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  REVIVAL IN THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM
  by Don McClure
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Duration: 1:11:01

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CONTENT
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Spend time with other Christians and you don't praise God, what makes
you think all of a sudden you're going to die and go to heaven and enjoy
doing those things? You'll be out of place. There's another place for
you, praising God. I'm Don Corville, been in on most of the revival
conferences, and I pastor a Baptist church in Springfield, Missouri, one
of the moderators here, and I'm going to have Garrett come up in a few
minutes and pray for Brother Don.

But we're here to just be an encouragement and help however we can and
stay out of the way, if that's the best thing that we can do. And by the
way, I was thinking if we could write the schedule and everything in
sand, that would probably be good, because if God shows up, which we're
praying that he does, everything's to be on his schedule. But God
anoints the speaker to keep going and whatever.

We need to be flexible, which is sometimes we're not flexible with God.
That's why we get bitter and angry and need revival, because he is
sovereign. I just need to say a couple of things here.

Cell phones, we need to turn them off and keep the sanctuary quiet for a
place of worship and reverence and for the Lord. And there is a prayer
room right out over here for you. And if you have a question for the
question and answer time that we're going to do Thursday afternoon,
there's supposed to be a box.

We got that back there yet? OK, there'll be a box back in the back. And
let's see if there's anything else. Yes, if you have if you have a need
or anything, the moderators were supposed to be the coordinators for
everything that goes on.

So you come work through us and then we'll work through those that can
get that area done. And so, Gareth and myself, that's what we're here.
If something's really bad and there's a real you need somebody to blame
it on, go to Gareth.

He's the one. Just kidding. I think, let's see.

That's just. Oh, yes. One other thing.

We're going to show a video this evening and we just want to prepare you
for it, that it's it's going to really just rip right into where we're
at. And so be prepared to have God just really give you how serious our
situation is because it is a desperate hour that we're in. And I was
just I've been meditating the last several weeks on the subject of fear,
God, and it's just been changing my life and it's been drawing me closer
to God.

You would think the fear of God is going to run you away from God. No,
it's just the opposite. And I just wanted to read you a passage of
scripture that got me to thinking about this.

And it's about the Lord Jesus and it's in Isaiah 11. And the seven, six,
seven things about the Lord Jesus Christ and the spirit of the Lord
shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit
of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the
Lord and shall make him a quick understanding in the fear of the Lord.
And he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove
after the hearing of his ears.

And I began to meditate on that. What's that mean? He will have quick
understanding in the fear of the Lord. And it was amazing insight that
was in there as I looked at what guys said about it and the Hebrew and
everything.

And without going into it, it had to do with the fact that he lived his
life so much in reverence of the father. He lived his life so much in in
the desire to please the father. He did nothing of himself, that his
life was an aroma, a well-pleasing flavor.

And that's what this quick understanding has to do with smell. His life
was well-pleasing. If God was to take a deep whiff of the church in
North America, it's a nauseating problem.

And so we want to meet with God. We want to meet with God. Twenty five
years ago, we had revival in western Nebraska where I was pastor in a
Baptist church as a spinoff of the Canadian revival of 1970.

And I'll just warn you, you may think you're in pretty good shape, but
if God shows up, reality hits and it's rough. Revival starts with rough,
roughness with God coming in. And when he showed me my bitterness, it
broke me and it scared me.

And he hadn't got over it. There's a holy reverence of God in a life of
somebody that is walking with God. And so we're looking for God to meet
with us.

And we're going to start off this evening with Brother Don McClure. I've
known him a long time, about 15 minutes. So I'm going to tell you a
whole lot about him.

You read the schedule right there. He's a speaker. He goes around
ministering to the body in churches and just wherever God opens up and
he can share whatever he wants with you about himself.

But I'm going to ask Brother Don McClure to come up at this time. And
I'm going to ask our other moderator, Garrett, to come up and pray for
him. Before he starts.

And that way you'll know who Garrett is. Would you bow your heads with
me as we pray, please? Father, we believe that you have brought us here
this evening because it is your desire to speak to each one of us. We're
not interested in hearing the words of men.

The words of men and the letter of the killeth. Father, we want to hear
from your heart and your words this evening, this afternoon. I thank for
my brother Don because we know that he has spent much time seeking your
face to hear your voice.

I pray you grant him unusual unction as he speaks to us this day that he
might speak with the voice of the Lord. Give us ears to listen and
hearts to receive and grant him unction I pray in Jesus name. Thank you.

Am I on here? Is this working? It's always a dangerous thing when just
before a speaker comes up and somebody says, well, we just want to let
the Holy Spirit do it every once. And if he anoints the Holy, the
speaker to go longer, that'll be wonderful. You'd never, never open a
door like that for a speaker.

I can assure you that's, that's a major, major error, particularly with
somebody like me. Well, it is wonderful to be able to be here with you.
It's a, to tell you the truth, a little bit of a new thing for me.

I, maybe just to back up a little bit, I got saved. I came to Christ
when I was in college through Billy Graham's ministry. I was pretty
zealous right off the bat, but obviously quite immature, no real walk or
life or much to say in the Lord.

But I had been actually pre-enrolled to go to a, or enrolled. I was only
weeks before I was to head off to Trinity Seminary in Illinois when I
had met Alan Redpath. And he was speaking in Southern California.

And the man so impacted my life. I had been around a lot of ministry and
I'd heard a lot of speakers, but never anybody spoke to my heart like he
did. I ended up following him around.

He was there for a number of months, coming and going in different
things. And every, everywhere he was at, I ended up speaking, or I mean,
following it to hear him speak. Bought every book that he had and would,
in between, just read and absorb all of this.

And only a few weeks, actually, before my wife and I were to head off to
England to go to school, I mean to, before we go to Trinity, he invited
us to come to England. And to, he was teaching at a place called Cape
and Ray Bible School at the time, and where he also lived on the campus.
And invited us that if we wanted to come, he would continue to kind of
disciple and help me.

And that so impacted me, I decided to do that instead. And so my wife
and I uprooted and went off to England. And we were there for a year.

We returned after that year. Actually, I was, I came just to go to
seminary for a while, a place called Talbot Seminary. It's in Southern
California.

And then I was going to go on from there to an English-speaking Bible
school that Alan Redpath was setting up for me in Indonesia that he had
been involved in. But during that time, while I was going to seminary, I
met a man named Chuck Smith, who was pastoring, actually a small church
in Southern California called Calvary Chapel. And during that process
while I was there, he asked, my wife and I asked me if I'd come on and
assist him.

And I was so moved by what was going on at the time. I had actually just
been at some conferences they were doing at the church, and I was just
been first, just be sitting back there, and he would announce I'm going
to be speaking. I didn't even hardly know him.

