A Hole in the Wall

Life for mine, that's the Gospel.

Amen.

Well, it's good to see you today.

Take your Bible and turn to the book of Ezekiel.

You find the middle of your Bible.

That'll be psalms.

And just keep going to your right a little bit and you'll come

to the book of Ezekiel.

Hope you brought your Bible today.

You know, the Bible has so many wonderful things, but one thing

that I think about often with the Bible is it's a compass.

So many people today, our whole nation, our world, has lost

its way because they've taken away the compass.

Nobody knows which way to go.

And so the word of God is truth.

Amen.

And the compass.

We don't need a new Bible or a new scripture or a new way of doing

things.

We just need to stick with the compass.

Let me ask you a question before getting the message today.

How many of you have ever had major surgery?

Now, if you're like me, all my surgeries are major and everybody

else's are minor.

I've heard people say, oh, he's having minor surgery.

No, if you ask him, he'll say, it's not minor and surgery.

I never met anybody that applauded and got excited about surgery.

But yet, in a real understanding, the Bible is like

a scalpel.

It's like a sword, and it cuts, and nobody likes to be cut.

But I was taught in seminary that any sermon that leaves us satisfied

with ourselves is a failure.

Okay?

And I think that's true.

We waste our time if we just come and go back home the same way

as we came in.

And so the preaching the Word of God will do the work of God, but

you have to receive the Word of God.

The Bible says, receive the Word of God with meekness and allow

the Word of God to touch your heart and to apply it to your life.

Because sometimes God can use one word or one phrase or something

that'll just pierce into your heart and somebody else.

It may be a different word or a different verse.

And so today, I want you to notice some very serious things,

but some very wonderful things.

And in light of the revival, we're praying and looking for revival.

God moves, and then it's our move.

And then if we move, he moves again.

And then when he moves again, it's our move again.

And it's moving.

You see, it's when God moves, it's our response.

God already wants revival.

We don't even have to pray that God would want to revive.

He wants it.

Wilt thou not be revived?

Okay?

The question is, will we Receive the word of God.

And so next week, it's not just meetings, a few meetings again,

like we have.

So many of us have been to those meetings.

It's a meeting with God.

Not meeting with Brother McCracken, meeting with God.

I've never met him.

We've talked on the phone.

In fact, we talked just a couple of days ago.

And I enjoyed talking with him.

And I said, we're really looking forward to it, and the church

needs revival and I need revival.

And so he's excited about coming.

And one of the great principles.

I'm a man of principles.

I like to take the Bible as principles.

Because a principle is a truth that never changes.

Never changes.

It's timeless.

The principles of God are timeless.

It doesn't change with the generations.

And a lot of people believe that it does change.

And today they call right wrong and wrong right.

And every man does that which is right in his own eyes.

Because they no longer want the Bible or need the Bible.

And you're in a very small minority.

If you take the Bible literally.

And let me remind you, you're going to be mocked.

If you haven't already.

You will be mocked, made fun of, and put down and called all kinds

of names because you are so uneducated and sometimes they would

say so stupid that you believe the Bible.

And yet the Bible stands like a rock, undaunted.

And everybody says they know what's wrong with the Bible, but

no one can seem to tell us what's wrong with the Bible.

And the Bible proves itself.

It doesn't have to be proven.

It proves itself.

The word of God always comes true.

But I like the principles of the Bible.

A truth that is timeless, it's boundless.

It doesn't just work in America.

It works in Honduras, or it works in Mexico, or it works in China,

or it works in Russia.

Truth, okay.

There's not one truth for one people or one nation.

A different truth for this one.

There's not a different truth for little kids and a mother.

More important, truth for adults.

There's one truth, and we know Jesus said, I am the truth, the way,

the truth and the life.

Well, they rejected Christ in his earthly ministry when he came

to live.

And the Bible makes it very clear.

He came unto his own and his own received him not, speaking of

the Jews.

And so when you reject Christ, you reject truth.

And when you reject truth, you're on your own.

It's all how you see things instead of how God sees them.

The truth.

The Bible is truth.

And the battle today is over truth.

Who and what to believe.

Brother Kelly did an excellent job this morning, and I sat in his

Sunday school class and talked about truth.

And it was wonderful.

Some have the truth, some have half truths.

And you've probably heard that before, that sometimes a half truth

can be more dangerous than a whole truth or a whole lie.

Excuse me.

Because a lot of people say, well, it's half true and half a lie.

But I don't know which one to believe if it's just an outright

lie.

Most of us can.

If we know enough about the Bible, we know that's not true.

And then some have no truth.

And that's why we have missions and missionaries to get

the truth around the world.

And you can tell.

Excuse me, where the truth is.

You can tell by people who believe.

The truth is how they live.

Truth affects how we live, if we believe it.

Okay, I'm sorry to say that a lot of people say with their mouth

they believe the Bible, but they don't all live the Bible.

We live parts of the Bible that we're comfortable with, but

there's others.

We kind of read around.

We kind of pick and choose and we say, well, I don't understand

that.

Well, most of the time is we understand it perfectly.

Okay?

That's the problem.

It's so clear.

But revival comes when people face the truth about themselves and

about their relationship with God.

Fellowship with God.

The Bible says, how can two walk together except they agree?

Right?

How can we walk with God if God and ourselves don't agree on

some things?

Are you in fellowship with God?

You see, your relationship, if you've been saved, you've been born

into the family of God, your relationship will never change.

You'll always be a child of God.

But that's not the question.

The question is, are you in fellowship with God?

Are you enjoying God's fellowship?

Are you enjoying his presence?

And is he enjoying you?

The Bible says we're created for his pleasure and God wants to

take pleasure in.

Now, here's what we wanna start getting into the message.

In Psalm, the Bible says, thou desirest truth.

You see, we have to be honest with God.

We have to be true.

We can't pretend.

We can't play church.

We can't play a game.

We have to say, lord, I'm willing.

You're right.

I wanna face the truth.

But here's what the Bible says.

Thou desirest truth in the inward parts.

That's speaking of the heart, the deepest corners of the heart.

That's why the psalmist also said, cleanse Thou me from secret

faults.

You see a lot of us, most all of us.

I think I could be safe to say everybody here has some secrets.

Am I right or am I right?

Yeah, we have secrets.

God knows.

But there's a lot about us that people don't know, and maybe

they don't need to know, but we need to come clean with God if

we're going to see a revival, which means a change in our life,

to get out of the rut, to get out of that mode of pretense and

to enjoy Christianity and say, instead of saying, I hope one day

we get to heaven where I can be happy, I think you could have

joy here, and Jesus said that.

But you can't have that joy if there's secret faults in your heart

and in mind, secret feelings you have towards someone, secret

anger you have towards someone, a secret you have that you

avoid certain people, you don't like them.

Mm.

We can't find true forgiveness.

We avoid certain people.

This is like open heart surgery.

I mean, come on.

You say, well, I don't want to.

Come on.

Okay.

You have that freedom to choose.

You can continue living the way you are, or you can say, lord,

it's time that I admit the truth, the whole truth, and nothing

but the truth.

The whole truth, the whole heart means it's undivided.

There are no secret rooms.

There's no locked doors.

There's no pretense.

Now, I want to speak to you this morning on this subject.

A little hole in the wall.

A little hole in the wall.

And we're gonna look at that in just a minute in Ezekiel, chapter

number eight, because you have an illustration there that'll really

amaze you because it is so right on.

When you think of a hole in the wall, I don't know what you would

picture.

Clayton came up with this.

I said, man, Clayton, that's absolutely perfect.

That's exactly what I wanted.

And he came up with that.

A little hole in the wall.

Have you ever found a place that you like to eat and you want

somebody to go there and try it, too?

And you say, it's just a little hole in the wall?

You're not gonna find it on the interstate.

You're not gonna find it unless you look for it on purpose.

It's just a little hole in the wall.

Am I right?

Yeah, we know what that means.

A little hole in the wall.

In other words, it's not easily noticed.

It's off the beaten path.

It's seemingly insignificant.

To find it, you have to be looking for it purpose.

Now that's why the psalmist said, search me, O God, and know

my heart and see if there be any wicked way in me.

Because a lot of times we're blind to our own faults.

Sometimes other people see us a little bit better than we see ourselves.

We like to think of ourselves highly, and maybe not perfect, but

we like to think of ourselves as, you know, we're not doing too

bad.

You remember when Achan, remember in the book of Joshua, they

were fighting a battle and Joshua said, we don't need a lot

of people for this battle.

This is an easy one.

And he just took a few soldiers and went up there.

