Man, it's good to be here tonight. It's good to see the Pollard's and brother Josh Shepherd here and everything. Let's turn our Bibles to Isaiah chapter 44 Isaiah 44 Six verses the first six verses Be our text tonight and then I want us to look at Psalm 22 a little bit and And we'll look at a few other scriptures before I go back to Isaiah chapter 44. We're gonna read the first six verses of chapter 44, and I wanna preach on this subject tonight, floods on dry ground. Floods on dry ground. I know you get a lot of flooding down here, and it's not a pleasant thought to be thinking about floods in that sense, and you don't look forward to floods in that sense, and you regret them when they come, these kind of floods, but there is a flood that we really need. We need a flood of God's blessings upon his oh so dry church. Amen. And oh so dry hearts and spirits. We need a cleansing flood. Amen. Now, I'm going to read several scriptures. I was thinking about this, that these floods, when the floods come, God's spirit comes. First, there's a saturation. There has to be a saturation in the scripture. I read one time where a fairly well-known man of God talked about how that in his most backslidden times, his most down times spiritually, ever had anything like that? Everything looks good on the outside, you're putting up a good front, you're singing a little louder to compensate, and maybe doing a little more work, maybe doing a little amening more than usual to kind of compensate, going to the altar maybe a little bit to compensate, but inside you're just as dry as last year's bird's nest. Amen. And this old man said the only thing that could pull him out of that and change that was for him to begin taking massive, massive, massive intakes of the Word of God. It's so important to us that we be saturated in the Word of God. If we really want revival, it begins with being saturated in the Word of God. I believe in protracted meetings. I believe we need to have a return to protracted meetings. And if you don't know what that means, well, you can ask the pastor, ask Brother Homer, and they'll tell you what a protracted meeting is. And I really think that's... You know, if we want to have what people talk about, what we had 50, 60, 100 years ago, then we're going to have to do what they did. Amen. And they had what they called protracted meetings. Amen. There's a lot to be said about that. But we need a saturation in the scripture. And when we start saturating ourselves in the scripture, then the Holy Spirit will come along and start scrubbing. Amen? He'll start doing a cleansing work. And when he starts scrubbing, you feel the scrubbing. Amen. Well, I want us to just look at these verses. Let's just stand for the reading of these six verses in Isaiah 44, and before we read, let's pray. Our heavenly Father, we come to you tonight, and we thank you to be in your house. We need your help. We pray, dear God, you know what we need. You know that the lost here need to be saved. Lord, they need your help so bad. And we need your help to have revival. And we pray that you'll stir us and move us. Oh God, I pray that you'll do something tonight that can only be attributed to your being here and your working and your people being submissive to your working in our midst. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Now in Isaiah chapter 44 and in verse 1, Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant, and Israel whom I have chosen. Thus saith the Lord that made thee and formed thee from the womb which will help thee. What a good God. Amen. I made you, I want to help you. Just think about that. God wants to help you. If you're lost and on your way to hell and you're indifferent to that, you're cold-hearted to that, you don't seem to worry or care about that, you don't think about that very much, and you're in bad shape, and the God of heaven and earth says to you who are headed for hell, I want to help you. Before it's too late, God Almighty says, I want to help you. The God who is love says, I want to help you. Amen. So he says, goes on in verse two, he says, Fear not, O Jacob, my servant, and thou Jethren whom I have chosen, for I will pour water upon him that is thirsty. floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon thy seed. Pay very close attention to these promises here. and my blessing upon thine offspring. And they shall spring up as among the grass, think about these girls that were up here, these little ones tonight, as willows by the water courses. And one shall say, I am the Lord, I am the Lord's. And another shall call himself by the name of Jacob. and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts. I am the first, and I am the last, and beside me there is no God. Amen. Please be seated and turn to Psalm 22. Psalm 22. And I want you to look at verse three. Psalm 22 and verse three. Now I'm preaching on floods upon dry ground. And I want to say tonight that if we experience a flooding tonight, if there's any kind of a flood over anybody's soul tonight, brought on by the Spirit of God, we're in a good place for that to happen. Amen. This is a real good place. This is the best place. to witness a real work of God is in the house of God. In Psalm 22 and in verse 3, look at what the Bible says. He said, the psalmist said, for thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. And I don't believe in this worked up praise and emotional stuff today. I'll tell you what that is. That is an affront to God. There's too much hypocrisy and show and merchandising on emotions in the house of God and it's an unholy thing and it is sacrilegious and shame on preachers that provoke that and promote that and on people who encourage them in doing that. Amen. When you enter into the house of God, we're on holy ground. Amen. And because we're on holy ground, that is a reason for the utmost anticipation of God doing something real from heaven. It's not a place to put on a show. Amen. There's a lot of people today, a lot of men who need to go back and see what God thinks of stirring up false fire. That didn't work very good for Nahab and Abihu. Amen. I'm telling you what, there's a lot of people today that need to read their Bibles. There's a lot of preachers that need to take another look at this book. Amen, and get their eyes off of men. But God says that he does inhabit the praises of his people. When the praise from God's people from their hearts, you got anything to praise God about tonight? Is there anybody here that's got any reason to praise God? Amen. Many of you could look up here during this singing, and boy, you got a lot to praise God. You got anything to praise God about in this COVID situation and all of this? You got anything? Look next to you, look in front of you, look behind you, and think about all that