with fasting and with sackcloth and earth upon them. And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all strangers and stood and confessed their sins and iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read in the book of the law of the Lord their God one fourth part of the day. And another fourth part they confessed and worshipped the Lord Their God or the Brad you pray ask God to bless the message this morning please. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. A lot said today about what real revival is. Real revival is when your personal fellowship with Jesus Christ has been restored or improved. You can be evangelistic and never experience revival. You can go about walking and talking and telling others about Jesus Christ and never really experience what revival is. I don't believe, as many people preach, that just the fact that you go out and evangelize, and you should, and witness, and you should, that as a result of you witnessing and telling others about Jesus Christ, that your own relationship with Jesus Christ will flourish. I know a lot of people who can tell you a lot about how to be saved. They can almost quote the Romans' road or whatever way they choose to show somebody their need for salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ and how that he died on the cross and was buried and raised again the third day. but they don't know anything about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And when trouble strikes and trials come and tribulation happens, they don't know how to get a hold of the Lord. They don't know that the Lord is anything other than a Savior. They don't know Him as a friend and they don't know much about having fellowship with Him. We go back to one of the greatest books in the Old Testament, the book of Nehemiah, that talks about Israel returning into the city that they were supposed to have and the book being replaced, and the walls being rebuilt, and the temple being restored, and yet we find in Israel the same problem today, then, that we have today. And that is that it doesn't take long for that relationship to grow cold. And what I'd like to try to show you this morning is, is there are some or there are some things that you can do to restore or to reinvigorate the right relationship, the right fellowship with you and the Lord Jesus Christ. Many people today, when they come to church on a Sunday morning, they expect to hear another message on John 3.16. I dare say that probably the majority of you here today already have trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. Well, if you're already saved, I want to ask you a question. How many more times do you need to hear about how to be saved if you're already saved? Now, we might could shout her out, and we thank God for the blood, and we thank God that we're saved, and glory, I'm saved. I do, I appreciate that, I mean that. But you know what? Beyond that, ladies and gentlemen, I know my wife more than just when I took some vows, 25 some odd years ago, and I promised I'd do. I know some things about her now that if all I did was think marriage was just getting up in front of a bunch of people and saying, I do, that I wouldn't know. You've got to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ. And ladies and gentlemen, your relationship with Jesus Christ is more important than your relationship with your fellow man. Your relationship with Jesus Christ will cause you to bear the fruit of the right relationship with others, and it will cause you to have compassion and concern for others, and it will cause you to witness when you wouldn't otherwise witness. It'll be a spring like a river that flows forth out of your belly, living waters, but it comes as a result of you having the right relationship with the Lord. If you're dry this morning and you feel like your relationship is dull, and you feel like most dehydrated Baptists do nowadays, I'm telling you the problem is, is you've gotten a long ways away from the spring, you've gotten away from Jesus, and as a result, you're dried up! The problem is not that he doesn't have the power to reinstitute that fellowship. The problem is we've moved so far away from it. The connection's been broken. There's too many things that stand between us and him. And as a result, we walk around like zombies. It ought not so to be. We ought to be excited about what God's done for us and what God is going to do for us. There's more to having the right relationship than just repentance. We ought to be beyond that. Man, some of us, all we do is we sit there and think, well, I wonder what he's going to hit today and what I'm going to have to repent of today. I hope not to have to spend a whole lot of time on the repentance today, because I hope your heart's already clean. There's something more important than you this morning. There's something that deserves more praise and honor this morning. There's something that deserves a preeminence this morning. And it's not any of us. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to stop coming to church and thinking about being for us. We need to think what's in it for Him. We need to start focusing on lifting up the Lord and stop coming into this place thinking, well, I wonder what God's going to do to me today. He's not doing nothing to you. He's doing something for you. Or at least He's trying anyhow. All things work together for good of them who love God, them who are called according to His purpose. Everything God's doing, He's doing for our good. Everything. But you know what we do? We think revival is as well. Preacher, somebody comes down there, showers down on me, puts me under conviction. I come to the altar. I ask the Lord to forgive me. I repent. And I go back to my seat. You hadn't had revival. All you did was repent. Listen, if all you do is repent, you know what you're going to have with the Lord? A relationship that's likened unto a yo-yo or a ping-pong ball. Back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. There's got to be something beyond that. I mean, have you not ever lived at least a day or so without having to say, you know what, Lord? I knew so bad today. I mean, I know, Lord, I'm not trying to be proud, haughty, or high-minded, but you know what? I stayed locked in today. I stayed studying today. I stayed praying today. I stayed trying to keep my mind on the right things. And when I messed up, I fessed up. Lord, I finished the day. I finished the race. I did the best I could do today. Hey, why is it that all we ever do is see God as somebody sitting on a throne who can't wait to tear up our hide? When's the last time you saw them arms stretched out? When's the last time you saw Him sitting up there and saying, all you that labor and are heavy laden, come unto Me and I'll give you rest? When's the last time that you realized He's got some big old wings to shadow you in your time of trouble? When's the last time that you hid behind His skirts when you're afraid of something, whether it be the devil or