In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of living according to the teachings of Jesus Christ. He highlights that God had a plan for humanity and that plan can only be carried out if individuals follow John 14. The speaker also emphasizes the power of Jesus' resurrection and the opportunity for believers to be filled with the Holy Spirit and the fullness of God. He discusses the call to be sons of God and to shine as lights in the world. The speaker also shares personal experiences of how God led them step by step in their ministry and the blessings that came from obeying God's guidance.

We must never forget the words of Jesus when he said, I am the true vine. He's never given up his job. God Almighty sent him into this world to save the world, and that's his job. And when he left his disciples, he said, As the Father has sent thee into the world, even so sent I you, or them, into the world. And his gracious provision is this, I have appointed you, I have ordained you. There is the only true ordination. He has ordained us to be branches in the vine, it means to be so closely united to the Lord Jesus Christ that we are not, that Christ can have hold of us through the power of the Holy Ghost. Now all these things are in the Bible, and as I meditate upon these wonderful words, John 14 to 17, I wonder why we haven't entered into the possession of them more greatly. I suppose they're too spiritual, they're too wonderful, they are too deep, they're too mighty. The call of God is too wonderful to think that Jesus Christ as Father, as thou art in me and I in thee, that they all may be made perfect in one, and that the world might know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me, and that they all may be one as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee. But that prayer's got to find its fulfillment somewhere along the way. And we had one time a missionary from India in our home, and he said, someday when India becomes converted, then we'll see these words of John fulfilled, because he said the Indian soul is more contemplative than the German soul, or the American soul. And there may be some truth to that, I don't know. But when I look back over the work that God has given us to do, I have to confess, and I don't mean to be humble, to say that I suppose I was the least possible subject that Jesus Christ could choose to be a soul leader with. Born in inferiority complex, there seemed to be absolutely no hope. I tried my best, but I just couldn't. We were, almost all of us like that, except one of my sisters. She was a go-getter, but the rest of us all suffered from that inferiority complex. But from the very beginning, when I was a little boy, I desired to be a soul winner for the love of Jesus. So then the Lord Jesus came into my life. I was still in business. He made me fall in love with Himself in such a way that the whole world seemed to fall out of my attention entirely, and my whole soul and body and spirit were just wrapped up in this one lovership of Jesus Christ. But then one thing happened. By the power of the Holy Ghost, in my shop and in my church, there was a great cry in my soul to see everybody know Jesus like that. I knew people didn't know Him. I knew people in the Baptist church didn't know Jesus. It was so very wonderful, so very stupendously wonderful to me to have Jesus with me all the time that my soul was crying. I understood what Paul meant when he said, there is a perpetual cry, a mourning in my heart for Israel, a perpetual sorrow in my heart. I experienced that actually, and that sorrow in my heart made me do one thing, made me take up a life of prayer for all these people. I prayed more for the Baptists than the preachers did, and I prayed for my whole shop, one by one. And I prayed with an earnestness, and I tried to find a way of getting at them and making them know the Lord Jesus Christ. And I did a lot of foolish things in doing it, but God Almighty saw that, and He undertook. And when I look back over my ministry today, I have to confess that I didn't do anything about it. It was Jesus Christ within me. All the things that have been done during these 43 years, tent meetings and street meetings and other meetings, they were prompted by the Holy Ghost. It wasn't because I'm a go-getter. I'm not like that. I've always said that I was born lazy. They had to carry me around for a whole year before I even tried to use my feet. But anyway, when the Holy Ghost came in, He just did it, that's all. He just prompted me, that's all. He gave me that cry. He gave me that desire. It was just Jesus Christ within. I see it so plainly today, although in former years I didn't think of it like that. But step by step, the Lord led. Led me from step by step into the knowledge of the Son of God. And the way it happened was because God, first of all, put upon me a spirit of prayer that was all-conquering. And that's, of course, what Jesus means when He says, I've ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain. And herein is my Father glorified that you bring forth much fruit. In other words, it's His job to bring forth the fruit in the branches. And if we leave that job in His hands and leave ourselves in His hands, that true vine will see to it that the branches are constantly under the purging influence of the Holy Ghost and He will constantly strive to make us bring forth more fruit. That's His gracious promise. And then He tells us how