you have, where you're going when you get out of here tonight. We got so much to praise God for, and we're in a really good place tonight. to praise God, and he's promised us that he will inhabit the praises of his people. Now he is not going to manifest himself where his people come into his house and they're They're droopy, and they're discouraged, and they're doubting, and they're down in the dumps, and all of this kind of thing. God is not going to inhabit that stuff. Amen, but he has promised to inhabit, to get into the praises of his people. The pastor said something in another context today. A lot of people have turned away from certain truths because other people are abusing them. Amen. Now there are the Charismatics and the Pentecostals and all of that, and the showboaters and the Charismatic crowd. You know, they abuse the idea of giving glory to God. Amen. They abuse it. And a lot of independent Baptists abuse it. A lot of them have what they call glory meetings. I'm not against giving God glory, but their idea of glory meetings, some of them, is to have a meeting where the whole idea is to get people worked up, running around the building, jumping pews, and all of this kind of stuff. And I want to tell you something, that is not pleasing to God when it's all of the flesh. Amen. But God's promise is still that He inhabits the genuine praises of His people. And it doesn't matter if they're children or they're middle-aged or they're adults, God inhabits the sincere praises of his people. I'll say something like this again in a little bit maybe. But you say, I just don't feel like praising God. I just don't feel it. I'm not gonna be fake about it. I'm gonna be honest about it. I really don't feel that praise well enough in my heart right now. That is your indication that you need to go to the altar and ask God to help you. To get you back under the spout where the joy and the glory runs out. Amen. If you're feeling down into dumps and droopy and discouraged and all of that, then go to God. He said, I will help you. I don't want you to be in that condition. I want to help you. And we're in a mighty good spot to get help tonight. Look over here in Psalm 22 at verse 21, and look what God wanted of his people in verse 21. In verse 21 he says, of chapter 22, he says, this people, I hope I haven't lost my place, this people, where am I missing this? Psalm 22, verse 21. Yeah, save me from the lion's mouth for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorn. Oh, yeah, 22. I will declare thy name unto the heathen in the midst of the congregation. Thank you, brother pastor. In the midst of the congregation, I will praise thee. Amen. People say, I praise God just as good at home as I can in the church. That's not what the Bible says. We can praise God at home, but God really gets into it when His people are assembled together. So we're in a really good place tonight, beloved, for God to do something wonderful for us. Now look at verse 22 and 24. We see what God wants of His people. And then in verse 22 through verse 24, he says, ye that fear the Lord, verse 23, praise him. All ye seed of Jacob glorify him and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel. For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, neither hath he hid his face from him, but when he cried unto him, he heard. Amen. The psalmist said, I was in a deep pit, and I cried unto him, and he heard my cry, and lifted me out of my pit. Are you in a pit tonight of some kind? If you will cry out to God, begin crying out to God from your heart right now, he will bring you up out of that pit. Amen. Now I want you to turn to a familiar passage of scripture. 2nd Chronicles chapter 7 and while you're turning not to waste any time I'll read from psalm 63 verse 1 The psalmist said O God Thou art my God Amen, what a claim Amen, do you have that claim? Can you say O God thou art my God? Early will I seek thee My soul, get this, thirsteth for thee. My soul thirsteth for God. See, when people come to church, they ought not to come just wanting preaching. Amen? They ought not to come just thinking about maybe we'll really have some good singing today. But what they ought to come to church with is a genuine thirst for God. Amen? And so he goes on and he says, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is. Think about that, a dry and thirsty land where no water for thee. He said, my soul thirsteth for thee, where? In a dry and thirsty land where no water is. There are millions of Christians who are thirsting for God because this has become such, our country has become such a dry and thirsty land because it's turned its back on God. And a lot of people sit in church services and they're thirsting for God in churches that have become dry, and thirsty waste places, spiritually speaking. Amen. Now in 2 Chronicles chapter 7 and in verse 14, a real familiar scripture, Solomon, now listen to this, they had been on the mountaintop. Amen. Three chapters are devoted to the building of the temple. I mean the people were on top of the mountain. They finished that temple. Now again, think this is the house of God. God always had a place. He had a place back when Adam and Eve offered their first sacrifice and Cain despised it. But He had a place. He had a place in the wilderness called the tabernacle. God's always had a place. God had a place in the Old Testament later on called the temple. and first temple was erected under the leadership of King Solomon. And what a heyday, they had services after services, you read it, they had preaching of the Word of God, they had prayer, they had singing and shouting and praising. And when they came and actually began to dedicate the temple, the Bible says the glory of God came down with such force, the preachers, the priests had to back off. Their mouths were closed. Amen. God had moved in. Amen. In an obvious way. Listen, when God is really present, nobody has to stand up here and say, God has really gotten into service. You ever been in a service like that? Well, God has really showed up. And you're wondering, when? I never noticed it. Conniving, manipulation. I'm telling you, it's of the devil. Amen. Well, the Bible says that night, well, it was a glorious mountaintop experience. That night, Solomon is still up, and God appeared unto Solomon with a message. The message went like this. You've been on the mountaintop, but Solomon, it may not always be this way. My people are so revived now. You've seen marvelous things, but it may not always be this way. My people are right with me now, but it may not always be this way. and I'm going to tell you what you do if it ever gets to the place where it's not this way. Then God said this, the Bible says he appeared to Solomon by night and he said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and