In this sermon, the speaker shares a personal experience of encountering a woman who was interested in a tract about how to get to heaven. The speaker emphasizes the need for action and prayer in the Christian life, rather than just passively waiting for God to work. They encourage believers to study and understand the Word of God, relying on the help of the Holy Spirit. The sermon also highlights the temporary nature of material possessions and the importance of focusing on eternal things.

Well, good morning. And a funny thing happened. Back in the days when I preached in the logging camps, you know, and I had a little psalm sheet with 14 songs, and one of them was, All the way to Calgary he went for me. So, we're singing this song. But you know how they were singing it? All the way to Calgary he went for me. They didn't know the difference. They weren't trying to be funny. They thought it was a misprint on the front page. Okay, now I want to read a little bit from 2 Timothy chapter 2. Beginning at verse 7, Paul speaking, Consider what I say, and the Lord give you. One translation says, The Lord shall give you understanding in all things. Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead. According to my gospel. When I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even unto bonds, but the word of God is not bound. Therefore, I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. It is a faithful saying, For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him. If we suffer, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us. If we believe not, yet he abides faithful, he cannot deny himself. Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord, that they strive not about words, to no profit, but to the suffering of the earth. Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly divining, one translation says rightly handling, the word of truth, but shunning profane and vain badlings. They will increase unto more godliness, and the word of what Edith does, a cantor of whom is Hymenaeus and Phileas, who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is already past, and they are overthrown the fates of some. Nevertheless, the foundation of God stands sure, having this sealed, the Lord knows them that are his, and that everyone that needs to thank Christ depart from iniquity. My text should be study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed. How much time do you spend reading the Bible? We need to ask ourselves this question. George Mueller read the Bible through 200 times before he died. He read it through 100 times on his knees. So people say, well, he was an old guy, he probably had lots of time. No, he didn't. He had 2,000 orphans to look after, and a staff of 300, and he said, if I don't pray three hours a day, I can't get the work done. And besides that, he spent an hour praying with his wife. I don't know how he got the time. His day was no longer than yours is, or mine. He just made time. We have to discipline ourselves to make time for prayer, and for studying the eternal word of God. Once in the Navy, he studied 18 chapters of the New Testament every day. 18 chapters. I've had people tell me that they can get a clue about flying verses today. They had some trouble somewhere. Flying verses? Well, don't put it in with the word day. Flying verses. Did you know this? The kings of Israel, according to Deuteronomy 17, they were not to multiply horses, or chariots, or wines, or gold, or silver, five things. And then, they were supposed to handwrite a copy of the Law of Moses. And that's about the same, it's a little different, but quite close to the size of the New Testament. So I was challenged by that some years ago, and decided to do my own copy of the New Testament. It took me about two years. I only did it when I was at home. And I was on the road a lot, so what I've got to have done, and then started in the Old Testament, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Proverbs, Psalms. Do you know what I found? It's hard to forget what you've written down. People tell me they can't remember, then you better start writing. I have a friend, he's a music teacher, a godly person. He heard me say something about this one time in a meeting, and he told me he's going to do the same thing, but he started in the Old Testament. I don't know why. And do you know why? He's handwriting. And I saw his handwriting, and you wouldn't believe it. You would swear it was done by a machine. When he gets finished, he may be finished now. I don't know. He lives somewhere in Alberta, but I'd sure like to see him. It's not just to have done it yourself, but you learn more. You have to notice every word, every sentence, when you're writing your own copy. I don't know if anybody here is doing this. I challenge you to try. Start with something like 2 John, 3 John. Don't start with Matthew. You might get discouraged, but just start, you know. Start. Kings were supposed to do that. Aren't we kings and priests? Yes, we are. So we should take hold of this, I think. Well, why should we? Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. We'd sometimes counsel with people. They were doing a certain thing. Then it was condemned in the Bible. We showed them from the Bible. Maybe they've been doing it for years. So there's no excuse for being ignorant. There's no excuse for being ignorant. To a Christian, we all have time. We have to order it right, that's all. And really start doing what we claim we're doing, which is giving God first place. A lot of things we do don't really matter, and will not matter one iota when you stand before God in the judgment seat of Christ. Those things won't matter. None of that. We spend hours sometimes a day monkeying around with junk. He talks here in the context of babbling. There's all kinds of babblers around. Some of them are highly educated, maybe four or five degrees after their name. But they may be babbling a lot of junk too. We've got to get away from that and really get into the Word of God. I pray in Psalm 119, water my steps in thy word, and let not any iniquity have dominion over me. So you're asking God to order your steps in His Word, and we need that help from Him. We can't understand that apart from the natural man does not receive the things in the Spirit of God, they are a foolishness unto Him. Neither can He know that, for they are spiritually deserving. We need the help of God's Spirit. We frequently have, I say again, counseling people who just had trouble reading the Bible. They could read any other book, but when it came to the Bible, somehow they couldn't get it, they said. Well, there's no excuse for that either, because Jesus told us, He told the disciples, and I think they can stand on that, He told them that the Holy Spirit will bring to your remembrance whatever I said unto you. Did you know that was in the Bible? I know some of you know it was there, but why don't we apply it? If the Holy Spirit could do it then, He can do it today. If He did it for those children of God, He'll do it for you as a child of God, bringing things to remembrance that you've read. So don't say, I have a bad memory. That doesn't matter. The fact that Christians, the Holy Spirit is saying to any Christian, if you're willing, if you have to believe it, you don't get anywhere if you don't believe, you know. Let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. It says in James 1, if you don't believe, you don't get anywhere. In any event, Job said, I received the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. Ever miss a meal so you have time for the Bible? Anybody done that? Do it. You'll be blessed. When I was first converted, I have to admit, I know it was not a natural thing. God gave me a hunger for the Bible. I often missed meals just to continue reading the Bible. Sometimes six, eight, ten hours a day. I was getting my training, I didn't know that. But meals? So what? The words of his mouth, more than my necessary food. You've got to get into that frame of mind and see it that way. You know, we munch and crunch and lunch and brunch and all this sort of stuff, you know, right? I've been to places in the States where, you know, restaurants are all open 24 hours a day, you know. And everything you can think of, you know, as far as food is concerned, for the Bible. Which is going to be stuck seven feet under, right? Unless he comes back before that. But we feed our bodies, we pamper them, feed them, fold them, put on extra weight and then blame it on something else than eating. Billy Sands said most Americans didn't agree with their teeth. And I'm sure many of us do that, you know. The Bible says, James 1, Receive with meekness. The engrafted word which is able to save your soul. Receive it with meekness. Come before it as a little child and say, God, I don't know anything. And if you feel you can't say that because you know a lot, the Bible said, if you know something, if you think you know something you know nothing yet, which you ought to know, because we're but a guest today and know nothing. How much is that? Not enough to fill a thimble, you know. Nothing. That's where you start with God. You don't know anything. You haven't done anything. There was nothing, the Bible said. So, we've got to get into the the God's outline in His Word. And in trying to do that, we're accustomed to walking in pride so much. Well, the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. See, in Old Testament days, they knew what it meant to be converted. Then when I teach sinners on ways, or transgressing their ways, then sinners should be converted by the union. David said. So, they knew what it meant to be converted. I don't know what it was exactly, sinners being born again. They may have been, but at least they knew what it