other people? When's the last time you noticed the goodness of God and the attributes of God that'll give you great comfort? We've got to stop treating God like He's an ogre! That's just us trying to make God something that nobody else will like, because the truth is we really don't want to get close to Him. We'd rather Him be mean, and that would justify us not wanting to have a relationship with Him. If we can keep Him at a distance, then, oh, well, who would want to be around Him? I mean, all He wants to do is just knock the tar out of you. Well, what would that prove? That He's God? Well, who don't know that He's God? What does He prove by squashing people like us? Little old roach bug, just squash us if He wanted to. That doesn't prove anything. You know what God's trying to do by leaving you around this morning? He's trying to show you, ladies and gentlemen, He's trying to show the world out there that I got some people out here that are here because they love me and no other reason. If they're not here today because they're afraid I'm going to blow up their car or their water heater or give them some kind of a disease, they're here today because they want to be here and because they love Me. You'd be surprised the difference in the place that God will have when the Spirit of God is alive in a place and breathing in a place like it ought to be because people are there because they want to be, not because they feel guilty if they're not, not because they're afraid, but because the love of God constraineth them and they can't wait to show up where God's at. Boy, you'd be surprised. Boy, it makes a big difference whenever I give my wife something because I want to than when I have to. Amen. I mean, boy, it's a terrible thing if she has to remind me, well, honey, you missed my birthday. And I run out and I get her something and I give it to her. Boy, it don't have the impact as it does if I remembered it. And God help if I hadn't put some planning in it. Some thought in it. Well, you should know after all these years what I like. Just tell me what you like. I'll get it. Here's a check. Here's one of them little card things. Here, go out and just get it. I got you a gift card. You know, well, thank you, but uh-uh, buddy. I'm going to give you a little marital counseling this morning. Find out what your wife likes and go out and get it. Don't give her a gift card. That'll mean you didn't put no thought in it. It just will slide 20 bucks under a pillar or something. You know I'm telling the truth. You just won't say it because your wife is here this morning. Amen. Say the only reason you're saying it is because your wife ain't. You're right. Amen. Now listen to me, when it comes to the relationship with God, there's some things that we can do. Thank God that He shows us how to get back in fellowship with Him. I'm getting to the point, man, I'm telling you, I'm enjoying being with Him. I mean, go through a little valley and the Lord's right there with you. He's not a fair-weather friend. He's only with you on the mountaintop. Only with the sun shining, you know. Kind of a shadow sort of a friend when the sun's out. Buddy, when the storm clouds roll in and the rain begins to fall, the thunder and lightning begin to crash and the waves start to swamp the ship, the Lord's right there in the ship with you. Right in the graveyard with you. Right in the hospital with you. In the doctor's office with you. In the traveling with you. Man, I'm liking it! The problem is I think we don't like it enough. I think this morning the greatest sin in the United States of America is that we are as close to God as we really want to be. The sin on the part of us today is we don't desire to know any more about God than we already know. Verses 1 and 2 teach us that we've got to return to a brokenhearted spirit when we sin against the Holy God. Notice they're assembled and fasting in sackcloth. They've gone from feasting to fasting and from joy to shame. They assemble themselves together and they put on sackcloth and earth upon them and they separate themselves from all strangers. You say, why? That shows your love for God the same way in a marriage. I know you probably find this hard to believe, but I did have maybe one or two other dates before I got married. Maybe many more than that, but a few. Now I can imagine me coming to the altar and saying to my wife, now honey, I love you and I want to be married to you, but you know, I've still got these girlfriends over here and I mean, you know, we've been on a date or two, nothing real serious, but I'm sure you wouldn't mind me continuing with that. You say, now come on preacher, that's a stupid thing to say. We can't have that. Hey man, that ain't going to work. She had more than her handful of her fellers that was trying to chase her down. I was trying to run them off. I'm trying to, you know, show an interest in her, and I'm letting them know, I'm a policeman, you better be careful. I'm not saying I'd do anything illegal, but you better watch it, you know. And you know what? When she came up to the altar and she said, will you take him, and for better or for worse, and sickness and health, and she didn't know what she was getting into, it's a death to you part, and she said, I do. It didn't come with a clause on the bottom that says you can continue to see all the ones you were seeing before you met me. And yet, ladies and gentlemen, one of the steps that we leave out in our relationship which is likened unto a marriage with the Lord is that once we're married, we continue to join ourselves with the now strangers of this world. We continue to join ourselves with the people of this world and the things of the world that are displeasing to God. And God says, listen, if you want to get restored, you've got to be brokenhearted that you're out here committing spiritual adultery and fornication. with people that are in the world out there. Hey, we got to separate ourselves from the things God hates. Separation is still in the Bible. We just don't like to talk about it. I really, I'm getting tired of seeing God dirtied up. Brother Coker, it's getting kind of where they're trying to bring God down like God understands all this filth and all this trash, and they're getting kind of loose with Him. And they think because they're saying stuff in His presence and He's not doing anything, that He's condoning it. And they're making God out to be like He's some sort of a loose God. Hey! God still believes in separating yourself and separating yourself from them to Him! Not just separation for the sake of separation. Preacher, I just feel kind of like I'm sort of blown out here. I'm kind of dried up. I don't feel there's nothing but maybe a little tiny spark and I blow and blow and blow on it and it just won't heat up. That's because the ember has been moved too far away from the fire. And when you move back close to the fire, it'll catch on, but not if you bring the wet blankets with you. You can't have a relationship with God and have a