In this sermon, the preacher shares a personal experience of a powerful church service where many people came to hear the word of God. He confesses to having left out important parts of his sermon and feeling the need to catch up. The preacher emphasizes the importance of confessing and making amends for wrongdoings, including stealing, holding grudges, and criticizing others. He urges the congregation to have compassion, belief, and love for others, and shares a parable about forgiveness from the Bible.

Isaiah 59, Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear, but your iniquity is the other way round it. The Lord's ear is not heavy that it cannot hear, neither is the arm shortened that it cannot save, but your iniquity is to separate between you and your God, and your sins have hid his faith from you that he will not hear. Now here's a wonderful thing and a sad thing. First of all, God's willing and God's able to answer prayer. God has as much power as he ever did. And now God's just as willing as he ever was. You mean willing to work miracles? Yes. You mean willing to answer a marvelous prayer? Yes, sir. I like that. Amazing, wonderful answers to prayer. God is willing and God's able. But your sins, oh, your sins. How often the Bible tells us, the Lord says, Call to me and I'll answer thee, and she'll be great and mighty things. I know it's not. When I said, All things whatsoever ye ask in believing, ye shall receive. He said, Wherefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe, and ye shall receive them, and ye shall have them. Matthew 7, 7, 8. Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh, receiveth. He that seeketh, findeth. Him that knocketh, it shall be opened. He says in John 14, 13 and 14, Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, That will I do, that the Father may be glorified, and the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. In James 4, verse 2, He said, You lust, and have not. You kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Oh, how many times God tells us, I'm willing to answer prayer. I'm able to. I want to. But your sins are in the way. Sin. What is it hinders a lot? Daily answer prayer. Sins in the way. That's right. The whole. He said, Not that I can't do it, But your sins are separated between you and God, Until ye will not hear of him. Wouldn't it be good if we could talk this morning On hindrance to prayer. And go through the Bible and find what the name, Things are named particularly that hinder prayer. Make it so we do not get our prayers answered. I'd like to help you this morning. Well, first of all, let's turn to 1 Peter, chapter 3. 1 Peter, chapter 3. And verse 2 verses we'll read to start with. Likewise, your wife be in subjection to your own husband, That if any may not the word, They may without the word be one with the conversation, Or the godly life of the wife, While they behold your chaste conversation, Coupled with fear. Here the scripture is saying, Your wife be in subjection to your own husband. He said, So that if you've got a husband who's unsaved, He may without the word be one by the godly life And conversation of this godly wife, Who obeys her husband, even though he's unsaved. Now down to verse, he goes on to say, But rather, that meek and quiet spirit That sits outside of God of great price, And say, Obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord. And you're to be like that. And then he said in verse 7, Likewise, your husbands dwell with him according to knowledge, Giving honor to the wife as unto the weaker vessel, And as being heirs together of the grace of life, That your prayers be not hindered. Now obviously, he's talking about certain things That hinder prayer in the home. In the preceding chapter, he said, Christians, citizens, obey the government. He said, servants, obey your masters. Now likewise, you wives, he said, Be in subjection to your own husbands. And there he said, now husbands, He said likewise about husbands, Not likewise in the sense of obedience, But he said, the same kind of a plan I've got for you, That if a husband doesn't take his responsibility According to knowledge of the scripture, Of a man's place in the home, Why then your prayers hindered. Evidently, this is summing up a series of propositions. You don't obey the government, your prayers hindered. If a servant doesn't obey his boss, prayers hindered. Wife doesn't be subject to her husband, her prayers hindered. And a husband who doesn't dwell with the wife According to knowledge of God's plan for the home, Why then he's a slacker, and his prayers hindered. So we're talking about hindered prayer here in the home life, And prayer is often hindered. I read down in verse 12, the same chapter, He quotes from Psalm 34, and he says, For the eyes of the Lord are open to the righteous, And his ears are open unto their prayers, But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. God's open to prayer. God wants us to pray. How he delights to have our prayers answered, But your sin comes in the way. Now where is sin? Most likely to be in the home. You know, a home prayer, this is a strange thing, isn't it? The meanest things you ever say to anybody, You say to the people you love the most. That's a strange thing, isn't it? Isn't that strange? Oh, you're polite to the outsiders, And mean to the folks at home sometimes. Isn't that strange? You know, now