In this sermon, the pastor shares practical advice for churches based on their experiences. He emphasizes the importance of learning from past successes and stumbling upon good practices. The pastor encourages the congregation to read books about revival and gather together to watch videos of powerful services to inspire and ignite a passion for God's work. He also highlights the significance of preaching the word of God regularly, even though there may be moments when God's presence is so overwhelming that preaching becomes difficult.

Worship Him, and praise Him, and thank Him. Jesus, we bless You, Lord. We love You, Lord. Everyone, just open your mouth, open your heart, begin to worship Him. Holy God, we praise You. Living God, we magnify Your name. You alone are God. You alone are God. There is none like You. King of kings and Lord of lords, our Savior, our Redeemer. Mighty One, worship Him. Lift your voices to Him. We love You, Jesus. We love You, Jesus. Hallelujah. Blessed be Your name. Merciful God, compassionate God, mighty One, You rule in Your reign. There is none like You. There is none like You. Oh, Holy One, Righteous One, we adore You. We thank You for Your goodness. We thank You for Your mercy. We thank You for Your kindness. We thank You for Your great salvation. While we were yet sinners, O God, Your Son died for us. Bless You, Lord. You've kept us. You've preserved us. You've ignited us once again, Lord. We love You. We praise You. Father, we ask You today that the eyes of our understanding would be opened. Father, we pray that Your Word would penetrate our hearts, that the truth of Your Word would be revealed to us. Oh, Father, remove roadblocks, remove blind spots, remove insensitivities, remove fears. Deal with us directly and clearly, gracious God. Help us, Lord, to fix our eyes on Jesus, to run our race with perseverance, not to fall short or draw back in this wonderful hour in which we live. Speak to us and equip us, God. Everyone just ask God to speak to you personally. Ask Him to speak to you personally, Jesus. Open our hearts and minds, I pray, God, in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. You can be seated. I want you to turn with me to Zechariah 10.1. So I've been praying the last few days. The Lord's laid on my heart to talk to you about revival and quote, normal church life. Why do we need revival? What happens to a church when revival comes? What happens if you have a season of revival and then that special season ends? What do you do? How do you live? I want to talk to you about that. I want to encourage you and I want to be practical. Zechariah 10.1, but I want to read you a prayer that Charles Spurgeon prayed many years ago. It has been taken up again on the lips of leaders, especially in England. One of my friends prayed this prayer publicly several years ago, just asking God to come and visit. And you have to remember Spurgeon was a great Baptist preacher. He was no stranger to controversy. But he did not believe in services of everybody rolling down the aisles, foaming at the mouth. He was not in any sense of the word Pentecostal or charismatic. And I don't mean that if you're Pentecostal or charismatic that your idea of a good service is people rolling down the aisles and foaming at the mouth. But I'm just trying to make a point when we read this prayer of Spurgeon that this was a prayer that was prayed in serious Baptist circles. This was not a prayer that was being prayed by somebody into the most extreme form of renewal meetings that you could ever imagine. This was somebody who was saying, God shake us up. I also want to say that when God moves we ought to just let him be God and quit worrying about the implications of what he does. It's one thing for us to be foolish. It's one thing for us to draw attention to secondary things. It's one thing for us to major on the minors. It's another thing to be ashamed of God being God. And when you pray God come in power, God meet us, God send revival, he may just take you at your word. And you may want to use all the wisdom you know how to use. And you may want to be as pastoral as you know how to be. And you may want to be as sensitive to people as you can possibly be. But when God sweeps down he may sweep down in ways beyond what you were expecting. He may do more than you asked for and he will most certainly do things differently than you asked and differently than you were expecting. And he knows what he's doing. Again, there's a difference between us drawing attention to side issues, okay? For example, it's one thing for us to draw attention every service to someone having a particular manifestation and to interview them for three years running. You know, do you still have that hopping manifestation? Yes, I still do. And you're going to interview that person every service and now everyone that wants to hop come up here. We're going to have a hopping service. Now, I've never heard of such a thing. I'm just trying to illustrate a point. It's another thing if you call up a pastor who's been transformed and his church is on fire and they've had 300 conversions in the last two months and and God's shaking the community of 8,000 where they live and so on and you ask this pastor to come up and testify and the power of God hits him and he goes flying three feet and laid out on the stage and lays there for four hours. God chooses to do that. You can't just try and explain it away or apologize to the visitors. You have to let God be God, friends. Now, I'll explain more what I'm talking about. Some of you fully understand me already. But I just say this before I read Spurgeon's prayer because Spurgeon was not into the weird and the wild but he wanted God and he knew that sometimes we have our little form and our little box and our little package and that's what we're used to. I was talking to a professor at one particular school, a fine Christian college seminary type environment and he said that he was watching, he caught a service from Pensacola on TV. In fact, he was switching between a basketball playoff game and Pensacola. He said it was quite an experience. Of course, he probably didn't hear when Steve said don't change that channel. But he said what he realized and he understood from the meeting was that there was no pre-planned structure. Every night Steve's gonna go for the lost. Every night one way or another before those people leave they will have an opportunity to get right with God. But we come in here every single night and it's been like this a year since I've been here and two years since the revival started going on two years now. That there's no agenda each night. If God just sweeps through in the worship and nobody can do anything for two hours so be it. If Steve feels to get up and bring the word immediately, so be it. If we call up all the young people, you know throughout the whole building for prayer, so be it. It's however the Lord moves. And this professor sat down with the other faculty and said to them, these are fine Christian men. I know some of them well and they are fine Christian men. And he said to them had any of you ever been in a service, you know a night service where there was no plan for the meeting and none of them. It was so striking. I mean God bless their hearts, but none of them had ever been in a meeting like that. The funny thing is that a lot of us say our services are open to God to do whatever he wants. Somehow God has no creativity because for the last 20 years you could plan those things like clockwork. You could say, oh God's free to move however he wants to move. Somehow he chooses to move the exact same way week in, week out, month in, month out. And it may not be that God doesn't want to do more. It may be that we have gotten in a rut. I'm not saying it has to be different every week and you come in one week and where's the pulpit this week? Oh, they put it up there. Oh praise the Lord. How come he started with the benediction and dismissed us first? Well because we're changing the order this week. Boy, how come we have the offering in the middle of his message? Well, because we have to change the order each time. How come the pastor one week looks like a vineyard pastor in shorts and a, you know, a Southern Cal shirt and the next week is coming in, you know, like a, you know, a Lutheran, you know, pastor and he's got the collar and the next week he's coming in like your traditional Pentecostal pastor just in a suit. Oh, because we have, we're open to however God wants to move. I'm not talking about that. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about God visiting the church in power. And some of the people who have the hardest problem with this prayer are the ones who need to pray it the most. Listen to what he said. God, send us a season of glorious disorder. This will be out in a book of mine, Confronting the Critics of Revival. Actually, let no one deceive you. Confronting the Critics of Revival should be out early July. But let me just read it to you from here. God, send us a season of glorious disorder. Oh, for a sweep of the wind that will set the seas in motion and make our ironclad brethren now lying so quietly at anchor to roll from stern to stern. Oh, for the fire to fall again, fire which shall affect the most solid. Oh, that such fire might first sit upon the disciples and then fall on all around. Oh, God, thou art ready to work with us today, even as thou didst then. Stay not, we beseech thee, but work at once. Break down every barrier that hinders the incoming of thy might. Give us now both hearts of flame and tongues of fire to preach thy reconciling word for Jesus' sake. Amen. And as John Wesley prayed, he echoed the prayer of a Scottish believer. Lord, if it please thee, work the same work again without the blemishes. But if that may not be, though it be with all the blemishes, work the same work. Zechariah 10.1 Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime or in the time of the spring rains. Some translations say the latter rain. When you read latter rain, you immediately think of end time prophecy, but he was just talking about this period of spring rain, which was the latter rain in the season, which would go basically from fall to spring. Ask the Lord for rain in the time of spring rain. It is the Lord who makes the storm clouds. He gives showers of rain to men and plants of the field to everyone. Notice here specifically that there is a time for rain, just like there are set times in the natural agricultural season. There's a time to sow. There's a time to reap. There's a time to plow. There's a time for rain, and if the rain doesn't come, you've got to pray for rain. If as a people the Israelites were in sin and had to repent of their sin, then they would say, God, we're guilty. There's no rain. Open the heavens. They would repent and they would pray. They would need the rain for the cycle of life. Now, someone living in biblical times or