relationship with the world. I'm sorry. I know in the church nowadays it's, well, preacher, God understands. You hope that He does, but He doesn't. You're wanting to say that He does, but I'm telling you, He doesn't. You're wanting to make out to believe that God understands and allows you to continue to commit those horrible sins with the world and then claim to have a relationship with Him. No, He doesn't. You can still be saved. And just as dry as a raisin that's been left on the vine to rot. You say, why? Well, because we don't want to separate ourselves. And secondly, we don't want to confess our sins. Look at verse 2. They separated themselves from all strangers and they confessed their sins. That's a hard thing. When was the last time, maybe for some of you, Wednesday night, when was the last time you confessed being the thief that you are? Say, I'm not a thief, I'm a policeman. I'm not a thief, I'm a bookkeeper. I'm not a thief, I'm this, I'm that, I'm whatever. You're a thief because the Lord Jesus Christ bought you and paid for you and you've stolen your body back and chosen to use it for your own good instead of for what He decided to be used for. The Bible says, I've been bought with a price, therefore serve God and my members which are His. So I had to confess the other day my sin of, I said grand theft, but it wouldn't be, it'd be petty theft, because what I did was, it's my body that belongs to Him and I'm supposed to be using it for His glory. I stole it back and I'm using it for me and my glory. God said, you're a thief. And I began to realize, Brother Brad, as I started looking at that thing, I started realizing that the root of a lot of the sin in my life was because I was guilty of stealing my body back. I was guilty of saying, hey, this thing belongs to me, and now that I'm saved, my soul's His, but I can still do what I want to do. Man, was I messed up! When's the last time you admitted that that's what you're doing with your own body? You'll regret it in the judgment seat of Christ. Oh man, it'll tear you up and you get in the judgment seat of Christ, you'll say, oh man, God, I wish you'd just give me another chance. Oh, I see it now. The Lord said, no, you're blessed if you see it by faith. But now that you've seen it, no, sir. No going back down there and having a chance to be a missionary or to fast or to pray or to give or to do. You're done with now. You're here. Now you're sanctified wholly, including your body. But right now, your body's not sanctified. You know what you have right now? You have a great opportunity to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, but you'll never do it unless you're willing to confess your sins. Not the symptoms of your sins, but your actual sins. I have to hurry because I've got to get all the way through the end of this book of Nehemiah. Notice what he says in verse number 3. Not only do we have to return to our broken-hearted state. Can I ask you this, just as a sidebar before we go to the next point? Does it really bother you to sin? Don't answer and show your ignorance. Does it really break your heart to sin? Or is it just no big deal? You see, the sincerity of the repentance is important. True repentance. will lead us into the right relationship with God. And then there's a worldly or an earthly repentance that doesn't amount to anything. It's the kind of repentance that says, I'm sorry I got my hand caught in the cookie jar. I've seen that done a bunch of times. I'm talking about the kind of repentance that says, I'm sorry I even had a desire to put my hand in the cookie jar. Secondly, verse 3, they stood up in the place and read in the book of the law of the Lord. Notice how long they read it. A fourth part of the day. Well, a fourth part of the day then was no different than a fourth part of the day now. Six hours. And over in Ezra, you know what you read? You read in Ezra and you read in Nehemiah chapter number 8, that Ezra gets up and he takes the book, and he doesn't stand behind a pulpit, he stands on a pulpit, and he gets up to read, and the people stay standing for the better part of a whole day. Standing while it's being read. Six hours! Just reading! No exposition, just reading at this point. If you're going to get the right relationship the way that it ought to be, you have to put the blessed book back in the position that it belongs in your life. It has to start becoming a priority. It has to be more than just reading it and going to it and saying, well, my little Bible reading schedule says I've got to read ten pages every day if I'm going to get through the Bible in a year. And at the end of the year, I'm going to have to be able to say that I read through my Bible in a year, so I've got to sit down and read my Bible. Well, it's time for me to read my two chapters today. That's not the kind of reading he's talking about. It's a desire to get to know the One that wrote it when you're reading it. It's a desire to get closer to the One that penned those words. It's a desire to get God to show you more about Him and His ways, not just the path to walk on, but more about the One that wrote it. Too often nowadays it's seen as a punishment. I read about a lady not long ago, who thought that the best thing to do when somebody messed up was just have them sit down and read the Bible. That'll make your kids bitter. Every time they get in trouble and you sit them down and you say, your punishment is to read the Bible. Punishment? Punishment? You're going to write me a book report on the Bible. They'll despise it. Say, no preacher, as long as they're reading it, it'll have its... No, no, no, no. It effectually worketh in them that believe. There's a lot of people that read that Bible and they don't believe it, and it doesn't do nothing but make them bitter. And if you're not believing what's in that book, all it'll do is harden your heart. Preaching, even hard preaching, will not soften you up unless you want it to make you softer. It'll only make you harder if you don't receive it. See, it's up to you. You say, well, that means you shouldn't preach hard. That's what the world says. The world says, be soft. I read that to you in Jeremiah on Wednesday night. Read it sometimes. It will reveal to you and unveil to you modern day preaching. Preaching is supposed to be like a hammer. You know why? To break your hard heart. And like a fire, you know why? To melt your cold heart. You've got to put the book back in the proper place. It doesn't belong on the bookshelf or a prop and open a door. It needs to be the center focus of your home. Hey, if your home is messed up or you're getting ready to start one, can I just suggest something to you? Put the book in the proper place. It'll make a difference in your marriage. Watch. I won't go through all these, but in verses 5 to verses number 32, you have to learn to reflect on God's blessings. Notice in verse number 5, they stand up to bless the Lord. Sometimes, ladies and gentlemen, you may not understand it, but some of the fellows