some of the churches, It's pretty easy to be nice in church, To dress up nice, you know. Some of you people are not dressed up nice enough. I saw two teenage girls this morning, You ought to be ashamed. You look like a Hollywood whore, With your legs showing. Why would you want to go around, And show your legs or your breasts, And try to make out that, If you could attract some man's lust. Wouldn't that be a silly thing? Now you dress different when you come back here tonight. You women. But I'm just saying that Scripture, Now don't worry about it. I'm not talking fun. I'm talking about a good sense. Christians ought to dress like Christians, And act like Christians. Yes. And you men better see to it, God intends, You'd look after your families on this matter too. Go a little further here. Now it says on this matter, You know what? You can be public, very nice. Oh, you look nice in public and so on. He wouldn't interpose this. Any woman here screams at her children, Or any man that's an old ruff, That's home with you. Ah. Very nice. It's easy to be nice in public. But back at home. If you haven't got it at home, You haven't got it, bud. If you're not a good Christian at home, You're not a good Christian, period. You know? So we better go back and get that settled. Wouldn't it be a good thing, If we had the kind of a conference here, That all these homes, You know, where one marriage, And every three goes on the rocks of divorce. That isn't all the story. At least two-thirds of the other marriages, That don't get a divorce, Are not very happy. Raise children, And your girls turn out to be harlots, And your boys turn out to be dropouts of schools, And long-haired hippies, And draft cars, And pot smokers, And so on. Out of Christian, So-called Christian homes. Wouldn't it be wonderful, If out of this meeting here, If people go back to have a really Christian home, And the power of God, And the love of God, And the peace of God, And turn out godly children. Wouldn't that be good? Wouldn't that be good? All right. So, you better start getting things settled at home. That's where more prayers are hindered. Back at home. So, he said, You wives, You want your prayers answered, Then you'll be subject to your husband. That's right. Well, he said, Yes, you'd like, If he lets you be the boss, Then you're the man, Wouldn't you? No. That's the Lord's plan. And here he said, You wives, Be in subjection to your own husbands. That, If any may not the word, They may without the word, Be one with the conversation of the wives, While they behold your chaste conversation, Coupled with fear. You can win your husband. He said, Well, that's a hard business. No, it's not hard. You think it's hard on students to have a teacher in school? Huh? You think that? You think it's hard on a citizen to have a mayor in the town? No, it's not. No, it's not. No, that's silly. Is it hard on children to have parents? No, it's not. It's not hard on a wife to have a husband. And some of you, It's hard for some of you to work to get one. You better be mighty glad you got one. And you better set out to be a good Christian at home, too. And obey your husband. That's God's plan. That's God's plan. So it says, Yeah, well, the husband's a, The husband's ahead of the wife. And the wife, But the wife's the next. And she turns. You talk like a dirty fool. You talk like an infidel. Christians ought not to use that kind of language. If you think it's a joke to joke about what God commanded, And make a light of what God commanded, You're not a good Christian. You're a nut. And you better take it to heart. Christians ought to set out to have a Bible kind of home. You know that? That's right. Yeah, a Bible kind of home. That means a wife subject to her husband. You say, Well, Brother Rice, Doesn't that hurt? No. No, that turns out happier. I had a letter from a woman in Kansas City years ago. And she said, Brother Rice, I read your sermon. She said, I've been married for eight years, And I've been trying to be a good Christian. My husband's not a Christian. So he said, But I'm going to church whatever what. Whatever the Christian said, I do that. And I'm not going to be a good Christian. So I lived that way eight years. And my husband got further and further away from me. He said, Now he's talking about divorce. And she said, I didn't believe it. I said, Now I'm going to have to try what you say. I got another letter later. And she said, This is strange. This thing's happened. She said, My husband, He's got where, He says now, He said, If you want to go to church, You go. And he's got where he'll go with me sometime. And she said, He quit talking about divorce. And said, Now we have a happy love life. He's kind, Loving. I set out to make him happy, And to please him, Like I promised God to do when I was married. And now then, He's listening to me about church. Now you put it down. God's way is better than your smart-aleck way. And you better listen to it. You know that? And God's way is for a wife to be subject to her husband. Even an unsaved, He said, I'm smarter than he is. Well, If you're that smart, You ought to be able to take what the Bible says, And follow that, Don't you think? And then he said, Likewise, You husband dwell in him according to knowledge, Giving honor to the wife as under the wing. And according to knowledge, Yes, God made man, And made woman to be a mate for Adam. That's