Enough Is Enough

Father, we love you, and we praise you, and we thank you. Just lift your voice to him with me, and ask him to make this day special in your life. Father, you see your people.

Lord, you see the hunger and the thirst. Lord, they've come, some, Lord, from the ends of the earth, some from around the block, Lord, but equally hungry, equally thirsty, from all over America, from the nation, saying, God, speak to me, God, touch me, God, change me. Lord, you know we've had it with quick-fix solutions.

Lord, you know we've had it with man-made remedies. Lord, you know that we must have a touch from you, and I pray that you would speak to us with clarity, God, that the anointing of your Spirit would be upon this message, that your word would hit home, and that we would not deceive ourselves, Lord, by being hearers only, but that we would be doers of your word, and so be blessed. In the name of Jesus, thank you for hearing us.

Amen. Amen. I want you to turn with me, you can be seated, thank you, turn with me to Genesis 32.

This word stands on its own, but it's ideal for all of you that will be here with us for a few days. It's ideal as an introduction. Genesis 32, if you want a title, the title is Enough Is Enough.

Enough Is Enough. Genesis 32, verse 22. Jacob has left Paddan Aram, he has left his father-in-law, Lavan, or Laban, he is now traveling with his wives, concubines, children, all of his flocks, all of his herds, and he gets word that his brother Esau is coming to meet him with 400 men.

The last time Jacob heard Esau's voice, Esau was threatening to kill him. Now years have gone by, Jacob is heading back, and Esau is on his way to meet him with 400 men. And Jacob plans things out as best as he can, but maybe for the first time in his life, he realizes no earthly plan will succeed.

Jacob has been a self-reliant man and a God-reliant man. Sometimes he's relied on his own strength and cunning, and other times he's relied on God. But always there was that mixture.

He would try to get God's work done with his human help or with his sinful ways. Now he's faced with a situation that in spite of his best planning, there is no way out. There is no earthly solution.

Jacob does not know what's happening except he assumes Esau is coming with hostility and he could be dead, and worse yet, his wives and children could be dead. So what does he do? Verse 22, that night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven sons and crossed the fort of the Yavok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions.

So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, let me go, for it is daybreak.

But Jacob replied, I will not let you go unless you bless me. The man asked him, what is your name? Jacob, he answered. And the man said, your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.

Jacob said, please tell me your name. But he replied, why do you ask my name? Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, it is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.

The sun rose upon him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. Therefore, to this day, the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon. In reading this account, you can just read over the fact that Jacob wrestled with this man through the night until dawn.

It's a superhuman effort to have a fight for life or to wrestle hour after hour after hour. Jacob was pushed to the absolute limit. But he would not let go, because he could not let go, because he knew somehow this was a divine messenger.

Hosea 12 says that he wept when he wrestled with the angel. This was a divine messenger. This was God somehow coming to Jacob.

And he knew that his only hope was in getting a blessing from God. He knew that his only hope was divine intervention. And he said not just empty words, but words from his heart, I will not let you go until you bless me.

And I want to say to you that that attitude is the key. If you want to see revival in your church, if you want to see breakthrough in your personal life, if you want to see change come where there has been a stronghold for years, if you want to see light shine where it has only been dark, you must come to that same place of holy desperation that Jacob came to. You must come to the place of saying, I will not let you go until you bless me.

Now, for years, people have asked the question, why don't we have revival? If you're coming from outside of America, I have to apologize for some American terminology, especially in the Bible Belt. This part of the South, from here and going out west for a little ways, is called the Bible Belt. And in this part of the country, we have this miserable expression.

We say we're holding a revival next week. Oh, praise the Lord, we're holding a three-day revival next month at our church. Oh, we schedule the revival for the first Sunday of every month.

And week in, week out, we tell people, you can no more hold a revival than you can hold a hurricane. You can no more schedule a revival than you can schedule an earthquake. Revival is not something man works up.

Revival is something God sends down. Once you realize that revival is not produced by flesh and blood, revival is not just a series of meetings. Revival is not just a special speaker.

Revival is not just a lot of emotion and noise. Revival is divine visitation. Then the question is, how do you make it happen? How do you get the rain to come down? In the natural, with all of our science, with all of our technology, we cannot manufacture rain that can soak a whole nation, or that can soak a whole region, or that can produce enough rain to irrigate crops through a whole region.

We cannot manufacture rain. It's the same thing spiritually. We cannot manufacture a visitation.

In America, we are great at hype. We are great in big talk. We are great in big television settings, and sometimes we impress ourselves.

We believe our hype. We believe something is actually happening. Sometimes we do that, but in point of fact, there's no visitation.

And we have lost the better part of a whole young generation here in America, because our churches are full of big talk, and our churches are full of hype, and our churches are full of good management, and good administration, and good music, but we haven't had the presence of God. The world has seduced away a whole generation until these recent years. There's no substitute for the presence of God.

There's no substitute for the anointed. There's no substitute for God pouring out His Spirit in power. There's no substitute for it.

But how do you make it happen? How do you manufacture it? You can't. You're totally dependent on God. You see your nation going down.

You see your church going down. You see your community going down. Or you see things just stagnating, no growth, no breakthrough.

The society impacting the church more than the church impacting the society. God, visit us. God, come in power.

He doesn't come right away. What do you do? You know, the American mentality, much of Europe and other parts of the world, is the microwave mentality. Push a button.

Make it happen. Instant results. No preparation.

That's the way we like it. Show me the secret. Show me the key.

What do I do to have revival? Do I need to have a sanctuary that looks like Braswell? Do I need to sing the songs that they sing? Oh, they use banners in prayer for subjects, for people to gather around. Maybe if we have banners. Oh, well, they did this.

Friends, there's no easy solution. There's no automatic way to make it happen. And we don't like that.

We like to be in control. You know, I told this story some weeks ago. But our daughters now are 20 and 19.

And our younger one still does some riding. Our older one did more riding in the past, horse riding. And I've never been a horse rider.

You know, grew up in New York, was not into horses, not around horses. But my wife had ridden when she was young. And a few years ago, we went on vacation.

I don't know how many years ago, but I remember that we went on vacation. It's a distant memory, but we did it. And we came down to Florida.

We didn't live here. We went down to some other parts, actually, in different parts of Virginia. And we went on all these rides.

I would go on the rides with my daughters, you know, these big roller coaster rides and these things that would flip twice and all this stuff. And it was fine. I'm pretty big and I'm pretty squeezed into those chairs.

And with those seatbelts on, I felt pretty secure. Even though I wasn't in control, I was secure. And then we were finishing up vacation.

We stopped in West Virginia. Our daughters had really wanted to ride. God healed me of hay fever years ago.

But I found when I was around horses, I had a little bit of an allergic reaction. Horse hair and I didn't agree. But everyone wanted to go riding.

We found this riding place, so I said, fine, I'll go. So, of course, they got to get a nice big horse for me. That means you're higher off the ground, you know.

And, you know, I'm starting to sneeze now, too. And, you know, I get on this horse and I was in the front. And Nancy, my wife, and our two girls, you know, they're behind me.

And the guy leading us through the forest is in front. And I sit on this horse and I tell you before God, my first thought was, where's the seatbelt? I got to strap in. I got something over my shoulder and something around my waist, just like I had on all those roller coasters.

And I thought, oh, no, there's no seatbelt. I'm not in control. I'm on a big horse.

I don't like horses. I'm sneezing. And at some point, we're going to start moving fast.

Because it would be too boring for everybody else. And my family had the greatest time, you know, when the guy said, do you want to trot? You know, we started, you know, we're just walking through this rough area. You want to trot? I thought, of course, I have to say yes.

