Tonight I want you to think with me
on this subject, Time to Travail.
Time to Travail.
Galatians 4 and 9, But now, after that
ye have known God, or rather are known
of God, how turn ye again to the
weak and beggarly elements?
Whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Ye observe days and months and times and
years.
I am afraid of you, lest I have
bestowed upon you labor in vain.
Galatians 4 and 19, My little children, of
whom I travail in birth, what, again, until
Christ be formed in you?
The definition that we find in Webster's of
the word travail is this.
Travail means painful, arduous, arduous labor, pains of
childbirth, to labor with difficulty, to suffer pains
of childbirth.
That is the definition that's given of travail.
The Bible says that it's time for us
to travail, that we would not go smaller
spiritually, that we would become more mature.
We do not have the nursery of our
churches filled up by the nursery.
Adult women have babies.
The body has to be mature.
Chemicals have to be in place.
Actual construction in the human body has to
be mature and formed.
Immaturity cannot produce new life.
Only maturity can produce new life.
I wonder in our churches tonight, all across
America, we had church yesterday.
I wonder if we only had religious entertainment.
I wonder if we only had religious habits.
I wonder if we only came and walked
in and went through a religious ritual that
we've always gone through.
I mean, it's time for Sunday school.
It's time for the birthday offering.
It's time to have a prayer.
It's time to have a song.
And in some churches, they even pass out
a menu and tell you that it's time
to stand up and it's time to sit
down and it's time to bow your head
and it's time to sing.
Because we have it organized, we have it
orchestrated, but there doesn't seem to be any
spiritual maturity because we're not having babies born
in the house of God.
The only way there's going to be life
is that there's some maturity.
And we can't have the nursery filling the
battlefield with soldiers to battle against the world,
the flesh, and the devil.
Now, Isaiah, if you will, in the Old
Testament, Isaiah 13, verse number 8, the Bible
says, And they shall be afraid.
This is the book of Isaiah, chapter 13,
and verse number 8.
And they shall be afraid.
Pains and sorrows shall take hold of them.
They shall be in pain as a woman
that prevails.
They shall be amazed one at another.
Their faces shall be as flames.
They shall be in pain as a woman
that prevails.
I think that we could be honest tonight,
and without being critical of people that are
trying their very best to serve God, I
think that God would bless us to be
honest.
I think God would bless you to be
honest and bless me to be honest.
And the truth of the matter is that
we do go to church on most Sundays,
Sunday nights, and Wednesday nights.
But I wonder about the body of Christ
that is in that church.
That body of Christ that's in the church
represents a three-times holy God in heaven.
God Almighty said, I'm a spirit and I
cannot change.
Jesus said, well, Father, I'll lay aside my
crown of righteousness, I'll put down my royal
robes, and I'll go down to earth and
I'll represent us.
And I'll be a savior, I'll be a
lamb sacrificed for the sins of men, women,
boys, and girls.
Jesus did just that.
He invaded this mud ball of sin.
He laid down his royal robe of righteousness,
took off his crown of authority, and became
a flesh being just like you and me.
He was not half God and half man,
but he was all God and all man.
A mystery, and the power of that mystery
is great and authoritative today that he was
Jesus Christ Yeshua, the Messiah.
He was the living Son of God and
he is the Son of God tonight.
He's not only the Son of God, but
he is God.
And his very being is that there are
three in one and one in three.
You say, that doesn't make sense, isn't that
wonderful?
That makes him God.
He's smarter than you and smarter than me.
You say, well, you can't have three in
one.
Well, I didn't hear you go into the
restaurant this morning and say, could I have
an order of scrambled shells, yolks, and whites?
You said, could I have an order of
scrambled eggs?
And yet that egg's made up of three
parts.
It's got a shell, it's got a yolk,
it's got a white.
And all three of those are made up.
They have distinctive personalities, but when you whip
it all together, it's a good old scrambled
egg.
You know what God has done for us.
You see, we have a mystery in front
of us and he is God and we
need to understand that.
And he did come to this earth, but
then when he left this earth after he
had been to the cross, after he had
cleaned out the grave and made it a
peaceful place to wait for the resurrection morning,
after he had conquered death, hell, and the
grave, after he had taken the keys of
hell away from the devil, and when you
go home tonight, the devil's the only booger
in business that doesn't have the keys to
his own shop.
Huh?
All he can do is just walk around
and act mad because he's not mad anymore.
