Audio Sermon: Oh, America, America — Leonard Ravenhill

Praise from India, would you like to pray with us now? Thank you.

Our dear and gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for your service in our nation. Because we have gathered here in our Lord Jesus Christ, and we are exalted, and whom we exalt with our praises. Amen.

Thank you Lord for enabling us to gather in the way of Jesus. Thank you Lord that you are accepting our praises. Amen. Oh we bless you. This moment Lord, as we open our mouth, and as we Lord, look to you, we pray that your Holy Spirit shall penetrate our hearts.

Lord you know where we are, you know Lord how close and how far we follow you, you know all of us. We pray Lord the word that will be expounded, the word that will be preached, which will reach our hearts with the very personal word for our needs, and our situation, and our faithfulness.

Thank you that you are going to do it Lord. We bless your holiness, Lord Jesus Christ our God. Amen. Thank you.

Pastor come, I forget what they call it now. Christian Community Fellowship, I believe it is. Huh? Community Christian. Upside down. I think he is in hospital isn't he? Is he going to have surgery? Well he is in hospital anyhow.

If any of you would rather be there, you have time to go right now. You know we don't thank God enough for our health, sight, senses and all the other things we have. We take them for granted. We pray for our brother tonight Lord.

We pray he will feel your presence. Be his comfort in his distress. Be his light in this dark spot. We thank you for his ministering. We thank you for his vision. And we ask that you will just triumph in this circumstance.

That he may emerge from it stronger in God. With a new sense of your love, and your grace, and your mercy. We pray for others who are afflicted and needy. We think of the hostages tonight. Weary, tired, pushed around like cattle.

We pray that somehow something may break through there. That someone there may realize that they can call on the name of the Lord. We think of their relatives and friends who watch their torture. Aged mothers and fathers.

We pray that they will find peace and rest in this time of need. We thank you for your word. This lamp for our feet and this light for our path. Speak to us Lord. As the hymn writer said, speak to me by name oh master.

Let me know it is to me. Speak that I may follow faster with a step more firm and free. Where the shepherd leads the flock in the shadow of the rock. Speak to me though least and lowest. Let me not unheard depart.

Master speak for thou knowest all the longings of my heart. Knowest all its truest need. Speak and make us blessed indeed. In Jesus name. Ten priests of the gospel recorded by Luke in the 19th chapter.

Jesus Weeps Over Jerusalem

Luke chapter 19, verse 41. And when he was come near, he beheld a city and wept over it. Why? Why should he weep over it? He just had an amazing standing ovation coming through the city. All the city was excited.

It says in verse 37. When he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the Mount of Olives. The whole multitude of the disciples. Notice there is a big difference between disciples and apostles. Only twelve apostles, many disciples.

But there was a multitude of disciples. Unquestionably they had gathered round and increased during his ministry. They had watched him with eyes wide open, maybe mouths wide open. As he conquered death and sin and demons.

Conquered the whole domain of the devil. The multitude of disciples began to rejoice and praised God with a loud voice. For all the mighty works which they had seen. Again, that's the whole range of his miracle ministry.

His majesty, he was in subjection to nothing and nobody. He tampered demons underfoot, disease underfoot, death underfoot. You know, if the church of Jesus Christ was alive, she would do the same thing.

The biggest tragedy in the world tonight is not the hostage's blessing. It's not Ethiopia. The biggest tragedy in the world tonight is a sick church in a dying world. There is no hope for the world unless the church is revived.

She is the channel through which God comes. They rejoiced and praised God with a loud voice. For all the mighty works which they had seen. Saying, blessed be the king that cometh in the name of the Lord.

Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said, I tell you, the thieves should hold their peace.

Even the very stones would immediately cry out. Wouldn't that be fun? I wish he'd done it. Some stubborn old Pharisee. And suddenly the rocks beneath his feet start yelling hallelujah. One of those sad Sadducees.