We start to pick up a little speed and trotting, I understand, you know, it's just a little bit more disruptive if you're not used to riding until you hit the next stage of cantering. And so we were just in the trotting phase and my family was in stitches watching me, you know, bounce. I'm just saying, if I fall this way, if the horse goes, which way if I fall? If my glasses go this way, what's going to happen? We like to be in control.

We like to call the shots. Pastors, it's a weakness. Evangelists, Christian ministers, we like to be in control of the service.

Even in our own lives, whatever the situation is, have you ever noticed at a prayer meeting people are praying and they're crying out and you're agreeing, yes, Lord, yes, Lord, Father, help us. Yes, Lord, Father, help us. The moment someone says, I take authority in Jesus' name, everybody gets louder.

Is it just because the anointing comes down when we take authority over the enemy? Maybe. Could it be that God is waiting for us to take a stand against the enemy? Maybe. Could it also be that now I am doing something? And therefore, we all rise up together.

We don't like to be in a state of dependence. And when you realize that the only hope for your nation, for your city, for your life, for the circumstances you're battling with, that the only hope is a divine answer, divine visitation, it puts you in a place where you are on your face. It puts you in a place where you run out of human solutions.

And many of us will try. Well, we'll try prayer. Well, we'll try fasting.

Well, we'll try a series of special meetings. And God's going to let us exhaust all the things that we try until we come to realize the answer must come from heaven. It's not a method.

It's not a routine. It's not a pattern. The answer must come from heaven.

It's uncomfortable for the flesh, but it's the only way. It's got to be killed. And I want to give you some keys to breaking through.

These are keys for revival. These are keys for corporate change. These are keys to see a nation change.

These are keys for your individual life. But the question has often been asked, why don't we have revival? Real revival. Real visitation.

Why don't we have revival? And the answer that's been given for years has not changed. We don't have revival because we are willing to live without it. We have not yet come to that place of desperation.

We have not yet come to that place with Jacob where he says, I won't let you go until you bless me. I've got to hold on because there is no other answer. We are willing to go on without it.

We are willing to go on with church life as we know it. We are willing to go on with that stronghold as we know it. We are willing to go on with all the darkness around us as we know it.

So the very first thing that must happen, you must come to the end of yourself. Yes, God has called us to overcome and God has called us to triumph. And God has called us to be strong in Him and in the power of His might.

And God has called us to believe and so on. But ultimately, the answer lies in Him, not in us. I'm not saying that we walk around like a bunch of defeated wimps.

I'm not saying we walk around like dogs with their tails stuck between their legs, dejected, guilt-ridden, condemned, not at all. I'm saying that our hope lies in Him. We must come to the end of ourselves.

I remember when Bill Clinton was elected President. Even though I was not one of those who would think that God is a Republican and that every Democrat is the devil, I didn't think like that. I knew, and even though I was not happy with the stance that President Bush had taken towards Israel, I felt at times he had been unfair.

Still, I looked at the fact that Bush came from a heritage that was primarily pro-life and Clinton pro-abortion, that Clinton was going to be much more activist in terms of homosexual, feminist agenda, etc., and that his moral reputation was lower than that of Bush. So economy was secondary to me and even social justice, that was important, but the other things were higher. So I voted for Bush, although I still had certain questions, but I wasn't going to vote for Clinton.

And I remember, you know, that next morning, driving to my office with the news that Mr. Clinton had been elected President. All of a sudden, I felt something sink in the inside of me, and I realized that to a slight extent, and bear in mind, I'm not, like I said, Mr. Republican, but to a slight extent, I realized that I had been putting my trust in government, that I had been thinking if we could just get a few more good people, godly or conservative in their orientation, appointed to the Supreme Court, if we could just get a few more godly senators, if we could just get this passed, if we could just get an amendment here, if we could just have some legislation against abortion, if we could do this. Now, I'm not saying those things are not important, but there was a certain extent that I realized, subconsciously, I was depending on government.

As opposed to saying, no matter who's in office, and yes, vote for the right people and pray and cooperate to do the right thing with government any way you can, or to call them to do the right thing. But the fact of the matter was, America, and you can apply this to your own nation, America was so far gone morally and spiritually, that no matter who was in government, it wasn't going to change things. That there had to be a radical, sweeping move of God among the people of America.

Grassroots repentance. All the laws in the world are not going to take abortion away right now. Only God converting hearts and changing lives is going to do it.

You can say, okay, we now stand against homosexual activism. That's not going to change it. Homosexual activists will not say, okay, we go back in the closet.

Radical feminists will not trash their agenda. Racial hatred, racial inequality will not just go away because people pass laws. There's got to be something more.

And all of us, in our lives, have things that we trust and things that we hang on. Maybe you're in ministry. Maybe you think, man, if I could just preach with greater anointing, that would do it.

Or if I could just be more effective, if I could get the right assistant pastor to work with me. Or maybe in our community, if we could just get a few more believers active doing this, doing that, that's all fine and good. But we must have revival.

We must have visitation. Thanks, brothers. Listen.

You take a country like Italy. Italy has had the gospel since the days of the Apostle Paul. Almost 2,000 years later, believers and missionaries working in the country tell me that about one-half of 1% of the nation is born again.

After 2,000 years, the gospel has been in India since the days of the Apostle Thomas, according to church tradition. Again, almost 2,000 years, and maybe 2% or 3% of the population is born again. And that's in a nation that is open.

There is much openness in India for the gospel. I could start asking about different European nations represented here. I could ask you about other parts of the world.

How long has the gospel been in your country? You know, Great Reformation, birth in Germany. You look at Germany, the end of the 20th century. You look at the moral decline, the spiritual decline, the tiny percentage of born-again believers.

What's going to change all that? You look at some of your own lives, trying to overcome the same things, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, hoping it's going to be better, it's going to be better, it's going to be better, it's going to change, it's going to change. You know, I joke about this when I go overseas, but I've explained to people overseas something that you may not even know here in America. Do you know, this has been statistically proven, sociologists have done all types of surveys and back this up, it crosses racial barriers, it crosses economic barriers, but do you know there is one day in America which is the number one day for people to begin diets? Across America, I don't know if you know this, surveys have proven it out, one day more than any other day in the year, I've explained this to people outside of the US because they weren't aware of this.

One day, more than any other day, is the day when people begin diets in America. That day is tomorrow. How'd you go in there for a second, didn't I? You were figuring it out, it's day after Thanksgiving, it's New Year's Day after Christmas, day after your birthday, no, no, tomorrow, tomorrow.

That's the way some of you have been for years with your own spiritual life, the change is going to come, the breakthrough is going to come, I'm really going to get victory over this sin, I'm really going to live in purity, I'm really going to go after God, I'm not going to be ashamed, and it's been years and years and years and years and it hasn't changed. And you tried this method, and you did this, and you did that, and it's the same junk. You've got to come to a place of realization that there must be a divine breakthrough, you must come to a place of holy desperation.

Not only do you come to the end of yourself, but the next thing that must come out of it, you must realize that your only hope is in God. See, there is a worldly despair, you come to the end of yourself, and you kill yourself. You come to the end of yourself, and you become manic depressive, and hopeless, and so on.

But there is a godly coming to the end of yourself. The Scriptures reiterate several different times, you can find it in Psalm 51, 17, you can find it in Isaiah 57, 15, and other passages, that God looks to those whose hearts are broken and contrite, to those who are crushed in spirit, to those who realize, Lord, you are my sufficiency, you are my strength. See, we have to be realistic about the need before we come to the end of ourselves, and before we look to God alone.

And one thing that amazes me is how unrealistic we tend to be. We tend to think, oh, it'll be okay, it's always okay, oh, things will change, they always change. I remember years ago, when we were praying for someone dying of brain cancer, and I thought, alright, we're going to get him through, he can't die, he's a young man, married with kids, we're not going to lose him.