meant. And thank God for that. But today, the law of the Lord is still the law of the Lord. And it's perfect. You can't improve it. Converting the soul. First Peter 1, seeing you have purified your souls, and obeying the truth through the Spirit, unto unfeigned love of the brethren, seeing that you love one another with a pure heart, firmly, being born again. Some people think this love thing doesn't happen. First you get converted, maybe five, ten years down the road, you learn how to love other people. That's not what it says there. You shall love one another with a pure heart, firmly, being born again. Because you're born again. Not because you learned ten years later how to do it. So important. I was going to say the Bible kills us in these areas, but it's wonderful. It brings us alive. It kills the old man, and blesses the new man. Psalm 119.5 Your word has quickened me. Quickened me. Revived me. I got a letter one time from a man in Chile. He'd been in the crusade I had there. And he wrote me eight months or so later to tell me that I never got anything out of your messages. Just got nothing out of them, he said. But you know what happened the other night? In the middle of the night, God wakened me. And for several hours, it was as if he was standing there. All those Bible verses he gave us in those meetings, all of them came back. And it set me on fire. So, there's a power in the word of God. It doesn't always happen now. It may happen down the road. But given faithfully, and people be blessed, you never know. Quickened. Quickened by the word of God. It has a power. And we need to know that. It's in desire, at least it's in love of the word, that you may grow thereby. A pastor down in Idaho, he said, he had a Nazarene church, a good-sized church, and he said, I want to be honest, I don't spend more than five minutes a day with the Bible. I don't get anything out of it. I said, what do you do with this verse? And 1 Peter 2, desire, he said, how do you get a desire when you don't have one? I said, that's a good question. If you're eating turkey, you can't eat a second meal of turkey the same day, probably. But there's an answer to that. What is it? Okay, 1 Peter 2, verse 1, tells us where to lay aside all malice, that secret hatred in the heart, all malice and guile, and hypocrisies and envies, and evil speakings. And then it says, desire the sincere milk of the word. And you know, he almost fell off his chair on the floor. He said, I didn't know that was in the Bible. So we read it in the evening now. Laying aside all malice. No malice, just love, no matter what. And guile, that's what you use when you put a worm on a hook to catch a fish, you know. And hypocrisy, a hypocrite is an actor on the stage of life, that's the meaning of the word. Envy, much of that, somebody's got a bigger car than you have, or a bigger house, or prettier wife or something. Envy. The Lord Moses told the people eight things they were not to envy. Your neighbor's house, his wife, his ox, his ass, his field. You're not to covet, it says, any of those things your neighbor happens to have. Are they better off because they have more than you've got? No, I get a kick out of this, when you think of it, the coming day of God and the whole universe is on fire. And there'll be some goons standing around hollering, hey, Joe, look, my fire's 80 feet high, yours is only 6. Is this how you're going to handle it? The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned down. See that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons you ought to be, in all holy conduct and God. Nevertheless, let it go. Let it all go. There's a guy in Ontario, he has a name now, he became one of our teams, he died some years back. But it's a terrible country. You know, he was chairman of the vote of the Baptist Church, you can imagine what that was like. They couldn't get him out, he was a very forceful guy, and he had a... He bought 22 new cars because somebody put a scratch on one of the other ones. He tried to trade it in and get another car. It was that bad. He was in some terrorist meetings, he met with God, he got his life straightened out. You know what happened right after that? Some lady backed a truck into his new car. Do you know what he did? He stood there, and he sang the Psalms. Now he had it right. He had it right. Seeing that all these things should be dissolved, what manner of persons you ought to be, I say it again, in all holy conduct and Godliness, looking for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God. That's great, isn't it? So, laying aside malice, God, hypocrisy, envy, he was speaking this, then you'll be able to desire, and this pastor I mentioned from the Nazarene Church down in Idaho, he got it. He came to see me, I wasn't going to meet him in his church, he just happened to be in the meetings I was in, and he came to see me, and he was just absolutely