I thought, I've never heard of a person quite like this. And, but I
would end up being, sharing at these things. And one thing led to
another, and then he asked me to come on the staff, at which time,
rather, that kind of changed our plans that we had had at the time of
going on the mission field.

And we ended up, for the last 40 years, kind of now involved with the
ministry called Calvary Chapel, if you're familiar with that. At the
time, there was just one, you know, church, and then it kind of
continued to grow. And a lot came out of it, you know, through the
years.

And so I've spent the last 40 years working with it. I started Bible
college back in 75, that now it's in Murrieta in Southern California.
I've met a few of the students that have been there.

And, but then also mostly planting churches. I'm a little different than
a lot of your typical pastors. Every time I've been able to get a church
up and going, which the Lord would allow us to do, and we'd raise up a
team and a staff and get the leadership, get a building, and get the
thing up and going.

Once it was all up and going, I'd look around to see if there's somebody
that would take it. And when we found that person, I'd head off and
start all over again. I didn't know how many times I could do that
during my lifetime, but I wanted to do it as many as I could.

And each time when I'd be someplace, we were able to plant seven or
eight other churches in the area. And I think to me, the blessing is
looking back and seeing now over 20 fellowships that are doing
wonderfully well around that have come out of it. And that's, so my wife
and I, we keep kind of, even my own children look at me and, Dad, when
are you going to settle down? And I don't know if it'll ever happen.

I hope it doesn't. I hope it happens in heaven, frankly. But a few years
back, Chuck Smith, he's 83 now, but he just couldn't travel much like he
used to, and asked me if I would kind of work with the movement.

And so the last years, my wife and I, we have been basically just
working, probably the greater percentage of our involvement has just
been within kind of our own little world of Calvary. During that time,
Greg Gordon, I got an email from him. I still don't know how I got on
his radar screen.

And he wanted to know if he could have some of my CDs and things and put
them up. And I said, fine, you can do whatever you want to with them.
And, but evidently, I don't know if he heard it on a CD or where he got
the information from.

But I must have mentioned one of my relatives who, on the thing, I'm
sure that's how it is, because he sent me a Bible. And it was actually
my 13th great-grandfather. He's a man named John Rogers.

And he was born around about 1499, 1500, right around there. He was
actually originally a Catholic priest, graduated from Cambridge in Greek
and Hebrew. But after his graduation, he heard about this thing going on
down Wittenberg, went down to check it out, see what it was, and ended
up being converted by William Tyndale.

And because he was a scholar in Greek and Hebrew, when Tyndale, after he
had led him to Christ and discipled him, then he was martyred before his
Bible was completed. And John Rogers and a fellow named Coverdale, who I
asked, you never wrote me back, Cliff, if you're one of the, if you're
a, his name's Coverdale. I wanted to know if he was related to him.

But at any rate, Rogers finished it. And originally, the Tyndale Bible
was first printed, called the Thomas Matthews Bible. He named it after
one of his own sons.

And quite a few were printed and distributed in England. Rogers came
back to England. And after he had published, got them printed in
Switzerland, brought them back in massive numbers, began to distribute
them, and ended up actually being so effective preaching there in the
early, mid-1500s in England, that people were brought to Christ in huge
numbers that literally the Encyclopedia of Britannica referred to John
Rogers as the father of the English Reformation, everything that was
attributed to Luther in Europe that Rogers had kind of done in England.

And he ended up, though, being martyred. He was burned at the stake by
Queen Mary, also, of course, known historically of Bloody Mary, or
Bloody Mary, Queen Mary I, because, and he was the first of the martyrs
of some, oh, over 300 in, I think, the first year, that were burned at
the stake at Smithfield. And I had mentioned that in something.

And then Greg found, in fact, is Greg even here? I would like to meet
him someday. I've never met him. He's not here.

Oh, he is here. Would you stand up? Okay, hi. You can sit down now.

I wanted to meet him. This guy, he sent me this Bible. And I had been
looking around.

They're actually original. They cost about $7,000 or something, so I
couldn't get that. But then he found a reprint of it and sent this huge
thing to me.

I said, who is this guy? And so he, in sending me this Thomas Matthews,
i.e., the Tyndale Bible, ultimately, which it rightfully should have
been named all along. But at any rate, it ended up. I got a copy of it.

I was so intrigued by it that he would send me this beautiful Bible. And
so then he would keep asking me to come and speak at some of these
things. And I was never able to do it.

And I always thought I have to if I ever can. And this year, I could. So
here I am.

I was also looking forward to meeting him. It hasn't happened yet, but
at least he can stand up. And hi, Greg.

Thank you for the Bible. And so it's wonderful to be here. To be here
with you and to be able to share.

I'd like you to turn with me, if you would, to Genesis chapter 22. This
is also a little awkward for me. I'm very used to speaking, of course,
within kind of our own movement.

And I do a little bit outside of it. But to tell you the truth, we've
kind of felt that our first obligation is right there. And that kind of
fills our calendar.

But this was something I'd always thought if I could ever do it, just
out of gratitude to the Lord for that Bible and Greg, that I'd do it. So
I'm not sure what you do at these conferences. I was hoping I could have
been a speaker down the road so I could have listened to a few others
and kind of get a general flavor of what you do at these.

And not having that, I wish I could have switched with Charles. By the
way, you know Charles Price? He's also another reason I'm here. Charles
and I were at Capon Ray together 40 years ago.

And pardon me? He was what? I was little. He was little. We used to call
him Little Charlie.

In fact, he still likes being called that. And so if you meet him, just
say, Are you Little Charlie? He makes him feel young. So at any rate, if
you would do that, I'm sure he would appreciate it.

But Genesis chapter 22, and I'm just going to have to just kind of go
and trudge through this and hope that the Lord takes something out of
it. And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham.
And he said unto him, Abraham.

And he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thine son, thy
only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah,
and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, what
I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and
saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac
his son.

He claimed to the wood for the burnt offering. And he rose up, and he
went to the place which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abraham
lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.

And Abraham said to his young men, Abide ye here with the donkey, and I
and the lad, we will go yonder and worship, and we will come again to
you. And Abraham took the wood, and the burnt offering, and laid it upon
Isaac his son. And he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and they
went both of them together.

And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and he said, My father. And he
said, Well, here I am, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the
wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? And Abraham said, My
son.

God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. And so they went
both of them together. And they came to the place which God had told
them of.

And Abraham built an altar there, and he laid the wood in order. And he
bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And
Abraham stretched forth his hand, and he took the knife to slay his son.

And the angel of the Lord called him out of heaven, and he said,
Abraham, Abraham. And he said, Here I am. And he said, Lay not thine
hand upon the lad, neither doest thou anything to him, for now I know
that thou fearest God.

See, thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me. And
Abraham lifted up his eyes, and he looked, and behold, behind him a ram
caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went, and he took the ram,
and he offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.

