Studies and things like that, just prayer times.
And I have to say, Don, my heart
always feels the same about you, brother.
And I think of you many times.
And I thank God for you, a heart
for revival.
And we should be expecting revival.
God has all power.
Amen?
There's no one that can stop his hand
or say, what can you do?
God is sovereign.
He has all power.
And he's just looking for men and women
who will be completely set apart for him.
And when that happens, God will move.
We don't know to what degree always.
But I do know that I just want
to share a few things.
Just down the road from where I live,
there was a revival back in the 40s.
And it was at Little Southwest Baptist Church.
And the church basically had gone through quite
a bit of a dead period.
And one of my friends, he's an older
gentleman, but a man of God who I
love, Wilbur Matthews, he was actually one of
the men who was converted in that meeting.
And there were two nights, and this preacher,
Joe Strack, and he wasn't a great orator
or nothing like that.
And many of the churches didn't even want
him to come to their churches, because he
didn't meet their qualifications.
But at the same time, during that time,
after the war, a lot of the churches,
especially a lot of the Baptist churches, had
become quite liberal.
And all the different liberal thoughts had been
creeping in.
And so this church wanted to see something
happen.
So they brought this guy in, and he
preached in two nights.
There was over 90 people saved in two
nights.
Wilbur was one of them, his brother was
another one, and his sister.
She became a missionary, actually, to Africa, I
believe, or India.
His brother, actually, and his brother's son now
would be out in New Maryland out there,
Matthew's out there, so I don't know him
well.
But I just know the family well, and
Wilbur and his son.
And I was just thinking, if God moved
that way in two nights, imagine that, 90
-some people, and there's almost no fall away
from those numbers.
At the exact same time, on the island
of Hebrides, with Duncan Campbell, there was over
20,000 people converted in five weeks.
In 1904, with Evan Roberts, he actually had
that same sense.
Liberalism and modernism had just invaded the church.
Nobody was praying, nobody had faith, almost.
And during that revival, he actually felt that
the Lord told him before, there was gonna
be over 100,000 people converted.
That's actually in his diaries, I've read just
about everything you can get on that revival.
And within six months, there was over 100
,000 people converted.
Stocks of Bibles were sold out, taverns were
shut down, sports things were shut down.
And out of that movement, many missionary movements
also actually happened and went all over the
whole globe.
Think of that, like a place smaller than
New Brunswick and 100,000 people, what would
it look like if 100,000 people were
converted in New Brunswick?
And literally transformed, and I'm not talking about
religion and turning over a new leaf, I'm
talking about being born of the Holy Spirit.
Regeneration is a supernatural work of God, where
God literally, through the gospel, takes out a
heart of stone, puts in a heart of
flesh, and puts his spirit in that man
and that woman.
And they become alive in Christ, become a
new creature.
All things pass away, and all things become
new.
And that's the will of God that his
kingdom come, isn't it?
That his kingdom come, that people be added
to his church.
And I think when we read the book
of Acts, we look at that, that was
some kind of a strange thing.
But realistically, that was just a reoccurring theme
over and over and over.
In our church life now, in all of
us, we have become very deadened by our
culture and society.
And we need to get back to the
Bible, and get back to praying and believing
the promises of God, and not following men,
but following God.
And don't follow men, whatever you do, and
don't follow this man, and go home and
examine what I'm saying, and see if it's
true after or not.
And your Bibles, be like the Brians.
And so I just wanted to share that
this morning to encourage you that God is
mighty, he's able to move, he wants to
move, but there may be some things that
need to be removed in us.
And see, what we're gonna talk about this
morning is some of the things that's gonna
need to take place for personal revival and
awakening, and also for corporate revival.
And I can't guarantee any numbers or nothing
like that, I'm just a man.
But I do know that it's the Lord's
will that people be added to his kingdom.
So I just wanna go to prayer, and
we're gonna go to Matthew 21, 18 through
22.
And one revival I forgot to mention too
was, and I got to talk to Bill
McLeod before as well, the revival at Saskatoon.
There that revival as well, and some of
my good friends are actually all connected with
him, Don Kern, and people that's connected him
with the Satira twins and things.
So I'm kinda in that kind of vein,
I like Ravenhill, Don and I like a
lot of the same guys, I like Spurgeon,
Moody.
If they're on for God and on for
truth and awakening, I'm on for it.
If they're just dead, either way, I'm not
into reading their minds.
Anyways, let's pray.
Father, thank you God today, Lord, for your
word.
Your word is absolute truth.
It's inerrant, infallible, and it's sufficient, and it's
all we need for life and godliness.
Lord, let everything else be put aside.
And I pray, Lord, that we would be
a praying people.
I pray that God, that your spirit would
meet with us today, Lord, that you will
bless these people here today.
And Lord, that you would awaken us, and
Lord, that you would convict us.
Lord, your word says when the Holy Spirit
comes, he will convict, Lord, of righteousness.
Lord, it's sin and judgment, Lord.
So today, do that, Lord, that you would
awaken, Lord, that people would be encouraged, God,
today that you are, Lord, alive and well,
and Lord, willing to do things, Lord, if
we will just get on your side.
In Jesus' name, amen.
And so, Matthew chapter 21, and verses 18
through 22.
I wanna just read this passage.
It's called, and this message is actually entitled
The Withered Fig Tree.
And may that not be said about this
church.
You know, when I think about evangelical churches,
I want them to stay open.
And we plant churches, and we don't compete
with other churches.
We're hoping to complete with other churches that
preach the true gospel and believe the Bible.
And so, what we wanna see is that
happening.
And so, when I preach that message this
morning, I want you to understand that my
heart is for you as a Christian and
as a pastor.
And that I love people, I love the
gospel, but I will say things this morning
that will be hard probably to hear for
some people.
But I pray that we would all humble
ourselves before the Lord and hear his word
and say, God, whatever needs to take place,
just do it in my life.
And if we will humble ourselves, we will
be exalted.
But if we exalt ourselves, God will humble
us.
So we have to take our pick on
that.
And I pray that we will.
Early in the morning, as he was on
the way back to the city, he was
hungry.
And seeing a fig tree by the road,
he went up to it and found nothing
on it except leaves.
And then he said, may you never bear
fruit again, and immediately the tree withered.
When the disciples saw this, they were amazed
at how did the fig tree wither so
quickly, they asked.
And Jesus replied, I tell you the truth,
if you have faith and do not doubt,
not only can you do what was done
to the fig tree, but also you can
say to this mountain, go throw yourself into
the sea and it will be done.
If you believe, you will receive whatever you
ask for in prayer.
And so this morning, I wanna look at
this.
And this is an object lesson, first of
all, for the Old Testament Jewish Church, the
nation of Israel.
And this is the primary audience, but it's
also an object lesson for the early church,
for the church all through the ages.
