In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of studying and preaching the word of God. He shares various anecdotes and examples to illustrate his points. He encourages young students to study and show themselves approved to God, rather than seeking approval from others. The preacher also highlights the need for a new depth and anointing from God, urging pastors to seek a genuine revival and to let go of formalities.

God, he cast demons out. At least, you remember there's a place where, was it Sons of Sceva? Tried to get the demons out of a man. And the demons have some self-respect. They kicked the man off. And you know what the demons said? Jesus we know and Paul we know. The greatest honour this side of eternity is to be known in hell. Known in hell. If there's a danger list in hell, I'd rather be the last person on it than the first person on anybody else's list in the world. You know? You can have a DD, it should be a devil destroyer if you have, but titles won't do it. Degrees won't do it. They've had their day. It's time for the spiritually anointed men of God. I say about the Puritans, the difference between them and us was this. The Puritan preachers lived in eternity six days a week and they came down to earth on Sunday to tell us what they'd seen. No wonder people went out awed. Again when the Holy Ghost came on a Baptist like Spurgeon, he'd say now God has troubled some of you this morning. Meet me in my office tomorrow morning. There's not much emotion around at seven o'clock Sunday, Monday morning. Particularly if you get up at five to get, but you know all day long from seven till seven at night, people were going into that office. Yesterday the Lord, I mean, he just preached the word of God. You see, I tell these young students, listen, keep this clear in your mind. Study to show thyself approved to the deacons. No? Oh no, that's the old version. Oh, the new one is to show thyself approved to the congregation. No, that lady says. Does it matter if everybody in the world says I'm a success if in my heart I know I'm a failure? Study to show thyself approved unto God. Just yesterday I read it marked in my Bible, Peter on the day of Pentecost said of Jesus, I'm man approved of God. Dear God, if that's good enough for Jesus, good enough for me. He was a man anointed of God. He had dominion over demons and sickness and every other diabolical thing. So this young man has no trouble, he tears up the lion. What was the first thing they did with Samson? I'll run through it quickly. The first thing they did was bind him. The second thing they did was blind him. The third thing they did was grind him. In this way, in so the old castles in England, I've been in them, they have, instead of a treadmill, well it's a treadmill but also there's a bar and a man leans on it, he goes round and he grinds corn. You see this old trickster, he not only fought the devil or the demon or the lion, he not only slew an army of people with the jawbone of an ass, but one night for mischief he caught foxes, well it's 600, tied their tails together with a faggot between and turned and he burned the crop down. Yes, a famous preacher keeps saying, remember I was in Ethiopia and ships were backing up there. Where were they from? They were from America taking grain, fine. But do you know those ships turned round and took grain to Russia and sold it at cut prices? Do you know the bankers in Russia are getting billions from America now at the lowest rate of interest and they don't have to account for it? We're financing the war in Afghanistan. That dirty rascal the other day that fooled us all on TV as he signed that thing. Did you notice what he said? I sign this in the name of eternal man, that was a shot at our Christianity. And he said, he did this, he said, we're winding down the war in Afghanistan and that demon man, he knew that a week after they were going to rape Afghanistan worse than they've ever done. Thousands fled. I have a picture on my desk right now from Africa. It shows a young man with half a leg, 300,000 young men and women in Angola alone have lost their limbs through landmines that are being put down and it says by the Cubans who are being backed by Russia. I could tell you some startling things, make your hair stand up, but I won't tell you tonight because I get back to the press maybe and get back, get some people in trouble. But I'll tell you what, our pastor, boy, he was a poor creature, couldn't preach for nuts. But two things stuck in my mind from being about 12 years of age, he used to say, God has always had a remnant. And you know, there's a remnant inside of that remnant. And then he would say, keep your eye on the Middle East. The Middle, the Middle East is a thermometer. Israel is this size. You could pick it up and drop it in Lake Huron and never find it. You can do the same with England as far as that goes. I'm absolutely sure in my own mind that Russia, that, uh, that, uh, Israel has the atom bomb and she's going to use it when it will suit her and we'll be amazed when it happens. But you see, Israel is, Israel, again, is the thorn in the side of Russia, the thorn in the side of America. As long as we support her, we'll, we'll be okay. If we drop her, we'll get dropped. Because God says whoever blesses her, he'll bless, whoever curses her, he will curse. And we're pretty well