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  HEAR THE SOUND OF THE TRUMPET： THE CALL TO WORSHIP
  by Brian Long
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Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of absolute surrender to
God, highlighting the need to let go of pride, reputation, and all
hindrances to experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit. True worship
is described as giving our best, our all, and holding nothing back from
the Lord, focusing solely on Jesus Christ. The story of W.P. Nicholson
illustrates the transformation that comes from complete surrender and
the freedom found in losing worldly chains to gain the Holy Spirit.

Topics: "Absolute Surrender", "True Worship"
Scripture References: Mark 8:34, Luke 14:33, Psalm 51:17, Philippians 3:7, James 4:7, Romans 12:1, Galatians 2:20, 1 Corinthians 6:19, Matthew 22:37

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the importance of absolute surrender to God,
highlighting the need to let go of pride, reputation, and all hindrances
to experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit. True worship is described
as giving our best, our all, and holding nothing back from the Lord,
focusing solely on Jesus Christ. The story of W.P. Nicholson illustrates
the transformation that comes from complete surrender and the freedom
found in losing worldly chains to gain the Holy Spirit.

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CONTENT
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God, I pray that he would just be bold, not hold back. Lord, whatever we
need to hear, I pray you just guide him, strengthen him like like arrows
in the hands of a well-skilled marksman. Lord, hit us, pierce us,
encourage us, build us up, strengthen us, give us a heart of worship.

But I pray for a strong anointing over this man this evening. To even be
led away from the sermon notes, if that's what you're calling, to speak
directly into the lives of these people tonight, to encourage and to
convict and to build up and to strengthen. So, Lord, anoint him.

We know you've put these individuals here at this place for this reason,
for this season in our lives. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thank you. It puts such a trembling in my soul when I sense, you know, a
tremendous sense of the presence of God. There's always a fear in my
heart that I don't want to get in the way.

And I know God has put a burden on my heart tonight. And it's along the
same theme that he's given us about hearing the sound of the trumpet.
But all afternoon I've been wrestling.

There's been so, so much. Lord, what exactly you want me to share? And I
kept having this sense to just put up your notes. And then Shane just
prays over me and say, well, Lord, if he's supposed to just put away his
notes.

So, here they are. You're going to have to really trust the Lord to lead
me, OK? OK. God uses us in our weaknesses.

Thank God that he does. We were talking last night about hearing the
sound of the trumpet. And I want you to see that text again.

We're not going to stay there long, but we must see it again in Jeremiah
chapter six. So if you'll turn there first to Jeremiah chapter six. And
we begin reading in verse 16.

Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old
paths where is the good way and walk therein. And you shall find rest
for your souls. But they said, we will not walk therein.

Also, I set watchmen over you, saying, hearken to the sound of the
trumpet. But they said, we will not hearken. There's that call again
from the Lord in verse 17.

I set watchmen over you, saying, hearken to the sound of the trumpet.
Listen, pay attention to the sound of the trumpet. And last night we
said there are three trumpets that I believe the Lord wants to sound
throughout this conference.

We talked about a trumpet call that would be that would be the trumpet
that would be blown. That would be a war call, a call to battle, a call
to fight God's way. That is namely a call to prayer.

And Lord willing, we'll be preaching on that tomorrow morning. Last
night, if you remember, the trumpet was blown and we heard the sound of
the trumpet was a call of warning. Judgment is coming.

But with every warning of coming judgment, it was also a mercy call. God
is saying, now is the time to get right with God. Now is the time to
repent and return to Him with all of our hearts.

Now is the time to cry out to God like we've never cried out to Him
before. This is our window of opportunity. But that other trumpet call,
blowing that trumpet, hearing the sound of it, was a call to worship.

God is calling His people to return to true worship. He is looking for
true worshipers. He says there in the 16th verse, stand in the way and
see.

In other words, stop what you're doing. You're at a crossroad. See and
ask for the old paths.

And I've been stuck on that verse for months now saying, God, what are
you saying here? Show me these old paths. Could it be there's old paths
that we've strayed away from? It's not just talking about going back to
the old ways for the sake of doing old-fashioned things the old way.
There's old paths that lead to new life.

