Worship in the Beauty of Holiness

This morning on worship. I want to read from the gospel recorded by Luke in chapter 7. By the way, all the time I'm here I'll be reading from the Living Bible, the King James Version. I remember years ago when the Living Bible first came out, a lady came to me so exalted, you know, full of joy.

She showed me this gorgeous, expensive Bible. She said, I've got a Living Bible. I said, I've had one about 60 years.

I never knew there was a dead one. Oh, people say services in our church are so dead. I said, well, that's for sure one thing, the living Christ isn't in the midst.

You can't have a dead meeting if the living Christ is there. You know, Ruskin, who lived just about a hundred years back in English history, he defined preaching as 30 minutes to raise the dead. Well, I thought that was facetious, but it's not.

You go to the average church, every row is death row. Isn't that right? If you said it wasn't, I'd chase you. I don't think 2% of people in America or England are born again.

That's very drastic, but I'm convinced of that. Okay, Luke chapter 7, verse 37. Behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meet in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at his feet behind him, weeping, began to wash his feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.

Now when the Pharisee, which had bidden him, saw it, he spake with him himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would know what manner of woman this is, for she is a sinner. Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he said, Master, say on.

There was a certain creditor, which had two debtors, one owed him 500 pence, and the other owed him 50, and when he had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them would love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose he that whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged.

And he turned to the woman, and said to the woman, and said to Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water, but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou hast given me no kiss, but this woman since I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.

Wherefore I say unto thee, her sins which are many are forgiven, for she loved much. Speaking generally, prayer is preoccupation with our needs. Praise is preoccupation with our blessings.

Worship is preoccupation with God. Remember Malachi says, The Lord whom ye seek. Many people are not seeking the Lord, they're seeking miracles, they're seeking signs and wonders, but they're in a background.

The greatest need in America today is God. If I didn't believe that, I wouldn't be here. I'll be talking about revival praying tonight.

But it's essential that we learn to worship. I'll tell you how valuable worship is. Satan said to Jesus, Fall down and what? Worship me.

Why? Because Satan had seen that in heaven, in the form of glory. He'd seen the cherubim, the seraphim falling down and worshipping Jesus Christ. Because in the 12th chapter of John, it says there that when Isaiah saw him, it was Jesus that he saw.

And therefore, Satan says, Fall down and worship me. Well, immediately you bend the knee in worship, you admit you're inferior. You acknowledge superiority.

You acknowledge the authority of the person above you. And Satan, he only wanted Jesus to let his knees kiss the ground. Just fall down for a minute and worship me.

And he offered him what? The kingdoms of this world. Not the real estate. I don't think he said, I'll give you all of Australia and all these countries.

The devil's smart enough to know the earth is the Lord's. He didn't ask him for the earth. He asked him for, I'll give you the kingdoms.

I'll give you the majestic military kingdom of Rome. Rome was already, had already been to England in 55 BC. And they conquered much of the world.

And Satan says, you fall down and worship me. I'll give you the military kingdom of the world. I'll give you the intellectual kingdom of the world, the Greeks.

I'll give you the religious capital of the world, or power of the world, the Jews. Just fall down and worship me. Worship is the preoccupation of heaven.

I love that first chapter in Hebrews. God works sundry times and in divers manners. Spoken to the fathers by the prophets, sat in these last days.

Spoken unto us by his son, whom he hath made the heir of all things. And I love that phrase. It says, when he had by himself, not with the help of the Virgin Mary, not with the help of the cherubim and seraphim, but by himself purged our sins.

Then God said, let all the angels of the Lord worship him. That's going to be amazing when we get a glorified body. Maybe you don't want one.

I'm sure my brother Adams, where is he? He wants one. I want one. Anybody else want one? Good.

Great. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be, to have a glorified intellect? I've heard some of the greatest preachers in the world. I heard C.S. Lewis preach once, and it left me cold.

But one thing he said, he said a friend of his, very wealthy, had a child. And the child had everything it wanted, except a pony. So eventually, he bought the child a pony.

And they had a groomsman, because the wealthy man liked to ride horses. His wife liked to ride horses. So the groomsman taught the little girl how to ride.

Well, then she wanted to go outside of the estate. And he said, you can go down to the big oak tree between the gates of home and the main road. Don't go past, because if you go past, you'll maybe get injured with the traffic.

But one day, she forgot, and she went past this oak tree. And there was a gorgeous horse, a big riding horse. So she said, she took the reins.

She told her daddy after, I took the reins of my pony and threw them over a post. And I stoked this horse, and I talked with it. And he talked back.

And he said, we had a wonderful conversation. He said, what are you riding that thing for? Why don't you ride it? Me, I'm a horse. Get on my back.

And he said, he set off, and he galloped around the field. And he came back and said, listen, if you really got on this, on my back, you'd know what riding really is. That pony thing, that's no good.

And he said, darling, you've got five things to correct in your riding. And he numbered them. And then he said, when you master those five things, I'll very joyfully buy you that horse, or one like it.

The man has lots of them. And but he said, I learned a lesson there. He said, like that little girl looked over the hedge and saw the horse.

He said, sometimes I go to the edge of time. I look into eternity. I see my glorified body, my glorified intellect, my limitless power that I'll have in the eternity with God.

And I say, oh God, I'd love to have a body like that, an intellect like that, emotions like that. The capacity to worship you as I want to do, but I can't. I'm too confined and limited.

And he says, God says to me, Lewis, listen, there are five things wrong with your life. When you straighten them out, I'll bring you over the fence. And I'll bring you into eternity and give you everything that you want.

And that's all he said. That was the end. And he left everybody speechless.

They thought they're going to hear some profound thing, you know, about the attributes of God. And he told us a Sunday school lesson. But it was glorious.

But I'll give you some other points on that later in the week. So prayer is preoccupation with our needs. Praise is preoccupation with our blessings.

And worship is preoccupation with God. Here's an old English hymn. Can I read it? If you say no, I will.

My goal is God himself, not joy, not peace, not even blessing, but thee my God. Tis his to lead me there, not mine, but his at any cost, dear Lord, by any road. So faith bounds forward to its goal in God, and love can trust her Lord to lead her there.

Upheld by him my soul is following hard till God hath fulfilled my deepest prayer. No matter if the way be sometimes dark, no matter though the cost be often great, he knoweth how I best shall reach the goal. I'm sorry.

He knoweth how I best shall reach the mark. The way that leads to him must needs be straight. One thing I know I cannot say him nay.

