Transcription downloaded from https://yetanothersermon.host/_/pbclincoln/sermons/106326/a-nation-in-need-of-revival/. Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions. Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt. [0:00] Well, I've had a great time. It's been a joy to be here with you these last few days. My only regret is that it's almost over. And I tell you, it's always a joy to be here with you guys. [0:13] And, you know, of course, I have known your pastor here and his family there. Of course, I've also known your former pastor and his involvement and touch on our lives through him discipling my father-in-law. [0:31] And, of course, my father-in-law has poured a lot into me. So some of this may be coming from Brother Inman. Who knows? But it is a joy to be here. By the way, on the back table, we do have some more copies. [0:44] If you're still wanting to order some extra copies of the Keeping America Sharia Free, please get that in tonight if you would there. And write your address there. [0:55] If you're paying by cash, fold it up there and hand that to me. And if you want to pay by card, I'll grab my phone and we'll get that done. And so this will be your last time to order for that. [1:07] We'll maybe leave a few other order forms. But I want to leave these behind with you there. Oklahoma City is not maybe too far of a trip for some of you. And if you're interested or know of people who are concerned about missions to Muslims and maybe want to learn how do I witness to a Muslim and stuff there. [1:29] Well, every June, next year will be the start. It will be our first annual meeting of Missions to Muslims conference. And it's a week long or rather from Sunday night through to Thursday afternoon. [1:44] And if you're a student wanting credit, then we're going to keep you through Friday and drill you through some more classes there before we finish with you. But we're having we're bringing in some great speakers. [1:57] Pastor Milad Khalid. He is a pastor in Lebanon, Lebanon, Beirut, Lebanon. And he when Israel went to bomb out to take out the leaders of Al Qaeda. [2:15] Here's some some couple of years ago when they set that bomb off or those bombs that that dropped there. It busted out the windows of his church. That's how close he is. [2:28] To all that. And he was the pastor that went with me to into Saudi Arabia. And so he's become a good friend. [2:41] And and I'm bringing him over to be our main speaker there. But we also have Brother Michael Garamy. He's a missionary to Iranians. God's given him a great ministry through the Internet and satellite TV of getting the gospel into Iran. [2:57] Do you realize this now that one third about 30 percent of the people of Iran are now claiming to be Christians? One third. [3:09] Under great persecution, the gospel grows. And and and so we're seeing some great things happen over there. Brother David Gates. He used to be a missionary over in in Egypt. [3:21] They threw him out. But he's now working still with Muslims in Dearborn, Michigan. And he'll be there teaching at the conference. Brother Mike Hodge will be speaking as well. [3:32] The founder of of a printing ministry to reach Arabs and so on there. He'll be one of our speakers. And Brother Tim Stalkup, who I think, you know, is one of our missionaries. [3:44] And he's in New York City. I've asked him to come in to represent reaching Asian Muslims for Christ. And so we'll be having covering a whole spectrum of things. [3:55] And I'll be teaching there as well. And so if you're interested in coming there now, if you're a full time Christian worker, we're going to house you and feed you and water you. OK, for free. [4:07] All right. But we'll make arrangements for for others if we have that available for others. They have a dormitory there and missions apartments and stuff there. [4:20] But we'll just just let us know if you're interested in coming. We'll see how we can take care of you when you come. All right. Are you ready for another Bible Bible nugget? [4:31] OK, turn to Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four. By the way, show me or have said, has this ever occurred to you? That the word missionary. [4:44] Is not in your Bible. The word missionary is not in your Bible. So where is the position for a missionary? And I'm going to point that out to you if you're there in Ephesians chapter four, verse 11. [4:59] And it says, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. So we have a group of people of all, you know, now we've got two offices of the church, right? [5:14] We've got the pastor and the deacon. Those are called offices. All right. But he's also given places for ministry for these