Michael L. Brown emphasizes the necessity of seeking the Lord with urgency and determination, drawing from Psalm 34 to illustrate that those who earnestly pursue God will find Him and lack nothing. He reflects on the importance of a deep, personal relationship with God, urging the congregation to break free from complacency and to cultivate a hunger for spiritual breakthroughs. Brown shares personal anecdotes and scriptural references to highlight that true revival and transformation come from a sincere desire to seek God until we experience His presence and power in our lives. He encourages listeners to make a commitment to pursue God wholeheartedly, as this is essential for both individual and corporate revival.

You're listening to the podcast from Grace World Outreach Church. Praise God. Thank you so much. Well, it is a joy to be with you. We've followed Daniel's ministry with interest for many years now. Of course, he worked closely with my dear friend, Steve Hill. So when we got the invitation to come, I actually didn't pray about it. I said, of course, in a heartbeat. So glad to be with you and another grad, Mindy, and family. Great to be with all of you. And above all, great to be in the presence of God. Amen. Just nice to enjoy His presence and worship and step back and see what God is doing. So many times over the years, as I would travel out, I would do series of meetings. And that shifted over time. Many, many churches got away from doing that. And then you'd be coming in just for one service. So when you're here for one service, I'm not here just to preach a message or give you like the hot sermon. So I'm just pacing my hotel room last night saying, okay, God, I'm here one time, one service. And I want to make a deposit by God's grace that will have a lasting impact. You know, during the revival, it was thrilling to see what God was doing in the moment. It was overwhelming. It was intense. The crowds, the hunger, the weeping at the altar, the people being set free, the joy in His presence. It's extraordinary to see. But all we burned for and longed for was lasting fruit. That was our whole issue. Five years from now, 10 years from now, what's the fruit going to be? And I would tell people week in, week out. It doesn't matter if you fall or shake. The question is, how do you walk out of here? And how are you living a year from now? So the same way being here with you this morning, I'm really asking God to help me to bring a message that will make a lasting impact, something you can take with you in the days and months and years ahead. Amen? One thing really quickly before we open the scriptures, you were told to turn watches and phones off. I'm not going to be preaching for hours and hours. I have a plane to catch. My plane is at 9 this evening, so we have a limited time. No, I'm kidding. Just joking. But grab your phones. Just do this one thing real quick, okay? And if you're online, just grab your phones, and I'll tell you why afterwards. But go to our website, askdrbrown.org, A-S-K-D-R-B-R-O-W-N.org, askdrbrown.org. And then put your phones down, pick them up later, do whatever you do. All right, askdrbrown.org. As soon as you have a minute, sign up to get our emails. We immediately will start to pour into you, send you a free mini book, Seven Secrets of the Real Messiah. Just a fascinating read. Share more about my own testimony from LSD to PhD. And then let you know all the free resources we have online. I mean, thousands of hours. You know, if your kid comes out, you know, 14-year-old mom, I think I'm gay. Or you say, okay, what do I do? A co-worker is transitioning and wants to be known as a certain thing. Or I got a Jewish friend. I don't know how to share the gospel. I'm struggling in my own walk. We've got thousands of hours of free resources. Check them out. And then also, how long does this last for, Dylan? Today, tomorrow? Okay. Between today and tomorrow, if you go to the website and want to order any of our materials, just put in this code, G-W-O, as in Grace World Outreach, 15, and you get 15% off of anything in the bookstore. So I've written over 40 books, and we've got all kinds of DVD series and other things. So rather than send materials here, anything you want to get today or tomorrow, just go there and use that code, G-W-O, 15. All right? Everybody got it? Good. Let's pray. Father, I ask you to give us ears to hear what the Spirit is saying. I ask you to give us a heart to respond, to speak something to us, to give us spiritual focus today to touch us in such a way that by your grace we can go and touch this generation. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Psalm 34, Psalm 34, the message title, Seek the Lord. Psalm 34, Seek the Lord. This is a Psalm of David when he pretended to be insane before Abimelech who drove him away and he left. I will extol the Lord at all times. His praise will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in the Lord. Let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he answered me. He delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant. Their faces are never covered with shame. This poor man called and the Lord heard him. He saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and he delivers them. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Fear the Lord, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. We'll stop there. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. As I prayed last night, I said, Lord, I do not want to bring a message as to what people want to hear, what the pastor wants to hear. I want to share your heart. Is there a message for the church? This was stirring on me before I heard Pastor Daniel talk about harvest, but I heard the Spirit say to me, and I know it's not just for here, I know something's happening around America, but it's also very specifically for here. I heard clearly prepare for harvest, prepare for harvest. There is a mindset when you are preparing for an influx of souls. There is a mindset, there is an attitude when you are hungry and thirsting for God to move. And I want to help bring you to the tip of the spear, the tip of the arrow, the central thing that must happen if we are to see the breakthroughs that we desire to see. There must be a seeking of God on a deeper level, personally and corporately. There must be a determination to go after Him for breakthroughs as if there was no tomorrow. To the degree of our hunger, to the degree of our thirst, to the degree of our desperation, to that degree will God move and will God meet us. You know, there are promises in Scripture to the Jewish people scattered around the world. Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 29, if from there you will seek the Lord, if from there, he says, you will seek me, you will find me when you search for me with all your heart and soul. Deuteronomy 4 verse 29, the same thing spoken to exiles in Babylon, Jewish exiles in Babylon in Jeremiah 29 verse 13, you'll seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. Same thing repeated in the New Testament, in Hebrews the 11th chapter, that without faith, it's impossible to please God because the one who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him, a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. We can talk about it, we can sing about it, but to actually do it, to go after God with heart and soul is something that we rarely do. To really seek Him as if our life depended on it, to earnestly pursue God, to have a determination in our heart that we know that there are certain breakthroughs that we must experience, there are things we must see God do in our midst, and we get to that point where it's not optional, we get to that point where it's not a nice little add-in, we get to that point where it's either God moves and God meets us or it's over, that's when we have the breakthroughs. You know, in the midst of our American society, before COVID, before some of the tough times we've been through, it was pretty easy to be a casual Christian in America. I mean, we have a little opposition to our faith here and there, but in terms of compared to the rest of the world, we have a ton of freedom. Yes, we have problems and issues, everybody does in life, but we're not in the midst of a war where houses and neighborhoods are being bombed, we're not on the street begging bread, most of us that, you know, we have a living, we have a roof over our house, over our homes. There's often not desperation because we're kind of in a complacent setting, and hey, we had a good church service, praise the Lord, and hey, my kids are reading the Bible daily, praise the Lord, and hey, I got a raise in my job, praise the Lord. Well, yes, praise God for all those things, but there is more. God's heart is always beating for a dying world, God's heart is always beating for a backslidden church, and the closer we get to God, the more our heart is joined with His heart. And in the years before revival, I knew there was more. I was convinced there was more based on what was written in Scripture. Surely, if God's witness here was true, surely if the promises were true, then there must be more to our experience, must be more to our encounter with God, must be more to the demonstration of His spirit and power. And then reading church history and reading about revival, I was convinced there must be more. And then being in and outpouring myself some years before Brownsville in 82-83, where God got hold of me dramatically and dramatically touched the church where I was serving as an elder, I knew there was more. And then as I traveled to different nations and saw what God was doing and the depth of the outpouring and the hunger of the believers and the dedication of the believers and their willingness to die for Jesus, I knew there was more. And everything that I believed, everything that I held to was confirmed in those years in Brownsville. I saw the more, I saw so much of that demonstration, I saw the reality that if we would go after Him heart and soul, He would come. That if we would preach Jesus without compromising and reach out to a dying world and let the Holy Spirit move, that people would come. We didn't need the hype, we didn't need the celebrities. I mean, people in the revival, sure, we got to be known, but it's not like God used all these superstars to start it. That revival confirmed to me that there is more, and ever since I've known, there must be more. I've experienced it, but I haven't experienced all of it. Because as I meet with God and I read the Word, I'm convinced that there's something deeper God wants to bring us into. And friends, I'm not just talking corporately, I'm talking individually. Young people, individually. How deep is your encounter with God? Older generation, how present is your encounter with God? You know, it's interesting, I started doing a show for a new TV network called Awakening, A-W-K-N-G. It's brand new and news will be getting out a lot more in the months ahead. But I'm doing a show for them called That's Debatable, and we filmed eight debates in a couple of days, debated a Muslim, gay pastor, transgender pastor, former charismatic agnostic, former evangelical, now hostile atheist. And I asked both of those former believers a question. I asked them when they did say that they were believers in following Jesus, and in their mind they were completely given over to the Lord and solid believers. And I said, did you have an experience, something between you and God, an answer to prayer, something that was so miraculous that looking back at it, it's hard to explain now. If I asked most believers that question, if you've really been walking with the Lord, of course, the way he led you, the way he spoke to you, the way he saved you, the way he did things in your life. And some of us could give hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of examples. But I asked those two men, and then another man, a very sincere man, a professor, a scholar that lost his faith over his studies. I asked him the same question. And all three, the same answer. They all said no. In their days when they were believers, that there was nothing that happened that was so supernatural, such a clear answer, such a clear demonstration of God's power, that it's difficult to explain now. And I'm thinking, that