overflowing. He said he got rid of all his garbage, you know, 1 Peter 2, 1, and 1 Peter 2, 2, desire, he said, I'm just flooded with the Bible now, I can't have enough of it. I read it five hours yesterday, he told me. So there's always a reason why people say they don't have a desire for the Word of God. What is holding you back? What is it you're letting stand in the way of? You don't want to hand an argument like that to God, it doesn't take with Him. In Hosea 14, it speaks, it says this, their drink is sour, and the reason why people don't have, you know, a hunger for the sincerity of the Word, that's what happened. There's nothing wrong with the Word, but there's something wrong with me. If you can't forgive people, you better work on it. I remember a man dying in the hospital, and he wouldn't forgive his wife. I went to talk to him, he just kept saying, no, no. I said, do you not know Jesus said, if you don't forgive God, He'll forgive you. He just stared at me, never said anything for a few minutes, and he said, we'll send my wife in. So that took care of that. But to love one another with a pure heart, fervently, and admittedly, some people are hard to love. And some people, they're almost impossible to love. That's our business. God has called us to be loving people. I don't think you ever have to put a sign outside your church, the friendliest church in town. If you're in the friendliest church in town, you'll likely be in a constant building program. You don't need a sign anyway. What else does it do for us? That is, reading, studying the Word of God. Wherewithal will the young man cleanse his way, by taking heed thereto according to his word. Study the Bible, see what it says. By them I am warned, and keeping of them is great reward. Keeping the Word of God, great reward. That's the psalm of 1911. Thy word is a light to my feet, and a light to my path. You often get guidance, you know, from the Bible. But you have to know it. You can't get guidance if you don't know it. I don't memorize the Bible, I just read it a lot. I try and read 14 chapters a day. Six of the Old Testament, six of the New, and then I read two chapters from the Book of Proverbs every day, and pray about it. See, you've got to make time, so I get up at four in the morning. Sometimes 415, sometimes 345, so what, you know. Just to have the time to be alone with the Word of God, and let God speak. And sometimes it's hard just to let God speak. Okay, great peace have they who love your law, and nothing shall offend them. You meet Christians constantly, they're offended by this, and offended at somebody, or some little deal, you know. Great peace have they who love their law, and nothing shall offend them. So that's a big order, that's the way it should be. Blessed man whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law does he meditate day and night. He should be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. He brings forth his fruit in the season. Whatever he does, or his leaf doesn't fade, whatever he does will prosper. Get into the Bible. You get the Bible into your heart. In Mexico, I read a while ago, of some churches, they have perennial revival. A very simple thing, let me share it with you. They don't read in the Bible any further than they're obeying the Bible. So if a guy reads something, a verse, he realizes I'm not doing that. He just doesn't read any further in the Bible. He struggles with that, and it takes him weeks until he's doing that. And those churches, the missionaries in the area, it's a constant revival. Everybody is living this way. What will happen if we get the same? Don't read any further. Until I'm doing what I've already read, I think that would be common sense to be that way. I esteem, here's something else, I esteem all your precepts concerning all things to be right. And I hate every false way. There are people today, they say, oh, Paul was a woman hater, and wrote a few things we don't have to obey today. And people buy that. There's Christians who think that way. But the Bible itself says, I esteem all your precepts to be right, R-I-G-H-T. And I hate every false way. False way? A way that doesn't agree with the Bible is a false way. And we're to hate false ways. And esteem everything God said in the Bible to be right. The word of living, powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the lighting center of soul and spirit, and of the joints of marrow, and is a discerner. The Bible is a critic of the thoughts and intents of the heart. That's why we're afraid to touch it. I've had people tell me they hadn't read the Bible for weeks because they read something that's been bombarding them ever since. They don't want to deal with it. And they're robbing themselves. And of course, greatly grieving the Spirit of God. It's a critic. Christ said, you err not knowing the Scriptures or the power of God. We need to know it, people. Remember in the context of the text we gave, not to be ashamed. And oftentimes Christians were ashamed because somebody were talking to asked where this verse was. We didn't have a clue. We were embarrassed because we really didn't know. So, Christians tell me this. I never witnessed for God because I know the Bible so poorly. They could ask me a simple question. I probably wouldn't know the answer. How do you handle that? With kids you let them know you're hitting as hard as you can. You know what the Bible says? Though you should pound the fool in a mortar with wheat and a pestle, his foolishness won't leave him. Whether you know you like it or not, we are caught in a pestle. We're caught in a mortar and we've been hit with a pestle. The mortar are the circumstances of life which all of us have to go through. The pestle is the word of God. And so the Bible says a fool, he won't listen. He gets pounded by the word of God in the circumstances of life. But he won't give in. He won't break. God's word is a hammer. It breaks people. We need to know that. We pray, dear God, break me. Those hard places in my heart, break them. We've known people who are as hard as a rock in today and they're as soft as butter in the sun. They meant what God and He did. Whatever we need for His glory He can do it. But He's our will. He doesn't fall around trying to bring us down when we're unwilling. He makes us willing to give His power but call on Him and trust Him. There, not knowing the Scriptures and not knowing the power of God. I remember once talking with a young man. He taught a Sunday school class at a local church. And I quoted a verse from the book of Hebrews. And he said, You know, I know the Bible well. I know the New Testament off my heart, he said, but you know, that verse you quoted, where is it from? I said, it's in the book of Hebrews. Oh, I knew I had to read the Old Testament. I know the New Testament off my heart. You know, there's lots of us like that. We don't know the Bible well at all. We're mucking around with it. We know a lot of things we don't need to know and things that don't help us but we need to get into the Bible. And God disciplines. That's brought us back. He knows how, I guarantee. 2 Corinthians 3, We are beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord. That's Jesus in the Scriptures. We are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. People sometimes say, I don't see any progress in my life as a Christian. You don't have to see it. It's going on. If you're studying the Bible rightly and faithfully, you are being changed by it, whether you know it or not. You may not see the change but we're changed by the Spirit of God through the Word of God. That's His business. That's His Word. We need to change that. Psalm 119.24 the writer said that God's testimonies were His counselings. I think the Marginalist is the man of my counsel. You need a counselor? Well, I'll go to the Bible for a little. Every kind of counseling a person might need is there. Do you know that there are unconverted psychiatrists I have established in my reading, and they read the Bible, not because they believe it's true, but because it has. As they have discovered a fantastic insight into human nature. They don't know where it comes from. They don't even think about that. But it helps them. So it helps you too. It helps me. It helps me to understand myself. It helps me to understand other people as well. So get into it. Make time to the glory of God. Revelation 116 The resurrected Christ whom John saw had the word of God coming out of His mouth. So the word of God comes out of the mouth of the resurrected Christ. And it's powerful. And we have no excuse for not knowing what it said. Study it. Let it speak to your heart. Ephesians 17 says, take the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. You know, it's the only weapon the devil or the Lord Jesus has is the word of God. It's the sword of the Spirit. Why opt for something less than talking with people? It's good to give your testimony, of course. But somehow you get the word of God in there as well. It has a power when we believe God. Some other thoughts. The word is a fire. In Jeremiah we're told. It's a hammer. It's wheat. It's water. It's light. All those things are said of the word of God. Knowing this, the Bible speaks to you about something in 2 Peter. They rest the scriptures. That's W-R-E-S-T. Now, in David, I suppose in some countries today, they had a resting machine where they put you on and crank the thing and pull your arms up. It was called resting. And the Bible says right here now that there are people who rest the scriptures. They put them on a machine they have and they pull them tight. They want their own Bible. You will have that in hell probably. Your own Bible. We've got a Bible. It's the word of God. Take the sword of the Spirit. Jesus said in the last day, we will be judged by whom He said. Well, knowing that, let us get to know what's said. But making many books is no end, it says in the Bible. And much study is the weariness of the flesh. But many Christians know they're weary not from reading the Bible, but from reading other books. I've got over 3,000 books in my library, but I don't spend much time with them. If I need to look up something, I look it up. I spend my time with the Bible. People need to do that. And somehow, change, tremendous change is needed. There's books by the thousands. Christian books everywhere. People are reading them. And they know nothing about the Bible sometimes. Sometimes almost nothing. And sometimes nothing. Jeremiah 27 tells us we're not to listen to our prophets, our diviners, our dreamers, our enchanters, or our sorcerers. There's all kinds of them around in the New Age movement. We're not to listen to any of them. It's all said already in the Word of God. We just have to get to know the Bible. And please, there are no excuses for any Christian not getting to know the Bible well. People tell me all kinds of things. I tell them this. Well, you tell God that. Don't tell me. You tell God. Give me the excuse you have for not being able to remember the Bible. You don't have time. As I said at the outset, we have to make time. There's a verse that says, John 10, the Scripture cannot be broken. People have tried for centuries. They used to have Bible burnings in Europe, you know. The Catholic Church, they'd have Bible burnings. And sometimes the prophets were burned as well as the Bible. That's all past. The Scripture cannot be broken. When Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, you ever notice how he did? His sermon is over half quotations from the Old Testament from the Word of God. That's an example of an example. Paul in Acts 13, about 40% of his sermon, quotations from the Word of God. You want a pattern for preaching? Get as much of the Bible into your teaching as you're witnessing. Do the same. Get as much of the Bible into it as you possibly can. You know, Bible sellers, they didn't like Billy Sunday, the American evangelist, because they said, you can't sell the Billy Sunday crowd anything but Bible. Just the way it were. He was not a great theologian. He was never noticed for that. A baseball player converted at one time, converted to Christ. A higher percentage of his converts went into full-time Christian work than any other evangelist we know about. He gave them all up for the Bible. He did something that some evangelists seemingly haven't done to any great extent. He did it deliberately. Psalm 37, 5. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust also in Him. He'll bring you to pass. He'll do it, one translation says. That's one of the most powerful verses that we as Christians can ever know. Your way. Problems? We all have them. Sometimes, every day, new problems come up. Don't worry about them. God knows about them. Commit them to Him. Give them to God. Commit your way unto the Lord. Trust also in Him. And He'll bring you to pass. And over the years, again and again we've seen people struggling. They didn't even know Psalm 37, 5 was in the Bible. Well, it's in it. Never even thought of it. Haven't been challenged by it. The Bible was perfected by God to make us to be a full-born spirit-filled believer. He didn't plan for us to be scrummed in all our days and ineffective and never open our mouth for Christ and the Gospel. He didn't plan that. I remember the crusade in the Maritimes one time, and I had to preach in another church at an early Sunday morning meeting. And the pastor of the church I was in said, you've got to be back here by 1130 at the very latest. Well, I almost wiped out in an icy curb, but I didn't make it. I got there. And when I got there, the platform was loaded with people who were giving testimony. And many of them were in their 80s. Wasn't it interesting to see people coming down the aisle walking one pew at a time and then holding on to another pew to get their breath and walking another pew? I'm something like that myself now. Anyway, it was 5 to 12 before I got to preach. And one of the last people to come to share, the pastor leaned over and said, this is a miracle. I don't know what she'll say. That gal, she's the shyest person in the world. She can't even look at herself in the mirror without getting embarrassed. What was she saying? And she got behind the mic. They finally had to stop her. She was really flying. God had touched her life. See, we're satisfied with less than Revival. We're satisfied with less than the Spirit of God can do. Just reading the Bible should make us see there's something missing. There's an old saying, if you've ever gone through a Revival fire, you'll smell the smoke on your clothes till you die. And that is true. You can't be satisfied with anything less. When you see what God can do. I spoke at a banquet one time, four or five hundred people, and I finished preaching, sat down, and the whole congregation turned and fell on their knees and started praying. Just a hand of God went over the whole place. We've seen things like that happen again and again over the years. God is able. But we've grieved Him to the nth degree. Oh. They say only 15% of Christians are tied. Keeps that from Old Testament teaching. No, Christ said a bunch of tie-deeds you ought to look down. Christ put His stamp of approval on tithing, in case you didn't know. So we robbed Him. Will a man rob God? Yes, you bet he will, because God won't take him to court. And then, five minutes a day, studying the Bible or whatever, not witnessing to our neighbors that people come crying because the neighbor got killed in a car accident, they've been living there three years, next go ahead and talk to them about Christ. This kind of thing is going on all the time. And we desperately need the deep work of the Spirit of God. Do you see it in your own heart? Do you get it? How big is your fire going to be? You know, some Christians are going to go feet-first holding onto a steering wheel of their new convertible, you know. Or their property bill. Or holding onto the doorknob of their $250,000 house. People, it's garbage. It's just plain garbage. You know something? I could live happily in a 10 by 12 tent. If that's all I had. I like the sound of rain on the campus anyhow. Things. Things. That's what they are. They are things. And the devil uses them to close their mouths and freeze us. The best advertisement for the devil is just a Christian who's frozen. He likes to see those kind. He likes you to be that way. Well, people, pray for God to put you into the fire. He knows how. He'll do it. He'll bless you. I met my dear mom one time. She said, you know, she always called me Will. And she says, you know, Will, I think I've lost God's power. I haven't put anybody to Christ for a whole month. Well, people have lived for 50 years as a Christian. They haven't let anybody to Christ and they're not even worried about it, you know. Why is this? Just last week flying down to Indianapolis. Got to talk to the guy next to us. He accepted Christ. I've written him since to help him out. And it was just so interesting. God stuck him next to me because he was hooked on pornography. When I talked about Christ and I explained what Christ could do for him, he prayed right there and received the Lord. Thank God for that. He's able, but you know, if you don't say anything, what can God do? He's waiting for us to speak up and say something to the people around us. And we can't be selective in that because there's times when one just I don't know if I mentioned this before, maybe I did, I sometimes repeat myself, but as I was coming off a plane, just as we were coming home from Indianapolis and there were some people working for the airplane and they were standing in a row there and as clear as anything could be, the Lord just said have a tract in your hand. I didn't hear a voice, but it was so clear, so I had a tract in my hand. And all of this wine disappeared. There was just one lady left at the end, so when I got up to her I thought, this has got to be the one, you know. So I offered her a tract. And dear people, you wouldn't believe me. She said, a tract? That tells you how to get to heaven? Oh, she said, that's wonderful. That's wonderful. We just had a few moments there, you know. Supposing I just walk by, as most of us do, we just walk by. What happens? Nothing happens. After a while we figure God is dead. No, no. We're dead. We're dead. God isn't dead. We're dead. We've got to change this, people. Let's not talk about revival. Let's get into it. Let's do what we can. Have a prayer of that. Pray for a few other people. Expect God to bless them. Do something, you know. Don't just sit waiting for Christ to come. That's not a defiant wish of other superiors. But, in the meantime, study to show yourself a proven unto God a work that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing or rightly handling the word of truth. Study it. It doesn't say you people have got time to study. That's not what it said. It says to every Christian study to show yourself a proven unto God. So forget it. Don't plead ignorance, you know. I don't have the brains. Listen. Don't talk to God that way. You are not talking to some dumb bell. He knows the whole story. He can take any life and change it and use it. Did you ever hear about Bat Thai? It's a place called a buffer state between China and India. No missionaries have ever been in there. But at this time in India they had a hospital, a test board and they wanted to pray for some while to get somehow to get into test board. And a guy came out from test board and he was sick. He heard they had a hospital. He went to the hospital. He was healed. And then he heard they had a Bible they led him to Christ and they heard they had a Bible school he wanted to go to Bible school. But he couldn't read or write. So they let him go to Bible school for three weeks and then they gave him a diploma with a ribbon tied around it. And all his diploma said was Bat Thai has done his best. So he goes home with his diploma. He came back out six months later and he said how do you make churches? Why are you asking? What are the honors to Christ? How do you baptize people? They showed him how to baptize. They couldn't go in with him. So he goes back. He comes back another six months and he says to bring him back over later night. Thousands were being converted. Bat Thai couldn't read or write. God doesn't need a big deal or a big person. Just someone small enough that he won't take the glory from God. That's the problem you know. I mean with all of us. We do something. God does something. We take the credit for it. I remember one time the Lord asked me this question. Again I didn't hear a voice. It went like this. If somebody else should get the credit for something you did, would you mind? I sure as the flesh would hate it but I'd love it. Just a couple days later I'm in the home and they're talking about a family that I led to Christ and they said wasn't it wonderful how Joe Little led that family to Christ? Now in my pre conversion, at least my pre-revival days, I would have found a way to let them know it wasn't this guy Little that did it. It was me that did it you know. You've got to get to a place where you don't care because the glory is God's, not yours and certainly not mine. All people to be, just to be a Christian who loves God before he loves anybody else. Who's happy if all he has is half an apple. He doesn't need a lot of things. He has God. Revival. Oh God Revive me. Break me. Melt me. Mold me. Empty me. Fill me. And God will most certainly do this. Over the years, so many and I keep wherever I go for meetings you meet with people that were in meetings back in the 80s, 70s whatever, walking with God. It's amazing what God has done for many people and is still doing through the Revival Movement. It's not over. I think the greatest days are yet to come. It says in Psalm 102 When the Lord shall build up Zion He shall appear in His glory. The New Testament Zion is a church. Hebrews chapter 12 You are not calm on the mount Mount Sinai Earth of Mount Sinai We Christians We are the sign of God, the people of God. And so When the Lord shall build up Zion Mount Sinai Zion, He'll appear in His glory. That will tell me that Christ will come back at a time of revival in the church. And I believe that. And we can be a part of that. But it has to start somewhere. Don't give up on it. Keep praying. Do what you can in your circle. And people in closing and gaining desire to consume nothing but the Word that you may grow thereby. Study it. Do something about it. Some of us have heard hundreds of Revival sermons and it hasn't changed us one bit. The same as we were four or five years ago. When is it going to change? Ever? I don't know. Let's get with it. I'm 91 now, you know. And I don't know how much longer I have. That's not a concern. But I want to be right. Do you think you can pray for me that I'll be right to the glory of God? Let's pray. Well, Father, thank you again for sending the Lord Jesus. I wonder how the angel world looked at it when they saw what was happening, not understanding the mystery of the Incarnation. How did they handle it? Father, I don't know. We should look on the same. Oh, they did. That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not impugning their trespasses unto them. Oh, God, the wonder of it all. Maybe we've lost the wonder of it all. I think some of us have. Restore, Father, we pray, that wonder. Help us to follow the good example of those people in Mexico, Father, who don't read any further than they're doing. Oh, God, whatever it takes, maybe it takes some international calamity. We don't know. That's always the last thing with you, Father. You don't like hurting. You like healing. But sometimes the hurting has to come before the healing comes. And we understand that, too. But, Lord, bless every person in this meeting, Father, today. Oh, Spirit of God, come and touch us. Burn our hearts. Make us, as old children. Oh, God, have mercy on us. So, bless every home, every church represented here today. We need Thee. As the psalm says, every hour, most gracious Lord, no tender horse like Thine can piece the fork. I need Thee. Oh, I need Thee. Every hour, I need Thee. And so, Father, make us aware of our need. And continue to guide us, bless us, and do, Father, what needs to be done to break our pride and bring us to an end of ourself, to the beginning of the holy walk with You. Thank You, Father, for listening to us and for blessing us in Christ's name. Amen.