Come Short

Take your Bibles and open up and follow these passages of Scripture with me. The simple title of this message is Come Short. We have numerous phrases in the Scriptures that are there for instruction and admonition, and this one that the Lord has laid upon me is the one thing that I do not want is to come short of His glory. And our prayer and petition and our desire day in and day out is that we might prevail in for the glory of God. Moses prayed to prayer in Exodus, Lord, show me your glory. And throughout history, there have been those that have experienced it, those that have been filled with it, those that have seen it, and any of those of a brother or sister that has been filled and seen the glory of God, it's a wonderful testimony. And so this is one of those things, again, that we are searching for in this hour, that as we close this year and get ready for the next year, that we not be found guilty of coming short of the glory of God. Now, there's two references in this. It's not just the reference that, again, we'll be reading here in a moment in the passages of coming short. We've all sinned and come short of the glory. Romans chapter three, we'll read that here in a moment. But it's also in Hebrews chapter four, and we'll read a passage of scripture there from chapter three to chapter four, but chapter four, verse one is that passage of scripture. So would you take your Bibles and let's open up to Romans chapter three and read this passage. Now, chapter three, Paul quotes David in this, and we start in verse 10 with that quote out of the book of Psalms and chapter three, verse 10 down through the verse 23 of our passage of focus. As it is written, there is none righteous. No, not one. There is none that understands. There is none that seeks after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are all together become unprofitable. There is none that does good. No, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher with their tongues they have used to see. The poison of asp is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that what things whoever the law says, it says to them that are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all of men that believe, for there is no difference. And here's our focus for all have come short. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, which turned over with me to Hebrews chapter three and mainly chapter four, verse one, where again, we come across that same phrase. Now, chapter three, the writer of Hebrews is giving to us this comparison throughout this chapter of Moses, the prophet of him bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt to give to them the law, the commandments, and then to lead them into what is referenced here as rest or the promised land. This again, for the old Testament, for the children of Israel to fulfill the promise that he had, that God had extended to Abraham, that he would make his children to be a mighty nation, a powerful nation, that the children and offspring would be as the stars in the heavens, or as the sand on the seashore, innumerable and uncountable. And then the second promise was, was that he took them upon the mountain and showed them the north, south, east, and west. And he spoke and said to them, he said, he said, all the land that you see, I will give to your descendants. And it says is that again, Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now, when the children of Israel was led as this chapter three gives to us in Hebrews, Moses led them out, but due to the circumstances of the rebellion, their disobedience, they were not allowed to enter into the rest. And so that generation was cut off. And we'll come back to that here in a moment. But if you pick up with me in verse 15 of chapter three, and then we'll read through chapter four, verse one. For while it is said today, if you will hear his voice, pardon not your hearts, as in the provocation, for some, when they had heard did provoke, albeit not all of those that came out of Egypt were by Moses. And there's another passage in scriptures that says that not all, we know that there were some Egyptians that came with them. And again, the rebellion and the disobedience and the idols that they had worshiped in Egypt, they brought also with them. Verse 17, but with whom was he grieved for 40 years? And with them was also that they had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness. And to whom did he swear by those that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not. So we see that they could not enter in because of the sin of unbelief. In chapter four, verse one, let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left to us of entering into his rest that any of us should seem to come short of it. Now, the reference that we have here, you see in chapter three, that there is an absolute, all have sinned and come short. It is an absolute, we've all come short of the glory of God. And this is a part of this of redemption, our redeeming salvation, that again, that we look at Christ and Christmas, we just celebrate why did Christ come to save us from our sins, to impart to us his righteousness and to make the atonement and the sacrifice at his death and his resurrection and his ascension that brings us with the opportunity. I am the way, the truth and the life, and no man can come unto the father, but by me. He has made a way for us to enter into that rest. And it is an absolute certainty that all of us have come short of the glory of God due to our sin. And we must be saved from our sins. We must be saved from ourselves. And Christ gave us the instruction to take up our cross, die to ourselves and come follow him. But over in chapter four, it is this comparison of the Old Testament of the children of Israel coming short of entering into the promised land. And for the same reference, lest we come short. And I, in meditation upon this, this becomes my central theme of why we would do a concert of prayer, why such an initiative to do a hundred hours of prayer so as to prevail. We come into this place of desperation, lest we come short of God's glory. We can't go on without God's glory. And the church has been trying to do that for so long. And it is just, we are bottomed out now. We are bankrupt. And it is the urgency of the hour that we realize this truth and that we come back to a moment of Pentecost and be spirit filled so that we can go into the new year that despite what happens in the governments, despite what happens in the economy, despite what happens on streets of America or the streets around the world, is that we know as the body of Christ, the church, that we have not come short, but that we've been spirit filled and we're being used of him. And so this message this afternoon here is to address this. I do not want to get to the place of coming short of God's glory. Now I realize is that my salvation and my testimony bears record of that from Romans chapter three. I have come short. You and I, both in the same place, somewhere along the line, we were made aware that we were sinners in need of salvation and the savior. Somewhere along the line, someone preached the gospel to us and told us of our predicament, told us of our condition, told us of our eternity. Look, you're not going to enter into heaven. And despite all the lies that are out there in the mission today, but they want to tell people, tickle their ears with saying, you know, just try to be good. Just try to do. There is none good. No, not one. None. That's the reason I read those verses 10 through 17 there, where he says that there is none that is doing this. And we have all come short. It is the absolute urgency that we realize is that men, women, and children that die without Christ die and go to hell. And it is our plea and power today that we come because Christ has made a way for