Take your Bibles, if you would, open them to the book of Luke chapter 24, and you can keep your finger there or put a Bible marker there, a bookmark, whatever, and then also mark Acts chapter 1, and we'll look there. We'll go to Luke 24 and then Acts chapter 1. Brother Earl did say that we've been friends for a long time, and we have. We really have. And also, as he said, we haven't really got to spend a lot of time together, even though we've been in the same area for over 20 years. And we talk more than we fellowship, don't we, brother, as far as that's concerned. But you can always tell a good friend when you don't have to reacquaint yourself when when you do have fellowship. I don't know how he feels, but I know that when I see him, it's just like we pick up right where we left off and just, you know, we we talk like we've been talking just yesterday, you know, and that's what friends do. Friends can do that. And that's he's been an encouragement to me through many years. He he he tells everybody that I was his pastor because I pastored his home church. But believe me, this man's been at it longer than I have. And I know for a fact I could learn a lot from him, that's for sure. But what a blessing. I'm glad that we've got some folks here. These are Christian people. They're Bible people. And the way I know that is because they follow their shepherd. And that's what sheep are supposed to do, aren't they? That's what sheep are supposed to do. They're supposed to follow the shepherd. And they came all the way over here tonight, which I appreciate a great deal. A great deal. Now, first of all, I want you to notice here in Luke chapter 24, Luke chapter 24, and in verse number 49, It says, And behold, Jesus speaking here, Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them. Now go over to Acts chapter 1. In Acts chapter 1, and we will begin in verse number 6. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power, but ye shall receive power. After that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight. Boy, wouldn't you like to have been there that day? Huh? Wouldn't that have been a sight? I mean, that was, there was a lot of amazing sights that took place when Jesus was here upon Verse 10, And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. Now won't that be a sight? That'll be a sight. There's gonna be some folks get to see that as well. Verse 12, Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a Sabbath day's journey. And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, and Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James, the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas, the brother of James. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. And in those days, Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples and said, The number of names together were about 120. Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus. For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry. Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. Wasn't that a sight? I'm glad I didn't get to see that one, all right? Verse 19, and it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem, insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, aseldema, that is to say, the field of blood. For it is written in the book of Psalms, let this habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein, and his bishopric let another take. Wherefore, of these men which have accompanied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection. And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justice, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, show whither of these two thou hast chosen. may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place. And they gave forth their lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. Father, we come to you tonight, and Lord we thank you for your word. Lord, no matter what day of the week it is, your word is powerful, and we thank you for it. And God, no matter what we know, what we've been taught, what we've yet to learn, we know that we can glean that which is going to be helpful and precious to each one of us through your word, no matter where we are, when we have that opportunity. And I pray that tonight, as we look into your word, you'll help us to focus upon your word and upon you and that we'll listen to the Holy Spirit and be obedient to Him tonight. For it's in Christ's name we pray, amen. You know, I believe that the scripture that we just read is the account of the greatest revival in history. I really do. And we could see in this passage or these two passages that we read there in Luke and the book of Acts, how they obtained revival. Revival just doesn't happen. You know, it's not a spooky thing. I know it's Halloween time, but revival's not a spooky thing. It happens, and it happens on purpose. And the greatest evangelistic crusade that ever took place was in Acts chapter 2. We call that Pentecost, because that's what it is in the Word of God. But the greatest revival is described here in Acts chapter 1. And, you know, we need to understand that revival takes place among those that are already saved. Revival is not an evangelistic campaign. It's a result, I think, of revival, but it doesn't really take place among the lost. The effects are felt by the lost as well they should. but the actual revival takes place in the Christian. Now, I'm gonna read you something, and I'll give you permission to talk, okay, as far as that's concerned, and I'm gonna read this to you, and if you know