could be three-quarters of the problem right there. Leonard Ravenel used to say, a man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument. Our experience in God needs to go deeper. And I don't take this as a rebuke, but an invitation. I take it as God saying, there's more I want to reveal of myself. You know, especially the generation growing up today, they're bombarded like no generation in history. There's more pressure on them. There's more temptation. There are more challenges. And then the church has not been at its best in so many ways. We've had so many scandals, and so many things have gone wrong. And so many young people have dropped out. But I believe that there's a sincerity, and a hunger, and a thirst. If they could really encounter God, they'll be as on fire as anybody. Seek the Lord. You think of Jacob. And Jacob was one of those guys that's like a lot of us. He had faith, and he had the arm of the flesh. He believed, and if God wasn't going to come through, he'd work it out. He'd make it happen. And of course, he got into big trouble because of his lying, because of his deception. But here he is. He has not seen his brother Esau in years. He defrauded him out of his birthright. The last that he heard his brother Esau say was, when our father dies, when Isaac dies, I'm going to kill my brother Jacob. Now he has to pass through Esau's territory. He's got his wives with him. He's got all of his sons with him. It's a massive group of people coming back, all kinds of flocks, herds. And he's got to go through Esau's territory. And he gets a message, Esau is coming to meet you with 400 men. And what's he thinking? This is it. It could be over. So he hatches a plan. Okay, we'll send them with the older children and the younger children down to the very youngest, first with gifts and all kinds of livestock, just to pacify him. But he must have known somehow that's not going to be enough. He must have thought, okay, I've always hatched a plan. I've always pulled a rabbit out of the hat. I've always figured something out, but not this time. And what does he do? He's alone. He's alone. And he wrestles with a man through the night. Obviously the angel of the Lord or Jesus himself incarnate. And you know the story. This man says to him, it's almost dawn, let me go. Your light's coming. And what does Jacob say? I won't let you go until you bless me. See, it wasn't an option. There was no choice. In Jacob's mind, either he was helped by heaven or his family was going to die. It was God or else. It was a miracle or else. He said, I won't let you go until you bless me because he couldn't let go. You know, the question has been asked for generations. Why is it that we don't see more revival? And the answer is always the same. It's because we're willing to live without it. Because other things are more important. Other things have our attention. You know, think of in the early days of COVID and sports shuts down and so many things shut down and so many of your lives shut down and so many inconveniences. And you realize, wow, there are a whole lot of distractions that I had that I don't have right now. It could be maddening or it can get you on your knees saying, God, I need you. I don't need things and stuff and you have friends and all that. It's all important. It's wonderful. But God, we need you. It says in Colossians 2, in Jesus, in him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I've been saved almost 50 years now. End of 1971 is when God wonderfully saved me as a heroine shooting LSD using hippie rock drummer. Full of rebellion, full of anger, full of sin. Almost 50 years. Been preaching since 1973. Had all the normal pressures of life and challenges of ministry that you'd expect over this time. And I can shout more loudly than ever, everything you need is found in him. Everything. And if you can make that right connection with him, if you can make that determination, I've got to see a breakthrough. If you will seek him until, then the blessing will come. And the things that are needed, the practical things, the things of this world, what does Jesus say? Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Some years back, must have been late 80s. No, actually it was the very early 90s. I was asked, we lived in Maryland, there was a new believer, a Russian messianic Jew, very intellectual, brand new believer. And he really wanted to see if a rabbi or a messianic Jew would do better in an unscheduled debate. The whole intellectual thing was very important to him and he's brand new. And he was so new he had no problem lying. So he asked me, would I come over to his house, three rabbis from Baltimore, which is maybe an hour from us, three rabbis from Baltimore agreed to do a debate with me in his house on who is the Messiah according to the book of Isaiah. I said, are you serious? He said, yeah. I said, okay, you bet. I'll be there. But he was lying to me. I get there and there are these rabbis and counter missionaries that have come in from Brooklyn and Philadelphia, driven for hours to be there. And he gave some lie to them to get them there. And he hands out this program. There are about 20 people there and they've got their, their, their recorders, little recording devices, days before cell phones. And he's got this whole program, like a three hour debate program with me and this leading counter missionary. And at least he had notes with him and we're going to go through these issues, sin, atonement, messianic prophecy. It was just really important for him to see who could do better intellectually without preparation for whatever reason. And there was a young woman there, came up to me to talk afterwards, very serious, Orthodox Jewish woman had traveled with these folks from Brooklyn, had done work with them, counter missionary work. In other words, trying to pull Jewish believers away from Jesus, work against what we were doing. And she handed me a letter. She said she tried to send it to me previously. She'd heard some things I was saying on a radio broadcast and it raised some questions to her, but the mail was sent back. It was the wrong address. And that night really shook