Have you ever noticed in 2 Chronicles, the
seventh chapter, that familiar passage used by every
preacher in a revival at some time or
other?
How verses 13 and 14 both start with
the word, if.
If I shut up heaven, that there be
no rain, or if I command the locusts
to devour the land, or if I send
pestilence among my people.
If my people, now notice here, how this
verse swings back and forth between God and
his people.
If my people, which are called by my
name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek
my faith, and turn from their wicked ways,
then will I hear from heaven, and will
forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
It oscillates, you observe, back and forth between
God and his people.
We hear a lot of sermons on this
great old text.
Some people say it's not a revival text,
that it applied only to Israel in the
Old Testament, but I'm not interested in that
observation.
The application is for God's people any time.
You're aware of the fact that it's a
springboard for revival sermons, and people are so
familiar with it that every time I announce
it, I can fancy the Saints settle back
into the pews and say, well, I've heard
all this before.
But I think the thing we need above
everything else today is to familiarize ourselves with
the familiar, to get better acquainted with what
we think we already know.
This old verse is just as timely as
it ever was in the days of Solomon,
and it turns on two phrases, if my
people, then will I.
Now, there's no secret about that unless you
want to call it an open secret.
We sing revive us again every once in
a while, and I have a sneaking suspicion
that when we sing it, revive us again
under our breath, we add, but not now.
And it is rankest hypocrisy to ask God
to revive us again if we're not willing
to do four simple things that he says
to do in this text.
You notice it starts with his people, if
my people.
God begins with his people, and they begin
with themselves.
This is a personal old book.
Search me and know my heart.
Try me and know my thoughts.
See if there be any wicked way in
me and lead me in the way everlasting.
Now, that's not passing the book.
That's me.
It's a personal book.
After David committed his terrible sin, he needed
to do something besides grab a harp and
start singing songs.
He needed to get right with God.
And he started by saying against thee, thee
only have I sinned.
I used to wonder why he said that.
I thought he'd sinned against just about everybody
himself, Uriah, Bathsheba, and the whole country.
But David understood that the worst thing about
sin is it's something between us and God.
And we don't seem to get through to
that today.
That's what makes it so bad.
We sometimes sing the little chorus, Lord send
a revival and let it begin in me.
Well, that's where it'll have to start.
It's not the preacher nor the deacon, but
it's me, oh Lord, standing in the need
of prayer.
You know, it doesn't take much religion to
confess other people's sins.
I heard of a woman who went to
a psychiatrist some time ago and she had
a strip of bacon over each ear and
a fried egg on top of her head.
And she said, I've come to see you
about my brother.
She needed a little help herself.
Ever hear anybody pray like that?
Go all the way around the world, visit
all the mission fields and never get around
to old number one.
You feel like saying, brother, if I were
you, I believe I'd back up and start
over.
Now it says here, if my people, which
are called by my name.
Well, you say that's Israel though.
Yes, but wait a minute.
We are Christians.
We're Christians.
I wish we never had started pronouncing it
Christian in Christianity because the center of the
whole thing is Christ.
We're Christians.
Romans 7, 4 says we're married to Christ.
Second Corinthians 11, 2 says we've been espoused
to him.
We're married to Jesus.
When a woman marries a man, she takes
the new name.
And if she's the woman she ought to
be, she'll never do anything to bring reproach
on that name.
If you're a Christian, a real one now,
you've got a new name and you got
it from God.
You're a Christian.
Some spring times ago, I was in meetings
in the Ozarks in Arkansas.
No more beautiful mountain area in this country.
I loved it.
And an old mountain missionary there took me
as far back as we could get in
those mountains, as far back as we could
get on a jeep.
And he told me about those mountain people,
wonderful, wonderful people.
And he told me about old Leonard Lamb,
who had been a sop and a drunkard
all his life until he was 72 years
old.
Then he got converted.
And everybody heard about it.
It was quite a sensation.
One day he said to himself, I need
a little money.
If I'd go over to the county seat
at the bank, maybe they'd let me have
a little.
He went over there and the banker had
heard about his conversion.
So the banker said, tell me about what's
happened to you.
And he did.
And the banker said, well, sign your name
here and we'll let you have a little
money.
And he came back home and said, this
is the first time in my life that
my name's ever been worth anything.
You know why?
He had a new name.
That wasn't the same old Leonard Lamb.
