This sermon emphasizes the importance of abiding in Christ through daily communion with God. It highlights the tragic consequences of neglecting God for other priorities, leading to spiritual decline and sin. The speaker shares personal stories and challenges the audience to prioritize their relationship with God above all else, stressing the vital reality of abiding in Christ for spiritual growth and fruitfulness.

I am the true vine, and my father is the husband man. Here he calls himself a vine, and the father is the keeper of the vineyard. It's one who takes the vine in the vineyard. Every branch in me, every branch in me that dareth not fruit. Suddenly, he points to you and I, and he calls us branches. He calls us branches in the vine. Every branch in me that dareth not fruit. He taketh away, he taketh away. I don't know if I could think of any more tragic words that God could ever say about me, or my life, or you. To have God say these terrible words. There's no fruit. Every branch in me that dareth not fruit. Is that you? Be honest here. Is that you that God speaks of here? That dareth no fruit. In Luke 13, you all know the lovely parable of how a certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. He came and sought fruit. Thereon and found none. Is that you? Is that you? Said to the dresser, these three years I come seeking fruit. On this tree I find none. Gutted down, why cumbereth the ground? The answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year, also till I shall dig about it and dung it. And if it bear fruit, well, and if it not, then after that thou shalt cut it down. It isn't that there's no patience and compassion and mercy and longing in God's heart that there should be fruit in thy life and mine, Lord? I've thus been comparing. Shame covers me, filled with amazement that thou art still sparing this barren tree. But these words are staggering. Every branch in me that dareth not fruit, he taketh away. You know, I don't know what that means. Have you ever had a preacher in America saying that? I don't know what that means. I know many preachers try and get me aside to tell me to say what it means. I don't know what that means. Forgive me. I've heard preachers try and tell me what that means from the pulpit and I'm just left stone cold. All I'm going to do if you would give me the right is just leave that between you and God. Every branch in me that dareth not fruit, he taketh away. And every branch that dareth fruit, oh, now he points to you and I who are real, who have vital reality. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Has God been able to say that of you to the devil, to your enemies, to your lost loved ones and friends? Can God, and he says it loud and clear to every single soul on earth that knows you. He says it loud and clear the moment there's true fruit. Behold, look God. And he says it to the world. All things have become new. Has God been able to say that about you? There's vital reality. Every branch that dareth fruit. What does God say about us? Where there's vital reality and fruit. Every branch in me that dareth not fruit, he taketh away. And every branch that dareth fruit, he purges it. He purges it. He purges it that it may bring forth more fruit. Now that word purges is so confusing. You'll find in some of the new translations, most of which I tremble at. They say cleanses. And we have to be honest, the Greek is a rich language. You can choose certain words, but that's nowhere near the full truth of what God is saying here. This word implies something cruel. If one has to be honest, you cannot take away the cutting, the hurting involved here. It's not just a cleanser in a moment. There's something beyond the cleansing of the blood by faith. There's something that cleanses further, not only just the washing of the water by the word. There's a cleansing. There's something of a cutting. There's something of a purging. There's something of a cruel word here that's hard to grasp. He purges it. The moment there's fruit, God desires more fruit. And how does he do it? He purges it. He cuts. You go to the vineyard in our country and you won't believe what they do. We have some of the richest vineyards in the world that send some of the most famous wines across the world. And we just have valleys upon valleys of some of the richest vineyards in the world for a hundred, even three hundred miles. And you go on those vineyards and you will be stunned at the treatment of someone who cares and tends the vineyard. You and I in our ignorance will stand there and watch them as they cut ruthlessly. No scaring, just cutting and cutting and cutting and cutting. And we stand back there and say, Oh, what will be left? How will this thing ever survive such treatment? It cannot survive. All that's left is a stomp. He just cuts anything that he feels shouldn't be there without sparing. There's this cutting, a ruthless cutting. But he has a wisdom you and I don't have. He knows. He knows that this will bring forth fruit so abundantly that you and I will not believe. But if he didn't do this, there wouldn't be this fruit. If he left it to itself, if he spared it. But he seeks fruit. Fruit that only he knows in his wisdom. Fruit you and I don't seek. You seek what you think is needed. God seeks something normally so different to what we think is needed in our life. And you find things we're longing and groveling for are still in our lives when we die. But things God sees and his ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. Trust him, beloved. He knows how to bring forth the fruit he's seeking. And how does he bring this? Oh, beloved, the trying of your faith. The purging. The purging, the fires. The trying of your faith. This purging is not easy. The trial of your faith is more precious than the gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire. God knows to bring forth the peaceable fruit of holiness. There's no bypassing this. We cry out, you know, to the world, come to Christ. And all will be well. Come to Christ and everything will go well. That's a lie. No wonder they run away faster than they come these days. When they find you lied. Come to Christ and you'll prosper. Can you believe it? Where do you see that, brother? Give me one verse, I'll give you twenty for every verse you give to explain how you've taken the wrong context. You don't come to Christ to prosper. No wonder they come to Christ. Who wouldn't? You don't come to Christ for prosperity in finances. You come to Christ for mercy and brokenness, no matter what God does thereafter. You just want eternal life and you want forgiveness. There's no conditions attached. Don't put things out that aren't true. Coming to Christ doesn't make you prosper. That's a lie from the devil. He does prosper in times, but watch Job, how fast he can take it away. And where's your theologian there all accusing you of sin? That's the only reason like the theologians of Job standing around him. No mercy, just couldn't be anything else but sin that God doesn't prosper you, you know. What trash. What trash we preach today. Stop it, preacher, stop it. No wonder so many millions are bitter against God and against the church. We're lying. Come to Christ and you'll be healed. If you're sick, you have to be. He turned away no one. Oh, let me give you 20 verses for every verse you give me. That God doesn't heal the godliest of the godly. They suffer in God's wisdom and that's why they're the godliest of the godly. There's no such a thing as prescribing how it's going to be heaven on earth. Heaven's coming, brother. On earth you're in for tribulation. In this world you shall have tribulation. Don't doubt it. Don't doubt it. He cries it out so you face it. It's not easy, the purging. It's not easy, the moment there's proof that God doesn't waste a moment. You find when you're saved, God doesn't waste that. You didn't even have a honeymoon period. There's just the incredible purging. But God knows this won't destroy you, this will make you. Everything he's done, he hasn't got too much time with us, you know. Trust him, he knows what he's doing. He knows what he's doing, beloved. I don't know about you, but the purging has not been easy. It's not been easy for me. You shouted hallelujah, you say, oh, every step of the way. It's just hallelujahs, you know, walking and leaping and praising God. So long as you've got a smile and a hallelujah. Friend, I want to be honest with you, most of the way I've wept. Can a preacher say that and get away with it in the year 2000? Can a preacher tell you he's wept? I've wept. I've groaned, I've lain in my face and cried out, God, let me die. And so many times. Can a man say that today and be true? Beloved, let me tell you something. If you're not going to be true in the pulpit, get out of the pulpit. Get out, get out. For God's sake and man's sake, it's not heaven on earth. It's not hallelujahs all the way. Show me one man that honestly can say that. No. Watch him, watch even Paul, despairing of life, the one who sings praises that we talk about in the prisons at midnight. Why don't we tell the world he despaired of life? Without the fighting within with fears, we despaired of life. There's despairing of life at times to the Pauls. Even he had to be in the school of God. He wasn't perfected at Christianity, at salvation. Oh, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations, trials. Knowing this at the trying of your faith, oh, worketh patience, but let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Do you want to be perfect and entire? Then count it all joy when you fall into diverse trials, all the most incredible trials and sufferings he was talking about, not what we're talking about, you know, these comfortable days. Don't doubt it. The perfecting of your faith comes through the fires, comes through the trials. And I have groaned. I can't stand here lying to you and telling you that I haven't groaned. I want to tell you what it is, otherwise I have to leave the pulpit. God told me that long ago. Don't worry about men's well done and smiling and hallelujahs, even if no one shouts hallelujah again till the day you die. Just be truthful. Someone's got to bring truth. It's not easy. It's not going to be easy, not for one of you, but trust God. It's precious. It's precious. I'll never forget the worst trials God ever allowed in my life was about 10 years ago. I'd been preaching for 30 years ago and seen much fruit and in the school of God gone through much fires and much joy. But 10 years ago, God just ripped my life apart. He stripped me as if everything in life was just being taken and taken until I, I have to be honest with you, I got under my face most of the days, those days, when God just seemed to come against me. Have you ever heard that terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible words from a hymn of a man who knew truth and trials like sea billows roll. Have you ever watched the sea billows? Have you ever watched the waves, sir? There was a man who knew what he was in the school of God. You come, one big wave comes and down you go, down. And you want to get up and you do get up. But what do you get up for just to see the next one coming? Oh, it isn't just one wave that's going to come on you. Suddenly the next wave and you're down again and you say, Oh God, I just want to get up, spare me, that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more. God, just spare me suddenly the next wave. Why, God, are they not sparing me? And you're crushed down again. You can't get up sometimes. You're just about destroyed, devoured. Will I make it? Can I survive? Can anything survive this treatment? Is God like that? Yes. But trust Him. Trust Him. Your life will shape the world if you live in that way. I'll never forget down on my face, weeping in my office, back home, groaning, groaning before God. Why, God, why? Why, God, it's like the whole world. I don't think there was any soul left on earth that wasn't saying, Why has God forsaken this man? Why has God forsaken this man, was the cry of everyone that knew me. And everyone trembled to the degree that God had, it seemed, forsaken me. I was just a barren, thrown down into the dust. And I groppled and I groaned and I wept and I aged. I aged ten years in a few months. Don't doubt that. No one would doubt that. And as I was weeping, the phone went. They tell me my wife, children, have been in an accident. They call right after in hospital. You know what I did? I just put the phone down. I didn't say a thing. And I got in my face and I said for the first time in my life, from my heart, Let me die. Let me die. Please, God, let me die. Is that Christianity? Was Job the only one that cried those words from his soul? Please, God, fathom me with death. Was Jeremiah the only one that wept his face into the ground and said, Let me die. No, no, brother. No, sister. But then, just in case you're all sitting thinking this man has got nothing but negativeness to offer the world, here comes the positive, okay? So grab it. There's always the end of a storm. Don't doubt it. There's no such a thing as God destroying a man in any fire. Don't ever doubt that. There's no possibility of God allowing you to be destroyed. There's not the slightest thought. Read Romans 8, 31 onward that you have, there's no shadow of that doubt. God won't allow you to be destroyed. Nothing will separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Oh, beloved, this is the moment that God, you know, sitting with the refiner's fire, have you ever seen, like our country is the country that produces more gold than any other country on earth? We see the gold processed there. And the fire is unbelievable. It is unbelievable what heat is required to purify that gold to bring out its full purity and value. You can't send gold out unless it's totally purified. And that heat is unbearable. You can't stand near it. You stand afar and you feel and you wonder at this heat. How did they even create such heat? But do you know what happens? All the dross comes out only through the fire. All the rubbish, nothing else will do it. Nothing else will purify it. The trying of your faith is more precious than gold that perisheth. Oh, it be tried with fire. God tells us, don't doubt it. Don't be taken by surprise. But there's a moment that this refiner, sitting looking at you and me, has all the fires that are coming and all the rubbish. That's all it is. Don't give good words to things in our lives. It's rubbish. All that can be done. All the rubbish has been taken out. That's all that God was doing with me, preaching all those years. And yet there was so much more and God said, No, I've got to deal with things now. I want more fruit than this. I want more fruit than this. But there's a moment. Don't doubt it. God says enough. Enough! Stop. For now. For now. And all the powers of hell and enemies and men that would wallow in you all being destroyed can do nothing from the moment God says stop. And He will say that word to you. Don't dare believe He won't say it in time before you feel you're destroyed totally. And there was that moment God said stop concerning my life when I lay there groppling and wanting to die. There was that moment God said enough and suddenly every soul that knew me on earth knew God said that. No one said a word of criticism. No one judged. Everyone just looked on as God suddenly lifted me up in a way He had never lifted me up before. You know I used to get up in all honesty no matter what the devil did and I used to charge back in the battle with a vengeance no matter how the devil came and put me down before. But this time I didn't get up in my own strength. It was the first time in my life I honestly couldn't get up unless God lifted me up. And oh you get up so different when God has to lift you up. Oh you're so different you're broken. You can't touch the glory you know. When you know that the next step you take if you're ever going to take another step is grace and every single person on earth that knows you knows also grace alone would make this man ever take another step in life with Christ. And the world knows and you know oh you get up and you walk so differently when the world looks at you and knows. And you know I only stand because grace has done. Grace a miracle lifted me up in love. And then God suddenly began to open pulpits that He had never opened before. Oh I had had opportunities that few preachers had had and I was grateful and enthralled and in awe of what God gave me. But suddenly God started giving me some of the greatest pulpits in the world. Just suddenly. Why? Do you think man decided now we'll allow him into the pulpit? No. God dared not trust me before. I would have touched the glory. I would have. I would have. Don't doubt that. God couldn't dare trust me. I would have been ruined, destroyed. He has to bury a man that touches glory. That would have been too much to me. But beloved, it's something you know when man won't let you touch the glory because man knows there's nothing in you apart from grace and mercy. Man won't allow you to touch the glory. That's a safe place to be. And I thank God He didn't give me the pulpits before man wouldn't allow me to touch the glory. Not even a sidely glance at the glory Spurgeon said. Incapable of even looking at the glory Spurgeon said. But let God find such a man that's willing to do that and the world will know of him. Oh beloved, be careful. God knows what He's doing and fruit is something you not looking, not even know you need. God knows what you need. Trust Him to bring out the fruit He's looking for. He knows what to do and how to do it. When I got up, you know, when God lifted me up and suddenly the pulpits were just opening across our land, Andrew Murray's pulpits, the pulpits with the revivals started in our land. Suddenly, oh. But I sat with my wife shortly after that, still so crushed, still so humbled, weeping daily still. You don't just recover in one moment. Broken. That's not a terrible thing, young man, to be broken itself. You've seen a man selfless. Not a terrible thing that God wants of you to get it all out, you know, to leave nothing but. I remember looking at my wife one day and my wife, in case you're wondering, I needed my wife. My wife didn't need me, you know. A man loves to say, oh, my wife needs me, you know. The weaker vessel. I have to be honest. My wife didn't need me. I needed my wife to survive. That is true. That's not humility, sir. False humility. I want to be true in the pulpit of God for fear God will take me out if I'm not utterly truthful. My wife didn't need me. I needed her. She's probably the godliest person I know alive today. And God gave her to me. I say that so carefully, under the blood of Christ. I don't know another soul as Christ-like as my wife on earth today that I honestly know. And I marvel God gave this for my children's mother and for me to have this example always before me. I looked at my wife and I said, Jenny, why? Why did God do this? Why did God allow all this on me, Jenny? Every breath in my body was for Christ. The faculty of my being was just given over to serving God. You know that. The children know that. The world knows that, Jenny. Why would God turn on me and do all this? Why, Jenny? And you know, my wife said words I will never forget for all eternity. And tears came down her face as she looked at me, broken. And she said, Keith, I don't have all the answers. I wish I did, Keith. But this I do know. God was perfect in his dealings with you, Keith. Do you know why, Keith? I see something in you, in your life now, that I never saw before. I see Jesus, Keith. And I never saw that before, Keith. Do you know when my wife said those words, what I said to God as I stood looking at her? I said in my heart, God, you can start right now and take me through the whole thing again. I'm willing. You have just heard my wife look me in the eyes and say those words once in my life. I'd go through it all again. No one knows you like your wife, sir. No one knows you like your wife. Has she ever looked at you and said those words? I treasure that for eternity. At one moment in my life that I knew God was having his way. I can't say at every other moment I wish I could. Even when crowds were streaming forward, that didn't mean God was having his way. But when my wife, when my wife looked and said those words, oh. Do you know what Spurgeon said? Spurgeon said basically what Job said. When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold from the fire. He was the first to understand theology and practical outworking of the fires. No man understood before to that degree. Oh, when he has tried me, suddenly he began to glimpse. I shall come forth as gold from the fire. He knew, he knew even the godliest man on earth needed to go through the fires. There's none of us that won't go through it. The holiest man of God in our midst here today has to go through more. Let me tell you only what God knows you need though, sir. Spurgeon, the prince of all preachers. No other man has ever been dared to be called that. No man ever preached like Spurgeon. No man, don't doubt it. You know what Spurgeon said in his old age? Just once he said it, weeping in the pulpit. But listen, listen church of Christ of this modern day of happy Christianity or no Christianity. Spurgeon stood in the pulpit as an old man, the only man the world acknowledged as the greatest preacher that ever lived. And Spurgeon said if it wasn't for the fires, if it wasn't for the trials, if it wasn't for the sufferings, if it wasn't for the storms, I would have been poverty stricken in the hand of God. I would have been poor in the pulpit of God. Preacher, preacher, trust God. He's not destroying you, he's making. If you'll only trust him though, if you'll only trust him though. Listen carefully to what we've got to do though. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. Oh, he weeps saying that, don't doubt it. By the time you say that word about you, he weeps. He weeps like no man ever wept for you. He didn't only weep on earth, sir, don't tell me it's an emotionalism I'm bringing now. If Christ wept on earth, he weeps now in heaven, don't you doubt that. He's no different in character, or heart, or compassion, or patience, or mercy, or hurt. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he purges it. Isn't it lovely? Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. But every branch that beareth fruit, the moment there's fruit, the moment there's reality, he doesn't wait, he purges it, he purges it that it may bring forth more fruit. Now you're clean through the word. I love that, which I've spoken unto you. Now comes the most important, vital verse in the entire Bible for a Christian. There's nothing more vital for God to say to a Christian than this verse. You can go through the Bible 400 times, and you'll still agree with me. There's no verse God holds out to the Christian as vital as this, so listen carefully now. Abide in me, that's a command, and I in you. Abide in me, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine. No more can ye except ye abide in me. If you don't do this, the fires will make you bitter and twisted and ugly and unchristlike and unbelieving, bitter against God, bitter against man, full of self-pity. You'll be a misery, you'll ruin what God was trusting or entrusting. Don't do that now, but you've got to do one thing. Trust while anything comes in you, whatever comes, but do this one thing only every day of life. This is your one priority of life. Don't eat, but do this. You have more chance of survival not eating food than not doing this. Don't doubt that. Abiding in me, abiding in me. This is the one thing you do to survive, and out of it will come fruit. No matter what comes upon you that God allows will just be fruit and fruit and fruit and fruit and fruit. It isn't that God isn't purging or doesn't want to, and isn't busy with you, that if you're not doing this, no matter what He does, it will all be ruined. So you take care now, this is your responsibility. Abide in me, I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine. No more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. Don't doubt it, God knows how to bring it. He knows how to bring it, trust Him now. The same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing, nothing. Don't doubt it, don't try to do anything for Jesus apart from abiding in Him. Don't try to preach, don't try to do anything apart from abiding in Him. You can do nothing apart from this. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, withered. Men gather them, cast them into the fire, they are burned. I don't know what that's meaning. Forgive me, I'm not as great a theologian as you, or as daring. So I just leave that verse with you great theologians to convince people about. Abide in me, I in you. You know John wrote these words that he heard Jesus said, but then John preached. Oh he was a great preacher. Do you want to know how God expounded through this man turned to one John? The first epistle of John. The first letter of John. And listen to how he thinks back on the words Christ said, chapter 2. I'd love to bring more verses, but look at this, let's get right down to it. Verse 6. He that saith, he abideth in Him. He that saith, he does the one thing Christ cried out you have to do for anything of any value to happen in Christianity. Without this you have no ability. Nothing can ever happen in your life of any value unless you do this, and this is your part. He that saith, he does what Christ said, so is vital. It lays down everything to fulfill this one thing God says is so essential for survival. He that saith, he abideth in Him, ought himself also so to walk even as he walked. Abide in Jesus and you become like Jesus. You have to. God will make sure of that. He that saith, he abideth in Him, ought himself also so to walk even as he walked. Do you? As a result of abiding in Christ. It doesn't end there. The same chapter 2, verse 28. Now little children abide in Him. Why? He always tells us why. That when He shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed. Is that why I've got to abide in Him? Oh yes, there's reasons. Preach it. If He's so essential you tell people, you better tell people, no matter what your theology, abide in Him. Little children, that when He shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed. Before Him it is coming. Chapter 3, verse 6. Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not. Oh my. It's not talking about sinless perfection, by the way. But let me tell you something. There's no victory in Jesus apart from abiding in Him. You want victory, young man. You want victory, young girl. You've got to learn the one thing. You can come out in meetings a thousand times and bow down for every single thing the holiness movement or any other movement can bring about. Being filled with the Spirit and the victory. You can come out to the day you die, but until you get up from your knees, and I don't despise any encounter with God or meeting or abstinence. I have absolute surrender that Andrew Murray says is so vital to be filled with the Spirit and controlled by the Spirit. But let me tell you, whatever you come out, unless you determine from that moment to the day you die, you will always lose ground. You will always, unless you determine to do this as the greatest priority in life, abiding in Christ. That's your part. It's not an act of faith, whereby I say I'm in the body of Christ. It has nothing to do with faith, this abiding in Christ. This is a discipline. It is the greatest discipline in life of communing with God. There's nothing that matters more than communing with God. Don't doubt that. But who does it cost, because there's nothing more the devil does to try and keep you away from anything in life than this. You think your sins are what the devil did. Your sins are the result of what the devil did by keeping you from the quiet time. And if you didn't miss the quiet time, you wouldn't have 90 percent of the failures of your life. If you didn't miss getting into God, abiding in such a way that you don't leave him behind when you open the door to leave the closet, you met with him in such a way that when you open the door, you walk with him through the day. That's a quiet time. Anything less is a lie. You fall asleep on your knees. Don't ever get on your knees again. Don't lie. Don't waste time. Do what works. Half an hour a lie vital with God is better than two hours lying to yourself as you're communing with God. Don't do nurtured, guarded. Let me tell you, if the quiet time, the morning meeting with God, and the night, the morning especially, is not the most guarded, precious, nurtured thing in your life, you are backslidden. If in this morning, and this entire day, and yesterday, and the day before, I don't care who you are, professor of theology, doctor of theology, I don't care if you're the world's greatest preacher. If the quiet time is not intact, you're a grief to God. You're as real as your quiet time, no matter who you are on earth. You're not as real as your testimony was 20 years ago or one week ago. You are as real as your quiet time. You want to know five, ten things of what it is, what's vital reality? Nothing. Just one thing, the quiet time. The ten things are the result of the quiet time. Take away the quiet time. Take away the communing. Take away the abiding in Christ, and you're left with nothing that God can do for you. Nothing. Though you're the greatest orator on earth, suddenly you're standing in the pulpit without God, and I fear nothing more in life than to stand in the pulpit without God. Preacher, don't get in the pulpit until you've soaked yourself in prayer, until you're sure you're abiding with Him. Come with Him from the presence of God. Don't come at all. Don't dare. There's no such a danger place in the world than the preacher to be alone in the pulpit with his own abilities. He does the work of the devil. He's the greatest theologian on earth. You need God in the pulpit, so don't get in the pulpit. You need God. Without Him, you can do nothing in His one way, the abiding. The abiding is not an act of faith or relying on yesterday's quiet time or the day before or a week. Today is how real you are. You're as real as your quiet time. Don't doubt it. My daddy, when he was saved, he shook us. He shook the world, my daddy. We looked at him. We trembled. I shook. I trembled. I worked at my daddy's life. What made him so godly that our nation still hasn't recovered from what God did in his life? My daddy was one of the holiest men of God that ever lived on earth. Don't doubt that. And I worship God. I have the right to say it. But what made him? What made him that as he walked, men just trembled and wept? Sometimes in their scores, they're standing, weeping at the holiness of this man. Why? One thing, he never neglected the quiet time. From the day he was saved to the day he died, daddy was consumed with prayer. His quiet time, this seeking God, this communing with God consumed his life. He consumed his life and everything in life just centered on being alone with Jesus. When he walked away from that, men wept. Men wept. Will they ever weep at your life? Ever? You think being a great theologian is going through great degrees and studying? No. The little bit you've got with a vital reality of communing with God will shake the world. But give seven, ten years of theology and don't commune with God and you won't shake the world. You won't even be remembered. Apart from the carver Christians who want impressive orators. When will we come back to the quiet time? Years and years of quiet time. We shook once when daddy had visitors about a few weeks after we saw him turn to God. I was young and the visitors sat and they sat a little long and daddy got up and he began to weep. And we thought, what is this? We all got up. Daddy says, forgive me. I don't want to offend you, but I have to go. I have to go. I have to go. Stay with my children. Stay with my wife. But forgive me, I have a meeting with Jesus Christ I cannot miss. You see, if I don't go now, he said, and he was baffled to say this. He didn't want to impress. He just had to get away. If I don't go now, I won't be able to spend so much time with God. And if I don't spend that much time, I won't be able to sleep my concert. And if I don't go to sleep by this time, I won't be able to get up at this time. And I don't get up at this time to spend this much time with God. I can't walk with God through the day. I won't be able to walk with God. I'll fail God. I know how much time, and for the reason that I can walk with God and not be a grief to God and man, forgive me, I have to go to God now. And he escaped. Everyone wept, you know. My mother nearly died of fright. And what he did to the, we had to bring her water, you know. What he did to the guests. But mommy, mommy didn't die of shame after that. We noticed the next time he had to do it, not many people ever dared do it from then onwards. But some of the world's greatest preachers have been in my home. I don't know why God ever honored us so much. But no matter who it was, daddy would get up and leave with the same words. Sometime to this, always back to him to have to say it. People kept him from God and he had to excuse himself. People stood, you know, and they wept and said, I've never known a man on earth. But no one keeps him from God. Nothing keeps him from Jesus Christ. Nothing makes a mistake. Are you like that? Nothing. Nothing will make you miss God. My mother never wept after that. She never choked in embarrassment. My mother stood like someone standing to attention. With such respect that she saw my father go because she knew this is why he is holy. And other Christians are not holy. Don't doubt it. You're as real as your quiet time. You're as real as your quiet time. And don't doubt it. My children knocking at the door. And they, boys, daddy, it's too late. You can't stay. Come, daddy. And I stood up. But I'm not finished with God. And they got angry. I said, listen. Listen, just once in your life, listen that you never ask me again. Don't ever knock on this door again till the day I die. Unless someone is dying, don't ever, ever disturb me again. Now listen, because I never have to tell you this again. Let me tell you why, boys. Because if I miss this time, if I hurry this time, I can't be to you what you would want to the Father. You'll start weeping because of my mother. I can take you to children whose fathers are preachers across the world, my boys, whose children weep. Those children weep because of the ungodliness of that man. He can preach. He can impress the crowds. But he can't live it in the home. And as you're real as you are in your home, if it doesn't work out there, it works out nowhere. I can take you, my boys, to wives across, who have some of the greatest preachers' names in the world that impress men. And their wives do nothing but weep because of the un-Christ-like-ness. Your mother will soon weep through my life if I miss it. If I miss it just once, boys, it might give me the opportunity and the chance to miss it again. I've never missed God. I've never hurried God. No matter who's waiting, no matter what's happening, I can't. Don't make me miss once. Your mother will start weeping. The only reason I can be to her what you would want me to be to her and make her happy is this time, boys. They never, ever knocked on the door again. But I noticed my boys started never missing God. Midnight after they studied still, and I say, Listen, boy, you're tired. You've studied too much. God doesn't expect this of you. Get to bed and get some sleep. And he said, Daddy, if I miss just once, it might mean I'll miss again. And I don't want to do it, Daddy. Do you think I was too cruel to them? No, thank God. They'll never miss God. You're as real as your quiet time. You're as safe as your quiet time. I have people across my nation have fallen in sin who were in the pulpits. Oh, this is the day and age where the pulpits will be proclaimed. As never before in the history of the church, this is the moment. Everywhere, everywhere. Don't doubt it. You say we mustn't preach it. What's on the front pages of the newspapers? Man, why don't preach it? We need to tell them why. Why? Why so many men of the greatest, the greatest preachers of the denominations are falling into sin and bringing such shame upon the churches and thousands stagger over them who they brought to Christ. You cannot believe how many preachers have fallen into sin from the evangelical, even the holiness churches that used to be so stable and consistent. There's no one that can point a finger and say it's their denominations, every denomination, the greatest preachers have fallen. Why? You know, when they call me, they fly me across the country, and I say, no, no. I stand at his feet. I could never face a man. I could never. They say, you're coming. For some reason, they make this poor man get in the plane, and there I have to go, and they leave me, and everybody forsakes me. And there sits a man who's led 40,000 to Christ. Staggered the world with his abilities. God was so with him. And you know what I do? I just weep. I weep, and I weep, and I weep, and I weep, and I weep. And some of those men only start weeping when they see someone weeping like me. Then they start weeping at the shame. Some of them, they're wise, take guns and shoot themselves dead. The shame that suddenly they find their husbands are in such sin. You know what I've done? I've never ever asked them what went wrong. I've never ever said, what went wrong? I've told them. I've told them, you neglected God. This could never have happened. The devil cannot touch you. He cannot touch you if you don't neglect God. You became such a mighty man of God because you were consumed in prayer and communing with God in the Bible. That was your life. That was your source of everything that happened. But I guarantee you, there came a day you neglected God, probably for the work of God. And the work of God became your sin. That woman isn't your sin. You had a greater sin. That woman would have never happened if you didn't have a greater sin. Your great sin is you neglected God for the work of God. I guarantee you, the devil watched you. He watched you through the years, and he said, I can't touch this man. I can't do anything. I cannot touch him because you've just met with God. I know that if you had asked it. But I guarantee you, there came a day the devil sat up and looked at you as you began to neglect God for the work of God, and you thought you could get away. Then the devil sat, and I guarantee you, he said, now I'm going to get him. And he got you. He got you. You know what they've all said without exception? Not word perfect. God sent you, boy. I didn't even know until you spoke now. But that is my greatest sin. It was the work of God I got too busy with, and it became my greatest sin. Every other sin that's resulted is that sin. It's a terrible sin to try and abide in this world without abiding in Christ. It's a terrible, terrible grief to God, and you will become a grief to man. You're as safe as your quiet time. You're as safe as your quiet time. You're as real as your quiet time. I'm going to shock you here, every one of you that God is confronting. I don't care if you're the greatest preacher in America sitting here today. Be real. I want every one of you that neglect God to say, God, forgive me for the sins that have resulted but for the greatest sin that caused these other sins that are in my life now. And before I'm destroyed, God, I'm not going another step, God. I come from mercy and cleansing the blood from this grief I've been to thee by neglecting God himself for other things. I come for cleansing in the blood, but I come also with everything in my being to ask thee for the grace, the grace, Lord, that from this day till the day I die, I will never neglect God again. I will never neglect God for anything, not even for the work of God, no matter who it is standing there over me. God will deal with him, but I want every one of you that neglect God to stand right now and say, it's me, God. Every one of you, will you bow your heads, please? Will you pray after me? Oh, God, have mercy on me for the grief I have given thee. Have mercy on me. Forgive me. Wash me in the blood of Christ. Through and through, all the sins I've done that were the result of this sin, please forgive me for. But by thy grace, I will never neglect thee again, God, not for anyone on earth. Teach me to pray that I may stay in tune with God and man. In Jesus Christ's name, amen. Do you know a man once said to me, Keith, you're a preacher, you can spend the day in prayer, you want to come and get in my boots. There's no possibility of praying like that. I'm a businessman and I've got to run. I can't pray like that. I said, you're a liar. You're a liar. He got such a shock, he began to weep. I said, you know what's the tragedy of you is you're lying to yourself. That's a lie. There's no such a thing as no time for God. Sell your business, sir. Change your job, sir, if you have no time for God. You're not in the will of God. God will give you a better job. But don't you dare neglect God for work or money, business or money. He came back to me, you know. I think it was a year afterwards and said, Keith, you were right. I started being ruthless and put aside things that didn't matter, that didn't matter, that I thought didn't matter, and there was so much that didn't matter that I found all the time I needed for God on earth. And now for the first time in life I'm walking with God. Don't lie to yourself and say to be ruthless. You don't need people like you need God. Be ruthless. You're not neglecting your wife if you're not always with her. I'll tell you what, don't neglect God and in a little bit of time you give your wife your treasure for all eternity, but neglect God and give your wife all the time you think she needs, she'll curse you. In her heart, so will your children. And your work won't be blessed. I'm not talking about prospering, but the devil will tell you, the work, the work, the work. But let me tell you, sir, the five hours you think you need for that work, watch God do it in one hour. If you don't neglect him, you won't sink, you'll survive. You're as safe as your quiet time, sir. You're as real as your quiet time. As it was this morning. Now, beloved, the devil's watching you and he's trembling. And so is God watching you. And he's waiting. You'll be there for the meeting. The only one that will miss the meeting place is you. You'll miss the appointment, God want. You'll just grieve him that you didn't come. Even the time you get to bed in the night tells God how determined you are to get up fresh in the morning. Another hour with friends, you say. And God knows, well, there goes my hour tomorrow. Be ruthless, but don't neglect God. You have real friends, friends that will sit watching the example of the believers come out of their quiet time. They forget the other friends that sat with them for hours. Don't neglect God.