groups of people. We've got apostles. We've got prophets. [5:25] We've got evangelists. And then we combine the pastor and teachers, not broken up with a comma there. And it's and Bible teaches very clearly if someone's going to be a pastor, he must be apt to teach. [5:38] He's got to be able to be a teacher as well. And so the pastor teacher is the same office. And what do they do? Number 12, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry and for the edifying of the body of Christ. [5:50] So somewhere in this group, we have the missionary. Can anyone spot him? Where's the missionary? [6:02] The evangelist. But thanks for playing. Everyone goes to the evangelist because, well, doesn't a missionary go overseas and he finds the lost? [6:13] And he is leading them to Christ. That's kind of what an evangelist does, right? An evangelist brings the lost to the Lord. Okay. Well, so does a pastor teacher. [6:25] So does an apostle. But certain people are gifted with the gift of evangelism. And they are always preaching pretty much salvation messages. [6:36] Their target is to the lost to bring them to Christ. What's the target of the prophet? The prophet's job is to bring people that are in error back to what's right. [6:51] That's really the job of a revivalist. The prophet there, he's the person saying, hey, you know, we're doing wrong here. We need to repent. We need to turn back to God and get right. [7:02] That's what the New Testament prophet's doing. So where's the missionary? Well, he's actually the apostle. Apostle. Oh, are you suggesting that apostles are around for today? [7:13] Oh, I'm a Baptist. We don't believe that here. Okay. Well, we do believe the Bible, don't we? Hang on. Let me say that. We do believe the Bible. [7:23] Amen. Okay. I just hoped I was in a Baptist church. Okay. Got me worried for a moment. Okay. Now, I know what I'm going to share with you is not commonly understood or taught. [7:38] But when you look at the word apostle, this is where we get the word missionary. The Latin word for apostle is mito. And mito is where we get the word missionary. [7:52] The one given a mission. So what's the apostle's mission? Well, they're church planners. And I believe we have two realms or two teams of apostles. [8:03] You had the first century apostles that were authorized by Jesus himself. These are the ones that we call the disciples or the apostles and so on there. [8:15] And they were authorized by Jesus himself to go and preach the gospel and to start churches. And once they started churches, then the churches was given the responsibility to go send out more church planters. [8:35] So the apostles were church planters. That's what a missionary is. He's going to take the gospel from this, from where he grew up, and take it to another country, another land, or another people, and teach them and start a church there. [8:48] So he's got to get people saved in order to start a church. You still have to have saved people for a church, right? All right. So they have to evangelize still. They have to teach and baptize them and bring them into the church. [9:00] But they're the apostles. And what their job. And you find a second string. I call them first string and second string. The first string were the apostles by Jesus. [9:11] Now, the Bible says that to be one of those kind of apostles, you had to have seen in Acts chapter 2, the risen Lord. Okay. But then God called someone called Paul and also Barnabas. [9:28] And the Bible calls them apostles. Now, Paul did see the risen Lord through his experience when the Lord, when he had his conversion, right? [9:40] But we don't know about that by Barnabas, but he's called an apostle. And then later also in Acts, sorry, in Romans chapter 16, verse 7, we've got Andenorcas and Janiah called apostles. [9:54] So who are these? These apostles are the second string apostles who were authorized by the church to go start churches. Folks, churches start churches. A man can't just say, you know what? [10:08] I think I'm just going to go and start church. Okay. First of all, who called you to do that? Well, God called me to do that. Okay. Well, where's your authority? [10:19] Your authority is in your church. Your church sends you out. Okay. So this is another Bible nugget. So where's the missionary? Well, it's actually the second string apostles there. [10:31] All right. Well, enough of that. Let's get, we're out of class, out of Bible class here today. Take your Bibles if you would and join me in Ezekiel chapter 22. Ezekiel chapter 22. [10:42] I've kind of had a little bit of method of our journey and revival this week. First of all, we began, you know, we can't be revived until we've been