what this is, you just yell it out to me, okay? You ladies will get this, I'm sure. All right, here we go. Two cups of white sugar, a quarter cup of cocoa, a half a cup of milk, a half a cup of butter, one teaspoon of vanilla extract, A pinch of salt. What? What am I reading to you? A recipe. Oh, my word, I thought you'd get it after the first three, but okay, we got it here, okay? It's a recipe, all right? Let me continue on a half a cup of peanut butter, a half a cup of quick cooking oats, all right? Now, how many know what the recipe is? What is it? Peanut butter cookies, anybody else? No-bake oatmeal cookies. That's close enough, isn't it? Down south, they call them preacher cookies. They accuse us of being half-baked, but that's okay. These are no-bake cookies, preacher cookies, whatever you want to call them. But these are the ingredients. Now, if you wanted a chocolate cake, these are wrong ingredients, aren't they? If you wanted an apple pie, these are the wrong ingredients. But if you wanted no-bake cookies, we got it, okay? We got the right ingredients. Well, there's four ingredients that we can see in this recipe here for revival in Acts chapter 1. Now, we look here. It says you cook in a saucepan. You put sugar, cocoa, milk, and butter. Boil, stirring constantly. Boil for one minute, then remove from the heat. Stir in vanilla, salt, peanut butter, and oats. Drop by rounded teaspoon onto wax paper and let it cool for an hour. And the last instruction is eat, okay? That's what you want to do. That's the last instruction here. But there's a recipe. And if you follow the recipe, you're going to get the desired result if this is the recipe that you want. And, you know, sometimes, I mean, I like to cook, but I don't know beans from apple butter when it comes to cooking. But you give me a recipe, and if I have all the ingredients, I can follow that recipe. And I'm surprised a couple of times it turned out really good, didn't it, honey? She ate it once, and it was good. She didn't want to take a second chance on it. But anyhow, if you have the right recipe, you'll end up with the right result. Well, here in this passage of scripture, we have a recipe. Now, it's only got four ingredients, but if we use this recipe, then I believe we'll have revival because they did. And I believe that we can too, every single one of us. In Luke chapter number 24 and verse 49, I want you to see something. Here's the first ingredient. And behold, I send the promise of my father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. The first ingredient in revival is obedience. Jesus said, tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. Now, revival didn't start with the preaching of God's word. That's not where it started, okay? It didn't start with the preacher. And we always think, oh, we're going to have revival. Who's preaching? Doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter. This revival did not start with the preacher. It started with the congregation. It started with them being obedient to the command of Jesus. You say, well, what did he command them to do? He told them to tarry In Jerusalem, until you be endued. Now that word endued is an interesting word. Until you be endued with power from on high. Until you be clothed with power from on high. Until you're covered with power from on high. You stay here. Now, I would imagine if you and I got that same command, you stay here in the church house at Sugar Run Valley Baptist Church until you be endued with power. They've never been endued with power like they're going to be endued with power. So they were there. They didn't have a clue as to what was going to happen, how it was going to happen. If they want to see it, they're going to feel it. They really did not know. They just know or knew that Jesus told them to stay there. You see, it started with them being obedient. It didn't start with Peter. It started with all of them being obedient to the Lord. And then notice in verse In verse number 12, here in Acts chapter 1, in verse number 12 it says, Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet. Then returned they. You see, they returned, why? Because they obeyed God. They were in Jerusalem. And it says, then returned they. You see, nothing, nothing pleases God more than to see his children obedient to him. Now, mom and dad, if you have children, or if your children are grown, isn't it a blessing when they obey? If your grandparents, isn't it a blessing when your grandchildren obey? It really is. Kids, you want to be a blessing, you be obedient. I mean, right now, you've got their eye, you've got their ear. I mean, you've got it if you're obedient, and that's the way it was with the Lord. It started with them. It showed that they had the right attitude. It showed that they were in the right position, and they were obedient. You see, in the Old Testament, all of us, I think, are aware that Israel made sacrifices to God. In the tabernacle, in the temple, they made sacrifices. And Samuel told King Saul, in 1 Samuel 15, verse 22, he told King Saul, to obey is better than sacrifice. Sacrifices were good. Sacrifices basically were started because of the instruction of God Almighty Himself to Moses. But to obey is better than sacrifice. Sacrifice honored God. There's no question about that. But to obey God is better than sacrificing. Saul thought, well, he was going to do it his way, see. And if we want real revival, we need the purpose in our hearts to be obedient to the Holy Spirit's leading. And by the way, being led by the Holy Spirit