Old paths that God set from the very beginning. One of those old paths
is true worship. It's something that God has been looking for throughout
from the beginning of man.

And if we turn to John chapter 4, we see this clearly spoken through our
Lord Jesus. John chapter 4. This is the story of Jesus meeting the woman
of Samaria at the well, the Samaritan woman at the well. And He's
talking to her about living water.

And if you pick up with me at verse 19, it says, The woman saith unto
him, Sir, speaking to Jesus, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our
fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the
place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe
me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at
Jerusalem, worship the Father.

Ye worship, ye know not what. We know what we worship for salvation is
of the Jews. But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

For the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit, and they
that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman
saith unto him, I know that Messiah is coming, which is called Christ.

When he has come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I
that speak unto thee am he. Can you imagine standing before the Son of
God and not recognizing who he is? It says clearly there that the Father
is seeking for something, someone.

He's seeking for true worshippers. Those who will worship him in spirit
and in truth. Is God going to find among us what he's seeking for? What
is a true worshipper? What is a true worshipper? One of the things I see
in this scripture is about true worshippers is that true worshippers are
not taken up with the place, but they're taken up with the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ.

The woman says she's taken up with the place. Are we supposed to worship
on this mountain? That's what our father said. But you say Jerusalem is
the place where men ought to worship.

Where's the place? And Jesus tears all of that down. It's not about the
place. It's about the one standing in front of her.

True worshippers are not taken up with the place. They're taken up with
the person. Brothers and sisters, many of us know we've worshipped God
together in a big, fancy cathedral.

Some of us have worshipped God together with the body of Christ in a
barn. When God birthed the church in Barnsdall, where I used to pastor,
it started in a barn. And the Lord showed us right there, it's not about
the place.

It's about the person. It's about the Lord Jesus Christ. When we outgrew
the barn, somebody gave us an old bar.

Should we go meet in an old bar? We went, cleaned it out, cut the bar
down, made an altar out of it. One man got saved, gloriously saved. He
was in tears one night.

He said, I used to drink on this bar. Now I'm kneeling on it and
weeping. I saw puddles of tears on that old bar that became an altar.

But it's not about the place. It's about the person. True worshippers
are captivated, obsessed, if you will, fixed upon the glory of this
person.

Jesus Christ, God, the Son, the King of kings, the Lord of lords. And we
could say true worshippers are not taken up with blank. You fill in the
blank.

We're not taken up with the building. We're not to be taken up with even
the music or the preacher or the preaching. Not when it comes to true
worship.

What is to get a hold of our heart and be our focus above everything
else? Jesus and Jesus only. Do you remember, brothers and sisters, some
of you know the scriptures in Matthew chapter 17 when Jesus took Peter,
James and John up high on a mountain? And right before his their eyes,
he was transfigured before them. And the Bible says that his clothes
became whiter than the brightest light.

His face was shining like the sun. And then Moses appeared and Elijah
appeared. And Peter had to open his mouth and say something very
foolish.

He said, Lord, it's good for us to be here. That's the place. Let us
make three tabernacles, three churches, one for Moses, one for Elijah,
one for you, Jesus.

Sounds like a pretty good idea. What is he doing? He's bringing the son
of God down onto the level of man. And God Almighty, the father God,
thunders from heaven and says, this is my beloved son.

In him, I'm well pleased. Listen to him. Down on their faces, they go
trembling in fear until Jesus has to touch them and say, do not be
afraid.

And the Bible says they lifted up their eyes and they saw no man save
Jesus only. If that's not underlined in your Bible, it should be Jesus
only. Moses was there.

They no longer see him. Elijah, that great prophet. Have you come to
hear him? They no longer see him.

Now they're entering into true worship when your eyes get off of a man,
no longer on a man, no longer on a band, no longer on a prayer. And I
thank you, praise team, for pointing us to Jesus. Thank God for that.

That's true worship when we're not taken up with fill in the blank, but
we are taken up with the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Jesus said to that
woman, you don't know what you worship. And I wonder sometimes, brothers
and sisters, have we forgotten the one that we are called to worship?
True worshipers know the one that they worship.