vived before. [10:53] So we needed to check up on our salvation. We need to make sure everyone's saved. And sadly, there's false converts who think that they're saved because they're trying to earn their salvation through their works and so on there. [11:08] And you're not going to get there that way. It must be through the work of Jesus and Jesus alone. And then we talked about getting our heart right with God. [11:18] Amen. And we've got to have our heart in order. We can serve God for all kinds of different reasons, but if we're not serving him because we love him, we're not motivated in the right way. [11:31] We need to have the right motive. And last night we talked about the home. The home is part of the bricks of our society and of our churches. And if we've got problems in the home, we're going to have problems in our society, problems in our churches, and we need to have revival in our homes. [11:48] Now, today I want to talk about having revival in our country. Revival in our country. Leonard Ravenhill said this. He said, the reason why we do not have revival in America is because we're content to live without it. [12:08] What a sobering thought. The reason why we don't have revival in America is that we're content to live without it. [12:18] I think he's correct. In fact, if you ever become a student of revival and start reading those who write and preach about revival, it won't take you long before you come under the teaching of Leonard Ravenhill. [12:35] What a convicting person to read. I encourage you to find him. He's online. You'll find his sermons. He was a British-born preacher. [12:47] And God brought him here to America in his later years. And what a preacher of the word. But I want to take you to Ezekiel chapter 22. And we're going to join a period of time where Israel is about to suffer judgment. [13:09] Preachers have been sent warning them. We're going the wrong way, folks. We're living ungodly. God's not happy with that. [13:21] We better repent or God's going to raise up enemies. Look what he did to the northern kingdom of Israel. And the Assyrians came and took them. And took them into captivity. [13:33] They did not heed the warning of God. And for us here in Judah, in the lower part of the country, we're about to face the same judgment. Instead of it coming now from the Assyrians, it's going to come from Babylon. [13:46] And God is going to bring judgment upon us if we do not repent and turn back to God. And here in chapter 22, we see a description of how the condition of the nation is at the time. [14:03] And actually we see four different occupations or groups of people that are being targeted in our examination. And we're going to begin first with the prophets. [14:18] The prophets who profit. All they wanted was profit. They had turned the people of God into the instruments of how they could fill their own pockets. [14:34] They were living for gain. Living for profit. Prophets who profit. They were looking to profit from the people. Look at verse 25. There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof. [14:48] Like a roaring lion ravening the prey. They have devoured souls. They have taken the treasure and the precious things. [15:00] They have made her many widows in the midst thereof. Look if you went to verse number 28. We continue more. And the prophets have daubed them with untempered mortar. [15:11] Seeing vanity and divining lies unto them saying. Thus saith the Lord God. When the Lord God hath not spoken. [15:24] Do we see that going on in America today? Preachers who preach. Thus saith the Lord. When the Lord hath not spoken. They are beguiling the masses. [15:39] They have tongues of silver. They slip through like as if they're speaking for God. When they're not speaking for God. [15:52] Instead they're looking for selfish gain. They're prophets who profit. Preachers who preach for profit. [16:03] God is about to bring damnation and judgment upon people. When that goes on and is tolerated. And the people don't turn against it. [16:17] My friends I'm here to tell you. That our pastors yes they're our spiritual leaders. But we must hold their feet to the fire. [16:28] To preach that which is truth. And not what is just opinion. And. Obloviating. With something other than the word of God. [16:41] Amen. But I'm telling you. The preachers who profit. Seem to be building the bigger churches. They. The Bible says there'll be a day. [16:52] Then they will not. I'm going to misquote the scripture. And I'm going to. I hate that I'm going to do that. But they. They're not going to tolerate sound doctrine. [17:04] And they will give their ears. Itching ears. Their ears are going to be given. You