Preparing for Spiritual Awakening as Men — Gordon Bailey

I was 29 years old, I guess, when I was converted to Christ, and didn't know there was an Old Testament and a New Testament. I had no idea when I was 29 that... I knew there was a Bible, but I had no idea.

When they talked old... I remember hearing Bill talk about the New Testament. I had no idea what he was talking about. But when I came into that church back in those years, back in the 60s, Bill was there preaching, but he had a godly young beacon with him that was the same age as I am.

And as Bill was discipling me along, and he put this young beacon and his wife after my wife and I, and, of course, we became very, very close friends. And I'm delighted that Roy is here today. Roy Bowes is the fellow that moved away to Toronto some years later, and it's been a joy for me to see Roy.

And I guess one of the first times, an opportunity I've had in the years that I've been ministering, to minister to Roy. And secondly, men, about a year ago, a year and a half ago, the Lord laid a tremendous burden on my heart for the men.

Men and Spiritual Awakening

And I would go to churches for meetings, and I was sharing with someone at lunch hour. I would look out over the congregation, and I'd always miss the women and the children that were there. And I could see men, and I would say, Oh, God, if we're ever going to turn our homes around and our churches around, and this whole world around for Christ, it's going to have to be done with the plan of men and leadership.

I'm convinced of it. I could keep you all here for hours, sharing what God has done in even this last months in that area. But I was asked today to speak on preparing men for spiritual awakening. As I think about that, I suppose in the last year, you and I have seen more men fall than ever in the history of man on earth.

And you're saying, Gordon, you're talking about television evangelism. Yes, I am. It breaks my heart when I think about it. But it's a lot closer to home than that. I'm talking about a man, a pastor, in the Baptist circles that I belonged to back in Saskatchewan who is now in the penitentiary, incest, a man that you would have never dreamed it could ever happen to.

I had a woman in a crusade just last weekend in the church that I was at. Oh, I don't know, 40, I suppose. Beautiful looking gal. The cries that came out of the hurt of that gal was almost like a wounded little deer that you'd find out in the forest at hunting season.

Christian husband walked in one night and told her that he no longer loved her. And he was going off with his secretary. I cried and prayed the other night with a young Christian mom and dad who had a girl that was part of the evangelical church in their community, accepted the Lord about nine, baptized about 14.

They found her on the streets of Saskatoon working as a prostitute. And I cried and prayed with them in their hotel room as they tried to talk sense into that young kid. And no, men, it's a lot closer to home than television evangelism.

Faithfulness and the Example of Godly Mentors

In the years when I was starting to grow in the Lord, back when I first met Roy, and trying to catch up, and I look at Roy at the same age I was, and I'd say on my knees to God, Oh, God, will I ever catch up?

Will I ever get to the level that these men are at Ebenezer? And I remember one night asking him to give me someone that I could trust, someone that I could read their material and preach it as truth without having to search it.

And bear in mind, I didn't know much about Christianity in those days. And the Lord gave me Theodore Epp from back to the Bible. And as I've grown a little bit, Theodore Epp has gone to be with his Lord now.

But I love the teaching of Theodore Epp. And for those of you who have been at meetings where I have been ministering, you've heard me mention the name of Theodore Epp probably more than any other man.

There was a godly man in our church, J .B. Webb, J .B. Weeb. Roy would know him well. We moved them into the old folks' home when it got time that they could no longer look after their home. And he said to me, Gordon, I want you to have my library.

Will you take it home? And would you believe he had every book that had ever been written by Theodore Epp. But anyway, getting back to Theodore Epp's, he said the fall of the family will bring the judgment of God.

I believe he's right. He went on to say that the family, you see, was God's idea from the very beginning. And even though that first family in the Garden of Eden really didn't turn out as well as God would have liked it to turn out, God never gave up on the family.

You look at the Old Testament and anything that God ever wanted to do with any importance, he went to the role of a family. When it came time for a redeemer for mankind, he found a very beautiful young virgin named Mary and a very, very godly young man named Joseph.

And he again put a family structure together. Family is God's idea. And that's why Satan hates it. And he's done everything possible to tear it apart. You say, what instruction do we as men have in the day that we live?