One thing I do I press toward my Lord, my God, my glory here from day to day, and in the glory there my great reward. My goal is God himself, not joy, not peace, not even blessing, but thee my God. Every preacher that comes to my office, and I get too many, we get about 30 visitors a week to the house from all over the world, and they want to tell me where they've been and who they know and what they've read, and I look them in the eye and say, tell me this, look me straight in the eye, do you know God? Do you know hardly one man in a dozen says he does? Well, that's all we're here on earth for.

We're not here to be famous, great preachers, do this, do that, we're here to know God. And Paul is saying at the end of his journey, he's written 14 epistles if you give him Hebrews, and I think he wrote that. He's, what does he say? I press toward the mark.

I want to know God. And I believe that's a great sign of spiritual health, not to be content. You know, I'm convinced of this, that most people in these days, in America and England, live on meetings.

We don't live on God. We don't have that intimacy. We don't have that fellowship.

We don't know when we grieve him. We don't know when we give him joy. Your only business in this world is to give pleasure to God.

That's about the only thing we can give, God worship. Dear God, he owns the universe. These stupid guys on TV.

Pardon me. Oh, give some money for God. God never sees it.

I'll tell you what, when you get to heaven, you say, who's that? Is that the apostle? Who's that? You'll know who the evangelists are in heaven. They'll be digging the streets up. Well, that's what the Bible says.

The streets are paved with gold. Now don't start laughing at work tomorrow. They'll blame me.

Do you sing that chorus? He walks with me and he talks with me. How many know it? Oh, good. Where's the pianist? Can you give us a key? Oh, they told me I can do anything you like here.

So I'm going to do that. Me, I am his own and the joy we share as we tarry there. He speaks and the sound of his voice.

He speaks and the sound of his voice. Is so sweet, the birds hush their singing. And the melody to me will join my heart.

Sing it! And he walks with me and he talks with me. And he tells me I am his own. That was good.

Well, it's not good singing, but it's good. You know, often the preachers talk about the four gospels. Well, obviously there are not four gospels.

There's one gospel told by four different people. And yet this one story, this story, this wonderful woman here, washing the feet of Jesus, is told by each of the evangelists. I mean, I think the only way actually to, the only way actually to understand the story is to fit it for a few moments in the framework of history.

There's that awesome gap between Malachi and Matthew, 400 years of stillness without any prophetic voice, 400 years of darkness without any prophetic light. And then suddenly an amazing man came on the scene. You know, in the last two or three years, I get to preach to the Baptists quite a bit.

How many Baptists were here? Ex-Baptists. You know, I love to torment people. That's part of my joy.

And you know, they get pretty angry when I tell them it was a Baptist who first preached the baptism of the Holy Ghost. They don't like to hear that. And then I tell them the Pentecostals, they were not the first and they don't like to hear it.

Because the Baptists were there before them. But anyhow, it is a strange one. I don't know if I'll preach to him one night, is it? John the Baptist is a favorite character of mine.

You know, he's like me. He had no office, no newsletter, no rich old ladies backing him, no miracles, no signs, no wonders. He never raised the dead.

He did more than that. He raised the dead nation. Precious brother, I'd love to see God heal that brother.

Adams. I've been in meetings where people have jumped out of wheelchairs. I used to have a great concern for paralyzed people.

I still have. But I have a bigger concern for the paralyzed church. The church has to come to life.

It goes to the average church is about as exciting as a Tupperware party. If there's anything about the New Testament church, it was totally unpredictable. Do you think there's a Pentecostal pastor in America today dare say, look, I'm bored to death.

Like a preacher called me recently. I'm in a Pentecostal church. I'm tired of refereeing fighting over what color carpet we're to have or what something else.

Supposing he said, listen, we're going to have a clearance sale next Sunday morning. I'm going to, I'm going to kill the two oldest deacons in the church. That'd be exciting, wouldn't it? Well, that's as much Pentecost as speaking in tongues.

But we live not far from Dallas. Do you know there are 50 fastest growing churches in Dallas? You know what kind of a church Jesus had? He had the fastest shrinking church. 5,000, 4,000, down and down.

Goes one day, there were 11 left. Will he also go away? No, we're in a numbers game these days. And it's so fatal actually.

Okay, so you've got that gap. And then suddenly John the Baptist come. He wasn't ordained.

Isn't that terrible? There's only one ordination. It's in the 15th chapter of John. I have ordained you.

Boy, you can be ordained every hour on the hour for the next 10 years. We won't do a thing for you. Except you could frame all the thing, ordination certificates on the wall of the house.

Who cares a hill of beans? Degree. Oh, they've all, listen, anointing doesn't come with degrees or diplomas. Dear Lord, you can have 32 degrees and still be frozen.

Boy, it must have been wonderful just to skip over this quickly. You see, there's one thing you never have to do. You never have to advertise a fire, either physically or spiritually.

God could have helped John the Baptist a lot better. He could have put that pillar of fire that led Israel. He could have put that pillar of fire on the spot where John Baptist was going to go.

He didn't do it. And he sent him there with the anointing of the Holy Spirit of God. Boy, read that first chapter in Luke.

Anyhow, here's a man in the anointing in the power of the Holy Spirit. And before that, there'd been a terrible upheaval in Israel. There had been an invasion by the Roman army.

I'll give you a story about that one night, a very brief one. Anyhow, the whole nation had been disturbed. Suddenly, they have all these foreigners coming in.

People they've never seen before. They didn't speak the language. They weren't Philistines.

They weren't, they weren't Amalekites or Hittites. They were the Romans that came in in all their splendor and majesty with their armies. And so the whole nation had been shaken politically, economically.

But they got over that. Then comes John the Baptist. He upset the whole place.

You know, you can't, somebody in a newspaper said two or three years ago, there's a revival, a revival sweeping America today, but it's not obvious. Dear God, can you have an earthquake? Can it not be obvious? Dear Lord, once there's a revival, everything will shake. In fact, now we're beginning through these tragedies of preachers.

Everything that can be shaken is being shaken. And this is judgment at the house. It's going to spread.

There's one prophet, he'll be coming here before long, says a hundred ministries will fall before the end of this year. Last week, my neighbor, a dear Pentecostal brother came in. He'd spent a week with Dave Wilkerson.

Dave used to be my neighbor. We used to spend hours every week together. And he said, David is saying in New York now, there'll be a total collapse of the economy in October of this year.

So what? The only thing that troubles me is when the throne begins to rock. And that won't shake. I love that hymn.

You don't have hymn books here, do you? Terrible. I'll send you a couple of hymns that you can throw on the screen. I mean, real fabulous hymns.

Like, they both go to the tune, Onward Christian Soldiers. One was written by A.B. Simpson, the great American. Once it was a blessing, now it is the Lord.

Once it was a healing, now it is his word. A feeling, now it is his word. Once his gifts I wanted, now they give it on.

And it goes right through like that. It's majestic and moving. And the other one is from a current Pentecostal book in England.

