In this sermon, the preacher discusses the concept of burnout and its connection to the teachings of God's Word. He explains that burnout occurs when the church relies on its own abilities and strength instead of the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The preacher also mentions the destruction of the school systems, families, and the church, but emphasizes that God will restore them. He then shares a vision of a serpent in a desert place and mentions the importance of the three institutions - schools, homes, and churches - in shaping the minds of a generation.

We're going to go right on into what we're going to say tonight. Now, I'm not one of them preachers that's, you know, I've got 15 minutes to do it and that's all I've got to say. I've got something to say. The Lord's poured something into my heart. Sent me on a journey in this land. And I want you to, let's just go right on into the Word of God tonight. And we're going to the Book of Joel. The Book of Joel. Amen. Amen. Now, we only got tonight, two more nights. So you need to be here every night and see what the Lord's going to do. Isn't it exciting to serve the Lord? Especially when you're following the Holy Ghost because you don't never know what's going to happen. And we certainly hadn't got this thing planned out. Amen. Okay, let's read together in Joel chapter 1 and verse number 1. The Word of the Lord that came to Joel. Hear this, you old men, and give ear, all you inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children and their children another generation. That which the palmy worm hath left, hath the locust eaten. That which the locust hath left, hath the canker worm eaten. That which the canker worm hath left, hath the caterpillar eaten. Then I want you to turn with me to chapter 2. I'm going to read 11 verses of Scripture. Chapter 1, excuse me, chapter 2, verse 1 through 11. Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, sound an alarm in my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand. A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains. A great people and a strong. There hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. A fire devith before them, and behind them a flame burneth. The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness. I want you to notice these next few words. Yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, and as horsemen so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap. Like the noise of a flame of fire that devith the stubble, as a strong people said in battle formation. Before their face the people shall be much pain, all faces shall gather blackness. They shall run like mighty men. They shall climb the wall like men of war. They shall march everyone on his ranks. They shall not break everyone in his ways, and they shall not break their ranks. Neither shall one thrust another. They shall walk everyone in his path, and when they fall upon the sword they shall not be wounded. They shall run to and fro in the city. They shall run upon the wall. They shall climb up upon the houses. They shall enter in at the windows like a thief. The earth shall quake before them. The heavens shall tremble. The sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The Lord shall utter his voice before his army, for his camp is very great. For he is strong that executed his word. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible, and who can abide it? Now, I don't know how you believe Joel chapter 2, the first 11 verses. There's a movement in the land today that teaches that that is an army of God's people that's being raised up. But that's not so. That's not right. There's even a song that's sung in a lot of churches today. Blow the trumpet in Zion, Zion, sound the alarm in the holy mountain. That backs up this as being an army of Christians that God raises up and sends through the land. But if you look at that thing, you may not, I don't know how you believe it. But if you look at it real close, there's no way it could be God's people. Number one, the Bible said as they march through the land, the land is as the garden of Eden. And behind them there's a desolate wilderness. If it was God's people, it wouldn't be behind the wilderness. God's people restore, amen? There's nowhere in the word of God, nowhere. Will you find a picture of the most organized effort? Yet nowhere else will you find anywhere an army like is mentioned in the first 11 verses of Joel chapter 2. Neither will you find anywhere in God's word the devastation that is left behind as this army marches through the land. It's an army that nobody escapes. It's an army that is so, I don't believe there's ever been anything any more organized, ever organized than this army that you see. Now, Joel is one of the oldest prophets in the word of God. But yet, he has a prophecy that's more timely for our day than any prophet in the word of God. He's known in many circles and many schools of thought as the prophet of Pentecost. But that's true, and I like to think of it that way, but I also like to think of it as the restoration prophet. The one that prophesied that one day that God would restore some things. How many believe God's going to restore some things? Now, we have entered into, only entered into a time that the Lord is moving to restore. We're in an hour of restoration. But restoration will come in divine order. It will not come like I want it to come. It's not going to come like you want it to come. It's not going to come like the pastor wants it to come. It's going to come as God wants it to come. But we're in the day of restoration. Now, in the book of Joel, or in the prophecy of Joel, his prophecy is the consummation of all prophecies, written prophecies. And in it, there's a word that we need to see. He talks about loss. It's a time of loss. There's a loss of meat. There's