Holiness & Righteousness - Prayer Meeting (Cd Quality) — Leonard Ravenhill

For the grace that brought it down to man, for the mighty gulf, for the mighty gulf that God did span. At mercy there was great and grace was free, pardon there was multiplied. To themselves I spent in vanity and pride.

Bearing not my love was crucified, knows for me he died. He asked for a writing table and wrote, saying that his name is John and they marveled all. And his mouth was opened immediately and his tongue loosed.

The Hand of the Lord and the Call to Hear His Voice

I see lots of people with open mouths but not loose tongues. And some with too many loose tongues. And he spake and praised God. And fear came upon all that dwelt round about them. And all those sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judea.

And all they that heard them laid up in their hearts, saying, What man of child shall this be? And the hand of the Lord was upon him. I think that's one of the most awesome things in the word of God. If you read through Ezekiel you read, the word of the Lord came unto me, the word of the Lord.

Chapter after chapter, and then when you get to about chapter 20 a little further it says, The hand of the Lord is upon me. And I don't believe the Lord puts his hand upon us till we know his voice. I'm more convinced than ever, there are mysteries on the field because I've met them.

They're working for God, they're not working with God. And they end up in disaster. Just today I got a letter from South America, a young man, a woman I remember sitting, she sat here. And she seemed to have everything that was necessary.

But she's fallen flat on her face down there. And become a reproach. The hand of the Lord was upon him. Now if you were listing all the prophets in the Bible. And I say, who are the major prophets? You would say, well Jeremiah, and Zechariah, and Isaiah, and a few other ayahs.

And then you'd come down to the minor prophets. If I say go right through the Bible, I guarantee most of us would omit the character here. In verse 67 of Luke 1. His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied.

I'm sick of people saying thus saith the Lord. Listen, if you say thus saith the Lord when it's your own silly mind, you're taking God's name in vain. A guy spilled lots of stuff out a few weeks ago at the bank there.

And at the end he says, thus saith the Lord. I bit my lip, if he said it again I'd stand up and say, that's baloney, it wasn't God at all, it was you. Now this place is no place to draw attention to yourself.

We're here to please God. We're here to hear God's voice, we're here to get strength from God. We're here to get revelation from God. He was filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied saying, let's go to verse 70.

And as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which we have seen since the world began. But we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us, to perform mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to our father Abraham, that he would grant us, now come on this is us in it here.

Serving God in Holiness and Righteousness

We being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives. Come on. I can understand a world that's so rotten in sin, that buys sin and sells sin and eats it and drinks it and trades in it.

I can understand the world being against holiness. I can't understand why churches are against it. What did you sing in that lovely hymn, the old rugged cross? The blood was what? To pardon? I need more than pardon.

To pardon and sanctify me. We were taught as children, that good old country England there, that heaven is a holy place prepared for holy people. I'll come to that a bit later. But this is it. When it comes to Christmas, it's not far off.

The shops have already got Christmas. A couple of weeks they'll be putting Easter eggs out. They're always trying to get a jump ahead and focus our attention. Because they want to rob our pockets of course.

But you've got to pop it after pop it. What will they do at Christmas? They'll talk about the manger. They'll talk about the three wise men. And usually you'll see a manger there with three wise men buying in the manger.

They never got near the thing. The wise men were never in the manger. The shepherds were in the manger, the three wise men. What did they do? They found a babe. A young child in a house, not a babe. The babe was in the manger.

It must have been at least two years after they got to see Jesus. Because they travelled from the far east. There's not a prophet, I don't care. There's not a preacher who can prove to you, to me anyhow, that there were three wise men.

There might have been 33. There might have been 103. They presented gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. Well how do you know they didn't make a collection in one church to buy gold, another to buy frankincense, another to buy myrrh.

We gather up, we don't know a thing about it. But they'll talk about the wise men. They'll talk about the shepherds. They'll talk about the star. They'll talk about the virgin. They'll talk about Jesus.

But they don't say why he came. Did he come to rescue us from hell? No, forget it. That's a fringe benefit. I remember a preacher in England. He'd had some meetings and somebody said to him, how did he get on?

He said, well we had some good meetings. There were, let's see, there were three converts and two half-converts. The man said, what do you mean two half-converts? Well, there were three children saved.

