Understanding Revival: Forgotten Doctrines and Evangelism Dynamics

Because it enables me to give a continued ministry. If we want to know how God works in times of revival, we must consider the forgotten doctrines of revival. Now evangelism is a different thing. An evangelist knows that some people will come one night and not come the next night, so he wants to present the gospel. That's why you have pack-a-pew night, senior citizens night, young people's night, and so forth. That's evangelism. But one happy thing is here we have people who have been coming each night. That's what I want to stress.

I taught first in the first word of the gospel, repent. Repentance means to change your attitude. Then when I came back from the engagement in Chicago, I spoke on conscience and conviction. Do you remember I asked you if God should show you something wrong in your life, would you put it right? Many of you said yes. I didn't ask you to stand up and say it. If the Lord shows me something wrong, I'll put it right. Then last month I talked about confession. I think it's quite clear if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If an unbeliever wants to get right with God, seeking salvation, he must repent and be converted. But if a believer already converted finds himself out of fellowship with God, he must repent and make confession of his fault. I said let the circle of the sin be the circle of confession. If you've sinned against God, put it right with God. If you've sinned privately, put it right with the person you've wronged or someone hurt by it. If you've sinned openly, put it right before those who know about it. So tonight I want to give some scriptures to help you in searching of heart.

I told you that I was talking to George Gallup. Not only did he say that the number of people who claim to be born again has risen, but he said the lifestyle of church members isn't much different from the lifestyle of non-church members. So I wanted to speak to you about the Lord's standards for believers. And we're going to turn to that well-known passage, I'm sure you know it. It's called the Sermon on the Mount. Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain. And when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them. To whom was the Sermon on the Mount directed? To disciples, to believers.

Now I'm not going to deal with the attitudes. I'm not going to deal with the statements, you're the salt of the earth, you're the light of the world. But I want to deal with his challenges. And I'm going to begin with a well-known passage. If you look at verse 21, if you're following me, there you will find, you have heard that it was said to men of old, you shall not commit murder. And whoever murders shall be liable to judgment. Now notice what he was saying. Everyone knows that murder is wrong. The Jews knew that murder was wrong. The Greeks knew that murder was wrong. The Romans knew that murder was wrong. There was nothing new here. And today we could say that murder is wrong, not only in the United States, but in Canada, in Cuba, and in any country you care to mention. Murder is a social crime. But I say to you, that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment. What a contrast! In one breath he's speaking of murder. In the next breath of bad temper. To whom is he speaking? To his disciples. In other words, I'm telling you that you must be more particular.

Now why should he make such a comparison? Well, you see, when a man loses his temper, he's possessed of a desire to hurt someone. He may do it with his tongue, he may do it with his fists. Have you ever heard someone say, I'll beat him within an inch of his life? In other words, I don't want to go to jail for murder, but I'm going to make him feel it. That's bad temper. But now, a man wouldn't say to his wife, I'm going to beat you within an inch of your life. Oh, there are some that do that. They're battered wives. But perhaps he'll give her a tongue lashing. That's bad temper. Desiring to hurt. It's sin.

Now I'm Irish, and most Irish people think that they're especially privileged to lose their temper. Irish people are noted for quick temper, aren't they? They're noted for good humor, that's true, but they're noted for quick temper. And as I told you in another meeting, I had my share of both. I had bad temper. But I never admitted it was wrong. I called it righteous indignation. But it's bad temper. It's amazing how people can control their temper when they have to. I served in the Air Force. I remember there was a sergeant in our outfit that was such a bad temper that the men said when he spat on the ground, the grass burst into flame. He was a rough-tongued man. One day he came into the enlisted men's mess hall. Somebody had put a vase with chrysanthemums there. He thought of all the things for a military man that was the sissiest. So he said, Who put those flowers there? And nobody answered. He was provoked. He said, I said, Who put those flowers there? And a PFC answered very evenly, The colonel put them there. And the sergeant said, Pretty, huh? He could control his temper when he wanted to.

I have seen drivers on a freeway cutting in each other and shout abuse and make obscene gestures. I've never seen them do it to the police. You can control your temper. Now if I wanted to know whether or not you had a bad temper, I wouldn't ask how you behave in church. You're an angel here. Comparatively speaking, I would ask those who have to take it from you, your family, your employees, your workmates, those who have to take it from you, whether or not you have a bad temper. A bad temper is a sin. So what? We must repent of it.

