Y'all bear with us a little while, we'll see what the Lord have us do and pray for us, pray for us as we're preaching. I'm getting older, getting older all the time. I go to meetings now and I'm the old preacher there. I'm the oldest guy in the building and it's getting to be, I'm getting on up there. I heard a story of two old farmers that was fishing down on the river and they sat there fishing and said a frog hopped up on the end of the boat and talked to one of them farmers And that frog, she said, if you'll kiss me right on the lips, then I'll become a beautiful princess, and I'll marry you and live with you forever. Boy, he looked at it, and he just took that frog and put it in the middle of his overalls and went on back fishing. And the guy said, man, I heard what that frog said. Why didn't you kiss her? He said, man, at my age, I'd rather have a talking frog. Amen. Amen. A lot of truth to that. You got your Bible tonight in Second Kings. I'll try it. I think I'm doing what the Lord had me do, so you pray. Father, thank you for your kindness. Thank you, Lord Jesus Christ. I pray, dear God, for this good church, these good people, Father. Lord, I know what they want, Father. They want revival, dear God. They want to see souls saved and lives changed here in this spot, dear God. They want to see their church grow, dear God. I pray, Lord God, you bless them with all those things, Father. I pray you drop handfuls of purpose in their path, dear God. I pray, Lord God, as we look to you tonight, that you'd move in and out the aisles. Dear God, I pray you'd move in and out every seat and examine every heart here. Dear God, I pray no one escape. Forgive us where we fail you. In the precious name of Jesus Christ, our Savior, we pray. Amen. 2 Kings 6, verse 1 says this. It says, And the sons of the prophet said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell with thee is too straight for us. That's how the world sees us. We're too straight for them, amen? Thank God it'll always be that way. He said, let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take thence every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell. And he answered, go ye. And one said, be content, I pray thee, and go with thy service. He answered, I will go. It's always good if you can take God's man with you. Take the preacher with you if you can, amen? Oh, that's never hurt you. So he went with them, and when they came to Jordan, they cut down wood. But as one was fell in a beam, the axe head fell into the water. And he cried and said, alas, master, for it was borrowed. And a man of God said, where fell it? And he showed him the place, and he cut down a stick and cast it in thither, and the iron did swim. You say, you believe that? Yeah, I believe that, just like I believe we're breathing air here tonight. Therefore said he, take it up to thee, And he put out his hand and he took it. I want to preach about that axe head there for a little bit tonight, if I can. And I want you to notice first off that this man, he was involved in a great work. They were going out to build a place for the prophets, for the preachers. They go build them a house out there. Great work. They had a great leader, Elisha. He was the greatest of his time. And that day, Elijah's gone. He's the best there is around. And this man in the middle of it, Lost the axe head. When they were trying to get something done, he lost his edge. He lost the edge that could cut down the trees that could do the job. And you can't do much once you lose that axe head. And he'd already lost it. Now he could have. He could have been like most Baptists. He could have just went right on the swing and acted like he was getting something done. When he wasn't getting anything done at all, but he could have went through the motions. At the end of the day, he could have been sweaty. He could have been tired, wore out, blisters on his hands, but he wasn't going to make a dent in a tree once he lost that edge. Brother and sister, once he lost that, he was done. He could make all the racket. Listen, God's given us a great work to do. Our work's to reach the lost, build a church, keep the old time religion alive. I pray somebody will. And we can go out there now. We can make a lot of noise. We can drive buses and vans everywhere. We can knock every door in the country. We can invite people from all over the place. We can get on the radio. We can pass out flyers. We can keep going and keep doing. But we won't make a dent in this community without God's hand. We won't make a dent in this community without that edge. It's the touch of God. That's what our churches need. That's what our church needs. That's what all churches need. We need that edge. Old folks used to say it's his touch. And some say it's his presence. I don't care what you call it, but you can't get much done without it. You try doing this work without it and see how it goes. I've preached a few times without it. It ain't no fun. Brothers and sisters, you need that edge, you need that touch. Churches have learned nowadays how to operate without it. We got enough programs in place now, enough things going on, we can go right on with or without the Lord. Amen. And many of them do. We can sing without His touch, we can teach without it, we can preach without it. Haven't you heard of them? My God, I've