have chosen, look at this word, I have chosen this place to myself for a house of sacrifice. God has a house. Amen. Jesus spoke of his house which is the pillar and the ground of Amen, which is the New Testament church that he came to call out, dedicate, with his own blood, he had a house. If the Protestants had been there, and he was talking about his house, they'd say, well, Lord, you don't have a house. You're not gonna have a house till the day of Pentecost. Amen? That's what they'd have said. You don't have a house. You're not gonna have a house till the day of Pentecost. But he did have a house. Paul said right in the Corinthians he already set apostles in his house. Amen, he gave gifts to his house. He had a house, beloved. The pillar and the ground of truth, the church that Jesus loved and gave himself for. Amen. He had a house. Amen. Now on the day of Pentecost, they had a big house, a big house opening. An open house. And he introduced his house to the whole world. Amen. And I'll tell you what, this might help you get a little bit stirred if you're a member of the church that Jesus himself established. Amen. And commissioned. Amen. Yeah, and so the Lord said, I'm going to, I may not get back to the text, I'm preaching as fast as I can. He said, the Lord said, I've heard thy prayer, chosen this place, and he said, if I shut up heaven, that there be no rain. In other words, if it comes a time when my people have sinned, they've gotten cold and dry and indifferent and religious, he said, if my people, which are called by my name, now get this, beloved, an Aborigine from the backside of the desert that just got born again and could read English and read this would understand this prescription for having revival. He said, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves. That's where it starts. All revival, either individual or corporately, begins with brokenness. Amen. And we can have all the meetings we want. We can schedule it and tell God, you got three days to do something, and then we're going on with our business. But until there is brokenness, there will be no intervention by God, no heaven-sent revival, but God said, if my people will humble themselves and pray, and God doesn't hear the prayers of the proud, amen, and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, who's he talking to? Not the Canaanites, not the Amorites, my people. He said, when my people become wicked people, There's only one way out of that wickedness. That's brokenness. Then he said, do you have any wicked ways you need to turn from? You say, well, I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't chew, I don't associate with them that do, I don't cuss, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. How about your spirit? Amen. How is it between you and your spouse? Amen. Is the Bible your criteria for life? Are you just winging it as you go along? Are you just sitting along and making excuses and justifying your temper, your bad temper, your bad attitude? Amen. Your covetousness, your materialism, your coldness, your grudge, some out you have with somebody else. Well, I deserve to feel the way that I do. No. No. You need to humble yourself and pray and seek God's face and turn from your wicked way. You say, well, I just don't feel that. I just don't feel it. Well, then you need to go to God and ask him to help you. Amen. You are in bad shape. You are in deep weeds. Amen. I told you last night, I'm not just preaching to you, I'm preaching to me as well. We need revival, W-E, we need revival from God. He said then, and by the way, not until then, not until then. Then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. There's absolutely no hope for America. Listen, I don't care how ardent a patriot you are. I don't care how many bus trips you make here and there and everywhere in support of liberty and the republic. If you do not have your priorities right where God is concerned, and you miss church for any of that kind of thing, and I'm a man who is very active politically, and my whole family is. We go and we do, but I'll tell you what we don't do. We don't put anything, not anything, before God because God cannot bless anything any patriot does and they don't have their priorities right. Amen. I got a formula. I want to share it with you. It goes like this. It's real simple. I call it the buttonhole principle. This goes for a lot of things in life, brother. One time I was in the airport in Denver, Colorado, I think, and it was a stopover to catch another plane. I rushed into the men's room and I was going to freshen up. It was real cold and I had a long overcoat on. I took that overcoat off. prettied up a little bit, and primped a while, and then I put my coat back on. And I walked outside, guy I was traveling with said, Brother Kirkman, you need to check yourself out. Now when somebody says you need to check yourself out, you're thinking of something other than my overcoat. What I had done, when I put my coat back on, I was so busy admiring myself in the mirror. I don't do that anymore, by the way. I used to walk through the malls and look in the glass, the dark glass, and watch my reflection in the mirror. Isn't that a terrible thing? Now I keep my head turned the other way. But what I'd done, when I put that overcoat back on, I took the second button and put it in the first buttonhole. You know what happens when you take the second button and put it in the first buttonhole? You take the third button and you put it in the second buttonhole. Then you take the fourth button and you put that in the next buttonhole. And you really look silly. I mean, people might doubt your sanity a little bit. There's a lot of people in life, in their Christian life, in their affairs of life, who have gotten the second and the third and the fourth button in the first buttonhole. And churches have done it big time. And that's why we don't have revival. Amen. Revival starts when people get straightened up. Amen. Look at your life right now and think, are there any areas in my life where I got my priorities wrong? Mixed up? This is simple math. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his what? Righteousness. Amen. And all, what a promise, All these things shall be what? Added unto you. Amen. But the key word there is first. Seek first the kingdom of God. Put the kingdom of God first, put the word of God first, put spirit leadership first in your life, and all these things will be added unto you. Amen. So God is making some wonderful, wonderful promises here. By the way, this is where it says, and I'll heal their land. That's not just for Israel, that's a principle that applies to all lands. It applies to our land. Amen. There is no hope for this land outside God's people bringing down the blessing of God. Let's just look at verse 15 real quick. In verse 15, The Lord goes on, and he says this, and it's just, he's just bringing us back to remind us of something. Verse 15, he said now, to Solomon, he said, now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attend unto the prayer that is made, where? In this place. In this place. That's why God's word puts so much emphasis on the Sabbath. and the Sabbath is not Saturday, the Sabbath is Sunday. The Jews' Sabbath was on Saturday when God rested after the, but the big rest that we celebrate is when Jesus walked out of the tomb. Amen! Amen, hey, be at ease, be at ease, be at ease. There is a Savior. Amen. Relax. There is a Savior. That's the big rest that we celebrate when we come into God's house on Sunday. Talk about celebrate. I mean, think about it. Man, when we come to church, you ought to be thinking about that and ready to celebrate. Amen, amen. Okay now, let's look at the text. Oh, I'm telling you what. When you look at these six verses in Isaiah chapter 44, how wonderful they are. How wonderful. Floods on dry ground. I'm gonna say three or four things about them. Number one, I want you to think about the source of this promise. I will give water to him that is thirsty. Are you thirsty tonight? Are you a little bit thirsty? Are you not as thirsty as you used to be but you wanna be thirsty again like that? God said, I will give water to him that is thirsty. If we're drawn to the closing of service tonight and you're still not as thirsty as you were when you came in, you need to go to God and say, God, help me. Amen. It's a sign of sickness when you're never thirsty. It's a sign of sickness. And not just, Gostin says, and you don't need just a little drink. You need a big drink. And floods on dry ground. We're gonna look at the source. We're gonna look at the specifics. And we're gonna look at the scope of this promise. And I'm telling you, it's worth it. It's worth it to take a good look tonight, amen? I want you to notice this. The source of this promise. These promises were made, look at it right here in verse one, by virtue of God's choice. When I preached against Calvinism last night, if anybody left thinking, I'm still not sure. Let me just tell you something. God just demolishes the idea of Calvinism where man doesn't have any choice. If he's saved, he's going to go to heaven or hell. It's already been decided. God demolishes that whole deal. When He gives us the story of mankind's creation, it says He created us in His own image. He created us like Him. And you know the biggest, biggest thing that I know about God, right here, is God has a free will. Amen? God can choose. Now let me just say this on the way back to the pulpit, that God has chosen to save whosoever will. Hallelujah! Amen! He is a God who is not willing that any should perish, but that A-double-L-all should come to repentance. He is a God, Paul wrote to Timothy and said, who would have all men to be saved. Now I was going to say this a little later, but I can't wait to get there. God wants... Did you know when Jesus died on the cross, He died for you? You say, wait a minute, I'm lost. I'm sitting here, I'm lost. Did you know that Jesus died on the cross for you? Who are lost tonight. If you go to hell, you're going to go to hell in spite of the fact that Jesus died for you, so you wouldn't have to go to hell, but you refused God's terms, which are repentance, turn from your sin, and put your faith in Jesus Christ only for salvation, otherwise you will go to hell, even though Jesus died on the cross for you. Amen. And the first thought that will come to people's minds when they get to hell is, this didn't have to be this way. Jesus died on the cross for me. But God has given you the choice. He didn't make the choice. His choice is that all men be saved. And if you say not me, well that's your decision. Amen. Verse 1. God says, yet now have I chosen. God makes the decision here. It's God who is the source of this promise, and all of his promises are yea and nay. Not one of his promises has ever fallen to the ground. God always keeps his word. One time I was preaching back when I was in my 20s, and I asked a rhetorical question to the congregation. I said, is there anybody in here that could accuse God of ever doing anything wrong? And a little boy about six years old raised his hand like that. It was a real small congregation and I just thought, well, I'm just gonna ask him. I said, Billy, that was his name, Billy Brewer. I said, Billy, what did God ever do wrong? He said, God cussed the fig tree. No, God cursed the victory. God's never done anything wrong. In fact, the only thing God can't do is God cannot tell a lie. Amen. God never lies. He can't lie. Amen. He's never done a thing wrong. God makes His choice. I said last night, Ephesians 1.4, He has chosen us in Him for the foundation where us, saved people, Whoever it ever be, say that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Amen. Those are our marching orders. Amen. John 15 and 16, Jesus said, you've not chosen me, but I've chosen you. For what? That you be fruitful. Amen, that you be fruitful. These promises were made by virtue of God's choice. And if you look a little further at this, down into verse 2, he says, not only because I have chosen you, but based upon your... I created you. I'm the owner. You do understand this tonight, that God is the owner. He owns the cattle on the thousand hills, all of the gold and the silver and the precious minerals underneath the cattle's feet. Amen! An old black preacher said years ago, he doesn't have his copyright on the songs the birds sing, but he's the owner. He don't have his laundry mark in the dew-washed fields, but he's the owner. He owns it all, and guess what? He owns us. Let me just say this, saved or lost, God has a claim on you by virtue of His creating you, by virtue of the fact that He owns you. and therefore it is high rebellion against God to trample all over the blood of Christ on your way, dodging every obstacle, putting your path on your way to hell in rejection of Jesus Christ, God's blessed Son. You say, well, if you knew how I feel and what's happened to me and why I'm kind of holding back and backward about this, if you knew this and that, bologna on that. That is sheer nonsense. You don't need to be thinking about anything except what God did for you through his son Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross. Stop making those silly devil-inspired excuses that's keeping you from being saved. Amen. Yeah, look at verse 2. It says, verse 2 says, Thus saith the Lord that made thee and formed thee from the womb. Amen. He made us. He created us. And we're not our own. We're bought with a price. And he says to his children, oh yeah, for by grace are you