In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of living a life of submission to God's will, using Jesus Christ as an example. Jesus said that his meat, or desire, was to do the will of the Father. He taught that he only did what he saw the Father doing in heaven, and encouraged his followers to do the same. The preacher challenges believers to renounce themselves, submit to God, and have faith in His ability to meet every need. He concludes by urging listeners to be the ones that God can use to help others in this time of need.

A couple of the other men have indicated, as they listened to previous speakers, that as they listened, they felt backslid. And as I have listened, I have felt backslid. But as I saw the presence of God, I didn't only feel that I was backslid, I knew I was. And it brings me to think about the fact that the thing that bothers me today is not how backslid I am, but the fact of I never have got to be everything I want to be. But I'm glad that there's one who can make me that. You might get impatient, but he doesn't. You may not understand, but he does. And I'm confident he's well capable of handling the situation. My problem is knowing how to respond in the desired areas, or in the areas where he desires me to be, when I totally misunderstand the uniqueness of that circumstances because of the immediate source and not the ultimate source of the situation. And what I'm saying is simply this. A great deal of the time when God begins to bring us into the areas of reality, we are brought into an area where Satan has his way in our lives, and we misinterpret this, and we only see Satan and not God. And until you're able to come to the place that you see God in everything, my friend, you will not understand God in that situation and learn of that situation everything God wants you to learn in that situation, to come out of that situation to be whatever he wants you to be in every situation. And so I pray today that the Lord will get me to the place that he wants me. And with this I approach the message out of the 19th chapter of the book of John, the 30th verse, just one simple phrase. It's not so simple really, but it says, It is, Jesus said, as he hung on the cross, it's finished. I'm sure that possibly many of you as preachers, evangelists, have preached on this text many times that Jesus Christ completely finished the redemptive plan, paid the price in full for everyone to be saved. And I'm sure that that's what the Lord meant. But I'm also sure that he meant a great deal more. Because we see the Lord Jesus as he steps into this world and he took on the body of a man, and as he took upon himself the body of a man, God in man, the Lord Jesus began to grow as a man. And as a man, the Lord Jesus literally went about for thirty-something years to fulfill everything that was written about him in this book. And when he hung on the cross and said it's finished, he was saying more than the redemptive plan is made complete, but he's saying, I have completed everything that's ever been written about me, whereby now you can say what was written about me. That could have never been said about a man before, and I don't believe it's ever been said about a man since. But everything that was written about Jesus, man can now stand up and say it's so. He came into the world and as man, he lived out everything that was written about him. Where when he said it's finished, he had completely fulfilled every verse of scripture, every phrase of scripture, that indicated anything about him. He completely fulfilled the word. To where they could say about him what was written about him, right? Three things in the life of Jesus that made that possible, I believe. One, is Jesus Christ lived a life of renunciation. Jesus said himself, of myself I can do nothing. He was the son of God who had all power in heaven and earth within his midst. Within his person he had everything. All of the power of the universe. All the power that made the universe. All the power of God. Everything that God had he was. And he had it within him. But yet Jesus said of myself I can do nothing. And out of this we learn a profound principle that should carry over into our lives and the fact that beloved, we as individuals in this world are to learn the principle by which Jesus Christ himself chose to walk. And that was he did not choose to live within his own strength and power and work from his own ability, but he chose to denounce himself, renounce himself, and rely upon the power of another. He could teach them to. We haven't comprehended that yet. We haven't even tiptoed upon the front doorstep of the potential within you. Because the potential in you is the potential of God. And my dear friends, that potential is available right now if you're born again believer. While we're running around seeking a great number of experiences today, we ought to be taking up with him that's already within us. If we ever got excited, if we ever got a glimpse of he who is within and what we are within him and he's within us, we'd get so excited we'd forget about experiences and start living the life. We'd get the tags and start moving with God and allow God to move through us. I don't suppose the world will ever know until it gets to that few that's going to get to heaven, gets to heaven. And I guess they'll know. We'll know, should say. I'm planning on getting there. But we'll never know what a self-centered life has really wrought. The misery, the pain, the heartache, the delay. I've never found it in the Word of God that you can stop God, but I have found that you can delay God. And I find that it's the self-centered life that's delayed God more than any other kind of life. My dear friends, if you look at the life of Abraham, the great man of faith, and for 20 years the promise of God in reality was delayed by a man in his self-effort to try to please God. A lot of folks think when the Ishmaelite was born that here is a man at his worst. But beloved, you go back and look at the life of Abraham and you'll find those 20 years of doubt is a man at his best trying to please God. Here's a man doing the best he could until finally he got to the place that he no longer could do anything but trust God. And when he got there, then God worked a miracle. Yes sir. Brought glory out of his life. And you're even feeling the pinch of 20 years of doubt right today in America. If you don't think so, if you go back and check your history of the race and find out if that folk, that bunch of folk over there in Arabia weren't a little bit related to the Ishmaelites, I believe. Yeah, I mean we're getting a pinch today from all of that unbelief. Well, I'll pass on. I see you're not there. All right. Jesus said he of himself could do nothing but allow the Lord, the Father in heaven, to work through him, teaching us a principle that we of ourselves can do nothing but he can work through us. And there we have the potential of God. He lived a life of submission, of renunciation, and then he lived a life of submission. I started to reach over and ask Dr. Fish a while ago how would my outline do in one of his classes. It has four words on it, and I can't even read those. I was so nervous when I wrote them down. I'm afraid they wouldn't pass too well. But nevertheless, he lived a life of submission. Jesus Christ said his meat was to do the will of the Father. That was his meat. That was his desire. And you know, Jesus really opens up a principle here of operation that would literally change our lives today, folk, if we simply learned this principle of operation. Jesus said, I do nothing except what I see my Father do. And you know, he went on to say, you know, he said, what I do, he said, you know what I do here in this world? He said, I first see my Father doing it. And he said, what I see my Father doing there, he said, then I do it here. And you know what Jesus is simply saying? He's saying, I never do a thing down here except what I first see my Father doing in heaven. And he said, then what I see him doing there, I simply do it down here. And what I'm really doing is moving heaven into earth. And my dear friends, a great number of people today have surrendered to the ministry or some kind of special service, but they have never surrendered to doing the will of God. And Pope Jesus was surrendered to doing the will of God. And he was so surrendered to doing the will of God that he said, I never do. And Jesus gives us this principle. Matthew 16, 19 gives us the same principle. When it says pray, in this fashion, whatsoever thou shalt bind, or this is the way it reads in the King James, whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. But I believe if you just turn even to the Amplified or some of your other translations, you'd find it translated something like this. When you pray, pray that whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall have already been bound in heaven. Whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall have already been loosed in heaven. And folks, we don't go out here and plan a little revival campaign and get down on our knees and say, oh God, now bless this meeting. Excuse me. That is what we do. Isn't it? But folks, the way it's supposed to happen is you're supposed to have a time with God and look in with your spiritual eyes just like Jesus did. Have a time with God and find out what His plan is. You're supposed to see it, be persuaded of it, embrace it, and step out and confess it. And folks, get in God's order and see God move out of heaven into earth. And this is the order of God. And oh, beloved, if we are wanting to see God do something, we're going to have to let God start it. And everything He starts, He's well capable of finishing. And He will do it. Jesus lived a life of renunciation. He lived a life of submission. But He also lived a life of faith. And I'd just like to live right here. But I promise you, I'll let you out in time to get to the last sermon tonight. But I would like to just live here. I won't keep you any overtime, in fact. I'll let you out before time because I will have said more than you live up to. And it's foolish. Jesus lived a life of faith. My dear friends, He was a living example of a definition, the best definition of faith I've ever seen. There's a French Bible that translates Hebrews 11, 1, something like this. Faith renders present that which one hopes for. I like to turn it around just a little bit and put it like this. That thing for which you're hoping for, if you have real faith, it renders it, that faith renders it present. In other words, that thing that you're really hoping for, if you have real, genuine Bible faith, your life renders it by action as present. Put it in my phraseology, you act like it's so when it's not so in order for it to be so. You say, preacher, that's ridiculous. Well, let's see how ridiculous it is. We'll put it up beside the life of Jesus. One day Jesus walked out and asked him, and he acted just like a nation. Is God checking you out? So the Lord checked Philip out and he flunked the course and really Andrew didn't do much better. He came in with a few loaves of fish, a few loaves of bread and a few fish and he didn't do much better. So it got time for Jesus to bow his head. Now, Pope, tell me, was there a stack of fish there before Jesus said thank you? Was there a stack of bread? While Jesus bowed his head and acted as if there was enough fish and enough bread to feed not 5,000 but and take out 12 basketfuls. Right? Jesus rendered present that which he hoped for. And you can say what you like this afternoon. My friends, he lived a life of faith. Jesus so acted on what he saw his Father do in heaven that God was able to not only do it in heaven, he was able to do it in earth. And that was the explanation for his life. That was the explanation for his life. He lived a life of faith. In fact, when he got to Lazarus too, I believe he acted in faith. And this sets a principle by which we as children of God must operate on. Jesus said what Paul said, the word of God teaches that whatsoever is not of faith is sin. And beloved, we as children of God must come to the place in our lives where we're grounded in what the Lord says. And not only what he says in this book, but what he says by the divine Holy Spirit breathing upon this book. And giving us the truth as reality within our person. And we must step out on that word and we see, smell, taste, feel and hear. In this day. Because as I look at it, Jesus Christ was able to measure up to everything that the word of God said about him. So it can be said of man what was written about Jesus. It can be said of man about Jesus, everything that was written about him. Now the whole point is this, and this is what I've been saying, everything that I've said up to this point to get right to this place. There is a lot of things. There's a number of things that's said about you in the word of God. There's a number of things that's said about me. There's some things that are written about us as believers in Christ Jesus. Did you know that? But the question is simply this. Is the world saying about you what's written about you? Folk, it is important what they are saying. And I wonder if they're saying what's written about you. The Bible says that you're a saint. Is the world saying that you're a saint? The Bible says that you're a priest. Is the world saying you're a priest? The Bible says that you're a king. Is the world saying that you're a king? In fact, Jesus says in the word of God that as He is, so are we in this world. The Bible teaches that as Jesus Christ is right now so are we in this world. The Bible has to say a number of things about you and about me. And the question just keeps coming to me. As people look at me are they saying He's a saint? As people look at me do they say He's a priest? As people look at me do they say that He's a king? Because see Jesus Christ left as a living example as man yielded properly to Jesus or to God and the power of the Holy Spirit as man man can live the life that God has planned for him. So when it's all over the world can say about him what's written about him. And the challenge this afternoon is beloved for as children of God to come to the place of renunciation and submission and faith and be brought into the fullness of God full stature unto the Lord where as we go through this life the world can look upon us and say about us everything that's written about us. Beloved tonight as children of God we are this world's redemption whether you believe it or not. Jesus is the redeemer but we are the means to redemption and the redeemer. And our lives are the means by which the Lord Jesus Christ is revealed. And people come to know Jesus as their savior. And I'd like to close with just this thought. This nation I believe was born under the sovereign divine act of God. It wasn't long after this nation went through its birth that this nation sought God and had revival in the midst of revolution. And after that revolution prosperity and blessings on every hand and then again revolution. And in the midst of that war between the North and the South in that period of history from about 1845 to about 1865 beloved this nation had revival. A study of the revival in this nation during that period of time would so shake you. I believe it would bring us out of lethargy into a spirit of glory if we just all make a study of those precious days. The glory of God was upon this nation in such power that when ships would come into the harbor New York Harbor and a government man would go out to enter the ship into the harbor to the dock they would have to send a preacher along to get all the people saved that were laying out on the decks of the ship as dead people. Marvelous revival. You could get on a train in New York City and find that that train would be stopped at different places on the way to New York City simply to let a preacher come aboard and lead hundreds of men to Jesus that were so under convention they couldn't stand it any longer. And you could walk from one compartment to another and you'd find a song service and preaching on every hand. Beloved this nation had revival. During the war between the north and the south you could find the men on the river banks pushing chunks of logs across the river with tracks leading men to Jesus from one side to another. This nation repented and turned to God during those days. It had revival. But after the war between the north and the south came along prosperity and God spoke again through World War I but this time and the only evidence of revival can be found as far as I can find is just within the homes. There was no revival on a national scale. There was no revival in a collective sense in this nation. And this nation overcame within their own strength and did not turn to God. And out of that dilemma of World War I my friends we didn't have a time of prosperity we was turned right into a depression. You can seek the Bible out and come up with the word famine that would well fit the depression. And during the depression, beloved we found a new deal but not the deal. And this nation did not turn to God in faith. It turned to works and sought its way out by its own strength. And there's no evidence of revival. And that depression ended in war. And this nation still did not turn to God. My dear friends we had the atomic war. The atomic bomb. This nation still did not turn to God. And to this hour this nation still has not turned to God. And some folk are saying it's too wicked and you can't have revival in this nation. Let me tell you something. Have you heard that song? I know you have. His love will reach the deepest valley. His love will reach the highest mountain. Let me share this with you in closing. There's never been a need brought on by man or the devil that God was not big enough. And if there has ever been a need bigger than God can meet then there's not a God in heaven. Why are we sitting around trying to figure it out? For men to renounce themselves that God may work through them. That they might submit themselves to do His work and not their work. And they might believe His word and trust Him enabling Him to be God in their circumstances. And in this hour when the nation is crying help my friends I wonder if God can find someone that can help. He's looking at you and He's waiting on you and He's willing and capable and right now He's saying yea and amen.