But anyway, John chapter seven tonight. John chapter seven. I don't believe there is any subject more closely connected to revival than missions. Nor do I believe there's a whole lot of subjects that you could say are more connected to missions than revival. And what I've learned as I've traveled a little bit is that churches that are revived churches are missionary-minded churches. And I've also learned that missionary-minded churches are revived churches. Revival is a great subject. It's found in the Old Testament. It's found in the New Testament. And revival, we sing that song, Lord send a revival and let it begin with Revival is first and foremost a personal matter. This church will be a revived church if 50 or 60 people are revived. The more people in this church who are on fire for God, we sang the song last night in the service, set my soul afire. for thy holy word. Set my soul afire for the lost in sin. Set my soul afire in my daily life. That song is a prayer. Lord, do something for me. Set my soul afire. And we think, okay, so what's God gonna do? Can I tell you? Absolutely nothing if there is an ingredient missing. And that ingredient is thirst. You know, it's interesting how the Lord uses the concept of thirst in the Bible. He says in the Beatitudes, blessed are they which do what? Hunger and thirst after righteousness. And then there's a promise. And what is that promise? For they shall be filled. God took two of the most fundamental, they talk about the necessity of feeding this physical body when it is hungry. You know as well as I do, there are cases in the Bible of people who fasted for long periods of time. But do you realize you can't go very long without water? Hunger is one thing, but thirst is even a greater thing. You try going sometime for three whole days without water, you'll probably be in the hospital. Because you'll be dehydrated. You'll be delusional. You'll be stumbling around. Your speech won't make a whole lot of sense. And if you don't do something pretty rapidly, there gonna be a funeral. Thirst. And Jesus, through the Spirit of God who wrote, who authored the Bible that men wrote down. I want you to listen with me to a couple of verses. Here's one in the Psalms. For He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. You see, He satisfies that longing soul. But the key is it's a longing soul. It's a soul that is agonizing for something. David said it this way in a couple of the Psalms. Psalm 42, as the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee. After thee. Did you get those two words? So panteth my soul after Thee, O God. This matter of revival is a hungering and a thirsting for God Himself. From the 63rd Psalm, another Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness in Judah. O God, He said, Thou art my God, early will I seek Thee, my soul thirsteth. Here's those two words again, for thee. My soul thirsteth for thee. My flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is to see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. I believe that one of the problems, I didn't say the biggest or the only, but I believe one of the problems with American Christianity, I speak in general, we are far too content to live without the power of God. If we're going to have a vibrant missions program here, listen, I'm all for letters on the wall. I'm all for a big missions goal. I'm all for faith promise. I'm all for for seeing the flags and having the missionaries come and present their videos and and talk about what God is going to do on the mission field or talk about if they're coming back like the sprungers. They've been on this mission field for one hundred and fifty years and they come back and tell about everything that's happened since men invented boats. Amen. I love that last night. Did you enjoy that last night? Wow. I mean, all the different wonderful things, and I'm sure they didn't touch the tip of the iceberg of all the things the Lord's used them to do. What a blessing. This church. Can be a missionary supporting church. We Americans are good at throwing money at things. I would propose tonight that this church could use revival. I would propose tonight that there are individuals here who have become content with substandard Christian living. And so in our text in John 7, verse 37, in that last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, and here are the words, if any man thirsts, if any man thirsts, let's pray. Heavenly Father, I come to Thee tonight I come in the name of the risen Christ and I come through the merits of his shed blood and I say right here in resistance against our enemy, the devil, the Lord rebuke thee, Satan. And we invite thee, dear Holy Spirit, to descend on this place tonight and minister to thy people. I pray that You will cause revival fires to break out in some hearts tonight. I pray that there would be young and middle-aged and older people who would thirst and come to Thee and drink and believe and see rivers of living water flow from their lives. Would You do a mighty work in this church. As Pastor Decker said just moments ago standing up here, if it comes and goes this week, it wasn't revival. This