of God, it is not, it's not something that God sits up in heaven trying to figure out how he can fool us and hide it from us. No, He wants us to follow Him. He's going to make it very, very clear how He is leading us. And if we want real revival, then we've got to personally now, personally decide and purpose that we're going to be obedient to the Holy Spirit. You know, I'll throw this question out there. I mean, when you come to church, I assume You want to hear from God. I assume that, okay? Whether it's through Sunday school teacher, whether it's through the preaching of the Word of God, you want to hear from God, okay? And I would assume that if you hear from God, you plan on being obedient. I mean, if you don't want to hear from God and you don't want to be obedient, what in the world are you doing here? I mean, seriously, I'm not trying to chase anybody away, bro. But the fact of the matter is, I mean, why in the world are you coming? Now, I realize that some people, they come to church because it's a status symbol. Well, you know, we've got to keep up with the Joneses, whoever they are. I never met the Joneses, have you? But you've got to keep up. You've got to keep our image. maintain our status in the in the community. We have to maintain, you know, our position of of dignity. And we have to appear to be something that we're not. Now, some people have that attitude. That's why they go to church. But, you know, we ought to come to the to the Lord's house with the expectation of hearing from him. Yeah, we'll hear from a Sunday school teacher. We'll hear from a preacher. But if they're using the word of God, we ought to come expecting to hear from God. And then we ought to come with the attitude that, God, you speak to me, I will obey. Just already purpose in your heart that whatever God says, I will obey. If he convicts, I will obey. If he convicts to where I have to repent, I will obey. See? And we don't always hear what we want to hear. But I guarantee you, we always hear what we need to hear. when we come to the Lord's house. Jesus told them to tarry in the city, and they did. And they didn't know exactly what it was that they were waiting for, but they'd know when it came. They would know. I used this illustration before, so you bear with me, OK? But several years ago, before I went to ministry, I was in Youngstown Baptist Church, and Ann and I, we worked with young people and everything. And I went to my preacher one day, and I asked him, I said, preacher, I said, how do you know if God's calling you to preach? And he looked at me, and he said, you'll know. Yeah, yeah, I know. I know. I'll know. But how will I know? How do you know? when God's calling you to preach. And he looked at me over the top of his glasses. He said, Manuel, you'll know. Well, I wanted something in black and white. I really did. I wanted to say, here's how you will know. That's the kind of guy I am, black and white guy, OK? So I went down the hall to my youth pastor, associate pastor of the church. And I said, Russ, let me ask you a question. I said, how do you know if God's calling you to preach? And he looked at me and he said, you'll know, man, you'll know. I thought, man, these two guys are in cahoots. The problem was that they didn't have time to talk. And I said, well, yeah, I know, I know, I'll know, but how will I know? And he said, you'll know, you'll just know. Well, they would know. God said, you tarry till you're endued with power. He didn't tell them what was going to happen. They just, they knew. And by the way, we read that in the book of Acts. They knew, didn't they? And that's the way God deals, see? And if we want real revival, folks, we've got to be obedient. We have to be obedient if we want real revival in every aspect of our life to be obedient, not just during revival week. Not just during the arrival services. No, in every single aspect of our lives. Not just at 7 o'clock during the week, but at 7 o'clock in the morning during the week. And every single day, every hour of the day, we need to be obedient to Almighty God. I mean, they were. He said, you tarry here, you wait here. And they waited there. By the way, how long were they there? Anybody know? How long were they there? How long were they waiting? How long were they tarrying? Anybody know? There's nobody here but us tonight. You can talk, OK? To me. Until they were endued with power. Now, that's a perfect answer. OK. They were there 10 days. 10 days. They were obedient for 10 days. whole days, which by the way, at the end of that time, they were a dude with power. So you were right. You were right later. Exactly. As far as that goes, but that's the first ingredient. You're not going to have revival without obedience. You're going to leave that out. It's not going to work. So you're not going to get the result that you want. Ingredient number two, look at verse number 14 here again in Oh, don't you know, I pulled that out. All right. Let's, uh, let's look at Acts chapter, um, Acts chapter one and in verse number 14, notice it says these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus and with his brethren. Okay. They were in one accord. Ingredient number two is unity. Okay. Unity. They were of one mind, they were of one purpose, they were in one accord. You see, when folks are obedient and they were all obedient in that room. By the way, how many were there? About how many? About 120, absolutely. 