In Greensboro, I had a friend who was
Dr. Raymond Taylor.
He was the other end of the social
spectrum.
He was head of the drama department of
the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, just
across the street from where I live.
One of the buildings is named for him.
A graduate of Harvard, a great man in
literature.
He had read the Bible all his life
as literature, but he wasn't a Christian.
He was a hard sinner.
And his wife prayed for 45 years that
he'd get saved.
One night he got saved in the middle
of the night all by himself in his
room, in his bed.
He and I became buddies.
We liked to write and we liked literature.
We'd go out and eat about once every
week or so.
But he died and went to heaven not
long ago.
He didn't live so long after he was
saved, but I never saw a more remarkable
conversion.
Made him a deacon in the First Baptist
Church.
He was a pallbearer at my wife's funeral.
I thought a lot of Raymond Taylor.
Oh, what a difference.
I said, how'd you get saved?
Did you hear a sermon?
No, I never heard sermons.
Were you at church?
No.
God woke me up.
He said, in the middle of the night,
showed me what a lost old sinner I
was.
And I got saved.
He came down the steps next morning and
said to his wife, I'm going to church
with you tonight.
And she nearly fainted after praying for him
for 45 years.
It was quite a shock.
But he was like a child.
Matthew 18.3, except you be converted and
become his little children.
So now enter the kingdom of heaven.
He went everywhere.
But he had a chance, bragging on Jesus.
All kinds of churches didn't make any difference
to him.
He didn't know one from another one.
And that's kind of nice anyhow.
You know, the happiest fellow in the world
is a brand new Christian before he's met
too many Bible scholars.
He didn't know any more than just believe
the Bible.
He never had believed it.
And I said to him, did anybody during
all these years that you were a sinner,
anybody ever speak to you about Jesus?
No.
Now that's something to get on our faces
about.
You mean no preacher?
No.
Nobody.
No wonder that God visited him in the
middle of the night.
Nobody else would.
And the Lord made him a special visit
by the Holy Spirit.
Now, he got a new name.
He got a new name all around the
neighborhood.
Some of the faculty of the university came
over one Wednesday night to hear him and
give his testimony.
They couldn't understand what in the world had
happened to Dr. Taylor.
But he was a new man.
He had a new name.
Now, there are four things to do in
this text.
Four notes make a chord.
And I believe we ought to use all
of this chord.
I don't believe we ought to just settle
for a fourth of it.
I've heard sermons on this text that gave
the impression that all you have to do
to have a revival is pray.
Now, you can't have a revival without prayer,
but you can have a lot of prayer
and not have a revival.
I don't minimize prayer because it's the thermometer
of any church.
What a church is on prayer meeting, that's
what it is.
Not what it is on Sunday morning.
You can't tell much about a church on
Sunday morning.
What it is at prayer, what a preacher
is when he prays, and what you are
when you pray alone, not publicly.
What you are in prayer is what you
are.
Somebody said what a preacher is.
In his prayer closet is what he is.
And that's what you are.
Because you can't put on there, you know,
you can't pull the wool over God's eyes.
You are liable to be honest then and
tell the truth.
I've been in some prayer meetings where a
waste of time.
There were at least two in the Bible.
Exodus 14, 15, Moses stood there at the
Red Sea with the water in front of
him, the Egyptians coming up back of him,
and here are all these Israelites around him.
Well, you'd think it is time to pray,
and God says, Wherefore cryest thou unto me?
Speak to the children of Israel that they
go forward.
There's a time to pray and a time
to proceed.
And when it's time to proceed, the thing
to do is quit praying and start proceeding.
Some people never do anything but pray.
They never do the next thing.
God said, Get moving here.
Get in to start out.
I'll separate the water.
Looks like that you're going to drown, but
you won't.
Make a move.
And then after the battle of Ai, Joshua
lay on his face before God, and that's
a good position to be in.
God said, Get up.
Wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?
No time for a prayer meeting.
Israel hath sinned.
The church can have a prayer meeting.
It can pray the looms day, but until
it confesses its sins, until individual members confess
their sins, if I regard iniquity in my
heart, the Lord will not hear me.
So that's very important.
But he said three other things here.
If my people shall humble themselves.
I don't know of anywhere in the Bible
you're told to pray for humility.
You're told to do that yourself.
Humble yourself.
As a little child, Matthew 18, 4, under
the mighty hand of God, 1 Peter 5,
6, in the sight of the Lord, James
4, 10, you do it.
