In this sermon, the preacher expresses deep sorrow and confusion over the recent suicides of four young people. He questions why these tragedies occurred and wonders if their upbringing or external influences played a role. The preacher reflects on his shaken faith in human systems but maintains his faith in God. He emphasizes the importance of seeking heavenly things rather than earthly possessions and shares a story of a young preacher who faced financial difficulties but found consolation in trusting that God sees the end from the beginning.

This week my faith has been shaken. Not my faith in God. My faith in human systems. Just as we came out, there was the announcement now, two beautiful teenagers, were they? Two more have committed suicide. A lovely blonde young lady, I think she's married, and the other one's single. As you know, just earlier in the week, those four young people, I understand their ages, actually were 14, no, 15, 16, 17, no, 16, 17, 18, and 19. In the very flower of youth. So everybody's passing opinions, why, why? Pointing fingers, why, why? They point fingers at parents, say they didn't have enough love. They point fingers at the schools. They point fingers at the folk that supply drugs and all these other things. And, you know, take a pew. You'll get tired if you sit there. They pointed finger at the systems, even politicians. But there's somebody they haven't pointed the finger at that I'm going to point the finger at, and that's the church. If I were near enough, I'd ask what churches those girls went to. Just this week I talked with a man who spends his life in youth work. He's a very charming man. An ideal man, I think, for that job. And he said, Brother Rayfield, I'm tired of going to churches and saying you can't have a program that's going to exceed the world. He said, not only do they have basketball now and volleyball, one church he went to, I have a big indoor swimming pool in the church. Well, good night, if half-naked girls won't draw people, what will? Where's the drawing power of the church? What's the difference, come on, what's the difference between a, a, what was I thinking of, a sports program in high school or a high school basketball, and a high school, and a church basketball. There's no difference. If a church has no more power than that, it should shut up. I'm praying that God will raise up some youngsters, not just old cronies like me, though I do my best. I want God to set some youth on fire entirely. I was reminded today of the Mara Shaw. I remember when she was 85 years of age, old craggy, and she was, was singing a hymn that she wrote. And one verse says, There is a love constraining me to go and seek the lost. I yield, O Lord, my all to Thee to save at any cost. There is a fire that falls on me as in the upper room, destroying all carnality, dispelling fear and, she's 85 years of age, as wrinkled as a croon, and as fiery as a ball of fire. Remember, at 17 years of age, she was the feminine Billy Graham in England. What do the girl preachers today? Where are the Salvation Army lasses today? Boy, they used to march down the street in our days and go to prayer meetings, not volleyball and all the junk they have in churches today. Well, I've told you, I've had a day, a week, shaking up. Not just because I've been in intensive care a few days, that was bad enough too. But you know, there's one thing about laying on your back, you have to keep looking up to the Lord all day. The doctor said to Martha, call your son's home, he won't make it. But Martha's, she's not stingy, she's cautious. And so she didn't, well she called them and the next day it was cancelled. But, you've got lots of time to think when you don't sleep at night and days and so forth and so on. And I've got an indignation against the church tonight, and I mean that. Why in God's name are we doing it? Are we here to teach youngsters volleyball? Will they get rewards in heaven for basketball? What's wrong with the pastors? Are they blind? Are they dumb? Have they no vision? Again I say, this precious woman at seventeen years of age, she left England and went to France. Went to the underworld. Got a, a basement in a factory. Rented some chairs and drew the people in at seventeen, eighteen, nineteen years of age. Had revival, true revival. Revival that brought the sweep of prostitutes in and jailbirds, brought people from the Sorbonne and the Louvre and everywhere else. From the top to the bottom, you see, fire again is the most attractive thing in the world. And she was attracted by it. Where can the youth look? To church for basketball? You can't look to Wall Street. I thought those guys, with all their scholarship, I thought they were as solid as a rock. And these guys have been filtering money away. Well they call it inside trading. But if you haven't been to college you call it stealing. Stealing. Super boys. One of them pays a hundred million dollars with a smile and says well, you know, can you get caught sometime? Other guys in their twenties can afford ten million dollar fines. So how much have they made? So you can't look to education and say it will stabilize money. It doesn't do that. You can't look to Washington. Look at the tricks they've been pulling. They're still pulling there. The military corrupts. Banking systems corrupt. Education corrupt. Where do you go? Wall Street? Nursery. North of the Green, Ivy League schools. So that what should be, there's a vacuum in America today, in any other country. There's a vacuum that only the Church of Jesus Christ can fill and she's not filling it. Why doesn't somebody who thinks they have a pull in town say look, no basketball in this church. We're inviting all the teenagers to a week of prayer. Do you think they'd come? And what in God's name are we doing? I'm going to pray that some of these youngsters will catch fire and put some of the older folk to shame. I want to hear of young people that say no I'm not playing tennis this summer. I'm going to study the Word of God. You know our youngsters are defenseless. Sure they like to sing hymns, but when I was a youngster which seems a millennium ago, we used to go Friday nights, Wednesday night to a meeting. No wait a minute, let me get it straight. Tuesday night was the holiness meeting. Thursday night was the prayer meeting. Saturday night was a say so meeting. Let us redeem the Lord say so. So that was a testament. So Friday night we gathered to pray. Just the teenagers. Boy we had some prayer meetings. It became so lively we started a prayer meeting in the church at seven o'clock Sunday morning. And I lived on the very perimeter of the city. I had to walk. My dad wouldn't let us ride on Sundays anyhow. He was a real saboteurian. We didn't have a car so I walked to church. Got there for seven in the morning. We prayed an hour. I walked back. Had some breakfast. I walked back for the morning service. Went home again. Sunday school was in the afternoon. You see this is a trick in America. The Sunday school before the service. That's not what it was for. It was to gather ragged helpless children off the streets. In England it was never held Sunday morning. People go to Sunday school now they skip out and go fishing the rest of the day. You know some people can't stay in a meeting if it's a bit too long. Well how in God's name are you going to stand the presence of Jesus in eternity? Where are you going to walk out to? You see we've lost the sense of his glory. We've lost the sense of his majesty. You won't have to whip people or urge people or drag young people when the glory of God fills the temple. His presence is the magnet. I had a letter today or yesterday actually from a man. He lives up, I won't tell you the area but anywhere You know we've gone from what were the folk that came up here first? Hippies. We've gone up to there and went to the yuppies. Lots of yuppies over in Dallas where all the rich folk live too but he lives up in the northeast somewhere. He wrote me a beautiful letter flawless English perfectly typed marvellous letter. And then he said my one grief is this Brother Raymond my daughter is well educated but she's got so sick of prosperity in our area. Oh yes, all the people it said in Reader's Digest that the people the yuppies they don't ride Rolls Royces and they don't ride what's these Mercedes. What do they drive? BMWs? No no, Volvos. You missed it. It's a status symbol to have a Volvo. She's so tired of going to church where everybody they won't go unless they have the you know, the ladies wear designer dresses and big rings. And he says she's finally revolted and said Daddy I can't go with all this pride and showmanship. You know you think if you stood at the door the Lord said he doesn't look at the heart he looks on the outward appearance whereas he says the opposite. He doesn't care whether you wear rags. He cares whether the inside is right not the outside. And he says my daughter now has sold everything and she's taken a farm she and her husband and they decided they're going to spend the rest of their life rescuing the perishing and care for the dying. She doesn't need to do that. But she's got a vision. She says Daddy I can't live in contentment. I'm not satisfied with the status quo. I don't want to go with stuffy people all holy about one hour a week and then the greedy and grasping and covetous and the selfish. She doesn't want it. What's more God doesn't want it either. Well I don't know if you're yuppies but if you are you can get straightened out anyhow. Let me read a scripture too that's all I'm going to do tonight because I want us to pray and I I'm not just super abounding with strength. Let's look at Colossians chapter 3. Colossians 3 from verse 1. If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above not on things on the earth. For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. Skip back to the previous chapter chapter 2 and verse 20. Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world why as though living in the world are ye subject to ordinances? If you look further back in verse 8 of the same chapter it says beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and then deceit after the tradition of the world. After the tradition of men and the rudiments or the so-called intelligence of this world. I'll tell you what the thing that got hold of me here is this. It says if you are risen with Jesus Christ seek the things. There's only one way to prove it. You seek the things above not the things below. It's amazing sometimes a text will get like a hook in your jaw. There's a man came here last Friday night. I wasn't here Brother Bracey was here gave a good word I believe. This man came in with a problem. He's a young preacher lives near to us and he needed a sum of money that was rather large. He went to a friend who had the money and he was sure he'd say yes he said no. He went to another he'd say yes he said no. But Brother Bracey said remember God sees the end and he said I took hold of that. And he went to a little church in Kentucky where he didn't expect anything and they paid him every penny he was going to borrow from somebody else. And he said I had a consolation God saw the end from the beginning he blocked that road he blocked this road. You know we get in God's way so often. Our little schemes our manipulation do it this way. Let me remind you again God will hear your prayer but doesn't take advice. He gets a lot in prayer meetings even. But that's not what he's after. Isn't this flattering? Verse 3 again of Colossians chapter 4 3 verse 3 For ye are dead mercy on us dead we're alive we've never been more alive you should hear us boy when we get blessed boy we tear the place up do you tear the place up when you're in your closet by yourself or in showmanship? As I've said to you before there are only two kinds of people in the world not black and white not rich and poor not intellectuals and ignoramuses just two kinds those who are dead in sin and those who are dead to sin Now what does Paul say here? I'm going back to verse 1 If ye be risen with Christ seek those what? Things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God set your affection on things above not things on the earth you know that just challenged me so I know you're lazy you don't like to do it so I went right through all Paul's writings except Hebrews you know he uses that word things over 200 times maybe the best known is when he quotes Romans 8 28 all things work together for good to them that love God but he said if you're a true Christian you live in heavenly places and you set your affection on things above not the things which are beneath if you go back there into Philippians remember we were there just the other week in Philippians chapter 3 he said in verse 13 brethren I count not myself to have apprehended but this one thing I do he's got rid of things he's got it down to one this one thing I do this consuming thing forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before me now what's what's the nearest star come on you smart guys the sun the sun well I was reading the letter stars was it called pardon Alpha Centauri how many million miles away is it 4 light years and the light year is 186,000 miles a second I remember that well if you multiply it goes into something like I don't know about 20 trillion miles or something I'm saying that because there's so much we haven't discovered in the heavenlies even in the natural sense when we were in California I wanted to go on Mount Palomar is it called there's a telescope there you have to sit inside of it to see through it that sounds a bit Irish but there you are I'd like to have done it but I didn't get the chance but they say they discovered suns bigger than our suns away there in space the scientists don't believe in eternity they believe in infinity one man knows everything Carl Sagan he was there before the world began he's got some fossils to show you do you know the most brilliant man that ever lived I'm going to write an article on this this coming week hopefully in a book I'm trying to write was a man by the name of Paschal how many have read Paschal Blaise Paschal one of the greatest geniuses this world has ever had do you know what he did at the age of 39 he exhausted every science that man knows at 39 he exhausted every one and he said it's all nothing Christ is all in all and from there he became the most wonderful Christian it was possible to be I think you see the idea you have to be a numbskull of course not everybody's as backward as I am I know that for sure you and I in good company we don't want any brains any crowns I mean brains yes forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth the things which are to come I pressed towards the mark now there's a classic chapter look at a verse in the fourth chapter of Philippians there's a good chart for your life verse 6 be careful for nothing be prayerful in everything and be thankful for anything and look what he says in verse 8 finally brethren whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are a good report if there be any virtue and if there be any praise think on these things you see this man is so established that in the 20th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles if I can find anything I think I can Acts 20 verse 24 I believe it is make it make it verse 22 let's read there Acts 20 verse 22 now behold I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem he's not bound in the flesh yet he's bound in the spirit to Jerusalem not knowing the things that shall befall me there save the Holy Ghost there's witness in every city saying that in bonds and afflictions abide me now that's what's predicted for him bonds and afflictions and he's going to his death what does he say does he send out a letter say pray for me I'm in a tight spot no look he lifts his heart up in faith and he says in verse 24 none of these things move me neither count on my life dear unto myself that I may finish my course with joy and the minutes to which I have received the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God none of these things you see he's living out of reach everything else just can't touch him he's living in another realm if you like he's a modern phrase he's in another orbit he's in an orbit of spirituality now if you go back to the chapter we were looking at and zigzagging a bit here back to Colossians 3 in verse 1 if ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God now look at verse 5 mortified therefore your members reach out upon the earth your physical frame your emotions everything else is on the earth but spiritually you're seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus and Jesus and he talks about being in darkness but he says we're walking no longer in darkness we're walking in light now he says you can prove where you're living verse 3 again you're dead your life is hid with Christ is God who is our Christ who is our life you know I've come to this conclusion you think I'm a cranky old man but anyhow here's my opinion I'm convinced that many people do not live on Christ Christ isn't their life their church is their life they love they clap they sing there's nothing wrong with it you know it's only when you sag in the middle I heard Dr. G. Campbell Morgan preach many times only once did he disappoint me and there were about 300 or more preachers there and he said gentlemen preaching is my life if I was out to the pulpit for a week I'd backslide boy he went down there as far as I'm concerned what would he do if you shut down the Isle of Patmos what would he do if you're like the Christians where churches are torn apart in Afghanistan or Russia what would he do if he's very clear here he says you're you're dead your life is hid with Christ in God no wonder he says don't worry if they persecute the body and destroy the body so what have they done nothing I must complete if I go to heaven without legs without arms or chop off my ears or cut out my tongue which they did to some of the martyrs it doesn't alter the fact they're in glory and enjoying eternity right now so it's a living one or be to the other set your affection your love for earthly things things we can see things we can wear things we can claim it's so childish again I'd like to know about those four precious young people I tell you I've choked over that this week why in God's name should they perish at 17 18 16 17 18 19 years of age what church did they go to what program were they in why did they miss it maybe if you went in their homes they live in some of the best homes go in their bedrooms they have the best music in fact one of the girls that committed suicide that was reported tonight she's been playing a disc or whatever you call it for the last week or two I've nothing to live for I've nothing to live for life is empty now if you passed a home you'd say boy they have a lovely home she wears lovely clothes she drives a pretty little car of her own and the same with others but they're missing something it's not just parental blessing they may do that but some even that have that committed suicide now they're afraid there's going to be a scourge through the nation four the other day two tonight some others are planning it what do you do I'll tell you one thing as God's my witness people don't commit suicide if they've been in a sanctuary with throbs with eternity I'm glad when I was a youngster we sang so many hymns about eternity we used to stand at the street corner I used to play a concertina squeeze box I couldn't do it now and we used to sing there all the time over and over where will you spend eternity this question comes to you and me we used to sing Andrew Bonner's great hymn that starts with go labour on spend and be spent thy joy to do the masters will it is the way the master went should not the servant tread it still can't think of the last Andrew just won't come but anyhow it has eternity in it and it seemed almost every hymn we sang had eternity in those days you don't sing hymns about eternity they ought to make us clap and tap our hands and feet and be happy there's a place for it but if your church laughs and can't weep it's not right oh we love each other you don't love each other at your church if you have no anger who's the meekest man that walked the earth in the Old Testament Moses and he was the most angry man why was he angry because when he went up to meet God and had a countenance with God in the valley they were throwing off their clothes and they made a golden image the priest did it the man with holiness on his forehead and Moses comes down full of anger and he pleads he says oh God turn from my fierce wrath he says to God God full of wrath turn from my fierce wrath the paraphrase in the Old Methodist Hymn book says this let Moses in the spirit groan this is not God reaching down and holding Moses it's Moses getting hold of deity let Moses in the spirit groan and God cries out let me alone and further down in the chapter I think it's Exodus 32 where Aaron says to Moses what are you so angry about God said pardon me Moses says to God turn from my fierce anger Aaron says to Moses turn from my fierce anger why because he'd been so close to the heart of God he'd felt the heart beat and anguish of God we don't feel it it's church it's a formality dress up in your pretty clothes for God's sake look as nice as you can I'd like to see him people going rags if need be I'd like to see some night we won't even go through our formula we'll start off with prayer straight away I feel such an anger in my spirit against pastors tonight that are content just youngsters come to fool around and play they've no vision of eternity they may as well live in Timbuktu or somewhere but God's going to raise them up how do I know he says in the last days when everything's falling apart you can't trust walls street you can't trust Washington you can't trust the churches dear God in the last three months two outstanding Pentecostal pastors have gone down the gutter with two of the biggest churches in America before that a Baptist preacher went down into the gutter now you've got this problem with Tammy poor soul and there's a tragedy after strutting around and all this stuff where do you turn if the church is empty where's the light if the church is still where is the voice where's the light you see God wants some people crazy than I am but you see there's no way of blessing without sacrifice no way it's basic to the Christian religion O cross that lift us up my head I dare not ask to fly from thee I lay in dust life's glory dead when a person dies they're not conscious maybe at that moment they're passing into death but Paul says you are dead and your life is a God you see God's looking for dead men not able men not clever men not church organizers church agonizers what did Paul say he said you're dead and your life is hid with Christ in God there was an old preacher in the Christian mystery alliance I met him about 1950 to 53 Rosemary he'd spent about 30 years in Africa and he translated from the Greek he had translated it into the New Testament into a language I forgot the name of it and how did he translate the sixth chapter of Romans what's Romans 6 6 8 knowing this that our old man was crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed he translated it Christ and I were crucified together were we what's this man talking about verse 20 again he says if you're dead you're deliberately dead of the world the habits of the world I say this and I say it again if I were having meetings we used to have meetings I don't go around anymore I say to a person are you saved well I hope so that won't get you anywhere you'll be tossed around tomorrow you have to have an assurance stand up and face the congregation renounce the world the flesh and the devil publicly he said if you're really born again look at verse 5 of Colossians 3 mortified they for your members which are upon the earth fornication uncleanness inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetousness which is idolatry is it what are those boys all in humiliation tonight for they called it big business God calls it covetousness there's a very fine line between success and covetousness and then it tags that on doesn't it covetousness which is idolatry for which in the Old Testament you could be publicly on the board that man's got money let him go on our mission board let's have him for this let's have him for the other not so when you live according to this precious book the success for which things sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience in the which he also walk sometime when he lived in them but now also put off all these come on publicly say if you're just getting safe stand up and say this look I'm putting off I'm putting off all these things. What? Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communications. Line up one to another, seeing you put off the old man on his knees and put on the new man. Stop them at the door. They've been to the altar in your church. Stop them and say, what happened to you? Oh, I feel better. They told me to the Lord loves me and I just cried and said I'm sorry. I can't forget being in Ohio some twenty odd years ago. In a church that's a good crowd. And just as I was going to preach, a charming blonde walked down the aisle and kind of looked around, you know, people and people nudged, as though they knew her. And she sat there and I thought, well lady, if the Lord gets hold of you, you'll get all the starch out of you. At the end I said, look, the meeting's open now. If you wish to come and repent and really have an experience with God, come. She didn't come. She waited a while. And then she came. I said, lady, go in that room. All the ladies go in that room. The men come in this room. I went to pray with the men at nine o'clock. I was still praying with men at eleven o'clock. When the door opened, the pastor came in and said, could I bring this lady in? We've been praying since nine o'clock. And she can't get through. I said, okay, well, kneel here as long as you stay with me. I'll never forget. She said, Mr. Raymond, what you talked about is what I need. I need to be a new person. I need a new heart. I need a new vocabulary. I need new interests. I need to be new. I'm so corrupt. She looked at the beautiful lady. I said, well, if you'll pay the price. Well, she said, I want to be born again as you said tonight. I said, you go to church? Yes. She said, I went, and she mentioned the Bible school I'd been to before I ever went. She said, this is the 14th time I've come to an altar. And every time I've come, somebody slips her arm around me and says, well, dear, the Lord loves you for being honest. Just say you're sorry you're a sinner and you'll be all right. She said, Mr. Raymond, I've been to a fort, this is the 14th altar. If it doesn't take tonight, I'm through with Christianity. I said, well, sister, we'll see you get through. And we stayed about an hour with her. And she got up triumphant. Well then the enemy says, well, how do you know it's real? Three years after I was in the same town, going past the church at 12 o'clock, they were coming out. And I said to the fellow driving me, I said, by the way, you remember that big blonde that came in that night and took about two hours to pray? Yeah. How did she get on? You mean that one coming out of the door there? I said, yes. She's the best Sunday school teacher we have. She has a marvelous rapport with young people. I said, and for 14 times she'd been to an altar. So she'd wasted years. Who wastes the time? The devil nor the church. The people have just let her glide away. Jesus wouldn't have any more success than I have today if he came. Because we preach too strong, demand too much. But he didn't say it's optional to carry a cross. He says, take up your cross. And as dear Joseph said, if you saw a man carrying a cross, you knew one thing, he wasn't coming back. And once a man was nailed to a cross, as soon as you laid him on the cross, he lost all his civil rights. Every other right, religious right, he had no rights. And Paul says, not I was, he says, I am crucified with Christ. And as I said to you again, I believe the greatest challenge to the real Christian that's going on is come down from the cross and save yourself. People don't fast like you. They don't weep like you. They're not concerned as you are. Look what they're doing. Well, let them do it. Now, come on, this week, how much treasure you laid up in heaven? Not how much you put in the bank. Lay up treasure in heaven. I'm not going to be rewarded for anything but what I've done. I've got my hand on the throttle, by my obedience, by my submission to the will of God. I'm going to skip over this, but I like these lets that he has. Read his lets. Colossians 2 and verse 16. Remember this. This is really a corrective epistle. The people were in trouble. They were being invaded by false cults. Most of our young people couldn't stand up and talk with a Mormon or a Jehovah Witness. Every church needs a class, a study of comparative religion. In our day, mostly it was Buddhism and Taoism and a few other isms, but now you've got all these cults abounding. Do you know what the Jehovah Witnesses boast? We get more converts from evangelical churches than any other group. Why? Because our people have no foundation. They've lived on an emotion. They've not been rooted. They've not been grounded. Oh yes, they may believe in a virgin birth, believe in Christmas, believe in Easter, but that's enough. Why do they again say the people that have all this heresy? They can't do it, and yet it's our business to do that. These people are suffering from false teaching. He says you put on the new man, verse 10, which is renewed in the knowledge after the image of him that created him. There's so much talk about images today. Your image of yourself is too low. Good Lord, all you do is feed people with pride and become egotistical. The devil got kicked out of heaven, not for drinking beer or beating somebody up, because he's full of pride. You don't need any other image except what's in a good old English hymn, how the herald angels sing. Remember that, Charles Wesley? Adam's likeness now efface, stamp thine image in its place. It says that Jesus was the image of the Father. When you put off all these things, verse 10 again, you put on the new man, which is renewed in the knowledge of him after the image of him that created him. What do the people say to Jesus? You're always talking about your father. Show us your father. He says he that hath seen me hath seen the Father. He was a duplicate of his father in anger, in humility, in love, in everything. And Paul says you and I are to be in this world while he was in this world, not when we get to eternity, but now. Even now we're the sons of God. Even now we're to walk in meekness in an arrogant world. If need be in poverty is coming to the world. I can't get over this young lady. I'm going to write to the young man and to the father and say I admire your daughter for giving up her career, pulling out to one of the most affluent areas in America, as an objection to this fancy living. They must have the loveliest houses, the loveliest cars, the loveliest clothes. She says I'm sick of it all. It isn't reaching, it isn't reaching. There are people dying without God, without hope. I think of the last part of that hymn again. Men die in darkness at your side without a hope to cheer the tomb. Take up the torch and wave it wide, the torch that lights life's thickest gloom. There's something after that, I can't remember, but that's enough anyhow. Now look what he says. You put off, you put off everything that's corrupt, everything that's nauseating to God. But now he says in verse 11, put on therefore as the elect of God, holy. We're to be a holy people. The accent of most churches today is happiness, not holiness. Be happy, oh let's keep them happy, don't let's offend them. God help you at the judgment seat, preachers. Boy, I've got my gun loaded on those preachers in this next book. In fact, if it's as hot as I feel, they'll have to write it on asbestos. But why not? The hour is late, there's not much time left. I'm like dear brother Dale here, I'm longing to see some men preach a hellfire sermon. You can say what you like about juggling about terms of Hades and all the other things. Every great revival has been on the King James Version of the Bible, and the other thing, every great evangelist has been a hellfire preacher. What have the humanists done? What have the liberals done? Have they gone out and turned the world upside down? Do they get in boats and go up the Amazon without guns, and meet the natives? Of course they don't. But he says God is looking for a people. They're the elect of God. You know what one translator gives out from the Greek? They are the picked representatives. Isn't that good? Sven, aren't you glad God picked you? I'm sure I wouldn't. I'm sure nobody would have picked me, but the Lord did. You're God's picked representative in this world. He chose you to be holy and blameless. To be full of love in a world full of hatred. To be full of humility in a world full of pride. With a heart set on things above. Things, things, things. Read it over two hundred times. Paul uses that word things. We don't sing it much. We used to sing that chorus, turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of this earth will look strangely dim. Let me tell you what I've said to you before. Once you get to the judgment look back. At the time you're spending your money gathering things and doing things. The things of earth will look strangely grim. A man came in this meeting about three weeks ago and we talked about Paul there. What did he say? Right into the Philippians? I forgot the chapter there. He didn't tell me much anyhow. But verse thirteen of chapter three says, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind. Again I remind you. He's forgetting the things which are behind. What were they? They weren't all failure. He'd been to heaven for a vacation. He'd raised the dead. He'd cast out demons. He has the best track record of any man that's ever lived outside of Jesus. But he says forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth to those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling. Not the high calling, the prize of the high calling. What's he reaching for? Verse sixteen, nevertheless whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be in the same spirit. He says for many even those eighteen of whom I have told you before and now tell you weeping. They're enemies of the cross of Christ. Look at the catalogue here. The classification whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, whose glory is their shame, and mind earthly things. He brackets having a concern for earthly things with these rotten people here. Oh it's easy to say the church has lost sight of the rapture. Why is she? Because she's so busy with earthly things. We count like the people in the world. We get pulled into its customs, its habits, its desires. And the Lord says you can't do that. Verse seventeen, back to Colossians three again, Colossians one again. By him were all things created that are in heaven and in the earth. Well I talked about that star a minute ago, that star that would, if you travelled at thirty miles an hour it would take you about three thousand years to reach it. There's so much hidden there in the universe we don't know a thing about. But there's far more hidden in the Godhead we haven't discovered. When we get to heaven we're all going to be embarrassed at how little we knew of God. Not just his word, but God himself. As that hymn again says, my goal is God himself. Not join up, is God your goal? Do all things get pushed on one side? God, I eat God, I drink God, I talk God, I think God, I pray to God. Is he my centre, my circumference? That's what he desires to be. You see that's why Paul can say, when he says none of these things move me, in that twentieth chapter of Acts, he writes to other people he says be steadfast and unmovable. They may threaten you with death, so what if they do? Your life is hid with Christ in God. You can't destroy me, you can destroy my body, you can't destroy me. My spirit can live without my body, my body can't live without my spirit. I'm going to pass over this now. Let me go to chapter 1 of Colossians for a minute there. Verse 21 says, knew that were sometime alienated and enemies in your wicked mind by wicked works, you've now been reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which ye have heard, and which was preached unto every creature which is under heaven. Wherefore I, Paul, am a minister who now rejoice in my sufferings and fill up that which is behind of the sufferings of Christ. Isn't that something? Do you ever dare say that? Do I ever say Lord give me a measure of suffering? I believe Christ is suffering today for his church as much as he is for a lost world. We're the failure, we're the disappointment, we're contented with lesser things. This brother that was in, I was talking with him the other day, he said, I came in a meeting the other Friday night and you spoke about the Apostle Paul and minding earthly things and then you took us to Timothy, where Timothy said, no man that woreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this earth. He said, you know Mr. Raymond, everything I've picked up since then, am I entangled with the world? Is this profitable eternally? Has it got some eternal content? Am I getting more and more entangled? He said, it's haunted me day and night. Good, stay with it till God settles it for you. Boy, I'll tell you what, God's in the business of making people. I've never heard anybody preaching it. Remember where Jesus said, follow me and I will make you. We could stop there, make you to become fishes of men. I was thinking of dear old C.T. Studd, man, I saw him once. He'd been with the China, there's a famous book called the Cambridge Seven. I have a copy somewhere. Studd was the Babe Ruth of English cricket. There were three brothers, Sir Kinaston. C.T. got lost up in the forest. His brother became the Lord Mayor of London, which is a greatest honor after being the King of England. And the three brothers were the cricket stars. Well, he goes out with Paul Hill and those other six men to China and they did a super job in China. Tyler, he came home. I'm saying Tyler, China. We could do with a C.T. in China. He comes home. He's 53 years of age, worn out. Boy, he's laid his life out for God. He hears a call. He submits permission stations. We can't take you at that age. 53, you're worn out, you're washed up. So he goes on his own. He takes his money, what he had left. He gave 5,000 pounds at that time, worth about 200,000 of our money today. Who did he give it to? He gave it to Moody to establish Moody Bible Institute. The other 5,000 pounds he gave to William Booth to found the Salvation Army. So he's thrown everything away. He left 2,000 pounds in the bank for his wife and he told her, darling, I've given all the money away. She said, that's all right, dearie, if you feel it's of the Lord. Oh, he said, I've left 2,000 in the bank for you. She said, why can't I trust God as well as you? Get rid of it. Isn't it great when you have a wife like that? 53 years of age, he went to the heart of Africa, H.A.M. and established the Heart of Africa Mission. And the sons of, sons of what? Adam. They went to Africa. And C.T. Stubb goes up, 53 years of age, worn out, tired, they have to slash their way through the forest, there were no roads. They met the Portuguese slave traders, they had all kinds of, all hell upon them. But he said, do one thing, don't send me one person into the bush, whether they're men or women, who are not filled with the Holy Ghost. That was his one insistence. I picked a book off my shelf the other day by, about Frank Crossley. If you go to England, if you go to London, you'll see the big double-decker buses, big green double-decker buses. If you go to Manchester, you'll see, no, in London they're red, in Manchester they're green. They have a kind of a shamrock at the front, it has the name there of Frank Crossley. He used to make gas engines, you know, little gas engines to drive, with a belt on, they're made to drive saws and things. But then he moved up to automobiles, he made one of the most classy automobiles in England. He lived in a gorgeous home in a town called Chester, one of the neatest towns in England, still has a wall around it. He had servants, he had a coachman, he had a marvellous carriage with a couple of beautiful prancing horses. Everybody knew Frank Crossley. One day he was telling the Lord, oh I love you so much, he said, you do? Well I loved you, didn't I, I did. I came from the ivory palaces to a filthy stable. Prove your love, sell your house, sell your horses, get rid of your beautiful place. So he did. What did he do? He went to the heart of Manchester, which was a ghetto, and there he built a hall, it's called Star Hall, it's still standing there. He built a hospital for the poor, no charges for anything. There used to be some great preachers in America, maybe there are some now, wherever they are, but anyhow, those old Holiness preachers. Shellhammer wasn't around yet, but who was the other one on the Bridemouth? Oh G.D. Watson wrote a whole string of books. Then another real old preacher used to preach on the old man quite a bit, putting off the old man. You're not born again because you say you're sorry, you put off everything that's unclean and unholy. He brought those star men, they filled that place. A couple of thousand people came to every conference that they had. Out of his business, he put all he had into the hospital. Thousands of people were blessed because one day the Lord said, love me indeed, not in word. Come on, change it. Forget your gorgeous home, forget your servants. And he lived in the back alley, he lived in poverty. I received a letter last week, somebody said, I was talking with an old man here in Dublin the other day. This is an American that's gone over there. And he said, I visited him once, and when I went last week, I mentioned your name, Ravenhill. He said, he sat straight up in bed and said, Ravenhill. He said, I'll tell you one thing, you can't be the same after you've heard that fellow. I said, well that's encouraging. He said, I heard him preach in the great Methodist church opposite the Abbey Theatre, a historic spot in Dublin, because that was the first place where Handel played the Messiah as a full piece. And he said, I remember the night he preached. He said, I went home that night, twenty number of years ago. He said, I laid it all out before God and said, Lord, here I am. I've served you, but here I am. I'm willing to get rid of my career, my possessions, and do what you said. So the Lord told him to go to the lowest, poorest people in the nation. He said, 21 years, or 24 years now, I've been leading a mission. All because one night I just said, yes Lord, I'm tired of meetings, I'm tired of being spoon-fed. I've got to get this out of me. There's something I owe to the world, and I owe it to God. And I've got rid of the old things, and I've possessed entirely of the new things. And because of that, that man who could have lived in his retirement in one of the most beautiful cities in England, if not Europe, plunged into a gutter. Gathered young people around him. Had Bible classes for people who wanted to come at night, particularly young men, and got a bunch of people. Like Paul says, Timothy, you gather some people like I've gathered you, and pass on to them what I've passed on to you. Who's doing that? We're so busy with our sports programs, so busy with lesser things. Well, people won't come. Well, let them stay away. What are you going to do? Feed them blindly till they get to the pearly gates? He's asking for sacrifice, and nothing else will satisfy the heart of God but sacrifice. Forget those things which are behind, not only the bad things, the good things. Put off the old, and put on the new. I said this to a fellow, I'm through. The other day, we're talking about the Salvation Army, early days. Well, I remember, I can remember anyhow, well, I was born in 1907, so don't start reckoning up. 1910, I believe, William Booth came to our town. I sat on my mother's knee, saw this man with a long beard. Boy, I'll tell you, they gathered people. Society people came out of mansions and palaces. Why? Because of the holy flame burning. The girls that cleaned the floors in that underworld of Paris never even put up their own hair. They had servants in their palaces and whatnot. But once the love came, do you know their theme song was this? Except I am moved with compassion. How dwelleth thy spirit in me? In thought, word, and deed, burning love is my need. I know I shall find it in thee. So William gets his Salvation Army banner, puts the flag up with a cross. What does it say on it? Blood and fire. Blood symbolic of the cross, fire symbolic of the power of the Holy Ghost in the upper room. What did they do? The Salvation Army went into 70 countries, not 70 cities, 70 countries in 90 years. One of the most brilliant was a young man by the name of Brango. When I was in Newcastle, Pennsylvania, I came in in the station there and said to myself, this is where that young man was going out one night. He just had a little portmanteau, you'd say, of a suitcase with him. And he got the, you know, the train man, you never heard this maybe, used to say so cheerfully, all aboard, you know. I like those trains. So he gets up and the man throws his baggage up. A young fellow says to him, well, Brango, I wish I could be as sure of becoming the President of the United States as I am that one day you'll be the Archbishop of Canterbury. Here he is, a Doctor of Divinity, charming, wonderful personality, goes to see William Boole. William said, what do you come here for? Because there's fire, because there's revival, because miracles are happening, because there's a surge in the underworld, they know you're around. The police know you, the tavern keepers know us, God help us know. He said, what do you want? He said, sir, I want to be trained. Who are you? Oh, I'm Dr. Brango. Oh, we don't have doctors around here. See, their theology wasn't sick enough to have a doctor. So what did he do? He says, all right, son, at five o'clock in the morning you clean all the shoes of the students. Fifty students. I guess he wished they only had one leg. But they had two, they had those boots that come up to your knee, and boy, they didn't spray it on, you put some black mud on and let it dry. Boy, it's a laboring job. And he said, all the time he was doing that, the devil was saying, you fool, you should be back in America. In fact, one man offered to build him the finest church in America. I'll put over a million dollars. And that was at the turn of the century, when money was money. I'll give you the finest home, I'll give you the finest courage. No, I lay in dust, life's glory dead. Not theoretically. And do it joyfully. The privilege. Dear God, you've chosen me to do it? Angels would then be my opportunity. So there he is polishing boots, early in the morning, five o'clock. The devil's saying, you fool, you're polishing shoes of boys that know the difference between the Greek root and the rhubarb root. He said, I don't care, I'm doing it for Jesus. And he stayed there, and he met that precious woman, Mrs. William Booth. William Booth gets all the credit, but she's a great powerhouse behind it. A great praying woman, a great interceding woman. Every time she put the children to bed, there's something to do. She said, I put the child's head, before I went to bed, I went to the bedroom, put my hand under the head of the child, and said a prayer of commitment for that child. Well, before they slept, if she could get there before they slept, if they woke up, she said, darling, sleep, the world is waiting for you. Every one of them became an exceptional person. Poets, preachers, teachers, artists. In other words, she said, Lord, I'm not bringing children into the world to be mediocre. I love the way David's coming back, so he'll hear some good preaching soon. He's going to be back about the 18th of April, and I'll be glad to step out for a while, listen to him. But you know what he says, when he comes to the altar, don't bring your lousy, dirty sins with you. Bring your career, bring your future. I want to be a nurse, I want to be a doctor. Well, he says, die to it right here. He was under conviction from being 15 years of age till he was 18, because he's a wonderful artist, and he'd already designed a, what do you call it, a studio, and this particular brand of art. And the Lord said, I want everything. He says, well, there it is, my hands, my mind, everything. Somebody wrote me this day, this week, and said, you know what, it's going to be rough when we get to the judgment. Our gold is rusting up against us in eternity. Isn't that something to think of? Our missed opportunities, our own, oh, I'm going to do it. When are you going to do it? You said that last year, you said it the year before, I'll live more sacrificial. But you haven't done it. Who are you fooling? Unless there's a revolution in the Church of Jesus Christ, America's sunk. And that's true of England too. No disconfidence in politicians, nobody's confidence in Wall Street, nobody's confidence in science. And they don't have much confidence in the Church as it is now. But let there be the fire of God, come on, one church here. I'm not talking about crowds, you can have a crowd which is merely a mob. I'm talking about people who pack the prayer meeting as much as any other meeting. The people that learn the art of intercession, of prayer, of travail, which is a most needed thing in the Church of Jesus Christ today. I love the Apostle Paul, why? Because he was everything he preached. You can't fault him in anything. If he tells you to sell out, he'd sold out. My richest gain I count but loss. What things would gain to me, I count it but loss. He's willing to be pushed out of the synagogue, pushed out of his family circle, pushed out of everything. Because Christ is all-consuming. Thou, O Christ, art all I want. Do you think you have a vacancy in your life? You think you have a vacancy in your life that Christ can't fill? He'll give you love beyond any human love you ever dreamed of. He'll give you wisdom beyond any human wisdom you could ever think of. He'll give you compassion beyond anything you ever read anywhere and that's going to move our generation. We're a dying nation. Why doesn't everybody stop this silly church business and say look, for a week at least, we're going to meet every night. Not to hear a preacher as good as Sister Lottie was in town the other week, last week. Very good. Why doesn't somebody dare to call the thing and say listen, our youngsters are dying, they're killing themselves. They've more toys, they've more amusement, they've more interesting things and but there's something they don't know. They don't know about eternity. They don't know the wonder of the cross. They don't see daddies and mummies living holy life. They see daddies and mummies who want the best to wear, the best to eat, the best to do. Everybody else is doing it. Where's the distinction? My heart aches for God because God heartaches. I want to see this generation split wide open with a holy ghost revival that nobody will get the glory. We won't care. They won't meet in buildings. The Puritans didn't meet in churches. They met any old building they could get. They met in barns. They met in downtown public buildings. They had no buildings. They had no music. They had no choirs. They had no becks on the seats. They had no heating. They had no lighting. No music, no choir. Why did people trudge through snow and through storms? Because the living God was in the midst. The glory of God filled the temple. You don't have to tell somebody when God's in the meeting. When somebody says God's in this place, I'm suspicious. But boy, when the holy ghost is there and somebody knows, they go out and say oh God was in that meeting. God's going to fall somewhere in time, I'm sure of that. I pray every day for it. I don't care who it is or where it is, as long as they're not trying to build their own kingdom. I want to see somebody with a burning compassion for young people that starts doing something for them. Let's teach them. Let's attract them from the word of the living God. I'm going to ask you tonight. It's prayer time, of course. I'm going to ask that we pray that somehow across the nation there'll come an awakening. If not, these youngsters are going to keep copying death and copying death. And not only from poor homes, from rich homes. There's a vacancy in their lives that only God can fill. Knowledge won't fill it. Music won't fill it. Social living won't do. But Christ can fill it. He's done it for us. I'm glad I got saved as a teenager. I'm glad I read one day, when I was about 17, I read a brilliant edition of the life of one of the greatest Americans that ever lived. A man that died at what, 28 years of age? David Brennan. I read about him kneeling in the snow up to his chin, when he came out of his wigwam, I think he lived in at that time. And he knelt in snow up to his chin at sunrise. And he was still praying there at sunset. He said, when I knelt, I had to push the snow away with my hands to get down in the snow. But by the time he prayed, and remember he's coughing blood up. He's right with consumption. But by the end of the day, he could only touch the snow, he said, with the tip of his fingers. The sweat of his body had melted the snow round about him. And yet we offer youngsters lovely carpet like this on, and everything else. But there's no magnet, there's no living power. You can't tell people to pray, they're to be drawn to pray. They've got to get a spirit of prayer, a vision for prayer, an agony for prayer. What's the good of kids riding the best cars they've ever driven, and the loveliest homes, and all the accoutrements they have in their private little bedrooms, if their souls are lost? Is it any comfort to say, my daughter wore the best clothes in town? My son was a quarterback of this? No, forget it. Let's forget these titles of men, and say we want God to be glorified. I want to see God render heaven, so no man dare touch the glory. And again, I don't care where it is. God's going to do it. Not just in our little pokey little town here, pokey Tyler. Every town and city needs a visitation of God. And if I have to go see it burning in Dallas, I'll go. If I have to go to Van, I'll go. If I have to go somewhere else, I'll go. But I'm sick of the devil's monopoly. I'm tired of the inertia of indifference in the church, hand clapping and shouting that means nothing. I want some people who can scare the devil, that as soon as we touch the floor with our knees, Satan trembles and earth begins to shake, as it did again in the Welsh Revival. I hope you'll pour your hearts out. I pray that God will open in different towns, villages, God will raise up young men, anoint them, send them out in the power of the Spirit. We had Brother Ernest with us, Moses in there tonight. Brother Ernest wrote this week from, where is he, Arkansas, that God was opening doors for him, and there was blessing on his ministry. Those black boys really pray. We miss them all. We're done. Well, God's here, hallelujah, I'd rejoice in that, to listen to us, so let's pray.