Be Holy in All Conversation — Leonard Ravenhill

I think I should preach tonight, so I'm going to send you all home in about an hour, because I thought we'd change, and instead of preaching, try and do a little teaching. And I hope be helpful about some of the issues in the Christian life.

There's no finality in the Christian life, this side of eternity. Nobody ever graduates, and however long we live, and however far we travel, and however much we know, there still remains much land ahead to be possessed.

I don't know why, but Martin Luther once said that the epistle of James is an epistle of straw. I find it has some teeth. Usually James is called the practical apostle, but I get more practical help out of Peter.

Maybe I'm a little like Peter. The first day I was born, my mind wasn't very clear that day, but the first day I was born, my mother, you know, in the old-fashioned way, children were born at home, and that's where I was born.

And the first day I was born, my mother told me years after that she put her hand on me in bed and said, don't let this boy live unless he's going to be a preacher. I'm glad I didn't hear her say that, but it's a pretty severe handicap, and yet a blessing, because she believed like Mrs. Wesley, she didn't have as many children.

Mrs. Wesley had 19. She'd have done well on welfare, wouldn't she? But Mrs. Wesley had 19 children, and she taught them basically this, that there are two things to do with the Bible. Number one, believe it.

Number two, behave it. And we've been pretty good on the believing, and we haven't been too strong on the behaving. So tonight I want to share some thoughts from the first epistle of Peter, and the first chapter.

Holiness in All Manner of Living

I'm taking as a kind of a hub in the wheel, verses 15 and 16. First Peter, first epistle, first chapter, verses 15 and 16. But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy. In all manner of conversation, which is really all manner of living, because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy.

I think one of the weaknesses in our modern presentation of the truth, or Christian living, is that we're more afraid of holiness than we are of sinfulness. The preachers have given us so many alibis for our weakness, and our carnal nature, and heaven knows what.

So when we talk about holiness, we get rather nervous, and we want to back off. Supposing you change the word from holy to healthy, which is really its main meaning. As he which hath called you is healthy, morally, and spiritually, so you should be holy.

I should be holy, healthy, spiritually, and morally. There are alternate words for this word, holiness. You could say sanctification is the same thing, or perfection. Well, that word scares us more than ever.

You know, you hear people say, well I'm not perfect. Well, don't be so proud of it. It shows up. Don't boast about it. I mean, why aren't you perfect? You said you expect me to be perfect? Sure, I do.

I think Jesus did, didn't he, in the Sermon on the Mount? He talked about perfection there for us. Well, we all have our little text we can pull out for convenience, and you say, wait a minute, wait a minute, the Apostle Paul said, not as though I had already attained, or were already perfect.

That's what he said. Well, you say, if he said he wasn't perfect, you expect me to be perfect? Yes, I do. Because you quoted the perfection out of context. If you go two verses past that verse, in that verse he says, not as though I had already attained, or were already perfect.

Two verses further on he says, let us who are perfect. Now what do you do with it? He's talking about two different things. In the first case, not as though I had already attained, he's talking there about the resurrection body.

I don't have one, do you? I'll be glad when I get it. I have a body gives me a lot of problems, uh, due to some serious accident I had a few years ago. And I'll be delighted when I get, as it were, the last installment on my salvation.

Salvation is present, salvation is progressive, salvation will be finalized, because one day we're going to have a body like unto his glorious body. And we're told, be perfect even as your father which is in heaven is perfect.

Now again, we can't have angelic perfection. We can't have intellectual perfection. There are many perfections. We can't have Adamic perfection. We can have spiritual perfection, because God demands that we love him with a perfect heart and with a perfect mind.

And we can be made perfect in love, the word of God says. You know, very, very often the preacher gets so generous he wants to give you everything in a package deal and say, well there you are, you've arrived.

Being Filled With the Spirit and the Knowledge of God's Will

You know, there's a tremendous emphasis everywhere in the world right now on being filled with the Spirit. Well that's quite scriptural. But if you present it as being filled and no room for anything else, it's entirely wrong.

You can be filled without being filled. You say, well that's not very logical. All right, let me, let me put it this way. Supposing you had come to this room, uh, say an hour ago. You might have come and found the lights were off.

You might have opened the door and found it was in total darkness. And you just look in and say that room is empty. You walk in and say the room is empty. No, it wasn't empty. If it was empty, if it had no air, you'd sure fall down.

