The First Step in Getting — Jack Hyles

To Jack Hiles, and Bill Harvey said his willingness to be repetitious concerning the obvious. His willingness to be repetitious concerning the obvious. Young preachers, I only have twenty subjects on which I preach here at First Baptist Church.

Only twenty. I'll use different scriptures and different thoughts and different stories. But I only have twenty subjects, and the longer you stay here, the more you'll find that what I preach is wrapped up in a few basics and not something complicated.

Repetition of Basic Christian Duties

The average Christian needs to have it repeated over and over again that he ought to pray. The average Christian needs to hear soul winning stressed again and again and again. Stewardship, unselfishness, these and sixteen or seventeen other subjects engulf all of my preaching here at First Baptist Church.

The obvious, the obvious, and tonight I want to talk to you about the first step in getting things from God. Many of our folks have seen me preach this sermon. I'm going to do it again tonight for those of you who've never seen it.

I'm going to show you, without saying one word, in two little steps, I'm going to show you the great secret to the Christian life. Now I've done this here before and I'll do it many times again. I'm going to show you how to be a good Christian without saying one word.

Now you watch carefully. And I'm going to show you what it really is to be a good Christian. Now you watch. That's it. That's it. When you learn how to get things from God and you learn to give them away when you get them, you're a good Christian.

Receiving From God in Order to Give

That's what it's all about. Isn't that simple? Isn't that simple? Think all you learn just for a dollar tonight. I mean, that's the secret. Now listen to me. I want to give. God knows that's true. I want to give.

But I can't give till I learn to get. And so if I can give, if I'm able to give, I must learn to get. And so if I am to give you what I want to give to you and if I am to serve others as I want to serve them, if I am to give to others and satisfy their needs, I must learn how to get from God.

Now listen, as I've said so often, here's your trouble. Here's the way you do it. You type what? No, that's not the purpose of the Christian life. The purpose of the Christian life is in losing your own self in order to help somebody else.

Now, if you can learn to give, but a lot of folks learn to give, you learn to be unselfish and what you have you share, but you never learn to get anything. Good night. How can you give a lot if you don't get a lot?

And so tonight I want to give you, talk to you about how to get. Young preachers and students, when I went to college back in 1884, when I went to college, I didn't, I was not a great student. I worked hard.

I made B's and occasionally an A and occasionally a C, but I was basically a B minus kind of a student. I mean, I had to work to do that. My IQ is only 185 and I had a hard time. And so I, but I learned a couple of things.

And one thing I learned, I learned as a young preacher how to get things from God. Now that's the truth. And I've never had any great serious problem getting things from God. Now God has also taught me not to keep them.

And literally, literally millions of dollars have gone through these hands. I said, gone through these hands. I said, gone through, not stuck to these hands. I'm not, I guess I'm not worth any more than I was 25 years ago, but I have literally prayed down millions of dollars and other things.

And now how do you get it? How do you say, Hey, preacher, I've come to the right place tonight. I want to find out how to get things. First thing you do is you give them away when you get them. And then you've got room for more.

Don't you see? And so, but, but the first step to getting things from God is to get thirsty, to get thirsty. What am I saying? To want it, to want it. I will pour water on him who's what? Thirsty. I'll pour floods upon the dry ground.

Let him that is thirsty take to the water of life freely. And the thirsty can be satisfied. Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it, saith the Lord. Now I'm saying that if you're going to get things from God, you've got to get the place to where you won't get anything else in this world.

You want to get something from God. That's the way you get salvation. Isaiah 55 and verse one, very, very familiar passage concerning salvation. And the prophet said, Oh, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.

And he that hath no money, come ye buy and eat. Come, ye come, buy wine and milk without money, without price. How do you get salvation? The first thing you get, you thirst for salvation. Revelation 22, 17 says, if any man thirst, let him come.

Any man thirst, let him come. Listen to me. If you ever get thirsty to be saved, you're just about to get saved. The reason you don't want to get, the reason you don't get saved, you don't want to be saved.

You enjoy your sins too much. You will not come to God. If anybody gets thirsty for salvation, the Bible says you can be saved. And don't misunderstand me. There is a line across which you can go. There's a line by us unseen, a place I know not where that marks the destiny of man between eternity and despair.