It's an old hymn written early this century. Thou the rose of Sharon, let thy praises roll. Lily of the valley, flower of my soul.

Then it goes on to talk about love. Waters cannot quench it. Floods can never drown.

Substance cannot buy it. Love's a priceless crown. Oh, the wondrous story, mystery divine.

I am my beloved and my beloved is mine. I'll send them both and you can get these, what do you call, these transparencies and put them on the screen and get stirred up. Anyhow, so first you've got the economic upheaval.

Then you've got John the Baptist come. John did no miracle. You know, it's all baloney.

It's like one famous preacher's always saying, get full of faith in the Holy Ghost and speak in tongues, which is wonderful. I've got two Pentecostals. Both my boys are far better preachers than I am.

Deb is preaching somewhere and you'll hear him this week. He's been pastoring the largest Pentecostal church in New Zealand for 15 years along with three or four other men and he's been home a year. You see, God tests us.

He's been home a year in America and hardly anybody opened a door to him. He's trusting God for every penny, but he's a tremendous man of God. Okay, so John does no miracle, but the anointing of God is there.

Who came to see him? The scribes and the Pharisees. They wouldn't go hear anybody else. But then John comes and upsets them just like they've been upset economically.

They get upset theologically. He doesn't follow their traditions. Boy, he's not very polite.

What did he call the Pharisees? White sepulchres? My goodness. That's like me walking into the Vatican and saying, you old... Well, anyhow. There's going to be an earthquake spiritually before too long.

I believe that. I'm expecting to live. Two or three people have been to our house and prophesied over me.

I'm in my, what, almost 83. And they prophesied, well, Paul Kane is coming. And where's brother Bob? What's his name, Bob? Bob Jones told me the other day, the next three and a half years of my life.

Martha dear, where are you? You're going to have to put up with me three and a half more years. Next three and a half years are going to be my best. Glorious.

Do you know what? The Holy Ghost is going to come on America. Ten years from now, if you mention Jimmy Swaggart, they say, who's he? Does he sell sausage? You talk about Billy Graham, they say, why, is he running for government? God's going to do things that will exclude all the things you've ever seen. We're going to the school of the Holy Ghost.

Yeah, I talked with Smith Wigglesworth and some of those guys. That they were in the junior league. We're going into the big league.

God has reserved some better thing for us. The world population is greater now than ever. Sin is deeper, sin is arrogant.

Dear God, could people stand up to John the Baptist preaching? You get fellas on TV say, do you know I've been to the White House three times or six times, so what? Nobody ever got through the 17 preachers that Nixon had, nobody got through to him. Do you think John Baptist will get through? Do you think John Baptist will get invited back 16 more times? Dear Lord, boy, if Elijah got there, he'd leave blisters on them. So what, you have what? The military upset, economic upset, theological upset, and then comes John the Baptist.

That must have been amazing to hear him. Would you like to go to the same school? It's a school of silence. I get young guys, Mr. Ramiel, I'm sending you my tape.

Don't, I've enough to pave the yard with them. Read my manuscript, I can't, I've two eyes, I can't read two separate things. I don't want the tapes, someone would like, but they all want to meet John the Baptist.

Well, I say, well, are you married? Yes. Have you increased your insurance? No. Well, you're better, why? Are you John the Baptist? Sure.

Well, you're only going to live six months. Oh, they write and ask me, will you, will you send me your, your mantle? My mantle? Well, you have a mantle, God put a mantle. I say, no, I won't send you my mantle, I'll tell you what I will do.

I'll send you some of my sackcloth. I never hear from them again. I know how to get, shut them all up now, brother, you try that.

I'll send you some sackcloth and I say, oh, no, no, no. We all want to be prophets. Nice little, little guys that meet and talk to old ladies in motels, or hotels.

I'll tell you about something about a prophet tonight. It's the greatest need of the day. And you can't make a man a prophet or elect him.

God makes him. See, evangelists, John the Baptist wasn't an evangelist, he was a prophet. You know, evangelists, evangelists go around raising funds.

Revivalists go around raising hell. And John the Baptist was a hell raiser. Boy, we're going to see the greatest devastation in the era of spirituality that the world's ever seen.

Because God still loves this wicked, vile, corrupt world. Okay, so now let's get, we've got to John the Baptist. So, John was a troublemaker.

He wasn't very polite. Very rugged, very simple. Voice of voice.

He was strained in his dress. He wore some leather shorts. I said that in a holiness meeting and they fired me.

They waited for me behind the platform. A guy jumped on me, nearly pulled me to the ground. He said, you said John Baptist wore leather shorts.

Well, what did he wear? Well, I said, well, they were leather shorts. And old camel skin. Strained in his dress.

Strained in his diet. Morning, noon, and night. What did he have? Locust burgers.

Simplicity. Everything's so involved today. We're going to have to go back to simplicity.

Lifestyle simplicity. Language simplicity. With no desire for promotion or anything else.

Well, then after John goes, in comes Jesus. The greatest troublemaker ever. People say, I want to be like Jesus.

Do you? Are you sure? You mean, you want 40 days alone in the wilderness? You want to get Semeny? You want to Judas? You want to Thomas? You want to be an outcast? The first thing Jesus did before he could walk or talk was divide the city. Herod was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And the minority of a little old woman, a hundred years of age, and Semen and a few others.

The last thing he did on the cross was divide men. And during his ministry, in between the cradle and the cross, it says he went to the synagogue. And because he went to the synagogue, there was a division because of him.

Jesus brings division. He doesn't bring unity. He brings division.

And there's going to be the greatest division in our day that has ever been since the Reformation. It's coming up. But let me rush on to this.

What time do you want to go home? Four or five? But, uh, the, uh, okay, let's, let's put this in context again. Jesus was the most amazing man that ever lived. He was the most amazing man then.

And somehow, this person tried to get him into the home, uh, to go to dinner, as we would say. Well, I'm sure the first thing they did, it was a man who invited him. He got a list.

He kept crossing out names, putting in other names. He got the right folk there. After that, they just discussed the food.

So you get the folks, you get the food. I suppose he put flowers and decoration. And everything was in order.

Everybody of importance was there. Here is the miracle worker. Here is the man that everybody talks about.

Whether you go to the temple or the synagogue. Whether you go to the marketplace. Whether you go to draw water at the well.

The conversation is Christ, Christ, Christ. And yet when revival comes, that's what happens. People don't talk politics.

They don't talk sport. They don't talk money. They talk Christ.

When the Holy Ghost comes in America, you're going to see us and start buying something. Somebody will strike up Blessed Assurance. You'll have a prayer meeting on your hands.