It was full of air. And then a janitor came in and he fills what is full. Because it was full of air and he presses the switch and he fills it with light, it was already full of air. And right now it's reasonably full of people, though it was full of air and full of light.

And a few minutes ago it was filled with, uh, with praise, filled with song. And, uh, let's see, if it was very cold you could switch the thermostat up and fill it with heat. And, uh, what else? Oh, some lady comes down the road, down the aisle there, and she bought something from the Avon lady this morning.

And as she comes down the aisle you say, oh my, that's good. That, of course, it may not be good, but on the other hand, there's a, there's something you can smell. Now here's a room full of what? It's full of air, full of light, full of heat, full of people, full of praise.

And then it's filled with fulfilled. You're filling what is already full. Well, you've got lots of people filled with the Spirit, but on the other hand, the Word of God says that we can be filled with the knowledge of his will.

And there are many people filled with the Spirit who are still floundering around, they're still trying to find the will of God. He says that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will. He says that you may be filled with joy in believing.

You see, again, there are, there are different areas, pardon me, or different elevations, if you like, in the, in the spiritual life. Now, I want to deal with some problems tonight. Well, what's better than dealing with, uh, with Peter?

Peter's Transformation From Simon to a Bold Apostle

He was the problem boy, wasn't he? The dropout? The first epistle of Peter, the first chapter, the first verse, the first word, Peter. Now, if, uh, that was a repeater, but if, uh, if you carefully go through the Word of God, you'll discover this, that Jesus not only spoke to Peter more than he spoke to any other individual disciple, he spoke to Peter more than he spoke to all the disciples put together.

And conversely, Peter always said something when everybody else was quiet. So Jesus spoke to him more than he spoke to anyone else, and Peter spoke to Jesus more than any other disciple spoke. Now, when Jesus found him, he was not Peter.

Who was he? He was Simon. The very name means shifty, irresponsible. You know, if you were to take a grain of sand and put it under a microscope, you'd discover that that one grain of sand has peaks on it like that and cavities like that.

And, of course, sand is no good. You can use it, mix it for stuff, but you don't build on sand. But if you go to Europe, you'll find some old cathedrals there. For instance, the city where we lived, in the city of Bath, the foundation of that abbey, a beautiful abbey, one of the best in England, it was laid in the year 444.

And it is a sandstone foundation. Now, what happened? Those grains of sand were pushed together, and those cavities and those peaks got locked in together, and it became substantial, it became good, strong stone, and that stone has been there for about 1 ,500 years.

Jesus finds Peter, and he says, Peter, thou art Simon. But when I'm done with you, you won't be Simon, you'll be Peter. Oh, you know the 16th of Matthew there? You know how people have taken that and said, well, Jesus said, Peter, thou art Simon, in unlit rock I build my church.

But ask the Greek wizards about that. The word there, Peter, is masculine, and the word rock is feminine. Jesus did not build his church on Peter. He, pardon me, he built the church, established his church in the church.

He himself took over the church. He built the church. He was not building the church on Peter. Peter was shifty. Peter was, again, irresponsible. Peter always had an answer. But you see, Jesus took him and he trained him for about three years, and then he said to those disciples, going into all the world, hey, wait a minute before you go.

Parity will be endued with power from on high. And the shifty, irresponsible, volatile Peter went there in the upper room, and the fire of God came. You don't find him backsliding anymore. In fact, history tells us, or at least tradition tells us, that Peter was crucified upside down because he didn't want to be crucified like his master.

He said, I'm not worthy that I should be crucified like that. And so they turned the cross upside down and crucified him that way. Now, Peter's gone an awful long way. He says, Peter, an apostle. Isn't that something?

That shifty, irresistible man, he cursed when he got under pressure, he denied his Lord, and he's made it, he's got it made. He's, he's an apostle. He wrote this epistle. I'm trying to make that clear, in case you think an epistle is the wife of an apostle.

No, uh, the apostle was Peter, the epistle is the thing that he wrote and left to us. People say these days, well, you know, uh, our preacher's always telling us that, uh, all those gifts of the Spirit were, uh, are not for the day.

For instance, we don't have any more apostles and so forth. Okay, throw them out, but be very careful because I'll be after you. Throw the whole lot out. If we have no apostles, we have no evangelists.

And I sometimes wonder if we have. But the apostles, he gave somewhat apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers, you can't throw one out without throwing the other. There are apostles. The apostle is a man who goes ahead, he blazes a trail, he establishes a church, he passes on.

