In this sermon, the speaker discusses the four laws given by God to govern the 1904 Welch revival, led by evangelist Evan Roberts. The first law emphasizes the importance of thorough repentance within the church. The second law highlights the need for the church to address even questionable things, such as entertainment choices that go against biblical teachings. The speaker emphasizes the contrast between the dedication of missionaries who sacrifice their lives for the gospel and the complacency of many American Christians. The sermon concludes with a call to focus on God's mercy and to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, while avoiding conformity to the patterns of the world and instead seeking transformation through the renewing of our minds, as stated in Romans 12:1-2.

For more messages by Glenn Meldrum and in his presence ministries, go to www.IHPMINISTRY.com You are welcome to make additional copies of this CD for free distribution I'm gonna look at a very Simple section of scripture turn with me to Romans 12. I know you know it. I know you've read it You may have it memorized I'm gonna bring something out that hopefully is very simple, but yet very powerful fastest growing religion in the world is and Not in the world. Let me let me clarify the fastest religion in America is Islam Fast growing religion is Islam even after 9-11 People are flocking to it. I mean they're flocking to it from supposed Christian Backgrounds they're flocking to it and they're flocking to it for a reason because the the church is so full of so much compromise they see no absolutes within the church and here's Islam giving absolutes and An unstable world in a world that is that is very unsafe. Here is a religion That's trying to say here are absolutes that you can live by though. They are an error though It is lie though it is deception They are gaining because people want something to put their life upon that that they feel has some form of Solidity some form of power and strength and they want some reason and so they look to that It's an unfortunate thing, but it's what's going on When the church grabs hold of the truth Something's gonna really take place and we've not changed our world because we've not grabbed hold of it I remember a statement Leonard Ravenhill once made where he ended up saying one of these days Some simple soul will grab hold of the book of God Read it believe it and live it and the rest of us will be ashamed We don't take our cities because we don't believe it Well, maybe we kind of believe it but not enough to live it I mean not enough for it to affect every dimension of our life every fiber of our being we live it to a point of Convenience rather than to the aspect into the extent of what the Word of God tells us We're going to look at a very simple section of Scripture here very powerful section I guarantee you if we as believers lived it Your city would not be the same Your city would not be the same much less if the Christians across this nation lived it our country would be radically transformed There is power in God's Word. There is power in the reality of Christianity. It is not a weak defeated religion It is not something that is that does not have the ability to deliver from the power and the love of sin It is more than powerful if God possesses more than enough power to make us the men and women of God that he wants us to Be the problem does not lie in the bosom of God Problem lies in our bosoms And that's where we need to go. That's what we need to look at Romans 12. Let's just look at the first two verses here Therefore I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices Holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship or as the King James puts it your reasonable service Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world But be transformed by the renewing of your mind Then you will be able to test and to prove what God's will is his good pleasing and perfect will you know? There's an idea that we have to look at here just in the very beginning of living sacrifices The very concept of living sacrifice that it's a never-ending process That is not a one-time event as an animal sacrifice where that animal is killed and slain It's dead and that's it or even of the sacrifice of Christ where he died and he died once and for all never to die again The very concept of a living sacrifice is that is a perpetual never-ending process It's not a one-time event that we do at an altar of repentance and we say jeez Forgive me come into my life and that's it It is a never-ending process and the reason why it's a never-ending process because the need is never-ending I know the majority of you in this room we're at one time seniors in high school and now a lot of you are seniors in life and I guarantee you things are very different from when you were senior in high school I mean your bodies are different your minds different your experience different your life is different Everything's different because between being a senior in high school and a senior in life There's a whole lot of things that take place and all along that journey all along that path There is things of pain sorrow joy successes failures every Event that goes in our life brings us to the point of change We are in this place of constant change because we live in a world of constant change Because our bodies are changing our relationships are changing. Everything's changing around us We may not like that change, but it's what happens. It is a reality. It is a fact And because of this this reality of change that that never Ceases to take place on this fallen world because that goes on constantly in our life. We are consistently faced with the necessity of surrender Consistently faced with the necessity of being a living sacrifice through each struggle each joy each success each failure No matter what it is that we face. We are constantly confronted. What will I do with this? How will I respond will I give into this situation and let it destroy me or it calls me to be bitter or angry or? Will I yield to Christ and overcome and be triumphant to what will I do? Will I submit to Christ or will I submit to the lust of my own flesh or the pride of my own life or the desires? That I have my own selfish ambitions or will I submit to the ambitions of Christ? What will I do then each of these situations it will take place till our dying day Finally when we walked in pearly gates, we won't have to make those decisions anymore. It'll be done It'll be a finished thing until that day. We have that constant necessity of surrender in our life I'm going