Then when you go to your favorite dining room, McDonald's. Somebody will strike up. And it happened in the Welsh Revival.

I've talked with people in Wales back in the 1930s, in the 1920s, who went through the Welsh Revival. And people could eat their meals down in the coal mine. They'd eat their meals while they were working.

And then turn the whole of the underground into a prayer meeting. All singing that great hymn, they sing, Guide me O thou great Jehovah. But you can't be normal and have an abnormal manifestation of God.

It's not possible. So Jesus comes along. There are signs and wonders and miracles.

And the whole city is disturbed. But somehow this Simon manages to get him as a guest. And I'm sure he posted guards there and said, Don't let so-and-so come as so-and-so.

Well, Simon goes out and then he comes back. When he comes in, a servant calls him, Master, come, come, look there. Listen, I told you, don't let anybody questionable come here.

And there's a despicable woman, one of the outstanding sinners. And the guard says, or at least Simon says, Don't let, if she comes near, turn the dogs on her. She's already here.

And he looks and there is a woman. What's she doing? Washing his feet. He doesn't turn her away.

You see, this was a very, very mundane thing. The wealthy people kept slaves at the door. And when a traveler came in, they wore no shoes.

They wore no hose. And the grit got between their toes. It was uncomfortable.

So the first thing you do is pass your visitor over to someone here to wash their feet. Now, this woman went. It was premeditated.

And what she did, the Lord Jesus did here. He received what she did. And he rewarded what she did.

And it's recorded here what she did. She didn't go to ask a favor. She didn't say, I've got a cousin that's lame and blind or something.

Please heal. She didn't go. Of all the people that went, as far as we know, she's the only one that took a gift.

Everybody went to get. What did you bring the Lord this morning? Something to drop in the offering box? Did you say, I can hardly get to the sanctuary? You know, if you came here charged with God, this atmosphere will be electric every time you come. I'm so full of God.

I'm bursting with joy. I'm bursting with adoration. I'm bursting with worship.

So she what? She should wash his feet with water. No, no, not those holy feet. So what did she do? She washed them with tears instead of water.

She should wipe them with a towel. No, not those feet. Can you imagine when that woman knelt there? She came to do one thing.

She came to worship him. What did the wise men do? The wise men came and what did they come for? Came to worship him. What did they bring? They brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

They didn't bring trivia. They brought the most expensive things that they had. Maybe they sold everything in order to buy something which was exquisite and extraordinary, worthy of putting at the feet of a king.

But we don't have gifts like that. Some of you have very rich intellects. The good doctor I hear that in the chair there has a PhD, I think.

I have a PhD too. Posthole digger. It isn't as good as his, but I enjoy it.

Yes, God has got hold of some of the most wonderful people in history. A hundred years back in England, there was a young man there by the name of Henry Martin. He was about the only person that came out with any distinction from the preaching of Charles Simeon.

There was a revival in England before ever Wesley had it. And Charles Simeon had it in a church of England. He preached with the Holy Ghost anointing him.

Do you know how well he preached? The deacons dragged all the seats out of the church and threw them in the churchyard and locked the door up. And he wouldn't stop. He preached and preached till the Holy Ghost come.

And they couldn't capture the Holy Ghost, so they had to be spectators. And Simeon sat there. He was the most brilliant scholar in Cambridge University.

He was a senior wrangler at 21. He carried off the highest scholarship. And suddenly God called him to India.

And then he fell in love with a girl called Lydia. And he said when he prayed, when one voice said India, the other said Lydia. Anyhow, he came.

And as the hymn writer says, in that lovely hymn, O love that will not let me go, I lay in dust life's glory dead. And he went to India. What did he do? He took that colossal intellect.

If he stayed in England in politics, he would have been the Prime Minister of England. If he stayed in the Church of England, he would have become the Archbishop of Canterbury. What did he do? He went to India.

And he took a Greek New Testament. And they translated the Greek New Testament from Greek into Hindustani. And when he finished it, he made that long journey from India to Cairo in Egypt.

And then he worked on that same Greek Testament and translated it into Arabic, a more difficult language. Every missionary in India today owes a debt to that brilliant young man that threw away all the honours of the world and committed all he had to Jesus Christ. And that's what God's looking for in this day.

I lay in dust life's glory dead. So anyhow, this woman washes his feet, not with water, but washes them with tears. When she's washed his feet with water, what does she do? She takes ointment, very precious.

If you read the different versions, there are four versions. Read them all. I don't have time to do that for you.

But it says she took a one pound of ointment. Does it matter whether it weighs one pound or three hundred? Sure it does. Why? Because Jesus here is alive.

She washes his feet, those tired feet. Do you think when she got those feet in her hand, am I too imaginative that she saw a nail print in them? Do you think she was at the cross when they were bleeding and she said, oh I'm glad I did it? Because she brought with protocol. She brought with conventionality.

She had no right to be in a stag party. But you see, love is irresistible. She broke through and got there without invitation.

Washed his feet. Wiped and then poured the ointment on his feet. And there's the point.

She poured his ointment on his feet and what? And then wiped his feet with the hair of a head. So what happened? The fragrance she poured out on him came back on her. You see, we don't pray long enough.

We give a lot of, Lord, Lord, take care of this. It's my shopping list today, Lord. Get all the angels in heaven busy.

Do this, do that, do the other. We don't stay until his fragrance breaks on us. On my desk I have a letter, a copy of a letter from 1748.

I think it is. It's the daughter of Jonathan Edwards. She was going to marry David Brainerd but she didn't.

She died three weeks after him. But she says, you know, living with my famous daddy is very wonderful. But she said, you know, daddy is a tremendous preacher.

Oh yes, he preached sinners in the hands of an angry God. But she said he spent all night on the floor weeping before he did that. Sure, Jesus went into Jerusalem and whipped them.

But read Luke's version. He says before he whipped them, he wept over them. He wept over the city.

There's no way to preach except with brokenness these days. We live in a broken nation. Marriages are broken.

Bodies are broken. Bodies are broken with disease. Bodies are broken with lust.

Girls' bodies are broken with pregnancies. And it's a broken world. And I'll tell you something for nothing.

Because you're not giving me an offering this morning. So I'll tell you something for nothing. But I'll tell you what.

We're not going to move this generation unless we're broken over it. I've no right to expect you to break your heart as a sinner with your lust, and your lying, and your deceitfulness, and your uncleanness. You cover up every week, every meeting you come to church.

I've no right to expect that unless I'm broken over it. So the fragrance she poured out on him came back on her. So Jonathan Edwards' daughter says, yes, people admire my daddy.

Skipping a minute. Martin Lloyd-Jones told me in London one day as we were talking privately. He said, Brother Raymond, the greatest intellect America ever had was not Edison with his inventions.