And there are many different parts of the world today who I believe are apostles. Not exactly, maybe, uh, in the same category, but they still are apostles. Now Peter, he's some character. Look, supposing tomorrow the mailman comes to your house, your name is John Brown, if you are, I didn't pick you out for fun, but let's use his name, John Brown.

And the mailman comes up and he says to your wife, I've got six letters here, John Brown, John Brown, Brown. And this one is, I never saw a letter like this, it says, to Saint John Brown. Is your husband a saint?

She said, no, he's just a deacon. You say, Mr. Rameau, you don't suggest that a saint, when Paul writes his letter, his epistle to the Romans, what does he say? He says we're called to be saints, but to be is not in the One of the greatest pictures ever painted was painted by Raphael, or Raphael.

It's a miraculous draft of fishes. It's been hanging in a church in Spain for at least as far as I know it's still there, it's been there for centuries. And, uh, folk went from all over the world to see it.

And every time they saw it, they kind of oohed and aahed and said, what a picture, oh it's amazing. One day an Englishman went along, a man by the name of John Ruskin, maybe you've read his two great volumes on modern painters.

He wrote that a hundred years ago, modern painters. But, uh, he went along to see the picture and he burst out laughing. He nearly lost his head. They were ready to kill him. What are you laughing at?

I'm laughing at the picture. Why? What's wrong with it? Well, he said, to be honest, I'm trying to find what's right with it. Well, nobody else has criticized it. Now, come on, share, share, share your opposition to it.

What's wrong? Well, it is the miraculous draft of fishes. Yes, it is. Where did it take place? On the Sea of Galilee. Well, why has he painted the Dome of St. Peter's in the background, that's a thousand miles east, or west.

It's a picture of the miraculous draft of fishes on, on the Sea of Galilee or the Lake of Gennesaret, if you're going to call it that. And yet in the background he has the Dome of St. Peter's in Rome.

That shouldn't be there at all. How many men are there in the boat? Eleven. What does it say in the scripture? Oh, I don't know, let's look. There were only seven in the boat. Mistake number two. And then you've got a man there, and he's got a halo, and he's got lace cuffs, and a lace collar.

Fishing. Did you ever fish like that? You fish like that, Ed? You don't have a collar, your wife will have to crochet one for you. He's got a crocheted collar, he's got crocheted cuffs, and what? He's got a halo.

Man, he'd have to fish holding the halo and putting it on. You couldn't think of anything more uncomfortable. But you see, our idea of sainthood is you've got to be dressed up, you've got to wear some specific thing of identification.

That's exactly what the Lord doesn't want us to have. The Pharisees tried that and the others. Peter is the same man, except he has been purified. Oh, he was still very fiery. He didn't get the disposition of John, he did not need the disposition of John.

You know, we talk sometimes, and people say, you've got this in your life and that. Look, you haven't got anything in your life that isn't good, it's got perverted, then let God purify it. You say I've got a bad temper, well let God purify it.

See, one of the terrible things about presenting the spiritual life, it's such a sloppy thing, you hug each other, kiss each other, and all that blimey. But if you're really filled with the Spirit, the same scripture that says be filled with the Spirit says, be angry and sin not.

If you can't get angry in your spirit over world affairs, you're pretty sick spiritually. In God's name, what has to happen before judgment comes? Do you want the Empire State Building to fall into the sea, and the good old lady with the lamp there to collapse?

What has to happen before we get disturbed about the moral or immoral condition of our nation? Sure, Peter was explosive. But remember this, he's come from the time when he was shifty and irresponsible, and when a girl put up a finger and said, I know who you are, what did he do?

He cursed and swore. He ran away from the finger of a girl. But please, will you give him a little bonus? Not long after that, he puts his finger up to a whole nation and says, you crucified the Lord of Glory.

You know, we could do with a little bit of that Puritan start in our living these days. A little of that stuff they used to call holy boldness. Now I can listen to Peter because I can see the processes God has used in his life, and I know some of his weaknesses anyhow.

And I know how God leads him, and I find him here, he's become a very wonderful teacher. Because he goes on in the next verse to talk about election. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.

Keep your Bible open tonight. First Peter, first chapter, verse two. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit, and to obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace unto you and peace be multiplied.