in here, they get a little carried away. Sometimes the women will even get out of their skin and do it occasionally, you know, when they're not too worried about what somebody's going to say. Sometimes, boy, it hits you before you know what you're doing, and the next thing you know, it's like 440 volts hit you, and you're standing up praising the Lord. You're thinking, man, what am I doing standing up here? Now, I know y'all don't think it's weird when I do it. The problem is when the Lord comes to you and asks you to do it, how come you hold back? The Bible says they stood up to bless the Lord. They stood up to praise the Lord. You say, I don't do that, really? How about if I follow you to the next ball game and your son's going down and he's driving in for the basket, you know, and he throws it up there, you just, wow, that's real nice. I bet you'd be out of your seat. I bet you if that Rabideurs referee calls some sort of a foul on that boy of yours and you don't think he committed that foul, I bet you'll be up, I bet you'll be hollering and screaming and calling that referee everything you can possibly think of without cussing. But strange, isn't it, when we come to the house of the Lord? We don't reflect much on the blessings of God and we sure ain't going to stand up and praise Him for it. One of the reasons we stand when we sing is because I don't think you can really sing sitting down. It just don't fit, you know. I see all the rock and rollers, you know, when they get ready to sing, you know what they do? They stand up and sing. You know what the church wants to do? They want to sit down and sing. Why is that? You stand up for who you love. Not a shame. Stand up. But notice in verses 5 to 32, they reflected on the blessings of God. You know the old song, count your many blessings, name them one by one, it will surprise you what the Lord has done. You know what I told a fellow the other day, he had something happen to him, and I said, brother, I'll make a suggestion to you. He said, what's that preacher? I said, take some time right now to write down the back of your Bible what God just did for you. And he said, well, why is that? I said, because you'll forget. He said, oh no preacher, I'll never forget. I said, yes you will. You'll forget. I said, you'll get on down the road of peace and things will start going bad and things will start going terrible and it'll get rough, man. And you'll be thinking to yourself, man, God, where are you at? God, where are you at? God, where are you at? You know what you need in a time like that? You need to be able to flip back to that back flyleaf of your Bible and say, God was here. God was here. God was here. God was here. God was here. God was here. Man, there's a pretty consistent history of God always being there. So I guess He's going to be here through this mess too. We don't reflect enough on the goodness of God. We don't spend enough time praising the Lord, thanking Him for His blessings. We don't count as many blessings one by one. All we do is count the curses. All we do is walk around all the time. How you doing? You ever been around Bible-believing Baptists? They're either busy or they're under the gun all the time. How you doing? Well, I'm alright. What's the matter? You ain't got time to hear it. I don't know that I want to. You walk up to them and they got this kind of look on their face like they're fixing to throw up on you, you know? Hey, brother, how are you doing? You're constipated or something, you know. And you're afraid. You know when you ask them, you know what you're going to get. But it's kind of like one of the greetings down here, you know. You walk up and you say, hey, how are you doing today? Well, brother, I'll tell you. The bills ain't paid and the kids are running rampant. You know, it's terrible and life's bad. My back aches, my head aches. Man, I... Walk up to a charismatic... They've got a broken leg and a broken arm. Stitches across their eye. They're limping in. You know, they're going to church. They're limping in there. They look like cotton-picking Frankenstein, you know, and you walk up and say, hey, how you doing? Oh, glory! I'm blessed, man! Hallelujah! I could be dead right now! Thank God I got out of the hospital! I can go to church! It's like, man, shoot, which one of the two would you like to have? You've got to reflect on the blessings of God. You know, some of us act as Christians Like it's a real drag to be saved. Why? Let's hurry to verse 33. You've got to recognize your own sin. But notice the sin in verse 33. Howbeit, thou art just, and all that is brought upon us, for thou hast done right that we have done wickedly. You see what the sin is? You see, when we go through and we're blaming God instead of blessing God, you know what we're saying? We're saying, God, You're doing wrong and we're doing right. The sin of the people here was in blaming God for the mess they were in. Instead of saying, God, You were right, I was wrong. Try that sometime. Just try it sometime. It's quite liberating. You say, why? It just takes all the guesswork out of everything. If there's ever a problem, you know exactly who to blame. You. That makes it easy for me. I'm pretty like one track mind. I just, I mean, I'm just kind of simple. You know, I only got one of the two legs that are supposed to be hooked up to the electricity. I only got one firing and that's about half the time. So if I realize that every time there's a problem, it ain't with him, it's with me, that makes the decision making purpose easy, process easy. But you know what we're unwilling to do? Some of you here today, before I can even get to the better part of this message, You're bitter with God and you're mad at God because you think God did something in your life or something to you in your life. And you're saying, God, you were wrong. And if I'd have been God, I wouldn't have done it like that. And God says, well, it's best for you. And you're saying, how can that be best? And the Lord said, because it says best for you. Lord, I don't see how that could be best. You get to eternity and the Lord will show you. You'll say, oh, my God, man. I can tell you my own personal experience, and this is just on occasion, but I can tell you my own personal experience where there have been times I've said to God, now you know what? God, if I was you, I wouldn't do it like that. And I'm glad He didn't listen to me. I go back, and I'm not just saying that to be a religious jerk or nothing, just to be a preacher. I'm being honest. I look back over and I'm going, yeah, I sure am glad He didn't listen to me. I sure am glad that He did things His way instead of doing it my way. If you can't get past that point, you can't get on to the other part of this message where you can have real revival. Because as long as that's embedded in your heart, God can't speak to you. Lord, I don't understand it. It sure did hurt. But you're right. I'm wrong. That's hard to do. Come over, if you will, please, in chapter number 10. In verse