And I remember at one point, my wife saying, if we don't change what we're doing, we're going to lose him. He's going downhill, he's getting worse. And I knew what she was telling me, because I was close to him.

I was probably the main man involved in this whole situation. And I knew the challenge to me was to stop what I was doing and to shut myself in with God for a period of days, and to shut myself in with Him, to say, hey, we're getting to the hotel room, and we're just staying in there. We're going to fast and pray and go after God, and I'll pray with you and pray for you and help you until the breakthrough.

I didn't want to hear that! I didn't want to realize, no, no, he's going to be alright. He wasn't alright. I didn't want to hear that.

And I'm not saying it all depended on me. I believe that I had an opportunity to go after God the way that I hadn't before. I don't live condemned and with guilt.

I'm going after God, doing things the best I know how to do and know that He's saved me by His grace and He loves me and He's kind to me and compassionate to me. And by His strength, I live a holy and pure life before Him. And by His strength, I produce fruit.

I'm not condemned. But I didn't want to hear my wife tell me the truth. He's getting worse.

Some of us would rather stick our head in the sand. Some of us would rather think, well, it's probably not really coming here. Maybe the report was exaggerated.

No, it's probably not going to be like that. We don't want to come to grips with it. We don't want to come to grips that our neighborhood is in worse shape now than when we planted a church there 10 years ago.

We don't want to come to grips with the fact that the moral standards of our country continue to decline. We don't want to come to grips with it because it's too overwhelming. And I'll just be candid.

We're always candid, by the way. The only way that we shoot here, any of us that speak in the revival, is shooting straight. So either duck or take it.

But something has amazed me recently. You know, many people, many believers in this nation have been on their faces for years, mourning over the moral state of things, mourning over what's on television, mourning over what's in the movies, mourning over the condition of the society, crying out to God, doing what they knew how to do to change things one life at a time, to call for fasting and prayer. But others have just been kind of coasting.

I'm talking about Christians. I'm talking about born-again, so-called spirit-filled believers. And what's blown me away, it's been hard to understand.

You know, we're in this particular situation now where our president is accused, from several different places, of sexual immorality. And if he is guilty of sexual immorality, then he has also lied publicly to the American people by saying, I haven't done it. And there are other charges of obstruction of justice and so on.

But the economy is booming, and other things seem to be doing pretty well here in America. So, of course, the polls, everybody knows the polls, they're probably known around the world, that over half of Americans think that he probably did commit sexual sin, adultery, etc. But two-thirds of the Americans say that doesn't affect his job performance.

We still give him thumbs up as a president. And all these Christians and all these leaders are outraged. Look at the moral state of our country.

I can't believe this. I think, what have you been doing the last decade or two? Where have you been as things have been going down the tubes, as we've slaughtered a million and a half babies a year? As we've had, you know, homosexual parades, you know, led by mayors of our cities going down the streets with every type of unspeakable thing going on, that I wouldn't repeat with all the young ears here. Where have you been, you know? We're shocked to see this.

No, this is par for the course. This is what we expect. Let me illustrate this for you.

About seven, eight years ago, a movie came out in America called The Last Temptation of Christ. Once it was out, it really didn't do all that much, but it got a lot of attention before it was out. I never saw it, of course.

It was based on a novel that believers would consider blasphemous. And I remember churches, good churches, and they started petition drives. And they said to the movie theaters, if you show this movie in your theater, we will no longer go to your theater.

We will boycott your theaters. Yes, taking a moral stand. Praise the Lord.

I was in a state of shock. You say, why? Let me explain. This is how far we had fallen asleep.

Listen to me. And by the way, I will encourage you by the time this message is over, trust me. But first we've got to kind of expose the need and the wounds, and then do some surgery, and then stitch you up.

Is that all right? By the way, if you came to have your ears tickled, you came to the wrong building. The wrong place. It gets hot in the day and hotter at night.

This is what shocked me. On the one hand, I understood the outrage. On the one hand.

You know, if Hollywood produced a movie that was blatantly anti-Semitic, or blatantly anti-Muslim, that would cause an outcry in America. And if they attacked something that was wrong and perverse, and it was anti-homosexual or anti-abortion, that would create a stir. But you could be anti-Jesus.

You could make him immoral. That's okay. I understood the stir on the one hand.

On the other hand, I thought, well, what else to expect Hollywood to produce? What else to expect godly, godless, worldly people to do but put out trash when it comes to the gospel? If they do, it's no surprise. But that wasn't the big issue to me. This was the issue.

How is it that Christians had boycott power with the movie theaters? How is it that... I mean, look, you might find one movie in 50 that's acceptable for a believer to watch without being defiled, either with profanity, or sexual innuendos and uncleanness, or violence, or just all the stars that were being entertained by, or, you know, pro-abortion, and pro-homosexual, and anti-Christian, and so on. And here, believers are going to the theaters enough to say, if you show that movie, we will take our business elsewhere. What in the world has happened to the church? Go to 1 Corinthians 5 for a minute.

I just want to drill this home. It's what you call a feel-good message. 1 Corinthians chapter 5. See, we haven't gotten desperate because we haven't seen how sick we were.

I'm Jewish. My own people, the leaders of my people, when the Messiah came, basically said, we're not sick. We're not sinners.

He said, I didn't come to call the righteous but sinners. It's only the sick who need a physician, not the healthy. They said, we're healthy.

We're righteous. We don't need you. The church of Laodicea said, I'm rich, increased in wealth, and I'm in need of nothing.

Jesus said, you don't realize you're wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. We've got to see the need. If we're going to come to the end of ourselves and realize our solution is in God, we've got to be honest.

It may be painful, but we've got to be ruthlessly honest with ourselves. That's where the victory begins. That's where the answer comes.

You don't go to prayer and fasting for revival to seek God around the clock with prayer, to pour your heart out with tears, to soak your pillow with tears, to be honest with your flock and congregation, to be honest with yourself. You don't do that unless you know your only hope is in visitation. 1 Corinthians 5, before I read it, let me give you an illustration.

What would you think of this? What would you think if you go to a church and there is now a petition? There is now a petition. I'm being interrupted by the video director. Thank you, brother.

Can I say something honestly? Thank you. And I would say we're going close to 800 services. Right, Steve? Going close to 800 revival services and probably 130 of these day sessions.

And you were here the very first time that anyone ever came on the platform in the middle of a message and did that to the speaker. The very history was made in front of your eyes. Also, also, for all of the prima donna ministers here who would have gone absolutely crazy if anyone did that to them in public, notice how easygoing I was about that.

And what you don't know is these Friday sessions are videoed, right? These are videoed, which means that this potentially could go on video around the world. And you were here to see it. Now the miracle of all miracles is I remember my train of thought exactly where I was.

So I will resume. I think I was right about here or so. Before I read from 1 Corinthians 5, let me give you this illustration.

See, that's where I was. What was the illustration? No, I know it. I know it.

What if you go into a church and they've got petitions? All the brothers are passing out these petitions. It's for the local brothel. They have found out that some of the prostitutes are anti-Semitic.

And they are going to boycott that place until they get rid of the anti-Semitic prostitutes. Or here's a petition going through the church. Some of the local bartenders during happy hour are racists.

And the Christians are going to boycott that happy hour until they get rid of the racist bartenders. You show that movie Last Temptation of Christ and we will boycott your theater. We won't watch all the other movies that are bad but not as directly offensive.

1 Corinthians 5, Paul says, verse 11, now I'm, well verse 9, I've written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. Not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters. In that case, you'd have to leave this world.