The greatest intellect America ever had was, what's his name again? Thank you. Jonathan Edwards. Colossal intellect.

I think I have everything he wrote. And I'll tell you, I can read that and weep and be broken over it. But she says, my daddy is a towering figure.

But she said, I wish you could come to my home in the morning when mother goes into her closet. When she comes out, she needs a veil over her face. She's so radiant with God.

I doubt if any woman lives, she said, that knows God as my mother does. What do your children see you doing? Powdering your face? Dear Lord, you've been doing that 20 years. It doesn't look much better to me.

Was it Alexander Pope said, hope springs eternally in the human breast. It must, the way these women keep making up. That's terrible.

You look at your woman, she's beautiful. Next thing it's gone down the sink. You know, there's only one way to worship God.

It isn't going to a shrine here or a shrine there. He says, worship the Lord in the beauty of what? Holiness. Holiness unto the Lord.

In other words, for holiness is purity. Worship the Lord in purity. Any defilement and you'll sabotage your own life.

You'll sabotage your relationship. You'll sabotage your intimacy. So we worship the Lord really in the beauty of holiness.

So I say this one brought one pound of ointment. Very precious, it says. And it doesn't matter what you do, you'll get criticized.

If you don't want to do anything, do nothing. Then you'll be criticized for being lazy. But whatever you do for God, you get criticized.

Oh, the old boy says, why wasn't that sold and given to the poor? He didn't care for the poor. I've really been pilfering that bag every week. He didn't care a hell of beans about the poor.

That one pound of ointment, very precious. It was worth, what? 300 pence. That's a year's wages.

That's if you worked every day. Maybe she'd saved up 10 years. And listen, if this Mary is the sister of Lazarus, and possibly she was, she didn't put that ointment on her brother when he died.

Don't usually do that for brothers, do they? So she took the ointment. One pound. Jesus received it, recognized it, rewarded it.

Wherever the Bible is published, this story, and 2,000 years after, I'm telling you the story, okay? At the end of the journey. You remember the story in the beginning of the Bible, where men are carrying a bunch of grapes on their shoulders? It's so heavy, they can't carry it. Well, there's some men going up the hill, and they've got a sack.

What have they got? They've got a hundred pounds of the same ointment. Somebody said worth over a million dollars. They're going up the hill.

What to do to anoint Jesus? You know, the women like to say, we were the last at the cross and the first at the at the sepulcher. Well, dear Lord, it's not very thrilling. If I woke up in hospital, I was in hospital.

I jumped out of a burning hotel in 1951, after the greatest revival Dr. Chaucer had in his church, he said. I jumped out of a third story, hit the deck, three o'clock in the morning. My left leg was in three pieces.

Both my feet were broken, three breaks in my back. I couldn't go beyond that. That's seven.

That's the perfect number of breaks. But that was a very painful deal too. But anyhow, these men are carrying, these women are carrying, these men rather, are going up there, and they're carrying this hundred pounds of the same ointment.

What? To anoint him after he's dead. So a smart American said, do your giving while you're living, then you're knowing where it's going. You don't need to give to that guy on TV.

He can pay the insurance on his private jet without your help. But you see, we got so used to giving to things, and to people, and to institutions, instead of giving by the direction of the Lord. Okay.

So the ointment was very precious. She washed his feet, and the fragrance filled the house. You know what? I don't think for a minute that, that Judas was concerned about the, the value of the money.

You know, did they not needle them all? They'd been living with Jesus maybe two or three, two or three years, and they'd seen him exhausted at the end of the day. Not one of them ever thought of washing his feet. I don't want anybody to wash my feet.

But we live in the middle of 21 ministries. I don't want them to wash my feet. I'd like them to go wash my car every Saturday.

They're a lot more practical for me, but we don't do things like that. We want to do the spectacular. We want to do something for somebody, but not the least, usually.

But let me emphasize it again. What did she do? She washed his feet. Slaves always wash the feet of superiors.

But what did she do? She kissed his feet. Judas didn't kiss his feet. Judas kissed him on the cheek.

It was a prostitution of love. He didn't love the Lord. He made out that he did.

He kissed him on the cheek. She kissed him as a slave. Often kissed the feet of a master, or picked up the edge of his garment, and kissed the edge of his garment as a sign.

I recognize your honor, your dignity, your authority. But she kissed his feet. Charles Wesley wrote 3,000 hymns.

I don't know many thousands. I haven't got lots of them. But I love one when he said, Oh, let me kiss thy bleeding feet and bathe and wash them with my tears.

The story of thy love repeat in every drooping sinner's ears. That all mankind with me may prove thy sovereign everlasting love. Let me kiss thy bleeding feet.

Tell me, when did you last go into the presence of God and say, Lord, I don't ask a thing. I don't ask a thing of you. I want to gaze on your holiness.

I want to gaze on your majesty. As I say, I've preached in many of the greatest churches in the world, met some of the great preachers. But one of the most astounding was this little frail American, Dr. Tozer.

Every time I went into his office, it was an encounter. It was a confrontation. One day he said, Len, look at the rug.

I looked at that little rug. You know, you have famous stores all over America now, Kmart. The originator was Kresge.

I believe he was a Methodist. And Kresge has these stores. And Dr. Tozer went in.

He bought a rug, not much longer than this desk, about maybe 36 inches and about 18 wide. And I looked at the rug. I said, yes, I've seen it, doctor.

He said this amazing thing that stunned me. He said, Leonard, I come in my office, pick up the phone, call my secretary and say to her, Margaret, I can't give any dictation today. I can't give any interviews.

I must be alone with God. And then he said this. And I looked at the rug as he said it.

He said, Brother Leonard, I get on my belly. Good old Bible word. I get on my belly at 8 o'clock in the morning.

I'm still there at 9 or 10 or 11 or 12. And I've worshipped. I haven't said one word of prayer.

I haven't said one word of praise. I've inwardly muttered something like, Faber's, how beautiful, how beautiful the sight of thee must be. Thine endless wisdom, boundless power and awful purity.

How dread are thine eternal years who everlasting God. Thy prostrate spirits, day and night incessantly adored. I've had preachers from all over the world come in my office.

They ask me questions about Dr. Thomas. I tell them that aspect. I've seen those big shots with all their degrees and all.

I see them weep and weep. What are you weeping for? I don't know. I can recite, I can recite most of the Psalms in Hebrew.

I can recite the New Testament. I don't know a thing about worship. Of course you don't.

I believe the ultimate in worship is speechless adoration. You see, we've got some churches in Dallas now and they got this praise going. They go with their banners maybe that's all right.

But wait a minute. It doesn't say worship with banners though they're all right. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

And lots of people in these churches now they worship, worship. As long as they clap and they're happy and they feel elated and feel blessed. That's about all they ask for.