God's plan. That's what I said there in the Garden of Eden. According to knowledge, He said to the wife, I desire to be the wife. According to knowledge, Yes, Knowledge of Ephesians 5, Wives, Men, Wives, Men, Men, Men, Men, Men, Men, Men, Men, Men, Men, Is that bad? It ought not to be bad to Christians. That's Right. Paul said, Follow me as I follow Christ. All Right. So husband ought to say, God put me as high priest in the home. That's mighty serious, isn't it? That's right. And that's mighty serious. You walk down that marriage altar and say, You'll beg for holy pledge to love and cherish until death do you part. And you are supposed to represent Jesus Christ and to love that woman as Christ loved the church. And that means love her when she's young, love her when she's old. That means love her when she's pretty and love her when she gets ugly. And that means love her when she's nice to you and love her when she talks you to death, too. But love is based on your character and your plain devout of God, not based on how pretty she stays and how she woos you with her wiles of, have a woman, no, a husband to love his wife as Christ loved the church. And that's a mighty serious thing. And oh, let's set out to have a home settled on a pliable basis. Otherwise, your prayers be hindered, he said. And the scripture says here a very precious thing. Husband, love your wives as Christ, he says, you husbands, likewise, dwell with them according to knowledge as being heirs together of the grace of life. What is that? The Lord says, here's a man and a woman, and they marry, and they love each other. And that's not bad. Marriage is honorable and all, and the bed is undefiled, the Bible says. And he goes on to say there, then, here's the grace of life, God said, I'm going to bring into being an immortal soul that will live for eternity somewhere in heaven or hell, and I'll put that in a little body created by the union of this man and woman. And so they have this marvelous grace of bringing life into this world. That's a miracle, isn't it? And what a privilege. And so a man must go to marriage irreverently, and a woman reverently. And a man feel, I represent Christ, and so he says, otherwise your prayers will be hindered. All right. So you better get things down. I'd ask God to cut off the bitter tip of my tongue, and I'd ask God to help me to be a good Christian back at home, and I'd learn to have peace and joy back at home. And then you'd raise God the children to have a happy home and the blessing of God. That's right. All right. So then, that your prayers be not hindered. It wouldn't be a bad idea if a lot of people go back to their cabins or back home and wherever you go, and some of your men pull that lady down to your lap. She hasn't sat there a long time. I know she weighs 80 pounds more than she did when you got her, but you better let her sit on your skids, and I'm so glad I got you. And if I had to go over again, I'd marry you instead of some of these little pretty, little whippersnappers. And you say to him, well, I sure like you. I know you got a paunch now, and you're getting bald-headed, but you're the best man I've ever seen, and I'm so glad to have you. You better sit out to be good Christians at home in the marriage relationship and contact and kind of speech and kind of caresses that good Christians ought to have at home. That's right. All right. So once your prayers answered, go back home and be good Christians at home. What else? What hinders prayer? Wrong with other people besides the home, too. I turn to Matthew chapter 5. He just said there that whosoever say to his brother, Thou fool should be in danger of hell fire. Watch your tongue now if you want to get along with God. Watch how you feel toward people if you want to get your prayers answered. And then it said, now verse 23, 24. Matthew 5, 23. So he said, Therefore now bring us thy gift to the altar, and there remember thy brother hath fought against thee. Leave there thy gift for the altar, and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother. Then coming off of thy gift. You want God to hear your prayer? Now here's an Old Testament picture. Here's a man coming up to Jerusalem to sacrifice. He brings a lamb. He brings it by his front feet to get in the back. He's got it on his shoulders. He carries it down him. He lays it down to the priest. Isn't that a pretty lamb? Male lamb, first year. Best that he got in the flock. Yes, sir. I just watched him. He's the first one born. And I saw he was fat and pretty. And I said, I'm going to give that to God. Now why don't you put that lamb on the altar? And dress it and so on. This is my sacrifice. And the Lord said, Wait a minute. Don't put that trash on my altar. Well, Lord, but listen. I'm trying to obey the law. I was given a sacrifice. And the Lord said, Any kind of outward obedience, that when you're wrong with other people, and you're crooked in other people, then you can't honor me. He was a gift. No. He said, But Lord, he said, this is a prayer picture of my faith in the coming Messiah. I'm a fundamentalist. I'm pre-millennial fundamentalist. I'm a pre-tribulation rapture pre-millennial fundamentalist. I'm a pre-tribulation rapture pre-millennial fundamentalist Baptist. And I know the Lord said, But as long as you're wrong with others, debts unpaid, or apologies not made, and friendships not restored, then you