And Jesus is with his people to the
very end of the age.
But it is a warning for the churches
as it was for Israel.
And that we don't wanna be withered.
So the Jewish nation, the nation of Israel,
that that church in the Old Testament was
without fruit.
That's the point of the message.
And also we're gonna look at the fact
that many New Testament churches bear no fruit.
And the Bible uses it this way in
Revelation chapter two, that Jesus himself actually sometimes
removed the land stand.
Now that's scary.
And when I think about churches like driving
through the Maritimes and I've preached in Ontario,
especially a lot of places in the southern
states, in Georgia, and Louisiana, and Florida, and
different places like that.
You drive through and see churches being boarded
up or being closed down.
It's a sad thing for me.
I don't look at that and think, wow,
isn't that great that these are being closed
down, my heart breaks when I see it.
Because see, those churches were once actually fruit
bearing churches at one time, obviously.
They were once salt and light, but they
had lost its savor and the light had
grown dim and the glory departed and Jesus
himself actually removes the land stand.
And we don't wanna see that in the
day which we're in.
We need more churches.
How many people read in Fredericton, like in
the surrounding areas, close to 100,000 people
count in the surrounding area.
And if you actually took how many people
are in evangelical churches that believe the Bible
and believe that you must be born again,
they are low.
And getting lower.
And so we need churches and we need
churches like this one, not only to stay
alive, but we wanna pray that God would
actually bring revival and expand these churches.
And also, the third lesson we're gonna look
at this morning is that every fruitless professor
of faith is in danger of being cursed,
and that's the doctrine of apostasy.
Not gonna get into that extremely, but we're
gonna look first at Israel.
The Lord's curse on the fruitless tree.
You think about that, that these, and so
Jesus actually curses this tree.
And so when we think about Jesus Christ,
what I wanna look at this morning is
that he has an eternal divine nature, John
17, 5, that was with the Father in
the beginning.
He wasn't as the Father, he was with
the Father, his divine nature.
And then they took on human nature, and
so what you have in Jesus the Christ
is one person and two natures, a divine
nature, which was eternal, and a human nature
that he took on so that he could
become the sacrifice for our sins and the
sins of the whole world.
And when he just spoke to this tree,
like you imagine going up to a, talking
to a tree, you know?
And sometimes people do it.
I remember quite a few years ago there
was a sign over the bank of Nova
Scotia on the downtown, and it was between
there and King's Place.
And it was a picture of David Suzuki,
and he had his hand holding up on
a tree, looking up at it, saying, could
this be my mother?
And I was thinking, I don't think that's
his mother.
So it just goes to show you that
a man can be quite intellectual and smart
and not be wise at all.
And so, and quite twisted.
But Jesus was what you could understand about
him.
He's not just the man of Galilee.
That's his human nature.
But his human nature could be hungry.
He says, I thirst, all these different things.
But his divine nature was with the Father
in the beginning.
In Genesis chapter one, he said, let there
be light, and there was light.
It's the exact same second person in the
Godhead saying to this tree, may you never
bear fruit again.
When he speaks, it happens.
When we speak, it doesn't necessarily happen.
But when God speaks, it's a finished deal.
And Jesus is God in the flesh.
Now there's a heart searching lesson for us
in this here, in this withered fig tree.
So early in the morning, again, here's Jesus.
He's on his way back to the city.
He's hungry.
So here's his human nature, right?
He's not only divine, he is actually hungry.
And seeing the fig tree by the road,
he found no fruit on it except for
leaves.
And leaves aren't a very good sandwich.
And then he said to it, may you
never bear fruit again.
And I just think about that, the leaves
on there, immediately the tree withered, just picture
him saying the words.
All the leaves just dry and crumple and
the tree just withers and falls.
Like the power to be able to say
that, like, you know, this is the eternal
God.
And that fig tree full of leaves, but
it had no fruit, was a picture of
the Jewish Old Testament church Israel.
And when Jesus was upon the earth, they
had everything though.
On the outside, they looked alive, like many
churches today.
They had many things on the outside.
The Jewish people, they had the temple.
They had the priesthood.
They had the daily sacrifice.
They had the yearly feast, the Old Testament
scriptures.
They had the scriptures.
They knew what the scriptures said in the
courses of the Levites on duty.
And they had the morning and evening sacrifice.
But beneath all those good leaves, this nation,
this Old Testament church was utterly barren of
fruit.
They had no real fruit.
They just had leaves.
It's a shell on the outside.
They had no grace.
And I want to say even at the
top, no love.
Which is the greatest of all.
No, no, no love, no grace, no real
fruit, no humility.
And boys, I want to say today I
preach all over.
That is a really lacking thing amongst God's
people.
And I was very blessed to be around
some of those old revival preachers back in
the 70s when I was a boy growing
up.
And I remember being at meetings where all
you could see was just people in black
shoes and people weeping and crying out for
their children and for their grandchildren and praying
for the Lord to come.
Brokenness and repentance.
And it's like today so many people when
they hear things, they just sit there.
And I pray that we're not amongst that
here today.
I pray that God softens our heart and
that we're really for him.
But if we want to see God move,
we've got to humble ourselves.
You read the book of Nehemiah and Ezra.
You read them confessing sins and getting things
cleaned up before God comes.
We can't just sit in our seats and
hear the message and say, oh, that tickled
my ears today or that was interesting and
then not do nothing.
We are to humble ourselves before God.
Amen.
God is holy.
You read Isaiah 6.
Isaiah sees Christ exalted and his train filled
the temple, it's filled with smoke and the
threshold shook.
And Isaiah didn't say, oh, that was a
good message.
Or, you know, I really feel good about
myself and have a lot more self-esteem
now.
He said, woe is me.
I'm undone.
That's what happens when you meet God in
those ways.
And quite a few years ago for me,
and I'm not a charismatic.
Hopefully I'm charismatic in the right kind of
way.
But I'm from the older school theologically.
And I'm a firm believer in every single
thing that the word of God says.
I don't believe God's speaking outside of his
word.
And I believe whatever his word says is
finished.
And we're not to add to it.
And we're not to take away at all.
But there's a lot being taken away from
it today.
And back in the mid-90s, I was
reading my Bible and praying.
I was working to that in such a
way I was working from 3 till about
10 every night.
And so my wife and I and then
we had four little small children.
They're all grown up now.
One of our sons is a firefighter here
in Fredericton.
And another one's a carpenter.
Our daughter's married to a logger guy.
And our youngest son just finished forestry.
So we got five grandkids now.
So things have changed a lot.
But during those times, I was spending a
minimal of five to seven hours a day
in the word and prayer every morning.
And seriously, like two or three hours in
intercessory prayer, seeking the Lord.
And at times fasting.
Because I'm reading my Bible and I was
going to churches, you know what I'm saying?
I'm not seeing what the Bible's saying.
Something's missing.