seen them preach without it. A lot of people talk in their sleep. Some preachers talk in everybody else's sleep. Once that goes on, they'll put you to sleep some of them. You can teach Sunday school without the Lord's touch. You can go out like Samson did one morning. The Bible said Samson went out and he wished not that the Lord had departed from him. He didn't even know he didn't have it anymore. He thought he still had it. I've seen him sing without it. I've seen him teach without it. I've seen him preach without it. God help us to keep his touch. That's what gives us the edge. Brother and sister, we need that. I'm tired. Brother Scotty, I get tired, brother. I get tired of seeing preachers preach that have no confidence in the word of God. They think they gotta turn a flip off the comedian table or put on some show or skit. They have no confidence that this book will still do the job. You can build a church with this book. I believe it. So I will preach to you just a few minutes tonight if I can and I'll get out of Scotty's way. I will preach to you for a few minutes on what to do if you lose your edge. What to do if you lose that touch. Say, how do you know? Well, this guy here showed us what to do. And I'm going to preach about that for a few minutes. I want you to notice, number one, when he lost his edge, notice his concern. The Bible said he cried out. He said, hey, preacher, I lost it. I ain't got it. The first thing you got to do is you got to realize it's gone. As soon as he lost it, he said, I ain't got it anymore. Man, listen, if you don't realize it's gone, nobody else gonna know. Well, they might know, but you won't. You need to let somebody know it's gone. He knew things were different. The first swing he took without that edge, he knew something was different. And you know, he knew he couldn't keep going on like that. He wasn't gonna get anything done without that axe head. He kept on doing the work he wanted to, swinging that handle, but he wasn't gonna get anything done. He wasn't going to make a dent without that thing, brother and sister. His work didn't have the same ring to it everybody else's did. Everybody else was out there, ka-chunk, ka-chunk. He's out there, splat. Got no edge, brother and sister. And everybody, you know, the funny thing about it, everybody around him knew it. Everybody around him knew he lost something. I mean, they can tell what he's getting done. Hey, you ain't got what you used to have. Everybody in the building knew he didn't have it. Man, I was down at a meeting down south one time, and somebody got up to sing. I was the awfulest mess I've ever heard in my life. And I'm pretty tolerant. The awfulest mess I've ever heard in my life. And I looked around, and everybody in the building was kind of looking around at each other like this. I said, what happened? Those folks up on the stage thought they were setting the world on fire. Everybody's out there going to sleep. I said, what happened? They didn't have the edge. First, admit to yourself you ain't got it, brother and sister. I don't have the power of God like I used to have. I'm not as close as I used to be. I used to read my Bible more. I used to pray more. I used to invite people more. I'll just tell you, Dr. Richard, I don't have what I used to have. I've lost something. You first got to admit you're not as close as you used to be. You'll never have revival. There won't be any revival here until somebody says, hey, I need revival. I don't have, I'm not as close as I used to be. You can't tell brothers and sisters, you can't go on like this. And I preached a sermon. The first sermon I preached on the road, it was a good sermon. I went to Amarillo, Texas and preached for Brother Stalker. Man, they had a revival, and I'll tell you, it was a good sermon. And I don't take no bad sermons with me. I take all good ones. I may not be able to preach them, but I take good ones. I got up there and preached that night. And man, I preached to, I forget what it was now. I was laboring away there about the shipwreck over there, the X-27. I was preaching along through there. And man, I went all the way through that night. It was just deader than 4 o'clock. I preached it at our church. Man, they loved it. They was swinging on chandeliers. He got down there and preached the same message. It didn't go nowhere. Boy, it broke my heart. First time I've been out preaching the Bible. And I went back to the hotel at night, and I was in tears. I said, oh God. I said, I blew it tonight. And I said, dear God, if that's the best I can do, what are those people going to think of me when I leave here? And boy, just as plain as if he was talking to me, the Lord said, I don't care what they think about you when you leave here. He said, what are they going to think about me when you leave here? He said, whoo! He said, that's what I help you, son. You make him look good. You got to first admit to yourself, you don't have the edge you used to have. Then, brother and sister, after that, you got to confess that it's gone. He went, he confessed. He said, hey, lost it. He said, man of God, he told the truth in heaven. My son, you're getting on revival ground there when you tell the preacher you're backslidden. He told the preacher, I ain't got it anymore. He cried out. He said, I don't have it. Give us some people like