Fresh Oil — Jack Hyles

I apologize, this is only the second time in 17 years that I preached as many as three times on four nights in pastor school. One pastor school, we had a big citywide revival campaign in the Civic Center and had evangelistic services every night and I preached.

And I assure you that it will not happen every year, but we felt this year we needed to emphasize the Holy Spirit and because we did, we felt that perhaps the same speaker should carry the same theme all the way through and since we discussed Monday night the Holy Spirit and the layman and then Tuesday night the Holy Spirit and the Bible and then yesterday afternoon, those of you who were not here in the afternoon session, we discussed the Holy Spirit and prayer, our prayer partner, and now tonight I am going to bring the message that I guess is as near the trademark of pastor school.

I do not recall the last time we had a pastor school and I did not bring this message. It's often sometime during the day, sometimes it's at night, but every package of notes I've had all week long, I've had at least one request in the package.

Every time I walked up here and cleared off part of the table, I've had at least one note every time that said, please preach on fresh oil. And so tonight I'm going to travel over familiar territory your feet have trodden before along this path and yet it's so easy for the path that we have trodden to become full of weeds again that we need to clear it out and tonight I'm going to read for you this passage.

David’s Repeated Anointings and the Need for Fresh Oil

Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brethren and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward so Samuel rose up and went to Ramah. Now David was just a little lad, or a lad at the time, he was out tending the sheep.

This is the time when Samuel came to Jesse's household and said one of your sons is going to be the king. And Jesse trotted out his sons and prayed to them all before Samuel and Samuel kept saying this is not the one, this is not the one, this is not the one.

He said do you have any more sons? Well yes, he said I have one. He's the baby boy. He's out taking care of the sheep. You wouldn't want him. And Samuel said let's go see him and Samuel went and anointed David as the king.

But David said I shall be anointed with fresh oil and anointed with fresh oil he was. For in 2 Samuel 2 I read, you need not turn to it, in verse 4 and the men of Judah came and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah.

Well I thought David was anointed king before he was but now he's anointed with fresh oil. And they told David saying that the men of Jabesh Gilead were they that buried Saul. But that isn't all. You come to 2 Samuel 5 and verse 3 and you read so all the elders of Israel came to the king of Hebron and King David made a league with them in Hebron before the Lord and they anointed David king over Israel.

This is the third time that David's been anointed king. He was anointed king back down there as a lad tending to the sheep. He was anointed king in 2 Samuel chapter 2 when he became king over a portion of the house of Judah and now then he becomes king over all of Israel.

He's anointed for the third time and that's why David could say in the 92nd Psalm, I shall be anointed with fresh oil. All of the plans and all the efforts and all of the labor and all the sleepless nights and all the toil that had been endured for this pastor school had been endured so that we might in some wonderful way send preachers and Christian workers back home with a fresh anointing and fresh endowment of the power of the Holy Spirit.

A Prayer for the Holy Spirit’s Power

So I read again, but my horn shall thou exalt like the horn of a unicorn. I shall be anointed with fresh oil. Our heavenly Father, I just don't know how I can do this by myself. There's no way. All these thousands of people in this building, chairs down all the aisles, people filling the pews where the television screens are, hallways out there, people out in the hallways listening over the loudspeaker.

49 states and 13 foreign countries in this one room tonight. And in many cases the key preachers in those states are here. I pray, O Holy Spirit, I pray that you would take this little preacher and lift him out of himself for these moments and do something real in this closing service.

Dear Lord, this is it. It's all over after tonight as far as the evening services are concerned. This is my last message on the Holy Spirit. You've got to do something for us. Some preacher's not going to be able to make it if he doesn't get something tonight.

He's just not going to make it. That preacher wrote me today and he said, called home, talked to my wife, and she said, had a member causing trouble because the priest don't tithe on Sunday night. Said, I would have been afraid to go home, but I'm not now.

