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  THE GLORY IS DEPARTED
  by Harold Vaughn
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Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of repentance, humility,
and obedience in restoring the glory of God in our lives, homes, and
churches. It highlights the need for men to lead with Godly authority,
women to seek God's touch for their families, and young people to submit
to parental authority. The speaker calls for a revival of hearts and a
return to God's standards to prevent the departure of God's glory.

Duration: 1:07:24 Topics: "Repentance", "Godly Leadership"
Scripture References: 1 Samuel 4:21, Malachi 4:6, Ephesians 6:1, James 4:8, 2 Chronicles 7:14

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the importance of repentance, humility, and
obedience in restoring the glory of God in our lives, homes, and
churches. It highlights the need for men to lead with Godly authority,
women to seek God's touch for their families, and young people to submit
to parental authority. The speaker calls for a revival of hearts and a
return to God's standards to prevent the departure of God's glory.

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CONTENT
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Good to be with you here today. I've been looking forward to a good time
here, believing God to speak to my heart as well as to everybody else
present. I'd like to do something for you.

We brought some of these books called The Price and Power of Revival by
Duncan Campbell. We'd like to give one to every family that would like
to have one, The Price and Power of Revival by Duncan Campbell, four
sermons, classic sermons that he gave, absolutely tremendous out here at
the table. If you'd like to get it, we'd like for you to have it.

Also, some handouts out there that will help you search your heart, and
a little handout here by E.W. Tozer on how to have a personal revival, I
think it'd be a tremendous help and a blessing to you. All right, I
wonder if we might be able to stand and have a moment of prayer
together. Would you please stand and let's have a moment of prayer
together? Was that encouraging hearing Brother Ralph Satura this morning
or what? Well, God's still doing some good things, and I believe it's
not over yet that God wants to do more good things.

But you know, before the doctor can prescribe the cure, he first has to
find out what kind of poison you've already swallowed. And we need to
find out the antidote, but we've got to find out the problem. So I want
to talk to you from my heart this afternoon.

God put this on my heart some weeks ago to speak to you from the book of
1 Samuel. So let's pray and bow our hearts for just a moment, and could
we give God permission to speak to our hearts here this morning, please?
Would you just open up your heart and invite God, the Holy Spirit, to
come and speak to you personally? Now, Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for the good works of God. Lord, it's like a cup of cold water in a
thirsty land when we hear about good things that you've done and are
doing.

And now, Heavenly Father, we're anticipating blessings here this hour.
So Lord, we open up our hearts to you. We invite your spirit to come and
do its office work.

And now, Heavenly Father, would you speak a clear word to our hearts?
We're thankful for the speaking voice of God. And now, Heavenly Father,
we pray that you might speak with a voice so as to raise the dead. And
now, Heavenly Father, that your reviving presence might be our portion.

Now, we open our hearts. We anticipate and we thank you for what you're
going to say to our souls. We give you praise in Jesus' name.

Amen. You may be seated. What was it that gave birth to Ichabod,
grandson of weakness, corruption, and indecision? 1 Samuel chapter 4 in
your Bible, we find the story of one nation's fall from glory.

This is the tale of an ancient nation's venture into the postmodern
world. Their punk rockers had come of age and occupied positions of
leadership and influence. I believe there's a frightening similarity
between this story and the state and the churches of America.

There's no doubt a lesson here for nations, for local churches, for
families, and for individuals. 1 Samuel chapter 4 begins by the
archenemy of God's people, the Philistines, going to battle with the
Israelites. And in that very first battle, 4,000 Israelites were slain.

The elders of Israel conspired together and they said, why is the Lord
smitten us today before the Philistines? Now, they didn't ask God why
they had lost the battle, but they asked each other what the problem
was. And the consensus was, let us fetch the Ark of God out of Shiloh,
that it might come and save us. They had the mistaken notion that if
they could just get that external symbol, the Ark of the Covenant, if
they could just get that external symbol in the camp, they thought all
would be well.

Well, the Bible tells us when they sent and got the Ark and it came into
the camp, all Israel gave up a great shout, which just goes to show it's
possible to have a good deal of excitement without God. Well, the
Philistines were a bunch of superstitious pagans. They were the type
that would be running the psychic hotline if they were reincarnated
today.

And when they heard that tremendous shout, they understood that the Ark
had come into the camp and they said, why, these great gods that have
delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt are coming to the camp,
and they were absolutely terrified. They thought that Israel's God was
confined to that box. The Philistines said, let's quit and let's get out
here and fight like men, lest we become enslaved.

So they went to battle the second time. This time, 30,000 Israelites
were slain, Hophni and Phinehas were killed, and the Ark of God was
taken. Well, the Bible tells us in verse 13, that Eli stood by the
wayside watching, for his heart trembled for the Ark of God.

I want to tell you that Eli might have been an undisciplined man. Eli
may have been an unfit parent, but the Bible does say that his heart
trembled for the Ark of God. There was a soldier that escaped from the
battle scene.

He came and he told Eli what had happened. He said, we've suffered a
terrible defeat. Hophni and Phinehas, your sons are dead, and the Ark of
God has been taken.

And when Eli comprehended that the Ark of God was taken, he fell off his
seat backward and his neck broke, and there he died. Let's pick up the
story here in 1 Samuel 4 and verse 19. Notice what it says, and his
daughter-in-law, Phinehas' wife, was with child, near to be delivered.

And when she heard the tidings that the Ark of God was taken, and that
her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and
surveilled, for her pains came upon her. And about the time of her
death, the women that stood by her said unto her, Fear not, for thou was
born a son. But she answered not, neither did she regard it.

And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from
Israel. Because the Ark of God was taken, and because of her father-in-
law and her husband. And she said, The glory is departed from Israel.

Phinehas' wife was a woman of keen spiritual perception. And when she
got the report that the Ark of God had been captured by the pagan
Philistines, she knew in her heart that God had abandoned her people.
She named her child Ichabod, which means, literally, Where is the glory?
Or the glory is departed.

So we have to ask ourselves this question. What was it that brought
about the departure of God from the land? What were those things that
were present that caused the glory to depart? What gave birth to
Ichabod? I want to give you six scriptural, historical preludes to
Ichabod from the book of 1 Samuel. But notice prelude number one is that
there was an unconverted priesthood in Israel.

Look in chapter 2 and verse 12. Keep your Bible handy. Chapter 2 and
verse 12.

Notice, first of all, an unconverted priesthood. Now the sons of Eli
were sons of Belial. They knew not the Lord.

Hothnai and Phinehas were sons of the high priest, but they were also
sons of the devil, sons of worthlessness. Hothnai and Phinehas were
scandalous in their habits, reckless in their lifestyles, and profane in
their hearts. May I say to you that Hothnai and Phinehas were not
carnal.

Hothnai and Phinehas were not backslidden. Hothnai and Phinehas were
lost. And my friend, if it's possible to have sons of the devil in the
home of the high priest of Israel, it's entirely possible to have sons
of the devil in the best of Christian homes and in the best of Christian
churches.