that in church. We'll have revival. It's like Jonah. Jonah on the ship when he was running from God and the ship was going down. A great storm came up and there were thousands watching. Whose fault is this? and don't raise your hands to this faith. I'm the one, I'm running from God, amen. You give us some folks like that, we'll turn this country upside down. Are you close to God? Well, I would be if it wasn't for my wife. Boy, she's always up in there fussing about something, and it's really, no, it's not her fault, it's your fault. It's not her, it's you. Yeah, it's not her, Willie. It's like, well, we got this going, all that going on. If I was a little, I'd get closer if this happened. No, it's your fault. You're as close to God tonight as you want to be. You can get as close as you want to get. Give us some people like that, brother and sister. He told the preacher, he said, I ain't got it. Don't have it anymore. If the preacher stood up tonight and said, what's the problem? Let's have a revival right here tonight. And boy, four times people raised their hands and said, it's me. It's me, Preacher. I'm backslid. I'm not close as I used to be. Preacher, it's me. Well, he turned the country upside down. I want you to notice this, too, brother and sister. He knew it wasn't his power to start with. He lost that edge that he knew it wasn't his. And what he said, he said, the last master, where it was born, it wasn't mine, I borrowed it. I'm telling you, everything you've got, everything you own, it was all on you by the way. All blessings come from God. Gave us everything we got. It was Him. You get done preaching the message, and I know what people, I know what they mean. They come by, good message from the Lord. I know what they mean, and I thank the Lord for it. But I got no sense to know who did that. When you get to thinking it's you doing that, you got problems. We know who did that. I tell the story of Brother Lester Roloff down in Texas. Years and years ago, his daddy had a cotton farm. And Lester had to chop cotton for his daddy. Boy, that ain't no fun. But we used to chop that cotton until I was almost grown. We'd chop for $4 a day for a 10-hour day. met 40 cents an hour we talked about Lester said they had a little boy worked on their farm named Billy and said Billy was even poorer than they was. He said he's dirt poor. And Billy go out there and chop cotton all day. Billy never had a nickel. And said every Saturday last year's dad would give Lester a dime. He said you go in there and buy you a Billy Coca-Cola in the drugstore. And he'd go in there and he said he'd slap that dime on the counter and say I want two cokes. One for me and one for my friend Billy. He said he'd do that for six weeks. Every Saturday he'd go in and slap that diamond on the counter and say, two Cokes, one for me and one for my friend Billy. He said he started in there one day and felt something tug on his shirt when he was going in the door. He looked back and he said, what is Billy? He said, hey Lester. He said, can I give him the diamond today? Hey, could I look like the big shot today? Could I look like the one who's getting it done? Could I look like the man just one time today? Could I do that? Say, brother Jim, your church has been successful. It has. Brother Scottie's church is successful. This church is successful. Some of you other pastors I may not know much about, but God's given us this, and he's given us that. And thank God, we got a good place. But it never was us. That's always God just letting us pay the dime. He's making us look better than we are. Here, son, you pay the dime today. Great God. It wasn't his. It was borrowed. God gave it to him. Give us some people like that. He knew it wasn't his. The power belonged to somebody else. And he knew it. It wasn't his actually. That's somebody else's. It was borrowed, he said there, brother and sister. And that's the way that thing goes, brother, sister, belong to somebody. I'll tell you something about that guy, the guy that loaned him that axe head, I bet you he never would have loaned it to him if he didn't know he could trust him with it. What did God give you? Can he trust you with it? Can he trust you to take it and go and do something for him with it? Amen. Tonight, listen, we need to realize you might not have what you used to have. It happens to all of us. There ain't no super saints in here. There ain't no super saints. Everybody falls. Everybody fails. Everybody's a sinner. Realize we don't have what we used to. And then realize it wasn't us to begin with. And realize we can't keep operating in the flesh. We need that touch back. Amen. We need that thing. It's a big deal. Say, brother Jim, that sounds charismatic. No, that sounds Bible. You need that touch of God on your life. You need it on your home. You need it on your ministry. You need it on your marriage. You see, marriage is often like a horse and buggy, separated by a wagon tongue sometimes. Amen. I'll say this. He lost it. But to get it back. And I didn't say, ladies, whose tongue was wagging. It could have been his. It could be him, you know. I'm still your friend. To get it back, brother and sister, he got the touch back. He got the edge back. But to get it back, he had to go back. He said, son, go show me the place where he lost it. And he didn't say, well, gee, I