to want to look at three laws that govern what it means to be a living sacrifice And how these laws are to affect us. I don't care whether you're young or old I don't care where you are in your life as a Christian or whether you're not a Christian These are our spiritual laws of being a living sacrifice And if you want to be a Christian and the Christian you should be you'll have to look at these laws Examine these laws and see whether you are living them out or not These three laws that I'm going to touch on is surrender singleness of mind and singleness of heart And each of those are expressed in their own way within this section of Scripture and implied with the very idea of what it means To be a living sacrifice So let's begin with the concept of surrender Surrender is a very difficult thing for us. We have a really hard time with it It's a human problem not just you as an individual but all of humanity has that problem with surrender Let me give you the illustration why an idea of why From the moment that a little baby is conceived that little child right there is on a quest for independence I mean, how long will it be before that little boy or girl? Little boy, how long will it be for that little boy is grabbing the spoon from mama wanting to feed himself And how long will it be for that baby's then starts running around the the floor and by the time it hits the terrible twos It is in everything and and you can't keep up with because that kid will have more energy than you ever dreamed of having at Your age. I mean, it's just the reality of it. A child is on a quest for independence How long will it be before the first time that mama turns her head and that little boy is running down the street and she has To try and run frantically to find where this little boy went. I Can't keep up with because as they grow older they want independence. They want to make their own decisions They want their own stuff their own things their own ways and then they come to the teen years and then it can be real nightmares as they are really pushing the envelope the Parameters the borders of say I want freedom. I want the say of my life If things aren't very pleasant at home a child has this concept to say when I'm old enough I'll make my own mind up and then I'll be happy I'll be happy when I finally can get out of the house and I don't have to listen to my mom or my father anymore I can do what I want this constant quest for independence and supposedly when they're 18, they're an adult Supposedly they think that they've arrived that they've come to a point and now I can make my own decisions We're on this quest for independence The problem is this problem that Paul tells about that whoever we submit ourselves to we become the slaves to whether in the sin Which brings bondage or into righteousness which brings life? It's going to be one of the other and so if I yield myself to sin I actually become the slave of sin when I think myself going in a direction says I'm going to find freedom I'm gonna do whatever I want to do then I can find myself chained by the very things I thought would bring me Liberty rather than the aspect of finding freedom I actually find bondage Through a pursuit of sin or pursuit of rebellion or pursuit of lust or wants or cares You see we're in this constant need of surrender And then all of a sudden we come to a point and we begin to understand Christianity and Christianity is the total opposite of the world The natural man is in this constant quest for independence the Christian man the true Christian man is in a constant quest of Dependence the total opposite everything the world teaches us is totally against the reality of Christianity Everything that nature teaches everything we just learn in this life is contrary to it and here We as Christians have so many problems in our life because we continue to try to have that quest of independence I want to do what I want to do because that's what I want to do. This is my desire So I'm going to go after this is what I feel and so because I feel this I'm going to chase after this quest of Independence can creep into the church and govern people who claim to be Christians and cause them nothing But nightmares and disaster here again Paul brings out a reality that is very difficult for us He says you're not your own you're bought with a price You see you are not your own. You don't have a right over what's in your wallet You don't have a right over your home over your over your business life or anything in reality You have no say if you are going to walk the walk of a true Christian Now if you're going to somehow mingle the religion of this world and of our independent Ambitions and try and mingle it with Christianity then maybe you think that you can but true Christianity is not like that Because it begins with us becoming a living sacrifice See that sacrifice has no say over When that lamb was slain and put on the altar it couldn't after was on the altar say I'm going to get off Now we think we can do that as living sacrifice, but if we get off then we're no longer sacrificed So there's only one place for a living sacrifice. It's on the altar. That's in reality to be dead to trespass and sin Dead to the ambitions of our own life And so it comes to a point of surrender God calls us to this place as Oswald Chambers referred to it of reckless abandonment I like the term reckless abandonment I mean It's a wonderful term that the man used and and I use it often because it speaks of what our Christianity is supposed to be Let me give you an illustration of what reckless abandonment would be God goes to you and says I'm calling you to be a missionary to Lumbum Bashi Reckless abandonment says When? I'm out of here God Do you know what we do as Americans? Well, I don't know. Is that gonna work in my retirement package or is this gonna be is it gonna be good for me? Will I find the right man on the field out there? I mean we have all the arguments of why not to do it because we approach it all from a selfish ambition From self-wants rather than the aspect of saying God you've called me. I will go But you see that's what Christianity is all about it's not about the aspect of arguing with the Creator God It's the aspect of surrendering to Mark 835 tells us for whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses life for me and For the gospel will save it life only comes to death. It's the only way it's the idea of surrender Versus self-preservation. We have this thing within us in the natural to preserve our lives. That's what it is I mean we are in this thing that we want to preserve our life