You don't wait on God to do it.
He'll humiliate you, but he won't humble you
in the sense of making yourself humble.
We brag a lot.
Baptists do.
We're mighty bad at bragging.
Sometimes I think we ought to, and I
tell them so in their larger meetings, I
think we ought to have one of our
conventions in Los Angeles.
They've got a lot of smoke out there,
and I think we could blow it out
in three days, the way we like to
brag.
The Bible speaks of those who justify themselves.
We have lots of them, why I do
this and why I don't do that.
The Bible says don't do that.
Judge yourself.
Now when you judge yourself, that's not so
comfortable.
Old Mel Trotter was having a prayer meeting,
and everybody had prayed but one man.
Mel said, pray brother, and he said, I
can't.
Mel said, what's the matter with you?
Nothing.
Just can't pray.
Mel said, confess your sins.
He said, I can't think of anything, Mr.
Trotter.
Mel said, get down there and guess at
it.
And he got down on his knees and
guessed at it, and guessed it the very
first time.
I tell people if they could ever turn
off TV long enough to get still long
enough to hear God speak, they'd think of
something, and the first thing would probably be
it.
And then it says, if my people seek
my face.
Now what does that mean?
You've heard it all your life.
God says in Hosea, I will go and
return to my place till they acknowledge their
offense, and seek my face.
The psalmist said, when thou saidst to seek
ye my face, my heart said unto thee
thy face, Lord will I seek.
What does it mean?
It means to seek God's favor, his approval,
so that he makes his face to shine
upon us, and lifts up the light of
his countenance upon us, and gives us peace.
But some things hide God's face, nothing between
my soul and the Savior, so that his
blessed face is not seen.
That song was written by Charles A.
Tindley, a great black preacher in Philadelphia.
His son, Charlie Tindley Jr. sang for me,
led singing for me in three meetings years
ago, Grand Rapids, Toledo, and Rockford, Illinois.
And I left to hear him sing his
daddy's songs, Take Your Burden to the Lord
and Leave It There, and others.
But this one was, I thought, the best
of all.
And you got under conviction when he sang
it.
We could have a revival anytime if we
could save our face and have a revival.
That's why we don't have many.
You have to get embarrassed, and you have
to get ashamed of yourself, and you have
to humble yourself before God.
The Japanese, when they surrendered at the end
of the war, they had never lost a
war.
And the Oriental mind doesn't like to be
humbled, and to have to give in.
And when they had to march their delegates
out on the deck of the battleship Missouri
in front of MacArthur, and Wainwright, and the
rest of them, and sign away in their
surrender, that was hard.
They lost face.
And if there's anything an Oriental hates to
do, it's to lose face.
When you surrender to God, it's embarrassing sometimes,
but it's the only way to the blessing.
I heard a woman say, I was teacher
of a women's Bible class for 10 years
before I ever got right with God.
And I went down to an old Methodist
altar and knelt there, and I said, Lord,
I'll go to Africa, I'll go to India,
I'll go anywhere.
And God said, I don't want you over
in Africa.
I want you to get right with Susie
right here in the church.
Uh-oh.
She said, I hadn't thought about that, and
I started over.
Said, I'd rather I'd gone to Africa than
get right with Susie in the church.
And God said, no, no, I don't need
you over there.
Get right.
I was in Georgia in a meeting, and
the pastor said on Monday, said, lady called
me up this morning, hadn't slept last night,
and said, my sister and I haven't spoken
to each other in several years, and I
just couldn't sleep last night after that sermon.
And so I called her up, and she's
coming to see me, and we're going to
make everything up and get it settled.
That's what I'm talking about, just plain old
flat-footed, ordinary, everyday getting right.
Nobody wants to hear about that.
Nobody wants to do it.
I was in a meeting in Pennsylvania maybe
many years ago, and we'd had a dry
meeting for a couple of nights.
Oh, it was dry.
If we hadn't had a glass of water
on the pulpit and a little humidity in
there, places had dried up and blown away.
I said, Lord, do something.
Anything's better than nothing.
Give us a revival or a ride or
something, but give us something.
And I gave the invitation, and one of
the leading members of the church walked down
to the front and turned and said, I
want to confess the ungodly things I've said
about our former pastor.
I said under my breath, now we're going
places.
Old Adam never walks down the church on
talks like that.
That's the work of the Holy Spirit.