And I've seen things happen when I was
younger.
I've seen revivals and little awakenings and stuff.
And so having seen that, I sought the
Lord.
And honestly, for two or three years.
And one particular time while I was praying
and reading my Bible in my dining room,
the doors closed.
It's just like the Lord showed up.
And there was such a heaviness come upon
me.
It wasn't like I had this real good
feeling about myself, like a lot of people
are saying today.
I trembled.
My knees knocked.
And this happened to me a couple of
times.
And you know, it never really happened again
since that time or before that.
But I talked to many godly men after
that.
God was setting me apart from ministry at
that point to preach his word.
And I do believe that God wants his
people to be filled with the spirit.
And that doesn't mean flopping around in the
boat like a dead fish, like fish dying
in the springtime in your boat.
But what it means is to be alive
in Christ.
And so I know what it is to
be awakened.
I can remember when I was born again.
And I also can remember that time in
the 90s when God was setting me apart.
And there's something different happened after that.
It just seemed like when I started talking
to people, people started coming to Christ.
And within a few years, I had led
over 40 people to Christ.
And then we were in church planting.
We were in Moncton.
Then we moved from Moncton back on to
Fredericton for a little while.
And we just met with a bunch of
people here.
And then I moved over to Dovetown.
That's where I actually grew up.
That's not a real big spot.
Some of you might know where it is.
If you blink, you'll miss it, they say,
in the way through.
But at that point, you know, God was
calling us.
There was four or five of us.
And we prayed and prayed and prayed and
prayed.
And within that first year, over 27 people
came to Christ.
And we baptized 27 people.
And the next year, there were 17 that
came to Christ.
And every year, as a matter of fact,
four more people just came to Christ.
Where we live, there's just under 800 people.
And our church, if it's full on Sunday,
if everyone's there with all their kids and
families, we have between about 150 and 180
people now.
And the high majority of them people have
all been born again and converted at our
church.
And so God is moving in small populations.
We planned another church in Rishabuckto.
Chris Sibley is the pastor of that.
And that church started off in a guy's
living room.
The same thing, that church has grown now.
And we have another church, actually, that we
planted here.
But we're over in Marysville, in that area.
We're building a new church facility now for
our flock.
And so again, there too, we started off
with about so many people in the living
room.
We just started praying and God started saving
people.
And so I want to encourage you that
you got a lot of people around you
here.
And God's arm is not too short to
save.
And it's actually, He actually would rather people
be saved than perish.
And so we need to be about His
business.
But see, Israel had no love.
They had no humility.
And greatest of all, they were not willing
to receive Jesus as their Messiah, were they?
And Jesus even said right before He was
crucified, shortly before, He said, how I long
to gather you together to the people.
As a mother hen gathers her chicks.
But you were what?
Unwilling.
It wasn't that Jesus was unwilling.
He was willing.
But they weren't willing.
And the question is this morning, are we
willing to be completely surrendered to Jesus Christ?
Not only as having as our Savior or
some ticket to heaven, but as the Lord
of your life, that He rules your life.
This is the only path to joy too.
I'll say that.
The reason why many Christians don't have any
joy is because they're trying to control their
own lives.
Andrew Murray wrote a great book years ago.
It's called Absolute Surrender.
It's phenomenal.
And what God wants is full surrender of
our hearts.
He doesn't want us holding on to parts
to lay down everything, all of our weapons
of warfare and say, take my life and
let it be consecrated God unto thee.
Everything.
Hold nothing back.
And so the Jewish church and the Old
Testament church like the fig tree was soon
going to wither away.
And we all know about that from reading
the Bible.
By the time you get to Hebrews, it
was already done.
The sacrifices were done.
You know, and it's talking about no more
sacrifices, but this is the one sacrifice for
all time.
And so they were soon going to wither
away and it was going to be stripped
off of all of its leaves.
All of its outer activities.
They had leaves, but they had no fruit.
They were utterly barren and destitute of fruit.
But on the outside, just like churches, when
you read in the first revelation, they have
a reputation for being alive.
But Jesus said, you're what?
Dead.
And his members were scattered all over the
world and the temple was destroyed.
And the daily sacrifice was taken away and
the temple would soon wither to the ground.
And by AD 70, it did.
It was destroyed.
And now, even today, we see in every
wandering Jew, when you look at them, people,
you see a branch of a fig tree
that was cursed.
I believe God has a purpose when you
read Romans chapter 10 and 11.
And, but I do believe we're living in
extremely dark and wicked days.
Morality is affected by the temperature of the
climate of the church.
You know, as the church goes, Ravenhill said,
so goes the world.
And when we compromise on what we believe
and we start condoning and accepting sexual morality
and homosexuality and all these things, what we're
doing is we're not being loving, we're actually
destroying the church.
And as a matter of fact, I want
to say that every time I've met someone
that's actually in that lifestyle, I've shared the
gospel with them.
And one of the guys that we shared
the gospel with several years ago now is
actually a worship leader.
He's repented of his sins.
He said, God's given him a new heart
and a new desire, and he's never gone
back to that lifestyle again.
1 Corinthians 6, 9, as such were some
of you, but you were washed, you were
cleansed, you were justified in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
God can save whoever he wills, amen.
And when he saves a drunkard, he doesn't
leave them a drunkard.
When he saves anybody from their sins, he's
saving us from our sins.
And he's actually given us a new heart.
That new heart has new desires and the
Holy Spirit gives us power to fulfill the
new desires.
And what we want to look at now
is not only the Jewish nation, but if
we look at verse 20 in chapter 21,
it says, when the disciples saw this, they
were amazed.
How did the fig tree wither so quickly,
they asked.
So also not only with Israel, but every
fruitless branch of Christ's visible church is in
danger of becoming a withered fig tree.
I've seen churches right where I live that
seem to be thriving in the 50s and
60s and 70s now close down.
We were in Maine, my wife and I,
and here's one of the saddest ones for
me ever because I like to get down
there just because I like the history in
New England of the great awakening that happened
with Jonathan Edwards when like hundreds of thousands
of people were converted all over the place.
At one time, Edwards said that there was,
it's reported that up to 200 people a
day were being converted and coming to Christ.
Can you imagine that?
200 people a day come to Christ.
It completely changed the landscape of everything.
And see, when people get changed, society changed
because people make up society, don't they?
And the reason why society is not changing
today is because we have a lot of
goats in the church, a lot of false
converts all over the place.
They think that just by repeating a prayer
after somebody and saying some words, that makes
you a Christian.
That doesn't make you a Christian.
Jesus said, he didn't say you must repeat
after me.
He says, the kingdom of God is in,
now repent and believe the gospel.
Amen.
Someone may have been converted, when they said
the sinner's prayer, but it wasn't because they
said that prayer.
It's because God, the Holy Spirit, convicted them
when they heard the gospel.