at no no matter what the cost will be Somebody attacks us and we'll fight because we want to preserve our life no matter what is we have this thing within us I mean when you look at the the tenacity that can be in the human spirit when pain and suffering comes in our person will fight against odds that are are insurmountable because of this desire self-preservation and Then Christ tells us if you want to gain your life, you have to lose it. Everything works against that desire self-preservation Everything works against it then say God you mean I have to lay my life down for you. It doesn't make sense I'm reading a book right now on on a man named John Patton a missionary that a pioneer missionary that went to the South Seas and phenomenal man phenomenal man I mean this aspect of being on an island with Cannibals and dealing with the cannibals and all the things that were not and this constant Surrender to the will of God and the constant threat of death at a never-ending Basis of people constantly trying to kill him and yet stay Wanting to minister the gospel to him to them because of his love of Christ and his love of the people You only have that happen when a man is already dead in Christ Not when he's alive and trespass and sin now when he's alive in the lust of the flesh But things like that only happen when men and women come to point to be dead To their old nature when they come to a point to to be willing to lose their life and so what happens God takes men like that Turns the world upside down You see we're not turning the world upside down because we don't have such men today. I Mean, that's the reality. I mean all we got to do is look at our country Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount That we are to be the salt of the earth And he says if the salt loses saltiness What good is it in in one of the other accounts and one of the other Gospels? It says it's good for nothing, but to be trampled down underfoot It's not even good for the manure pile because it'll ruin the manure to be fertilizer. It's good for nothing It's becomes useless and so much of the American Church is Useless to a perishing world because we are so consumed with our own wants and our own cares being our weakened warriors to have as much fun as we can Claim to be Christian in the midst of it But yet here's this Christ who did not go and and endeavor to be a weakened warrior He came to die for humanity. His ambition was not the pursuit of pleasure But was the pursuit of a father's will and he saw a greater thing in the pursuit of his father's will than what it was in the pursuit of pleasure Jesus even told us that in the last days we would be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God and that's that's America We are in the pursuit of pleasure We are in the pursuit of wanting our own stuff our own things our own time our own everything And then you know, we wonder why our kids go astray Wonder why our kids don't walk with God because all they saw in our lives was a pursuit of pleasure We'd get to church when we could work it in if it was convenient if it wasn't convenient I'd rather be out doing something else rather be at the beach at the lake. I'd rather be out golfing I'd rather be one place or another and so we have all the excuses of why we're not because We've not come to the point of surrender to lose our life to gain it And you know We fight we strive we war to to try and own to try and have to have have significance and purpose and and here it's in The whole aspect of surrender, but yet we fight that surrender tooth and nail we fight it. We fight it with everything we have The idea of surrender means that fulfillment comes in our life only through surrender. I was created to know my creator I was created for that sole purpose not for the pursuit of pleasure not for the gain of material Wealth not for doing all kinds of supposed things that are fun, but in the end leaves me destitute What will it matter when I stand before God and I had all these toys? I had snowmobiles and ATVs and Campers and this and that and stuff and I stand before and I'll be naked What will it matter how much I was consumed with sports and whether I knew the sports status? What will it matter the only thing that'll matter when I stand before him is what I did for him whether I come and I Lay sheaves at his feet or I stand before being nothing, but an absolute selfish individual that lived in absolute selfishness for the pursuit of all my selfish wants and Cared nothing for anybody else, but my own selfish desires Do you hear what I'm saying? If there's anything in your life Anything that you look to to satisfy Your life outside of Christ. It's an idol. It is a false God It is a wicked thing that you've allowed to come into your life Because you think that thing is what will satisfy you and you are not out to get your fulfillment from Christ But from other stuff other things other ways Have you come to a point that you find the fulfillment in your life through Christ? That's what you were created for if you have not found it. It's not the fault of the Creator It is the fault of you Now, of course the challenge comes down to be will you deal with that? Usefulness in the kingdom of God only comes through surrender. I Remember the statistic that came out of the Billy Graham Association that says only 5% Of all who claim to be born-again Christians have ever witnessed in their life And then we wonder why our world is dying I was bringing out the aspect of us being salt in this world. And what is salt to do? Salt is to be a preserver from decay and it's to be an enhancement of the food for us to be salt I am to be preserver from moral and spiritual decay We may not want to accept the responsibility But the reality is the abortion industry is the fault of the church the reality That drugs run rampant in our streets is the fault of the church The reason why there's bars and and there's people filling them is because the church has failed to be the church If I am what I should be if the church is what it should be. It should be preserving Society for moral and spiritual decay if our nation is is plunging in moral spiritual decay It is because the church has lost its ability to speak to a perishing world Now we can go and say well things will get worse and worse and that's just a fatalistic viewpoint. That's not biblical Yes things will get worse But it's going to if it gets worse it's going to be because the church falls asleep Not because the church is alive every time in history when the church was alive Society was transformed as a result of it Not because they