Judgment in the House of God — Erlo Stegen

The Great Task and the Need for Revival

We thank God for all He has done for us, and it's our prayer that as you go back that you will go well, and that you'll go with God's blessing. May this now not be the end of it all, but may it be as if oil has been poured out, and poured onto the fire in our hearts, that we'll be on fire like never before.

There's a great task ahead. It's huge. It's as if we haven't even started. How will we do the straight work? It's impossible for us to do this on our own. It will only work if God works in His mighty power through His Spirit by sending us revival throughout the earth.

Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord. We have heard so much. I don't have time to repeat it all. I had made some notes of all the different topics that were spoken about with what was said, but I thought if I had to say it all again, we'd sit here till tomorrow morning.

Sharing Spiritual Food for the Road

But there is something on my heart. It's like patkos, food for the road that I want to give you. Something that you can take along to your country, to where you come from, and may it be a blessing there.

I trust all of us here realize and recognize the great need that is in the world. As the Lord said, go to all the nations and teach all people not to know, but to keep all that I have commanded you. It doesn't help if I go and teach people, and I tell them, do not steal, yet I myself steal.

I need to teach them to keep it. The theme, the urgency of the hour. We cannot face these mountains, as it were, that are before us, the difficulties that are before us, in our own strength, but there is a way to overcome.

Judgment Begins with the Household of God

Let's read from the first book of Peter, 1 Peter, chapter 4. And verse 17, verse 17, 1 Peter 4, verse 17. My eyesight's not so good anymore, and then I don't see everything clearly. For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God, and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

Let us pray once again. Lord, we pray that your word will be like a lamp that sheds light, that everything will become perfectly clear, that no one will leave without having understood the mystery of the kingdom of heaven.

Amen. It is time for judgment to start in the house of God. We pray and say, Lord, hear all these people, lost souls that need to be saved, and it's not wrong to pray for them, but God does not start there.

He starts in his house. And we are the spiritual house of God. In the book of Revelation, where the Lord wrote to the different churches after he had ascended into heaven, and he always addressed the letter to the angel, the messenger, the leader of the church of that place.

So when God speaks, he starts with us as ministers, preachers. There was a minister who was deeply troubled, concerned about his congregation. When he looked at the older people, and then the youth and the children, he was troubled and concerned because it was as if it didn't get through to them, as if they weren't touched.

Then he heard of a servant of the Lord, whom the Lord was using mightily. And he heard people saying, there's revival in that place. God is at work. It was a faraway place. And he decided he was going to go to that place to be with this minister for two full weeks.

And he said he wanted to be with him all day, follow him all over. When he prayed, whatever he did, he wanted to be with him. He wanted to learn from him. So off he went to that place. When he got there, he said, dear servant of the Lord, I want to tell you why I've come here.

I'm from a very hard place, difficult people that I'm with. Things just aren't happening. I want to stay with you for two weeks. Where I come from, people don't get saved. They don't repent. And I've come here to learn from you, to see how you live, how you go about things, that that fire that burns here can be ignited in my congregation.

And that preacher said, brother, you don't need to stay here for two weeks. I can give you the solution right here. He said, it's not because I'm not hospitable, but you can go right back home now. And I'm sure I can help you that God can start working.

When you get home, go into your office, into your study. Move away your desk and the chairs. Take away everything from the center of your study. And then go and sit in the middle. And they said, take some white chalk and make a circle around you.

When you've done that, put down your chalk. And then you pray and say, Lord, please start working and start right here within this circle. And he was upset. It hurt him. He said, no, the problem's not with me.

It's the other people. Not me. But after a while, he calmed down and he reconsidered and he said, well, there'll be no harm in me doing it. He said, let me go back, because sometimes medicine is bitter, but it helps you.

And the preacher said, well, I hear you pointing at the others, blaming them. Remember, when you point at someone, one finger points at him. Three point back at you. And the thumb points up that God is the witness that you are three times as bad as the one you are blaming.

The Lord said, don't you hypocrites take the block out of your own. The log out of your own eye before you attempt to take the split out of your brother's eye. I preached overseas in Germany. I asked the audience in Germany.

I said, you are learned people, mathematicians. Can you tell me how many splinters there are in a log? One young person stood up and said, there are over a million. And I was surprised. I didn't think it was so many.

But it did something to me. And I thought, God, could it be that my mistake, my sin is a million times greater than the fault I see in my brother's life? Now, you cannot say that the Lord is telling a lie, that it's not the truth.

So it makes one think, to realize how serious our sin is compared to my brother's sin. So the Lord says, you hypocrite, get out the log out of your own eye first before you worry about the splint in your brother's eye.

Confessing Sin with Fellow Ministers

And it's so easy to speak about the sins of other people and about their children. But when it comes to talking about our own wrongdoing, oh, how difficult it is. I remember four preachers who got together as a prayer group, and they prayed.

And one of them made a suggestion and said, brothers, so often people come to us with their burdens, with their wrongdoing, their sins that they've committed, and they ask us to pray with them for God to forgive them.

They come to us. But what about us? Who do we go to? People come to us with their problems, with their difficulties, and they ask us to pray with them. Shouldn't we do likewise? As we are together, why don't we use this opportunity to share with each other?

And maybe we also need to confess our sins, and then the one can pray for the other. But the others agreed. One of them said, brothers, let me start. On a Sunday, I preach two sermons, hold two services, and it's difficult, and I stress about it.

By sunset, I am quite depressed already and in real tension. I'm so stressed that when my wife comes with something, or even the children, they just get near me and then I'm irritated and I am unfriendly with them.

And sometimes I just walk out the house. I go around the corner, I light up a cigarette just to calm myself. Please pray with me, brothers. And then the next one said, I also need prayer. I also have a stressful life, and there are so many problems that sometimes I just decide to go off to the cinema and just look at a movie just to calm down.

And then the third one also shared with the others what was troubling him. And then they turned to the last one, the fourth one, they said, well, brother, what do you want to say? They said, no, there's nothing.

I have nothing to say. The others just didn't let him get away with it. They said, no, we all agreed that we'd do this, and you're also one of them. And he said, no, I'm not prepared to do this. I'd rather just leave you.

Go home. One of them got up, locked the door, took the key out of the door and said, you're going nowhere. We all agreed you're going to take part here as well. They said, brother, remember, we all agreed.

This was an agreement. You agreed as well in the beginning. You're going nowhere. We'll sit here till tomorrow. We're going nowhere until you've done it. They said, brother, remember, we all agreed. Wait.

One said to him, well, obviously you've done something rather terrible that you're not prepared to come out with it. They sat for hours, and they said, we are going nowhere until you've said what you need to say.

Then eventually he said, no, all right, I'm humbling myself. I'm bowing. This is my problem. And then they could pray together, and that was the beginning of a mighty working of God in that area. So God started working in his servants.

Revival Begins with Personal Examination

Then the other minister that drew that ring around him, that circle around him, he went home. He did exactly what that preacher told him. He went home, sat down in his study, or knelt down in his study, drew that circle around him.

He said, Lord, I didn't expect things to go this way, but now I pray that you will work. Start within the circle. And then God started working through his Holy Spirit, putting his finger on one thing after the other in his life that was not acceptable to God.

As Jesus said, when the comforter comes, he will convict the world of sin. And he recognized it, and he said, oh God, I've sinned. I've sinned. The following Sunday he got onto the pulpit and he started preaching and it didn't take long he noticed one of the men in the congregation crying and then another one he noticed was crying and it didn't take long there were a few and they came to him after the service they said please we need to speak to you pray with us God has convicted us of things in our lives that are wrong and God's God started working and revival broke out now when we were still children we were six in the family and at Christmas time my mother gave each one of us a book the book she gave me was about Werner Heuckelbach.

Now this is over 60 years ago but I still remember what was written there he preached and many got converted but after a while it started getting less less and less people were getting converted. They were still but not like in the beginning and people also didn't come to the services as they did before and that troubled him.

He sought God's face. God's word says that you will seek me and find me when you seek for me with all your heart and he said let me just stop preaching for a while let me just seek God's face. He took his writing pad he knelt down and then he said Lord I want to examine myself.

He took his writing pad wrote down different sins pride haughtiness etc and he says for two weeks he was before the Lord crying to God saying oh God work in my life sanctify me drink only tennessee leave your son.

I think you've been well easy about my daughter and I leave it. You know I got my daughter and I leave it in a smile. You forget the Prophet Malachi said he will sit and he will refine your silver and gold and purify you as the sons of Levi.

And we are those. And he forgot about everyone else. He just he just focused on himself and searched his own heart. He poured his heart and after that the people started coming again as before and they got converted as before.

God reveals how he works when he works. He starts with me personally. Forget about the other people and just start with yourself. Yes you preach and you even preach the truth. But what is it like in your own life.

Often in the Bible it says be an example to others. But your works and your life speaks so loud that I can't hear what you say. That's what someone once said to a preacher. I hear you preaching and you can preach like few people.

But unfortunately your works your life speaks louder than your words lap or a kudu mute a super manga labado. But I could only get about far easy. I got you my ending job. Oh kudu much local kudu mongol's.

No kudu mongol far east. When the people heard Jesus preach they noticed there was a difference. They said when he preaches it's not like the Pharisees and the scribes. There's a difference when he preaches.

Okay. But when his tools begin a mantra he preached with authority with power got to a lava which is what in the quenza. Back show you. I'll back show you cotton in a quenza back when Zion go by a cool show.

But of the others the Lord said hear what they say but do what they say. But don't do what they do because they don't practice what they preach. Yeah as Linda bar a martinica Esther a pipeline. You know the story of an Esther which read in Esther.

Esther, Example, and the Conduct of Ministers' Families

Remember the king that ruled at that time of a vast area right up to India and back and this way to Africa. And he arranged a huge feast and invited all the important people. After some days of feasting he summons his wife that she should appear before him.

She was a beautiful woman the Queen when she was called to appear before the king she refused. She said I'm not going there. She went against him. The king was upset. He got his counselors together and asked for advice what he should do after his wife had done such a thing in public.

But because they advised him divorce to just get divorced so that's what he did. He sent her away and thereafter he got married to Esther and God used Esther. He worked through her. And so the first Queen was no longer Queen.

Well that's a see you sisters listen carefully. You may be a wife of a minister. Now at that time it was known throughout his kingdom that the Queen had despised the King's command. The whole world heard about her bad example and so she lost her position.

Now you descendants of Eve be very careful how you live if you're a minister's wife because that news spreads like wildfire and everyone will be talking about what you've done. It is urgent if you don't want to be ashamed before the Lord make sure that your life is right.

Even in Peter we read about the men where it admonishes the men to live properly and to deal with it with wisdom as the weaker vessel so that their prayers shall not be hindered. It's terribly important because we cannot afford that the relationship between husband and wife is not right.

As a wife be careful how you live how you walk how you talk your whole way of life even the way you dress because the younger people are watching you and woe to you. If you're not setting a good example and you brothers take note see how if things aren't right in your marriage and your prayers reach God then we can never expect revival.

Revival Lost Through Hidden Sin

We can talk about it for a long time but if we don't live it if things aren't right in our lives all talking is in vain. I remember 1966 when the Lord Lord started working through his spirit in different areas by someone phoned me at that time and said it's unbelievable what's happening.

People are coming from down the mountains they coming they're crossing rivers they coming from all over to make their lives right with God. We can't believe what's happening come. They were whites that came from Durban and when they came and met these heathen black people that had got converted they couldn't believe what they saw.

They say it's so wonderful to experience this to see their happy faces and what God has done. And the place they got too small there were too many people and they converted the garage into a meeting place put benches in but even that got too small.

Every day God was at work and people were getting converted. But with time it got less and more and even less. And people started talking. They said what's going on what is happening because people do notice.

And then one night this man arrived he came to see me what. And he said to me do you know have you noticed that that fire is not burning as it used to. It's the laws not working as he did in the beginning.

What he said. We know that now it's three months we're not one soul has been saved. What we are. Booty he said you know why not to. I didn't say anything. He says. It's now three months three months ago I sinned.

Yeah time doesn't get caught up in cooling cool. Oh god Almighty is all the fun on it to see said. And since that time I've prayed to God. I cried to him but it's as if heaven is made of lead. I just cannot get through to the Lord.

But today I have to make peace with him and I need to cleanse my. I'm going to confess this. And then I want you to pray with me that God forgives me. I guess I turned us so we prayed. Oh my sister does he know what imagine.

Good fun everything. It's a journey then he said. But now what must I do. Must I stop preaching. I said. I said you should have stopped preaching before you confess the sin. But now you've confessed it.

And the Lord promises that if we confess our sin even if they are scarlet he'll wash them whiter than snow. And if we hide our sin we will not prosper. But if we confess and forsake it we will receive mercy.

Nothing more. Kwame you morning routine was always humble O 'Neill cooling cool look detail. And I said as far as I can see you've confessed your sin now and you can go back and continue. And he left.

Confession Opens the Way for God's Working

This was at night just about midnight now. So just about at midnight the telephone rang excited and I heard someone on the other side of the phone was very excited. I said what is it brother. And was this brother he said.

Let me tell you what happened said after we spoke. I left and I went home. He lived on a place on a hill and the road turned in at the bottom. As you turned up the driveway the headlights shone on to his home.

Oh my a book. I'm at all time. I talked to Amy pump the greatest we are he said. As the headlights shone on to the home he could see three men standing in front of his house. One walk home one on the corner.

Ever been gillette. He went to them greeted them. What about. Four way to Queensland. John said brothers what is it. But as I was a poor mood they said we have no rest sees what we are guilty before God.

We each need to speak to you. And one after the other. They spoke to him opened then poured out their hearts confessing this and before the Lord. And from that time on people arrived daily to come to make peace with God.

And he said brother go throughout the world tell people God does not tolerate sin. Go and tell them. You can tell them my name. You can even tell them who I am and what I did. I said no I won't do that.

Examining Oneself Before Returning to Serve

But he said go and tell the people how God treats sin. And then. And so God continued working in revival power. We've heard much these days. Now will we go back be instruments weapons and God's hands which he can use.

That God can work among great and small that the impossible becomes possible. Nothing is impossible for God brother. And that building out there is being built and for me that is a sermon on its own. It's about ten months now.

We had nothing but you can see now the auditorium standing. Have you been there to look. And I say that building that auditorium speaks. It says God's great for him. Nothing is impossible. So you to go and be an instrument in his hands that he can do great things.

Make sure there's nothing that will hinder his working in your life and forget about other people's sins. Go back and search your own life and heart and say Lord is there anything in my life that quenches or grieves your spirit.

Paying Close Attention to Yourself and Your Teaching

And if there is repent from it in 1st Timothy chapter 4 verse 16 and 17. It's 1st Timothy 4 verse 15 and 16. Take pains with these things be absorbed in them 15 and 16 in the English Bible. Take pains with these things that and be absorbed in them so that your progress may be evident to all.

And pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching. Persevere in these things. For as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you. Pay close attention to your to yourself to yourself and the teaching.

It's important that we pay attention to our teaching that it is correct and right not something that's crooked and wrong. The teachers teaching is in second place. In the first place pay attention to yourself and then when you preach you will save yourself and others that hear you.

There's no better advice that I can give you but that you examine your life your heart before the Lord to make sure it's right before him. That you have a clear conscience before God and before men. I don't doubt that God will do great things if we just do what his word says.

Pay close attention to yourself that you pray and say Lord help me to see myself as you see me. That we don't cover up and hide things but that we will come to the light as God said I know Abraham I know him.

I know that he will instruct his children and children's children and even his servants to keep my word as we heard even these days about knowing how Adam knew his wife and she conceived God said I know Abraham there is that I know him and there's nothing he hides from me.

There is total and complete fellowship and community. This is God's way. Walk in it and you will see what God will do how he will touch people in government and leadership positions. Teachers everyone around you.

The Bible says we should not quench we should not grieve the Holy Spirit. Allow God to work in your life. Then he will be able to work through you and others. And four walls can't stop the working of the Holy Spirit.

And if God works he will work above exceedingly above what you can even ask or pray for. So let us set a good example to people and even through love where the Lord says if you love each other then they will recognize that the Father sent me that we are a good example and that so that God can work among people when you can.

Sending the Servants to Live and Teach the Word

When you go back you can experience the mighty hand of God. So may it be with all of us and for all of us. Let's bow our heads. Lord you have called us and you have sent us and you said as the Father sent me so send I you.

You sent us to all the nations in the whole world. We pray that your words will work in our lives. Lord when we open our mouths and preach to others that you will be able to work in their lives. Help us Lord that we will take see how we live.

That we do live properly and also give care to our teaching that we may save ourselves and also those that hear us in your grace. Amen. Now if God points at something in your life be obey quickly because maybe you you twist things and you turn them upside down.

Where you take the verse where it says honor father and mother. And you take it as as justifying ancestral worship. And God puts his finger on those things. And then if you don't do something God cannot use you.

Um may we not just be hearers but doers of his word.