I remind you that the devil was present in the upper room when Christ
celebrated the last table. Judas Iscariot, he left all for Christ. Judas
Iscariot followed Christ.

He ate and drank at the table of Christ. He cast out demons in the name
of Christ. He called Jesus Master.

He kissed the door of heaven, and then he fell headlong into hell. Why?
Because he was the son of perdition. And Hothnai and Phinehas, the Bible
says, they knew not the Lord.

Now they knew about God, but they did not know God. Hothnai and Phinehas
had heard their father pray. They listened as he talked.

But the Scripture tells us, he that doeth righteousness is righteous,
even as God is righteous, and he that practices sin is of the devil. My
friend, how many people have accepted Christ, who have never accepted
Christianity as a way of life? There are scores of people that put some
sort of a demon faith, cerebral faith in the Son of God, that show no
evidence at all that they've ever been born of the Spirit of God.
William Gurnall, the old Puritan, said, Say not that thou hast royal
blood in thy veins, say not that thou hast royal blood in thy veins, and
art born of God, unless thou can prove thy pedigree by daring to be
holy.

I want to tell you, there was an unconverted priesthood that produced an
unconverted constituency. The blind were leading the blind, the whole
crowd was in the ditch. Suffice it to say, it's possible to have a
profession of faith without the possession of eternal life.

And before the glory departed from Israel, there was an unconverted
priesthood. But notice prelude number two, there was an unfit
leadership. An unfit leadership in place.

It's been said that everything rises and falls on leadership. And God
has appointed leaders in churches, they're called pastors. God has
appointed leaders in homes, they're called husbands and fathers.

But notice what had happened in Israel before the glory departed in
chapter 2 and verse 17. Wherefore the sin of the young men was very
great before the Lord, for men abhorred the offering of the Lord. The
ark of God was being carried on unsanctified shoulders.

Hophni and Phinehas had profaned the priesthood. These boys had no
respect for proper worship. They were not satisfied with their appointed
portions, so they began to arrest and rob the worshipers of their
offerings that they had brought to Jehovah God.

If you read verses 13 through 16, you'll find it was a custom in those
days when people would bring their offerings, they would burn the fat
and they would put the meat in a boiling cauldron. The servant of the
priest would come with a three-pronged flesh hook, would reach down into
that boiling cauldron, and whatever came up on the flesh hook was the
appointed portion of the priest. But Hophni and Phinehas were not
satisfied with this portion, and they began to arrest the worshipers
before they could even offer the offering to God and say, give it to us
for all.

And they would say, if you don't give it to us, we're going to take it
by force. And because of their wicked, corrupt behavior, it caused men
and women to despise the offering of the Lord. It was the corruption of
Eli's house that caused men to despise the offering of the Lord.

But I want to say that Hophni and Phinehas were merely the tip of the
iceberg. The real problem was granddaddy Eli. Look in chapter 2 and
verse 23 as Eli tries to reason with his children.

And he said unto them, Why do you do such things? For I hear of all your
evil dealings by all this people. Nay, my sons, for it is no good report
that I hear you make the Lord's people to transgress. Now Eli mildly
rebuked his children.

In essence, he shut his eyes to their sin. Eli was a father, a judge,
and a high priest, yet he used none of his authority to correct his
children. It got so bad that God could not speak directly to his own
high priest of his covenant people.

And in verse 27 of chapter 2, you'll find that God sent a man of God, a
prophet, to warn Eli about his wicked ways. And not only that, God sent
a child by the name of Samuel on the very night when he met the Lord to
deliver a message of impending doom and judgment. And the Lord told
Samuel in the quiet of that night, because Eli's sons had made
themselves vile, and he restrained them not.

God said, I'm going to judge his house forever for the iniquity that he
knoweth about. Now I want to tell you that Eli, when Samuel came, and he
forced him to give him the message, and he didn't hold anything back,
and he told him what was going to happen, I want to tell you that the
severity of judgment was so bad that both of his sons were going to be
killed. All of his descendants were destined to die a premature death,
and his own priestly authority was going to be revoked.

And yet when Eli got that message, that terrible message, I want to tell
you, he didn't punish, he didn't reprove, and he didn't remove his
children from leadership. My friend, there was no attempt to reform, no
attempt to set his house in order. And I believe that Eli's example
ought to serve as an example on how not to raise a family, and as an
example on how not to carry on a ministry.

An unfit leadership was in Israel before the glory departed. My
brethren, are you walking worthy of the vocation wherewith you have been
called? But follow, if you would, in chapter 2 and verse 22, that there
was no respect for the moral law of God before the glory departed from
Israel. No respect for the moral law of God.

Look in chapter 2 and verse 22. Now Eli was very old, and he heard all
that his sons did unto all Israel, how they lay with the women that
assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Now notice,
if you would, it says they laid with women.

It doesn't say they laid with a woman. No, no, they laid with women,
poor. This was not a one-night stand.

This had become a way of life. Hothnai and Phinehas were committing
adultery with the women who had come to bring Jehovah God sacrifices and
offerings. May I say to you, my dear people, that before God abandons a
people, they first of all abandon His standards, and God's truth is non-
negotiable.

Not everything is up for grabs, my friend. There are some absolutes.
There are some black and whiters, and I want to remind you that the Ten
Commandments were not written in sand.

They were etched in stone. And even when Eli didn't remove his sons from
leadership, the people should have stood for the truth and kicked the
bums out. No respect for the moral law.

They tell us today that 77% of the American people do not believe in the
concept of absolute truth. I heard now that 50% of evangelicals no
longer believe in the concept of absolute truth. Well, I want to tell
you, if you don't believe in absolute truth, you're absolutely unsaved.

I mean, there's no way in the world we can dismiss God's moral code and
God's moral standards, which are absolutely universal. Now, my friend,
has there not been a wholesale revolt against the moral law of God in
our culture? I was at my mother-in-law's some time ago. I was flipping
through the cable remote.

We're not spiritual enough to have cable in our home, so I was at her
house, and I was flipping through. And I happened on MTV, moron
television. And as I flipped in, I got there just in time to hear the
mission statement of MTV.

And here's what they said. The goal of MTV is to rid the world of
racism, prejudice, so far so good. But number three, the goal of MTV is
to rid the world of intolerance.

Intolerance. You understand that tolerance is the only virtue left in a
totally corrupt society. In judges, every man was doing what was right
in their own eyes.

But the Bible says, Woe be unto them that call good evil and evil good.
My friend, is there not a spirit of lawlessness in the land? When one
out of every 13 Americans are in touch with the criminal justice system.
One out of 13 in touch with the criminal justice system.

My friend, morality is not a matter of personal choice. Well, the idea
is, well, what's right for you is true for you, and what's right for me
is true for me. I had a fellow that teaches at Oglethorpe University
come up and tell me about the students that he's getting from the public
schools of America.