One of the scariest verses in the whole Bible to me comes from Matthew
chapter seven, where Jesus says, many will come to me in that day and
say, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Cast out demons in
your name, do many wonderful, mighty works in your name. And he says,
depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you.

Where did they go for eternity? I never knew you. They were taken up
with their own works, the works of their own hands. They were taken up
with all this stuff, even miracles.

And they didn't know the one they claimed to worship. The same thing
happened in Jeremiah and Jeremiah chapter six, after he says, listen to
the sound of the trumpet. He goes on to talk about how their worship is
unacceptable.

And he says in chapter seven of Jeremiah, the word that came to Jeremiah
from the Lord saying, stand in the gate of the Lord's house and proclaim
there this word and say, hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah that
enter in at these gates to worship the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of
hosts, the God of Israel, amend your ways and your doings, and I will
cause you to dwell in this place. Trust ye not in lying words, saying
the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord
are these.

What is it? They were caught up with the temple of the Lord and they
forgot the Lord of the temple. He is the focus of our worship. And yet
they got their eyes off of him and began to look at the glorious temple
and thinking, well, this is the house of God.

And they had forgotten God. God said that earlier in Jeremiah, can a
bride forget her attire, her wedding dress? Yet my people have forgotten
me days without number. They've forgotten God.

And when you forget God, you no longer fear God. When you no longer fear
God, you're no longer truly worshiping God. Can we worship God without
reverence in all? Not according to the Bible.

Hebrews chapter 12 and in about the second to the last verse in Hebrews
chapter 12 tells us very clearly. That worship. For it to be acceptable
before God has to be with reverence and godly fear, listen to this
Hebrews chapter 12, verse 28 and 29.

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let
us be thankful. And so worship God acceptably with reverence and all for
our God is a consuming fire. You know how you know if someone does not
know God, they do not fear God.

Those who know God have a fear of God. That is this holy reverence for
God. And you cannot worship God acceptably without giving him all and
reverence for who he is.

When we remember, when we focus through the word of God and fix our eyes
upon who he really is, brothers and sisters, God is so he's greater than
any of us can perceive him to be. When you're talking about the
greatness and glory and majesty of God, you're talking about something
you can't exaggerate. Because no matter how high and lofty your words
are, they still fall way too short of his glory and who he really is.

Our God is a great and awesome God, and he is to be feared in the
congregation. Worship with reverence and awe. I remember the first
church I pastored.

We wanted to have an outreach team in. Somebody really recommended them.
They were from the city.

All they can reach the youth, brother Brian, bring them in some kind of
puppet team or skip team or something. They came in and they began to
talk about the Lord Jesus with such irreverence. I was disgusted.

I was back there writhing. Please make him stop, Lord, please make him
stop. Totally misrepresenting who he is.

He's not your bro. He's God. He's the Lord.

Finally, I stopped it and I asked him, can we please talk? We went to a
back room. I said, guys, that's not God. You don't know God.

And I was pleading with them. They had they wouldn't hear it at all. And
when I saw there was no issue, you don't understand God's doing a new
thing.

This is how people are reached. You've got to be sensitive to the
culture. You've got to relate with them.

I said, you don't know God. And then my shock and awe turned to, I
believe, a righteous indignation when they were refused to repent of any
of that and continue to speak of the Lord with such irreverence and
blasphemy. I looked at him and if there would have been a whip of cords,
I think I would have grabbed it.

I said, get out. Get out. Well, you're mean, you're angry.

Are you an angry watch? No. But I am jealous for the glory of God and
his name and his honor and his glory. Brothers and sisters, we're living
in a day where many, many, many are have lost the fear of God.

They don't fear God because they don't know God. And, you know, one sign
that you've lost the fear of God, you begin to give him your leftovers.
In Malachi, God talks about those who do not fear him and they were
bringing him that lame goat, that blind sheep, and God said, try giving
that to your governor.

Bringing the leftovers, there's something about true worshipers, true
worshipers know the one they worship and they bring to him their best
and their all because of who he is. I think of that. That woman in the
scripture that was considered to be a very sinful woman, but she met
Jesus, she was forgiven and out of gratitude because she had met him,
she knew who he was, she knew the one she worshiped.