By the way, I deal with this very chapter and these concepts in my book How Saved Are We? That's why I put that title on it. Yeah, we may be saved but how saved? And then Steve will ask tonight, are you saved? And if you are saved, I ask how saved? But he says, look, I'm not telling you just stay away from all sexually immoral people or idolaters. I'm not telling you stay away from them in the world because then you'd have to leave the world.

The world is full of people like that and you're going to be salt and light. You're going to reach these people. You're going to be examples to these people.

You're going to touch these people. You can't leave the world. But, but, I am writing you now that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy an idolater or a slanderer or a drunkard or a swindler.

For such a man do not even eat. Now he said, if I was telling you don't associate with these people in the world then you'd have to leave the world. Listen, you know how far things have fallen now? If he says don't associate with these people in the church we have to leave the church because the church is filled with people like this.

This is not the way it is supposed to be. It's not supposed to be a great accomplishment for a young lady to get married and say I'm still a virgin or a young man to get married and say I'm still a virgin. That's not supposed to be some great heroic accomplishment for a Christian family.

When Steve talks about the standards that he sets in his family and you won't find a single video with even the slightest profanity or gratuitous violence of any kind or any type of sexual scene you won't find anything like that in his home. People are like, wow, you live like that? You don't find arsenic in my refrigerator either to drink. Why is that a high standard? Isn't that normal? Isn't it? Maybe not.

Can I take this one step further? Would you mind if I meddle a little bit? Especially with those who are from Europe. As messed up as things are in America some European Christians look at us here as puritanical and old-fashioned. True story I'm about to give you.

True story. One of my friends is over. He's a missionary, American missionary, been in Italy over 20 years.

He's over in Germany. One of his friends, German Christian, says to him, you want to go swimming? We've got this pool. It's got simulated waves in it.

It's really neat and so on. Sure. So they go.

They got to take a few showers, you know, disinfecting the whole bit and now they're ready for this pool. Everything real clean in there. They go in the pool and have a great time swimming.

And then the German brother says to my American brother, who's a missionary in Italy, hey, you want to go on the side? I want to go on the sauna. I want to go on the sauna a little bit. Boy, it's nice going on the sauna.

Hot. Just work up that sweat and the steam and you kind of feel clean and it's refreshing. Yeah, sure, I'd love to.

Then he said, wait, wait, wait. Just one second. Because you don't go in there with your bathing suit on.

You go in there the way you were born. He says, one second. He says, they have a separate sauna for men and for women, right? Just seemed like a logical question to ask.

I mean, we are going in there naked. There's a separate sauna for men and for women, right? He said, what are you talking about? He said, wait, wait, wait, wait. He said, in other words, it's Christian.

Christian. Born again Christian. In other words, we're going to go undressed into a sauna with other people, the opposite sex, undressed.

We're going to go in there. And the guy looks at my friend and he was really ticked. He said, I am not going in there to lust.

I'm going in there for the sauna. He said, you Americans. Shook his head.

He said, fine. Ruined my day. Fine.

He was mad at him the whole car ride. You Americans. Now we hear that and we think, my God.

Hardness of heart. Paul writes about it in Ephesians 4. Hardness of heart. You lose insensitivity.

You can't see right from wrong. Friends, wake up. It's in our own backyard.

You know, our Christian ladies go to the beach in modest bikinis. You recall walking the street like that 100 years ago in America, you'd probably be arrested for indecent exposure. Now it's modest.

Now it's modest. Our Christian guys go there and think, man, there's something the matter with me. I'm so filled with lust.

I must be weak. I tell them, you're not weak. You're stupid.

Well, brother, now you're getting a little extreme. Why? Because I'm picking on something you like? Because you came down to Florida to do some beach hopping? See, the standards drop and we don't even know it. You know, we've had some recent tragedies here in America that are shocking with young people.

You know, just a couple days ago, most all you know the news. You know, 11-year-old and the 13-year-old in Arkansas setting a fire alarm off in the schools. The kids come out of the school.

They killed four kids. One teacher that was trying to shield them. Five people dead.

About 11 others wounded. 11-year-old and a 13-year-old who stole some guns. Semi-automatic rifles.

And camouflage outfits. Ammunition. Now there are a lot of factors that play into it, but listen.

Our society, our entertainment is so soaked with violence. Saturated. It's just normal.

Violent, violent. Shooting, killing, maiming. Every type of violent sport.

Our society is filled with it. Kids grow up with it. You lose sensitivity.

You lose consciousness. The problem with many of us is we don't realize how bad the situation is until it's too late. We must be honest with ourselves.

We must step back. This is the pattern. This is normal.

The New Testament church was not perfect. It had its problems. Jesus had to address it and call it to repent.

But he didn't say stay there. He said wake up and get back to normal. Ephesus, with all your hard work, with all your perseverance, with all your trying of those who call themselves apostles and were not, you've done something terrible.

You've forsaken your first love. Get back to normal. Get back to being red hot.

The only pattern we have is the pattern of the Gospels and the pattern of the book of Acts. We have to look at our own lives, our own churches, our own families and be honest with ourselves and say something is wrong. Something is missing.

We need to read about what God's done in revival in the past and say if he's done it in the past, why not today? If he sent revival to Wales in 1904 and 1905 when well over 80% of the people in Wales went to church, do you think he may want to send it now when less than 10% of the people go to church? And I can be higher on my first number and lower on my second number, by the way. God, where is it? You've done it before. Where is it today? You hear about God moving mightily since the fall, since communist China, rather.

Communist China's takeover almost 50 years ago. All the atrocities, all the hardship, all the persecution of the church and the church is gone from 1 million before communism to more than 80 million today. The greatest influx of souls in any one given time in church history happening in recent decades in China.

We just heard from a speaker at our school this last week sharing with us about the suffering church, the church in China. And he said it's an accurate estimate, 20, 25,000 people every day getting saved in that huge nation. God's doing it there.

What about where I live? What about my home state? What about my country? Here in Brownsville going on three years of revival. Just think of this one local church. Nobody came to Brownsville before.

How many of you heard of Brownsville? It's a neighborhood in Pensacola. We have one man baptized one night. I love to tell the story.

He said, and I don't know in God, I don't know how he did it, but he brought me to Brownsville, Texas, and I got saved. You're not in Brownsville, Texas, sir. See, there's a, if you're not from America, there's a city in Texas named Brownsville.

And if anyone heard of Brownsville, that's what they heard of. Not this neighborhood, rundown neighborhood in Pensacola. We have people come from around the world to honeymoon here to go to the revival.

Whoever heard of doing anything like that? Stand on line 12 hours in the hot sun for your honeymoon and go to church. Amen. We try to use conservative figures, but we've had well over a quarter of a million people alters here.

And in the overflow buildings, getting right with God and out of them, about 130,000 identifying themselves as backslidden or first-time converts. Not everybody that comes up, fills out a card. Anyone that comes out twice, comes up twice.

Even if they fill up 20 cards, it doesn't get into the database. Talking about 130,000 different people who said, yeah, I was backslidden in this area of my life. We're completely away from God or first-time convert.

And one local church. How does that happen? We hear it consistently. People driving by the building, come under conviction.

God draws them in. Last Friday night, a gentleman gets baptized. The week before, the Friday before, he was dropping his kid off at school and was on his way to commit suicide.

Someone from the revival invited him to come. He gets saved. One week later, he's getting baptized.

Hands raised. No, God doesn't have to move the same way everywhere. But listen, friends, if he moves like this here, he can move in a way that's right for where you are in equal power.

And we don't believe this is the end. We believe this is the beginning. There's far more that God wants to do.

Far more than God wants to do. We tell the students all the time, this is normal. This kind of dedication is normal.

This type of praise and fervor is normal. Conviction of sin coming like this is normal. Why do you say? Because it happens in the book of Acts.

