My Last Sermon ) By Many of you who have followed my blogs know that I was once an evangelical preacher who traveled from church to church leading revivals. Below is the last sermon I ever gave, it was short and scared everyone who heard it. I was asked to never preach again. The Last Sermon. "When god took his mighty hand and waved it thru the emptiness of space he made a wondrous sound. It was a sound of possibilities. It was the sound of creation. It was the whisper of things to come. It was the miracle of first things. He stands outside the boundaries of time. Space can not contain his fullness. Yet with a still small voice he set the stars in motion. With a thought he conceived the earth in all its wonder." "That same god indwells us as we indwell him. We occupy the same space." "when I proclaim that god is in me and god is in you, I also mean that I am in god." "Don't be mistaken. I am no more a God than a hair can claim to be a man." "If the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow The trumpet, and the people are not warned and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken in his iniquity; but his blood god will require from the watchman's hand. I will not have your blood stain my heart. If the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow The trumpet, and the people are not warned and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken in his iniquity; but his blood god will require from the watchman's hand. I will not have your blood stain my heart. I am a man who opened his bible one day and suddenly realized that he had been wrong. I practiced Christianity as I had been taught. I accepted the role of the church without question and felt that god blessed his people, with tangible things like possessions and wealth. We have been taught that a righteous man will prosper and an evil man will suffer in this life and the next for his crimes. Yet all around us we see evil men living a life of comfort and providing wealth for generations of their descendents. The monopoly barons who built a fortune on the backs of the public have been replaced with modern cash hoarding stock monopoly barons who enrich themselves at the expense of the worker and the public. Evil triumphs again so it seems. We have the faith that god will bless the righteous, while our eyes see only the evil men getting blessed. God is not a bank. The prosperity that god showers on men does not have anything to do with money. Job asked the same questions of god. "Why do evil men prosper?" There is a hidden in this question. All life with or without riches is a unearned gift from god. Grace abounds for all men. Gods blessing falls like rain upon all mankind. If that were not true then god would not have perfect love. God sends angels to care for and protect all men whether they are saints or a serial killers. If that were not true then god would not have perfect love. You don't have to be good for god to love you. The number of possessions you have is not a blessing, it is a challenge! Can you love others at the expense of yourself? Jesus asked that of the rich young ruler to sell all that he had and give it to the poor. He failed the test. A wealthy person can only serve god by becoming a servant to the needy. A lowly man will be glorified by god. The practice of religion is an organized system of beliefs given to you by someone who is no closer to the truth than you are. Religion for religion sake is not pleasing to god. It is like a casket all draped and pretty outside, but inside there is death. The sad truth is that you have been lied to. The deception began in the early church and has continued to today. It has had the effect of misleading and confusing billions of people. There are no exceptions. All organized Christian denominations and major religions are lying to you. The roman catholic and orthodox are included. You were never supposed to have given your money to the church. You were never supposed to have built nice buildings. You were never supposed to have had someone else do the job that god asked for you to do yourself. The religionists told you to give our money to organized religion so that the experts could spend it wisely. The experts in the Roman Catholic Church endorsed and blessed Adolph Hitler. The same experts tortured and killed millions of people for political reasons. An ancestor of mine was burned at the stake in Scotland for refusing to worship a statue of an obscure saint. The experts in the protestant evangelical groups were the Swaggerts, Jim and Tammy Baker and Larry Lea. They filled their pockets and continued in their sin with no remorse except having been caught. All of organized religion has preoccupied itself with fundraising. All of organized religion is a lie. God doesn't need your money. He needs human beings who truly care more about others than they do for themselves. You were supposed to have given the best of your efforts and a percentage of your income to the poor. That is your calling. That is why you are here. Someday god is going to ask you why you didn't do it. What are you going to say to him? When a man gives a gift, he is not giving up his income. He is really borrowing the balance that he possesses from god. So where is the glory in giving? The shame is in borrowing too much. When you hold back, you rob the poor. If a man gives a tithe to god when his mother or father are in need, his worship is in vain. He might as well just Take his money and go home. God said "but in vain do they worship me, teaching as their doctrines, the precepts of men." God doesn't need your money. Only paid clergy, organized religions and televangelists need it. Give your tithe to the poor people and god will take care of the church. Give to those you see that are in need, to the widows and orphans or your parents. There is a large church in a southern