It's not easy.
It's a whole lot easier to give $100
to foreign missions than it is to apologize
to somebody.
You ever tried it lately?
It's a rare thing.
Sometimes husbands and wives need to do that.
That's the reason we've got so much trouble
today.
There may be some right here tonight listening
to me.
The first thing you do when you get
home tonight, you ought to say one to
the other, maybe each to the other.
Not been acting like Christians, and I'm ashamed
of myself, and I want you to forgive
me.
That's the reason today that we're having such
trouble.
This country ought to be declared a disaster
area from Maine to California, home-wise, because
we won't get right.
We're too stubborn.
I heard of a man and his wife,
they were having such a time, and the
kids even said, Mom, Pop, why don't you
go to a psychiatrist?
You're about to run us up the wall
instead of us running you up the wall.
And they went to a psychiatrist.
And he said to the woman and the
man, I want you to sit down in
chairs facing each other and just tell each
other what you think of each other, and
don't spare her anything.
And they didn't.
They really told each other off.
And they got through, he went over to
the woman and kissed her and said to
the husband, now that's the trouble.
She needs affection.
You ought to show affection.
Tell her so.
You ought to show affection to her.
She ought to be shown affection.
And that stubborn man said, okay, I'll bring
her over every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Perfectly willing for the psychiatrist to take care,
but too stubborn to do it.
Now, maybe you've not got that far yet.
And there are teenagers who ought to go
to Mom and Pop.
And say, I've not been acting like a
Christian.
And sometimes Mom and Pop ought to say
it to the children.
That's where revival begins.
With things like that.
And then it says finally, if my people
would turn from their wicked ways.
Now, I never hear much about that.
But it was a great old saint who
said, we cannot expect God to take away
sin by forgiving it, if we're not willing
to put it away by forsaking it.
Now, plenty of people are glad to have
their sins taken away.
And they sang about that, you know, and
thank God for it.
But you won't put them away.
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper.
But whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have
mercy.
Supposed to give them up.
What kind of sins?
All kinds.
Church members ought to confess sins of omission.
Romans 7, 19.
The good that I would, I do not.
Now, what is it that you ought to
do and you know you ought to do
that you won't do?
While we could fill the front of this
church with people guilty of the sins of
omission.
We don't like to be told today what
we ought to do.
Children don't like to be told in the
home.
Students at school.
Church members at church.
But the Bible says we ought, ought, ought,
always to pray, to obey God, to forgive,
to love one another, support the weak.
And that's not a suggestion, it's a commandment.
And when you leave undone what you ought
to do, to him that knoweth to do
good and doeth it not, to him it
is said, it's just as bad not to
do what you ought to do as to
do what you ought not to do.
But, on the other hand, sins of omission.
Same verse, Romans 7, 19.
The evil that I would not, that I
do.
What is it you're doing tonight that you
ought not to do and you know you
shouldn't?
Now, they tell us preachers today that we
ought not to do any negative preaching.
Just preach positively all the time.
Well, I'd have to throw away half of
my New Testament if I did that.
It's a double-barrel book.
And the Bible says, the Old Testament says,
the righteous man walks not in the counsel
of the ungodly, stands not in the way
of sinners, sits not in the seat of
the scornful.
Nehemiah said, so did not I for the
fear of God.
There's some things a Christian does not do.
The New Testament says, walk not as the
Gentiles.
Be angry and sin not, steal no more,
let no corrupt communication proceed out of your
mouth, grieve not the Holy Spirit, no filthiness,
foolish talking, jesting, no fellowship with the unfruitful
works of darkness, be not drunk with wine,
put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make
not provision.
As I said this morning, it ends up
with a negative.
Whatever it is in your life, that's out
of the will of God, may be a
small thing.
The shelf behind the door, the shelf behind
the door, tear it down and throw it
out, don't use it anymore.
For Jesus wants his temple clean from ceiling
to the floor.
He even wants that little shelf that's hidden
behind the door.
Sometimes it's one thing that you will not
give up to the Lord.
I was in Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Oklahoma
City years ago in a meeting.
They gave an invitation, a fellow came down
the aisle, shook hands with me and put
a pack of cigarettes in my pocket and
he said, that's been my trouble and I'm
giving it up.
I hadn't preached on tobacco.
You think I'd waste a sermon on that
when I got so many good things to
preach about?