man, this pastor, is praying and laboring, Lord, and what he wants to see is something that lasts. I can't do that. I can't make anything last. But I know, dear Father, that you work in people's lives. I pray you'll work in lives tonight so there will be something that lasts. And that this church will see a reviving and a renewing. For Jesus' sake, amen. Jesus stood on that last day. He cried, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Now notice verse 39 is an explanation of what was just said. Verse 39, in parenthesis. but this spake he of the Spirit so what he just said there if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink he that believeth out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water that was said concerning the Spirit of God this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive for the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified If you read John 13, 14, 15, 16, you're going to find Jesus on that last week of His life giving great truth and great instruction to the apostles with regard to abiding in Him and with regard to the coming of the Holy Spirit. Who the Spirit is, He's the Spirit of truth, He's the Comforter. And He was going to come and He told them, do not depart from Jerusalem until the promise of the Father has come upon you. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, what happened? They were gathered together in one accord in one place. And there was a sound of a rushing mighty wind. And cloven tongues sat on their heads, little flames of fire, and they spoke with tongues, and the Spirit of God came down. By the way, these people that want to claim they're speaking in tongues today, if they want Pentecostal evidences, I ask them two questions. You say you're speaking in tongues and it's Pentecostal. Where's the sound of the rushing mighty wind? And where are the little flames sitting on your head? If you can do all three, I'll admit that you've had a Pentecostal experience, but I'll tell you what, it's not gonna happen. Because just like the crucifixion and the resurrection, Pentecost was a one-time event in history. Pentecost doesn't need to happen again because ever since that moment, those who have believed on Jesus Christ have been baptized instantly by the Holy Ghost into one body and we have the indwelling Holy Spirit of God. You say, well, if we've got him, why do we need to thirst? It's not a thirsting for his presence. It's a thirsting for his power. I can ask these missionaries who haven't yet been to the field other than to visit, will you need the power of God in Nepal? Well, of course they're going to say yes. I can ask this veteran missionary over here, Brother Sprunger and his wife, have you needed the power of God in the Caribbean? They say yes. But they're saying it from experience. I wonder how many of us in this church who would say, yes, I need the power of God. I wonder how many of us are begging and thirsting for it. Because the verse that I cited starts out with this little word, if. That indicates to me that there are some people who don't thirst. That indicates to me that there are people who are saved, but they're not thirsting for the power of the Holy Spirit. Well, He dwells in me. Greater is He that's in me than He that's in the world. You know that's true. It's a wonderful truth. It's a great truth. But we need more than His presence. We need His power. He said, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. That's His presence. But we need His power. As my Father hath sent me, so send I you. And He breathed on them the Holy Ghost. And they went forth with power. Acts 4.31, the Bible talks about how they counted it a joy to be persecuted. And they gathered together and they prayed. And the Bible says the place where they gathered together was shaken. And they went forth with the power of God and they preached the word of God with boldness. If any man thirst. How did David do the things he did? I know David made a mess of things. But he was a man after God's own heart. How did he do the things he did? He did them by the power of God. How did Josiah lead the nation in a revival unparalleled in the Scripture to the point that God said of Josiah, there is not a man before him or after him who turned to God with all his heart like he did. How did he do that? He did it by the power of God. How did Philip go down from Jerusalem down into Geza, which is desert, and run fast enough to catch up to a man riding in a chariot, and catch up to him, and jump up in the chariot, and immediately know how to preach Jesus to him from Isaiah 53. How did he do that? By the power of God. How did Paul go into a city where there was a man by the name of Sergius Paulus who desired to hear the Word of God. By the way, that kind of throws a little bit of Calvinism under the bus. Here's a lost man who desired to hear the Word of God. Yeah, there are people out there that want answers. And Sergius Paulus wanted to hear the word of God, and Elemus the sorcerer withstood Paul and tried to turn away the deputy from the faith. And Paul turned on him. By the way, try this on soul winning sometime. O thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? Can you imagine doing that to someone that's trying to interrupt you while you're witnessing? You ever done that, brother? Well, you know, you've got a few years left on you. Try that someday. Tell me how it works. How did he do that? He did it by the power of God. He did it by the power of God. And you know, we wonder about Daniel. Just read chapter 6 again today. How did he survive the lion's den? He did it by the power of God. Where did that power come from? Where did Paul get his power? Where did Daniel get his power? Where did David get his power? Let's look at the other gender. Where did some of the great women of the Bible get their power? Where did Hannah get her power? Where did Ruth? Get her power. Where did Mary, the mother, the earthly vessel who bore the Savior, where did she get her power? We have couples in the Bible, Priscilla and Aquila. Amazing couple. Paul said they laid down their own necks for the church. I don't know what they did, but they put their lives on the line. for the New Testament church. How did they do that? They did it by the power of God. Where'd they get that power? They thirsted. They wanted something like a thirsting man wants water. I want to ask tonight Are you thirsty? Are you thirsty for the power of God? Is that something that consumes you? Is it something that motivates you? Is it something that eats you up in the quiet moments when you wake up at night? You want the power of God. You just want the power of God. God, I want your power on my life. I don't want to get up and preach and just have it be empty words. I don't want to go out soul winning and just, you know, hand out tracts, just go through the motions. I don't want to sit in a restaurant when we're traveling, or walk up to somebody in a hotel desk when we're traveling, and just go through the mechanical motions of giving out a gospel tract, because that's what evangelists do. I have to confess I've done that. I've gone through the motions. That's one of the things that makes me thirst, because I'm sick of going through the motions. It's empty. And you realize what an unprofitable servant you are. When you're just going through the motions. Jesus said, if any man thirst, there's something to do. He said, let him come to me. Now you came to him when you got saved. But you know what the Christian life is? The Christian life is a continual coming back to Jesus. Every day, twice a day, five times a day, twenty-six times a day, all through the day, I need Thee day by day, the songwriter wrote, somebody else wrote I need Thee every hour, somebody else wrote a song moment by moment. We need to just keep coming back to him and coming back to him and coming back. And while Jesus said in John chapter four, he that believeth on me shall never hunger and he or he that cometh to me will never hunger and he that believeth on me will never thirst. That is the thirst for forgiveness of sin. And when you have come to Jesus for the forgiveness of sin, you'll never thirst that way again. This is a different thirst. John chapter four is the thirst for the forgiveness of sin. John chapter seven is the thirst for the filling of the spirit. And you're gonna get it when you come to Jesus again and again and again. Jesus was instructing his disciples in Luke the 11th chapter. And he was speaking to them about the subject of prayer. And he said, if ye then, being evil, that is, having a sin nature, if ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? Now, I understand the dispensational truth there. But I also understand that in this day and age, we're not asking God to give us the Holy Spirit in the sense that He would abide with us, because He abides with us forever. We're asking for the Holy Spirit to fill us. What is the filling of the Spirit? Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess. but be filled with the Spirit. The Holy Spirit there is likened in His functions to what happens to a person who's drunk. How interesting. How utterly interesting that is. You want to know what wine does to somebody? Wine controls somebody. And the more full of it you are, the more controlled by it you are. The Holy Spirit will control you. And the more full of him you are, the more controlled by him you'll be. If any man thirst, let him come to me. What does that mean? It means you get on your knees in the closet of prayer, and you say, oh Father, I need thee today. Would you fill me with the Holy Spirit? You know why we need the filling of the Holy Spirit? To be husbands and wives. How long have you folks been married? Two and a half years. You got it down, right? Yeah. The husbands always say this, and the women are like, because they're the ones that tell the truth. I've noticed this in counseling. I'll say, how are things going, husband? You know, they're going really well. And the wife's over there going, with whom? So you've been married two and a half years, you're still together, you don't need God. Just go on. How often do the men in this church say, Father, I need you today to be a husband. I need you. I know you've told me to love my wife the way you love the church. I can't do that