Paul's Instructions for Men in First Timothy

Thinking about that as I was thinking what the Lord would have me share with you men this afternoon. And I was thinking of the great apostle Paul. And when he went on one of his missionary journeys, scripture tells us that he left the younger Timothy in charge of the church at Ephesus.

And that was quite a responsibility for the young fellow that he left there. So he sat down and he wrote a letter to Timothy. And I believe that First Timothy in many ways is our manual, if you will men, for success in walking with the Lord today.

I'd like to read just a short passage out of First Timothy. If you have your Bible, turn to First Timothy chapter 6. Chapter 6 of First Timothy, and I'm going to start reading at verse 11. But thou, O man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.

Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called, and also professed a good profession before many witnesses. I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate, witnessed a good confession, that thou keep this commandment without spot, unbreakable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in his time he shall show us who is the blessed and the only King of kings and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality dwelling in the light, which no man can approach, unto whom no man has seen nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting.

Amen. In this letter to young Timothy, 21 times he referred to faith and faithfulness. Fight a good fight of faith, he says. I believe, men, the success to our walk in the day we live in is faithfulness.

The Influence of Fathers on Their Children

Ask a young boy that's probably down there with being ministered to today, oh, five, six years old, who he'd like to be like when he gets to be a man. Nine times out of ten, he'll say, I would like to be like my dad.

Ask that same young boy when he's 18. You'll quite often get a different answer. Why is that? I read the story the other day of a father who was teaching his son what a real Christian would act like or should act like in the home, in the church, and as he went out into the world.

And when he got finished all of his teaching, the little boy looked up into his eyes and said, Dad, have I ever seen one? And he realized that he was teaching something that he was not really reflecting through his own life.

I like the stories that Bill Orr has in the little book that's on the book table, If I Could Change My Mom and Dad. Bill was telling me one time when he was down in Saskatoon that a little fellow about ten years old came to Bill and he said, Brother Bill, can we go and have prayer together?

And of course Bill took his arm around him and they went to the prayer room. And he said, Uncle Bill, my dad is an elder in this church, and he said everybody knows my dad is a wonderful Christian for he prays on the pulpit and everyone listens when he's in church.

And when I'm downtown on the street he says praise the Lord to everybody we meet and they all know he's a wonderful Christian. But Uncle Bill, will you pray with me that my daddy will become a Christian at home?

Growing to Become Like Christ

And then I believe with all my heart that that's where it's going to have to start. I believe this faithfulness is going to have to start first of all to our Lord. Matthew 6 says, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you, not taken away, but, oh, added unto you.

We've been taught in the evangelical world that our first responsibility is to lead someone to Jesus Christ. And as much as I long to see the church of Jesus Christ become a soul winning church, I do a seminar on soul winning, I've wrote a booklet on let's go soul winning.

But I don't believe that this is the teaching that we need. The first responsibility of a Christian is grow to be like Him. One of the laws of the word of God is that we produce of our kind. And I believe, men, that we've produced too many of our kind.

My son is, I don't know, 25 years old now, I guess Jim is. He's managing an OK economy store up in northern town of Saskatchewan. And I go up there visiting with him. He has two little children of his own now.

It scares me when I see my bad habits coming out of my son. As a matter of fact, he got tickets not long ago for a hockey game and we drove down there and there was four tickets and they were scattered around the rink.

And I sat on one side of the rink with his boss and Jim and the other fellow sat on the other side of the rink. And about the second period, the boss turned to me and said, I don't believe this, how two guys could be so much alike If I don't turn and look at you and see that it's someone older, it's exactly like I'm talking to Jim.

Men, we produce of our kind. And where I'm strong, no doubt Jim is strong. But the tragedy is where I'm weak, Jim's weak. Oh, we have to live it. Yes, don't bring your gifts to the altar. The word of God says, if your brother, or if you feel your brother has ought against you.

And too often we've looked at that, at the monies, and certainly it's money as well. But it's my speaking. It's your singing. It's somebody's ushering. It's all of the gifts that are given. Oh, we need to get back to one another and get back to the altar, make things right.

Proverbs says, when a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. Oh, that always struck me whenever I was having agitations with someone in the church. I realized that I had to be out of fellowship with my God or there would be no agitation.

Because scripture says, if I write with him, even my enemies will be at peace with me. Let alone the ones that love me. Too many cannibals today in the church I was thinking of a thing I've got in the back of my Bible.

I don't even know where I got it from, but I pasted it again in a new Bible I got the other day. It reads the cannibal in the church. Within the pages of the book, there is a warning word. A man should not devour a bride, his brother in the Lord.

Why, I've seen them take a minister and chew him to the floor. They've chewed till there was nothing left, and then they smacked their lips for more. I've seen them take an organist or gobble up a choir.

Yes, I've seen a church board simmer between their kettle fire. No, there is no worse barbarian, no far for him you search, than that man-eating savage soul, the cannibal in the church. I believe we have some cannibals, and those produce quickly of their kind.

Yes, scripture says that we're to lift up holy hands without wrath and doubting, living for Jesus in a life that is true of us, striving to please Him in all that we do. To do that, we must be in the right relationship with Christ.

I was listening to our speaker this morning, and I couldn't get back in to hear him quick enough. I was praying with one of you men that are here in the prayer room, and I noticed him getting things right with the Lord.

And I know how the Lord loves to use a clean servant. And I couldn't wait to get back in to hear what God had him to say to her. Oh, it's so important, men. Get right with God first. I believe the next responsibility of faithfulness we have is to our partner, to our wives.

Faithfulness in Marriage and Family Leadership

The very concept of marriage implies the commitment and faithfulness to each other. In obedience to God, and in fulfilling the responsibilities of husband and father, each husband must be faithful to his wife.

Solomon reminded us that this unfaithfulness was not really a new problem. Proverbs 6, he says, Do not lust in your heart after her beauty, or have her capture you with her eyes. Who of us in the workaday world don't have those secretaries that have those looks about them from time to time?

And scripture says, men, be careful. Verse 29 says, He who sleeps with another man's wife, no one who touches her will go unpunished. Discipline and self-control are essential if we want pure lives. Ah, the world paints a far different picture.

A divorce as common everyday life. I hear it every day with the people I work with. Even in some Christian counseling today, you hear divorce as an alternative to solving problems. I went a few years ago for a weekend to speak to a college and career crowd in Winnipeg.

And in our circles, in Saskatoon, when you were talking college and career, you were talking a university crowd or a university city. And I was expecting that was the type of people that I was going to minister with.

And when I got there, and we met for the first session, 60 of them were female. And I would estimate they went in their early 30s. And it dawned on me for the first time in my ministry that divorce had hit the evangelical church.

There were kids that had had bad marriages, left with one and two kids to look after, and had come back home to the church that had raised them and were crying out for help. The old man said to me, divorce is something we've got to get out of our vocabulary.

He said, when I was a young fellow, I didn't even know what the word meant. Murder, yes. I could have killed the old girl many times. But divorce, it was just something I didn't know. And often when I'm ministering with men and fellows say, but Gordon, you don't know the battle acts I live with.

Well, I counsel with a lot of partners and a lot of men and women, and I guess I can identify with some of them battle acts. And I know it's true. I know there's some tough situations. My dad used to say, woe to the chicken coop where the hen crows louder than the rooster.

And there is a few chicken coops where the hens try to crow louder. I heard one, and I'm always telling stories, my wife was here, she'd stop me. But this situation now, the old girl, she crowed louder than the rooster, I tell you.

And anything he wanted to do, she jumped in to do it. He come home one day, and he said, dear, I'm going up north. I'm going to go in the early moose season, hunting moose. And she said, fine, I'm coming with you.

And he said, you can't come with me. You've never hunted in your life. It's the early season. It's the rutting season. They're dangerous in the bush at that time. They'll charge you. You could get killed.

I'm coming with you. Okay, dear, you're coming with us. So he got his old 30 -30 out of the garage, and he thought, she can't hurt anybody too much if I stay away from her this, and it'll protect her, scare the moose away or something.

And he got her a license and a pair of coveralls, and away they went. And he got down, and he told her, now you keep up on this draw, and I'm going to go down around this way. And he got about a quarter of a mile away from her, and he heard pow!

And I don't know if you fellas do much hunting, but when you miss, it goes zing! And when you hit, there's a thud. And he said, don't tell me she shot a moose. That's three hits. So he started running from where he heard the shots coming from, and as he got around the bush, there's hollering and yelling and squealing going on, and sure enough, it's his wife.

He can hear her screaming. And there's another man standing there, and she's hollering and saying, it's my moose. I shot it. Get away from it, or I'll shoot you. And he said, okay, lady, it's your moose.

You shot it. But let me get my saddle off it. No, men, our commitment before man and God is for better or for worse until death do us part. There's an old myth that says that marriages are made in heaven.

No, marriages come down from heaven in little kits, and we put them together here on earth. And sometimes that means going hunting with a very difficult person. But the tragedy of it all, men, is that you and I will stand accountable for the spiritual condition of ourselves and of our wives and of our children.

I don't like the rules. I wish they were different, but God made them. Our wife is going to be held accountable to reverence her husband. We're to do the loving. We're to do the providing. We're to do the praying.

It doesn't sound fair, but that's what Scripture says. I did a survey one time on reverencing, and I guess to say it quickly, the closest thing that I could come to was accept him just the way he is. And I tell that wherever I minister.

All women accept him just the way he is. Every crusade I go to, and as I will come by, and as the counselors are working, and I'll see if I can help, there will be some woman say, Oh, Mr. Bailey, if my husband only loved the Lord the way you do.

And I say, wait a minute. You see the polished side of me standing in a pulpit. I've got a little partner. Her name is Edna. She could write you a list a foot long of my failures and weaknesses. But I thank God every morning that I wake up that she loves me just the way I am.

And she allows God to do the changing. We used to sing back at Ebenezer a little old chorus. Little by little, he's changing me. And in every way, he's changing me. And when I'm yielded, then he'll set me free.

Jesus is changing me. He changed me even this morning. He's continually at it. And it seems when you're away from your partner, you find that, man, that you can't wait to get home to say, Honey, the Lord laid something on my heart that I need to get right with you.

Oh, he's changing us. I think we can all remember standing in the front of the church, I can, like it was yesterday, and looking down the aisle and seeing a very beautiful young gal coming down the aisle on the arm of her father, dressed in white, a symbol of her purity, saying, Of all the guys that I met in high school, of all the guys that I've ever known, you're my number one choice.

And some gal has done that to each one of you fellas that are married here today. Think on those things on those moose-hunting days and those hard days. Think back to those good times, and oh, God will bless you for it.

Yes, it's so hard to say, Honey, I love you. The old Scotchman says, When I think back of all the things she does for me, and he says to think how she can make a meal out of nothing and sit down and feed me.

And in the days when we had no money, she would take old rags and dress my kids going to school as if they'd just bought new outfits. And meets all my needs, no matter what they are. It's all I can do to stop from telling her how much I appreciate it.

And I think a lot of us men are that way. We take them for granted. Oh, love the men. And men, I've found, and I believe, we need to be faithful to your word. Years ago, in the days of my dad, my dad owned a General Motors dealership in a small country town.

Keeping One's Word Before God and Others

My dad and my uncle owned it. There was a half-ton truck on the used car lot, and maybe in those days dad wanted $1 ,200 for it. And someone was to phone him up and said, I noticed that truck last week.

I'll take it for $1 ,200. It wouldn't matter if you came in and offered my dad $12 ,000. And he was not a Christian. He had given his word, and his word was his bond. And you would have had to shoot him to make him change that word.

He tells the story of selling a quarter section of land, and the fellow seeded it, and then when he got all the spring work done, they made an appointment to go and see the lawyer when they had time. They shook hands on it, and it was a deal.

Do you know, in the day that we live, even with dealing with Christian brothers, and having them under a contract, if the fine print can be changed around a bit, they'll try to do it. Men, we need to go back to a day when our word is our bond.

Be faithful to your word. God's word says, My covenant will I not break, nor after the things that is gone out of my lips, vows such as marriage, baby dedication, promise to uphold a church doctrine. All of the vows that you and I make cannot be broken.

Jesus said in Matthew 5, Do not break the oath you have made to the Lord. The Lord holds us responsible for every promise we make. He goes on to tell us it might have been better to have not made a vow than to make.

Everywhere I go, to small churches, the way the economy is out west, I find young people are moving from church to church, city to city, trying to... And I was the last church I was at. They said, Mr. Bailey, the last church we were in, they were in a big building program, and we made a commitment for so much money a year.

And then the Lord moved us to another city. Are we still responsible for the vow that we made? And I said, I'm sorry, but you are. Sell your car, sell your house, or sell something, but do not make a vow that you cannot keep.

It's not sin to make one, but there's horrible sin in breaking it. And that goes for all kinds of promises that you make before God. And we're sometimes tricked into making some very serious commitments today as men.

Be careful, men. Jesus said, but I tell you that men will have to give an account on the day of judgment for every careless word that they've spoken. Every word. You say, I do want to walk with God. But I seem to have so much struggle.

Restoring One Another with Meekness

Oh, men, that's where the body comes in. If ever there was a day where we need the New Testament churches today, if ever there was a day, men, where we need one another, if a brand be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of meekness considering yourself.

Fellas, if one of you went to go home tonight, then the car wouldn't go. You'd be looking for someone with a set of jumper cables and someone with a good battery. And when we went out to put the jumper cables on, we would do it very carefully lest we shorted it and blew the side out of your battery that was cold.

And that's exactly what this scripture is telling us. Gordon, if you get an opportunity to pray with one of my children, do it very, very carefully because the next time he'll probably be putting the jumper cables on you.

Oh, men, be loving to one another. I often tell men the struggles that we're going through today and all of the temptations that you and I are exposed to. I work for the Department of Agriculture as well as work for my Lord, and I spend a lot of time in motel rooms traveling around the country.

I can't believe the trash that comes in on the tube to those catering on these Playboy channels, the people that they think are traveling around and want to listen to it. The amount of pornography that's left in hotel room drawers, practically every one you'll pick up, someone has left a magazine in it.

Do you know that Playboy was the number one magazine in America last year? Time magazine was number two. Oh, we have to be careful, men, of the things that we're being exposed to, and we have to help one another.

But when we're caught up in these traps, I always tell men, ask the Lord, first of all, to give you someone you can trust, some man that you can share with. Not someone that will talk about it, but someone that will pray about it.

And the Lord will do that. Could be your pastor, could be a brother in the church, could be a brother in another church. I've seen more miracles with men on men. I was at a church farming community milled in Saskatchewan about two years ago.

One of the men was going through a terrible amount of struggles, and I gave him this advice. He followed it through, and the Lord laid him to a man in another town, another Christian man. They became very good friends, and the Lord melted and healed all of his needs in his life.

He gave him a love for his wife and little family, like you would never believe only God can do. He gave him a burden for the lost, and they started soul wedding out in the little towns where there was no Christian witness.

Last fall, he called me and said, Gordon, I've sold, I've rented my land back to my husband. He's a farmer with a big operation, beautiful new home, all the four-wheel drives and big outfit. I've sold all my machinery, and I've enrolled in Briarcrest Bible College.

Wife and little family and him now are living in a little trailer. And just before Christmas, he went to a church with me. Oh, it's exciting to see what God's going to do. He'll win more men to Jesus Christ than I'll ever thought of winning, and he did exactly what I'm sharing with you men to do.

Go to someone you can trust. We must bear one another's burdens. I think the hymn writer put it so well. He said, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust his sweetest name, ah, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.

On Christ the solid rock I stand and all other ground sinking sand. We must get our homes back and our lives on that solid rock, Christ Jesus, a Christian home. We've got to bring devotions and the excitement of it back into our homes.

Building Christian Homes on Christ

Someone has said, what is a Christian home? There's a little poem. I don't know if I can remember it or not. Dehaan's booklet, I think it said. And it says something like this, where the word of God is loved and read and daily prayer is often said.

Ah, and little ones to Christ are led. Now, men, that's a Christian home. I believe we need to get devotions back in and be the ones to lead it. Or if you're busy, go to your wife and say, honey, I've had such a day, but could you help me with the devotion tonight?

Oh, set the tone for them. Yes, Paul once said, let every man heed how he buildeth. For other foundations can no man lay than that which is laid in Jesus Christ. In the days that we're living in, in the days that are coming, I don't believe it will be possible for any home to live without a foundation that is not built on Jesus Christ.

I say that because I work, as I said, with the Department of Agriculture, and I think of the girls in our office. There's probably 18, 19 girls in my office. I can't think of one of them that's in a marriage situation.

Every one of them are either divorced or single parent or... No, I don't think in the days to come, unless we get our homes on that solid rock of Christ Jesus. If Christ isn't first in our life, he isn't Lord of our life, we'll have a home that's on very, very shaky, sandy foundation.

I often think of Paul and Silas. Man, I think we're going to have to come back to that kind of faith. Seems when they ministered, there was either revival or there was a riot, one of the two. There was none of this fooling around that we do.

And I believe we're going to have to come back to that. And when that jailer fell down and said, what must I do? Paul said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in their house. The jailer came with his whole household to Christ.

And I believe it's something that we can do, men. We can come with our whole families to Christ. It's been said that you will not be able to tell a man's spiritual worth until you get an opportunity to speak to his grandchildren.

I like that. I believe that it will, the difference of our Christianity will be what our families and what we leave on this old earth and the grandchildren that we live here and the ones that have been prayed in.

The Spirit-Filled Life and Renewal

It was Spurgeon that said, why would God call us to holiness unless he also provided a way that we might attain it? Ah, men, it's so good to stand before you today and tell you in the authority of his holy word that there is a way that you can attain it, right tonight.

We're not talking about something that would be a good idea if you did, but it's God's plan. And anything that God planned, he always provides a way that we might attain it. It's available through the wonderful Spirit-filled life.

It's so simple that most people miss it. Isn't that true? Most people that I talk to about the Spirit-filled life, they follow me right through until I get to the Spirit-filled life and then I can feel them starting to pull back out from misunderstanding what God...

I'm not talking about the indwelling of the Spirit. That happens to all of us. When you accept him as your Savior, if that hadn't happened, you'd have been none of his. The filling of the Spirit that gives you and I the power to be the husbands and the leaders in our churches that we need to be.

Oh, that's getting rid of the old things. I don't really like rededications. They don't last very long. And quite often they're worse after than they were before. I often say that a rededication is like you going into a tire shop and saying, put on a set of recaps for me.

They usually vibrate like crazy and they don't last very long. He's got a set of brand new steel radials for you. That's renewal. That's getting rid of that garbage. You can come to a pulpit or come to the prayer room tonight and God will fill you the way you are.

How much more shall the Holy Spirit be given to them that assure he'll top you up? But if self and all the things that push the Spirit out are left in there, by tomorrow morning or at least by the time you get home, you could be worse than you were before.

Renewal is simply getting rid of the garbage and saying, Lord, fill her up. Oh, I like that. Old Ralph Smith, an old Shantyman missionary, used to say to me, church to the Christian is exactly what the service station is to the car.

We need to come in to conferences like this sometimes and get a new engine, get a complete overhaul. There's other times we need to come and just get a tire fixed. But every one of us, every Sunday, need to pull by the pumps and say, Lord, fill her up.

Oh, that's the Spirit filled walk. And so simple that most theologians miss it. Most of my dear Baptists miss it. I suppose I preach harder in my own circles and maybe that's true of a lot of people because of tradition.

When I start talking Holy Spirit, they see fanaticism and they see all kinds of things happening. And I work harder with my own probably than I do with anybody. But, oh, it's real, man. And it's for all of us.

There's a song I love to sing and it says there's a river that flows from deep within, and there's a fountain that frees the soul from sin. To come to that fountain, there's a vast supply. There's a river, man, that'll never run dry.

Every morning before I open my eyes, I say, Lord, thank you for the night's rest and fill me with your Holy Spirit for the day. I've been so blessed in the years that I became a Christian to be exposed to some very godly, godly men.

Old Percy Wills, who's still going strong, probably 90 years old now. Percy, who stayed in our home when we were just saved a few months, he said, Gordon, you love Edna very much, don't you? And I said, yes, I do.

He said, I want to give you some advice. Never say good morning to Edna till you've said good morning to the Lord and asked him to fill you. Try it, man. Meet God first. It doesn't take long. Meet him first and love her through Christ.

Ah, no longer I that loveth, but Christ that loveth through me. It fits every need, every role that you and I will ever be asked to do. Yes, let's bring family devotions. Now, the prayer room is open and will be open this evening, and there's going to be people there this afternoon.

Closing Prayer for Spiritual Awakening

But before I close, I'm going to ask everybody to bow their head, and I'm going to ask if there could be someone here that just wants me to pray for them before I dismiss it, that I might remember the hand.