became political forces not because they went out after to change the laws of the land Because they went out after individual people and change individuals who changed the laws and who changed society You see when we cease being what we should be when we cease being surrendered individuals. We cease usefulness You know that the Scribes and Pharisees were absolutely useless to the kingdom of God And there may be some of you that are Pharisees because you are useless to the kingdom of God Useless absolutely useless and why are you useless because you have not surrendered your life you went and says well, I prayed a little prayer I'm a nice person. I read my Bible once in a while. I pray over dinner and Is that what a Christian is? We're told here that what a Christian is is a person who has given themselves as a living sacrifice 24 hours a day seven days a week every moment of every day of every second Everything that they are that they have yielded their wants their cares their hurts their ambitions their sorrows their everything Because they are surrendered Part of the issue of surrender Brings us to the point that we allow The great powder to form us and shape us and some of us don't want that Let me let me be real honest here every single thing in your marriages That is harmful to your marriage. Jesus wants to get out of your life because you are the problem your marital problems. Are you? It's where it comes down to be your marital problems. Are you when you have marital problems? It's because your character is flawed It's because you have attitudes you have bitterness as you have hurts you have insecurities you have fears you have all kinds of garbage Now if you deal with them, then Jesus can can transform the character and he can make a character. That's beautiful That's Christ's like that's glorious But if we don't allow the great powder to lay his hands upon us Can I say I'm a surrendered individual my character should be more godly today than when it was a year ago If it's not something's wrong. I Should be more in love with Jesus right now than when I was a year ago If not, something's wrong with my Christianity if my prayer life is not more vibrant today than what it was a year ago Something is wrong in my pursuit of God Because I am to be going from glory to glory to glory to glory in a never-ending process And that will actually go on for all eternity That's what he's called the church do I won't surrender to God unless I'm a broken person Let's just say your pursuit is wealth and you have all the wealth that you want you think well satisfies Why would you surrender your life to Christ? I? Mean is if you think that fulfillment is is through just the pursuit of pleasure and I bring out the pursuit of pleasure because Americans Are consumed with the pursuit of life. That's why we were not satisfied with a 27-inch television. We have to have a five-foot screen I mean everything in our life is around pleasure marriages fall apart because the pursuit of pleasure they say well You're not meeting my needs anymore. I don't feel this love anymore. So I'm gonna find somebody who's gonna meet my needs And what are those needs? I don't want to get in that direction But they're nothing but selfishness and pride and arrogance lust of flesh lust of the eye and pride of life It's what they are down to the very core Nothing, but sin is in the in the root of our divorce and in a society that now is revolves around divorce today The church has a higher divorce rate than the world Atheists have a lower divorce rate than Christians do per capita Atheists have a lower divorce rate than Christians Scary huh? Smith Wigglesworth made the statement. He says there is no way into the deep things of God except by a broken spirit There is no other way into the power of God As we start desiring him and we start yearning for him We start thirsting for him and we start longing for his presence and power in our life. There is something that's going to happen It's gonna be surrender It's just what's going to happen because we're gonna want to know him more because we want to know more We're gonna want to wonder everything that gets in the way and what what hinders our relationship with God every single time 100% of the time it's sin Every single time it's a it's sin in all of its various forms and all of its various names Sin always separates from God always the Christian or the non-christian it separates from God and as Christians if we want to draw near to him we got to deal with the sin issues in our life and the reality is is there are many Christians and I refer to this today as The problem that is in the Pentecostal churches that we have a plague of Pentecostal Pharisee ism today where Christians don't see Themselves as sinners anymore, but you know, Jesus only came to seek and to save the lost He cannot save good people because good people don't see their need of a Savior and you know when we see ourselves more needy Do you know what that brings about? The more needy we see ourselves the more will cling to the cross the more will cling to the only Savior that there is But until we're broken, we're gonna keep looking. This is gonna make me happy a bigger house That's what'll do it a bigger house another baby Maybe another guy or another girl or maybe this thing or that thing when I have that big screen TV. I'll be happy then And It's the whole thing that we've come to point and not be broken But you know what happens in the midst of all that is we leave we leave a trail of pain And so surrender brings about another thing that I want to touch on just for a minute before I go on to the other points the surrender brings about Repentance true surrender because repentance is an act of surrender. That's what it is. I Have to be willing to say God forgive me come into my life be my Lord and Savior and more than just an Overarching forgive me. It must be a genuine act of repentance to say God, you know, these are the sins of my life Forgive me change me But it's not a one-time event. We ultimately must live what I call a lifestyle of repentance what a lifestyle of repentance is it's the idea that We are so in love with Christ that we don't want anything to hinder our relationship with him So at the slightest conviction at the slightest thing that we realize their sin will deal with it we don't wait for major events major disasters in our life to take an evaluation to Look at our lives and to do a big type of repenting We live in it momentarily moment by moment because the need in your life is more than you understand I guarantee you every single person in this room sins