without you. Would you fill me with the Holy Spirit today? So I can do that. How many of you women would say that you make it a frequent prayer request, Lord you told me to submit to my husband the way the church submits to Christ, and boy I got that down, I'm 100% submissive. How many of you would just say, you know, I often pray for the filling of the Holy Spirit for that. How many of you young people in this room ask for the power of the Holy Spirit to be obedient? honoring children. By the way, if your parents are still alive, you're still commanded to honor them. And if they aren't still alive, you're commanded to honor their memory. I don't find that the Bible says honor thy father and thy mother unless you think they're rotters. No, the Bible says honor them. You say, well, how do you honor unsaved people? How do you honor dishonorable people? You honor God and you obey God, and that honors your parents regardless of who they are. You don't have to spread unnecessary dirt about anybody. When Paul commented about his father, he said, I'm a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. He didn't turn his father under the bus. He didn't ring him out and hang him out to dry. He just said, I'm a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. He told what needed to be said. You know, some of the people in this room ought to take some time to pray. God, fill me with the Holy Spirit so I can honor my mom or my dad. And that's just in the family. What about as a church member? What about as a soul winner? If any man thirsts, it goes back to that. And when we reach points in our lives where we think, you know, I got this down. I'm doing pretty well. You know, I've made it this far. I remember witnessing to my father and my father had a classic line. I've gotten this far without him. I'll get a little farther. My dad never did get saved. He died without the Lord. And that was what he said to me almost every time. I've gotten this far without God, I'll get a little farther. We shake our heads at that when we think of somebody in hell. But some of us as believers live that way when it comes to his power. If any man thirst, let him come to me. And the Bible says, and drink. Drink. That means to partake. That means to spend enough time with the Lord, to spend enough time in prayer, to spend enough time in communion, to spend enough time with God, you and Him alone in the closet where you have shut the door, you've shut out the distractions, and you've turned off all the noises and the things that are going to draw your attention hither and yon, and you've closed out everybody but God. and you're drinking, you're taking it in. You take in the truths of the Bible. You take in those things that assure your soul. You take in the promises, the truths, the things that you know, and you take them in again, and again, and again. You've come to Him, and you're drinking from the Word of God. This is called the water of life. I addressed a group of preachers last week. My wife and I had the privilege of ministering in a church in Michigan, and the pastor asked us to speak to some pastors and their wives, and it was a seminar for ministry families with young children. We had nine families represented, including ours. Eight families. The oldest child was 12, and I think there were 21 children. and their parents. I said to those preachers, you make your living with this book. Don't you dare spend under an hour a day in its pages. I know some people have very busy schedules. I'm not insensitive to that. But how much time do you spend in this book? It's hard to drink from a hose that isn't turned on. Open it up, folks. Come to Him and drink. And then He said this, He that believeth, out of His belly shall flow rivers of living water. And the point is, He that believeth. When you come to Him and you drink, believe what you got. Without faith it's impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Wouldn't diligently seek Him be kind of a synonym for thirsting? Amen? I think diligently seeking the Lord would be a synonymous thought with thirsting for Him. And you know what? God wants to reward those who diligently seek Him. He wants to reward those that thirst for Him. I thirsted in the barren land of sin and shame. It'll be our song when we get done with this, maybe. Maybe we'll use a different one. That's a song I love. I thirsted in the barren land of sin and shame, nothing satisfying there I found. But to the blessed cross of Christ one day I came, where springs of living water did abound. Drinking at the springs of living water, happy now am I, my soul they satisfied. drinking at the springs of living water, a wonderful and bountiful supply. And if we'll come to Him, after we thirst, if we'll come to Him and drink and believe what we read, what does the Bible say? Out of the belly, that is, out of the inner being of that person, will flow rivers of living water. What are those rivers of living water? They're the life-giving gospel message. that lost sinners, whether they're in Nepal, or the Caribbean, or in this city, or in the next county, or wherever you happen to be. They're not just the life-giving gospel waters, but they're the life-giving waters of the truths of God that you can communicate to other people. You realize we have a great opportunity to minister to each other right in this body. You realize that as a body, the members of the body minister to the other members of the body. My hands minister to my feet. My feet minister to my head. My head wants to go somewhere. I kind of need my legs and feet to get me there. If my head wants something done, I sort of need my hands to do it. And if my hands say, no, I don't want to, then the head doesn't get what it's after. If my legs and feet say, no, I'm tired, then the head doesn't go where it wants to go. No, you see, the body ministers, and this body here, these believers, you can minister one to another, and it's out of your belly that flow rivers of living water. And I brought this up a little last night. I want to say carefully, I don't want to sound blunt, but I'm sometimes appalled at the contentions that I hear in church lobbies. The minute the missionary gets done pouring out his heart about a field where people are dying by the thousands and tens of thousands, and he's begged and pleaded for somebody to surrender, somebody to come, somebody to say, yes Lord, here am I, send me, and we get out in the lobby, and someone's talking about a ball game! When sinners are hanging in the balance, It just shocks me sometimes that all we have to do is walk past the exit doors and everything we just heard is forgotten. And we're talking about trivial, silly things. And our hearts aren't stirred. And our lives aren't changed. And we go right back to the grind of a powerless life. I believe your pastor and his wife have a heart for this place. I believe they want to see all these pews over here full. They're tired of seeing this lady and her son sit alone. I think they want to see all these pews full, and all these, and they're tired of seeing these young people over here sitting all by themselves. You are young people, aren't you? You look young to me. Of course, anybody that far away looks young. That's a long ways over there. I believe that would be the desire of this pastor and his wife. They can't do it alone. They can't do it without God's power. I believe this missionary here, I believe as he thinks of the people of Nepal, he's already been over there. I believe his heart is heavy. I think he is as sincere as this carpet is red. But without God's power, it will be an abysmal failure. And we in this room, if we want to see this church on fire, not literal flames now, I don't think we want that. But if we want to see the fire of God burning in our hearts, it's going to start with if any man, any individual, the word man there is generic. It's going to start with somebody thirsting. It's going to start with a man who's 63 years old saying, you know what? Enough of this. Enough of this mediocre, average, ho-hum Christian life. I want God. and I want Him every moment for the rest of my life like I've never had Him before. It's going to take some woman who's 34 who will just say, oh God, I am sick and tired of living a ho-hum average Nothing happening in Christian life. It's going to take a young person. It's going to take a grandmother, a grandfather. It's going to take some couples that at the invitation will join hands and say, that's it! We're done with this mediocrity! And we're going to thirst. And when tomorrow gets around, we're going to thirst again. And tomorrow, tomorrow's tomorrow, I'm going to thirst again. And the tomorrow after that. And the tomorrow after that. And I'm going to thirst. And I'm going to come to Jesus. And I'm going to drink. And I'm going to believe so that out of my belly, and out of the belly of this church, will flow rivers of living water. It'll flow out of Alabama. into Mississippi, up into Tennessee, over into Florida and Georgia. Rivers of living water that will get out of your Jerusalem and into your Judea. Rivers of living water that will flow out into the other states, down into Mexico. Rivers of living water that will go to every continent as this church sends people to the uttermost part of this earth. Our mission's motto at LaGrange Baptist Church, where I pastored for 21 years, is a very simple motto, to the ends of the earth before the end of the world. I personally don't think we have a whole lot of time. I don't set dates unless I'm going to take my wife out to eat. That's the only dating I do. I'm not a date setter when it comes to the coming of the Lord, but I think it will be soon. I said I think. It's just my opinion. I think it will be soon. If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. This message is for every person in this church. You may be a deacon or a Sunday school teacher. You may be a trustee. You may be the pastor. You may be a wife of any one of those or a child of any one of those. You may be a layperson. You may be a volunteer. You may clean the carpets. You may fold bulletins. You may work in the office. Everybody in this church needs the power of God. Nobody can do anything for God without it. If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. I'd like us to stand with our heads bowed