a loss of drink. There's a loss of oil. There's a loss of wine. There's a loss of fruits. That's happening outside, so to speak. But there's something else that we need to notice in this book. And this is the bottom line of loss. And that is joy and gladness has been taken away from the house of God. God's people have lost joy and gladness. Now, they could have survived the loss of all of these first things I mentioned. They could survive the loss of the fruit. They could survive the loss of the vine. They could survive the loss of the oil. They could survive the loss of the fruit. But they could not survive the loss of the joy and gladness. Now, everything that you see happening in the book of Joel, in a negative sense, in a bad sense, is the direct results of something that has gone wrong down at the house of the Lord. Everything that you see is a direct result of something that's gone wrong down at the house of the Lord. Now, the first thing that God's going to restore is the church. How many believe God's going to restore His church? Now, I don't know if any of you's ever tied this together or not, but the four insects that you read in the first chapter of the book of Joel, the pommel worm, the locust, the canker worm, and the caterpillar, I've been able to tie them to the four beasts that Daniel saw, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Now, in Joel, chapter 2, in verse 25, if you'll notice, in the restoration, God said, Joel prophesied, and He said, I'm going to restore unto you the years. So what He's actually saying, this devastation, this loss that's took place, this thing that's happened down at the house of the Lord, didn't happen overnight. It didn't happen in a week. In fact, if you read in Daniel's prophecy, Jeremiah had prophesied that God's people would be in captivity 70 years. Is that true? So in one sense of the word, he said 70 years. It's going to take 70 years, and this, you know, for all of this to take place. But in a long sense of the word, it really covered a period of 490 years, from the time that Nebuchadnezzar rode through the land, to the time that Jesus appeared on the scene. Because when Jesus put His feet on this earth, He stepped in a world and an arena that was exactly like Joel described. Amen. But now, what is this army? What is this army? What are these locusts that Joel is actually seeing? What is he saying? What is this invasion that's going to take place? There's one or two people here tonight, Sister Dormody remembers probably. I met them in 1968. But in 1970, I was in the revival down in the big city, and I started the day before Christmas of 69. And, you know, why do you start revival at Christmas time? Well, we wasn't too caught up in the spirit of Christmas, so we're just going to start revival for those that want to come. But, you know, we didn't expect too many folks to come, so I told my wife, I said, for the next 21 days, I am going to pray 10 hours a day. I said, I'm going to make myself do it. For the next 21 days, around the clock, over a 24-hour period, I spent 10 hours in prayer. Eat just enough to give me the strength to walk in the pulpit at night. I didn't consider myself fasting because I did eat a little, but I didn't eat much. But during that period of time, the Lord showed me something. He showed me a storm coming out of the north. I saw this storm just like Jeremiah saw. Exactly, it fulfilled Jeremiah's vision to a T. I saw it like a whirlwind. And in the whirlwind, I saw the debris of houses and automobiles and trees, and I just saw everything in the whirlwind of this storm. As I stood and faced that storm, the Lord spoke to me and said, This is the judgment of God. And as I faced the storm, I got real afraid. I didn't know what to do in my mind. I wanted to run to a place of safety, and I saw this place in the natural that I could run to. But as I started to run, I heard a voice out of heaven say to me, Don't go, because the place you're going to run to will not stand. And I said, Lord, where can we go in the time of a storm? I heard that same voice say to me, Read Psalms 91. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He's my refuge and my fortress, and in God will I put my trust. I'll not have to be afraid of anything. And for the next six months, as the Lord began to explain to me what I had seen, He said to me, He said, You watch, number one, the schools, number two, you watch the homes, and number three, you watch the church, the churches, the homes, the schools, and the churches. He said, This storm is going to invade the schools. It's going to invade the homes, and it's going to invade the church. And I, you know, I said, Lord, why these three institutions? Why the home? Why the church? And why the schools? Never was the government mentioned. Why these three things? And then He said to me, These are the three institutions that develops the minds of a generation. Is that right? Is it not true the schools, the home, and the church are the three institutions that develops mind in your children? And He said, You watch them. They are going to be under attack. And, you know, I've never, God's never put me up and, you know, I've rubbed shoulders with a few heavyweights, but He's always kept me down as far as, you know, what we consider a big ministry. But I begin to pray, God, please show this to somebody that's out front. Show this to somebody that's on the international scene. Three years went by. This is what made me become a follower, if you want to call it that, of David Wilkerson. For in 1973, he had the same vision, told that identical three institutions that would be affected by this storm. How many remembers the vision that David came out with in 1973? I went to hear him in person, and I could not believe what I was hearing. It was identical right down to the letter, right down to the teeth of