God's already whipped him.
I love it when the bully gets whipped,
don't you?
That bully got whipped.
I mean, God's Son whipped him.
He didn't give up those keys without a
fight, but God's Son took authority over him
in the name of the King of kings
and the Lord of lords.
And by the power of his own blood,
he took from him the keys of death,
the keys of hell, and the keys of
the grave.
And tonight, he has those keys tied to
his side.
Now, when he was ready to leave after
he had resurrected his own body by the
authority of his own name, and then he
had appeared to this earth to be a
living witness forever that he was indeed the
resurrected Son of God.
Now, you can understand something tonight.
You're practicing and living the only religion in
the entire world where your Founders are alive
and well.
You go over to see where they buried
Buddha, and you look in there, and there
are Buddha bones.
Huh?
You go over there to where Muhammad is,
and there's Muhammad bones and ashes.
You go over there to where the Spiritism
was born by the Fox sisters, and you'll
see bones and ashes.
Hey, you go over to the Hindus and
see where their leaders were that came up
with their religion, and all you see is
bones and ashes.
But you go over to Jerusalem and go
inside that empty tomb and look around, and
there's no bones and there's no ashes, because
he's alive, and he's alive forevermore.
Only religion in the world.
If you're confused on which religion to follow,
you might ought to pick one out where
the boss is still in the shop.
The rest of them are just hanging out
in a grave with plaques around them, how
they used to do and what they accomplished.
And it says they were born in this
year and they died in this year.
But you go over to our Founding Fathers'
grave, and it's got a little sign on
the door.
It says, He is not here.
Come see the place where the Lord lies.
Only religion in the world.
That ought to sort of weed out the
false cults and the false religion when you've
got the only one where the Founding Fathers
are alive and well.
That ought to encourage your faith.
That ought to let you know you can
still have revival in these last days.
It ought to encourage your heart to know
that you don't have to look at the
storm anymore.
You can look at the God that's over
the storm.
You don't have to look at the walled
cities anymore of unbelief, but look at the
God that's over the walled cities.
You don't have to look at the giants
that are walking around over the land, but
look at the God that's bigger than the
giants that are trying to take the land.
We've got a God of power, a God
of authority.
And this great God loves you so much
that He saves you out of a devil's
hell in spite of who you are and
what you are and who you used to
run around with and what you used to
say and how you used to act.
And He still loves you enough to let
His Son die for you.
What kind of Savior is that that'd love
you anyway?
Now, watch what He did.
He came out of that grave and then
He ascended up, walked up to the Mount
of Olives, and He said, I go away,
but He said, if I go away, if
I think about you again, there's a good
possibility I might come back.
That's one of those new Bibles.
That's not that old black-backed 1611 King
James.
That Bible, that's the authoritative voice for the
English-speaking world.
You know what He said in that one?
He said, if I go away, I will
come again.
That's Bible prophecy.
I like that because it means He's coming
back.
And you know what, church?
He said, if I go away, I will
come again, and I will not leave you
what?
Comfortless.
And He left the comforter.
That's what gets ahold of you every now
and then when you're not even expecting it.
You get a hug from heaven.
The comforter's kicking on you, saying, you're going
to make it.
When you got them old lonely nights and
the lights are off and them old hot
tears are rolling down your cheek and dripping
on that old pillow, the comforter's there with
a little handkerchief of grace and mercy saying,
this will only endure for the night, but
joy comes in the morning.
Hey, help is on the way.
I read the last chapter in our sidewinds,
and everything that has breath ought to be
praising the Lord, ought to be thanking God
that we're on the winning side.
He said, now, I'm the head and I'm
in heaven.
You're the body, you're on earth.
The body is where the babies are born.
You see where I'm going with all this?
The body is where the babies are born.
Someone has to have a burden.
Someone has to have a vision.
Someone has to pray.
How many of you here tonight have a
blood relative that is lost?
Would you hold up your hand, please?
A blood relative.
How many of you have someone that you
love and care about that's not a blood
relative, but you care about them very much,
you love them?
And you don't want them to go to
hell, you want them to go to heaven,
and you know that if Jesus were to
come tonight or they were to die, they
would be lost.
How many of you have someone in your
life like that?
Now, now, wait a minute.
Just about everybody in this tent raised their
hand they had someone lost, a blood relative.
And almost 100% raised their hand that
you have someone in your life that you
know and love and care about that's lost.
Well, now, let me ask you this.
If that lost person only had one person
in their life, only one Christian, and that
Christian was you, what chance would they have
of ever being saved?
If that lost person is lost and on
their way to hell and there's only one
Christian in their life between them and an
eternity without God, what hope and what chance
do they have of ever being saved?
You're the only thing between them and the
abyss.
You're the only thing, you're the only person
alive that claims the name of Jesus Christ.
What chance do they have if you're the
only thing between them?
You say, well, Brother Ralph, that's not really
fair.
Why is it not fair?
We are the body.
Did you know the only way, listen to
this, this will scare you, the only way
you could just raise your hand that you
were burdened over someone lost, the only way
you can even say you're burdened about somebody
being lost is the Holy Ghost told you
to be burdened?
My righteousness is a filthy rag.
I can't even think a good thought.
Hey, if my flesh does what it wants
to do, it'll run right back on to
the hog pens he got me out of
and I'll whistle happily on my way to
hell.
The only way I can even raise my
hand and say I'm burdened is the sweet
Holy Ghost of God to come around me
and let me know that the only hope
they have is that God can save them.
Now, the Holy Ghost must impregnate the lost.
That's the seed of the Spirit.
It is not that I found Jesus, but
the truth of the matter is Jesus found
me.
You see, I wasn't looking for the Lamb
when he invaded my world.
I was going the opposite direction, going as
fast as I could to an eternity without
Jesus.
And what did Jesus do?
He just put up a roadblock of grace
right in the middle of the highway to
hell and I ran a slap in the
grace, had to stop, and while I was
addled about running into the roadblock of grace,
Sheriff Mercy stepped out, handcuffed me, and carried
me over to the High Sheriff of Glory
and there the arresting power of the sweet
Holy Ghost of God made me aware that
I needed a Savior, that I could not
redeem myself.
The body is the only place that can
reproduce.
The only way reproduction can go on is
that the Spirit of God impregnate our hearts
with a burden and that we would prevail
again in prayer, burden, fasting.
I wonder what church is now.
When was the last time you were in
a church service and you felt like you
couldn't catch your breath because there was such
a burden in the building for the lost?
That you, have you ever heard a woman
in labor, she goes, if they go to
Lamaze class, they try to teach them to
control that panic breathing by processing it into
a controlled panting because there is anxiety, fear
of the unknown, unbelievable pain, and then that
precious woman is walking down to the valley
of the shadow of death.
She's walking to the edge of death so
she can give new life and bring it
into this world.
Huh?
And you know what we're doing at church
on Sunday?
We're walking in there, we're talking to each
other.
What do you think Labonnie will do today?
I don't know, but I just hope somebody
wrecks Gordon.
That's all I care about.
Well, I don't know.
Little E's been on a streak.
Let's see what we can get going.
The Braves are playing at three.
What do you think about Dallas?
They got a chance this year in the
NFL and that's church.
And we're sitting there in the parking lot
talking and we're cutting up and we're having
a big time.
Nothing wrong with that.
Please don't misunderstand me.
We ought to be happy people.
We ought to be joyful people.
But every now and then, every once in
a while, there ought to be the sense
that there's an urgency on the land, that
there are people dying and going to hell,
that the church is the body of Christ,
and there ought to be some prevailing and
saying, this could be the day that God
would walk into the house and this could
be the day that the sweet Holy Ghost
will get ahold of my daughter or my
son or my wife or my husband.
Something bigger than the preacher.
Someone bigger than the Sunday school teacher.
Something bigger than the program.
Something more organized than the organization.
It's the power of God we desperately need
back on the land.
Can God send revival?
Yes, God can.
Can God save you or your loved one?
God can.
Can God touch those that are sick and
body?
God can.
Can God meet the financial needs that you
have under the burden?
God can.
Can God get your wayward daughter?
God can.
Can God save your grandson?
God can.
Can God heal your church family?
God can.
Can God give you fresh oil?
God can.
Can God anoint you anew for the last
day?
God can.
Can God give you a holy boldness to
witness?
God can.
Can God give you back your prayer life?
God can.
Can God make you hunger for the book?
God can.
Can God?
God can.
He can do it.
It's whether or not we're willing to pay
the price to turn off the world and
spend time with God.
Something I've learned about serving God is God
doesn't force things.
God won't make me read my Bible.
God won't make me pray.
Can God?
God can.
Can God?
God can.