The very first sermon preached on the day of Pentecost. Can't we pattern things after that? Preach Jesus. Lift him up.

Call people to repent of their sin. Urge them to turn now. They come under conviction.

They cry out, what do we do? Repent and be baptized. They're turned around. They're transformed.

3,000 added to the church in a single day. Why can't that be normal? Early church shook the places where they were. And there was persecution.

Persecution is also normal. Attack, martyrdom is also normal. And if God continues to pour out his grace and revival around America and the nations, we'll have more martyrdom here also.

Tens of thousands of believers are killed for their faith every year around the world. That's normal. Revival is about the church getting back to normal.

I often quote the words of Watchman Nee. He said, by the time the average Christian gets his temperature up to normal, everybody thinks he's got a fever. Some of you are writing it down, so I'll say it again.

By the time the average Christian gets his temperature up to normal, everybody thinks he's got a fever. We have a friend we work with down in Mexico. He works exclusively among the Mexican Indians.

In outlying areas, you have to hike several days to get to these places, go on little motorcycle trails through the forest, jungle areas. Right on horseback, our friend has been shot. He's been stoned.

He's been beaten. He's been attacked with machetes. He's lost about 11 or 12 of his native Indian pastors to martyrdom.

We know the man. He's ministered at our school. We've sent workers down with him.

I know his pastor. I know close fellow workers with him that have traveled around the world with him. I've been down with him.

He's been in my home. He and his workers fast and pray almost on a continual basis, live this tremendously disciplined life, fast. Normally, every other day, they're fasting meals, sometimes fasting whole days, every other day, every other day, sometimes two days out of every three.

I mean, just living with this tremendous focus and discipline. But between this man and all of his Indian workers, they have seen more than 200 people raised from the dead. Sounds impossible.

Sounds crazy. I'm telling you, I know the man. We know the work.

Our workers have been introduced to people who've been recipients of miracles there. Ninety-six of our students are going to work with him. God willing, this summer, he's opened the door wide because he was so impressed with the group that was sent down, with their heart to serve.

You know how I like to introduce him when he speaks? Here is a normal Christian. Here's my friend. He's a normal Christian.

See, the challenge is he believes God, and he goes after God with focus, with tenacity, saying, God, you promised. You promised, and whatever it takes to break through, I'm not going to let you go until you bless me. I was saying to our students, we went from 120 January of 97 to 510 in August, our fall semester of 97.

Exceptional growth. Never heard of a school growing like that. Full-time.

I'm talking about full-time commitment between school and revival. They're with us about 30 hours a week. It's a serious commitment.

Then we go from December to January, from 510 to 706. If you're in education, if you're in schools, college, Bible college, you may gain a couple of people from December to January, but you lose a few more. If you can stay steady, it's great.

If you lose just one or two percent, that's okay. That's normal across the board. Sometimes the loss is more than that.

We went from 510, we jumped to 706. And I said to our students, this is not normal. One of the German sisters in the school yelled out, it is normal.

Something growing, something thriving, something moving forward. If it's alive, it should grow, either in numbers or in maturity or in anointing. There should be some signs of life.

We've got to be honest with ourselves. That's why we talk about revival as awakening. We talk about great awakenings.

Jesus says to Sarnas, you have your reputation of being alive, yet you're dead. Wake up. Wake up.

The wake-up call comes to the church. Something's wrong. Something's missing.

Be honest with yourself. God's moving away over here. He's moving this way here.

He's moving that way here. He's moved this way in history. He's moved this way in the world.

In the word, why not move like that where you are? You say, but brother, if I realize how sick I am, that's going to get me down. Friends, if you realize how sick you are, you can be healed. And if you realize there's no earthly cure, then you're shut up to God.

I like being shut up to God. I like it when man can't help me, and there's no earthly solution, and the only one that can help me is Jesus. That's really not bad.

I would rather have only he can help me than the world can help me. I would rather that he can help me and nobody else can than everybody can help me, but he can't. Even to say those words is an impossibility.

You need to come to the end of yourself. I don't mean that you quit. I don't mean you get out of ministry.

I don't mean that you just shut yourself in a room and never come out. I don't mean that you stop witnessing. I don't mean that you stop loving your family and discipling your kids.

I don't mean that you cancel all programs in your church. I mean you come to a mental and spiritual attitude. You come to a point of saying, there must be a breakthrough.

I cannot and will not continue to live the way I'm living without a breakthrough. I must have an answer. Remember, we don't have revival because we're willing to live without it.

You don't have the breakthrough because you're willing to live without it. George Whitefield, the great evangelist, used to pray, Lord, give me souls or take my soul. He meant it.

He meant it. John Hyde, known as Praying Hyde, the American missionary to India, he would pray, give me souls or I die. John Knox prayed for Scotland, give me Scotland or I die.

They meant it. It wasn't just an empty expression. Give me souls or I die, Lord.

Oh, lunchtime. Oh, favorite TV shows on. Oh, I got that promotion.

Great. No, give me souls or I die. Lunchtime, I can't eat.

Favorite shows on. People are dying without Jesus. Not today, I got to pray.

You got that promotion. That's fine. But right now I got other things on my mind.

That's give me souls or I die. Paul, Jeremiah, the same thing. Jeremiah spoke of the unceasing anguish he had in his heart.

Paul writes about it, the unceasing anguish she had for for their people. Israel not knowing God, the pain, the burden. And then that confidence, my solution lies in God.

And God will come through for me. He will fulfill his promises. One of the great stories from the Hebrides revival, 1949 to 1952.

Underscore is something for us. And I want this to hit home. You see, God wants to bless you more than you want to be blessed.

God wanted to turn Jacob into Israel more than Jacob wanted to be turned. God wants to send revival to your country more than you want it. God wants your own life to be filled with his presence and joy more than you want it to be filled.

God wants you to be strong and whole in him more than you want to be. That unsaved loved one that you're agonizing for. God already sent his son to die for that person.

And as John Hyde said, our Lord Jesus still agonizes for souls. Even in heaven, he ever lives to make intercession. And many who live close to the throne of God believe he continues to weep for a dying world.

He wants to do good to you more than you want it done. May not always come every way the way we think is best, but his desire is to do what is best for us. The psalmist said in Psalm 84, the Lord God is a sun and shield.

The Lord gives grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly. He delights to shower us with good things.

First Timothy 6 says he gives us richly all things to enjoy. After warning us not to be covetous and greedy and seeking earthly riches and to be content with what we have, he reminds us he gives us all things to enjoy. His presence, his favor is more than anything could anyone could ever ask for, anything could ever measure up to.

It's his desire. Hebrides revival. People in particular on the Isle of Lewis began praying.

These are small islands off the coast of Scotland. Young people weren't serving God. Churches were dying.

People were raised with religion. They were raised with the creeds. They were taught the word.

They were taught the confessions of faith. They knew the hymns, but they were hell bound. Many of them didn't know God.

Dead religion for many. Duncan Campbell is a man of God. These two old sisters in their 80s, one crippled with arthritis and the older one, stone cold line.

They began praying. They talked to another minister. There had been others gathering regularly for prayer and seeking the face of God through the night.

These two sisters sent a message to Duncan Campbell. We believe it is the will of God for you to come and minister to us in the islands here. And he wrote back and said, thank you.

I will put your request down for next year, but I am already booked to be ministering during those same days that you've invited me. And the older sister has read the letter and she says, that is what man says. God says he's coming.

And by the way, some of my fellow ministers here, before you start strutting around about how anointed and great you are. Let God show you how many unknown old saints there are bedridden. Crying out to God who are supporting your ministry with their prayers.