There is a time when a person can cross a line after he's rejected Christ so long until he will never be able to be saved after he crosses that line. Genesis, young people, Genesis 6, 3 says, my spirit will not always strive with man.

Isaiah 53, 6 says, seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Romans chapter 1, three times says, God gave them up or God gave them over. I'm saying that if you continue to reject Christ, you unsaved people, you folks are not saved.

You keep saying no to Christ. You keep hearing the gospel and saying, no, I'm saying there'll come a day, no doubt there'll come a day when you will cross a line and you cannot be saved. I mean, the spirit of God won't strive anymore and you cannot be saved and you won't ever get thirsty.

Don't forget this, ladies and gentlemen, that nobody can be saved unless the spirit of God convicts, draws, and regenerates him. And when the Holy Spirit of God decides he's through with you, he'll tiptoe on and the heavenly dove will take his flight and you will not have a chance to be saved.

You will have crossed a line and you're going toward that line now. Oh, you say, well, I'm just young. I'll, I've got 40 years to live. If you do live 40 years, you may come to the line of crossing the deadline before you die.

And you're marching toward that deadline. And someday you'll cross over and you will never have a chance to be saved in this world or the world to come. Why? Because you've gone too far. But if you tonight have the slightest desire to be saved, if something, if your, if your breast heart beats in your breast a little faster, when I say you want to go to heaven, you want to escape the fires of hell.

Do you want to know that your sins are forgiven? If there's the lightest little increase of your pulse, if there's the slightest desire in your soul, that means you're a thirsty. That means you have a little thirst and you can be saved as long as you have thirst.

I will pour water on him who is thirsty. I'll pour floods upon the dry ground. A lady wrote me a letter. I was in, in, in Garland, Texas, preaching in a revival meeting at my own church on a Saturday night.

I preached on the unpardonable sin. The fact that there's a place of line that you can cross. And once you cross that line, you can never be saved. A lady came down to see me. She said, I had written you a letter.

I want to talk to you. I said, all right. She said, pastor, how's your, my favorite preacher. She said, I have my clock radio turned on you. You come on at six Oh five every morning on KSKY in Dallas.

I hear you every morning. I would miss you for the world. Your voice is the first voice that I hear every morning at six Oh five. I keep my clock radio turned. I'll wake up to your voice. But she said, I have crossed the line.

There was a day when I wanted to be saved. There was a day when I'd hear a preacher preach on hell and I'd be frightened. And I'd say, Oh my God, don't let me go to hell. There was a day when I would hear a preacher preach on heaven.

And he had talked about the glories of the city of God, a city which has foundations, whose builder and ruler is God with gates of pearl and streets of gold or no sickness or darkness or pain or suffering or sin or sorrow ever in her.

And I'd, I'd say, I want to go to heaven. I'd like to go to heaven, a preacher and preach on forgiveness of sin. And I'd say, Oh, what a wonderful thing it'd be to have my sins forgiven. But she said, pastor Hiles, I came to a place in my life where I said no for the last time.

And all of a sudden hell didn't bother me and heaven didn't entice me. Forgiveness didn't appeal to me. Oh, she said, I'd like to hear you preach. You're my favorite preacher. But she said, pastor Hiles, I couldn't be saved if I wanted to.

There's no hunger. There's no thirst. And let me warn you, my precious friend, when you hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, a loving witness comes to tell you to be saved or a faithful gospel preacher warns you and begs you to come to Christ.

It's not a light thing for you to say no, for the day will come when you'll cross the line over which you cannot return. And you will want to be, if you want to be saved, you couldn't, but the hunger is gone.

The thirst is gone. The conviction is gone. The desire is gone. And though you still live and breathe, you couldn't be saved if you wanted to. So tonight, if you're thirsty, I mean, if there's a slight little touch in your heart that says, I'd like to be saved, while that little spirit of thirst is still there, you respond to the call of God and receive the Savior before you cross the line.

Oh, everyone that thirsteth, let him come and take. He that is a thirst, let him take of the water of life freely. But let's hasten on to the main part of the sermon tonight. There's a second thirsting, and that's thirsting for the power of God.

Thirsting for the Power of God

That's what the Bible is talking about when it mentions in Isaiah 44, 3, I will pour water on him who is thirsty. I'll pour floods upon the dry ground. Then over in John chapter 7, I read in the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying, if any man thirst, notice, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.

