The Church Needs God

Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. And the Lord, whom you seek. Now let's get this straight. Why did you come to this conference? Did you come to see miracles? Did you come to hear prophecy? Why did you come? Did you come to meet God? The Lord, whom ye seek, and I'm seeking God. I'm not seeking miracles, as good as they are, or prophecy. I'm seeking God. You say America needs God. No, she doesn't. The church needs God. If the church gets God, America will soon feel it. You know, it seems everybody's broken in America, but the church isn't broken about it. The one thing that alarms me in America and England is, that there is no alarm in the church. Most of you can't handle the light you've got now. Why should you hear more? And I believe God is holding back, until like that thing David wrote this morning, Lord, I can't live another day without the fire of God. You need the fire of God to pray. You need the fire of God to see visions. You need the fire of God to recognize. There's no help for us. I don't want to cry as I've done so long. Like David in Psalm 80, O thou that dwellest between the cherubims, Lord, don't stay there. Come down here. We need God here. Does it matter if it breaks your heart today? You're going to have millenniums and eternity. There'll be no sorrow there. You can't patch up your prayer life when you get to the judgment seat. You can't sacrifice when you get to the judgment seat. You can't weep when you get to the judgment seat. It's all between here and there. This period we're in now is a dressing room for eternity. That's all it is. You need God this morning. Some of you have disobeyed God all the week, and this is the day, the valley of decision. You'll go back more after today than ever you've done in your life unless you obey God. As I've said to you more than once, I'm troubled every morning I wake up for this simple reason. I live in a world, I live in a world that has lost its way and a church that has lost its voice. That voice has to come. You think the devil isn't a clever guy? How he tricks people. He never shows them the end. He just shows them the beginning. The church has never faced the challenges it faces now. God's going to give us a new breed of men. And every time in that prayer meeting I would say this, Lord, at the judgment seat, don't stand there in your majesty and read the record of my poor life and say, Son, I've many things to tell you, but you couldn't bear them. You were too occupied. Your ears were catching other voices, but not mine. That's why that damnable TV has to get out of the way. You're hearing more about men than you hear about God. You're getting more vision that's television than you are about the vision of the almighty God. That's all got to change. I believe many of you are going to a new lease of life from this meeting. You'll be amazed when you wake up. You'll be amazed how the Bible speaks. You'll be amazed how the Holy Ghost speaks. You'll be amazed how all your interests and other things are withered. Do you want to disappoint God? I don't want to disappoint God. I disappoint some people, I'm sure. But one thing I want to live for, Lord, I don't want to disappoint you, and I don't want you to be disappointed in me. Once you've seen that throne, these thrones don't matter. Was it in a year that King Uzziah died, got kicked off the throne, that Isaiah saw the throne of God? Who did he see on the throne? Read the 12th chapter of John. The vision he saw, in Isaiah 6, I saw one hand lifted up, and its glory filled the temple. He saw Jesus. That's what it says in the 12th. And you know, when you see Jesus like that, you'll be blinded to everything else in the world. I can read Hebrews 11 every morning, and it knocks me on the floor in tears. By faith, not by organization, not by money, not by scholarship, by faith! I don't want a warm heart, I want a heart on fire. And if you don't keep fire going, it goes out. He says, still let me guard the holy fire. Then he says this awesome thing, enlarge, inflame, and fill my heart with boundless charity divine. So shall I all my strength exert, and love them with a zeal like thine, and turn them to a pardoning God. You see, he's not asking for a theological definition. He says, I want a fire. Listen, if our God is a consuming fire, and he is, if he takes up residence in you, you'll burn till you die. God won't die in you. And all he's asking you this morning is to let the walls down, let the fire in. I can't live in coldness anymore. I can't live in blindness anymore. I can't be indifferent to a dying world. Every preacher who has lost the fire, you should be on your face down here. You used to burn, but you got so busy with organizing, the fire has gone out. Come on. Say, God, consume in me everything that's un-Christlike. Consume in me everything which hinders. Amen.