Amen.
That's what actually saves a person.
So every fruitless branch of Christ's visible church
is in danger of becoming a withered fig
tree.
So in New England, we were going down
through there and it was actually one of
those congregational churches.
And I'm not sure if you know a
lot about them, but today, most of the
time, we think of a lot of those
denominations as being liberal.
But at that time, those were the churches
that were alive and on fire.
And Jonathan Edwards was actually one of those
people.
And also, George Whitfield spoke at those churches
at the same time.
And those were two of the leading key
figures in revival in John Wesley, of course,
in the UK.
But at that time, we went into this
church and it said congregational church and it
was built in 1700 and something.
And I looked at the thing and it
was built, Rachel, in the great awakening.
And now, they had two people who were
absolutely, completely opposite of the gospel, selling candles
made out of beeswax.
You know, and I thought, it made my
heart weep.
I remember being in the Grand Ole Opry,
my wife and I, I was invited to
speak in First Nashville of the Big Baptist
Church down there.
And as I'm preaching down there, they took
us.
They said, would you like to go see
the old Ryman Auditorium?
I said, yeah, I'd like to go see
it.
Because I grew up over home where we
are, everybody probably pretty well listened to country
music and that was it.
So I had all these people I knew
about.
So I went there, but one thing I
didn't know about the Ryman Auditorium, it was
actually a church as it started out.
And there was mass revivals there.
And this sea captain who got converted under
this preacher actually built this for this preacher
to preach at.
And there was thousands of people coming to
Christ, just thousands and thousands coming to Christ
in Nashville, Tennessee.
And then they got kind of doing a
little bit more music and less preaching and
more music.
And pretty soon it was all music and
the church had died.
And see, that's happening all over the place.
Churches are dying.
A friend of mine who lives in Ontario,
he was telling me that over 200 Baptist
churches in Ontario, actually of the group that
he was with, in the last 20 years
have closed their doors.
And another friend of mine in Arkansas, Mike
Taylor, telling me over 100 Southern Baptist churches
closed their doors in the last 10 years.
There's a massive apostasy going on.
The love of most is growing cold.
We're in those days.
And we need another awakening.
And so these trees that are doing this,
when we see a church closed down, it
wasn't just that the elders decided to close
the church and they just said, well, you
know, it's time for a change.
No, I'll tell you what my Bible says.
Jesus removed the lampstand.
He walks among the lampstands.
And when they stop beer and fruit, he
pulls back the lampstand.
He curses the tree and it withers.
That's sad news.
I don't want to see that happen to
any evangelical church.
As I know, Lord have mercy upon us
that we'll humble ourselves and repent.
And if you look at Matthew 3, verse
10, it says every tree that does not
produce good fruit will be cut down and
thrown into the fire.
And it's not talking about tree there.
Again, this is an object lesson.
It's talking about people who say that they're
believers and they don't bear fruit.
God, they'll be cut down and thrown in
the fire.
And it's the same thing in Matthew 7,
verse 16.
It says this here, Matthew 7, verse 15,
rather, talking about bearing fruit.
And Jesus is actually finishing at the end
of his great sermon, the Sermon on the
Mount.
And this is what he says in verse
15.
Watch out for false prophets.
They come to you in sheep's clothing, but
inwardly they're ferocious wolves.
And here's what he says.
By their what?
By their fruit, you will recognize it.
Not by their profession of faith, not by
their baptism certificate, not by church attendance, not
by good works.
You can still have all those things and
be either saved or lost.
That does not ensure that a man is
saved.
A new heart or a new woman is
the obvious lesson that a person's been born
again.
And it says by their fruit, you'll recognize
them.
Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or
figs from thistles?
Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but
a bad tree bears bad fruit.
Every tree that does not produce good fruit
is cut down and thrown in the fire.
Thus, by their fruit, not by their time
of decision, by their fruit, Jesus said, you
will recognize them.
In our lives, and see, this is what
happened to Israel.
They had the profession of faith.
They said, oh yeah, the Ark of the
Covenant, we got this here.
We had the priesthood was here.
And Jesus actually cursed them because they actually
had no fruit.
Outside activity, but no real fruit, no real
life.
So a church can be full of programs.
It can be full of activities.
It can have lots of meetings, but many
times, and I'm just glad to hear Don
talking about prayer in here because any church
that does not have a prayer meeting is
a dead church.
It's a dead church.
And so in Acts chapter one in verse
14, it says they all met together constantly
in prayer and the women and they were
meeting in the prayer.
In Acts chapter four, it says they raised
their voices together in prayer.
And see today, when you go by churches
on Tuesday or Wednesday night, that 20 years
ago, I used to live here in Fredericton,
there were prayer meetings.
Now there's many of the big churches, they
don't even pray.
They think it's their activities that's gonna make
the church go.
See, they have a reputation for being alive,
but Jesus said they're dead.
So don't be discouraged because you don't have
mass size.
That doesn't mean anything necessarily.
A church with no prayer is a dead
church.
And I've watched churches like that over the
years happen.
And in the 90s, you know, you see,
it's just only elderly people at them, which
we love elderly people.
We get every age in our church too,
but every age matters.
I don't think it should just be some
yuppie age.
We want everyone right from birth right up
into the 90s until they go home to
be with the Lord.
It's just that this, all these talks about
having this church for these kinds of people,
that's a bunch of ridiculous stuff.
It's a church for the saints, amen.
That's it.
All this other stuff is ridiculous.
If we have more activities, more people.
One time at this church in Frederickson years
ago, we were going to, people left it
because they were bringing McDonald's treats and they
had one of those hot air things that
kids can jump.
So the preaching was better at this other
church, but they went to this other one
so their kids could have McDonald's snacks.
Like not a good reason to change churches.
Completely carnal and worldly.
Any church that doesn't pray is lukewarm and
is in danger of being cursed.
Jesus said, he didn't even say my house
will be a house of preaching.
My house will be a house of what?
I want to ask you, do you come
and pray at this church?
It's Tuesday or Wednesday, what is it?
Sunday evening.
I encourage you, you know, don't stay home
and watch TV.
The whole world's perishing us.
People are going to hell all around us.
And I'll tell you, the world is in
a dying mess.
Come out here and pray.
Unless you have some kind of illness that
prevents you to come out here.
I want to tell you, God will hear
your prayer.
God hears and answers the prayers of people
who will humble themselves.
And it's not because we're righteous, but because
he's merciful.
God is good, amen?
Programs and activities, but no holiness.
Committees, you know, on the day of judgment
is not well done, good and faithful committee.
Well done, good and faithful sermons.
Ceremonies, but no true repentance and faith in
the people sometimes, you know.
Many visible churches have been cursed by Jesus
and they've withered.
And we're going to look at a few
of them here.
You know, but they don't have the fruit
of the spirit.
They don't have, they're not obedient.