You see, the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. That guy was a Sadducee. Think about that tomorrow, but anyhow. When he was come over near, he beheld the city and wept over it. Do you think a city can be trusted?

I think sometimes he can, sometimes he can't. He said at the time that Jesus came round the shoulder of the hill and saw the city, it was still a splendid spectacle. The temple had been thrown down. At least much of it had, parts of it had.

And then he says it sparkled like snow and like gold. The rocks of the temple, some of them were 60 feet long and 40 feet broad. And 10 feet high. How did they move them? They didn't have our gear. And then it says, he wept over it.

Jerusalem’s Rejected Privilege and the Need for Revival

Why did he weep? Was he weeping because he was going to his doom? No, he was weeping because they were going to their doom. I'll tell you why he was weeping. Look at the 13th chapter of Luke. Verse 34.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee. How often would I have gathered thy children together, as the hen gathers her brood under her wings, and ye would not.

Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. Or as one translator put it, all that is left is yourselves and your empty house. And it's going to stay like that until ye shall not see me, until the time cometh when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

He's weeping over the history of this privileged nation. He's looking at the very streets where Jeremiah trod, where Isaiah trod, where Isaiah trod, where the line of prophets trod. They had had the greatest display of divine love and divine power of any nation under God's heaven.

But now as he looks back, he remembers the awful judgment for the light they've had, the privileges they've had, and he weeps over it. Remember last week we took Hannah, the woman that said she wept, and she continued weeping, and she wept until she was sore.

There's no question about it that weeping is an integral part of revival. Again, the reason we don't have revival tonight is we're content to live without it. David Ruth is on a rather startling lookout.

Some people have praised it, some people have cursed it, most people have ignored it. That's what it's all anyhow. Supposing we change the language here, instead of saying, O Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, supposing we say, O America, America, thou that killest the prophets.

You say, we don't kill prophets. We've killed hundreds of prophets in the last four or five years. Preachers we don't like, we starve them out. We won't support them, won't give them offerings. And they have to take back to some job, and they shouldn't have had to do that.

We storm them with our criticism. We storm them with our abuse. We storm them by ignoring them. And yet Jesus is weeping over the city. He's looking at the temple where once the glory of God was so majestic.

It was the most awesome building ever made. It was the most costly building. It was overlaid with gold, not plaster. Everything about it was typical of majesty and glory and power. Solomon, you remember, made his offering, built his altar, made his sacrifice.

He needed one thing, only one. That was the fire of God to fall. Dear Lord, did the church ever have more equipment than we have now? I have a whole shelf, I must have about 30, 40 books on the Holy Spirit.

We have every means of transmitting at least a message. But Solomon knew after all the years of labor, after all the cost of that building, ships that had brought marvelous wood from other countries. He built his throne, he had strutting peacocks, he had all kinds of wonderful things.

But this awesome day when they would all get, the priests were there in their garments of glory and beauty. They wore a grass plate with 12 stones on. Each stone had the name of a tribe. And the priest went into the Holy of Holies.

Once, one day for one nation. This is the spectacle of all spectacles. There's one thing missing. We never miss the Holy Ghost because we've never seen it. We've got a wonderful brother coming to preach at our little fellowship on Sunday.

If you can get a seat, get there by 10 o 'clock. Bob Phillips, he was preaching last night when a woman screamed out in the meeting in grief, in anguish over her sins. And immediately the audience broke up into repentance.

Repentance Rather Than Manufactured Altar Calls

We have to manipulate and pull. Oh, we'll sing, Room at the cross for you, no millions of candles to rule for. Sloppy sentimental stuff. In evangelism you have to make an altar call. In revival the people make an altar call.

Read the third chapter of Luke. What does it say? It says the soldiers, as Kipling would say, the lesser breeds outside of the law, when they heard John Baptist, they'd never heard anything like that in Rome.

