<TITLE>10. Par 35-38</TITLE>L-35 Was an old man one time, and he couldn't make up his mind. The devil kept beating him out of it. One day out in the field he knelt down to pray. While he was praying, he drove down a stob. He said, "Let this be a memorial. Satan, if you ever come to me again, I'll point you to this stob, and I will tell you that right here I met God, and it was settled from here on."
That's what we need, maybe not a stob in a field, but somewhere, some secret closet, some place; not a... Oh, tonight there will be hundreds of vows taken, thousands of them taken. And next year we will have to take them all over again. We will say, "We will quit lying; we will quit doing this, and we will lay aside our temper; we will do more for God; we will do this, or that, or the other," only to find it's in vain.
But what man needs to do tonight, is come face to face with God. And from then on, he's a changed creature. Hallelujah! Oh, I wished I could s... tell it in the way that I believe it. But when a man meets God, he's changed from that minute. The rest of his days he will never be the same, because he's got Eternal Life. He's a new creature; old things have passed away, and all things have become new to him. He looks new.
The sick man can walk in the face of God, when the doctors has said he is going to die; but he can walk in the face of God and plead his case, and he will come away a different person, and from that time on...

L-36 Oh, I remember Congressman Upshaw, setting in a wheelchair for sixty-six years. That night yonder in California when the Holy Spirit come down and begin to speak, he met God, and from then on he could walk without his crutches.
I've seen the time where cancer eaten people, laid with nothing but a shadow, and the doctors had passed by, and said, "They're gone." Their loved ones gather in to say the last words that they could to them; encouragement, but they met God. And from that time on, they were changed. They lived different.
I can see the foul woman yonder on the street. I can see the drunkard yonder in the alley. I can see the hypocrite yonder in the church. All those different kinds of people, each New Year, turning a new sheet and trying to do something different, try to make restitutions and do so forth. Let them meet God one time, and from then on...

L-37 Jesus preached to those from then on that set in the regions of the shadow of death.
And I say tonight, if a man wants to have a real change come on him, let him come face to face with God and meet Him one time, then he can say, "From then on, from that time on, I was a changed man. I know by experience."
In a little while, the church will be gathering here around the altar. You'll be consecrating your lives anew. You'll be giving up things, and laying things on the altar. Brother, let me give you some advice. If you've never met God face to face, let me tell you something: You stay at that altar. Just stay there until you meet God. Then you can point your finger back to that New Year night, not and say, "I turned a new page, I made a new vow," but, "From that time on I met God, and life was changed, and things were different, and everything's become new to me again, from that time on." The time that you meet God.

L-38 It ain't meet a New Year. We're going to face it in a few minutes, after while. In about two and a half hours, I suppose, maybe less than that, we will be meeting a new year face to face. We will meet it with vows; we will meet it with pledges; we will meet it with good intentions. We will meet it saying that we will try to turn a new page; we will try to do different.
That's all good. I appreciate that. Brother, it'll never be eternal until you meet God first. When you meet God first, and from then on, everything will be different.


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