tied up with that. But you see, God, God's problem tonight, as I've said, it's not Mormonism or Russellism or demonism or, or humanism. God's problem in America tonight is a bankrupt church. A church with a form of godliness. A church where like the early Pentecostal, you know, I used to go to Pentecostal meeting and get scared to death. There was one man, he'd get voices, he'd say, oh God, come and walk in our, walk up and down the hills of Isles. I thought, boy, if he does, I'll be through that door in ten seconds. But you know, he came down. I'll tell you when a church is blazing, when there are more people at the altar before the service than after it. You need to uphold the hands of this man, not just when you're finished washing dishes or something, coming out that came out, have a time every day when you pray for him. I'm praying that God will do something in this church he's not doing in any church in this community. He'd light a fire here that all hell will be afraid of. No man filled with the spirit is afraid of the devil. Samson prayed, the spirit came upon him mightily. So the first thing they did was bind him. The second thing they did was blind him. And the third thing they did, they tied him and made him grind out corn for the Philistines. He burned their crops. So they said, we'll make him give it back to us. Then what happened? After he said the last time, and I'll refer you through this, at the end of verse 17, put a razor upon my head, you see, the other thing they did, first thing he couldn't touch anything dead. The second thing, he couldn't drink wine. The third thing, he had to bear reproach, he had to bear long hair like a woman, and he was forbidden in those days. And therefore he's a marked man, everywhere he went he was marked, he bore reproach. Nobody wants to bear reproach for Christ anymore. Many Christians, Keith Green told me not too long before he died, as a matter of fact he hasn't spoken to me since he did die, but he spoke to me before he died. I wish I got the statistic where he got it from. He said that most of the girls in churches that get pregnant, get pregnant at Bible camps. But you know, it's no longer outside the church there's gross sin, there's gross sin in the church. Swaggart says there's more immorality in the church in the pulpits now than ever. And you've had the case of two churches there on the coast last year, or within a couple of years, thousands going Sunday morning and the pastor's living in immorality. There's no fear of God anymore. Not only no fear of the judgment seat, there's no fear of going to the sanctuary and suddenly the Holy Ghost comes and you feel as though there's something tearing you on the inside. The Word of God is quick and powerful and it's as though somebody stabbed you. And God says, look, that sin, that pride, that lust, that child you fathered and ran away, that false thing you did. I talked with a man about ten years ago in California, I went into a meeting, and there's a little fellow sitting there with an English dog collar and I looked at him twice. That man used to come to our church when I was fourteen years of age. He terrified me when he preached. But he got into sin. And as soon as he saw me, he said, well, Len, you were only a boy when I saw you last. I mentioned his name and he clung on to me, he said, please don't expose me, don't expose me, will you? I said, no, I won't. I said, that's between you and God. That man used to make people to tremble. He used to spend whole days and nights fasting. George Jeffreys, and I'm going to hurry, I keep saying, George Jeffreys came to our city in 1927, the city of Leeds, and a Holy Ghost revival. The big auditorium was packed to the rafters. All kinds of crippled were healed, the blind were seeing, the lame were walking, the paralyzed went out, new creatures, physically. Everybody said, what a wonderful, wait a minute, I happen to know the Pentecostal preacher in a little church that was despised. Do you know that man had three breakdowns, not mentally but physically? He fasted until he could hardly stand. His wife said he would groan on the floor as though he was being beaten. Read the second chapter of Lamentations and see where few and I are there. What does Jeremiah say? My bowels are torn, my liver is torn, my heart is torn. That's burden for the last. He's not asking to be a super preacher. How many of us dare to ask, really, can ask God honestly for the burden of the Lord? It's an awesome thing. But it's the only thing that's going to bring this nation back to God. So let me tell you that man fasted and prayed. The little church grew and grew and grew. And he got the church to pray and believe that God would send a man. George Jeffries came and the whole city knew that God had come. It didn't take money, it wasn't advertised in the paper, God came. The dirtiest, filthiest, wickedest man in the neighborhood came in and somebody carried him head, body, soul and spirit, laid him at the feet of the preacher. And George looked down there, immaculately dressed, asked him what he needed. He said, I need to be healed. He said, no, you need God more than that. And he began to cry. He said, I'm wicked, I'm wicked, I'm vile. I have a filthy tongue and a filthy heart and a filthy home. Can God save me? He said, if you repent, I repent. And then in front of a packed