us that we not come short, but that we enter into his rest, meaning into heaven with his power and his glory. And so that part of redemption and salvation is the testimony of the church. I was lost, but now I see. I was blind, but now I see. I was lost, but now I'm saved. I was hell bound, now I'm heaven bound. And God has done this wonderful thing of grace and mercy. But again, we look upon the masses. We hear the cries of the churches today of the remnant that are crying out, give us a spiritual awakening. Now, spiritual awakening is when lost people come to their, like in Luke, where he talks about the prodigal son, that the prodigal son was casting the feed to the hogs down there. And it says, and he came to himself. And so we are praying for lost loved ones, for our cities, for our communities that are ravaged by lost people, that they would come to themselves, lest they come short of the glory of God and miss out on heaven completely. So a spiritual awakening is when these, what we term sinners and heathens, that they come to themselves with an awareness of having faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. And the word of God is presented to them, given to them. They fall under the power of the Holy Spirit of conviction. They say, this is what I want. I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. I know if I die, I'm going to go to hell. I don't want to go to hell. I want to live for Jesus. I want to love Jesus. I want to serve Jesus. What do I got to do to be saved? And there have been great testaments of God's deliverance, God's redemption, God's mercy and grace. Some of you bear that same testimony and say, look what the Lord did to me. You know, whether it was drugs, whether it was just, whether it was sitting in a church thinking you were saved, religious, somewhere you came to yourself by God's divine inspiration and brought you to your senses and said, I can't go on like this. I've got to be saved. And I love to hear the powers of testament. I love to hear how God and his amazing grace redeemed and rescued. But there are a passage of multitudes that are coming short to the glory of God's eternal rest. And they're going to miss heaven. One, because of the rebellion and as we read there, because of their unbelief. They refuse to believe that there's a God. They refuse to believe that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, that Jesus Christ was the son of God. They refuse to believe that he died for them and rose again. And they question every aspect of the Bible. And so that when you tell them that they are a sinner in need of that savior, they become defensive. They become rebellious against that. They become defiant and they'll say, I'll have you know that I'm not that bad of a person. I'll tell you is that I believe, I don't believe in a hell. I believe everybody dies and goes to heaven. We've heard all those things, but that's not the reality of the truth that the Bible teaches us. And so our hearts do the same thing that Jesus heart does, that God, the father's heart, I would that none would perish and go away from me and come short of the glory of God. I want to give you a couple instances in scripture that you understand this passage with me. First one I want to look at is let's consider the disciple Judas. Now here's a man that got, that Christ selected and brought into his fold of the 12 disciples. He saw the miracles. He participated in the work and the labors of Jesus three years of ministry. He knew that this was the son of God. He knew it. And yet it isn't that Judas was the very one that walked away, that betrayed him, that he got that time, that title by Christ himself, the son of perdition or the son of the damned was that he was picked and chosen. And again, foreordained that there should be one that should betray him for 30 pieces of silver. And that prophecy being in the old Testament of that. And all we can say of Judas is this one central thing. He came short of the glory of God. He missed out on eternity in heaven with Christ Jesus. He missed out on it because he was the son of the damned, the son of perdition. There have been many that have walked out of this world into eternity. And again, where people says, oh, but we don't know what they decided. There are some that you do know. Is that they rejected every opportunity of an invitation that the glory of God has brought to them. They refused to come to church. They refused to respond. They refused to surrender. They hardened themselves and they were filled with unbelief. It is an absolute about Judas that he was given that title by Christ because Christ knows those that would come to him and those that would not come to him. Now, you and I do not know that in all areas and senses of who's saved and who's lost. Therefore, it is our responsibility as the church that we go forth to labor and to make sure, as Paul says, spend and be spent, that none would come short of this glory of God. And yet on our watch, church, we have watched more people walk away from the church. We have watched more people walk away from Christianity. We watch more people walk away from that message of holiness, righteousness, and faithfulness. And we have never seen in our lifetime as many of the masses of the population of the United States and the world that have come short of the glory of God for the saving of their souls. And yet when you talk to most Christians about reaching the nations and reaching the unreached people groups and going to the people across the street from them and going downtown or going to a neighbor or going to a family member and sitting there, we also know is that the church's testimony and witness today in North America is that for 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days this year, some Christians who profess their allegiance and their loyalty to Christ have not been concerned with people that are coming short of eternal rest. They haven't spoken to one person. They haven't shared the gospel with one person. They believe in that mindset is that, well, God's going to win them, he'll win them, and they refuse to be obedient to the heavenly calling that God has laid upon the church. They're not burdened for those that are coming short of eternal rest. How can anyone that dare call themselves Christian not be concerned with the current condition of the masses that in our cities, that are in our homes, that are up and down the streets, the counties and the states, watching them live in evil, practice evil, love their sin, and they're coming short of the glory of God for eternal salvation. It is the number one reason, again, of our passion, not only to glorify him and to serve him with holiness and righteousness, but it is to take that gospel message to the four corners of the earth. And so walk through the door, take the opportunity to go near, to go far, and have this passion and plea, Lord, don't let them come short, lest they miss the glories of heaven and be found in the horrors of hell. Oh God, help us in that passion in this hour, because Romans chapter 3 is about that. It is about the eternal soul. It is about the redemption of lost mankind, and the church has lost its passion. Do you ever understand, or could you ever realize, is that the church would come to a place, is that they were content to watch people go to hell and be unmoved by it? Jonathan Edwards is the one that says, stamp eternity on my eyeballs, put heaven on this side, hell on this side, and you'll never be the same. Did the church stop looking at eternity? Did we stop thinking about it? Did we stop considering it, of the riches and the glories of heaven, and being in the presence of Christ, and being with the saints, and being in the glory of the Father, and having that for eternity, and all that comes with that, of again, the description of heaven and