A Childhood Marked by Fear and Insecurity

I can't wait to get home and fight the battle. O give us what we need back home and may O thy spirit breathe upon us in Jesus name. Amen. When I was a little boy growing up under the tutelage of this little lady sitting on the fourth row from the front here, I was a very nervous boy.

My father was an alcoholic and my earliest memories of my daddy coming home at night drunk, maybe hitting a tree out in front with a car and my mother weeping and pleading with him to be a decent daddy.

And I became a very nervous kid. Oftentimes in church my mother would have to, have to take me out. I'd become, I'd become afraid and I'd start crying uncontrollably. I'm talking about now when I was eight and nine and ten years of age and sometimes even twelve and thirteen.

I'd start crying in church. I was a little bitty fellow. And Brother McElroy, our pastor, stopped the service and said, folks, we'll have to let Mrs. Hiles take the little Jackie boy out, just like you'd take a baby out of the service.

And I'd go out and mother would try to calm me and I couldn't do it, I couldn't get calm. I had high blood pressure. Every time I was absent from school I had such high blood pressure that they'd call from the school and be sure that everything was all right and sometimes even send a nurse by the house just to check on me.

I, I was always the runt. I weighed ninety-two pounds, ninety-two or ninety-three pounds on my seventeenth birthday. They called me Jackie boy. If they had voted on a person least likely to succeed, I would have won hands down.

I loved sports but I was too little to play. I didn't go with any, with the girls until I was seventeen because the only ones my size were in the beginner department. I, nobody, nobody really took me seriously.

Joe Boyd’s Conversion and Hyles’s Call to Preach

The church I went to, Joe Boyd also attended that church. Joe's been here this week, probably here tonight. And Joe was my hero. Joe is ten years older than I. He looks like he's twenty-five or thirty years older than I, but he's ten years older than I.

And Joe and I live two blocks from each other. He belonged to what was called the Britain Street Gang. That was the wildest gang in all the area. And my mother used to say, when you see Joe Boyd coming, you run home.

Joe weighed about two hundred, two hundred and thirty-five pounds. And I weighed about, I weighed ninety pounds or so. Joe wore a size fifty-two coat and a thirty waist and I wore a size thirty coat, fifty-two waist.

And I, Joe Boyd was an All-American football player, first team, Associated Press, All-American, in 1847 at Texas A &M. And I, he was also the heavyweight boxing champion of Texas A &M and the heavyweight wrestling champion of Texas A &M.

And he was some guy. All of us in our church worshiped the ground that Joe Boyd walked on. Now the ground he walked on was sinful ground for many years. And I was at church the night that Joe Boyd got right with God.

I was there when he walked the aisle and gave his life to preach the gospel. I'll never forget what our pastor said. He stopped the service and he said, folks, he said, guess what? He said, All-American Joe Boyd has to render his life to preach the gospel.

And boy, people said, glory to God, praise the Lord. All around me I could hear them buzzing, Joe Boyd going to be a preacher. Joe Boyd going to be a preacher. We figured maybe a murderer or a bootlegger, but never a preacher.

And I said to my friends, man, a live good night, Joe Boyd is going to preach. Boy, I said, God, if I'd been you, that's the one I'd have called. I'll tell you what, heaven bingo tonight, I'll guarantee you, Joe Boyd's going to be a preacher.

And one night on a watch night service, Joe Boyd was sitting behind me a few feet, and God called me to preach. And God said, Jack, I want you to be a preacher. And I said, Jack, who? And he said, you.

And I was timid. And I said, I said in my breath, Lord, they'll laugh at me and you both. They'll laugh at me because they know I can't preach. And they'll laugh at you because you made such a poor choice.

And they'll laugh at me. But the Lord said, I want you to be a preacher. A little teenage girl wrote a note down at the end. She didn't know I'd been called to preach, but the Holy Spirit told her. And she wrote a note on a piece of literature and said, Jack, why don't you surrender tonight?

I know God's calling you to preach. And I walked down the aisle and I said, Pastor, God's called me to preach. I'll never forget what he said. He said, are you sure? And I said, yes, sir. I said, I'm sure.