And if you took out their life support, you'd be flat on your face. Some of them are healthy, young intercessors. Some of my fellow brothers here, the only reason you're where you are today is because your wife tells you the truth.

And you've learned to listen to her wise advice. For those of you who are not inflated with pride, God bless you. Would you stand, please, and identify yourself and look at it positively.

You wouldn't be here if you were inflated with pride because you've come to receive. Amen. That's a good sign of hunger.

It's our joy to be able to pray with you and pray for you. I say that in all seriousness. So Campbell can't come.

He has another engagement, but they pray. And suddenly, all of the hotels and meeting places in the town where Campbell is scheduled to go, they all get booked up by a tourist convention of sorts. And his meetings have to be canceled.

What do you know? And he writes back, I can come. He arrives to minister. There's been no fanfare, no advanced advertising, you know, of a large nature.

These people were so conservative, too, that if there was a lot of advertising and promotion, that would have just been the flesh to them. You know, more conservative than even a conservative Scotsman. And, you know, there's the joke told about the Scotsman and the Jew who made a $1 bet as to who could stay underwater the longest, and they both drowned.

These folks in the Hebrides were even more conservative. Campbell arrives, and the first night, God visits. See, there had been others praying, fasting, repenting, seeking God, preparing the way.

He arrives. The very first night, God just comes down. By midnight, the local dance hall empties out.

Who sent word? Nobody. God came down. They came under conviction.

They end up at the church. Meetings go on until six in the morning. Six in the morning, Campbell gets word.

Could you please come to the police station? Actually, at this point, it's four in the morning, I believe. He comes. They've been going right through the night until four in the morning.

Mr. Campbell, could you come? People have gathered in front of the police station under conviction of their sin, wanting to know what they must do to be saved. God just drew them together. I mean, awesome accounts.

Some of them I put in the Holy Fire, that book, just to say, this is a picture of what revival can look like. Six weeks they had meetings like that, through the night, to the early hours of the morning, from church to church to church, back to the first church. Six weeks, and Campbell says, 75% of those converted were converted before they ever got into the church building.

See, they had all the teaching. They had all the background. And they were so suspicious of human effort that for them, God just had to come down and visit.

Well, they go to the next location, and they hold a service, and nothing happens. Turnout is small. People are bitter against the gospel.

And it is brick wall. One of the brothers says to Campbell, one of the deacons, don't worry, Mr. Campbell. I've heard the rumbling of the chariot wheels.

Now, we hear so much of that in our charismatic Pentecostal circles. You know, go to sleep and have another dream, you know, please. But this was real.

He heard the rumbling of the chariot wheels. God was about ready to break through. So they have a church service.

Nothing happens. This brother says, why don't we go to this brother's home and have a prayer meeting? So they go to the home, and they're praying a couple hours. It comes on midnight.

It's a granite house. And Campbell turns to the blacksmith. He feels lead, and he says to him, would you pray? And the man goes on and prays for half an hour.

For half an hour? Praise. Long prayer, but as Campbell said, time doesn't matter in revival. Someone gave Steve Hill a watch, a little girl.

We call it a revival watch. It's painted, you know, the hands are just painted to the numbers. Because, you know, it doesn't have, you wear watches basically for decoration.

Because God just comes down, and time goes out the window. He prays for a half hour. And at the end of his prayer, he said, God, don't you know that your honor is at stake? He said, you promised to pour out water on the thirsty land.

A promise from the book of Isaiah that had been precious to the believers in the Hebrides. It says in Hebrew, Isaiah 44, 3, So I pour out water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground. I'll pour out my blessing.

I'll pour out my spirit on you. I'll pour out my blessing on your offspring. The outpouring of the spirit, just like the rain on thirsty land.

He said, God, you promised to pour out water on the thirsty land, and you're not doing it. And he paused, and he said, I challenge you to keep your covenant commitments. And just then, the house is literally shaken like a leaf.

Granite house. Some people thought earthquake. Campbell immediately thought Acts 4, 31, when they prayed, the place was shaken.

And they fell on their faces and laid there until 2 in the morning. And at 2 in the morning, they get up to go home. And every light is on in every home in the village.

Every single home, people have gotten out of bed and are crying out to God for mercy. What happened? God came down. God came down.

Church service, nothing happens. Prayer meeting, God comes down. People are coming out of their homes with chairs on their backs, saying, is there room for me at the church? People crying out, is there a place of mercy for me? What you have to understand was God was looking for that kind of hunger.

God was looking for that kind of determination. You say, well, why doesn't God just come and do it? Some churches, they don't even know why revival came. Some people don't even know why the breakthrough came.

That's true. Maybe somebody else was praying. As Finney said, maybe the lowly people in the church were praying.

And God heard their cries. Maybe it's part of a gracious move that was birthed somewhere else and is sweeping through. God may just touch you.

God may just pour out mercy. God may just cause a breakthrough to come in your life when you're not even looking at it. But you can't rely on that.

You can't just expect that's going to happen. Plus, if you don't know how it came, you won't know how to get there. In other words, if one day you just have a breakthrough, what happens when the feelings leave? What happens when the experience leaves? See, there's something to hungering and thirsting.

There's something that prepares the vessel. Finney said, when you pray for the lost and pray for the lost and weep for the lost and travail for them, when they finally come, you embrace them. Smelly, stinky, full of problems, disrupting your service.

You embrace them because you've been praying for them. It's almost dangerous for a street person to walk into this building here because they get mobbed with love. I mean, their hair is matted and they're filthy and dirty and smelly and everybody just wants to love on them.

Because we pray for those kind of people. We pray for the down and outers and for the lost. You know, we look out, there's a bunch of punk rockers in the front with green hair and chains and all this.

And we just know by the end of that night, most of them are going to be at that altar crying out before God getting right. You just embrace them, you love them, mistakes and blemishes and all. So when you're praying, you're praying, God, send it, Lord.

We heard about revival, that sounds neat, send it. Then God visits your service next Sunday for seven hours. Well, that's a little intense, Lord.

I miss the football games. We had dinner planned. When God began moving here, Father's Day of 1995, this is testimony out of John Kilpatrick's mouth.

You know, Steve knew something was going to happen, something was going to happen. He said something's going to break. The church had been praying for revival for two and a half years.

But basically, you know, they knew something was in the air. There were beginnings of breakthroughs, but pastor had lost his mom in her 80s to cancer and gone through some real difficult times. And the church administrator, Rose, will tell you that the week before revival broke was the most hellish week they ever had in the church.

Some of you feel encouraged. Boy, it's been a hellish 10 years. Maybe something's ready to break.

Praise the Lord. Someone once asked on this Internet chat that we do on a weekly basis. Somebody asked, you know, we've been going through hell.

Does that mean revival is about to come? But listen, Steve knows something's going to break. Pastor was so down that day. You know, he had Steve preached.

He was supposed to preach briefly before a Sunday night prayer meeting, receive a missions offering, and then we're going to have prayer meeting. But pastor was just so beaten down. He asked Steve, could you preach that Sunday morning? And Steve's feeling something's going to happen.

Something's going to happen. God's going to move. God's going to move.

You sit through a few services here, and then before you leave, get the video of Father's Day of 95. You will be shocked that this is the same church. Shocked.

I remember I brought it home to my wife, and she watched with her. She said, you've got to see this. You've got to see this.

I came in. It's the same people. I can't believe it.

Which means if God did it here, he can do it where you are. It's a healthy church, but quite a change since revival. Steve says, how many want a fresh, you know, he gives an altar call.

Just a few people come up as opposed to the hundreds that come running every night here. How many want a fresh touch from God? I want to lay hands on you after the altar call. Now, who wants a fresh touch from God? Like a thousand people.