I always tell them, if they bring their
tobacco to church, please leave it on the
steps, and I guarantee you no hog or
dog will get it till you go out
after the meeting.
But that was his trouble.
Whatever it is, we must deal with it.
And then sins of the disposition, 2 Corinthians
7.1, having these promises, dearly beloved, let
us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the
flesh and spirit.
Disposition.
The sins of carnality in the New Testament,
what are they?
Well, Paul didn't enumerate the ones that we
do.
Preachers used to preach, they've about quitted, on
sins and drinking and smoking and gambling and
all the rest of it, but we don't
hear much about that anymore, alas.
But Paul didn't name those things.
He said envy, strife, divisions, whispering, swellings, tumult,
schisms, various debates, contentions.
Those are the things that tear churches to
pieces.
You might add jealousy, murmuring, the Bible says
a lot about that, grumbling, why the Israelites
had barely gotten out of the wilderness and
they started murmuring and the church had barely
gotten out of Pentecost and there arose a
murmuring.
We've been at it ever since.
And I get in churches sometimes where we
have some of these saints who don't dance
and they don't play cards and they don't
smoke and they shouldn't and they're right on
that, but there's not much they are doing
to the glory of God.
And they brag on what they don't do,
I don't do this and I don't do
that, and I feel like saying, well, neither
does a gate post.
What are you doing to the glory of
God?
There's the other side of it.
The worst enemies that Jesus had were the
Pharisees.
Have you ever stopped to think that the
crowd that spearheaded the movement that put him
on the cross was the crowd that went
to church, read the Bible, prayed in public,
all of them tithers, lived separated lives from
the world, tried to win others and went
to hell.
You can do all of that and not
be saved.
My soul, how good a person can be
and miss heaven.
Jesus said to publicans, and harlots will go
there before you, strain out a gnat and
swallow a camel, like sepulchers, full of dead
men's bones and all the rest of it.
And so we can wrap the rags of
our religiosity.
Now we ought to do all the things
that the Pharisees did that I've named.
Well, to go to church, read the Bible,
tithe, be separated from the world and try
to win others.
But if you do all that and stop
there, you're not out of the woods, because
the Pharisees did all that.
They wouldn't even eat an egg that had
been laid on the Sabbath.
They were separated with a vengeance, believe me.
We were saved to be made like Jesus,
predestinated.
They've argued over that for years.
I've heard some preachers try to explain it.
That's why I don't.
But I know the purpose of it.
I was predestinated to be conformed to the
image of God's Son.
God saved you to make you like Jesus.
How much like Jesus are you?
That's the thing.
And your disposition here.
The real test of your Christianity is not
how you act at the Lord's table when
you have Lord's Supper.
It's how you act at the breakfast table.
It takes a couple of cups of coffee
to make you fit to live with of
a morning.
Maybe you better go to the mourner's bench.
And then doubtful things.
Whatsoever is not a faith is sin.
Is there anything in your life, it may
not be terrible, but it's got a question
mark after it.
You're not sure about it.
Paul says, if eating meat offered to idols
caused my brother to offend, I'll not eat
anymore.
Habits of life, though harmless, they seem, the
old song says.
The real need today among our people is
repentance in the church.
I read the other day, Associated Press, got
an article about Southern Baptists are uneasy.
We had a drop in baptisms last year.
And we've got all this machinery and never
undertook as many things in our life as
we are.
But I think the trouble is we are
not having repentance and confession of sin on
the part of God's people.
When I was a boy, my daddy used
to take me to an old mill out
in the country.
It was operated by a big old water
wheel.
You've seen them.
The water poured on the big wheel and
the big wheel turned all the others.
Now, suppose that miller would come down some
morning and there wasn't enough water to turn
the wheel.
How foolish he'd be to get down there
and try to make it go around.
But I tell you what he could do.
He could go up the creek and deepen
the channel and get the debris out of
the way and the stream would flow and
the wheel would turn and he'd be back
in business.
I've never seen as many committees and organizations
in my life trying to turn the wheel
in our churches today.
And everywhere I go, I see pastors and
Sunday school superintendents, education men, music men, all
the rest, puffing and blowing, trying to make
the wheels go around.
I think we ought to go up the
creek and get sin out of our lives
as individuals and as churches.
And when we do, then the flow of
the Spirit would set in.
And all the wonderful things that you read
about in the Acts of the Apostles were
simply the outflow and the overflow of the
inflow of the Holy Spirit.