her. God had been working in her heart, but that night shook her. The fellow I was debating did not do that well. We were able to present the truth well and it really shook her up deeply. She gave me that letter asking further questions and now they were stirred up even more deeply by this. So we began to talk on the phone and it turned out she was raised in a somewhat liberal Jewish home, was not that religious, and then became a believer. Didn't have the strongest foundations, but she was a believer. Folks in her church knew this Orthodox Jewish man and they said, hey, why don't you talk to him? You're Jewish. It ended up that his foundations were stronger than hers and he pulled her away from Jesus. And she became a very devoted Orthodox Jew to the point of actually doing counter missionary work, going to Bible studies with Messianic Jews and trying to raise questions and pull them away from the faith. And she was living as an ultra-Orthodox Jew in Brooklyn for years and quite set in her ways. God began to stir some things, raise some questions, then that debate that night really shook her. So we would talk by phone. I'd be in the kitchen in our home and Nancy would hear me talking to her and she'd have endless questions about Jewish tradition and scripture. We'd go back and forth and back and forth. And it was in the days before I had written five volumes on answering Jewish objections to Jesus, but had some cassette tapes to send her and different things like that. Or, hey, why don't you read this? So hours and hours and hours of talk. So I'm going to be speaking on Long Island about an hour and a half out from Brooklyn. And she says, look, you're the only one I can trust right now. I feel like you're the only one I can really talk to that can help me sort these things out. And can I come and talk to you after one of the services when you're speaking there? I said, absolutely. As I'm getting ready to go on the trip, Nancy says to me, I don't think you should talk to her. I said, why? She said, her whole problem is she's putting her trust in people. Just tell her to seek God. And I said, well, I don't have a way to reach her before that. She's going to make this whole trip out. It's a three hour round trip. Only for me to tell her, I can't meet with you. You just have to seek God. But I knew Nancy well enough. And she felt so sure. And it made sense to me what she was saying. So I agreed. So I remember, you know, the whole preach go through the whole service. And Joanne, that's the gal, she's sitting there through the whole service. And I come up to her afterwards. And she's like, finally, you're the only one that can answer these questions. I'm just struggling. And I said, listen, I can't meet with you. You just need to seek God. And she was just crestfallen. I said, I'm sorry, I can't meet with you. You just need to seek God. Sometime after that, she calls me. She goes, hey, look, we don't need to talk anymore. I know Orthodox Judaism is right. I'm just, this is my life. This is what I believe. And I said, can I still send you stuff? She goes, yeah, but I'm convinced. And I'm thinking, oh yeah, a lot of good Nancy's counsel did. A lot of good it did. Seek God. And here's where we end up. Months go by, and I get another call from her. And she says, no more questions. She said, it's all clear. She said, I believe Yeshua is the Messiah. I know it. I've professed faith publicly. I'm following him. So I was thrilled, rejoicing with her. So we're talking at some length. I said, hey, we had a lot of conversations. I sent you a lot of material. I mean, hours and hours and hours trying to help. I said, was there any one thing I said to you that was key? Any one argument, any one thing I presented from the scriptures, any one brilliant thing I had to say? She said, yeah, just those two words that I needed to seek God. Because that was everything. That was everything. She's been a missionary in Nigeria working with the poorest of the poor. I mean, you talk about a courageous hero. For years, I mean, not far from Boko Haram, she'll email and say, hey, pray. One of our co-workers was just kidnapped. And they're demanding ransom, et cetera. And then a few days later, she goes, praise God, he's back. He's only missing a couple of fingers and only a gash in his head. Praise God, he's OK. This is the world she lives in. Sending regular emails, pray. They're kidnapping a lot of kids now. And then they kill them. And they use body parts for the witch doctors, for special spells. I mean, it's a really rough world she lives in. And she's living for those people. When persecution got really bad, they were afraid having an American there would be dangerous. They sent her out. Then she couldn't get back in from COVID. She goes, I will never do that again. This is my home. I mean, she is a solid, committed believer. But all my arguments. And they can help. We've helped a lot of people with them. And we've helped a lot of people with their questions. But the bottom line was, seek God. Seek God. Listen, friends, more of the same will only produce more of the same. Please hear me. We've got to be realistic. I am a supreme optimist. I live every day of my life with the attitude today is good, tomorrow is going to be better. That's just the way I live. That's just the way I think. But in reality, unless I make changes in my daily habits, nothing will change. If you want to move from where you are spiritually, if you want to have a breakthrough, if you want to take hold of God in a deeper way, then you must do things differently. You must make a determination. It's all through Scripture. It's a relationship. We don't earn it. Jesus freely purchased our salvation and gives us all things by His grace. But it is a relationship. It is a partnership. It is a co-working. And if we want to break through to a deeper place, something must change. It's that simple. There must be this fresh determination. Okay, I'm going to go after God in a way I haven't before. You say, yeah, I've started before and then I flake out. Well, then get up and do it again. I remember teaching in a Bible school on Long Island in the 80s. And there was a