They think that obedience is something that you
can do subsequent.
You know, Jesus said, if you love me,
keep my commandments, amen?
The man who says, I know him, but
does not keep his commandments.
First John chapter two, verse three is a
liar and the truth is not in him.
So there's no such thing as having Jesus
as savior, but him not as Lord.
As a matter of fact, in Luke chapter
nine, when he back in the people come
unto him, he said, deny yourself, take up
your cross and follow me daily.
And one guy said, let me go home
first and bury my father.
What he meant was wait till I get
all my resources together.
And then once everything's going good for me,
then I'll come and follow you.
You know, to the other one, let me
go home and see my family.
Let me ask my family if it's okay,
if I follow you.
No, you yourself need to decide I'm going
to follow Jesus Christ, amen?
I will, I'm surrendered to him.
Love, big time and forgiveness amongst all of
us as people.
You're not holding, keeping records of wrong.
Love doesn't keep any records wrong.
If you're bitter at someone else as he'd
been sitting in here this morning, you don't
have the love of God in your heart.
God commands us to love one another.
He commands us to love the lost and
even our enemies.
I was watching about Perpetua, this missionary in
the 200s.
In Perpetua, and some people were converted.
She got converted through, actually through the slaves.
And when she got, she could have lived.
They just said, just put a niche, just
put a pinch of incense and say that
the emperor's Lord.
And she said, I won't do it.
And they took them all out and they
were all killed.
They died for their faith.
Today, people would say, oh, I want to
protect myself, you know?
And so I don't want any of that
pain.
But the thing is, he has to be
Lord.
And there needs to be not forgiven.
There needs to be forgiveness amongst us.
And today, I find one of the big
things is no disciple making.
Jesus said, go and make disciples, right?
Matthew chapter 28, verse 18.
Therefore, all authority in heaven and earth has
been given to me.
Therefore, go and make disciples.
Amen.
Go and make disciples.
I want to ask you this morning, are
you personally making disciples?
See, that's the condition.
He's telling us disciples.
And now they're gone.
We're disciples.
Go and make disciples.
That means go share the gospel.
And then win that person to Christ.
And then disciple them, teach them the scriptures,
and to follow Christ.
Baptize them in the name of the Father
and the Son of the Holy Spirit.
And you know, forsaking the Lord's Day today,
I find for many people, they do that
and they've done it for their kids.
And they take their kids and play hockey.
You know, I'm not one bit against sports
or any of that kind of stuff.
It's fine and dandy.
But I'll tell you one thing.
People do that and they take their children
out of church their whole life.
And my wife and I have witnessed several
people and dozens of families that have been
completely destroyed.
Once churchgoers, but they thought their kid was
going to be good enough to make this
team.
And many times adultery and destruction of the
family.
On the Lord's Day, we're not to forsake
the gathering.
Amen.
Do not forsake the gathering as in the
manner of some, Hebrews 10.25. And so
when you do that and you go out
and take your kids and you don't go
to church and do that, you're actually making
hockey an idol.
And at that point, you're actually provoking the
Lord's wrath against you.
Now, I know people do it and people
do it all over, but I don't measure
myself by people.
I measure it by the Bible.
Do not forsake the gathering as in the
manner of some, Hebrews 10.25. It's called
the Lord's Day, Revelation 1.10. And we're
not to forsake that gathering for nothing or
nobody.
Unless it's an act of mercy, like say
if Don's house with the roof blew off
of it and it's going to rain, it's
normal, then that Sunday morning, we better all
go to his house and try to get
him covered up.
That's an act of mercy or a necessity.
But to go play sports or just do
what you want in your own hobbies, that's
not necessity.
That's actually just what you want to do
and it's putting what you want to do
ahead of what God wants you to do.
And it will bring discipline on you as
a believer.
I've watched it happen many times.
And also people who just completely keep on
rejecting on an individual level God's Word, that
person is in danger of being cursed.
And what that means is apostasy that actually
God will eventually abandon.
And even divine patience has an end.
Even divine patience has an end.
You know, a church can go on a
long time with leaves, but still have no
fruit.
And so we all know about Ephesus, right?
Jesus talked to them.
He said, you know, you're doing good deeds,
you know, you put out those who say
they're apostles and they're not really apostles and
you're doing all these things.
And he says, but I got something against
you.
And every time I read that, even right
now, it makes my legs weak.
To hear Jesus say, I got something against
you.
Like that's actually to a church.
This is New Testament here.
This is not Old Testament.
This is New Testament.
I got something against you.
And he said, return to where you were
at first.
Repent and do the things you did at
first.
Otherwise, he said, if you don't, I'm going
to what?
I'm going to remove your lampstand.
I'm going to remove your church.
I'm going to close your...
He's speaking to this pastor.
These elders.
If you don't repent, I'm going to close
down your church.
And that's what happens when churches close down.
Jesus has removed the lampstand.
It's not just that the people decided to
do this.
No, God is sovereign.
He's over all these churches.
Ephesus, Sardis, Laodicea, Thyatira, Smyrna.
Where are all those churches now?
I've read a decent amount on church history.
I want to tell you, not one of
those churches are existing today.
Not one.
Even by 120 and 130 AD, according to
church history, all those churches were shut down.
Guess what?
They heard a warning from Jesus and they
said, no, we'll do it our way.
Just go read chapter 2 and 3 of
Revelation.
You'll see he closed the churches down.
He shut the...
He removed the lampstands and they're gone.
I mean, we're reading about these churches in
Acts when they're being planted.
There's life there and all these things are
going on, but they forsake their first love.
They have a reputation for being alive, but
they're dead.
There's sexual immorality going on in these churches.
And after a while, he just says, even
after 30, 40, 50 years, he says, that's
it, I'm done.
And may that never be said about you
here.
May the Lord cause you to prosper and
be blessed here.
That's my prayer for you.
And these churches were cursed by Jesus.
Their lampstand was removed.
And the sad thing is, is that many
lampstands are still being removed across our country
today.
Because they quit preaching the gospel and they
think that entertainment is a good substitute for
the word.
It's not.
Stick to the word.
Don't go to the new.
Go back to the original, the Bible.
And that's what we do.
People, we went to this big thing in
Georgia and I spoke in front of 5
,000 pastors because our church had seen so
many conversions and they wanted to know what
our secret was.
And I said, what's your program?
And I said, we don't do any programs.
I said, we just preach the gospel and
we pray for people and we keep going
and evangelizing.
We keep coming back until they either get
saved or tell us not to come back
anymore to their house, one of the two.
After a while, you get over yourself.
You know, people, they're not rejecting you.
They're rejecting Christ.
But this is what needs to happen.
We need to get serious about the Lord.
Every person who makes a profession of faith
is not a Christian.
Matthew 7, verses 21.
Jesus said, not everyone who says to me,
listen to this.