She looks around in her house to say, what can I bring? This is
something else about true worship, true worship, true worshipers always
come to give, not to get. Worship is all about giving, giving the one
who is worthy. Something of worth.

And that woman looked around her house and what can I bring him, what
can I give him? Oh, there it is, the alabaster box full of precious
perfume worth nearly a year's wages. And she takes it, she brings it to
the house where she hears that Jesus is what she do. I'm going to give
10%.

No, she breaks it, pours it out upon her, his head. Pours it all out.
That's worship.

I give you my best, I give you my all, Lord, because you're worthy.
You're worthy. That's what true worshipers do.

Turn, if you will, to Revelation chapter five. Revelation, chapter five,
here's a picture of the throne room. Here is a picture of true worship.

Here is a picture of the one that we worship. Revelation, chapter five.
Actually, let's back up to chapter four, he says in verse eight, and the
four beasts had each of them six wings about him and they were full of
eyes within and they were rest day, not day and night, saying, holy,
holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is and is to come.

And when those beasts give glory and honor and thanks to him that sat on
the throne who liveth forever and ever, the four and 20 elders fall down
before him that sat on the throne and worship him that liveth forever
and ever and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, thou art
worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power for thou has
created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created. And I
saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne, a book written
within and on the backside sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong
angel proclaiming with a loud voice who is worthy to open the book and
to loose the seals thereof.

And no man in heaven nor on earth, neither under the earth was able to
open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much because no man
was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.
And one of the elders said unto me, weep not.

Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah. Who is that? Jesus, the root of
David. Jesus hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven
seals thereof.

And I beheld and lo in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts
and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as it had been slain. Who is
that? Jesus, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven
spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the
book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.

And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and 20 elders
fell down before the lamb, having every one of them harps and golden
vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sung
a new song saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the
seals thereof for that was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood
out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation and has made us
unto our God, kings and priests. And we shall reign on the earth.

And I beheld and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne
and the beast and the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand
times, ten thousand and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice,
worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom
and strength and honor and glory and blessing. And every creature which
is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the
sea and all that are in them, heard I saying, blessing and honor and
glory and power be unto him that sit upon the throne and unto the lamb
forever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen, and the four and 20
elders fell down and worshiped him that liveth forever and ever.

That is the one that we worship. That is a picture of true worship. And
I want to ask you, was anyone there taken up with the place? Were they
saying, wow, is this this is heaven, isn't this a wonderful place? No,
they're consumed with the lamb of God.

Heaven is heaven because Jesus is there. David said, Whom have I in
heaven but you? There's none on the earth that I desire beside you.
Jesus is heaven.

Jesus is the center of it all. And everybody is falling down. Think of
this millions and millions, myriads of angels gathered around the
throne.

And are they there to get? Is anybody there focused on themselves?
Everybody's focused on Christ. This is true worship. When Christ becomes
our one and only focus.

We are we are captivated by him. We have come to meet with him. I love
what one pastor said, somebody came to him and said, Pastor, I didn't
really like the worship this morning.

He said, it's OK, we weren't worshiping you. We're worshiping him and we
need to ask that, brothers and sisters, what did God think about today?
I long to do that every time when I step out of here and get to the
motel room, Lord, what do you what do you say? There are times the Lord
has to correct me on something. What do you were you pleased, God? It's
all about who? It's all about Jesus.

Yes, it's all about God. It's all about him and he's got to be our
focus. Think of that in worship.

We got enough selfies going on today. Turn that lens around. Focus in on
the glory and majesty of God.

It's not about you. It's not about me as if he should do things my way.
It's all about him.

True worshipers are focused on him. They fear him. They reverence him.

They exalt him. They come to give to him. Doesn't mean you won't get
because every time you pour out to God, he pours in.

But that's not our motive for coming to worship is to get it's to give
because he's worthy. You know, the first time the word worship is
mentioned in the Bible. First time the word worship is mentioned, first
time love is mentioned in the Bible.

So when God says, Abraham, Abraham. Take your son. Your only son.

Whom you love, Isaac. Take him up on the mountain and offer him there is
a burnt offering for me and Abraham. And Isaac left with a couple of
servants and a donkey.