He that believeth on me as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. You notice that? What does a river do? A river takes in and a river gives out. If any man come, out of his belly shall flow what?

A river. Not a lake. A river. What does it mean? It means the kind of Christian that has the Spirit of God is always receiving and always giving. Did you ever want to move some furniture or a bunch of chairs or some sandbags to build a dam for a flood that's coming or something and you form the line like that?

He gives it to him and he gives it to him and brings it back here. He gives it like that and like that and like that. That's exactly what the Bible is saying. He that believeth on me and has the Spirit of God, out of his belly shall flow the kind of Spirit that receives and gives, receives, gives, receives, gives.

Now it goes on to say, this spake he of the Spirit, of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive for the Holy Ghost was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified. What's the Spirit called here?

Water. And what are we to do? The thirst after the power of God. Listen to me. People oftentimes ask this question and I don't say it because I feel like I'm a big shot. I'm not a big shot and I know more than anybody else knows that I in no way am a big shot.

But people oftentimes, well that's one reason why folks want to know what makes me tick. You know you can hear Lee Robertson preach and know why he's a big preacher. You can hear John Rice preach and know he's smart enough to be a big preacher.

You hear me and you wonder what in the world makes a guy like me tick. And so folks often ask, what's the secret that Jack has? I don't know what it is. As a young preacher I got thirsty. I got thirsty.

I got so thirsty for the power of God I thought I'd die. And I was thirsting. I wanted God in my ministry. I wanted the power of God upon my preaching. I wanted the Spirit of God to move when I preached and men to tremble when I preached on hell.

And men to come to God when I preached on salvation. And men to get right with God when I preached on sin. I hungered and thirsted for God to work when I preached. And I can recall as a kid preacher I went to the library of the East Texas Baptist College.

And I got all the books of the lives of great men that I could get. I can recall getting a book out of the library, a book by Savonarola, or about Savonarola, the great man who I think was ever bit as great as Martin Luther.

And had he been born a few years different I think he would have been the great leader of the Reformation. But I read about Savonarola, the great preacher of the 16th century. And I read how Savonarola one day went in his pulpit to preach and he wouldn't preach.

He refused to get up and preach. And somebody said, Pastor why don't you preach? And Savonarola said, I'm not going to preach until the power of God comes on me. I'm not going to do it until the power of God comes on me.

And he sat there for one hour and two hours while the people waited anxiously in the audience. He sat there for the third hour and the fourth hour. And after five hours his biographer said that the spirit of God came on him.

And with power and conviction the man of God stood to speak. Maybe not as eloquent as somebody else, but power was there. And I read about Savonarola in my little heart, 21 years old of age and 22 years of age, just a kid preacher.

My soul began to thirst Dr. Billings for something like Savonarola had. I'd go to my little pulpit and I knew nothing was happening much. And I got thirsty. Oh, I wanted the power of Savonarola. I wanted what he had.

I went back to the library and I read biographies. I think every young preacher ought to read the biography of every great man. Every great man he can get his hands on. And I read the biography of John Wesley.

And in the biography of Wesley, I began to read about one night. I think it was in March of 1838. It was Wesley and 60 other preachers went to pray together and they prayed all night. And Wesley said that after we had prayed till three o 'clock in the morning, he said at three o 'clock in the morning, something happened to me.

I didn't know who it was, but he said I was never the same after that. I believe I was filled for the first time with the Holy Spirit of God. And oh, as a young preacher, my heart began to get thirsty.

And I said, whatever Wesley had, I want that. I want that. I want it. And I read the life of Moody. And Moody told his biography how that he was in New York City on Wall Street, walking down to that concrete jungle, that little tunnel of a street, that little narrow street there where the finances of our nation are determined.

And he was raising some money for revival meetings. And all of a sudden, two little ladies in his church were praying for him. And they'd come by and say, Mr. Moody, we're praying that you'll get something you don't have now.

He said, I don't need anything else. I've got all I need. And they said, you'll know later. And he said that day in New York City, oh, the power of God came on him. And he had to look up to God as God struck him on his face and said, oh God, withhold your power so I can get a loan.

He went to a friend's home and borrowed his bedroom. And there lay before God till the power of God came on him. And oh, I read about that as a kid preacher. And I began to thirst. And I said, that's what I want.

