those Disney princess movies and stuff. You know, for a dad who's raised in a family of boys that all we knew about was hunting, fishing, working, cattle, horses, that type of stuff, princess movies are not a thing. And I did not care for it. But I love my children. So I'd sit there, I'd reach down, grab a Western Horseman, Outdoor Life, something, Cabela's Catalog, something, keep me busy while they watched those movies. And I took time to be with them.

About that time, they came up, you know, and you'd watch a movie. And this is the thing that was kind of drove me crazy is you watch a movie. And this is back in days of VHF. So those tapes would wear out. And I think, oh my God, good, thank you. I got a reprieve. We can watch something else.

But Patty would go buy it again. And so we'd start all over with.

And they had a movie. And I know it wasn't the girls' favorite ones, but they'd watch it quite a bit. First time we watched it, I thought, I kind of like this one. It was The Princess Bride. How many of you have watched The Princess Bride? Princess Bride, when I do a Christmas, especially with a bunch of guys, I tell them, this is a great movie to take your girlfriend to. Because it has everything, love, and all that stuff that they like.

And you do not have to give up your man card to watch it. It's kind of like having, I've got an Australian shepherd. He's cute.

Kids, girls love him. But he's not a poodle, so I don't have to give up my man card for him to carry him around. But in this movie, a spot in this movie just touched my heart. I've got to tell you the story. See, in The Princess Bride, you know, you had Princess Buttercup. Which at the time, she wasn't actually a princess at the first of the movie, but she was drop dead gorgeous. She's beautiful.

And you had her hired hand, her stable hand, Wesley. She wasn't very good to him. Buttercup was mean to Wesley. She'd make him do things, clean out the stall, go do all this, do that. She was mean to him. And he would reply to her, as you wish, every single time. Over time, she finally figured out that as you wish meant, I love you.

And she started reciprocating that love. Well, as every man does in those times, he didn't have the means of making a living for her. So he got on a boat, went across the ocean to gain his fortune, and tragedy hit. His ship was captured by the dread Pirate Roberts. And everyone knows that the dread survived. Her Wesley was dead. Her one true love was dead.

And she mourned. And she mourned. But her beauty, her beauty caught the attention of the prince of the land, Prince Humperdinck. Prince Humperdinck decided he needed to marry her. And he finally got her to say yes. She wasn't happy, but her Wesley was dead, so why not? If you're going to rebound, you might as well rebound with the prince.

But Prince Humperdinck did not have good intentions. See, the only reason he wanted to marry her, so that he could have her kidnapped and taken to the Guild of Frontier and killed. So then he could start a war and gain the Guildens as his land, take over their land. It's the only reason he did it. So he hired three thugs. Nego Montoya, the Spanish swordsman, was on a quest to find the six-fingered man who had killed his dad. He's after vengeance.

Vesic, giant of a man, brute strength, once fought five men in a bare-handed battle and won. And Ficini, a Sicilian with mind-blowing intellect, who had called Aristotle Socrates morons. They captured her and were taking her to the Guild of Frontier. When all of a sudden, a man in black showed up. He defeated the Spaniard with swordplay. He defeated the giant in a bare-handed wrestling match. And he defeated Ficini in a battle of wits.

But Buttercup wasn't happy. She was mad. She'd rather have died at the hands of the others. Because the man who saved her, the man she hated more than anyone in this world, the Dread Pirate. The one who had taken her true love from her. The part of the movie that really got to me, where God spoke to me in it. They were at the top of a hill.

They were arguing. And Dread Pirate Roberts was saying, you don't deserve that man. You took the first person, you took a prince over waiting on that man. He didn't deserve you. And he asked her, he says, what do you want of me? And she says to die and pushes him off a hill. And as he's rolling down the hill, he yells out, as you wish.

Realizing it was her true love, she rolled down the hill after him. And at the bottom of that hill, he said, why did you not wait for me? And she said, you were dead. And then these words came out of his mouth. Death cannot overcome true love. See, Christ died for us. Because of his love for us.

And when he died on that cross, through true love, that death could not keep it down. You see, God talks to us in many different ways. He reaches out to us. He gives us stories. You know, I know I'm different than Carrie. My preaching style is a lot different. I'm a storyteller.

Now, I will warn you, though, on that. I'm under the mantra that truth can't get in the way of a good story. Don't let the truth get in the way of a good story. Now, it doesn't mean I'm going to lie. But I'm not going to let the truth get in the way of a good story. But each of us have what God is calling us to do. He's given us a story.

He's reaching out to each and every one of you. Saying, hear my child. I want you to tell the world of who I am. I want you to go to the ten cities and share what I've done for you.

Who I am. And if we do that, the world will be a better place. See, God has his hand upon this church. He has his hand upon everyone in here. He wants us prodigals to share our story with those around us. He wants us to write a gospel. A gospel of how Jesus Christ has affected our lives.

How he has taken this broken down old cowboy and made him whole again. How he's healed us. And how his love sustains us through everything we go through. Okay, Lord. He said that's enough.

So, Father God, I thank you. Each of us have a story. Let us share your story with those around us, Father. Write that gospel on our hearts. That gospel that says, you changed us. That gospel where we say to you and you say to us, as you wish. Father God, during this Christmas season, let us go out and share the love of Christ to all of those around us.

In your name we pray. Amen. While I still got the mic, I do want to tell a Christmas story real quick. You know, in Luke, they talk about the angels coming to the shepherds. Several years ago, I was given this story by God. You know, there's a shepherd. His name is Bill. There's you.

Bill was out there when those angels came down and he had his son, little Bill, with him. And when all that stuff settled down and they'd gone and they'd seen Jesus and they came back home and they went back to the sheep, little Bill turned to Bill and said, Dad, what did all that mean? Dad said, I don't know. But I think one day we are going to understand. After that, year after year, about that same time of the year, they tell that story around the campfires at home. About how the angels came and they went to that manger and they saw this baby. And every year, Bill would say, we needed to see this.

I don't know what it means, but someday I believe we will. Little Bill grew up and he had a son, Junior. And they went through all those same years, all the time, telling that story. One spring, little Bill and Junior went to Jerusalem to see their dad, see Bill. He was in the assisted living there. And as they were in there and all that, around Passover and the night before, they told that story once again. I don't know why, but one of these days, we're going to understand.

Junior was outside playing the next morning. He came running in, house, he's here, he's here, I've seen him. We got to go, come on, come on. They went out and they watched Jesus die on the cross. Bill looked at his son and grandson. I still don't know why, but I believe one of these days, we'll understand. Three days later, they understood. Thank you.