But intimacy with God. Dear Lord. There were times when that very room of Dr. Tosa seemed to be filled with the glory of God.

I prayed with him many times for hours over the whole span. And I tell you again there was always an awe. You see, I believe when the glory of God comes you'd leave the sanctuary and maybe you wouldn't speak or work for two or three hours.

You're so awed with the majesty of God. You concentrate in your private devotions. There's all kinds of things involved in worship.

Adoration, admiration, contemplation. And go down and make a list. But we've got to see the person of God in his glory, in his majesty.

How often do you think of the pre-existence of Jesus? Let me hurry with this. Not till this year I was thinking at Christmas of the Lord Jesus coming. Charles Wesley's great hymn Hark the herald angels sing Mild he laid his glory by Born that man no more may die.

What do you think the angels felt when Jesus left the glory? It'd been and cherubim and seraphim bowed down before him. The seraphim couldn't bear the sight of him. They filtered his majesty and his blinding glory through their, nailed through their wings.

They couldn't look on him and they couldn't bear that he should look on them. They put wings over themselves to cover themselves. Well, what in God's name are you going to do when you stand at the judgment seat? What am I going to do before those blazing holy eyes? No priorities because you're rich.

No priorities because you're more gifts than anybody else. Just bathing in the holy majesty of God. It's going to be awesome.

Well, then I visualized that the angels coming and bringing Jesus, escorting him as it were to earth and there he's been in the, he's been in glory brighter than a million suns. He's heard voices like you and I've never heard. Angelic beings singing holy, holy, holy.

Well, okay. Then suddenly from that he's pressed into the matrix of the Virgin Mary. He comes into the belly of a little woman from the blinding glory to the total darkness from the voice of the father to the stillness and there he is shut up in the womb of the woman.

For me, John believed, pardon me, the apostle Paul believed that God so loved the world. He said and Christ loved the church but if you want to know something greater than that that he loved the world he loved the church, he loved me. We've got to learn to worship.

Let me talk about devotion here a minute and I'll let you go in a few minutes. Here's a good old hymn from England of course as you'd imagine. Written by a lady called Frieda Hanbury Allen.

Now listen, this is, think of your prayer life like this. You're going to the closet, shut the door. When I was shut the door, you know, I think dancing is wonderful but listen, if you only dance here there's something wrong with you.

Do you dance in your own room? Do you dance when there's nobody to clap and applaud and see you? Do you sing and adore him when you're by yourself? Do you wash his feet day by day with gratitude that you're not a prostitute? If God hadn't come into your life at that time you might be a harlot now, you might be in jail, you might be in hell. That precious man Rutherford that died in Scotland in the 1500s said the greatest miracle God ever did was when he saved me. I won't let the wonder of it leave me.

That he should save a vile person like me. Listen to Frieda Hambry-Allen going into the prayer closet. Within the veil be this beloved thy portion.

Within the secret of thy Lord to dwell. Beholding him until thy face is glory. Thy life is love.

Thy lips his praise shall tell. Within the veil for only as thou gazest upon the matchless beauty of his face you sang that this morning. Canst thou become a living revelation of his great heart of love, his untold grace.

Within the veil is fragrance poured upon thee. Without the veil that fragrance shed abroad. Did the woman pour the fragrance on him and then put it, wipe her hair and carry the fragrance out? Within the veil is fragrance poured upon thee.

Without the veil that fragrance shed abroad. Within the veil his hand shall tune the music which sounds on earth the praise of thy God. Within the veil thy spirit deeply anchored.

Thou walkest calm above a world of strife. Within the veil thy soul with him united shall live on earth the resurrection life. Even Spurgeon said a little faith will take you to heaven.

More faith will bring heaven to you. You see there's only one answer to the situation we live in today. You know there are two kinds of people in America, only two.

Not black and white. Not rich and poor. Not literate and illiterate.

Two kinds only of the whole American constituency. Those who are dead in sin and those who are dead to sin. Nobody else.

Either you're dead in sin it has dominion and mastery or you have victory over sin and you have the world of flesh and the devil beneath your feet. You ought to so live in victory you're a puzzle to the devil. He used to get you down in that area.

He can't get you down in that area anymore. You're victory over it. You took it to the cross and nailed it there.

And therefore you're walking in newness of life. You know until people see Christ in us why should they believe us? There should be a purity about us a holiness about us. Within the veil thy spirit deeply anchored thy walk has come over the world of strife.

Within the veil thy soul with him united shall live on earth the resurrection life. OK. So she washed his feet wiped them with the hairs of her head.

Where? In the house of who? Read the story. In the house of Simon the leper. That's not possible.

It's not legal to have a house. Simon had to go to his wife and say darling look I'm sorry but I've kept a secret from you. But look she's Simon Simon you've got leprosy.

Don't use the towels don't touch the children. Go immediately to the priest tell him you're a leper then go to the gate of the city. When you go you'll be disenfranchised as it were in the temple.

They'll cut your name off the list you're a leper you're an outcast. You go to the gate of the city and they'll cut you out socially you've no rights here at all. You've no religious rights you've no social rights and he goes up the road and he begs.

Why did he get back into the house? And leprosy is a type of sin as you know but one day one day Jesus came that way and Jesus made him whole. Do you know that chorus He Touched Me? Well let's sing it. Where's a good lady? Can you pray for us? Yes.

You'll have to bring some skates next time. He touched me how he Miss Kuhlman used to sing this boy I preached for her a number of times in the Carnegie Hall. She was quite a woman.

He touched me. He touched me. Well do you think when Simon came back to the gate of the city they tried to turn him away and say you can't come in here you're a leper.

He says look. What? What happened? He touched me. And they knew who he meant.

He wasn't John Baptist. Sure wasn't a high priest. Sure wasn't a theologian.

Who was it? Jesus touched him and made him whole. Then he goes from there to the temple. A priest says don't defile this sacred place.

He said why? You're a leper. Well hey. Oh my.

Where's your leprosy gone? Oh he touched me. He goes to the house. His wife says hey is that you? Don't come in this place and defile it.

You can't come in here. Why can't I come? You've got leprosy. And she said he said look.

Boy he showed her hands. They weren't dishpan hands. He got nicer hands than she had.

Jesus touched him and made him whole. No wonder he couldn't keep quiet about it. No wonder we made a feast.

Did you ever have a feast to celebrate your sanctification? Or your justification? Or your gift of the spirit? Did you call the neighbors? Called the in-laws and the outlaws? And everybody else? And say I want to celebrate. He's taken away my cursed appetite for drink. He's taken away my cursed appetite for lust.