And it took him three days to get up there. Can you imagine? You have a
long time to think about it, and you know what, when they got up almost,
I don't know, maybe it was halfway, Abraham says to his servants,
remember what he said to them? You guys stay here with the donkey. The
boy and I will go up to the mountain and we will worship, worship.

What does that mean? Giving my best, giving my all. You cannot separate
true worship from surrender. You can't do it.

If you're not willing to surrender all, you can't become a true
worshiper. True worshipers surrender, even my children. Even your
children, this scripture, God's God.

He so ministered to me through that scripture when we received the news
that my son had relapsed and we got the news that that the cancer was
back, I was so perplexed by it all. Why would God bring him through one
time and now we got to go through this whole thing again? And I remember
standing up before the church and I said, brothers and sisters, because
God had spoken a word to me and seeking him in prayer. And part of it
was this, are you willing to to give Luke to me? Are you willing to
surrender him? It was not a quick thing to do, brothers, when you
really, really surrender your children to the Lord.

But I remember such peace after that, and I remember standing before my
brothers and sisters and I said, church, Luke and I were going to the
hospital, but we're going to the mountain. And we're going to worship
and we're going to come back to you again. And.

That's what Abraham said. And worship we did, I'll tell you about one
night in particular, and this was a night when he was literally
vomiting, vomiting up the lining of his stomach. And the insides of his
mouth was sloughed off and the insides of his nose and he was suffering
unspeakably, and all I had left was a groan.

You get to a point, what else do you pray? What else do you say? And I
remember reading to him, there was a book by Brother Yoon, the heavenly
man, and I would read to him about the suffering that he was going
through in prison and he was on morphine and I would think he was passed
out and I would stop reading and he'd say and I'd start reading again or
I would read the word of God to him. But I remember one night when
during that unspeakable suffering, I said, Lord, I don't know what else
to do. I was begging, please put it on me, do something.

And you know what the Lord said to me? Offer up the sacrifice of praise.
That's the scripture that he brought back to my mind in the midst of
pain, in the midst of suffering. It's called the sacrifice of praise
because you don't always feel like doing it.

Why do you do it? Because God is always worthy of worship and praise.
Always worthy. And I remember lifting my voice and singing one song, one
chorus.

I love you, Lord, and I live my life. And after that, when another one
came all night long around the clock until I saw the sun come up through
his window the next morning. What were we doing? We worshiped.

We worshiped, you can have my son, you can have my all. Brothers and
sisters, you cannot worship God without surrender. Abraham surrendered
Isaac.

And what happened? Did God want child sacrifice? Never in a million
years. In fact, that was an abomination to him. He said in Jeremiah,
that never even crossed my mind.

What was he doing? He tested Abraham and after Abraham was willing even
to kill his own son. God said, Abraham, now I know that you fear me.
True worshipers fear God and God provided a lamb.

In place of Isaac, all of this was a picture pointing to Calvary when
one day God would. Lay down his own son, lift the knife on the cross,
only this time he didn't stop. And he was showing us how much he loved
us.

What do you think? How do you think Abraham felt when he realized there
is a lamb to take the place of my son? Immense gratitude, and that's
another thing that should drive a true worshiper to worship God always.
We worship him, we thank him, we praise him because of all that he's
done for us. That's why that woman poured out that whole alabaster box.

She loved much, Jesus said, because she was forgiven much, because she
was forgiven much. She loved much. She held nothing back.

That's what true worship does. It holds nothing back from the Lord. Love
so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life and my all.

It's all yours, Lord, because you're worthy. Nothing, nothing will I
hold back. That's what a true worshiper says.

Reminds me of the little African girl that I heard about in Africa at a
tent meeting. She had been born again and loved Jesus with all of her
heart, but so poor she didn't have two coins to rub together. And in a
meeting, she sees the offering is taking place and the plates being
passed down through the aisles and her little heart is pounding and
she's wondering, what can I give Jesus? Jesus, I want to give something
to you.

She loved him with all of her heart, not knowing what she was going to
do. And the plate got closer and closer to her and finally it came to
her and she looked at it. You know what she did? Put it on the ground on
the floor, stepped inside of it, said, Lord, I don't have money, so I
give you me.