How they're absolutely indoctrinated and have sold out to this idea of
moral relativism. So he was trying to shake them back into
consciousness. And he said to his class one day, he said, It's what
Hitler and the Nazi regime did in Germany.

In seeking to exterminate an entire race. Killing 6 million people. Was
it right? And you know the class.

Two men responded and said, What Hitler and Germany did was right for
them. Because what's right for you is true for you. And what's right for
me is true for me.

There was a Jewish boy in the class. And the professor looked at him and
said, Son, being of Jewish descent, was what Hitler did in seeking to
exterminate the Jews. Was it right? And that Jewish boy said before the
class to the professor, What Hitler did and what Nazi Germany did was
right.

It was right for them. My friend, wouldn't the question have been to say
that young boy, Listen son, if our government came up with a final
solution, and figured out that the way to rid the world of problems is
to ethnically cleanse all people of Jewish descent, including you, would
that be right for us? Do you see where we're at, my friend? We're being
brainwashed to the point to where there's nothing right and there's
nothing wrong. When I went to school, we had the three R's.

Reading, writing, and arithmetic. Now the three R's are reduce, reuse,
and recycle. We might have a generation that can't read and write, but
they sure can multiply outside of marriage.

They tell us that 14 million Americans meet the diagnostic criteria for
alcohol abuse disorders. Over 33 million Americans age 12 and older have
tried cocaine. 3.5 million people today in America have used heroin.

Nearly 100 million have smoked marijuana. Nearly 12 million have used a
date rape drug called ecstasy. And over 5 million people in the United
States are on Ritalin.

Four million of them, children. You realize that for every kid that gets
diagnosed with ADD, adult discipline disorder, that for every child that
gets diagnosed with ADD, it puts a quarter of a million dollars in the
pockets of the psychologist. We'll never drug our children into behaving
right.

And I want to tell you, my friend, that these are all indications of a
lack of respect for the moral law of God. When there's a mainstreaming
of pornography, when there's a legitimizing of sodomy, a condoning of
adultery, and the aborning of the unborn, it's a blatant revolt against
the moral law of God. But my friend, what about the blatant compromise
in liberal churches against the moral law of God? You know, we don't
hear much about this.

It's almost taboo to even break up anything along this line. But listen
to this. I just got this last week.

A Seattle priest has become a Muslim while also retaining her clergy
status in the Episcopal Church. Her local bishop has described the
development as exciting. I look through Jesus and I see Allah, explained
the Reverend Ann Holmes Redding to the Seattle Times, which reported
that Redding puts on her Islamic headscarf on Fridays and a clerical
collar on Sundays.

She has denounced Christianity as a world religion of privilege, but she
still sees Jesus as her Savior, even if not divine, and plans to remain
both a priest and an Episcopalian. I got news for you. Allah and Jehovah
are not the same people.

Blatant compromise. One mainline denomination allowed Aaron Swinson to
retain his or her status as a minister even though he, she, or it had a
sex change operation. Wouldn't you think that the right-wing activists
who want us to call the secular corporations and want us to call the
Congressional Switchboard to protest the moral decline would have
something to say about the absolute moral insanity that's been going on
in some of the churches for decades? Wouldn't you think they would want
us to picket and protest and boycott liberalism? But not a single word.

And I want to say to my friend, when we're trying to hold the secular
world and the government to a standard that we're not willing to hold
people who named the name of Christ to the standard, it's duplicity and
it's hypocrisy and it's time to repent. One major denomination would not
make a written statement condoning homosexuality or people living
together unmarried because they didn't want to reduce the faith to a
list of do's and don'ts. So goodbye Ten Commandments.

You know, my friend, when the American people, when the American people
cannot define marriage as a union between a man and a woman for life,
we're not at a crossroads. We're a long ways down the wrong road. And
you say, well, Harold, you shouldn't be up there using those examples.

You shouldn't be up there gay-bashing. Friend, I'm not gay-bashing. And
if you think anything I say is rough, you ought to check out the urban
renewal program that God implemented at Sodom and Gomorrah and see how
He dealt with that situation.

The Salvation Army gave benefits to homosexual partners before Walmart.
Of course, they've renewed since, thank God. But let's bring it down to
this right here.

What about the rank compromise in conservative churches? Let's just
bring it right down here with us, a little closer home here. You know,
the narrow way is not narrow enough for some people. And they want to
make the narrow way more narrow than it already is.

But, my brethren, there are others who want to make the narrow way
broader than what it already is. The rank compromise in conservative
churches. The Bible says the time will come when men will allow you to
do a sound doctrine.

But they're going to heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. My
wife and I were going down the highway. We had this dilapidated
sanctuary up on the side of the hill.

Had a spray-painted sign, a handwritten sign. And it said, Church for
Sale, easy terms. Church for Sale, easy terms.

In that case, it was the building for sale. But, my friend, is it not a
move on today to sell out the truth of God for the sake of some sort of
contrived unity or acceptance? Are we not living in a time when men have
stopped contending for the faith and started campaigning for acceptance?
Can I tell you, not everything is compatible with the religion of Jesus
Christ. Not everything is compatible.

My brethren, George Gallup said only 10% of professing Christians say
their beliefs affect their lifestyles. What about the music, the media,
and the magazines who, knowing the judgment of God, that they which do
such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure
in them that do them. They tell us that pornography used to be a $10
million business about 40 years ago.

It's now a $15 billion industry in the United States of America. I just
got the statistic that 68 million search engine requests each day go on
the internet from our country for pornography. 2.5 billion pornographic
emails are sent every day.

I was in a prayer meeting with an 18-year-old kid one day, and he said
this, he said, I refuse to entertain myself with those things that
killed my Savior. I refuse to entertain myself with those things that
killed my Savior. Brother, we've become so desensitized, there's nothing
I could say that would shock, embarrass, or cause a blush, or even a
flush of face, because our culture has gone down the wrong road, my
brethren.

The pastor called me the other day, and he said, I've got a woman in my
church who got on a chat room. I've never been on a chat room, but...
Brother, what does that say about fellowship with God and fellowship in
the local church, when church members in Bible-believing churches get on
chat rooms and spill their guts to total strangers? He said, why, she
got on a chat room, and within two weeks they were mailing photographs,
and within four weeks she had abandoned her husband and children, and
shacked up with a guy she didn't even know. My brethren, this happens
every day in churches like yours, and in churches like mine.

The problem is no longer out there, how easy it is to bash the sin on
the left, but brethren, I believe the chickens have come home to roost.
How often do we hear something like this? Somebody comes to the pastor
and says, you know, pastor, I believe that God wants me happy, don't
you? I mean, how are you going to answer that? And you know, God wants
me happy, pastor, and I don't love my maid anymore, and I believe God
wants me to get a divorce. I have an evangelist friend that went into a
Christian bookstore, which they really ought to change the name, and
looked up all the books on divorce, and couldn't find one against it.