town that is quite proud. The pastor I'll call dr. Smith. The good doctor has led his congregation to do great things. When he came there it was a small backwards group that had little potential in his eyes. Dr. Smith is a mover and a shaker. Soon he had the whole group stirred up with a fundraiser. The funds poured in from everywhere. In a few short years the church had been transformed. Now instead of a few families in a small humble building there is a large multi-storied complex with a gymnasium, weightroom and daycare facilities. They are thinking of starting a private school. "Today" cries the watchman. "Today your soul will be required of you." What did he find? The watchman found a large number of people who really thought that they were giving to god. They were very adamant about it. The congregation was upper-class whites only. No one ever came out and said it, but most people felt that nonwhites should worship somewhere where they might fit in better. The gymnasium was of course for church members only. To make sure none of the bad element wandered in from the street, every member was issued a special pass. If you left the church of course your pass was revoked. The weight room and business conference rooms were a steady source of revenue. The daycare facility was priced to exclude those lowlifes that would take advantage of the church and just drop their Kids off. "Today" cries the watchman. "today your soul is required of you." You gave nothing to god. Your upper-class white congregation is an abomination to the living god. The gym, the weight room, the business conference rooms and the spacious building is a temple of false worship. You worship yourselves and then claim to be of Christ. The watchman will cut you down. The death angel is coming for you. You will cry and gnash your teeth and curse those false preachers. Christ said that anything you do for these my brethren, you do also for me. You have abused the very god who gave you wealth. The only gift you can give to god is charity and kindness to the poor. Take the ten percent you set aside for your tax deduction, and give it to a homeless shelter or a soup kitchen. Give it to the poor family you pass every morning on the way to work. Give it to the free clinic to help cover care of the indigent. That is how you give to god. Take no deductions. If you stand to gain anything at all from the act of giving, your gift is worthless. Do you think that you can fool a god? If someone claims that god has spoken to him, and it contradicts the written word. He is a liar. If someone tells you that god wants you to give him money, he is also a liar. God can be found in the soup kitchens and the homeless shelters not on television. It is gods will that all men prosper. Prosperity has nothing to do with money. It is a state of immense joy. Found only in those people who give of themselves daily to help all that they see. Service to others is our purpose. That is why you are here. These things are true: 1) that jesus christ truely is the son of god who came to pay the penalty for our sins. 2) That the written word (bible) is the only true oracle of god in the modern world. 3) that ten percent of your income should be given to the poor and the needy. 4) that all children are responsible for supporting their parents. 5) that forgivness of sin is a free gift and not the result of any work at all. 6) That all men and women, sinners and saints are equal before god. 7) That if you do not love others you can not love god 8) That you must witness to others or you will not be saved. 9) That if you have material things and see a person in need and close your heart to them, you are not saved. Love is not shown in words, it is shown in action. Dont be fooled. God is not in the fundraising business. Organized religion is the worst thing that could have ever happened to the church that Christ left behind. God is truth and truth is hard. Jesus said "if you deny me before men, I'll deny you before my father." You must witness to others about Christ. Your silence will witness a far different story, than you want it to. You're only chance to clarify, is to speak up. Reality is this, that god has given his son to shield us from the consequences of our own errors. No one has a right to feel proud. No one has a right to feel superior. No one has been given secret knowledge. No one has the inside track with god. All that I have spoken is contained in the word of god. When I realized it, my heart was broken. Ask yourself this question. "Am I saved?" If you believe with your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is lord you will be saved. When you believe with your heart faith is born in you. When you witness to others salvation is yours. When faith enters your life you begin to notice a change. Slowly but surely the old is replaced with the new. You begin to do good deeds that you would never have thought of before. When you witness to others, you show that you are not ashamed. There are millions of people on this earth that think they are "saved". They go about bringing shame on gods name with their behavior. They scare millions of people away from god. They live a life of intolerance and bigotry. And they are lost. There are millions more that really care. They don't picket clinics, but offer help and care to women whether they had an abortion or not. They don't hate someone for their sin, they realize that all sins are the same. Forgiveness if it is real, can wash away all sins. The forgiveness from god is real. Once a long time ago, I stood on a balcony thirteen stories above the streets of Dallas. My world had come to an end. I lost my wife and child in a divorce that I did not want. I stood there with my eyes glazed over. Slowly I felt a hand in the middle of my back push me to the railing. The thought crept into my mind "wouldn't