And they cried out, what shall we do? And the people cried out, what shall we do? And the publicans cried out, what shall we do? They weren't trained. It wasn't orchestra. They were so smitten. They were so devastated.

Felt as though they were hanging over hell. Felt this is my last chance for mercy. Oh, we comfort people. Oh, well, dear friend, don't put it off. Till next week. Are you suggesting God's your servant that you wish upon him next week, Necham?

Do you want to learn Hebrews? The epistle says, today if ye will hear his voice. How do I know this isn't God's last call to some man here? God owes you nothing. He's warmed you, he's welcomed you. He wept over the city.

Maybe again he weeps over some of us tonight. It's maybe his last call to us. It says in the Gospel of John, if you turn back to it for a moment. Most people remember this chapter as the chapter of the marriage in Cana of Galilee.

Verse 13 says, the Jewish Passover was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And he found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves and changes of money sitting. And when he had made a scourge of small cords, surely he goes in with a scourge of small cords.

It's not the Lictor's lash that the Romans had. He goes there with authority. He moves that small little thing, a little staff with cords on, symbolic of the judgment that will lash that people. I believe he walked through that temple weeping.

Do you know why? Because a bit later he's going to be lashed in the same place. But not with a petty little thing, but with a thing with about five horrible lashes on it and a spike at the end made of copper that's going to tear and rip his back like a plowed field.

He comes there with gentleness. He comes there with mercy. He drove them out of the temple which was merely symbolic. And he overthrew the tables with the money changers. Here is God's only Son. There is the Christ of God, the Lord of glory.

And he's looking at his father's house and instead of the glory that was there in the days of Solomon, it stinks of urine and dung from animals. I suggest you to act in all sincerity as God will judge you.

He looks down on many churches tonight and founds them as a frenzy with their urine and dung of the sword. You build a family center next to the church so the kids will be away from home. So they'll fool around for hours instead of learning a catechism or something.

Duncan Campbell, the Hebridean Revival, and Biblical Doctrine

I had the privilege many times of praying usually between five and six in the morning with Duncan Campbell, the man God used in the Hebrew revival. He would sit there and he'd talk to me. His eyes would fill with tears or as Duncan would say, the water stood in his eyes.

I'd ask him about the visitations of the Spirit. I asked him about the people. Were they drunk? Were they disorderly? Did they break the Ten Commandments? No, they were self-righteous. That was their problem.

But the Spirit of God came on whole communities. Taverns closed down, never to open again. Dance halls closed down, never to open again. We haven't an evangelist in America today. Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, a whole bunch of them.

There's not one of them who can go to a city and see all the devil's strongholds closed down. They're so busy picking up money we've no time to pull anything down. But Duncan said one morning in his broad Scottish way, Brethren, the folk out there, every day in the house of those stuffy, if you like, Presbyterians, every morning the Word of God was brought out and Father read it.

Every night after supper the dishes were lifted and put into the sink. And the children were on the Word of God. Every one of those children had to recite what they called the Shorter Catechism, which is basically the Word of God.

It's doctrinal. You could get kids at seven and eight years of age and talk to them about the Atonement and they understood it. We've got guys coming out of the Dallas Seminaries that don't understand it.

God's house is a dunghill tonight. It's a dunghill of poor theology. It's a dunghill of worldliness. And Jesus weeped over it. Behold, your house is left unto desolate until the day that ye say, Blessed is he that cometh in.

And they thought they were getting rid of him and he got rid of them. I tried to gather you, you would not. So get out of it. Where are the Jews tonight in captivity? What does the Scripture say? When you see Jerusalem surrounded with armies, know that the end is not far off when she's surrounded with armies tonight.

She doesn't know which way to turn. You talk about impotence. We've mobbed billions in aircraft and aircraft carriers and bombs and we can't do that one with a bunch of hostages. A dozen fanatics can tie America up, tie its government up, tie its economy up, tie its army up, tie its navy, tie its air force.

We can't do a thing. Yet we still trust in flesh. We have in God, we trust in our coins, but we trust in the government power more than in God. We're more afraid of Russia than we are of the wrath of God.

America’s Spiritual Barrenness and the Glory That Has Departed

God's house is desolate tonight, the glorious God. We had a girl prayed here last Friday night with a broken heart. He moved me to my toes. He prayed with anguish over America and its corruption, its vice, and its violence, and its vulgarity, and its viciousness.

And while he was saying that, I was saying there's one reason for that. The glory has departed from the sanctuary because the glory has departed from the home. Come on, you thieves, don't start blaming humanism.

You're the fault. You have no altar in your home. Why should your children listen? You don't listen to God. Why should they listen to you? It's a day of disorder. It's a day of everyone doing that with his right in his own eyes.

The Jews are going through more trouble, I know that. I'm quite sure that the toughest days for America are still ahead of us. It's only God that can deliver us. He wept over Jerusalem. Hannah wept. Because she was barren.

No consolation that she got better clothes than her sister. Or got more time with her husband than her sister. You find the same thing in the life again in the 30th chapter of Genesis where Rachel one day forgets all about her pretty hairstyle and everything else and she throws herself at the feet of her husband.

She's barren. She's ashamed. People point the finger and say God is disgusted with you. God doesn't own you. God doesn't take you as one of his children. So she throws herself at the feet of her husband and says give me children or I die.

Remember John Knox paraphrased that? Became a classic phrase when he said give me Scotland or I die. It wasn't a passing sentiment. As I said, I should have said last week when Hannah got pregnant she... the pregnancy disrupted her family life.

Disrupted her physical life. Disrupted her social life. Disrupted her religious life. You see she's been scorned year after year after year. Every time she went up to Shiloh they laughed and said she's here again.

She's not pregnant. She's no more chance than any child. God's disgusted with her. You see God loves a hopeless situation. Rachel is barren. Give me children or I die. And she got a wonderful son. Joseph, a prime minister.

Hannah prayed and got a wonderful son. A prophet. Menorah's parents prayed and got a child. By the name of Samson he pulled down the stronghold for all that. You get that barren patch between Malachi and Matthew 400 years of stability spiritually of deadness, of blindness, of emptiness.

And yet in that situation of total barrenness God comes to a barren woman brings to birth John Baptist whom Jesus said is the most remarkable man that's walked this earth. The difference between them and us is we have no shame.

Hunger for God’s Glory and Spiritual Brokenness

I almost had an ugly word there but I won't. We don't care that the world repulses us. We've no glory so we get entertainment. We've no power so we sing and try and work up an atmosphere. And singing's beautiful, I love it.

We sing here as good as anywhere I'm sure. If I could turn the tap on I'd make you all weep tonight. I can't do that, don't want to do it. Some of us older folk need to weep because the glory has gone and we don't weep about it.

We're content with something less than God. We're content with an atmosphere. We're content with something sweet instead of the living presence of the living God. Some of us knew that glory. It's gone but it doesn't make us weep.

Some of us have never had that glory and we can dangle it before you as we like but it doesn't make a hell of a difference. There's a precious brother in Titusville in the Baptist church there. I've preached in that wonderful church a number of times.

I think one of the best men in the country Peter Lord. Some of you have heard him or heard his tapes. Peter recently got a copy or two copies of the Refiners Fire that Dave Wilkerson put out. He read an article that got all of his heart and put a squeeze on him until he could not rest.

He had his church office run off about 1 ,500 copies of that one article and called the church to prayer. Stopped all services. Stopped the quiet. We weren't in the energy of the flesh. We talked with expectation instead of faith.

And so for two weeks the church has there been on its face. What a place. If you know a place in this town like that let me know, would you? Do you know one of those big shot assemblies in Dallas that's always supporting the great speakers?

Who's coming up? Everybody goes but God. And as long as they clap and somebody has a word of knowledge. Doesn't matter about the word of God. The word of knowledge which may be a guess or it may be truth.

But you see we're not hungry. We're not concerned. It's blessed those who hunger and thirst. There's nothing magic about revival really. It's a divine intervention for sure but there has to be something there so basic.

I think one of the most awesome things ever committed to any man. I've never heard anybody preaching it. It was given to John Baptist when God says you prepare the way of the Lord. He said what, do I get a committee?

He says no, forget it. Do I get somebody to back me financially? Forget it. You've got God behind you. The Father's behind you. The Holy Ghost is behind you. And the words that you've read so often there's no weapon that is formed against each apostle.

Dear God, every weapon in the world is hacking the church to pieces tonight. Maybe right now Jesus is weeping over this meeting. I'm so content with good meals, a nice thing, something I'm getting tomorrow.

My birthday's coming, I'm getting a new watch or something else. I've told you before, let me repeat about a lady that's laying, dying in California right now. Dear precious woman, has there hair on her head?

She's had different treatments for cancer. Some people went in to see her and her face they say radiates like a lamp. Doctors have been going, atheists have been going, Jews have been going. People outside the hospital have been coming in.

There she lies, not saying a word most of the time. But she said to the nurses and staff one night, you know last night, Jesus came to the bottom of my bed there. Beautiful, radiant. And he said this, I love my bride.

I love my bride. I would like to come for her tomorrow. But she doesn't love me, she hasn't made herself ready. Now that's not your church, it's you. That's not your preacher, it's me. I've been almost tortured these past few nights.

Laying instead of sleeping. Or weeping instead of sleeping. What is it going to take for almighty God to invade Van and all this area? Or Tyler? Or Texas? He's weeping for the past. They've had prophets, they've had teachers.

They've had miracle workers. They've had the tallest men that ever lived, spiritual against Isaiah and Jeremiah and all those others. And they forgot all about it. But he's not only weeping over that, he's weeping for what's coming up.

He's going to Jerusalem. And stupid men are going to take a whip and tear the flesh off the back of the Son of God. Can you imagine them at the judgment seat? I preached on the judgment seat last Sunday morning.

Preparing the Way Through Repentance and Obedience

I've never told him. He's had a troubled week all the week. He's had to go put things right with people. That's wonderful. That prepares the way of the Lord. Prepare the way in your life. Pull up the roots.

Don't wait for God. Go and get going. Make that apology. Make that phone call. Make that letter. Send that letter. As Christians, we have one of two options. Either to humble ourselves before God or be humiliated.

If I fall on His word, it will break me to pieces. If His word falls on me, it will grind me to powder. See, when the Holy Ghost is present, this word begins to live. It begins to kick. It begins to bite.

Often when I pray, I say, Lord, let your word bite my heart right now as I pray. There's a sense in which Almighty God can't do any more for the world. He's given us every word He's ever going to give us, all in this book.

He's got nothing to add to it. He's got nothing to revise. Stupid men try and improve it. God has said it. He's weeping over them. Why? Time is running out. I was in Australia, taking a plane, I think, to fly to New Zealand, and I saw a crowd around the table agitated in the newspapers.

And the headline showed a picture of John Kennedy bending over the table in the Oval Office. And it said, Mr. Kennedy said when he got the book, The State of the World, he just said this, Time is running out on us.

That must be 15 years ago. I mean, you didn't wake up this morning expecting you'd die before the end of the day, did you? We take for granted I'm going to live. I've lived all the others. Oh, mercy, I've lived nearly 80 years now.

I expect tomorrow I'm going to live again. Doesn't mean I will. I'm soon to go to the final checkout counter, the detriment seat. I read sometimes in the paper there's going to be an official investigation, a fact-finding commission.

The greatest fact-finding commission will be at the judgment seat of Christ. There won't be an error. There won't be a misjudgment. There'll be no court of appeal. The sentence is eternal. Judgment is not time out, it's time finished.

Jesus is mourning over them because he's looking at that temple. He's looking where the saints have trod, and he knows in a few years. Remember, he said to some people further back, this generation is going to witness judgment for the blood of men from Abel, righteous Abel to Zechariah, who was murdered between the doors of the temple and the altar.

For what? Because he preached righteousness. I guess every one of you have heard a message on the second blessing. You've heard one on the second coming. You've heard one on the second birth. I make a safe guess not one of us ever heard a sermon on the second death.

The death that never dies. Why do we get so angry with sinners that they're not concerned? Why in God's name do we get angry with ourselves? How concerned are we? How much praying, how much fasting, how much weeping do we do?

It says he looked over the city and Jesus wept. And when Paul looked around and saw the infiltration in his day of wrong teaching, he says, I tell you, even weeping, they're enemies of the cross of Christ.

There were never more enemies of the cross of Christ than today. The enemies of the cross of Christ are not in the tavern now. They're in God's house. And in some of our theological seminaries, trying to water down the word of God.

Enemies of the Cross and the Judgment of Jerusalem

Roman Catholics, enemies of the cross of Christ. Why? Because they say Mary is co-redemptrix. They make a lot out of the cross, sure enough. But they're enemies of the cross because they say Mary shares the redemptive virtues of Jesus Christ.

So they're enemies of the cross of Christ. Jehovah's Witnesses, enemies of the cross of Christ. Mormons, enemies of the cross of Christ. Pardon this, if you don't, I'll say it anyhow. Most of the major modern, rotten religions were born in America.

We boast about evangelism. We boast about how many Bibles we have. How many radio stations? Three thousand radio stations every day say something about the gospel. Mormonism was born here. Mormonism makes three million dollars a day by their own admission.

A billion a year. Which they spend propagating error. They're going to build a church down in Tyler. They're going to build a temple in Dallas. A friend told me, sent me, wrote to me from Denmark. No, Norway.

No, no, Sweden. Got it now. A plane landed yesterday with two hundred and twenty missionaries in. Two hundred and twenty Mormon missionaries and two Protestant missionaries. Jesus said in his day they're so zealous they'll go around the world to make one more conduct and land them into hell with themselves.

What did I see? Jesus is looking over the city, is weeping over it. This God privileged city, this that has the main temple of God in it. And he said this generation will not pass away before the whole place is running with blood.

In the year 70, A .D. 70, Titus came and raped the whole city. Ravaged it. And the city ran with blood. You say, well, Brother Raymond, we're not facing Titus. No, we're facing hell. If you believe me, if you want to have it politically, listen to Mr. Reagan.

He says there's a danger of us being barbecued. Read Deadwood, which is a new book. It's a very good part I can't agree with. The first page shocks most people. He says America's going to be wiped out.

I don't see that at all. America is being wiped out tonight. It's being wiped out with false religion. It's being wiped out with broken vows, broken homes. Being wiped out because of David being flushed down with John.

And I'm not humorous about that. We pray sometimes for the Holy Ghost to come. Do you know what we do if he came? We'd run to the door. If he came in tongues of living flame, if he came and began to unlock our hearts and show us all the misery that's there and all the carnality that's there, we'd either run for mercy or we'd escape out.

Oh, Jerusalem, you killed the prophets, you killed God's anointed men, your house is empty. And you're empty, he says, In essence, you're empty in an empty house. You can disagree if you like. I don't mind that.

I believe God will look down on every church in America or England this Sunday and say your house is empty. Where is the living, vibrant power that like that precious meeting last night where the woman suddenly realized God had a grip on her heart and she stood up in front of a congregation and screamed for mercy?

And the meeting broke. We're on to organize it. Oh, wait till the end. We'll sing Just As I Am. You know, you can come sweetly. I don't ask anybody to come to altar with their eyes closed. Jesus didn't say, Would you please close your eyes while I go to Calvary.

He met a spitting, scornful crowd. Why weren't they there on either side of the road as he went down to that hell that he was going through? They deserted him. Somebody snatched his beard. He didn't pull the hair out, he pulled the flesh of his mouth.

They beat him up and God stood on one side and did nothing. We think because God isn't shaking the earth with earthquakes and other things, right now we're in a good state. We're not. I read it again in the 17th chapter there of Acts, just today.

And I get through right here. Paul is standing before all the geniuses. It tells who they are, the Stoics and the poets, the Epicureans, on Mars Hill, the intellectual capital of the world. And he tells them about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And he says, You're looking for an unknown God. I know Him. I want to get hold of this. I want to preach on it sometime. Do you know what he says? He says, In Him, the one you sang about tonight, the immortal, invisible, God only wise, unresting, unhastening and so forth, with indescribable glory and majesty, Paul says, In Him I live and move and have my being.

I don't just meet Him Sunday morning for an hour. I don't step out of His presence when I go down the street. He's living in me. If Christ isn't living in you, you're not saved. You may be good morally.

It won't get you to heaven. We've got to get a bunch of people that make a vow somewhere, I think, by the day, that from this moment, by the grace of God, whether I live the next 10 days or 10 hours or 10 years, I go on to get up every morning, go to bed every night and say at the end of the day, Today I've lived and moved and have my being in God.

I've seen the world as Christ saw it. The disciples didn't weep because they'd never seen it as He saw it. We sang a hymn the other Sunday morning, I think, over it. Our little fellowship, ought to be like thee.

Living Continually in God’s Presence

Do you know what I mean by that? Do you want 40 days of fasting in the wilderness? Do you want to go down the road and suddenly the Holy Ghost says, Stop your car, pull over and you weep over a church there, that you know is a God forsaken church?

It has a formula, it has a theology, it has a smart preacher, but the living presence of the living God is not manifest. I will not be manifest until we vow to God, like Hannah made her vow unto God and said, I'll not give you rest until I get a child.

It meant fasting, it meant weeping, it meant travailing. I had a friend this week and I'm still with this. In my early 20s I pastored a large church in England. I love to go through past the Salvation Army building.

It's the largest Salvation Army building outside of London. There's a block of stone as large as this square here. And chiseled in the stone it says, William Booth of the Salvation Army opened this core, as they called their churches, the RPS core.

Gives you the date, 1910. On yellow stone it says, Kate, I forget the other one, Mary Jackson were the officers in this core. They went to that city which is a poor city. They spin cotton and they weave cotton into cloth and all kinds of things.

It was on the poverty level. They labored there for a couple of years and nothing happened. It used to be a sign phrase in England, they go to the Salvation Army for soup and soap and salvation. Because they give out these things to the poor.

Gave them cans of beans, gave them soap, gave them clothes. These girls labored, they worked diligently. They went to bed exhausted at night and they prayed. Well, they said, we've been here long enough, we've done everything we know, we've preached all we know, we've prayed all we know.

We've been merciful. We've helped the needy. They wrote to William Booth, would you kindly move us to another station? We're so tired. We're so disheartened. We've tried everything that we've been taught to use.

Please move us. He sent a telegram back with two words on, try tears. And they did and they had revival. Those girls went to travailing prayer, not just prayer, but traveling prayer. Prayer with anguish in it.

Prayer again like we had last Friday night in the Mercy of God. There never has been a revival in history that hasn't been paid. The road, what do you say? The road to hell is paid with this. The roads of Venice are paid with water.

The streets of heaven are paid with gold. The road to revival is paid with tears. And brokenness. We changed the style of our meeting, it's nine. We're going to sing our final verse here. And when we sing it, you're free to move out and go home.

You'll be able to pick up the tape as you go out, I understand that it made. If you want to stay, you can stay. If you go out, please don't. Well, talk, but be quiet. Because we find out now when we change the meeting this way, people are not just waiting to get home.