Most of the people there that day come up. The pastor thinks to himself, oh, no, it's Father's Day. I want to go out with my family, have a nice meal.

It's going to take all afternoon to pray for these people. But see, he had been hungry. He had been thirsty.

He had been crying out to God. This church had been crying out to God. Revival didn't have to come in the back door because they opened the front.

On Sunday morning, not some special service somewhere where it doesn't matter. You know, the rich tithers who run the church aren't there. You know, the old timers who like it a certain way aren't there.

The young people are going to be really fidgety. They aren't there. We'll have a special night service and we'll do whatever we want, but Sunday morning we'll still kind of keep the same way.

No, Sunday morning the front door was open to revival. When Pastor knew what was happening, he sensed it clearly and announced, this is it, get in, revival's here. I wouldn't have seen it unless God revealed it to me that morning because it didn't look like much at all.

But he knew in his spirit and God swept through. It's almost three years now. See, when you pray, when you fast, when you're hungry, when you're desperate, when the breakthrough comes, you embrace it.

It's not just some quick fix momentary touch. When you've been praying for visitation and God says, this is going to cost you your reputation, you say, I don't care. When you've been praying for outpouring and God says, I'm going to break your heart for the lost, I don't care.

When you're praying for outpouring, God says, it's going to start today. Superbowl Sunday, Lord, I don't care. Because, you know, you just say, Lord, come any way you come.

You know, you may miss these meals. You may miss this schedule. You may miss this.

You know, I've never been golfing in my life, so I'm not attacking golf. But, you know, it could be that revival comes and golfing goes. Because leisure time doesn't exist anymore.

Some wives are nudging their husband. You hear what he said? Maybe if golfing went, you'd have revival. I didn't say that.

Listen to me. There is a process that takes place in you. The hunger, the thirst, the prayer, the fasting, it creates a place where God is welcome.

God said to Israel in Exodus 25, have them make for me a sanctuary, a holy place. And I will dwell in their midst. There's a holy place.

There's a womb, spiritually speaking, for this child to be born. Same principle. You pray, you fast, you travail, you cry out.

When the breakthrough comes, you throw yourself in. Steve had been mentored by people who taught about revival and ministered in revival and had seen outpourings in different parts of the world. When God began to move here, he knew.

He had heard it from Leonard Ravenhill before his death. The opportunity of a lifetime must be seized during the lifetime of the opportunity. He knew.

Stop everything and throw yourself in. Revival's been my constant theme for years and years and years. When Steve invited me to pay a visit, when I finally got down, instantly I knew, we all knew, I got to throw myself in.

Doesn't matter how much upheaval changed. That's why this church goes around the clock and people pour themselves out. They hungered for revival, they thirsted for visitation, they cried out to God.

Let me encourage you to look at your own life and to ask yourself honest questions. Is this it? Is this everything Jesus died for? Or as Ravenhill used to ask, are the things you are living for worth Christ dying for? Do you face the distinct possibility of one day standing before the Lord as a spiritual could-have-been? Not a spiritual has-been, but a spiritual could-have-been. I never really found out what would happen if I gave myself to fasting and prayer.

I never really found out what would happen if I overcame that shame I had for Jesus. I never really found out I could have. I never really saw what God could do in healing the sick if I let him break my heart with compassion.

I never really found out what could happen if I stopped feeding myself all the time and instead looked to the needs of others. I never went on that mission trip. I never... Why not? Are you ready to live the rest of your life knowing that there's more? Knowing that there's more that God has promised and is worth? Knowing that there's more he wants to do? Knowing that there's more he has for you? Knowing that there's more he can do through you? Are you willing to live to the end of your life and then look back and say, I could have.

I could have. Friends, there are depths in God's love that I want to explore while I'm here on this earth. There are dimensions of his power that I want to experience so I can touch others with it, not so I can be somebody, so this dying world can be touched.

I want to experience that on this side. We don't need the anointing to heal the sick in heaven. We don't need a broken heart to win the lost in heaven.

We won't have an opportunity to fast. We won't have an opportunity to sacrifice. We won't have an opportunity to take up our cross.

Now is the time. There's a quote from an Indian holy man, a godly Christian man, Sundar Singh. He was called Sadhu, which was the name given to holy men.

Where the orange garments and pledge themselves to never have a roof over their head or earthly material means, just living, quote, by faith. He did it as a Christian. He suffered imprisonment, hardship.

Let me see if I can find what he said. I think I have it in here. He was in prison.

Terrible hardship in Tibet. And he said, Christ's presence has turned my prison into a blessed heaven. What will it be like in heaven itself? He had that perspective and he said, this is the only opportunity I have to take up my cross.

We just had our large team, a total of 59 of us actually workers and students in India. A lot of people to bring over there. Normally before revival, I would go to India for a month every year.

But because of revival, normally if I travel out of state, out of the country, it's only for two days. India is the one exception that we make. We go for a week each year.

But our team was there for two weeks with our missions director and his wife, leading them when I left, working with them the whole time. And I was getting ready to leave and I said, listen, I said, you got one week left. And they were in miserable living conditions for America.

Trust me, a lot of them were sick. God kept us and strengthened us. They did incredibly well.

But almost all of them said these were the toughest living conditions they had ever experienced. We were out in places that they were not used to being. We're there for a week.

And I said, listen, you just got one week left. I said, sprint, sprint the whole way. Don't hold back.

Don't say no. Don't think, man, next trip, I'm going to do it better because you're here now. You know, I'll think about what I'm going overseas to minister.

I'm a little tired. Well, you know, don't pray. Don't press in.

Just rest and it'll be okay. And the next trip you'll do even better. It's like, wait a second.

This is the next trip. I thought that last time. This is the next trip.

And I'm here now. Why make the whole trip back again? Now is the time. Now I've got to see this.

I said to the team, got to go for it now. You're all the way here in India. You may never be back.

Some of you will be coming back, but others may never be back. And you'll never have the opportunity to reach these people again who've never heard the gospel. This is probably the only time you're ever going to be in this region.

Because there's so many places to go and minister there. To help the workers there any way that we can. The harvest fields are so ripe.

And I said, you got to sprint. You got to go for it. This is it.

This is the opportunity. Friends, that's how I live virtually every single day of my life. I've got to go for it.

This is the time. I've got to give myself to writing. I've got to give myself to prayer.

I've got to give myself to ministry. I've got to give myself to family. Whatever it is, this is the time.

I can't go back later on. And I'm sure, I'm positive, that when I see Jesus face to face, I will not say to myself, Man, you pushed too hard. Mike Brown, you overdid it.

You sacrificed way too much. Jesus really wasn't worth it. You could have just kind of coasted.

No, I'll look at the face of Jesus and be ashamed. I'll look at the face of Jesus and say, all the wasted opportunities. All the times I could have made an impact.

All the times when I chose not to take up the cross. All the times when I gave way to fear of man unconsciously. But deep down, there's something going on and I resist.

All the times I could have been in the Word, but there was something else that had my attention. All the wasted opportunities to witness. And hear me again.

I don't live a condemned life. Condemnation is a foreign thing to me. I know the conviction of the Lord, but I'm so overwhelmed with His goodness and His love.

It's my joy to serve. I'm not serving Him out of guilt. I'm not serving Him out of some feeling that I'm endlessly falling short of repaying.

It's my delight. I want to repay Him. I want to give what I can.

Just like your heart, you want to serve. It's not religious bondage, it's freedom to lay our lives down for Him. I'm sure when I see Jesus face-to-face, I will wish that I had done a lot of things differently.

You ever been in a race, some of you when you were younger? You know, you're in a race, you're going as fast as you can until somebody passes you. Then you go faster. You thought you were stretched out until somebody went ahead of you and said, I can go faster.

