This sermon reflects on a personal journey of faith, highlighting struggles with doubt, unanswered prayers, and the desire for revival. It emphasizes the need for genuine spiritual transformation and the challenges faced in living out one's faith in a changing world. The speaker shares experiences of encountering skepticism, the importance of standing firm in faith despite opposition, and the impact of God's love and judgment in personal and communal life.

I did everything in His call to follow Jesus. But after 12 years, I was at the end, because what the Bible says and promises wasn't true in my life. I couldn't do the things Jesus did. I couldn't forget about greater things. I prayed for so many things, but the prayers would go unanswered. I prayed for revival. Since I got converted, I read every book on revival. And I said, that's what I want. I read of revivals in America through Charles Finney. They closed all the bars, drinking bars. They closed all the cinemas. But today we needn't go to the cinema anymore. Because we've got television. The cinema is in our house. We needn't go to a cinema. When I was young, we had to go to the cinemas. I remember a wife, a widow, her son, only son, wanted to go to the cinema. And she says, my boy, that's not a place for Christians. She says, oh mother, it's so nice there. You see so many things. Even boys that fall in love with girls and girls with boys. How people get divorced, how they kill each other. And he said, mama, come along with me, then you will see as well how nice it is. And so they went into the cinema. He sat next to his mother. And she folded her hands and prayed. And he bumped her. He said, in the Dutch language, My boy, a person doesn't pray in this place. Then she said, my son, if I can't pray here, then I don't want to be here. My eldest son, not son, brother, is 88 years old. Eight years older than what I am. And I told them yesterday that at our home, my father had a big, huge building, a dance floor. And one day my brother was dancing at a certain place. He was a musician. And my second brother as well. They made music for the dancers. They are musicians. And one night, he told his wife, Let's dance a bit. We are Christians. We will testify of the Lord in the dance party. So when they stopped for the first time, they started to speak about Jesus and other people. And they said, if you are Christians, what are you doing here? You see that the world sometimes sees things clearer and better than Christians. We Christians, we say, is this a sin or isn't it? But the heathen, they say, just look at him. He says you are Christian, but have a look at what he does. The revival in South Africa started out of the Word of God. The judge, in that little, we don't live in the cities. We live in the countryside. And a judge came to me. He says, why don't you come to my area? He says, why don't you want to come to my area? There are many criminals there. Many people using drugs. And smoking drugs. I'm inviting you. I said, thank you very much for the invitation. And I prayed and I said, should I go there? And then I read in Romans 1 verse 15. You could just read it. Romans 1 verse 15. I am prepared to come to you. Because I'm a debtor to God. To preach the gospel. That was in Rome. But I was in Mapumulo. And then I said, God has spoken to me. And I went there. And I preached. The judge and the assistant judge were very, very kind to us. But then he was transferred to another place. And a new judge came. And a new assistant came. And the assistant judge was an atheist. He didn't believe God. I can't understand that some people can't believe in God. I can't understand how a person can be so foolish. And believe in evolution. If I tell you that this pulpit. Just grew like a mushroom. It wasn't made. It wasn't created. You'll say I'm mad. And if we look at the stars. The sun, the moon. And say they weren't created. We must say. We are not right in our head. I in South Africa enjoy it very much when I get visitors. Especially the clever people. Then I like to speak to them. When they believe in evolution. Remember. The person who started with evolution. When he died. I don't believe it myself. It was just a theory. Just thoughts. I gave it to the people. And they swallowed the book like a cigarette. And that's true. We on one mission station plan dates. Yes, you know dates. You eat them, they nice. What are the dates in your language? And if the clever people come to us. The evolutionists. I say just look to this date tree. It is still small. But it will grow 15 feet high. And you've got male and you've got female dates. For every 18 dates you have got to have one male. Then I say oh, it's so difficult to get a date tree 15 meters high. So difficult to climb the date tree. But I've got a clever idea. I know what I'll do. I'll invite the evolutionists. Because they come from the monkeys. And I'll get them to climb up the tree. And they'll get the date tree. They don't even smile. They just look to each other through the corner of the eye. So I enjoy it when I speak to atheists. People who don't believe in it. Especially when they say they don't believe the Bible. But I'm sorry I can't carry on with it and speak about it. We'll have to sit here for hours. And it's close to 8 o'clock already. If we look to television. If we go to a party. If we go to parties. We can stay there for hours. But when we are in a church service. We just look at the time and say, when do we stop? I'm tired already. Now friends. When our God. And his assistant. We got two bad people. Both of them were against the gospel. And they stopped us having services. So when they stopped us. We got together in our houses and shut the door. So they wouldn't hear our singing. So they wouldn't hear our preaching. We can say, how can revival carry on without meetings? But for four years we had to go underground. And God was with us. It didn't take long then the assistant magistrate was transferred to Pretoria. He had one, only one son. And when he got to Pretoria. A strange dog came. And he bit his son. So that he died. A dog. And the people said, that's God. We must fear God. So he lost his only son. A strange dog came and bit him. So badly that he died. And the judge. His wife was expecting a child. And when she got the child. The child couldn't live. And it couldn't die. And the people said, you see. Don't go against God. We've got to fear Him. If we don't, His wrath will come against us. So we experienced the great love of God. On the one hand. And the holiness. The judgment of God. On the other hand. Some Christians, they just speak about love. But they forget. There's another side to it. The righteousness of God. And when the great evangelist of the Old Testament. I saw according to the temple. And saw the Seraphs. With six wings. Two covering their head. Two covering their feet. With two flies. And they sang, holy, holy, holy. They didn't say love, love, love. The love story can be very dangerous. Some people say, even if they sin. God is the God of love. I praise God. He doesn't just love us. He is love. But at the same time, He is holy. A holy God. So, I said 12 years I prayed. After 12 years, I already prayed. And I said, I'll stop preaching. I'm an unhappy man. A poor missionary. My brothers making money, enjoying life. I'd rather stop. But then I said, I'll try once again. I preached to many people. Hundreds accepted the Lord Jesus Christ. So many made decisions for Christ. That they couldn't come to the cross. They couldn't come to the front. They all stood up. Soon it was full. The pews were full. And they had to stand where they were. And we prayed that God would save them. But after three months, or six months, they'd be back into the world. Back into the old life. The young men were looking at pornography. They would read books and pamphlets. And girls that were immoral. They didn't dress the way they should dress. They'd hide these books so that the parents wouldn't see them. Because the parents wouldn't allow it. So they would hide the things. One day my own brother, who was older than me, went to his wardrobe. And I looked under his shirt. And there were many pictures of girls that were immoral. Girls that showed their legs. That were tempting to the men. But he said he's a Christian. When I started preaching to the heathen, they said, don't come to us. Go and preach to the Christians. We are working for them. They get angry. Irritated. Go and preach to them. They fight with us. It's difficult as a white man if you go to these black heathen. They say, why don't you preach to your own people? Preach to the Europeans. Don't preach to us. Because they are even sinning with us. That makes it very difficult. So in 1966, when I got to Mapumulo, I'm making a long story short. I said, there weren't many people. Maybe a quarter of what we are today. I said, there's one word in the Bible that doesn't give me peace. At that time, I didn't believe that the whole Bible was the inspired word of God. I said, some things are true and some things aren't true anymore. Some things were for the people thousands of years ago, but not for us today. They even said, a woman should be in subjection to her husband. That can't be. Because maybe the wife is more intelligent.