Now I'm not going to deal with that verse because you all know the answers about election. So let's go to verse three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. I think this is one of the greatest verses in the whole Bible.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope. Did you hear that? He has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

The Resurrection Gives Believers a Living Hope

I've a good mind to send you all home, you ungrateful bunch. I said that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. Oh thank you. Sir Ambrose Fleming says this is the best attested fact in history. For every time we sing about the resurrection of Jesus, we sing a hundred hymns about the blood of Jesus.

Now we are not saved by the death of Christ. That's what the scripture says. We are justified by his death. We are saved by his life. If Jesus isn't living tonight, we're sunk. We're finished. If I were to say to you, when was the first countdown?

You'd say, let me see, it was at Cape Canaveral in, oh come on, you're two thousand years too late. Nobody ever beats God. When was the first resurrection, pardon me, when was the first countdown? On the resurrection morning.

You know, one day Jesus went along to a house and when he got there, a rather depressed lady met him and she said, oh so you've come, huh? And you're supposed to love my brother. And my brother's dead.

He's buried. By this time, this topical atmosphere, he stinks. Jesus says, your brother's going to rise again. Well, she was a good fundamentalist, she knew that. She said, I know my brother will rise in the last day.

Now what is the resurrection? A part of my theology? No. No, no, no. No, the resurrection isn't part of my theology. Jesus says, I'm the resurrection. I'm the resurrection. Can't you see him going there?

And he says to the disciples, or to the folk there, roll away the stone. You see, God doesn't do it all. Jesus could have said, have you run out of wine? Don't worry, watch this. And all the water pots are filled with wine.

No, he didn't say that. He said, you fill the water pots with wine and I'll change the wine into water. We want him to do everything. Oh no, no, no, no. He says, you do your part. I want you to rend the heavens and send revival.

He says, get a broken heart before I break the heavens. Do your part, I'll do my part. Roll away the stone. You know, Jesus had awful problems in his days. The most lovable, wonderful man that ever lived, and he had more opposition.

You know, people say, if we had revival, it would be wonderful. We'd all be united. Oh no, we wouldn't. We'd all be divided. The first thing that Jesus did before he could walk or talk was divide Jerusalem.

Herod was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. And yet there was a little old lady here and a few people here that were waiting for the consolation of Israel. They expected the prophecy of Isaiah to be fulfilled, but Herod was troubled with all Jerusalem with him.

And Jesus couldn't walk or talk yet, but he divided the nation. The last thing he did on the cross was divide men. Isn't it amazing? If you'd been crucified, you'd have been hollering your head off to testify, wouldn't you?

Hey, you're going to hell. You'll perish. Jesus didn't say a word to them. After all, he spent all his life preaching to them. He wasn't going to cast his pearls before swine. They knew the way. They'd listen.

The first thing before he could walk or talk, he divided Jerusalem. The last thing he did was divide men on the cross. One went to heaven, the other went to the other place. He walked in the synagogue.

There was a division because of him. All his life he was hunted by the Pharisees and the Sadducees. You know the difference between them? Well, the Pharisees believed in a resurrection. The Sadducees didn't.

That's why they were sad, you see. They had no resurrection. And Jesus says, let's go see your brother. No good going. He says, I'm the resurrection. And then he says with a loud voice, roll the stone away.

And they rolled the stone away. And then he said with a loud voice, Lazarus. Do you know why he said Lazarus? Because if he'd said, come forth, the cemetery would have come. And it wasn't time for them to come.

That's going to be one of the most amazing days. The disciples got excited and said, isn't it wonderful he can unplug your deaf ears and cast the devil out of you and heal the sick and straighten you with the leg?

And Jesus says, well, yes. And one day they said, do you know what he did? He raised the dead man yesterday. And Jesus says, I've got news for you. There's coming a day when from these lips I'm going to stand there right on the eve of time.

And he's going to speak to everybody lying in the graves. They'd be like the stars of heaven for multitude. And at the voice of the son of God, they're all going to rise. Won't that be great? I can't wait to see Julius Caesar and Genghis Khan and Philip of Macedon and all the others.

J .F. Kennedy. Boy, there's going to be some message straightened up then, isn't there? We'll find out what happened with Teddy Kennedy and that girl that night. And one thing Mr. Nixon forgot when he, well, whatever they did with the 18 minutes on the tapes, the Lord has the record.