more Well, maybe even junior but it won't be long because the sin nature is in him But the reality is we sin more than we can even imagine every single day Things that God just does not speak to us because we're not able to handle it yet Because he doesn't want to get just to the external things He wants to get wants to get to the motives of the heart the very reason why we do what we do or don't do What we do he wants to get to who we are literally Man named SB Shaw made the statement says no man can rightly value the redemption of Christ who has not seen himself lost And undone and absolutely without hope outside of the cross no Christian will understand the reality of Salvation until they understand the reality of sin and being placing themselves at war with God through their sin That's what separated that sinner woman From the Pharisees the Pharisees thought themselves good that sinner woman knew she was a sinner and she ran Past all the religion to fall at the speed of a Savior to know a Savior and to receive forgiveness from a Savior and only she walked away justified only she was able to look in them eyes that burned with fire and find those eyes of love and mercy the Scribes and Pharisees saw it one day when he cried warned of you scribes Pharisees and hypocrites And he they saw his eyes burned with fire, but not the fire of passion But the fire of wrath because they were enemies of Christ's Pharisees Repentance is a beautiful thing and I just want to take a minute more on this We have this concept that repentance is this ugly thing But in Romans 2 for it says the goodness of God the kindness of God leads us to repentance Not the the cruelty of God God is good I thank God that he did not leave this young punk in in the drug culture and all of his rebellion I thank God that he pursued me when I didn't want anything to do with God. I didn't want him in my life I didn't want him at all. I want nothing to do with him I want to live my rebellion Now I thank God that he convicted me and showed me the reality my sinning called me out of that life stuff Repentance is the love of God revealed It is a God that goes to the Christian or non-christian But let's look at it from a Christian standpoint. He goes to the Christians his child. I want to come closer to you But there's sin in the way that bitterness you have against another individual. It's separating us deal with it That greed that lust that pursuit of pleasure that dominates your life keeps you out of the body of Christ deal with it and Every time he convicts us be it a hundred times in a day every time it is the love of God revealed saying draw closer to me We got to change our attitude about it We've got to come to the point and begin to start to say thank you God that you would convict me Thank you that you would somehow break in my life and show me my sin and not lead me to it Thank You Jesus, you'd love me so much And you know what happens when we begin to understand repentance like that Then we repent And you know what happens when we repent we draw near to God because we're told and in work You know James has drawn near to God. He will draw near to you. I Mean, that's the reality of it. If I draw near to him. He has promised that he'll draw near to me Now let's look at the second point the second law that I want to touch on of of Living sacrifice, it's singleness of mind. I don't hear this even spoken of very much because it's not popular While I was in grad school my One of my professors was getting rid of some of his books And he told me that I could go in there and pick anything I wanted out of his out of this box and the majority of stuff I didn't wasn't even interested in but at the very bottom I found this this book that was a treasure and It was how to promote and conduct a successful revival by re Torrey and it was his first edition came out in 1903 One of the points that he brought out says for those who want to see a move of God One of the things that he says says you must narrow your interests Let's narrow your interests Let me present it to you from an idea of a musician the truth of the matter the majority musicians are very mediocre and The reason why the majority musicians are very mediocre is because they don't practice Those who become phenomenal musicians are musicians that have a purpose. They are driven They are driven. They have a desire and that desire moves them to particular action Mediocrity happens just from lack of desire. Why are we mediocre Christians because we have lack of desire We don't have anything moving us nothing nothing burning in our bones. Nothing compelling us to reach a perishing world. Nothing's exciting us We just go from day in to day out Kind of what we do because that's what we've done because that's all we know and there's nothing moving it so we don't excel in our Christianity because we are not what we're just like the average musician that just goes and knows a few Chords and plays a little bit and I can get by and that's good enough You know Jesus made the statement in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6 22 He says the light of the body is the eye If therefore thine eye be single Thy whole body shall be full of light the idea of singleness of I is that that we have one focus in our life What is my focus? What is the thing that consumes me what happens with the majority of Christians? We have all these things Well, Jesus just one of the many things up there in my life. Well, let's see. It's job I want I want more money and I want a bigger house and and you know, I want I want I want more toys I need more toys because toys make me happy and so I want more toys and and Jesus just one of the Homer Menagerie of gods that I have listed in my life and I have this duplicity of eyes I look at all these things because I think all these things and Jesus just part of it Rather than the aspect that Jesus he will have no other gods before him and you know You get into the Hebrew of the concept word where it tells us that God will have no other gods before him The very concept of it is is pretend. This is a throne room Here's the throne of Christ seated right here and The concept of no other gods of form is that we enter into his throne room and there cannot be little gods anywhere Nowhere before him is there to be any God we have this concept Well, so long as I have Jesus the first God I can have all these other little gods And those little gods are okay, right and he says you'll have no gods before me. None will be in my presence None there is no place for you to sit at the table of God and a little table of a little devil