its wonders, to often meditate on that, to sing the old songs, I'm bound by the promise, I'm bound to go to the promised land, I'm heading across Jordan, and I'm going into that celestial place of where there is no sin, no sickness, no sorrow, there is nothing there that defiles, it is all bliss and perfection. Christians have lost that passion, and they have lost that meditation on eternity, and as much as it is that they don't know what's coming for heaven, they also don't know what hell is. We hear that so often, is that most pastors, over 70 to 80 percent throughout these 52 weeks, have never preached a sermon on hell. They have never given a description on the horrors of hell, up to know where their loved ones are going, or where their church members are going, or where their citizens are going, but this is the reality that the Bible tells us, is that all have sin that comes short of the glory, and they will miss heaven, and they will miss the glory of God, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and they will be in a place again of the horrors of hell, that they will have to land them, and suffer for eternity of what might have been, what could have been, what should have been, but they missed it, they came short. Then you go to the rich young ruler, found in Mark chapter 10, and in Matthew, again this parallel between the Gospels, where the same account, and here comes this rich young ruler to Jesus, and as he comes to him, he comes seeking eternal salvation, he comes seeking to be right with God, to be right with Christ, and he's got this issue, which again, unbeknownst to most men, but not unbeknownst to Christ, because Christ is omniscient, he knows all things, and so he knows this guy, and the title itself, the rich young ruler, and he comes to Jesus, and he says, I want to know about this thing called eternal life, I want to know about getting to the Father, which sits in heaven, and I think I'm ready, I think I'm okay, and again that justification in the minds of religion, I'm a good person, and so he says, what do I have to do, and Jesus answers him, he says, and you notice, and again through scripture, is that he notes all the last sins of the ten commandments, don't commit adultery, he says, you know, honor your father and mother, don't steal, don't lie, don't covet, and man says, well all these have I kept from my youth up, he declares his righteousness, his self-righteousness, now again, God who knows the heart, and he addresses this rich young ruler, and he says, okay, beyond your deeds of keeping the commandments, which again, no man has kept, because if a man breaks one commandment, he's broken them all, Hebrews tells us, he addresses his soul personally, and he says to him, go sell all that you got, rich young ruler, go sell all that you got, give to the poor, and come follow me, and it says, is that the rich young ruler went away, grief, sad, because he could not part with his riches, and it says in the gospel, there is that Jesus also was grieved, because he walked away from him, how hard is it for the rich to enter into the kingdom of heaven, he said, and you look at these passages of scripture here, this rich young ruler, now again, did he repent later, did he come at another time, we'll never know, until we get to eternity, but for this moment, Hebrews chapter 4 verse 1, lest happily, one should come short of the glory of God, in all essence of what we read here, Judas did come short, absolute, this rich young ruler, we don't know his decision for the rest of his days, but at this particular point, he did come short, and we see also, is that this description is given to us, and as we read, and for the gospel, as far as Hebrews chapter 3, that we read in this context of scripture, that the children of Israel come out of Egypt, they were given at Mount Sinai, the glory of God come down, they saw the thunderings and the lightnings, they saw the miracles, the plagues, they saw God take care of the Egyptians, they had seen God do wondrous, great deeds, there is no God that can do these things, but the Lord God was what was declared to them, they heard the voice of God speak, and they feared, and they trembled, and they fell down, and these same ones who saw the glory of God, these same ones who heard the voice of the glory of God, who heard God, are the very same ones that in the wilderness turned from him, murmured against him, bowed down to a golden calf, they came short to the glory of God, because he said, because you could not believe in me, and follow me, and obey me, you're going to come short, and you are not going to be allowed to enter into the promised land. It's an awful thing to read about that, and so what does God do? He says, when they sent the 12 spies into the promised land there, and they came back with that evil report, 10 of them said, there's no way that we're going to be able to go into the promised land and be victorious, because they didn't have any faith or trust in God, in his power, even though they'd seen God take care of the Egyptians by the drowning in the Red Sea, and they said that the cities have walls, they've got gates, they've got bars, we've seen giants of men, they're full of stature, and they're walking around, there's no way that we can do that, only Caleb and Joshua declared, let's rise up and go in, and God will give us the victory. God declares to that generation of those who would not believe in God, is that you will not be allowed to enter, but I will bring your children in. One of the horrors that I have, is that this generation will pass away, and we will come short of seeing God's glory in revival. We will see God's glory come short in the spiritual awakening, God says, because you didn't believe. You didn't do what you were supposed to do, you didn't do it when it was supposed to do it, you weren't broken in contrite over the evils of happening in your day, I can't use you, but I'll raise up your children, and I'll let them see it, I'll let them experience it, and again, if that would be so, and my son's sitting here, it's for him to sin, and I go on, and I enter into my eternal glory, but again, just so long as God is glory, but what about us? What about now, when God gives us this moment, are we content to come short of his glory for revival and spiritual awakening, while it is happening upon us, is that they are perishing left and right, and that evil is increasing, and the church is floundering, and the power is gone, and the presence is gone, and we have come short, and we cannot enter into his rest. That desperation is what provokes me in my prayers, that I come before God with that urgency upon me, saying God, you have revealed these things to us. It is one thing to be like Judas, and it's one thing to be like the rich young ruler, but God, don't let us be like the children of Israel, filled with unbelief, as calling ourselves Christians, not believing all revival can't come, it's too bad out there, it's too far gone. I always laugh, because most of the time, is that in the days and societies, when men were rising up, saying there is no God, the church is on its way out, but the church is dead, that's usually when God shows up, and you have that word, suddenly God shows up, and throughout history, all those arrogant, proud boasters, who said God is dead, the church is finished, is that they do not know the Lord God, and God shows up. We're in that same hour, we're in that same day, because God is in the midst of his people, as you and I, as the remnants, stirring us up, and we have seen it throughout this year, and we have shared it among many of us, of the passion, oh God, don't let us come short of your glory, and it is the awfulness of being able to come that close to God, and not see the finishing of this thing, or that again, is that we were trying, and we were prevailing, and