When Christ Transforms a Life All Hell Will Break Loose

In Ecclesiastes we read, one generation passes away and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth forever. If you want verification of that truth, friend, go visit a cemetery today, take a walk among the graves, read the inscriptions, and you'll soon see that death visits both the young and the old. Life is short.

You only get one go-round in life. You can squander your allotted time in accumulating the things of this world. You can squander it through worldliness and selfishness and sin and completely miss your real purpose in life.

Or you can submit to God and let him give you a purpose in life. God is looking for the person who will step out in faith and go out on a limb for him. Anything worthwhile costs something.

To become emperor, Caesar had to cross his Rubicon. Napoleon had to march into Moravia to win his greatest battle at Austerlitz. When the church is dead to her reputation and facing her greatest persecution, then she thrives in power and influence.

But when the church enters the mode of self-preservation, self-reliance, then she's nothing more than an impotent, powerless institution that's a laughingstock to the world. In Exodus chapter 2, we read the words of God, And Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter. Moses was content with the ordinary.

Moses had an ordinary life, and that was fine by him. Moses felt secure in that little household, keeping the flock of Jethro. Moses was content to live on the backside of the desert where no trouble or turmoil could find him.

But then, one fantastic day, while he was leading the flock, he had an incredible encounter with a holy God that so burned into his soul, so transformed his life, he never was the same man again. But before God could use Moses, Moses had to come to the end of himself. I like the quote of F.J. Hegel concerning Moses.

For forty years, on the lonely slopes of Midian, the fiery Moses has schooled. There were graves, if I may so speak, scattered all over the mountainside, where hope after hope was buried until at last self went down in utter annihilation. Just look at what God did with Moses, friend, and stand amazed.

D.L. Moody was a successful shoe salesman in Chicago, earning a ton of money, doing what he could for God on the side, until he heard a minister say to him, the world has yet to see what God can do with the man wholly consecrated to him. Those words burned into Moody's soul, and he walked away, muttering a prayer under his breath, Great God, make me that man. And God answered that prayer, and Moody did more for God than all of us put together.

Moody walked away from a promising business career to be God's man. Just take a look at what a sovereign God can do with a man once that man has an encounter of God. I've been a student of revival for four decades, and it fascinates me, friends, how God can take a simple man and use him in powerful revivals that shake entire communities.

When I look at what God did with Duncan Campbell in the Scottish Hebrides during the Lewis Revival of 1949 to 1952, I stand amazed. I once asked a Scottish minister who knew Duncan Campbell well to describe him to me in one sentence. After some reflection, this man said, Duncan Campbell was an ordinary man who had had an extraordinary experience of God.

And I'm telling you, friends, as I'm standing here today, that in itself is an incredible statement. I know it personally in my own life, an extraordinary experience of God. I was a successful businessman doing what I could for God on the side, but all I really cared about was making money.

Then I attended a institute on expository preaching where the preacher was Dr. Stephen F. Oldford. He was a frail old man in his 80s, but he lived his life under the anointing of the spirit of God. And when he preached that day, something happened to me.

I saw in crystal clear light the futility of living a life selfishly for me. All of a sudden, I had no taste for business anymore. All I wanted was God and more of God and to be used of God.

After that, I pursued a deeper knowledge of God and a better understanding of my own rotten heart. And through the anointed preaching of Stephen Oldford that week, my life was turned upside down. I got a taste of the supernatural and I caught a glimpse of eternity.

Dr. Oldford finished his sermon with a little poem from C.T. Studd. Only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last.

Those words burned into my soul. And since that time, my life has never, ever been the same. God has allowed me to experience revival, write 19 books on the subject of revival.

I've preached over 2,000 revival sermons that have gone into every nation through my ministry on Sermon Audio. But that week, that time, God got such a hold under me, under the preaching of Stephen Oldford, I went home and I wrote something in the flyleaf of my Bible. I'm holding that Bible now in my hands.

And I'll read you here what I wrote to God that day. What is my life that I should keep it selfishly for me? I choose to lose it so completely and have it found in thee. Through the years, God has made that little prayer come true.

I've lost everything materially in this world. I lost my business. I lost my wealth.

I lost my homes. I lost my wife. I lost my reputation.

I lost my health. My words, I choose to lose it so completely, became a reality. Everything was stripped away.

Jesus told his disciples, therefore, doth my father love me because I laid down my life that I might take it up again. No man take it away from me. I lay it down of myself.

Christ went willingly to the cross to die for my sins. The cross caused the father his only begotten son. The cross caused Christ his very blood.

What cause counts and what counts costs. When Christ transforms a life, then that life will never, ever be the same. Who is willing to go out on a limb for God and to trust him? Who is willing to go out on the false dredge for God, no matter the sacrifice? Who is willing to believe in a big God who can do big things and stand on his promises and fight the devil tooth and nail, come hell or high water? Who, listening to this message, is willing to be so nailed up on a cross and dead to the world so an almighty God can take that person and do wonders through them? Oh, great God, Christ can transform a life into an instrument that only God can use for his great glory.

Who has the faith to trust God and not man? Who wants to leave the safety of the boat, to step out on the turbulent water and live a supernatural life for Christ in eternity? Who here today, at this hour, wants to pray with desperation to be used of God from this day forth? Who here will cry out with the passionate cry of a John Wesley who said, give me 100 men who fear nothing but God and hate nothing but sin, and I will shake the gates of hell. Where is the one here who wants to go shake the gates of hell for a bloodstained Christ and a hell bound, who here will lay his or her life down for others so they can find the Christ, the Savior, who here will embrace the burning words of that little poem to be a reality in the life? Only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last.

Let me pray for us now, friends. Oh, great God in heaven, I come to you now and I ask for your ear on behalf of your people, by the shed blood of that dear son, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, who sits at your right hand this very instant, who will come again to judge the living and the dead. He'll split heaven wide open.

All things are in his hands, in his hands are the nail prints from my dirty, rotten sins. Oh, great God on high, oh, ancient of days, I beg you to get a hold of someone here. Show your mercy.

Get a hold of someone who's been desiring more of you and let your showers of blessings fall upon them. Place someone within the sound of my voice into a vibrant, hell-shaken ministry for you. The hour is late.

The times are growing darker and Christ Jesus will soon appear. Send workers, Lord, into your harvest field to reach the lost and perishing. Get a hold of someone, Lord.

Give them a glimpse of you in eternity. Transform a life, I pray in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.