No, devil at all. No little idol. No little God. There is no place and so because we don't have singleness of mind Singleness of what we see with our life We are driven as people to the lust of flesh because you know what happens you look to the new house to make you happy And it'll make you happy for a week or two Maybe a month and then it's an old house and then you want another one and the car, you know, man new car They'll give you some happiness for a little bit until the new cars an old car or that CD, you know You've been wanting that CD for a long time and you get that CD and you listen to it five ten times and you're bored With so you have to have a new one. I mean, it's all this idea It's all temporary everything the world has to give is temporary just for a little fleeting minute And here's this God of eternal pleasure that says in his presence is fullness of joy And that is right hands our pleasures forevermore and we pursue the what what Paul referred to as the dung The manure of this world that cannot satisfy and we keep looking this will make man That'll make me happy and when is it going to happen? Solomon brings out some interesting ideas In Ecclesiastes in essence, we could we can look at it like this When can a man ever have enough sex and be satisfied or when is a millionaire ever happy with a million? He'll want two million. They gets two million one ten million Solomon brings it out. Also. When is the womb ever satisfied is a fire ever satisfied? As long as we pursue the things of this life We'll never be satisfied. We'll keep looking. We'll keep looking and and and then life will get bad enough And we'll we'll kind of run to this little God Jesus That's one of the many and think he'll touch us and everything will be fine But the problem is he knows we're gonna go back to the other gods He knows we're gonna keep going back to these weak and beggarly things. He knows we're gonna cling to him. So He will not be what he desires to be until we come to the point of that surrender The singleness of heart the singleness of mind, excuse me You see the singleness of mind means that we become people consumed with a purpose The Olympics just happened a little bit ago Now, could you imagine people in the Olympics? Preparing for the Olympics the way Christians prepare for eternity There would not be one one not one American would have won not one Because we would with such indifference Pursue it. Well, you know, I'll work out today. It works in my life Well, I do it Sunday morning, but it's not not this Sunday. Maybe next Sunday. I'll work out. I don't know Well, maybe five minutes at the barbells, you know, I'll just do it and and and I'll just I'll walk from here to the car That'll be enough exercise And then we wonder why we don't take our world we wonder why your marriages aren't successful We wonder why the world is not looking at us a what what do you got? What do you got? They're not curious of the church because the church hasn't given them anything to be curious about Ellie Maxwell says such as the conviction of the cross that it takes possession of us It overcomes us and absorbs us and tears us ruthlessly from everything else It becomes our sole object and outside it nothing seems to touch us those who do not understand There are strangers to us those who attack at our enemies and those who love and serve it are true and our only family When we are truly converted when we come to that point to understand the reality of the cross we become people Consumed by the cross we have one focus one thing in our eyes It is the aspect that I want to please this God that is so good. So perfect. So awesome. So magnificent I want to please him. That is the ambition of my life. That is the desire of my life And so I am single with purpose. I am single with desire. You see whatever seizes our heart Becomes the thing that we surrender to Whatever seizes your heart what you that's what you surrender to be it possessions be it Entertainment be it be a pursuit of pleasure be at the pursuit of vacations be at the pursuit of whatever you want to call it Whatever seizes your heart is what you chase after is what? captivates you and you see Jesus I Like this one statement that comes from John Michael Talbot in one of his songs that Jesus died Between two thieves so that he could steal our heart away That's why he died to steal our heart away Consumed with a purpose you see God wants us to be consumed with purpose. I mean, I don't want anybody here to raise your hand But how many in this room are consumed with reaching a lost and perishing world? But you know, that's what Jesus was consumed with That's why he left all of heaven took upon flesh and blood and died on a cross for us That's why he was beaten and mocked and had his beard plucked out of his face That's why he bore stripes on his back. He recklessly radically pursued us at all cost to himself He pursued us and that is what Christianity is because it all calls to myself I am to pursue God and Then I am in my pursuit of God to understand his mission and I am to pursue a perishing world The majority of Christians do not care about a lost and dying world They don't care because they are still consumed with the lust of the flesh the pride of this life They are still consumed with their own one. They are not surrendered in their relationship with Christ Therefore God cannot use them Because it's only through surrender that we become useful not through ability. God does not need your wealth. He doesn't need your wisdom He doesn't need your abilities. He's looking for your surrender John G Lake made a statement. I thought that was really interesting He says we have been satisfied to live in Christ in our babyhood To perpetuate our babyhood and to go on shouting like a lot of babies Instead of entering into the secrets of the heart of Jesus by the grace of God and claiming from heaven The divine flames of God upon our souls. I pastored for over 15 years You know, I've changed a lot of diapers And you know what diapers aren't adults man They're huge things and you know what it is when when I mean with little babies They're the little things but but you know 20 year old or 50 year old or whatever age it is, man And when they make messes, they're they're nasty messes and then they come running to pass to go And there's dying world out there I Mean there's dying world out there and we're consumed with our with our little diapers We don't grow up because we don't want to grow up. And so then you know, it even becomes worse Let me give you a silly illustration man. This is crazy. We have diaper wars I mean, do