we were fasting, and we were weeping, and we were praying, and everything was moving, and all of a sudden, that awful verse tells us, don't do, we grew weary, we grew discouraged, and then we walked away, and we lost our passion, and we lost our momentum, and we lost our fire, or we let the world attract us, or we let distractions of this life interfere with us, and we lost that priority of saying God, you are nothing, and we were satisfied with something else, and God brings us to this place, to get us where we're supposed to be, that we would be so fearful, coming short to this glory, because it is the only thing that is necessary at this point, and the church, it is not the gadgets, the gadgets, or the gizmos, that's going to bring revival, and bring spiritual awakening, it is only by the power, and the presence of the Holy Spirit, and it is that pursuit of not coming short of the within us, and about us as the church, for the bride of Christ to get ready. You read Revelations chapter two, and three, we see these passages of scripture that teach us over, and over in chapter two, and three, Jesus is addressing the seven churches, and every time we read that, where he says, but this is what I have against you, they came short, and he's pointing that out to him, isn't it an awful thing in this generation, that again, because of the positive thinking of people in the church today, is that you can't point out that which is wrong, they would have, they would have rejected Christ's message, because he was pointing out what he found offensive in them, what he found contrary to him, or let's talk about what it is, the antichrist, anything against Christ, this is what I have against you, and he says, repent, or else, and he pointed it out specifically, we don't have a lot of that anymore, we're pointing out specifically what's wrong in our life, I am certain is that there are many of you as intercessors, or prayer partners of the remnant, is that you enter in, is there anything within me, oh God, that I must deal with, that I must be specifically told, this is not acceptable to you, we have an entire society out here, that when we preach to them the evils of the day, of abortion, 2200 babies were aborted today, where we have the LGBT's agenda going forth, knowing that that's an abomination in the sight of God, seeing the detrimental homicides and suicides that are on our streets today, and knowing that it's filling us, is that we don't want to hear what's wrong, and they refuse to hear it, and they reject it, they come short of the glory of God, but what about the church, coming short of his glory, because we want to be compromising and satisfied to our own agenda, to our own thoughts, our own ways, when we know that it's in defiance against God, and so he points out to the seven churches, this is what I have against you, and woe unto us if we ever get to the place, that again, of the Laodicean church, and we read those in passages of chapter three there, I would that you were cold or hot, I would that you was on fire for me, or that you was frozen out, and you didn't want nothing to do, but because you are lukewarm, satisfied, content, well we've got food, we've got housing, we've got enough means here, we don't need to go into the promised land of milk and honey, we don't need to go over where we had the divine presence of Christ with us, we saw the miracles, we can talk to our dying day about what we saw Jesus do in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, we don't need Pentecost, we can go on without that, and I'm telling you, the church has got to be resolved today, we cannot go on without another Pentecost, we cannot go on without the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, because again, we are floundering and failing as the church today to the glory of God, and again, I hear that echo in my head of listening to Leonard Ravenhill, where he said, I am ashamed to be a part of the New Testament church today, because I believe that it's an embarrassment to God, oh, it's like sticking a knife through my heart when I hear him preach that or say that, because again, of the truth, the reality, are you embarrassed to be a part of the kingdom of God, of the church today, because it takes on the title of Christianity, knowing full well that we have failed God in this nation, yes, our fathers have failed, yes, that generation introduced it all and it was brought upon us and all that, but what have we done with our generation, what have we done for the glory of God, we've come short, we've come short, we have fallen farther away, there is more evil that has risen up on my watch, your watch, than ever before in our history, we have never seen this perverse, wicked, and evil, things that 30 years ago that you and I never would have dreamed of or thought of is being done openly and unashamedly by men, women, sons, and daughters, and grandchildren, oh, are we content to come short of the glory of God when we see these things that are against God, and I don't find a lot of people that are burdened with this, I don't find a lot of people that are broke over this, but one thing is that we know that God instructs us is to say in order for you not to come short, this is what you must do, this is what you have to do, and so I want to read a passage of scripture, and I want to ask you to read with me on this, and it's found in the gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 14, and Jesus gives these words of what is necessary for us today as the church, while we're doing a concert of prayer, while we're doing 100 hours of prayer, while we're calling people to fast, and to weep, and to lament, to howl, to mourn, and all these things, and in Luke chapter 14 beginning in verse 25, here is this example that Jesus clarifies on the necessity of us today that we not come short of his glory. Yes, redemption is one thing, come short of the glory of God, you are damned, and you are on your way to hell, but we're talking about the church coming short of the glory of God, filling us, using us, and not passing us over saying, I can't use you, and you will not enter into the promised land. Now maybe I'm going to take your children into the promised land, but I can't take you all in because of your unbelief, and I'm telling you that again, is that why would we ever want that when we know that the power of God is there for us today, that we would see his glory, be filled with his glory, and operate in his glory. That's the absolute necessity for the church today, and it is the least that they are seeking for. Verse 25, Luke 14, and there went great multitudes with him, and he turned and he said unto them, if any man come to me and hate not his father, his mother, his wife, his children, his brothers, sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple, and whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you intending to build a tower sits not down first and counts the cost, there's the phrase, count the cost. This is a whole sermon in itself, isn't it? Counts the cost, whether we have sufficient to finish it or not, lest happily after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, all that behold it will begin to mock him, saying this man began to build and he was not able to finish, or what king going to make war against another king does not sit down first and consult whether he be able with 10,000 to meet him that comes against him with 20,000, or else while the other is yet a great great way off, he sends an ambassador and he desires conditions of peace, so likewise, and here's the verse, so likewise whosoever he be of you that does not forsake all that he has, he cannot be my disciple. To come short, to come short of being a disciple of Christ, because you couldn't count the cost. That easy beliefism, it does not count any cost. If you should