But Jesus said to the church at Laodicea,
he called on them to repent, but they
didn't.
And so he did spew them out of
his mouth.
It went out of business.
But he said, I've got one more proposition.
If anyone will hear my voice and open
the door, I'll come in, abide with him,
he with me.
I believe that we are in the Laodicean
age today.
I think the majority of our church members
have either never been born again, or they're
backslidden.
That's why they don't come.
If you could get the crowd away from
their altar, and no doubt a lot of
your members are sitting in front of the
altar tonight, it's that other one, it's that
box in the living room, it's a glass
front, and you know, and that's where they're
worshiping.
And they've got idols, that's what they call
them.
Movie idols, TV idols, it's idolatry.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
And I have been saying over the country,
I believe what Jesus is trying to do
today.
I don't know whether we'll ever have a
great mass response or not anymore.
But Jesus is saying, I'll take anybody that
can give.
If anyone, anybody will hear my voice and
open the door and say, Lord come in
and take over.
We'll start a new church.
Campbell Morgan said, he excommunicated the whole church
and started with one man.
And I'm telling churches all over this country
and in our conferences, I'm trying to get
a little kindling wood together everywhere I go.
I grew up in the country, you know
how you make a fire in the country.
Today you push a button, all I've got
to do now is push a button and
we've got wonderful heat or air or whatever
you want.
But I didn't grow up that way.
That old house on top of the hill,
we had air conditioning.
It's free.
The Lord blew it right through the place.
And on a winter morning, and how cold
it could be, my daddy would wake me
up what seemed like two in the morning,
was a little later, get up and make
a fire.
I learned I'd better listen to him the
first time.
If I waited till the second time, it
was unfortunate.
And if I waited for the third time,
it was a calamity.
So I went in there and I had
chopped the wood and I had it in
there, the big wood and the middle sized
wood and the kindling wood.
And I would scrape the ashes off of
the fire from the night before and hope
there'd be coals underneath.
And I'd lay the kindling wood on the
coal and had my backlog in place.
And then I'd blow and blow till, well,
you know how it is, I blew there
till I was blue.
And then the flame came up and the
kindling wood started.
Then I put my middle sized wood on,
my little wood, and had a fire.
But you couldn't, if I'd have waited till
the backlog caught on fire first, I never
would have had a fire.
And if you think we're going to have
a revival, wait till these backslidden church members
that are the majority, they could outvote us
anytime if they'd ever come to church and
vote.
If you think we've got to wait till
they convert, we'll never have a revival.
I'm trying to gather kindling wood everywhere I
go.
The folks that love the Lord in the
church, and if you didn't have it, it
couldn't run.
This church is operating, I don't know how
many members you've got, but I imagine you're
like the others.
You've got a Gideon's band that's running it,
keeping it going.
If it depended on a lot of this
other crowd, you couldn't make it of mine.
And so I'm calling for the kindling wood,
the people that love God, and you're here
tonight, I hope, but you've got to pay
a price.
You can't act for those folks, but instead
of lamenting and saying, well, why aren't they
here?
We're here.
And revival begins with the best people in
the church, as I said this morning.
Starts with us.
And there's a price to pay to have
a revival.
What is it?
Humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn
from their wicked ways.
Am I talking about deacons?
Yes.
Sunday school superintendents, choir singers.
That's the crowd that has to start a
revival.
That's the kindling wood.
And I'm gathering kindling wood all over the
country.
Then I believe if we ever have another
revival, God doesn't do it the big way.
He never has.
He starts the little way every time.
With a handful.
If God can get in this church a
handful of Christians sold out to Jesus Christ,
lock, stock, and barrel.
You don't have to be many.
It doesn't take many pieces of kindling wood
to start a fire.
But you must be willing to be consumed
by the Spirit of God.
You don't have to be educated.
You don't have to be anything but concerned
and faithful.
And that's where it's at.
Now I know some of you want revival.
But I want to ask you tonight.
What I've asked all over this country.
How many of you members of this church.
And I'm going to start tonight with the
folks that are now working in the church
in a special, some special position.
Deacons, Sunday school teachers, other officers, choir.
You're the ones that ought to lead the
procession.
You've got no business singing in the choir
if you're not right with God and not
right with people.
Not until you get right.
No business teaching the Sunday school class or
anything else.
There's a price to pay and God has
not marked the prices down on that.
He's not running the fire sale today.