what the Lord had showed to me. I can stand sixteen years later down the road, and I can look back and see that the storm has arrived. The devastation is in the land. It has come on the three things that I have mentioned. The school systems are destroyed, the families and the home is in shambles, and now the church is falling apart. Amen. But what I like about it, God said, I'm going to restore. All right, immediately after this, during this same period of prayer, the Lord took me. You say, how did He take you? I don't know. Ezekiel probably could explain how God took him to the valley of dry bones. All he could say, I knew I was there, and this is what I saw. And as a watchman, that's all we're required to do, is just tell what you see. Here's what I saw. The Lord took me to a desert place one night. In this desert place, I saw a people sitting like this in a semi-circle. And out in the middle of this semi-circle, I saw the head of a serpent come up out of the ground, and I saw it going around like this, just like this. And as the head of that serpent began to go around, I began to listen to those people. And what was so heartbreaking, most of them were young people. They began to chant to this serpent. The Lord said to me, there will be a revival come across America of witchcraft. You're going to see a reviving of witchcraft. We've seen it. Mm-hmm. What is witchcraft? Have you ever noticed that witchcraft is cataloged in the works of the flesh? You ever notice that? It's one of the works of the flesh. It's a counterfeit of the things of God. And then He took me from that place, took me to another place, and He says, observe. And I looked, and I saw all colors and kinds and shapes of serpents. He said to me, there will be a second revival sweep through this land. It will come out of this first one. It will be a revival of doctrines of devils, all kinds of doctrines of devils. Back then, we didn't have the Moonies. We didn't have the Eastern religions we got. And neither did we have some of this doctrine we got going in our land as a bunch of phony baloney. And He said, out of that revival, there will come a revival. There will be a rise of movement in this land of all kinds of doctrines. I left there. He took me to the third place in this desert, and He said to me, there will be a third revival come to the United States. And He said, this will be a real revival. It will be a revival of the living revealed Word of God. I'm going to send a revival of the spoken revealed living anointed Word of God. Hallelujah. Brother and sister, I can stand here tonight. I couldn't, don't have time to go in detail. I have seen the witchcraft revival. I've seen it infiltrate the Pentecostal, full gospel charismatic movement in a way I never dreamed it would. We live in a time that there's very little demonstration of the Holy Spirit in our churches. The church has been took over by the flesh. And what's the sad, most of God's people don't know the difference. They don't know the difference. They can't discern there's a, there's a real problem in the body of Christ of discernment. Not just being able, well, we all picked the devil out of the crowd, but look, folks, we, there's something more deadly in the land tonight than even the demonic satanic powers as we know them. There's a thing called flesh. What is flesh? It's the spirit of man. And it has moved. It has invaded. Nobody has escaped. There's nobody here tonight that in some way or another has not been touched by these things I'm talking about. Your life has been touched. Your home has been touched. Your schools have been touched and your church has been touched. But God said, I'm going to restore. Now we're entered into, and we're only in the edge of it, to a restoration where God will restore the ministry of the Word of God. That's what we need tonight. You know what we need in this country? God is not nearest concern. It's who's in the White House. It is who's in the pulpit. The answer to our problems is not in the halls of Congress. It's not in the Supreme Court Justices Chamber. It's not in the Oval Office. It's in the pulpits of our churches. You fill the pulpits of our churches back with anointed men of God, with a message from this book, straight from the paulers of glory, and brother, we'll put the devil in his place. Hallelujah. Now, let me go back, pick up where I left off. Joel said there's something gone wrong down at the house of God. Now you remember last night I told you that all the seeds of both truth and error are sown in the book of Genesis. I want you to turn with me to the 26th chapter of the book of Genesis. And before we can know what's gone wrong at the house of God, we need to know what's supposed to be descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I'm the Lord God of Abraham, thy father, and the God of Isaac, the land where in thy lies to thee will I give it and to thy seed, and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south, and in thee and thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places where thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land. For I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place? I didn't even know it. And he was afraid and said, King James says, Dreadful. The other, one other translation says, How awesome is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. Now, Joel said, Something's gone wrong down at the house of God. And I agree with him. There's something gone wrong down at the house of God. And I believe the thing that's sweeping through our homes and in our families is a direct result of what's going on down at the house of God. That's why when God starts restoring, where does judgment begin? There you go. God don't deal with symptoms. He deals with root. Now, first of all, we're going to have to get our mind reprogrammed on what is the house