He's made me whole. And do get along with him in the day. Get along with him every day and say Lord I'm not coming asking for a single thing.

I have great needs. The world has great needs. But I want to give you adoration.

There's a hymn that says angels never felt the joy that our salvation brings. They can't do that. I don't have time to go through the other section.

Praise is very wonderful. In Revelation chapter 1 and verse 6 it says He has made us unto our God kings and priests. And we shall have dominion with him forever and ever.

That's a twofold doxology. Then you go to chapter 4 and you'll find there's a threefold doxology. Then you go on into chapter 5. Then you go into chapter 7. There's an increasing doxology all through the way.

And finally you come to that fifth chapter in Revelation which is awesome. I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book. He was sealed on the back side with seven seals.

I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice who is worthy to open the book. No man in heaven or in earth. Do you get that? Look, wait a minute.

Here you've got all the assembled of the ages. You've got Moses there. You've got Jeremiah there.

You've got Isaiah there. You've got Ezekiel there. You've got the twelve apostles there.

And not one of them who will open the book. Even the apostle Paul can't open it. The greatest man that ever lived can't open it.

A cherubim can't open it. A seraphim can't open it. And John says I wept much.

That word wept there isn't just somebody emotionally stirred. It's the very word Jesus just weeping over Jerusalem. It's a cry of despair.

Well there's nobody in the whole of creation can open the book. What's the book in the hand of him that sat on the throne? The title deeds of the universe that were lost by Adam's transgression. Then was it say one of the elders said unto me weep not.

Behold the lion of the tribe of Judah. And then the next verse it says in the midst of the throne stood the eldest and a lamb. He's changed from the lion to the lamb.

But notice when the lamb comes the four and twenty elders fall down on their faces. I was at a meeting some years ago in Corpus Christi in that great assembly of God there. After the second night a lady thanked me.

She said your preaching style's so different. Good. She said what do you think about this business of falling backwards? I said well when I was a boy they called it backsliding.

I said all I find in the Bible they fell forward. Abram fell on his face. The four and twenty elders fall on their faces.

Always falling on their faces. Dr. Toll said this to me one day. He said brother Len let other people do as they like.

You and I will worship God face downward. If you worship I pray always flat across the bed. It's bad for your nose to keep bent.

Your back bent. So I lay across the bed to worship to bed to pray and worship. And Dr. Toll said I always lay flat.

You can't be looking around. You can't be distracted. You get concentrated.

And so here there's nobody in the whole creation that's worthy to take the book. And suddenly the Lamb of God comes. He takes the book.

Verse six. Behold a lamb in the midst of the throne, the four beasts, the four and twenty elders, and the lamb as it has been slain, having seven eyes and seven spirits, seven horns, seven eyes, seven spirits. He came and took the book out of the right hand of the Son of the Throne.

And when it took the book, it says the four and twenty elders fell down in verse eight, having one of them harps and golden vials, odors, which are the prayers of the saints. Isn't that wonderful? Prayers. Prayers become articulate.

All the praying of the ages, praying in groanings, praying with tears, they're suddenly miraculously transformed to the greatest song that has ever been sung in time of eternity. Verse eleven says, I beheld and heard the voice of many angels round about the throne of the Lamb of God. Ten thousand times ten thousand.

What's ten thousand times ten thousand? Come on, you mathematicians. Where's? One? A hundred million. That's right.

That's what I think it is. It must be right. Thank you.

Are you a Nazarene? No. I'd excuse you if you were. Can you imagine a cry like that? A hundred million? No.

And thousands of thousands. Almost everything has a number in Revelation except that. The multitude which no man can number.

If you put the number down, it will break every one of our computers. It's beyond anything that man has or can estimate. All the accumulated praise and glory of the ages is going to burst forth.

You talk about Hamel's Messiah? Dear Lord, that'll be left in the background. And I like that. I pray it very often.

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. And what happened? Every creature which is in heaven. Notice this.

And on the earth. And under the sea. All that's in them.

Heard I saying blessing and honor and glory and power to him that sit upon the throne. Now you've moved right up there. Count how many things are mentioned in that doxology.

Every creature. How does Sama? What's the last number of Psalms? 150. What's the last part of Psalm 150 say? Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.

I live in Texas. Everything's the biggest there. They tell the biggest lies too.

But you know in winter we get, in summer we get these awful mosquitoes around my ear. I say buzz off. I say one day you're going to come around my ear and you'll be buzzing hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.

I go to the zoo and see that elephant raise its big trunk and it says boo boo. I said boo to you. One day you're going to be saying hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.

Everything that hath breath in the air or under the earth. Everything that hath breath. He's been robbed of glory for centuries.

It's all going to be accumulated. Do you wonder, is it Wesley says in his hymn, O for a thousand tongues. In your scanty hymn book if you have one at your church it has four stanzas.

In my good hymn book it has 11, 12 stanzas in that hymn. Then in a nobler sweeter song I'll sing thy power to save. When this poor lisping stammering tongue shouts victory o'er the grave.

Do you know the trouble with us? We're earthbound. We live on time too much. We're not eternity conscious.

We live for the things that are seen which are temporal and not the things that are not seen. You'd never get under the weather if you believe you're going to have a glorified body and live and reign with him forever and ever. There's going to be a fragrance poured out in heaven exceeding all the perfumes that were ever made in the world.

They're going to be poured on the Christ of God. There's going to be the greatest singing that was ever uttered by redeemed people. Every tenor will sing better than Pavarotti.

Every woman will sing better than Gali Kirchey. We're all going to have a glorified, all the curse is going to be removed. Everything that is a breakdown of what Adam had is going to be restored in glory and in majesty.

See, I urge you again, worship. One day contemplate his love. Another day meditate on his agony and Gethsemane.

Think of his mercy and spend a day on that. Think of the, what the big people call the attributes of God. But think of the character of God and the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Maybe the greatest songwriter. I'm through with this. A songwriter in America was beautiful.

What's her name now? Thank you. Fanny Cosby. Good.

Is she a favorite of yours? She sang, what did she, when Billy Graham first came to England, he used one of her songs always. What was it? No, that's English. No, no.

She, to God be the glory, great things he hath done. You know, when she was about three weeks old, she was blind. And she was blind until she was 84.

But she was the first woman in American history to address the combined houses of Washington. She was the first person to do that. First blind, I think the first woman and certainly the first blind woman.

And one day a friend said to her, you know dear, you've been a blessing to so many people. You've written such wonderful hymns. It's such a tragedy, you know.

I'd like to describe the sun to you. The sun is sinking, but I can't describe a sunset. You're blind.

You can't see the beauty of the flowers. You can smell the fragrance, but you can't see. You're blind.