you know what diaper wars are this is where where the church can have perpetual babies and they get mad at each other and They take the diapers on starts throwing them at each other and then the pastor is coming to clean up the mess And then you know the world comes and they stick their head and they see these diapers go. Whoa What? Yeah, then they look at the church. They see do everywhere man. Just oh man, and they smell it It stinks to the world, you know, I mean have contention and stifling their own homes why would they want to come to church and see diapers flying and and Because we stay in perpetual babies Rather than understanding God has called us to be men and women and you don't men and women do Men women of God they go out and they change the world. They do not leave the world the same But how many Christians how hard it is? I'm being honest here how hard it is for me to see and find a Christian who has any desire to reach the lost How hard it is when was the last time you even told somebody about Jesus Let's make it even more difficult when was the last time you ever led anybody to Jesus Have you ever led anybody to Jesus and imagine one day you'll stand before him and and he'll say what'd you do for me? He says well, I built a home and I had a big bank account and and I sent my kids to to college and That be what it's satisfying he says I came to save humanity what do you do about that? Well, I thought they were all good people The third point is he wants to bring us to a point of singleness of heart Singleness of heart See, I'm not gonna have a single mind unless I have a single heart My mind isn't gonna be stayed upon Christ if my heart is wandering on other things. I'm told in Scripture that wherever my heart is That's where my mouth will be what I let come out of my mouth only comes from the very source of my heart I mean next time you have a fight in the home Realize that what comes out of your mouth has come from your heart from the deep recesses of the ugliness of it That's what that's the reality of it. If we deal with the reality of our hearts, it might begin to change Singleness of heart. I mean we have this beautiful statement that is in Mark 12 verse 30 says love the Lord your God with all of Your heart with all your soul with all your binder with all your strength Martin Luther the founder the Great Reformation of the 1500s made a statement if the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart mind soul and strength Then the greatest sin is not to But do we even think of it like that do we think of it we think well, I'm not I'm not out there doing drugs I'm not out there sleeping around. I'm not out there doing this thing or that thing So I must be pretty good. But the greatest commandment is the love with every fiber my being to have singleness of heart Singleness of heart singleness of love consume he gets so much so emphatic about this He says you must hate everything else in comparison to your love of me You must hate family and friends You must hate possession everything in comparison to your love of me because he will not be shared with another He his name is jealous and the Old Testament one of the names He calls himself is jealous because he's a God that will not share himself with another God But we have a concept in American Christianity that we can share him with all kinds of stuff And and well, he's happy so long as I give him a nice Sunday morning once in a while He wants everything he wants every fiber of your being one day this young man comes up to him and and Rich young ruler and Says to Jesus in so many words is all how do I get to heaven and Emmons and the man lied and says I keep Them all told lie Jesus didn't deal with that lie Because he wanted to deal with the real issue of the man and the young ruler says says what do I still lack in Jesus? Tell everything you have And can follow me He wouldn't sell everything he had it was a surrender issue. It was that he had a double-minded Heart in essence. He was double-minded in his thoughts and double-minded in his desires. He wasn't willing To love God alone He was willing to love God if it worked in his lifestyle If he could keep all of the lusts of the flesh that he wanted, but he wasn't willing to love God and God alone Singleness of heart singleness of heart consumed with a desire Living sacrifice have a passion for holiness the old holiness movement and and you know It's affected a bunch of the Pentecostal movement because the Pentecostal movement had its roots in the holiness Movement, but the holiness movement strayed greatly because it taught holiness, but it taught it incorrectly it taught it apart from relationship It taught do's and don'ts if we went and took all the do's and don'ts of scripture and wrote them on the walls of the of The church all they would become is like these big fat fingers pointing at us saying guilty guilty guilty Because you don't want to know what we break all those rules. We break all those commandments. We break them all The only way that we can be righteous before God and that we can be holy is through relationship only through that You see a man that is in love with God will deal with his sin a woman That's in love with God will want to walk as holy as she can get even the questionable things out the 1904 Welch revival primary evangelist in that revival his name was Evan Roberts and God gave Evan Roberts four laws to govern that revival and I'll just briefly tell you the first two The first one was that the church must do a thorough job of repenting And the second law was that the church must deal with even the questionable things Do I love him enough that I'll deal with the questionable things? So I love him enough that that I'll deal with what I look at on and some of that's not even questionable But I'll deal with what I look at on television or on videos. We make our entertainment that which Jesus Christ died to rescue us from We make he went and told us in Scripture that no fornicator will enter the kingdom of heaven and then we make an entertainment on television He told us that no murderer will make the kingdom of God their home and we make murder our entertainment And we think it no big deal, but you want to know what 20 30 years ago. It would have been intolerable We would have thrown our television sets in the trash if we would have saw that but now because we have slowly compromised We have become numb to immorality. We have been we have ceased to be salt So we're not bothered by it anymore, but sin is still sin No matter what we call it God has not changed nor has his holiness changed But you