Fresh Oil - Part 5

Asking God to let me go back to Texas or do something to me that would make me qualified to stay in Hammond. About six o'clock or six-thirty the next morning as the Sun came up across those mountains of the Bill Rice Ranch, all of a sudden I couldn't tell you, I don't understand it all, but I knew that God had prepared my heart to pastor the First Baptist Church of Hammond. I think I could sum it up by saying with David, I shall be anointed with fresh oil.

How long has it been since the breath of God was upon your life? How long has it been since you knew the power of God upon your ministry? How long has it been? Ere you left your room this morning, did you think to pray? In the name of Christ our Savior, did you sue for loving favor as a shield today? And now for these twenty-one and a half years I've been pastoring in the great Chicagoland area. Oh, the blessings of God. How good God has been, not because I'm a great preacher, not because I'm a smart person, because I'm not.

I'm just the same little old Jackie boy that used to live down in Dallas, Texas. The same little old powerless country preacher that used to preach in East Texas without any converts, except for one thing. Fresh oil.

That's it. Fresh oil. All is vain unless the Spirit of the Holy One comes down.

Lord, send the old-time power, the Pentecostal power, thy floodgates of blessing on us through open wide. Lord, send the old-time power, the Pentecostal power. Let sinners be converted in thy name, glorified.

That's the need you have, preacher. That's the need you have, church. That's the need you have, Sunday school teacher.

That's your need, mother. That's your need, dad. That's your need, bus worker.

Fresh oil. At daddy's grave, New Year's Eve, 1954. At the Bill Rice ranch, but now I'm 54 years of age.

I'm no young East Texas preacher again, but I find myself needing that same anointing I've known through these years. Over 50,000 people call me pastor. The Hiles-Anderson College to operate, $10 million budget every year, two high schools, junior high school, a grade school.

I recall a few years ago, we dedicated a new 5,000 seat auditorium. I walked in the room behind the auditorium to follow the choir in. I looked out and saw 9,000 adults packing that building, standing back in the back, sitting in the aisles, and I was scared.

I ran back to my office and I said, oh God, I'm a country preacher. I'm not a city preacher. I can't do it.

I can't do it. They came to get me and asked me to come on to the service. Fresh oil, fresh oil.

Now, what is the purpose of this power, this fresh oil? You see, ladies and gentlemen, Jesus came, lived, died, rose, ascended, and is seated at the right hand of the Father that we may have a gospel to preach. Are you listening? We may have a gospel to preach. He placed in the hands of just a few common men, fishermen and common men, the commission of carrying this message around the world.

But who's gonna believe it? Who's gonna believe a man was born of a virgin? Who in Africa and Asia and America and Europe is gonna believe a few men from the Middle East who come and say Jesus was virgin born. He had no earthly father. Preposterous, unbelievable.

Who's gonna believe it? Who's gonna believe he lived a life without sin? Lips never spoke that which was evil. Ears never heard what God did not want them to hear. Hands never performed a deed they should not have performed.

Feet never did walk a path they should not have walked. Who's gonna believe that Jesus never sinned? How can we make folks believe that? How can you make them believe that he died and rose from the dead? How can we make folks believe it? God drew a plan and that plan was this. He said I'll give you somebody to go with you while you tell that story and that somebody will be the Holy Spirit of God and while you talk to them and tell the story from without the Holy Spirit will talk to them from within and that's why right now while I'm preaching to you and you hear my voice and see my face there's somebody talking on the inside, isn't there? That's the Holy Spirit.

Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing to have him talk from within while you preach from without? Wouldn't it be a wonderful thing to have him talk from within while you teach your Sunday school class from without? Wouldn't it be an amazing thing to have him talk from within while you sing your solo in church from without? Wouldn't it be an amazing thing to have him talk from within while you witness to an unconverted person from without? That power, ladies and gentlemen, is available to you. Fresh oil. It may not come to you as an experience.

In fact, I would advise you don't even seek an experience. My advice is this. Seven times a day yield yourself to the Holy Spirit.

When you wake up in the morning, after breakfast, at mid-morning, after lunch, mid-afternoon, after dinner, and before bedtime, get on your knees and say, Holy Spirit, I yield myself to you. Then place all around your house and your office and your car and your business little reminders. Pray for power.

Pray for power. And you pray hundreds of times a day for God's power to be upon your life. And then don't expect an experience.

Expect that silent one to speak from within while you speak from without. Look at me. You can't account for me.

I know great preachers you can account for. They're giant men of talent, ability, men of personality, men with high IQs, men that could head the Eastern Airlines or the Hilton Hotel chain because of their dynamic. But you can't account for me that way.

I'm just a little Texas poor introvert reared in a drunkard's home, 92 pounds on the 17th birthday. The church didn't believe it and God called me. One day I found the secret.

It's not by might, it's not by power, but by my spirit. Saith the Lord, for the sake of your church, the sake of your children, the sake of your life, the sake of your Sunday school class, the sake of our nation, be annoyed with fresh oil. I'm a little old-fashioned, I know, when it comes to religion and God.

Many think I'm painfully slow since our walker and my fathers have trod. But I believe in repentance from sin and that Jesus within us must dwell. I believe that if heaven would win, we must flee from the terrors of hell.

I'm a little old-fashioned, I know, but God's peace has a hole in my soul. And I'm telling wherever I go that Jesus is saving and keeping me whole. Say with the psalmist who said, but my horn shall thou exalt like the horn of a unicorn.

I shall be anointed with fresh oil. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, may there be a supernatural work of God and our hearts today, and may we know what David knew as we're anointed with fresh oil.

In Jesus' name, amen.