auditorium, that man repented of his sin. And George, handsome George, just looked down and said, brother, because he'd been born. He said, brother, rise and walk. That man jumped up. Do you know those stuffy English people forgot their manners? They threw hymn books in the air and Bibles in the air, began to clap. That's a sin unto death in churches in England. What do you think we're going to do when they see a man liberated like that? That should be an everyday occurrence. You shouldn't have to invite some healer. You see, today we're not preaching the word, we're preaching against drugs, we're preaching against abortion, we're preaching against crime. But Jesus says, I, if I be lifted up. It was a famous Scotsman, what's his name now? He wrote the classic on the first epistle of Peter, I've forgotten his name for the moment. Oh, thank you, yes, Leighton. Leighton, in his day, somebody came and said, Dr. Leighton, he says, you're not preaching up the times. All the events, all the preachers are preaching up the times. He said, well, if they're preaching up the times, do you mind if one preacher in this city preaches Jesus up? I, if I be lifted up. We've cursed the darkness long enough, God help us. Don't tell me anymore how many illegitimate babies are born. Texas has the world record in that. And in crime and in murders. But what can we say? How many churches could you take people to? I say, could you take your church, could you take your friend, you're drunken, you're lying, you're a, your son that's wicked, and your girl that's messed up in sex. Could you take it to the church and say, listen, I guarantee that within two visitations you'll be born again of the Spirit of God. You could say that in early Pentecost, and it's got to come back. So they shave off his hair, which is a sign of his covenant with God. You know what happened? She said, now you keep tearing up lions and lifting gates, you're going to have a physical breakdown. Darling, darling, I love you so much. Just put your head on my lap. You know, if it stayed on his knees, it never got on hers. And that's where you'll backslide as soon as you let up on your prayer life. Don't blame this, don't blame the other. The fact is you've lost out, preacher, you lost your anointing, you keep up the gesticulations, you keep up the terminology, and you know you're as empty as a drum. Paul said, my preaching is not in word only. Dear Lord, wouldn't you like to have heard the Apostle Paul teaching Romans, or Ephesians, or Hebrews? But there was something of another world about him. He said, my preaching is not in word only. He wasn't eloquent because his bodily presence is weak, and his speech was contemptible. He didn't give us, the orator of the early church was Apollos, the orator. Paul did, well, I've had some strokes, the last one took my, this arm isn't too good, and part of my, it didn't affect my brain, just my body. Some people think I lost my brain too. But he lost his anointing. So what did he do? Verse 20 says, the Philistines be upon thee, Samson. Oh, let me finish, please, in the middle of 19. She caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head, and she began to afflict him. She began to afflict him. Before that, she'd been oppressing him, and pestering him, a bit earlier in the chapter, that doesn't matter, but it says she vexed him, you see, she tormented him till, oh, I may as well get rid of this, and get out of it. So he says, here in the middle of verse 20, I will go out as at other times, and shake myself, and he wist not. I heard G. Cameron Morgan preach often, I remember one day he said, that's the saddest text in the Bible. Here's a man in the pulpit, saying the right words, doing the right things, and he doesn't know the Holy Ghost departed from him six months ago. He wist not the Spirit of God had departed from him. He's still getting his wage, he still visits the sick, he's still a nice man to talk to, but devils don't tremble when he stands up. All hell isn't alerted. Get round that building, and just put all demon power you can, because this man is a terror. One man with God is a majority. God raises up men, not movements. He didn't raise up Methodism, he raised up Wesley. He didn't raise up the Salvation Army, he raised William Booth. Half Jew and half Gentile, his wife had a curvature of the spine, and yet that man, the Salvation Army went into 70 countries in 90 years, not 70 cities, 70 countries. One of the greatest orators in America, Brangle, went and joined the Salvation Army, and William Booth turned into clean boots for a hundred students the next morning. Now he's come down, he forgot about his Greek and Hebrew, but he became the outstanding special in the Salvation Army. He wist not that the Spirit of the Lord had departed from him. Okay, verse 21, the Philistines took him and put out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza, and they bound him with fetters of brass, and he did grind in the prison. Can you imagine going down, let's picture it, look. You come down the steps, and there's this man going round blind, and you can hear the grinding of the corn, and you get a bit nearer, you can hear the grinding of his spirit above the grinding of the Lord. He knows he's a captive, I'm bound, I'm blind, I can't see. I don't know what's going on, I'm in a prison, I'm shut off from Israel, and