gal, young gal, maybe 18, 19 years old. And she said she was going to be fasting for X number of days. And then she came in one day and she said, I blew it. I had a meal, broke the fast. And she goes, well, I'm just restart now. And I thought, I never do that. If I break a fast, I break it, I blow it. And that's that. But it never dawned on me. Well, restart. That's what somebody, okay, every day you fall flat on your face, then restart. And soon enough, the determination that I have to break through, the determination that I have to seek God more earnestly, the determination that I have to set aside other things that are and earnestly seek God, that determination will prevail. The hunger and desire of your heart will drive you. When we lived in Pensacola, intensity of schedule to be 80 to 100 hours a week of ministry related activity. And then sometimes not eating much until late in the day and then eating very late at night and then eating unhealthy meals. And then I'd been a lifelong chocoholic. So I started putting, putting some weight on. Nancy came up to me one day and she said, you know, it looks like you put a little weight on. I said, no, you're absolutely right. I have. I noticed as well, but I have a plan. She goes, oh, okay. Maybe six months later, she came to me again. She said, I don't think you've lost any weight. I said, you're right. I checked it. You're absolutely right. But I have a plan. Oh, okay. Six months, a year goes by and she said, I think you've actually put on more weight. And I said, I have, I have a plan. And she said, your plan is not working. That's, that's the conclusion some of us need to come to. My plan is not working because I'm still where I don't want to be. What's going to change that? Well, in my optimism, well, tomorrow we'll just change it. Tomorrow we'll be better. No, that's not how it works. I mean, literally, I would eat and live the same way and get on the scale the next day and be stunned that I hadn't lost weight. That's how foolish blind optimism can be. And then finally it was seven years ago this month, my weight was, was, was much higher over those years and, and, and I had high blood pressure at this point and I was getting worn out, you know, heavy schedule still and getting tired, worn out, not knowing how long I could keep up the pace I was running. And it was August 23rd of 2014. I sat down with Nancy and, and I used the code words. She knew exactly what it meant. I said, my plan is not working. And she knew I was talking about a lifestyle change. And see, here is my problem. My problem was that when it came to preaching the gospel, I was, I was fearless. God knows I've, I've risked my life preaching in certain settings, literally risked my life preaching in certain settings without, without second thoughts for the gospel. It's for Jesus. But you present me broccoli or Brussels sprouts, man, I'd rather die for the gospel. I mean, I was a complete wimp when it came to foods, complete wimp when it came to healthy eating. I remember I tried to eat Brussels sprouts once and almost choked on them. And I would pray, God, give me the same desire for broccoli that I have for peanut M&Ms. And I would wait for it to happen and nothing happened. It probably would have helped if I ate broccoli, but I just, I was waiting for something to happen. And plus I'm on the road all the time. And how can you, I was about to be overseas in this country, this country, and you're traveling 40 hours. And I had all the excuses. I had great excuses. In fact, I remember one day working out because I still worked out. And there was a friend that was a trainer and said, hey, I've got an hour free. This slot, if some of you guys want to work out together, you know, I'll train you. So we're doing these intensive workouts. And he said, hey, look, you know, 90%, it's the kitchen, it's what you eat. And so I gave him all the reasons why I really couldn't eat certain thing or certain healthy. And I explained to him these great excuses, travel schedule and various, just different things. It made perfect sense. It's great. The next time we work out, one of our grads is in there and he proceeds to explain why he can't eat more healthily, the busyness of life. And I thought, those are the wimpiest, weakest excuses ever heard in my life. At that moment, it's like, oh, how about your great excuses? But I got to that point where I knew, okay, I'm getting older. I'm getting heavier. I have high blood pressure. That's dangerous, called asylum killer. You don't play with that. I'm getting worn out. This is not heading in the right direction. Something radical needs to happen. And I told Nancy, my plan is not working. And she said, okay, nothing passes through your lips without my approval. You only eat what I give you. And started next day, August 24th of 2014. And listen, you can read the story in our book, Breaking the Stronghold of Food. I don't tell it specifically because I, well, it's always relevant because food's tough. We struggle, right? It's the world we live in. Breaking the Stronghold of Food, we tell the whole story. But the short version, I went through three miserable days of withdrawal. You have to understand, I used to shoot heroin before I was saved. I was addicted to the needle. It was far more difficult to give up chocolate than to give up heroin. I remember on the third night, it was miserable, on the third night, crying out in prayer. I said, God, Jesus, you were so real to me when I got saved. And so all I cared about was you. I didn't care about the drugs or anything. I remember saying these words, surely the power of the Holy Spirit is greater than the power of glazed chocolate Dunkin' Donuts. It's got to be a victory here somehow. The resurrection of Jesus triumphs over peanut M&Ms, and it has to be. Three days, and then that broke, and I had to renew my mind because food was my reward. Food was the built-in reward with ministry, the pressure of life. And hey, you have that outlet. So I had to renew my mind that food was the fuel for healthy life. And I went eight months just eating super healthily. I went from 275 pounds to 180 pounds, and everything shifted dramatically. I mean, dramatically. Blood pressure went from high to perfect, and cholesterol went from bad to wonderful. I mean, I used to have several headaches a week, basically seven years now without a headache. I used to have constant lower back pain. Seven years, that's gone, just one thing after another. My energy level off the charts, you know, 66 now. My workout partner is a WWE superstar, wrestler, professional wrestler. We work out together. I crush him. No, that's another story. We did a video. It's on our website. You can search for it. Just type in wrestler. We did a little workout video where he ends up choke slamming me. But anyway, you have to see it for yourself. The point is, listen, the point is I had to get to that place of recognizing my plan was not working. There's no miracle rain that falls one day and everything changes. Or one day you're in revival. Or one day thousands of people are getting saved. Or one day you're experiencing the power of God and it stays like that for years. Something happens to precipitate that. Something happens to prepare the way for that. Something happens that the hunger, the desire, the desperation is such that it prepares the way for the coming of God. And we begin to seek him suddenly what seemed like everything fine in life, everything okay. And we wake up in the morning. There's got to be more. You go to sleep at night. There's got to be more. You say, look, man, I don't have 10 hours a day to pray. I don't have unlimited time to just read the Bible. That'd be wonderful if I did. Hey, do you have time to worry? This is a question. Over the course of the day, if you're worried about something, do you have time to worry? Or if you're sad, you're mourning, you've lost a friend or there's someone really close to you, they're hanging between life and death and ICU, you carry that all the time, don't you? Hey, the same way there can be a constant prayer that goes up in your heart all through the day. You can be driving to work in your car weeping. You can be sitting there doing what you do. You can be home changing diapers, but inside, God, that cry is rising. And then that'll drive you to turn off the things that are non-essential. That'll drive you to say, you know, I don't need to watch this now, or I could do without this now, or I don't need to text now. And that hunger rises. And the next thing is like, I got to skip a meal. And I've got to step out because the hunger moves you. There's so many promises in the word to the hungry and to the thirsty. Jesus says it in the Beatitudes, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they shall be filled. He says it in John 7, if anyone's thirsty, let him come to me and drink. You don't find promises in the word to those that are self-satisfied and full. I think back to the old days of unhealthy eating when, you know, my favorite desserts, I don't know why they did it with chocolate names, but it was always death by chocolate, or chocolate suicide, or chocolate decadence. It was never death by apple pie, or tiramisu suicide, right? It was always these, and I would love these desserts, you know, it takes like three people to carry them out and put it on the table, and you end up eating most of it yourself. So we'd be planning, okay, we're going to a special restaurant, and I'm going to get that special mega dessert at the end of the night. But after all the rolls, and the appetizers, and the massive meal, and everything else, they'd say, anyone want dessert? It's like, no. Man, I was thinking about that dessert for days, but I got so full with the other things. Well, that's how it is with us in God. How much room is there in our lives for divine visitation? How much room is there in our lives for God pouring out His Spirit? You know, if you talk to pastors and churches around America, and you say, hey, God moved in this incredible way, and we were just on our faces for six hours on Sunday. A lot of thinking, I don't have six hours on Sunday, or who would want that? We've got busy, you know, soccer moms, and busy families, and all that. I respect all that, but friends, when we get to that point of desperation, when we get to that place of hunger, then God says, okay, there's somewhere I can move. There's someone that's hungry. There's someone that's thirsty, and before you know it, the Holy Spirit's being poured out, and I'm convinced. I've been feeling this deeply for some time now. I'm seeing the reality of it, and then hearing the exact same words from other leaders I respect, that around the country right now, God is ready to pour out His Spirit afresh. Hear me. If He sees people genuinely hungry for Him, people who will preach Jesus without compromise, people who will go for the lost, who will welcome the Spirit, He will move in those places. I genuinely believe it, and we're beginning to see it. Pockets here, and here, and here, and here. He wants to move more than we want Him to move. He wants to save the lost more than we want to see the lost saved. He wants to change your individual life to satisfy the longing of your heart, to fulfill the unfulfilled promises that He's given. He wants to do those things more than you want them done. You know, so many times over the years, I know there's a promise God's given me. I know there's something He's spoken to me. It seems it's just not happening. He can only give the deposit, the down payment, make you know, hey, I'm gonna do this. This is real. And then years go by, and it doesn't happen. And Lord, how long? And Lord, you promised. And when I went through this the first time, I didn't understand it. It didn't make sense. Lord, you stirred me. You moved me. You gave me this promise. You burdened me. And now it's just like a tease. The thing's left, but the longing is still there. What's going on? And then I learned that He was calling me to pray. He was calling me to pursue Him more deeply. It's like this, you know, you're pulling a rubber band back, seeing how far you can shoot that thing. Used to, you know, do that, my friends, you know, as boys, and have these little targets, and pull the rubber band back. And the whole key was to pull it back