And Abraham called the name of that place, Jehovah-Jireh, as it is said
to this day, in the mount of the Lord shall be seen. Father, we do thank
you for your word. And we ask that you would open up our hearts to
whatever it is that you would have to say.

It's so wonderful to have something like this in our hands, where the
Spirit of God can take it and make an individual truth and blessing and
application to hundreds of lives at one time. And, Lord, the things that
you can take in our lives with all different issues, different
circumstances, and just turn it, twist it for meaning and depth,
strength and encouragement, direction in each one of us, whatever it is
we need today. And we ask, Lord, that's what your Spirit would do.

For, Father, we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, what is revival, Ron?
I assume that being a revival conference, you kind of hit on that
throughout this thing.

And that's why I'm kind of looking at this message somewhat. Last night
Cliff picked me up and took me out to dinner. And I talked to him.

I grilled him as much as I could. What do you do with these things, not
having been at one? By the way, how many of you have been to these
before? Well, not a lot. Well, that's wonderful.

Well, then we can do whatever we want. I'll tell you what. Turn with me
to John.

No, I won't do that. But back in the 1970s, the late 1970s, I'll never
forget I was contacted by a group of Japanese pastors who at the time,
every year they held what was known as a Japanese Keswick. Now, Charles
and I are familiar with Keswick Conference up in Keswick, England.

It actually, the first one started there, kind of these renewal meetings
and deeper life conferences that were started many years ago. And many
speakers came and people would gather in massive numbers just to wait
upon the Lord and to listen to the Word for a week or so. And they were
a tremendous success.

Well, they were imitated around the world. I didn't know that at the
time. There's a Keswick in the United States conferences.

Well, they went on in Japan as well. And at the time, these leaders of
the Japanese Keswick, they had contacted me and asked me if I would come
to speak over there at a conference for them. And, well, what do you
want to do? What are you up to? And they ended up kind of talking me
into it.

And I went over for this thing. And only to find that as we got there,
of course, they had written and shared with me some of their desires and
things they were praying for. They wanted revival in Japan.

They wanted an outpouring. They wanted the work of God, you know, in
Japan. And when I got there, I found out that they had actually already
enlisted some Maranatha groups.

Now, that was the time Maranatha music started at Calvary Chapel. And it
went on to be sold and gone on to do many other things later. But it
started there.

And the first groups that we had, the Maranatha musicians, number of
music groups, but they were being used quite effectively at a time,
particularly in California and on the West Coast. But they had already
enlisted to see about getting some of them to come over. They had a
young Japanese, quote, unquote, kind of a hippie fellow that was there
as an evangelist.

But they were actually just trying to put together all the parts, all
the pieces of what they had seen in the United States. They wanted to
import it. Well, if you know much about the Japanese, you know that
they're pretty good.

They're probably the greatest country in the world at taking something
that somebody else does well and at least doing it that well, if not
better. And somehow or another, they were now attempting to do the same
thing with revival. Now, we need to get all of these things lined up.

And if we get it, perhaps it will happen. But the sad thing is, is that
when I got over there and began to look at this thing, it wasn't
working. And the reason, personally, that I kind of observed at this
thing is revival, first of all, to me.

Now, in not being at these conferences, I hope I'm not standing on my
feet and saying things that are contrary. If I am, well, just realize
whatever else you're hearing is wrong. This is the truth here.

No, I'm just kidding. But if I am, it's just from my own personal
perspective, I suppose. But revival is something that man, he can't
replicate it.

We're utterly hopeless to do it. The very concept itself of reviving
implies a comatose state. That somebody, they and of themselves, are
utterly hopeless, totally helpless to revive themselves.

They're unconscious. And unconscious people don't revive themselves.
Perhaps they can groan, they can cry out to some degree or another, but
it takes an outside source, a paramedic, a person somehow or another
that knows artificial respiration, some doctor, some form there,
externally to be able to come along and to bring about the revival.

Well, of course, spiritual revival is the same thing. And as I said,
people can perhaps gasp, and we can cry out, and we can long to breathe,
and we need oxygen, we need refreshing. But at the same time, my
observation is that we can do little about it.

I think sometimes we think we can do more. I don't know. J. Edwin Orr
was a man I got to know a little bit in years past and a wonderful man
who wrote on revival.

And my mother and father-in-law had a very dear friend named Armand
Carlson. And Armand, pardon me, not Carlson, that was Arvid Carlson,
Armand Guesswine, I'm sorry, my mind. And he was in the Welsh revival,
and talking with him and things.

But something to me, that as I just look at revival myself, what I saw
happening in the United States and in other places in the world, and I
think up here as well in Canada, back in the 1960s and the 1970s, and
working somewhat into the 80s, I suppose, as well. Personally to me, it
had nothing to do with a preacher, an evangelist, a revivalist. There
was no human really involved so much in the process.

It was truly a sovereign work of the Spirit of God. It was something
there that there was a generation out there gasping somewhat for breath.
There was all sorts of things going on in the country at the time.

We had, you know, there was this, the hippie movement kind of going on.
And all of these that had come back, their fathers had come back from
the war. You know, we're going to build America, you know, and work
hard, get a good ethic going, build values.

But a very materialistic generation that was now becoming quite wealthy.
But the kids of this, you know, generation, they weren't taken so much
with materialism. So they said, although a lot of them drove their
Corvettes to the peace, you know, marches they would have.

It was interesting that their fathers bought them. But at any rate,
there was kind of a rebellion against materialism. There was a rejection
of kind of, you know, a lot of the culture in the country, the huge
dissatisfaction.

There was the Watergate thing that had followed, you know, President
Nixon, you know, around. There was Vietnam and the war that was a mess
going on and dividing up the country. But in it, there was a tremendous
unrest going on on college campuses, going on with the youth in massive
numbers.

And during this time, though, it really wasn't so much the church as a
unit that I think had so much to do with it. As a matter of fact, there
was a lot of things outside the church. It was really the parachurch
organization.

That's where I came to Christ, to Billy Graham. But it was also whether
Billy Graham's greatest years, if you would go back and look and follow
it, were really the 60s, 70s. And that's when his ministry exploded.

Campus Crusade for Christ, Young Life, Navigators. These ministries were
exploding. They were doing phenomenal things, as well as the individual
isolated churches here, almost of any stripe, of any variety.

Whether it could be a Pentecostal, a Baptist, it could be your Jack
Hayford's, your, you know, to your John MacArthur's, to your Chuck
Swindoll's. And there were churches out there that seemed to get it
somewhat. But by and large, there was an awfully lot happening outside
the church.

And in organizations and ministries, it kind of came up parachurch
organizations. And there was happening. They were so often the ones that
were really most effectively preaching the gospel.

They were on the campuses. They were on the beaches. They were up and
down.

I used to, when I first got saved, we spent a lot of time on Hollywood
Boulevard and Sunset Strip and down in Hollywood, of which there would
be massive, you know, numbers of people walking out on the streets all
the time and sharing. We'd approach them and just begin to witness to
them. And you never went out for an evening, spent more than a few
hours.

You wouldn't lead a number of people to Christ. I don't think we ever
had a time we went out and started, you know, sharing the gospel that
there wasn't a response. During this same time, I was new in Christ.

I was one of your kind of penny loafer, wingtip, Ivy League college kids
that came to Christ. And I was never a hippie. I don't know how I got in
Calvary Chapel, if you remember that.

I came in from the outside. In fact, they used to look at me and always
tell me, what are you doing here? And I don't know what I'm doing here.
And they used to try to dress me up and want to fix me.

And it would get me to dress right, and I never could do it. And it
wasn't me. But it didn't.

So I was never a hippie. I've repented for never taking drugs and all of
that. And if I could go back and redo it and take drugs, I probably
would.

So I could fit in better. But I didn't. But at any rate.

But during this time, I used to go down. I had some fellas that we'd go
with. And we'd literally go to University of Southern California in
UCLA.

We would go to fraternity houses. We would just knock on the door and
say, we were here to talk about Christ. You're interested, go over to
the fraternity house next door.

But we're going to be sharing there. But we'll come back here in an
hour. And if you're interested, be here.

We'd come back an hour later. The whole fraternity would be there. And
we'd share with them.

And one of the fellas, he was a fellow named Stan Smith. He was at the
time, he was a national amateur champion tennis player. Another fellow
that shared and gave his testimony was a fellow called Lou Hoyt.

And he at the time was the AAU high jump record holder. And they're both
quite good athletes and very famous. I think that had something to do
with it.

Then I would preach and explain the gospel. Every time though, we were
like half the fraternity, half the sorority would receive Christ. There
was something going on the likes of which it just isn't happening.

It was a sovereign, wonderful work of God. And it was going on
everywhere. Massive numbers of people, they're filling churches.

And anyone virtually that was preaching the gospel and began to do it,
began to have some tremendous success of ministry. Churches were packed
out. In the Bible Belt, down in the Texas area, there were many
churches, a number of churches, 10, 20, 30,000 people in them, packing
them out.

And many congregations of all sorts that were beginning to really get it
and preach the gospel. It was just out now. You look back now.

I was born in it, so I didn't know it was abnormal. I didn't know it was
unique. And to me, it's just how it was.

It's how we operated. It's how we ministered. And then as time goes on,
and you begin to see in the 80s, things quieting down.

And you're doing some of the same things, the same passion, the same
heart intensity, but you're seeing the fruit of it. It's very, very
different. And you realize that there was a time there where for some
reason, God chose to pour out His Spirit.

And it wasn't something on, as I said, any individual, any church, any
movement. There was nobody. It was bigger than all the church's capacity
to embrace it and understand it, which caused you to realize it was a
sovereign work of God.

It wasn't that somebody there understood the culture. It wasn't that
somebody there came along and finally found out how to be relevant, you
know, to people. And it was when somehow or another, the Spirit of God
began to let the people know the gospel was relevant to them.

And it was a wonderful thing that began, you know, to happen and still
is being carried on in some ways here and there and around the world,
but for our world in the United States. And I think there was quite a
bit going on up here in Canada. And not being, you know, around Canada,
but just hearing, you had quite a bit going on in the 70s here too,
right? Yes.

No? Maybe. Is anybody listening? Do you want to go home? We can go. I
don't have to say.

But at any rate, back to Genesis then. We'll get back to this because
here in Genesis 22, to me, first of all, there is something here that as
I look at God and you wonder, what's Genesis 22 have to do with what
I've said so far? And essentially, I look at God doing this wonderful
work and then I see some things in here that I have just called, first
of all, a call to revival. A call to revival.

And that's what God essentially is doing here. It begins there with God
testing Abraham. There where it tells us there that the Lord tested
Abraham and he said, Abraham, Abraham.

And he said, here I am. And of course, God wasn't, or you may have
tempted or, you know, there in your translation, but God tempts no man.
James tells us that.

We know it's not a temptation. But God was tempting him. He was calling,
you know, their Abraham into a deeper place with him.

He was calling Abraham into a greater experience, you know, of God than
he'd ever known before. And Abraham, to me though, when you look at him
and he analyzes life a little bit, you realize this was known, this was
nothing new to Abraham. Having God speak to Abraham and having God call
Abraham into a deeper place, it was a lifelong process.

It wasn't just a one-time thing. It happened many, many times in his
life. He was a man that for years had been tested.

And usually he responded well. We're told in Hebrews chapter 11 about
him essentially that Abraham was a man that he went out not knowing
whether he went. Here when we realize Abraham when he was 75 years old.

What an incredible thing to think of a man 75 years old who was at a
time and a place in his life and in his world that most all the world
dreams of being. Dreams of it. Probably one of the wealthiest men in
history.

One of definitely the wealthiest men of his time. And a fabulously
wealthy man. We don't know how wealthy he is.

We know in Genesis 14 we're told about him when Abraham's nephew Lot was
taken captive. By a group of kings that Abraham gathers together. We're
told 318 of his own trained servants.

That's trained servants. That's his own. He's got his own private
militia.

He has his own trained, equipped, ready to go to battle servants with
him. And that's not just his other servants that would do other things
but ones that can pack a weapon and head off and go to war against here
a bunch of other kings that have now taken his nephew with other kings
of Sodom and other places into captivity. He goes in with his 318
servants and frees them.

But here you realize here's a fabulously wealthy man. We're told about
him. He's very rich, you know, in flocks and in gold and in silver.

We don't know how wealthy but it's assumed some Bible expositors think
that Abraham when he traveled his entourage could have been somewhere
between 2,000 and 2,500 people. By the time you would get his servants,
their marriages, their children. And here when you would put them
together, you've got an incredibly wealthy man.

A man there obviously that in order to have this kind of wealth, what in
the world? I mean, this is where everybody dreams to be, longs to be
within their life. I mean, could you imagine? I mean, you know, having
300 servants. To me, I mean, I'd love to have one.

Just one would be, I'd feel fabulously wealthy. Well, here Abraham. This
man's got everything that Ur of Chaldees no doubt could give the most
advanced city in the world at the time he's got it all.

And yet at the same time having all of this, there was still something
missing. Perhaps when he was younger and he thought, well, when I've
got, you know, you know, 50 head of cattle or I've got 50 sheep or I've
got 100, I've got 500, I've got 1,000. I need, I know I got, I need
5,000.

I need another 25,000 acres. I need another 50,000 acres. I need another
100 servants.

I need this. I need that. And finally, somehow or another, Abraham had
come to the place of realizing that that isn't what he wanted.

Somebody once said there's two great tragedies in the world today and
always has been. And the first one is not getting what you want. And the
other is getting what you want.

Most of us know not getting it. Abraham knew the getting. He knew what
it was.

Thereafter having all of that, he's looking around and there's still
something missing. Is this all it's cracked up to be? Is there no more
than this? And somehow during this process, Abraham, we don't know how,
it's not given to us clearly, but God got under his skin. The Lord got
into his heart.

There was a realization there was another world. There was another
kingdom out there. So thrilling, so exciting there that Abraham was
willing to literally go out not even knowing where he's going.

I mean, what an incredible act of faith. There is God to have someone to
be able to speak to him. Abraham, you know, and who? Who are you? I'm
God.

And he begins to tell him, if you'll follow me. He says, I'll give you
land. You'll be able to look north, south, east and west.

It'll be all yours. I'll give you children like the stars of the sky,
the sands of the sea, innumerable. I'll bless you.

Whoever blesses you, I'll bless them. Whoever curses you, I'll curse
them. But hear this voice calling to him out of heaven.

Somehow or another, it was so powerful. Abraham, I'm sure he'd heard
Abraham a number of times knowing it was a new test, knowing it was
something. But Abraham, he went out not knowing whether he went.

What a dynamic leader I suppose he'd have to be as well to have all of
his people and not rebel from him, but to be able to head off. They
probably looked and said, I don't know what he's seeing now, but he's
more excited about this than anything he's ever done before. I want to
follow him.

Here Abraham goes. But then not only when he gets out there, the next
thing you know, the second thing that really happened to him, we're told
on again later there in Hebrews 11, says all these, if they had been
mindful of the country in which they came, they'd been mindful of the
country, they had opportunity to return. Here Abraham not only went out
in faith, but Abraham had to learn what it was to stay out in faith, to
stay there through the struggles and through the trials.

And there were, as you may know, when Abraham came into the land, he was
greeted by a famine. That's a fine how do you do for faith, isn't it?
You step out, God's promised you, you follow me, I'm going to bless you
like you never dreamed of it. And off he goes, he responds, he gets
there.

And I can imagine every day as they went, you go out not knowing where
you're going, which means what? You don't know when you're there.
Probably every day, all of his servants at the end of the day, are we
there yet? Isn't that what your children ask you when you're trapped? We
there yet? We there yet? Probably every day. No, no, we're not here.

We got to wait on it. Waiting for that voice, Abraham, you're here,
Abraham. He's not hearing it.

This is it. Finally, one day, probably nobody asked, are we there yet?
We're in a desert. There's nothing here.

And all of a sudden, Abraham, yes, you're there. But there's a famine
here. That's a fine greeting, isn't it? You're saying, well, folks,
we're here.

What do you mean we're here? We're nowhere. Yeah, I know. We'll work it
out.

And then Abraham, you know, instead of what's tragic, he, you know the
story. The Bible's so honest with us. It tells us all the processes of
growth that we all go through.

But Abraham, instead of trusting God to provide, we'll never know how he
would have. We just know he would have. But Abraham did the second thing
that a lot of times in the adventures of growing in faith and obedience
and trust and letting the Spirit of God truly work, we struggle.

And when the pressure gets on, we'll oftentimes do what Abraham did.
After all, he's so successful. He's smart.

It hits you. He realizes, wait a minute. All right, I've got a famine
here.

I've been through a lot of tough times in my life and career. I worked
my way through them. I've not only become wealthy, I've multiplied it
many times over.

You work your way through. And the way you work your way through this,
there's no famine in Egypt. So let's go to Egypt.

So down they go to Egypt. And then while they're on their way down,
Abraham thinks a little more. This is the way a lot of us men are, by
the way.

We see the big picture. We just details. We're not good at them.

Like when Sarah maybe wonder, what are we doing? Well, on the details,
he starts thinking about it on the way down. And he thinks, uh-oh, I got
a problem. He looks over at Sarah.

She's very pretty. Wow, you look nice today. Wow, you haven't said that
in a while.

Well, actually, it's a problem. Why? Well, these pharaohs, you get down
there, they see a pretty woman. They think they're gods.

They'll just take them. And if they're married, goodbye, husband. We
wouldn't want that, would we, honey? You know, and so she looks at her.

So here's the deal. If we get down there, probably won't happen. But
we'll probably run into pharaoh.

I mean, the amount of negotiating trading we're going to do to provide
for as many people that we have, you know, and employees and this
entourage. We're not going to sneak into Egypt. We will not be under the
radar.

We will be found. We'll probably meet pharaoh. And the negotiations will
go on, probably reach him.

But probably, but in case he does see you and is attracted, look, let's
just say, you're my sister, and it may be well for thee and me, mostly
me. But at any rate, I mean, here so down they go. And the interesting
thing I've found about the Lord in our life, he's got this wonderful
way.

I think he watches us an awful lot. He knows our thoughts before we
think them. He watches them.

That's how he disciples and raises them up. He sees the struggles, the
maneuvering we do. And watching this, I think a lot of times God sees
the maneuver, our worst case scenario, not going to happen.

I think God smiles oftentimes and said, you know, I like that worst case
scenario. I want to see you work your way out of that one, boy. And sure
enough, he goes down there.

Pharaoh does meet him, does look at Sarah. That's a pretty girl. Her?
It's my sister.

Really? Well, you know something? I just, God said, I got an idea here.
You're a smart man. I'm not a smart man.

And I, everything you need, I got. I got it. I got plenty of it.

I can get you through your famine in a heartbeat. But you know, I can
always use another pretty face. So I'll tell you what.

You can have, I'll just give you what you need. And I'll take your
sister off your hands. What do you say? Bro? You know what I mean? All
of us, here he looks at him.

Okay. Man, probably like a deer in headlights. I mean, he just either
caught, caught in his worst of times.

And worst of adventures, you know, and things. And he does, but, but so
he ends up, he does the deal. Which I'd also love to see Sarah's look on
her face, watching this come down.

In fact, I'd like to see when they're partying and Abraham's, well,
goodbye, sis. I'll be praying for you. God bless you.

You know, and Pharaoh oblivious to it, you know, he says, hey, you come
out here, visit us anytime. And the kids and we'll come visit. Jesus,
he's oblivious to the whole thing.

Then he goes literally to take Sarah to himself and God stops. Don't
touch her. What do you mean don't touch her? I paid good money for this
woman.

No, you can't. Why? Just give him back. You know, it's a man's wife.

No, it's his sister. He told me. Look, the guy's got a lying problem.

We got to work that the way through. Would you just give him back,
rebuke him for me and send him home? But here, you know, you watch
Abraham. Off he goes and his struggles on his way home.

I'd also like a video of their trip home. That would have been a nice
one too. Probably a silent video, I would imagine.

But at any rate, you know, back he goes, picks up again, you know, and
his struggles there, still wanting to go on, still wanting to follow,
still wanting to please God. But as he continues on, I wonder how many
times God spoke to him. God called him to go out.

There and then to stay out, Abraham, stay out. And in this process of
learning what it was to stay, you know, and to continue looking as he
had done in his best hours. He was a man there.

He'd seen a city. He's looking for a city. His builder and maker was
God.

Somehow or another, Abraham, in his years there, he'd come to realize
there's another world. There's another kingdom. And it's the real one.

And God is the center of it. And I believe in him. And I'm going to
follow him.

And he had his human struggles with it. But there as he continued to
grow, it was something there that he found. There, you know, God
bringing him into a place and bringing into a depth.

I wonder how many times that God looked at him, though, and he spoke to
him and he said, Abraham. Whether it was a, you know, and there was
probably a lot of ways that God said Abraham, just like, well, I've been
married 41 years. My wife can say my name in a lot of ways.

And when she says it, I mean, it always in 41 years, it's kind of like a
whole paragraph, you know. You know, she can say, you know, Don, that
means, well, you can fill in the blanks. Maybe, you know, maybe your
name is Don, you know.

Yes, dear, I'm coming, you know, or whatever. Which she doesn't do that
a lot. But I know that voice.

Or there's different ways that she can say your name that I say my name.
Well, I believe God speaks to us that way. I don't know how many times
in my own life as a Christian, the Lord, I can just almost sense him,
say, Don.

Like, what are you doing? What are you thinking? Like, why don't you
shake me? Or there's a Don that's a calling. There's all sorts of ways I
believe that, you know, we, Jesus said, my sheep, they know me and they
know my voice. And just as much as any human being can detect not only
the person's voice, they know what they're doing.

And I wonder how many times God has spoke to Abraham in the way he had
even said the tone in his voice, Abraham, Abraham. And somehow or
another, I think a lot of times that when God spoke to him, it was
Abraham in the sense of, Abraham, are you ready for another test? Are
you ready for another call? Are you ready for another, is there a
spiritual preparedness? You want to go wherever it is, Abraham. Time to
pack up again.

Abraham, there's more out there. Abraham, there's another blessing.
Abraham, there's a work I want to do.

And to me, one of the wonderful things that I just sense with Abraham is
I just sense about him that when God said Abraham, he was ready to
respond that quickly. Here am I. And then the Lord just immediately lay
out to him. Now, I want to talk to you about something.

We haven't talked about this before. Are you probably not ready for
this? No, he was. When he said, take now thine son, thine only son, whom
thou lovest.

There was already within Abraham. I mean, he immediately, he immediately
responds. He's immediately ready to go.

He gets the servants. He gets what he needs for everything for the
journey. He has three days to go.

But yet at the same time, there was already a sense waiting for Abraham
to be said the way he'd no doubt heard it before. When he had been
called and called and called again and again and again. One of the
things I think frightens me, quite frankly, at least in the church.

I'm church in America and church in our country. You know, right now, I
don't know the church up here. So I can't comment on it.

And I don't know the whole church in America by any means, but I think a
lot of times right now where our church is at and in the world many
times is I don't think it's interesting. I think right now there may be
if the Lord would be sitting there saying to the church, church. I don't
think the church is sitting around waiting to hear its name.

Not like the church is what we're waiting. We're longing, but you know,
what is it? Where do you want to go? What's your next thing? What do you
want sacrificed? What do you want offered? You know, I don't think
there's that hunger. There's that preparation.

There's that in which there was. I'll tell you going on within the
country in the 60s and 70s. But sadly, it wasn't so much in the church.

It was outside the church. A friend of both Charles and I know pretty
well, Stuart Briscoe. He once wrote a book.

I always love the title. I never read it. I should.

I've read a lot of his stuff. Never read it. But where was the church
when the youth exploded? Here was something that was happening in the
country that was huge, but the church had no idea, wasn't ready for it,
didn't know what to do with it.

A lot of it was entirely outside the church. The church was preoccupied.
We want to do buildings.

We want new choirs and organs. And we need membership tribes. And we got
our thermometers up here.

And the church was oblivious to the fact that outside the church. You go
on the college campuses where we were. You go up and down.

You go on the beaches. You go into the hippie love-ins. You go to where
they were there in massive numbers.

You know, they're crying out and marching and doing some of the weirdest
things out of their own desperation. But there was a cry. There was a
longing.

There was something. There was Timothy Leary, you know, Harvard
professor. He would tune in, turn on, drop out or something like that.

Telling the whole world, you need LSD. You need drugs. You need, you
know, something.

Everybody was just experimenting with anything to find another life. All
our society saying, is this it? Is there no more than this? Is that
where it's at? And sadly, though the church was saying, well, yeah, this
is pretty much it. Instead of saying, oh, there's something huge.

But here the wonderful thing is, though, is that Abraham was a place, a
place in his life when the Lord said Abraham. There's no doubt he'd
heard it and heard it when he went out and when he learned to stay out
and through his struggles. He'd learned it when he had to, you know,
intercede for his nephew Lot.

He'd learned it when he had to be rebuked for his own sin, I'm sure.
Learned all the voices. But here there was something.

He's always growing. He's always still heading for another world. He
never stopped longing for it.

And here now, you know, in his 120s or something, God comes, Abraham. I
think, Abraham, what? Where are we going? What do you have? And here
there was something there that it's interesting what happened. Because
now he says to him something that paralyzes most people to read it.

Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee
into the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering upon
one of the mountains, of which I will tell you of. You see, it's like
every verb, every word, every part of that sentence, every one of that
request, Abraham, and he says, yes, here I am. And then he turns to him
and says, Abraham, I'm after your son.

I want your son, thine only son. It's like he sticks the knife in and
turns it. Now, you know, he pierces the depth of his soul, crying out in
a sense to him.

It's like God wanted it to implement the greatest cost. He wanted to
drive and pierce the knife the deepest he possibly could. He wanted
Abraham.

On one hand, he had the greatest prize, the greatest blessing that could
be offered to a man, but he wanted him also to feel the greatest price
with it. It's got to parallel. You're not going to have coincidentally
great blessing and no cost.

You're not going to be the father of all of the house of faith. The
whole Judeo-Christian world isn't going to look to you and call you
father and have you paid nothing for it. You want to revive the world.

You want to revive generations. You want the church to be grafted into
you one day. And Abraham, you're going to pay a price equal to only and
surpassed by when God offered his own son.

The same hill, they say. Well, he didn't get it back like Abraham did.
But here he looks at him and he brings in the point there, you know,
Abraham, and then immediately the cost.

You're willing, the price to pay. You, you know, and in terms of revival
is always personal. It's always personal.

Sometimes I'll listen, I'll read things on revival, and it's oftentimes
in terms of filling the churches. Now, obviously, that's what you want.
You want to be thinking mass, and that's what you want.

But, you know, to me revival, it's talking about revival in massive
numbers. To me, it's like my wife and I talking about our marriage like
it's a third party. No, there's just me and my wife.

That's it. Corporately, there's this thing called a marriage. And
revival is something that's always just personal.

It's personal. And if it isn't personal, it'll never be corporate. It's
always, whether, you know, it's always something that happens on an
individual one at a time basis where somebody there has heard their
voice from heaven, Abraham, and he's calling them to something.

There's a price to be paid, and they'll pay it. They're ready for it.
This world doesn't mean anything to them anymore.

They've seen it. You can have anything on it. There's nothing I have
that's worth a commodity of what I could get in exchange.

So what's your price? Gladly pay it. That's when revival begins to
happen. And here Abraham, he obeys his voice without a murmur, without
even so much as a, can I have a correction? Would you repeat it to me? I
need to make sure I got this.

Could you give it to me in three languages? Could you give it to me in a
sign in the sky? Could I have a couple things? I mean, this is the
biggest thing you could possibly dream of asking. When you said Abraham,
and I know, okay, I'm ready. But man, the price he's asking.

When you stop to realize about 50 years earlier when he went out not
knowing whether he went, it was all on the basis of for 50 years of a
journey. After 50 years, he had one thing to show for it, Isaac. Isaac
was the key to every bit of it.

And now he comes, he says, I want Isaac. I'd want clarification. I want
to, wait a minute, this is sum total of everything in my entire life,
isn't it? This is more than my life.

This is my heritage. This is my identity. This is who I am.

This is why I've lived. Without him, I have no future. I'm just another
obituary and billions of lives that came and fell off the planet.

He's my future. And you want it, precisely. Got it, Abraham.

And here to think there's absolutely no suggestion or appearance of
murmuring or delay or anything. Rises up early in the morning, saddles a
donkey, gets a couple of his young men with him, gets the wood, gets the
fire, gets everything that he needs. He knows exactly where he's going
and off they go.

No dragging his feet. Nothing there holding him back. Everything
required in the preparation for the sacrifice is there.

He's got the materials. He's got the knife. He's got the servants.

They're all on the road. There they head off from Beersheba over to
Moriah. Two days journey.

And I'm sure every day, why did God give him the two days journey? You
know how some people, well, that's where Moriah was and God wanted to
make a picture of that. I'm sure that's part of it. But personally, I'm
convinced that it was a two-day journey because God wanted every step
Abraham to take.

The pain, the cost. Every step as he's going and the servants are there.
It's all stepping closer and closer to sacrifice.

Closer and closer to the offering. Closer and closer. God wanted every
quiet, painful step to allow it to take its toll.

That Abraham ultimately would truly be the beneficiary and the sharer of
God's greatest work. A full participant in it. Not an accidental
stumbled into revival.

Stumbled into blessing. Happened to be there coincidentally. No.

I want to be it there at its deepest point. And here he finds himself
there, you know, where he gets there and after, you know, the plan of
revival but the cost. As he gets there now, the third day, he lifts up
his eyes, sees the place afar off.

And now Abraham and his son together, he tells them, you know, the lad's
there. He says, you stay here. I and the lad, we're going to go up and
worship and return.

But off they go. And while they're on their way, there's something here
that Isaac points out that to me is unbelievably central and critical to
revival. He's going out there and while they're on their way up, he
turns and he asks his father the question.

Father, I ask my son, here I am. Well, we have the fire, we have the
wood. Now, where is the sacrifice? I mean, it's the most logical
question in their world.

And here there's something there that he… One of the things there, of
course, Abraham's response and exactly what he was saying, we're not
sure. My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. You
know, some expositors, he said he knew that God was not… that he himself
was ultimately, this is a picture of the greatest thing in the world yet
to happen at the cross.

That's perhaps, wouldn't discount it, wouldn't take anything away from
it. Perhaps there's something, God, don't worry, something is going to
happen at the last minute. Or perhaps he's buying time.

He'll take care of it. And something here with, you know, for sure
what's going on. We do know ultimately, though, we're told in Hebrews
11, 19, that Abraham, one of the things that was going on, that had been
somehow or another perfected during this time as he's going.

Hebrews 11, 19 says that he was accounting that God was able to raise
him up, even from the dead, from whence he also received him in a
figure. We're told there clearly that Abraham, he was going up there
prepared to do it. He was prepared to sacrifice his son.

He was prepared that his son could die. And the interesting thing is, he
believed God would raise him from the dead. And we're told by, you know,
by expositors that at this time, the concept of resurrection was
unknown.

No previous record of any resurrection at all. Abraham isn't something
that he even has something to base this on, only the fact that if God
wants him dead, then somehow or another, I don't know how it'll happen,
but God will have to bring him back alive. Because he cannot, I lied to
him.

He never lied to me. It's never happened. It's not in him.

He's incapable of it. And so whatever it is that's going on here, far
beyond Abraham's ability to grab it, but here they find themselves there
on their way up. And Isaac points out to me one of the most powerful
truths.

You see, Isaac turns and says, Father, we have the fire and we have the
wood, where is the sacrifice? And you see something. This to me
personally is what I believe when I would look back on something that I
was allowed to watch and participate in in various ways, that I believe
this is the key to revival. This is central to revival.

It had nothing to do with the fire. It had nothing to do with the wood.
It wasn't it at all.

It was always the sacrifice. It's always the sacrifice that produces
revival. It's always where it comes from.

And to me back at the Jesus Movement is I even listen to people analyze
something. And we were there. I was interviewed by Time Magazine.

I was, we had all the, and look, all Newsweek, they were all there. We
talked to all of them. They all wanted the pictures, come down to the
baptisms, go to the meetings.

And here we were there, you know, for all that. But here there was
something there that all your sociologists and everybody looking at all
this stuff, you know, it's the fire, it's the wood. They're relevant.

They're clicking with their, they're touching a nerve that needs to be
touched with, you know, that people are connecting with. They're, you
know, they're doing something here as if it was somehow or another was
the music. They got great music.

They got this hippie music. They're like Peter, Paul, and Mary, somebody
once wrote, you know, in the church. Like, see, they're hip.

And if the church was just more hip, if it was more relevant. Well, I
can tell you, I was there. It wasn't the music.

It wasn't the music. Truly, it wasn't the music. And in fact, a lot of
the music was terrible.

The music that got out, that succeeded to get penetrated into the
greater world, it was pretty good stuff. But a lot of the stuff we lived
to, we listened to, it was not that good. But I'll tell you something.

There was somebody there that he'd get up there. We let him. He got a
song playing.