While we're at it, maybe we'll consider some of the other sins of the tongue. Not only bad temper. By the way, the scripture's full of it, you know. Cease from anger, forsake wrath. Could you put that in plain English? Quit your bad temper. Cease from anger and forsake wrath. Well, there are other sins of the tongue. One is profanity. I remember the time when you never heard a word of profanity on radio, TV, or the movies. A day sometimes you're shocked beyond measure. But when I look around a Christian audience, there isn't anyone here foul-tongued. You'd be ashamed of it, wouldn't you? But I notice that euphemisms are often used. In other words, when a man comes back from the war where he has used very rough language, now he notices ladies present, he uses softer words that sound like the swear words. You look up the dictionary. You may be surprised to read this.

Take, for instance, the word gosh. Look up in the Webster Unabridged Dictionary. It says gosh, a euphemism for God. Look up gee. It says a euphemism for Jesus. In other words, people who don't like saying the ugly words say something that sounds like it. This may be a new thought to some of you. That's why Jesus said, Let your conversation be yea and nay. Just plain talk. The English language has 750,000 words. Surely there are enough words without indulging in either what you call swearing or in minced oaths. That's what the dictionary calls them, minced oaths. So take care of your tongue. You know, the word darn is just a euphemism for damn. Of course it is.

Now I doubt if there's anything more clearly condemned in Scripture than lying. The Lord Jesus characterized the devil as a liar. He said when he lies, he speaks according to his own nature. He is a liar and the father of lies. Now when we apply this standard that the Lord Jesus gave us, everyone knows that murder is wrong. No murder in your heart. Everyone knows that lying is wrong. No deceit in your heart. Then he said, any time you give an impression contrary to the naked truth, you're guilty of lying.

Now you can say what is not true without telling a lie. You might say, where is your brother? You've got a brother, haven't you? I said, yes. Where is he? I said, he's in London. If you looked him up when you got over there and found he had moved to Glasgow in Scotland, did I tell a lie? No, I said what I thought was true, though it was not accurate. You can say what is not true without making a lie of it. But likewise you can say what is true and give a totally wrong impression. I was speaking at a Christian college in New England and I saw the president of the college kissing a pretty waitress. If I didn't add the fact that he had just come back from the Congo on a mission trip and this was his little daughter and he hadn't seen her for months, I would have made a lie out of the truth. There are some Christians who wouldn't be caught lying, but they deceive. They know they're giving a wrong impression. And that's the same test. You all know that lying is wrong. No deceit in your heart.

I think we can go further than that. What about this subject of criticism? Now that's a word that is used in two ways.

An art critic is one who goes to an art gallery and says, well now, I like this. He's very good with the colors, that's the sunset all over. But he goes to this, he said, now this isn't quite so good. That's criticism. But it's legitimate criticism. It's constructive. But the act of criticizing people unkindly is a vice. Scriptures don't call it criticism, they call it malice.

You know, I miss my wife a great deal. It hasn't been quite so bad here in Garland. My wife back home tries to organize me. And she says, well I tried. But now I've got John Cramp organizing me. And so it hasn't been quite so... I miss her organizing me, you know. Now my wife criticizes me. But because she loves me, that's why. She wants me to... She said, you know, the first time I ever saw you, you hadn't combed the back of your hair. She's so determined to keep me up to scratch, as it were. Do I resent this? Well, sometimes I'm weary of it, but... I know her motive is good. Loving criticism. But when you criticize to take someone down a bit, that's a sin.

I remember when I was in New Zealand. I got a letter from a man who had criticized me so bitterly in Canada that he persuaded people not to go to hear me in the Massey Hall. We had started in the People's Church, ended up in the big auditorium in the Massey Hall. And now he was convicted. Four pages of sincere apology. I began to get curious. I wondered what it was that he had against me. Then I discovered. You know, I was just in my twenties. I was 23. So I grew a mustache to look a little bit more mature looking. Today they grow a beard. That's the mark of trying to look mature, you know. But he's a man with a mustache that couldn't be living very close to God. I thought that was the funniest thing I'd ever heard. But on the other hand, when I got married, my wife persuaded me to shave it off. But however, that was before that. Then it suddenly struck me. The reason he criticized my mustache wasn't the mustache. He didn't like me. He was holding me down. That's what he was convicted about. And when you criticize people, you're looking for faults because you don't like them. Is that your weakness?

What about levity? Now there's a distinction between humor and levity. Humor is really the spice of conversation. But levity is making light of sacred things. You shouldn't do it. Jesting is condemned in scripture. Grumbling was the first sin of the church. It's also a sin of the tongue. Grumbling was the first sin of the Christian church. And of course, foul talk. Impure conversation is condemned in the Ephesian letter. But perhaps we could consider it in another category because it's a form of impurity.

Now look at the Sermon on the Mount. Verse 27 this time. Here we find the same principle. The Lord Jesus Christ saying, no murder in your heart. And here he says, you have heard that it was said by them of old, you shall not commit adultery. Adultery was a sin to the Jews, to the Greeks, to the Romans. I don't know any political party in any part of the world, whether United States or the Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics. Any party that advocates adultery. Because the family is the basis of society and adultery is a sin against the family. Now the Lord says, you all know that adultery is wrong. But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. The same principle. You know that adultery is wrong, but no impurity in your heart.

I have had people come to me and say, that's my trouble. If I told the people what I thought about half the time, they wouldn't speak to me. Impurity. Sins of the thought, sins of conversation, sins of behavior. Out of the heart of man come evil thoughts. Leads to fornication, adultery, licentiousness, the evil eye. Those are the words of Jesus Christ. Most temptations are in the imagination.

I was walking down Swanston Street in Melbourne just a few weeks ago with Glenn Shepherd of the Home Mission Board and Ivor Jones, an Australian evangelist. And one of these, I don't know what you would call them in Texas, Barker, people who try to sell you something, came out and tried to persuade us to go in for what they call adult entertainment. What a misnomer. I would say adolescent entertainment. Certainly not adult. It's not responsible. You know, young people growing up get curious about sex, but how you call this adult, I wouldn't know. Of course, we walked on, but then Glenn Shepherd and Ivor Jones were quite surprised when I went back and spoke to the man. I said, why fool around with calico when you've got silk at home? I hope that sank into his mind. Maybe he didn't understand what I was talking about. But it's true, we suffer a lot of temptation today that we didn't have 30 years ago.

I travel a great deal. I have to sort of get used to homesickness. Someone asked my wife just last week, how do you put up with all these, I mean, how do you come to your happy married life? So to tease me, she said, well, he's away half the time. But I think to be fair, when we get back together again, we can show our affection. But I was staying, preaching at a big Christian college and they put me up on a Holiday Inn. I like to be a horizontal Baptist every afternoon directly after lunch. But I like to turn on the TV while some kid's program about the Flintstones or something is going on. I just go completely asleep. It doesn't keep me awake. The sound in the room helps me to sleep. I left the TV on. When I wakened up, what was on was what they call soft porn. I thought, what's the world coming to? Three o'clock in the afternoon. So I switched it off. As I say, why fool around with calico when you've got silk at home? So I just switched it off. But, you know, the enemy came along and said to me, don't you think as a preacher you ought to know what's going on these days? God gave me the grace to say, no, I don't want to befuddle my mind.

But perhaps there's someone here that this word is meant for. You have indulged impurity of thought by watching X-rated stuff. Shame on you. Conversation. Let your conversation be pure. Deeds. Well, it says, cleanse thy me from secret faults. It begins in the imagination. But it leads to fornication and adultery.

At a Christian college not too long ago, a girl came to me and said, my boyfriend says there's nothing in the scriptures against premarital sex. I said, you must be kidding. I couldn't find any verse. I said, well, I'll give you one. It says, flee fornication. Every other sin that a man commits is outside his personality. But the immoral man sins against his own body. She says, what does that have to do with premarital sex? That's what the word fornication means. Oh. She came back the next day and she said, my boyfriend says, quote the apostle Paul to me, Jesus was more understanding. He said, neither do I condemn thee. I said, finish the verse. Go and sin no more. But actually when he said that, he was speaking about adultery, which is extramarital sex rather than premarital sex. But I said, would you like me to give you a quotation from the Lord Jesus himself on premarital sex? She said, if there is one. Oh, I said, there is one. It's not what goes into a man befalls a man, but what comes out of his heart. And out of his heart come evil thoughts, murders, fornications, robberies. She said, why does it put such a nice thing, a sex relationship in such bad company? I said, you've got a point there too. I said, God ordained the relationship between the sexes for the procreation of the race and for companionship. The relationship is the highest act of love between a man and a woman. But it's always wrong outside commitment. Marriage. Always wrong. But you see, so many young girls today, well, I sometimes ask my grandchildren what it's like in high school today. They're not taught this. They're taught the very opposite. But we've got to keep ourselves clear at this point.

I'm going to mention something else, and that's the sin of wrongful possession. Again, we'll apply the principle the Lord Jesus has given us. Everyone knows that it's wrong to steal. The Romans knew that it was wrong. The Greeks knew that it was wrong. The Jews knew that it was wrong. Today, they know that it's wrong to steal in the United States, and you also find if you steal in the Soviet Union, you go to jail. Stealing is a social evil. Now, the average Christian will not steal. But sometimes he swipes things. The Bible condemns swiping. You say, swiping? You mean it says, thou shalt not swipe? No, no. But it does say, very simply, not pilfering, in the King James Version, not purloining. That's an old-fashioned word, and we don't get the force of the word. Not pilfering, but showing complete faithfulness. There are people who take little things. They say, well, everybody does it. But it's not right.

My first job was in the office of one of the largest bakery concerns in the world. I always had a sweet tooth. And our company had a custom of selling slightly damaged pastry at half price.

We had to promise not to sell it to anyone. So I used to go down to the pastry room, and I'd say, any broken pastries, George? George would say, there are a dozen in there. Put them in a box, pay me for six. That was legitimate. But sometimes the packers had been careful and hadn't broken any. But while George wasn't looking, I went around and broke a few, and paid half price for them, and laughed all the way home. But let me tell you, sin is never so dangerous as when it appears to be smart or funny. If Mr. Dixon, the manager, had seen me do that, I would have been fired. And I would have had the stigma of losing my first job through dishonesty.

There was a great revival in Northern Ireland in 1921. The evangelist God used so much was a man called Nicholson. During that awakening, we saw social effects like this. The biggest shipbuilding yard in the world, Harland and Wolff that built the Titanic, put a notice on their gates: Employees becoming converted and wanting to return stolen tools are requested by the management to keep the same at home. We have no longer room to store the tools that have been returned.

All right, you're a Christian. Do you have any stolen tools at home? Those of you who are in professional work, do you have any books on your shelves that belong to somebody else? The poor guy that lent you that book has forgotten to whom he lent it. It's his, and you have it. You're in wrongful possession. I have it of all sorts of people. I remember once in Seattle, a fellow coming to me and said, your word on pilfering really hit me. He said, I ought to put things right. I said, what was the particular occasion? Well, he said, I swiped an outboard motorboat. I said, swiped? That's grand larceny. I said, take it back, and pay the man for the rental of it, and if it needs any repairs, put it right. That's what you've got to do.

Now I'm going to mention something else. It says, owe no man anything, except to love one another. Unpaid debt is a sin. Now I'm not speaking of credit. If you have an equity in your house, you can borrow on it. If you want to buy a new refrigerator, you have to make a down payment. Why? Because if you have to take it back, the price is dropped, but they'll get what they've lost. It's not wrong to buy on credit. It is very unwise to buy things on credit you can't afford. Some people, you know, they get intoxicated with credit cards. I've got credit cards, but I pay my bills when they send me the account. I never pay a cent of interest, and what I've saved has enabled me not to buy any more on credit. It becomes a beneficent circle, or else it becomes a vicious circle. I know some Christians who are just caught up in debt. That's wrong. You're far better to do without than to have a bad testimony.

I have business people who say to me, well, I know some Christians, and they say, that's their Christianity. I don't want to be a Christian. I believe in business integrity. I don't believe that you can't be a Christian in business during the week, but only on Sunday. But you know what the worst form of wrongful possession is? Will a man rob God, but you have robbed me. But you say, how have we robbed you? In tithes and in offerings. Now, a man may give his tithes and his offering in service, or in money, in his time. I'm not going to argue about that. But this is connected with revival. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be provision in my house, and prove me now herewith, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

It's bad enough to steal from a bank. It's worse to steal from a benefactor who paid your fees at university. Some people I'd say, I don't have it to give at the end of the week or end of the month. You give at the beginning of the week or the beginning of the month, or whenever you're paid. See, that tithe belongs to the Lord. Do you remember the little girl who was given two dimes for Sunday school, one for herself and one for Sunday school? She went running along the street and she tripped and fell. Both dimes rolled along the street. She ran after one and grabbed it. The other one went down the drain. She said, oh Lord, there goes your dime. How like that we are. We buy something we don't want, or don't need, or could do without, and then we say we don't have money to give. You say, but yes, it's my money, is it?

You know, I've been in Afghanistan where they don't have income tax, but of course they don't have street lights or sidewalks or police or anything like that. You're liable to be bumped off around any corner. We pay taxes. Now supposing next time you get your income tax return, God will turn you right to the IRS and say, it's my money. I may send you nothing this year, but I might send you a little next year, but it's my money. What do you think is going to happen to you? You're going to get into trouble with the IRS. They know how to make you conform. We're dealing with God. God in his mercy doesn't deal with us that way. But not to give him what belongs to him is stealing from God.

You remember I talked to you on repentance? Do you know that the word repent occurs seven times in the letter to the churches? Not once in each letter. Seven times in all seven letters. The word repent doesn't occur in the letter to Smyrna, the church under persecution. And it doesn't occur in the letter to Philadelphia, the church in revival. I was in China a couple of years ago, where it's costly to be a Christian. Where they live in fear. But it's purified the church. I remember talking to a Hong Kong Chinese. And he said to me, do you think when things change regarding China, we're going to have the opportunity to evangelize China? I said, I think it's going to be the other way around. The Chinese Christians are going to evangelize you, because Hong Kong Christians dearly love to make money. They live for that. In China, the believers don't need to repent. They've done the repenting. But in revival, they have repented. They've been cleaned up. They're filled with the Holy Spirit. But in the other letters, you'll find the word repent occurs.

There isn't time to deal with them all. But to round out this talk that I'm giving to you, I will say that sins of the spirit are a far greater hindrance to revival than sins of the flesh. Our Lord was doubly lenient with a poor woman caught in sin, and trebly severe with the pride of the Pharisee. Spiritual pride is a sin. To think more highly of yourself than you ought to think. But I noticed in the letters to the churches, to the church in Ephesus, write, I know your works. That means how you behave. Your toil and your patient endurance, how you cannot bear evil men, and have tested those who call themselves apostles, but are not, and have found them to be false. We understand that the church at Ephesus was the first of the Christian churches to be invaded by heresy. But they closed ranks and stood for the truth. But they lost something in the process.

Glen Shepard and I were speaking at the Baptist Assembly in Australia. The biggest attendance was not for the meetings for prayer for revival, although they were encouraging. The biggest attendance of those good Baptists down there was the evening they discussed the big fuss over the Baptist Theological College. I was at the Baptist World Alliance in Los Angeles. I was expecting to see lots of my Southern Baptist friends. I'm an Irish Baptist. Somebody asked me, are you a pillar of the Southern Baptist Convention? I said, no, I'm a butler. I support it from outside. But I didn't see many of my friends. You know why? They all came to Dallas for the big fight. They couldn't afford to go to Los Angeles. That's one of our problems. Some of us who stand for the truth lose.

So what does the Lord say? He said, but I have this against you that you have left your first love. Most people misquote this. They say so-and-so has lost his first love. It's not lost. If I went down to the vestibule and the man said to me, I've lost my wife, I would take it that she had gone out one door and he had gone out the other door. But if he were wearing mourning, I would offer him my sympathy and his bereavement. But if he says, I have left my wife, now he's accepting responsibility. I find that when Christians get lukewarm in their heart, it's because of some disobedience where they left their first love. Scripture says, remember how far you've fallen and repent. That means change your attitude and behave as you did at first. Get back to your first love. If not, I will remove your lampstand from its place. That's a figure of speech for your witness. You lose your witness from lack of love. Unless you repent.

I haven't time to deal with the other letters. They speak of impurity and idolatry. Surely those are the sins of our nation. Impurity and love of money. It's idolatry.

But the last letter says, I know your works, that you're neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot, but because you're lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spit you out of my mouth. Lukewarm.

I was born and raised in Ireland where the national drink is hot tea. You can get a cup of hot tea any hour of the day or night. If you drop in to see anyone, they say, have a cup of tea. Sometimes they say, have a cup of tea in your hand. It means just even while you're standing, you drink a cup of tea. I told somebody the other day, I never heard of Irish coffee until I came to this country. But it wasn't until I came to the States I learned to drink iced tea. I'd never heard of iced tea. Of course, the climate over there is a bit like a refrigerator, so why would they want iced tea? They always want hot tea.

When I was over, I told the Irish, you know how they make tea in America? They heat it up to make it hot, then they put in ice cubes to make it cold, then they put in sugar to make it sweet, then they put in lemon to make it sour. But I have to admit that in summertime, there's nothing more refreshing than a glass of freshly made iced tea. Notice what I said, freshly made. These people who boil the stuff and then put it in, that's not real iced tea. I love hot tea. I like iced tea. But I don't like lukewarm tea. My mother used to say, take this dishwater away. Is it not common courtesy in America to say, let me warm up your coffee? I like hot coffee. In Australia, I learned to drink iced coffee. You should try it. It's lovely in summertime. But I don't like lukewarm coffee. I like hot soup in winter. I like cold consommé in summer. But I don't like lukewarm soup.

And the scripture says, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I cannot swallow you. Maybe we say, I can't stomach you. This is the Lord speaking. I will spit you out of my mouth. You say, well, are you referring to me? I don't know your life, but let's just take the departments of your spiritual life. You never pray from one end of the year to the other. You say, that's not true. Then you're not stone cold. But you pray without ceasing. You keep your promise when you promise someone you'll pray for them. Some missionary you say, I'll pray for you. Would you like to write to that missionary and tell him how often you prayed for him? He might come home. You're not hot. You're not cold. What are you? Lukewarm.

You never read the Bible from one end of the year to the other. You say, that's not true. But you read it faithfully, daily. It's so easy to get so busy, we neglect this. You're not hot. You're not cold. What are you? In between. You never witness for Christ. You say, that's not true. I've given my testimony. But you speak to those who need it most. You say, I can't say that either. You're not hot. You're not cold. You're lukewarm. You never give a dime to the Lord's work. You say, that's not true. But you tithe faithfully. You say, I can't say that either. You're not hot. You're not cold. What are you? One man came to me in high Dutch and he said, why do you pick on me? I'm just average. I said, what's average between hot and cold? Lukewarm.

Does lukewarmness characterize your life? No, the rest of it, because you say, I'm well off. I've got along fine. I don't need anything. But you don't realize that you're wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. Therefore, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire. White garments to clothe you. Then it says, those whom I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. That's not colloquial English. Be zealous, therefore. How would you put that into Texan slang? Get on the ball and change your attitude. It's not pretty plain.

And then comes that wonderful verse, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me. You told me at the beginning of the week, if God shows me something in my life, I'll be glad to put it right. Will you? Will you put it right? As I said last night, if it's secret between you and God, put it right with God. Nobody else needs to know about it. But if it's private, it concerns somebody else, or you've hurt someone else, put it right with your friend or neighbor. If it's open, other people know about it, put it right with them. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

Now the customary thing to do when we give a challenge like this is to give an invitation. And get someone to play the piano. Have someone come forward and stand here. You could do all that and not put things right. I would much rather you would say, well, that hit me tonight in a certain respect. By the grace of God, I'll put it right. You might not be able to put it right here. You might see someone here that you've had a feud with, go over and put things right. Generally speaking, it's back home or at work you have to put things right. Or you may have to write a letter.

So I'm not going to give an invitation forward. I'm just going to say, in the presence of God, is there something in your Christian life that needs putting right? That's why we've made it our theme song, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. See if there be any grieving way in me. Then lead me in the way everlasting. Let's bow in prayer.

Remember, all that you say about revival, wanting to see revival in this church, in this state, in this country, doesn't amount to anything if you're not willing to put something right in your own life. What is it? You've been having a little running dispute with the Lord. Why do you say Lord? I give up. I want your best for me. Obedience is better than sacrifice. I'll do what you tell me. Purge me and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Then shall I teach transgressors thy ways. Then shall sinners be converted unto thee.

O God, help us to realize that our low-level Christian living keeps other people from being saved. Let's sing the first verse of that song, Search Me, O God, and Know My Heart Today. It's in your hymn books. You conclude. That'll be our prayer of conclusion.