God leaves me here. And they bound him with fetters of brass, and he did grind in the prison house. Now look here, the next verse says, how be it, the hair of his head began to grow again. Don't you think one morning he woke up and put his hand up like this and said, glory to God, oh, this is an act of mercy. I let that wicked woman take my anointing away, it was a type of anointing, and he said, oh, my hair's coming, hallelujah, glory to God, I'm going to have another chance, I won't mess it up this time. He meant business. Notice what it says in verse 23 at the end of it. Oh, let me read the whole verse. Then the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their God, and to rejoice, for they said, our God hath delivered Samson. Do you see that? The enemy said, our God is greater than your God, otherwise how could we take him? This man used to slay lions, he could slay an army with a stupid jawbone in his hand, but he can't now, he's paralyzed, there he is, grinding corn for us. Our God hath delivered Samson, the enemy, into our hand. Verse 24, when the people saw him, they praised God, they praised their God. Why? Because they brought him into the temple of Dagon, it used to be a tourist place, and I guess Samson had been in and seen the place. Okay. They were merry, and they said, call for Samson and make a sport, can you imagine that? That's what the news did the other day, they laughed and scorned, showed a picture of Oral Roberts and said this man made the holy God into a terrorist, and the uncircumcised Philistines were laughing. Listen, if Pentecostal people really loved God with a holy love, they'd have shut down every Pentecostal church in the nation for a week, and had a week of prayer and fasting for Roberts to get his anointing back, if he ever had it, and for Baker too. Baker spent 20 years building the biggest pile of wood, hay, and stubble of any man since Pentecost, and when God put the torch to it, he'd have ashes up to his knees. You see, wood, hay, and stubble are above the ground, that's ministry people can say. Silver, gold, and precious stones are under the ground, it's ministry that can't be seen. The best men I know wouldn't hardly come in a pulpit, you can't take pictures of them to put in magazines, they know God, they shut away with God. I know of a man who prays, and for 10 years, he's 37 this year, he has prayed 10 hours a day for the last 10 years by himself. I know another man that's 65 years of age who prays 5 hours a day. The great thing that rejoices my heart, I don't make money like these guys, I'm glad I don't, I like to give it away if I get it, but these guys, the guys that have the anointing of God are not on TV, I'll tell you that, they shut away. You guys with a little country church, if I had my day over, and I could go to a church now, be a co-pastor of a church with 12,000 members, a guy offered to build me a mansion and all the rest of it, forget it. I would rather be a pastor of a country church where I know every one of my sheep, and where they'll knit together and believe God to send a Holy Ghost revival. Again it proves here again, do we need to know it? What's it saying Daniel, I don't know the chapter, the people that do know their Bibles shall be strong and do exploits? Daniel 11.32, it doesn't say that, don't look at it now please, it doesn't say the people that do know their Bibles, it says the people that do know their God. If you knew God brother as much as you know your Bible, you'll be shaking the whole community. These seminary men, I tell them you go there, you read your Hebrew, you read your Greek and all hell is filling, and you stand there, get a big salary and do a great job, and hell doesn't even know you're, you're certainly not a dentalist up there. The people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits. What exploits did he do? He lifted the gates of the city, he ripped the life, the life out of a lion, he took a job out of an ass, he did exploits, he didn't have a committee meeting, he did it. Somebody said committees spend hours making minutes, that's all most of them do in churches anyhow. And you say well that's rough, well, fasten your seat belt, it might be a bit rougher right now. Verse 25 says, it came to pass when their hearts were merry, maybe they were drinking, they called for Samson that he may make sport. Can you imagine a holy man of God that they were terrified of? And now they bound him up, he's binded and blinded and shut down there, and nobody trembles. And they make sport, they ridicule. How do you think Jesus felt when Jennings said to, I don't know, maybe a hundred million people listening on TV, this man, showing all robbers, this man revealed God as a terrorist. Don't you think the heart of God was grieved? You know I believe that Jesus still weeps, he's the same yesterday, today and forever. He could rejoice over the Pentecostal church in the New Testament, he weeps over it now. I guarantee the smallest meeting in this church is a prayer meeting. The prayer meeting is the Cinderella of every church. And that power has to come back, where you'd rather have the anointing of God in tears than be laughing at some stupid harlot on TV. The house of God has to become the magnet where it pulls us, where we don't just come once or twice a week, we get to the place where we have an appetite