it be nice to fly?." I could feel the rush of warm air on my face as I was pushed into the night air. Suddenly I grabbed the rail with both hands a tight as I could. The hand on my back kept pushing, pushing. Then it was gone. I began a recovery that night. Within three years my life was back to normal. I had a new family, bigger and better than the first. I had all my children together under my own roof. I could not see it when I stood on that balcony in Dallas. My god was with me in Dallas. I could not see him. He stood beside me on that balcony. I could not feel him. Had not deserted me even though I thought that he had. He will not desert you either. There is no depth to which you have fallen that god will not lift you up. There is no pain so bitter that he will not calm it. There is no disappointment so deep that he will not help you forget. Mahatma Gandhi once said the only thing keeping him from becoming a Christian was "Christians." Don't fall into that trap. You don't judge a car by the driver. Don't look at the behavior of Christians. Look at yourself. When I was a young man I was prone to have visions. At sixteen in the backyard of our modest home in Texas, I heard the voice of god. I was raking grass clippings, looking down at the ground when above and behind my head I heard a voice. The sound was resonant and clear. "I have waited too long, now you are going to come work for me." that was my call to the ministry. That was the beginning of my search for truth. At eighteen the message came to me in a dream. I found myself behind the wheel of a car. Driving somewhere in the dark and the rain. The wipers had failed and the windshield began to fog. In a panic I wiped the glass with my shirtsleeve and strained to see the road ahead. In the distance I saw a white funnel of swirling clouds strike the earth. I pulled the car over on the shoulder of the road and stepped out the door. I stood there amazed, watching the tornado approach. I found myself in a field walking toward the maelstrom. The wind began to diminish, yet the funnel was still there only a few yards away. As I approached the tornado it seemed to grind to a halt. Frozen in time. A solid white tower reaching to the sky in front of me. I reached out my hand and palmed it's surface. The feel was that of cold solid marble, white and still. The next moment I seemed to be outside my body. I was above a platform on which my body stood. I saw my hands moving wildly to the left and right. I was preaching to a small group of twenty or so people who stood on the floor before me. Suddenly lightning emerged from my body and struck the crowd. They were gone. I was on my back on the floor. I saw a hand with the index finger extended emerge from the air above me. The disembodied hand reached down and touched my left then right thigh. I screamed in pain at my seared flesh then awoke with a start. Sitting up in bed I shuddered in fear as the moment passed. Suddenly I became aware that the searing pain in my thighs remained. I leapt from the bed and ran to the bathroom where I found the bloody seared marks in my flesh. Those scars have never properly healed and remain with me to this day. That is the reason I am telling you the truth. I am afraid to do otherwise. Am I a prophet? No, I have been given no message, no foretelling of the future. No great truth to impart save this. That there is a god who intervenes in the lives of men. There is a god who watches over the good and the bad with equal measure. There is a god who loves the best and the worst in men. But where is he you ask? Why to drug dealers and pimps and gangsters and politicians and serial killers and mass murderers and lying clergy prosper in this world. Because god doesn't get his way. Seldom is his will done. Don't look for him, listen. Listen to the cry of the orphaned Children in the Night. Listen to the wail of the homeless in the cold. Listen to the sobs of the beaten wife who bears her burden just one more time. Listen. Listen to the heartbreak of the worn-out doctor and the caring nurse who weep when the patient will not live despite every effort. Listen. Listen to the sirens wail and the parents mute tortured silence and the child's dying gasp and the dazed drunken drivers weeping as he cries "My god what have I done." listen. Listen to the young man dying with aids in a bed of sorrow shunned and feared by his parents and surrounded only by his peers, with not a family member in sight. Listen to the footsteps in the dark, that hurry home to escape the horror on the city streets. Listen to the rain on the roof. To the wind in the trees. And know. Know that there is a god who listens. Who will not forget. There will be an end to this. One day soon the listening god will stir. If the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken in his iniquity; but his blood god will require from the watchman's hand. I will not have your blood stain my heart. "Today" cries the watchman. "Today your soul will be required of you." 20 Comments TinSoldier said.... ) Wow. Just wow. I can't imagine why the church refused you back, because that kind of sermon should have been able to bring even the most skeptical sheep back into the fold. Okay, maybe not the most skeptical since it's not going to make me religious again, but I can agree with many of the sentiments that you wrote. There is much truth in this. It is probably one of the best things that I have read in the last several weeks. * Zayda said.... ) Hunter, I am so glad to see you reposted. Reading this just takes my breath away. * said .... ) I seem to have read your stuff backwards. That's me. I feel like a rock on a beach of sand, trying to help the ocean see what it My apologies. I think, even though I may be a rock and you "an ocean", we're looking in the same direction. I hope to learn more from you and gain