In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of seeking God with diligence and violence. He compares the seeking of God to a thirsty person eagerly drinking from a fountain, and encourages believers to be like a fountain, overflowing with the living water of God's Spirit. The preacher also highlights the need for genuine repentance and transformation in one's life, sharing a testimony of a man who was once a hopeless drunkard but was transformed by the power of God. He emphasizes the importance of being a witness for Christ and experiencing the peace that comes from having Jesus in one's heart. The preacher also mentions the example of famous Christians who diligently sought God and encourages the audience to do the same.

Jesus says, fear not little flock, it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. The kingdom is here, thank God, but it does take a little violence. Ask the people that are really safe. I don't mean the people that say they're safe and smell of tobacco or of booze or have other bondages in their life, but I mean the people that are really safe, in whose hearts the bells are ringing, who can they redeem? Thank God. Ask them how they got there. They did some violence to it last Friday night. We had this text before us that if you're in a dump or if you're in unbelief or in a bondage or in defilement or in sin or in discouragement or any place, you don't have to stay there, thank God. The door is open, the veil has been rent, thank God, it has been finished, the kingdom is here. But the Bible makes one thing very clear, that it doesn't just come like gross dust flying into your mouth. No, he says, ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. Ask those that are really safe. Are you really safe? Are you satisfied with the experience you have? If not, why then you don't know yet the fullness of salvation. It's ready for you. Hallelujah, you can come and claim it. I remember reading of Billy Bray. He was a very wicked man. One of these Welsh miners, you know, that rise up in the morning with curses and go to bed swearing and drunk most of the time. And he was so wicked. But when God convicted him of his sin, he wanted to get rid of it. He wanted to get saved. He knew there was salvation, but he knew he didn't have it. And what did he do? He did violence to it. He knew it was to be had. Praise God. I suppose he could have had it sooner if somebody had instructed him. But he did what he knew. He knew that the Bible says, everyone that seeketh findeth. And so he went to seek and he tells how he did for three days and three nights. He hardly slept. He took his Bible and he took his hymn book and he sat down alone. He locked the door and he read the words of God. And then he'd sing hymns. And then he would pray and lament and confess his sins for three days and three nights. He kept it up. And after three days and three nights, peace came into his heart. You remember when peace came into your heart? What was it? Why Jesus Christ came in. That's what it was. That's why he said the kingdom of God has come and the violence, take it by force. Oh, thank God. There's something to be had. Something to be gotten. The contentment was wholeness. Hallelujah. The contentment was wholeness. Isaiah 12, with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation. Why? Because they flow so copiously. It isn't like an old pump where you have to pour a pail full in to get a glass full out. No. Rivers of living water and he that drinketh of the water that I give him, it shall be within him a well. And rivers of living water shall issue forth from his heart. You shall be a fountain. Oh, thank God for this wonderful word. The violence, the violence, take it by force. I can almost always tell when people come to the altar whether they're going to get something or not. There are these lazy kind that come because somebody else watches them. And then they watch the clock. You don't need to come at all. Go home and sleep. But when I see them running, I see sometimes people that can't wait until the sermon's over. They hear the preacher tell them about the menu, and their mouth begins to water. Repent and be baptized, every one of you. A man came to me, to my home, and he said, I want to be baptized. It was November. I said, well, you give me your address and your name, and I'll tell you when our next baptismal. Yeah, he says, I want it tonight. I want to be baptized tonight. I said, well, tonight we have no meeting. He said, don't you have a bathtub? He was so eager to obey God, so eager. You ask those that are really safe, really pray God, really say glory to God, the kingdom of God, Israel's salvation, his righteousness, peace, joy in the Holy Ghost. The kingdom of God means that Jesus Christ reigns, hallelujah. And when he reigns, the old stump has to go, the flesh has to go. Sin shall not have dominion over you. Thank God, Billy Bray got real salvation, hallelujah. And his biography tells he was a simple miner. And they said, don't shout so much, Billy. He kept shouting till the end of his life. Even when his wife was in the casket, he danced around the casket. He said, glory, glory, glory. It was real to him. Hallelujah. It wasn't because he didn't love his wife. He loved her. Wasn't the kind of laughter that some know. And they said, don't shout so loud. Wife said, I can't help it. When I lift my left foot, it says, glory. And when I lift the right one, it says, amen. Hallelujah. And one night on the way home from eating, some bad boys got behind the bushes and they were going to scare him. And they said, ooh, ooh. And Billy went on praising the Lord. It was dark. He had a lantern and it was dark. And they couldn't scare him. They said, Billy, I'm the devil. Oh, he says, glory. I