probably repeat this prayer and you get baptized, you're born again, you're saved, you died to nothing, you're living for nothing, but you're saved because we said so, they didn't count the cost and they cannot be his disciple. Again, count the cost, church, not for, not, I'm not speaking about salvation here as we opened up with, I'm talking about the conditions of Pentecost. Jesus gave them a warning in Luke and in Acts and he said, go into the city and wait until you be endued with power from on high. The absolute necessity is that we wait before God. Protracted time periods where we get before God and we sit there before God. The Kiswit Convention, or the Kiswit Convention, however you pronounce it for your own individual self, but the Silcock Convention by John Hyde, that was the pattern that I sat broken before the throne for eight days that we would come together nine hours a day to come before God and to wait to hear the word of God, the proclamation of the word, and then to be in prayer before God corporately. It is these other models for the concert of prayer. And you read that in the history is that those in Scotland set out to say, we are going to do this for two years. We're going to maintain this for two years. In this society today, you got one opportunity and you got one hour or one day to do it. That's all you got. To do a two-day event, that's a little unusual. To do a three-day event is unheard of. And to do a seven to 10-day event is lunacy in this society today of the church. But it is the absolute necessity, go into the city and wait until. They didn't know it was going to be 10 days, but they were resigned to wait for 10, 20, 30 days, 40 days until Christ would come in the fullness of his power. Less, less, back to Hebrews 4.1, less they come short of his glory. Can't go on, church. We can't go on without the glory of God coming. We can't go on without his power. We're never going to see a change in this nation. We're never going to finish the task unless the glory of God comes. And it is the urgency of this hour that we have gone far too long without the glory of God. Yes, I'm grateful for what happened in the Great Awakens. Yes, I'm grateful for the prayer movement in 1857. I love Dr. Latimer up in 1857 that set the prayer meeting. I love what happened in the Canadian Revival Fellowship. I love talking about Duncan Campbell and the Hebrides Revival. For those of you that listen and follow me, you know that. What about my day? What about my time? What about my hour? What about your life? What about your church? Are you content to come short of the glory of God? Well, we had church services. How'd your church service go today? I hear this all the time. Oh, I had good fellowship, good church. Did the glory come? Was the glory there? Content to come short. We played church, we had church, we did church, but we did not see the glory of God. That's our problem. And I sat in meditation weeping over this as I was getting ready for this sermon and this night that I wrote here on this piece of paper with this. It's one thing to come short to the glory of God, but it's another thing to be content in that. And that is the worst to me than the former. It's to know that the glory of God is there and to be content to live without it. And how long has the North American church been doing that? You talk about urgency, you're talking about desperation. We've seen the floodgates of hell open up against and swallow up this next generation left and right. We've seen the drug crisis and the opiate crisis. We've seen alcoholism go. We have seen the abuse on children. You can't find a child practically that hasn't been abused growing up sexually, emotionally, or physically. Every child born. It's one thing that they escaped abortion, but another thing to be born into that home again where they have multiple partners. They have no love, they have no discipline. They're not spoken to about the things with Christ. Oh, it's an awful thing what's happening to this next generation. Where's the brokenness in the church about it? We've come short of his glory. The homicides on the streets, the suicides up and down. Christmas day, a family of five murdered, murder suicide down in Arkansas. Two days before that down in Mississippi, another family of four and another individual that took his life with that. On and on it goes. Are we content to live without the glory of God? Without a passion for it? Without a hunger for it? Without a desire for it? And for those of you that God has stirred you up, I don't want you to be lukewarm. I don't want you to be cold. I want you to be red hot for me. You've gone after those ones that would stoke your fires and pour themselves into you. You've read and heard and seen the glory of God that it would be stirred up in with you. You've got that same passion and desire and there's nothing that should get in our way to hinder us or hamper us from this. And we must be content to do what God said, which is to wait upon him. Come together and wait. Now when the sins were revealed and the sins were testified, you go back to Ezra, you go back to Nehemiah, and they sat there before and they heard the word of God read to them a quarter of the day. And then they confessed and prayed for a quarter of the day. Half the day they stayed in the word and prayer. Why did I set an afternoon and evening session? Why have I done this for two days? I know that it should go longer in this, but there has got to be protracted times to spend on this where we're at today as the church. Yes, it's one thing when an individual comes short of the glory of heaven and our heart cries out for those ones that they would be saved and redeemed. As someone cried out for me, thank God for those that prayed for my salvation and my soul. Thank God for those that gave me the gospel and gave me the word of God that I might hear it and believe on it and enter in. But I'm not content in just being saved and getting into heaven when I know that there's something grander and greater than that and that's being filled with the glory of God for the purpose of God in the kingdom of God by the will of God. That's what I want and that's the appetite that he causes within us is that we hunger and thirst after righteousness. Not just for the saving of the soul, but to go forth in his glory and to do his kingdom's business like they did in the book of Acts and that again 3,000 people saved on a day like John Wesley did when he preached out in the fields and 40,000 people lay there in the field in utter fear and horror of where they was as sinners in the presence of God and great masses were brought into the kingdom of God as George Whitefield did when he preached up there in two feet of snow and 20,000 people stood on the streets listening to him and the falling temperatures of cold and snow. Could you do that today? They wouldn't come out today. They wouldn't come out and listen to a man preach the gospel. They'd mock at him. They would make jest of him. They would do assaults against him, but they wouldn't come hear the word of God because they're content to come short of the glory of God. Most preachers wouldn't go preach on the street unless it's a well-refined church with a nice salary and a nice comfy condition. They are unwilling to go to the ends of the world for the glory of God. Content to live without it. Your passion, my passion is to come into this place here that God would not allow for us to continue on as we are. My urgency is that we've gone on long enough without his glory and to do whatever he instructs of us that we do and that is that one, we wait before him. Two, we got to identify with what's wrong. This is what I have against you. These are the sins of our nation. These are the sins of the church. These are the sins within my heart, within my life, within yours, and we