In this sermon, the preacher discusses the message given by Evan Roberts, a young man who claimed to have received a message from the Spirit of God. Roberts emphasized four important things for believers to do. First, they must put away any unconfessed sin and doubtful habits that are ruling over them. Second, they must obey the promptings of the Spirit promptly. Third, they must publicly confess their faith in Christ. The preacher also shares a journal entry from James Finley, a Methodist circuit writer, who witnessed a powerful spiritual awakening where people were deeply concerned about spiritual and eternal matters, and their focus shifted away from worldly pursuits.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA, PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Well, amen. It's a blessing to be here this morning. It's a blessing to enjoy those songs. I was even going to request one of those. Lord, I am earnestly longing. And if I will, I'll see what comes up with them. Praise the Lord. We sung that. I can't think of a more fitting one than also that rise up, O men of God. Welcome to the visitors. Some of you that don't know me, I'm Dean Taylor. I was recently ordained here a few weeks ago. And so, it's the first time I've got up to preach since then. So, if you see me trembling, then you can pray for me. It's a blessing to have you all here. You know, as you start to kind of think on that and meditate on the ordination, you know, and think of what God has before you, you know, it can sometimes get a bit overwhelming. I take those words and some of those admonitions that was preached during that time very seriously. I remember once, I had the pleasure of seeing Leonard Ravenhill preach one time at his house there in Texas. And the one sermon that I hit was the judgment of elders. And he talked on the verse about, I do not encourage men to be teachers because you incur a stricter judgment. So, I take those things and I look to the Lord and say, Oh, Father God, I pray that you will do these things in my life. You know, when also you start off these sorts of, you know, big things in your life, you tend to look all the way behind you. You look to God all the way before you. And also, my wife blessed me with a new Bible. So, with all that inside, I said, where do I start? So, I started with the book of Acts. And I thought, okay, let's see how those guys started out. So, I took the book of Acts and I started to look at it. And there was a few things there that really gave me comfort from the Lord right off at the beginning. The first was that in Acts chapter 1, verse 6, they still seem sort of clueless to this whole thing that God was bringing out. Jesus, is this the kingdom now or is it going to come in a little bit here? They're still asking. And then as we know what happens in Acts chapter 2, when God did speak to them and come to them and empower them, we clearly see changed lives. And it's interesting, another verse that I drew to here when I was looking through the book of Acts, was this particular one in Acts chapter 3. In verse 12, this is after Peter was just healing this man who was reaching up for some money. And he said, silver and gold have I none, but such that I have, I give to thee. Rise up and walk. And after this happened, after the power of God worked there, and people started to look at Peter. And they said, wow, this is incredible. Look at this man. Look what he's doing. And Peter says there in verse 12, Why marvel ye at this? Or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness, we had made this man to walk? And I looked at that. By our own power or even our own holiness, we were able to make this man walk. So I said, Lord God, You took an ordinary man, and by Your power and Your holiness, You did these things. And then one, kind of a curious one, that I looked at here was Acts chapter 18. Now, this is when Paul was in Ephesus. And even Acts says, now these are some extraordinary miracles happening. And it says that in chapter 18 verse 11, 19 verse 11, Amen, thanks brother. And God brought special miracles by the hands of Paul, so that from his body were brought into the sick handkerchiefs, or apron. And the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits were sent out of them. Now, in the context there of looking at what Peter just said, you know, this is not by our own power. You know, I consider that, if you think of that today, if we still had that handkerchief, you know we'd be setting up with some relics somewhere. You know, people would be going to see the handkerchief and everything. But what it hit me is, in the context of what first was there, in Acts chapter 3, was that this was the fact that God used something so extraordinarily defiled. You know, I even looked up there and said, let's look at this word handkerchief. Maybe there's something to that. The dictionary didn't give me anything. Something that you wipe your nose on, or wipe the sweat off your brow, or you wrap around a dead person, is what it was. So, I looked at this thing, and I said, Lord, if You can use something that You wipe Your nose on, if You can use a vessel like this to heal the sick, to cast out demons, Lord, I pray You can do it in my life. So, what I would like to preach on this morning, I'd like to call Acts chapter 29. I would like to preach on Acts chapter 29. And I pray that God will show us His heart during that time. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I pray to You, O Lord, this morning. Dear God, O Father, if You could use those vessels, Lord God, I pray, dear Father, You would look down with mercy this morning, O Father God. Look down, O Father, with mercy upon Your servant, O God. And I pray, Lord, I need You this morning. I call out to You, Father. Visit with us today, Lord. Let us hear what You have done, dear God. And put to practice, put to test the things we read. Dear Father, we need You this morning. We look to You. In Jesus' name, Amen. You know, I didn't make a mistake. There's only 28 chapters in the book of Acts. But it's an incomplete book. Acts ends not in a complete sense. It doesn't just end there and then all the things are concluded. It leaves on with a sense of expectation of what's coming after that. But backing up a little bit, I'd like to focus on how the Holy Spirit has worked in the church, both through the book of Acts, and then let's really look at that Acts 29 and take into what we have before us. You know, when you take on a work, or you take on something, a lot of times you like to see, okay, what's come on before me? And as we here as the body of Christ today in the year 2005, we have before us all that came. All the good. All the bad. And there it is laid out before us. Now, what are you going to do with it? Where are you going to take it? What are you going to do with this thing? And so, let's first look at how the Holy Spirit, when it first came into the church, what it did there. The book of Acts has been called the Acts of the Apostle. But it can also be said that it's the Acts, it is the Gospel of the Holy Spirit. You know how the Gospel talks about what Jesus did and the things He did and how He worked among the people and what happened. It's the same way with the third person of Trinity, the book of Acts. But what's more important about the book of Acts is that it's coming in fulfillment of a promise. There's something there that when Jesus, when He was on earth and He said that there's going to be something to happen, He says in John 16, verse 7, Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is expedient. That means it's good for me. It's good for you that I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send Him unto you. And when He has come, He will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin, because they believe not in Me. Of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more. Of judgment, because the Prince of this world is judge. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. How be it when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth. For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak. And He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me. For He shall receive of Mine and shall show it unto you. All things that are the Father hath are Mine. Therefore said I that He shall take of Mine and shall show it unto you." But we see that the promise fulfilled in Acts. It's coming. And for some reason, it seems bizarre to us that just being with Jesus, just being there hearing the teaching and seeing what He does and seeing the miracles was not enough. He's saying it's actually good for you that I go to the Father and I send you the Holy Spirit. And we see even in the apostles' lives, three years with Jesus, walking and talking and doing these things and seeing these miracles, it wasn't enough that they were there and the Holy Spirit was what was needed to empower them. One thing is clear on Acts 2 is that 120 somewhat clueless, impotent, yet expectant people became so empowered by God that they turned the world upside down. Now, concerning these outpourings, it's absolutely necessary that we consider a small point of doctrine here about Pentecost. The point is this. Was Pentecost a once and done for thing of God working in the church, did this, empowered the apostles, and it's done? In other words, it's sort of like when God brought Moses out of Egypt. He parted the water. These great big miracles. But you know, waters didn't part every day, so was this what Acts was? Was what happened at Pentecost a once and done for thing? I don't think we believe it is this morning. More so, we believe that it is the once and for all thing that has poured that Spirit into a receptacle. It has poured it into a receptacle ready for those who apply the promises of God and believe that that is for them, take of that, and He empowers the church throughout all generations. Jesus said, If ye then, this is Luke 11, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? Why is this an important distinguishing thing between looking at this? Is this just a point of doctrine? Is this just okay? It's a semantic. It's you say this way, I say that way. It doesn't really matter what happened in history here. It's important because if we think it's done, if we think even in our salvation, it's true that without the Spirit of God, none of us would be born again. But if you think that what you received when you were just there and you were born again and amen for that, if you think that's it, there's no more, this is my life now, I'm going to try now to apply this the best way I can, then there's nothing longing within you. You think you're finished. You're full. You're rich. You have no need of nothing. But if you feel, if you look at this point, and you say, there's more. There's something more for us as a church. There's something more for us as individuals that if I grab onto it, that I apply those promises, I can walk in what I read here in the book of Acts. A.T. Pearson, writing on this point, said this, Our contention, on this same point, is not a form of statement. One practical question remains. Are we in faith and by prayer to seek for new effusions of power from on high? Should we then continue to look for the Holy Spirit to work in our life and in our church the way we saw it there at Acts? Here lies the hope of worldwide missions. Without some new unction from the Spirit, we shall never feel the burning fire shut up in our bones which compels us to witness. Nor will our witness without that be of power. If there is any way that this lost power from apostolic days may be recovered in the church, it is most likely going to be from the severe school of fasting and prayer. I love this last sentence. He says, A church half asleep in a world wholly dead waits for such a renaissance. If we see that and understand that difference, that there is a receptacle, there is a bowl ready to be poured out on the church. He says, A church half asleep in a world wholly dead awaits for that. The book of Acts covers about 33 years. It's about one generation. We see within that one generation actually four, five outpourings of the Holy Spirit done in four different ways. And we're going to look at those real quick and then we're going to get to Acts chapter 29. The first one, the most famous one, is during a time of waiting. They were told very clearly, go there and wait until you receive the Holy Spirit. Now, they didn't just go there until they got their theology right. They went there until they had something actual tangible that they knew their lives were changed and walked it out. And they waited on the Holy Spirit and it came. It says in Acts 1-5, For John truly baptized with water, these are the words of Christ, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. They took that promise and they waited for it. The second way found in Acts 4. After a season of prayer and fasting, the Holy Spirit came upon the church. It says there, And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled. Underline all. All filled. Now, wait a minute. I thought they already did that Pentecost thing in Acts 2. But here again, feeling a need. We've got a ministry now. We've got to send these brothers out. What are we going to do? We need a... Well, we're going to pray and we're going to fast. And God shook the whole church. And they were all filled again with the Holy Spirit and they spake the Word of God with boldness. Hallelujah. Third way is by the laying on of hands. That's found in Acts 8. Acts 8, verse 17. In Acts 19, verse 6. By the laying on of hands, they laid their hands. Then laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost. In Acts 19, And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them. Again, just seeing something believing. This is something out there in the middle of their evangelism and out there being missionaries. They're needing the power these people need. So they prayed for it. Counted on it. And God answered it there again. The fourth way is during preaching. It's another manifestation of the way the Holy Spirit came in the book of Acts. During the very act of preaching, it says in Acts 11, verse 15, While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on them which heard the Word. He actually is given the testimony. He says, And I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them as on us in the beginning. The first one was on Acts 10. So while he was sitting there preaching to them, the Holy Spirit fell on the church and everyone that heard, the Holy Spirit fell on them. And so this is even a bigger manifestation than what happened there in Acts 2. Within that generation, five manifestations that we just even mentioned. Four different ways. But do we have a reason to think that this ended? Do we have some sort of point or something in Scripture that gives us the point that okay, God's not going to work this way anymore. When we get right up to the end, Paul's in there. He's prophesying in a ship that's about to be wrecked. He gets bit by a snake holding on to the promises of Jesus that they'll be bit by things and it doesn't hurt them. He's going on and he's right up to the end. He's there and he's preaching in his own rented house there receiving seekers that come in and ministering to him and frustrated about how the Romans weren't receiving him. What happened next? It doesn't even mention Paul's execution. It doesn't mention what happened to the church at Rome there. So now let's turn to Acts 29 if we could. Acts 29. What followed then we see as we survey and take a walk about Zion the Scriptures tell us to do and to tell our children about what God has done. If you will allow me, I would like to go expositorily through Acts 29 and show how God has used these same methods of shaking individuals and shaking a church up to this present day. I would then like to bring it as trying to fulfill a pastoral responsibility and not just make this a thing of history or a thing of curious trivia, but bring it home and bring it to us and bring it to individuals of how God can use that in our own lives in our lives today. After that, we know from reading church history that Paul got his head chopped off. The church of Rome still grew and it grew and it grew and there was nothing that could stop their zeal. Even though they were being killed, different Caesars were out, Nero was out to get them, Caligula was out to get them and they hated the Christians and their zeal for the Lord just kept going on and on. They fulfilled what it says in Revelations that they overcame him, Satan, by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony and they loved not their life until the death. There was nothing that could stop them. They just kept going. We get to one point an early Christian man named Polycarp. Old man. Old man. Christian his whole life. He got to a point where they were there and they said, you know, you're giving up your gods. You're giving up our gods and by you insulting our gods, you're an atheist. So what do you have to say with that? What do you have to say with the fact that we're calling you an atheist? You're about to be killed. You know what he said? Away with the atheists! And he gladly took on that martyrdom and took a hold of it and because of that, that whole Colosseum was full of people that looked at him and said, wow, they've got something real. And the church grew. As it went on, it grew and it grew. Another one called Justin, who would later be called Justin Martyr, said this. Listen to these words. It is evident that no one can terrify or subdue us, for throughout all the world we have believed in Jesus. It is clear that although beheaded and crucified and thrown to wild beasts and fire and all other kinds of torture, we do not give up our confession, but the more such things happen, the more do other persons and in larger numbers become faithful believers and worshippers of God through the name of Jesus. Hallelujah! He used to be a philosopher. Got born again. Believed in Jesus and walked out with that testimony. But there's times also the church, as we saw in the book of Acts, they felt, okay, we've got a special burden though. We need to bear down in prayer and believe these promises that we're reading here even though I know they're not making sense, but we're going to believe them. Listen to this very ancient writing written around the year 150 by a bishop in the town of Lyons, France, named Irenaeus. He said this, Those also will be thus confuted who belong to Simon and Carpocrates. These were just some heretics. And listen how he says, you can tell they're the heretics and we're not. He says, And if there are any others who are said to perform miracles if they claim to be miracles, for they perform what they do neither through the power of God nor in connection with the truth the truth was important, nor for the well-being of men, they can neither confer sight on the blind nor hearing on the deaf, nor can expel all sorts of demons except those who are sent into others by themselves if even they can do this much. And so far as they are from being able to raise the dead that they do not even believe this can be possibly done. However, the Lord raised the dead and the apostles did so by means of prayer and this has been frequently done in the brotherhood on account of some necessity. When the entire church in that particular locality entreated God with much fasting and prayer, the spirit of the dead man has returned and he has been bestowed an answer to the prayers of the saints. Those heretics didn't even believe that could be done. Wow. It goes on. It got to the point where these people became so zealous to serve the Lord, so zealous to go anywhere they could, so zealous for martyrdom, the church had to eventually say, okay, we're going to make laws. If you go asking to be martyred, we're not going to consider it. It's not going to be taken. You can't do it. They passed laws in the church. You can't just run into it. As a matter of fact, Origen's mother, when Origen's father got taken off and became a martyr, his mother hid his clothes so that he couldn't run out as a little boy to be martyred along with his daddy. So that he knew that he would run out and want to be martyred with his dad. His mother hid the clothes. Well, this went on. Later on, after the church went, you know, and together, the church and the state formed together and formed this high bread, still there was those who called themselves the Puritans or the Novationists and the Cothari, or something is their word for Puritan in those days, the Pure Ones, or the Donatists were also people who wanted to purify the church and solve these problems. And many things happened among them. And they counted on God and prayed. This went on and continued on. There was different people. The Waldensians, we've heard of them held out there in the Swiss Alps. How different men had been hiding even when the Crusades were going on and all these things were happening. Some people, though, just said, I'm not going to do it. I'm going to believe that Word of God. But one way Satan really attacked the church was to hide the Word of God. Well, if they don't know about the promises, then they can't apply these promises and if they can't apply these promises, then I've got them. So the Word of God became illegal. It became hidden. But some of these brothers, like the Waldensians, they got a piece of it or they wrote it out or they went and read the one that was chained to the pulpit there in the church and they believed in these things and these things happened. Now, it took us up to the Reformation and why I think one of the most important things that happened in the Reformation was the Word of God came out. And when this happened, the common man was able to take the Bible and say, wow, it says here that if we ask for the Holy Spirit, He'll give it to us. It says here that if we believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we'll be saved. It says here that if we believe and trust in the Lord, these things will follow. So, they took that and they ran with it. Now, Reformation is not revival, but sometimes Reformation is needed to bring in a revival. When you have all that kind of thing that was there going on in the church, you had all these prayers to saints, you had indulgences and all these things. The Holy Spirit couldn't even get into that because they had so much works righteousness tied up into that. So many of those things. So, the Reformation came in. But when that happened and the Word of God came, then we start to see a flood of people taking that Word and starting to apply it. We had a people called the Zwinglians from a guy named Zwingli, the Lutherans. Now, the Zwinglians were interested. They were taking it a little further than the Lutherans did. But then with Zwingli were a couple of brothers who took this and they said, you know, I don't know. We've been reading the Bible. It seems to be here that we should come to the Lord with faith. And if we just baptize these little babies and bring them in and just try to mold them and shape them and all this, we're going to have some problems along the line. I don't think it's right. I don't think it's in the Word of God. Zwingli agreed with them in principle but said, no, we can't do this because it will cause too much trouble. Those brothers said no. And Conrad Grable, George Blaurock were some of those who said we can't do that. And so they met on their own and started to pray. Well, again, this was a reformation. It was a bit of theology there that needed to be in place. But that's not what empowered these men. What empowered came next. And listen to Acts 29 of their little meeting there. One day when they were meeting, fear came over them and struck their hearts. So here they are. God, we just got kicked out of the Catholic Church. I used to be a monk. And now we're here. I'm trusting in You. And now Zwingli's mad at us, trying to kill us. We're worshiping You. And fear came over them and struck their hearts. They fell on their knees before the Almighty God in Heaven and called upon Him who knows all hearts. They prayed that God grant it to them to do His divine will and that He might have mercy on them. Neither flesh and blood nor human wisdom compelled them. They were well aware of what they would have to suffer for this. After they prayed, George Blaurock stood up and asked Conrad Grable in the name of God to baptize him with true Christian baptism on his faith and recognition of the truth. With this request, he knelt down and Conrad baptized him. Since at that time, there had been no appointed servants of the Word, then the others in turn asked George to baptize them when he did. And so in great fear of God, together they surrendered themselves to the Lord. They confirmed one another for the service of the Gospel and began to teach the faith and to keep it. This was the beginning of separation from the world and its evil ways. You see, first there was a reformation. Then they met God. That's the key. We can't stop with reformation. It's important, though. We don't want to just say we just want to get a bunch of goose bumps or whatever. These things are truth. When we walk in sin and deliberately, now that we have the Word of God, go against this Word of God, there needs to be times when we look at that. So, here it is. They had a reformation, but then they met God. This went on. We know the story. It's the story of many of your forefathers. And they went on and they preached the Gospel and they went on and it grew and it grew and they were persecuted. You know, when it reached up all the way to Holland, and there it met a zealous group of people who said, well, we're going to call ourselves Anabaptists too. And they started a little thing there in Munster and said where the Anabaptist kingdom of Munster was a polygamous thing. It was Satan trying to give a counterfeit. They were militants. They tried to take over the town. They were brutally killed, brutally executed by the state. And it gave a really bad taste to the whole movement for a while. And then the persecution just really raged. And then at that time, it seemed sometimes for some of them to be a little easier to be the quiet of the land. So, you know, the persecution is pretty rough. And a lot of them became the quiet of the land at that time. But it went on. When this started happening, one little young man who was a count of a little region, Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf had a little area. And he said, well, you know what? I don't like all this persecution. If you love the Lord and you want to serve Him, come on to my little kingdom here, tiny little place, and we'll serve the Lord, all of us. I don't care where you're from. Come on, we'll worship the Lord. So as you could imagine, he got a bunch. He got a bunch of different people. It's sort of like starting a remnant church somewhere. You know, you get people from this background. It's like what Paul was saying. You get people from this background, that background, and here they are all together. And they're trying to worship the Lord together. And when they did that, they started to, you know, have a few struggles working that out. Well, what about this point? And what about that point? I don't like the way he's doing that. And I don't like the way he's doing that. And sure enough, as soon as this church was trying to start out, trying to just serve the Lord, They started to have a lot of troubles and a lot of contention, but the Count Zinzendorf wouldn't give up. And he experienced a visitation of God in 1727, which launched revivals with a hundred years of the continuous prayers and a hundred missionaries went out in 25 years. And this is what happened. Here's the account. Here's the Acts chapter nine of this little community. This disgruntled community at Herrenhut early in 1727 was deeply divided and critical of one another. Heated controversies threatened to disrupt the community. They were from everywhere, from Arabian church, the brethren, the ancient one. Other believers were Lutherans who came in there saying, I want more reform, saying I want more. And Anabaptists were there and they argued about a lot of things. Zinzendorf visited all the adult members of the deeply divided community and drew up a covenant calling them to seek out. They wanted to seek God. Let's see, what are the things that we see in common here? How can we be a brotherhood here? How can we be one, brother Paul? God's not working in this. We're dividing. And there's so much that at this time, the Islam were coming up into the southern part of Europe and things and destruction and things were threatening. The enemy had come in like a flood. And so how can we do this? We need to be one. We need to be a brotherhood. Well, on May 12th of May 1727, they all signed an agreement to dedicate their lives to be one, to be a brotherhood in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, on July 22nd, many of the community covenanted together on their own accord to meet often to pour out their hearts and prayers and to sing hymns. Let's get together. This is exciting. What's God doing? I don't know. Let's get together and pray. And they did that. On August 5th, the count spent the whole night in prayer and about 12 or 14 others following a large meeting for prayer at midnight with great emotion prevailed. On August 10th, Pastor Roth, while leading the service at Harenhut, was overwhelmed by the power of the Lord about noon. He sank down in the dust before God, and so did the whole congregation. They continued till midnight in prayer and singing, weeping and praying. On Wednesday, the 13th in August, Wednesday, August the 13th, the Holy Spirit was poured out on them. Their prayers were answered in ways far beyond anyone expectations, and many of them decided to set aside certain time for continuing an earnest prayer. They drew lots to have prayer stations that they pray once an hour all around the clock. They did that for 100 years. They sent out missionaries all across the world. Well, one of these missionaries met a couple of young men coming back from America who failures as ministers, went there and on the way there wrote in his diary, I'm going there to save the Indians, but who will save me? He wrote in his diary, got there, and suddenly he saw this Moravian preacher, Peter Brouwer, preaching. He's preaching about Jesus. He's preaching that all these things are possible by faith alone with Jesus Christ, that he'll work these things in your life and you'll have a victorious life. He heard that and he believed it. His name was John Wesley. And he took that then and he had his own time of, as we know, time doesn't permit me to go about all what happened to him. Well, it's interesting, though, even though he's born again, Charles was born again, George Whitfield get born again. Many of those who are in the little holy club he had there together to try to be, you know, to get further and further into holiness were born again. But still lots of things had happened, but it hadn't broke out yet. But listen, what happened in 1739, something happened. January 1st, the Wesleys and Whitfield, and we all know that they had big differences. Right now, returned from America, who has now returned from America and four others from the former holy club at Oxford in the student days, along with 60 others met in London for prayer and a love feast. So let's get together and pray. You're just back from America. You've been a missionary out there. Could you come on there and can we just seek God and pray? The spirit of God moved powerfully on them all. Many fell down, overwhelmed. The meeting went on all night and they realized that they had been empowered in a fresh visitation from God. Mr. Hall Kitchen, Ingram, Whitfield, Hitchens and my brother, Charles. This is from his journal. We're present at our love feast in Fetter Lane with about 60 of the brethren, about three in the morning as we were continuing incident prayer, the power of God. They were praying, they were seeking God, although they had been used by God. They could have stopped, Wesley could have stopped, Whitfield could have stopped, but they were incident prayer, wanting more. The power of God came mightily upon us in so much that many cried out for exceeding joy and many fell to the ground. As soon as we were recovered a little from that awe and amazement at the presence of his majesty, we broke out with one voice. We praise thee, O God. This Pentecost on New Year's Day launched the revival known as the Great Awakening. God wanted to take them even further and he took them and he did take them. At this time in America, conditions were very bad. You know, we hear a lot about our forefathers and it's true. Some of them had very good convictions, but most did not. And many like Thomas Jefferson, don't pray for me when he was on his deathbed. Thomas Paine, a known atheist, Benjamin Franklin went to hear George Whitfield many times and said he may get money out of me, but he's not going to save my soul. All these men shaped America and Europe was, you know, a lot of people were coming in and they were pouring into America and sin, complacency was everywhere. But there was a circulation, I tried to get the name and I didn't. That was some people in England started to say we need to pray for revival. Can we set out an hour a day, 30 minutes a day to pray for something extraordinary, to pray that God would move? Well, some people got moved by that. A man in New England here named Jonathan Edwards took that and he took that little prayer idea and started to pray for revival, got people to pray for revival. And then he started to preach. As we know, the famous history there, he preached a very mundane, they say, read out sermon, sinners in the hand of an angry God. And a revival broke out there in New England. He says this in his journal, a great and earnest concern about the great things of religion and the eternal world became universal in all parts of the town and among people of all degrees and all ages. The noise among the dry bones waxed louder and louder and other talk, but about spiritual and eternal things was anything but spiritual, eternal things were soon thrown by. He says the minds of people were wonderfully taken off the world. It was treated among us as a thing of very little consequence. The things of the world, they seem to follow their worldly business more as a part of their duty than from any disposition they had to it. They were not given to it anymore. They just went and did their work. They did it, though they did their work and they were faithful in the workplace. But yet it was there and there were they were alive to God. These revivals that we read about, you know, it's sometimes it's disappointing that what we hear about today, there's so much fluff in all this, there's so much hype, there's so much called revival that I think sometimes I don't even want to hardly use that word revival. You know, people say, well, we had a revival and they, you know, they bring in a rock band and do this or that and people get all excited. Let me just say that in these accounts, lives were changed. It was it was something that God was doing. And sinners, when they would talk about, you know, being slain in the spirit, we'll get a few of these in a little bit or that they were they fell out. This was not like what you would see today. People from my background might have seen some of this where people were, you know, and gently falling down and then, you know, saying they had a religious experience. What it was was just like if you were suddenly condemned to death, you know, people like before their court martial, you're going to be condemned to death. They faint. They fall out. But when they under the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the preaching of the word feel the enormity of their sin and they realize I am a sinner, they fell out. And Wesley, he reports in his journals that sometimes there was eighteen hundred people lied out just begging God. This is not laying out, trying to have some religious experience, but laid out over the conviction of sin. He would go sometimes and preach and they would just start screaming, you know, we have altar calls today and I like that in those days before Finney, there wasn't really an altar called per se. So in the middle of preaching, if suddenly this person got convicted of sin, they didn't wait to the altar call. I just said, well, what am I going to do? God's meeting with me. God's dealing with me. And they cried out, God save me. And that happened in many of those meetings. Again, I'm not I like I like altar calls, but you don't have to wait to the altar call. If God speaks to you, you can respond wherever you are. So he goes on another acquaintance of David Brainerd, a missionary to the Indians right around here. The Susquehanna Indians said this in his journal. And one time he was out preaching there. He said the power of God seemed to descend on the assembly. You know, again, we we think of this here in America, you think of it today, this would be no different than going out to Ghana or something today. This is there with the Indians there with these native people here. And he says, like a rushing mighty wind and with an astonishing energy bore all down before it. In other words, again, he had some of these people that were just these Indian natives that were just falling before the face of God. I stood amazed at the influence that sees the audience almost unanimously. And could compare it to nothing more aptly than the irresistible force of a mighty torrent, a mighty flood. How do I explain this? He said almost all persons of all ages were bowed down with concern together and scarce was able to withstand the shock of astonishing, astonishing operation. Well, just like times they have their fires and sometimes things started to wear down again. This certainly happened in England. John Wesley, now ninety two or ninety years old at this time, that there was a little group of just lay people got together and a church there, St. Just Church at Cornwall on Christmas Day, 1781, saying, you know what, we need more taking those promises, applying them, just a bunch of people getting together to pray. And at three a.m., intercessors met to sing and pray. You know, imagine some people were getting drunk on this Christmas. Oh, having a big Christmas, you know, imagine today with all the presents and all this thing, you know, having their own thing. But these people said, you know what, we're going to get together. How about let's get together at three a.m. and let's start to pray and look to God to do something. OK, but three a.m., the intercessors met to sing and pray. The heavens open at last. And they knew it. They prayed through until nine a.m. and regathered on Christmas evening. Throughout January and February, the movement continued. By March 1782, they were praying until midnight. No significant preachers were involved, just people praying in the Holy Spirit responding. John Wesley made it to this to this town, this church. Two years later, things still going on. He says this is from his journal. Two years later, in 1784, the 83 year old. OK, there it is. John Wesley visited the area. He wrote this. This country is all on fire and the flame is spreading from village to village. It's that that some historians say started the second Great Awakening. So back to America, America had a lot of bad spots. Kentucky was one of the worst. It was the West. It was the radicals. It was the Wild West. Sin was everywhere. And coming up into the to the 1800s, you know, they're praying for revival. Of course, we've got a new millennium, our new century here. And this little pastor named James McGrady said, God, he was just wailing. This is like Sodom and Gomorrah. He wrote sin everywhere. What are we to do? He had three little box churches, tiny little box churches there in the Kentucky Plains. And he said, but. Get ahead of myself in New England, Isaac Bacchus addressed and started to send out letters for an urgent plea for prayer, for revival to pastors of every Christian denomination in the United States. In 1794, the churches adopted this plan until America, like Britain, was interlaced with these prayer meetings. They would have some called Aaron and Her Foundations where they would get together as they were going to pray for the ministers, Aaron and Her, and we're going to lift them up in prayer and see what God will do with them. That has to be a blessing. They had little groups that were meeting. We're going to meet for prayer. And this started happening again and again. Well, James McGrady was one of them. Convinced that God was going to do something, McGrady and his colleagues planned a camp meeting. This was the first one. OK, never happened before. A camp meeting to be held until late July, 1800s, hot Kentucky, July in the 1800s at the Gasper River. They had not anticipated, though, what would occur. An enormous crowd, as many as 8000, began arriving at this appropriate date, many from distances as great as 100 miles by horse and buggy. And although the term camp meeting was not used until 1802, this was the first true camp meeting. Well, then we get some of the stuff called jealousy revivals. And I love jealousy revivals. Here's what happened. Impressed by this, Barton Stone in 1801 said, well, if that can happen, I'm going to pray for it. And, you know, where he's provoked to jealousy and you get one of these jealousy revivals. I want the word of God like that in my life. I want that. And so he started to pray, organized similar meetings in 1801 in his area of Cane Ridge, northeast of Lexington. A huge crowd showed up. Remember, these are all horse and buggies, no one taking planes, no one's getting hotels, everyone's staying in tents and all that. Twelve thousand five hundred attend and over one hundred and twenty five wagons, including people from Ohio and Tennessee. At that time, Lexington, the largest known Kentucky, had less than 1800 citizens of Kentucky. All right. People started preaching and going into all this. He eventually stood up somewhere and he screamed out, any ministers from any denomination come and help me. So they started to come up. What am I to do with these people? Things are breaking out. What am I going to do? James Finley, a Methodist circuit rider who showed up there, described it this way in his journal. Listen to this. The noise was like the roar of Niagara. The bassy of human beings seem to be agitated as if by a storm. I counted seven ministers all preaching at one time, some on stumps, others in wagons and one standing on a tree which had been falling lodged against another. I stepped up on a log where I could have a better view of the surging sea of humanity. The scene that then impressed itself to my mind was indescribable. At one time, I saw at least 500 swept down in a moment as if a battery of a thousand guns had been opened up on them and then immediately following shrieks and trout that rent the very heavens. This happened on the plains of Kentucky because some men got together and believe that Acts chapter 29 wasn't finished yet, that they worked in their life. Skipping over Charles Finney, I don't have time to go into all that. He believed it, worked it and brought that into the churches there and into his evangelism. I wanted to just touch a little bit on the revival of 1904 in Wells. We've talked about it here before. Brother Denny's preached on it. Let me just say a few words about it. I'm again, we're crossing into another century. And at that time, a lot of the the churches were getting together for revival and say, we want to see a revival at the turn of the century. It didn't it didn't happen. It didn't happen like they had expected. As a matter of fact, a magazine called the Christian Century was brought out that time where they it's a liberal magazine now, but where they were expecting these changes in the church, they started to meet in prayer and the Methodists were wanting, I don't know, a million. So some huge souls that they were bringing to God, they wanted it at 1900. The Baptists had that many of the other different denominations had that, but it didn't it didn't happen. But in 1904, something did happen. Finally, Seth Joshua, a man named by the name of Seth Joshua, then held meetings there in Wells in 1904 at the Newcastle Inland, I don't even want to try to say the town at which students from the Methodist Academy also attended. And they're with Evan Roberts. Well, on September the twenty ninth at seven, Seth Joshua closed the seven a.m. meeting before breakfast, crying out in Welsh notices their meeting so early that they're finished by seven a.m. All right. This is before the revival, mind you. And he prayed this famous prayer, Lord, bend us. This word in the Welsh bend is sort of like our word mold. Change us, change us, give us change the church, Lord, working us. Well, this young man, a young coal miner whose father had died early on, had to go and work in the coal mines to support his family, was there, was now a minister wanting to serve God. He said he said this in his journal. It was the spirit that put the emphasis on for me on bend us. That is what you need, said the spirit. To me, it became personal. And as I went, I prayed, Lord, bend me. And that was his prayer. Lord, I see my own are my hands clean. Is my heart pure? And he took that personally and he ran with it. He went back to seminary for a little bit, came back to the ministry and said, I've got a word from God. So the minister said, I want to be able to speak to the congregation. So he met with the congregation. He said, well, you know, I mean, the young man comes up, wants to speak to the whole congregation. All right, well, we'll let you preach to the Monday night prayer meeting. You'll get to preach after it's all said and done. So he said, OK. So he went up and he said, OK, this young man has something to say. Evan Roberts has something to say. And he said, he said, the spirit of God has given me a message. These four things, you must put away any unconfessed sin, your hiding sin, you must put it away. Number two, you must put away any doubtful habit. What are you bound to? What's ruling you? You must put away all these habits. You must obey the spirit promptly. If you want to be moved of God, he's going to be giving you some promptings. You must obey it promptly, he said. And number four, you must confess Christ publicly. These people, they grew up, they were good churchmen, you know, kind of like what we have in Lancaster County. They grew up good, you know, moral. But did they profess Christ? They didn't. And he said, this is a problem. You must profess Christ openly. Well, everyone there at the at that meeting got got converted. It went on. He preached the next. He preached the next. It ended up that it was starting to come over. And and the rest is history where a hundred thousand souls outside of that church were born again, making professions of faith and come to Jesus. From that, we have one of the biggest outpourings of missionaries. What we see there in Acts, why am I giving you this Holy Spirit? Is it so that you can have a great church? Is it so that you can have goosebumps run down your head? It's so that you can wear T-shirts that brag about how great your church is. It's so that you can take this gospel to all the world. Well, this is what happened there. And here, a historian, revival historian, Robert Orr, says this about it. The story of the Welsh revival is astounding. Begun with prayer meetings of less than a score of intercessors. When his birth, it's found the Church of Wales were crowded for more than two years. A hundred thousand outsiders were converted and added to the churches and a vast majority remaining true to the end. Again, this was not just a big fluff thing. Listen, what this drunkenness was immediately cut in half. This historian, he's amazing, too. He goes to these places, digs out the records like the police records, digs out the records like the pregnancy rate among the non-married girls, pulled out things. Was there change? Was there lives that were changed or was this just a fluff thing? Drunkenness was immediately cut in half and many taverns went bankrupt. Crimes were so diminished that judges were presented with white gloves signifying that there was no cases of murder, assault, rape or robbery or the like to consider. The police became unemployed in many districts. Stoppages into this stoppages occurred in coal mines, not due to the unpleasantness between management and workers, but because so many foul mouthed miners became converted and stopped using foul language that their horses, which hauled the coal trucks in the mines, could no longer understand what was being said to them. Hallelujah. These were changed and the transportation ground to a halt. Amen. Jealousy revival broke out just about what happened in Wales and Korea. They said this from Korea the next year. This is our 1907, the day before the course ended, the evening meeting seemed full and the presence of God. Here's Korea, not like it is today, full of Buddhists, full of ancestor worship, idols everywhere. It's 1907. All these things, imperialism is making a bad name and all these things, but they're jealous. Hey, it happened in Wales. You think it can happen in Korea? They told these people it can't. Some of the ministers there, it can't happen here. That was English people. They know their Bible. They know these things and they were told, but they didn't stop. It could happen here. It can happen in Korea. So they prayed. And the presence of God, many broke down confessing their sins and the whole congregation wept, confessed praise and praise at the same time, according to those presence. What might appear to be chaos was actually a beautiful expression of the work of God's spirit. By March 2000 were converted and 30,000 by the middle of 1907. I was talking to a guy once who had recently been to Korea. This was just a worldly guy. He said, you know, when you go to Korea, you know what you see there? I said, no, what? Tell me. So we're driving all the way down the street. All you see is churches and crosses from here to there. Even today, the what happened here made an effect on people that believe God. Time does not permit to tell of C.T. Studd, one of those guys who could hit one of those balls real good. He was a cricket player. He took the gospel converted by D.L. Moody and ran with it and had revivals all through Africa and missionaries seeing God work in there. Takes us up to Duncan Campbell. We've heard that preached here. We've heard it said Duncan Campbell in the Hebrides of Scotland. Again, a very encapsulated area where all these people were very religious, very holy, very, you know, had their thing together and but dead. Well, a couple of people started meeting in a barn. And this is what happened. Duncan Campbell writes this. God was beginning to move. The heavens were opening. We were there on our faces before God. Three o'clock in the morning came. Seems a lot happened at three o'clock in the morning. Three o'clock in the morning came and God swept in about a dozen men and women lay prostrate on the floor, speechless. Something had happened. We knew that the forces of darkness were going to be driven back and men were going to be delivered. We left the cottage at three a.m. to discover men were and women seeking God. I walked along the country road and found three men on their faces and they were there in the bar and God's falling out all over the place, crying to God for mercy. There was a light in every home. No one seemed to be asleep. God was waking up this little area. It's reported there that while he was preaching, he finished preaching. He went to one place and there was a dance hall there just dancing. I could have here maybe some Amish in a barn somewhere, dancing somewhere. And suddenly the spirit of God came into that dance hall. They were under the conviction of sin, ran into the police station, said, well, we don't know what to do. And they didn't know where to go. So they went to some place where they thought there was a law and order. They ran to the police station. The police station got on the got on the phone and called up Duncan Campbell or called up the minister there and said, we've got a bunch of people here at the police station. We don't know what to do with them. And they were under the conviction of sin. Hallelujah. They got born again. Many of those are parish ministers out preaching. Many became missionaries and lives were changed there. Acts 29, that was in 19, did I say 1954? I think I didn't write it down here. So that's looking at Acts chapter 29. That's just the tip of the iceberg. You know, I didn't even touch how God is working the mission field, how Hudson Taylor got suddenly believing in the promises of God and ran out, how many of these missionaries that believed in these things and challenged the church and said, you know, if it works, the Bible says here, I believe we're going to take this gospel. And they took it and they ran with it. And God answered those prayers. He answered those believing prayers. So is that where Acts 29 ends? Is that where Acts 29 ends? You know, we read about all these things, you know, Ecclesiastes warns us not to look and say that things were, how's the word, how's it go? You're not to say that those were the good old days. That's a bad, fair phrase, but you're not supposed to say everything was just good back then. He's working now. Or I should say, rather, he wants to work now. Turn with me real quick. This is the pastoral section to Isaiah 51. While you're turning there, one quick thing. A lot of these areas I noticed looking at revival history and church history, they were an encapsulated area. They had a fear of God. They didn't run in the world. I mean, where there was places where there was just, you know, a whole bunch of different things. God wasn't a lot of times he used these places that were already had some righteousness, that they had a fear of God. I don't know. But I tend to see Lancaster County as a lot like that. So it's an area that is a capsule, encapsulated area. Men fear God. A lot of people, they have a fear of God. They're not watching TV. They're not running after the world. But it's not happening yet. They're resting in that. Look at the potential. Think of back now in that little meeting where you had John Wesley, there's Charles Wesley, George Whitfield, George Whitfield and a bunch of others from the Holy Club and 60 other men that they said, let's get together and pray. But yet it hadn't broken out yet. But just think of it there now, the potential that was in that room, the the atomic power that was all there in that area. But yet nothing had happened yet. What if they said, well, somebody would have got theological and said, well, you know, we have what we need. We just need to know they knew there was a problem and went with it and brought it before God. Look at Isaiah 51, verse 20. Speaking to Israel, he says, Thy sons have fainted. They lie at the head of all the streets as a wild bull in the net. Stop there. That wild bull is an ox. So the word in Hebrew that says maybe some animal that's even extinct now. It's some type that gives the idea of this incredible force, this incredible power of these young men here, this that are at the head of every street, but yet chained in a net, this ox that could be used to bring a lot of good, a lot of advantages. It's chained. It's a wild bull in a net. Think of that. Think of that again. Back there, Wesley, Whitfield, Charles, wild bulls, but God freed their net and the world was changed. Think of it there, these men on the frontiers, wild bulls, a bunch of cowboys out there shooting people and running. But not all of them did that. And some took that potential and was freed by God. Those nets, though, are serious. They cling on us. They prevent us from being able to be used of God. You know, Brother Denny preached last Sunday, was it? Samson, he was entangled in one of those nets. What could God have done with Samson? More so, but he got entangled. What was it, young men? What was the net that he was entangled in? Hear from a young man. It's a net of lust, a net of compromise. He let that just bind him up and it netted him in. He was a great man of God, but he let himself get netted in. Elijah, what did he do? He rebuked the king, he knocked down idols, walked on out, but then suddenly got himself in a net of depression and was there, Lord, just kill me. And he got himself in a net of depression. Well, that can be a net. Are you depressed today? Have you done some great feat like Elijah did? You know, sometimes we do something great. Mamas, when you have a baby and you go through this and you have all the imagining of the nine months and you're getting ready or maybe it's your first baby, you've never even had a baby before in your whole life. You've dreamed of holding a baby. And and now suddenly you have this great little baby, but you start to feel depressed. You start to feel down. You start to feel bad when you think, well, this isn't right. I I love this little this little bundle. It's the same net that Elijah went over. It was a great accomplishment. But then a net, Satan tries to come in and take that. But God can free us of that net. And then he says, well, you know, David fell into a net of idleness in 2 Samuel 11, 1. He says at that time when kings go forth to battle the later, David tarried still at Jerusalem. He fell into a net of idleness. Young men, he's not here. He had a young man once at my house and he was playing solitaire on my computer and he said to me, you look kind of disappointed that I'm playing solitaire. Why is that? I said, well, he said, is there is a sin to play solitaire? I said, well, it's not a sin to play solitaire. Perhaps it's a sin that you have enough time to play solitaire. And that's that's the truth. Young men, if you're here today and you're going through playing video games or doing these things and wasting your time with trivial little matters. There is not enough time, not enough. And that's that's a net. That's a net of idleness. God can free us of that net. Peter was caught in a net of hastiness. Why cannot I follow thee? I will die with thee. Was what he said. I'm going to do it now. I'm going to do it my way. No, Lord, don't do this. And he was hasty and running into all this running and hasting and running along and trying to do things with a net of hastiness to him. And it was a young little servant girl who threw up that net called his bluff and he ran. He ran. Demas, remember Demas, who Paul calls my fellow laborer. Boy, what if what if you could be there with Paul and you saw that written, you know, and and Brother Dean, my fellow laborer, boy, you'd be like, oh, I'm good now. You know, I'm good. Paul, the apostle, called me my fellow laborer. But look what he did. He fell into a lap, a net of comfort and ease and the love of the world. And he says this in second Timothy four, ten, for Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world. Oh, that's a net. How do we get out of these nets? How do we expect God to work in these ways in Acts chapter twenty nine as it runs up before us? Here it is. Acts chapter twenty nine rolled right before us today, individually and corporately as a church. What do we do with it? Psalms twenty five fifteen. Says this, I can just read it. Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord. He for he shall pluck my feet out of the net. So what is it today? Is it that net that's stopping you of complacency? Is it the net of unbelief? Let's say, well, I don't believe that's for me. Is it the net of depression after a great thing? You know, we've got to watch out for our missionaries when they come back and God has been using them and they've been mighty. But sometimes when you get back and you come, you know, come and there's a it's hard. It's hard for Elijah. Let's pray for those missionaries. Pray for them when they come back that Satan pray for young ladies. When you have a baby, you've gone through that that feed or a few recently married or some great event in your life. Those are serious things. It's a net, potential net there that Satan will want to try to get you a little blue about. Well, he'll pluck your feet out of that net. Young men, if you are idle today. What an example of a wild bull in that or if you're here at church today and you've been coming to charity Christian fellowship for all these years and you know what I mean, to be sitting on a pew at charity Christian fellowship, what a waste, what a waste, so much manna, so much food is given to us, so much opportunities for ministry to do things to be used of God. But year after year, here you are sitting here, here you are not claiming a whole of it. It's a net. It's a net of idleness. God can take away that net. So, in closing, I'd kind of like to look at Revelation chapter three. We use this scripture a lot. It's to the Laodiceans. We talk about how, you know, they had no lack of anything and that kind of thing. Chapter three, verse 17. If we're today, if the church today says we're done, we are revival. This is us. You know, this is where we've got the theology. We've got everything worked out. We've got all our rules together. We kind of got our, you know, this is what we say. This is what we don't say. That's in order. We're there. Then what are we saying? I have need of nothing. We're arrived. And I do think this can apply to our worldliness and it should apply to our worldliness, but it also applies to these spiritual matters. But let me take it. And then to the answer here, because thou sayeth, verse 17, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. And knoweth not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. What if Wesley would have stopped? What if Count Zinzendorf would have been there in that little church, that little remnant church and there in the Swiss Alps and said, this isn't working. This isn't going to work. We're too different here. We can't work this out. We've got what we need. But they didn't wait. But here's his counsel. Here's the counsel of Jesus Christ. I counsel thee. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich and white raiment. That thou mayest be clothed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. And anoint thine eyes with eyes saw that thou mayest see. And many, as many as I love, I rebuke and chase and besiege. Zealous, therefore, and repent." To our church today, to us individually, He goes on and He says, Behold... And we use this verse in evangelism, and well, we should, just speaking to an individual person, but it's written to a church. Behold! Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with Me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with My Father in His throne. You remember James and John? We use that a lot, how they got proud and wanted to say, well, who's going to be sitting with you? And they came up to Him and they said, Jesus, You were teaching on asking anything. And they said it this way, Will You give us anything we desire? And Jesus looked at those two young men and said, What do you desire of Me? And then they said, Well, we want to sit on your left hand and we want to sit on your right. And Jesus said, You're not knowing what you asked for. And it's right. We use that sometimes to look at being proud. We use that sometimes to look at being proud. But what boldness! What boldness! Jesus, will You give me anything? Yes, I will. And He said, let Me ask them this. You do not know what you asked. The baptism which you asked for, and He goes in there and teaches them how they're going to be put to death. And He says, oh, and what they answered back, We'll do it! We'll do anything you say. We'll do it! We'll do anything you say. But then He answers to them, and He knowing that they're going to run from Him, all men fled from Him. But He took that and He said, yes. And here in Revelation, we pick it back up. To Him that overcometh, will I grant to sit with Me in My throne. By. The word by there, this is the last note there. I'll try to make it the last note. The word by there means to make a decision. Remember, it has no cost. So what does it mean? It means if you're sitting here, and for year, after year, after year, you've sat there and you've, I don't know, maybe, maybe not. I'm thinking about it, I don't know. Buy it. That means make a decision. Choose today. That's what it's saying. You know, you can go to a store. You know, you're there at the store. They're selling something, and you can look through. Say I was a store owner, and I saw these people come in. Oh, look at this great shirt. Look at these nice shoes. Oh, isn't this nice? You have a great store. Oh, thank you very much. They come in, another one comes in. Oh, you have such beautiful things here. They come in, oh, thank you very much. And no one buys. Oh, nice shirt, nice shoes. Thank you very much. And they're window shopping. Jesus is saying, buy it. Take it. Grab hold of it. Make it your own. And it will be there. I counsel thee, this is the counsel of Jesus Christ, to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich in white raiment. He wants us rich in God. To have white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed in the blood of Jesus Christ. And that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear. And anoint thy eyes. He wants to give us vision. And he wants us to believe these things. To answer that knocking door. And to buy. Well, when I thought about what to share, a lot of different things came to my mind. Different doctrines or different things. And I think when Kenny was preaching there last hour, when he was giving all those stories about all the hymn singers, I was so blessed by that. And right then, the Lord said Acts 29. And I pray today that we, as a people of God, and we individually, can look at this truth and believe it and apply it to our lives. Do we believe it? Is it for us today, just like it was for them? Or are there those wrestlings and doubts and fears? And we've seen strange fire and strange things happening in the name of revival. And so we back off. I have to confess my heart is challenged, convicted for my low visions, my low dreams. I thank God for the word this morning. To my heart and to us as a church, you know, we read those things, we hear about them. And it's so easy to just sort of say, well, that was a different era, different circumstance. Don't know that it could happen again or today. But I don't want to be there. I don't want to entertain those and embrace those thoughts. Because God has not changed. And He is no respecter of persons. Everywhere and to whosoever will that will come to God as they did. God gives the Holy Ghost to them that obey Him, it says in the book of Acts, Brother Dean. And to those that ask Him, to those who believe. And by faith, and by faith, they obtained the promises and they overcame. What does God want to do in our day? What does God want to do here in our church at charity? What does God want to do in our county? Reminds me of our prayer season yesterday morning. Can these bones live? Is it your 37? Thou knowest. God said, prophesy. And then things began to happen. Amen. I say amen to the message. Thank you, Brother Dean, for sharing. Acts 29. No, I don't believe it's finished. I don't believe it ended with those. But God is the same. Rather than say, where is the God of Elijah? Where is the Elijahs? Just want to open it up a little bit this morning. Maybe you have something to share. Word of faith, word of admonition, confession, testimony. There's a hand over here. Just raise your hands high so we can get a microphone to you. So we share together. Yes, I need to apologize to the church and I'll try to explain to you why I'm apologizing. Being raised how I was raised, I was raised playing athletic sports all the time. From probably when I was nine or 10 years old. And God just has laid it on my heart as an example yesterday when I was over to the Esch family. We had a gathering. And I'm so competitive. Competitive to the point that it's, I don't know how to say it, it's unhealthy for me. And I need your prayers. And I think there's a lot of people in this church, not only myself, brothers, sisters, young, old, should look at sports, should look at working at our job to the point, do we put Jesus first? Or do we put our jobs first? I don't know, my heart's trembling right at this moment because I know it's the truth. I know what Lord's telling me. Do we put recreation before we put Jesus? Do we put the computer before we put Jesus? Do I put cooking before I put Jesus? Should we, we know what we should put first. I shouldn't even be up here telling this story, but my heart just feels a burden on me because I'm too competitive. And would you pray for me, please? Because I don't need that in my life. I need Jesus in my life. That I can end up serving him for his glory, not for my flesh. Thank you. Thank you, Robert. God bless you. There's another hand right here. Yes. Okay, I just want to say a hearty amen to the message. God spoke to me in many areas of my life and I just want to confess my lacks of vision, my lacks of purpose. So many times I feel like the boy playing solitaire. I just, I want to confess that time is, I feel like I'm not redeeming the time so many times in my life. Even yesterday, I just want to apologize to my wife and my family. We were just playing and not having enough purpose and vision. I just ask your forgiveness. And I want to grasp hold of the promises of God and have a deeper vision and a purpose in my life. God bless you, brother. Amen. There's another hand over here. Brother's side. Also up front here then. Yes, brother Jeff. Go ahead. Yes, this past Wednesday, we closed out the Sermon on the Mound, which shows you how far behind we are in cell group. But in my studies as we were doing it, it says in Matthew 7, verse 24, therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them will I liken unto a wise man. And then in verse 26, he says, and everyone that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not shall liken unto a foolish man. And as I was teaching that message on Wednesday, it was speaking to my own heart. It was simply a matter of, I was studying Matthew, Henry's commentary, and he says it's simply a matter of hearing, not necessarily remembering or talking about what you heard or debating what you heard or it's simply a matter of doing what you heard. And I thought as I was listening to the message today on Acts chapter 29, which I really enjoyed the fact that it brings it right up to today, right up to now. It brings us here into that continuation of what we read in Acts. Very exciting to me. And it makes me think if I can take this simple matter of hearing and doing, we can have that revival. We can have what we're aching for that we hear so many times. The Welsh revival and all the others that we hear about and ache and desire. And I do want to confess that too. I feel as confessing, I'm not sure if it was to cell group or to my wife, that I feel sleepy at times. And I confess that to the congregation. I want to be awake, alive. I want to hear the word, the sayings of Jesus, and I want to do them. There's motion in doing. There's a forward motion in doing. Not necessarily in just talking or sitting around and just even debating. But there's motion in doing. So I just was blessed today. Amen.