of God. Boy, there's a lot of misconception of what the house of God is, but here it is. Number one, this building hadn't got one God's thing to do with the house of God. If we could just wave a magic wand and blow this building away, the church would still be here. Is that right? And see, we're going to have to get over this mentality that you've got to go to a building built like this to find God. You know, it's got to be like this. It's got to have stained windows and a steeple out there with a cross on it. That is not the house of God. God does not live in buildings made with the hands of a man. This is the house of God personally, or one-on-one speaking. Now, collectively, the house of God's here tonight. Corporately, the house of God's here tonight. That's why I told you Sunday night the church would be back. Amen. But what's more important, once we sell the house of God's right here, we need to understand what's supposed to be going on down at the house of God. There it is. Jacob established it. Lay his head on that pillar, dream to dream. Saw this ladder reach into the heavens, the top of it set on the earth, the angels of God ascending and descending, and Jacob arose, awoke. God's standing there. Jacob arose and said, God's in this place. I didn't know He was here. Hallelujah. But it's nothing more than the gateway to heaven. It's the house of God. He called it Bethel, established it there, laid a stone there, poured oil on it there, and said, this is the house of God. And He established what's supposed to be going on down at the house of God. Now, everything but this, just about it, is going on down at the house of God. What happened? What's wrong? Boy, I have, dear Lord, I've seen men with all the charisma and the personality and the intellect and the flesh, anything you want to call it, try to restore what's took place in the book of Joel. We've got folks leaping trying to get joy. Leap of joy. Now, come on, you'll get it. But joy don't come from leaping. You're misusing the language. Joy is not something going on around you. It's something going on inside of you. And I've seen them jump. I've seen them jerk. I've seen them dance. I've seen them, well, in the Pentecostal churches, I've seen them turn flips. I've seen them hang from the chandeliers. I've seen them run across the pews and jump and jerk and slob and run and do everything you could do, trying to get joy. But they left with a tired body and an empty soul. Joy has to be a work of the Holy Ghost. I've seen them try to restore. And, oh, my God, have you ever tried to really smile? I used to have an old boy work with me out in Mississippi, and when he'd take the microphone, he'd say, all right, now, everybody put on a smile. And when they would, I'd turn my head. That's the awesomest looking butt you've ever seen. Something's gone wrong at the house of God. Amen. How many's ready for God to fix it? You sure? Are you sure? Amen. How many wants God to do something down at the house of God? Now, when Jacob saw this, I want you to notice something. He saw those angels as they moved up and down that ladder, but I want you to notice the first direction of those angels was ascending. That does mean up, don't it? And then he saw those angels descending. That means down. Okay? Now, what's happened at the house of God is explained in detail in the book of Malachi. Malachi is a restoration book, but it's not the restoration of the temple. You find the restoration of the temple in the book of Haggai, in the book of Ezra, in the book of Nehemiah, in the book of Zechariah. The book of Malachi is a book of the restoration of the service or the worship back down at the house of God. Is that true? And in the book of Malachi, the basic subject of the book of Malachi is offering. I done that last night. Is that a signal? But the basic subject of the book of Malachi is offering. Now, what went wrong down at the house of God? Now, I know in the book of Joel, where it says the meat offering and the drink offering has been withheld from the house of God, it can have a dual meaning. But I'm going to tell you what happened. What comes down in the house of God will be measured in exact proportion by what goes up from the house of God. And what began to happen down at the house of God, something began to happen in the offering. Amen? Now, what began to happen? I'll tell you what began to happen. They began to offer up to God offerings that God would not accept. By the 1982, God startled me. One morning in prayer, the Lord said to me, I am not receiving your offerings. I never heard that subject. In fact, I had never even caught that in the word of God. I never caught that term in the word of God. I heard the Holy Ghost say to Raylo, I am not accepting your offerings. And brother, that took me aback. You know, I said, oh Lord, what in the world? What's wrong? But first I was took to a man by the name of Cain. Remember Cain? Remember Cain and Abel? How many remembers Cain and Abel? Remember both of them in the process of time came down to the house of God. Is that right? Brought an offering. I got you now. But the Bible said when Cain brought his offering, he brought the firstling of his flock. What did Cain bring? Abel brought the firstling of his flock. What did Cain bring? He brought what he had been doing. What had he been doing? He might have been watching television. I don't know. But he wanted God to accept it. And I said, Lord, why are you not accepting my offerings? Back in about 81, 82, my favorite program was the mandrails. Barbara Louise and the blonde. Hello? Y'all still with me? And it just so happened they put them on Saturday evening. Boy, I sat there and I liked them gals. Most men did. But I got up one Sunday morning to try to preach to God's sheep. And wouldn't nothing come through my mind but Barbara. I couldn't wipe Barbara out of