saved. Through faith. That not of works. It's the gift of God. Not of works. lest any man should boast. But you know what the next verse says? You are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. We don't work in order to be saved, we work out a deep gratitude to God Almighty for saving us. Amen. Amen being Christ, the Bible says he is a new creature. And one thing about it, When you get saved, you may not know anything about much of what the Bible says or anything else, have no religious background, but there's gonna be something within. You know, when I got saved, I had to change the plans I had made for that coming weekend. Nobody showed me any scripture or anything. I just knew there were some things I could not do. I didn't wanna do them, I couldn't do them. I had a lot to learn. But immediately, there was something within. giving me direction. You wanna know what it was? Read Titus chapter two, verse 11. The grace of God that appeareth to all men teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust. You know what I had on my bucket list for the weekend? Ungodliness and worldly lust. But something within said, you gotta scratch that off your bucket list. Amen. That's what happens when you become a new creature in Christ Jesus. It's something that God does. It's not something that's conjured up out of your own self. God does it. Amen. Separated living isn't something to feel burdened about. It's something to see as the great blessing that it is. Because it's of God. I just want to say real quickly, look at the specifics of this promise. Now notice the personal intervention. I love this. I love verses like this, don't you? God says, You know who I'm gonna get to help them? God said, I. I will help them. God said, I'm not gonna depend on any angel. They need help. I'm not gonna depend on anybody. I am gonna go down amongst them in the second person of the Trinity. I'm going to take on human flesh. Amen. The great creator of heaven and earth who spoke the worlds and watched man fall into sin and God said, I will help them. I'm just going to do it my own self. And he took on flesh and blood and came sinlessly into this world and went right to the cross and died for our sin. God said, I will help them. I want to tell you how personal it is. God is saying to you tonight, whatever your need is, I will help you myself. I will help you. Now it's nice to have friends. It's nice to have a good pastor. It's nice to have people in your life that'll help you out. But there ain't nobody that can do for you what needs to be done for you like God. Amen. Don't you be depending on any preacher to come in here and help give you what you need. You need to go right straight to God. Don't put your hope in any preacher or anybody else. Amen. especially don't say, well, I'm just gonna straighten myself up. How's that working out for anybody? Amen. What a promise, what a specific. Personal intervention, God said, I will help thee. Amen. Not only that, notice this. Here's the second specific in this promise. God promises a, not only personal intervention, but a powerful inundation. You know what Niagara Falls is? It's a powerful inundation. Millions of gallons rushing over that cliffs. That's a powerful inundation. When these big floods come and wash away everything in their path, big ancient oak trees and houses, amen, and sweep everything away in this, that's a powerful inundation. God said, when I come to help you, It's gonna be like a powerful, it's gonna be a tsunami. When you ask for my help, little girl, it's gonna be a tidal wave. I'm gonna come upon your heart and your soul and sweep over you. Amen. You'll cleanse out all that dirt and that rot and that guilt. Amen. Amen. And when he gets done, you'll be deeper than you were before he started. Not shallower. And look what he says in verse three. He said, for I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. I mean, he's talking about a deluge. Amen. A torrent. Amen. Acts 3 and verse 19, they preach like this, repent ye therefore, and be converted that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. From the presence of the Lord, I will help thee. I will help thee. He's a personal God. Amen. In Acts 14 and 17, Says, nevertheless, he left not himself without witness in that he did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. When the rains from heaven come, amen, it fills our hearts, not our stomachs. with what I'm calling with food and gladness, but it's spiritual grub and spiritual gladness. Do you know there's a big difference between joy and happiness? Happiness depends on what happens. Everything happens nice at work and you go home and you're happy. But maybe things don't, maybe on the way home from work something happens, you look in your rear view mirror and there's a light flashing, you get a ticket for $200. So you're not happy. But see, when you have Christian joy, the devil can throw everything at you. And you will come out on the other side still with joy. You know why? Because of the sowers. And he's so specific about us wanting to help us. Amen. Amen. And what is the scope of it? Now, this is the most important part of the message, beloved, in a lot of ways. I want you to really listen, especially family members, heads of families, moms, dads. I want you to really listen to this. The scope of the message. God has promised to pour this water, as we said, upon you personally. Here it is again. I will pour water on him that is thirsty. Now I want revival for the whole church tonight. I want revival for everybody in here, but I'm telling you right now, I want revival for me. Amen. Don't you want revival for you? You say, Lord, please revive us tonight. Deep down in your soul, something is, Lord, revive me. God understands that. He said, I will pour. He's making it real, real personal. Whether you're a young person or an old person, He said, I pour water on him that is thirsty. And then he says, in the latter part of verse three, that he'll pour floods upon dry ground. And here's the great qualifier. If you want revival, you have to be thirsty. Amen. Are you thirsty? You say, not really. Are you a Christian? Have you ever been thirsty? Because the Bible says one of the marks of a Christian is, is that they hunger and thirst. after righteousness. Never wished that you were holier in your life. That's a good sign, because lost people don't wish for that. Amen. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall what? Be filled. Be filled. A lot of people are thirsty, but they're thirsty for the wrong thing. And a lot of people are not thirsty. Maybe somebody tonight. You're not thirsty for spiritual things. You're just doing your duty. Maybe you've got something way down deep that you're hoping something would happen to help you. But you really aren't thirsty like you used to be thirsty. You don't sing the songs in these hymnals and notice things like you used to. You just sing them. Amen. You don't listen to the sermon. Really wanting to pick up on things. Really getting something. It's because you're not thirsty. Amen. Let me tell you why Christians lose their thirst. The reason they lose their thirst is because they haven't had enough salt in their life. Amen. And so therefore they're thirsty for the wrong thing. You know that song says like the woman at the well. I was thirsty for things that could not satisfy. Have you been thirsting for a better job? Have you been thirsting for more money? Have you been thirsting for a nicer house? Have you been thirsting for better appliances in your home? Have you been thirsting for more notice and attention from people? Have you been thirsting for, you fill in the blank. A lot of people are thirsty Not thirsty like they used to be thirsty, spiritually speaking, because they've been thirsting for the wrong things. And that's because, and the people thirst because there's not enough salt in their life. When I was a boy, I used to hear this saying a lot, and it's true. I grew up on a farm, I mean an old primitive farm. I mean a primitive one. Pastor talked about tractors. We didn't have tractors, we had mules and horses. We cut hay with them and plowed with them. They were our source of entertainment. Everything. We rode them. Amen. We watched them frolic. I could almost hear them saying, yippee-ki-yay, rolling around in that dust. Amen. People would say, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. But you can make it thirsty, so it'll knock you down to get to water. You understand that? If you make somebody thirsty enough, they will knock every obstacle out of their way to get to water. And the reason Christians are not thirsting for the things of God is because there's not enough salt in their lives. Jesus said this is the normal for Christians. You are the salt of the earth. Now if you're the salt of the earth, that means you're going to think right, walk right, dress right, spend your money rightly, run with the right companions. Amen. You're going to pay attention and say, it does matter how I dress, it does matter how I talk, it does matter where I go. Amen. That's what it means to be the salt of the earth. When you start getting worldly, you start getting salt less. And if the salt, Jesus said, has lost its savor, it is thenceforth good for nothing. That is the indictment on much of modern day 2021 Christianity. It is good for nothing. but to be cast out and trodden underfoot of men. Do you know what this world, this society, our American society has done now? It has cast out the testimony of so-called Christianity and is trampling all over it. Amen. And persecution is on its way. Amen. Because a lost and fallen world has become so disappointed in the only hope they had is that maybe Christianity is true, maybe the gospel message is true, but these Christians are making me think more and more every day there's nothing to it and therefore I am mad as I can be at these hypocritical Christians. That's why they're fixing to pour out persecution on the church. You can't get people into the altar to claim 2 Chronicles 7, 14 if you had a bulldozer with a winch attached to it. You can't jerk a holy grunt out of them. There's preachers that can come in a church and they can stand up here and tell sad stories about hound dogs. The old hound dog. Then tell a story, describe the hound dog. Talk about how they walked through the old farm gate and the old hound dog crawled out from under the rose bush and licked its lips. An old sport and such a good old dog. And then tell you about how the dog died. Wouldn't be long, people would be sitting out in the congregation. Is that true? And then that night, the pastor will preach on Calvary from John 19, the sufferings of Jesus Christ. They'll be playing with other people's babies, looking at their watch, rifling through their purses. I'm telling you, people need revival today. People say it needs to start in the house of God. It needs to start in the house of God. It needs to start in the pulpits. Amen. And churches that have a good God-honoring pastor ought to be so thankful to God. Amen. Amen. Amen. Lost the salt. Psalm 42, verse 1 and 2. Here's the place we want to get. Here's the place we want to get. Now see, what we want, revival starts with getting broken, getting thirsty. Amen. You're not anywhere near first base. You haven't even edged off home plate. unless you're thirsty. Are you a little bit thirsty tonight? Are you a little thirsty? Is there any thirst? Here's where we want to get. Psalm 42, the psalmist said, as the heart paneth after thee, O God, my soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, where is thy God? When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me, for I had gone with the multitude. Have you gone with the multitude? The psalmist said, I got in such a bad place in my life, I just ran with the crowd. I just mixed in. That's what a lot of Christians have done today. The best they can do is get a t-shirt that says I love Jesus. That's their testimony. And they're running with the crowd. The psalmist said, I got slowed down, I was running, I went with the multitude. And he said, he said, I went with them, but then he, I got that a little, I was right about it, but here's the real multitude, he says, he got straightened out and got away from that multitude. See, there's only two multitudes. You're either with the crowd going the wrong way or the right way. And he said, I got right. And I had gone with the multitude. And then he said, I went with them to the house of God. Amen. I'm just gonna tell you real quickly. When I came back from overseas in 1967, I was as worldly as lost as could be. Never had a thought for God at all. Once in a while, I'd have a thought for God over there and then quickly go away. When I got home, I still didn't have any thoughts for God. And I was going to school, and one day I saw these two girls come in. And I thought, that is the prettiest girl I have ever seen in my life. I don't think I've ever seen a girl that looked that pure and sweet in my life. And so I made up my mind right then. I am going to get a date with that girl. But she wouldn't have anything to do with me. Then I found out that she went to church and she was dedicated to her church. And all of a sudden, I got religious. I got interested in religion, brother. I got real interested in the things of God and church, and I let her know that. And I really wasn't, see. But I wanted her to think I was, because I was trying to get her to invite me to her church. I thought, this is the best way, as any way, to get a date with her. She wouldn't have anything