I want it. I don't care if I get happy. I don't care if it makes me feel good. I don't care if I talk in tongues or not. I don't care if electricity coming out my spine and holler, hey, or not. I don't care about that.

I just want men to be convicted while I preach. And I want the power of God on my ministry. And I began to thirst. And I found myself, Dr. Billings, walking in the woods of East Texas out of the pine trees.

I'd walk at night. And I'd say, dear God, do you have it for Jack Hiles? I'm just a country East Texas preacher. But you gave Moody something. And you gave Wesley something. And you gave Savonarola something.

And I began to thirst and hunger and thirst for what they had. And I read the lives of the great men. George Whitefield said he was filled with the Spirit of God the night he was ordained to preach. And Christmas Evans said he was filled with the Spirit of God riding on his horse one day.

And he had to get off his horse and fall on his face. And God gave him the power of the Holy Spirit. And oh, I began to say, I want it. I want it. And somebody gave me a record or a tape, or let me hear it, of Uncle Bud Robinson.

He was in Azurine. And Uncle Bud Robinson was talking about on that tape how he was filled with the Holy Spirit. And he had a southern brawl. And he was a great old preacher. And he said something like this.

He said, I was in Atlanta, Georgia. And I was down in the city of Atlanta in a hospital. And to some of you folks, this sounds like real good talking, you folks down in Alabama and in Kentucky. And I was in the hospital in Atlanta, Georgia and said the Holy Father walked in the hospital to visit.

And the Holy Father came to me. And the fellow on this side of me, the Holy Father said, hey, you got any sins you want to confess to me? Oh, he said, you never heard such sins. The Holy Father doesn't confess to that.

And he confessed to the Holy Father. Oh, the Holy Father could confess some to him too, by the way. And he said, the Holy Father went over to the fellow on the other side of me and said, any sins you want to confess to me?

Oh, the sins that man doesn't confess to the Holy Father. And then the Holy Father came to me and said, Mr. Robinson, any sins you want to confess to me? And I said, I'd like to confess one thing to you, Holy Father.

And the Holy Father said, go ahead and confess. And I said, I want to confess it right in your ear. And so he put his ear down close to my mouth. I said, the Holy Father, I want your ear right on my mouth so I can confess it to you real good.

And the Holy Father said, okay, confess away. And he put his ear on my mouth and I opened my mouth and said, glory to God, I'm saved and sanctified. I said, last time I saw the Holy Father, he's running down the hall of a hospital.

And I began to read about that old saint of God, Uncle Bud Robinson. He didn't use very good English, but he knew God. He walked with God. And I'd read about Uncle Bud Robinson and I began to thirst and I'd say, I want what he had.

And I read that the life of Billy Bray, the old carnage coal miner. Oh, if there's anybody I admire, it's Billy Bray. He wasn't an ordained preacher, but the Holy Ghost came on him. What a powerful man of God he was.

It is said that Billy Bray shouted everywhere he went. And somebody said, Billy, you shouldn't shout all the time. Keep your mouth shut. He said, if I shut my mouth, my feet would shout. Every time my right foot hits the ground, it says, amen.

When my left foot hits the ground, it says, glory to God. And somebody said, Billy, said, if you die, somebody said, Billy, you're about to die. You're going to die soon. He said, glory to God. I'll be in heaven with Jesus.

And somebody said, what if you don't go to heaven? He said, I'll just shout all the way to hell. I'm saved and full of the Holy Spirit. And I'll just shout, and I'll get down to hell, and I'll just praise the Lord.

I'll say, praise the Lord. I'm in hell, but I'm still born again. I'm still saved, and look at all the prospects I've got to work on. And the devil will come up to me and say, you can't shout like that down here.

And I'll say, well, if it's okay with you, I'll just soon get transferred anyhow. And I'll just shout all the way to heaven. Glory to God. I read about Billy Bray and the power of God that came on that man.

And I said, dear God, do you have that for Middle East Texas country preachers? Like you had for Billy Bray, the Cornish coal miner? And like you had for Uncle Bud Robinson? And like you had for Moody and Wesley and Sunday and Finney and Cartwright and Savonarola and Martin Luther and John Calvin?

Do you have the same thing you gave to Moody and Billy Sunday? Billy Sunday, Ma Sunday said that every sermon Billy preached, his Bible is open to Isaiah 61 .1, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel.