my mind. Hello? And the Lord said to me, you're an abomination to me. Y'all don't believe He talks to me like that, do you? He couldn't talk to you something that worse than that. He said, you walk behind that desk trying to lead people that you're dealing with on eternal things. You want me to just pour it out on you? Won't work. Won't work. He said, when you pray, I ain't hearing you. I'm not going to hear you. I'm not accepting them. I said, why? He said, because they're blemished. They're not the best you got. They're not clean. Hallelujah. I'm not going to accept them. He said, when you raise your hands to praise me, I hate it. You'll find that in the first chapter of Isaiah. He said, I hate your solemn assemblies. I hate your gathers. I hate your feast days. I hate your hand raising. I hate your prayers. No more tears on my altar. No more vain oblations. No more sacrifices. None of this garbage. Get right with me. Then offer your sacrifices, and I'll accept them. Oh boy, he began to put it on me. Sat there one Saturday evening watching a football game. Nothing wrong with football, but in between the balls, here come the bare-chested heroes of our time, setting back up in the cool mountains of the Rockies, pouring their cool Coors. This was life. This is what life's all about. Amen. This is what it's all about. Drinking Coors, and you know, and all this kind of garbage. The Lord said to me, you're sitting at the devil's table, eating of his table, drinking of his cup, and then want to run down to the house of God and eat at my table and drink of my cup. You can't drink of both of them. Well, I'm preaching tonight. And he said, I'm not accepting your offerings. Hallelujah. And I said, Lord, begin to teach me. Show me what to do. Show me how to do it, Lord. Amen. I'm going to tell you something, folks. I'm going to tell you something. This is an hour God's fixing to clean up the house of God. God's fixing to straighten up. How many believes God's going to straighten up the house of God? He began to show me. He said, I want the best you got. He said, don't you? I used to always pray at the end of the day, go at the end of the day and pray when I prayed. I only prayed when I had to preach. Only prayed when the bills was not the money wasn't coming in to pay the bills. Only prayed, I prayed according to the occasion. I didn't spend what I call now time of fellowship with the Lord. I just prayed. If I needed something, I prayed. If somebody else needed something, I prayed. If I had to preach, I'd spend a few minutes in prayer trying to get ready. He said, that won't work. That won't never work. You won't, you can't come to me no such a way as that. You can't come to me shopping. You got to get back in fellowship with me. You got to get right with me. You got to spend some time with me. I want quality time from you. And if you'll start giving me quality time, I'll begin to open the windows of heaven one more time. And he said to me, and I've had some folks really disagree with me on this, but you know, I've come to the place, it doesn't really matter whether you agree or not. I know when I've stood in God's council room, we are operating the night under a closed heaven. We are receiving no more now than the world out there is receiving. We are receiving the same sun and the rain they're receiving. As far as an open heaven in the house of God, we're not operating under one. Amen? We are operating under a closed heaven. But God said to me, I will open the windows of heaven. And as Malachi goes out, he begins to talk about, I'll open the windows of heaven. Is that true? Is that true? God said, I'll open the windows of heaven. I'll pull you out of blessing that you'll not be able to receive. You know what that word really means? I'll give you a bumper crop. You know what a bumper crop means? It won't be just enough to get you by. You'll be able to share it with your neighbor. You'll be able to walk the street. You'll be able to preach with it. Hallelujah. And say, look what a crop the Lord has blessed me with. I've seen this fleshly thing in the church. I've seen preachers call folks out, lay their hands on them and prophesy over them. Tell them they're just going to go around the world, win a million souls, and they didn't have enough God to get them across the street. All flesh. But God said, I'm going to open the windows one more time. He began to show me the offering that he would have received. He began to show me the offering that he would accept. He said to me, I want you fresh. I don't want you after a long day's work. Don't bring me your tired, wore out body. Amen. Don't bring me a mind that's done hassle with the cares of this life and went through all the garbage out there in that world. You get up every morning. You come down to the house of the Lord or some place, and you present yourself to me. Spend some quality time with me, and I'll begin to open that window. I'll begin to open that stairway into heaven again. And my glory will begin to come down again. Hallelujah. How many wants God to open the windows of heaven in the house of the Lord? Amen. Now, I saw something. I saw those ascending angels. Hallelujah. I believe it's about 80 times in the Revelation, John deals with the angels. It's the book of the ministry of angels, where angels are doing everything. Angels deal with the prayers of the saints. Angels hold the cup of the vows of the saints. I saw those angels that Jacob saw on that ladder. I saw them taking up my sacrifices to heaven. Hallelujah. And if those sacrifices was right, if the offering was right, back down that ladder, I saw those angels coming with the glory of God and the power of God and the presence of God. Can you say amen? Hallelujah. And I saw something begin to take place once again in the house of the Lord. I saw the glory of God. I believe the theme of, I