That's worship, that's worship, nothing and nothing will I hold back.
Take my all, Lord, absolute surrender. That's worship, brothers and
sisters.

That's what Abraham did. That's what the woman who came to Jesus with
that alabaster box did. That's what they're all doing and having
nothing.

Will they hold back? There was a rich young ruler that had the
opportunity to do that. And Jesus loved him and he looked upon him with
eyes of compassion and he loved and loved that rich young ruler and
said, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Keep these laws, these
commandments, I've done all that. Now go sell everything you have and
give to the poor.

Jesus put his finger on the one thing that man was holding on to and was
unwilling to let go of. He couldn't do it and he went away sorrowful.
Did Jesus chase him down? No, he let him go.

You don't have to become a true worshiper, but if you're going to become
one, you've got to let go. You've got to let go and surrender your
children to God, surrender your money to God. It's his surrender, your
business completely to God.

It's his surrender, your ministry to him, surrender your time to him,
all the talents he's given you. It's no longer you're no longer your
own. I've been bought with the price, therefore, I must glorify God in
my spirit and my body, which belong to God.

I'm embarrassed to tell you, brothers and sisters, there was a time in
my life is probably 15 years ago or more that I walked away from the
ministry. I had no intentions of walking away from the Lord, but I
walked away from the ministry. I walked away from the pastorate and I
vowed that I would never, ever, ever pastor again.

I wanted nothing to do with it. Please put me back on a ranch where
nobody knows me. Lord, I'll worship you out here alone.

Just me and you. I knew that wouldn't work. So I said, OK, put me on the
streets.

And this country boy had some kind of desire to go and reach gangs,
Hispanic gangs in New Mexico. Only thing is, I didn't have the anointing
of the Holy Spirit. He lifted.

And here I am trying to reach gangs and nobody's getting saved. I'm
making a fool of myself. And I sunk into such a deep, dark pit of
despair.

And it lasted almost a year. And part of what I did for income is I was
up in the mountains, so I ran a trapline. And one of my youngest sons
was with me at the time and and we were going down the trapline and we
came around this icy, iced over road.

And I was in the pickup, the only brand new pickup I ever bought in my
life. I was so proud of that truck. It was also an idol.

Off the road, we went onto an iced over creek. And the front, the front
ends sunk like that. Immediately, I jumped out, got my son out, put him
up on the bank.

And when we were doing that, it was going under. The truck was was gone.
No more.

And I remember being overcome by the mercy of God that he had spared my
son's life. He'd spared my life. We were in the middle of nowhere.

What do I do? I wrapped him up in coveralls, put him up under a tree and
I started walking for help. It was in the snow. And I bet I didn't walk
half a mile when I heard the spirit of the Lord say to me, how long will
you run? I was like Jonah in the well, my marriage was falling
completely apart.

I ended up living in a cabin out there. My wife was living in town. We
would see each other on the weekends and go to church like a hypocrite.

I was I was I was in the pit of darkness. Many times on that trapline, I
would stand on the on the edge of a cliff. God is my witness saying.

Jump off, jump off, that's what the devil was saying. It was a low, low
point when I heard the Lord say, how long will you run? I fell on my
face in the snow and I began to weep like a baby, I hadn't shed a tear
in probably a year. Heart, heart is stone cold.

I began to weep, cry out, God, I'm such a proud man. I'm an arrogant
man. I'm a wretched man.

And I began to weep a river of tears, pleading with him. To have mercy
upon me. I said, Lord, I'm tired, I'm through running, I'll do whatever
you say to do, I'll go wherever you tell me to go, came to a place of
absolute surrender.

And immediately the scripture, the Lord said to me, you are not your
own. You've been bought with the price now glorify me in your spirit, in
your body. They belong to me.

I got up and the next day. I receive a phone call from a dear brother in
Oklahoma, so there's a church that wants to talk to you. And I said, I
will never go back to a Baptist church.

And it's a Baptist church. And the Lord brought me back and he had mercy
upon me. But it requires absolute surrender, there's no shortcut,
there's no other way to become a true worshiper and glorify the Lord.

