The Deepest Groaning Within You

Leonard Ravenhill said to me one time, you don't have to advertise a fire, people will just come and watch it burn. If you have to advertise it, it's not much of a fire. And when the presence of God is in our churches, no more other strategies are necessary. The people will come because of his presence. And if there's anything that you and I need now, we need the presence of God. I found it interesting that Pastor Tim talked about his father, because I was going to mention that today. Some of us, we think that the ministry has got to be big to be grand, or to have a huge effect. And I'm thinking of a police captain in 1958-ish, around there, walking down the street, and there's a gang on one side, and there's a skinny preacher from Pennsylvania on the other, wanting to speak to them. And then you have blue-uniformed officers seeing the danger of the moment. This thing really could go south. This preacher could get killed, these gangs could start to fight with one another. And they're saying, you can't preach here, you've got to shut it down, you've got to get out of here, we want these gangs to go back to where they go. And yet, one man in the right place at the right time. And I have to believe that Captain Paul Delina heard the voice of the Holy Spirit, because there'd be no other reason. First of all, he had to go against, not go against, but override, because he outranked the existing authority that was there, and take the risk upon himself. If somebody got killed in this thing, it would come back to him. The other officers would say, we tried to shut it down, but he overrode us, and it would make him, in a sense, negligent of duty for that to happen. And secondly, he doesn't know if the guy about to speak is a fruit cake, or what is he? He has no idea. I mean, he's in the wrong neighborhood, for sure, and he's got a suit on, and a skinny tie, and he wants to speak to gang members. I mean, it's just not an environment conducive to saying, hey, this is great, let's see what happens here. But yet, here's the point. In the right place at the right time, and sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit, with four words, he launched a worldwide ministry. Let the men preach. Four words. That's all it took. And from there, a ministry worldwide to people who are addicted is launched. A voice is raised that goes through the nations, and still reverberates today, and gives strength, and guidance, and prophetic insight to people who are wondering about the kinds of days that we're now living in. And not only does he do that, but his own son, who's not yet born, is launched into an international pulpit that's known throughout the world by four words. Let the man preach. And you know, so don't think your ministry has to be grand. You don't have to have crowds around. You have to be in the right place at the right time, and sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit. That's what I want to talk about. I want to talk to you today about this inner groaning of God, that the voice of God within you, that we find it so difficult sometimes to cooperate with. God is there. He's always wanting to speak to us. I remember when I first came to New York City, Pastor David Wilkerson spent seven years teaching me one thing. One thing. Carter learned to hear the voice of the Spirit. He knew, because the scripture says, if God doesn't build the house, our labor's in vain. And if the Lord's not building the house, our labor's in vain. I was in Texas several years ago preaching at a pastor's conference, and during the break time, about 20 young pastors with, you know, their laptops and everything, kind of surrounded me in the hall, and wanted to pepper me with questions. And the first question out of somebody's mouth was, Pastor, what's your 10-year plan? I looked at him and I said, my 10-year plan is to get through tomorrow. It never changes. Every day it's the same thing for 10 years. Then I warned these young ministers, if you don't get rid of that 10-year plan, you'll never hear the voice of God. You will be crafting a direction for your own life, and every time you pray, every time you read, you'll simply be looking for God to verify your thoughts of what your life and ministry should be, and you will actually miss what God has for you. You'll miss the moments that God lays before you, the phone calls that come that you'll reject because it doesn't fit your 10-year plan. And today we have churches everywhere that are literally flatlined. There's no other way to describe it, and I know because I talk to the people that attend them. There's no life there, there's no presence of God there, and they all look the same, and they all sound the same, because they have been built from the natural mind of natural men. Oh, most definitely talented people who've maybe graduated from some good colleges, and they have some great ideas. I remember one time when I first came here, I walked into Pastor David's office, and I had this strategy to reach the inner city. Oh, it was brilliant, Pastor Tim, it was brilliant. I mean, I had worked on this thing, and I had it laid out, and I came in. I said, I have a way that we can we can have a deeper impact in the inner city, and he's sitting at his desk. He goes, oh. So then, you know, as younger men do, I laid out my vision to reach the inner city, and then he just looked at me after I'd said it all. He said, what does the Holy Spirit say about that? I said, I'll get back to you. And I remember, I can't tell you how many times I walked down the hall going, stupid, stupid, stupid. Keep your mouth shut. Keep your plans to yourself. You see, the dilemma I face is he knew what the Holy Spirit was speaking, and I didn't. One day, seven years later, we're on the platform here, and I'm standing over here, worshiping on a Sunday morning. It was phenomenal. I got one of those Selah moments in the church where God's presence is there. We're both worshiping. I'm standing beside him like this, and he leans over into my ear, and he says, you're ready now. I have no idea what he's talking about, and so he was a little bit deaf in his right ear, so he had to shout back to have this conversation. So after just thinking about what he just said for 20 seconds, I leaned back. I said, ready for what? And he says, you're ready to take the church over. Now, that was never in my thinking. I never came here thinking I would ever pastor this church. He said, you're ready now. He said, I'm going to be putting honor on you. I'm going to be starting a gradual withdrawal, and I'm going to put honor on you, and you are the next pastor of this church, the next senior pastor of this church. We'd never talked about this. You talk about a worship service like, you know, it was one of those times where you stare at the lights till your eyes burn because you're not quite sure, and with David Wilkerson, if you missed it, it didn't come around a second time. Never had we talked about this, and later on I said to him, when did you know I would be the next pastor of this church? He said, I knew it the first time you preached here, but the Holy Spirit said he's not ready yet. Isn't that amazing? And as Pastor Tim shared today, there was quite a in that first seven years, a journey of, it was a hard journey, a journey of betrayal, illness, a lot of things came my way, to the point where one day I was on 8th Avenue. I was walking down. We had just come through a horrific rebellion in this church, and we were slandered. It was a tough time for both of us, and on top of that, I got sick because I had breathed in a toxic substance that scared my lungs, and I could hardly breathe, and I'm always seeing these black flecks that, when you're just almost ready to pass out, you're not getting enough oxygen, and I'm walking down 8th, and it was after a service one night, and I've seen these flecks all over the place, and out of exasperation, out loud, I said, is this really necessary? I think Joseph said that. I'm sure he did, in the prison, and suddenly the Lord said, yes, it is necessary. I'm teaching you how to be dependent on me. I'm taking away your natural strength so that your strength will become my strength, will become your strength. You won't be able to do everything you want to do. You won't be able to follow every leading of your own heart. You won't have the strength to do it, and amazingly enough, when I would accept an invitation, for example, to go speak somewhere that God had not called me to do, I would come back exhausted, and sometimes, Pastor Teresa knows, it would take me two weeks to recover, two weeks to get through the headaches or the fatigue. When I would accept an invitation that was ordained of God, I would come back and be stronger than when I went out. In the natural, it didn't make sense, but over time, I learned to hear the voice of the Spirit. Then April 2001, I was coming back from Rochester, reading my Bible out loud in the car. Somebody else was driving the car, and I was reading the book of Hebrews and came to the point where it says, come to the throne of grace to find help in time of need. It was at that moment the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, there's going to be a crisis in New York City, a major crisis in New York City. People are going to be running, terrified in the streets. You need to prepare the church to find her strength now so that God's people will be not found terrified with those that will be terrified, and God's people will be ready to minister. I came back from Rochester. I went to see Pastor David. I told him what the Lord spoke into my heart, and he said the same thing he always said, is that the Holy Spirit? I remember his words. I said, I am absolutely sure it's the Holy Spirit. He said, okay then. We shut down a missions conference, a women's conference. We canceled all of our speakers, actually sent honorariums to all the speakers that were supposed to come in, and we began to gather night after night after night to pray. God, give us strength for the crisis coming to the city. That was April 2001. Of course, when 9-11 happened, we knew why the Holy Spirit had warned us. It was in that season that he finally leaned over and said, you're ready now. You've learned to hear the voice of the Spirit. No other voice can build the church. Pastor Magnificent on the internet cannot build your church. His strategies are not necessarily this. It might have done some good for him, but its strategies are not necessarily the strategy that God has for you and for your community. If I can leave with you something today that's of value in my estimation, it's learning to hear the inner voice of God. We teach this at our Bible schools. International School of Ministry. We teach our young people how to hear the voice of God. We teach them sound doctrine, obviously. We teach them how to pray. But the most important thing of all is learning to hear the voice of God. There needs to be no other agenda. You need to literally ask God to clean the slate. God, I don't want my thoughts governing my life, because your thoughts are higher than my thoughts. Your ways are higher than my ways. I'm tired of this flatline religion that I've embraced. I'm tired of pretending that you are in the house when everyone there knows that you're not. Oh, in measure, I suppose you are, but not the way that you desire to be among the people. Father, I thank you, Lord, that you will give us something to take home in this session, Lord. Perhaps something that will be revolutionary for some of us who are here today, that you will teach us how to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and to obey you, Lord, even when it's not pleasant, even when it doesn't look good in our sight or it doesn't even appear to be sensible. Yet we know in our heart that you are speaking to us. I want to thank you with all of my heart, God, for giving me ears to hear. I want to thank you, Lord, for the whispers that have come into my heart, and the whispers have turned to miracles, and I've seen with my own eyes things that only God can do. Father, thank you. God, thank you. God, thank you. I pray today that you would make every one of us here sensitive to your voice. Would you help us, Lord, not to be governed by our thoughts of what your kingdom should look like or our ministry should look like, but God, sometimes it's a Paul Delina moment that can affect history. God, we don't have to be the biggest game in town to be successful. We have to hear you when you speak. God, help me. God, help us, because the hour is late, and the need is very, very great, and only you can meet it now, and we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. If you'll turn, you don't have your Bibles with you, probably, you get, most everybody's got their phone. Bring out your phony Bible, and we'll, uh, I'm still, I'm just very old school, folks. It's just the way, and not only that, I'm going, I'm half blind, so the, I'm getting down, Pastor Tim, so I'm going to be at the point where there's three words on a page. There is, uh, there's a groaning of God inside of you. There's a yearning of God. It's not yours. It's yours in measure, but it's his first. He has things that he wants to do through your life and through my life that we, most of these things, we haven't even thought of. They're outside of our purview, as it is, our, our self-view, our ideas of ministry. God has something different. It's not necessarily bigger. It's just God, and it's different. It's something that he wants to do in and through each, each one of us. I, I just was in prayer one time with a group of pastors here, and just out of nowhere, this whisper of God came into my heart. Gather the people in Times Square to pray for the future of the city. You have no idea how many people told me that can't be done. There are seven committees you have to get through to gather the people to pray for the future. That's holy ground. The only one that's ever been able to get it is Paul McCartney and, and New Year's Eve. Other than that, nobody gets, nobody gets to have a gathering in Times Square, and I remember saying, well, the Lord, he spoke to my heart. We're going to do it, and, and it was a succession and series of miracles, and lastly, just to make a very long story short, Mayor Michael Bloomberg just issued a decree. He found out about it and issued a decree and declared that particular day, Prayer in the Square Day for New York City. All the committees fell over, and Mayor Bloomberg eventually himself came to the prayer meeting. It was just amazing. We had about 60,000 people there, about 50,000 in the pens the police department set up, and about 10,000 outside by estimation this, by the third year. I don't know what it did for the city. I know this church is still here. Maybe that's part of the answer to prayer, but I do know a car bomb just, just across from where the platform was didn't go off a year later. I do know, we don't know what God is doing when we pray, but we do know what God will do when we, when we are willing to obey him, willing to just simply do what he says, even though people say it can't be done, we're just willing to do it. Now, that's, that's a grand scale, and I've, I've experienced a lot of those things in my life. A lot of them are in a book called It's Time to Pray. I'm not trying to sell a book, by the way, but the things are in that book, the stories and, and stuff. Another time, I was leaving the church, heading back, I lived in New Jersey, heading back on the train, and for whatever reason, that day on the train, they had turned the seats facing each other on the car that I got on to, and it was extremely uncomfortable, like you're sitting with the other person's knees are more than about 18 inches from yours. It's not, so I had this rag of a paper that I bought somewhere, the 50 cent thing, and you get in the train station, the daily lab, and I'm, I'm the people in front of me. There's two business guys from New Jersey sitting across on the other side, a young lady in her 30s right in front of me, and two business guys from New Jersey, all wearing suits on this side of me, and as I'm riding, the Holy Spirit says to me, tell the young lady in front of you that everything's going to be okay. I said, you're God, you tell her, I'm not telling her, because I got 40 minutes longer to go on this ride, and this thing is going to go south, and she's going to look at me and say, get lost, you creep, and these guys are going to think something about this. You know, you're New Jersey guys, right? You know exactly what they're going to think. I'm in my 50s, she's 35. This is not happening, not doing it. Fingers in ears, go ahead, God, you tell her it's going to be okay, and so I'm trying to read this paper and this voice. The one thing I love about the Holy Spirit is he just doesn't stop speaking because you say no the first time. He keeps on speaking. Tell her everything's going to be okay, and it just kept going, five minutes, ten minutes. It just all finally said, oh God, here I go, off the edge of the cliff. This is really going to go south. So I put my paper down, and I said, young lady, I'm a pastor in New York City, and already these two guys are grinning next to her, already, the two guys from New Jersey. I knew exactly what they're thinking, and I said to her, well, the Lord's, I don't know if you understand this, I said, but the Lord speaks to me, and he told me to tell you that everything's going to be okay, and she burst out crying. I mean, the tears shot out of her eyes. It's just, oh Jesus, thank you, oh God, thank you. She started, a prayer meeting breaks out, and she says, I am a young mother. I've got a husband. I've got two or three little kids, and I've got cancer, and I'm going in for an operation tomorrow, and I've been sitting here saying, God, you have to tell me if everything is going to be okay. Now, you should have seen the Jersey guys now. It's like looking at each other like, holy smokes, do you believe what you just heard here? God speaks to people. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Oh, the Holy Spirit wiped the smirk off of their faces in a moment of time, and I felt so relieved. But you see, that's day-to-day, and we all have that opportunity if we learn to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, if we learn not to back away because we fear rejection, if we learn just to cooperate. You see, we have the third person of the Trinity abiding in these earthly bodies. He lives here inside of us, and this is the God who created the universe by the word of His mouth. He actually knows what the people walking by you on the street are thinking. He heard their cry the night before. God, are you real? God, is there hope for my child? Can you save my marriage? And if we learn to be sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit and move with the promptings of the Spirit and begin to speak and move in cooperation, miracles start to happen. Prison doors start opening. Blinded eyes can see. Wounded hearts are healed. People are given direction, and as with the situation on the train, two guys from New Jersey now know that God speaks to people. You can imagine them going home. Honey, you're not going to believe what happened on the train. This guy said God spoke to him, and he spoke to this girl who was speaking to God, and God's speaking to everybody. Does God speak to us? Amazing. I was in a corner store a little while ago, and this lady behind the counter, she just looked sad. She's in her 50s. She just looked sad, and it's one of these corner store things. There's two guys behind me in the line, and I get to the counter, and I said, I don't tell her I'm a pastor. I said, ma'am, please don't misunderstand what I'm about to say. I said, but you look sad, and can I pray for you? And she looked at me and said, you would pray for me? I said, sure. I'd love to pray for you. She said, and then she just starts pouring out the struggles in her home and her family and her kids and stuff like that. So I reached across. I took her by the hands, and I began to pray. Now the two guys behind me are in a prayer meeting. This lady's heart is being touched. Another time I was at a supermarket, and I was buying roses for Pastor Teresa. She was coming home when she's at the school. She would come home every weekend, and there was a gentleman with me about my age, and he was buying two dozen white. I still remember two dozen white roses, and I was buying a dozen red, and I said, do you He said, what are you buying roses for? And I said, first, it's for my wife. She comes home on the weekend. She's president of a Bible school, and I just like to have the house ready for her when she gets home. And I said, so what are you buying roses for? And he says, well, it's my anniversary. And I said, oh, congratulations. And what's your plan for your anniversary? He said, well, I'm going to take these flowers, and I'm going to take a chair, and I'm going to go to the cemetery, and I'm going to sit beside her grave. She died three months ago, and when he said it, I started to cry. It's ironic that his wife died, and I'm crying. And I said, can I pray for you? He said, oh, would you pray for me, please? I put my hands on his shoulders, and he put his hands in mine, and we're two guys in our 60s, and we're both crying in the supermarket in ShopRite, and people are going by with their carts, and now they're in a prayer meeting. And I said, God, comfort this man with the comfort only you can give. And he's just going, yeah, oh, God, please, yeah, help me, comfort me. And we, I don't know how long we prayed, but we were both, like it was a snotty-nosed prayer, too, for both of us. And when I was done, he said, what church do you go to? And so it's called Times Square Church. It's in New York City, in Broadway and 51st. And he says, can I go there? I said, of course you can go. You'd be more than welcome. And he said, would I see you there if I go there? Well, I said, most likely, you'll see me there. And if you do, come and say hi, you know. You see, Pastor Teresa teaches in her Bible school that we should be a supernaturally natural people. We should have a sensitivity to the needs of people around us, and we should be able to hear the voice of God. But in order to hear God's voice, the agenda in us has to die. We, as I shared earlier in a previous message, we have to be willing to die to reputation, as Paul Delina was willing to do in his moment where he was called of God. We have to be willing to take the risk. I could tell you dozens of illustrations like this, and for me, it's just awesome to finally have that card fall in the slot where God just, I'm available, Lord, if you want to speak to me about somebody or something that you want me to do. And I'm not caught in the grandeur of ministry. Ministry is not all about a pulpit. It's about who we are and who Christ is in us and where we travel every day. The book of Romans, Paul says these words, Romans 8.22, we know the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also have the first fruits of the Spirit. We groan within ourselves eagerly awaiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. So I want to speak to people today who have a groaning inside. You not even know what it is, but there's this groan. You go to prayer, and it's like, oh, you know what I'm talking about, right? It doesn't have words. It's deeper than words, and you don't know what it is. And I've been there. I go there. I live there. Sometimes the groan is so deep, you're not quite sure, where did that come from? What's the source of that groan? Now, there's a collective common groan. The whole world is groaning under the weight of sin right now. Everything from the birds to the beasts to the environment, everything is groaning under the weight of sin of humankind. Then the secondary groan is the one within ourselves where you ever just, when you click on the news and read it, something inside you says, God, get me out of here. I groan for the redemption, that final moment where the trumpet of the Lord sounds and the dead are raised and we are gathered and finally with the Lord. I mean, I groan for that, and I think all of us do. You know, you read one more story about one more abusive situation, one more deboxed situation trying to present itself as good, and there's a groaning inside. God, I want out. I want out. I want into that eternity that you promised for me, and that's a good thing. It's a natural thing. But there's a third groaning inside of us, and the scripture in verse 26 says, Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses, for we don't know what we should pray for as we ought to, but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. So there's a third groaning. There's a deep groaning. It's actually the deepest groaning of all inside of us. Now hear me on this. It's the groaning of God. It's the groaning of God that you and I would come in to a place where we can work in cooperation with the Spirit of God, where we come to the place where God's will becomes our will. His voice becomes our voice. We start working in unison with him. Now listen to verse 27. It says, He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. God knows what he has destined for your life. What is your divine Paul Delina moment? God knows what he has for you, and there's this inner groaning of the Spirit. Oh, I don't know how else to explain it. It's a groaning that the scriptures cannot be uttered. It's not that God can't utter it. We can't utter it. We find it so hard to come into a place of cooperation or agreement with God because it doesn't fit our box. It doesn't fit our self-image. It doesn't fit our 10-year plan. It doesn't fit our view of ministry. So he is groaning within us, but we can't bring ourselves to agree with him. We can't bring ourselves to speak when he says speak, or stop when he says stop, or don't do this when he says don't do it. It must be grieving in measure to the Holy Spirit to have taken up residence actually God dwelling in these earthly bodies, and we won't cooperate with him. The God who wants to do miracles, the God who proved his heart for all of humanity on the cross, the God who wants to give us giftings of the Spirit, the God who wants to take us out of the natural and into the supernatural, and yet we resist because we set our own reasonings above the Word of God. He makes intercession for us according to the will of God. He groans with groanings that we find so difficult to come into agreement with, but we know, verse 28, that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. For whom he foreknew, let me go down a couple of verses. It says, what then shall we say to these things? Verse 31, if God is for us who can be against us? You did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him freely give us all things? How shall he not with him freely give us all things? In John chapter 11, we see a pattern actually of a lot of Christians today. We know the story. There was a man that Jesus loved who died, and when he finally shows up in the scene, you know, maybe it's a church vision that died. Maybe it's just hope has died. Maybe you're just going through the motions of ministry and the passion for the work of God has died, and he finally shows up. And as Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary was sitting still in the house. And there's a lot of people today just sitting still in the house. The word goes out, Jesus is here. Big deal. Big deal. Where was he when I needed him? Where was he when we called out? We knew the state of the nation 10 years ago, and we called out to him, and he didn't come. So I'm not going to get fooled again. I don't care if the preacher gets up and says, Jesus is in the place. I don't care anymore. I'm not willing to be disappointed. I'm not willing to get my hopes up one more time, but the reality is Jesus has come. Not on our time, his time. Not when we think he should or according to our plan, but he's come according to his plan, because his plan was to let Lazarus die, that the name of Christ might be glorified again in the earth. And Martha comes to Jesus. She's another type of Christian who just kind of, every time, she just hastens to him. But I love the interaction. She comes to him with an accusation. It's amazing. I'm excited to see you, but if you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died. If you had been here, our church wouldn't look like this. If you had been there, my ministry would have life. It wouldn't have died. If you had been here, all of this stuff and heartache wouldn't have happened. But she's got to cover this accusation up with faith now, because she accuses him of not being here when we called out for you. But she said, but even now I know that whatever you ask of God, he will give you. It's almost like I accuse you, but I'm going to be nice to you at the same time. And Jesus said, your brother will rise again. He's speaking now in the present. And she says, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection and at the last day. Isn't it amazing? When we don't want to trust him again, we put away his promises to another day. And the dear old by and by will understand it all. It'll all come one day. Not now, not here. We don't care if you've come. I think my point is this. If Jesus Christ chooses to visit us again in this generation, are we willing to receive him? Will we be able to hear him? Will our grievances with him be such that we'll just, even though he does come, we'll sit still in the house. There's always people are good. Every time there's a spiritual awakening in history, there's always people who will resist it. And they wouldn't have earlier, but they've been disappointed in their own thinking because their plan, as they thought it was supposed to unfold, didn't unfold. Jesus said, I am the resurrection, the life, and he who believes in me, though he may die, yet shall he live. Do you believe this? And Martha says, yes, Lord, I believe you're the Christ, the son of God who's coming to the world. She doesn't even answer him. She just throws scripture at him. Have you ever been to the point where he's trying to speak and you're just throwing scripture back at him? That's what she's doing. This is not even an answer to what he had just said. Then Mary rose up and went out finally and came weeping and says, Jesus, when he saw Mary fall down at his feet, she said, if you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died. Where were you, Lord, when we needed you? Where were you when godlessness began to invade our schools and our colleges? Where were you when divorce became rampant in our homes? Where were you when pornography started to infiltrate your church? Where were you, God? I was on fire for you one time. I trusted you. You ate at my table, and you said you loved us, but when we called, you didn't come. So now you're here, and you want us to get all excited about it now. If you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died. Therefore, Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, and the scripture says he groaned. Remember? The spirit within us groans. He groaned in the spirit and was troubled and said, where have you laid him? Then he began to weep. The Jews, of course, misunderstood his weeping completely. In verse 38 says, then Jesus again groaning. It had to be an audible groan for it to be recorded. It was like a, oh, oh, oh, when will they trust me? When will the people believe that I am God? When will they understand? He came to the tomb and said, take away the stone. Pastor Tim spoke about that as well today, and Martha said, by this time, there's a stench. He's been dead too long. It's been four days, and that's, I believe, in the awakening that I fully believe is coming in our time, what Jesus is going to face again. People say, well, it's been too long. We're too dead. We've been this way for too long. The churches are too programmed. It's just been this way too long. We just don't trust you. We just don't trust that you're able to raise this. We don't trust that you're able to bring life back into places where death is. Then Jesus said something profound. Did I not say to you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God? The glory in the original text means that which God does that brings reputation to his own name. Not our names, but his name. Did I not say to you that if you would believe, you would see the glory? This is the challenge I feel that the Lord's laid on my heart to give you today. If you will believe, you will see the glory. If you will believe and let God speak, if you will trust, you will see God do what only God can do. Not just in your church, but in you, your life. Suddenly you'll come back to your first love. Suddenly, remember when you first got saved? Remember what brought you into ministry in the first place? You know, it was just Jesus is everything. And you told everybody that would listen about Jesus. Then you got some theological training. What happened to you? Where did that go? How come it's changed? How did it turn formulaic when it was a relationship? You loved his presence. You longed for his presence, but you felt disappointed. I'll tell you why, because he didn't come on your time according to your plan and according to your schedule. And you looked away from God and you went to the internet and you started patterning your ministry after brother or sister so-and-so online. And that is not the plan of God, unless the Lord builds the house you labor in vain. And it's, if your church is dead, give thanks to God today because he's going to raise it from the dead. He's going to visit you again. He's going to give life to your ministry. He's going to give life to your church. Now you can either sit still in the house or you can accuse him like Martha, or you can be like Lazarus. I love the fact that with all these people around, Mary, Martha, the Jews, all their history of being the people of Abraham, the only one that could hear his voice is a dead man. Oh, hallelujah is right. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Glory, glory. I don't know where he was, but he started to hear his name being called Lazarus. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? It's everyone else is steeped in unbelief. They're all weeping. Nobody can hear they're quoting scripture. They're sitting still in the house, but a dead man starts to hear his voice. You're going to be shocked at the numbers of people that will turn to God in the days ahead in your church, in your ministry. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. As they begin to hear the voice of God calling them, you might be there and you're working on a committee to move the stone. You're doing your things in the church and suddenly they're just popping up all over. Suddenly they're coming to the altar. Suddenly they're coming into the house of God. They're coming into what's become your cemetery and they're coming back to life by the grace of God. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Glory! Glory! Listen to me folks. The guy does stink. What's my job in all of this is unwind him and let him go. Let him praise God. Let him shout the name of Jesus. He's not going to fit into your box, because he's been raised from the dead by the power of God and by the voice of God. Oh, give God a shout of glory in this house! Jesus said to his own people in Jerusalem, You'll not see me until you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. You know, when revival comes, it doesn't fit in your box. Your three songs are gone to the wind. Your 20-minute sermonette will be no more. Shred it. Put it in the shredder. It's done. God has come. Jesus has come. And you watch what God is going to do. And you don't have to advertise, I'm telling you. You don't have to advertise it. They'll come from the north, the south. Backsliders will come home. Sons and daughters will come to God, because Jesus has come, and he's raising people back to life again. Oh, hallelujah! Hallelujah! One more time, give him a shout of glory! Give him a shout of glory! Hallelujah! The cry of your heart has to be today, God, I want to hear your voice. I don't want to hear the Marthas. I don't want to hear the Marys. I don't want to hear the gloom and doomers. I don't want to hear the voices that say it's too long, it's too late. It's our America's done and doomed. I don't want to hear any of those voices. I want to hear your voice. What do you have to say about this? Because your voice is the one that can raise the dead. Your voice is the one that gives back life where life is lost and life is gone. Your voice is the voice that restores hope. Your voice is the one that opens prison doors. Your voice gives sight to the blind. Your voice raises men and women from the dead. Your voice brings marriages back together. Your voice heals the sick. Your voice delivers the oppressed. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. That's got to be our prayer now. Come Holy Spirit. Come Holy Spirit. Call out Lord Jesus. Come Lord Jesus. You're welcome in our homes. You're welcome in our lives, our ministries, our churches. You're welcome Holy Spirit of the living God. Do your work your way. God, deliver us from ourselves. Deliver us from our thoughts. God, deliver us from our plans. And bring us into that place of life. Glory to God. Glory, glory to God. Glory to God. I don't know if I should give an altar call. I have no idea. And you know what I teach at the Bible school. If God's not speaking, don't speak. He hasn't told me what to do. So let Him tell you what to do. If you want to come here, you come here. If you want to run the aisles, run the aisles. You want to speak in tongues, speak in tongues. You want to get on your knees, get on your knees. Listen to His voice. What does He want you to do right now? What's He asking of you? Do that. Start today. Just do what He's asking you to do. Keep it simple. He wants you to kneel down, kneel down. He wants you to lay on the floor, lay on the floor. Just obey God. That's all. Just obey Him. And watch the miracles begin to unfold. Watch the things that God will begin to do in your life and your ministry. Father, we want Your Holy Spirit again. You're welcome, Holy Spirit. You're welcome in our churches. You're welcome in our lives. You're welcome in our ministries. God, You're welcome in our marriages. God, You're welcome. We want You, Lord. We want You, God. We want You to lead us. We want You to guide us. We want You to speak to us. We want Your Word, not our own. We want Your thoughts. Lord, we want You to lead Your people, O God. And we ask You above and beyond everything, raise the dead in our communities. God, bring Your house back to life. Bring life back, God, where there's death. Father, we thank You. God, we praise You. We praise You.