And the pastor, you know, Joe Boyd been called to preach. He said, glory to God, folks, guess what happened? But he prefaced his announcement about my decision with these words, folks, all of us know that God is a miracle working God.

And he's the God that parted the Red Sea. He's the God that made the sun stand still and God can still perform miracles. And he said, little Jackie Boyd Hiles has surrendered his life to preach the gospel.

And nobody said, amen. And nobody said, praise the Lord. Several folks, I think, said, oh, my Lord, but that's the nearest they came to get religious. And nobody was happy. And I recall that was on New Year's Eve night, 1944.

And then 36 years, let's see, 36 years next New Year's Eve night. And late after midnight on January the 1st, 1945, in the wee hours of the morning, I knelt at the steps outside our little place and looked up in the Texas sky.

And I said, dear God, I'm not as big as Joe. And I'm not as strong as Joe. But I said, I can't give you as much as Joe can give you. But I said, dear God, I can give you as much of Jack Hiles as Joe can give you of Joe Boyd.

And God knows this is true. If ever a kid gave you all he had to God, I didn't have much to give. By the way, nobody else wanted anything I had anyhow. And it was not hard for me to give it all to God.

Early Ministry, Failure, and the Search for Power

I wish I could tell you what God's done. I wish I could tell you what God's done with that little gift I gave him that night. I, New Year's Day, this is not a part of this sermon, but I feel constrained to tell it.

I don't like to tell it. I didn't tell it for many years. You'll know why in a minute. I, my daddy didn't live with us. He was a man. My daddy and mother were separated. It was on New Year's Day and daddy called.

Some of you children know what it's like when daddy calls and says, meet me at the store or somewhere. And my daddy called New Year's morning and said, son, meet me at downtown Dallas. I want to see you.

I'd meet him for 10, 15 minutes. He'd give me a $5 bill to take home, you know, and just spend a few minutes with daddy. I got on the streetcar and drove downtown Dallas. On the corner of, on the corner of Commerce and Ackerd Street, that's where the football team stayed for the Cotton Bowl.

And it was New Year's Day. The Baker Hotel over on this corner and a Banks over on this corner and the Adolphus Hotels over on this corner and a liquor store on the main floor and a burlesque theater on the floor above that was over here on this corner.

Daddy told me to meet him in front of the liquor store. That's where he was. On New Year's Day, 1945, my daddy came out and I said, daddy, by the way, my dad hated preachers. If my dad hated anybody, he hated preachers.

I've heard him curse preachers more than anybody else. He hated preachers. He thought they were all after money and daddy hated preachers. And he, uh, I said, daddy, before I, before I go any further, I've got to tell you something.

I don't want to tell you. I'm afraid to tell you, but I said, God's called me to preach and I'm going to spend my life being a preacher. My daddy weighed 235 pounds. He used to be a professional wrestler when he was young.

And my daddy took his big old arms and he, he hit me like that and pushed me against the red brick of that liquor store and began to curse me and swear. And finally I got so weak, I fell and he kicked me in the side and cursed me and said, you dirty son of a blank, blankly blank.

I'm ashamed any son of mine to be a blankety blank preacher. He started walking across the street, little crowd gathered. And I was lying there on the sidewalk and daddy turned and came back across the street.

Some football players were there, even from, for the, for the, for the, uh, Cotton Bowl game. And dad looked at me again and didn't kick me hard in the side, didn't even bruise it, just sort of like, like you pushing a thing, get away or something like that.

And he kicked me in the side and he said, dirty son of a blank. I'm a, I'm a, I'm ashamed and embarrassed for, for a son of a blank son of mine to be a dirty blankety blank preacher. He walked halfway across Ackard street, that's in the downtown section of Dallas, one of the main corners, just about two blocks from where the big convention center is now.

And, uh, he turned and came back again and he kicked me again. And here's what he said. He said, if you're going to be one of those blankety blank son of a blank preachers, why don't you go out and build the biggest church in the whole world?

I never told anybody. 25 years. Dr. Elmer Towns stood behind this pulpit several years ago. He gave me a plaque as having the world's largest Sunday school, but it was all over. I rushed to my office and fell on my face.

And I said, daddy, I did what you said. I did what you said. But I was called to preach. A fellow named Dan Davis asked me if I'd preach for him at the Cedar Temple Baptist church in Dallas. He heard I was called to preach and he, he was going to be on vacation.

And he said, Jack, would you preach for me? I said, sure. Looked easy. I never had done it. And, uh, so, uh, and I, nobody told me you're supposed to study. Pastoral pastoralist said, Lord, uh, I pray you'd lead, uh, lead me in what I'm supposed to say.

Well, I saw a thought, a thought happened. And so, uh, I just said, Lord, leave me to know what to say. I was sitting right here. Pastor, the deacon chairman stood up and said, ladies and gentlemen, our pastor's on vacation, but he's, he's not left the pulpit vacant.

He came as close as he could have. And, uh, he said, he's not left the pulpit vacant. He said, uh, we have Reverend Jack Hiles to supply for us tonight. And, uh, so, uh, I stood up. He said, I never forget it.

He said, we're all anxiously waiting to hear what God has laid on his heart. And my, my thoughts were, I don't know about him. I know I'm anxiously waiting to hear what God has laid on my heart. And so I stood up and you know, God forgot to lay anything on my heart.

And, uh, I stuttered and stammered and stuttered and stammered. And finally, after three minutes, I said, folks, it sure is hot in here tonight. I said, I, and then I said, I can't do it. God's called me to preach, but I don't know how.

And I sat down and the folks came by and tried to console me. My best friend came by and said, Jack, you better not go through with this preaching business. I saw a fellow a few months ago down in Texas in a service.

I preached one night for an hour and a half. He walked up and shook his head. He said, I can't believe it. I can't believe it. I can't believe it. I said, why? He said, I was in the Cedar temple Baptist church the night you started out years ago.

He said, I can't believe it. I can't believe it. He said, you preach three minutes in an hour and a half tonight. And then he grinned and said, I like the three minutes better. And, uh, but I, I, uh, went off to East Texas Baptist college.

And, uh, one of the first weeks of there, the psychology professor, Hubert Boyd, uh, he came, he said, you're new in school, aren't you? I said, yes, I am. He said, are you a preacher? Oh, my. Oh, I had three minutes experience.

And I said, yes, I am. And that's God to forgive me. And, uh, so he said, I'm preaching a revival on the North side of Marshall, uh, next week. And I can't get anybody to supply all our preacher boys are busy.

He said, would you go preach for me? And I said, yes, I would. That next Sunday morning, I sat right here. I had no outline. I had the same outline I had before. And, uh, I'd like to fill us that he went hunting.

He said, he saw some birds and he said, bang, and he missed them all. And he said, bang again and hit him in the same place. And so I am, I stood up. I do not recall what Psalm I turned to. I just recall, I let a Bible fall open.

The deacon chairman said, we have Reverend Hiles with us. He's going to tell us the same thing, what God laid on his heart. And, uh, so I, uh, I stood up and God had laid the same thing on my heart he did before.

And, uh, so I just opened the Bible and started reading. And I just, I don't know where I read. I just let it fall on here. And I started in the Psalms. He turned with the wilderness into a standing water.

And I said, he turned the wilderness into a standing water, not a sitting water, but a standing water, not the desert, but the wilderness, not a lake, but standing water. I said, he turned with it. He didn't let it stand still.

He turned with it. And I read the next verse. And I said, and dry ground into water Springs, not wet ground, but dry ground, not into Pepsi-Cola Springs, but water Springs. I mean, uh, and there he maketh the hungry, the dwell, not the thirsty, but the hungry.

