In this sermon, the preacher, Brian, discusses the importance of bringing back the glory of God. He shares that he recently preached a message on worship and got carried away with his passion. He reads a passage from the Book of James, specifically James 5:13, which talks about praying in times of affliction and singing psalms in times of joy. Brian emphasizes that the prophet's prayers in the passage resulted in both drought and rain, highlighting the power of prayer. He also mentions the prevalence of subjectivism in Baptist churches and offers a longer tape on the topic for those interested.

It is my friend, it's certainly a joy and a privilege to be able to come to you this month by way of tape. It's always a unique blessing to come and share my heart with you. And I usually just share my heart with you. I just enjoy doing it. And many of you I can remember real well, you know, by memory, and of course, many of you can't, but it's always a joy to come. And I trust that this tape will mean as much to you as it meant to me, as I was able to share it this particular morning even. I was able to preach at a church and bring this message and not really, I have a title, Bring Back the Glory. It is something of a message that's coming out of my experiences right now about revival. And I don't know that if I say anything new you know, I'm not ever trying to really just say something new, but I try not to repeat old messages. But when you've been going at it as long as I have, you forget a lot of things that you've said in the past. But I trust that there'll be a freshness, liveness, glory on this message. I guess if I had a title for it, I would call it Bring Back the Glory. And so I trust that you'll enjoy it. And while I'm sending this message out, I might just say that last night I was able to bring a message that involved a thought on worship. Now, I'll tell you, I got carried away. And I have a friend with me at this time leading the singing that I have been knowing for over 20 years, and this is what he said. He said, I've never heard you preach like that in all my life. Now, I'm very serious with you, I'm just not trying to sell you a tape. But if you're a serious person about what's going on in the church today, like the issue with Mr. Swaggart and things like that, especially about the subjectivism that's quite prevalent in our Baptist churches, you would probably be interested in hearing this tape. And I would have sent it out on the tape club, intended to, but it's so long. And it would take a great deal of expense to send it out on a tape long enough to the whole tape club. So we're just going to offer it to you by me mentioning it on this introduction because the tape is extremely long. So be sure and order it if you'd like to hear what I had to say about worship. Also pray with us, by the time you get this tape, we possibly will not have made a final decision, but we will be closer to a decision of whether our son John will come and work with us. I realize that a lot of families, you know, that's their heights of their ambition, just get their children to work with them. And I realize that I'm making a statement here that you will have to just simply trust me with. But my ambition, that's not the heights of my ambition for my kids. The height of my ambition for my kids is that they know and do the perfect will of God. And I'd rather have my kids in the heart of some foreign country if that's what God wants than with me. And a lot of people say, boy, it's just so easy to work with your kids. I'll tell you, it's more difficult to work with your children than it is other people because you take liberties that you do not take with other people. And you have responsibilities that you do not have with other people. So I am really not self-centered about this. But God has brought my children along and I'm excited that they can be involved in the ministry. It's a compliment to the grace of God that they even have a heart to walk with God and be with him. Martha and I do not take credit for their lives. We just give it all to Jesus and we thank him. But do pray with us about this because if we allow Jonathan to come on because of taking on the fires of revival and that responsibility, it's gonna be very difficult for us to take on another responsibility as big as another staff person where we have to meet a big payroll. And I don't mean paying him an astronomical salary, but I'm talking about just a reasonable salary. So do pray that God will show us exactly how this is to be done and so on. And I appreciate it so much. It'd be a blessing to me for you to enter into a spirit of intercession on our behalf of that. And I thank you so much for it. Well, I trust this tape will be a real blessing to you that God use it for his glory. And I'll see you again next month, if not before. May God bless you. And I wanna read a passage that we're all familiar with. And I, again, I'm not wanting to address the passage in the sense of its literal interpretation as much as I am wanting to use it as a basis that will suggest some proof to us that is so applicable for us in this day. The 5th chapter of the 13th verse. Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing songs. Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick. And the Lord shall raise him up. And if he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Alas, was a man subject to like passion as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again and the heavens gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruit. Now you folks that's really familiar with the word of God will understand what I'm about to say because it is the very heart of this message. It says here, the prophet prayed and God gave rain. The prophet prayed and God shut up heaven. And at a glance of this passage, it seems like that the prophet decided that the way to solve the problem was to get God to send a drought. So he prayed and God stopped heaven. And then after a while, he prayed again and God opened up heaven. Some people have the idea that you can just, at your whim, or something more than a whim, just your idea that becomes a idea that's consistently, you can talk God into doing something. Now people get that idea, but if you're familiar with this word of God, you'll realize that this prophet prayed and it was according to the word of God. So it is obvious from this passage and in its context of the whole story in the Old Testament that he was praying a prayer that God had initiated. God had initiated it. And he was simply cooperating with God, not in what he alone wanted, but what God wanted. And so it was getting done. And this passage needs to be looked at in that level because understanding the prayer of faith stems out of understanding that. Now he repeats that statement where he says, the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man, and that word effectual is used again when Paul said, pray that there may be an effectual door opening me. And you know what that means? That means a God-initiated door. And so when he says effectual prayer, he is talking about a God-initiated prayer. And that really defines part of them, brings some understanding to this idea of the prayer of faith, because we're talking this morning about the prayer of faith. Now he says, if someone's sick among you, bring him to the elders, anoint him with oil, and pray the prayer of faith. So obviously there can be some praying that is not in faith. But you can't pray for a person unless there is the faith to pray for a person, which simply brings it back to the fact, you do not dictate to God when to heal and not to heal. You simply cooperate with God when to heal and not to heal. Now, the prayer of faith then is a prayer that is initiated by God. It is a prayer that is sustained by God. It is a prayer that positionalizes man. In other words, man has the faith, and man has to pray in that faith, so it positionalizes it. And the prayer of faith then releases God and makes it possible for God to work. Anyone will tell you that real prayer does not change God. It simply makes it possible for him to do what he has already planned to do. And prayer doesn't, the prayer of faith doesn't. Now, we're going to talk about the prayer of faith. Now, the prayer of faith can be defined very simply. It means praying in faith. Now, I'm going to put it in a way you can't misunderstand it. It's going to upset some of you. The prayer of faith is praying in such a way that you have the answer for which you pray in your hand or in your heart. And when you walk away, you can say, it's done. Yes, sir, it's done. And you have not prayed the prayer of faith until you have come to full assurance in your heart that it's answered, or God has literally so answered it that you can see it with your eyes and you know it's done. Now, you put it in that light, and most people very seldom ever pray the prayer of faith. But that's what the prayer of faith is. And you know why we are not having revival tonight? It's because no one is praying. You don't have the faith. But Jesus said, according to thy faith, so be it. You know what that means? It means I am at work according to your faith. Your faith is never the basis of your experience. Your experience is the evidence of your faith. I believe God can do this. I believe God can do that. Is he doing it? Well, no. Well, you don't have faith. You have a belief that he can do something, but you don't have faith, because when you have faith, he is either doing it, and there's two ways he answers. He answers with such full assurance in your heart that you settle as good as if he's done it. Or you have the answer in your hand of where you sit. Now, I want to talk to you about the one need today more than any other need. I don't think you would have to stretch your imagination to realize that the church and the world, either way you want to look at it, is sick. I don't know how many people realize how sick we are, but only sick folks can really identify themselves, and they have to admit it. And the first thing to be in health any time you're sick is realizing you're sick. And our big problem is we do not realize we're sick. Really, we aren't real sure we're sick. Larry Lewis, the head of the whole mission board, said to me in Dallas, Texas about two months ago, three months ago, maybe now, he said, Brother Manley, we as Baptists are bankrupt. I got so excited, he almost had to catch me. He noticed I was so excited, he said, what in the world did I say? I said, you're the only man I've ever heard in 30-something years as a preacher that has had any idea and said what the problem is and admitted it, that I've heard. I said, do you really believe that? He said, I don't believe it, I know we're bankrupt. You see, folks, you've got to face the truth and know it's when you're sick and admit it. Now, the world, the church is sick today. And she needs an anointing. And it's called the glory of God on earth. And she can't help herself. And the world can't help itself. So there's a few people that obviously still have access to God, and God has access too. And we've got to find those few people, the elders, figuratively speaking. And we've got to find them. But then, my dear friends, they have got to pray the prayer of faith. It's not enough for them to see the case and diagnose the case and try to apply the oil. No, they have got to do more than that. They have got to pray the prayer of faith. They have got to pray the prayer of faith. They have got to get to the place and pray that prayer. In other words, pray until they come to that place. They have full assurance of faith in their heart, or they literally see the answer in their hand. They've got to come to that place. And we've got to have these people to get involved. We've got to have them. This past year, in June at the Southern Baptist Convention, I brought a message for about 19 minutes, I guess. And God answered my prayer. Very few people know the cost of those minutes to me. Very few people. Jerry can probably tell you, he might tell you for the week's out. Some of the cost of that day. Folks, you can have the glory, but you have to pay a price. Paul talked about fasting. The greatest price that fasting, the contribution that fasting makes to faith, and this is not a contradiction of what he said, it's a compliment and it's a support word, is, my dear friends, you renounce, let die, even that body, to become subject to the Spirit. See, we're bodies, soul, and spirit, and most of the time we're walking on the level of letting the soul dictate to the spirit, and the body even dictates to the spirit. And people are constantly asking me in my health condition, how do you feel? It doesn't make any difference how I feel. My body does not dictate to my spirit. This person Smith said one day, someone asked her, how do you feel? She said, I don't know, I hadn't felt it myself. And I realized that is sort of a cliche type thing, you know, and it's sort of funny, but there's an issue here, folks. And that fasting, see, denounce that part and allows the spirit to be whitened and enlarged. And that's a great part. You enlarge the soul by most of the music you hear. Build your soul, the black people even call it soul music. Enlargement of the soul. Not the spirit, but the soul. Well, we gotta have people. Well, I come in out of that experience, lost my kidneys, I'm on dialysis. I went to a little church in Honeywood Pass, South Carolina. Went out there to preach. And God began to stir my heart with faith, the vision and the burden of faith, because all my life I knew the only answer for sick world, sick church, is revival. It's the only answer, folk, it's the only answer. There's no other answer. It's not soul winning. I guarantee you it's not soul winning. It's revival. Every time God made a correction or made an advancement in the Old Testament and New Testament, there had to be an experience of revival. Every time, brother, you can't show me one time in the Bible that it wasn't so. That's right. It was always through that method. Even in the New Testament, it was that way. Even in Acts 2, the thrust of the Holy Spirit, and that was when he came. But even that crowd, a few chapters later, said, Lord, we've got to have more. Right? So, I mean, God's always used this. May a revival. Some fella gets up and says, you preachers don't need to have revival. How stupid can you be? Amen. Build your church through this and that and the other. Quit having holy ghost revival. I'll tell you what you do when you quit. You quit setting up an opportunity for a supernatural environment that's conducive for God to get right, people to get right with God, and people to have souls saved. That's the reason you're getting so many people in these churches that won't last. Because they've been birthed without the new birth. You say, well, Adrian Rogers doesn't have revival. You go ask him. He'll tell you he's sinning against God. He just doesn't know how to handle it. Amen. These boys, I'm not sure what all these boys are getting without revival anyway. A bunch of liquor drinking, cigarette sucking, God robbing, big shot members. I can live like the devil. One deacon in one Baptist church in Atlanta, Georgia owns eight hotels. I stayed in one of them one night. $560 a night. More liquor in that room than I can haul out in the wash tub needs a deacon in the Baptist church. I'm not sure we want anything you're getting anyway without revival. Well, I mean, this thing's sick, folks. And we need revival. We need revival that will do one thing. And that's bring back the glory. Bring back the glory. Bring back the glory. I was out there in that little church. And I've had a kidney problem for 17 years. Blood pressure, unbelievable type of blood pressure medication I have been on through these years. And I was out there. When they went on dialysis, they said, well, you know, you still need blood pressure medication because your blood pressure is caused from damaged kidneys, that's one thing. But you have a high renin output. And that's the other reason why you have blood pressure. You'll still have to have blood pressure medication because of that renin output. And if you understand stuff like that, a little bit, you can see exactly right. And I got out there in that meeting, folks. God, God began to give me a new vision. I have an old vision I had. Vision to stir my heart and burn me for revival. I pulled out one of those old messages. Just one of them. Out there in a country church, Lord, 20 miles out there. Little old country church. They had plenty of money. Don't owe no money. Our bills, got a big church plant. Four or five miles down the road, has another plant just for ball play. Got a building, big as your building out there, just to put their equipment in for playing ball. Little country church. Yeah, got it all. Didn't have the glory. I mean, they didn't have a recreation building right there by the church. That's the biggest thing you got out here. You still have that thing off out there, seven miles away. Ten up, just play ball. Yeah, that's right. Got a whole bunch. There's something. I preached that one little message. Home drifting. Lord, son of the Lord showed up. They started breaking and falling and squalling. My son, 23 years old, he was there and got caught up in the glory. 55 year old preacher's daughter came down the aisle. Said, oh God, I'm lost. He's the only one to lead her to Jesus. And I mean, he told me after, he said, I've never led an adult woman to Jesus before, but it's easy when the glory's around. But, boy, the glory hit that place. And my dear friends, after that glory, just that one night, the next night, I went to the pulpit and had to hold on. And I couldn't preach and I just went to the floor. And they took me to a room and I said, check my blood pressure. And my blood pressure was about 110 over 60. And I said, call my doctor. She's in England. So I called Jack. Right. A friend, he's been with me through the years. Their friend. He said, Manly, he said, you know much about yourself as I do. He said, I don't know what to tell you. So I called my druggist. He said, Manly, you know more about yourself than anybody. He said, I don't know what to tell you. I said, well, tell me. I'm taking this medication, this medication, this medication. He said, well, you might, let's try this. Call Dr. Rice. See what he thinks. So I got Dr. Rice. They said, okay, let's do this. So I had to start off a medication. And when it ended up, I wasn't on any. And I said, Lord, what's going on? He said, son, there's peace and assurance. Because you got back to faith in what I call you. And he said, I said, Lord, I know you're doing it. Folk, you may not believe it, but he is sending the glory. He is sending the glory. You say, Brother Manly, I can't see. You get on that altar right. You'll see that realm, folk, the glory. Yes, sir, the realm is there, the glory. Yes, sir, yes, sirree, folk. I'm still not on any. I'm taking one pill that affects it some way, it's for cardio, but that's really a heart medication for circulation. You're even on that pill, aren't you, Brother? But I'm not taking far as blood pressure medication. I'm not taking it. They can't understand it. They can't understand it. They don't know it. Even Jack, great Christian, he is. He said just, I don't know. I told him, I said, I know. I said, boy, there's peace. Sweet peace. Wonderful peace. Boy, yes, sir. Held by the acre, the peace. Wonderful peace. Full assurance, folk. And I'll tell you what, I don't only have the assurance in my heart, but I'm seeing some things in my hands. God's doing it. I mean, man, this paper, he raised up this paper. You can't believe. You know, we sent this to 61,000 people. It cost $7,000. Unbelievable. What God is doing. He said, son, I'm doing it. I'm doing it. I'm doing it. He said, brother man, I don't understand what you're trying to say to us. I'll tell you what I'm saying to you. Back over in the book of Exodus, Moses had been up on the mountain in the presence of God. And my dear friends, when they started down, obviously Joshua had gone part of the way up, but somehow they had gotten back together. And Joshua said, hey, I can hear some noise. And in essence, the whole story is it doesn't sound good. And I mean, God had already told Moses that bunch of stiff-necked people. And he had taught God out of just flat wiping them out. And then he got down there and they was worshiping that gold and cash. And then Moses got mad. And he dropped those stones of war and broke them all to pieces. He got mad. And I'm gonna tell you something, folks. What had happened, they had sinned. They were sick. And the glory had departed. Now watch it. Brother Moses had, you know, been given a tabernacle. And that tabernacle had been a symbol of the living Christ. And that glory was over that group of people. In fact, it was a cloud by day and a fire by night. And that glory was there. But folks, they had sinned and it had departed. And so that symbol of Christ, that tabernacle, the center of worship, the center of a meeting place of people with God. You know what Moses did? He tore the tabernacle down. He tore it down. He tore it down. And he drug it out inside the camp and put it up. Folks, he went in. He went in. And when he did, the glory had stood at the door. And in there, my dear friends, through the process, he had said, God, you blot my name out, I forgive you. In the process of this whole process, he became an intercessor. He said, you blot me out, I forgive you. And it finally got to the place, God said, I'll go with you. He said, no, no, that's not gonna do. He first said, I'll send an angel before you. He said, that's not gonna do. Then he said, I'll go with you. Moses said, oh no, that is even not gonna do. I gotta see you. I mean, I have got, he said, I've got, you've got to fix it so we can't be separated. He said, I gotta see you. And then God said, well, Moses, I can't really let you see me face to face. But I said, I'll tell you what I will do. See, he wouldn't give up. He said, I'll tell you what I will do. I'll put you in a cliff. I'll sort of put my hand over you and let you just see the shadow of my glory. It was so wonderful. It was so unbelievable that they couldn't stand to see his face. They couldn't stand to see his face. They couldn't stand to look up on him, for the glory on his life. Listen, beloved, a country of churches is filled. Those that still have contact with God, those who still have access to God, those who God has access to, beloved, must go in and pay the price and say, God, forgive us. And stay with God, not only till he has forgiven and made correction, not only till he says, I'll send some angels before you, but just stay on till he says, I'll go before you. Stay on. I mean, stay on, folks, until the glory comes. Stay till the glory comes. And in such a way that when you walk out of that hilltop, I've worshiped my friend, regardless of who it is, where you are, they can't stand to look on your face because there's the glory. You say, what if they don't get it? Then it's their problem. But you'll have full assurance that, my dear friend, it is happening. You'll have the faith. You'll have the faith. And when you have that faith, I'll guarantee you, you will be able to see the glory. Yes, sir. That's what we need this morning. We need men that are boys to become men. We need to grow up. We need to get down to business. Your love for Jesus has never been determined by you singing to him, I love you. It has always been determined by us. Your obedience to him. Love is not emotion. Love is expressed by obedience. Never, never, never do you find love apart from action. And we say we love it. We say we love them. The depth of our love is identified by the deep. Grief of our commitment to God and man. You might say, Brother Manley, you are here because you're a big preacher. They tell me I am. I don't know nothing about that. My son goes to school with a girl. And he had this movie star girl that's supposed to be saved up there. And he ran the deal and had her up and put it on, did the public relations work on it. She, when she was up there, she introduced John to this young lady that's in the same university he's in. He didn't know her. But he knew she was some big whale daughter because of the situation. And they met and had a little fellowship. And she asked John, who are you? So to speak, she didn't answer him. He said, well, I'm John Deacon. And she said, where he lived, do you? She said, well, I saw you play football. And she knew a little bit about him. And he said, my dad and mother lived near this. Her dad lived there on Spire Bank. And I don't know him. And so that night, the little girl, after the date with John, she called her mama. She called her mama and said, mother, I dated a boy tonight named John Deacon. Said, his dad used to live down there somewhere. Her dad's a Muslim, I never heard of him. So she got on the phone. She obviously was interested in about who her daughter was dating. So she called her pastor. And the little pastor out there somewhere, I don't know who he is. And she asked him, said, who is a man like you? He said to her, he said, well, he's one of the biggest. He said, he preached at the Southern Baptist Convention. He's a big man. She called her daughter back. She said, honey, that boy's a big preacher. John called me, he said, dad, did you know you're a big preacher? I said, no, son, I didn't know it. Well, you are. But listen, in 1971, they would have gladly retired me. But I said, oh, I can't go out there and sit on a porch somewhere. Rest of my life, I can't do that. Oh, I could have done it financially, I could have done it. I could have called 10 businessmen, they'd have paid me the rest of my life just to sit on a porch. Amen. I mean, seriously, I mean, Paul knows that. But I couldn't do it. I had to be propped up. Jerry wasn't lying when he said, I was propped up to preach. You say, preacher, why would you do something like that? It wasn't for the money. It was for the money, it's called L-O-V-E, for him. I'd rather just please him. Has nothing to do with feeling, brother Jerry. This last June, when at the convention, they took me to the university hospital in St. Louis, pumped 10 and a half pounds of blood on my body. They thought my heart was affected, it's okay. Get me on down to Dallas, put me on dialysis, and they said, you can retire. They said, take 21 days, learn how to do this. Some people can learn in 14. I said, well, give me five. Five days, my wife and I walked, took a test, walked out of there, made it, missed two points. Went Friday, Saturday morning, caught a plane to Canada. They said, boy, you're going up there, that means you need a doctor to take care of you. They didn't know if God had the doctor that invented this dialysis as my doctor. I couldn't believe it, went up there and preached, whole week. Folks, there's never a day that I'm not in pain. Look at those knots, they're all over my body. Well, let me tell you something, why don't you require, written five books, every one of them bestsellers, why don't you retire? It's called L-O-V-E, I'm gonna pay the price. Amen. I have seen the glory. And he said, I've got all grace, all ways, all sufficiency, under every good work, and I intend to finish that course. I don't know if you want to get in on it or not, but I plan to. Stay in it. Amen. God bless you.