address this and we get this dealt with and we deal with this in the blood of Christ and atonement and confession and repentance and we put it away from us lest any of us bring shame and dishonor to him. Isn't it an awful thing that what we've had to deal with in 2020 of President Falwell down on liberty and all that come out in that of Ravi Zacharias and after his passing and all these things come out and we have seen them left and right throughout our lifetime of those who said is that they're living for the glory of God and they're walking in the glory and the presence of God and only to find out that that was all a lie and shame and they were not honest, they were not ashamed, they were not repentant, and they continued on. The church is much like that today is that they are resolved to go on, sin or not, we don't care, we've always done it this way, we're always going to do it this way, and God says, but I can't use you that way. You have to count the cost. You've got to die to yourself. You've got to take up your cross and you've got to come follow me. No turning back, no turning back, I'll follow you. How many Christians having picked up the cross are guilty of that which Christ condemned and any man having begun to plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God. Put your hand to the plow, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, looking on to Jesus, and go where you're supposed to go and do what you're supposed to do because, again, we've gone too far. We're now at the place of no return. We're now at the place, I fear, of Manasseh where God said there's no remedy. There's no remedy. I can't fix this nation. I'm not going to fix this nation. I'm going to judge this nation. And I come back to it in Joel 2.14. Who knows if the Lord will turn and repent and leave a blessing behind him? Who knows that during these days of us praying and crying out to God for his glory, for his presence, count the cost, willing to sacrifice some sleep during the night, willing to miss some meals, willing to shed some tears, willing to go to wherever he sends us to go, just so that we might be filled with his glory. Don't you long for it? Don't you want to see it on every church service that happens when the gospel, the preacher gets up to put one of the most moving sermons that I will always remember till my dying day is that my dad used to listen to old Pastor Rawlings out of Cincinnati, Landmark Baptist Church out of Cincinnati, Ohio. Every morning he'd have him on, Sunday mornings, getting ready for church. And I, again, listening to him, I got used to that. So when I'm 18 years old, we move over to West Virginia and we were no longer in a parsonage that was next to the church and we would have to drive 12 miles into Kaiser to go to church. And so I would listen to Pastor Rawlings. And I remember coming across the old Headsville road, 18, 19 year old kid. I was just starting to preach pulpit supply at that time. Remember old Pastor Rawlings coming on. He got up to preach. He didn't even hardly utter any words and he just broke down sobbing, just crying out to God. And that's all you could hear on the radio was his muffled sobs. No message, no words, no music. 20, 25 minutes of that before the broadcast went off. That's all you heard was him sobbing. Me and brother Greg Gordon was talking the other day. He talked about that when the preacher would just break down. David Wilkerson would just stop in the middle of the sermon and sob and sob and sob. I remember him talking about 1986 where he was looking for God to do a work there in New York. And the guy, I was a follower of Lynn Bice at the University of Maryland. I love college basketball and I followed him. I couldn't wait for him to go into the NBA. And just the day after he was chosen by Boston Celtics to become an NBA star, he overdosed with drugs. And the guy standing there in New York City, I've got the stuff that killed Lynn Bice, the drugs, cocaine, rabbits. David Wilkerson sat there on that fire hydrant sobbing and weeping for the sins of the people. God says, my eyes run to and fro throughout all this earth looking for that one that I can stop and say, they want the glory of God. They want the glory. They weep in quiet. They weep more anguish over the evils of this day. And they are not content to come short of his glory. Yes, it's the masses that are coming short of redemption, but it's the church that's coming short of his glory of spirit filled. And the desperation of our hour is that I express one more time, and I'm asking you to put this into your prayer petition. Don't let us come short, God. We've gone on long enough. No more. Let us count the cost. Let us prevail. Whatever that is will give us ears to hear what the spirit is saying to the church. I tell you, night after night, it comes up out of me, crying out to God for his kingdom, for his church, seeing the headlines, seeing the result of sin and evil on all the stats that I keep. And another family gives out, and another individual dies, and another soul is lost, and another church collapses, and another preacher has left the ministry, and another Christian has wandered away, and another Christian has just stopped serving altogether. They didn't count the cost. And the world mocks at him, and the world makes jest at him because they didn't count the cost. And I don't want to die and have to stand before him and to say, what was your problem? You knew. You knew. But you wouldn't count the cost, and you were content to serve in ministry without ever seeing the glory of God. These verses echo in my head and my heart, and I give them to you as a petition for us today in open, that for this afternoon, this evening, for tomorrow, for the hundred hours of prayer, for those of you that are joined on with us, that again, we count the cost, and that again, we understand what this is all about. We can't go on without the glory of God for the church, not just my church, not just your church, not just our denomination, your denomination, the bride of Christ, spirit-filled, glorified, ready to move, ready to get up. So here we are. You want to take us now to these last moments for my sister, and I've given you my heart of coming short of the glory of God. And I want to ask you to join me in prayer. Now, again, this is a live stream, and so a corporate fashion as a Zoom call or FaceTime is that we can't interact as we normally do, but I want to give you a moment just right now in silence for you just to speak to the Lord about your own place, your own heart, your own mindset, your own condition, and to have that petition and passion lest we come short. And again, the desperation as we plead. Now, a concert of prayer has three components to it, worship, confession, and petition. We don't have time to do all that here in these moments this afternoon. We will deal with this thoroughly tomorrow in our afternoon concert of prayer, and each speaker will take their own individual opportunity to lead where the Spirit leads them. When I ask you right now just to be still, to be silent, and I know that's awkward for some. I'm not going to speak here for a moment, and I'm going to do this prayer as we lead to get to this petition of utter desperation. Can't go on. Send your glory. But just for a moment, examine your own life. Who can ascend the hill of the Lord? He that has clean hands, pure heart, and a tongue that has not spoken deceitful lies. Cleanse me, O God, the blood of Christ, lest I come short of the image of Christ. Adore him, worship him. We'll come to these moments, but right now, just examination, self-examination of where you're at. I don't mean to cut off your time, but again, we have opportunities in between sessions today as well as tonight in the midnight season that you, the Lord, to deal with. And again, if the Lord's dealing with you