Doesn't matter what the sermon was, his Bible is always open to Isaiah 61 .1. And I can recall, Dr. Billings, I'd walk and I'd say, God, I'm thirsty. Oh, I'm so thirsty. I want that power. And I can recall we had a lady in our church named Mrs. Jim Ford.

And Mrs. Ford used to love to pray. She's a Nazarene lady, by the way. She got, she joined our church because I was more, I happened to have more Nazarene blood than her Nazarene pastor had. And so she joined our church and she used to pray all night.

And she used to shout and get happy. And I can recall on Saturday night walking up and down the little pine thicket trails of East Texas. And I'd say, dear God, I'm so thirsty. I want what Moody got. I want what Billy Sunday had.

I want what Savonarola had. I want what John Wesley had. I want what these men of God had. And one blessed day, I think I got it. You know why? Because I was thirsty. I was thirsty. I will pour water on him who is thirsty.

Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness and Success

Again and again, the scripture says it. For example, listen, as a heart panteth after the water roof, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

Listen to this. O God, thou art my God. Early will I seek thee. My soul thirsteth for thee. My flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is. Listen to this. I stretch forth my hands under thee.

My soul thirsteth after thee as a thirsty land, see law. Again and again, the psalmist said, my soul thirsteth. I'm thirsty. Listen, the power of God is available for those who thirst for the power of God.

Oh yes, I'd like to have a big church. I'd like to someday have a church that has 6 ,000 in Sunday school. You missed the whole idea. The idea is not to have 6 ,000 in Sunday school. The idea is to get the power of God on your life.

The idea is to get the dear Lord working on your life. So when you preach, something will happen time and time again, time and time again. I've seen folks walk in those doors back there with a smirk on their face and sit down in the service.

And I've seen them. I've seen them. And by the way, don't you smirk tonight while I preach or I'll take you right outside. You may think it's funny, but what you need is a good old fashioned dose of the Holy Ghost.

You little smart aleck pipsqueak folks who think you know more than God does. God's not going to kill you for smirking at a man of God while he's preaching. You keep on. I may pray for him to do it and we'll find out whether God will do it or not.

Very idea of anybody coming for a man of God preaching the Bible and smirking like a heathen or like an infidel. What kind of heathenism is that? Somebody ought to take you out and give you a good old fashioned thrashing behind a smokehouse.

You see me after service, I may do it. Man alive. Whoever heard, sometimes some students come here and they think they're smarter than the old fashioned baptism of Holy Ghost power in our country. Some young preachers that go to our schools that have the breath of God upon them that will transform the lives of men.

The Holy Ghost of God will use them to call this nation back to God. Power of God comes because people thirst for the power of God. And I've seen it again and again. Somebody come in back in the back and they smirk a little bit and they don't want them.

They don't want what we have. And they come to sort of, you know, slum it, you know, they'll come out, see the old fundamentalist, and slum it a little bit. You know why you come? You come because your kind can't get a crowd.

You want to see a lot of folks come to church. And your kind can't get a crowd unless you've got a soup and soap supper for them. You can't get a crowd. And so you come to hear a man of God preach. And I've seen them as they come.

And as they all of a sudden, as the song service goes on, as the man of God begins to preach, I've seen him here in this building again and again, all of a sudden, begin to get sober, look on, looks on their faces, and the breath of God begins to breathe.

And all of a sudden, there's the breath of heaven and conviction. And they come down the aisle and say, I want to get born again. I want to get born again. I'll pour water on him who is thirsty. But there's a third thing that thirsting brings, and that is just plain old success.

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. How do you get filled? Hunger and thirst. How do you get filled? Hunger and thirst. How do you get filled with righteousness?

The word righteousness here means the revealed will of God. Young people, how do you find the revealed will of God? Your thirst for it. Oh, only to be what he wants me to be. Every moment of every day.

Yielded completely to Jesus alone. Every step of this pilgrim way. Just a bit play in the Father Potter's hands. Ready to do what his word commands. Only to be what he wants me to be. Every moment of every day.

Oh, my Christian friend, if you want to do something for God, if you want God to bless you first after it, make it the biggest thing in your life. Let me give you an example. I was down in Indianapolis, Indiana.

There's a wonderful young preacher there. I say young, he was young when I was younger. Greg Dixon, what a tremendous man of God he is and what a faithful servant of God. And Greg went down to Indianapolis and took a church.