saw it out there in one of the Church of God papers, something about the glory of God, getting the glory back, or praying for the glory. The glory is gone, brother and sister, from the house of God. And it's affecting our families. It's affecting our nation. It's affecting our community. You straighten the church out, and you'll straighten a lot of things out. Now, you look in the book of Malachi, he deals, number one, with the priest. That's the pulpit. Oh, priest, this is a word to you. You bring me the right offering, because if you don't, I won't receive it. And he said, the offering you offered me, offer it to your governor, he won't have it either. You bring it to me. Okay? But then he said to me, when he got me straightened out on what he'll receive and won't receive, you know what we're doing? We're doing our thing and asking God to bless it. But that's over with. God's going to blow on your things. You ain't going to do your thing no longer, and God bless it. The party's over. You ain't going to do all the works of your hands and do all the slaving you're going to do, and then get down and say, God, will you please bless this? We've arrived back at an hour. Judgements begin at the house of God. He's only going to bless that which is accepted in that glory world and nothing else. But then he said in the second chapter of the book of Malachi, he says, Priest, when those folks bring their offerings, if they're not right, don't you receive them. I was in the villa, Texas, in the first assembly of God's church. The preacher called me out there during basketball tournament season. Dear God, the first night, there's all down at the gym. I said, huh, never be. What'd you call me out here for, preacher? You knew this tournament was going on. Why'd you call me out here? Well, I felt God wants you out here. I said, okay, partner, you better hang on. We fixing to do something around here. They slipped back in there one night. I went to preaching. I went to preaching on putting God first. How many believe God ought to be put first? I went to preaching on putting God first. The star basketball player of the college there in Austin, Texas was a member of that assembly of God church. The star, number one on the team. God got a hold of her that night. She went back the next day. The most important game of the season was fixing to be played. She went back that night, that day and said, coach, I got to tell you something. I don't know how you're going to accept it, but here's the way it is. My church is in revival and I'm a Christian. I'm sorry I won't be here tonight. I'll be at church. He said, young lady, I respect your dedication. She came back that night. She had been seeking for the Holy Ghost two years and God filled her with the Holy Ghost that night. The men in the church were the coaches. Some of them brought men on the boards. Similar to God, you got a board. Most of them need a board, took two of them though. But the coaches was on the board. Them hard-headed suckers, I couldn't convince them. But I'll tell you what I did do. I got them so scared to one of them come back the next night and said, look, every time I'd run down into the court, you know, like this, he said, I'll skin us, fix the drop dead. I'm going to tell you something, brother, sister, the hour has arrived. The hour has arrived. God is after our heart. He wants our affection. How many believe that tonight? How many believe God is after our heart tonight? He's after our affection. No longer can we down at the house of God let anything get by, anything go, and everything get by. We got to get out of business. We got to get in this thing with our whole heart. And if we will, God will begin to open the windows of heaven one more time. How many believe that tonight? And dear God, ain't no place that needs it any worse than the house of the Lord. Is that right? How many realizes that there's just as much bad going on among the Christian homes is, is the folks out there in the world. There's just as many divorces in the church today as there is in the world. I'm going to tell you something else. There's almost as many children going astray. Something wrong. There's something wrong. But God's going to restore it. God's going to fix this thing up. How many wants God to restore this thing? I'm talking about getting us back to the place where we can offer up to God an offering, a righteous offering, praise God, an offering that God will, will be accepted or God will accept. The third chapter of Malachi deals with that. The Lord's going to send his messenger, but as he sends his messenger, who shall abide the day of his coming? He's not talking about his second coming. He's talking about as God begins to move back down in the house of God to purge the house of God, to purge the sons of Levi, to purge the offering of Levi, to purge the things of the altar, the pulpit, the pew, hallelujah. When God moves in the house of the Lord with a burning fire, who's going to be able to stand? Because he's going to purge us. See, restoration comes first with a purging. We need to be purged, amen? We need a purging that we can offer up to God, an offering, a sacrifice, acceptable unto him, hallelujah. And when he does, how do we know that he's not receiving it? Because he's not consuming us. God showed me that the windows of heaven open again, open again, and the glory would come back down just like it did in those other tabernacles, in those other temples, hallelujah. And the glory would be seen again. We need the glory back in the house of the Lord. We can have it. Now, just a few more minutes, let's go back to those four insects, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Now, here's what I see. I see that after living under those four, as they picked up a little philosophy from the Babylonians, they picked up a little philosophy from the