120? I would say 120 Baptists for 10 days all getting along one accord. That in itself is almost a miracle, okay? As far as that goes, all right? But the fact of the matter was, they were there, they were all in one accord, see? Now, it's not difficult to be in one accord when everybody is being obedient to the Lord. It's not hard. If you're obeying God and I'm obeying God, we got a lot in common, don't we? We sure do, we got a lot in common. So it's not hard to be on the same page, one accord, if you want to put it that way. You see, if you're obedient, and I'm not, we can't be in one accord. We're on the opposite side, see. The children of Israel, when they were wandering in the wilderness, God told him to go and possess the land. I want you to go and possess the land, which we know is the promised land. And so Moses sent 12 spies in. And they came back. Ten were disobedient. Two were obedient. Ten said, we can't we can't win. They were basically saying we we can't do what God tells us to do. Two guys said, yes, we can. Let's just go get them. God said to go get him. God said he'd be with us. I said, go do it. They were wanting to be obedient to the Lord. But there was disunity, wasn't there? And there was no victory at all, see. Their purpose was simply to obey God. Moses sending them over, all 12 of them, the purpose was not to find out whether they could or not. Their purpose was just to spy out the land and see what God was going to do through them. See? They were to obey the Lord. These Christians here in the book of Luke, chapter 24, they were all of one mind. They were waiting for the power of God to fall on them together. I would imagine that they expected that all of them would experience the power. And by the way, they did. It wasn't just going to be on one. I don't think they expected that Peter was going to be the only one. No, they were all waiting on the endowment of the power of God. Folks, if we're of one mind, of one purpose, then we are on our way to revival. Is there any schism in your life? Is there any body that you just are at odds with? You need to get that taken care of. You know, the Bible says if a brother offends you, you go to them. Well, I'm not going to them. They're the bad guys. They're the ones that did wrong. Right. You're supposed to go to them. You say, well, that's hard to do. Yeah, well, if it was easy, everybody would be doing it. OK. If it was easy, God, and everybody was doing it, God wouldn't tell us to do it. But He tells us to do it simply because that's not our nature. But we're to be in one accord. If someone has offended us, we need to forgive. If they've been overtaken into fault, we need to be the one to restore them. You see, I mean, we know all these scriptures and everything, and boy, we can quote them, we can say, that's right, amen, brother. But when it comes to put them in practice, It's a different story, isn't it? But it's still right to do that. We ought to make it our goal. We ought to make it our mission to be in one accord with all of our brothers and sisters in Christ, to be in one accord. There ought not be any division, any schism in the church. And my friend, listen, if there is in your heart, you're wrong. OK? Now, I know that's really not a nice way to say that. And you might leave here tonight thinking. I don't like that guy. Well, join the crowd. There's probably several more of them around somewhere, OK? But what I'm basically saying, I mean, this, you know, we want revival. We sing, revive us again. And we hear about revival. We think, oh yeah, it's going to be great. But if we want revival, it's not because we put a sign out front and open up the doors Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, and Friday, and whenever we have it. That's 7 o'clock. Oh, we're having revival. No, you're having meetings. which is good. If we're going to have revival, by the way, you can have revival without having revival meetings. It's a hard issue. See? If we're obedient and we're in one accord, hey, that's half the recipe. We're on our way. It's cooking now, isn't it? We're cooking now as far as that's concerned. But the third ingredient, let's look again at Acts chapter 1 and look at verse number 14 it says these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brethren okay the third ingredient is prayer and supplication okay that's the third ingredient we say wow hey everybody can pray sure that's right you know I'm teaching you anything you didn't know before. And really, we can be obedient, can't we? That's our personal choice. We can it's not something that's that's we got to go to school for learn how to be obedient. No, we can be obedient. And and we can be in one accord. We don't have to be at odds with one another. See, brother, brother Earl and I have been friends for a long, long time. We don't see eye to eye on everything. But I'm tell you something. He's a good friend of mine. I've been married to my wife a long time, huh? Right, honey? 