Oh, how long? 16, 17 years ago, I guess. And it had about 120 people in Sunday school. And now the church is running 3 ,000 and over and having hundreds of people saved, thousands saved every year. And one day I was talking to Dr. Dixon and I said, Greg, he's younger than I, and I called him by his first name.

And I said, Greg, you've done a wonderful work here. God has used you mightily. Greg, what do you think the secret is? And Greg's lips began to tremble. And he said, Dr. Hiles, when I came here to Indianapolis and went out and saw that little building and I saw that 120 people, he said, I wanted to build a big work for God here more than anything in all the world.

That's what I wanted. He said, I wanted to get people saved in Indianapolis and build a great soul winning church. He said, it's been my passion. It's been my desire. It's been my goal. I've hungered.

I've thirsted. And that's why he has a great church in Indianapolis that's making all the theologues down there that said it couldn't be done. Watch somebody do it because they're thirsting after it. Oh, thirsting.

I was in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Young folks, you listen to this. I was in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. By the way, I'll be there, God willing, tomorrow night. But I was preaching at the large Salem church there, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

And suddenly while I was preaching, I looked over on the right and two handsome, very handsome young men came in. The kind of young men that anybody would notice. The kind that Dr. Billings and I are, you know, handsome young men.

And though he is older than I, but I, they came in and immediately I noticed them. And they were sharp. They were dressed properly. They had good carriage. It was obvious that they were somebody. And they sat down.

And the minute they sat down, they got their pencils out or pens and they began to take notes on what I said. When I finished preaching, they came to the front and one of them said, Dr. Jack Hiles. I said, yes.

He said, I've always wanted to meet you. My name is Jerry Falwell. I'm pastor of a church up here in Lynchburg, Virginia, running about 1200 and Sunday school. And he said, I've come to pump your mind.

I want to know everything you can tell me. He said, this is my assistant pastor. I said, could we drive you to the airport? And we've had about 40 mile drive. He said, can we drive you to the airport?

And I said, yes, you can. And that young preacher, Jerry Falwell, he asked me, oh, he pumped me and pumped me and pumped me. And he said, Dr. Hiles, I want to know. He said, I want to build a great work.

He said, would you come to Lynchburg and spend a few days and help me organize my Sunday school? I flew to Lynchburg, Virginia. I met with Dr. Falwell, helped him organize his Sunday school and taught him about division of departments and how you had not one big class, but a lot of little classes.

And you organized it and have a superintendent and delegation of authority and so forth. And he pumped me. I'll tell you what, he woke me up in the morning, the phone ringing before my normal getting up time.

And that's rather early. And he is asking questions on the telephone and he wanted to eat breakfast with me. And I don't hardly ever eat my breakfast. And he wanted to ask me questions. And about the time I want to rest just a few minutes, he had rang again.

So I want to talk to you. He'd want to take me somewhere. He had asked me question after question after question. He was so thirsty to build a great work for God. He didn't know what to do. And I was up in Ottawa, Canada, preaching up there for a national convention meeting.

And my telephone rang and I picked it up and said, hello. That's a pretty good thing to say when the phone rings. And I said, hello. And so I picked the telephone up and this is Jerry Falwell. He said, I'm in my car.

He has a radio telephone in his car. And he said, would you come to start a bus ministry? And Charles Hand and I flew out to Lynchburg and helped him start his bus ministry in Lynchburg and met with his people and priest on the bus ministry.

And he pumped us and pumped us. No wonder he has one of the biggest churches in the world. You know why? He was thirsty for it. No wonder he's got a work that's known around the world. Why? He's thirsty for it.

Oh, listen to me. If you want to build a great department, you can. If you will say, I've got to do it. I've got to build a big department. I've got to build a big Sunday school class. I've got to build a big bus route.

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Don't you recall that story? Our folks have heard me tell about it in the Bible about this fellow. One night he came to the, he was sitting in his house one night, Luke chapter 11, and all of a sudden somebody knocked on the door.

He went to the door. He said, well, hello there, Dr. Billings. By the way, it was Billingstein because it was a Jewish fellow. Dr. Billingstein, this is old Heilstein here, uh, Frank Yen. But anyway, uh, and, uh, and by the way, I, Hey, you hungry?