right now, that there is nothing wrong with you just exiting off of this broadcast or muting me and getting alone with God till the wrongs are made right. And let God's spirit speak to you and deal with you as you are right now. But for those of you that are crying together for the church, for the glory of God to come, lest we come short. I want to open here in these next moments with worship. And it's found in the same passages of Romans chapter 3 and Hebrews chapter 4, 3 and 4 that I read to you in opening that we find the glory of God in worship for what he's done and who he is. Over in chapter 3, we have the verse that precedes verse 23, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Worship with me for the remedy, the right answer that God has given for even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all those that believe. For there is no difference. Then verse 24, right after that, for being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Glory, glory, glory, God. Who am I that you should ever have sent your only begotten son to redeem me, a man that comes short of your glory. And yet you redeem me. Your grace is sufficient for me, for the saving of my soul, because your righteousness, O God, it is supreme and perfect. Over in the book of Hebrews chapter 3, in the chapter 4 there where we was looking at, I give you verse 2 of chapter 4 for our worship. For unto us was the gospel preached. God thank you for every man that preached the gospel, that declares the truth. Regardless of the results, they were faithful, stewards of the word. To those that invest in me, to those that invest in you, thank you God that we have the freedoms and the opportunities to preach the gospel. Every individual that's in our nation today has an opportunity to get on technology, to places that aren't having restrictions and are still gathering together, to come together to hear the gospel preached. For how shall they hear unless the preacher preaches to them? And I thank God for every preacher that preaches the gospel. As well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. It almost becomes our petition in that, where again, I thank God for the gospel. I thank God for the preachers. I thank God for the church. I thank God for the Holy Spirit. I thank God for Jesus Christ. I worship him and adore him, that before the foundation of the world, he saw me, that I had sinned to come short of his glory, and that I was going to need a savior to save me. He set all that into motion. Consider what glorious things that God has done in this. And in your worship right there where you are, there's someone that that prayed for you. There's someone that gave you the gospel. There's someone that instructed you. And you thank God for them. They invested in you. God himself, looking upon the generations, looking from the beginning to the end, Alpha and Omega, he knew. He's omniscient. He knows. We worship you, Father. We worship you, Jesus. We worship you, Holy Spirit. You knew. You knew that we would be lost and perishing in a need of a way to enter into rest. And you sent your glory, your manifest glory, King, to save a wretch like me. Thank you. Thank you, Father, for every means that you have established for your glory to go to the four corners of the earth. We go into that confession time again to those that have heard. They have ears to hear. They have minds to discern and understand. They have hearts to receive. But what have they done? Oh, God, forgive us. We have ears to hear, but we won't hear. We have minds to think in the process, but we refuse to do so. We have hearts, but they have become calloused and hard against the gospel. Out of the church, within the church, men refuse. They refuse, oh God, to listen to you. God, would you forgive our nation that has done everything that they can to remove you from our nation? Would you forgive, oh God, that again that they have sought to unexplain your miracles and your mercies, your very divine presence? Father, would you forgive your church that they too have compromised with the gospel and they too have settled down for entertainment and they too have settled down and content to go on doing church without the glory? Just so that they can have numbers and stats, just so they can do their checklists, but they're content not to have the glory of God. Lord, forgive us that we've departed from the knowledge of your word that teaches us what's right and what's wrong. Lord, forgive us is that you have explained to us thoroughly in the scripture, 66 books, over 1,100 chapters, over 31,000 verses in the Bible, and it is all for our instruction that God says, this is what pleases me and this is what doesn't please me. And there are God's children that refuse to study to show themselves approved unto him. Forgive us, oh God. Forgive us that we have been impatient to wait until you be endued with power and we was content to live without the glory of God because we couldn't wait 10 days. We couldn't wait 20 days, five days. We had to get busy. We had to do our thing and God, we just wouldn't wait. Forgive us, oh God. And I'm telling you is that the passion of what God is doing in the church today is that he's taking many of us back to that. He's getting us back to where we need to be that we realize the urgency of the hour and we're coming before him with these truths and these realities saying, God, we just can't go on. And I'm asking you for the passion that wells up within you, not only to see the sins and the abominations that is keeping us from his glory out of the church on our streets and in our homes. Look into the church, God's bride. Have we ever been more of a mess than what we are today? From the pulpits to the pews, to the leadership, right on down to the music. It's all self, it's all humanism. Content to do ministry, to never see God revival, to never long for it, to never see the spiritual awakening that's so necessary to pull them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh. On some have compassion, making a difference, but others pull them out of the fire. Oh God, let us see the masses as you sing. Keith Green sang that song, my eyes are dry. When was the last time you wept? When was the last time you cried out to God? We just can't go on, Lord. We gotta have your glory. Show us your glory, God. Don't let me be contempt, knowing that there's something much far better that I can enter into. I thank God for every saint that has walked into his glory and stayed there. Every revivalist that ever sat through a real revival that I've been able to talk to, Dennis Kinlaw at Asbury, Ralph Zatero, Henry Blackamade, the Canadian Revival, Bill McCloud, every one of them that saw God's glory. I ask, how do you go from the mountaintop back to what we see today in the horrors of all this? Now, you all answer me the same question, never knowing what the other one said, but they all answer me directly the same, exactly the same. It is always with the hope that today we'll see it again. To live in the glory, not content with what was, not content with what is, but not to come short of the glory for today and tomorrow. Fill us with your glory, God. Show us your glory and the passion of that, that God would do it. There's an urgency at this hour I cannot convey to you in words, I just keep. But we're at the end, and to know what that looks like, what God is going to do to us if the church and the remnant does not prevail, I tell you, is as horrifying as anything that you read in the book of Lamentations, anything in the book of Ezekiel where God just says, I'm going to annihilate you and bring you to desolation. Are you content to let that happen? To those that you say that you love, and to those that you say that you're concerned about, are you content to let them live in a life that the only thing that they ever get up in the