Couldn't find one against it. But yet the Bible says, what God hath
joined together, let no man put asunder. When the God-ordained
institution of matrimony goes by the wayside, there's an inevitable
breakdown in the social order, and my brethren, the breakdown of the
home is the mother of all evils.

You say, well, Harold, don't you know we're under grace? I've had a
grace awakening. Yeah, I believe what we've got going on is a grace
distortion. A grace distortion.

You see, grace, my friend, does not override the moral code. Y'all with
me on this point right here? And grace does not obliterate the
consequences of wrong choices. Grace does not give me freedom to sin.

Grace gives me the power not to sin. That's what grace is all about. No
respect.

No respect for the moral law. But notice, before the glory departed,
what happened with God's people, there was rebellion against parental
authority. Rebellion against parental authority.

Look in chapter 2 and verse 25. Eli pled with his children. Look at what
it says.

Verse 25, chapter 2. If one man sin against another, the judge shall
judge him. But if a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him?
Now get this. Notwithstanding, they hearken not unto the voice of their
father.

Get that. They hearken not unto the voice of their father. Eli refused
to discipline his children, and Eli's children refused to obey their
father.

Rebellion begets rebellion. And rebellion against God-ordained authority
is passed on to the next generation. You see, when we violate God's law
and rebel, we shouldn't be surprised that our offspring will rebel and
take it to an extreme farther than we ever imagined possible.

I was in the Sam's Club the other day, and this kid had on this T-shirt.
You know, you're taking a big risk to read the T-shirts, and I took a
chance, and I read it, and it said, Question authority. Question
authority.

Who's the ultimate authority? God. That's a recipe for anarchy. But you
understand that rebellion is not a light thing, according to the Word of
God? Because the Bible says that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.

The Bible never says murder is as the sin of witchcraft. The Bible never
says adultery is as the sin of witchcraft. The Bible never says sodomy
is as the sin of witchcraft.

But it does say that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. You see,
rebellion. Rebellion.

Why is it so satanic? Sin is a crossing the line. It's going beyond the
boundaries that God has established. But rebellion is a refusal to come
back within the bounds once we discover we've exceeded them.

Hothnai and Phinehas were living in sin. That was bad enough, but they
refused to come back within the bounds. They hearkened not to the voice
of their father.

Friend, rebellion against parental authority, God's design for the home,
God appointed leadership is a prelude to Ichabod. God has placed
authorities over us for our protection, but when we move out from under
that protective covering, we're exposed to tremendous hurt and harm that
God never intended. I read that four million parents were beaten by
their children in a single year in the United States.

We're all the time hearing about child abuse, which is horrific. What
about parental abuse? A missionary was telling me one day how his kid,
his rebellious child, had come up and pushed him, cussed him, and shoved
him. You know what I think? I think it's time for the men of America to
take a hormone shot and take control of their homes and get a little
backbone and quit acting like a bunch of feminized, knitted wimps.

My friend, it's high time the men of America took a stand. Can you
believe what's going on? The Christian psychologists will tell you that
rebellion is normal. I want to tell you that rebellion is neither
normal, natural, or necessary.

We were in a church one time and some young people were acting up and my
11-year-old son said to me, he said, Dad, if that's what being a
teenager's all about, I'm going to skip that part. And you know what? He
skipped that part. Climbing fool's hill is not normal.

Sowing your wild oats is an abomination. And where in the world did we
get to the point where we think rebellion, which God said is demonic, is
somehow acceptable in the house of God? If we can train a killer whale
to take a fish out of the trainer's mouth without taking the trainer's
head along with it, we can teach our children to sit in church and have
respect. Things are so low now that if your children look decent, can
carry on a conversation with an adult, I'm telling you, people think
they're exceptional children.

I'm tired of people coming up to me and saying, well, you know, you just
have the most wonderful children in the world. What do you mean? Because
they didn't touch you. You think this is something extraordinary?
Rebellion against parental authority.

This guy told me his son had dyed his hair orange or purple or I don't
know what it was and had more lead on him than a case of buckshot and
all this kind of stuff. And he said that he didn't want to push him. Let
me just say something to you a minute.

Let me just say something to you. If the world wants to go naked, we
don't have to follow suit. And if the world wants to act like a bunch of
lunatics, God's people ought to have some sense of decorum and decency
and modesty.

And if the man of God in the house doesn't have enough backbone to do
it, he needs to get right with God, my brethren. Rebellion against
parental authority. I come from Charlotte County, Virginia.

It's so rural, we don't have a stoplight in the whole county. I didn't
say the town, the whole county. You probably already figured that out.

But I come to this remote part. I got the report of two 15-year-old
stepdaughters who plotted and executed the murder of their mother and
father. 15-year-old girls killed their parents.

The ultimate expression of rebellion. Young people, people in a
conference like this, you never physically attack your mom and dad. You
probably never even talk back.

You might not ever even talk about your mother and father to somebody
else. But I want to tell you, that rebellion in the heart is just as
serious in the eyes of God. And before the glory departed, my friend,
there was rebellion against parental authority.

But let me give you the fifth thing. Before the glory departed, they
ignored the Word of God. They ignored the Word of God.

Look in chapter 3 and verse 1. Chapter 3 and verse 1. And the child
Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. And the Word of the Lord was
precious in those days. There was no open vision.

When the Bible says the Word of the Lord was precious, that means the
Word of God was rare. It was scarce. That God was not revealing Himself
at that time.

When the Bible says there was no open vision, that means there was no
prophet to consult to find the will of God. God had very little to say
to Israel. There was a famine of hearing the words of God.

And maybe one reason the Word of the Lord was so rare in those days was
because there was no need for God to say anything else to His people
when they had not acted on what He had already said. Understand, these
people knew the law. They did not have copies of the Bible in their
home.

They did not have it, but they understood the law. Today, we have a
complete Bible. And this Bible is everything that God has to say to the
human race.

My friend, when they ignored the Word of God, their sin was bad. But if
we neglect the Word of God in our day, our sin is even worse. They
ignored the Word of God and the glory departed.

My brethren, not just ignoring the parts you like. Brother, I'm telling
you, if we ignore the parts we don't like, I'm telling you, we're in
trouble with God. You let a denomination, a local church, a family, or
an individual turn a deaf ear to God's revealed will, it won't be long
before the glory departs.

Brother, God has plainly told us how to deal with sin toward Him. He's
told us to confess it and forsake it. And judgment must begin at the
house of God.

We've got too much preaching that strokes the emotion and too little
preaching that strikes at the heart of our problems. And my brethren, I
want to tell you, it's high time for judgment to begin at the house of
God. God's told us how to deal with sin toward Him.

He said, confess it and forsake it. I was preaching in the Socialist
Republic of Vermont. And a lady came up to me after service.

And she said, I have no sense of God. I feel so cold. I feel like God's
a million miles away.

And she went on lamenting her spiritual condition. And then she said,
but I'm addicted to soap operas. I know I shouldn't do it, but I watch
them all the time.

And she went on along that line. And then she said, but I love the Lord.
And I said, time out, time out.