more insight. Thank you, Mica It was not * bwright said .... ) Were you asked to never preach again because of THAT particular sermon? I can't imagine why. It shows that folk really, really don't want to hear the truth! * lioneljay said .... ) Hunter, I did my best to hear these words as if they were being delivered and I was profoundly moved. I despise what organization has done to the practice of faith. It's no wonder that your ticket to the pulpit was punched that day - but shame on them who did so. Well done. * silverwhisper said .... ) hunter, like zayda i'm thrilled to see this back. ed * rightwingwizard said .... ) Having now read your final sermon several times I find that I might at last make some comments. First however, I must say that I wish I had been there to see the reactions from the congregation. While I might (were I of a mind) pick at the edges of your message, I am convinced that the hand of God was upon you that evening. You made some very powerful statements, all well grounded in the Word. I do however understand why you might have been 'removed' from the list of available guest evangelists. You suggested that we as Christians have some responsibility as to our undertanding of what it means to walk with Christ. You further suggested that with said undertanding comes responsibility to love (agape) with the same love by which God loves us. You could have used I Corinthians 13 as your primary text, as Paul was saying much the same thing there. In general I have found that the 'faithful' don't want to hear the truth, they want to be placated, soothed and coddled. It is no wonder you were not asked to speak again, you spoke truth. God Bless! * bloc said .... ) "You were never supposed to have had someone else do the job that god asked for you to do yourself. The religionists told you to give our money to organized religion so that the experts could spend it wisely." This is a universal truth that pervades all of life. A sure sign of an immature person is someone that looks for others to solve their problems or for instant gratification. I once read an essay that claimed our inherent laziness, of which the above is a manifestation, is our original sin. One question. "4) that all children are responsible for supporting their parents." And if ones mother is a drug addict that never cared for them and their father is a stranger they've never known? * said 5 days ago.... ) Bloc, If you knew your Mother or Father was hungry and had no shelter would you not take them in. I know you would. They don't have to be deserving of love to receive it. It is what it is. Even the most abusive parent is loved by the abused child. I still love God although I feel like he abandoned me a long time ago. I still pray and call myself athiest. Because if God is trully there he doesnt deserve my hatred. He deserves my Love. We don't have the right to overlook one person's suffering because they were bad. We don't have the right to pick and choose who we will help in this life. I am glad that people don't get what they deserve, I would be in deep trouble then. HBC * bloc said .... ) "We don't have the right to overlook one person's suffering because they were bad. " This isn't the point I was making. Let me rephrase. I can't help everyone in the world, it's simple math. Therefore, I have to be selective in who I help so I help those I care about the most. What if my parents didn't fit into that list? * said .... ) Your parents have to fit on the list is my point. I am having trouble with this myself. My parents were very wealthy when I grew up, yet they both kicked me out of the house at 17. They both decided to take me out of my fathers will. Now my father is dead. My mother has spent all of his money and she expects me to send her a check every month. I did this for a long time until I couldnt afford to anymore. She doesnt deserve my help, but I still owe it to her. If she is truly in need I will help her before I give money to anyone else. If she just wants stuff then I owe her nothing. HBC * bloc said .... ) I guess this is another reason why I'm not a Christian ;) * rightwingwizard said .... ) bloc: In your scenario above, one must do what one understands to be right. As for me, were I to find my bitterest enemy (I have none) begging at my castle gate I whould have him taken in, bathed, clothed and fed. I would do this knowing that the day may well come that I would meet him once again on the fields of battle. As such it has little to do with being christian, jewish, islam, or any other faith or non-faith. It has everything to do with being human. rww * bloc said .... ) @rww I understand what your saying, but maybe I have a slightly different perspective. I work in the middle of one of the largest cities in the US. I literally have many many people directly begging of me every single day. I can't possibly help everyone that comes to me in need. It's literally impossible. If we then start from the assumption that we can only help a limited number of people then it begs the question; how do we choose who to help? * rightwingwizard said .... ) bloc: I may be fundamentally flawed, but when I encounter someone in need I try to aid the person in some tangible way. Perhaps that is why I usually have little more than two nickles in my pocket to rub together, which I would gladly give to someone else should they have need for them and ask. I am however content in my heart and soul. Rww Read the rest of the comments here: If you liked this post, create your own free blog and join the SoulCast community. Our growing community is diverse, supportive, vibrant, opinionated, uncensored, and full of life's experiences! Click Here to Join: SoulCast - Uncensored Blogging PO Box 90014 Los Angeles, CA 90014 To purchase or change buy onliner options visit:

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