No other way. There was a young missionary by the name of I think his
name was William Borden. Years ago, he was a very wealthy young man, he
was an heir of the wealthy Borden family, and that young man had such an
encounter with the Lord and loved the Lord with all his heart.

He gave not only his money, all his money to the Lord, he gave himself
and he did it with gratitude. What what is a sacrifice when you look at
Calvary, really, are we going to hold on to these little trinkets down
here in light of God's great love for us? He gave it all. He ended up
dying on the mission field at 26 years of age.

When he did, they found his Bible and they looked in the back and they
found these words. No reserves. No retreat.

No regrets. No reserves, no backup plans. It's all yours, Lord.

No reserves. No retreat. I'm not running again unless it's to you.

No reserves, no retreat, no regrets. Have you come to that place of
absolute surrender? That's true worship. When you give your all, every
fiber of your being to the Lord.

I was walking one day. Praying, it was on a Saturday. And.

The phone rang, my cell phone rang, lady on the other line said, Brother
Brian, you don't know me, but we know who you are and we need help now.
What's going on? We have a young man living with us who is demon
possessed. And my first thought, well, he's probably just strung out on
drugs or something.

What makes you say he's demon possessed? She told me I was manifesting,
said we've taken him to another church. They couldn't cast the demons
out. We took him to a hospital.

They put him on a bunch of Valium. And the doctor said to me, ma'am, I
think this is a spiritual problem. The doctor said that.

She began to tell me all that he was doing, I'd only seen this in my
ministry, I think twice up to this point. I said to her, ma'am, I can
tell you on the authority of God's word, not because I'm anything, I'm
nothing, but Christ lives in me and his word is true. And I'll tell you
on the authority of God's word, that young man will be delivered
tonight.

But I'm going to bring a prayer team with me. She said, come. So we came
that evening before we did, I asked the little prayer team that we had.

I told them the situation. I said, if your heart is not clean and you
don't have faith to go, you don't come. A couple of them said, I'm not
going.

Thank you for your honesty. Others said, we're going, we're all in. We
walked into this house and everything looked normal.

I started talking to the young man. Not even a minute later, he began
the demons begin to manifest. He began to convulse and shake, fell on
the floor, flopping on the on the not the floor, sorry, the couch fell
on the couch and just shaking everywhere.

My prayer team began to pray and cry out to God and God in his mercy
gave us the authority to cast those demons out. And he went limp like a
dead man, never seen anything like it before. And I thought of the
scripture, how that happened when Jesus cast the demons out.

And so we begin to praise and worship the Lord, and then I woke him up.
Blake, he said, what happened? I said, Blake, you've been. You've been
involved in some very evil things, you've been demon possessed, and
Jesus just set you free.

He sat up, but this is the part of the story I want to tell you, he was
living with their daughter and I began to share the gospel with him, I
began to share what Jesus said about him sweeping the house clean. But
then if it's not filled again, you'll end up seven times worse than you
are now. It's this is not a game.

And I said, Blake, we finally got to this point after talking for a
while, I said, you're going to have to break off this relationship,
you're not married, you're living in sin. No, no, I can't. I can't let I
can't let go of Sarah.

And he began to plead and cry. I said, well, then I have no no other
message for you. And we got ready to leave and he began to manifest
again.

We went through the same process again, woke him up. I said, Blake, this
is not a game. This is real.

It's all of Jesus or none of him. You make the choice. Still wrestling
to the point we decided this, I said, there's no gospel for you begin to
walk out the door, he's crying, pleading, no, I'm ready.

He cut off the relationship, he cried out to the Lord, received Christ
as his savior and Lord was gloriously saved. I know he was gloriously
saved because just a week later I saw him at another community praise
gathering and I walked in and didn't recognize this young man who had
his hands lifted high with tears, praising and worshiping the Lord
Jesus. Hallelujah.

But he had to come to that place of absolute surrender. When that
happened, the lady who called me was trembling over here to next to me.
She looks at her boyfriend, who I thought was her husband, said, Fred,
we're living in sin.

So we shared the gospel with them. They prayed and called out to the
Lord. I'm not sure if they ever broke it off or not, but.