see holiness comes out of singleness of heart the person That is in love with Jesus will walk different. You know, you cannot do what others do. You cannot do what the world does you cannot? You know, we're coming to a terrible time of the year terrible time of the year And you know what the time of the year is it's summer Why this is so terrible because you have carnal Christians that live their lives away from the church supposedly having fun Supposedly doing that they're just doing their own thing. They're in rebellion It's rebellion. It's just living lives of rebellion I'm in church after church to the summer and passages morning over saying please forgive me I mean usually we have more people like this, but it's nice out and they're all gone to the lake That ain't Christianity That doesn't even look like it doesn't even have a close thing So people run to Islam because Islam isn't full of compromise in the pursuit of pleasure like that Do you hear what I'm saying? We wonder why they don't come in because they see us just as worldly as the world There was this man as he was an atheist and his name was Voltaire of the 1700s. He examined Christianity And when he was done examining Christianity, he made this statement disturbing statement. He says when it comes to money All men have the same God because they saw the Christians or supposed Christians just as greedy as the world He says why would I want to be a Christian? You're all just as greedy. You're all just as self-centered But you know, that's not what Christianity is Not what it is at all Who is this that demands my surrender I'm just gonna give you a couple of verses and while I'm doing this you can turn to the first chapter of Revelation I'm closing in just a couple minutes. So bear with me In Job 38 God confronts Job For his selfishness and as this says then the Lord answered Job out of the storm He said who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man. I will question you and you shall answer me Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation tell me if you understand Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge You can have all the opinions you want about Christianity all that you want and if they're all wrong, what does it matter? And you can have all the opinions and God can do the same thing Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Well, I think I can do I don't agree with that preacher You know, I think he's kind of did this little off. That's kind of fanatical Well, you can think it you want but I guess you have the challenge of saying who's biblical me or you I Mean, that's what it really comes down to be I mean Will Jesus be satisfied when you stand before me say Jesus I gave half my life and I know that was enough I know you were happy with that. I Mean do you think he'll he'll be overjoyed say? Oh boy. Oh boy. You gave me half your life Even though I gave you all of mine We Somehow have taken our own concepts and mingled it in Christianity and think that God will be satisfied because this is our opinions But our opinions do not move the mind of God. He remains the same Hebrews 1229 says for our God is a consuming fire. He's a consuming. Why is he a consuming fire? What does a consuming fire do? It consumes I'm gonna consume very simple. It consumes. What is a consuming fire to do to us? It is consume us because that's what Christianity is all about it is to consume us Not to leave us as we've been not to leave us as even we want to be but it is consume us Who is this God that that demands my surrender? Let's read this in Revelation the 13th verse And I saw someone like the Son of Man Dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest His head and his hair were white like wool as white as snow and his eyes were like blazing fire His feet were like bronze glowing in the furnace and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters in his right hand He held seven stars and out of his mouth came a sharp Double-edged sword his face was like the sun shining in all of its brilliance when I saw him. I fell at his feet as though dead Who is this that calls us to surrender? Who is this that demands a reckless abandonment? It's not a man. It's not a man-made God. It's not a God of our own thoughts and imagination It is the Creator God It is the greatest privilege offered to us. It's not a small thing. It's not a convenient thing He says this is what I demand because this is what the cross speaks of this is what the cross demands of our lives There is no other answer. There is nothing else That is what he calls us to it is the privilege So I want to close with our right response and I'm gonna read this verse to you And then give you a little poem I'm not a poem reader normally, but this poem will if you hear what it says, it's an intense poem. I Just want to read this one Beautiful verse that comes out of Song of Solomon in the third chapter in the first verse. I'll just read it to you This is the cry of of a Christian All night long on my bed. I looked for the one my heart loves. I looked for him, but did not find him I will get up now and go about the city through its streets and squares I will search for the one my heart loves So I looked for him but did not find him the watchman found me as they made their rounds in the city Have you seen the one my heart loves? Scarcely had I passed by them when I found one my heart loves I Held him and would not let him go The one my heart loves Where the focus of my art is is what I will cling to If it is Jesus, I will cling to him with every fiber my being if it's not I will cling to the things of this world The poem I want to give you comes out of a statement of a missionary a Presbyterian missionary that was martyred in China in 1931 as he Was taken prisoner before they killed him. He told his captors in perfect. Peace and in perfect calmness He says kill me if you wish I Will go straight to God And then one of his fellow missionaries Wrote this poem as a result of it Afraid of what? To feel the spirits glad release to pass from pain To perfect peace the strife and strain of life to cease afraid of that Afraid of what? Afraid to see the Savior's face to hear his welcome into trace the glory gleam from wounds of grace afraid of that Afraid of what a flash a crash of pierced art darkness light. Oh heavens art a wound of his a counterpart afraid of that Afraid of what? To do by death what life could not Baptize with blood a stony spot till souls shall blossom from the spot afraid of that Missionary that lays his life down says afraid of that we Americans in our ease and pleasure won't do it