to do with it. So I invited myself to church. And I went to church, and by and by, I was coming to church, and she was civil to me and treated me nice. I went there for a long time. I went there for a few months. I didn't give any thought to God. That preacher would be up there preaching his heart out, I guess. I wasn't thinking about it then, but I know he was now. I was thinking about that girl. Now I'm able to sit next to her in the pew. All I could think about was that girl. Man, I was, Brother Jacob, I was Mr. Nice. Talk about putting on a show. When they prayed, I was thinking about that girl. By and by, see, the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. And you may not know what's happening, but it'll pierce to the dividing sun of your soul and spirit. By and by, I started picking up on things. And before long, I started listening to the preacher to the extent I forgot all about that girl. I'm just listening. One day, this big old tall guy from Texas came in, had white hair and freckles all over his face, and his name was Dewey Perry. She's in heaven now. He came in one Sunday, and he preached on the great white throne judgment. And I heard that sermon, I'm sitting there, and I mean, I was galvanized with fear. I'm listening to that. Here's what he said. In his sermon, he said, there'll be people in that day that'll wish they'd been born a dog or a cat. I'd been driving back and forth to work. watching the divided highway, other cars thinking, what if one of those cars comes over here and I'm dead, I'm in hell. I'd look out in the field and see some horses or cows and I'd think, why couldn't I be one, been born a horse or a cow? I'm telling you, this is exactly, one day I was at that girl's house, sitting on the couch, she went in the other room, I was in the living room by myself and they had these pocket doors, big pocket door, and of all things, this is how bad it got, a cat, a cat, It was sitting there. Notice how bad it was. I thought, you lucky thing. Why couldn't I have been born a cat? If you knew how I feel about cats. But I would have been glad to have been born an ant, a cat, anything, but to be in the position I was in, lost and without Christ and knowing I was going to hell. And it wasn't long after that that I got saved. Amen. Amen, I got thirsty for God, for Christ, for salvation. Amen, God has promised to pour this water out. Just said all that to say it's a good thing. He said, I went with a multitude to the house of God. Amen. If you're lost, it's a good thing you're coming to the house of God. But don't count on another chance to come to the house of God. Amen, God hasn't promised you another day, another opportunity to be in his house. But God has promised this to you personally. Now here's where I really want to get to, because I've got 20 grandchildren, several great-grandchildren, and I see these beautiful children around here. Now listen to this, beloved. Look at God's promise. It's not only to you personally, but it's to your posterity. If you're a Christian and you are dry, amen. Your Christian life is dry. Think about this in verse three. He said, I'll pour my spirit upon thy seed. That's all about your posterity, your children, your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren. Amen. He said, I will pour my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thine offspring. Do you want your children to be happy, as happy as they are now when you see them in church, to be that way when they're 30, 40 years old, still in the house of God? Amen, still in this kind of a church, not running out there in this charismatic cowboy church, go-go gospel garbage. Well, God said if you want that, you're not thirsty, you better get thirsty. "'Cause if you'll get thirsty enough, "'I will pour water upon you, not only on you, "'but on your seed and on your offspring.'" Our seed and our offspring, listen to this carefully. Your seed and your offspring have gotta be brought up thirsty. And you have to help them get thirsty. Amen. You put it like this, you have to want your children to want what they see you've got. Do they really want what they see you've got as a Christian? Do they want that? We have to see that they get thirsty, and we had to help them get thirsty, and we have to see that they stay thirsty. Thirsty. I came to church thirsty tonight. Amen, I go to church thirsty. Amen. We have to keep them in an environment and take them to places where they'll get thirstier and thirstier. Amen. Not for entertainment. No, but for God. For God. Amen. What God wants for us and our children and our grandchildren. This is what he wants for us. This is in verse four. Here's what God wants for you. He doesn't want your children to grow up a little scrubby brush, spiritually speaking. Verse four, he said, and they, your seed and your offspring, they shall spring up as among the grass as willows by the watercourses. Is that what you want for your children? Amen. Check yourself out. Amen. Have you got your priorities right? Are you thirsty? Amen. And then look at verse five. At these children, they have a testimony. And you don't have to hook a bobcat with a winch on it to wrench it out of them. And when they give a testimony, it's not about somebody's ingrown toenail or toe fungus. or the surgery they're going to have. Amen. When they give a testimony, they're giving glory to God. Rejoicing in God. There's nothing wrong with making prayer requests for all those things. Nobody knows better than I how important that is. But we've got to give God glory. And I'm telling you, nobody is more apt to do it than the children of godly parents. Look at what they say in verse five. God said, this is what'll happen with these seed and offspring. Now right now you guys are almost all young. One of these days you'll have gray hair. Your hair will have turned gray or turned loose, one or the other. You'll be sitting there and you won't be glancing in mirrors anymore, like I told you. Amen, your children won't be little, they'll be big. You'll have grandchildren and you'll be looking around You'll want to be there. And brother, let me tell you, sister, how it feels when you see your children and their children get up of their own free will and give glory to God. Here's how it sounds in verse five. One shall say, I am the Lord's. Any of you children here saved tonight, know that you're saved? You could stand up and say, you know, I'm thankful for this. I'm the Lord's. I am his, and he is mine. He said, it'll sound like this from your seed and your offspring. And another shall call himself by the name of Jacob, and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel. In other words, they're just identifying with God and God's people and the things of God. These children, I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods on dry ground and your seed and your offspring will be the big beneficiaries of it. Are you thirsty? Amen. When I was a boy, I went to a Pentecostal church. I grew up on my grandparents' farm, and every now and then, they weren't Pentecostals. They were Methodists, if you want to call them anything. But one night, my aunt and uncle got us to go to church with them. It was a revival in a Pentecostal church. Now, here's what I remember about it. They had two men up there, and both of them were playing the same guitar. I thought, man, this little boy, I thought, this is something. Later on, they got carrying on, acting up, scared me to death. But then, at the beginning of the church, they had two men playing the same guitar. This is what they were playing, Brother McBride. ♪ Drinking from the springs of living water. ♪ ♪ Happy now am I, my soul is satisfied. ♪ Drinking from the springs of living water. A wonderful, bountiful supply. I never, I could never get that song out of my mind as a little boy. The joy, I'm telling you, there's living water to drink of. Jesus said, I've come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly. Are you and yours drinking from springs of living water? Need to pray for rain from heaven so you can go out, so to speak, in the yard. You know what we did when I was a little boy? We didn't have shoes to wear in the summer. We didn't want shoes to wear in the summer. And we ran around in just little old clothes and flour sack made shorts and underwear, if we wore any underwear at all. Our entertainment was corncob fights and going out to the wood pile and building tunnels through the wood pile. And every now and then, that old hot, dusky part of Missouri, there'd come a really gullar washer of a rain. Know what we'd do? We'd get out in the rain and we'd play in it. Amen, and it felt so good. You know what God's children need? They need rain from heaven. So they can, to use a word the pastor used today, frolic in it. Amen, it's time for some good, consecrated, joyous, in the Lord, frolicking. Amen. In the goodness of God. Now I'm closing the sermon. And I'm cutting a whole lot out of it. I just want to tell you, I could preach all night on this. And I could listen to it all night. But here you have the power of God. This is how strong this promise is. It's got the word of God behind it. It's got all of the power, veracity, the integrity of God behind it. God says, I will pour water on him that is thirsty. Here's what I know about God. He created water. He can do that. Not only did he create water, but he can part water. And when he wants to, he can walk on water. And if he wants to turn water into wine, he can do that too. So when he says, I will send water, hey, Ephesians 2 and 20, he's able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think. You think God is, if you get thirsty, God's just gonna give you a little dibbly dab of water of joy, joyous refreshing, revival refreshing. God is gonna pour it on you. Amen. Amen. He can do that. That's the power of God. Let's close and just take a look at Isaiah 35. Now I'm telling you right now, I know this is a millennial promise. This is what it's gonna be like during the millennial reign. But I was talking to the pastor today and I said, a lot of people don't know this, but the local New Testament church is supposed to be an earthly demonstration of what it's gonna be like in the millennial reign. The millennial reign is gonna be a place of perfect peace and harmony. It'll be so good, even the bears will lay down with the lambs. There won't be any fussing, there won't be any fighting in the millennial reign for a thousand years. Everything will be good. And as the song says, everybody will be happy over there. Amen. Happiness, harmony, and holiness. Those three things ought to characterize the church of God. Jesus said, or Paul said in Romans, he said, the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but it is righteousness. You know what righteousness for those who've been made righteous by the blood of Christ is? That's all about personal righteousness. The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Amen. In Isaiah 35, this is a millennial promise, but it's good for today too. In verse one, the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them. And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of our God. Strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees. Paul quoted that in Hebrews chapter 12. Lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees. Make straight paths for your feet, he said. And then he says in verse four, say to them that are of a fearful heart. You do know that fear is not of God. There's a morbid, terrible fear. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind. Amen. He said, be strong, fear not, behold, your God will come. with vengeance, even God with a recompense. Don't you like this? He will come and save you. He said, I'm gonna come and save them from this mess. I saved them from the condemnation of sin. I gave them the power and the ability and the tools to be saved from the power of sin day by day. And one of these days I'm gonna come and save them from the very presence of sin. Amen. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. You know what's wrong with a lot of God's people tonight? Their eyes are not as open as they ought to be to the things of God anymore. And their ears aren't open. Jesus said, take heed, not only what you hear, but how you hear. Amen. Are you thirsty? That's where it starts. Some people would say right now in their own heart, in their own mind, I'm really not thirsty. I've listened to the whole message. I've listened to all of it. And it's been interesting and it's been, well, I've enjoyed it, but. I'm really not thirsty. I'm sad about that, but I'm not thirsty. You know what you need? A good dose of the mourner's bench. You know what'll happen when you get real about that? God will step in. Amen. And God will do something. Our greatest need tonight is for God to do something. Not for the Congress to do something. Not for the pastor to do something, not for some high-tone evangelist to come in and do something that lasts about as long as it takes you to get back out to your car and go home. An old preacher friend of mine in Jonesboro, Arkansas described it like this, he said, it's just like calf slobber. Here now and gone in the morning. But that's not the way it is when God does something. Amen. Let's all stand together. And the pastor's gonna take the invitation. However God speaks to your heart, there should be people praying to God where you're standing, where you can kneel coming here and asking God, make me thirsty or make my children thirsty, make my husband thirstier, make my wife thirstier. I need a drink.