Half a thousand people sat there. And some guy, I can remember one
fellow, he wrote a song called Caught on a Nail. How's that verse? But
it was one there.

It's a story of a guy, he's in trouble. He's up working on the roof of
his house, fixing the shingle. And as he starts, he goes and writes the
songs, this whole verse on it.

You know, and then he's starting to slip. He's going to fall off. And
then as he's just, God, God, he's crying out to God, please help me,
help me.

And then all of a sudden, just before he falls off the roof, he gets
caught on a nail. And then he tells God, don't bother. I'm okay.

I got caught on a nail. And that was the song. And then he'd go to
another verse and somebody else in trouble.

And how bad they were. And oh, God, they're crying out. And then, oh, I
got caught on a nail.

Just the whole song was about, we'd be crying out to God in our life and
help us. And then some human thing happened to save us. And we would
just, oh, well, it was, don't worry, God.

I, the circumstances worked out fine. In ridiculing the fact that he's
suggesting God's not involved in all of this. It was a cute song.

It was terribly written. And the music was terrible. And I don't think
the guy, I could have played the guitar better.

And I don't even play anything, you know, on the thing. But in his voice
was just like fingers on a chalkboard. You'd sit there, but people came
to Christ, realizing that's where I've been crying out.

And I can remember so many things there. And I'd sit there and watch
some of this stuff happening and say, God, kill that guy up there on
this stage. Have mercy upon this audience.

And instead, a hundred people would be down in front, giving their life
to Christ, thinking, man, there's a hundred people must really be messed
up to respond to that. But it wasn't the fire. It wasn't the wood.

And something, the tragic thing is, is that one of the things today, the
church, we've got to find a way to be relevant. We've got to get into
our system. We've got to find out what people are thinking.

And I'll tell you, it wasn't that at all. What it was, it was the
offering. It was a sacrifice.

Because we could maybe provide some fire. We provide the wood. But we
made it clear there'd be no worship here until there's a sacrifice.

And if you're prepared to sacrifice your death for his life, your pain,
your sin, your rebellion, you want to turn your life over to Christ,
that's the offering you're in. And what made it a sweet-smelling savor,
what it was that happened was, is that maybe the church can provide some
fire and provide some wood and provide something there. But one of the
things I think even the world somehow or another knows, where's the
sacrifice? And to me, one of the things I can remember in massive
numbers there, I mean, after they'd close a service, and I, you know,
you'd look out and here there would be hundreds, thousands.

They'd be back, you'd be, you'd sing a chorus as you close. Simple, you
know, you know, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, there's something about that name.
And you'd look out, and there'd be, every eye would be closed.

They had to be tilted. The hands would be lifted. Tears would be coming
down their face.

Wasn't the fire. Wasn't the wood. It's the offering.

That's revival. And when people look there and begin to realize that
what it is that, you know, that until that happens, there's no, there's
no revival. Alan Redpath used to tell the story about one time he was
preaching in a service, and a woman came up to him afterwards.

He said she, the way he described her, she was just dressed to the hilt.
Jewelry, beautiful out, you know, outfit, hair, just decked out. She was
just a picture of the material world success as he would lay it.

But this woman came up at the close of a service, and she looked into
his eyes. She said, Dr. Redpath, I would give the world for what you
spoke about today. And he turned to her, and he smiled, and he says,
Madam, that's exactly what it costs.

And until the church is prepared to pay its world, there will be no
revival. I don't think. You know, until there's something there where
there's that, that deep longing, where at the end of the day, there is
something offered.

There is something that becomes a sweet smelling savor. One of the
things, the word altar, one of the, they would never dream of worshiping
in the Old Testament without building an altar. You just didn't, it
could be just a few stones stack up.

It could be more elaborate or whatever, but by and large, you had to
have an altar. No altar, no worship. But the word altar, very simply,
all the word means is slaughter place.

That's all it means. And then, you know, in here, until something is
offered, until something dies, worship doesn't happen. It doesn't go on.

It's never changed. And when I come, and I want to worship the Lord, and
I maybe got a new song and a great ditty, and I got this, I got that,
and by the way, we're in touch with society out there, and we got this,
we got that, and we're going to have worship. But I wonder how many
times the Spirit of God would come into our things that are ministries
that are going on and say, well, you got the fire.

Boy, you're cooking up a storm. You got the wood. Boy, this is fancy.

Where's the sacrifice? When something happens there where life begins to
realize that's it, that's it. And today, I think when we look, I mean,
what a wonderful thing to have a revival conference. And it's wonderful
to pray for the world out there.

We prayed for it. You don't stop that. But at the same time, when
there's something that each one of us, we realize that when the Lord
looks at us, there's fire, there's wood.

He looks at me. Where's the sacrifice? Where's the sacrifice? Amen. Dear
Father, we thank You for Your Word.

And Lord, I thank You for Your desire. No one wants revival more than
You. No one wants life more than the Creator, the One who is more alive
than all of life itself.

You are alive. And Lord, You want to pour Your life into us. But Lord,
like always, something's got to die, something of ourself, some darling
product of our own nature.

We surrendered again and again all the way through our life that, Lord,
whatever it was that I may have offered to You 40 years ago, so what? I
offered 30 or 35 or 20 or 10. Jesus, You look at us and today, Lord,
when the offering is fresh, the offering, the sacrifice, the yielding up
of a hardened life to say, Jesus, I want revival. I want it in me.

I want it under my skin. I'm ready for You to call my name, to say it as
only You can. And Lord, I pray that each one of us would be at a place
where we're ready.

When You would call it, that we would say, here I am. What would You
like? I'll gladly offer it. Knowing even as Abraham had come to the
place of realizing, you know, nothing you'll ever offer to God that He
won't pay back a hundredfold.

He promises that. Whatever we give up, whatever it is, it comes back
phenomenally well. But Lord, the faith and the surrender and the trust
and the obedience in our lives, Lord, would You help us? Strengthen us.

Teach us. Feed us. Father, we ask it in Jesus name.

Amen. I don't know the plan. Okay.

I think that set the stage. Does God want your Isaac? Do you have an
Isaac in your life? We can't fix the church out there, but God can do
something here. Isaac represents that which has not been placed on the
altar yet.

And whatever you don't place on the altar is yours, not God's. It's your
Isaac. There won't be worship until there is a sacrifice.

Until the church is prepared to pay the price, there would be no
revival. And when you get to the altar and God asks you to put it on, it
can get rough. But we're not free until all on the altar is sacrificed.

Let's stand. Lord, thank you for our brother bringing this little bit to
get us started. Bless our time now as we go seek some refreshment or
seek more time with you.

Open up our hearts to hear you. Open up our ears to hear what you're
saying to us personally. In Jesus name.

Amen. See you back at 10 o'clock.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/Jmb2UTH4SPM.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/don-mcclure/revival-in-the-life-of-abraham/
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