for God every day. This Baptist preacher I've been talking to for a few weeks, came to see me a few days ago and said, Mr. Raymond, I have a prayer meeting in my church, a Baptist church, at 5.30 every morning of the week, and it's wonderful to see how many men are coming before they go to their offices in Dallas, in a Baptist church. People around the country waking up for the efficacy of prayer. I'm almost through. They call for Samson, make sport. A boy held him by the hand, verse 26, and I can see him saying to the boy, hey boy, go steady. Where are we going? Oh, he said, I'm taking you on the platform. He said, you know, there are 3,000 spectators in the gallery, that's what it says, 3,000. The house is packed, and they're all laughing, making, ridiculing you. And Samson comes, he says, be careful, remember I'm blind. And he leads Samson up onto the platform. Verse 27 says, there were upon the roof about 3,000 men and women. And you know what? The gallery usually only, the gallery of a church usually holds less than half than the main auditorium, usually a third. So I estimate there were 10,000 people in this auditorium. Looking at a man, they were terrified. If they'd seen him coming down the road, they'd have fled. But now he's blind, he's crippled, he's helpless, and so they make fun of him. Verse 28 says, and here is one of the most remarkable prayers in the Bible, I've never heard it preached on. The middle of verse 28, O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me. I pray thee only once, O God, that I may be avenged of the Philistines, for my two eyes. He doesn't ask for freedom. He doesn't say, God, get me out of jail and I'll serve you. He doesn't say, Lord, give me my eyes back and I'll serve you. He's concerned about one thing, and that's the glory of God. Lord, come in your glory, that you're selfish and carnal. Do you pray for your daddy so he'll get saved, so he won't go to hell? That's not the first thing. He's robbing God of the glory of using that brain and heart and affection of his. Your daddy might be one of the greatest prayer warriors in this town, but you're letting him slide. And the thing is not merely that he's bad, he's dead. Jesus did not come into the world, get it clearly, he did not come into the world to make bad men good, he came into the world to make dead men live. I don't care how wealthy they are. I don't care if they're D.D.'s and they're wealthy, it makes no odd, their dead interest was in sin. Verse 28, I pray that you strengthen me, I pray thee, only once, that I may be avenged of my two eyes. Do you know how I know he meant that? From the very scent of his being, every fiber of his being, every beat of his heart, every one of the three million cells in his body, cried out for the living God? How do I know? Because it says in verse 30, Samson said, let me die with the Philistines. Do you know why, brother, do you know why there's no anointing in your church? You're trying to hold it together, you're afraid to die to your reputation, you're fighting, you're propping that church up and it's killing you, die! And let God come and take your life over completely. Lose all the rights to yourself, the rights to sleep, the right to eat, the right to spend money. If you're a slave of Jesus, a slave has no rights. And Samson says in the midst of that howling bunch of agnostics and critics, and rulers of the nation maybe, he says, God, please, just once, that marvelous anointing I had when I tore the lion up, that marvelous anointing when I carried the gates, that marvelous anointing when I remember a surge of eternal life sweeping over me. PSYDE 2 That marvelous anointing when I remember a surge of eternal life sweeping through me when I flew the 2,000 with a jawbone of an ass. Please, Lord, just once, give me one more chance, I'll never ask again, give me one more chance. Even if I die, what does the scripture say? The house fell upon him. Upon the lords, that's the aristocrats in England, dukes and lords and ladies, the house fell upon the lords, so the dead which he slew in his death were more than they which he slew in his life. You see, that's the greatest prayer he ever prayed. Lord, please, don't let me die a half-back slidden, don't let them take my body in the church. And people come around, oh, he's the sweetest pastor we ever had. Of course, he didn't trouble you much as he got older, he kind of petered out, he didn't pray with much anointing, he didn't send us no more brooms down the inside, he had more of a massage than a message, that's what most preachers have today. It's funny and it's terrible. Strengthen me just once, even if I die. And he pulled the house down and he killed more in his dying than in his living. I still believe that Joel 2 has to be fulfilled. People ask me, you know, so many men, you watch the giants fall, sure I have. I've seen men that I thought were as firm as almost the throne of God, fall down over money, fall down over women, fall down over praise or something. The devil doesn't care what it is as long as you lose your anointing. And you'll go on this at other times, you're nice to the deacons, you're sweet to the old ladies, you're gracious, and hell, heaven has written you off a long while ago. And hell has, you're no longer a hell wrecker. The devil and demons don't fear you anymore. So in essence, Simon Thompson