number 36, he says we're servants because of the way that we lived. Because they chose to do with their bodies and their lives what they wanted to do. Now here's where I want to get to today. That's just the introduction. There must be a renewal of our obedience to Him. You can return to brokenheartedness and you can read the blessed book and you can reflect on God's blessing. You can recognize your blunders your sin, but if you don't renew or return to your obedience, verse number 28, then you'll never have real revival. In verse number 28, they separate themselves from everything that pleases God. Notice they separated themselves, look in verse 28, from the people of the lands under the law of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters, and everyone having knowledge. I want to challenge you to do something this morning. Verse number 29, it says that to walk in it, to observe it, and to do it. But you know the first thing that takes place? The family altar is restored. You know, family altar, you sit down with your family and read the Bible and pray. Man, I didn't think I had to preach on that very long. Notice it's the men that are not mentioned in the passage because the men are supposed to be leaving, the wives and the daughters and the sons. That's what's in the passage right there. The men are supposed to take the leadership. Men, before you start running your mouth about your big mouth wife and how she's not Proverbs 31 and all that other kind of stuff and how unsubmissive she is, can I ask you this question? Are you submissive to the Word of God when it tells you that you ought to be the leader in your household, setting up that spiritual altar, and that you ought to be the one sitting down with your family and reading them the Bible and praying with them? Or are you too busy? I hear this stuff about being real men and come to a big meeting about manpower and we're going to all get together and we're going to be men for Jesus and real men love Jesus and all that other kind of stuff. All that's real nice to say, but you know what? I like to talk to the wise and find out how many real men we really have according to a biblical exposition of what real men is. A real man is somebody that says, turn off that mess. We're going to sit down here and we're going to read a story from the Bible and we're going to pray together. Boy, that just locked it down. Man, I want to challenge you this morning. You like all these messages that come to you. They want to present a challenge to you. Well, I'm going to present a challenge to you. You want to have real revival in your household? You know why we don't have revival in the church? Because there ain't no revival in the households. You know why there ain't no revival in the counties and the cities and the country? Because there ain't no revival in the church. You say, why? Because it's a household. It's a bunch of men that are walking around with a cotton string for a backbone, and you know, they blow in and they blow out, and they blow in and they blow out, and they wonder why their kids and their wives and everybody they're associated with are so uncommitted. You know why? Because they're picking up your attributes. If you don't care about it, men, I can assure you, your family won't. When's the last time you confessed the sin of not being the right kind of leader in your own household? You should be at the altar right now. Don't come right now. I'm just saying, it ought to convict you. It ought to bother you. I can't tell you, let's have the blessings of revival. If you're not willing to do something outside the church, hey, revival would break out in the church if you were having revival outside the church. If your relationship was restored outside the church, when you got here, you wouldn't be having to hunt it up. The problem is we come to the house of God and it's the first time we've broke the bread of life since we left the last time. Preacher, preach! And preacher, read the Bible! And preacher, let's have some good singing! Let's have a time of rejoicing! Preacher, let's get it going! Hey! How about a time of repentance for not reading the book at the house? Homes are in shambles. You know why? No God in them. If you watch that slop on that box too much, I've got news for you. You're going to get to thinking that everything's run like that box is. We had an investigation years ago, and we watched this little kid, and he was describing this stuff, and I'm thinking to myself, man, and he's describing it like he's looking out this window. And he's telling me everything that was going on, and after a little bit of time, I finally realized what he was doing. He was describing a television show that he was watching, but in his mind, he thought he was just looking out the window at how life was. The book doesn't have preeminence in your life. It'll never have preeminence in your home. If it doesn't have preeminence in your home, you'll never appreciate it when it's preached. Let me just be real straight with you this morning. You know why sometimes it's so difficult to preach here? At times, this is a great congregation. I'm telling you, the liberty here is tremendous. But you know why it's different on Sunday morning? And if you're visiting with us, we're glad to have you. But you know why it's different on Sunday morning than it is Sunday night and different than it is on Wednesday night? Because you have people that are playing religion oftentimes on Sunday morning. And everybody talks about it or thinks it, but nobody wants to say it. And if the preacher says it, oh, well, he doesn't appreciate me being here. You're a liar. I do appreciate you being here. People can't stand you. Don't call me no liar. Well, you're a liar. You know what? It wouldn't bother you if you were having a family altar, men. I'm not preaching it to women. You know what? Pick on the women. Pick on the women. Pick on the women. Get the women. Get the women. You know why the women are where they're at? It's because the men are not where they're supposed to be. And you know what? The men will not stand up and you say, I won't preach in it. Lay it on me, preacher. We should have this for the men's meeting. Why? The ladies need to know, hey, that ain't what that preacher said. That preacher said that. Hey, don't you be using the preacher against me. I can see it going already. But listen, you become my enemy if when I tell you what that Bible says, you refuse to walk in it. The Bible says you're the enemy of God. I can't be His friend and yours at the same time if you're not going to walk in what He tells you to walk in. Do you want to see revival in this church and God do amazing things here? You're going to have to accept your own responsibility for your own actions, men, in your own home, for your own relationship. Grow up! Get down there with that book and hunker down and pray. Well, preacher, I just ain't very literate. Then get some tapes. Get in that book and read and study and pray and ask God to help