Persians and the Medes, they picked up a little philosophy from the Greeks, they picked up a little more from the Romans. You take those four, after those philosophies has been intermingled with the Word of God and the Christian faith, you've got a mess. And we've got a mess today. I said, we've got a mess. Paul warned in Colossians chapter 2, I believe, in verse 8, he said, Beware, lest any man spoil you. And that word, spoil, means disarm you. One translation says, Beware, lest man take you captive through what? There you go. Philosophy? What is philosophy? You can just boil it down. He mentions four things. Philosophy, vain deceit, the rudiments of the world, and traditions of men. You just cram them all in one. It simply means mere human teachings. It's the intermingling of human teachings, philosophies. Amen? It's the study of man and life and the rights and the wrongs and all this stuff. You mix all of that philosophy, try to make it intermingle and mix with the Christian principles of God's Word, and you haven't got anything that's pure. You haven't got anything that'll work. You haven't got anything that God will bless. You've got a disarmed church standing in the face of an armed enemy that cannot respond to the need of the hour. And what God's going to do? I mean, I've shared this with several since I've been here. He's going to have to renovate our minds, get all this human thinking out of it, bring us back to a dependence on the Holy Ghost, teach us His Word, hallelujah, just like it is. Amen? How many believe there's a lot of philosophy intermingled with the Christian faith today? Mere human teaching? Boy, I've been to church after church after church after church since I resigned the church in February. Church after church after church after church. You know what they're suffering? Burnout. As anyone not long ago, the pastor shared with me, he said, everything I've got here is a burnout. I'm burnt out, my wife's burnt out, school teachers burnt out, school principals burnt out, all the school teachers burnt out, my folks are burnt out, we're just a bunch of burnouts. You listening? Over and over and over and over and over, I hear the same story. Burnout. Burnout. We're a burnout. Burnout. See, that's what Joel saw. Joel chapter 2 is a burnout. What caused the burnout? The four insects. You take those four insects as the philosophy of the Babylonians, the Medes, the Purge, the Greeks, the Romans, which is number four, mix all that in. Mix it in a little with the teaching of God's Word, and you produce a church that's going to burn out. Why? Because a lot of things we're doing, we're doing in our own ability, in our own strength, and you burn out doing that. God gave the church the Holy Ghost to teach it, lead it, guide it, comfort it. Is that true? How many believe the Lord gave the church the Holy Ghost? He didn't give the Holy Ghost to the world, He gave Christ to the world. He gave the Holy Ghost to the church. This is a gift to the church. This is for the church. I'm going to send this back to the church. The world can't have it. They don't understand it. They're not going to see it. You're going to see it. It's going to get in you. And when it comes, it's going to be your comforter, it's going to be your guide, it's going to be your power, it's going to be everything you need. The Holy Ghost is going to be everything you need. Did He say that or didn't He say it? See, what we've done, we've got all this stuff mixed in, all this stuff in a mingle. We're walking a little of this and a little of that. We've got law mixed in with grace. We've got flesh mixed in with the Spirit. We've got the will of the mind mixed in with the will of God. We've got the ways of man mixed in with the ways of God. We've got a mixing and a mingling in the house of God. Amen? There's a burnout in the land, but I'm here to tell you God's fixed to fix this thing up. He's fixed to renovate our minds. He's fixed to snatch a lot of this mess out of it, fill it back with the Word of God, fill us back with the Holy Ghost to open up the windows of heaven and start moving again in the house of the Lord. Hallelujah. Somebody say Amen. Have you noticed in the last few years how much energy and money has been spent on building houses of God? I've got a friend down in Florida. The pastor is a big assembly of God church. His name is Brother Lowry. Glenn Lowry. He's got a big church. He said, Lord, he's a good man. He's a preacher. He said, Lord, evidently I'm being passed by. All these guys are building all these big churches and big buildings and, you know, I'm faithful and, you know, I love you. What's wrong? He said, so one day I decided I was going to just take some time off and fly into some of these big churches and see what they had going and see what they could, you know, you know, what's the secret of their success and what's going on? And he began to fly this week into one and fly the next week when he could get off into another one. Here's what he found. He found that most of them, they have to keep a Dale Evans and a Roy Rogers. Or they have to keep some celebrity that's supposed to be a trophy of grace going through there all the time to keep the people, to pay the bills. One week there's not a celebrity there, the crowd nosedives. You all here listening to me? Something's got a hold of us. Something's pushed this whole generation to the brink, bless God, of suicide. Ministers falling like flies. Some of the most successful ministers today are running off with somebody else's wife. Amen. Working for God, doing all this stuff, but yet they can't even keep their own house straight. And this book says if you can't straighten it out at your house, you ain't got no right down here in this house. Is that right? You know what's wrong? We've mixed a bunch of human teachings in with the teachings of the Word of