it's done. That whatsoever ye ask the Father in my name, He may give it to you. And that the early disciples seemed to understand better than we do today. They gave themselves continually to prayer and then the ministry of the Word was effective. But when these disciples gave themselves continually to prayer, they meant to say that they had to abide in the Lord Jesus Christ. They knew that they couldn't do anything themselves. Now, here was the world and God had sent them into the world and had sent them and commanded them to go into all the world and preach the Gospel and yet they didn't do it. They tarried there in the city of Antioch. They prayed and tarried. And why were they wasting their time like that? Why? Because they knew they couldn't do anything. But they kept the presence of God in their midst and they kept their union to the Son of God like that. And that's the light that God has kindled in this work and has kept it burning and shining in this work not as much as He could have. I've always thought, isn't it a strange thing that the people of God who have so great a call don't see that they are forsaking the fountain of living water when they forsake their prayer life. And one of the first things God did for me even while I was in business was to send to me that book by Bonds Preacher and Prayer. I tell you, that book set me on fire. It underscored that cry in my soul and while I couldn't preach and didn't want to preach I knew that I couldn't preach. My brother was a good preacher, an eloquent preacher, but I wasn't. I gave myself continually to prayer. It was a hard job, but it was the Holy Ghost that fired me on to pray and that book helped me tremendously so that I prayed without ceasing. And every morning and every night before working hours and after working hours I spent almost all of my spare time just calling on God and sometimes it was a very hard job. Sometimes I didn't feel the presence of the Lord, sometimes I felt his unction to pray, but I prayed and prayed and prayed and God gave results. That was the wonderful thing. And step by step the Lord prepared me for the kind of a ministry He had ordained for me. I saw an article in Bread of Life the other day by Mrs. Robinson where she says if you have been out of the way, if you want to be in God's way and you rededicate yourself to do God's will, the Almighty God will take you as you are and He'll certainly put you into the place that He has appointed for you. And so it was years that God was working in my life to put me into the place that was appointed for me. And men tried to misguide me. Oh my Lord, I've been thanking God these days because God didn't allow me to follow my own stupid ways and to follow men. If I had, my Lord, what would I have lost? There was a time after I've been in Brooklyn when the Lord spoke to me about something He wanted very much in this world. And when I suggested it to the brethren, they rose up, they said, nothing doing, absolutely nothing doing. And then God spoke to me again, of course, by Mrs. Robinson. He said, son, get busy. Get busy. If you do what I want you to do, it's going to be a hard road to travel, but you'll have a blessing. That's the way He spoke. And so after I had prayed that thing through, the whole church was in favor of it and it happened. And what God called a blessing was a blessing that will last throughout the ages of eternity. I don't know where I would be now if I hadn't obeyed God at that time. But that's the way the Lord Jesus Christ makes us fruitful. He says He'll purge us and make us more fruitful, but it can only happen when He is the boss, when He is the head, when He is recognized as the true vine without whom we can do nothing. He makes that so plain that without me you can't do nothing anymore, then the branch can bring forth fruit without the vine. And so the call of God comes to us again to live a life at the feet of Jesus. It will not be an inactive life, but it will become a fruitful life. And when I look back over these years, I wish I could tell the story. I can't tell it as well as Uncle Edwin or Wally or Brother Gardner. I've been in the swim all these years and I'm not able to tell like it ought to be told. But when I think of it now, I realize the wonderful way in which God has led us step by step, and every step was His step. Every step He went before, and every step He asked us to take He had provided for. That is the wonderful thing. As He led us to Pratchett Avenue, that place seemed so absolutely and so utterly hopeless. First of all, it was honeycombed by false doctrine. The whole world talked about the German mission in Brooklyn. And it was decried as a place of false doctrine, and it was. And when I came here, the first night on Wednesday night, a girl got saved or pretended to get saved. And on the following Sunday, we had that Pratchett Avenue filled with people and that very girl went as crazy as a bed bug and spoiled the whole meeting. I wrote to Elder Brooks and told him about the wonderful success I had in Brooklyn. I told him what had happened in Rotch as to their two things that happened that were out of the way. And I said in here, my first conference is in the insane asylum. What a how-do-you-do. And how discouraging that might have been. But nothing discouraged me because I knew I was in God's will. God had sent me to Pratchett Avenue. And I knew that if He didn't take care of it, I wouldn't. And not only that, but