It's all coming out one day. We just finished a six million dollar investigation for what, the third time on the death of J .F. Kennedy. That's the biggest moonshine you ever heard of in your life. After all, the Warren Commission and LBJ had a stack of evidence this height and this width and they put steel bands on it that way and this way and they sealed it with a government seal, LBJ did, and said it must not be opened till the year 2030.

It's up there in Washington. Why don't they open it? We don't need six million dollars. We know who killed Kennedy. We know who was in the conspiracy. But by the year 2030, there'll be nobody living to blame.

So we're going to open it then. Well, if one president could say, lock it up, this president should say, open it up, I think. Oh, but let's get back to the scripture. Anyhow, the voice of the Son of God.

That silly world outside thinks it's finished with Jesus Christ. It hasn't even started yet. Jesus stood there and cried, Lazarus come forth, and he came forth. As I say, bound hand and clothes, like most of us.

He's alive, but he's gagged and his feet are bound and his hands and he shuffles around like this and Jesus says, loosen! We've got about 95 percent of our church members who've been raised from the dead and they're still gagged.

Except when you hurt the feelings, but apart from that, uh, they're still bound hand and foot. The first countdown, listen, let me tell you something, this electrifies me. It may not you, keep your seat, but this really excites me.

What does it say? That you and I again are begotten unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Okay, here's the first countdown. What we call Easter Sunday morning. And Satan says, uh, I'm not feeling very comfortable.

Uh, that man Jesus that they put to death, uh, his disciples have forgotten it, you know, but I, I know that he was the truth and he said he dries from the dead and, you know, we've, we don't have much time left.

Go check. A demon goes along and he says, your majesty, he's as cold as the stone he's lying on. He's dead. And he goes a little later and Satan says, you know, we, we've only got about 20 seconds, would you check on him?

And he says, he's dead. I don't feel comfortable. And one demon says, your majesty, why don't we roll the sin of the world against that tombstone? You see, they put the stone there and the wax and the seal and the soldiers.

They were trying to make it airtight. There's a big, massive stone. Nobody could move. And around the stone, they put wax and then on the wax, they put the Roman seal and then they put soldiers. So you've got the stone and the wax and the seal and the soldiers.

And then they roll the sin of the world against the stone. And, uh, Satan says, I, I feel a bit more comfortable, not too comfortable. And one said, your majesty, supposing you rally every demon in hell to put his shoulder against that stone.

Oh, that's great. That's a good idea. I'll promote you after this, but all right, we've got the stone and the wax and the seal and the soldiers and all the sin of the world. And he says, now hold it just 10 more seconds.

And if we can hold him there 10 more seconds, we can damn the human race. And so you've got the stone and the wax and the seal and the soldiers and the sin of the world and every demon holding it there.

And Satan says, we'll hold it tight now tonight, 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two. And he's just going to say one and the Holy ghost beat him to it. It must have done because it says in Romans chapter, what does it say in Romans chapter eight, the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead.

You know, there's nothing in the constitution of the Southern Baptist church that says you can't sing in the middle of a service. So let's sing. There's only one name we can sing. It's 118. Everybody stand and let's sing it.

118. And let's have just the ladies sing the first stanza and then this beautiful organ, pull every stop you have out and split the roof. It isn't mine. And, and, and really sing the chorus. Now, come on, listen, let me say this.

If Jesus isn't risen from the dead, we're sunk. If he is, we can be more than conquerors. The apostle Paul makes it clear. He builds 14 pyramid, a pyramid of 14 epistles, if you give him Hebrews. But remember this after he's recited all those persons that saw Jesus rise from the dead.

He says, last of all, he appeared to me also. He doesn't leave the redemptive work of Christ on the, on the, on the big basis of the cross. He turns it all over and balances that pyramid on one thing.

He says, if he's not risen, you're yet in your sins, but he is risen. So ladies sing the first stanza quietly and you men, you can sing or holler or do what you like when it comes to the chorus. That's what I want you to do.

I want you to tell Jesus tonight you're rejoicing because he is risen from the dead. Sing it quietly ladies. Sing it now. If he wasn't resurrected, we're sure not going to be resurrected. That's very clear.

But if he is risen and he is, then again, praise the Lord, we're going to rise also. All right, we have a lively hope, the end of verse three says, a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ to an inheritance.

Incorruptible. Three things about this inheritance. It's incorruptible, it's undefiled, it fadeth not away. Now that's very gorgeous. I've never had an inheritance, have you? All over the year. I've been preaching about 56 years and I don't know how many people said, you know, when I die you're going to get a lot.