52 years. And I want to tell you something. We do not see eye to eye on everything. But you know what? She's the closest friend I got. I'm the closest friend she got, whether she knows it or not, OK? As far as that goes. But I'm just saying that we can be in one accord. We can be obedient. And we can pray. Nobody can stop you from praying. Somebody might stop you from praying out loud, but they can't stop you from praying. See? And by the way, notice it says here, this is very, very interesting. Here in verse number 14, it says, these all continue with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and marry the mother of Jesus and with his brother. See, with the women. The women were in one accord too. Okay, ladies, you want revival, you got to be in one accord. Sister so-and-so over here's got a loose lip. You need to love that loose lip with her, love her. And just pray to Lord, tighten up her lip a little bit, okay? Sister so-and-so over here is this way or that way or whatever. Hey, let's be in one accord for Christ's sake, for Jesus' sake, see? And by the way, Ladies, you can pray. Okay. They prayed. There was 120 up there. We don't know how many men, how many women, but we do know there were women up there. Yeah, Peter did the preaching. And yeah, the men took the lead. That's God's design. But ladies, you're not second-class Christian citizens. You're not. You're not second-class. You're on the front lines. See? And God put that in here when he said, with the women. They were together. They were in one accord in their prayers. What do you think they were praying for? You ever stop and think? I mean, it's a prayer meeting, 10-day prayer meeting. Jesus told the disciples, what, could you not watch for me for one hour? And here they were, OK, you couldn't watch an hour? I'll show you, you're going to be praying 10 days, all right? And they prayed. What do you think they prayed for? One thing. Any ideas at all? Well, I believe they were praying for power. Don't you? Jesus told them they were going to get power. Well, pray for power, OK? Acts chapter 1 verse 8 says you shall receive power. Did you ever pray for power? Huh? Well, I suppose they prayed for power. You know, I think Peter was praying for power to not deny Christ again. I think Thomas was praying for power not to doubt Him again. Right? And I think that Peter was praying for Thomas, and Thomas was praying for Peter, and they were praying for each other. See, that's supplication is what that is. See? They were in one accord in prayer and supplication. Supplication simply is just asking a favor in some special necessity, unquote. I couldn't tell you who said that, but that's a good definition. See? And when you stop and think about this, it was necessary, it was necessary for them to have power in order to continue to be obedient. You say, what do you mean by that? Well, they needed power to carry out the Great Commission, didn't they? Jesus said, go ye therefore and teach all nations. Go into all the world and preach the gospel. They needed some power. And Jesus promised they were going to get it. But they had to be obedient. They had to be in one accord. And since they were together, they might as well pray. And they did. And they got the power. And Peter didn't deny him again. Thomas never doubted him again. See? And they got the power. And lo and behold, don't you know they carried out the Great Commission? Because they had the power. And we could have that same power, see. We need power to carry out the work that was handed down to us, that was given to us by God. Great commission was given to them by God, the son. And we have been given the great commission. And folks, we need power. And we ought to pray for power. Pray for power if you haven't prayed for power. Pray for power for yourself. Pray your preacher has power. Power, power to, power to talk to people, power to have, have discernment, have wisdom, you know, in, in helping his flock with, with the needs and the, and, and, and the, the difficulties that they're experiencing. Pray, pray for power. Pray for each other. Pray for each other. Now, I'll tell you something. We don't know what other people are experiencing. We really don't. Well, so-and-so ain't here tonight, brother. Backslid a bunch of no-count lowlifes. We don't know. We don't know. I just heard today, in fact, I was in the parking lot talking to a brother, was telling me about a lady that may have to have surgery on her gallbladder. The last time I saw her was yesterday, smiling, just talking. You'd never know it. You'd never know it. We don't know what, you know, other people are experiencing. And, you know, let me caution you. Don't ever judge somebody based on the opinion of somebody else. Okay? You've probably been judged that way, haven't you? And I have too. That doesn't help you. It doesn't help them. Who's it help? Helps our enemy, the devil. That's who it helps, really. So we need power. We need revival power to accomplish anything for God. So what's the first ingredient is? Obedience. The second ingredient is? Unity. And the third ingredient is? Prayer. Hey, we can do that, can't we? Man, we're well into making a feast here, OK? I mean, it's going to be good. Now, the fourth and final ingredient is the one ingredient that kind of binds these other things together. When you're cooking something and you're making something, what is it that kind of binds the ingredients? I don't know the answer to that. Is it flour? Is that what it is? Huh? Is it flour? Sometimes. Okay. Sugar? Will that? Eggs? Eggs, okay, all right. So there's things that bind things together. Well, this last ingredient, it holds everything together. It holds the obedience, it holds the unity, it holds the prayer, the supplication, holds it all together so there can be revival. And again, we go back to verse 14 of Acts chapter one. Let's look at it. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brother. The fourth ingredient is consistency. These all continued. They continued. They didn't start and stop. They just continued. They went right on. They all continued in prayer. They all continued in supplication, praying for each other. Interceding for each other. They all continued in unity. They all continued in obedience. While they were together, they were all obedient. Because Jesus said, tarry. So they tarried. And they were all in one accord. They were in unity. No fights breaking out. No gossiping going on. They were busy. Listen, let me encourage you. Be busy using your lips, talking to him, not talking about her. Okay, talk to him. If you're going to talk about her, tell him about her. He can take care of anything. And by the way, if you're going to tell God something, ask God to do one thing. Ask God, if you're at odds with somebody, somebody irritating you. By the way, you know anybody that irritates you? Buddy, I'm going to tell you, I do. There's some people here taking the fire out of me. And you probably know something like that as well. You know what you ought to do? Ask God to bless that person. Just ask God to do something great for that individual, to be a blessing to them. You say, well, they don't deserve that. Well, you probably don't either. But talk to him. Pray. They certainly did that as well. See, they all continue. It's just it wasn't one time obedience. You know, obey one time, pat yourself on the back and go on. No, it wasn't just a one time prayer. Or one time fellowship. See. They continued day in and day out for 10 days. Some Christians are so full of themselves, they couldn't be in unity with anyone for 10 minutes, let alone 10 days. You know people like that, don't you? I know people like that as well. But when God saw, because they continued, they continued being obedient, they continued praying, they continued supplicating, they continued in prayer, they continued in their fellowship, When God saw that they meant business, He sent revival. Real revival. This wasn't a game with them. This was not a game with Peter, and James, and John, and the disciples, and the women, and the mother of Jesus. This was not a Christian game. This was real. I mean, they saw this guy crucified. They saw Him buried, beaten and bloody. They saw Him when He rose again from the grave. They saw Him ascend back up into heaven. And the last thing He told them was, go into Jerusalem and tarry there until you get the power. I'm telling you something, you know somebody like that, you're going to obey them. You're going to do exactly what they say. Folks, let me tell you something. If Jesus is real, you're going to do exactly what He says. If He's real to you, none of this play in Christian stuff. None of this play in church stuff. Okay? This is real, real life stuff. And if He's real to you, there's got to be obedience. That's evidence of the fact that you do believe. That's evidence of the fact that he is real. He's not just some pie-in-the-sky figure. He's not just something that we do because we have to. No, it's real. Whether anybody else is doing it or not. Whether anybody else feels that way or not. See? See, revival didn't start with Peter when he started preaching. Revival started even before Peter got up and said one word. It didn't start in the pulpit. Where did it start? In the pews. That's where the revival started, see. If you want a good pie or you want a good cake, you gotta have the right ingredients. If you want real revival, you gotta have the right ingredients. Take one part obedience, one part unity, one part prayer, Put it all together, stir it up, and be consistent, okay? We don't want any lumpy revival, okay? We want it to be consistent, all right? And when you do that, the result is exactly what you want. It's going to be a revival, real, honest to goodness, revival in the heart of God's people. It's going to be a God-sent revival. By the way, no substitute ingredients will do. You see, if it says sugar, put some sugar. Don't put that stuff in the green package, in the yellow package, in the red package. Just put some sugar in it, OK? I mean, if it calls for whatever, and you try to substitute something, you know, maybe you don't have it in your cupboard, and so you substitute, no, no, you can tell, can't you? You can tell the difference. You can tell the difference. No substitute ingredients is gonna do. Several years ago, I may have told this one, I don't know, but several years ago, when our children were in school, And I say this not derogatorily, but my wife is not a morning person Okay, anybody here like that. You're just not a morning person. Okay. All right. You understand that all all teenagers are not a morning person Okay, but but the fact of matter is she's not a morning person. She's a she's a night person She's what you call maybe a night owl or whatever. I am I'm I hit the floor running in the morning I'm always up you know, before she is. I wish I could sleep in, I really do. But anyhow, back when our kids were growing up, they were in school, I'd get up early in the morning, I'd fix breakfast. Sometimes we'd have cereal, sometimes we'd just have toast, but a lot of times I would make scrambled eggs. I you know how you make scrambled eggs anybody here not know how to make scrambled eggs, okay? I'm going to teach you how to make scrambled egg you get a bowl and you take your eggs and you crack them you put them in there you throw the throw the eggshells away, okay, right and you mix that up with the Thing think of a jobber. Yeah, you mix that up, okay? Put a little salt put a little pepper in it, and I always put some milk in it and Stir it all up and everything put milk in it because that way it gives you a little bit more and you stir it up Okay, and then you've already got your pan already heated and you've got a pound of butter in there got a pound of butter I mean a lot of butter