really through much of the world to this very day and through most of world history, people fully understood how much you needed to rain. People fully understood that without rain you die. Now, it's still true, but we're not so sensitive to it because we've got our stores filled with food and our refrigerators filled with stocks of food and so on. We can just go to some fast food place and I went out to eat with a faculty member last night and the main thing that was troubling us was at the dessert bar that the chocolate ice cream wasn't working. He had specifically gone there for that reason and it wasn't working. I mean, that's a difficult thing. That was almost bearing a terrible cross last night for us Americans. I mean, that's almost the American mentality. In point of fact, without rain you die and there are times when the rain must come. If it comes at the wrong time, it's trouble. There are times when it must come for the sake of the harvest and you can read passages like Leviticus 11 or excuse me, Deuteronomy 11 and Leviticus 26. You can read passages like that that talk about God giving the rain in season as a promised blessing to Israel and we need to ask ourselves when we see a passage like Zechariah 10, it speaks naturally. It also speaks spiritually. It was a word given to that generation, but it's part of the Word of God in an ongoing way for us. What time is it? Is it time for rain? Do we need rain? Is it right to pray for revival? What should we be believing for? What should we be expecting? Is it time for revival? Or is it time just for apostasy? Or should we just emphasize normal church life and not even think about revival? First, let me tell you why it's so critically important that we understand our need for revival and why revival is a New Testament concept. Just because you don't find a specific word revival in the Bible doesn't mean that the Bible doesn't talk about revival continually any more than just because you can't find the word Trinity in the Bible that you don't believe in the Trinity. And for those of you who are Pentecostal or Baptist or Lutheran or whatever denomination, do you throw that out? Because that's not specifically written in the Bible. The question is, do the things you believe line up with what the Word of God teaches? So the fact is, the Bible itself has various prayers. God, revive us. Renew your work in the midst of our days, Psalm 86 and Habakkuk 3. Passages like that deal with the hope of revival or prayers for revival. We have different revival movements in the Old Testament where Hezekiah would bring Reformation to Judah and attempt to do it for Israel, where Josiah would bring Reformation to Judah, where the prophets kept calling the people back, turn back, turn back. If you do, I'll pour out blessing. If you do, I'll restore. Those are all promises of revival. And when you get into the New Testament, by the end of the first century when the book of Revelation is written, you find five out of the seven churches in Asia Minor that Jesus addresses. Five out of seven are called to repent. Five out of seven are having serious problems. Repent or else. And the one that is having the most serious problems of all is the church of Laodicea. The church that thought it was rich and increased in goods and in need of nothing, but was actually naked and miserable and poor and blind and wretched and didn't know it. What does Jesus say to that church? I counsel you to buy of me gold tried in the fire so you can really be rich. I counsel you to buy of me the eye salve so you can see white garments so you can be clean and that you can be clothed. And then He says I stand at the door and knock and if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I'll come in to him and eat with him and he with me. That's a promise of revival. You're miserable. You're backslidden. You're naked. You're compromised. You become worldly and you don't know it. Putting together what He says to the different churches. You've left your first love. You have a reputation of being alive and yet you're dead. You're compromised in your doctrine. You're compromised in your moral standards. This is what He's saying to these different churches. Be it Ephesus or be it Sardis or be it Thyatira. Be it Laodicea, be it Pergamum. He's giving them words of rebuke, but for each one he's saying come back. That prophetic message turn back and I'll bless. Turn back. I'll restore. Turn back and I'll pour out my spirit upon you. Turn back. I'll make you whole. That's the promise of revival. Now bear in mind when something is fully alive and healthy and strong and vibrant. It doesn't need to be revived. You don't need to resuscitate something that's breathing and strong. You don't need to revive something that is full of life. But we see even in the New Testament Church that there were issues that were rising. There was compromise coming up. There was doctrinal impurity. There were moral lapses and serious moral sin. There was the departing from the early zeal. There was worldliness. There was complacency. There was pride. And we see in the church, in particular the Church of the West, the church in Europe, the church in North America, that so much of what Jesus said to Sardis and Laodicea applies to us. To Sardis he said you have a reputation for being alive and yet you're dead. We often think that we're doing wonderfully well here in America because we've got these huge churches. We've got Christian schools everywhere. We've got Christian bookstores everywhere. We've got Christian aerobics. One of my favorites, Christian heavyweight boxers. We have all this in America. We have 24-hour-a-day Christian television. We have Christian radio. You go to certain parts of the country and every station, you know, 8, 10 stations over the course of the airways, Christian stations. No other nation in the world is anything like this. I've been to many nations and some of you been to other nations and been around the world. No other nation has what we have here. And we can think, hey, I'm doing all right. I mean, look at all the money that we're putting into our international television ministry and look at all the money we're putting into our brand-new sanctuary to see 10,000 and look at our program to this and to this and to this and to this. Look at us and yet you look at America. We are the salt of the earth. We are the light of the world. Yes. You look at America and you see the state of the nation as our churches have gotten bigger, as our gospel message has got on the airways, on radio and television and so on, as Christian bookstores and Christian schools and Christian this and that, spread it up everywhere. At the very same time that we were rising, the nation was sinking all around us. Something there doesn't line up right. Something's missing somewhere. In fact, you'll see that a lot of our growth is through becoming like the world. A lot of our growth is that the standards in the church have fallen and worldly people come in and feel at home in our midst because we're just like them. And then when you dig a little deeper and you speak to maybe a thousand of the leading ministers in America, you have an altar call for sexual impurity and sexual sin and two-thirds of them are up at the altar repenting. You know, something's wrong. And when you go through what does someone watch in the course of the week, your average congregant in America, you just say, do you spend more time watching television than praying and reading the word? Yes. Well, then you're out of the will of God. You're in a backslidden condition. It's impossible that you could be walking with God following his will and he would be leading you and directing you to spend more time watching trash or even Christian television than spending time with him. And then you start to look at the state of the young people in your average churches and you start to see, you know, the illegitimate pregnancies. And you start to see the kids in rebellion against the parents and then you see the divorce rate within the church. You say, wait a second. Wait a second. Something's wrong. We got all the programs. We got all the techniques. We got all the seminars. We got this. We got this. We got this. Something's wrong. When I wrote a book years ago called How Saved Are We, it was addressed to believers saying, look at your life. What does it really mean to follow Jesus? Maybe you are saved, but how saved? We see the need for revival in the church. We read the New Testament. We read the book of Acts. We read the Gospels. God didn't put those things there as a tease. God didn't put those things there just as history. This is what Jesus began to do and to teach. Now it continues on through his disciples. And then Acts 28, it doesn't just end. And thus ends the history of the early church in the fullness of the power of the Spirit. And there everybody just kind of crawls along until Jesus comes. That's just the end of that chapter. Now the thing goes on. Now it goes on. Now it goes on. You read the words and you got to say, God, I love you. I'm going to serve you no matter what. I'm going to serve you if I end up serving you from a dungeon infested with rats. And that's my lot in this life for the faith. But Lord, I'm reading your word, and I know there's got to be more. And by more, I don't mean three new cars. You know, by more, I don't mean, you know, four cruises every year. By more, I mean, God, where is your hand stretched out? Where is the power of God? By more, I mean with all of our buildings, with all of our talk, with all of our hype, with all of our excitement, with all of our special conferences. Where is the power impacting the community? Why is it that the world is changing us instead of us changing the world? Why is it that our light is growing dimmer instead of our light shining brightly so that the world gets ignited? Something's wrong. You look in your own personal life, so many fight a losing battle to habitual sin. That's not what's written in Scripture. There can be tests and battles, but sin is not to be the habit of our lives. Holiness is to be the habit, and sin is the exception to the rule. And you look at your life and say, something's wrong. This petty junk, these lusts, this thought, this greed, this bitterness, this anger, this foul time, years of the same junk. In fact, ten years ago, I was in a better state than I am today. Something's missing. Something's wrong. You say, boy, it used to be that my heart burned for the loss. It used to be that I took every opportunity I had to reach people with the gospel. I didn't care what they said. Now, six months go by without me really pouring my heart out to a lost person. A year goes by and I don't even shed any tears for my neighbors who don't know Jesus. Something's wrong. You know, we lay our hands on the sick, and they shake and fall, but they're just as sick afterwards. Say, Lord, where's the power? There's got to be more. There's got to be more. Recently, there was a major rally in Alabama. I don't know how many of you know about this, but I'll just give you the details. See, our heart here in the revival, our hunger, our thirst is not just for individual lives to be impacted, although we know that's the key, one individual at a time being impacted by God. But we want to see what happens when you get out of here. We want to see what happens across the nation. We want to see what happens in the nation. We want to see a profound impact. Like, you could look at the Welsh revival of 1904 and 1905 and see what it did to the crime rate. You could see, for example, how in certain districts, as James Edwin Orr, the great revival historian, relates in certain areas, the judges put on white gloves. They had no cases to try. Now, this was not where there were three murders and two rapes taking place a day. It wasn't like the heart of New York City, say. But still, there was crime. There were people that were sinning, just the same, breaking laws. Some places, the judges wore white gloves because they didn't have cases coming to them. Some other places, the police would form gospel quartets and trios, and they would go from church to church. They, you know, would tell their, you know, the lead officers, this is where the crowds are. So we're going where the crowds are. Crowd control. They formed gospel quartets. I mean, I could go on and on with the impact revivals have had in American history. How the taming of the Wild West, for example, in the turn of the 1800s, taming of the Wild West was largely due to revival fires spreading in that part of the country. We don't just want to see churches grow, but we believe if the churches are growing because people are being saved, it's going to have an impact. We're not just looking for people to be saved. We're looking for God to come down in power and manifest the fact that he is God, that he rules, that he reigns, that he's King. One man said many years ago that revival is not our churches being filled with people, but the people in our church is being filled with God. See, when that happens, there will be an impact on the community. There will be lasting change. I'll get to this rally in Alabama in a moment. You may drive around here, and you may notice, boy, there's a bar over here. There's this topless place over here. There's a naval base here. There's a ton of Navy people coming in and out, and I believe that's behind some of the fleshly junk that goes on in this area in Pensacola. The fact is there has been profound impact, and the impact is growing. One pastor about 15 minutes from here whose church has been mightily impacted through the revival has right now members of his church, former prostitutes in the area, former drug dealers in the area, the top DJ of the topless bars in the area, actually nationally known. He's a member of his church now. In fact, this guy gave up a career making thousands every weekend. He and his wife come to the church, and he drives a taxi and leads people to Jesus, just loves doing it. This pastor sat down with two local bar owners a couple of months ago, and they said to him, business at our bars has never been worse, and in fact, half of our former clients are sitting in your church now on Sunday morning. We can tell you about the impact on the school. Someone questioned me on it, challenged me on an internet chat about it the other day. I've heard conflicting reports. No, it's a fact. It's absolute fact without any question. We can give you every detail that you want to have. Before the revival in the 32 high schools and junior highs in this county, there were only three that had student-led Christian ministries. Our youth pastor Richard Crisco was in touch with the schools, knows exactly what was happening. Three student-led Christian ministries out of 32 schools. Once the revival broke and developed, and these kids started getting saved, and those that were saved got on fire, it got to the point where it is now. Every single school, 32 out of 32, have student-led Christian ministries on campus. Some of them are so large that they cannot meet in regular classrooms. They have to meet in band or orchestra or choir rooms or cafeterias. One school can get more than 250 kids coming to a Christian meeting during the week. A vice principal of that school brings his kids out here on a fairly regular basis. They'll just make an announcement. They're going to go to the Brownsville revival. They'll get buses. They'll bring 50, 70 kids, mainly unsaved kids. We've seen nights, you know, with 55 kids coming here unsaved and 54 of them that night at the altar crying their eyes out. And we know the kids in the schools. We know the vice principal. The principals, at a meeting last year, informally decided to take advantage of what God was doing in the revival. When Richard Crisco took over here as youth pastor, he found that most of these school leaders were not particularly interested in getting to know him. And he realized that there had been some bad history with other youth pastors in the area that didn't always use the most wisdom, etc. Or didn't have a right approach. And they were not particularly interested in dealing with him. And then, last year, he starts getting taken out for dinner or lunch. Two, three different times, principals said, hey, you want to go out for lunch? Hey, you want to go out for lunch? Hey, you want to go out for lunch? By the third time, one of them said, I guess you're wondering what's going on here. And he said, yeah. They said, well, we have decided to take advantage of what the revival is doing. And what they have them scheduled to do, he's done it once each month through this year now, is that they will announce in the daytime in public schools. We're talking about public schools. They announce in the daytime the Brownsville youth team will be here tonight on a Tuesday night. Everyone's invited. Open meeting in a public school. And then when it's at night, it's, you know, just on free time. Whoever comes, comes. They'll have kids from that school who've been saved get up and testify. The youth worship team will lead in worship. Then Richard will bring a message. Then they'll have an altar call. You know, they've seen 70 kids running down the altar. They've seen more sometimes climbing over bleachers to run down and get right with God. One high school coach came up to Richard a couple of months ago after the Tuesday night rally. He was stunned. He had a list, his 10 worst kids in that school, may have been 12, but we'll say 10 because I'm not exactly sure, worst list of 10 in the school, the most promiscuous girls, the most drug addicted boys, the guys that were just hard jocks and proud. He had his list of the 10 most notorious sinners in the school. Not only did they all come to the rally, but he came up to Richard shocked with his list. All 10 of them were responding on their knees, crying their eyes out, getting right with God. I mean, God's moving and God's making an impact. People have challenged us and they've said, well, if there's real revival, it should have an impact on the crime rates. And this, this to me is funny because when you do come with statistics, people say, well, there are many explanations that could be offered. You know, you say, they say, prove it. We say, here's the proof. They say, well, what does that prove? But people challenged us on that and said, well, where's the impact on the crime rate? Well, we knew if there was any place you'd see that would be among young people because of all the conversions, these kids being turned around, kids who were gang members, no longer gang members. And let me tell you, some of these kids are so new, so raw. One kid came up here to repent at the altar and someone apparently had cut him with a knife while he was witnessing. And he got so mad he was going to bring a gun back to school to kill the guy. And he came to the altar to repent. I mean, you're talking about brand new. That was his background. And now he'd been changed and was telling someone about Jesus. And now they, you know, they cut him with a knife. This was his story, what he reported to one of our altar workers. And he was going to bring a gun back and kill the guy. You know, and he was repenting, getting right with God. I mean, people who are raw, that was the lifestyle that they lived before. Now they're serving God. Now some of them are in our school of ministry. And I know them firsthand. I know their lives intimately. But anyway, people want to know, well, where's the impact? Prove it. Well, Pensacola News Journal, January 3rd, came out with a story. Saying that the last five years, there's been a crime rate increase in the area. In the state of Florida in general, 96, the crime rate rose throughout the state of Florida. Juvenile crime rate rose by 1% throughout the state of Florida. But in this county, and by the way, if you look at the stats for this county, say 93, 94, going into 95, they were, juvenile crime was skyrocketing, skyrocketing. But it went up 1% across the state in 96. Strangely enough, in this county, it dropped by 13%, coincidentally. And a critic, a critic challenged me through a friend, where is the drop in crime? Where is a revival with a drop in crime? We said, here it is. They said, yeah, but that could be attributed to many different factors. Before God, I'm telling you the truth, just the way it happened. Now, in the schools, something happened where the superintendent of the schools, and he's wide open to the revival, and he's encouraged other school superintendents just to be open. And you have to understand what open means. It means that some of these kids who are on drugs one day, sexually abused when they were kids, full of guilt and anger, suicidal, now they've been turned around, they come into the meetings, they get saved radically, they go back to their schools. Some of these kids are shaking under the power of God in school. Their friends said, what happened to you? They said, well, let me pray for you. They prayed for their friends who've gotten laid out right in the hallways. We've gotten calls from principals. What do we do? What's going on? You see, the principals will tell you how these kids that used to be cutting up and disruptive are now serious. They'll tell you so many of them that used to be poor students are good students now. We got one kid coming into our school of ministry in the fall. He was kicked out of school last year. He was in complete rebellion. His parents didn't know what to do with him. He's on fire. He is serious with God. He goes out, witnesses left and right. I mean, just transform, submit it, doing the right thing. But sometimes God's literally shaking some of these kids up. You say, well, I don't know about that. Well, number one, our churches weren't doing it for years and years and years. We weren't helping these kids. You know, they were coming to our services and getting bored stiff. They were coming to our services and the word wasn't convicted. They were coming to our services and still going out and sleeping around, going to youth group, raising their hands and praising one night and going out and getting drunk the next night. If you're a youth minister, you've seen it happen. So many parents in ministry cry their eyes out for their kids. Our older daughter will be 20 next month. Our younger daughter is 18 and a half. We know the battles that kids have gone through. Now somebody gets a little upset because this kid who was on drugs for two years is now set free. They've been drinking for four years, now set free. They've been smoking cigarettes for six years, now set free. Been cursing for eight years, now set free. Been addicted to pornography for seven years. You know, all rolled up into one. We hear it. We hear it week in, week out. Now they're transformed. They love Jesus. Their parents hear them early in the morning crying, crying for their school, crying for God to send revival. Seriously following the Lord. And they go to school and the power of God hits them. It's happened. Power of God hits them. Principals have called. What do we do? We said it looks like the power of God. And the superintendent of the schools here at council, other principals, if the power of God hits these kids, just have a room for them. Well, I don't know if that should happen in school. Oh, it was okay when they were bringing knives to school. That was okay. It was okay when they were wearing satanic t-shirts. That was okay. It was okay when the girls were strutting around, looked like prostitutes. That was okay. It was okay when they were getting high in the bathroom. That was okay. Now the power of God hits them. Oh, I don't know about that. Let me just tell you something. If Jesus were walking our streets today, he'd be more disruptive than anything we've ever seen. He'd shake things up more than we ever imagined. You read the Gospels and you picture that happening today. You picture some of the miracles he worked. You know, I joke about the, you know, demon-possessed man that came into a church in one city, you know, several thousand demons in him. You know, he'd been screaming on the streets and cutting himself and came running into a sanctuary one Sunday after the church had been praying and fasting. Screaming at the top of his lungs. And the pastor said, I order you to leave him in Jesus name. And suddenly, man falls to the ground and says, don't drive us into the pit. Send us into the used cars. Pastor just says, go. Next thing you hear. All the 2,000 cars with no drivers. One after another pulling out of the used car lot. Heading straight for the river and one after another in the river. How do you think the critics would like that one? Oh, yeah. Sure. We believe that report, brother. Right. That really happened. Look, you can go. Everyone was there. We actually have it on videotape and someone ran out with the church video camera when they heard this thing. They were stunned that we actually in all the cars and talk to the user. Then they find out it really happened. That's not God. God wouldn't do that. Seemed to happen when Jesus was on the earth. You know, Paul was in our streets, wherever he went, wherever the Apostles went. You had revival or you had riot or you had both. It's just the way it was. You read my book. It's time to rock the boat. You just it'll give you a picture of what happened when these guys came on the scene. You don't know. No media going ahead of them. No, no, no PR. No, you know, no human effort. You know, no, no music team. No drama team. No mime. No advertising. No poster. No, nothing. Just people preaching. I'm not saying that all the things I just listed are wrong. Just people preaching and pull whole place. Chuck, you know, jail houses shaking houses shake, you know, the place where they're meeting shaking it getting thrown in prison. And then the angel gets him out of prison. All the prison guards are killed. Unusual things. How many people die in your church when they lie during the offering? You have people being smitten left and right. Acts acts 5 out of nice and Sapphira drop dead for lying to the spirit. Act 7 and Stephen a stone for standing tall and calling the people to repent. Acts 9 Saul is overwhelmed by light thrown, you know falls to the ground. He and his companions according to Acts 26 thrown to the ground. Here's a voice gets radically converted. I didn't see that. Jesus took him through the scriptures. Let us do a study of Messianic prophecy the Messiah and the Hebrew Scriptures from Genesis to well the way it was in the Jewish Canon 2nd Chronicles. That's how it ends. No, he didn't do that. He just had an encounter with God. Then you get to acts of 12 chapter 12 chapter in Herod is smitten. For not giving God Glory angel Lord smites him acts the 13th chapter Paul speaks judgment Simon bar Jesus there. And miss settles over him and he can't see and he's taken by the hand. Heavy stuff. What would happen if that started springing in our server? Oh God send Revival. Oh my God, you know, what do you do when Jesus starts speaking like he did to the seven churches in Asia minor like the Church of Thyatira. If you won't repent, I'm going to cast you in a bed of suffering and kill all your children with death. Jesus said it. Unfortunately, Jesus didn't have pastoral sensitivity. This is very heavy stuff when people say I don't know about this. Show me that in the Bible. What I often have is when I do show them in the Bible. They say that was just for the Bible. That was just for Bible days. Well, hang on them. What do you want me to show it to you? And what makes you think you would have accepted it then? If you're having a problem with what God's doing today, what makes you think you would have been on the right side when Jesus was walking the earth or when the spirit was falling in the book of Acts or when God poured out a spirit and the Great Awakening in America or the Welsh Revival or in the prayer Revival of mid 1800s or the Hebrides Revival of mid 1900s or you know, what makes you think you would have embraced that if you have a problem with what he's doing today? Matthew 23 didn't there didn't Jesus say to the religious hypocrites, you know, you build the tombs of the prophets and say all for we had lived in the days of our forefathers. We wouldn't kill the prophets. Through which you confess you're the children of those who killed the prophets, but we wouldn't have done it and then they kill the great prophet and their midst. Oh God send a real revival like you did in the past. We wouldn't have been those who rejected it. Send the real thing. He does and we reject it superintendent of schools here in this county recently allowed for a book by Muhammad Ali on healing tolerance something like that. I imagine overtly Islamic and it's thinking negative to the Christian faith or to the fundamentals. We would hold. I haven't read it read it. But just from what I understood that he allowed for it to be in the school libraries to be taken out with parental permission. So the head of the Gideons in the area went to the principal and said that to the superintendent. Well, if you're doing that, how about if we are allowed to give out Bibles on school premises before and after school each day? And superintendent approved it. Not only that his lawyer was looking into ways that students would not even need parental permission to get the Bible. Of course, they didn't need parental permission in certain places to get condoms Bibles, of course, are you know? You see where America is, but he has acted is now past. So you just think of these campuses here. I mean God's movement. Something's happening. You get there in the morning from fifth grade up to 12th grade and they're Gideons handing out Bibles to anyone who wants them at the county schools here. I mean something's happening. God's moving. Our heart is to see great impact. We've had people baptized here saying I was the type before I was baptized that when you're in church, I was breaking into your house and tearing it up. The other guy while he's getting baptized says any of my friends that may be watching this. He said any of my former beer drinking pot smoking friends. He said now, you know where I've been the last four months, you know, we've had homosexuals come in here and get saved and then two weeks later the former partner of that homosexual comes in and they're getting baptized and saying I came in here two weeks ago out of anger to watch my ex-lover get baptized and I came under conviction of my sin and now I'm clean. I'm free. I want to live for Jesus that happened earlier this year. What happened in Alabama? I believe is just another sign of what's going to happen nationally as God shakes things up. I'm saying that we must have Revival. I'm saying that the church with more of the same is only going to produce more of the same. You know, have you ever tried to reach something and you can't reach it and you jump and you can't get to it. You can reach all day long. You can jump all day long. You won't get there. Your arm will not grow. The longer you jump the more tired you get. You're going to have to have something to stand on or you're going to have to get somebody's help or someone that's taller the church has just been doing the same the same the same the same the same you say but the word works. Yes, but when there's compromise when there's lethargy when people are just enslaved to sin and junk when they believe the lies of the enemy when they've lost sight of what God can really do when they don't have a fresh vision of who he really is. Yes, it'll come through the preaching of the word, but God's going to have to come down with power. God's going to have to make this word radically real God's holy presence. So we fall to our knees again. Leonard Ravenhill said that the greatest problem in America is that we worship an absentee God. That's the problem in our churches. We worship an absentee God and as God begins to come in power and visit us things change radically friends. You don't hold Revivals. We're holding Revival next week. We scheduled a series of meetings. That's when people say we're holding a Revival. They mean we're holding a series of meetings. They talk like that in the Bible Belt down here, but friends you don't hold the Revival anymore and you hold a hurricane Revival is divine visitation Revival is God coming down in power. That's what we have to have and you can't manufacture it. You got to be totally dependent on God and that's why when he moves you've got to seize the moment. You've got to maximize that moment. You've got to take hold of that hour again to quote Ravenhill the opportunity of a lifetime must be seized during the lifetime of the opportunity when the windows open when you've been praying for Revival for years and crying out for Revival for years and repenting and seeking the face of God and pressing in like never before and getting into the word like never before and bring your own life and obedience to God like never before and saying God you've got to visit like they prayed in the book of Acts stretch forth your hand when God begins to move you got to dive in that's why we go day and night here joyfully to the point of utter total exhaustion where you can't even stay on your feet joyfully because this is the hour we've been waiting for and we get reports email faxes continually if we ever consolidated them all and brought them in here. We just flood the platform with stacks of them of the testimonies of people leave here. You know, I got up behind my pulpit. I couldn't talk. I began to weep just so burdened to confess the state. I had been in I began to read for the scriptures and I felt like Isaiah having an encounter with a holy God. I call the people to repent. I couldn't even finish the altars were filled people wailing repenting for hours. Our church has changed. I mean here it left and right somebody telling me the other day since he was here. I saw him met him in a minister's conference. I was speaking at a couple weeks ago in Kansas City. He said since I was at the Revival, we've had 500 converts in our church. He said in our community is only 6,800 people. You know, we've gotten calls from people or they've testified here that in their community such a small community. There were no stop signs. You know, no traffic indicators because the place was so small and since Revival broken people come from several states around they've had a you know, put up stop signs and change things in the community, but the governor of Alabama has been wonderfully touched by the Revival his wife. Family members have been touched by the Revival his wife's visited here numerous times and they've watched Revival's services on video back at the governor's mansion. He has a godly judge. In his state there judge more who several years ago put up the Ten Commandments on the wall of his courtroom and has a Protestant minister open in prayer every day in his courtroom and the ACLU came after him. And got a court injunction for him to remove the Ten Commandments and he said I will not number one. He knew he had basis in the history of America and even just going to Supreme Court itself and you got the Ten Commandments there right on the doors and murals on the wall and so on with Moses receiving the Ten Commandments. He knew that he also knew that there was a misinterpretation of the Constitution saying that the Ten Commandments should be removed, but he also knew that if he was going to get thrown in jail for contempt to get thrown in jail, but he wasn't going to obey an unrighteous decree. And the media painted him out to be just as bigoted small-minded guy. Anyway, he said I will not remove the Ten Commandments from my wall. Then the governor said I'm standing with Judge Moore and if you try to remove the Ten Commandments, I will call out the National Guard and stop you. We'll surround that courthouse then the governor of South Carolina believing man heard about this and he said if he sends out his National Guard, I'll send out mine. So suddenly this thing began to rise. This is not about guns and war. This is about standing for righteousness people saying we draw a line here. We draw a line here. So anyway, one of the fellows involved with the whole righteousness movement there in Alabama visited the revival several months ago. Friend of mine very hungry for revival. See people have been involved in pro-life people have been involved politically to try and turn things in America people have tried many things noble efforts and many of the things should have been done and need to be done but so much was a human effort to make up for the lack of the power of God just like so many of our special features of our church services or our secret sensitive this or a 12-step this or our new, you know approach to ministry. It's just human effort to make up for the lack of the power of God when God starts moving. You don't need any of that God starts moving. Your problem is not how to bring in the crowds, but what to do with the crowds. John Wesley was asked how he drew the crowds. He said I set myself on fire and people come to watch me burn. Again to quote Raven, he said you don't have to advertise a fire. You know fire draws a crowd. Same way we've tried to change America. We've done things that were right and righteous of course extremists have done wrong things, but many things have been done that are right and righteous, you know standing up for the unborn and and seeking to get godly candidates in office and and calling our senators to vote the right way. Look, we voted for you. We want you to stand against, you know, this partial birth abortion. We want you to stand with us. We want you to veto the president. If you override that's all right and good, but more and more people involved in that realize the only hope is revival. In other words, unless the the solution comes from the inside out unless the change comes from the inside out unless the church gets revived. It's just not going to happen because if godly believers or let me say it this way if professing believers in America started to live godly lives the trash would be off the TV instantly because the ratings would plummet. I mean we claim to be multiplied tens of millions of people here if teenagers and godly homes got on fire for God. A lot of the music industry would be impacted if Christian men got on fire for God the pornography industry would be impacted. I should say so-called Christian men. You hear what I'm saying? If if we change the national change and those who hate us and reject us will get uglier and darker in their sin and those who were changed to be changed. There won't be this huge gray thing. That's just called Christianity in the midst of America that just confuses the masses. So this friend of ours that was visiting the revival was deeply commit convinced that we must have revival in America. And that's the only hope he was involved with coordinating a rally to be held April 12th in Montgomery Alabama on the steps of the Capitol and solidarity with Judge Moore and in solidarity with Governor James and we call them up on the platform. We don't really make much of political issues, but we felt that this was something God was in and we call them up and we prayed for him and Dave Reaver was visiting that night and Dave said he just seemed weird, but he felt led to do this. He felt led to take oil and just pour the whole thing over his head. Now before he said he was going to do that. He was reaching for some little thing like that. He said, where's the oil? He grabbed this. We got that flask over there, which is, you know, like this much of oil or maybe more probably we didn't know what he was going to do with it, but we found out what he was going to do with he poured the whole thing over this brother's head. And by the way, the brother's bald his wife was hoping it would cause the hair to grow back, but that hasn't happened yet. If you're here to criticize, yes, you can report that. It is a weekly practice here that we pour oil on the heads of all the bald men and that 98% of the time the hair grows back fact. One time we accidentally poured it on the head of a baby and the baby's hair. Listen, when I hear what the critics say, we do and we believe we practice muscle and add to their give them some fuel for their fire. At least don't make what they have to say more interesting and exciting. Funny thing is when you're in the meeting that they're attacking because this and this and this happens. Wait a second. I was there. What are you talking? I was there. You don't have to say what the video says. I was in the meeting. We're in the world. You getting this from but God bless him. God help him. We pray for him. Those that here here and those that don't suffer the consequences miss out on what God's doing, etc. But anyway, Pat Mahoney, my friend was anointed with oil that night and God began to deal with him about this rally in Alabama. And again, the hair did not grow back just to be clear, but he does have a nice goatee. He had a nice goatee before. All right. So in the meantime, Judge Moore visits Washington DC. He meets with congressman. They're very impressed by him. The House of Representatives in DC. It's amazing how little. Airtime this God how little publicity the House of Representatives with an overwhelming majority 74 Democrats joining the great majority of not all the Republicans passed a resolution. This is not a law, but a resolution saying in principle, the commandment should not be removed from the courtroom because our nation was founded on these commandments and in principle, they should be in any government building in America and headlines came out in local paper, especially in Alabama. Thou shalt not remove the commandments. Congress says thou shalt not remove the commandments. Then a higher court stood with Judge Moore saying he didn't have to move the things being fought by the ACLU could go to the Supreme Court. Well, they have this rally on the steps of the Capitol 20 to 25,000 people in attendance. They're all the major media, you know, from from C-SPAN to ABC, NBC, CBS, what was aired or not? I can't tell you all of that, but they're all there all their cameras 400 radio stations covering the rally. That's what was scheduled to happen. Governor James spoke, Judge Moore spoke, Attorney General of Alabama spoke. Dr. Alan Keyes spoke, Ralph Reed spoke, well-known speakers, author George Grant spoke, but the rally organizers insisted. These were people close to the governor. They insisted that the closing message at the rally was brought by someone from the Brownsville Revival, one of the leaders. They wanted it to end with a message and then one of the other leaders bringing an altar call right there on the steps of the Capitol with helicopters flying overhead and snipers on the roofs and the whole bit. Have an altar call call people to respond at that point. The clock stops. However long it goes because everyone had very set times how long they could speak. You know, these big signs stop. There is a tight program, you know, how long each message had to be. They said we don't want this to be a political rally. It is to be a repentance rally. And they said that we wanted to end with charity singing Mercy Seat. You know, that's going to be the end of the rally. If you haven't been in the meeting, you know, or seen on video, you'll be there be here tonight to witness it. And the pastor John Kilpatrick couldn't make it because he had a wedding to perform instead of addressing the nation. He had a wedding to perform. He's a pastor. I brought the closing message turn it to Steve for the altar call. Steve actually preached longer to the altar call. I did the message. It was just wonderful. I kind of set him up for the kill. Then he went in and kill them. We had people right there, you know, because we couldn't have him come forward, but he had him right there. Every eye open raise your hands. If there's sin in your life, there's something between you and God and get down on your knees there on the concrete there on the platform. Some of the speakers there on their knees. I mean, it was wild, but our message our bird the gospel to both of us was the problem is with us. Jesus said if the light within you is darkness in Matthew 6, if the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness? We must have Revival in America because the light has grown dim because the church has sent out mixed signals because we've leaned on the arm of flesh because we ourselves haven't demonstrated the power of holiness to do the will of God, etc, etc. The light within us is darkness. I said when we were indignant because the Ten Commandments are going to be removed from a courtroom. Is that a display of righteous anger? Or is it a display of religious hypocrisy? We're the lawbreakers. It starts with us and Steve said, what's the use of going to a rally on Ten Commandments then going home and putting on a porno movie? Going to rally on Ten Commandments and then go home open up your six-pack sitting there and getting drunk. What good is it? It's got to start with us. Repentance has to begin with us. We must have Revival. It's not going to happen. Otherwise, and some of you have tried and tried and tried and tried and you've done many noteworthy and respectable things. You've looked at the structure of your church, etc. We must have home groups. You must have small groups for the good of nurturing and discipling. Wonderful. There's a biblical basis for that that's effective around the world, but somehow nothing changed. Well, we want to have more time given to worship and praise and we want to expand things just for our worship team and and you did that but nothing changed and then you said, well, boy, we really need to emphasize faith more and build the body up. Well, we really need to emphasize the love of God more. Well, we really need to emphasize relationship. Well, I need to do a series on marriage and the family. Well, I've got to preach repentance more. I've got and each of the things was noble and had truth to it. But it only went so far. It seemed like the people just weren't changing worst of all seem like you weren't changing. I remember just seeing this little Christian cartoon. There's a there's a pastor, you know, pointing at the people. He's angry, you know, how can you not be transformed with preaching like this? We're giving you these great messages. How come you're still the same and yet people be the same. How to be more? Thank God more and more. There is that awakening more and more people realizing and and there's a sense that there's an awakening that comes before Revival, which Lynn leads to real awakening. What I mean is there's the personal recognition. Something's wrong. There's the personal recognition. Something's missing. There's the understanding. There must be more like Gideon said to the angel of the Lord and Judges 6 if the Lord's really with us, where are the signs the wonders? Where's the power? Where's the demonstration if the Lord's really with us? When the angel of the Lord says to him late, but he would go in the strength that you have going this your strength. I believe what he's saying to him is go in the strength that you have the realization that if God was really with us things would be different. That's your strength Gideon. You're strong. Your eyes are open when you say there must be more. You are on the first step to seeing visitation when you say Lord were naked were backslidden were bankrupt. Lord, we talk to talk, but we're not walking the walk Lord. Our families are so much like the families in the world Lord. There's no power to set the captives free God. There must be more for years now people around America been praying there been concerts of prayer there been church prayer meetings some prayer some churches holding three prayer meetings a day throughout their different churches in the city one hour each every day of the week praying for Revival praying for Revival praying for Revival. I've been at services where people cry their eyes out at the altar altar calls lasting for hours as people are seeking God and repenting of sin. I've watched them weep. I've watched them, you know with with little pools of tears. If it's not a carpeted floor in some parts of the world where services being held or here in the States and you just see little puddles of tears from people crying their eyes out God send Revival. We're desperate. We're desperate and that hunger that thirst is healthy. Don't let anyone tell you it's unhealthy when the Bible talks about being content with what you have. That's in Philippians 4 which talking about, you know, if you've got a mansion or if you live in a hut, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you you can be content with too little you can be content with too much, but he's not talking about being content with a net with a negligible spiritual condition the very chapter before he talks about how he's pressing on. How he wants to know him. He already knows him, but he wants to really know him like Moses in Exodus 33. He's experienced the Lord. He's met with the Lord has been caught up with the glory. But now he says show me your glory seeing you wants me to see you more experiencing you makes me want to experience you more. That's my hunger. That's my heart. That's my desire. Throughout the word were exalted to hunger and thirst after him blessed to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. They'll be filled. It's Matthew 5 and then John 6 telling us that Jesus is the one who satisfies our hunger and our thirst John 7. If anyone's thirsty, let him come to me and drink promises of the Psalms the prophets is a the deer pants after the courses of order. So my heart soul path after you some 42 or the hunger of Psalm 63 my flesh longs for you my soul thirst for you in a dry and weary land Isaiah 44 the promise of God to pour out water on the thirsty land their promises. There's encouragement see when we're hungry for God. It means we're becoming dissatisfied with the things of this world or hungry for God. It means we're becoming dissatisfied with church form with religious structure with human tradition. We want God to come and visit and an answer to the prayers of God's people here and around the world. God has been moving the initial trickles might have looked at first unrecognizable to some when the baby came out of the womb. It may look bloody may not have quite looked like the baby pictures that you used to see. But somehow you knew this thing was alive. It might have needed some real work, but something was happening. And here there is flesh and extremes and silliness and problems and this and that but something was happening. God was beginning to work and move when I came here a year ago. This was the first thing that I had ever seen in America saved in 71. It's the first thing I had ever seen in America as I watched what was happening as God began to deal with me about what he was doing as I began to understand the impact of this is it was spreading. It was the first thing that I could ever say. This is not just refreshing. This is not just renewal. This is the beginning of revival and the waters have deepened and this last year and their churches around the world that have been experiencing outpouring and never heard of Brownsville never heard of this place or that place, but they heard of God and they were hungry for God and they cried out to God. We've had missionary friends come from other parts of the world saying could you explain this to me? We've had Dustin such happening in our meetings in the middle of nowhere and they come could you explain this to me for those who just say it's it's suggests the power of suggestion. It doesn't work friends. I'm talking about if you do a scholarly scientific survey, it doesn't work. You know, even in a meeting here, you can have someone standing here just standing in the aisle and they're waiting to get prayed for and someone brushes up past them walking by someone else brushes up past them and then someone anointed with the spirit, you know, one of the per team people or one of the leaders just comes walking up and puts their hand on their shoulder from behind they go fine. It wasn't power of suggestion. They didn't know what it wasn't that 20 people stopped and said now when he touches you it's going to look really good. I mean, we've had sinners coming here to mock and the power of God hits him and they get off the ground saved. You know, it wasn't raised expectations. They came in here to pull family members out. They came in here to mock like the playboy bunnies. This was all probably over a year and a half ago. Now that came down to do a photo shoot in Pensacola and hurricane weather canceled the photo shoot on the beach. So they asked a taxi driver. Where's the action in Pensacola? It brought him over to the revival that we don't need to make up stories when reality is almost unbelievable friends. If we kept track of one out of a hundred of the things that happened, it would sound unbelievable. But they came in to mock they got under conviction by the message because the message got to be preached. The message must be preached. The word must be preached. It may be that here and there in a meeting God sweeps down in such a way that you can't even preach. But the word must come forth on a regular basis for the good of the body. Otherwise, you're just going to get up floating into weirdness after the message was preached. They responded there at the altar repenting pastor didn't know who they were went over was going to pray for them. What do you want the Lord to do? So what we really don't feel like we can ask for anything. We haven't led the best lives up to now. They prayed for them. The power God hit him. They laid on the ground shaking for a half an hour got up. I mean their hair was just sopping wet. It was intense. Pastor went up to see what was going on with them. One of them said I feel like I should change my name. I don't feel like the same person anymore. I feel like all the evils just gone out of him. You have stories like that happening all the time. You don't need to you know, those kind of things you don't need to make up. Stories are exaggerate. We do our best to report it. Just the way we hear it even to understate. So as to be careful to give God all the glory God's moving friends. I just want to say a few practical things. Terms of your own church. Take these last 20 minutes or so and just say some practical things. On the one hand you can learn from what we do here. You can learn from some of the things that we've learned Steve and pastor would lend all the worship Lee. They'd be the first to tell you almost every good thing that comes out of here has been stumbled on, you know that for example, our head usher Bill Bush. He's just been away for a little while, but our head usher. Was retired from the Coast Guard part of his job description some of the things he specialized in doing while he was with the Coast Guard. He was he was in in California when they had the huge student riots in whatever it was late 60s early 70s and in other parts of the country. He was involved in mass crowd control. Now he happens to be here suddenly you need this huge Corps of ushers and people doing this and this and this and this all these converts in the revival hundreds of leaders coming through every week. God brings me here, you know with just begins to speak to you about leaders meeting and speaks to me about a school the brothers come and say Mike we got to have a school head. God's been speaking to me about it wasn't like oh if we get him in when the coolie came on as the worship leader here just shortly before Revival broke, you know just a matter of months before Revival broke pastors worship leader had to leave because there was sickness on both sides of the family the worship leaders family and the his wife's family. They had to leave no worship leader. What did you God sends and lend on me? This wasn't a plan thing. Let's get this one here. Steve Hill's just here to preach one message God comes down, but there are certain things that have been learned. We don't do it perfectly. We don't pretend to be perfect. We just want to glorify God and let him move and not chase the devil way through whole through a immorality or greed or pride. We just want to let God move and let him be God but people come you may learn certain things you may say boy. That's I like that format, but you can't just try to have Brownsville and your church and plus depending where you are what part of the country what part of the world it's going to translate out very differently also and you may come from a real Holy Ghost mentality, you know old-time Pentecost you may come for a traditional Baptist mentality, you know, you may come from white Pentecostal which is different than black Pentecostal a white charismatic which is different than this, you know in Korean this verse it's got to translate out to who you are in God, but we all do carry a lot of baggage with us. That's got to go. Also, you can't be wedded to your program. This church used to be very controlled. You know the pastor who you know dance for joy before the Lord now sometimes dance across the whole platform. If he saw you doing that in the past, he would have set you down. He would have made eye contact with one of his ushers and all probability set you down three years ago, two and a half years ago. Now someone's just getting in the flesh and drawing attention to themselves will deal with it gently. Somebody maybe for the first time in their lives is getting wonderfully touched by God. We don't just want to squelch it instantly because they weren't quite doing it right. They're a little too loud a little too exuberant jumping up and down and screaming and drew attention. Well, you know if someone's in the flesh in a wrong way will will gently try and deal with them. If something's demonic will deal with it as quick as we we see it for the most part you just be amazed at the services are orderly services. If you come expecting all types of wild manifestations, God can sweep through many times during the baptist is the power of God's very heavy. And people get into that baptismal tank there in the moment. They step in the water. They begin to weep. Sometimes we have to fish them out of the water. You know, you know, it could be quiet tonight since I've been here in a year. They've been two that have been relatively quiet that I can remember, but you don't know. I mean, they'll go down and get baptized in there. They come up dead, you know, if they really died it said they come up and they're carried out. Sometimes we have to fish workers out of the water. Next thing you look there's a different worker up there because we just had a fish the last ones out, but the goal is not to have some wild service. The goal is to glorify Jesus and to respond to his word. You may learn certain things from the way we do things are the structure of the order, but you can't even even if you say man that answers my questions and and we're going to have meetings and we're going to do that. I like this. I like the order because they have worship, you know, if it if it takes an order we have worship and then and then you know, if they take an offering that take it then and then then the message and then response altar call minister to those that come forward sinners backslide or so on and then pray for people that you know, that seems to be the general pattern on a nightly basis and God can move differently, but I like that we're going to do it. That doesn't mean you're going to have revival. If you do that, you may have congregants or you may be a car and you go back to your church and you want it to happen. Now, you want the whole thing to explode now, and if you don't you're going to chafe what you got to do is commit together as a body pastors and leaders. I would urge you to call your church together one night a week add one extra night a week. If you're not doing it to pray for Revival. And as you do you begin to see what the needs where they are as you do you begin to see what the what the problems are in the community as you do you begin to see how much you need the rain to fall on the dry land. Pray for Revival and call the church to fast one day a week for Revival. How long until the glory comes and when the glory comes down pray all the more fast all the more. When God begins to move you find yourself skipping meals all the time. Anyhow, get the congregation to have a hunger and thirst for Revival. I'm not just trying to sell my book. There are plenty of other books on Revival get him reading stuff about Revival get him with a heart set for let him know what God's done in the past get calling together when I just show him a video from a powerful service here and give him a give him a picture. This is what God can do. I was ministering for a friend one time and I had to cancel out a Sunday morning service to be here on a Saturday night so I could speak here on a Sunday morning and then just get to the Sunday night service where I was supposed to be in my friend agreed to it and Saturday night. We had an unbelievable service October 12th. That was last year. We call it intercession for our schools just one of the heavier nights and the Revival God just sweeping down on the young people and because they agreed with me that it was the Lord that I stayed through Sunday morning, even though they were expecting me there and basically I don't speak Sunday mornings at all anymore just because of the Revival schedule. I brought the Saturday night video with me to their Sunday night service. If you've lost track of this completely don't worry about it. October 13th on a Sunday night. I was ministering on Long Island. I brought with me the October 12th service from the night before from here on video and I talked to the people a little bit and I said listen, I just want to show you what happened last night in the Revival and we just ran. I don't know maybe 15 minutes of this in the power of God just fell in the place and I do know God swept through us. If there's sin in your life just get up to the salt and get right with God. We were there past midnight that night God just coming down God visiting you want to create in your people's hearts and minds and appetite for more of God a desire for more of God. God may lead you to really start preaching repentance and holiness because it's going to be on the heels of the preaching of repentance that Revival comes prepare the way of the Lord. That's what John the Baptist ministry was how by preaching repentance. Repentance prepares the way of the Lord. I deal with that almost every book I've written but end of the American Gospel Enterprise. I talk about repentance preparing the way of the Lord and how Revival shaped America in the past. So you have to have repentance because you need Revival because the church has sinned the church is backslid when you change Revival is a call get right with God change so God can come and visit you in power, but you need to create a hunger and desire for people to touch the community to see God move you start to witness and nothing happens that creates hunger you share the gospel with people and it doesn't seem to penetrate you bring some drunk into the service. He's sobered up for that meeting. He comes in leaves the same you think oh God, I want to see something that goes deeper where you touch more powerfully what happens if God starts moving you really have to go with the flow. Nobody planned on having Revival here for two years or it could be for 10 years for all we know Steve was here to preach one message God visited the church that day and if you want to be encouraged after you're here this weekend and you see God moving especially if you hear through Sunday morning get the video the Father's Day outpouring when it all started and you'll be shocked. You'll say God can send Revival in my church to this is a healthy strong church people coming to the Lord families living right before God high percentage of the people tithing which shows you know health and vitality 80% of the members tithing. It's not bad huh pastors, but the church was not experiencing Revival. And that day you watch and it's like boy if it happened here get up in my church. Just a regular church, you know on Sunday morning and God came down pastor said to Steve after God came down you want to go another day. Sure. Want to know that no go another day. Sure. Why not? Then once they realize what was happening Steve knew cancel all your other appointments other church planting in other parts of the world because he's a missionary at heart spent years in Latin America. South America. Had a heart for Russia and so on cancel it all got to seize the opportunity of a lifetime while you have it God starts moving. Maybe it means you just add an extra service. Maybe it means you add several extra services. Maybe it means you just add an evangelistic service. Whatever you do make sure that you keep these two focus or foci we use is that the proper word foci we presuppose that Jesus is always our focus that glorifying God that worshiping him and loving him and getting closer to him and his work. Those are Foundations. People say well, I was touched in a renewal meeting. I fell madly in love with Jesus again. I couldn't wait to read the word. Well, that's going to produce life and health and strength, but the leadership also needs to give a focus to this just remember these two things Holiness and the Harvest as God begins moving you may be in the midst of a move of God let it be for the purification of the church as other believers come in let them be challenged with a message of holiness as the backsliders are coming back. Let them be challenged with a message of holiness. Let the housecleaning begin with us pastors. You may be the first ones that need to repent evangelist. You may be the first ones that need to repent missionaries. You may need to go back to your field and get with your other leaders and be the first ones to repent because God's dealing with you about compromise about lower standards see when you're not in the midst of visitation when you're not in the midst of deep spiritual vibrancy you get complacent. You know when the overflowing joy isn't there when the intimacy isn't there when that sense of God isn't there when that hunger and thirst isn't there you can kind of get complacent. Yeah, I've been pressing hard. I think I just you know, watch another sports event boy. How do you been watching a lot of sports? It's like every night for three or four hours. Yeah, I'm just tired out but it's been three four months like that God understands, you know, hey, why don't we go to the movies? Yeah, let's boy. I didn't remember how exciting movies were and yeah, I do remember just that little profanity or knew that he used to I would have run out of the building now. It's like it's not so bad. They're far more movies next door. I wouldn't go see them and see that junk just comes in and you you compare yourself to yourself. How many of you just like me have gone on to put going home to put on some suit or dress or an outfit that you wore for some years years ago and the thing shrunk as far as you know, you're the same as you've always been somebody sees you. Hey, what happened to you? You know, boy, you got gray always look like this is one day at a time one inch at a time one pound at a time. You don't realize it. It's not one inch at a time that you put on weight. Although sometimes it feels like that. That's what is with our spiritual eyes. We get used to this condition. We forget what it was like to spend hours alone with God in prayer. We forget what it was like to to love to worship. We forget what it's like. We couldn't wait to get into church. We forget what it was like. We look for sinners. We look for sick people. See the fire is gone and the backsliding heart starts with us. So you preach holiness. You preach intimacy with God. You preach the recapturing and the restoring of the first love and then look out. You got to look out. You got to look out. You got to look out souls sinners missions. The harvest we've raised up the school of ministry here in obedience to the Lord for several reasons. One is we want to give further foundations and equipping to converts of the revival and those being touched by the revival. We want to ground them even more in the word. We want to equip them even more for practical ministry. We want to lay even stronger foundations for their future. That's one reason. There's another reason. We must take advantage of this opportunity. We have with all these people getting serious on fire ready to go. We must take advantage of this to send people on fire for God with revival flames burning take them to the ends of the earth to reach the harvest. We must. But there's something else that we understand if we don't keep giving away giving away giving away God won't keep pouring in. We know we've got to keep showing the Lord. We're not just having a bless me club here. We must be touching the nation's we must be touching the community. We must be touching our own nation. We must that's got to be your heart. I've said many times I've written it stagnating Saint soon stink say it five times fast and you're all right stagnating Saint soon stink. The fact is we just if we're not going somewhere for not doing something the blessings are going to keep being poured in poured in poured in poured in and that's been one of the real problems in recent renewal that it hasn't been outward-looking Jonathan go forth the man with the best missionary name has ever lived go forth of China one of the great missionaries. Modern history. He asked the question if you have Jesus with his disciples, they they arrange the people for the feeding of the 5,000 5,000 men plus women and children have them sits and sit in companies of 50 and 100 and so on and then they begin to distribute the loaves of bread pieces of fish. They begin to distribute them to the people. Let's say they cover the first two rows and then they go back to Jesus and he gives thanks and the lows are multiplied now. Nowhere does it say that he kept giving thanks. I'm just giving you a picture here just seems that it was a continual multiplication as they went but would this happen he hands out the fish fishes and lows and comes back they hand them out he blesses them there multiply they go back to the people in the first two or three rows and give them again brings it back he multiplies of given to the people the first two three rows again brings it back in but he wouldn't keep multiplying it if they didn't give it to everybody else. They didn't share it if they didn't he would keep multiplying it so everybody would get fat. He wouldn't do a miracle like that. We've got to keep that focus and then let's say you have a season of refreshing that last six months and then as clearly as it came it seems to end what about normal church life on the one hand there's semi-normal church life in the midst of revival always you still have babies to dedicate you still have people to visit in the hospital. You know, there's a whole pastoral staff that does so much of that but there been meetings here. You won't hear it announced. I'm just telling you because I know it we're John Kilpatrick. I'll leave here at 1230 after praying for people and then go make a hospital stop because there's an old Saint that he hasn't gotten to see yet. He'll make a hospital stop and pray for somebody, you know get home an hour or two later still people's lives to be touched still needs but you'll see in the midst of revival those needs are a lot less the counseling things go down and the family problems go down because God's moving so powerful, but there still is normal life. You may have a picnic, you know, you may want to have some special, you know special thing if you do it on Easter and Christmas if that's important to you and you know, you do that still life may go on you still may have your Sunday school programs or your your children's this and that and all that's going to go on but everyone's going to be thoroughly involved. They're going to throw themselves in. And in that sense, it's not normal. It's intense. Let's say that season of refreshing ends what you have to determine is I will never go back to the way I was before. So you can't just live from revival to revival, but you can live revived people say well, that's what we just need to do. We just need to live revived right? We need revival to get us there. Not as an individual but corporately corporately we do and in revival more happens in a week than normally a year can do sometimes more happens in a day than a hundred years can do because a hundred years in the flesh won't do what an hour will do in the power of God. I was saved in 71 totally on fire for years by the late 70s early 80s. I got much colder much more intellectually theologically oriented at the expense of my walk with God doesn't have to be like that, but it happened to be like that for me. God humbled me in 82 sent a radical outpouring to me change me change those in the church where we were the other leaders the pastor and the other leaders. I was part of the leadership some of them went with the outpouring some didn't when it was clear that the pastor was against it. He's been here to be prayed for since and hungry for God the precious man who said to me with tears a couple years ago, Mike, I don't want to blow it the next time God moves, but when it was clear that he couldn't embrace what God was doing we had to leave but from there on from early 83 on I've had one determination. I will never go back to where I was. I've been preaching Revival and praying for Revival and believing for Revival and stirring hearts for Revival, you know for this very moment that we're living in now, but I still would not go back to the way I was before and you have to determine that you have to ask why is it that we got into a state where we need it Revival? I mean leaders you need to really pray it husbands and wives sit down and talk this through individual believers. Look at your lives. How is it that we got in the state? Were we prayerless? Did we have lack of vision? Were we not burdened for the lost? Did we let our standards go low? Did we get beat up? Did we go from doctrine to doctrine and teaching to teaching? Did we lack clear vision? Why did we get like this? See I see how it happened in my own life in the late 70s early 80s and by God's grace, I'll never let it happen again. The fire that was ignited in November of 82 hasn't gone out in me ever since and I'm jealous over it. I guard it. If I ever see symptoms of something that that reflect the way I was before I run from it like the plague and see you may not have three or four extra meetings a week, but you want to have every time you gather that God is there in power. You want to have that every time you gather that if he just wants to take over meeting he can do it. You want to have that you're regularly seeing people radically saved and coming to Jesus through the power of the gospel. You want to level out at a glorious norm. We often quote watchman knee by the time the average Christian gets his temperature up to normal. Everybody thinks he's got a fever. We want to be normal in God's eyes what the world calls fanaticism and the church calls extremism. God calls normal. Revival is to bring us back to the glorious norm. So hunger and thirst for Revival be touched by God today expand your vision look beyond your fellowship your own ministry. Look at your community. Look at the nation. Look at the Nations. I have great hope that we could be in the last great Revival. Why do I say that? Well there at some point has to be one last great Revival. There's going to be great apostasy and defection on the one hand gross darkness on the one hand brilliant light on the other the wicked will get more wicked the righteous more righteous. You can make a strong biblical case for a final outpouring. This gospel must be preached in all Nations before the end will come. There must be a harvest of souls from every tribe and kindred and it's going to take supernatural power of God to get that to happen to reach the unreached or to reach the Muslim communities to reach the Jewish community in mass. We can't get into all the promises and scriptural indications is going to have to be something to fulfill what God says about his church to be a glorious church bride without.