This is Jesus speaking, Matthew 7, verse 21.
Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord
will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only
he, not who understands or even knows, but
he who does the will.
So that's not works.
The doings, the fruit, the faith is the
root.
You see that?
And if there's a root, there's a fruit
just like Israel.
They could say, well, I don't have to
have fruit because I got a root.
But no, Jesus cursed the tree because it
had no fruit.
There's no such thing as good trees that
don't produce good fruit.
So if a person's just content to, with
mere leaves of religion, having a reputation, you
go to church on Sunday, don't come out
on Wednesdays.
And then your talk to the week's not
great.
You gossip and slander about other people.
You backbite people and stuff like this here.
I want to tell you one thing.
God's presence is nowhere near you.
We as, even as Christians, we can grieve
the Holy Spirit and he'll just back off
of us.
That's why the Bible says, do not grieve
the Holy Spirit.
We need to be sensitive to the Spirit
of God.
Don't grieve it.
And we grieve it.
If I became ugly at dawn or he
became ugly at me and we got a
friction going, guess what?
Next Sunday, God's not going to be doing
anything through my preaching.
So if there's anything here between you that's
not right and you're unwilling to make it
right, God's presence is not with you in
a manifest way.
What that means is you won't have peace
and you'll actually become more bitter.
And we don't need to go to a
whole bunch of counselors.
We need the Holy Spirit.
That's the counselor we need.
It's a waste of time.
All these Christian counselors, imagine paying people money
to go see somebody.
We need to just go to Jesus Christ.
He has the answers.
You don't see this in the early church.
We have not got better than the early
church.
As a matter of fact, we have more
books and more stuff than we've ever had.
And we're hardly seeing anything happen in our
country.
And I know because I talked to pastors
all over Canada.
But in those days of revival in the
40s after the war, it took the war.
That's what happened in those revivals is that
people were coming home with half their body
shot off or else buried somewhere over there.
They come back and their wife were having
kids by someone else where we lived and
people were drinking and drunkenness and the days
were wicked.
And people were almost borderline starving to death.
They didn't have the food.
Military taking all the big rations for stuff
and there was just nothing.
And so people got desperate and God brought
the fear of God on the place.
And out of that, he brought a revival.
And that revival, even in the 40s, was
felt all over the world in different pockets.
And again in the 70s, but we have
not seen a move of God.
I'm telling you in a spot in a
long time that's genuine.
We need a move of God.
Amen.
And the only way it's going to happen
is we humble ourselves.
But proud men and women who will hear
things like this and say, oh, I don't
agree with that.
Listen, I feel for you.
We need to humble ourselves.
And I want to say if some of
the older men, like older than my dad's
age, them men humbled themselves.
But it seemed to be like during the
baby boomers time, it kind of became all
about us and we felt like everything was
for us.
We're just unworthy servants and we're just doing
our duty.
We're nothing.
If it weren't for Jesus Christ, we're absolutely
nothing.
We need him.
But if a person is just willing to
go on having a reputation for being a
Christian, showing up when it's convenient for them,
if there's not something better on TV or
some other thing they'd rather do.
Maybe not as bad.
You know, people's testimony is I don't drink
and I don't smoke.
I don't swear.
Well, that's fine.
That's good that you don't do those things.
But it's not so much what I'm just
not doing.
What are you doing for Christ's sake?
Amen.
It's good that we turn from civil habits.
Well, that's holiness.
That means setting ourselves apart.
But righteousness means doing right.
So it's not just holiness, but it's holiness
and righteousness.
That we need in our lives.
Satisfied with church attendance, you know.
And here's the big thing.
Sins not forsaken.
And I find today many people are hooked
on their phones for internet pornography, reading evangelical
churches.
I want to tell you one thing.
God will, he'll be nowhere near you.
The Bible says they're sexually immoral will not
inherit the kingdom of God regardless to their
profession of faith or whatever else they have.
And so the thing is, a person cannot
be practicing immorality and people can do it
right on their phone or whatever and expect
God to use them.
He just won't, he just won't be with
you.
Does that make sense to you this morning?
Sin has to be forsaken.
And see what happens is when you get
a new heart, you repent.
Right?
God gives us a new heart.
All of a sudden, boom, he makes us
alive.
The Holy Spirit comes.
We hear the gospel.
It's like, man, conviction is sin.
And you see Christ, you repent.
Put your faith in Jesus.
You're justified by faith.
Adopted into his family.
And then guess what?
Sanctification does happen.
And as Leonard Ravenhill said before, if there's
no sanctification, regeneration and justification never happened.
Have you forsaken your sins here this morning?
Have you forsaken your sins?
My uncle Atherton was 84 years old when
he was converted.
He was a member of a Baptist church
his whole life.
Knew the Bible quite well, but he was
miserable.
And even as two of his own boys
wouldn't come to his funeral.
That's how miserable he was.
Hateful to his children.
And yet he's a member of this Baptist
church.
And so, but yet there's no life in
there.
His wife, Edith, dies.
It was my aunt.
And he was not good to her at
all his whole life.
He was miserable and mean to her.
But I want to tell you at that
funeral, it was just like an explosion.
He just started weeping.
He started crying out.
He said, God have mercy on me.
He realized the Holy Spirit woke him up
and saved him at his wife's funeral.
He was a professing Christian for 60 years.
He lost.
Church is full of people like that.
No love in his heart.
Miserable to his wife.
Look, if you're miserable as a man to
your wife and short and snappy, there's something
wrong with your heart.
God has called us to love our wives.
As Christ loved the church, amen?
That's not optional.
It will also, even if we don't treat
them with respect, as the Bible says, it
will hinder our prayers.
That means they're just going to bounce off
the ceiling.
God's not going to hear our prayers.
But when I watched him change after, you
could just say the name Jesus, and he'd
start crying.
84 years old.
And he became the most loving man I
ever met.
He would weep.
And he always even hated kids.
He actually literally hated children.
And Lisa and I had our oldest son,
Anthony.
He's 28 this year.
And he would come in wherever he was,
and he would just pick them up and
love on them.
And everyone said, what happened to this man?
He was born again.
Got a new heart.
Filled with love now, not hate and a
mean, spiteful spirit.
There's lots of people, just like my Uncle
Atherton, if they die in their sins that
way, they're going to go to hell.
God, you cannot live a contradictory, a vain
life to the gospel and expect things are
going to go well for you.
Sins must be forsaken.
And this is a real picture of being
cursed or withered.
And this is provoking God to wrath too
when we do this.
And even to discipline us.
In Hebrews, it talks about that God disciplines
those he loves, even his own children.
Because we have enough battles as it is,
don't we?
Even as believers, amen?
There's struggles with the way you think, the
way you talk, the way you do things.
It's a constant battle because the flesh and
the spirit warn.