You can't get any bargains in this.
It'll cost every blessed thing you've got to
live a Christian life.
I want to talk about that if I
make it through the rest of this we've
got a lot of people that'll take Jesus
because salvation is free but they won't take
him as Lord of their lives because that
costs you everything you've got and you're trying
to get to heaven on a half a
case religion.
You can't get saved on that.
So I want to ask you tonight.
No singing.
I don't have singing in most of my
invitations.
Because you get busy singing when I want
you to think.
How many of you that I've mentioned.
Deacons, Sunday school teachers, choir singers and folks
who now are active in some form of
church work here.
How many of you can say Brother Havener
I believe what you said and I believe
that's what the Bible says.
I want to see a real sure enough
revival in this church.
I want to see it enough that I'm
willing to pay the price and I realize
God has marked it down.
I'm willing to humble myself even to the
point of embarrassment to get right with God
and with people.
If there's anybody I'm at odds with Jesus
said if you bring your gift to the
altar remember that your brother is at odds
with you.
Doesn't matter whose fault it is.
If he's at odds with you Jesus said.
Why didn't he say if you're mad at
him go and be reconciled.
Leave your gift.
Don't don't put your envelope on the plate.
Just hang on to it till you get
right.
That sure would ruin the offering on some
Sunday mornings in some churches.
That's what he said.
I wonder how many of you would be
willing to say tonight Brother Havener I'm willing
to pay the price.
Not your price.
You're not dealing with Lance Havener.
But that's what Jesus said.
I'm willing to do what God said here.
Humble myself, pray, seek God's face.
All I want is the smile of God
and turn from every wicked way.
The thing that I'm not doing that I
ought to do I'm willing to start doing
it.
And the thing that I'm doing that I
ought to quit I'm willing to quit it.
And the thing that I'm not sure about
that's got a question mark after I'm going
to quit it.
If it's all right God will give it
back to me.
If it's not I don't need it anyway.
Isn't that not fair?
That's what the Bible is saying.
Are you willing to pay that price?
That may mean that you'll have to hunt
up somebody or call up somebody or write
somebody a letter and get right.
No matter whose fault it was.
It means you'll have to put the Bible
ahead of TV and prayer ahead of everything
else from walking close to God.
My friend I don't know how you make
it today if you don't spend a lot
of time talking to Jesus.
I don't see how people make it in
a time like this.
You've got a little tip every once in
a while.
It takes all the praying we can do
to keep the thing going today.
This is a serious hour.
I'd like to know how many of you
are willing to say brother heaven or I
I'm willing.
Whatever it takes I'm willing.
Whatever it'll cost me I'm willing.
I'll pay the price.
Now you look like honest people and I'm
not trying to put on an aisle parade.
I gave that up years ago.
I don't like it.
I think we southern Baptists have rededicated ourselves
to death.
We've walked down more aisles and made God
more promises and done less about it than
any crowd I can think of.
But that doesn't mean we shouldn't do it.
We still ought to do it and mean
it.
I'd just like to ask you now how
many of you folks that are deacons and
Sunday school teachers and so on working down
the church.
If you are willing to do that not
for my sake but because God says so
when you want to see a revival.
I'd like you to get up and just
come down and stand here in front of
the pulpit and I want to have a
word of prayer with you if you're willing
to pay that price.
Now let's not lose any time if you
mean business if you'll get up and come.
I'm glad that you're not jumping up carelessly
because it costs.
If you're not ready to do it by
be honest I'm not going to take advantage
of you and bore you out because you
don't come if you don't think you're ready
to do it.
I'm not your judge but I'm just giving
you the opportunity as you gather around the
pulpit and you're willing as we bow our
heads and talk to Jesus you're willing there
where you stand just quietly to say Lord
I didn't come down here for the walk.
I'm willing to do what the preacher's been
talking about.
I know I can't do it by myself
but you never ask us to do anything
that we can't do by the Holy Spirit.
God never asked you to do anything that
you can't do by his spirit.
Now you can't do it none of us
we're weak we're poor mortals we can't do
it ourselves but Jesus wants to live his
life in us and if you're willing to
do it God will tell you what it
is and he'll give you strength to do
it.
Now Lord thou seest these dear people here
some of them been in here for a
long time and nobody perfect in this crowd
nobody perfect anywhere we're not talking about perfect
folks but Lord we can be blameless although
we cannot be faultless.