says, I can't die like this, oh, I have a thousand memories of the majesty of God. And here this heathen crowd laughing at me. Give me one more chance. I'm through with this. I remember preaching in Australia some years ago. And the pastor said to me, Brother Raymond, just look to the right there, there's a man, a tall man with a large bald head, I said, yes. He said, you know, thirty-five years ago, that man moved through this country of Australia and everywhere he went, he was dynamic. He was like a torch in the midst of bales of hay. And everywhere he went, God delivered people. Even physical deliverances and demon deliverances. But he said, when he spoke, it was almost like a breath of fire coming. Well that's a symbol, you see, you see that cross, it's alright, but it's not Christian. That's a symbol of paganism. The symbol of Jesus, the church of Jesus Christ is a tongue of fire. Our God is a consuming fire. It makes his ministers a flame of fire. But it's pretty tough, isn't it? When your husband's here, your deacons are here, for you to get up, walk here and say, Brother Raymond, I've lost, I haven't shed tears, my pillow's dry every night. I don't weep from the loss, I have no burden. I got a few nice little gifts from the church at Christmas, oh they're so nice. They're not nice, they tell you the truth. I said you didn't hear that, I said you have to nail it on. Do you know, when Mao Zedong took over in China, do you know what he did? He liquidated 90 million people, and millions of them are Christians. Do you know what they did with them? They came into services like this, and they took the pastor, and they nailed him to the wall of his church. That's communism, that's the stuff Mr. Gorbachev wants to do in America. But brother, you can't say, you shouldn't say, it's not my brother nor my sister, it's not headquarters up at, where is headquarters? Springfield. There's no virtue in going to Springfield, and it won't kill you to go. But listen, the glory isn't even in Pentecostal Bible schools anymore. The kids go drinking, the kids fool around. They ought to go in that room and be terrified when they go in. Oh, we're in one of the fastest growing churches in Dallas, forget it. Do you know what the Holy Ghost church is? No man dares join himself. Do you think a man that's living a double life would come in a meeting filled with the Holy Ghost? Somebody would say, listen, you've got a serpent in you. George Fox, the founder of the Quakers would go to a man and say, I see a demon spirit in you. I see the spirit of a fox in you. I see the spirit of a serpent in you. And he used the anvil, and he went to people continually, and yet they never preached gifts of the spirit. They demonstrated the power of the Holy Spirit of God. Strengthen me just once. How do you know this isn't the last message you'll hear? How many times has God rebuked you privately and you've gone home, you've come to the altar time and time again, and you've gone out and done the same crazy things? You came paralyzed, you went out paralyzed. You came without vision, you left without vision. I tell you, if you come to this place with brokenness, you can come. But listen, I don't make altar calls in a general way. I'm certainly not going to try and stir you emotionally. Some of you preachers know you're on the verge of bankruptcy. You know it's a job. You know it doesn't break your heart, other people in your church. I had a pastor of a church of God, I'll put it that way, that's what it is, came to see me a while ago. He gets a thousand people Sunday morning, and he said, Mr. Ramel, you know, 50% of my congregation are divorced. You see, there's no fear of God in any shape or form, and that will come back. And it's not a cringing fear, it's a fear of grieving him, hurting him. The Lord spoke to me first when I was 14. I started leading a youth meeting. I got a couple of prayer meetings going when I was 16. Just for youth on Friday nights in the church, and Sunday morning at 7. And at 19 I went to an altar, because I knew I had a problem. And the problem was jealousy and pride. I was youth leader, most admired guy in the church, I guess. I went to the front, and as they did, they used to come with a Bible and say what you need. And this preacher came over and said, well, Leonard, I'm amazed to see you at the altar. You're such a fine young man, I said, oh. He said, what do you want? I said, I want Romans 6 and verse 7, to be real in my life. Oh no, you mean Romans 6-6. Knowing this without all man is crucified. I said, no, I don't want Romans 6-7. He said, no, it's Romans 6-7. I said, sir, it's Romans 6-7, I want. And he didn't even know what it was. I'll tell you what it is, but without looking. He that is dead is freed from sin. I want to die here to my ambitions. I want to die to pride. I want to die to failure. I want something to happen in my life. I'm not saying I've walked as a saint all the years since, but it was a crisis in my life. You know what it did? I'm through with this. Two books changed my life. My Sunday school teacher gave me a hymn book, pardon me, gave me a book. It is the bridged life of David Brainerd. I read about that young American that would go out and pray in the forest. So I lived on the edge of Sherwood Forest. So I'd take my mother's little dog at night. I'd walk into the forest, tie the