God. For the first 200 years there's no such thing as a central place of worship. They worship from house to house. The revival that came out of the book of Acts on the day of Pentecost never did have a building like this. They worship on the streets. They had revival in the streets. They went from door to door. God designed the gospel to work in the streets. How many believe this thing will work on the streets? And I'm not sure that one of these days God ain't going to move us out of here, amen, and put us back on the streets preaching the gospel, praying for the sick, casting out devils, doing the work of the ministry, hallelujah, like God's called us to do. Something's gone wrong at the house of the Lord. Joy, gladness has been took away. It's not there anymore. Amen. I reached a place just a few years ago. I shared this with somebody the day I reached a place. I hated the pulpit. I've walked up to the altar, pointed my finger back at it, and you say, I don't understand this. Well, you don't understand preachers, nobody. I said, I hate that pulpit. You know why? I was burnt out. Didn't want to go to church. Still love the Lord. I was burnt out. That's what Joel saw. He saw people burnt out. Look at it. He saw a flame come through the land behind this flame. He saw devastation and burn out. But God said, I'm going to restore. I like that part. I will restore all these years. Brother and sister, this thing hadn't happened overnight. It's gradually creeped in. It's gradually sapped us. It's gradually pulled us down. It's gradually done its damage. It's gradually destroyed our churches, our homes, our schools, our own personal life. Amen. But I want you to know God now has turned this thing around. He's in the process of restoring. He's going to have to change your thinking. He's going to have to change your mind. He's going to have to change your walking. He's going to have to change your talking. He's going to have to change your church. He's going to have to change your preacher. He's going to have to change your deacons. He's going to have to change your school teachers. He's fixed to make some changes in the house of the Lord. Hallelujah. But it's for our own good. How many would like to serve the Lord again in gladness and in joy? Hallelujah. Go down to the church and be happy. Be joyful. Worship in the Lord. Hallelujah. Beware lest any man take you captive through philosophy. Restoration is in the air. God will restore. I'm closing. But you've got to get this. You've got to get this. No longer, I'm going to tell you a sign that tells us there's something drastically wrong to have faith. In the house of God. Any church that runs on attendance, and I'll just use a figure, 500 on Sunday morning, and only 20% of them people are back on Sunday night, there's something wrong. You know what's wrong? The preacher ain't going to say nothing. You know why? He's like the priest in Malachi 2. He's letting them do their thing. But not invite men. He's letting them do their thing. Now what they're doing, what they're doing, they're doing their thing during the week. And coming down at one time on Sunday and waving their hands at God. I'm here today God. Going to pay my dues. See you next Sunday. Bye bye. Waving at Him. That's over with. Can't get by coming on Sunday morning waving at Him. He's a majestic God. He's an awesome God. He's a supreme God. He's a God that deserves all of your time. Praise God for He asked for it. He's a God that deserves the best you've got. And He won't be waved at no more just on Sunday morning. He's calling for people to sell out to Him. Praise God. Give the hearts to Him. God's after hearts. How many of you believe God's after hearts? He don't just want your body set here. He wants your hearts. And that heart means He wants your affections. He wants your love. Praise God. The garden of God is the heart of man. And the heart of man is the garden of God. If you don't believe it, read the songs of Solomon. When Solomon, his beloved man, they met in the garden where there was plum grannies. They met in the garden where there was lilies. They met there, praise God, in the garden because the garden of both. Amen. The heart of both of them was in the garden. God's wanting our hearts. And when He gets our hearts, He'll pull out again the power of His blessings on us one more time. He's only got our feet. He's only got our body. He's only got the outward part of us. But God wants your heart. Your heart. No more waving at Him. No more sacrifices as blemished. No more leftovers. You better never miss doing what God says to go to the ballgames. You better never miss again something God's told you to do, to watch at the tube. You better quit this foolishness. How many believe that's all right? You better get down to business. God's ready to open the windows of heaven, save our children. How many wants our children saved? Tell your children. Let them tell their children. Let them tell that coming generation, one day I'm going to restore. One day I'm going to put back everything that's been lost. Everything that's been took away. Everything that's been mingled. I'm going to get it out. I'm going to straighten out the house of God. Joy and gladness is coming back in the house of the Lord. Amen. And when joy and gladness comes, it gives you strength, brother and sister. That's where your strength is at. Amen. And boy, that thing will sweep into your home. Amen. It'll sweep into your whole life. It'll permeate everything that you're connected with. You can walk the streets with the joy of the Lord. Why? Because God has restored. But the first thing He's got to do, He's got to deal with some things in our life. He won't accept just anything. God's a holy God. He'll not accept anything but a holy people. I want you to stand with me, please. Hallelujah. Hallelujah, Jesus. Hallelujah, Jesus.