If we do the best we can under
the circumstances Lord we're blameless the Bible says
we can be blameless.
We'll make mistakes but help everyone standing here
to say in their heart Lord I came
down here because I mean it.
I'm willing to humble myself and pray and
seek God's face and quit anything you say
I ought to stop and start doing whatever
you want me to do and I want
you to do something about my disposition Lord
I'm not the Christian I ought to be
I don't act like it.
I've not got my tongue and my temper
getting me in trouble.
I've not got a disposition like ought to
have make me more like Jesus.
I want to be conformed to the image
of God's son and promise God dear friend
that this is not just a step you're
taking tonight it's the beginning of a walk.
A lot of people take a step and
then they stop.
Christian life's a walk and that's one step
right after another just keep on stepping the
next thing the next thing the next thing
that God wants you to do.
That's the Christian life.
As our heads are bowed I wonder how
many other members of this church there's not
room for you down here but if you
mean it now I know the dangers of
everybody jumping up when you and I don't
know any way to handle it except leave
it to your honesty I face people a
long time and I want you to mean
if you don't don't stand don't stand but
if you're willing to say like these folks
have I'm willing to pay the price for
revival and if you're a visitor your church
needs the same thing so you feel free
to stand I'm willing to to pay the
price of revival in my church will you
stand if you mean it right now from
your heart now be careful think about it
I'm willing to pay the price of revival
a revival is not cheap it costs a
lot salvation's free but it's not cheap because
Jesus is life and to follow him will
cost you yours and as we wait if
there's anybody that I appreciate the honesty of
some people that didn't stand if you didn't
feel like you're ready to do it I
appreciate your honesty but I wonder if any
of you that are still seated would be
willing to go this far would you be
willing to say brother Havener I want you
to know that your sermon has not gone
in one ear and out the other I
think you've preached the truth I know I
ought to do what God wants me to
do I want you to know that I'm
interested in by standing I'm saying pray for
me that I get to where I will
be willing to do it that I will
do it pray for me that I may
be willing could you get that far tonight
and stand right now on it yes God
bless you oh yes well that shows you've
been listening that God's been speaking to your
heart it's a start it's a beginning God
bless you there's only one other is there
anybody in here that's not sure that you're
a Christian or maybe you know you're not
one you may be a church member but
if you die tonight you don't know for
sure you'd go to heaven would you be
humble enough like a little child I'm not
trying to trap you now with any trick
would you be willing by just by standing
where you are to say brother Havener I
I'm not certain that's that's pretty important I
don't dare live on like that I've got
to live somewhere forever and I'm taking a
mighty big chance I'm going to stand and
say I'm not sure but I'd like to
be I'd like to know that I know
that I know that I'm a child of
God are you that interested is there anybody
who would be willing just to stand where
you are right now and say brother I'm
concerned I'd like to know that I'm a
child of God that's serious now I don't
know just all of us that remain must
be one of two things it must be
that you're not sure you're a Christian or
if you are a Christian you're saying I
I'm not ready tonight I'm not willing to
pay the price of full surrender to Jesus
make him Savior and Lord I hate to
see you go out of here like that
I really do and this is going to
be the end of the service going to
be dismissed in a moment but I hate
to see you go out with anything this
important not settled you can settle the whole
business right here tonight if you're willing to
trust Jesus as Savior and make him the
Lord of your life and before we go
out into the dark is there anybody that
would like to clear up the most important
matter in your life by saying I believe
Jesus the Son of God I believe he
arose from the grave I realize that I
can't save myself whatever I have done or
haven't done back in the past I trust
him tonight as Savior I confess him as
my Lord that'll settle it if you mean
it is there anybody willing to settle it
just by standing where you are I want
to confess Jesus tonight before we go out
here I want to give you abundant opportunity
now it may be that some of you
who stood on this earlier proposition it involves
surrender to the Lord and I will say
more about that later service father we pray
now that what's been started here tonight will
continue as we go out may we be
careful what we talk about going out of
here and not lose in foolish conversation any
of the holy impressions of this sacred hour
don't let the fowls of the air snatch
up the seed of the word and we
thank thee for thy presence among us tonight
and for what's happened only heaven knows what
it'll mean and we pray that thou will
guide us through these few days there's so
few that remain and that something will happen
that'll last for eternity and help us to
keep up the step with another step and
the next step and the next walking in
the life we pray in Jesus name amen