you. You'd be surprised how different your family will be. The problem here as well as everywhere else is not with the women. The problem is the leaders, the men. And God is going to hold you accountable for not being the man. It ain't time to go praying now and start to count the carpets. You men have got your heads down now. When's he going to get on the women? Not today. You're turning the barrel and it's about time. It's about time that the men, the fathers, the grandfathers, the husbands, the brothers, they begin to set the standard for how a relationship with God ought to be. They ought to be first to the altar, and first to pray, and first to give, and first to do. We ought to be out in front. But we're not. We're a bunch of panty-waisted, lace-on-our-drawers men as Christians. Not Christians as men. We've adopted the world's way of manhood. And it has drifted into our relationship with the Lord. And I dare say it's sort of effeminate. Got no spiritual character at all. You can work until you drop. You can't come listen to somebody preach the Word of God more than once a week. Something's wrong. So a preacher, I'm infirmed. Okay. Preacher, I'm busy. Okay. You don't justify to me. I'm just telling you what the Lord says and what He's saying through the book. And if you want God to bless this place, get off your blessed assurance and get out on your knees and get your nose between the pages of that book! And then start doing it instead of just talking about it. You men, you know every verse in there on how to keep your wife in line. Every one of them. You can quote them. And if your wife has a tendency to run off at the mouth and have a little diarrhea of the mouth at times and so on and so forth, you say, well, the Bible says a woman ought to study to be quiet. Maybe if you'd do what the Bible says, she'd learn to do what the Bible says. Maybe you're seeing the sins in her. You're guilty of committing yourself. I'd love to preach a men's meeting. You say, why would you want to do that, Preacher? Because I really would tell it like it is. You are sorry as Christians and as leaders of your homes. You say, well, not me. Well, then praise the Lord and pray for the rest of us. But I'm telling you, there ain't much manhood in Christianity anymore. Manhood ain't just in saying it and it ain't just in knowing it. It's in doing it. We should just pull over and park there and say, well, Lord, until we get that part right, there's no point in even preaching about the rest of it. You know why? Because the rest of the stuff I'm going to give you, ladies and gentlemen, I'm being honest with you. I'm just telling you, the rest of the stuff in here, you can't get revived until you make the steps along the way and are willing to do what He says to do along the way. You know what it just shows? We're not really interested in real revival. You're interested in preserving your reputation. The preacher could spill his guts all over this place and preach his guts out, and you just sit there, and when is this going to be over? Well, honey, you know, he's a preacher. He's supposed to do that. Try to get us committed and try to get us carried away, you know, and that kind of thing. And honey, just, you know, don't get too carried away with all that. What's for dinner? I'll guarantee you this. Inside her heart of hearts, your wife is wishing that you would really turn your life over to the Lord like that, if the Bible's right. Does your no count? You've got no spiritual character. Listen, some of you are physically strong and you're physically fearless, but you're spiritual cowards. You'll take a stand for anything else, and right now somehow you're mad enough to fight, boy, and you're, you know, let's go, man. Come on, let's go. Put them up, man. You don't talk to me like that, boy. I can whoop you. Yeah, you can. You can physically. You can probably wear me out. I'm talking about spiritually. You know how I know I'm telling the truth? You listen to how quiet it is right now. The Spirit of God's in this place and He's convicted in your hearts. You know why? Because they're far from Him. The men in the church should lead the charge. Churches are infested with women leading the churches because the men have grown silent! It ought not so to be. A fellow asked me one time, he came by here to preach. He said, your women say amen. I said, yeah, that's because the men don't. He said, well, I just believe that a woman ought to keep silent in the church. I said, well, don't let them keep silent in the church. I like when they talk back to me. Well, do you know what that will breed in your church? I said, I don't know, man. I feel like it will probably breed the right spirit. Listen, lady, I don't care if you shout, as long as it's in the right place. And I don't care if you speak up for the Lord, as long as you don't go to preaching. And I'm sorry that the men are not more vocal here than you are. They ought to be so vocal that it drowns you out when you get up to talk. Ladies, you can say amen right there whether you want to or not. Say, my husband will be mad at me. Let him be mad for a change. Women used to always ask me, Preacher, when are you going to get on the men? When are you going to get on the men? And then I get on them and you all start feeling sorry for them. Well, now Preacher, my husband, he tries. No, what you mean is he's providing you a new car and a roof over your head and you're able to go out and buy whatever you want to buy. Now, don't lie. You feel that way if you didn't have nothing? Honey, he shouldn't be getting on to you like that. Okay. Just kick the Lord to the curb, man. Throw him under the bus. The Lord is getting a little too tough for us now. Well, it's fixing to get rougher. Look at verse 30. Verse 30, "...and that we would not give our daughters unto the people of the land, nor take the daughters for our sons." You know, that Bible does preach about separation of yourself from the wrong friends and the wrong things. It does still say, abstain from all appearance of evil. You know the old saying, don't bend over and tie your shoes in somebody else's watermelon patch. We were out not long ago with a preacher and his family, and we went and sat down at this restaurant out close to the airport. And we sat down there, and this little girl, she said, Daddy, could I order a lemonade? And I said, yeah, you can order a lemonade. And so they got the lemonade. Well, she didn't know, and none of us knew. They went over behind the bar to get the lemonade and brought it in one of those big tornado glasses things, or whatever they call them things, hurricane glasses, you know, big thing and had these little straws in it, and these little cherries, and all that kind of stuff. And man, when that thing came and sat in front of that girl, man, her face turned white as a ghost, and she kind of pushed it away. And the lady said, well, this little lemonade, it's OK. And her mother said, could you please bring it to us in a different glass? Well, and I'll preach