didn't know you were as far as glory. Oh, so should I really say what it cost them? Oh, they'll say nothing. Why, no, nothing. To exchange my rag for beautiful royal garments. To exchange my poverty for the riches of Christ. Why, beloved, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? And if tonight you're not satisfied and you feel God is not satisfied with your experience of salvation, if it's something that you put on on the outside and it isn't real on the inside, see, do violence. Come on, do like Billy Gray. Get to God with all your heart. I was a church member for years. But I tell you, when God woke me up, I did violence. I really did. I repented. I cleaned up everything. I did things that you would laugh about. My teacher used to think that I wrote pretty interesting essays. When we had to write an essay, I wrote a novel, you know, a story. Teacher used to love it. Well, I picked those essays to pieces. I tore out everything that I thought the Lord wouldn't be pleased with in the day of judgment. I wanted everything to be clean. Oh, but when Jesus comes in, hallelujah. When Jesus comes, the tempter's power is broken. Oh, beloved, that's what he means. The king has come. The kingdom is here. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. And oh, I'm so thankful for the gospel. And I'm so glad that God has given us a whole world for us. Not just Brooklyn. When I got to be of retirement age, I asked the Lord to send me somewhere where there were hungry souls. And he sent me to Germany. And oh, it was a blessing, beloved. Wonderful. This summer again, I met this man who was almost carried into the tent, a hopeless drunkard. His wife would have to put him to bed like a baby, undress him, and fix him up. And he came into the tent and he found the Lord. And for eight years now, since 1948, he's been a brilliant, a bright light for God. Everywhere he goes, he's got a living testimony to a life that has been transformed by the power of God. Jesus said, ye shall be witnesses unto me. And he always leads us in triumph in Christ, and make us manifest the favor of his knowledge by us in every place. And as those who've been healed, sometimes it takes violence. Well, why not? Why not? Look what they do in the hospitals. And in the baths in Germany. Germany is full of baths, mud baths. They'll sink up to the first sin and the second sin and the third sin. Yes, commercial races, big sellers. They take off their soap pipe hat and go into the mud. And they'll stay there. And they'll be, they'll be massaged. And for months they'll go through. Listen, if you do violence, do violence. Praise God, it's there. Thank God, it is here. Praise the Lord. My God did not purchase deliverance and healing for the body and hang it away where you can't reach it. Just get up, take your bed and walk. Rise, go and show yourself to the priest. Hallelujah. Seek and ye shall find. Not can it shall be opened unto you. And again he says that men ought always to go to the basketball game or lie in bed in the morning. Nice to get up in the morning, but nice to lie in bed. Men, if you have a coffee class, boy, you certainly get the men. You do. But how about prayer meeting? Where you really labor. Prayer is a man's job. We wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers. Oh, what victories God would have for us. What wonderful victories God has given us. When we prayed a little bit years ago, 30, 35 years ago, we prayed and God gave us a revival that is still going on. Oh, beloved, the violence takes the kingdom of God. That's what's the matter. I said to Elder Brooks one day, supposing 50 years ago, we had prayed like we pray now. He said, boy, we're praying through a kingdom. Don't you know that? Oh, when you look into the face of Jesus and you hear his voice and you hear him say, all things are possible to him that believes, it'll put a little ambition into your bones, a little initiative. I tell you, it will. It'll put the sparkle in your eyes and it'll make you rise up. Hallelujah. It'll make you get the best of that laziness. Put a little initiative there. Initiative. You know what is an initiative? Very few people have it, but God will give it to you if you want it. Seek first the kingdom of God, his righteousness. Most people don't have to be about their father's business unless they get donuts and coffee for nothing. Then you'll get it. Salvation Army does that, you know, and they come. I've known fellows that go to the whole town and they get saved in every mission because they get donuts and coffee for you. You've got lots of followers. But listen, there's a kingdom that surpasses in glory all the kingdoms of the world. Jesus Christ defied the devil when he offered him all the kingdoms of the world because he said, my kingdom is not. Else my servants would fight for me, but now my kingdom is not hence. But the violence, there's a kingdom for you, a wonderful reign of Christ for you. Oh beloved, a little more faith, a little more go-to-itiveness and stick-to-itiveness. He set up his websters on the bridge. A little more persistence. Hallelujah. Men ought always to pray and not to faith. Do you love to pray? Oh, do you love to pray? I used to, when I was a boy, I used to love to swim. And if I ever got in close to the shore where children were swimming, I couldn't stand it. I couldn't. I had to go in. It drew me, as they say, a lot of somebody was knobbing. And I was in, the first thing in the room. But beloved, when God saved me and when he baptized me with the Holy Ghost, if I know where there's a prayer meeting somewhere or a chance to pray, I want to be there. I want to be the first and the last. Something drops, it is a joy. I thank God for that. I thank God for that. I do thank God that when I was a kid, he put that into my bones. And mind you, did it when I was in a death church where they didn't pray. They prayed by the alarm clock. And I had to get there an hour ahead of time just to be alone with God. And had to stay up till after midnight. But God put something into my heart. I wanted to be with God. I wanted to meet God. I didn't know anything about prayer. But I said, God, I'll do like a baby when it's thirsty. I'll just cry. I will cry aloud and thou shalt hear my voice. Oh, I thought to meet God. The promise that God will draw nigh to me. The violence, take it by force. I wish I could wake up some old lazy bones in this meeting. Do you know that you're getting lazy? Do you know that the devil of laziness gets into your bones? You know what wonderful creatures your bones are? They ought to be full of life. They ought to be full of the Holy Ghost. There ought to be within you something that was in the bones of Elisha when that carp touched his carp and sprang into life. Even when he was dead, he prayed. Even when he was in the grave, he prayed the prayer of faith. Oh, beloved, the violence has something to get. There's something to receive. And God in his great wisdom requires pressure, violence. Let us therefore labor. Let us fear. Let the promise being left us of entering into his breast. Any of you should seem to come short of it. But tonight you can take the thermometer and see if you're coming short of it. Tell me, have you become a new creation in Christ Jesus? Tell me, have you been filled with the Holy Ghost? I read the count of a revival. So many were filled with the Spirit. That's not being filled with the Holy Ghost because you've got the baptism. That's the beginning. But beloved, if you do violence to your flesh and you mortify your flesh with the affection and love, you've got to become a murderer. You've got to be zealous for the Lord. Mortify the beasts of the body. We had that subject this morning before. I said, look at these fat women that'll take a pair of tweezers and count the calories and cut them in two. Now a little more bologna and now a little bit more fat. A little more of that. So many calories for breakfast and then a few more for dinner and a few more. And oh, how they suffer. And what do they get out of it? Nothing but a tired body. What do they get out of it? Just the flesh, you know. Sure, one lady said, listen, I'm saying nothing. I'm doing a lot of thinking. I said, well, maybe that's the new experience for you. But listen, how about doing violence for a perfect tongue? How about taking a pair of tweezers that measure your words? He that keepeth his tongue keepeth his life. That's where we ought to go on a diet. Why don't we? Oh, we don't care about the kingdom of God. What is that kingdom of righteousness? Dear father, dear father who art in heaven, thy kingdom come. Thy kingdom is here. Oh, it's here. It's waiting for you. You are to be his kingdom. He is your king. Violence will bring it. Does Jesus Christ reign? Oh, does he reign? I tell you, it doesn't take too much violence. When Jesus Christ sees an effort on your part to get into that wonderful rest, he'll show you that he has finished it on Calvary's cross and faith is a victory. But it's because we don't care. We just don't care. We can hear it a thousand times. How many times have we been convicted in our souls over some things that we know are wrong in our life? And the time comes when God says, not enough. Oh, brethren, the violence take it by force. Ask those that have really entered into a spirit-filled life who walk with God. We have books that we call deep life books. We have names like Baran Durenci, and Persegian, and Madam Guyne, Francis of Assisi, and Savannah Rolla. Ask them how they got there. After I'd been baptized in the spirit, a dear minister gave me the book that I would advise all young people to have, Deeper Experiences of Famous Christians by Lawson. It's a compilation of biographies, short but wonderful. He said, you read that and you'll find out they all did the same thing. They all were diligent. They all sought God with diligence until they found him. And they found him, hallelujah. I have found him, praise God. Oh, beloved sinners, the violence. There's something to be had. The fountain of life is flowing freely, and he that drinketh of the water that I give him. Are you drinking? How wonderful it is to try, as we said in the beginning, try faith. Jesus says, I'm here. When you go to prayer, he says, your father's in the closet. You're not going alone. My goodness, no. Maybe you don't feel it, but you can believe it. Hallelujah. I meet my father every time I go to prayer. I meet my father, and he meets me, and he meets me with great love and with great joy. All this faith makes prayer exceedingly interesting, doesn't it? But you'll have to do violence because the flesh won't come along. That flesh won't help you. It'll defeat you if you don't defeat it, praise God. If he, by the spirit to mortify the deeds of the body, he shall live. Oh, children of God, how rich can we become? How spiritual can we be? Why, beloved, God's plan is that we should be filled with all the wholeness of God. You remember where that's found in Ephesians 3? Oh, wonder of it, that God would, according to the riches of his glory, strengthen you with might. He'll do it if you give him a chance. If you will do violence, and you will come to God. Oh, it takes time. And sometimes it does take a little self-denial. It does take cutting off a little bit from your sleep, maybe. And maybe it takes less gabbing, less talking, less visiting. You're not as good a mixer. If a minister isn't a good mixer, you know he isn't any. Oh, God help us. Someone has said, Brother Salter said, the best way to kill a revivalist is to take the evangelist out and stuff him. But the trouble is, a lot of evangelists like to be dumped. The earth's been a circle then, the lead city, the drought. So flighty is a kind of question. They haven't gone to hell. Boy, you'd think they were really going to save the world by eating turkey. But when people desire to pray, they'll tear themselves away from people. They'll, they'll fight. They'll fight for a place and for a time to pray. Beloved, we're bad off if you're not there. If today you're not fighting, you're not a soldier, you're a deserter. Beloved, this is the time when we meet with principalities and powers in the heavenly places, unless we've already been defeated and already are in the devil's presence. Then I know what we're doing. We're busy putting on the whole armor of God. And the way to fight, the Bible tells us, pray always with all prayer, all prayer, not a good word, and supplication in the spirit. Where is that supplication in the spirit, that burning heart? God will give it to you. God has a kingdom. The kingdom of God suffereth violence. Oh, God, am I going to be in this kingdom? It's going to be revealed soon upon this earth. That's the next step that God is going to take, revealing his kingdom. Where is it going to be? Over his house? No, in your heart, in my heart. They that look for him, he will come to those who look for him, and he will come to reign within them, and they shall reign with Christ forever and forever. Beloved, that kingdom is worth waiting for. It's worth doing violence for. I tell you, it's worth, and if you don't think it's worth doing violence to your flesh and heart, don't expect to be in it. No use. Oh, God help us. Father, what are we here for in this meeting tonight? What, what do you have in your mind and in your heart? Well, the Lord says, I've spoken a thousand times and nothing can be done about it. Or you and I can do something about it. We can do violence. And sometimes you really have to. Sometimes when you've factored in a while, you've gotten used to it. People get used to it. I've been preaching to assemblies of rich people, well-to-do people, well-educated people, and you couldn't get under their skin with the word of God. They're so carefully cloaked with their self-righteousness, thank the gospel people, you can't scratch them anymore. They won't have it. They, they're so skillful in saying, we're rich and increase with goods and have need of nothing. But oh, if the Lord Jesus Christ can wound my conscience a little bit, if he can show me his glory high and lifted up. Oh, he saw the king seated upon his throne. I saw also the Lord seated upon his throne. He calls him king. Oh, beloved, do you have a king? Do you have a king? Has the Holy Ghost been able to reveal to you the king seated upon a throne? Then you will believe him. And you're not going to let anybody stop you. You're going to count everything but refuse. You're going to fly into his arms. Hallelujah. You're going to keep under your body and you're going to bring it into subjection. Hallelujah. And you're going to take this wonderful word of God and lodge it in your heart lest you sin against him. And God will come. And the king will come. And the kingdom of God. It is your father's good pleasure to give you. I wonder, I wonder tonight if it could possibly be that God means us. Don't you think he means the Roman Catholics? Don't you think he means the Baptists? My, they're wonderful people. The Methodists or the Mormons? Who could he mean? Jesus means somebody. Oh, beloved, not all that say unto me, Lord, Lord, but they that do the will of my father. Oh, father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. But it's real. Glory to God. Are you in the kingdom tonight? Tell me, are you in the kingdom? If you are, you've certainly done violence somewhere along the way. Somewhere along the way, God has helped you to extricate yourself, to come out from among them with a vengeance. Oh, come out from among them. And be separate. And touch not the unclean faith. If you're in the kingdom of God tonight, then you've certainly repented of your sins. And you've certainly cleansed yourself from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God. But listen, how simple it is. Everyone that asks is receiving. Why don't you just ask? Ask until. Seek until. As soon as you set your faith to seek God. Oh, God, how stupid I was, how ignorant I was. I used to change. I used to say, God, I don't know how to pray. I don't know how, but I know I want you. I see now that little cold room in Chicago where I used to wrap myself with a blanket because it was so bitter cold. And I cried. Oh, God, I don't know how to pray. How can I reach you, Lord? What shall I do? God, I pray for hours like that. It pays. It pays. Oh, it pays a million times over. Everyone that asks us. Everyone that asks us of God in faith. Yes. Receive us. Why? Why all the fullness of God. All that fullness. The kingdom. The kingdom. I want to see you in the kingdom. Glory to God. I want to be in the kingdom myself. Praise the Lord. Well, I wouldn't be here if I weren't in the kingdom. I couldn't, couldn't live. I couldn't exist at all. We have a wonderful king. Isn't it a wonderful king who takes care of us? Who loves us? Hallelujah is our shepherd. Praise the Lord. You have again determined in your heart to be more true to me. I will bestow upon everyone that has this determination alive in his soul. New strength and new grace. Abundance of grace to follow me more fully. To run more swiftly after me. Thou hast a little strength and I've set before thee an open door as you find it written in the Bible. And now I want to leave this word with you. Hold fast that which you have that no man take thy crown.