I said, the hungry, I said, the hungry, I said, the hungry. And I just read a verse and hollered and read a verse and hollered and read a verse and hollered. And about 15 minutes past, I said, in the time of my life, absolutely.

I said, in the time of my life, just reading and hollering and reading and hollering and 30 minutes past, I was still reading and hollering and reading and hollering and reading and hollering. And boy, 45 minutes past, I was still reading and hollering and reading and hollering.

And now thank God, 35 years have passed and I'm still reading and hollering. And I will forget it. When they got through a Deacon walked up and he said, this here, here, take this. I said, what is it?

He said, a check. I said, what for? He said, $12. I said, what for? What have I done? Nobody owes me any money. He said, for preaching. I said, you listen to me, buddy. You won't buy me off. I've heard of your kind.

You take your filthy look and let it perish with you. I said, as long as I live, I'll never stoop so low as to take money for preaching the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. I'd like to announce to all of our Deacons, I've changed a great deal in these years.

And I was a preacher. In just a few weeks, they called me to, I was called to my first church. A church, you might call it a church. We had 19 members. We had a little old building. The walls both leaned, but thank God they leaned to form a marvelous geometrical miracle.

And they stayed up. Had no rusted bell out in front. Had one indoor toilet in the, I'm sorry, no, no. One outdoor toilet in the entire church family. Just one. And no indoor toilets. You say, but what, don't ask the embarrassing questions.

Use your imagination. That's all. One outdoor toilet and no indoor toilets in the entire church family. Only one fellow had a telephone in the entire church. He was deaf and couldn't hear it ring. We had one lady could play one song on the piano and that was Mrs. Charlie Smith could play, Old Rugged Cross.

That's all she could play. And she played the piano, bitch, more than she played the piano. And I might add, she hung off both sides of the piano too. And she, it might be a great deal, Mrs. Godfrey. And everything, everything we sang, we sang the tune of the Old Rugged Cross.

Now you try singing Dwelling in Buterland, the tune of the Old Rugged Cross and see what kind of problems you got. But wait a minute, nobody walked the aisle the first Sunday. And the second Sunday, nobody walked the aisle.

And the third Sunday, nobody walked the aisle. And for a long year, the first year of my ministry, nobody walked the aisle. Not one person got saved. Not one person joined the church by letter. Not one person rededicated his life.

Not one person came for baptism. One long, barren, miserable year. And I used to go out in the backyard before I'd preach. I'd gone to another church, another little church now, and Grangehall Baptist Church, Marshall, Texas.

And I'd go out in the backyard and I'd say, Oh God, I'm about to die. I'm about to die. I can't be a preacher like this. Nobody getting saved. Sunday morning, Sunday night, nobody getting saved. I can't do it.

And I'd go up, out in the country, but I'd go up toward town. There's a big pine thicket of trees up there. And I'd stay up there in the nighttime. And I'd walk and I'd bring my hands and I'd say, Oh God, Oh God, I can't go like this.

I can't do it. Oh, I wish somebody would feel that way tonight. I wish some preacher would say, I'm not going to be a barren preacher. I'm not going to do it. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not.

And I wish before we leave this place, you would say, I'm going to go home and I'm going to pay the price and get the power of the Holy Spirit on my ministry and know what it is to have that voice speaking while I preach.

Biographies of Preachers and the Pursuit of Anointing

I am. I went to the East Texas Baptist College Library where I was attending college. I went to the biography section. I pulled down every biography of every great man I could find. And I know I read dozens of biographies.

I, uh, I read the life of Dwight Moody and my heart burned on the inside as I, as I read how that two ladies in his church kept saying, Mr. Moody, God has something more for you. And Mr. Moody would say, uh, don't pray for me.

I get four or five, 10 people say that every time I preach, don't pray for me. But they said, Mr. Moody, God has a power for you. You don't have yet. And Mr. Moody got sort of provoked at it. And I read how that one day he was in New York city, walking down wall street, trying to raise some money for survival campaigns.

And he said, all of a sudden the breath of God came on him and knocked him down on the concrete. And he asked God to withhold his hand for a few minutes. Mr. Moody went to the home of a friend and borrowed an upstairs room and fed on his face.

He said that he was never the same after that. He said where he preached the same outlines to the heaven, five saved, had 50 saved, used the same sermon, same scripture, same illustration, used to have 10 saved.

Now he has a hundred saved. And I can recall, I'd sit there, a little country preacher, never seen anybody converted and my heart burned. Oh, you don't know how my heart had burned. And I said, Oh God, what Mr. Moody had years ago, could that be in 1949 and 1950, poor little country preacher in East Texas.

And nothing happened. I read the story of Christmas Evans. Halvet is riding on his horse one time and all of a sudden he got so burdened about his condition, he fed on his face beside the horse. The power of God came on him and he was never the same after that.

And my heart began to burn. Now fellas, you say what you want to say. You call me what you want to call me, but there's something you don't necessarily get at salvation that God gives you to with, with which to preach the gospel in the power and the fullness.

And I'm not talking about a bunch of city wildfire. I'm not talking about Pat Boone going to a nightclub and singing on Saturday night and talking about his charismatic experience on Sunday morning. I don't want anything like that.

I read about Savonarola. I read his life. It told in his life how he sat in the pulpit one morning for five hours. He wouldn't preach until because he was powerless. He said, I won't do it. He sat there for one, for two, for three, for four, for five hours.

And the hungry people sat there and waited till Savonarola had the power of God. And he stood and preached in mighty power. And my little, my little old heart in East Texas burned within itself. And I said, Oh God, could that be, could that be, could that be for Jack Hiles in 1949 and 1950?

I picked up a book and read the life of Charles G. Finney. He told how he was, how he was filled with the spirit on the night he got saved. And, uh, John Wesley told how that on October 3rd, 1738 at three o 'clock in the morning, after praying all night with about 60, 40 to 60 preachers, how that the power of God came on him.

And he knew for the first time in his life, he had the fullness of the Holy spirit. I read about George Fox who went alone for 15 days and stayed in the trance and prayed till God's power came on him.

And Peter Cartwright who stood and preached his first sermon and the power of God came on him never. And then verse one, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because it's in order to preach the gospel to the poor.

And my little old heart, Sunday after Sunday, I'd go and I'd preach. I couldn't eat anything. I didn't weigh much. I weighed 141. I lost down to under 120. I couldn't hold anything on my stomach. I'd eat breakfast and go back behind a little country church, had a little Creek back there and I'd vomit everything I'd eaten in the Creek.

And I'd go and I'd sit in the pulpit and say, Oh God, Oh God, do something, do something. And my deacons called a meeting and they said, pastor, we're worried about you. We're worried. My mother said, said, son, you're losing weight.

You've got to take care of yourself. And my deacons said, pastor, there's something wrong with you. You've got to eat. You've got to get ahold of yourself. And I said, I can't get ahold of myself. I'm a powerless preacher and I can't do it.

Oh, men of God in God's name, don't cheat your people. Get out in a pee patch somewhere. Get on your face before God and wait on the Lord. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles.

They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. And I am, if you had driven down highway 43 between Marshall, Texas and Henderson, Texas, down that little winding highway through the pine trees of East Texas, if you'd driven down there many night, in the wee hours of the morning, if you'd listened carefully, if you pulled your car beside the road, you'd heard a little preacher cry, Elijah, where is the Lord?

I prayed and I cried. And I went to my pulpit and nothing happened. And I prayed and cried some more. I don't want to go any farther. On May 12th, 1950, I threw myself down face first into some pine cones and pine needles on a sand hill of East Texas.

As the sun came up across the East, I prayed all night long. And I said, Oh God, I don't care what it is. I'm willing to pay the price. I didn't know what it meant. I didn't know what it meant. That was May 12th, 1915, six o 'clock in the morning, after all night praying.