know. To. Tell us something. You know. Now it's okay to preach. [17:15] And have some fun. And say some funny things. And have some laughter. In the pulpit. But I'm here to tell you. This isn't to be a place. For a comedy show. This isn't a place. [17:26] For us to be entertained. We come to the house of God. Sometimes because. We struggle with the flesh. And we need to be reminded. You're not to live that way. You're to live God's way. [17:39] Stop it. Straighten up. We need preachers. Who are going to hold our feet. To the fire. But we also need to hold their feet. To the fire. If they're not doing the job. [17:51] Amen. Amen. All right. So the preachers. The prophets who profit. Now look at the next group of people. Look at verse number 26. [18:03] We look at the priest. Who profane. The priest who profane. Verse 26. Her priest have violated my law. And have profaned mine holy things. [18:16] They have put no difference. Between the holy. And profane. Neither have they shown difference. Between the unclean and the clean. And have hid their eyes. [18:28] From my Sabbaths. And I am profaned. Among them. What does that mean. To make common. That which is holy. [18:41] Who were the priests. What were the priests job. Well the priest in the temple. Was to conduct the worship of God. We could maybe call these. The song leaders. [18:52] And those in charge of. Of leading of the worship. Of our. Of our services. Before the Lord. Do you know when you come to church. When you sing. You're to be worshiping. [19:03] When you sing. Can I get on a rant. For a moment. I. Some might hate me. And you know. You're not. You won't like me after this. I'm sorry. But can I just say something. [19:14] That I've been observing. And it just bothers me. When I see it. I see. Now. I honestly. I have not seen that here. Okay. So what I'm saying. Is that. [19:24] I'm not picking on any particular person. All right. I'm sitting up at the front. I don't see what's going on behind me. Okay. But I can tell you this. [19:34] I see. When I do. Many times. I see this. Young people. Not singing. During the song service. Parents. [19:46] If you see that. Amongst your kids. Correct that. I'm serious about this. Because I've been at this now. Long enough. And I've seen those kids grow up. And as soon as they get out of the house. [19:58] They're out of church. It's sometimes. And I'm saying. That's going to happen to you. Your kid. But it. I think. Is a telltale sign. Because they're actually. [20:10] Revealing their heart. I'm not singing. I'm not here to worship. And maybe. It is. Maybe they're. [20:21] Exposing themselves. Saying. I'm here. Because I have to be. I don't want to be. As soon as I get to change. To be the. King of my life. I ain't going to be. [20:33] So. You know. Sing. Worship God. When you realize. What he did for you. To save you. When instead of giving you. [20:45] What you deserve. He gave you grace. And mercy. And forgiveness. And made you his child. Instead of giving you. What you deserve. For your sin. [20:57] And your wretchedness. And your crimes. Before heaven. You can't stand. In the house of God. And lift your voice. And say. Oh. Oh. How I love Jesus. [21:09] Oh. How I love Jesus. Oh. How I love Jesus. Because he first. Loved me. [21:20] I need to worship. What was going on. In the house of God. In Judah. In the lower kingdom. This is where the actual temple. [21:32] Was located. Up north. They didn't have the temple. In the northern kingdom. But down south. They had the temple. But the priests thereof. Were taking that. Which was holy. [21:44] And making it common. I want to say. One of the reasons. Why churches like ours. Aren't always as popular. Is because. [21:55] We try to keep. The things of God. Holy. We're not going to do. The trendy stuff here. We're not going to do. The seeker sensitive stuff. [22:07] That the other churches. Are doing. They're trying to. Become like the world. So that the world. Will come to them. I'm here to tell you. The Bible says. Come out from among them. [22:17] And be ye separate. There has to be separation. Between us and the world. We do things different. Why? Because God's holy. And there's some things. [22:29] That we just won't compromise on. But it's going on. And I'm here to tell you. It's tempting. We preachers. We see. [22:41] Big parking lots. Big buildings. And filled. And people there. And I tell you what. Wouldn't you like to have that? I'd like to have that. But not at the expense. Of making compromises. [22:53] They profaned. That which was holy. Let's look at the next group of people. Go to verse number 27. Now we have the princes. See I don't have to alliterate this sermon. [23:05] God alliterated