her. She'd go out and have a little Shirley Temple every now and then. I mean, no alcohol in it, just a little margarita without the... isn't that them frozen things? I'm not trying to catch you. Thank you, sister, for your honesty. Daiquiri. Don't they make them in like strawberry and all them fruit things and all? Walked in one time. Here's a fellow. He's got one of them little martini things, you know, big ones, about that big around, that they have on the two-for-ones or whatever. And as soon as I walked in, he, I just want you to know that it ain't got no alcohol in it. You want to taste it? I'm like, hey, man. How you doing? Nice to see you. What's the problem? You know what's sad? The church has lost its witness in the community. Because it's unwilling to separate from the things that the community considers to be okay. I'm visiting this doctor over here you all know about. You know what he said to me? He said, I had to go to a funeral. And he said, after the funeral's over, The preacher of the funeral comes in and he gets him a can of beer and lights up a cigar. Smoking a cigar and drinking a beer at the thing after the funeral. The feed up, you know. I know why he was saying it. But you know what that did? He thought, you know what I did? I wasn't thinking that's just preachers. I said, that's Christians, man. That's Christians. Christmastime, just a little pop every now and then, you know, just a little refrigerator for whenever a possibility up in the cabinet, you know, just in case. Yeah, I know. I know the Bible says preacher abstain from all appearance of evil, but now preacher. There's this big to-do out right now on this MySpace deal. You realize how many perverts are on that thing? You know how many Christians are on that thing? Say you've been on that thing? No. No. I don't look at it. I won't look at it. I have people call me all the time. Oh, preacher, it's MySpace.com. What? Why would you want to be associated with something that's so wicked? Well, preacher, I don't use it for that. Oh, I get it. I get it. Preacher, everybody else does it as a way for us to stay in touch with each other. You know, young and single, preacher. You are a legend in your own mind, boy. You got some Bahama mama sitting down there that's about 45, 50 years old, and half her teeth blacked out of her head, man, and zits all over her face, and grease so thick in her hair, looks like she dumped over a jar of mayonnaise on it, and she's sitting up there smoking on a cigar, you know, and she's... Breath-like blister to paint off the wall if she got within 10 feet of it, and you're thinking, boy, she really loves me, and she shoots you some picture of something she never has been, never will be in her life. But you're thinking, after me, man, it's my way of staying in communication. Yeah, you better remember this. You better remember evil communications corrupt good manners. I wouldn't want to be a part of it for nothing. I wouldn't want to answer for it at the judgment seat of Christ. We've all signed to that. Preacher, it's a modern day. You've got to catch up with it. God deliver me. I don't want to catch up with it or catch it either. It's infectious. Cooties. One girl told me one time, she said, but preacher, I use it for the right things. I even witness on it. I said, the Lord would never do wrong to get anybody saved. Why don't you just go down to the barnyard and jump over into the pig pen and walk around in the manure and witness there? Verse number 39, obedience in your social life. If God's first in your home, it will lead to God being first in school. You can tell a lot about somebody's home by what you see in the workplace and where somebody socializes. Amen. Verse number 39, obedience in your church life. Skip down quickly because I'm in a hurry here. Notice it says, and we will not forsake the house of our God. Preacher, I really want to have revival, really. You can't have it and forsake the house of God. I'm going to save this other part of this thing for tonight, because otherwise some of you are going to be uncomfortable with it because we're running out of time. But in verses 32 to 38, he puts a special emphasis on something. Are you reading it? You'll see a strange four little words show up in there. It's a curse word in Baptist circles, Bible-believing circles. It's a curse word. It's not pray. You see the word give in there. About six verses, seven verses. Cross-references go to Genesis 22. You can't have revival without giving. Strange, you asked your wife to marry you and you had to get a ring first, didn't you? Huh? Well, you weren't going to ask her to marry you without a ring. You'd say, wow, well, that ring shows I'm serious, you know, willing to spend something. You'd have me more than that. You're saying I'm going to take care of you until death do us part. I know you'll invest in what you're willing Invest in. But I better save that part of the message for tonight. Because it gets pretty rough. But you know what? You can't have revival without giving. And you can't have revival if you're going to forsake the house of God. You know what it all boils down to, Brother Gene? One word. One word. Obedience. Until your obedience to God is restored, you can't have revival. Everything I've told you is true biblically. I can give you a lot of verses to support everything I've told you. But unless you're willing to obey what God says, you'll never have revival. You know why we don't have revival? Because we're not willing to obey. Whenever you're not willing to obey, obedience can't come. You can try to work it up all you want to, but listen, when we sing Crown Hymn, you know what we're saying? We're saying that He gets the glory. He's the One that deserves to be high and lifted up. He's the One that deserves to be exalted. What we're saying is, is you deserve the preeminence. When we say, crown Him, we're saying crucify ourselves. What we're saying is, is that if I'm going to walk in real agreement, then I'm going to have obedience at home and in my social life and in my church life. What we're saying is, is Lord, I want You to be the King of my life. I want to see You crowned. I don't want to wear Your crown. What we do is, as I've used the illustration before, but what we do is we see ourselves in front of that throne room when they're up there like a jewel in a king's crown is the throne of God, and seated upon it is the Lord Himself. And we walk into this magnificent temple that has been made by the greatest carpenter that's ever been around, and jewels in the walls, and the choirs are beginning to sing, and they're beginning to praise, and He comes and He takes His place there on that throne. His glory and His radiance fills that whole temple. And as He takes His place on the throne and walks an angel and He's got this beautiful satin pillow and there's the most beautiful crown you've ever seen in your life sitting there on that pillow right there. And He's walking and all of a sudden the crowd begins to shout, Crown Him! Crown Him! Crown