In this sermon, the preacher shares stories of revival and the power of God working through ordinary individuals. He emphasizes the importance of surrendering to God and being found in Him. The preacher also highlights the consequences of God not finding a person to stand in the gap and how it leads to judgment. He concludes by discussing the love of God and how surrendering more to Him allows us to experience His greatness.

For more messages by Glenn Meldrum and in his presence ministries go to www. I HP M I n Is t ry.com You are welcome to make additional copies of this CD for free distribution Why was Paul the radical that he was Paul was a radical Paul was a radical to the bone But I want to look at why Paul was a radical I believe there's a reason why Paul was a radical and I believe that if we come to the point to understand What made Paul the radical and begin to plead with God that we might become that I believe God can make Paul's out of us Just as the scripture tells God is not a respecter of persons what he's done for one person. He can do for another He's not a respecter of seasons of places of nationalities He is willing to use anybody that he can grab hold of that wants to be grabbed hold of and so he will do it And do it willingly if we will but allow him but in Ezekiel The 22nd chapter is a very sobering verse a very disturbing verse But it's in the 22nd chapter of Ezekiel in 30 for 30th verse. He says I've looked for a man Among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land So I would not have to destroy it But I found none So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger bringing down on their own heads All they have done declares the Sovereign Lord What is he plain and simple saying he says I look for a man that I could pour my power through To demonstrate mercy to a people and I could not find a man So the only thing left to me was justice and I had to judge the people as a result History demonstrates that there were times where God could not find a man could not find a woman to stand in the gap So he judged the nation. He judged the people he judged the town But equally as much we have a history that is full of accounts of men and women who stood in the gap and God Used them to pour out mercy and when you want to look at it in the most dynamic Expression of it, which I'll touch on it a little bit is in the expression of revival where revival is the most dynamic powerful thing The most aggressive thing that we can do to touch a perishing world. There is no more powerful No greater weapon than to see the glory of God unleashed through her to touch a perishing world And if you look at the life of Paul, you'll find something though The Bible language does not speak it in that way when we look at it We will understand something that everywhere Paul went there was revival So Paul was a radical God found a man who would stand in the gap. So as a result he poured mercy through the man He poured mercy to touch a perishing world poured mercy to change lives and we'll look at that and we'll look at what was really His heart right from the beginning of his salvation. He was a radical Not a year later not after he went to Bible school Not after he got some experience under his belt and he matured and started learning how to do it right from the very moment of salvation The radicalness of the gospel was being made manifest and actually what happens with Paul the more he matures the more radical he becomes Now we have kind of the opposite concept we mature and we tame down That is what I have seen in my own church in Detroit. My church in Detroit was a very radical church They were taken off the street. So they were very radical and I don't want to say this in a bad way But it is the reality that I have seen and it is the reality I've heard from many other churches that had similar origins as what mine was What happened with our church as these converts came out of drugs and came out of the craziness of their life? And they started walking with Jesus. They started getting jobs They started changing then they got married when they got married then they started having kids and then you stop seeing them Those who were once radical on fire They'd be in the worst parts of Detroit ministering on the street then all of a sudden they have no time because they are so busy about Everything else the priorities of life got totally changed and yes They needed to then be husbands and parents or wives and and parents and that and take care of the business of life But now the business of the kingdom got so set aside that you saw the effect I felt the effect in my church in Detroit and one sense was so overwhelmed going How do I turn the tide God? How do I bring back the radicalness that it once knew that it once experienced? How do I keep people in a place when they start prospering to keep a fire burning in them? How do you accomplish that and Ultimately, I'll tell you at that point in my life. I had no idea. I Had no idea how to accomplish it and I won't tell you I'm too much smarter today But I can approach it from what I'll be preaching this evening Act 17 six, here's the testimony of Paul from a worldly man These who have turned the world upside down have come here to It was in Thessalonica. That's a testimony of a worldly man here. They are enraged that Paul has come to town He's turned upside down the world Now, you know, I made a statement earlier that God's not a respecter persons So what God did through Paul can he do through others? Now we can go and say Paul was a special man, but I don't really believe that I believe there was qualities that God could use in the man. He grabbed hold of it They'll never be another Paul So God's not looking for other Paul's but the truth is that God can take people and use them in Tremendous ways such as what he used Paul He's not looking for education or or all these other things that Paul ended up having He can use simple people and history is full of it History is full of it Smith Wigglesworth was such a man that God used a totally Uneducated man that only learned how to read because his wife started teaching him how to read the Bible He never read another book in his life other than the Bible So God can take the uneducated. He can take the educated He can take any person and grab hold of them and do tremendous exploits through But there are some keys about it that I believe are very important acts in 19 chapter in 26 verse Here's Paul in Ephesus and it says and you see here and this is another testimony of an unsaved man Demetrius This is Demetrius the silversmith that caused Paul nightmares in another place He says remember Demetrius, but you know because he's caused me much damage And so it says and you see in here how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large Numbers of people here in Ephesus and practically the whole province of Asia. He says that man-made gods are no gods at all Ephesus was a major city. It was a Roman colony So it was a major metropolis. So let's be conservative with it. Let's say that Ephesus had maybe 50,000 people there 50,000 people I Want you to think about 50,000 people how many people would have to get saved? For the silversmiths to get angry at their industry. Let's make it in a more realistic manner How many people are in your community here? How many people would have to get saved until the bar owners started getting angry at you? How many people have to get saved before the drug dealers started rising up enraged because they're losing their business We have to understand the impact of what happened with the revival that was happening with Paul So many were being saved that the silversmiths were enraged because they were losing their business. What was their builders making idols? So many people are being saved they were no longer buying idols giving them the family friends and all the all the fetishes They were the businesses were hurting. This was not a riot of the issue of religion It was a riot because these men were greedy and they were losing their business So Paul was a man who turned the world upside down because something burned inside of him Something raged inside of him the power of God was made manifest for a reason and God wants to do that in his people today The question is can he find a people that will stand in the gap? Will he find a people that will say yes Lord, let it be me no matter what it costs That's really what he wants to do. That's really where he wants to bring us I made a statement about revival that revival is the most radical work that the church could ever do. I don't believe there's anything more Valuable that the church can do than to seek the power of God unleashed through her to the change of perishing world We can do evangelism and you know, I don't want to say this in a bad way I want to say this in a right way for right understanding But Billy Graham precious man with this world will have a tremendous loss when that man passes away I don't know if anybody that can fill those shoes of that man, but yet you take the Billy Graham Crusades and You find a keeping rate of those who come forward only three to seven percent depending on what part of the country world they're in So you have a thousand people come forward only five percent Let's say you make a make an average between a five percent of those people walk with God Only five and I rejoice that five percent of them will walk with God It's better that some of them do then all of them go to hell. That's good But when you go into revivals of old you find 85 percent keeping like the 1904 Welch revival You go into the into the revival is all touch on in a couple of minutes the Irish revival of 1859 There were whole parishes and when it refers to to an old writings of parish It's not the idea of a building of a church of a parish It was the whole city the village. So the pastor was a pastor not of his church He was a pastor of the village He was a pastor of that whole parish and whole parishes when they went when God swept through there was not one Backslider from the midst of them Parish after parish after parish because the power of God was so unleashed conviction was so great That people never turned back to it never turned back to their sin. So let me give you a couple accounts from pastors In the revival of the 1859 Irish revival in the 1859 Irish revival is a by-product of a revival that broke out in New York City in 1857 which was is commonly called the prayer meeting revival Then it was a layman Jeremiah Lamphere was the man that God used to spark that revival and Jeremiah Lamphere Was saved through Charles Finney and through the revivals of Charles Finney and he attended Charles Finney's Church in New York City And so ultimately we can see that that Jeremiah Lamphere was a by-product of the revivals of Finney in New York City alone in That revival in the prayer meeting revival, New York City had a population about seven hundred thousand at that time 50,000 were saved 50,000 were saved in that revival in New York City alone in America at that time a million people came to Christ It jumped the ocean and a million people were saved in the United Kingdom 500,000 in England 300,000 in Scotland a hundred thousand in Wales a hundred thousand in Ireland What God is able to do in a short period of time when he finds men and women that he can entrust his presence to What he's able to do is is astounding is mind-boggling and he is the same yesterday as he's always been and he's just looking for men and women that he can entrust his presence to 1859 in the city of Ballymena Pastor said when the great outpouring began worldly men were silent with fear Careless men sobbed like children drunkards and boasting blasphemers were awed in the solemnity languid believers were stirred up ministers who had often toiled in heartfelt sorrow Suddenly found themselves beset by inquires and wholly unequal to demands which were made so many were being saved the ministers couldn't even keep up with it Reverend John Stewart outside the city of Coleraine said hundreds have been converted to the Lord some stricken down when the Spirit of God came upon them like a rushing mighty wind Others converted when he spoke to their conscious by his still small voice The first effect of the revival was that fear came upon every soul then the church was filled to suffocation and we went to the open fields to declare the message of mercy to a hungry and Thirsting population of all the stricken ones. I do not know of one backslider What were the stricken ones that was a term that they used in that day and age of people that were hit by the power Of God with such force that they were knocked to the ground sometimes unconscious sometimes trembling sometimes It's weeping and wailing but of all those that has such a divine Confrontation that they were overwhelmed with their sin not one of them in that revival backslid not one of them Reverend William McGill in the city of Dundrod Said I have leaned over the prostrate bodies of men and women laboring under strong conviction of sin I've heard the sighs and groans of breaking hearts and witnessed with a feeling of wonder and awe the mental agony of tear and terrible struggle of souls wrestling with the powers of darkness When the battle was won I heard with almost equal wonder the shout of victory The revival spread with amazing speed after the evening sermon people went out laboring under deep conviction The graveyard was immediately filled with groups praying around the prostrate bodies of men and women Some were in trances others were crying for mercy some fell into the arms of friends or staggered and dropped to their knees a few Fled from the terror of the scene. There were no backsliders from this revival in Dundrod What God is able to accomplish when he can find the people when he will find a people desperate enough to pray in the move Of God and desperate enough to take it forward on their knees and desperate enough to see a perishing world safe No matter what it costs them. God is able to do it. He's not a respecter of persons Let's begin to look at Philippians the third chapter now. I Believe Philippians 3 really reveals the heart of Paul the third chapter begins Basically with Paul giving his worldly credentials And so he goes through his worldly credentials to you and I they mean nothing So we read his worldly credentials and we're not we're not moved by it in the least And he says if anyone thinks he has reason to put confidence in the flesh I have more Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin a Hebrew of Hebrews in regard to the law of Pharisee As for zeal persecuting the church as for legal listic righteousness faultless And we read those things we say so But we have to understand a little bit about Paul in that day and age The first thing is he was a Pharisee as a Pharisee. He was a wealthy man Pharisees were wealthy individuals They were the religious political leaders of the day and age So they were the movers and shakers of society some believe that Paul was even on the Sanhedrin Council Which would have put him to a place of authority higher than what many have have commonly thought But one way or the other Paul was educated by the very best of the day by Gamaliel He had this great education and it says he was more zealous than all of his equals So here was a man driven with a purpose he had an agenda and so his agenda was not pure It was not a pure agenda because he had this religion in him Legalistic righteousness that wasn't about relationship with God. It was holding to the letter of the law But there was another thing he was driven with political power and wanting to have that power made manifest through him He was a man driven if we would think of it today we could think of it as a Politician that is fighting and clawing trying to get the head because he wants to be the the big cheese of a state or ultimately of a nation the fighting clawing to get somewhere to be as somebody and when you begin to look at the credentials from what the reality was of It you begin to say well this man was an impressive man in the world What is our stories though? Each of us have our own concept of what it meant to be a successful worldly person Each of us did and so I could go through this room and ask each of us what it was and would all depend on Where we were in the world before we became a Christian. I came out of the drug culture So as a result my concept of worldly success would have been out of the whole drug culture but there could be others in the room that your concept of worldly success would be to have a roll of hundred dollar bills in your in your pocket and you're driving the most expensive cars that There are and just have all kinds of money that you can just blow and and flaunt before people Maybe another would be that that you were a philanderer and you just thought what was most important that you could have as many women as your your heart's desire or Maybe there was something a little more a little more nice that that maybe as a woman you wanted this wonderful country home That's this white clapboard house and and just Have a wonderful husband that loved you and and three kids and a big dog and and so on and just have this dream of What it meant to be successful in a home One way the other we all had concepts of what it was to be successful Now understanding what Paul and the emphasis Paul put upon his success is very important when we begin to read Beyond this and see what moved the heart of Paul because until we understand that he was a very successful man And that he was a man driven by his success driven Until we understand that we will not really understand the great extent of what he's really saying here And so let's begin in the seventh verse of the third chapter Philippians But whatever was to my prophet I now consider loss for the sake of Christ What is more I consider everything a loss compared to spassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord For whose sake I have lost all things and consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ and be found in him Not having a righteous of my own that comes from the law But that which is through faith in Christ the righteous that comes from God and is by faith I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings Becoming like him in his death and so somehow to attain to the resurrection of the dead. I believe these verses fully Define why Paul was a radical that he was why God used the man the way that he did They came across the CD that had a song that came out of this section of Scripture And let me read to you one verse and wife heard the first time this verse I broke down weeping He says all I once held dear Built my life upon all this world reveres and wars to own All I once thought gain. I have counted loss spent and worthless now compared to this Knowing you Jesus knowing you You have brought me to weeping was that one little term there wars to own. I Remember what it was to be a worldly man without Christ. I Remember the loneliness that ate at my soul. I remember the agony. I remember the absolute hopelessness that I had I felt trapped Not even understanding what trapped was but I felt trapped and didn't know how to get out But didn't know there was anything to get out to I had no concept of it Didn't know that that that there was any remedy for my situation. I was miserable inside I was feeling hopeless inside. And so what I do I gave myself over more and more to drugs to try and drowned it out and So what I was doing as a young man was clawing was fighting was striving was warring to own Was warring to have purpose and significance to have value in my life I wanted to be loved but couldn't find it in my home because of my sinful home. It did not exist in there in a real way And so you go in other ways looking for it. You go in other pursuits trying to find some value some acceptance of individuals The warring the clawing the fighting the striving how many of you remember what it was to be a lost man a lost woman How many of you remember the state of your heart apart from Christ and the pain and the sorrow of what it is? The tragedy is we begin to forget We forget what we were and when we forget what we were we forget what they are right now Every unsaved person on this planet. I don't care where they are whether they're rich or poor whether they're seemingly in in prosperity and in Popularity or whether in total obscurity Nobody knows they even exist Every single person in one way or the other is warring clawing fighting striving to have an obtain Because every single person is aching to be loved aching for purpose aching for something of value Every single purpose no matter where they are in this life. No matter what's going on. They are all clawing and fighting and warring to own Paul was a perfect example of that. It's what he was doing. But yet in the midst of his religious political pursuit He felt absolutely destitute absolutely barren absolutely empty Thinking he was doing God's service by persecuting the church But yet the whole thing he does is causing him a greater agony and turmoil and pain inside his own heart his own life the warring to own the warring to own You know what? I'm talking about. He wants to bring us back to that place He wants us to understand it to understand that doesn't mean that we have had to live a crazy life Those who have lived a crazy life and understand what it is to be forgiven is it is a tremendous privilege But I think it's a greater privilege never have to go the craziness of life but yet the same in the same thing has to come to both of them those who have lived some crazy life in the Madness of this world or those who have grown up within the church and however, they come to their salvation experience both of them must come to the same identical point that they must see the reality of sin the Absolutely hideousness of it and come the point to understand the greatness of the gift of God to forgive us When we understand no matter where our life has come from when we understand the tremendous gift of what we have been given of this great Salvation that he purchased us with his own blood that he went and rescued us that he reached out in his divine Tenderness and pulled us out of our pits of despair When we understand that we begin to see something that there's only one response in return Which is the abandonment of our life only one thing fitting and so here was Paul warring to own clawing fighting striving a Man thinking of that. He was a man of purpose of value and also none the Damascus Road here's God being a good God and so he in mercy and love knocked him to the ground and Blinded him and in the act of blinding him then opened his understanding to that which he was helpless to see of himself Our sin today will still blind us Apart from the grace of God opening our understanding and on that Damascus Road when he was undone Three days he was in repentance three days. He was blind until forgiveness came to him You know you go into into history and you see the revivals of Finney There was times where Finney would preach one particular count He said just a half dozen words and the conviction fell on the people with such force that they were weeping and wailing all over the Floor and they were in repentance for three days You go on to the Belgian Congo revival the revival that lasted almost 40 years moving from place to place to East Africa and Accounts would be conviction would fall upon the people and they'd be in repentance for three days Would you want to know what we have no idea? What is to truly be convicted in a tremendous way of our sin because we still don't understand it Even after I preach the message this morning. I don't understand it It takes a divine encounter to begin to really begin to see the truth of it And so God brought conviction so great upon Paul that three days. He was in the agony of his soul He would not eat he would not drink God was upsetting that man's life to beginning and end because only when his life would be upset Would he begin to be able to see the reality of who Jesus was and what Jesus really wanted to do? Only in that place that he was blinded Blinded naturally that he could begin to see spiritually Could he come and make this tremendous statement about the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus Why would Paul leave all of his worldly success? Why would he leave his wealth? Why would he leave the comfort of his position of the the position? He could have had that he knew was waiting for him in the future. Whatever that might have been How is it that Paul would give that all up? Forsake it all to go on a life that now he would be pursued and hated and beaten and mocked that he would now be a criminal Why would he do such a thing because of the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus in that? Confrontation of the Damascus Road something so real broke into his life. He saw the reality of who this God was He saw the reality of mercy He saw the reality of love and it was only one response was the abandonment of his life the total giving up of everything that he Had everything that he owned everything that he desired every ambition that he had Because he saw him who sits upon the throne. He saw him who was crucified for he saw the reality of this God Why don't we abandon our lives is what we should do because we've not seen his reality We are not truly convinced that he is worth the surrender of everything that we own of everything that we have of every desire of every Ambition we are not yet convinced of it Paul turned the world upside down because he was a man who saw the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus. Let me ask a question here What is the greatest privilege that man will ever experience what is the greatest privilege We could say heaven eternal life Could say all kinds of things, but you know, there's only one prize and that's Jesus himself Do you know when you and I die And we begin to walk through them pearly gates Your family members may be standing there waiting for you. There may be friends waiting for you, but you want you're not gonna care when you walk them go gates and You just get a glimpse a little bit of the one who sits on that throne There's only gonna be one thing that's going to overwhelm your heart one thing that you're gonna want to do and you will run to his feet so that you can fall at you his feet and Just weep and Thanksgiving that he would accept you that you would be his son forever there after a millennia then maybe You might look around But it will take at least that before you can even begin to deal with the magnificence and the wonder of this God We do not know him. Really. We do not know him. Really. We barely scratch the surface We have hardly even seen him because if we really saw him our lives would be so ablaze with his purpose with his desire Serving him would be such an easy thing and if he could ask any of thing of us and we would say yes Lord at the drop of a hat there would be no debate. No question. No nothing We would take all of our prosperity all of our time all that we are and lay at his feet and says anything you want God you want me to be a workman in the marketplace? I'll work in the marketplace. You want me to be a missionary? I'll be a missionary. I don't care All I want is my entire life to give glory to you if we all saw him if we knew who he really was Roger Ellsworth made this statement. He says we want God to do great things But we don't want it intensely enough to seek it or to run the risk of having our lives disturbed But one cannot take hold of God Without an intense longing for God You know, we say we want to see a move of God see God's power poured out But we're not willing to pay the price. I Remember reading this one account in one of Jim symbol his books a pastor from Australia came to his church just to visit he came in cognito. He didn't want anybody know that he was there But somehow he found out that this man was there similar finds out and asked him to come up to the platform and he says would you just say a few words of the congregation and So he went to the congregation and just made this short little statement He says you can tell how popular the church is by who's there Sunday morning You can tell how popular the pastor is by who there is Sunday night you can tell how popular Jesus by who's at the prayer meeting How popular is Jesus in this church? That's the reality of it. You see if we understood who he was We'd be at his feet I'm not gonna take the time to go into the Hebrides awakening But the Hebrides awakening was about as every revival every revival is birthed in prayer Never been one that has not been birthed in prayer. That's why if a church doesn't become a praying church There's no hope of revival. It will not come. It will never come. It will never come But yet the converts that came in to that revival those who were saved Became like those who prayed in the revival and you know what the prayer meetings were the prayer meetings were two nights a week From 10 o'clock at night to 4 or 5 in the morning You know how they gauged the backsliders of that revival those who stopped going to the prayer meetings Do you want to know what by that revival? We would not even be considered saved Because we have no time for God, but we have time for everything else we have time for for business We have time for for fun. We have time for television. We have time for ease and relaxation But do we have time for him if I knew who he was it would burn and rage in my bones If I knew who he was I could not resist being at his feet if I understood the surpassing Greatness of knowing Christ Jesus. I would lay my life down my treasures If I understood who he was Well, I was Paul the radical that he was because he knew the surpassing greatness of Christ Jesus and as a result You know what happened? He could make the statement then I Consider the world them as he put it Rubbish that I may gain Christ The only way that he could look at the world and consider it rubbish or I like the King James how it puts it dung manure The only way that he couldn't he could look at the world rightly was that he had to see rightly who this God was Until I have an overwhelming view of who this God is of his beauty of his magnificence until that really happens I will never have a right view of the world And so until I have that right view of God somehow the world will still be pretty to me in its own ways It'll be glamorous It'll be the idea that life's about ease or fun or prosperity or one thing or another Because I look to everything else other than the prize being to walk with Christ an unbroken fellowship That is the prize to walk with him an unbroken fellowship. That's what we were created for That's what we were purchased for to walk with him an unbroken fellowship. Is that the prize of our life? Is that what drives us? Is that the thing that moves us? Is that the thing that brings the point that we will literally do anything that he would ask or give up anything? He would want of us. Are we really healed it is what we think Because the only way that he could consider the world as rubbish was he had to have a correct understanding of who the Savior was I have to have the point of reference until I have the point of reference of what is truly holy and beautiful What is truly lovely? I will never know what is truly ugly And you want to know why the church is still enamored with world Let me share something with you that I think is so disturbing. This is the reality we face as Non-christians we fought we warred we clawed we strive to have stuff to make us happy to pursue things to bring purpose in our life We come to Christ and somehow we start giving our life to him. We start walking with him, but some way or another However, it happens Somehow the fighting and the clawing to own starts coming back into our life and we now think I'll be happy when I have another House, I'll be happy when I have another car. I'll be happy when I have a better job. I'll be happy if I have another wife I'll be happy when and It's all put into another place in another time We go back to the same identical thing of fighting and clawing that we have not found Jesus to be more than enough We need Jesus and Jesus and stuff Jesus and money Jesus and comfort Jesus and ease whatever the Jesus end is We have not found him to be more than if why could Paul turn the world upside down? Because you know what? He didn't need Jesus and anything else. He didn't even need Jesus and his own body That's why he would give his backs to the Snyder's That's why he would allow himself to be beaten and stoned That's why he would allow himself to go hungry for the sake of seeing others saved that's why he would allow himself to be abused and taken advantage of because there was something more important than his own body of his own ease his own comfort his own rights and The only way he came to that place Was he had to see the reality of who this God was and you know where that revelation came? It came on that Damascus Road. That was the beginning of the revelation not the end of it Just the beginning of it and he saw the reality who this God was and there was only one result Why is it Paul abandoned himself and in just a few short days time there wanting to take his life? Because he saw who he was and only one response was the fitting response to give to this God only one response Do we understand that's what Christianity really is? there's only one response if I understand who he is if I understand what Calvary is if I understand the tremendous gift and Privilege he offers me. There's only one right response and that one right response is the abandonment of My entire life the abandonment of all that I am The abandonment of it and then he says that we may gain Christ And so how do we gain Christ? I'm gonna touch on two points on gaining Christ is very briefly and I'm not a preacher of how-tos. I Leave the how-tos to pastoral preaching and so as an evangelist I deal with heart issues The church I was saved in the evangelism out of that church. I cannot even describe you how astronomical it was For a time there was this live-in ministry a master's commission before master's commission was ever even thought of So I lived in this place with for three years in a live-in ministry situation with 26 other guys It was a riot. The memories I have are just tremendous being in that you cannot even imagine The amount of evangelism that went out of there When I was saved the day I was saved It was in a park where I dealt drugs It was noon on a Saturday. I had a Damascus Road experience. I was in that park by myself and God came on me right there touched me and I was instantly delivered from my drugs instantly delivers from smoking and drinking Instantly set free and I stood in that park and started telling my friends for the next eight or nine hours about Jesus Nobody told me to do that. It was just it was so real. It was so real. I couldn't be silent. I had to tell somebody It's what he wants the revelation of his beauty of his splendor of his magnificence that it grabs hold of our hearts and it literally Transforms our lives everything about it that everything as a result in this world becomes obscure And so when I look at gaining a Christ, I'm going to look at two heart issues the how-tos we can find The heart is the problem because you know what? I've really seen about evangelism the problem with evangelism is not knowledge. The church has more than enough knowledge to win the loss the problem of evangelism is a heart issue and Until the heart has changed there'll be no evangelism they have ministries out there and I don't say this in a bad way of these ministries but they'll come into your church and they'll teach out evangelize take you to door-to-door and knock on the Doors and you'll you'll have a special service and so on and you know what happens when they're gone nothing Because the heart hasn't changed they were taught a program how to do it, but their hearts were never changed But you want to know what radicals can't be silent They can't be silent they got to proclaim it they got to say it because it burns inside of them They have seen the beauty of this God so great so tremendous that they've got to proclaim it to others And so how do we gain Christ? The first thing is a burning passion for him. Whatever consumes my heart will consume my thoughts and consume my desires That is such an important thing. I cannot I can't emphasize that enough Whatever truly consumes your heart is what's going to consume your life. Is it business? Is it sports? Is it ease is a comfort or is it Jesus? Whatever consumes our heart will define our life That's what will motivate us that which is what will be the underlying force in everything that we do Whatever grabs hold of our heart So if I want to gain Christ, I must have a burning passion for him the man who wants to get rich Guess what? He'll forfeit everything to get rich The man who wants to pursue pornography, he'll forfeit job He'll forfeit everything to do it because the addiction of the sin so grabs hold of him The thing that grabs hold of us will possess us and drive us whether it be the Holy Ghost or whether it be an unholy ghost But what grabs hold of our heart will set in motion what our life will be st Augustine made this this powerful little statement. He says no one longs for eternal incorruptible and immortal life Unless he'd first be wearied of this temple corruptible and mortal life So what he was saying is we will not truly long for heaven until we are weary of this life We are in love with this world. Hear me now. Why aren't we radicals? Why aren't we Paul's because we are in love with this world. We are not in love with him now I love the modern worship. Okay. I love the modern worship. I love singing love songs to Jesus. That is my favorite I love loving him But you'll find something absent from the modern worship and you know what that is Heaven you do not see many songs sung about heaven. You want to know what because we don't really want to go there yet We're in love with the world now life is easy. It's comfortable and that's part of the danger of prosperity. We want to hear it now We want it all now bless me God make me happy I'll see you sometime in the future, but you can look at the world right now where the gospel is exploding You know what's going on? They have their eyes fixed upon another place. They understand pain in this world And so they're not in love with this world They see it for what it is Because the comfort of this world blinds the reality of our eyes that we think because things are easy and comfortable isn't life wonderful But yet those who have a passion for him have an eternal focus of their life. They want to be with him They want to be with him, you know, I'm gonna be real honest and you might think this is nuts and that's okay But I don't want to live too long My heart I hate to be with him I plead with God on a constant basis God not one second beyond my usefulness when my days are done dear God Please let me be out of this world. Let me be out of this world. I can't wait to be with you. I Hate to be with him. That's what was in the part of Paul He says I want to be with Jesus, but I need to be with you He stayed here only because he knew it was a necessity though Was aching to be with this God When our hearts are driven by that we will pay whatever price they want because then this world is not what's important the prosperity ease Comfort is not what's important anymore What becomes important is him because we're living with an eternal perspective and we want to be with him. So we are driven by that We have lost our eternal perspective Eternity does not define the modern church anymore. We live in light of the temporal not in light of the eternity The second way that we gained Christ was reckless abandonment absolute total complete surrender He will not accept half of you Robert Murray McSheehan was a tremendous man of God and in the older time the way that they would do it as the pastor's study would be off the back of the platform and He would come out of there of being face to face with God to be face to face with the people in the pulpit He would just step in the pulp before he even said a word the people begin to weep and wail Over the conviction that would come upon them Here's a man That the power of God was made manifest where he saw revival in 1839 in Scotland and then he makes a statement in his diary. I feel persuaded That if it could follow the Lord more fully myself My ministry would be used to make a deeper impression than it has yet done The sad thing is we think we're so surrendered and we don't understand how much we're not I'm just being honest with you What a detriment it is to us that we think ourselves so surrendered so yielded and we don't understand how far away we really are The sad reality of that we're never desperate for this God never desperate to press in never desperate to know him more So we grow comfortable with staying at a distance from him Only so far God only so far because we get too close. He might upset my life But you know God is looking for men and women who want the Lord to literally upset our lives But absolute surrender is not a side issue We're not as yielded as what we think and he wants to take us to a place where we understand that surrender is a Constant issue in our life Surrender is a never-ending issue. It's not a one-time event that you do in an altar of repentance one time It is a lifestyle pursuit that is needed because you are constantly in a lifestyle of change in Circumstances that are changing you are constantly brought to the point. What will I do? Will I submit to Christ in this issue or will I not will I grow angry at that person? Or will I walk in love? How will I response surrender issues are a constant thing in our life? And so a lifestyle of surrender is a constant thing. Sometimes we do it, right? Sometimes we do it wrong But if I don't understand my need of deeper surrender and the greater need of change in my life I will never pursue it. I will grow comfortable and content right with where I'm at We have said this time again. I've heard this from many pulpits says don't pray for patience And I believe that's a total absolute error What we do is we think pray safe little prayers tame little prayers don't pray prayers that'll upset your life well I have a whole different standpoint to it I believe that we should pray the most radical prayers we can that will upset our lives because we need our lives upset We need to have we need to have patience. So we need God undoing our impatience and everything else We need to be praying that God is undoing our lives that he's upsetting it rather than saying God make my life nice and easy and safe and fun and Guess what? You won't have a move of God in your own heart then when God breaks in he's gonna upset your life The church today does not understand repentance the tremendous gift of repentance That's what we're told in Romans 2 for that the goodness of God the kindness of God leads us to repentance Every single time he convicts us of sin if it's a thousand times in a day He convicts us of sin every single time. He does it what he is really doing. He's saying child. I love you I want to come a little closer But this sin is in the way will you deal with it? It is the love of God made manifest calling us to deeper intimacy to walk with him in deeper fellowship We have turned it into a in an into an idea of this condemnation cruelty of God and crazy evangelist that comes and preaches But we have to understand it is the love of God calling us to him nearness And so when he real reveals to us the lack of surrender what it's all about He says child surrender a little more because I have something more for you I want to show you who I am a little bit more clearly I want you to see how wonderful I really am in verse 9. It brings out the point. He says to be found in him I'm gonna touch on this just for a moment of being found in him and I'll speak this from my own Circumstance and there's many different ways and things that could be said in the ninth verse But I'm only gonna bring out this one point because I think it's very precious. At least it's precious to me As a young man warring and clawing and fighting and striving to get ahead Trying to be loved wanting aching yearning to be loved and not able to find what I desired and not even know what it was that I desired in That park where I dealt drugs in on that Saturday When all sudden this awesome God came into my life and instantly delivered me. I was found in him I became his What a phenomenal thing that is To be looking for purpose and reason to live in your life reason to go on and all sudden at one moment one second He breaks in and everything. I saw it. I found at his feet To be his to be found in him to be his Do you know what happens when we as Christians begin to fight and claw and war to own again we walk away from that place of sweet acceptance that he so freely offers us and We think something else is needed and How we hurt as a result how many Christians are suffering depression and all kinds of theory because they've come to a point They have a worldly approach Rather than a biblical approach They still are looking for something in this life And you know what happens if I look to this world to satisfy and it's not satisfying me Do you know what it produces it produces despair and anxiety? Because I'm I want something out there I want people to make me happy they're not making me happy I want this to make me happy It's not making me happy and one thing after another Christians are finding themselves in despair because they've not found Jesus the beautiful Savior that he really is not that he won't reveal himself to But that they've not put themselves in a place to be found in him to know that place at his feet and the sweetness of his embrace It is a beautiful place to be it is a place of acceptance It's a place to know the Father's love let me give a little illustration with this that I think is kind of cute, but Let's just say this Father has these two daughters These two twins And just adorable little girls four years old or something like that a real sweet little age and father's been working all day And he comes home from work and he puts his hand upon the door and he begins to open the door And he hears these little footsteps and as he breaks through the door Here's his daughter throwing herself into his arms daddy daddy daddy I'm so glad you're here and she starts chattering away and she's talking about this and every day in the Busyness and all this stuff going on and daddy's just just taking it all in and and just holding his little girl in her arm And she kisses him on the cheek and he sits down in the chair and she keeps jabbing away and the whole time He's looking around says where's my other little one? Finally, he gets up and he starts looking for and here she is in trouble And so daddy's wanting to wrap his arms around this girl, but instead he has a warmer behind And this girl's always on the timeout chair always in trouble But yet daddy's always aching to love on her in a way that would just be wrapping his arms around him Which one are we? have we learned what it is to be the child that loves father and hops in his lap knows his Embrace and the sweetness of his kids and the words that he would speak to us Are we the little kid that's always in trouble because we got this rebelliousness in us. That's always putting us on the timeout chair That's not a noble thing It's a thing that it makes us suffer because we don't experience in the sweetness of God's embrace the sweetness of a relationship with him We've not found him so good that it's worth the giving up of our rights and of our ways and of our wants And so now we come to the 10th verse. I believe in this 10th verse if we could go back in time We could find the original parchment that Paul wrote upon. I Believe we would see tears stains on it Paul was not writing a theological treatsy What it was it was the passion of the man of God to impart something to the church That might make them men and women of God This was something burning in this man's bones This was the fire that raged inside of him And so it was the plea of the man of God and what he was bringing out was his own heart This is what made me the man says I want to know Christ It wasn't an intellectual ascent to God though There's nothing wrong with the intellectual ascent unless of course we trust in that as the end to itself What he was saying is I want to know him intimate relationship I want to know him face to face and when you go into the Hebrew where Moses was face to face with God in the Hebrew the ideas presented that he was mouth-to-mouth right there God in your face. He says I want to know you I want to see you. I want to experience your love and your mercy your tremendous care for my life It was a burning raging in his life that caused everything else to fade in comparison This is what is the heart that makes a man or woman of God This is where they are made right here in this issue not in Bible school Not an education, but in a passion for God and a passion for nearness the cry to want to know him It is the cry that produces action This is such an important thing. We can sing the songs. I'm desperate for you Tozer a W Tozer made a interesting statement. He says Christians never lie so much as when they worship We can make all the boats. I'm desperate for you, but except of course on Monday night football. I Remember a statement that Chuck Swindoll said once on the radio when he was pastoring He says I won't allow my church to sing to him I surrender all because I know they have not surrendered all they don't want to surrender all and I don't want to make them more guilty before God That's an interesting thought. I want to know Christ a Desire that produces action And so let me present what is the first action that he calls us to I Want to say this is very important the man or woman that really has the passion to say I want to know you Is going to be a man a woman of God that loves the prayer that loves being face-to-face with this God on their knees You want to know why the power of God's withheld from the church because the church doesn't know what the prayer closet is They don't know the place of passionate pursuit of God on their face before you they don't know what that is and So as a result, there's nothing burning in their bones Because the only place the fire of God will be found is in the middle of that fire Not apart from it looking at it from a distance But going into the fire and being consumed by it and we find that at his feet we find that with the love of God Coming into our life blazing as we seek him and we desire him. Do you love the prayer closet? Do you love being with him? Do you what happens so many times of Christians? They think of prayer so miserable because they become some dead formal thing because they've gotten away of the relationship. It's not relational anymore It's all this dead ritual and they they can't stand it And so they stay away from it and in that sense they should rightly stay away from it Prayer wasn't meant to be some dead ritual. It was to be a living vibrant relationship It was to be a love relationship communicate between a man or woman and the guy and God It is to be vibrant and beautiful. It is the intimate near If I want to know Christ It will produce an action in my life and the action it will produce is that we will become a people of prayer and you know What this will also produce that we will become a people of prayer not just alone in our prayer closets But we will long to be a people of prayer in the midst of the people That is such an important thing Every single revival that has ever happened began in prayer, but not just the private prayer of individuals It was when the church became so desperate that they started gathering together pleading with God That God would heal them of their barrenness That he would bring in the loss that he would awaken the church to save a perishing world desire that produces action In the Delaware Connecticut area there was a man that became a missionary to the Indians His name was David Brainerd. He was asked to pastor the most prestigious Church in the colonies at that time and it was in Boston and David Brainerd turned him down to do something that at that time was not a popular notion But was to be a missionary to the Native Americans to the Indians He would go outside of their villages in the middle of winter Come there in the morning get on his knees and begin praying for them He'd pray with such fervor that by the time he would stop his prayer That it would be the Sun would be setting and the snow would be melted around him He died at 29 years of age because he spent himself for the souls of others He was supposed to marry Jonathan Edwards daughter Jonathan Edwards was a man that God used to ignite the first great awakening in this nation He was supposed to marry Jonathan Edwards daughter in death instead He died in Jonathan Edwards home with his daughter nursing him and then his daughter died of the same disease because she nursed him a couple months later 29 years old he died. His diary has changed the life of men and women of God set hearts ablaze Why is it that the power of God was made manifest through when revival finally broke out among the Indians? They were going to try and grab him and take him off his horse not to hurt him But pleading says you must tell us about Jesus They'd be strewn all over the the forest you'd hear the weeping and wailing of them as by Themselves these Indians would be weeping over their sins and then starting to scream and shout as they found salvation What made the man the man of God that he was there's a statement like this that comes out of his diary When I really enjoy God my desire of him is the more ravenous and my thirstings after holiness the more unquenchable Oh this pleasing pain. It makes my soul press after God Why Was he a man willing to lay his life down because he had seen him And fallen in love with him and nothing else could infatuate him again Smith Wigglesworth a very simple man an uneducated man Made this wonderful statement of what it means to hunger and thirst after righteousness And he says that the hunger and thirst after righteousness is when nothing in this world Can infatuate you or take your attention away from God? Where he alone fascinates your entire heart your thoughts your life Then Paul says that he wanted to know the power of his resurrection If Satan would have understood this if he would have understood this He would have never rebelled against God in the first place and would have never had Christ Nailed to the cross and would never in his foolishness his his blindness want to wage war against God again at what we call Armageddon For whatever reason here's this the spiritual being that is totally oblivious and blind to the realities of it If we would have understood that Christ cannot be defeated He cannot be defeated death could not defeat him the hatred of men could not defeat him All that they laid against it could not defeat him. He is absolutely Triumphant absolutely victorious and here's this Christ that went to hell for three days and took from the devil the keys of death and hell rose triumphant Not barely making it there wasn't even a showdown in hell. There wasn't even a battle that was there It was total triumph of Christ coming in totally conquering there was nothing they could do against him because there was no might or anything that could rise against Christ because he's absolutely victorious and Here's this victorious Christ then That wants us to know the powers of resurrection knew what Paul went and said he says I Refuse to be a man defeated by sin. I refuse to be a man defeated by the sins of others He wanted to walk in the power of Christ's resurrection a man determined for one thing alone the victory of Christ Do what happens when people get that in their heart? They're not gonna be defeated by sin when sin comes in their heart They're gonna fight whatever it takes to overcome that they're not gonna let that defeat him when bitterness tries to come and take their heart They're not even gonna let it be in there. There may be a battle right there and they're gonna fight it But they're not gonna be defeated. They're not gonna let it grab hold of they are gonna refuse to let sin dominate and control their life Refuse to submit to it. They will fight no matter what it costs them Smith Wigglesworth was a man that had a horrid anger received the Baptism the Holy Ghost 1907 And God convicts him of the ugliness of his anger and so he started hiding away some days ten days at a time in prayer and fasting that God would deliver him from the Hideousness of his of his anger and when finally the work was done his wife said that she could not even recognize the man He could no longer be ruffled The power of his resurrection is able to change that in our characters in our lives that we never even thought possible But we have to be a people just like Paul that says I want to know you and as a result of knowing you dear God, I want to know the power of your resurrection You know what? This really means they're tied into each other. The idea of holiness is I want to be so close to you Jesus I don't want anything in my life that separates me and you That's where holiness comes from not legalism Not a list of do's and don'ts a passion for nearness with him God. You are so good this thing I know breaks your heart dear God. I must overcome it. I must overcome it because I want you Those who have that passion in their heart will not be defeated. They will go through battles. Yes They may lose a couple of battles But they're gonna be determined to overcome because they want to know the power of Christ's resurrection because they want to know this Christ It's a tremendous statement by Arthur Wallace. He says, how can we recover apostolic power on? neglecting apostolic practice We cannot expect the power to flow if we do not prepare the channels, you know, we want Pentecost of new Pentecost But do we want to pay the price of Pentecost? We want to go to the upper room. Do we want to die? Are we willing to go and say God? I want the power of your resurrection no matter what it costs me You see we want apostolic power, but we don't want the apostolic practice But the apostolic power will not come apart from apostolic practice It is the way he has designed it. It will not change because we're in the 21st century It is still true. What was true 2,000 years ago The final point and then I'll close with this and give you a final story I'm just gonna say it say this very briefly This is easily a whole nother sermon and this is where Paul says that he wanted to know What it was to share in the fellowship of his sufferings The scriptures especially the New Testament put suffering in a very positive light not a negative light The reason why we don't understand what suffering is because we have a humanistic approach to life that life is about happiness So when we're not happy we grow angry at God and we grow angry at everybody else because we think life is about happiness Rather than understanding that the purpose of suffering and only only in Christianity There is no other religion that has this no other not even Christian cults. The only Reason the only logical answer to the reason of suffering in this world comes out of the scriptures The only logical reason and the New Testament makes it Refines it and makes it more clear all the time that he uses it to transform our lives that we might be made in his image There is value in the suffering that we go through but there's something deeper that Paul wanted to share in the fellowship of Christ Every he wanted to be so close to him that he was willing to suffer with his Lord over a perishing world Do we want to be that near him? Are we willing to share with him even in his sufferings today? We're not reaching the loss because we don't want to suffer for them because we don't want to suffer for him We don't want our lives upset to touch a perishing world. We're too comfortable We don't want a Christianity that costs us anything But you want north of Christianity of Paul was something that was costly it cost him everything But what did he gain he gained the wonder of this God of intimacy of knowing him face-to-face He gained the prize of prizes That's where he calls us to that's what he wants to do in our life. It's identification with Christ It's in a place of deep intimacy with him. Let me share with you a final story Again, it's the 1859 revival, but this one is in Scotland and it's in the county of Aberdeenshire James Turner was an uneducated man. He had no gift to preach He was dying of tuberculosis when his great task began He was little in stature. His voice was feeble His eye was deformed by a squint but this frail broken disfigured vessel was filled with a passionate love to Jesus Christ an intense hungering compassion for souls and an invincible faith in God and He could pray Therefore God was able to lift him up and out of weakness made him strong and in two crowded years of glorious life He used this dying man to win him 8,000 souls On December 6th in the little fishing village of st. Combs, he began his memorial mission from village to village He went and everywhere along the seacoast His course was marked with a trail of divine fire as he went on the blessings increased and his coming was awaited with intense Eagerness, they thronged around him and marched in a body from town to town in this way. They at last reached Banff It was found impossible to dismiss the people and through the whole night a great reaping went on many of the most notorious sinners in that town were saved and Many who first saw the Lord that night went forth to declare the glory of God in all parts of the earth It was the matchless love of Christ that filled his vision and his final words were Christ is all he died in the midst of the revival He had tuberculosis a disease of the lungs and so he would be able to only speak at a whisper But the crowds would be hushed to hear the words And so he would speak and the anointing would be there to pierce the hearts of people How many healthy men did the Spirit of God pursue and go to him will you go for me? Will you go for me? And one says I just bought a new a new house and I got to take care of another one says I just got married and I got to take care of that another one says I just bought an oak of yaksin and I've got to tend to that one after another of all the healthy men He went to and none of them were willing none of them would stand in the gap And so finally he goes to a man dying in his bed and he says James will you go for me? Oh Jesus Yes Thank you and you know, I really believe Jesus would have let him die in his own deathbed and Instead he went in those agonizing years as he was dying man Proclaimed the gospel the wonder of this God. He spoke to a man that was illiterate unable to speak But yet brought a thousand souls to the Lord because the anointing of God rested upon we could be James Turner's He does not need our wisdom our abilities our talents He's looking for that abandonment. He's looking to possess us that he might pour his power to us