Our theme that was chosen for us this
year is rekindling holy fires.
And if there's ever been a day in
an hour that we need to pray that
God would help us rekindle holy fires, it
is the day and hour that we're living
in.
I come before you tonight with mixed emotions.
I'm happy and excited for this oasis I
needed this week.
I needed the messages of Monday and I
needed the messages of this morning and already
tonight in the music and to see my
brothers and sisters in the Lord.
Only God knows sometimes
how bad you just need each other.
Just to have a few hours where there's
enough in one place at one time for
hell to be restrained and maybe for the
first time in weeks you'd be able to
take a breath all the way to your
toenails because the families gather together.
I thank God for Southwide and I thank
God for the oasis but I'm burdened over
America.
I'm burdened over the state of the church.
I brought with me two or three publications
to the pulpit.
There's a lady doctor on the radio that
has more burden and concern over the nation
than a lot of Baptist preachers that I
know.
She's nicknamed Dr. Laura.
She's a Jewish lady.
She's not a Christian lady.
Yet she says the society's crumbling, the home's
coming apart and she says the reason it's
happened is we left the Ten Commandments.
She's written a book on the Ten Commandments
that is a building block to get our
culture and our society back.
I have a report here in my hand
from Michael Melvid and I've been in a
couple of conferences with Michael.
He is the co-host of the sneak
preview on PBS, critic for the New York
Post, has his own radio show and back
in February of this year at the Shavuot
Institute for National Leadership, he brought a speech
on saving childhood and here he is a
Jewish writer and he's saying that we're in
such a bad shape as a country.
We're in such horrible decline that we've actually
lost the childhood from our own families.
We've taken the innocence of our babies away.
He's not a Baptist preacher.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am convinced that we're
living in a post-Christian society.
There used to be a day in an
hour that the Independent Baptist Church could stand
here at Southwide and we could testify that
we had the largest churches in America, the
largest, fastest-growing Sunday schools.
But all of a sudden across the country
we're seeing that there are now more Muslims
in America than there are Episcopalians.
We're seeing that there are more missionaries coming
to America than we're sending missionaries out.
We're seeing the decline of our society and
our culture and our children.
And we need a theme, rekindling holy fires,
because we desperately need to rekindle some fires.
Our nation's in trouble.
Our communities are in trouble.
Our churches are in trouble.
And individual lives are in trouble.
Fire is always a symbol of the presence
of God.
It's a symbol of the power of God.
Fire in the Bible is a type of
the Holy Spirit.
We use the phrase and we talk about
revival fires or the fires of revival.
You need to remember that fire is a
very powerful element.
Fire actually needs no introduction.
Fire submits no resumes.
Fire goes and hires no publicist.
Fire does not go to the radio or
the TV station and buy spots to announce
that it is in town.
Fire does not go to the newspaper and
purchase a full-page ad.
When fire shows up, fire announces itself.
If the back of this building behind the
choir were to catch on fire and bright
orange flames begin to lick through the wall
and smoke begin to billow out of the
top, you would not wait for me to
announce to you that the building is on
fire.
Fire would have already announced its presence on
the property and you would already be making
your way to the exit.
Notice the Word of God because fire is
found in the Word of God.
Over and over we find it.
In Genesis 19 and 24, we read fire
from the Lord out of heaven.
That was coming down on Sodom and on
Gomorrah.
In Genesis chapter 22, verses 6 and 7,
behold the fire and the wood.
But where is the lamb?
Isaac and Abraham are on Mount Moriah.
In Exodus chapter 3 and verses 2 and
3, and the bush burned with fire and
the bush was not consumed.
The powerful story of fire being an evidence
of the presence of God and the burning
bush.
In Exodus chapter 9 and verse number 23,
and the Lord sent thunder and hail and
the fire ran along upon the ground.
The children of Israel were being held down
in Egypt's land.
In Exodus chapter 12, that wonderful passage of
Scripture that describes the Passover.
In verse number 8, and they shall eat
the flesh in the night, roast with fire.
God said don't boil the lamb.
He said I don't want it in water.
I want it to be roasted.
I want the fire there to symbolize.
And He said if there's anything left after
you've eaten, put it in the fire and
allow it to be consumed.
In Exodus 13 and 21, it says and
by night in a pillar of fire to
give them light.
The children of Israel are now in the
wilderness, a cloud by day and a fire
by night.
In Exodus 19, we move to Mount Sinai
and it says because the Lord descended upon
it in fire.
In Exodus 24 and 17, and the sight
of the glory of the Lord was like
a devouring fire on the top of the
mount.
As the Ten Commandments and the law is
being given to humankind.
In verse 18, I like this part where
it says and Moses went into the cloud.
Most of us spend our lives and our
ministries outside of the cloud.
But if we can ever get in the
cloud of God's divine presence, then we'll be
able to stand in this godless age that
we're living in.
47 of these 66 books in the Bible
talk of fire in one form or another.
And tonight as we gather here at Southwide,
we desperately need that fire of revival.
I know I travel around and I hear
the same stories.
Well, Brother Ralph, you have to be very
careful talking about revival all the time.
You need to be careful as a Baptist
talking about the Holy Spirit.
There can be wildfire and it can cause
problems and it can upset the program.
Wildfire, emotionalism, fleshly exhibits.
You see, all of those things we hear
over and over again.
But I'm going to tell you something, my
friend, when God does show up in demonstration
of power, some will be noticed because the
fire of God is burning in their heart
and in their life.
You cannot be on fire and it not
show somewhere.
Probably the biggest problem we have is we
do not trust the keeper of the fire.
Because what we're saying is, if I can't
handle it, if I can't package it, if
I can't control it, then I don't want
it.
So what we're saying is we don't trust
the keeper of the fire.
You must always remember, ladies and gentlemen, that
you did not start your own fire.
When God found me and when God found
you, I was on my way to an
eternity without God.
I was not looking for God.
I was not searching for God.
I was going the opposite direction from God.
And for some marvelous, unexplainable reason, this holy
God intersected my path, put up a roadblock
of grace, lassoed me in love, and brought
me to the Savior.
And there is where the fire was put
into my heart and life.
I cannot start my own fire.
I can only provide the fuel for the
fire.
Ladies and gentlemen, I believe that we have
been dead so long, or at least motionless
so long, that in my way of thinking,
even a wildfire would be a blessing.
If you have a wildfire, it at least
lasts long enough to melt the ice.
Amen?
Some of you go to churches on Sunday
morning that if you brought a cow in
the back door and let her down the
aisle, she'd give popsicles before she got to
the altar.
Right?
A little fire can melt the ice.
A little fire can run out the rats.
Up in the mountains, we set the fields
on fire on purpose.
And it's a wildfire.
And if you go to the other end,
if it's down by the barn or one
of the fields where feed is stored, it'll
run the rats out of the field.
You say, I'm offended at that.
You will not be offended unless you're a
rat.
You know what else a wildfire will do?
It'll burn back the brush.
And it'll expose the timber, the real fuel
for a real fire.
Revival fire has its markers.
It has its evidences of authenticity.
Authenticity, I can't even say it tonight.
Authenticity.
As we see the power of God and
the evidence of God and the authority of
God, then you know and I know that
it is an evidence that God has been
present.
Several simple markers.
Many are given, but three or four that
you can easily remember.
Number one is conviction.
Man cannot convict himself.
Man can get emotional.
Man can get all teary-eyed.
Man can get in a predicament and he
can get in a situation where they can
sing a song about mama, or they can
sing a song about dying and he can
sing a song about dying, or they can
sing a song about dying and he can
have a little emotional feeling.
But genuine conviction comes from the presence of
a holy God and you cannot manufacture that
conviction.
Only God's fire can send that conviction.
What is that conviction?
It's a word we don't hear a lot
anymore, but it is where a man gets
what we've nicknamed up in the mountains, the
Cain-Helfix.
All of a sudden his food tastes bad,
his bed gets lumpy, he can't laugh anymore,
he can't tell a joke anymore, he gets
the miseries because he's not right with a
holy God.
And conviction's real.
Conviction's real even after salvation.
Conviction can knock on the door of a
preacher.
Conviction can visit a Sunday school teacher.
Conviction can come to a choir member because
if we get cold and callous and careless,
then the convicting fire of God can visit
our lives.
Secondly, you can always tell the real fire
of God because there'll be the evidence of
confession.
People will confess their sins.
Lost people will confess.
They'll confess to God, not to man, but
to the holy God that forgives their sins.
There'll be confession, there'll be righting of wrong,
there'll be restitution.
The third element that's always present is one
of humility, brokenness.
No room for pride and ego in the
revival fire of a holy God.
The fourth element that's always there is that
of intercession.
It's always a marker that someone's prayed, someone's
spent time with God.
And it's not always the preacher, it's not
always the evangelist, it's not always who you
think it is.
You study church history and you find out
that there's been people spent time with God,
sometimes for weeks and months in prayer, and
sometimes for years.
And it wasn't who we thought it would
be.
Maybe a widow lady, maybe an invalid.
There was a businessman in my church who
owned an electrical company, a wonderful fellow, a
hard worker, worked six days a week for
years.
And I went by and saw him one
day and he said, Brother Ralph, he said,
I'm going to retire next week.
I'm going to turn my contracting business over
to my children.
He said, we're going to go celebrate.
My wife and I never got to go
on a honeymoon and we're going to go
to Hawaii for a month.
We're going to celebrate my retirement, we're going
to celebrate our marriage, and we're going to
leave out.
And on the Friday before he was to
work his last day, he was at one
of the high schools and they were contracting
to put in the lighting.
And one of the fellows was having a
problem with a light and he just stampered
up the ladder and was working about 32
feet off the floor.
Something happened.
He lost his footing and he fell back.
And when he fell, he hit on one
of the big drills laying on the floor
and broke his neck right above his shoulders.
Paralyzed him from the shoulders down.
Never to walk again.
Never to go on the trip.
Never to go to Hawaii.
Never to have that honeymoon, that vacation, that
retirement.
The rest of his life he would be
an invalid.
I'd go by to see Harold and I
just couldn't believe the problem.
I couldn't believe it.
This great fellow.
And he said, Brother Ralph, he said, I
don't understand this.
I don't know why I've had to go
through this.
But he said, I just, I know this
much God's so good to me.
And I said, Harold?
He said, but it's the truth.
He said, Brother Ralph, since it's happened, my
son's got saved.
My daughter's got saved.
My family's right with God.
He said, I just want to tell you
how good God is to me.
He's laying there with his arms paralyzed, his
legs paralyzed.
My wife talked to me on the phone
a few weeks after that.
They were putting a feeding tube in, punctured
his lung.
Food got into his lung.
Infection set up.
He almost died again.
I went by to see him and I
went in there and he said, Brother Ralph,
guess what they told me?
He said, I'll never eat solid food again.
He said, about the only thing I had
left was I could enjoy solid food.
But he said, I can't enjoy solid food
anymore.
But he said, let me tell you, God's
so good to me.
He said, look what I've learned to do.
And he took that paralyzed arm and he
put his shoulder around it.
And when he did, he knocked the phone
off.
They had it on a phone mat.
He said, I used to have to lay
here.
But he said, now I've learned how to
dial that push button phone by moving my
shoulder.
He said, I can call people and tell
them about Jesus and how good he is
to me.
And I said, Harold, son, you're killing me.
He said, well, the good part is, Brother
Ralph, he said, every night at 8 o
'clock.
He said, I know you're somewhere preaching.
And he said, every night at 8 o
'clock.
He said, I don't push that phone over.
He said, but I go into the Holy
of Holies and I knock on that door.
And I tell them my preacher's preaching somewhere
tonight.
And God would just cut him loose and
preach him in the power of the Spirit
and let the fire fall on him.
Intercessory prayer is an evidence of the Spirit
in the presence of God.
I submit to you, if we're to survive
into a new millennium, we must have the
fire of this holy God.
This fire that we need afresh and anew,
just like David had many anointings in his
life.
We need that fire of the Holy Ghost
in our life to purge us and to
purify us and to set our hearts on
fire with a new love for a holy
God.
Revelation talks about that God said, I have
somewhat against you.
You're neither hot nor cold.
And the reason we're neither hot nor cold
is because we've lost that fire that got
us here.
That old time Bible preaching and praying and
praising the Lord is our heritage at Southwide.
That's the heritage of our generation, is that
we love God and the things of God
and the people of God.
And we need to get back to that
brokenness before Him.