Him! Crown Him! Crown Him! Crown Him! I mean, it resonates in that place beyond anything you can imagine. And the angel walks up there and removes from that pillow the crown. And instead of placing it where it rightfully belongs, we take it and place it on our head and say, I'll be the king. You're not going to tell me what to do. I'm the king. And you think everybody shouting in there is shouting for you to be crowned. For you to finally be lifted up. For you to finally be exalted. For you to finally be praised to the place of preeminence. You know what you do? You do the same thing that the devil did in Isaiah chapter 14 when he said, I'll set my throne above His throne and above the stars of heaven. I will be like the Most High. I'll rule everything. You know what? When we choose to obey, we choose to crown Him. When we choose to disobey, we choose to crucify Him. I guess if I would title it, I would call it crown Him or crucify Him. Because you know what? We can go through all the things that I went through today and we can say, oh man, we need to be obedient. I mean, we need to do this and do this and do this and do this and do this. But the truth is, you're only going to do it if He's really the King. You know what's going to be revealed later on? Not right now. You know what's going to be revealed later on? Who the real king in your life is. About, oh, I'd say 5, 15, 5.30, you know what's going to be revealed? Who the king is. Tuesday, come from the nursing home, you know what's going to be revealed? Who the king is. Wednesday comes time. Listen, I'm not trying to put you on a no-guilt trip. If you've got a providential hindrance or whatever, that's fine. Well, listen, I'm glad you're here. Don't misunderstand me. I'm just saying, you know what? I'm tired of trying to make it look like these other preachers and lie to you and say, everything you're doing is okay. It is not okay with God. You will give an account for everything done in the body, whether it be good or bad. Well, preacher, you ought to just be happy. I might be happy with it. The question is, today, is God happy with it? If God's not happy with it, it don't matter if I'm happy with it or not. I'll alibi you. I like you. I see a lot of me in you. The question is, who's the king today? Who's running your life today? Who's the boss? Who's in charge? Who's wearing the crown? You got a hammer in your hand? You got a crown in your hand. Which one's for you and which one's for Him? Put the crown on, you use the hammer on Him. Give Him the crown, you use the hammer on yourself. You say, well, but the Lord... No. Paul says, I die daily. The Lord says, if you want to be my disciple, take up your own cross and follow me. You've got to be willing to die. Preacher, I really want to have revival. I want to get restored. You get all excited, man. You get swollen sometimes. Sometimes you get shouting. What is that? Preacher, I see these people. They get excited. Brother so-and-so, he gets excited. Boy, he's just... I'll tell you what he's doing. He's learning that wherever God speaks, he obeys. She's learning wherever God speaks, she obeys. That's the key to having revival. You know why you don't have revival? You're disobedient. You know what he says? To obey is better than sacrifice. Now, I want to ask you a question. When God speaks, do you hesitate? You say, well, I have to think about it, preacher. Really? 1% of hesitation is 100% rebellion. When God speaks, who are you to question? So you're just giving me your opinion. Okay. Fine. I've given you, to the best of my ability, what I believe God gave me to give you today. And if you didn't like it, I would just say you need to take it up with Him. Because I'm just trying to do what He said to do. You say, well, you're a little hard on me, preacher, and you just don't understand my situation, my circumstance. Yes, I do. I understand that you sacrifice for what you love. I don't like you, you're a smart aleck. Whenever somebody starts throwing javelins, you can be assured that the problem's with them. I'm not trying to be a smart aleck. I'm trying to tell you I see God doing some unbelievable things. This place is just about, I mean, it is right on the edge of coming unglued. I mean, it gets close sometimes. I'm thinking, oh boy, here it goes, here it goes, here it goes, and then it'll kind of cool, and then it'll get, and then it'll kind of cool, and then it'll, and I'm thinking, man, it's fixing to go, but the Lord's got some things to get out of the way first. It can't go until we get it right. So I'm going to give an invitation. Here's the invitation. If you're lost today and you're on your way to hell, the only way out is through Jesus Christ, you know that. You wouldn't be here today. Don't say you've never heard the gospel and don't know about Jesus. You do. If you know you're a sinner, you know you need a Savior. We can take a Bible and lead you to the Lord in no time at all. But this message is for the church. This is for people that are here today that are Christians, church, spiritually. Not just the local church here, that too, but you're visiting with us. This isn't about coming and joining our church and being a part of our fellowship. This is about being in fellowship with Jesus Christ. Now, heads are bowed and eyes are closed, and I'm going to ask you a question before she plays. I'm going to ask you a question. This is not an emotional, give us a sad story, tug on our heartstrings sort of a thing to make our heart... I'm talking about if the hammer of God's Word hit your heart today and bruised it or broke it, then come up here and let God fix it. If it melted it, then come up here and let God fix it. But folks, listen, don't miss the chance if God spoke to you today to say, God, I want revival. And Lord, I realize that when You speak, I need to move. I want to be obedient. I want to do what You tell me to do. I want to do it when You tell me to do it, Lord. If He spoke to your heart, you come. You come now. You come now. As She plays, you come. You come. Come on. We'll wait on you. We're in no hurry. We're in no hurry. Are you dry and dead? Just sort of dehydrated. God forgive us for the selfishness of thinking that when I'm crowned that I'm a crown to you. I'm afraid to say I've been rottenness to his bones. I want to see him crowned. I want to see him get the glory. I want to see him get the honor. I want to see him lifted up. And I don't want to wait until eternity to see it. I want to see it now. I want to see it now in a crucified life. Won't you come? Husband, maybe you need to grab your wife and say, honey, I haven't been what I ought to be. I'm going to try. Will you help me? Will you help me? Help me if I sort of waver on it. Will you help me, encourage me to pick it up, to read a little bit and pray with you? Daddy, maybe you need to grab the kids and say, kids, I'm going to be a better example for you. She'll preach, I don't believe I'd be. Why not? Why not? Nobody's looking around. Why not? Come on. Come on.