In this sermon, the speaker shares a personal experience of being in an airport with a friend. They notice a tall man with a small wife and child, and the speaker reflects on the differences in their physical appearances. The speaker then transitions to discussing the state of many independent Baptist churches, stating that they have become complacent and reliant on their own abilities rather than the power of God. The speaker emphasizes the need for churches to recognize their spiritual poverty and seek the power of God in order to truly thrive.

Thank you so much, Robertson family. Open your Bible tonight to Revelation chapter number 3, if you would, please. The last book in your New Testament Bible, the book of the Revelation, and chapter number 3. So good to see you. You've been so faithful to the meetings. Thank you so very much. It's always wonderful to preach to people who enjoy preaching and who not only enjoy the preaching, but they sit there and they listen, and many of them take notes, respond. I appreciate that so very, very much. I don't know what it's like to be a preacher, to preach to people who are disinterested in what you have to say, and so I appreciate it so very much from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for being here tonight. Come back tomorrow night. Of course, if you have a good fundamental Bible preaching church that you belong to who has Wednesday night prayer services, I'm a firm believer that you need to support your local church tomorrow night. Be there, but then please Thursday night, grace us with your presence. Friday night, for our special teen emphasis, we hope that you'll be here at the Franklin Road Baptist Church. Thank you, preachers, for being here. I know Brother Anderson here. I know Brother Cranston Knowles is here. There's some other preachers, obviously, that belong to the church here. Thank you for coming, and we would like to take the time to honor you, but for time's sake, we'll not do that tonight. Thank you so very much for being here. God bless your heart for taking time out of your busy schedule. Revelation chapter 3. Let's stand, please, out of respect for God's Word tonight. I praise the Lord. Thank you so much for praying for me. My throat feels just about 100% better. It's due to prayers, and it's due to the fact that people have pumped just about everything you can imagine into my body today, but it feels a whole lot better, and so I praise the Lord for it tonight. A message that's been burning in my heart for some time. I hope it'll be a blessing to you. Revelation 3. Let your eyes, please, fall to verse number 14. Revelation chapter number 3, and verse number 14, please. The Bible says, "...And unto the angel of the pastor of the church of the Laodiceans write, these things, saith he, Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, that thou wert neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou wert lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth." Verse 17. "...Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. And knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich. And white-raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. And anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne. Even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit sayeth unto the churches." Tonight I want to bring you a simple message entitled, The Kind of People That Make God Sick. Thank you very much. You may be seated. Let's bow our heads in heart. Let's pray and ask the Lord to bless our time together tonight. Father, thank you so much once again for this privilege you've afforded us to be here tonight in your house, with your people around your word. Father, there's a message that's burning in my heart tonight and I pray that it would burn as I preach it for the next few moments and you would help me to preach from a burden. Father, that you would fill me with the blessed Holy Spirit of God for the next few moments because, Lord, I need your intervention. I need your help and your aid. I'd be foolish and haughty and proud to admit otherwise. Lord, all is vain unless the Spirit of the Holy One comes down tonight. And so, Lord, please bless us. Lord, we've been praying and we've had people that have prayed around the clock. We've had the men that have been praying. No doubt others have prayed in their family devotions, their own personal, all their time. And, dear God, we are pleading and praying that the power of the Holy Spirit of God would fall upon the Franklin O'Davis Church tonight. And, Lord, we desperately need thee. And, Lord, we need you to work. And I pray that you would use the Spirit of God and the Word of God tonight in the most powerful way. And, Father, when we leave, may we truly know that we've not only been in the house of God but we've been in the presence of God for sure. And, Father, we'll be careful to give you the praise. We know you'll do great things. For we pray it in faith and ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Believe it or not, the book of the Revelation is probably one of my most favorite books in all the Bible, a very exciting book. Sometimes we can get a little bit bogged down in prophetical books and sometimes we can find Ezekiel in the wheel and we can find Daniel by the river bank and sometimes we think to ourselves, why all this is in the Bible? But yet, if you read Revelation chapter number 1, you find out that we get an extra special blessing from the sovereign God of heaven if we heed to that which has been written in the prophetic book of Revelation. Revelation chapter number 1, we find out from the Bible and we find out from history that through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, John is now writing. And history tells us that he'd been boiled in hot seething oil by the Roman government, probably not something that was too nice to endure. They sit him there on the Isle of Patmoses by himself. And the Bible says on the first day of the week, which I believe is a reference to Sunday, he heard a voice like a trumpet speaking to him and said, John, I want you to write those things which have been. I want you to write the things which are and the things which shall be hereafter. And, ladies and gentlemen, he had a marvelous, supernatural, glorious vision of Jesus Christ. Then in Revelation chapter 2 and chapter number 3, we have two companion chapters, two mountaintop chapters. You must have one to have the other in Revelation 2 and 3. In those two chapters, we have the specific prophetic messages to the seven churches of Asia Minor. Now, although these seven churches can be spiritualized, if you will, to show us the seven church ages, I want you to know these were actual, factual, physical, local, New Testament, fundamental Bible-believing churches that Jesus Christ was using John to preach to. Of the two messages that all of these seven churches received, they each, number one, received a message of commendation, and then they received a message, number two, of condemnation, what they were doing wrong. But when we get to Revelation chapter number 4, he said he heard a voice again like a trumpet that said, Come up hither. Bible theologians and scholars tell us more than likely that is the time of the rapture, and I believe it is so because you do not again see the church until the end of the book of the Revelation. And the reason for that is we call it a blessed hope, not a blasted hope. God's people are going to be pulled out of here before the end of Christ is ever revealed. And everybody wants to know about the ten toes, and everybody wants to know about the end of Christ, but I'm not looking for the end of Christ. I'm looking for Jesus Christ, and he may come tonight. You know, I believe in the imminent return of Jesus. That means that he could come in 50 years, but he could come in five minutes. Somebody says, Well, you can't prove that he'll come tonight. That's right, and you can't prove that he won't, so you better live like he's going to because Jesus Christ is coming again. And so we see that in Revelation chapter 4. The four and twenty elders, which are a representation of the church, fall down and cast their crowns at the feet of the Lamb. Then in Revelation chapter number 5, the modern saints of God begin to sing a wonderful new song, and what a song it is. They say, Thou art worthy. He that redeemed us, back to God again, out of every nation, out of every kindred, out of every people, out of every language, and out of every tongue. And they begin to sing that new song. In Revelation chapter number 6, we have the beginning of the tribulation period before Horsemen of the Apocalypse, which we'll not take time to discuss tonight. That goes from Revelation chapter 6 through Revelation chapter number 12, terrible time of judgment. Yet in Revelation chapter number 13, we have Matthew 24 fulfilled, where Jesus said, Except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved in His sight. And Revelation 13 through chapter 18 is what we refer to tonight as the great tribulation, the day of God's wrath, when it is poured out without measure upon this earth. But in Revelation chapter number 19, the scene changes. We know according to Isaiah 7, 14, Matthew chapter 1 and Luke chapter number 2, that Jesus came not just born of a young lady, but born of an actual physical virgin, a supernatural birth. And yet the Bible says when He came, He was placed into a little manger in a stall. But ladies and gentlemen, in Revelation chapter 19, He's not coming back as a helpless baby. He's coming back as the great conqueror of all of ages. And the Bible says He has a sharp two-edged sword coming out of His mouth. We know according to Hebrews 4, 12, the Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of thunder and soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. And the Word of God proceeds out of His mouth. And the Bible says He had a name written on His side, the King of kings and Lord of lords. The Apostle Paul, under inspiration, said in Philippians 2, 5-11, let this mind, speaking of the mind of humility, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, made His likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, because of this, wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth. And the Bible says that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And ladies and gentlemen, this world has a choice. The people of Franklin O. Baptist Church, under the sound of my voice, you have a choice tonight. You can declare Jesus Christ Lord of your life now because you want to, or you can declare Him Lord of your life on the day of judgment because you have to, but you will call Him Lord one day. And the Bible says He comes back King of kings and Lord of lords, Revelation 19. In Revelation chapter number 20, we see that old slew foot the devil. He is bowed and cast into a bottomless pit for a thousand years, and we enter into an actual, physical, one thousand year millennial reign with Jesus Christ. And what a miraculous, wonderful time that's going to be as we rule and reign as kings and priests depending on our faithful servitude to Almighty God here. Yet when we get to Revelation chapter 21 and chapter 22, we see about heaven and we see much about the New Jerusalem. The Bible kind of compares the two, but yet it's also one and the same. It tells us many things that will not be there, yet many things that will be there. Thank God there'll be no wheelchairs, there'll be no sickness, no sadness, there'll be no sin, there'll be no sorrow. The Bible says that there'll be no light, for Jesus Christ is the light, and the gate thereof is always open, showing that God's grace is open to all the world. The Bible talks about the palaces. It talks about the palatial things that will be there. It talks about the rubies and the diamonds, the jackneth and the onyx and the beryl stones. And it talks about all the wonderful things that will be there as the redeemed, rejoicing saints of God begin to sing, and the myriads of angels gather around the rainbow of God's throne, and they begin to sing there by the crystal emerald sea, and oh, what a day that's going to be. But it also talks about many things that will be there, such as a thrice-holy God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. But just to make sure we understand the 22 chapters of the prophetic book of Revelation, when the book of Revelation is drawing to a close, when the ink pen of inspiration runs out in Revelation 22-21, we understand that this book was given for one simple reason, for it is said two times in the last chapter, surely I come quickly. And so the book of Revelation is a wonderful book. The book of Revelation is not just a bunch of allegories, but something that will actually take place, and by the way, has already taken place in the heart and mind of Almighty God. But I draw your attention tonight to Revelation 3. In Revelation 3, we meet the seventh, we meet the last, the tail end, if you will, of the seven churches of Asia Minor. We have had the church at Pergamos, Tulsa. We have had the church at Ephesus in Philadelphia, and Thyatira, and Sardis, and all these other churches that Jesus Christ has preached to. He has commended them, and He has condemned them. But I want you to look, if you would, please, with your eyes in Revelation 3, verse 14, as we deal with the subject, the kind of people that make God sick. Verse 14, please, the Bible says, And unto the angel, he's speaking not to the laity, but to the leadership, he's preaching to the pastor. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, These things, sayeth the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. We know that's Jesus according to Colossians chapter 1. Now, verse 15, he said, I know thy works. Now, look at me in the face just for a moment. Of all of the churches that received commendation, every one of them did, but the church of the Laodiceans received the smallest possible commendation that could be given them. Did you notice that simple, small little phrase in verse number 15? He said, I know thy works. Four words, that is the only bit of credit, that is the only bit of commendation that Jesus Christ gives this church. Now, he didn't say they were lazy. He didn't say you sleep around on Sunday morning until the sun warms your feet and you don't do anything. He at least informed them that they were doing something, but did not see fit to tell us as God's people what it was. But he commended them in a very small, insignificant, minuscule way, and the rest of the chapter is not for commendation, but rather for condemnation. And I want you to see what your Bible says, please, in verse number 15. He says, I know thy works. Now, here it is, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou work cold or hot, verse 16. So then, so then, because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Now, it's hard, perhaps, as it is, to swallow and to understand. I believe this is what God's saying. He's saying, listen, folks, what thing I cannot stand in my church is a hypocrite. He says, I want you to be ablaze for me. I want you to be boiling. I want you to have the fire of the power of the Spirit of God burning in your heart. I want you to have burning zeal and burning lips and a burning heart for me. God says, I want you to be faithful to the Word of God. Meditate therein day and night, Joshua 1.8. He says, I want you to be faithful in soul winning and visitation. I want you to be faithful in your prayers. I want you to be faithful to the house of God. And God said, I want my people to be on fire for me. I want my people to be led and to be filled and to be guided and shepherded by the sweet precious Holy Spirit of Almighty God. He says, but there's many people that don't want to be that way. He said, that would be the way I would prefer you. He says, I would prefer that the people of the Franklin O. Baptist Church be on fire, be fireballs for the glory of God. He says, but I understand there is going to be some duds. He said, I understand there are going to be some backsliders that are cold. And God said, there are times in my will when I tolerate backsliders, I don't tolerate their sin. I tolerate their backslidden condition for some time. He said, but the people that bother me are the middle of the road. The people that come to the house of God and they dress one way and they come to the house of God, they carry their Bible. They come to the house of God, they sing, they amen the preacher. And when they come in here, we have this idea that this building, this brick and mortar and wood and this pulpit and these pews and this that and the other. We have the idea that this is some kind of super duper peripheral place and when we come in here, we can live for God. And when we go out the doors of the church, we can live any way that we golly well please. But what you are in here should merely be a reflection of what you are on the job. And yet God said, I want you to be hot. I do not want you to be cold. But if there's one thing that bothers me, God said, it's the straddlers of the fence. It's the middle of the roaders. It is the lukewarm Christians. Now, I believe we can take a simple secular illustration to illustrate why I believe this bothers God so much. Help me out in my sermon tonight. How many of you, under the sound of my voice, enjoy a nice hot cup of coffee? Would you put your hand high in the air if you were a coffee drinker? God bless you, everyone. Put your hand down. The rest of you, get right with God. The invitation. But the truth of the matter is, I enjoy hot coffee. Now, obviously, from the South, I don't really like it black. I don't like it when it's real, real strong. Mickey Waltz all speak Japanese. Don't like it like that. I like a little extra cream and I like a whole lot of extra sugar and I like it like maple syrup or molasses. That's good coffee. But nonetheless, I love hot boiling coffee. I mean, rot the enamel off my teeth, swell my gums and burn my belly all the way down. I enjoy hot. I mean, if it spills over on my blue jeans and makes a blister on my knee, I don't care. I know it's hot. I enjoy hot coffee. I can tolerate cold coffee. I just got back from the New England states and they drink that stuff everywhere. Cold coffee, cold coffee, cold cappuccino. My wife got hooked on that stuff and I mean, it's from the devil. It's nasty. It's no good. But I can at least tolerate it. I remember there was a fellow living at the children's home. Many of you remember him. He's in the military now. He's a captain of Barry Cantrell. He was working at Little Bud's Tire Store. He was pumping some gas and this, that and the other. And I remember I drove up there one day and I guess this is about 1993 or so. And he said, Greg, he said, we've got this new thing called cold coffee. How would you like to try it? I thought maybe just kind of sit around all day, put some ice cubes in it. And that's about what they do now. They charge about five or six bucks a pop. But it actually came that way and it was called cold coffee. So I said, I suppose I'll try it if you're paying for it. He said, I will. And so I took a little swig of it. I drank it. He kind of drunk it down. He enjoyed it. I tolerated it. I thought it was okay. But I'll be honest with you, I really would not have to drink cold coffee. I wouldn't want to drink it. I suppose if I had to, if I was dying of thirst, if somebody was going to shoot me, I suppose I could tolerate drinking cold coffee from a can or from a bottle. But man, I prefer it absolutely boiling, steaming hot. But let me tell you what bothers me and you know exactly where this illustration's going. I hate it when I have myself a nice hot cup of coffee and I sit it down and I'm reading. I'm talking on the phone. I'm working on the email. Maybe I'm driving down the road and put it up on the dashboard. And by the way, I got an offense to know. You heard about that lady that spilled that coffee in her lap and she sued McDonald's and she got all those $4 million. How in the world can somebody grab a cup of coffee that is hot, that is steaming, says hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, all the way around it, spill it in their lap and then win about three and a half to $4 million. Well, that's the judicial system that we have. But nonetheless, I don't think I'll be trying it anytime soon. And so I like to have this hot cup of coffee laying right there, reading my Bible. All of a sudden, I get engrossed in what I'm reading. I get engrossed in what I'm doing. I forget all about that coffee there. And the next thing that happens, bells and whistles go off in my head. And here's what I say to myself. Self, you would like to have yourself a nice hot drink of coffee. And so I reach down, I grab the handle, not being able to tell how hot it is, don't pay any attention to the steam. I forget that it's been sitting there. I expect for it to be gurgling, bubbling hot. I put it to my mouth and guess what? It is lukewarm. I spew it and think to myself, whoever got me drinking this ungodly mess to begin with. That's the roll-off. Must have been right all the time. But anyhow, lukewarm coffee. I can understand why lukewarm Christians make God sick because lukewarm coffee turns my stomach. And Almighty God says, I want you to be hot and boiling and ablaze with the power of God. And He says, I don't want to have to tolerate you being backslidden. He said, but don't be a hypocrite. Don't be a mass Christian. Don't be one thing in the house of God and another thing in your own house. Don't be one thing here and another thing somewhere else. He says, no, no, I do not like those who are lukewarm, those who are half-hearted. For David said in Psalm 138, 1, I will praise thee with my whole heart. And if there's anything that quote American Christianity needs, it's not half-hearted Christians, but wholehearted Christians who will praise God with their ears, with their eyes, with their hands, with their feet, with their heart, with everything about Him. And ladies and gentlemen, we need some wholehearted servants of Almighty God. And God said that lukewarm Christians make Him sick. He said, be one way, be the other. Let everybody know who you are, but don't be in the middle. Now, I want to illustrate for you exactly what God is saying. Now, ladies, excuse me, but I want to be honest with you. There is no other way you can get around the phrase, spew you out of my mouth. It means to vomit, regurgitate to the nth degree, all right? God says it makes His stomach churn, gives Him heartburn, and it makes Him sick. When He has to visit, we have to see these lukewarm, hypocritical Christians that are in church after church after church. Brother Doyle Robertson and myself have been traveling together for some time, as we've said, through the week. We closed the revival meeting at the Valley Drive Baptist Church of Fielddale, Virginia about the second, I suppose it was, week of the year. And things were going well. We were going to be across town to Temple Baptist Church of Martinsville, Virginia starting the following Sunday. We put our rigs across town. Our wives and his family all stayed kind of there together, congregated together in the two trailers. And we had to get on the airplane on Thursday morning in Greensboro, North Carolina at 715 to fly to Minneapolis, Minnesota, then take about an hour and a half or two-hour drive, go to Camp Shittek where we were reacquainted. And we were going up there to do kind of what they call like a truth conference, a truth weekend for some young people. It was going to be a Thursday night, all day Friday, and most of the day Saturday, about six or seven or eight services, something like that. He was going to be singing and playing, and I was going to be preaching to the teenagers. So we get up that early that morning. We get down there to the airport. We get on the plane there in Greensboro. And by the way, we were going to Minneapolis. They took us to Atlanta. Couldn't figure that out, but Mae Jackson said, you got to go to Atlanta to get to heaven. So they took us to Atlanta. We're sitting there in the airport. I get myself a cup of coffee. I'm reading this new book, and he had just bought this new digital equipment for their ministry to record some things. And so he was reading the instruction manual. We're sitting around. We're talking back and forth. And all of a sudden, I'm just kind of oblivious to what's happening. He taps me on the shoulder and says, Brother Greg, looky there. I didn't know what he was talking about. And so I looked up and here was this Goliath of a man. I mean a big joker. I mean a great big old tall guy with this little bitty old smurf head of a wife walking right beside him. She had a little blonde headed girl in her arms, little blonde headed girl walking here. And I mean, you know, he's a great big old tall guy. She didn't even come up to his armpit. I mean, just little bitty old tiny thing that are walking around. He said, how tall do you reckon that guy is? Well, I'm not good at guessing ages or weights and names and all that kind of stuff. I said, I don't know. I suppose he's about 6'5". He said, oh no, I've seen people 6'5". He said, he's a lot taller than that. I said, won't you go ask him? He said, I'm not going to go ask him how tall he is. And so we figured we'd never see the guy again for time and eternity. Well, we pulled the tickets out. It's time to go up there, check in, you know. They look at us. They say, well, we don't know if we can quite fit you together. Is that going to be okay? I said, well, we're not married. We're just a team. So it doesn't make it a difference. So we give them the tickets. They swap them back and forth. And here's what they say. They said, oh, we can fix it. We can have you sit in exit rows and you can both sit in the aisle seat. So you'll be beside one another. And I said, I appreciate that. Thank you so much, ma'am. And we got our tickets. We got on the plane. I sat down here by an Italy couple. He sat down by Goliath. And so I thought that was a wonderful property in the sight of God. So I said, listen, you need to talk to him. Figure out what he's doing here. They were from South Africa. Never played a day of basketball in his life. He was 6'10". I mean, a great big old tall guy. And what made it worse is he was skinny as a beanpole. I mean, one stripe in his pajamas. I mean, a big old tall guy. But he was a little bitty, skinny, winny type of a fella. And so that made it even worse. He had these big old hairy legs, these little short, short toes. And his legs were all curled up like this. And no wonder he had to sit in the exit row. Now, his wife was not able to sit in the exit row. They must have had to move him around or something. Two rows in front of Brother Doyle and in front of this guy. Two rows in front of him. To her right was a little blonde-headed girl who I believe was about 11 years old. In her lap was a blonde-headed girl who was 11 months old. Big difference in age. Well, we were sitting there. The stewardess comes out. If the officer in your mask comes down, make sure you secure your own before you do somebody else's and blah, blah, blah. And they tell us there's flotation devices under the seat, although we're not flying over the ocean to get to Minneapolis. And they tell us about this. And they say the exits are here, the exits are here, the exits are here, the exits are here. And I've done it so much, I would be a good stewardess. But nonetheless, I didn't pay a whole lot of attention. We taxi out. We're getting ready to go down the runway. We have not sat on that airplane for five minutes. For five minutes, we have not been on that airplane. And we have a two and one-half hour flight to Minneapolis, Minnesota. And all of a sudden, that little 11-month-old, beautiful, blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl didn't look too beautiful. I do not know how they packed so much stuff in that little girl's body, but everybody on that airplane figured it out two times in a row. She jumped some kind of gulp. She did some kind of little belt. And she turned this way and sprayed the entire backseat of that airplane. She sprayed the floor. She sprayed her mama's purse, her mama's lap. She sprayed all over the place. And, I mean, it looked like a Pepto-Bismol party for him. I mean, it was everywhere. I mean, I'm looking to roll down windows here on the 747, all right? Brother Donald leans up, and he starts adjusting his air vents here. And these people just got through talking about serving barbecue chicken sandwiches, and that was the last thing on my mind on that airplane. Now, this is the gospel truth. If I've ever told you the truth, I'm telling you right now. About the time she turned around this way, she hiccuped, grabbed her stomach, and went the other way and shoot everybody else on the other side. I mean, all over, friend. I mean, she just spewed like you would not believe. Now, I'm fixing to spew myself. All these people standing around, and you've never seen such disorganization among stewardesses in all your life. They're walking around wringing their hands, what do we do, what do we do? People are like, clean it up, clean it up. That'd be a good idea. And so we paid good money to get on this flight. I mean, these ladies did not know what to do. They put on rubber gloves. The man's here, if you don't believe me, you can ask him. They put on rubber gloves. They start getting this baby powder and start throwing it all over the floor. Then they start getting this perfume. I mean, they just made it worse, you know. Start putting all this perfume and all this Lysol and spraying stuff all over the place. I'm about to gag, you know, I'm fixing to die. That dad just walks it over and picks that little girl up, you know, wraps his arms, goes back there and change her. No big deal, you know, daddy's love and intuition and compassion. And mom's over to clean it up. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. And those stewardesses down there, I mean, they're going nuts. They get these rags, they start wiping up, and they leave most of it right there on the floor. They get this little plastic, long plastic wrapper type thing, and they roll it out like you'd roll out the red carpet, snip it down this side. Lay it right there. Open up the bin. Open up the bin and pull out a blanket. I mean, what's a blanket that people sleep with? I hope they didn't use it on the next flight. But they pull the thing out. They roll it out, lay it on the ground. Grab another one, roll it out, lay it on the ground. If I'm lying, I'm dying. Stomp the thing on the ground. We get 25,000 feet, leveled off, and they start serving barbecue chicken sandwiches. And this fella eats one. I'm sitting there about to gag. I mean, this guy, he's like, you want that barbecue sandwich? I'll eat it for a long time. And he's eating barbecue chicken sandwiches. I'm sitting there about to die. I can't even drink a coffee. And I mean, that was the longest two-and-a-half-hour flight I've ever been on in my life. And I flew to Minneapolis many a time. And I'm going to tell you something, friend. As funny as that may sound, that is exactly what God said. He thinks about lukewarm Christianity. He said it makes his stomach turn. It makes him sick. And I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, I believe there's a lot of people in our churches that make the heart of God sick because they're hypocrites in the way that they worship God. Now, let's say that I was just afraid right now to get the whole thing over with with to go home. I'd do you a great injustice because I didn't tell you what made these people this way. Look in your Bibles, if you would, please. Revelation chapter number three. I want to show you why these people were lukewarm. I want to show you why these people were exactly the way that they were. Look in your Bibles, Revelation chapter number three. Let your eyes please fall to verse 17. God had just told them, I'm going to spew you out of my mouth because, that's pretty plain, is it not? Because thou sayest. Look at me just for a moment. I want you to understand something. When he says, because thou sayest, it does not necessarily mean they were walking around with a megaphone saying this out loud. It means that this is the attitude that they carry. It means that this was the demeanor that these people had. Perhaps some did say it verbally, but when it says, because thou sayest, it doesn't not necessarily mean that they were walking around verbally saying this. It was the attitude that had crept into their hearts and the attitude that had crept into the church, all right? Verse 17, because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. And knoweth not, Jesus said, that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. We'll pick up the next verse in just a few moments. Here are these people, and if you'll allow me to say this, these were the fundamentalists of the day. These were people that believed their Bible. From all practical points of the context, it was probably a larger church. These people believed the Bible. These people were doing some work for God commended them in doing those works. They did receive the smallest amount of commendation, but at least they received one. But yet the Bible says that here these people had this attitude, whether it was verbal or not, here was their attitude. Dear God, we've got a nice building. Dear God, we've got a good preacher. We've got good deacons. We've got a good Christian school. We've got a bus route. We've got a bus ministry. We've got everything going well. We have need of nothing. We've got money in the bank. And the last thing we need, God, is for you to come down and mess up and interrupt our schedule and our program. You believe anything you jolly well please tonight, but I am convinced if the Spirit of God removes his hand of blessing from most of the average independent Baptist churches that I preach in, they would go on exactly like they've always gone on in the past. Did you know that most preachers could hold a crowd for about 25, 35, 45 minutes, depending on how long they've been preaching? I mean, most preachers could get in the pulpit without ever praying about it one single time, without really studying. They could turn to a simple portion of Scripture, John 3, 16, and they could hold the attention of a crowd. Our preachers know exactly what to say. Our preachers know exactly when to stop. The song leaders know exactly what to do. And the 4, 4, the 6, 8, the 3, 4, and the rest of that stuff I know nothing about. The choir knows when to practice, not when to practice. We know when the offering's going to be. We know when the invitation's going to be. We know when the benediction's going to be. We know what they're going to play. We know the fellowship time. We know every single thing about it. And we show up and have church whether God shows up or not. And I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, many times we have the attitude we are rich and increased with goods, and we have need of nothing. But our desperate problem is we are blind to the fact if there's one thing we need, we need the power of God. Here was a group of people that were more interested in their programs than they were the power and the filling of the Spirit of Almighty God. I thank God for this church. I thank God that I can go around this nation and say I'm a proud, happy member, faithful member of the Franklin O. Baptist Church. Faithful in my time, not in my attendance, for I'm never here. But the truth of the matter is I say, listen, I appreciate my church. I appreciate the fact that we got a big church. I'm glad that we got a big church that hasn't thwarted its dues and hasn't gone crazy and charismatic and all that kind of stuff like I preached on the other night. And I'm going to tell you something, ladies and gentlemen, if we're not careful, we will get so wrapped up in people that we will forget about the power of Almighty God. And if there's one thing this church needs, if there's one thing these preachers need and these people on this staff and this Christian school, if there's one thing that Brother Curt needs and one thing that Dr. Wallace needs and one thing that Deacons needs and one thing Brother Barry needs and the pianists needs, if there's one thing the people of this church needs, it is an old-fashioned outpouring and anointing of the precious Holy Spirit of God. And I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, we are lost when it comes to having the power of God in modern-day fundamentalism. I speak for myself tonight and step all over my feet and all over my toes. I have been grieved in my own marriage, in my own life, and in my own ministry over my lack of a burden for the power of God. And I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, if there is anything that we need tonight, we need a fresh infilling of God's Holy Spirit. And I remind you, the Bible says in Ephesians 5, 18, be not drunk with wine, words it says, but be filled with the Spirit. Now, friend, that is not an option. That is an obligation. That is not merely a suggestion. It is a command that we are to be being filled every single day of the week, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Now, excuse me for basic human illogic, but if God's got to tell me to be filled with the Spirit, does that not necessitate logically that obviously there are times in my life when I'm not filled with the Spirit? You know what? My wife knows when those times are. My closest friends and associates know exactly when those times are. I'm telling you, we need people in our churches that are led, that are guided, and that live by the power of the filling of the Spirit of God, which we most of the time know absolutely nothing about. You know what? That'll change the way we talk. It'll change the way we walk. It'll change the way you treat your kids. It'll change the way, ma'am, that you submit to your husband, serve the way that you love, and submit to the needs of your wife. It'll change a lot of things. It'll change your temper. It'll change your attitude. And I'm telling you, we need the power of the Spirit of God. The other night I left Maine. I was there in Farmington, Maine. It's a New Hope Baptist Church with Pastor Brian Rebert. Man, we had a wonderful meeting and the snow began to come in on Thursday night. And I said, Pastor, you know, I said, I got to get to my home church on Sunday. And I said, I'm going to start a revival meeting there and meet our song team there. And I said, we're going to have a wonderful meeting. And I said, listen, they say that two or three feet's coming in. You walk out in the middle of the yard, they had six feet deep and they had two or three more coming. And I said, listen, I love to preach. And I said, now, what do you think about backing the meeting off a night? He said, well, I think it might only happen tonight. Had just a small crowd that night. Was supposed to have a big team emphasis night that Friday like we were having here. Ended up having the next service. I called my wife and told her that I was already leaving. Had to call her back and say, honey, I'm not going to leave. They want me to stay. They want me to preach the final message and give my testimony. And so I stayed there on Friday night. I grabbed a piece of pizza. I left at 830 that night. Drove 28 straight hours to get here. Took off one hour in Roanoke, Virginia to eat with a good pastor friend of mine. I was driving down the road. After I left my pastor friend in Roanoke, Virginia, this would have been Saturday night, probably, I don't know, about 637, maybe 715. I was driving down the road and all of a sudden, man, I just began to talk to the Lord. I mean, you know, sometimes people look at me like I'm crazy. I get so happy preaching, spitting all over the windshield. Need windshield wipers on the inside of the vehicle, not the outside of it. I was in there singing, just having myself a time. Great big old watermelon tears went up my eyes, snot began to roll down my cheeks. And I said, Oh, dear God, would you bless me? Oh, dear God, would you use me? I started praying about the old prayer of Jaban. And man, I started to pray in that car and I started crying in that car. At about 15, 20 minutes, I got to the place, honestly. I got to the place, honestly, where I thought to myself, Man, I just feel like I am full of God. You ever had one of those experiences? I mean, you were just filled. You were close to the Lord and you didn't think you was ever going to get mad again. I mean, you didn't think you was ever going to run your mouth and say something you shouldn't say, stick your foot in your mouth. I mean, I thought to myself, Man, I am so full of God, Brother Kurt, I am never going to stick my foot in my mouth again. I must have been driving down the road about five minutes and some jerk came up behind me with his vehicle. I was driving over this lane, that 40-foot fifth-wheel travel trailer. And I've learned to be real compassionate towards 18-wheel truck drivers because I've learned you can't just yank 24,000 pounds up the road anytime you want to. And so I'm over here. These people won't let me over. This guy comes barreling up behind me, blinking his lights like this, back and forth, back and forth, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, honking the horn. So I'm thinking, Well, God bless you, brother. I'm going to be all right. I'm going to be spirit-filled about this thing. I just spend time with Jesus. And so I put on my blinker. I'm waiting to come this way. I make sure everything's all right. I pull that big old rig over there. Boom! He comes barreling up beside there. First thing I said to myself was, See there, man, the Lord blessed me and honored me. I didn't get mad. I could have slammed on my brakes in front of that guy. I could have got all mad. Could have beeped the horn. He drove by. I could have said, Jesus saved. Something like that. I didn't say a word. Also, that guy comes driving by me. He flipped on his dome light and I thought, He must like me. He's saying I'm number one. No, he was not. He was giving me all kind of hand gestures like you wouldn't believe. I thought, Okay, no big deal. I figure I can handle that. I'm by myself. My wife's not with me. I got the poodle dog in my lap. I'm going to be a spiritual man of God. That nut pulled over in front of me and slammed on his brakes and I was going 75 miles an hour with a 25,000-pound rig behind my truck and he slammed on his brakes right in the middle of the interstate. And here I am. I gear that thing down as fast as I can, just about put my fist through the dashboard. That big old thing sliding down the road about like that. So he sped up a little bit. I tried to be spirit-filled. I sped up a little bit. He sped up a little more. We came over a hill. And I sped up a little bit and got right up behind him real good and started blinking my lights back and forth like that right there. And I felt the Holy Spirit tell me, Greg, I thought you were so full of God that you was never going to get mad again. And God is my witness out loud. I said, God, if he will pull over, I will pull over behind him and beat him to death in the name of God and be filled with the Spirit all night long. And I'm telling you, friends, sometimes we are not filled with the Spirit the way that we should be. And here was a group of people that said, God, we've got buildings. We've got programs. We've got people. People are being saved. People are being baptized. But they did not have the power of God. And I'm telling you, that is the great need of the hour. You believe what you want to tonight. But when fundamentalism, when we folded our Kansas tents and stored them away in an attic or in a basement of a Baptist church and we busted out of our storefronts, we left something behind when we moved into megalopolisity, if you will. There used to be a time when we'd come on our face and we'd beg down the power of God. There used to be a time, believe it or not, at Franklin Road Baptist Church where the preacher would get on his face and pray for ten people to show up. And that was a time when we would be on our face and we would weep for our lost loved ones and we would cry and we would beg the Holy, the kind of glory of Almighty God to come down. But hey, now we got a new renovated auditorium. Now we got a new pastor that loves God and preaches the Bible hot and preaches the Bible straight. Then we got a Christian school with several hundred kids in it. We got a good youth pastor and we got a good Christian school administrator. And we got Brother Barry Greeney and we got Brother David Chambers and everything's going well. But our problem is we don't have the power of God like we should. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm telling you these people said, we are rich, we got money in the bank, we're supporting missionaries all around the world, we support Bible college missionaries, pastors at Angelus, and we're starting work. And Lord, we have need. The last thing we need is for you to mess around and come down and interfere with our plan and with our program. I'm convinced of one thing tonight, Dr. Wallace, and I'm sure he can attest to the fact. I believe if God sent this church revival like we're praying for him to, I think it would scare some of us absolutely. I think if God wanted to convince and convict and work and fill and mend and break, if he wanted to do in this church this week what we're praying for him to do, it would scare most of us absolutely out of the community. And we've become so complacent that that which should be normal in the church, if it ever happens, will seem abnormal in the church because we got our program. We got our Christian school. We got everything going. And dear God, the last thing we need is for you to come down and mess around with us. But I'm telling you, we need the power from on high. Help me out tonight. Help me in this room. Just by a quick show of hands. I'll not even look that long. Come to this room tonight, believe in a personal responsibility to be an evangelist, to be an evangelizer, to be a soul winner, a witness, a testimony. Put your hand there if you honestly believe that under God. We have a responsibility. All right, put your hand down. You better believe we do. I'm going to tell you something. Perhaps I'll be misunderstood tonight, but study your Bible. I'm going to tell you something strange. I thank God for every ministry of a person that is a soul winner. I thank God for these goals that we've set. I thank God for the fact that we did have that banner up there, knocked on those 10,000 doors and praised God for it. We've seen some influx here. And I thank God for every single one of them. This morning, I had the great unique privilege in my ministry to go over and preach the devotion time there at the Sword of the Lord where the Rockwell was kind enough to help me get one of the Bibles there and gave me a little bit of a preacher discount. And I appreciate it and I love the Sword of the Lord. And I thank God for it. Dr. Smith is preaching tonight away. He'll be back tomorrow night and I'll revise with him. And I thank God for the Sword of the Lord. But I'm going to tell you something. We live in what is kind of affectionately known as the Bible Belt. And if that's true, it needs a new buckle, that's for sure. But the truth of the matter is this. Let me tell you what I've heard all of my life. Ever since I've been saved by the grace of God, here is what I've heard and it is wrong. I've heard 10,000 million billion trillion sermons at Ambassador Baptist College, from the Franklin Road Baptist Church, Berean Baptist Church where I was a member there, Summerville Baptist Church, places where I've traveled, preachers, fellowships and conferences, missions conferences, youth camps. The first word of the Great Commission is gold. The first word of the Great Commission is gold. And we need to go, we need to go, we need to go. And I'm going to be honest with you, we do need to go. But we've got the spiritual cart before the spiritual horse because I want to remind you before they ever turned the world upside down, before they ever opened their mouth, before Peter ever preached and 3,000 people got saved by the grace of God, I want to tell you what Jesus told him before he ever told him to go. He said, "'Cherish in Jerusalem until ye be endued with power.'" And I think we are so busy about the going, we've completely forgotten or we may even care less about the filling. And I'm telling you, we are commanded to be soul winners, but your soul winning testimony will be nullified if you do not have the power and the filling of the Spirit of God in your heart and in your life. And these people said, "'We have need of nothing,' and Jesus Christ said, "'No, no, you're wrong, friend. "'You have desperate need of me.'" And then look what God told these people. What a sterling rebuke from the lips of Jesus. He said in Revelation 3, and it goes on in verse 17, "'Because thou sayest, I am rich, "'or increased with goods, and we have need of nothing,' Jesus said, "'Knoweth not.'" He said you're spiritually ignorant to the fact. "'Knoweth not that thou art wretched.'" Hey, friend, that's a pretty big indictment when Jesus says that his church is living wickedly, they're living wretchedly, but they're living on the inside like many people are living on the outside. And friend, we have no excuse for that. We're supposed to be a peculiar nation of holy people. No, we're not going to be sinless, but yes, we should sin less because there is a change in your life when you get saved by the grace of God. And he said, you people are living wretched. If that's how it looks, look what else he said. He said, and miserable. I read that the first time, Dr. Norris, and I thought to myself, what in the wide world is God trying to say? I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to tell you why most of our fundamental churches, if you will, are not busting at the seams with lost people wanting to come in. I'm going to tell you why we're not seeing near as many people saved as we should. You know what, this is just another indication that we know nothing about the power of God in this day and age. I'm going to tell you why. We've got more buildings. We've got more people. We've got more administration. We've got more schools. We've got more seminaries. We've got more preachers than we ever had, and the world's going to hell under our ministry quicker than any other ministry in the world, quicker than any other ministry on the face of God's earth. Since the day of Pentecost, this world is going to hell, and God's people have no burden for the fulfilling of the power of God. And here Jesus looked at His people and said, you are miserable. You know why people are influxing into these churches? You know why sinners are not coming in and being saved in the baptismal waters of the church? I'm going to be honest with you, from my outside looking in perspective, if you will, I believe not only has God called us miserable, but a lot of the world thinks we're miserable, too. Boy, we come to church, and boy, we're all excited. By the way, it bothers me when people shout during singing and pout during preaching. That really bothers me, but nonetheless, we come to church, oh, and we're so excited. Man, we got the joy bells of God singing, our soul in the trees never looked so pretty, and the birds never sang so sweetly before. Then all of a sudden you go to work one day and find out you got a bill you didn't expect. And the God that was on His throne and the God that was alive and the God that was powerful and taking care of you, all of a sudden, He's a dead God. All of a sudden, He's a nil God. All of a sudden, He can't do anything for you. And you walk around, look like you're going to step on your teeth and your lips hanging down like a bunch of shoelaces. And I'm telling you, friend, God's good in the bad times. He's good in the good times. He's good in the high times, the low times, the wet times, and the dry times. And I believe most of the world thinks we're miserable too because we do not have the filling of the Spirit of God. Jesus said, you people are wretched. He said, you people are miserable. He could have stopped right there and I'd have been convicted all to pieces. But He went on, look what He said. Not only did He say you're wretched, not only did He say you're miserable, He said, but you're poor and you're blind and you are naked. I want to hold in on that simple little word there in the middle, blind. I think when He says poor, by the way, He's not talking about the fact that these people were physically, financially poor. We know they weren't bankrupt, but to Almighty God, they were spiritually bankrupt. And I believe what Jesus is saying is, you've not been to the bank of heaven to cash in on the power of God in a long time. And He said to me, you're a poor group of people. You're a poor testimony for the cause of Christ. But then He said, you're blind. Is He saying these people need to go to Dr. Reed's and get some bifocals? No, that's not what He's saying. He's saying that these people have lost their vision for what God has done and for what God wants to do. Then He calls me that great hymn writer. You know what He said? What is worse than having no sight is having sight yet having no vision. And I believe we've lost our vision for the power of God. I hear some of these preachers, God bless their hearts, they get up in the pulpit and they pull their glasses down over their nose and they say, ladies and gentlemen, America is dead, dying, and going to hell and there's nothing our God can do. No, no, friends. Malachi 3.6, I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob shall not be consumed Hebrews 13.8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We serve an immutable God. We have an immutable, infallible Bible and we serve the same God that we've always served. I did not say God will revive America, but I certainly will never stop believing that God can revive America because we serve a big God and I believe we have lost our vision for what God wants to do. Here's what I hear all of the time. We touched on it just a minuscule bit last night. Here's what I hear a lot in meetings. I tell you, where are the Billy Sundays? Boy, Billy Sunday would come to town. I mean, he'd pull his jacket off, rip his towels. He'd rip his shirt off and preach in his undershirt. Here's a man that would break dishes and bust microphones and chairs and run around. You'd think I preach fast. You haven't listened to a recording of Billy Sunday, friend. I mean, hundreds of words just like that rattled out my machine gun. He'd jump around. I mean, he'd have preachers on the platform. He'd find out there's liberals. He'd turn around and preach to them for 15 minutes in the congregation, yet thousands of people came to hear this man preach. He would come to town and he'd say, liquor has its place and its place is in the pits of hell. And I'd say amen to that. And he would come and thousands would be converted and saved. Yet I hear all the time, man, where's Billy Sunday? Then I hear, Brother Locke, where's D.O. Moody? I remember I was preaching in the state of Vermont in the Independent Baptist Church. Pastor Fran Galone came to my wife and I said, how would you like to go to Moody's place where he started the North Hampton schools up here where he was born and where his body's buried? I said, well, I don't worship a man. I worship the God of a man. I said, but I'd love to go and see the place. I said, man, it'd be wonderful. I'd like to see his Bible and see that museum. And so we went down in there and some of the place was locked up and I couldn't see everything that I wanted to see. They took me downstairs in the archive room and we began to look around. And they had some letters that were written, Brother Lindsay, and one of the letters in there was handwritten from C.H. Spurgeon to D.O. Moody in the end of it. It said, P.S., it would do my people in London good to be stirred up by you. And I thought, man, when C.H. Spurgeon said you're an evangelist that can stir up his people, man, you must be some kind of evangelist. I remember I was walking around. You asked them who D.O. Moody was. They think he's an upperclassman. They have no idea who he is. I stood by his grave and I sat there and I thought to myself, man, where is D.O. Moody? I began to walk around and I said, can we go in the auditorium? They had this great big auditorium. They had a meeting up there a couple of years ago. Dr. Bobby Robertson and others preached there. It was the 100th anniversary of the death of D.O. Moody. They went up there and his great-great-grandson was there and spoke a bit. Perhaps he was at that meeting. Many people from the South did, but nonetheless. I remember I walked in there. My wife stood there. His wife stood there. Pastor Galone was there, had a little baby there. And I said, I'll be right back. I had my Bible under my arm. I walked up on that big old platform, old rickety, crotchety place. Place was about dilapidated, just a little bit bigger than this because the seats wrapped around to about right here, kind of like a stadium. And I remember it was just empty in there and hollering there. And I remember I went in there and I picked up my Bible and stomped my foot and said, Lord, sayeth the Lord! And man, it just kind of echoed and resounded through that place and I thought, man, what it would be like to hear Moody preach in his day for God so loved the world, his favored son. Then I remember this past Christmas, my wife and I and Aunt Martha, we went down to Nashville, there to the Spaghetti Factory. We were going to the Ryman Auditorium to watch that little old Scrooge play. You know, that guy that's all mad, this, that, and the other, gets right with God from a dream and goes out and gives all his money away, you know what I'm talking about. So I began to watch this thing and I wasn't too interested in it, to be honest with you. I was interested in one thing. I was sitting in the Ryman Auditorium. You say, big deal. So what? So then, did you know in the early 1900s, the Ryman Auditorium was not built for the grand old uproars? You know that? The Ryman Auditorium was not written for a bit of Ray Cyrus and the rest of that achy, breaky heart crowd to get in there and jump around like a bunch of frogs on lily pads. I'll tell you what it was built for, friend. It was built for the overflow crowds of a Sam Jones revival. We walked around in that place. I thought I was going to have a cardiac arrest. They had one of his suits laying in there, had a Bible in there, had some sermon notes. I got to look around that place. Big old tears went up my eyes. I put my arm around my wife and I said, looky there. I said, this was a place where revival took place in America. Nashville, where a man preached 10 times a day. Did you hear me? Where a man preached 10 times a day for three solid months to crowds of between 4 and 20,000 people. A millionaire by the name of Mr. Ryman who died shortly after it was built never one time heard Sam Jones preach in that auditorium, but the crowds were so big in the Civic Coliseum they were knocking out the walls and knocking out the windows to hear the man of God preach. And I hear, Brother Locke, where's Billy Sunday, where's C.H. Furgin, where's D.O. Moody? I want to know where Sam Jones, and I'm going to tell you where they are. They're dead. They are pushing up daisies and they can't do one thing for America, but I want to remind you what happened in your Bible. There was a prophet who, in my estimation, was the greatest prophet in the Old Testament. His name was Elijah. Elijah one day went up in a chair to whirlwind, a chair to fire. The Bible says he threw his mantle down to a young man by the name of Elisha. He picked up that mantle. You read your Bible, Elisha did exactly twice as many miracles as Elijah did. The Bible says one day he came to the brink to the brook of the muddy Jordan. He took that staff and he lifted it up. Some people were watching him there from a little bit away and here's what he said. He lifted up that rod to heaven and he said, Where is the God of Elijah? Did you notice he didn't say, Where's Elijah, God? Did you notice he didn't say, Where's Moses and Abraham and all the other patriarchs? Where's that one that split the Red Sea by the rod of God? Where's Aaron and where's these other ones, dear God? He didn't do that. He said, Where is the God of Elijah? And we've been asking for Sam Jones and we've been asking for Billy Sunday and C.H. Ferguson and G.O. Moody when we should be saying, Where is the God of those men? He's in the same place that he's always been. Psalm 113, God is upon his holy throne, his eye is on the children of men. I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and the floods upon the dry ground. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they and they alone shall be filled. And I'm going to tell you tonight why we're not filled because we're not hungry and because we're... I'll show you one verse. We close and we go home. Verse 20 of Revelation chapter 3, please. As a matter of fact, I want you to see verse 19, if you would, just to show you something. Here's a great love of God. As many as I love, he's preaching to his church. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, be quick about it, be spurious. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. You see, repentance is not just for lost people. Repentance is for God's people. Repentance is not a one-time deal. Repentance is a lifetime deal. 2 Chronicles 7, 14. If my people, that's you and me, if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn, repent, turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land, God says. So he says, listen, I've had to rebuke you, but I love you and that's why I'm chastening you, that's why I'm scolding you, that's why I'm carrying you to the woodshed, child, because I want you to see the error of your ways. That's what he's telling him. Then verse 20. One of the most often misunderstood verses in all of our Bible, Revelation 3, 20, where your Bible says, behold, that word behold's a declaration. He wants to open your eyes to something. Behold, I, Jesus says, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with me. As we close, please help me by an uplifting of your hand. How many of you have ever seen the picture that is based on Revelation 3, verse 20? Jesus is standing on a doorstep about two steps high. There's a round, kind of an oval-shaped door. It has a little heart there in the middle. There's no doorknob on the outside, only a doorknob on the inside, because Jesus is outside standing and knocking, and the sinner must open that door, and Revelation 3, 20 is inscripted across the bottom. How many of you have ever seen that? You've seen that picture. You've seen that verse. Most of us in this room. Beautiful, beautiful application, because man does have a free will. Revelation 22, 17, the Spirit and the bride say, come, let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely. And yes, when that conviction comes and knocks, yes, we do have to open the door, but that is an application. That is not the interpretation. That is not what is taking place in Revelation 3. I want to remind you, he's not talking to the devil's crowd. He is talking to the church of the Laodiceans. He is talking to a church age. He is talking to born-again, baptized, so-called fundamental Bible-believing Christianity. And he tells those people, behold, I stand at the door and I knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me. You know what would happen? You know what was happening? The preacher was so busy preaching his sermons. The choir was so busy singing their songs. The deacons were so busy going about their deaconship, if you will. The schoolteachers were so busy schooling and giving their achievement tests. The students were so busy coming to chapel and we were so busy on the inside singing and giving and praying and preaching. And we were doing, doing, doing. And we were going, going, going. And we didn't even realize that God Almighty is on the outside of the church trying to get in. Because we're so busy on the inside without him. We don't even recognize that we're inside and he's out there knocking. Open the door, Franklin Road Baptist Church. Open the door and I will open up the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that you cannot contain. And he's not talking to lost people. He's talking to his people that were so busy on the inside doing their thing. They forgot about the one thing and that was the infiltration of the precious Spirit of Almighty God. And I am not, I am not going to let the Charismatics and the Pentecostals scare me away from the Holy Spirit's power because he does want to endue you with that unction from on high. Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to have to get to the place where we hunger and where we thirst, not for fame, fortune, family, friends, or pat on the back, but to have the power of God and the filling of the Spirit of God like never before. And in Revelation chapter 3, we have a perfect picture of the kind of people that make God.