Only revival fire can make me what I
need to be spiritually.
You say, well, Brother Ralph, can we have
revival in the last days?
Absolutely.
You see, we forget that there's elements present
in this place.
We forget that there is a real God
and a real devil.
You must always remember for everything that God
has real, the devil has a counterfeit.
He has an imitation.
Jesus is the light of the world.
And we know that the devil works as
an angel of light.
There is salvation by grace plus nothing.
And there is a world teaching salvation by
works.
There is a genuine new birth experience.
And there is the fact that millions are
caught up in religious activity.
You must always remember that there is a
holy and an unholy.
You must remember there's God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.
You must remember there's a devil, a beast,
and a false prophet.
The devil works as anti-God.
Beast works as anti-Christ.
False prophet works as anti-Holy Ghost.
That's a real world we're in.
There really are angels.
And there really are demons.
And demons work as anti-angels.
And there really is a true church.
There is a blood-bought bride.
There's a crowd that's in.
They're saved and sealed with the Holy Spirit
of promise.
And there's also a harlot look-alike church,
a church of religion, a church of works,
a church that has a form of godliness
that denies the power thereof.
That's how you can understand tonight the simple
fact that in the middle of apostasy, in
the organized religion, in the harlot church, in
the middle of all that, there's a bride
of Christ that can have revival.
You can have a walk with God.
You can have power with God.
You can have the presence of God.
In the middle of a world that's making
fun of you, mocking you, laughing at you,
mocking your Jesus, laughing at your walk with
God, trying to take away the authority of
the Word of God, in the middle of
that apostasy, there can be a crowd living
in the fire.
I don't have to go home on memories.
I don't have to go home reading about
what God used to do.
I don't have to hang out in the
smoke and smell how God used to be
great.
I don't have to hang around and say,
Boy, we used to have meetings.
We used to have revival.
We used to have the power of God.
We used to have tears.
We used to have a walk.
We used to have a talk.
We used to be the people of God.
No, sir, my friend, the God that I
fell in love with, He's still on the
throne, and He still owns the job for
me and for you.
He's still delivering.
He's still providing.
Listen, five years ago this month, my precious
wife got sick, chronically ill.
It changed our life.
It changed our home.
It's changed everything that we love to do.
All of a sudden, all your plans and
your dreams, the kids are now grown and
married, and we're going to be traveling together.
We're going to do this, and we're going
to do that.
And all of a sudden, overnight, all that
changes.
In the midst of her sickness and illness,
all of a sudden this town that I've
lived in begins to pass a new law
last year, and says, we will define what
a church is, what a church is not,
what a church can do, and what a
church cannot do.
And I stood up to the city council
meeting, and I said, you don't understand.
You don't want to go here.
You don't understand.
This isn't about land use.
This isn't about zoning.
This has to do with you walking over
at my church and telling me that I
can't run a bus route anymore.
That's not the proper land use.
That I'm no longer compliant.
I can't have Trinity Baptist Bible College anymore.
That's against the law.
That the teen church is against the law.
That the Awana ministry is against the law.
No sir, that's not the way it is.
You don't want to go here because we
will not submit to that for five seconds,
let alone five minutes or five hours, because
the church doesn't bow to anyone but a
holy God.
I found out in the midst of the
storm that you cannot survive if you don't
have some fire from God.
I found out that my feelings will take
off and leave.
I found out my emotions will pack up
and leave out the back door when hail
is coming in the front door.
Earlier this year, my daughter-in-law was
having a baby at the hospital.
We went up there to be with her
and my wife had been in bed several
days, very sick.
And she said, Honey, are you going to
go up to the hospital and be with
the kids?
I said, I sure am.
It's about two in the morning.
She said, I want to go.
I said, honey, you've just been too sick.
She said, no, I want to try.
I said, all right, get dressed.
I'll drive you up there.
We got up to the hospital and my
daughter was coming up the hall and she
was talking to one of the ladies in
our church.
She said, I went back and saw Lee
and she's getting ready.
Dad, she's going to have that baby any
time.
I said, that's great, honey.
She said, you know, I don't feel good.
I said, what do you mean?
She said, I just feel sick.
I feel like I'm going to faint and
pass out.
Two hours later, I had someone on every
floor of that hospital in my family.