Went back home, ate about a breakfast, preached on radio broadcast on KMHT, Marshall, Texas. Was sitting in the living room at 10 o 'clock in the morning, reading the Dallas Morning News. Telephone rang.

Operator said, long distance for Reverend Jack Hiles. I said, this is Brother Hiles. A voice said, Reverend Hiles, my name is Smith. I've worked with your father for years, hanging drywall. He said, Reverend Hiles, your father just dropped dead with a heart attack.

And I said, God, I didn't mean that. I didn't mean that. My daddy's lost. And my daddy didn't do something between the time he started to fall. Had liquor on his breath. And my sister and I went to his little room and found a bottle of whiskey in the top drawer of his chest of drawers.

Grief, Prayer, and Renewed Ministry

And I fell on my face. And I said, God, I didn't mean that. It's not right. I'm trying to preach and I want to be sincere. And you know I am. We drove to Dallas, to the O 'Neill Funeral Home. Same funeral home that had bombed President Kennedy.

I walked by it. Only twice in my life has this ever happened. But I stood over the casket of my daddy and looked at his face. I'll never forget how cold it was when I kissed him. And I felt a hand on my arm.

And I looked and looked at that. And nobody had it. I looked to see if anybody was around. Nobody was around. Didn't the Lord say he held his preachers in his right hand? We followed a hearse down to a little town called India, Texas.

We laid my dad's body in the grave down near a creek, right close to where my mother's two little daughters are buried. And then I heard them thud the dirt on daddy's casket. We went home. Shortly after I came back down to the grave.

And I threw myself face down on daddy's grave. And I said, Dear God, I'm not going to leave here. My daddy heard me preach twice in the year before he died. He sat right there on a Sunday morning on the fourth row from the front and clutched the fuse.

And I begged him to get saved and he wouldn't do it. I walked out in the pasture that afternoon, put my arms around his big old shoulders and said, Daddy, wouldn't you like to be a Christian? And my daddy said, Son, I'm going to be.

I'm going to go back to Dallas and sell out. And I'm going to come back in the spring. And I'm going to get saved and let you baptize me in the spring. I wish I hadn't taken that. I wish I'd have said, Daddy, now.

But daddy was only 62. In fact, he was 61 at the time. Spring never came. I fell on daddy's grave. I don't know how long I was there. Somebody that knew me well said several days. I have no idea. All I know is that when I got up off my knees, the next Sunday night I preached.

The invitation lasted until 11 .15. Preacher, I don't care how many things you learn this week. I mean about the nursery. I mean about the foster club. I mean about the fisherman's club. I mean about the building of a Sunday school.

Fresh Oil for Pastors Facing Opposition

I mean about ministerial ethics. I don't care what you learn. If you're in this place and the mighty power of God is not upon you, then we've wasted our time. Oh, I remember how that Burrow Ackerman down at First Baptist Church, Hollywood, Florida, running a few hundred Sunday school in a small little church down there.

Came to pastor school one winter morning, snowing. Walked in and said he never felt so lonely in his life. He sat here for a whole week and God began to ring his heart out. And Burrow Ackerman and Jim Maston.

Jim is here. Where are you Jim? I saw you a while ago somewhere. How are you Jim? Jim Maston and Burrow Ackerman. And I'm glad he's here to verify the story. They started to leave town and they got the city limit sign.

And Burrow said to Jim or vice versa, let's stop. And they got out of the car and got on their faces and made the city limit sign as an altar and God's power came on both of those men. And Jim went to Wisconsin and built a great church and Burrow Ackerman's church now running 2 ,500 to 3 ,000 in Sunday school in that giant complex of building.

And the same thing can happen to you if you'll pay the price and say I'm not going to be a powerless preacher. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not. You don't have to be a powerless preacher.

The mighty power of God is for you as much as it is for me or Moody or Sunday or John Ryas or Bob Jones or Tom Malone or Bob Gray. It's for you. Remember how I used to get the Bible out? I read in Luke 3 .16, He shall baptize you with fire and with the Holy Ghost.