can't give anything I want, God says. You mean that the Lord don't care about all the nice pies singing and going to church and giving offers? No, he's not going to pay up honest debts and be right with other people. No. No. So go be reconciled. What's the first thing you take to have a revival? Somebody said praying. No, not praying. First thing is go pay up debts, and go make apologies, and go restore friendships, so you can pray and so God will hear you. That's right. Wouldn't it be good if we had a kind of revival where people got to doing right, get paying debts and so on, doing right. I think about debts unpaid. I preached on the radio in Dallas, Texas. I had a letter from Man Center, Texas. He was a merchant in a general store. He said, Brother Ice, he said, I'm closing, I'm enclosing, he said, ten dollars. He said, some time ago a man walked in here and paid down twenty-five dollars. You know, he moved out of the community. He owed this ten years and didn't pay it. He walked in the other day and paid it. And they said, I said to him, I never expected to get that. He said, no, and I didn't expect to pay it either. But I said, I've been hearing Brother John Rice on the radio. I've got a lost boy. He's going to the devil. And John Rice said, if I'm going to God to hear my prayers, I'm going to have to pay up on his debts. And so on. So here's that twenty-five dollars. And the merchant said, well I heard a Methodist preacher one time say Christians ought to pay the debts. I gave him ten dollars. I'm sending ten dollars to you. Give him the other five dollars. Well I preached on it again right away, but he didn't hear me. Isn't it a strange thing? You want to be a good Christian and be a dirty cheat and liar and a thief. Yeah. You want to be a good Christian but don't want to be honest. No, no. I ought to be sure something about it. I'll go clean up if you want your prayers answered and pay on his debts. Oh yes. I used to have a short book club. I keep feeling I ought to start a book club again. I'd have to have good health to do it. And I'd have to be very careful about it. You know why I let go? I had a book club. I had six thousand people. And all over America, I go and I find some in the pastures, a little bookshelf. And the only really good books he got, we helped him get back on it. Because you go down to a bookstore in town, they'll sell you Fosdick or they'll sell you any kind of tomfoolery and modernists and you don't know the difference and they don't care the difference and so on. And I thought, oh, I must help preachers. And I did. But I'd let it stop. You know why? We had a regular, a clear-cut, a signed agreement. Everybody joined the book club with this agreement. Listen, I'm going to give you a certain book for joining. And then every month, we'll send you a little brochure and it'll say, number one choice this month is so and so. It's so many pages. And I had, oh, I had Dr. Edmund, Dr. Bob Jones, Dr. John L. Hill, son of school, a board man, and my brother, Dr. Bill Rice, and Dr. Robert G. Lee and other men, the best men in America. And here's what Dr. Lee says, here's what Dr. Bill says, and so on. And I said, if you want that, let it come. But if you write nothing, and then here's a number two if you'd prefer that. And every time, I'd close the card. Now, if you don't want any book, send back, say no book this time. Or say, I want number two instead of number one, or number three. Or, with the understanding that if you want number one, you just let it come and you pay for it within seven days. Well, of those 6,000, about half of them are preachers. And I had to drop the book club. You know why? I lost as much as $5,000 a year and I had to make it up in my love offerings from revivals. Back then time when my kids had to work hard to earn a part of the way in college. And Ms. Rice went 17 years without the kitchen cabinet everybody here has because I'm paying other people's dishonest debts. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's pretty bad, isn't it? I was in Durham, North Carolina, but back there for a conference one time and the pastor was sending me a radio broadcast and Bud Lyles was listening. After the broadcast, he said, Bud, go ahead, I really want to talk to Brother Rice. And he handed me $5 and said, I owed that for a book for four years ago and I never did pay it and I didn't have any peace about it. And a lot of them never did have that much conscience and so on. I mean, I lost as much as $5,000 a year I paid up on bad debts mainly from preachers. Yeah. Now, I don't wonder this country doesn't have much revival. I don't wonder that kind of preacher don't have much revival in their churches. I don't wonder they don't have big crowds and so on. God doesn't bless that kind of crookedness. You know that? Alright. Oh, I feel so pious. Lord said, I'm not impressed. Oh, I believe the Bible is cover to cover. I know it. You don't read it much or you'd start out to live more by it, wouldn't you? Yeah. And so, you know what God wants is somebody who's got something deep down inside that makes him want to do right. You know that? We sure ought to cultivate that, don't we? Alright. I'm just saying then, wrong with others, maybe it's an apology unmade. Oh, somebody talked about in the restraints saying how, how scarce we are with the tongue. I don't wonder that God said, a man doesn't sin with his tongue. The