God, God is a merciful God, but there's no listen, there's no other way.
It's all of Jesus or none of him. He wants all of your heart, all of
that's what he's after.

He's your heart, your whole heart. You shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength. And
that is how we are to worship him.

And you are to have no other gods before me, he says. We bow our knee to
no other. It's Christ alone, Christ only.

Jesus only is to have the preeminence. I'll close with this story that's
ministered to me many, many times, it's about the W.P. Nicholson, who
was, I think, one of the greatest evangelists that Ireland ever knew.
But W.P. Nicholson, he had lived a very sinful life.

And when he was saved, he was born again. But then he was brought into a
Presbyterian church and he said, I knew I was born again. I had the
witness of the spirit.

But like many of us, he says, my life was up and down, more down than
up. And he had heard from somebody about the feeling of the Holy Spirit.
You can't live this life in your own strength.

You can't overcome sin in your own strength. You'll end up living a
defeat. It would it would make him mad when people would say that.

And he wrestled with it for a long time. But he said, finally, the day
came when I realized I was never going to make God a Presbyterian. But
the baptism of the Holy Spirit to be filled with the Holy Spirit scared
me because I didn't want to be or do anything that a good Presbyterian
wouldn't be or do.

But he got miserable with this up and down life. He knew that he was
lacking something. He was lacking that victorious life in Christ.

And the day came, the night came when he finally, finally said, Lord,
all right, I'm willing to let go of it all. I'm willing to surrender all
to you. He cried out a prayer, something like this, something about the
Holy Spirit.

Come in, Holy Spirit, come in, come in. Let thy great work of blessing
begin. By faith, I lay hold of the promise and claim complete victory
over sin.

And at that moment, I should back up before that happened. He was
fearful that if he surrendered all, the Lord would have him join the
Salvation Army. Now, why was he so afraid of that? He said in that town,
the Salvation Army was made up of this small corps of two young girls
and a young man they called Daff Jimmy.

He said Jimmy didn't have enough brains to give him a headache. They all
made fun of him. He said those two girls would go down the street
playing their tambourine and young Daff Jimmy would go down with his
flag up in the air, dressed in this red uniform.

And on the back of his shirt was these big white letters saved from
public opinion. And the spirit of the Lord spoke to him and said,
Nicholson, your problem is pride. And that's what led him to that place
of that night crying out, OK, Lord.

I'm willing to lay down my pride, I'm willing to let go of it all, I'm
willing to surrender all to you. Well, sure enough, it was either that
night, I think, or the next night he went into this town where they were
having a cattle fair and all of his friends and all of his relatives, he
said it seemed like every single person he knew was out on the street
that night. And as he's walking down the street, who does he see but the
two young girls playing the tambourines and Daff Jimmy holding the flag?
Oh, no, he thought.

He wanted to turn the other way, but before he could, one of the young
girls said, are you a Christian? Yes, I am. She said the people won't
stop and listen to us preach, get out, get out on your knees with us and
let's pray. He got out on his knees and he could feel the people looking
at him, mocking and scoffing and laughing at him.

Now he's dealing with his reputation and he's thinking, oh, let them
pray a prayer as long as 119th Psalm. He said, I don't want to get up.
But he said they only prayed a very short prayer.

And when I got up, the young girl looked at me and handed me the
tambourine and said, here, brother, you lead the march. He said, I
grabbed that tambourine, begin to play, go down the street, praising
God. And he said something happened as I began to pray, praise the Lord
with my eyes fixed upon him, even in the midst of all the laughing and
jeering and scoffing, something happened.

He said my chains fell off. He said, I lost something that night that I
never want to find. And I found something that night that I never want
to lose.

God, the Holy Spirit filled him up to overflowing. And this man become
again one of the greatest preachers and evangelists Ireland had ever
known. Are you willing to let go of your reputation? What people think
of you, the fear of man seeking honor, he said, people later called him
a fool.

He said, yes, I'm fool of the Holy Ghost, save from public opinion.
There is no true worship without absolute 100 percent surrender to the
Lord God, who is worthy of all our hearts, all our soul, all our mind,
all our strength.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/txI5x32vCU4.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/brian-long/hear-the-sound-of-the-trumpet-the-call-to-worship/
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