don't know. It could have been. No. He knew what he was doing. He knew. He knew the very minute he lost it. He took it right to the spot. He said, right there's where I lost it. Right there, that's where I lost that thing. That's where it was. He said, take me back. He said, OK. He knew where it's at. My daddy, we would hunt things at our house, and things hadn't changed. I still lose everything. I forget everything. I work on guns a lot, a lot of parts. My wife made me buy two magnetic bowls the other day, put my parts in. Now you can't lose them. You turn it upside down, now really you can't lose them. Good idea, Gail. But we lose everything. And sometimes I'd lose something. I'd say, Dad, I've lost my ball glove. And I don't know where it's at. And everybody would build a house. I'd have a ball game at 6 o'clock. Everybody in the house looking for my ball glove. And my dad would always ask the same question every time, the same question. He said, son, where's the last place you had it? Woo! Let me ask you tonight, church. Where's the last place you had it? Woo! You remember the last place you was close to God? You remember the last place when you could feel the Holy Ghost bump something back in your neck? You remember the last time you'd pray and get your prayers answered, God met with you? Hey, when's the last place you had it? I'd start right there and get it back. Young people, mom and dad all love you. Music, if you're not careful, that'll cost you the edge. Churches invite this Christian rock music and stuff in. It'll cost you dad's church. Mom and dad, you stay with that old country music stuff, it'll cost you dad's church. I got no sense to know there's a few good country songs, there's a few good pop songs. But boy, believe the trash you gotta filter through. You say, Brudget, I found a good song, nothing wrong with it. Yeah, you can find a nickel in a sewer every now and then. I wouldn't call it a bank. Tammy Wynette, stand by your man. She's married five times. She'd stand by your man if you turned your head for a minute. I always let preachers take care of stuff like this. I don't ever go to church and tell people how to live. I don't do it. But the way you dress can cost you the edge. Be careful with it, I'll let the preacher tell you what's appropriate and what ain't, but it'll cost you the edge. I remember going down to San Antonio, we preached down there for a week, and they took us all out to Six Flags, and that was back when belly shirts were in style. All the girls wore belly shirts, you know, where most of their belly was exposed. I never seen anything like it in my life, and boy, some of them had a belly to show. I think there ought to be a size limit on that or something. Hey man, if you're this high, you can't ride this ride. You weigh this much, you can't wear this shirt. Nothing wrong with that. They say they ought to pass a new law that if you wear animal print yoga pants, you have to weigh less than the animal represents. The company you keep costs you the edge. Young people, be careful, it'll cost you the edge. You hang with the wrong crowd, it'll cost you the edge. You be careful with that. The language you use costs you the edge. God won't put up with that. You be careful with it. You say, well, I just let one fly. Now listen, if a preacher can't let one fly, nobody can. But we don't. Or we better not, anyway. You shouldn't, anyway. I'll put it that way. Unforgiving spirit costs you the edge. That's what's wrong with Baptists, brother. We go to churches all the time. And one side's been mad at another group in the church. One family bad with another family. That unforgiving spirit costs you the edge. You won't have it. Talk about what to do if you lose your edge. That's it. Bitterness, brother and sister. Bitterness is you sitting across the table from somebody you can't stand. And you're drinking poison and waiting on them to die. It ain't going to kill them. It's going to kill you. That's good. It costs you the edge too. Now listen, I don't know where you lost it at. lost it, probably when you put your Bible down. But I bet you know, I bet you know, don't you? Now listen, you keep going through the motions. No power, no real joy. Or you can find your place the alternate night. Say, Lord, I'm not close. I used to be. Would you give me any respect? Give it back to me. I need it. I get in trouble with this all. I just left Alabama. And I gave this same illustration to Alabama. But we used to have a thing for these kids on Saturday night. That was wrong. We'd lost. But we had a thing when we wanted to run around on Saturday night called Alabama Credit Card. And it was a piece of garden hose about six feet long. And you could put that in any gas tank. And you should have gas around Friday, Saturday night. We called it siphoning gas. We called it stealing. A bunch of outfits. God should have killed us. But we use that Alabama credit card and we sock it off somebody else's tank and put it on our tank. And we're going down the road. Alabama credit card. That's what we call it. Say, bro, Jim, that's silly. Well, Hans, goodnight. When's the last time you had your eggs? Some of you, you've been siphoning off your wife's spiritual life. She's in church. She's trying to do right. She's reading her Bible. You've been siphoning it off her. Some of you kids have been