same, the perfect man. Anybody here perfect? Huh? Oh, He said with the same, out of the, from the same bush, you know, you can, but bitter water and sweet out of the same fountain. Oh, you talk pious and love the Lord and then you talk about your neighbor and run him down or criticize the preacher or somebody else and so on. Strange, strange, strange, you know. You know how we are about that. If I do something wrong, well, I was, I meant to do right, but I was very great in attempting not some Irish blood and so on. But the other fellow that he did, of course, he's a mean lowdown, you know. My doctrine, my opinion is orthodox and the other fellow's doctrine is heterodoxy. I'm just saying everybody except for his own word, oh, wouldn't you learn to have compassion and belief and confidence and love for other people, wouldn't you? I ought to have. Dr. Jack Howe told how one time he went to service, he and his wife, and they sat there in his mind thinking about, I didn't like this preacher and look what he said about that and the son fell in both of them and he got home and he said to his wife, I feel as mean as the devil and she said, I do too. He said, let's get down here and tell God we'll never again, if a man believes the Bible and trying to preach it, we'll never criticize him if he's trying to do wrong, or trying to do right about it and they prayed. Well, there are times when a man ought to be helped by kindly brothers, but you better learn to love God's people and you better learn to talk nice about God's people, haven't you? You think so? Oh, my. And so, well, if you want God's blessing, you're going to have to learn to make things right. There's somebody here, somebody here now, let's see, has an old dad and a mother back at home somewhere and they say, and the dad says, I don't wonder why Tom doesn't write to me and the mother says, well, you know, daddy's so busy and I know mother takes up part of her heart's hungry at night and they go to bed and wonder why the children don't write and the mother says, I bet it's, I bet it's the daughter-in-law, she's the one who holds them off and so and so and they don't write. If there's anybody here and you've got a God's old dad and a mother and you don't pay much mind and you don't write to them and you don't make them happy and you don't remember Mother's Day and Father's Day and Easter and Christmas and birthdays and so and so and you're going to have a hard time if you go to pray with some hungry heart over there to whom you owe more than you can ever pay and that they're hungry hearted and they're mistreated and left alone. You're going to ask your God for that. Oh yes. If thou bring thy gift to the altar and there, at the altar, remember, thy brother hath all against thee. I then leave you a gift there and be reconciled. That's right. You better make it right. Hindered prayer. What hinders prayer? I rush on. Another hinders prayer is a grudge in the heart. You know, in Mark chapter 11 the scripture says verse 24, Wherefore I send you what things wherever you desire when you pray. Believe you receive and you shall have it. But the next verse says, But when you stand praying, forgive if you have all against any. For if you give not everyone his brother his trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you. Oh, you mean I've got to forgive others to get forgiveness? Yes. Well you say, brother, but when I say it, I've got all my sins forgiven. Yes, as far as putting you in the family, as far as paying the debt for our health, that's settled. But as far as your fellowship data with God, that's another matter. There are two senses of forgiveness in the Bible. In a sense, when one's born again, all his sins laid on Jesus, who forgiveth all that liquid is. There's a sense in Jesus' outer cross, He said, Thank God for that. If sin be remembered and cometh to judgment, oh, sad the day, God's judgment day. But Christ bore that judgment for penitent sinners. Their sins are all taken away. No more, no more, remembered no more. My sins are all paid for in Christ's body born. Jesus has died for them. God has forgotten them. Who shall condemn when the slave is all clean then? No more, no more, remembered no more. My sins are remembered no more. As far as salvation is concerned, thank God, settled forever. Jesus doesn't have to come back and die again. He doesn't die for all of them. But wait a minute. But as far as daily fellowship is concerned, we're taught to pray in the Lord's Prayer, forgive us our trespasses. Or in James, I mean in Luke 11 and verse 4, forgive us our sins. What do you mean? I mean I ought to get cleaned up every day, things out of the way between me and God. I don't care if I'm already in the family and if I'm a beloved son, I still ought to be good to Jesus, my older brother, my Savior, and I ought to be clean with God and the Father. So if you're going to have your prayers answered, then forgive. When you stand, pray and forgive if you have ought against any. Oh, but they treat me so mean. They're not near as mean as you treated God. No. So you're supposed to forgive if you want God to forgive you. You know that? Oh, yes. You know how God hates this grudge business? In Matthew 18, He said there was a king and he called his creditors and said, now pay me what you owe me. And one lord owed him $10,000. You know how much that is? About $2 million. Oh, my goodness. He said, pay up here. And he'd been a little loose in his giving, his loaning, I guess. And the man said, I can't do it now, but you give me time. He said, tell him I'm just slaving his wife and children and so on. But the fellow said, give me time, king, I'll pay you. The lord said, poor boy, the majesty said, he can't do it. All right, bought it out, mark it out, he can't pay it. And that fellow went home and he had a one of his servants and said, now you owe me 300 pence. I don't care if I die by this. But some of the other servants heard it and they went and told the king. They said, you know what that fellow did? I will forgive you $2 million. And the fellow owed him $5 or so. And look what it did to him. And the king called him and he was angry. And he said, all right, you pay me what you owe me then. And they said, turn him over to the tormentor till he pays it all. Now here's a strange thing. And the lord Jesus said, so shall your heavenly father do to everyone that forgiveth not his brothers trespassers. Turn to the tormentor? Does that mean God won't let you go to hell? No, no. It means the brothers hate brothers. It means church split wide open. It means an unhappy marriage and baby divorce. It means, oh, the bitterness and ruin because grudges. I've seen it. How many split churches? I've seen it. Split homes wide open up. Seen it. Break up marriages. A grudge in the heart. How wicked. How wicked. So no wonder the Bible says, let not the sun go down your ass. Watch every day about sundown. Be sure. Don't go to sleep till you've gotten everybody forgiven. Make sure about that. And the lord said, you've forgiven. I'll forgive you. I come from a horse trading family. And I know a bargain and I see one. The lord says, John, I'll forgive you everything in the world if you just forgive others. I said, I sure take you up on that. A Christian ought to forgive. You, a grudge, a hateful burning thing makes you unhappy. You're not happy about it. It can't do you any good. But you forgive it then and have peace. Christians ought to. If you're going to get your prayers answered, you must. I was in Woodbine, Texas through a Bible. A church had a big split and fired the pastor. They had a fist fight in the church house. Some of the deacons and some of the other folks, I mean a fist fight in the church house. And a lot of people swore, never go back again. The count of missionaries said, let's get Brother John right here. I was a student pastor in their seminary. They said, let's get Brother John for a Bible. So I went up there for a Bible. And everybody was mad, everybody else, but when I began to preach prayer plain about it, they got madder at me than there were other folks and so on. And the count of missionaries said to me, Brother John, he said, I preach plain too sometimes, but then next day I put a little salve on it and so on. I said, I put a salve on it to get this thing cured up, that's all. And so, he said, would you like me to preach? And they get mighty mad. I said, no sir, you said you wanted me to preach and they said God called me up here and the people said God called me and God told me that, so you just hold tight until this thing busts open and we'll have revival. And so, and going to a little country town, didn't have any hotels, motels, didn't have any bus routes even out there in the country town. So they had a full time country church. And so, we had to go home with people for dinner and go home for supper and go over and spend the night or sleep out in the car. And God said, there's only one family in the church ever so mad, only one family in the church ever invited me and Ms. Rice the last two days or so and the reason they did, they had a little girl and this little girl says, oh Mama, invite some rice and please Mama, son, pray a grace day. Oh Mama, so for two days we had dinner and supper and breakfast and spent the night with the love family. One day a woman got the man so she went for a telephone on the wall and started to call and somebody said, what are you going to do? I'm going to call Brother John Rice, he's over at the love family and I'm going to tell him what I think about him. He thinks he's smart coming up here and bawling us out and so on. Her son, 19 years old, came in about that time and said, Mama, what's that you're about to do? I'm going to call Brother John Rice and tell him what I think about him. And he said, Mother, you take it easy. Said, that preacher's right and you and I are wrong and you know it. Said, I was in that fist fight down at the church house. I'm so ashamed. I've been out for peep hats having a prayer meeting. He said, you better do it too. Said, you call that preacher up and bawl him out and God may kill you because that preacher's right and you know it. Well, he out talked her and I was awful glad he did. They came to a day time service and covered the church and is this about the kind of preacher that kind of preacher playing in sharp and hard and they make a lot of people mad but you can get a crowd to preach to at least. And a weekday morning here they were covering the church and so on and had two songs and I came to the pulpit and opened the Bible. A woman out here said, Brother Rice, may I say a word? And I said, yes. She said, I want Mrs. Smith to forgive me. I've been so mean to her and I'm awful sorry Mrs. Smith. And she was on this side too I don't remember on this side. Mrs. Smith over here said, let me forgive her. Well sure, forgive me. I was the one who started the whole business. It wouldn't cost me to throw in a pants on the street. And so on. And they met. They got up. Never mind climbing over people stepping on people's foot feet and crying and don't care. Get out of here now and hug each other. And somebody said, I won't say a word. And that went on for about an hour. Boy, that is better preaching than I could do. And after a while things got calmed down a little bit and had a little service and went home. And that night boys out over all over the country and ever saw as many tractors and farm wagons and surges and fringes around them you know. And people on horseback and everybody coming to church and early and filled the building and everybody and everyone was full of people and so on. And I preached that night and heaven came down our souls were blessed and mercy crowned and glory crowned the mercy seat and we had about fifteen people saved and the thing broke wide open. Ah, listen. Why don't you go make friends and get things out of your craw and act like a Christian. If you can't get some forgiveness you're not going to have any peace. You're not going to have your prayers answered. Otherwise you just waste your time praying. That's right. I hurry on. What are we going to do about the hindered prayer? Another thing hinders prayer wrong attitude toward the Bible. In Proverbs 28 verse 9 He that turns away his ear from hearing the law even his prayers should be abomination. The law is a term originally meant the ten ah, the the benitude Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. But it came to mean the whole Old Testament and for us it means all the Bible. And what is this word now? He said he that turns away his ear from hearing the law his prayers should be abomination. Ah, that's right. Yes, um, you you, what's the matter? So they say well, it's so well, I can't understand the King James Version. That's not your trouble. Your trouble is a cold heart and no concern about the Bible. That's the trouble. And someone said well, brother, I said archaic. Yeah, I know you've been brainwashed by the liberals and you say well, there's so many archaic expressions in the King James Version. Yes, some of the King James Version is very hard. There's like this blessed are the pure in heart. Now, Dr. Wallace isn't that hard to understand? Another God so loved the world. Isn't that hard to understand? Huh? Yeah. A liar. Cheat. The trouble is you've got a dirty, cold heart. There are no uninteresting parts of the Bible. There's just some uninterested people. You know, there's He said, why did you tell me the Bible's like that? He said, I got to reading and got over there in the story of Joseph, and I couldn't put it down. I read 20 chapters. He said, that's an amazing thing. That's the most fascinating thing. I said, why did you tell me? I told him, but he wouldn't listen. Plenty of interest in the Bible. You better ask God to give you a heart for it. A man who turns his heart away from the Bible is prayer sticks. Yeah. Whether it's preaching the Bible and you don't like the preaching, or whether it's reading the Bible and you're not in it, he said, you're fixing so that your baby is going to die and you're praying and praying and God won't listen. You're praying so that girl plays a harlot and you don't have any recourse. You're praying so that your boy is going to run wild in the crowd and what in the world is he going to do? Praying. God says, shut up, never mind, turn off that radio cable, I don't want that listening stuff. And so, no, if you're going to get things, don't love the Bible, God says, I don't want you praying, it stinks to me. I heard about an Italian who came to America and in Italy there's so many statues. Down one park in Rome, you go for a mile but every 20 feet there's a character of a famous statue on it and so on. And this Italian came to America and said, what can I do to make a living? He was surprised they didn't have any statues down around like they do in the old cultured countries. So he found that you could buy some metal forms and throw them past repairs and come out, you know, you see them by the roadside sometimes with a hammer, steering, and so on. Well he could find a bus of Napoleon and one of George Washington and one of Garibaldi, the father of Italy and of other famous musicians and so he said, all right, he had a basket full of these little plaster of Paris casts and statues, you know. And then New York City, the man came down, had a basket and went, how about a Garibaldi, only 50 cents, buy a Garibaldi. And the man rushed him by and he hit his hand and that Garibaldi statue fell to the concrete and broke to pieces. Garibaldi and in 1870 he united Italy under King Victor Emmanuel II and they called him the father of Italy like we call George Washington the father of America and so on. And the man so disgusted looked at him and he said, how you breaking my Garibaldi? He said, I'm breaking your George Washington. He got his own statue of George Washington and threw it on the sidewalk and broke it. He didn't care about the 50 cents, he'd been insulted but somebody broke Garibaldi. Alright, so you don't care about the Bible. And God said, I don't care about your praying either. Well, brother of the Lord, I'm too busy. Yeah, I know the Lord said, I got run, don't be hollering about me, I don't care. He said, well, the Bible is not for anything. God said, your prayer stinks, I don't want it. You better learn to love the Bible, better learn to read it every day and read it through. One more word I must say before I go. Any known sin, unconfessed and unlamented, any known sin, unconfessed and unlamented, unforgiven, will stand between you and God. In Psalm 6, 618, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. If I regard iniquity, if I love iniquity, if I hold it, not if I've never done wrong. If you ever did wrong, that will never bother you. That's not what it says. But if I still hold on to it and excuse it and take up for it and think it's not so bad and say, well, everybody's doing it, then brother, you're sure in bad shape and you go to pray. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. Oh, God, teacher, you know the great thing God wants is not so much just to get you to do right, but he wants you to want to do right. And not just so much God wants you to quit your sins, but he wants you to say, I am, I don't want them, God, forgive me. You're like, you ought to be like Paul. Maybe you say, well, I don't want to do right, but I might do something wrong. But you ought to be able to say like Paul, wretched man that I am. I'm not happy because I do wrong. I hate the thing. You better get where you want to do right. You better get where you love the Bible. And so, what is that sin? Unlamented. What is it? Cigarettes? Maybe so. What is that sin? Dirty tongues? I don't know. What is it? Esquire, Playboy magazine, and dirty pictures? What is it? What is it? Is it the jingle of unholy money, or the taint of unholy skirts, I wonder? Is it the rustle of unholy skirts? Listen, I don't know what it is. Oh, bitter, bitter words, how they curse and burn, and how the damn people, and how they shut up everyone who don't pray. What is it? Unforgiveness? What is it? You boys and girls rebelling? You're not a good Christian. You don't get up early the first time you're called? You're not a good Christian. And if you don't have something settled so the next time you get up early, you haven't got a good dad either. Yeah. Yeah. What is it? Why? Rebellion in your home? What is it? What is it? What is it, man? You don't take responsibility and let the thing go to the dogs and so on. he that spareth the rod hateth his son, but he that loveth him chasten him betimes. And so he says, Well, I just don't have a heart to beat on with him. No, you don't have any character to do right. So you let the boy go to hell. You don't have integrity and character enough to do right the unpleasant way, but you better do it. Here's God's plan. He that regardeth and if I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me. You want your prayers answered? Oh, then turn from sin. There's somebody here today that ought to be writing some letters. Somebody here has got something else in his lawn lawn mower in your garage. Somebody else here borrowed a book and didn't take it back. Jerry C. Crook. Yeah. Somebody here talked about something mean and so on and you didn't apologize. You better apologize. Young man down in Greenville, South Carolina came to me after I preached he said, Oh, brother, when I was sophomore in university I didn't study. Came up finals and exams. I didn't know the answers. So I cheated. I stole the answers and so on. And I didn't deserve it. I've got to go back he said, and confess it and everything. My diploma, my degree away from me but I've got to go back. The lady came back and said, Oh, brother, he said, the dean said, well, how did you get along after that? You were so far behind. He said, Boy, I had to work like a slave to catch up. I'd left so much out and I had to learn it. Well, the dean said, all right. He said, now, you had to work hard to make it up and you've confessed it and we forgive it and so things are all right. Oh, I'm glad to get that off my heart, he said. I've stolen things unrestored. Apologies unmade, I wonder. I wonder, grudges that you didn't dig out by the roots and throw them away. Let's bow our heads will you for a moment. I wonder how many say, brother, this morning God brings to mind a certain thing that's in the way between me and God. I'm now confessing it. Don't tell me what it is. Tell God. I'm now confessing it to God. If you wrong somebody else go make them up right with them. If some debt's not paid go make it right with them. I wonder, is it in your home? Go make it right there. How many say, brother, I ask God spoke to my heart this morning. I'm now confessing a certain sin or failure. I'm asking God to clean it up and help me with it. I'm turning my back on it this morning because it's wrong. Hold your hand, will you? Lift your hand. Come on. Lift your hand up high. Oh, yes. Yes, I see. Doesn't love you. That's right. Doesn't love you. All right. Thank you. Now hands down. Now wait a minute. Now who else say, yes, I may too. God spoke to my heart as well as there's 50 other people here. I'm confessing to God a certain failure. Lift your hand. Come on. Who else? Yes, I see others. I see others. Yes, that's right. I see others. Anybody else? All right. Anybody else? Dear Lord, forgive them this morning. Lord, You promise if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So forgive and cleanse it away, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.