it for me already. I like the outline here. The prophets. The priest. Now we get to the princes. [23:15] The princes who pray. Look at verse number. Where are we? Verse 27. [23:26] And her princes in the midst thereof. Are like wolves ravening the prey. To shed blood and to destroy souls. For what purpose? [23:38] What's the reason? To get dishonest gain. You know if we could say. Can we find a root. That connects the. [23:50] You know all these people. Here what it is. Is greed. Selfish greed. Gimme gimme gimme. What did I say? [24:01] All that's in the world. The lust of the flesh. Lust of the eye. And pride of life. Possessions. Pleasures. Position. That's. [24:13] That's. What's. What's driving these people. And the Bible says. That's what's in this world. And if you love the world. If you love these things. The love of the father. Is not in you. [24:26] Love of the father. Is not in you. Here they are. Praying upon the people. Who are the princes? Well the princes deal with the government. These are the politicians. You say. [24:37] Oh politician. I know what that word is there. We know they're all corrupt. Maybe most are. I do get to meet some of those. Who are in Washington. And I'm pleased to say. There are a few. [24:48] Who are trying. But their numbers are so few. And the battle's so hard. We need to pray for our politicians. By the way. Can I say something to you? [24:58] We also need to pray for the politicians. That we don't like. I just got done this week. Doing my radio shows. On El Saeed. Three shows on exposing. [25:10] The new senator from Michigan. The first Muslim senator. In America. Exposing the manner of man that he is. [25:21] And I've got to tell you. We should be worried. He has connections. With the Muslim Brotherhood. Which is an enemy agent. Of our nation. Now. [25:33] The thing is. There's maybe one particular thing. The FBI could find. A line of questioning. That will either. Reveal. That he lied to the FBI. [25:44] Which could get him in jail. Or he could actually admit. That he is connected. Which will keep him out of jail. But will reveal that he has ties. With an enemy agent. [25:55] Which could get him in jail. So. We need to keep our eye on this guy. But let me tell you this. You know what better we should do? We need to pray for his salvation. [26:09] Now you're saying. Ah. I know. That's the Christian thing to do. We'll pray for him. But we ain't gonna mean it. No. [26:19] I'm serious. Pray for him. You know what God did with the terrorist? The Bible tells us what God did with the terrorist. This terrorist was involved in killing the early Christians of the early church. [26:33] He had orders. He had orders. To go out and find them. And to bring them in. And see them killed. He had power. [26:45] He had orders. He was a powerful dude. He was number one enemy of the church. You know what God did? God saved him. [26:56] And most of your Bible was written by him. The apostle Paul. So yeah. Pray for a man like El Saeed. So look at the last group. In verse 29. [27:08] Verse number 29. So we looked at the prophets who profit. The priests who profane. And the princes who pray. Now let's look at the people who plunder. Verse number 29. [27:21] The people of the land have used oppression. And exercised robbery. And have vexed the poor and needy. Yea they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. [27:35] Wow. So everybody's at it. I mean there's corruption in the pulpit. Corruption in the church. Corruption in government. And now there's just corruption everywhere. [27:49] Why shouldn't the people act anything different than their leaders? I mean the people are seeing examples of corruption. And sinfulness and woefulness. [28:00] And they're out to get everything they can to get. Why shouldn't we? And they look for victims. And they find the needy. They find the poor. And whoever they find it. [28:10] They'll take it from them. I'll tell you there are some corrupt dudes in our world today. I mean some of the corruption. Some of the things that people do to steal from our elderly. [28:24] Now I'm at the stage where my parents are in those elderly years. And I'm sorry but my mom can be naive. My mom can be so trusting. [28:37] And I'm saying stop it. People will take you. Take everything from you if they get the chance. And they look for the needy. [28:48] They look for the opportunities. And they want selfish gain. After all everyone else is corrupt. Why not me? It's kind of like the idea. [28:59] Everyone's doing it. So I guess it's all right. Sometimes we feel like to the point where. Why bother to try to do right. [29:10] When everyone else is doing wrong. Hey maybe you might be in school and think. Why bother? No one cares. About righteousness here. [29:21] No one cares about your testimony here. You might be in that environment where you think. Or maybe even your own family. Maybe the only saved person in your family. Who cares? Tell you who cares. [29:33] God cares. You may be outnumbered. 