But the fruit of the spirit, I'll say
this this morning, is the real evidence that
a person is saved and on their way
to heaven.
They love.
Let me ask you, do you love God
this morning?
Do you love Jesus Christ?
When I got saved, I'm not kidding you,
I just absolutely fell in love with Christ.
You know, it's just boom.
I was hard-hearted and like five minutes
later, I'm actually broken in tears, worshiping Jesus
Christ as my Savior.
I loved him.
See, that's what happens when you get born
again.
You get the new heart.
You love Jesus.
He's delivered you from the wrath of God.
He saved you from all your sins, past,
present, and future.
You're free.
You love him now.
You worship him.
It's not just religion or I go to
church.
The fruit of the spirit and then joy.
And see, how many people have no joy
but it's joy unspeakable and full of glory?
1 Thessalonians 5.16, be joyful always.
That's the command.
Be joyful always.
Prayer, do you pray at home?
Do you pray at home?
Like, do you actually get on your knees
or bow your head?
Do you actually pray and seek the face
of God each day?
And on Sunday night, do you come to
this church corporately with these brothers here and
do you pray with them?
See, in the early church, nobody missed the
prayer meetings.
In the revival times, nobody missed the prayer
meetings.
When a church is lukewarm, the spiritual adolescents
say, I won't bother going tonight.
It's just the prayer meeting.
That's what happens.
Sins are forsaken.
And even when you do sin, you feel
terrible about it.
Isn't that true?
I know when I sin, it's just like,
man, I hate that.
It almost ruined my day sometimes.
It would be the smallest thing and someone
else might say, well, that's not that big
of a deal, dude.
But it was to me.
Because I sinned against he who died for
me.
He died for that.
And it bothers me.
It convicts me.
And it ought to.
And then the other evidence is that you're
continuing to repent and believe.
And see, in the church, many who profess
to be saved across our land, the Bible
says, are lamps without oil, Matthew 25.
They're goats, Matthew 25.
They're tears, Matthew 13.
Or bad fish in the net, Matthew 13.
And Jesus even said that five foolish and
five wise.
What did he say in that passage?
Half of the professing body of Christ is
actually, they're just lamps.
It's a profession of faith, but no possession
of the oil, the grace of God in
their hearts.
No Holy Spirit.
And so God is looking for fruit, amen?
He's not just looking for a profession of
faith, is he?
Anybody can say, oh yeah, I know Jesus,
you know.
But let me ask you, do you actually
speak with them?
And as he's speaking back to you, is
there a relation?
Is his spirit testifying with your spirit that
you're a son or daughter of God?
And if you don't have fruit, I want
to say to you this morning, encouraging news,
that God is so merciful.
I just want to share that with my
Uncle Atherton about you.
But I want to go to Ezekiel 36
this morning, 26 and 27.
Just share this here as we're closing.
Ezekiel 36, 26 and 27.
Now, my Uncle Atherton, he would have been
the type of guy to snap at preachers
for saying things.
I don't agree with that.
Like, you know, I've heard him say things
like, I don't agree with what this guy's
saying.
I want to tell you, after he got
saved, every time they spoke, he just wept,
tears running down his face.
Changed heart, changed man.
Here's what needs to happen.
If you don't have power over sin, here's,
I got good news for you today.
Here's what God says.
Ezekiel 36, 26.
I will give you a new heart and
put a new spirit in you.
I will remove from you your heart of
stone.
That's the one from Adam.
I'll remove from you your heart of stone
and give you a new heart and put
a new spirit in you.
Look at the next verse.
And I will put my spirit, capital S,
the Holy Spirit in you.
And the result will be and move you
to what?
Follow my decrees and be careful to keep
my laws.
You see what happens?
When you get a new heart and the
Holy Spirit, from then on, from then on,
no one has to go around reminding you
because guess what?
The Holy Spirit's reminding you.
And he makes you careful to obey him.
And so don't keep trying over and over.
If you've been lived the Christian life, I've
at our church, even I'm not kidding you.
We've seen at least 30 people who are
professing Christians who after sitting there for five
or six months were born again and completely
changed after that.
And I'm talking about all different ages of
people.
And so what it is, it's like, I'll
not, I'll try harder.
I'll flip over a new leaf.
God, I need a new heart.
It's getting desperate, isn't it?
I can't change me.
I can't change my bad food.
I can't stop my gossiping and slandering.
And I can't stop my filthy mouth.
I can't stop looking at these things.
God have mercy on me, a sinner.
And what ends up happening is when God
gives that person a new heart, they got
new power.
The Holy Spirit comes in, new desires, new
power.
So I just want to encourage you on
that this morning.
If you're here and I don't know everyone's
heart, everyone could be saved here this morning,
but I doubt it.
Usually in a crowd this size, there's always
a few people not there.
I'm not your judge, God is, but I
just know it from experience.
I've preached in a lot of places.
There needs to be a full surrender on
your heart.
And if you really want to get right
with God, you need to repent.
God, I'm a sinner.
I don't have any power over my sin.
Help me to forsake my sin.
And I believe that Jesus Christ is the
only way.
And it's like signing the registration paper over
of your life.
You know how when you do that to
a vehicle and you give it to the
person?
Well, that person gets both sets of keys
if you got them right.
But many times what we do is we
sign the registration paper and hold back a
set of keys.
And sometimes both doesn't work.
He gets both sets.
And you get in the passenger side and
he gets in the driver's side and you
follow him.
That's the Christian life.
That's the real Christian life.
I shared about that revival.
I just want to share the four things
in closing that were happening.
The first thing for Evan Roberts in 1904,
the first thing was he told the people,
confess any known sin to God.
Anything in your life right now that you
know, bad talk, talking about somebody else, talking
down on somebody, slandering people, bitterness in your
own heart, or whether it be watching filth
on the computer or the internet or on
your phone, needs to be taken care of.
Because if you don't take care of it
now, you'll stand before God and give an
account for that.
That's why we need to do it now,
amen?
Now is the day.
Now is the accepted time.
That's the first thing we need to do.
And then make any wrong right with other
people around you.
Even in your own family.
Some people have feuds for years.
You got to make it right.
And secondly, you got to put away any
doubtful habits.
And you know what Romans 14, 23 says?
Everything that does not come from faith is
sin.
Might not be sin listed in the Bible,
but it may be sin to you.
You're violating your conscience.
If you know something, you got no peace
on it, don't move on it.
And thirdly, obey the Holy Spirit promptly.
And if you're following God and reading his
word, he'll just prompt you to want to
go do things for people.
He'll prompt you to go and talk to
this person, evangelize this person.
If you're walking close with God, I'm not
kidding, it just happens.
It's not that he's speaking to me in
audible voices, but it's just a prompting and
a moving on my heart and a brokenness
from that person to do something for them.
That's what happens.
And fourthly, confess Christ publicly.