I had my wife in the emergency room
sick.
I had my daughter.
They thought she had had a heart attack
at age 31.
I had my daughter-in-law having a
baby.
It was such a bad day.
My cat was even in the hospital.
I don't even like cats.
The next day, while all that was going
on, I received a page.
And it was the office saying, you need
to come to the church.
The city of Asheville has pulled our grading
permits and our building permits.
You see, the devil doesn't play fair.
He doesn't wait for you having a good
day.
He comes against you when you are vulnerable.
And I was down in there and my
daughter was so sick they couldn't find out
what was wrong, whether they'd run one EKG
and then they ran another one.
When they found out, she hadn't even been
sick, but it was a certain type of
gallbladder attack.
They ended up doing an emergency surgery.
I can't even remember the word the doctor
used, but it was very rare.
But it is very, very violent.
And it is just, she was so deathly
ill.
None of the classic symptoms were there.
And they kept running tests.
I remember along about 4 o'clock in
the morning, I walked out the north door
of the hospital.
I went out in the dark and I
said, God, I am not complaining.
I have nothing to complain about.
I can't even figure out why you look
my way.
But I'm telling you, if you're up there
tonight and the lights are on, my wagon's
full.
And if you can do anything, I sure
will appreciate it.
I went back inside and the doctor was
walking out and he said, remember, Sexton, there's
something bad wrong with your daughter.
We can't figure this out.
The EKG doesn't look good.
It seemed like the more you pray, the
darker it got.
About 5 o'clock, 5.30, somewhere in
there, the sun hadn't come up yet.
I felt like every weight in the world
was sitting on my chest.
I couldn't breathe.
And I walked out.
This time, instead of going out the north
door, I went out the emergency room door.
And I walked out into the darkness.
And there's a big, long awning area for
the ambulances to back under.
And I walked out that doorway and stood
out there in the dark for a minute
and I said, God, I've been talking to
you all night.
I haven't heard a word.
I've tried to read Scripture over in the
room.
I can't find a verse.
It doesn't seem like there's anybody at the
house when I talk to you.
And God, I don't know if I can
help anybody else tonight.
I'm physically exhausted.
It's been two days since I've been to
bed.
I don't know if there's anything left.
And God, there's people in there hurting.
I need to help them.
I can't do anything.
And God, for me to go on, you've
got to help me.
And I turned to walk in.
And all of a sudden, a bird started
singing.
That's not big to you.
That's not big to anybody in this building.
But to me, it could not have been
any greater if the Hallelujah Choir of Heaven
hadn't stood up in the parking lot out
of darkness and began to sing Handel's Messiah.
It could not have been any greater.
One little old bird.
And he was half asleep.
Didn't want to sing.
And he was squeaking out a song.
And I started to walk in, and God
the Holy Spirit said, Did you hear that?
And I said, What?
He said, Listen.
I stopped.
He said, Listen.
A little bird is singing.
And I said, What is that?
And he said, That's a bird singing.
I walked back around there.
Sure enough, there's a little old bird singing.
And he said, Ralph, do you know why
he's singing?
I said, No, sir.
He's stupid.
So I said, I don't even know.
I can tell by his voice.
He don't even want to sing.
He said, Do you know why he's singing?
And it's still dark.
I said, No, sir.
He said, He knows something you don't know.
And I said, What?
He said, He knows that the sun is
coming up.
And I said, What?
He said, He knows that the sun's coming
up.
He knows.
He knows that at any moment, that old
darkness is going to start fading away, and
the sun's going to come up, and everything's
going to be alright, because God's still on
the throne.
God's still in charge.
And said, You just thought I wasn't watching
tonight, but I've been watching over you.
Every step you took, I took with you.
Every time you prayed, angels paid attention.
Every time you called on me, they stood
up around my throne and said, Holy, Holy,
Holy Lord God Almighty.
And that same God is available tonight for
every believer that wants to walk in the
fire and the Spirit of God.
No Savior in this world can come close
to what's been provided by us for all
eternity.
Houston paper said a few weeks ago there
are 50 different people in the greater Houston
area that say they're Jesus, the Messiah, but
they're not the Savior of the world.
We've got a God that hears and answers
prayer.
You see, the evidence of God's fire and
God's power is brokenness.