Who were the two halves? He said, two men at 60 years of age, only half of their life left anyhow. You know, the preciousness of the blood is to save us not merely from hell. Christianity is not a sinning religion.

If you sin every day in thought, word and deed, you'll go to hell anyhow. There's only one way to live and that is if you drop dead. You wouldn't have anything to put right. You just say, Lord, if I drop dead today, everything's clear between me and you and everybody else.

See, we talk about forgiveness of sins. I heard a preacher say, bring your sins to Jesus. What does he do with them? He doesn't save them. Sins are an objection to God, an abomination to God. We being delivered out of the hand of our enemies.

Come on, are you delivered out of the hand of your enemy? You know, that lust that's bound you, that evil temper that's bound you, that unforgiving spirit, that grudge. Come on now. We might what? Delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear in holiness.

Holiness deals with character and righteousness. That deals with conduct. One of the smartest women that ever lived, I think, was Mrs. Wesley. Not because she had 17 children. But she instilled into her children that two things to do with the gospel.

One is believe it, the other is behave it. God knows we're heavy on believing it, but who behaves it? Hmm? Can you think of somebody you hate tonight? Can you think of a grudge you've got? You see, he came that we might have a holy character.

Holiness is my relationship to God. Character is my relationship to the world. When we were children they used to tell us a lot of smart things, you know. One was honesty is the best policy. Listen, if you're just being honest because it's the best policy, you'll be a rogue in ten years from now.

We should be honest out of pure character because truth is truth and honesty is honesty. Not because it's a smart thing to be honest. Not because if you sin you may be caught out. You know, the stupidity of lots of Christians is well, I'm not living as I should and I know I have grudges and I know I have this, that and the other, but God doesn't judge me and I'll give it, tell you some news he's not going to do either.

You can do some rotten sin this week and he won't send fire from heaven on you. He'll catch you at the end of the road. He's appointed a day. When Moses' sister criticized him what happened? She was smitten with leprosy.

You know, if God did his judgments as he used to do. If he just smote us with leprosy after we criticized we'd have to turn this into a healing meeting tonight. Cain slew Abel, his brother. What happened?

God put a mark on him. Why? What does it say? Lest what? Lest any finding him. There must have been a world population. His father or mother wouldn't have killed him. He'd already killed his brother. So what have you got left?

He says, lest any finding him. But God put a mark on him. He doesn't brand us anymore. We brand ourselves. You can't sin without branding your personality. I don't care how you do it. Whether it's sourness, whether it's a grudging speech, you can put on airs, you can talk, you can speak in tongues, you can raise the dead.

I'm concerned about this showmanship these days. It's character that God is after. We may serve him in righteousness all the days of our life. Now, I'm not preaching tonight. I'm just going to take a study here.

Sanctification, Purity, and the Character of Christ

And, let me see, let's go over to, let's go to Philippians, chapter 2. You know, I was raised in a holiness community and I'm not a bit embarrassed about it. The emphasis there on the baptism of the Spirit was not power, it was purity.

I remember a big meeting in England where the preacher said, now a lot of you are defeated Christians. All you who want power come down this side of the church and go in that room for prayer. All who want purity come down here.

Do you know what the ratio was? Ten to one. Ten persons wanted power to everyone. They wanted purity. And the whole of the revival in the world tonight is not drunkenness, it's not immorality, it's not perversion, it's not AIDS, it's not Mormonism, it's not humanism, it's not Moonism.

The whole of the revival in the church of Jesus Christ tonight, in the church of Jesus Christ, the whole of the revival in the world is the church of Jesus Christ. We're so impure, God won't use us. He said to the disciples, tarry till ye be endured.

Have you noticed nobody back answered him? Tarry, and you shall receive power. Lord, we have power. We've just come back from a crusade, we cast out devils, we raised the dead, we did many marvelous works, and Jesus said, shut up and tarry till you get power.

Tarry till you get purified. They did all their miracles, but one wanted to sit on his right hand, Philippians chapter 2. Come on, let's test his sanctification. Come on, let's see how we get on with verse 14.

I'm reading King James Version. Do all things without murmurings and disputings. That's pretty tough, isn't it? Do all things without murmuring, or without disputings, that you may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.

Blameless and harmless. To me this is a result of an indwelling spirit of God. We're blameless and harmless. We're not faultless. We'll never be faultless, maybe this side of eternity, but we can be blameless.

And you know the devil exacts upon us because we're ignorant. Now supposing I'm going out, or a brother's going out to a meeting, and I say, you're from Dallas, would you mail this for me please? I want to get to New York first thing, and it won't get out till Monday here.

And he says, yes, puts it in his pocket. I say, it's very urgent because it's a business contract. So I trust him, and off he goes. And it so happens, he's one of those rich evangelists that has three or four suits.

But he puts the envelope in his pocket, you know, and when he goes up, he hangs his coat up, forgets all about my envelope in his pocket. I go into Dallas three days after, and I see him, and he sees me, and I see him, quick like that, and he puts the thing in a mailbox.

And I said, did you mail my letter? He said, yes. Well, he did, and he didn't. Oh, you didn't really mail it, did you? As soon as you got the... No, no, I didn't. Do you know I'm going to lose a contract for $10 ,000 because of that?

Now, he didn't intentionally forget to mail my letter. And when the enemy accuses you, check up and see about your intentions. He didn't intend to cheat me or fail me, but because he's human, he wasn't faultless, but he was blameless.

There's no guilt on him at all. He didn't intentionally injure me. I'm not faultless, but I can be blameless. And harmless, the sons of God without rebuke. Come on now, this is sanctification. Blameless and harmless where?

I've been in many art galleries in the world. I like to go to art galleries. At least landscapes and seascapes, not the other junk. And I see sometimes, I've stood before a picture. Of course, when you're looking at pictures, you always get as far away as you can from them.

Some of them, you should take a bus ride away, but... You just stand back to get the perspective right. And sometimes I've gazed at a picture, but I got so intrigued with the carving of the framework, the framework of the frame around, I didn't see the picture properly.

I got fascinated with the framework instead of the picture. And sometimes I've looked at the picture and couldn't tell you what the framework was anyhow. But look, this is really set, this holiness experience here, a heart where there are no murmurings, there's no disputings, there's no objection to the will of God.

And you can let people wipe their feet on you if you like and say, that's okay. I'm not going to murmur, I'm not going to dispute about this. Just tonight we were looking at the verse of Faber's. I learned this, mercy shall I tell you, I learned this 60 odd years ago.

Ill, I-L-L, ill that he blesses is our good. And unblessed good is ill, and all is right that seems most wrong, if it be his sweet will. Swallow that. Embrace it, it's ill. Do you know what it means?

It means here that Joseph was up here and his father sent him from there to Dothan with some sandwiches. When he got there his brothers sold him and sent him down to Egypt. When he got there they put him down in prison.

When he got there the other guys got out and he was still left there. All because of envy. Scripture clearly says that envy, that's one of the most diabolical things in the church of God today. Because they envied him they sold him and he goes down and down and down until there's nowhere else to go.

But when his brothers finally come he says you meant it for evil but God meant it for good. Can you say that? Can you kiss the rod that's hitting you right now? Or are you one of those mamby-bambys that's always praying for help, Lord help me with this, forget it.

Lord help me with my temper, he never will if you live to be a hundred. He'll kill it if you let him. Lord help me with this, forget it. You've been struggling with it ten years or twenty years, why don't you take it to the cross, let him put it to death.

That's the only place for pride, it's the only place for enmity, it's the only place for bitterness, it's the only place for all the foolishness that is in the human heart until he cleanses it. Here's the framework.

You may be blameless and harmless, in other words you live a life of holiness as the sons of God. Come on, did Jesus die for anything less than this? Do you think Jesus died for the bankrupt church that we have today that has no power, it has no evidence of the supernatural?

He died for it, but he didn't intend it to stay like this, let it stay. The sons of God. If I'd had a tambourine and said it, they've all shouted hallelujah, so I better bring my tambourine, a borrowed one.

You know, we need something to prime us up, don't we? We've got to get atmosphere, we've got to get soulish, or else nobody has a squeak. You know, people go to church and say, it was a wonderful meeting, and it was as soulish as any place on earth.

There are not many people who can distinguish between what is soulish and what is spiritual. It's just on the emotional level, it stirred me, I got a lift, and tomorrow morning they're bankrupt. We're the sons of God.

And John says, it doesn't appear what we shall be. But when we see him, boy, some of you young guys don't think about this, when you get to my age you will. One day, I'm not too worried about a crown on my head just now.

What I'm concerned about, I want a body like unto his glorious body. But to have a body like unto his glorious body, listen, I have to have a spirit now like his spirit. It's a reward of living a faithful holy life.

The son of God, I feel he's a pretty smart guy. He meets with kings and all kinds of people, but he's a humble guy like his dad, but he's very nice. But he wrote home the other day, he said, I've written to England to the, I forget where it is now, I'm finding the pedigree of our family.

Oh boy, if it's good I'll tell you, but if it isn't forget it. I'm a son of God. You're a child of God, you're a son of God. And yet we let this old world kick us around like a football. We get depressed like other stupid people outside.

Where's the victory, where's the joy, where's the overflow? Do you think Jesus was ever depressed apart from Gethsemane? And even there he had joy because he was doing the will of his father. If you're working for a while, you'll die heartbroken.

If you're working for last days, and soon you'll report me and I'll get kicked for this maybe. But if you're working for last days, it's true, you'll get discouraged, you'll see personalities that disappoint you, and before you stick a finger in their eye, listen, this week you've been disappointing somebody around you, so don't feel too cocky about it.

Yeah. You can be blameless and harmless the sons of God without rebuke. Not without rebuke from men, they'll rebuke you for anything. That's right. But without rebuke from God. You know that the relationship is as straight as six o 'clock.

You know as far as you can know that you're walking in purity, you're walking in holiness, you're walking in righteousness, you're walking in truth. You may be blameless and harmless the sons of God without rebuke.

Now that's the picture, here's the framework. In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom ye shines as lights in the world. As you come out of our driveway, if you've been, and if you haven't, don't come tonight anyhow.

But we have one of those safety lights. You know, the wind blows it sometimes, I heard it creaking one night because it's on a tree. And I listened, I thought it was saying it's too dark here to shine.

What? That's why I put it there because it's the darkest spot around the house. You say, why did the Lord put me here? Because you've told him you have his light in you, that's why. We're the light of the world.

You work amongst corruption in an office or somewhere where there's dirty talk. Why did God put me there? To be salt. Wouldn't make much good to gather all the street lights and put them all down in a town square, would it?

We put one here, one there, one somewhere else. We're to shine as lights in the world, shine with a radiant holiness, with a purity the world doesn't know a thing about. Let me look here a second. This is tough, isn't it?

You look real miserable tonight, bless you. No, we don't clap our hands too much here and dance around, we're after character, not showmanship. It's tough, I mean, Episodes of the Philippians. Sorry, Philippians 4, and verse 4.

Come on now, come on, you're under the weather, eh? You've had some disappointments today, eh? The world is treating me so rough, people don't understand me. What, where's the problem? You can't understand yourself, why do you expect other folks to understand you?

I don't remember Jesus ever sighed and sobbed and went running around and saying, John, I want to rest on your shoulder when I'm having it rough. The Pharisees have been after me, the Sadducees really cool me, and the high priests are after me, they're going to put me to death.

You know, after I've seen, as I've told you before, when I've seen Jesus in heaven and seen my folk and a few other folk, I'm going to get a little chat for about 5 ,000 years with the Apostle Paul. Yeah, hallelujah, but don't join in, let me talk to him first.

I say, Paul, where did you draw the strength to glory in tribulation, in reproaches, in necessities? He didn't say, I just have grace to get through, he says, I glory in them, they're my meat, they're my drink.

You keep saying, Lord, make me a true saint, make me strong, and he sends you something that will bend you back so you need every bit of strength and grace you can get. And the next thing, you're whining to somebody, oh, you don't know how it is, I just got a letter, do you know what it said?

No, and I don't care either. I tell you what it says here, in Philippians chapter 4, come on, verse 4, rejoice in the Lord always. And this man's in the most stinking prison you could ever imagine. It's full of filth, it's full of dirt, it smells, his food is rotten, the conditions are rotten, everything's rotten.

And he's telling other people, rejoice in the Lord. Why didn't he write and say, could you have a half night of prayer and pray so I'll be liberated? I want to get out of this tough situation. Oh, it's so hard, I mean, you know, I've been so long and other Christians are swimming in the lake up there or swimming in the Mediterranean and here I am and it's so tough and oh, it's so weird and it gets drafty at times and oh, mercy.

Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Now what about this? Come on, be careful for nothing. Huh? Isn't that nice? Be careful for nothing.

Let's turn it around a bit. Be prayerful in everything and with supplication and thanksgiving let your requests be made be made known to God. And the peace of God which passeth all understanding. Come on, you've been there 16 years.

Tell me this, you say, I've got peace that passes all understanding. Tell me this, does it pass all misunderstanding? That's a grade up the road a long way. Not just the peace that passeth all understanding.

I can pass misunderstanding triumphantly and I don't whine either to God when I'm praying or to anybody else. What did he say? He says, great peace have they not just here but the peace of God which passeth all understanding.

Elsewhere he says, great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them. Are you there? Come on, with all your baptism and gifts and your preaching and your long service. Are you in a place where God Almighty can look on you you can look into his face right now and tell him.

I've got a peace that passeth all understanding. I love that verse in Psalm 119 it's either 165 or 156. Great peace have they which love thy law and nothing can offend. Listen, if you're not offense proof you're not filled with the Holy Ghost.

You know, one of the most popular writers I kind of wish my books had sold as well because I don't make any money, I give it to missions. One of the greatest writers of our day is Watchman Nee. And before ever the world knew him he left China and he went to London and some of you have a little book I know, Dale, you've got that book of not Watchman Nee's of Austin Sparks on School of Christ.

How many of you don't have that? School of Christ? I'll have to try and get some next week. But Watchman Nee went to sit at the feet of that precious man Sparks and stayed there more than a year and Sparks saw he was an unusual character and the Archbishop of Canterbury, there's an Archbishop of Canterbury and there's an Archbishop of York further up in England.

He was having a big convention for bishops and they asked Watchman Nee to speak and the little gentle petite little fellow with his Mandarin colour walked onto the platform at the side of the big Archbishops with all their trimmings on, you know and the Archbishop introduced him and said, this Chinaman has a wonderful walk with God.

He's going to talk to us. To his amazement, Watchman got down, walked down the steps and went behind the first Bishop and put his hands on his head and everybody, oh mercy, what's happening? And he said, my brother, the Spirit of Christ in me will never argue with the Spirit of Christ in you.

And he went to the next Bishop, 128 of them, he went right round saying almost the same thing, the Spirit of Christ in me will never be bitter against your Spirit. The Spirit of Christ in me will never be contentious with your Spirit.

And he went right round and finally he came to the Archbishop and he said the same thing to the Archbishop. Everybody nearly collapsed. And then finally he put his hands on his own head and he said, the Spirit of Christ in me will never fight the Spirit of Christ in you.

And he said, I believe the Spirit of Christ is in you. Well, if it isn't the Spirit of Christ, does Christ fight himself? When people are praying sometimes people burst out in tears. The Holy Ghost is a gentleman.

If somebody is praying, shut up, that's not the time to prophesy. Let the other person speak. Do things all decently and in order. You see, God never has chaos. Be careful for nothing, be prayerful in everything, be thankful for anything.

Isn't that good? And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts which, and that actually is a military word, shall put a guard, a military guard we talk about, a protecting guard upon your heart and minds.

Now here he is, he's saying, finally my brethren, watch whether things are true. You see, you've got to do something. It isn't all God's job to look after you. You should be in partnership with God. The peace of God, I'm sorry, finally brethren, watch whether things are true.

Watch whether things are honest, watch whether things are just, watch whether things are pure, watch whether things are lovely, watch whether things are of good report. If there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Adorning the Gospel Through Holy Conduct

Now let's go over here a minute to where? Titus, comes right after Timothy, as you remember. Titus chapter 2, verse 9, And they exhort servants to be obedient to their masters, and to please them well in all things, not answering again, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine.

Come on, has your life, has your life, has mine today, adorned the gospel? What does Paul say? We're made a spectacle to the world. Or as a modern writer says, the man in the street doesn't read his Bible, he reads you.

You can make all those excuses you like for your bad temper, and for this, that, and the other. I'll tell you what, the world outside won't excuse you. It knows the standard of the Christian should be the standard of Jesus Christ himself.

Teaching us that denying ungodliness, verse 12, unworldly lusts. You've got to make up your mind about them. You deny ungodliness and unworldly lusts. We should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present generation or this present world.

That's the same thing. We're to walk with the corruption all around us and be pure in the midst of all that corruption. Darkness, but we're to have the illumination of the spirit of God. Looking for that blessed hope.

You know, there are two things that will help keep you pure, and you've got to help to keep yourself pure. One is that you don't know what minute Jesus is coming. People say, I believe Jesus will come tonight.

I'd say frankly to them, you're a liar. What do you mean I'm a liar? You wouldn't have lived today as you've lived if you believed Jesus was coming at 12 o 'clock tonight. You'd have gone to the phone and put some of those things wrong that have been wrong for years and you won't clear up with them.

Looking for that blessed hope. Number one is, if I live expecting his coming, I want to be pure as he is pure. And the second thing is if I really want to believe, to be pure and walk in wholeness and righteousness, I'll keep my eye on the judgment seat of Christ.

You know, God isn't going to send anybody a notice that two days from now we're going to appear at the judgment seat of Christ. Or that he's going to come and catch us away. And the only way to live is to live ready, prepared for those two wonderful events.

We're still in Titus 2 and verse 14. Let me go back. Looking for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of the great God. Come on, is your life and mine, are we examples of his workmanship? I told you before, let me tell you again, some of you have not heard it.

Very often when I'm not concentrating properly, I'll do some doodling and usually I manage to sketch an eagle. You wouldn't know unless I told you, but anyhow. I'd done one one day and a man came in the office door and he said, oh, do you do that eagle?

I said yes. Can I have it? Sure, take it. He stayed about 55 minutes. It was 50 minutes too long, but anyhow. Going out he said, will you do something for me? I said no. He said, you don't know what I'm going to ask.

I do. What am I going to ask? You're going to ask me to autograph that picture. I said, right, I was. Not if you give me a hundred dollars. Try me with a thousand, I might. Well, you did it. I said, sure I did, but I wasn't concentrating.

Oh, I want to put it, I've got the books on all that you've written, I've got every book you've written. I want to put this at the side and say, I've not only got Ravenhill's books, I've got a picture.

Look, it's autographed there. I said, yeah. I said, it's the most disgusting thing I ever did, anyhow. Put my name on that? I'm sincere. Not if you give me a hundred dollars. So he went out, you know, like Christians do, and instead of cursing, he slammed the door as hard as he could.

Same thing. Still mad. And as soon as he slammed that door, the Lord said this to me, you wouldn't sign that as your workmanship. Can I sign your life at the end of every day as my workmanship? Keep that in mind and see how you live every day next week.

Just before I go to bed, say, Lord, will you autograph my life? See what he says. You know, we interpret the Holy Ghost, if you'll get through with the Holy Ghost, you'll get a ministry. I'm sick of all these women's ministries.

And I don't mean that in any wrong way. I know you'll tell maybe Melanie and I wasn't thinking of her at all. There's so many groups in Dallas now, led by women. And women go up and down like shuttlecocks.

They say all kinds of stuff that's in the flesh. There are some good ones, there are some exceptions, I know that. But you know, we speakers are, the only evidence of the Holy Ghost is visible power, authority, casting out demons, you know, showing yourself off.

Jesus will never show them. I was trying to remember, I couldn't tonight. I asked my sweetheart and she couldn't. But years ago, there was a great big, a great big in the right sense, holiness preacher in this country.

And one message he had was a, a super message. I remember one night, a few years ago, we were, I don't eat before a meeting usually. And afterwards, we went for a snack and Robert G. Lee came in. He was famous for a sermon, do you remember?

He had a very famous sermon he preached everywhere. Preached every year at the annual gathering of the Southern Baptists on, what was it, Payday Sunday. He borrowed the title. Anyhow, but this preacher was famous not for preaching Payday Sunday.

He should receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you. Well, a young man in a country church heard that this preacher was going to this town and he said, Sir, you'll be passing right through our little town and it's a whistle stop.

We can get them to stop the train. Would you come and speak to my Saturday night group? Oh, it would be so thrilling. We get such a big offering to do repairs for the church. Would you please come? Please come.

We're very small but please come. And the good man of God went. The church was jammed out. The aisles were filled. They sang and he said, and now our brother's going to give his famous, famous sermon that he's preached for 50 years on Acts 1 -8.

And he stood there and he said, Acts 1 -8. You should receive power. You should receive power. You should receive power. Oh, I never thought I'd forget that. My mind has gone blank. But you don't need power just to be a successful missionary or a successful preacher.