She said, dear, it's such a terrible disadvantage for a saintly woman like you. God isn't fair to let you be blind all these years. She said, my dear, I have a great advantage over you.

She said, you have an advantage over me? I can see the glory of the sunset, the beauty of the earth. What do you mean a great advantage? She said, my dear, don't you realize the first face I ever see will be his face? When we were youngsters, we had all these exciting choruses. We used to sing that chorus.

And I shall see him face to face and tell the stories saved by grace. Or face to face shall I behold him far beyond the starry sky. But the trouble is, I have a long way to go even yet between here and there.

I can't live on meetings. I can't live on excitement. I can't live on miracles.

I can only live on Christ. Christ in me. And if he's in me, he's going to share his burdens with me as well as his blessings.

He's going to share his tears with me, his grief as well as the joys. Dear God, I've got a billion years. You sing that good old English hymn often, don't you? When we've been there 10,000 years.

Isn't that stupid? They've sung that in churches all over the country today. When we've been there 10,000... And they're itching to get out of church. They can't even put up with God an hour.

Are they going to put up with him 10,000 years? I don't sing 10,000 years. I sing when we've been there 10 million years. Wouldn't that be... Boy, David, Noel, when you've been hanging around heaven for 10 million years, you don't look any older.

Maybe your hair will be different, but anyhow. When we've been there 10,000 years. Isn't that wonderful? So stand up and sing it, Amazing Grace, please.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. Was blind, but now I see.

Through many dangers. Through many dangers, toils and snares. I have already come, it is grace that brought me safe.

And it will, and grace will lead me home. Now sing it. When we've been there 10 million years.

Bright shining as we've no less days to sing. And I'm going to, you know, in school, when you do anything wrong, you have to put it right. I told you it's not 10,000 years.

You're cheating. I don't want to go to heaven for 10,000 years. You know, hell has no exits.

But we'll be able to go in and out of heaven, the word says. When we've been there 10 million years. Will you sing it? Then brother, we'll close the meeting.

When we've been there 10 million years. Cheer up. We're going to be in his eternal presence forever.

No taxes. Wouldn't that be wonderful? No wars, no fears, no sorrow, no sight. Nothing that belongs to this creation.

And Jesus is going to reign forever and ever. King of kings, Lord of lords. When we've been there 10 million years.

When we've been there 10 million years. I'm the guy he made that last comment about, by the way, just in case you didn't know. I'm going to, I'm going to ask brother Ravenhill to pray for us before he goes.

I know that the Lord has spoken clearly that there's a, there really is a deposit that he will leave with us as a people. And I don't want him to leave us this morning after this message on worshiping God. To pray for us.

This man that has waited before the Lord these many, many years. Brother Ravenhill, I want you just to, if you would stand once again and just pray for us as a congregation. We'd really appreciate that.

There really is a blessing that a man can leave like this. And we want to receive that blessing. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Well, when the captain's on the bridge, he does as he likes. So I'm going to do that too. Let's sing, Oh, come let us adore him.

Maybe you can pitch it a bit higher. Father, I remember the word of the apostle Paul. When he writes, I believe, to Timothy and speaks of our Lord Jesus Christ as a blessed and only potentate, the only king who lived before he was born, the only king who lived after he died, the only king to whom every king that ever lived shall bow.

Lord, teach us something about adoration. Lord, God, expand these very contracted spirits of ours. Lord, anoint us with a new anointing, not to be blessed, but to offer to thee the sacrifice of praise, to worship thee by beautiful language, by beautiful living, by beautiful sacrifice, to be a living sacrifice unto God.

Lord, God, we live in a world so full of idols, so full of false religion. We want to worship thee in spirit and in truth and in the very beauty of holiness. Let our whole being, as one said, not for the lip of praise alone, nor even a praising heart, I ask, but her life made up of praise in every part.

Praise in the common things of life, its goings out and in. Praise in each duty and each deed, however small and mean. So shall no part of day or night forsakenness be free, but our whole lives in every step in fellowship with thee.

Lord, help us to so live that every day is a Sabbath, not one day a week, but every day. We enter into the holy of holies. We bring thee gifts not of gold and frankincense and myrrh, but of humility and love and adoration.

Teach us, Lord, to contemplate on these holy things. Lord, I pray this fellowship and the different fellowships with it in this city may be known as a holy people, a people who walk in purity, in integrity, in honesty, in majesty. Lord, get us away from this mean old stupid world we live in.

Give us eyes that can see into eternity. Lord, make us trustworthy that you can share us with your burdens for our generation. Share your glory, Lord.

We will not touch it. We want that glory to be upon us, that people will take knowledge with us as they took with the early men in the Pentecostal church. They took knowledge of them that they'd not been to a meeting.

They'd been with Jesus. Lord, let the beauty of Jesus be upon us. Beauty of humility, beautiful grace of Jesus and a beautiful love of Jesus, shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.

Lord, I pray, bless my dear brother Noel and this other dear brother Adams. I pray you bless him and the rest of the leaders. Lord, do something in Kansas City you haven't done in America in a hundred years.

I pray, Lord, this week you'll teach us how to pull down strung holes. Lord, Lord, make this week a tragedy to the devil. Lord, I sincerely pray the devil will regret from here until he's cast into the lake of fire that this week of meetings ever happen.

Lord, wake people in the night who usually sleep in the night. Disturb us in the daytime. Lord, let there be a holy conflagration.

Take a live call from off the altar. Touch lips that have been done. That, Lord, we'll speak in utterances we've never spoken in, whether it be tongues or it be not tongues.

Something about it which is not of men but of God, not of time but of eternity. Lord, we're jealous for your glory. You've been robbed of glory so long.

Lord, make everyone a covet that we're the habitation of God. Lord, I want to live every day so you're comfortable living in me. And I pray this for my brothers and sisters.

I pray for this young people who have children to bring up in this cursed day in which we live of arrogance, sin and selfishness. Lord, I pray bless every family here. And again, we thank you for the blessings we enjoy in this country of freedom, all the privileges we have for food and protection.

And we remember the suffering church in China right now, the suffering church in Russia, the suffering church in Afghanistan where everything's torn up. Lord God, when we think of people that haven't had a decent meal for a year, never get new clothes, every day is monotonous, bursting of shells, poverty, darkness, starvation diets. Lord God, we're so ungrateful amidst all this wonderful bounty you've given us.

But Lord, we want to bring the glory to your name again. Show us how to do it. Lord, we're here to be guided.

We're here to be instructed. We're here to be rebuked. We're here to be elevated.

Lord, make this, as I've said, a tragedy to the devil. But Lord, I pray, Lord Jesus, you'll see of the travel of your soul this week that all heaven will be excited about it. And we'll praise you now.

We'll praise you in eternity in Jesus' name.