as far as you could without breaking it. If you only pulled it a little, it would just go like that. If you get it pulled back the right way and let it go, boom! That thing would shoot out. The thing with the Lord is that we think the rubber band can only go this far, and He knows it can go a whole lot farther. Then when He lets it go, boom! The explosion is there. It's that desperation He responds to. It's that hunger. It's that thirst. Hosea 10-12, it's an urgent word from the prophet, because the northern kingdom of Israel is about to be destroyed by the Assyrians. And He says, break up your fallow ground. The things that have been dormant, break up your fallow ground. And He says, it's time to seek the Lord until He rains down righteousness on us. Israel didn't heed, and judgment came instead. And we stand at a point in America where, as a nation, we are deeply divided. As a nation, we are in serious turmoil. There is no political situation that will heal the wounds in the nation. We keep heaping up sin upon sin in so many ways that we stand and live by the mercy and grace of God. And it's time to seek the Lord, so He comes and rains righteousness on us. That window may not stay open for long. And I know in those seasons of testing and that rubber band getting pulled back, I'm telling the Lord, I know my strength. I know my limitations. And I know if the breakthrough doesn't come now, that I'm not going to make it. And He knows I might pray that same prayer and feel that same way for five years before I finally get to that place of desperation. How hungry are you? How thirsty are you? If God was to say, okay, right now, boom, we're just going to look at the level of your hunger, thirst, desire for God, and set that as the course for the rest of your life, would you say, no, no, no, no. Give me a month to change my attitude. No, no, no. That's not, Lord, give me a few days to just fast and pray and seek you. I'm saying that God's drawing. I'm saying that He's looking here this morning at Grace World Outreach. How hungry are you? How much do you desire me? How important is it for you to have visitation, to see a harvest of souls? I want to answer according to your hunger. I want to visit in accordance with your thirst. And those words, seek Him until, come in a place where there's really no choice. There's no choice. One of my books came out in May called, Has God Failed You? Finding Faith When You're Not Even Sure God Is Real. And the title is a provocative title. We know God in Himself never fails, but many people feel as if He failed. So I deal with the struggles and the pain, and why people feel that God let them down, and how to process these things, and how to find God. And the last chapter is very intense. It's called, Seek Him Until. And Nancy and I went through the journal of a friend who was a believer, but who struggled with doubt for decades. Got saved as an atheist, believed in the Lord, but struggled. Deep down there was always a question, and there was always a sense of, there's more, but I'm not experiencing it. And this friend of ours got to a point of desperation and said, I'm going to seek God and find Him, or die trying. And in his life, he had a season where he wasn't working his regular job, and there was a lot of free time. And he just determined from the moment he woke up in the morning until he went to sleep at night, aside from his responsibilities, he was going to be on his knees reading the Word and praying. And the journal entries are very intense. I mean, they're jarring when you read them. I was in tears, and Nancy and I deeply moved reading these with full permission to publish them. But the breakthrough came, and this is someone we know. Watch this person be transformed. Watch this person encounter Jesus in ways that were deeper than anyone I had known. And it was such a challenge. God's saying, there is more. There is more. Seek Him until. So look, I'm going to close here. You may be hearing this on a corporate level for Grace World Outreach, but you may be hearing this for your own life, knowing that there's something deeper, knowing that there are promises, knowing that there's more God has for you. Or you might be hearing this for someone you love. God's saying, you've got to go after me for that person, if you'll go after me. God has just put that person in your heart. So here's what we're going to do. As the worship team comes up here, we're just going to plant a seed together. I want you to stand to your feet, all right? And we're just going to plant a seed together. We're just going to pray right here. We're not going to come up to the altar. I'm not going to lay hands on anyone. We're just going to pray right here together. But each of you praying individually, the cry of your heart. When I say plant a seed, I believe as we pray that God's going to begin to stir you about something. It could be he reminds you of promises he gave you when you were a child for your life. It could be he calls you to to start fasting. It could be he burdens you to pray for one of your kids that's away from the Lord. You know, that's the assignment. It could be he's saying, pray for revival here in this region. But we're just going to pray together. We're going to cry out. You can be silent. You can be loud. Doesn't matter. As the worship team just begins to play quietly in the background. Just going to take a minute or two. That's it. That's it. And then when you leave, I want you to build on that. Just don't just live out the rest of your day the way you always do. Do something different. Even if it's three minutes, do something differently. Same tomorrow. Same the next day. And determine, okay, this is the push. This was God sending in a messenger saying, go after me. And he will keep his promise. If we seek him earnestly, we will find him. Father, I ask you to make this real. I ask you to make this real in every heart and life. Put the calling. Put the burden within us to seek you in a deeper way. Put the calling. Put the burden within us to cry out to you. To seek you until, until the breakthrough comes. Thank you, Father. Hey, just take a minute, everybody. Right now, turn this into a house of prayer just for a minute. And just pray right where you are. Father, hear my cry. Father, what is it? What is it you're saying to me? How are you calling me? Father, speak. Speak to each of us, Lord. Bring something to our attention. It may seem so insignificant, but that's what you're saying to focus on. Focus on this. Focus on this. Focus on that. Go ahead, worship team, just play. Let's just go before him for a minute. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. There is more. There is more. Jesus. For the hunger in us, God. For the thirst in us, God. Jesus. Only you. Only you. Lord, if we left our first love, remind us, convict us. Lord, if we've just become busy with life or ministry, show us. We've walked away from an early faith. If we've become discouraged and forgotten your promises. Lord, young people, there's an invitation. God so wants to pour out his spirit in your life. He so wants to lay his hand on you. He so wants to give you a deep sense of purpose and wholeness so that you can be a blessing to others. God. Lord, I believe you're coming. I believe you're coming to visit us. I believe you're looking right now. You're going to come and visit where the hunger and thirst are where there's no conditions. Just you. Just you. Let it be, Father. Let it be, Father. Let it be. I pray for Pastor Daniel and the leadership. Deeper hunger. Deeper thirst. Deeper desire. Deeper cry. Something rising through the body. Share your heart with us for the lost, Lord. Share your burden with us for those that don't know you. Start right in this house with backslidden and lost family members coming to know you in the days ahead as you hear the cries of your people. May it be so. In the name of Jesus. Jesus. Pray that taste buds would change. That binging on Facebook or Netflix or Hulu or politics or Fox News or CNN or worldly attractions or whatever it is. Become distasteful. Lord, I'm encouraged because when I look across this room and I see the remnant that remains with inside of this house, it's a hungry remnant. And if we watch 4% of a population shift the narrative in America, Lord, what can 20% of this house shift within this house and this house shift within this region? So Lord, awaken the pioneers, awaken the prophets, awaken Lord those that are on the tip of the spear, the arrows and pull us back, Jesus, and send us forth. I bless you, Grace World, this week to divine interruptions, holy visitations, turned over schedules, upended agendas. Let the burning of our hearts intensify and may we come together next week even more. Lord, we love you. We bless you. In Jesus name, if you can agree with that, say, amen, amen, amen. Hey, listen, before you leave, take an opportunity to be generous to Dr. Brown. His ministry really is touching and impacting people around the world. Someone asked me last week after we finished up the and it is good series. They said, how can I fight back culturally? One way you can fight back is in enabling a voice like Dr. Brown's to be able to speak into our culture. You may not have the platform that you would like to be able to speak into culture. He does. And so you've got the opportunity to speak into through him. And so please be generous today. Bless him for having come and poured his heart into us. And he may be able to hear you. I don't know, but put your hands together if you just really enjoyed that deposit. So good. So good. I love you, Grace World. Love you. We'll see you next week. Hello, my friend. Did you just pray with me to get serious about God? If so, I want to tell you that I'm so proud of you. You know, you've just made the most important decision of your life. That decision to say yes to Jesus, to get serious about God is the most important commitment that you and I will ever make. The Bible says that at that moment, all things have become brand new. The old is gone. The past sins, the former ways completely gone and buried in the brand new has come. There is new creation life in you, flowing through you and available to you right now. And I want you to know that we are celebrating with you at the same time, also praying for you. And we want to come alongside you as you walk out that commitment and decision to get serious about God. Now, I have recorded 14 devotionals that I want to send to you. The easiest way to get that to you is for you to sign up on the link that you see right now on the screen. There is a link that you can click on or you can text SERIOUSABOUTGOD to 97000. Again, that's SERIOUSABOUTGOD, all one word to 97000. The moment you do that, you're going to be enrolled into a 14-day devotional series that, again, I've recorded just for you for this moment. We're going to walk through this thing together as we get serious about God. Now, along with that, I want you to stay in contact with us. If there's anything that you need, we want you to know that we're standing with you and praying for you. In fact, before we close this out, I want to pray for you. Jesus, I thank you for my friend. I thank you for this commitment, Lord, that they have made before you today. And whether they are coming to you for the first time or coming back to you and receiving your forgiveness, Lord, for a situation that they are walking through at this moment, we thank you that when we confess our sins before you and we confess you that you come into our life, Father, and that we are forgiven, Lord, made whole and right in you. And as we walk through this commitment over the next several days, Father, I pray that you'd be with them every step of the way. May life in all of its fullness, Lord, impact and touch them. We ask it even now in your name. Amen and amen. Thank you for joining us today. And again, if you're not plugged into a good church family, man, have you found a great on-fire church here in Brooksville, Florida, Spring Hill, the nature coast of Florida, we invite you to come join in with us, whether it is online or in person at the Dome. We love you, and I'll see you again next week. Thank you for listening to this sermon. We trust that you have been blessed and encouraged. For more information, visit us at graceworldag.org.