Acts chapter 1, verse 8, it says, when
the Spirit comes upon you, you will be
my witnesses.
Not you might be.
When the Holy Spirit comes upon a man
or woman, they will be his witnesses.
And just at a few more verses, Matthew
28, 19, Jesus, last words, go therefore and
make disciples.
Mark 16, 15, go and tell every living
creature.
Luke 14, 23, go out and compel them
to command Jesus, said that my house may
be filled.
That's how you know you're filled with the
Spirit.
You're walking tight with God those ways.
People say, well, I don't have that gift.
Well, I want to say this morning, go
and make disciples isn't a gift, it's a
command, amen.
Don't ever get that mixed up.
In Proverbs 11, 30 says, he who wins
souls is wise.
Not he who knows a whole bunch, but
he who wins souls.
It'd be better to know a whole lot
less and obey it.
Than to know a whole bunch and not
obey any.
And too much has been given, much is
required.
And so this morning, as we think about
that, 100,000 people saved in six months.
20,000 people saved in five weeks in
Scotland.
Same thing happened in Bill McLeod in Saskatchewan
out there.
In 1944, just down the road from me
a few miles, 98 people saved in two
nights.
Two nights.
Drunkards completely forsaken their alcohol.
People in adulterous relationship completely abandoned those relationships.
They made their wrongs right.
And it was the evidence that their salvation
was real.
And so this morning, I just want to
ask you, and I ask this to myself
as well.
And I don't think highly of myself.
And I even still to these days wonder
why God would use me.
But I know he's called me and I
speak his word.
Second Chronicles says, if my people will humble
themselves.
Humble themselves.
And what?
Pray.
Then I'll hear their requests, you know, and
restore the land.
So this morning, I want you to confess
your sins.
I plead with you to confess any sins
between you and God.
Maybe God's been pulling on you a long
time about something and you've been ignoring it.
I know I've had this happen to me.
He pulls on you and you don't want
to deal with it.
But he keeps pulling on you.
And the spirit keeps tapping and he's convicting
you.
This morning, if you have sin in your
life, I plead with you in the name
of Jesus Christ.
Repent of your sins to God.
Make it right with the Lord.
If you don't, you'll just go on barren
and joyless.
And your life will have no purpose.
And you'll actually just be dismal.
Do you want it?
Who here today wants to experience the joy
of the Lord besides me?
Amen.
It's good, isn't it?
And I want to say that God loves
you.
He's merciful.
He's kind.
And he's not willing that anyone here should
perish.
And even he's not willing that any of
his people be joyless.
If we're joyless, it's not God's fault.
It's ours.
See, joy doesn't depend upon happenings.
It depends upon God.
And the second thing I want to ask
you to do this morning is make all
wrongs right with other people.
It could be a brother or sister, someone
who's not even saved.
Someone in your family.
Make it right.
No one's going to believe us if we're
contentious with other people, if we're hateful, if
we're unforgiving.
Make the wrongs right.
I'm not kidding you.
If you do, you'll see God's hand move
in your life.
And if you don't, you'll continue to be
just as you are.
No joy.
And thirdly, obey the Holy Spirit.
God will start convicting you in your workplace.
He'll convict you wherever.
Go talk to this person, you know.
Go give this person a track, you know.
Tell them about me, you know.
Go share your testimony.
It's powerful.
And then confess Christ publicly.
Share the gospel.
I don't know about you, but I know
for me, I'm not willing to go through
the motions and I honestly couldn't care if
someone cut me in a million pieces.
I'd rather stand before the Lord and please
him.
See, the fear of God will remove all
fear of man.
Who in this place really wants to experience
personal revival?
This is reality.
This is for all of us.
I mean, I want that.
Do you want that in your life this
morning?
Who in this place this morning by a
show of hands says, I want personal revival?
My life.
I want a revival.
I want it, God.
I want to be close to you.
Remember when you first got saved and the
joy was so powerful?
I want that back again.
I want awakening in my own heart.
And then if we want that, and then
see, that would affect our whole churches.
All of our churches.
Our church is only 15 years old, but
we've had to deal with things a few
times.
But we do it in such a way
that we don't handle the people harshly.
We love them and come alongside them and
try to show them things and work them
together until we get it worked out, you
know.
The odd times, a few people blessed, but
by the grace of God, we haven't had
any splits.
But we, as our elders, we try to
deal very, we preach strongly, but we deal
with our people very gracefully and very kindly
and very lovingly, knowing that if the tables
could be turned and it could be us,
because we all get those blind spots.
And so this morning, if you want that,
here's what we need to do.
We need to humble ourselves even right now.
And the Lord will hear us.
And I want to say, I don't know
how you guys do things, whether you just
want to stay right in your seat or
some people want to do, but I encourage
you, like Ferdinand's a big spot, and don't
be discouraged by all the stuff you see.
God's got all the power.
They don't got the power.
But if God's speaking to your heart this
morning, call on his name and say, God,
I want to confess my sins.
I want things right.
If we refuse to make things right in
our lives on a personal level, there'll be
no personal revival.
See what I'm saying?
And don't be afraid to come to God
this morning.
God's not like us.
Aren't you glad he's not like us at
times?
The prodigal son, when he comes, God is
full of mercy.
And Jesus stands with his arms wide open.
And he says, come to me, all you
are weary and burdened.
And that doesn't just count for when you
first get saved.
That means all the time.
We can just keep coming to the throne
of grace with confidence because he cares for
us.
And he says, cast all your cares on
him for he cares for you.
So I just want to encourage us today
to pray.
And maybe you may want to come and
pray here.
I don't know how you guys do it
here, but we do in our church.
People come right forward and they pray and
they say, God, this morning, there's some things
that need to change in me.
So if that's the case this morning and
God has spoken to you, I encourage you
to humble yourself before God, even before each
other, to say, God, some things are going
to have to go in me.
In order for me to experience personal revival,
I need to make a few things right
with some other people.
And if you do that today, God will
meet with you.
And so I don't know, brother, do you
guys close with a song here in the
morning?
Okay, yeah, that would be great.
Yeah.
And so maybe just as he's playing that,
if you'd like to just come and seek
the Lord, you know, I encourage you to
do that.
You know, it could be a day of
brand new beginnings here.
It could be a day of refreshing, a
day of the new presence of the Lord
back in your life.
If you hear his voice, don't harden your
hearts.
Just say, Lord, there's some things today in
my life that's got to go.
There's some sin that's got to go.
I can promise you that he is faithful
and just, and he will forgive you of
all your sins and purify you of all
unrighteous if you'll just humble yourself before him.
Please make it good with the Lord, you
know, not for my sake.
I mean, I'd like to see you again.
I may never see you again.
And, uh, but do it, do it for
the sake of the glory of God and
for your own soul, for your own joy.
Amen.
So I'll leave it with you.
Amen.
Please stand.