there were other things that were very discouraging. And you know, I welcome these discouraging features. I did. I said, now the Lord can show what He can do. And immediately, God began to perform miracle after miracle. Things that were unheard of. He saved sinners right off the street. The brethren in charge wanted me to go around Brooklyn and drum back all the backsliders. There were many Pentecostal people that had gotten so sick of Pratchett Avenue. One woman had sworn she'd never set foot in Pratchett Avenue again because of the fanaticism. And they wanted me to go around and drum them back. And I said, nothing doing. I kept giving myself to prayer. And Jesus Christ kept giving Himself to me. And in every meeting, He began to manifest Himself. And the wonderful thing was that God began to save people off the street. Sinners, Lutherans, Catholics. And one night, I walked down Myrtle Avenue. And when I came back to Schreiber's home, they were having a little coffee clutch. I said, you know what I saw tonight on Myrtle Avenue? They said, what did you see? I said, not a single street meeting. What is the matter with us? Well, they had no heart at all for street meetings. But when I talked to them for a while, why, they were willing to come. They were mostly middle-aged people at that time. And we started street meetings. And all these people that had been saved, wonderfully saved, they got hold. And God brought people to that street meeting. And God convicted them. And God saved them. And by that time, we moved into Seneca Avenue. And so, step by step, the Lord prepared the way. And today, it is truly wonderful, like Brother Gardner mentioned, how God has taken care of His own work. Where we didn't know anything. Absolutely. We didn't know what God had in mind when He suggested camp. I didn't know. But today, we realize how great a plan God had with that camp. And what wonderful things God has been able to do. Now, who could have figured it out? No human being could have figured that out. God had to figure it out. And God did it. And God knew what He wanted. And God knows what He wants with you. But He is not going to carry out His plan with you. Unless you take John 14 and live it. Oh, Jesus. Lord Jesus. You are filling all the world with the power of Your resurrection. And the best thing about that is the fact that He offered to me to be filled, not only with the Holy Ghost, but with all the fullness of God. And these things are in the Bible. When the Lord Jesus Christ begins His discourse in John 14, He begins to open the door into eternity wide. Into the sonship of God. For every one of us. And that call is the highest call that God Almighty ever issued to any of His creatures. To be sons of God without rebuke. In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom we shine as lights in the world. And to be fruitful that our fruit should remain. And that whatsoever we ask the Father in His name. What union that produces. What union that requires. Between myself and Jesus. And we think we are a prayerful lot. But folks, as Elder Brooks said, I tell you, we fool ourselves when we think that. We ought to have a prayer in our souls that will take all our bones and every part of our being and possess it. God wants the whole spirit and soul and body to be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the great victory that God had in mind for His church is yet waiting to be accomplished upon this earth. And I'm so thankful that God has given us that call. And He's given us this call a thousand times. And He did that in the faith home in Zion. And I saw the broken vessels. And I saw the dried up branches there. And there were a few. And oh how very few that really entered in upon that kind of a life. And have become real fruitful branches in the vine. And yet God holds that call over everyone. And it's a very personal call between Jesus Christ and yourself. He's talking to you personally. He wants you to see that you can have Him. And that He wants you. And that call that comes from Calvary is so clear. And He wants you to be in love with Him. Because He was in love with you before you ever loved Him. And He wants you to be His before you ever thought of it. He purchased you with His own blood. And He offers Himself to every one of us so personally. And that's what a prayer life will bring. And prayer life is not putting on a street jacket and becoming sort of an Adventist that walks in the law. A law that binds you to certain times or anything of that nature. But it makes your whole being to be a temple. A charged vessel. Charged with the power of His resurrection. And the Lord said to me years ago I used to think that to live like Mrs. Judd lived to shut myself in for months on end. And just shut myself away from the world was the best way to live. And the Lord said, no. You can be very busy in the kingdom of God and still be alone with God. And still be shut in with Him. And that is the call of God over every one of our lives. Let us follow Him. Bind us to Thyself. By the power of Your outstretched hand. We thank You for the wide open door that was set before us which no man can shut. I want you to know that my Bible is true. And that it has been written for you. And that every word of promise is for you. And I want you to claim these exceeding great and precious promises. And never rest until they are lived out within your own life. That is until you can say not I, but Christ.