The fire of God that will burn out
everything in our hearts and lives.
That's unlike Jesus.
Fire produces a focus on Jesus.
Fire makes you so thirsty that you want
to be filled with the Holy Spirit of
God.
Fire does something inside of you, not just
a service with a touch.
You're grateful when you get into those kinds
of services where you can feel the presence
of God and the power of God, but
all of a sudden you start saying, God,
I want to have it as a lifestyle.
I want the fire on my heart and
life every single day.
I want that walk with God.
Jesus said, Carry ye in Jerusalem until that
power comes upon you.
It starts that process of growth and searching
and praying and maturing.
Exodus 24, Moses told the elders, he said,
You guys tarry for us here while we
go on the mountain to get in the
fire.
You see, there used to be a lot
of preaching, even in Baptist churches, that we
had to have the power of God upon
our lives.
That we couldn't do it in the mechanics
of our own organizations.
That we can't do it with the power
of our degrees.
You can have so many degrees, your mama
calls you thermometer, but it won't put the
power of God on you.
What will put the power of God on
you is spending time in the Holy of
Holies, getting that old Bible down in the
midst of the storm and begging God to
read you a verse from another world that
you can keep on going in the midst
of the storm.
Every time I stand to preach, you know
what I'm preaching on tonight?
I'm preaching on the sweet saints of God
that are tarrying for me.
There's people that haven't eaten today because Ralph's
going to preach tonight.
I'm not even worthy to wash their feet.
And they've not eaten today because that preacher
they love is going to preach tonight.
And I'm preaching off their prayers and their
time with God because somebody tarries.
Because we found out that there's no big
eyes in little youth.
That God doesn't have big churches and little
churches.
God doesn't have big shots and little shots.
God's just got a bunch of old sinners
that have been saved by grace.
And we've been washed in the royal red
blood of Calvary and our sins have been
forgiven and we're in the battle for righteousness
until He takes us home.
What a difference that makes.
You can have revival.
You can have the presence of God.
You can be a different preacher.
You can be a different Sunday school teacher.
You can be a different missionary.
The good part is heaven's still open.
God's still on the throne.
All He's looking for is somebody thirsty.
Somebody that'll say, God, I'm so sick of
me.
I want You to break me.
I want You to mold me and to
make me into what You want me to
be.
God's just not going to fill up a
garbage can church.
God's not going to hang around pride and
ego.
The book says they bowed themselves with their
faces to the ground.
When the presence of God came, it brought
humility.
It brought brokenness.
It brought a tenderness.
It brought a holy hush and a fear.
They were afraid God would go away.
I'm telling you, if this crowd at South
Y doesn't have revival, there's no hope for
America.
This is the crowd that knows about it.
This is the crowd that knows about the
presence of God and the power of God
and the purpose of God and the plan
of God.
What if God wants to send revival?
Are we willing to confess our sin?
Are we willing to go wash another brother's
feet?
Are you willing, if God wants to send
it to the small church in your town
or the big church in your town, are
you willing to go help your brother fight
the common enemy, the devil, and put the
light out for the lost in the last
days?
If my people, verse 14, which are called
by my name, shall humble themselves, and what?
Pray.
Listen, I don't know about you, but I
want the fire of God back in my
life.
I want the anointing on my life.
I want to see God rekindle the work.
I want Him to send revival.
I want Him to take it out of
South Wide and take it all across America.
Listen, the White House is not going to
help us.
Washington, the Congress is not going to help
us.
Your state legislature is not going to help
you, but I'm going to tell you, God
will help you.
God will do something for you tonight that
you cannot do for yourself, Mom and Dad.
Some of you are sitting here, your sons
in the world, your daughters in the world,
your grandsons in the world, your granddaughters in
the world.
Some of you preachers are sitting here, tales
ripping your church apart, marriages are coming apart,
and we're saying, what's going on?
I'll tell you what's going on.
We got out of the fire.
We got out of the glory.
We got out of the power.
And we got lost in mechanics and isms
and schisms.
We got lost in our games, and we
forgot the glory.
Oh, tonight we need to get the glory
back.
Would you do me a favor tonight in
obedience to the Holy Spirit of God?
Would you just bow your head quietly and
reverently all over this building?