okay, then you pour it pour the eggs in there, okay? You let them cook and you cut them up a little bit you stir them around a little bit Let them cook flip them over and whatever else and you got scrambled eggs, okay? And so, Heidi comes up, she's my daughter, she comes up, usually first one, and I said, you want some eggs, honey? She said, yeah, dad, that sounds good. So, I put some scrambled eggs on the plate, made her a piece of toast, put that over there. She had her orange juice or whatever she had. She ate them and everything. She said, dad, these eggs taste funny. I said, really? She said, yeah. I said, let me have a bite. So, I got a bite. I said, oh, they're OK. They're OK with me. She says, no, I think they taste funny. I said, OK, all right. I said, well, Manny's coming up. He'll tell us about the eggs and everything. So Manny comes up. And I'm over there. And I've got my back to him. And I can hear him back there talking about the eggs. They're whispering about the eggs or whatever else. And so I give Manny some eggs. And I said, Manny, how's the eggs? He tasted them. He said, well, they're OK, Dad. I said, see, Heidi? If you don't want any eggs, don't eat any eggs. She said, Dad, I want some eggs, but they don't taste right. Manny said, yeah, they're OK. So OK, we're waiting on Matt to come on up. And lo and behold, a few, oh, maybe 30 seconds, Manny says, Dad, these eggs do taste funny. I said, what's wrong with you guys? I took another bite or two. I said, these eggs are OK. There's nothing wrong with these eggs. So Matt comes up. He's the egg expert. And I say, Matt, taste these eggs. Tell me if they're any good. He took a bite. He said, yeah, they're OK, Dad. And I hear him back there. They're talking, you know, back and forth. A few seconds later, Matt says, Dad, these eggs are. There's something wrong with these eggs. I thought, good day. All three of them say there's something wrong. There's something wrong. I thought, well, maybe I got some rotten eggs. You know, but I thought, well, they didn't look rotten. They didn't smell rotten. They cooked up. They looked just like any other morning that I cooked breakfast and everything. And I'm thinking, oh, maybe I had some sour milk. So I opened up the top of the milk carton and went like that, and I thought, uh-oh. The milk wasn't sour. It really wasn't. I got the container of eggnog instead of milk. The moral of the story is don't ever put eggnog in scrambled eggs. That's okay. And when I saw that and I tasted the eggs, I thought, yeah, there's something wrong with these eggs, okay. And kids, they just love that. They'll be able to tell you the story better than what I would. But you know what? It had the wrong ingredient. And with the wrong ingredient, you don't get the result that you desire and that you want and that you need. We've got to be obedient. We've got to be in unity. We've got to pray. And we need to be consistent day in and day out and day in and day out. And my friend, there will be revival in the heart of God's people. All of us, all the time. In fact, if I had put the eggnog in there, it would have tasted a whole lot better. But I put the wrong ingredient. It was by accident, but it was still the wrong ingredient. And my friend, let me tell you something. You don't know better than God. You can put other ingredients if you want, thinking that Well, this is going to really turn out great. Well, they might turn out great, but you're not going to have revival. I don't know what you're going to have, but you're not going to have revival. And what was said after these folks had revival? They turned the world upside down. They had the power because they waited on it. And God gave it to them because their hearts were ready. When God saw they meant business, he gave them revival. You mean business tonight with God? Oh, you might mean business at home. You might mean business as far as your job and everything. Those things are important. But do you mean business with God? I guarantee you, my friend, You can say it, you can think it, but God knows it, whether we are or not. And if there's no revival, it's not his fault. We got the recipe, okay? The oven's all warmed up and ready to put the ingredients in. Amen? Amen. Let's all stand. Our heads bowed and our eyes closed. I have no idea, or let me put it this way, I have no doubt that God's people want revival. Whether it's in this church or the church that I pastor, a child of God really does want revival when they think about it. But if we're gonna have revival, it's gotta be done God's way. It can't be manufactured. We can't go to the store and get an erector set, put it together. Now God's given us the ingredients that we need and he's given us all those in ourselves already. We can choose to be obedient. We can choose to be unified. We can choose to pray and we can choose to be real and be consistent. I wanna encourage you, if you really want revival, there's the ingredients, there's the recipe. The choice is yours, the choice is mine. Let's have revival. Father, thank you for your word. And Lord, they meant business with you and we can mean business with you too. God, I just pray that we will experience the power that they experienced and Lord that we will accomplish because of revival what they accomplished that we would literally turn our world upside down. It might just be our home. It might just be our neighborhood. It might just be our place of work or a place of school. But God you give us power. And we thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen.