There’s so much I want to tell you since our direction was changed by Liz’s suggesting to reach out to David Walker. But we need to put first things first.

And God is first. You may recall back in Chapter 45 where I detailed my conversation with Pastor Barber, who was featured on 60 Minutes and who pastors The Baptist Church in Farmersville, Texas.

You may also recall that I told him that I felt that in order to address our debt problem our nation’s people must be stirred to action from our nation’s church pulpits.

Pastor Barber ultimately told me, “You can’t preach a sermon about the national debt. But I sense that what really drives you is an urge to address hypocrisy. You can certainly preach on hypocrisy.”

Well, like everything that has happened in this effort, it took a good while.

But by God‘s grace it did happen.

The timeline looked like this:

• October 2022 - Pastor Bart Barber appears on 60 Minutes.

• November 2022 - I attend his church in Farmersville, Texas.

• March 2023 - Pastor Barber, who was serving as the leader of the Southern Baptist Conference, finally has time for a private Zoom call with me.

• March 27, 2024 - I deliver the sermon message God put on my heart for the first time from the church pulpit at First Baptist Church in Kingfisher.

You may recall me saying that one Bible verse I try to live into is Proverbs 15:22, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors they succeed.”

I tried to live into that in this instance.

I don’t attend the Baptist church. I attend the Federated Church. But just as I feel God wants me to straddle the line between Republicans and Democrats to try to bring unity to our nation, I also feel called to be a friend to all our local churches and pastors.

I like Scott Watkins, pastor of Kingfisher’s First Baptist Church.

I had decided after Bart Barber suggested I preach on hypocrisy to sit down, pour out my heart on the page and write the sermon I felt called to preach.

I wrote the sermon; or you might say the sermon wrote itself. People have said to me, “Wow that is quite a sermon. How did you manage to write that? It must’ve been difficult and taken a long time.”

Well, it was not difficult. As far as the time required, while I’m sure it took several hours, the time passed like minutes. God put the message on my heart.

I merely tried to stay up as the words flowed. I seek no credit for the message. If the message is not God’s, it has no power.

Once the sermon was written, read and reviewed, I began to ponder next steps.

I decided to ask Scott Watkins for his counsel. Scott took the time to read the sermon.

I asked Scott if he would deliver the message. He said the message was mine and I should be the one to deliver it. I should stop and make sure you realize that the oddness of this was not missed by me. Never did I think my unlikely coffee meeting with Tom Coburn in 2016 would lead to me, of all sinners, to be preaching a sermon at the First Baptist Church in my hometown, of all places. Wild is the only way I know to describe it.

A word of caution. When you say yes to God, there is no telling where he might use you and the hidden gifts He may call upon you to use.

This was becoming an example of this truth.

Scott said the Lenten season is upon us. The Kingfisher Ministerial Alliance will wrap up the Lenten series with an evening service on the Wednesday before Easter (aka Holy Wednesday) at the First Baptist Church on March 27, 2024.

Scott said, “Why don’t you deliver your message then?”

I did.

As people were leaving the service, several made kind comments about the power of the message. Please keep in mind, there’s no power in my thoughts or words.

The power was me simply preaching the truths that Jesus commanded that are applicable to our political division, dysfunction and ultimately our debt.

The two comments that really have stuck with me that made me feel like I was truly doing what God called me to do were these: – One person said, “Wow, I need to do some self examination.”

– Another person said, “Ouch, you stepped on my toes.”

If I am called to anything here, it’s getting people to recognize their need to work on their own sins rather than imploring their political adversaries to address theirs.

Fortunately, this happens to be exactly the words of Jesus.

( Editor’s note: Part II of this chapter will appear in an upcoming edition and will feature the sermon delivered by Brian Walter at the First Baptist Church.)