You know, it took, what was it, in the 1950s when Sir Roger Bannister, now Sir Roger Bannister, broke the four-minute barrier, ran a mile in under four minutes. Was it the 1950s? Anybody remember when? Somewhere in the 50s. All the time of human history, you know, once people began timing it, he was the first one.

If you ever see the video when he collapses at the end, I mean, it's a phenomenal effort. You know, there's a Kenyan now who can run two miles in under eight minutes. He can do what Bannister did and then keep going for another mile and do it again.

Just 40-something years later, and there'll be somebody that can go faster than him. What I'm saying is, we can't, I could say, well, I wrote all these, I've written nine books in the last ten years, and I've preached, you know, hundreds and thousands of messages. Or you could say, well, I pastored this church and I took it from 50 to 500, or I've raised my kids and they're godly kids, or I've done this, or I've excelled at my job and given 30% of my, we could all pat ourselves on the back.

We've all done something, you know. But we need to step back and say, there's more, there's more, there's more. The saints of God that have lived the most sacrificial lives and have pushed themselves the hardest.

I've got a quote from one of them, I don't have it here, but men like George Whitefield that wore themselves out in the service of God, they tell others, don't have any sympathy on me, tell me to wake up, I'm a slugger. I wish I could finally do something for God. I think we need to be honest.

We need to step back, we need to have a personal awakening, we need to say, is this it? Or is there more? Is this the way it's supposed to be? See, somebody's got to break out. Somebody's got to pull the barriers down and say it can be done. And some of us have to be honest and quit making excuses.

Because God is looking for people to use. God's eyes are going through the whole earth. He is earnestly looking for people to use.

There's a young man staying with us. And he's probably right now finishing up his time with an employment agency. You know, and he's looking for work in different areas, just moved down here.

Friends of ours, so he's staying with us for the moment. You know, God's employment agency never has a sign up, no positions. Don't call us, we'll call you.

He's looking. The harvest is right where you live. He's looking for labor.

Right where you live, he's looking for a church where he can pour out his spirit. Right where you live, he's looking for someone to be a world changer. On the college campus where you go to school.

Down the road where you walk with the other mothers with their kids. Out on the mission field. Out in your home country.

In your place of business. He's looking for laborers. What's he looking for? Those whose hearts are wholly his.

Those whose hearts are completely his. For me to live as Christ, to die as gain. Lord, I've died to my ways.

I've died to my pride. I've died to my agenda. I live to do your will.

I don't care if I'm loved, if I'm hated, if I'm rich, if I'm poor. I don't care what I have in this world, what I don't have, as long as you're glorified. I want to do your will.

If you want to put me on every television station in America as the most famous preacher. If you want me to die a martyr's death in the jungles of Africa. Lord, whatever you want is fine with me, Lord.

I want to honor you. If you want me to be a street preacher. If you want me to be a mother of ten.

I'm going to honor you with all my heart, all my soul. Nobody can stop you from loving God with all your heart. Nobody can stop you from living in purity.

Nobody can stop you from being obedient to the things that God personally requires of you. And I say we need to come to a point. Leaders, individual believers, people from the nations.

We need to come to a point where we say enough is enough. We need to do what the four lepers did. In 2nd Kings 6 and 7 when Samaria is besieged by the Arameans.

And there's terrible famine in the city. If they go in the city, they die of starvation. If they sit out there by the gate, eventually they're going to die.

By starvation or their disease is going to kill them. And they said, well, why don't we go out to the Aramean army? Why do we sit here until we die? Why do we sit here until we die? For some, those words are going to ring in your head, in your heart, in your mind through the day and through the night. Why do we sit here until we die? Why do we sit here until we die? If we go out to the Arameans, if they kill us, we're going to die anyway.

They let us live, we live. And would you know, when they go out there, God had sent the sound of a mighty army. And the Arameans had left everything.

They fled, they left all their goods, all their livestock, all their food. They left it all. And next thing, Samaria is having a feast.

What are you waiting for? I'm not saying everybody quit your job and move to Pensacola and come to our school. I'm not saying everybody go out of here and go on a 40-day fast. You know in your own heart what you need to do.

You know in your own heart where the attitude starts. There must be that holy desperation. Your own life may be blessed and overflowing, but your nation is going to hell around you.

Your own life may be full of God, but your loved ones are struggling. Maybe one is captive to drugs and alcohol. Maybe another one is dying of a terrible disease.

How's the breakthrough going to come? What's going to happen? God's looking. God's looking. You come to that point of absolute desperation.

You come to realize your only hope is in God. We had a man, dear brother, married a woman that was a student of mine when I taught on Long Island in the 80s. And we get word he's got cancer.

We prayed for him. Others were praying for him. He got worse.

Then a few months ago, we get a message. He's got tumors growing out of his neck the size of a golf ball. He's got cancer all through his neck, through his mouth.

Cancer in his epiglottis. The doctors want to remove his tongue, do some other amputation, and they'll just preserve his life a little, but it's over. We heard that.

And for whatever it was worth, you know, we sent word, don't let him operate. Don't let him cut his tongue out. Either God heals him or he dies, but don't let him go like this.

Let's believe God for healing. And that's the stance that they took, because the doctor said basically there's nothing we can do. We all laid hands on a prayer cloth, sent it to him.

He wore that thing around his neck, he said, for six weeks. And God spoke to him just to have one type of treatment done. And this treatment couldn't heal anything, couldn't cure anything.

It could have just slowed the process a little bit. But he felt God wanted him to do something that would take time. So he would pray and believe and stand.

He did one thing. I mean, the doctor made it very clear to him that what was being done to him was not healing him, because it could not heal him. But anyway, I just talked to him last week.

He is 100% totally cancer-free. Completely healed. Completely healed.

And the doctor looked at him. The doctor looked at him and said, what we did, he folded his arms and said, I don't know if this was some alternative medicine you used or what. He said it was God.

Because the doctor said, there is no, what we did could not do this. All we could have done was shrunk these tumors a little bit. In fact, disappeared from his whole, they did a scan from his chest right up through his head, which is all the area where cancer was.

But see, when I got that word, you know, they're going to cut out his tongue and this and that. It was a strange hope that rose, because I realized it's got to be God. It's got to be God.

You've got to take hold of that in your own life. The things that you really long for, the things that you really desire, the things that you really want to see in your life, in your community, in your church, in your nation, only God can bring. But he is more desirous of bringing the blessing than you are of receiving.

And if you will just go after him, if you will just determine to seek his face and obey his prompting, if you just turn off the TV now and pray, you do it. Skip that meal, you do it. It could be the smallest things.

Obeying this, and you do it. Witness to this, you do it. If you open your heart, if you'll obey, if you'll seek him, he will come through.

It is his honor, it is his reputation that he has put on the line by giving us promises. And as surely as the sun rises, Hosea 6 tells us, he will appear. And Jesus said, if you ask your heavenly father for bread, he will not give you a stone.

And everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Enough is enough with the way we've been living with the state that the church has conducted itself. It's time for visitation.

It's time for change. Would you stand to your feet together with me, please? Here's what we're going to do. And I'll tell you this for sure.

The breakthrough is nearer for a lot of you than you ever could imagine. The answer is closer than you could imagine. I can feel it for some of you.

I know times of supernatural breakthrough in my own life, and I just feel so close I can touch it. That's how it is for many. We've had a deepening of the river of God in our midst this year.

We've had many services already from mid-January on that have just been overwhelming to us. And we've seen God move in all kinds of ways. We've seen him move in ways we've never seen before.

Deepening, deepening. It's the hour it's got to be. God's moving all over the place.

This is one of the places. God's looking for people. God's looking for churches.

God's looking for individuals.