You know, there must be some people in England about 150 or 60 years old. I'm not going to dine from anybody. I've never had an inheritance, but I've got one coming. And there are three things about my inheritance.

It's incorruptible, undefiled and fadeth not away. Incorruptible, it's beyond the reach of death. Undefiled, it's beyond the reach of sin and it fadeth not away, it's beyond the reach of time. Well that's good, but the next part is better.

It's reserved in heaven for me. And the good book says no thieves can break through and steal there. They'll steal anything you've got here. Man alive, if your nose wasn't on your face, they'd have stolen that by now.

They'd have nothing to hang your glasses on. But that's, it's getting worse and worse. But I have, through Jesus Christ, an inheritance. Now you look as though you've got a death sentence, but I've got an inheritance.

And it's incorruptible and it's undefiled and it's fadeth not away. Reserved in heaven. 1952, when the Queen was crowned in England, I came into Chicago. Those were the old days. I even came in on a train.

And a famous artist met me there and he took me to dinner at their lovely home. And when we got there, his wife said, Mr. Raven, we've had an exciting day. We've been to Westminster Abbey three times.

I said, where? In England. Today? Yes. How? Well, TV. The Queen was crowned. Oh, it was black and white then. It still looked good. But she said it was, if you'd been in England, would you have been at the coronation?

I said, no, I don't think so. She said, why not? Well, I said, maybe because my name is Raven Hill and not Churchill. That could be one thing. But what if you'd gone to the coronation? Well, a big guard at the door would say, who are you?

And I say, Leonard Ravenhill. Are you on the social register? Are you a duke or a lord or something? I say, no, I'm a prince. And he says, you're a what? Well, I say, I'm royalty. You're what? Well, I've got a certificate here that says Peter says I'm a royal priesthood and a holy nation, so I should get into the coronation.

But he says, no, you're not on the register. You can't come in. Come here a minute. And I look in Westminster Abbey. It seats 3 ,000 people. There are 300 chairs down the aisle. And in the aisle, in the chairs in the aisle, there's a tag on every one.

Now, when we were living in Ireland, we lived across a field from a very lovely castle in which Lord Belmore lived. I went into his castle one day. And he has a lovely library, about the size of the library I would like.

And there were two great big chairs, and I noticed the tag. On one tag it said Lord Belmore, and on the other, Lady Belmore. These were the chairs they bought after the coronation. If you were sitting on a chair in the aisle, you could buy that chair and take it home.

And so they brought the chair home, and they show it off proudly and say, this is where we sat when we saw the Queen being crowned. Now, the guard says, if you got in there, sir, you couldn't sit down.

Your name is not on a seat. There's no place reserved for you. And I say, well, thank you. Good day. And he says, aren't you discouraged? Don't you feel unhappy? I say, no. You mean to say you're not bothered that you're missing the coronation?

No. Why not? Well, sir, it's like this. I'm going to a coronation soon that will make this one look like the dishes in the kitchen sink. And you know what? I've got a seat reserved. That's what it says right here.

There's a place reserved in heaven for you. Why, you never ought to feel sad as long as you live after this. A place reserved in heaven for you. Now, one reason you wouldn't move this week, you said, listen, I know myself too well.

I've made decisions and never kept them. And some people have made a move up and Satan's already opposing. Well, that's good. A lady said to me one day, I, I, I've just trusted God after 40 years or 30 years being a Baptist and I really got filled with the Spirit.

But, oh, for the last month it's been the worst month I ever lived. What, what do you think? I said, I think you've got the real thing. I guess we were, it was so, but I don't know that Jesus was ever tempted until he was anointed with the Spirit.

And then he was led of the Spirit, not of the devil, into the wilderness. People today want a painless Pentecost. After they were filled with the upper room, they were persecuted. They went to prison.

I think a lot of preachers should be in prison, but there's, these were there for a very good cause. I mean, they were there for preaching the Word. Immediately you're filled with the Spirit. It doesn't matter what area you yield in your life, the devil will fight like the devil he is to get back the ground he lost in your life.

So you can expect a conflict. But there's a place in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God. Isn't that great? If you want to know how big that God is, read the 40th chapter of Isaiah, it'll do you good.

Well, you say, that's one reason because, you see, if you could live in an atmosphere like this, when you praise and worship and shout, but I live in a lousy office, I hear dirty talk, I hear this, I hear that, I hear the other.