dog to the stump of a tree, and there were some ferns there. Instead of going up and going out that way, they grew around here and met in the middle. I got into the middle, lifted up my hands, a thing they never did in holiness churches. I cried to the Lord for revival by myself night after night in that forest. I got up early Sunday morning and went into the forest and prayed and groaned. And one day I walked to a hill overlooking the city. I raised my hands up and the tears ran down my face. I think I was 17. And I said, Lord, don't let my city die. Lord, send just one more light. Samson asked for one more visitation. I'm not a preacher, Lord, but please come. Do you know a few months after that, or a year after, George Jeffreys came? Not because I prayed, but because a pastor had fasted himself almost to death three times. And the strongest church in that city started in 1927, is the strongest church tonight. Sixty years after, young people saw the glory of God in Daddy and Mummy. There was no bickering in the home, there was sweetness. Daddy tossed away his pipe and Daddy got rid of his sports and everything. The biggest treasure you have, I keep telling dear Spencer and these other young fellows, those children are treasures. I've got three wonderful sons. One has an earned PhD. They're all pretty brilliant. The other one's got a head position just now in the Smithsonian Museum. The other's left his big church and he's tramping the world for God. And the other has an amazing prayer life. When he was 16 years of age, he prayed five hours a day. At 16 years of age. You see, we're not tired of organizing, God is. It's time for agonizing. There's something more than getting a degree. We need a new degree, a new depth, a new anointing from God, a new vision. You meet God tonight, then I'll tell you, I'll just start revival. Go to your church Sunday morning and say, do you know the biggest failure in this church is your pastor? I've had no real vision. I've had no passion. I've had no burden. It's been a living. But from here on, you've got a man that God has touched by the Holy Ghost. And I don't care whether I have good health or bad health. This community is going to hell fire and this church is responsible for it. And I want some men that will pledge their lives to God. Strengthen me just once. Even if I die. And you'll die all right. Because you see, all the robbers didn't see Jesus Christ. He visualized it. No man can look on God and live. What did Isaiah say? Maybe I'll preach on that one night. Isaiah said, woe is me. No, woe is my prayer life. I'm behind in my tithing. I'm not doing. He says two things. I'm undone and I'm unclean. And then the life cold touched him. And he became a super prophet. And that's what God wants to do. I'm not going to tie it up theologically. You know, another scripture we don't obey. And I'm through right here with this. Why it's only nine? I thought it was ten. I'm cutting myself short. Okay. The scripture says, confess your faults one to another. You know, it doesn't take much moral courage to come down there and weep and shed a few tears and tell God you're sorry. Any coward can do that. But you're the best known deacon. You're the best known pastor. Why don't you come now and kneel here and say, I'm the key to failure in my church. I've lost my vision. I've no power over the devil. I've no power over maybe my own body and thinking. God, I want one more touch. Now don't come here and just kiss the floor with your knees and go. Stay till God touches you. Go down in your life and you know what's wrong with you. I've tried. Whatever it is. Some secret sin. Ambition. Tell the Lord what they are. Don't generally say, Lord, I've weakness. He says, I'm undone. I'm unclean. And stay there if it takes you till midnight. And for once in your life, get cleansed and anointed with the Holy Ghost. And I'll tell you what, if you do, you'll treasure it more than any experience you've ever had before. This is God's second call to you. And it's not only that, it's your last call. You think I enjoy preaching? Of course I don't. If this is a Holy Ghost meeting, somebody will die here tonight. Not physically. This is God's last call to you. He doesn't owe you anything. He's called a hundred times. You've wept and you've got nowhere. Your godly mother's in the grave there. Worms have eaten her long since. She prayed for you. Maybe your grandpa. And yet you're a stulted, crippled, weak, ineffective Christian. And this is a day for soldiers. Put on the whole armor of God. There's a devil and a million demons want to destroy Kilgore or the town that you're in. And as you are, you can't face them. I say I'm not going to sing a chorus. I nearly said you've got the guts. If you have the courage. Let everybody see you. Or everybody's going to see you at their judgment. A thousand billion eyes will look on you, standing by yourself. You won't lean on your pastor, lean on your darling wife, lean on your lovely husband. You'll be there by yourself before billions of eyes. And there's no U-turn. You can't turn in front. For somebody, it's now or never. This could be the first real Pentecost you've ever had. You say, Lord, break me. I want to come. I want to get rid of my profession and my showmanship. I'm tired of the world going past my church and saying, you know, that's a has-been. There used to be Pentecostals. The Holy Ghost used to command them. They used to pray all night. People went and miracles were done. But not anymore. It's a pretty little church. And a nice pastor, nice people. But there's no flaming torch of God, the Holy Ghost. As I say, I was going to preach on prayer. But God showed me last night and showed me again in a way I didn't expect today. I got to preach on Samson. I've preached this around the world. But I'm getting old and forgetful. I don't tie up so well. But I know God has spoken. I know tonight this is your chance. And so I'm not going to sing. Get up and bring your broken heart and bring your broken promises. And meet God. There are two, one, two, three benches. So I'm not going to sing. Get up and come. If you'll allow me. We don't need manifestations. Now we need repentance. We need to cry out to God. We don't need to ease our conscience. We don't need to be sidetracked. I don't mean this unkindly. But if the Lord's speaking to your heart, come and pray. If you want to be dismissed, be dismissed. We are so glad you came. God is speaking to hearts, especially we preachers. Let's come and pray. Let's seek God. Well, I'm going to pray. The pastor asked me to pray. If you wish to leave and leave now, stay a little while anyhow. Father, we thank you tonight that you are the unchanging God. You've said, call upon me. And some here may tonight have no language but a cry, a sob in the heart. Something eternal that's crying to be released. Some fetter that needs to be broken that nobody knows is here. The fetter of pride, personal ambition, secret sin, laziness, lack of passion for the lost. Lord, I pray, send fire from heaven tonight on these hearts. We remember Solomon built the temple and with all its beauty and he built its altar. And yet he knew it hadn't done anything until the fire fell. And he prayed and the fire of the Lord fell. Lord, fall on these hearts tonight. Burn up all the dross. Burn up all the impurity. Burn up every fetter that's there. Lord, light a fire in the hearts of some men or women here tonight that will never go out. That at the judgment seat we'll say that this was a turning point in their life where they cried in despair. The pastors who've tried everything. They brought in music. They brought in entertainment. It hasn't done a thing. Lord, I pray, do something in these precious pastors that they'll preach on Sunday in a nuptial with an anointing they've never had before. Lord, that people will see that out of them are flowing rivers of living water. Lord, we're so tired of formality. We're so tired of seeing the nation go to destruction. We're so tired of Jehovah's Witnesses and other people mocking the church of Jesus. I'm told that the Jehovah's Witnesses say they get more backsliders than anybody else. People who once had a walk and a talk with God and they're backslidden. Lord, I pray, send all hell mad tonight that this meeting ever took place. May some of these men get on the devil's most wanted men, on the danger list. Lord, give them an utterance in prayer. Even if it's in the pulpit, break them till the congregation weeps with the weeping preacher. It can see with a seeing preacher. It has strength with a preacher who's been renewed by the Holy Ghost. Lord, you ordered us to go into all the world and preach the gospel. And here, 2,000 years after you came, there are more lost people in the world tonight than ever. Lord, again, I pray with all my being. Do something that will last longer than a half hour at the altar. Something that men will not dare to hold in. Something they'll have to confess maybe Sunday or somewhere openly. I've been failing the church. I haven't borne the burden. There are hundreds of lost children in families where a Sunday school teaches and deacons. And yet the children are lost and there's no burden. Lord, open eyes tonight. Give us a sight of an eternity we've never seen. As David, your servant, said, enlarge our hearts. Lord, enlarge us. Fill us to capacity. Fill us with the Holy Ghost. Fill us with the knowledge of your will. Fill us with divine love. Fill us with holy compassion. Fill us until we have to say with Jeremiah, thy servant, a river of water. Or the psalmist says, a river of water run down to my eyes. Or again, as Jeremiah says, oh, that my head were waters, mine eyes a fountain of tears. Lord, lift us clean out of the normal into the abnormal. Out of the natural into the supernatural. Lord, I pray, put a wall of fire round about this church and be the glory in the midst of it. And for every other church of pastors and Sunday school teachers and others who are at this altar. Lord, we're gluttonous for your glory. Lord, we'll never ever find satisfaction between here and eternity unless you do a new thing. Unless people ask, destroy all the old things in my life, my old interests, my old love of football, my old love of TV, my old love of this, that and the other. And transcendent, put a new love in me, holy love. That I can love the last and the least and the last. Lord, I look for some miracles to come out of this service tonight, not because I'm here, but because you're here. You brought men to pass a milestone tonight. You brought them this all to come to this altar and like, like Samson to die, die to everything else, every fetter that's held them. Lord, break every fetter.