siphoning it off your mom and daddy. You got a spiritual life of your own? How about quitting siphoning off them? Amen. We had a family on our road, and my mama would send us down the road to borrow a cup of sugar. And back then, it's what neighbors did. You folks my age, you know what I'm talking about. If you needed a cup of flour, you'd go to the neighbors, get a cup, or you'd borrow sugar, or they'd come to your house and borrow something. That's just the way it was. Borrow something. They'd have a flavor if they wanted to make you a cake. But we'd do that all the time. My mom, when times was hard, she'd say, why don't you go out and borrow me a cup of sugar, and I'll make you sweet bread. I said, all right. I was just a kid. I'm ready to go. I like the sweet bread. Say, what's sweet bread? Just cake without icing. It's good. We'd go down there and get it. I'd get that cut and I'd start at the door. She said, son, don't go down to the Congress House. I said, why? She said, you can go to any house up and down our gravel road, but you can't go left. I said, why, mama? She said, son, they got less than we got. She said, they ain't got enough to keep herself alive. And they sure can't loan you nothing. She said, don't go down there. I've thought about that a million times since I've been saved. Let me ask you, if somebody on your road need a little spiritual boost. Somebody in your family, you need a little spiritual uplift. Can they borrow anything off you? Oh, God look down and say, no, don't go to them. They ain't got no spiritual life. They ain't got nothing touching God to keep them going. You can't borrow nothing from them. Get it back. Sometimes you have to go back. You can come to this altar tonight and you can go back to the place you lost it and get it back. Lord, I'm sorry, I won't have revival this week. I'll say this, my last point. Somebody said, thank God. I'll say this, when he got it back, he got it back supernaturally. Nobody on the creek bank that day could give it back to him. Nobody down the river that day could give it back to him. He had to put a stick in there and the iron didn't swim. God did that. He's the only one. No man can get it back without God. Your mama can't give it back to you, young people. Your daddy can't give it back to you. Husband and wife, nobody. You can't get it back from each other. You can't get it back from a dear friend. If you get it back tonight, it'll be supernatural. It'll be taking place right here at this altar. That's where it'll take place. Right here is where the iron will swim tonight if you're serious with God. If you're serious with God. I'll say this, brother and sister, you have to deal with the Lord. Here's some things the text don't say, and I'm adding them, but the text don't say anything about it. But I bet you when he got it back, I bet he took better care of it. He got it back, I bet you he turned it over and drove that little wedge to the top, drove that thing down the top, so he'd never lose it again. I got saved, got in church, but I didn't hit the ground for three months. I was so saved, nobody could put up with me. That's all I talk about is Jesus everywhere I went. And after a while, a year or so, my old buddy started coming back around, and I started going with him, and going all the way down to church. y'all. And most of my main is I got it too. I got it. I'm sorry to say that. And one day at an altar in Dyersburg, Tennessee, me and my wife just got married. And she wants to go to church. Thank God. And I bet you it sure did feel good to be getting something done again. Instead of just going through the motions, now he's getting something done again. Oh, it's good to get it back. Praise God, it's good to get it back. Churches today, all over the country, not just this church, every church, are full of people, brother and sister, who once really had it. I mean, they were as close to God as anybody you'll meet. And now they're not happy, not bearing fruit, Say, what's the problem, Brother Jim? He lost something. He lost that touch. He lost that edge. You say, Brother Jim, I still feel God's presence. I'm OK. And I prayed the other day, and God answered my prayer. I'm all right. Brother Susan, you can have all that still and not have the edge. Children of Israel rebelled against God. They stood in the wilderness 40 years. But in the wilderness, their feet didn't swell. Their shoes didn't wear out. They prayed for meat. They got meat. They prayed for bread. They got bread. They prayed for water. They got water. They got their prayers answered, and they were miles from where God wanted them to be. Just because God's merciful still answered prayer now, it don't mean your word, God, won't be heard. They were alone. He wanted them in Canaan. They were miles from Canaan, but God still had mercy on them. But that don't mean they had the edge. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Then confess it's gone. You don't have to tell the preacher. Tell the Lord. Tell the Lord. Go back to where you lost it. Ask God to give it back to you. I talked last night about hiding that belt. Are you cold tonight? Are you getting warmer? Are you getting colder? God's spoken to your heart. Listen, it's so much more fun being a Christian when you've got the touch, you've got the edge, and you're getting something done for God.