morning is to see if they can find food and water, the essentials of life, the basics of life? All day long, that's all you get up and do is just go find. You know there are places like that in the world today. There's not opportunity to sit and to be on your phones. There's not opportunities to get in front of an Xbox or TV or Netflix or whatever else you're doing with your time. You get up to survive. Desolation. And that's where we're heading. You say, well, we've never experienced it. We are going to experience it because of the abominations of our nation, and the church was content to let it happen. Woe unto any of you that are content to let it happen. I set this for one reason, that God might give me a spirit to prevail with you. Don't let this happen. Just give us a moment, Lord, in time of revival. Bring us to the place that we need to be, broken, contrite, confess our sins, confess their sins, and deal with these things that are upon us and before us today, because we're out of time. We are out of time. And the neededness of this is that God would move upon us like never before. We've read about it. We've heard about it. Many in this generation know nothing of it. May God move us to this today, because this is absolutely the last hour. Last days, last hours. Now, awfulness that you read in Revelation is coming and happening now. Natural disasters, nations coming apart, war on the horizon, death, destruction, and dying. The church has better have its voice. You better know the truth, lest you be swept away with the deception that in the last days will be a great falling away, and they will believe a lie, delusion. And God says that even some of the saints would believe this if it were permitted, and that he would have allowed it. But he, in his mercy and grace, again, he shelters us and protects us. So I come to you today, pleading. You pray for the church. Pray one for another. Pray and plead that again, his glory come, that we can finish the task of reaching the last 7,000 people groups with the gospel. Missionaries, translations, pastors, teachers, whatever. Interpretations of the scriptures to take into those people, to give them the gospel that have never heard it before. That's three, that's almost half the world's population. We are at 7.8 billion, and over three billion are those of those 7,000 people groups. I know the positive thinkers out there, and the Norman Vincent Peale's will say, well, yeah, but 10,000 have heard the gospel effectively. It's the 7,000 that will come short of the glory, and they'll say on judgment day, where was your people gone? Where was your servants that said that as Jesus wept over the city because they didn't know the day of their visitation? So the church today of 2020 didn't know the day of their visitation in North America. We missed our moment, and I'm here today to stand before you to plead with you all that is within. Don't come short of his glory. Don't be satisfied with coming short, and don't be content with watching your loved ones perish when you know that you've got the glorious gospel that brings eternity and salvation to them, and you never should. Finish this year in the right relationship with God. Count the cost, and don't come short of the glory. I want to take these moments now just to say this concluding prayer, and then we're going to transition. Brother Doug Small again is coming at the bottom of this hour, 2 30, and we'll transition to that, but I want to close right now with prayer, and I thank you that again I know this interactive part of live streaming is hard for you, but I thank you for those that have set aside your time to hear the word of God and to pray the word of God. So I want to close in prayer right now, and I want to give you moments that as well that you would petition and speak to him, and we'll transition here in a moment to bring Brother Doug up, but right now where you're at that you would just again get alone with God, and again with my voice, without my voice it's not necessary just so long that you are pleading with him that this awful truth that I've shared and done my best to preach to you today that we come short to this glory would not happen, that this this year before the close of this year may the spirit fall, prevail or fail, and I am not content to fail. Let's pray for a moment. Holy Father, Redeemer, Savior, blessed Holy Ghost, come before you here this day in my mind, my heart, my soul, what we've seen, what we're seeing, the fear of what will be seen. And again, Lord, for that which you have revealed in your scriptures to teach us, to instruct us, to remind us of the necessity, Lord, of this hour. We are out of time. Within me, O God, swells up that urgency to prevail with you, Lord, for not my sake, for your people's sake, brothers and sisters in Christ. Compromising, content to live without your glory, Lord, this was never the way you intended it to be. I know, Father, all things are possible by you. I know, Father, that you are more willing to do any and all things. You have shown yourself mighty, great revival, great awakenings, all the testimonies of the success and concerts of prayer that you have honored. You heard your people. You heard the cries. You knew the tears. You knew the broken hearts. You came to make the wrongs right, and you did it. Why would we ever be content to live without your glory? Holy Spirit, come, revive my church. May each heart be rekindled with fire from above. May each soul be filled with passion about your kingdom, hating, abstaining, agonizing over the sin, evil, and perversion of this day and hour within our homes, within the minds and the hearts of men, openly on our streets of this nation that you once blessed in such a miraculous way. We have forsaken and forgotten you, God, and turned from you, and we are not grieved. One, I owe that your glory, your glorious shekinah is gone. So, Lord, again it is we come without hunger that you have stirred within us for these days to seek you, to grab hold of the horns of the altar and not contend to let go until you speak the words from your heavenly throne. I have seen your tears. I have heard your cries. I know the brokenness in your heart, and I'll grant you and give you the desires of your heart this day. You say it in heaven, and it shall be done here on earth. We agree here on this call, this live stream message today. We agree, if two of us agree that's touching anything, it shall be done for us. We hold you to your word, Father, that you are the God of heaven, and you are the God of this earth and the nations, and you are able to do any and all things. Nothing is too hard for you, God. Will you not revive us again? Will you not fill us with our Holy Spirit that we can do thy bidding, that we can finish the task to the nations? May you raise up, Father God, missionaries to go to those unreached people groups. May there be those that would say, I want to spend extra hours translating the gospel. May I go and do whatever you ask me to do. May I go to my family or friend right next door and across from me, Lord, and I'll speak to them about Jesus today. But God, let us not be disobedient. Let us not continue on. Let us not be lukewarm. When you've told us the warning, and if you continue as lukewarm, I will spew you out of my mouth. You're getting ready to spew the church of North America out of your mouth, because we was content to live without the glory of God, and we wouldn't count the cost, and we didn't even know that it was gone. Oh, God, forgive us for all that you have bestowed upon us and blessed us with. We failed you. We failed you. Help us in these days, Lord, once again, seek the passion of Christ. It's long, once again, Lord, to be content with nothing less than the glory of God. Be glorified to the heavens, Lord, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.