101. 101. But look at this. Look how this finishes. Verse 30. And I sought for a man. [29:46] I just looked for one. I just looked for one that didn't feel outnumbered. I sought for a man among them. That should make up the hedge. And stand in the gap. [29:58] Before me. Before me. Before the land. That I should not destroy it. But I found none. You may think. I'm the only one. [30:08] Who cares? God cares. And he's looking. He's looking for even one. To stand against the tide. Even one. That will say no. [30:20] The prophets who profit. It's like a. Imagine. I mean. They're supposed to be giving the words of life to people. To change their spiritual life. It's like. Imagine if you would. [30:32] A lighthouse keeper. Instead of using the oil. To burn the flame. To save ships. From wrecking on the. On the treacherous shorelines. He takes the oil. [30:43] And sells it. For his own selfish gain. We think. Lock him up. For boat wrecks. And stuff like that. You know. Stuff like that. In Kansas City. [30:55] Kansas City. There was a pharmacist. His name was. Robert. Courtney. Robert Courtney. Dispensed. The. [31:05] The chemotherapy drug. And instead of. Giving the full. 100% portion. To people. He watered it down. Two parts water. [31:16] One part chemotherapy. He sold over. 98,000. Prescriptions. Falsely. Many people died. [31:27] Not getting their proper treatment. He ended up. Pocketing. 19. Million. Dollars. Before he got caught. By the FBI. James McCork. [31:38] A British. Inventor. Created the. ADE. 651. Bomb detector. And Iraq. He sold them. [31:51] 6,000. Of these. Things that were. Just gimmicks. They were. 62,000. A piece. He gained. [32:01] 50 million. Before he got caught. Of selling junk. Supposed to protecting people. For their safety. But instead. [32:13] That's what. Kind of like what a prophet. Who profits. And a priest. Who profanes. And princes. Who pray. And people. Who plunder. They're living to their end. In corruption. Turn if you would. [32:26] I'm going to close here. Chapter 33. Verse 11. Chapter 33. Verse 11. I want you to understand this. Judgment is looming. On our nation. Just like it was. [32:38] On Israel. They were about to be. Taken off into captivity. For 70 years. Because they profaned. The things. Of that which was holy. The prophets. Had become. [32:51] Just interested. In themselves. And the princes. Weren't governing. For the people. They were given. Just trying to get. Gain for themselves. So God was going to bring. [33:01] Judgment. But understand this. Look at verse 11. Chapter 33. Verse 11. Say unto them. As I live. Saith the Lord God. I have no pleasure. In the death. Of the wicked. [33:11] God's not a cosmic. Person who take. Like a cosmic killjoy. Who takes joy. In killing. The wicked. [33:22] I take no pleasure. In that. But that the wicked. Turn from his way. And live. Turn ye. Turn ye. From your wicked way. Say. [33:34] Wait. Lost my place. Turn ye. From your wicked ways. For why will you die. O house of Israel. Why will you die. [33:44] Well let's get quickly. To the solution. What's the solution. Turn if you would. To Joel. Now Joel's the second book. In the minor prophets. I hate it when someone calls out. The minor prophet books. And like. Oh. Where's Joel. [33:55] I can't remember. So you got. Ezekiel. Daniel. Hosea. Joel. Joel. So when we get to Joel. [34:07] Go to chapter 2. If you would. Joel chapter 2. Is there hope. What's the solution for this. Well we find it in chapter 2. Verse 12. Therefore also now. [34:20] Sayeth the Lord. Turn ye. Even to me. With all your heart. And with fasting. And with weeping. And with mourning. And here it is. [34:32] Verse 13. Rend. Your heart. And not. Your garments. In the. The way of the. [34:42] The Jews. When they received bad news. Or when they received. Something. And they wanted to show. Outwardly. Their mourning. [34:53] Over their condition. They may have. Lost someone. That they loved. Or maybe. Whatever. When that news comes. [35:03] What they would do. Is they would. Rend. Or rip. Their garments. In other words. It was an outside. Showing. Of the. Of what should. Be going on. [35:14] Inside. The breaking. Of their own. Heart. And God says this. When you recognize. That you have. [35:25] Angered me. And disregarded. All my ways. And when you realize. That your sin. Before me. Is so great. [35:35] That the crimes. Of your wretchedness. Are before