My Sorrows (Compilation) — Compilations

Lord, if you don't help me, I can't get through this. I can't. Lord, I'm too old for games. Foolishness. And I'm tired of rhetoric, meaningless rhetoric, that never changes things. Lord, just help me.

The Failure of Revival Rhetoric

Folks, I'm tired of hearing about revival. I'm tired of hearing about awakenings. As last day outpourings of the Holy Spirit, I've heard that rhetoric for 50 years. Just rhetoric. We've held on to our religious rhetoric and our revival talk, but we've become so passive.

Our so-called awakenings are stirrings, last but a short time. And when the short-lived revivings and awakenings come from the hand of God, they are so short-lived. And in those times, we promise God we'll never return to our passivity.

But it's not long. It's just weeks or months, and we're back. And this time, we slip further back into passivity than when we started. And we say, this time, oh God, you've touched me for life. I'll never be the same.

And it's like fireworks. A loud bang and a lot of noise, and then it dies. Tell me now, how many churches have you visited recently? How many churches do you know, where when you walk in, the Holy Ghost is so strong that every one of your sins are brought up before your face?

Entertainment, Correction, and the Church

And I see more of the world coming into the church and impacting the church, rather than the church impacting the world. I see the music taking over the house of God. I see entertainment taking over the house of God.

An obsession with entertainment in God's house. A hatred of correction and a hatred of reproof. Nobody wants to hear it anymore. Away with all of our how-to conferences, because they accomplish nothing.

How to build a bigger church, how to reach the lost, how to improve your people skills, and how to impact the world in this computer time. And I look at the whole religious scene today, and all I see are the inventions and ministries of man and flesh.

Hunger for Jesus Above Human Inventions

We want you, Jesus, more than we want anything. We want you, Jesus, more than anything else. You're everything we desire, Lord. We only want you, Jesus. Hear our hearts breaking tonight, oh Lord, we're hungry for you.

Jesus, we're all hungry for you.

Conviction and Brokenness Among the Young

When is the last time you've been to church where you've seen young people under such conviction because the people of God have been on their face? And there's such a concern and there's such an agony that young people are falling on their faces and calling on God because a spirit of conviction is called down from heaven upon them.

The Coming Lord and the Hope of the Righteous

The Lord our God is not seen. And surely he will revenge and avenge every bruise, every drop of blood. The blood of the martyrs cry out to the Lord our God. And surely he will come, surely he will come, surely he will come to pour his glory.

The righteous will tremble in his sight, but the righteous will shine like the sun. Everlasting joy will be upon their heads. Oh, they'll be singing and dancing. And joy and darkness will be gone when the Lord comes.

When the Lord comes, when the Lord comes. There will be feasting and laughter in the house of the Father. When the Lord comes back for his children with his reward in his hand.

Anguish as the Source of True Passion

Whatever happened to anguish in the house of God? Whatever happened to anguish in the ministry? It's a word you don't hear in this pampered age. You don't hear it. Anguish means extreme pain and distress.

The emotion so stirred that it becomes painful. Acute, deeply felt inner pain because of conditions about you. In you or around you. All true passion is born out of anguish. All true passion for Christ comes out of a baptism of anguish.

Prayerful Burden for a Ruined Church

You search the scripture and you'll find that when God determined to recover a ruined situation, he would seek out a praying man and he'd take him down into the waters of anguish. He would share his own anguish for what God saw happening to his church and to his people.

And he would find a praying man and he would take that man and literally baptize him in anguish. I was in anguish four blocks from here on Broadway. Weeping and crying and wailing. I wasn't looking for a ministry.

I wasn't looking to build a church. I was feeling God's pain for a lost city. And I've never had anything that's been any worth to God in my 50 years that wasn't born in agony. Never. It's all been flesh otherwise.

Agony Beyond Sermons and New Revelation

And I know that sermons won't do it. I know that a new revelation won't do it. I know now. Oh, my God, do I know it. Until I'm in agony. Until I have been anguished over it. I'm preaching sermons. Oh, God.

Ministries Born from Fasting, Mourning, and Prayer

And all our projects. All our ministries. Everything we do. It's all theirs. It's an idea. They didn't come to me from a broken heart. They didn't come to me after hours of fasting and praying and mourning.

Not a broken heart. It's an idea. I'm sick of it. A true prayer life begins at the place of anguish. You see, if you set your heart to pray, God's going to come and start sharing His heart with you. He's going to open up His heart.

And I'll tell you, there's pain in His heart. But He sings. And so few to hear. He's going to show you the condition of His church. And He's going to ask you a question. What is it to you? What is it?