I said, ma'am, you have just told me how cold your heart is. How that
you feel like God's a million miles away. How that you feel spiritually
numb.

And ma'am, you have told me that you are doing things that you believe
are contrary to God's word and God's will and God's character. And then
I said, ma'am, you have had the audacity to tell me that you love the
Lord. I say, sister, maybe the problem is the same problem we all got.

Our problem is not that we love the Lord. Our problem is we love
ourselves more than we love the Lord. You know, when a prostitute goes
out, a man goes out and sleeps with a prostitute, he doesn't love the
prostitute more than he loves his wife.

He loves himself more than he loves his wife. Now God has told us how to
deal with sin toward him. It's a good thing to come in seasons.

Come in seasons. Seasons of purging. Seasons of examination.

Seasons when God broods over our hearts. I don't know about you, but I'm
such a constitutioner that God doesn't brood over me on a regular basis,
brother. It doesn't take me long to get hard and calloused and away from
God in my heart.

We can't afford to ignore the word of God. Brother, when God speaks to
your heart, obey every prompting that God gives you. God's plainly told
us how to deal with sin, problems, and relationships toward others.

If you've offended somebody, the Bible tells you we're to go to them and
seek to make it right. If somebody offends us, we're to confront the
situation and forgive them. I was preaching one time in South Carolina,
and the kid was standing out there in the auditorium.

I mean, he had such a sober look on. His face looked like a reprint of
the book of Lamentations. You know what I'm saying? I mean, he was
sitting there, and he looked like he'd swallowed a curtain rod.

I mean, the guy was absolutely miserable. He came up after service, and
he began to lament what a terrible shape his spiritual life was in. He
said, I'm so cold.

He said, I've even been out here praying, but I have no sense of God.
And he said, I feel like God's so far away. And he went on and on.

And I said, well, brother, why don't we get on our knees here, and why
don't you just tell God everything you just told me? So we got on our
knees, and I prayed, and I said, now you go ahead and pray. And then he
cranked up that old pre-recorded cassette prayer. You know, the one that
you pray every time you go to a prayer meeting to where everybody's got
it memorized.

And, you know, he was praying that kind of a pre-rehearsed prayer. And
then after about 40 seconds, he began to quiet down. And then after 45
seconds, he was stone silent.

And I looked over at him, and, man, his face was turning red, and I
thought, we're getting close now. And then he lingered in that position
for a moment, and then he blurted out, and he said, God, I just can't
say it. God, I just can't say it.

I looked at him. Man, sweat was pouring off his face. He was red as a
beet.

The neck veins had popped out. He looked like a redneck evangelist. And
I looked at that guy, and I thought, man, we're getting close now.

He was silent for a few more moments, and then he blurted out, he said,
oh, God. Oh, God, I stole it, God. I stole it, Lord.

And I want to tell you, that guy unloaded a truckload of sin. I'm
telling you, he coughed up all kinds of iniquities, got it all out. And
by the time he got finished with all of that, he didn't look like a
reprint of the Book of Lamentations, brother.

He looked like Galatians chapter 5, something with the fruit of the
Spirit, man. He had a smile from ear to ear. I mean, he was smiling so
broadly, he'd make Robert Shuler look depressed.

I mean, that guy was happy. We got up off our knees. He looked me in the
eye.

I said, only one more thing to do. He said, yes, sir, brother. He said,
I'm going to get it right.

I said, do it before tomorrow night and come give me the report. Well, a
year earlier, he'd gone to a grocery store, and something didn't get on
the cash register tape. So his wife, thank God for these patient wives,
she'd waited, and she said, now, honey, before we go home tonight, we
need to go by the store.

He said, I know exactly what store I need to go by. She went shopping,
and he went on a mission for God. And he found the manager of the store,
confessed what he had done, paid him back, asked for forgiveness.

And, brother, he came to church the next night. He was happiest to be,
and he told me that story. But you know something, my friend? He obeyed
the prompting of the Spirit of God.

When I was a teenager, I backed my father's 1950 Chevrolet pickup out of
the shed and ran over a toolbox. You know what 3,000 pounds does to a
toolbox even made in the 60s? I'm telling you, it was flat as a pancake.
I got on the anvil.

I beat that thing back in shape to the point where you could even put
the drawer back in it, and it would close. The only thing that was
wrong, the paint was knocked off. I never mentioned it to my father.

I'm off preaching in a meeting one day, and I said to a friend of mine,
I said, you know, my conscience has been bothering me about this
incident where I deceived my father by running over his toolbox. I never
put it right with him. And I said to my friend, I said, hey, would you
pray that God would open the door for me to get my conscience cleared?
And you know what my good friend looked at me and said? I don't think we
need to pray and ask God to open the door.

I think you need to go open it yourself. Thank you very much. And you
know, he was dead on that point.

So I went and found my father, recreated the whole story. He was
oblivious, told him the whole thing, and I drove two hours one way, and
I went back to church that night, and nobody else had revival. At least
I did.

And brother, I want to tell you that obedience is not always convenient,
but it's always profitable. You say, well, it'll cost me too much to put
these things right. It'll cost you more if you leave it undone.

We had a guy in Florida who burned his house down, who went to the
insurance company after the meeting and confessed that he had burnt down
his own house to collect the insurance money, for crying out loud. I
want to tell you, no price is too great to pay to have a conscience void
of offense toward God and toward man. What has God been speaking to our
hearts about men and women? Perhaps tonight, perhaps tonight God is
prompting us to some neglected duty.

Perhaps there's a conscience that needs to be cleared. Maybe there's a
compelling witness that needs to be given. Perhaps there's a forgiveness
that needs to be granted, or a forgiveness that needs to be sought.

Perhaps there's a gift of encouragement that needs to be made. My
friend, I want to tell you that before the glory departed from Israel,
they ignored the voice of God. They silenced the voice of God.

They just sat on it. And I want to tell you, when God speaks, it's not
time to call a prayer meeting. It's time to get up and move and pray
while you're going and seek to put that thing right.

Because before the glory departed from Israel, they ignored the voice of
God. Let me give you this final thing. Before the glory departed from
Israel, there was a forfeiture of parental authority.

A forfeiture of parental authority. Look in chapter 3 and verse 13, if
you would. Notice what it says here.

Chapter 3 and verse 13. This is what God told Samuel to tell Eli. For I
have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which
he knoweth, because his sons made themselves vile and he restrained them
not.

A forfeiture of parental authority. R.G. Lee said that parental
authority has not disappeared, it's just changed hands. The children
have taken it over.

You know the main thing missing in child training today is the trainer.
The main thing missing in parenting today is the parent. Eli, Eli failed
to use his parental authority to govern his children.

And Eli's children followed suit and refused to obey their father. In
chapter 2, verse 29, God said to Eli, You've honored your children above
me. You've preferred your children before me.

He loved his children more than he loved God. But my friend, it says in
Malachi, the book of Malachi, that God will turn the hearts of the
fathers to the children and turn the hearts of the children back to the
fathers. God said, Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

This unity in the home brings a curse upon the earth. You understand
that before the glory departed from Israel, there was a forfeiture of
parental authority. You know, there's a new idol in evangelical
Christianity today.

You know what the new idol is? It's family. It's family. Why, pastor, we
can't go to church.

Our kids have ball practice, fiddle practice, excuse me, violin
practice, flute practice, ballet practice, tobacco spitting practice,
race car practice. They got all these. Oh, we cannot come to church.

We can't stay out late. How many children? How many children? You know,
they get up early for school and they're involved in everything except
that which is spiritual. You know, I think we've underestimated the
capacity of children for deep spiritual experience.

They don't have to have six flags over Jesus all the time. They can get
involved in Holy Ghost prayer meetings when their hearts are clear. I'm
telling you, they can be in a place of usefulness and they don't have to
make all the mistakes that most of us did.

This is not true. A forfeiture of parental authority. You know, when the
television became the nation's babysitter and education became the
surrogate parent and rock music became the form of entertainment, we've
been on a free fall ever since all of that came into play.

And we can dismiss all of this. Well, that's just relative. That's not
our moral.

It doesn't make any difference in all this kind of stuff. Look at the
position today when they tell us that the morality factor among
evangelical Christian young people is identical to that of the world.
There's something wrong with the message and there's something wrong
with the method and there's something wrong with the manner in which
we're doing it.

And if you want a different result, you're going to have to do something
different from what everybody else is doing. A forfeiture of parental
authority. You're responsible for your home, sir.

Of course, we educate their minds, train their bodies, but we dare not
starve their souls. I was in a meeting and they said, there's a man that
was having a terrible time, a very successful man monetarily, but having
a terrible time in the home. He wanted to know if I talked to him.

I said, I'd be glad to talk to him. He came in. I think he was having a
nervous breakdown.

He told me about his wife had been in for counseling and the counselor
told the wife to abandon her husband and children and to go and seek her
own happiness. How many of you think we've heard enough from the
counseling community to last us from now to way past when Jesus comes
back again? The key to understanding life is not psychology. It's
theology.

Quit listening to the Freudian flops and even the Christian ones that
start off this mess and then put a scripture verse at the end and try to
dress it up and make it like it's the word of God. Brother, we don't
need all this garbage and a behavioral modification. We just need to get
back to the word of God.

Life was leaving. The daughter had crammed up. The boy had seen
apparitions of demons in his room.

He was involved in dope and total rebellion. The man was fit to be died.
He came in.

He wept. He told me the whole story. I said, Sir, why don't we get on
our knees right here? Why don't you just tell God everything you just
told me? So we got on our knees and that man began to heave up.

Hurt, pain, brokenness, bitterness. He began to unleash all of this
stuff. He was weeping and wailing.

I didn't know whether he was going to even stay alive or go absolutely
berserk. I didn't know. I looked at him and the agony that was on his
face and I was weeping my heart out as I knelt with that man.

I was sitting there thinking, Oh God, if this man had wept like this
five years ago and gotten thoroughly right with God, we wouldn't be
doing this kind of weeping right here, right now. But it was too late
then. Can I tell you, friend, don't wait until your wife walks out on
you.

Don't wait until your children are in trouble to get thoroughly right
with God. My brethren, there's a crisis of fatherhood in the United
States. Strong male leadership has not been the defining feature in our
country now for at least six or seven decades.

We've got women going off to war to fight in Iraq and husbands staying
at home to take care of their children. There's something wrong and
perverse about this picture right here, my friend. More and more people
want to pay somebody else to do for money what they're not willing to do
for love.

Two-thirds of all mothers of small children are in the workforce
somewhere. A forfeiture of parental authority. I know we're living in
tight times.

I know that some people are in difficult circumstances. I know all of
that, dear people, but what I'm telling you is we're in a crisis today.
I believe it's the parent's duty to teach their children about decency,
honor, truth, and industry.

Don't send your child to Sunday school. Take them to Sunday school.
Don't trust somebody else to teach your child about character.

You do it because children will not do what you say. They will do what
you do. Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he
shall not depart from it.

Brethren, we can believe God for better things. Listen, Noah got his
family on the ark in those wicked days. Brother, we can get our children
on the ark in our day as well if we can believe God.

We're going to have to readjust some things. We're going to have to
rethink some things. Follow me now.

A forfeiture of parental authority before the glory departed. I think we
need to stop explaining our sins and start repenting of our sins. Live
the way God wants you to live.

Be what God wants you to be. I was in a meeting one time and three
ladies, single moms, were around the table weeping, talking about how
their children were out and out rebellious, how they were talking back,
saying things they ought not to say. A grandfather sitting at the table,
a grandfather, his eight-year-old son sitting at the table, calling him
by his first name.

And I was sitting there thinking, Oh God, Lord, how in the world did we
ever get to this place? How did we ever get to this place? Here we are.
A forfeiture of parental authority. My dear people, listen to me.

I think we need to take back the ownership of, the responsibility for,
and the control of our own children. It's not the government's
responsibility to raise our children. It doesn't take a village, it
takes a mother and father filled with the Spirit of God.

It's not the church's responsibility to raise our children. I think we
need to quit running a spiritual surrogacy service and start doing more
to equip and train the parents to do what God called them to do,
brother, in the house of God. Isn't it interesting? We got ministries
for children, youth ministries, ladies' Bible studies, addiction
ministries.

We got all these things and these are all good in their place, but isn't
it amazing how many churches have a ministry to fathers and to men to
train them to be what God has called them to be, the shepherds of their
homes. A forfeiture of parental authority. Most of us sitting here
didn't grow up in red-hot Christian homes, but I want to tell you, when
God turns your heart to your children, I want to tell you, God will show
you along the way, man, how to come out on the other end and He'll place
some people in your path that'll give you a little light, brother, and
give you a little hope, and give you a little instruction.

And I'm telling you, we all believe in God for revival in the home.
We're looking for revival all across the world and in the government.
Forget it, man.

Let's strive for some revival in our own hearts, in our own home, and
believe God to do something in our churches. Wouldn't that be an
improvement? We're trying to get prayer back in the public school. I'd
like to see prayer get back in the church, for crying out loud.

Forfeiture of parental authority. Friend, if God will abandon His own
covenant people, is there any question that God will abandon those that
abandon Him? I want to ask you, are there any signs that God is about to
depart from your life? And I'm telling you, the glory can depart.
Nations can lose the glory.

Anybody here think that maybe America's in trouble with God? Remember
9-11? The strip club had the marquee, Pray for America. I'm telling you,
there's no use for a hooker to pray for America until she repents. I'm
just telling you, we're so out of whack with all of this.

I'm not trying to be harsh and callous. I'm just telling you, God hates
sin, man, and He can't stand it. And I'm just telling you that sin is
wrong.

And fellowship with none in vital error is participation in sin, said
Charles Spurgeon. We can't mess the world in God. We can't water the
thing down.

We can't throw out the non-negotiable parts. I'm not talking about
making the narrow way more narrow than it already is. But I am talking
about against making the narrow way broader than what God has said it
is.

It's a narrow gate that leads to a narrow way that leads to eternal
life, my friend. Oh, my brethren, nations can lose the glory. Ezekiel
watched as the glory lifted off the mercy seat.

And he saw the glory stand over the threshold of the door. And then he
watched as the glory departed over on the hillside. And then he watched
the glory disappear out of sight, never to return until 400 years later
when the glory of God was found in a manger in Bethlehem.

I'm telling you that nations can lose the glory of God. It happened
right here in the book of Samuel. Churches can lose the glory.

Even that church in Ephesus which had so many good things about them.
You're talking about a model church, soul winning, serving, suffering. I
mean, they had it all.

But God said to them, I've got something against you. You've left your
first love. And if you don't repent, I'm going to remove the
candlestick.

The glory can depart from the local church, my friend. But you know
something? Individuals can lose the glory as well. What about Samson?
Oh, my brethren, called by God, empowered by God, did exploits for God.

He paid a mighty high price for his low living when he got a haircut in
the devil's barbershop. And you know the story how that, how that, when
he spilled the beans to that wicked Delilah, you remember how that he
lost his power and he didn't even know it. The Lord had departed from
him and he didn't know it.

He thought he could go through his religious calisthenics. He said, I'll
go out and shape myself as at other times and surely the glory will
come. But this time the glory didn't come back.

He lost the glory. I'll tell you what steers me to death. It's Solomon
who wrote the holy word of God, who pasted the powers of the world to
come, who was used by God to build that meeting place for God and man.

If his heart was turned to false gods because of his disobedience, my
friend, who are we? And if David, a man after God's own heart, if
Samson, the strongest man in the world, David, the most spiritual man in
the world, Solomon, the wisest man in the world, man, if they all
committed adultery, we're only one decision away from tragedy at any
given time. I'm telling you, I'm putting the holy fear of God in your
heart, my friend, that we want to end up well and not go down in flames.
Amen.

Individuals can lose the glory of God. I want to tell you, you can have
church without God, but you can't have souls saved and lives changed
without God. My friend, listen, where the glory of God resides, the
voice of God is heard.

Where the glory of God resides, the voice of God is heard. You say,
well, why did you bring a message on Ichabod to a conference like this?
You're supposed to be encouraging our hearts. Well, I had a message like
that, but I felt led to give this one.

Why did you bring a message like this? I'll tell you why. Because we've
been a hundred years in the United States of America, a hundred years
without a widespread, outpouring, heart-melting season of refreshing
from the presence of God. And maybe tonight God has got a controversy
with us, His people.

I don't believe in morbid introspection. I do believe in Holy Spirit
inspection. My brethren and I, I'm telling you, I think we've lost out
with God.

I mean, it's to the point now where we have no discernment. We cannot
discern and make a judgment call on anything. And I'm not talking about
going too far and becoming legal.

But I'm telling you, my friend, we can become lawless and we can condone
what God condemns. We can become over-tolerant. We can become
relativistic.

My friend, we can lose the glory of God. And is that not what has
basically happened across the boards here in the land of the free and
the home of the brave? Howard Spain said the Kingdom of God is not going
to be advanced by our churches becoming filled with men. The Kingdom of
God will not be advanced by our churches becoming filled with men, but
by men in our churches becoming filled with God.

That's the thing we need. That's what I need. That's what you need.

We had a couple's advance last weekend. I told the boys, I said, listen,
forget the marriage seminars and the handouts. Go for the jugular.

Preach to our hearts because if we get right with God, then the marriage
things will take care of themselves. On Friday night, a man broke
brought a message on brokenness, the key to revival. Man, I've never
seen a man God was all over that guy.

We said, all right, it's Friday night. We have a prayer meeting here in
30 minutes. Anybody want to come and pray? We had 80 takers that came
and prayed to nearly midnight on a romantic weekend, praise God.

Others were back there seeking the Lord. The Kingdom of God will not be
advanced by our churches becoming filled with men, but by men in our
churches becoming filled with God. What gave birth to Ichabod? What
caused the glory to depart? Number one, an unconverted priesthood.

I ask you sincerely, my friend, are you saved? Are you converted? Number
two, an unfit leadership. Brethren, are we walking worthy of the
vocation wherewith we've been called? Number three, no respect for the
moral law. My dear men and women, are we living holy lives? Number four,
rebellion against parental authority.

I ask you, are you submissive to mom and dad, young people? They ignored
the word of God. Brethren, are you obedient to the light that you've
got? Number six, they forfeited their parental authority. Mom and dad,
listen to me.

Hear me. Are you raising your children in the fear and admonition of the
Lord? I'll give you ten words for revival in your home. Ten words for
revival in the home.

I was wrong. I'm sorry. Will you forgive me? Ten words for revival in
the home.

I was wrong. I'm sorry. Will you forgive me? I wonder if you need to say
that to anybody in your home, sir.

What about it, men? What about it, young people? Oh, my brethren, a
forfeiture of parental authority. Now, what will cause the glory to
return? I think my repenting of the things that caused it to depart is a
good place to start. And can I say this afternoon, I think there's
plenty of room for repentance all across the theological spectrum.

If you're in the Pharisee camp or in the Sadducee camp or somewhere in
between, there's room at the cross for us to repent. There's a wealthy
businessman in London. He loved to do things for the poor children in
the ghetto, so he got a bus load and he went to the ocean.

He wanted the children to see the ocean. They frolicked and played and
swam all day long, had a wonderful time. At the end of the day came,
they're on the bus, they're going home.

The wealthy businessman went from seat to seat and talked to child to
child about his experience of the first time of seeing the ocean. He
found a little kid that had a half bottle full of ocean water, and he
asked the little boy, he said, well, what are you doing with this bottle
of water? The little boy said, well, my mother has never seen the ocean
either, and I want my mom to see the ocean, so I'm taking the ocean
water in this bottle. I want my mom to see it.

And the businessman said, well, son, how come it's only half full? And
the little boy said, I had to leave room for the tide to come in. I had
to leave room for the tide to come in. And my brethren, we can make room
for the tide to come in.

Amen. You see, there's forgiveness with God that he might be feeling.
And brother, nobody's totally consistent, and nobody's perfect in this
life.

And brother, I'm just telling you, we ought to make a stab at it, but
nobody's totally consistent. We know that, and that's what Calvary's all
about. And brother, we're no farther from God than we are from our knees
and kneeling at the foot of the cross.

I'm telling you, Calvary is only a step away, and I believe that God's
calling some of us in these days. I came here, I said to my wife, I
said, honey, what do you want God to do for you at this conference?
Because I want God to do something for me. Don't you want God to do
something for you? Brother, here's the answer.

Get honest. I mean, judgmentally honest. Get holy.

Get humble. Get hot in your obedience, and by the grace of God, let's
get our homes in order, and brother, we can have a return of the glory
of God. I'll say this, and I'm going to quit.

I don't believe that God's foreordained us to a Laodicean deadbeat
church age to where things are never going to get any better, and we're
going to go down the tubes from here on out. I wouldn't blame God for
the circumstances today, because that would be blaspheming His holy name
to believe that God would cause and prefigure a bunch of deadbeats to
look like us, to give us an excuse for being what we are. My friend, I
want to tell you, we need to get away from our eschatological letoffs
and our theological fatalisms, and we need to believe God for a better
day because the church that came into existence in a burst of glory, I
think the true church is going to go out in a blaze, and brother, I
don't know whether the nation is going to turn back to God.

I don't know about all of that, but I believe that churches can turn
back to God, and I know that individuals can turn back to God, and if
nobody else gets revived, I want to be revived, and brother, I want to
get hotter rather than deader as I go along, and brother, I'm looking to
believe in God for a better day. What about you, my friend? What about
it? The prelude to Ichabod. The prelude to Ichabod.

What happened before the glory departed? Brother, at all costs, at all
costs, in God's name, we've got to have a touch of God. It's not a nice
thing. It's a must thing.

We've got to have a touch of God. I got in a meeting. I got in a meeting
that God brought me and when God is at 3 o'clock in the morning, I got
up in the middle of the night, such a burden of prayer, met a guy in the
parking lot, been up all night, that God carried.

He was a hidden spring. He carried that meeting. I said, brother, you go
on home.

I've got the third shift. You know something? After that thing was over,
I was so exhausted, emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, spent, but
I said, God, when I got there looking at those stars below, I said, God,
I'd rather die young than see revival than live to be 100 and never see
the glory of God. And I hope there's a burning in your heart.

I know you wouldn't be here if it wasn't. Oh, may God intense the flames
at all costs, man. Don't lose that sense of the glory of God and if the
glory has departed in your heart, in your home, by God's grace, you can
get it back because he's shown us the way.

We can't ignore the word of God, but we can obey and we can be blessed.
Could we pray? Heads are bowed. Eyes are closed.

Before we pray, I got three questions. Number one, I wonder if there are
men, husbands, fathers, grandfathers here in the house that would say,
Harold, God has spoken to me clearly, specifically, and afresh about my
responsibilities as the leader in my home. I'm wondering if there are
men, fathers, grandfathers that would say, Harold, I would appreciate if
you would pray for me because God has spoken specifically to my heart
about my duties as the leader of my home and I'd like to be prayed for.

I'd like for those men and only those men that God spoke to in a
specific way who would like to be prayed for to quietly stand to your
feet and we're going to have a word of prayer right where you're at just
for those men that God spoke to in a specific, definite way. God bless
you men. Before we pray, I wonder if there are women, mothers,
grandmothers here you feel a keen need of a fresh touch from God.

I know not everybody is in a perfect situation. I know some people are
in very difficult circumstances but I'm wondering if there are some
ladies here that say, Harold, I need a touch from God because I want my
home to be a revival center and I don't want to be a hindrance man. I
want to be in that place of blessing.

God has spoken to my heart as a mother, as a wife, as a grandmother. I
would like to be prayed for that God would do something significant for
me during these days. I have a need.

Pray for me. Would you quietly, with heads bowed, rise to your feet and
join these men that are already standing if you'd like to be prayed for.
Just those ladies that have a sense of need and would like specific
prayer.

God bless you sisters. Now before we pray, I've got one more question.
I'm wondering if there are sons or daughters here in this meeting, young
people.

You know, you say, Harold, I know the flesh is very appealing, the world
is very alluring, but with all of my heart, I really do want to honor
God and I do want to honor my mother and father. I want to inwardly
respect and I want to outwardly obey my mother and father because I want
my life to be long and I want my life to go well. I'm wondering if there
are young people in this building that would say, Harold, you know, I've
been struggling with some of these things.

God is speaking to my heart. Pray for me because I want to be submissive
and obedient to mom and dad and God has been talking to my heart. Please
remember me in prayer.

Just those young people that God spoke to, would you join these that are
already standing if you'd like to be prayed for? Just those young people
that God spoke to in a special way. May God bless you young people. My
heavenly father, oh, my heavenly father, would you do something for us
dads, us fathers, us husbands? God would you do something for us? Lord,
please.

God, we're opening our hearts. We're crying out. We're admitting we have
fabulous needs.

We're not even aware of the depth of them but God, we know something of
them and God, what we know drives us to say, oh God, have mercy and God,
do something fresh and something vital and something lasting and
something real in our hearts. Bless these brothers. God, lead them.

Lead us as we lead our own. Lord, would you encourage these sisters?
God, would you do something for them? Lord, some of them, no doubt, in
very difficult places. God, encourage them that their children can be
sanctified through one believing mate.

God, would you just baptize them with the peace and contentment and the
grace of God? Lord, we just need something from you, Lord, big time.
Lord, would you just bless these mothers, these wives, these
grandmothers? And Father, look at all these young people out here. Look
at them.

Lord, they want to do right. They want to be clear. They want to be in
that place of blessing.

They want to be under that God ordained leadership. God, would you bless
these young people? God, would you give them dreams and aspirations of
holy things that they can accomplish for the kingdom's sake? God, would
you bless them and bless them indeed? Our Heavenly Father, would you
bless our homes? God, would you have mercy upon our homes, God? We
haven't done everything right. We've done a lot of things wrong.

Lord, I've done a lot of things I shouldn't have done. Lord, I've not
been perfect. I don't know us.

Lord, we all feel so bad about all of that. But Father, thank you that
there's forgiveness at the cross. And God, from here on out, Lord, we're
begging God for mercy and grace and strength and wisdom and insight.

And God, we're praying for the presence of God to be on our homes. Give
us revival in our homes. And God, give us revival in our churches.

Please, God, while on others you're calling, don't pass us by. And Lord,
what you're doing in China, and God, what you're doing in Africa, and
God, what you're doing in Romania, and God, what you're doing God, do
something over here for a change, God. We're asking for something like
that.

Lord, our hearts are all burdened. Lord, this whole thing is about
revival. God, we know that's what you want.

So, God, lead us individually, God, the path that we must trod, the
repentances, God, whatever, whatever, the humblings, the fastings,
whatever, God, the obedience, whatever, whatever, Lord, we're open. God,
we're thanking you that you're a merciful God who delights to revive
your work in the midst of the years. And God, we're believing you for
that very thing.

Now, Father, would you put your hand on this conference? And these men
speak this afternoon. God, may your voice be heard as this brother
Conlon comes in tonight. God, may he come with a message from heaven for
our hearts.

God, we're open for it. We're believing and thanking you for it. Now,
thank you for what you're saying to our hearts.

Lead our brother as he comes now to direct our service from this point.
We give you thanks and praise in Jesus' name. Amen.

You may be seated. Amen.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/6L8l6IY_x7A.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/harold-vaughn/the-glory-is-departed/
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