me. It ought to cause you. To want to have. A broken. A broken. Rended. Heart. [35:46] And God says. Don't rend your garments. Don't. Make a show. Of something. Just. Let your heart. Be what it should be. [35:58] Broken. God. Amen. I'm here to tell you. If we're going to find. Hope for America. If we're going to spare. Us from judgment. God. [36:09] Is going to. Need. To see. Genuine repentance. Genuine repentance. How many believe. [36:19] We need revival. In our country. I'll close with this. The only. Way. To. Revival. Is. Through. Repentance. You cannot. [36:30] Get to revival. Without. Repentance. I. I don't. Sow. I'm a man. So. I don't. Sow. [36:43] Okay. I do. Sow. Sometimes. Sometimes. I've had a button. That falls off. My shirt. Or. Code. Or something. There. And. [36:54] I know. I need to go. Find. Some thread. To put it back on. But in order. To push. That thread. Through the garment. I need. Something. Sharp. And pokey. [37:04] To make a way. For the thread. What do I need? I need a needle. I need a sharp needle. And then. I need a teenager. With good eyesight. To thread it first. For me. Because without it. [37:16] I'll get nowhere. But I can. Sew on the button. But I can't push the thread. Through the garment. Without a needle. In order to get. [37:28] The. The blessing of God. Of revival. Into your heart. You need. A sharp instrument. To pierce the heart. In order to bring. [37:39] The silky thread. Of redemption. Revival. Into the crusty heart. And that needle. Is repentance. And repentance. Is a broken heart. [37:51] A rended heart. A heart. That cries out to God. Oh God. Forgive me. God. Forgive us. For what we've done. I love to sing. [38:02] And love to stand. Proud of America. I want to sing. Oh God. Bless America. Land that I love. But I'm here to tell you. [38:14] I feel. It's a song. I can't sing much. Not because I'm ashamed. Of America. Not because I'm less American. It's because I believe. We need to be singing first. [38:25] Oh God. Please. Have mercy on America. God. Forgive America. We always want his blessings. Without doing our part. [38:36] Without doing what's right. And I feel. We got to start doing what's right. We need it. We need rendered. Hearts. Hearts that are broken. Hearts that are broken. [38:47] Are soft. And the thread. And the needle. Can pierce into our heart. And bring revival. But it only comes through. The doorway of repentance. Repentance. [38:58] Is the needle. Repentance. Is the gateway. To revival. And until we repent. And fall on our knees. Before a holy God. And cry out. Say God. [39:09] Everything we saw. In Israel. We see in America today. We see corruption. Left. Right. And center. We see it. In the churches. And the preachers. And in the. And in the priest. And the leading of the music. [39:21] And they're profaning that which is holy. We're seeing it in the government. We're seeing it in the people. Oh God. It's everywhere. But we know that you're still. Looking for someone. [39:32] To stand in the gap. And until we do. We'll not have revival. Heads bowed. And eyes closed. We'll see you next week. We'll see you next week. [39:42] We'll see you next week. It's been my hope. To challenge you tonight. To challenge you this week. So I guess if I've got a couple of questions. The question is. Where are you? In this journey. [39:55] Have you been drifting? Have you been allowing yourself to fall away from the things of God? God. You've left your first love. Return. [40:08] Return back to him. Maybe you're allowing sin in your life. And you've. Gotten comfortable with it. Become habits. Oh flee from it. [40:19] Repent of it. And turn back to God. Don't get comfortable with sin. In your life or your community. Turn back to God. [40:30] Father. I pray dear Lord. That you'll take this message. And stir our hearts with it. But not just to be stirred with information and burden. [40:42] But with action. And I pray dear God. That as we close. Maybe we need to make our. Pew. Our seat. An altar. And to take some time in prayer. [40:55] So God. I pray that as the music begins. That you would work in our hearts. In a special way. And I pray Lord. That we would not leave here with unfinished business. [41:07] Search our hearts. Try us. And see if there be any wicked way. In us. We come to you. To ask you to come with the searchlight. To reveal to us. What you're not happy with. [41:18] Sometimes we've. We've eaten so much bread of deception. Sweet bread of deception. We've lied to ourselves so many times. We may not even be aware of it anymore. Oh God. [41:29] Make us aware of it. I pray. And I pray that you'll be glorified. In what we do. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen.