Leonard Ravenhill's sermon 'Puppet or Prophet' emphasizes the transformative power of encountering Jesus, as illustrated by Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus. He contrasts the role of preachers as mere puppets versus true prophets who are called and empowered by God to witness and minister. Ravenhill highlights the urgency for preachers to be authentic and filled with the Holy Spirit, rather than just performing rituals or following traditions. He calls for a generation of ministers who are passionate and devoted to spreading the Gospel, reflecting the radical change that comes from a genuine encounter with Christ. The preacher urges the congregation to recognize their own calling and the importance of living a life that reflects God's glory.

I want to read from the Acts of the Apostles chapter 26. The Acts of the Apostles chapter 26. Reading from verse 13. At Middale King I saw in the way light from heaven above the brightness of the sun Shining round about me and them which journeyed with me And when we were all fallen to the earth I heard a voice Speaking unto me and saying in the Hebrew tongue Saul Saul Why persecute us thou me it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks and I said who art thou? Lord and He said I am Jesus whom thou persecute us but rise and stand upon my feet for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose Now listen to the purpose To Make thee a minister and A witness Both of these things which thou hast heard and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee Delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee To open their eyes To turn them from darkness to light from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and An inheritance among them which are sanctified By faith that is in me Now without looking who said that Paul no Jesus said it Jesus said it Luke one of the disciples recorded it and Paul here repeated it And the scripture says a threefold chord is not easily broken. So Jesus said it Luke recorded it and Paul the Apostle repeated it I Remember a preacher we had in England. He was an oddball preachers usually are and He had a habit of talking with himself to himself He said it was with himself, but other people said it was to himself you couldn't tell the difference any I walked down the road Going away like this, you know, and somebody said to him well, they you're always talking to yourself. Oh Friend he said you need somebody sensible to talk to now and again. I thought it's a pretty good answer But would you believe it that some of the most intelligent men in America today are talking to a machine that has no ears to hear It's 200 million miles away on a planet called Mars And they're talking to Viking number two and it has no ears to hear It has no mouth, but it's talking back It has no will and so it has to do as it's told and so every time they tell it to do something it does something Now I don't care which way you measure that it's a fantastic amazing thing I Think somebody estimated that at least a million small parts in that machine Which was launched up there. I don't know how they got it there The Sun's only 93 million miles away and they've got it to hate it actually traveled 220 million miles into space and they told it where to set down not go near the other part You see, I think one's male and the other's female and so they couldn't get on together So one is a thousand miles away from the other The man in the street says, you know the thing that troubles me today In fact, one of the great broadcasters said not long ago But the thing disturbs me that in America with all our wisdom nobody can tell me what's going to happen in the next 10 years Nobody knows the future Well, there's a lovely him. I don't know it too. Well, but I remember a phrase with a lady in England used to sing it I don't know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future the man in the street doesn't know what the future holds he reads horoscopes and blood stethoscopes are more Dependable than horoscopes, but They read the horoscopes and they they search crystal balls. They don't know what's going to happen tomorrow The Christian does at least in part Because God has unveiled tomorrow to us And you know, it struck me very forcibly that right now God is writing the last chapter of human history as we know it And to prove that you go back to Viking. Well, what's that got to do with it? Because it says in Daniel 12 and in the last days Men will rush to and fro in the earth and this is a day of speed and not only that but knowledge will be increased Now it takes some knowledge you can say what you like there may be atheists that made it and fools but it takes a lot of wisdom to get a thing together and project it in the sky and guide it to What 200 million miles and make it land where you tell it to land and right now they're speaking to it and it's talking back and If you think that's amazing and it is I want to tell you something But a way in a place called eternity which may be 200 billion miles away God is going to take a photograph of your heart this afternoon. I Remember lying in hospital when they were taking I don't know what electrocardiograms or something and I could see something dancing up and down They said well, that's your heart going up and down and they look felt like it too But there it was jumping, do you know God will make an electrocardiogram If I can use that phrase of your heart this afternoon and as you respond or fight against the spirit It will all be on a graph there, which someday he'll open up to you I don't only you but the eyes of everybody in eternity That's why as brother Joe was praying this afternoon. I was saying amen because that word awes me that word awe That's why I've coveted that when when you've crossed the threshold of this door We won't be like any other house of God. There'll be a sense of awe as we come in. This is Holy God I feel I want to kick my shoes off. God is in this place Kicking your shoes off is symbolic of casting the dirt of the world outside and keeping the place Holy it demands more than that physically But that we discipline our minds and hearts to come in and and listen so that God can get through to us and this becomes an empty chamber of eternity So if you're to die right here and suddenly switch into eternity, you won't be surprised. You won't need any adjustment That's the only way to live anyhow Who's the richest man in the world, but isn't the rich man The richest man in the world has as much as I have you didn't know that well wake up Because the richest man in the world only has one beat of the heart that's all he has And he may be as rich as priestess. He can't buy another one You're suspended on something more more slender than the sword of Democles that hang over the heads of the ancients as they say All right I read this chapter with a great deal of interest this week It's about preachers that I next week a week Monday, I'll be preaching to preachers in the week after so will you pray for me? They're the dullest people in the world to preach to but anyhow I Got a little phrase. I'm going to greet them and say gentlemen I'm hoping that by the time I'm through God will have changed some of you pulpit puppets into pulpit prophets. I Don't think they'll kiss me for that, but I'm going to say it anyhow Because if I didn't have that ambition, I wouldn't go the pulpits are full of puppets instead of prophets If there's a scripture at all that a preacher ought to read every week surely it is this amazing scripture You see it not many shows us the the turning point in the in the life of a man It shows us the turning point in the history of the church and the history of the world God doesn't go looking for committees Or organizations he looks for a man You women are naturally if you're married you want to bring forth you want to bring to birth you want a child Well my prayer is that in my spiritual capacity we may raise out of our fellowship some preachers more than preachers some prophets There may be these little guys around or John or some of these others Jay that's away or the other Randy that's away I don't know where they are. But anyhow, they may be there. They may not they may be the smaller. I don't know Glenn's back with us. He's got a chance. He's a Lutheran and There's a There's an opportunity for God to work if there isn't we we should pack up I think We're not here just to save our lives or promote our spirituality. We're here to reproduce our kind in God And under God a different kind I've told you won't want anybody like yourself. Would you we're gonna have somebody a bit taller and a bit stronger spiritually Now now now Paul in this amazing acts In the 26th chapter here in the 24th chapter back to the 22nd chapter he's in trouble good preachers are always in trouble They close the door on the temple on him boy that must have been thrilling he had to stand on the steps of the temple in order to defend himself and next he's up before a Group of a hierarchy of the church and then he's before Felix and then he's before Festus and now he's before Agrippa The first king in Israel was a tall handsome man by the name of Saul a very wonderful man He was filled with the Holy Ghost and he prophesied but he died a suicide The last of the great kings is Agrippa That's why Paul appears to him and says King Agrippa understand the start of prophecy. I know you know the prophets Oh don't come that one. You've been versed in this It didn't say that to Festus. It didn't say that to the other king. He says it to King Agrippa Now this story has been told how can you tell it differently? Well, I think there are many ways of telling it differently Paul Was drunk when he went down the Damascus Road You say it doesn't say that it sure does Because it says in verse 11 I'll Go back to verse 10 Which thing I did in Jerusalem and many of the saints had I shut up in prison having received authority from the chief priests? And when they were put to death you see he has said previously in the In the same in the same book he says in in the 22nd chapter verse 19 and I said Lord They know that I Imprisoned and beat them in every synagogue and them that believed on me. You see this man is a bloody man Now going to the next verse verse 11 of the 26th chapter I punished them oft in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme and being exceedingly mad against them It wasn't a fever it wasn't just a fury he was blind with rage Exceedingly mad And you know God did God purify that madness and turn it into a mad devotion to Jesus Christ Because while he's still going on in this chapter Festus jumped up. He's not right to stand up He was only a guest in the court of King Agrippa, but but he listened to the Apostle who was intoxicated now with God Festus jumped up and and he says there a little In verse 24 as he thus spoke of himself Festus said with a loud voice Pulled out beside thyself much learning doth make thee mad and he said I'm not mad most most noble Festus You see that same passion that he had to exterminate Christianity He says in that 10th verse he had received authority from many of the chief priests And he put people to death I wonder why What infuriated him Why didn't he attack the Pharisee Pardon me the Sadducees he was a Pharisee and he was the son of a Pharisee He makes that very clear But but why why does he suddenly become so intoxicated against the Christians? After all Paul was a very well-traveled man He has a marvelous pedigree he he tells us that he was a citizen of no mean city He claims again that he is he's of the tribe of Benjamin and of the seed of Abraham and he's of the finest stock You See this man He had upset rulers. He had upset the town council He had upset people in authority and so they try to pin something on him and it says there in that 21st chapter Verse 38 or first 37 as Paul was led into the castle He said unto the chief captain may I speak unto thee who said canst thou speak Greek and at the end of the chapter You notice he's speaking Hebrew outbound not that Egyptian written to before these days made an uproar and led us out into the wilderness 4,000 men that were murderers huh, I Don't think we've a bunch like that except in jail right now 4,000 men were murderers and they're trying to pin it on to this man that he incited them He's a man of such such explosive disposition. He burns he gets angry about things You are the man that led the fourth out not four hundred four thousand murders and he said no sir I'm not that I'm a man who I'm a Jew of Tarsus a city in Silesia a city of a citizen of no means city and I beg you to help me in these matters Now he says in the first chapter of the letter to the Galatians and in verse 13 You have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews religion how that beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God and Wasted it. No, that's a way you hear on TV, isn't it? There's a man. We're gonna waste him tonight You're gonna waste him. You're gonna destroy him. You're gonna liquidate him And I profited in the Jews religion above many of my equals in my own nation being Exceedingly zealous of the tradition of my father's they're the same thing again. He burned you see This man knows no half measures He's 10 100% for this or he's a hundred percent for that. He's gonna liquidate this he's gonna destroy that and something disturbed him profoundly He says in verse 15 when it pleased God who? separated me from my mother's womb and Call me by his grace to reveal his son in me. He's talking now about after he had been in Arabia You see the first thing God did was reveal himself to the Apostle and then he revealed himself in the Apostle and that made all the difference in the world All right. Let me go back to the other chapter a minute More than a minute, I guess but 26 chapter here in Acts again Here a man here is the man going down this Road to Damascus Now he's on a missionary trip Damascus is not in the country he belongs to But you see something that happened. What what what in the world suddenly this Ignited this man to leave the security of the job. He had he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees of a tribe of Benjamin He's got every distinction a man could give it in those days And if he goes through with this bloody pact that he's made he carries inside of his toga there He has inside of his toga a deed which is signed by authority to say you have every right to Exterminate Christianity and instead of exterminating it he experienced it And I like God to pull a trick like that The persecutor became the preacher the murderer became the missionary He's going to Damascus why and he's gonna leave out such a bloody horrible mess there that history will recall it and God says brother You're not going there You're going down around the world not with that blood on your skirts, but with his blood in your heart He says I have many men and women to prison I Put them to death Do you know why when I I thought of that I Turned over and read this what it says in the sixth chapter of the Revelation Isn't it chapter six Yeah When he had opened the fifth seal I saw under the altar the souls of them that was slain for the Word of God And you know what I Believe that every man that he put to death every drop of blood that spilled out of his body Jesus counted it And every hair that fell from his head Jesus numbered it And he thought got rid of them and Jesus says look I've got a filing cabinet under the altar of the prayers of the Saints and they never died now tell you what I'll do I'll answer prayers without blood on them before any other and the others The blood of the martyr is the seed of the church The only seed that God will honor is seed that has blood on it And Paul who was Saul at that time was going up the road and he was gonna massacre those people He had authority from the chief priests I Ask you again, what was burning in his heart? I'll suggest two things to you I've read this story many times and never thought of them until till just the other day as a matter of fact, I guess yesterday You see the early church had been handed over to 12 the 12 disciples Are sure there were a few more went in the upper room, but you know, everybody didn't want the baptism of the Spirit either Jesus told 500 of them to wait. You know how many turned up? 120. What happened to the other 380? We don't even have that proportion today With more people speaking in tongues But some are gossiping tongues and lying tongues and slandering tongues and a few genuine ones here and there but not so many Well, I'll tell you what happened the the disciples had some blessing And The Lord said, you know, I've only partly fulfilled it here in the upper room Your young men are going to see visions and your old men dream dreams and there's a young fella there called Stephen Man, he was something He's the youngest deacon in the church And he was an evangelist and a deacon. That's a good combination And that little fellow maybe wasn't 20 years of age and he got filled with the Holy Ghost That's something Let me read a little bit of his biography for you. It's genuine. Hmm Stephen full of faith and power did great wonders and miracles among the people and so all the synagogue of the Libertines and Cyrenians and Alexanders and them of Cilicia From where Paul actually came rose up in arms against him So As I told you the other night when Caleb and Joshua gave a good report the vote against them was 600,000 to 2 that's a pretty heavy vote Carter's hoping it won't come his way. But anyhow 600,000 to 2 and the two men that told the truth got stoned the others got out At least they wanted to stone them. Now. Here's a young man and all that he has is maybe 18 or 19 Years of age. I'm sure he wasn't older But he's had an experience with God. He's had a revelation from God. He's had visions from God He has prophecies from God. He has miraculous powers from God And as Robert Murray McShane said a holy God, pardon me, a holy man is a terrible weapon in the hands of God That's why God fights holy. That's why the devil and people fight holiness. They don't fight gifts. They don't fight miracles They fight holiness. Why? Because a holy man, a purge man, a pure man, a God-intoxicated man is a terrible man And so they all ganged up on the little fellow. Oh boy, that's a chapter you must read it for yourself Stephen made his defense Have you noticed it's the longest chapter in the Acts of the Apostles. He's got 60 verses Good friend of mine. He did a lot of time And he has the longest chapter in the whole of the Acts of the Apostles and he makes a superlative defense You talk about church history. He starts with Moses and he talks about Abraham He talks about the successive manifestations of God right down to this very hour And you know what they did? They got madder and madder and they gnashed on him with their teeth And somebody says listen It's bad enough having an Apostles like that. They're getting old. But this young man He's gonna tear the whole structure of Judaism down. This man's gonna set the world on fire Hey, come on get your coat off and and let's stone him to death. Hey fella say what's my coat Will you? And they laid their clothes at the feet of a brilliant wonderful Straight-a student in every language. He knew everything else and his name was Saul who afterwards to become Paul They laid and Paul was there. He was watching a young man whose face was not only handsome. It was holy He was transfigured. A radiance came from another world upon him And somebody says well, I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll knock his right eye out Let me have a shot at that. Oh you missed it. You broke his jaw. But well, let me try No, you hit his left eye. I want to try the right eye Well, see if you can knock his nose off. See if you can break his rib. They decided to dismember him with rocks Well, that's not too pleasant to death And instead of recanting or asking for better treatment or saying and you call yourselves a holy man, you know what he did He just radiated God He did exactly like his master did as he was dying with his last breath. He says father forgive them They don't understand what they're doing and his face Radiated the holiness of God and you know what it did it shone like a beacon into the heart of that man called Saul It made him more angry I'm convinced that that pursued him Because years afterwards he recited when they laid the claws at my feet and I looked up at that young man I thought what in the world is he dying for? I wouldn't die for Judaism like that. Nobody else died like that. I think that was number one thing that provoked him. Number one thorn in his flesh if you like Well What else could upset him? I'm sure the progress of the church. He never thought it would get on the way it got on Because these weren't really vandalists here because none of them had a mailing list, but they did the best They they just depended on the Lord and somehow the Lord saw them through They didn't beg They were shut up to God and the church the more they persecuted it the more it grew They were scattered abroad It's like having a fire and when we were kids some kids would say when we lived on the edge of Sherwood Forest in England and sometimes the boys will make a fire and somebody say hey we'll have to go come on Let's get rid of it and one boy kick it and then you start a dozen more fires You say that's not the way you put a fire Get something unsaturated But they scattered the Christians and all they did was scatter light and scatter life and scatter power And they went everywhere jubilant, but they were counted worthy to suffer Boy, that's a new one, isn't it? Or you thought I'd say supper no suffer Didn't say they were counted worthy to go to a supper They were counted worthy to suffer for his name's sake and they said we must be in the apostolic succession We're privileged even to suffer like this And so one thing that God's in is that radiant. I sleep at night. I can see that young man dying there He's all bloody and he and he's sinking to the ground and and his face is radiant Well, if he quit there I wouldn't matter do you know he said just before he died I can see Jesus standing You see he not only made people excited he got Jesus excited because Jesus stood up and he'd been sitting until then Ha ha ha That's what the scripture says He was sitting at the right and he says what that little fella's gonna do exactly what I said follow in my steps Do no sin suffer take reviling take opposition take everything else man. He's doing it. There's hope And Jesus says come on waiting for you. Oh Man wouldn't that be wonderful hmm And you know, I kind of feel that fella was right I Mean he couldn't have been dreaming man alive when the Sun is bashing your head with rocks. You can't dream And it couldn't be with his ordinary eyes. He was seeing because it's too far away But he said I see Jesus there. He is at the right hand of the father. Oh, it's so glorious Jesus I'm coming. He says. All right. Come on. He says receive my spirit says that's it You see it's not how long you live that matters it's how you live And this youngster not 20 years of age and finished his course And he shot an arrow in the heart of a man who was never gonna get out of it When I get ahead, I'm gonna prove that to you. I'm gonna ask him to tell you Sometimes in prison he could see the face of the young man that was the slaughtered Sometimes when he was downcast he could hear a voice saying Jesus I can see you receive my spirit and a voice said yes come out And Paul says well if he can make it I can make it And you know you and I have enough records in the book apart from anything else to Guarantee, we don't get discouraged, but somehow I don't know it manages to get in sometimes. All right Hmm being exceedingly mad I went to Damascus with authority and commission verse 12 and 26 at midday Oh King, I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sweat. Isn't that glorious? You know Jesus is so radiant. He made the sun look gray that morning Yeah, midday Sun in the Middle East. Have you ever seen it? Man, I remember looking up once in Australia the Sun looked so big and it was so hot and so beautiful Remember once doing that in Texas of all places And when you see the Sun at midday and Jesus was so bright the Sun looked out Oh brother Do you wonder the city we're going to has no need of the Sun Praise God No bills to pay No cheating on the bills, you know when they double the cost of it. They're liars dirty things. They are God will catch up with them There when they get to hell where there are no lights at all They wish they hadn't cheated on us, but that's too late for them. We'll be up there where there's no darkness anyhow A light above the brightness of the noonday Sun. That must have thrilled him to death. Do you think so? Hey, I want to tell you something, you know, this chapter's got truths that are brighter than all the brightness of human philosophy Yeah What about all those things I listed for you to open the eyes of a blind Man that's better than anything anybody's written outside of the Word of God King Agrippa said almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian That's a flash of lightning for me to enter the on the pagan heart of a wicked wretched man You see this man had done what so many people have done out of those individuals and nations. He reckoned on everybody except God He said if anybody challenges me I've got a certificate in here from the high priest himself signed there sealed and settled and anybody stops me I don't care whether there's a Roman or who he is. I'd say read that see I can kill who I want As long as he's a Christian, I've got the right to do it And I've got a bunch of men with me Well, it so happens that somebody nobody can manipulate And it's certainly wonderful to me anyhow that that that Jesus came and That he stood up and he appeared unto unto Stephen But you know, he did better than that. He slipped off his throne and stood in front of this man on the road That must have shocked him That's what he says. Oh My god can take us down a peg or two or does it take all the pain He comes out of the city, I think he rode on a horseback he wasn't gonna walk all the way up there man That's an awful long way to Damascus and he comes out with pomp and he comes out with authority and he has his robe and he has his signet ring to say That he's a Pharisee of the Pharisees and he has everything that's needed for the most successful wonderful marvelous trip and suddenly like that He meets the Lord Well, I don't know where his certificate of membership went, but I know where his eyesight went the Lord took it Not good having a certificate when you can't read it The Lord took everything And the mighty man came out of the city with pomp and circumstance they led him back hey go steady you remember I'm blind Where are we now? Oh, we're nearly at the street called straight. Hey careful traffic's heavy there, isn't it? And you see the proud man going up can you see him coming back humiliated to the dust They took me by the hand. They led me on the way Doesn't sound as though he's gonna turn the world upside down now, does it? He says verse 14 when you were all fallen to the earth Well, that's nice. The Lord hit the whole lot of them so they get at one share anyhow And I heard a voice speaking and saying unto me in the Hebrew tongue so so why persecutors thou the church No Not even in the Amplified not even in the dead Bible that living Bible What why persecutors thou who He thought he was going to persecute he wasn't persecuting the church he was persecuting Jesus He wasn't really hurting people he was hurting Jesus the church is his body If you tread on the toe of a believer, and I don't mean that just offending them if you hurt a believer you hurt Christ By the same token if you gossip about a believer and hurt them you hurt him before you hurt them If you do some substandard Christian trick if I say to you thou shalt not take the name of the Lord by oh I wouldn't take the name of Jesus on my lips Listen the last time you did a mean trick a non-christian trick you took his name in vain Somebody said is that Christianity therefore you smeared his name you took his name in vain You did a bad business deep you told a lie you told a half-truth You took his name in vain. I Am Jesus whom thou persecuted Now listen to this I've never got to the text hmm, but rise and stand upon my feet not nice Stand upon my feet, and you just keep this in your little mind Paul Because you're gonna have an awful long way that on the Damascus Road Just as when you remember You've heard the story about a man that went into the temple one day and Doing what the priest only did once in his life, but when he got to the altar Zechariah who what he said I'm Gabriel Well you remember Moses met me in the bush and Isaiah saw me in a vision and I remember I once wrestled with a man on a mountain a prayer meeting with with Jacob and Today you have the pleasure of meeting Gabriel on the road Wonderful if it said that but it doesn't I'm Gabriel Now you you don't know how he felt and I don't when he when he said that He must have said Lord. Let me drop dead right here Well, I'm after the whole gang of your family to put them to death and you come in my way. He said I am Jesus You know, I'm glad he didn't meet the preacher on that road We may never have heard of Paul after that if he'd met a preacher, but he didn't meet. Oh too many of us meet the preacher He met Jesus I'm glad nobody slipped in four laws to read, you know I gave him a track that have been the end of him either backslidden right away You can't you you you and I you can't register that any more than you could register if you sat on a volcano You couldn't register that could you be gone? Can you think of every nerve every sinew every fiber every thought of his mind this man is versed in vast knowledge In you the prophets have said that one day a virgin should be with child He knew and I think this is haunting him Not only did he see the face of that man, but he knew that man that I think he had seen now I can't prove this. It's a suggestion I think it's a pretty healthy one But the rich young ruler that ran after Jesus was Saul in his early days because later he said I have seen Christ face-to-face I've reason to believe that somewhere he heard Jesus preach and saw Jesus do miracles and he said in his heart This must be the Messiah the Son of God, but I didn't go forward there and and accept him I'm the most distinguished student the man ever had. I'm gonna be greater than Hillel I'm gonna be greater than Gamaliel and the whole of joy will collapse if I yield my life to him but let me tell you brother if God's got a Target if he's got a sticker on you, you can go the next five years, but it'll get you at the end. Anyhow You know, he never missed his target. If you didn't you better learn it this afternoon It'll pursue if you go to ten different countries finally He'll get you finally get out of you what he wants and they break your heart to do it may break your life to do it You don't expect me a Pharisee of the Pharisees a ruler of the Jews with all my distinctions the tribe obeyed tribe of Abraham Benjamin and the seed of Abraham and the most learned scholar to yield but I'll tell you what I'm convinced that He has seen Jesus do miracles even raising the dead and it disturbed this man in his heart of hearts. I Have appeared to thee I Think you must have felt Lord. Don't please don't repeat that if you do my mind will snap and all my nerves I'll be in an institution the rest of You're the one that have paid to Abraham and said I'm the greater you appeared to Abraham sitting in the door of his tent You're the one that came to Moses and said when when they say who are not who is your God say I am I am The only one I am I Am the way the truth and the life. I am the door by me if any man enter it. I am the reservation I am And here he was saying under his breath my god, I never never dreamed this would happen I Thought God was away there in eternity because I've read about that in the prophets and here he is stunning What what what what will I do? And Jesus gracious as he ever was says well calm down a minute. I'm gonna tell you I'm not gonna kill you No, I'm not gonna kill you Well, I am I'm gonna kill you but I'm gonna live in you you see that's the difference I'm gonna take over That brilliant mind man, man, man. Wait, wait, I won't tell you all at once what's gonna happen you say But I have appeared unto thee for this purpose. I Wish every preacher would read this every Sunday before they preach To make me a minister, listen, I've got news for you There's only one person in the world can make a man a minister and that's God You can make him a preacher. You can teach him homiletic Reminds me of some guys came to a little college I went to and they they put a notice on the notice board with subjects and and homiletics This is true and one of them said to the homiletics, what's that? I don't know Cookery lesson, I suppose It's what my mother makes Well, she made omelets in case you don't know but anyhow He said homiletic. Oh You can teach a man you can make him scholarly you can even ordain him You can give him an office in your society You can give him prestige but only God the Holy Ghost can make him a minister and don't you forget it Logic rhetoric. Oh Have a good voice learn to modulate your voice like the orators Remember this please remember this if you're thinking of going into the ministry And if you can keep out by all the power God gives you keep out But if you can get in get in and don't let men devils or anybody else keep you out It's a greatest job in the world If God calls you to be a preacher don't stoop to be a prime minister If he calls you to be a preacher don't stoop to be a king Wasn't it the great mystery that went to India carry think it was Had a family out there one of his sons was very brilliant and he became a a Very distinguished man and so the government sought after him and the government of England got him And Here's some few years after a gentleman went out, and he said where's your son so-and-so hey is he a preacher he said no He stooped down to being a diplomat He was a British representative of the throne in India, but he stooped down There is no higher office coveted for your children pray for your children Ask God tell him you want this boy you want this boy to be a preacher you want him to be a minister Pray fast implore God Put everything in his way to do influence in that way. There is no higher calling. I've Stopped you on the road to Damascus. You're gonna be such a bloody mother, but listen. I've got something for you I'm gonna make you a minister and not only a minister, but a witness. I wish every minister could witness, but he got That's why again we've more put puppets in the pulpit than prophets because they're there they fell off the assembly line You know at the college Tell off the end they answer 20 questions got a diploma Might just as well. I got a string of that sausage. We have in New Braunfels there for what good it is anyhow Can't hit the devil with baloney can you? Most preachers try that every Sunday, and it hasn't worked I'm gonna make me a minister and a witness both of the things which thou has seen now that makes me think there I never read this I try and find out what the Lord wants me to tell you without books as much as I can the Things with what what did he seen I I want you to testify to the things that you've seen What did you see I saw the eyes of a blind open the ears of a deaf unstopped I saw this man. Well, this is why I can really believe that it's Jesus who speaks to me Isaac wants has a lovely verse that says he speaks and listening to his voice new life the dead receive the wounded broken hearts Rejoice the humble poor believe Not great Jesus raised the dead. That's what preaching is The lady said to me you don't pray for the dead beer. I said every Sunday Every Sunday Hey Sure look all over the congregation I see them sitting there dead people and I pray for them Ruskin defined preaching as 30 minutes to raise the dead Pretty good definition, isn't it? To make me a minister of those things which thou has seen and those with which I will appear unto thee. Oh I I like that. I Like that It pleased God to reveal his son in me that I might preach Listen among the heathen back in Galatians 1 verse 16 Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. Hey, you've got to be under authority You need a shepherd I wonder who John the Baptist was under And nobody hot enough to cat couldn't run enough fat in fast enough to catch him he was too hot if they got it But the Burma hangs on the guy Hey, you know, oh, I see. This is why you want to be a preacher You don't like the authority of the Sanhedrin. You're afraid you won't get promotion at the right time You're afraid you won't get something else. He says I conferred not now Listen, there's a time according to the Old Testament and it's true. There's a time when there's safety in numbers There's a time when in a multitude of counselors there is safety and there's a time when you run I almost said like hell because you're running away from her you run away and you don't confer with anybody You say listen, I heard the voice of Jesus say to me Jesus didn't say listen I've appeared unto thee here and on my right is Gabriel and on my left is Moses and I bought a committee from heaven He says listen, I've appeared to thee. That's enough. There is nothing more You see there is no society on earth can give you authority Except God and there's nobody can keep it from you, but God