You remember that story?

And the Bible says they were wiped out.

I mean, it was unbelievable.

And Joshua just rent his clothes and fell on his knees to

God and said, I can't believe it.

They were in shock.

And God said, well, I'll tell you what happened.

He said, there's a man.

He didn't give his name right at first, but he said, there's someone

who have broken the law.

And they have.

I told them not to take any spoil, not to take anything.

And he said, one of them did that and hid it.

Now, here's what I want you to get.

It says, God said this to Joshua, said someone has hid it among

their stuff.

Strange word for finding the Bible.

I used to ask my son, what are you doing, son?

He goes, just stuff.

He didn't want to tell me what he was doing.

He just says, stuff.

What do you got in your pocket?

Nothing.

What do you mean, nothing?

I see your hand, it's bulging out.

What is?

Oh, just some stuff.

And that's where we have to go if we're gonna see revival.

Let me tighten the screw a little more.

Would you be willing for God to go through your stuff?

We all have stuff.

My wife, bless her heart, it's hard for her to throw things away

now.

She's not a hoarder.

Every once in a while she says, I'm glad I got rid of this

junk.

But most of the time, if we have a little project to clean out

this or that or the other, and she'll sit there and look at it and

go, oh, I just.

I can't get rid of this.

This has meaning to me.

This has memories to me.

I said, well, give it to me.

I'll throw it away.

And you talk to her very long.

You know what she'll tell you?

She'll tell you it's all right for him to have his stuff, but my

stuff is Different.

Well, I want you to think about that word going through your

stuff.

It's hidden.

It's in a little hole in the wall.

Nobody sees it.

At least we think nobody sees it.

And Joshua had to go through Achan's stuff.

And the Bible says in chapter seven of Joshua that he found.

They got it all.

They went one by one, all the way down till they came to Achan.

And Achan said, yeah, I hid it in a hole inside my tent.

I dug a hole inside the tent and I put a wedge of gold and some

silver and a Babylonian garment.

He was really like this garment.

And he defied God, he disobeyed God and he said, yeah,

I hid it.

I saw it and I coveted and I took it and I hid it.

And because of that, people's lives were lost.

The army didn't win a victory because of hidden sin.

The Bible actually tells us.

And I think God put it there to sometimes try to get our attention.

Achan was stoned to death.

So was his wife and so was his children.

You say, well, that don't sound fair.

Well, God's just.

He always does the right thing.

And there's a lot of times in the Bible where God puts things in

the Bible.

If man had written the Bible, they wouldn't have put it in there.

But God put it in there, all of it, the good, the bad and the

ugly.

And he put things in there to warn us.

Don't take my word lightly.

I'm not a God of just generalities.

I'm a God of details.

Now let me set your mind at ease.

Nobody's perfect.

There's none righteous.

No, not one.

All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

And that's why Jesus paid with his life, his blood to wash away

all of our sin.

And we're not going to have to pay for our sin.

It's all been paid for.

Even the sins you haven't committed yet.

That's right.

Your sins, you say.

Well, what do you mean?

Before you was even born, Christ died for your sins.

He knew you was going to be born and he knew all about your sins.

Can God go through your stuff?

That's where revival starts.

And I've been convinced after all these years, I'm convinced.

We don't want to go that far.

We want to go far, but not all the way.

We don't want to face what's been covered up and forgotten.

And I'm not saying we have to dig up all of our bad things we've

done in our life.

I'm just talking about when the Holy Spirit touches you and it's

tender and it's a little painful.

That's a good thing.

That means God loves you and he cares about you and he knows there

are things that you have hidden.

That's robbing you.

It's keeping you from enjoying the fullness of your Christian life.

So many churches are hindered because people come to sing oh, how

I love Jesus with sin, hidden sin in their.

This isn't gonna go over very good.

But I'm just telling, listen, we gotta be truthful because the

truth shall set you free.

You can't get any more positive than that.

People say, well, I don't wanna come to get negative.

No, the truth will set you free.

Otherwise you're gonna be tangled up and you're gonna go a

little ways.

You're gonna enjoy a few things.

But you're not going to have the victorious life that God so desperately

wants you to have.

You say, why don't he just make me do it?

Because God gave you a choice.

That's why.

You're not artificial intelligence, okay?

You're not pre programmed.

God could make you hit a button in us and make us all say,

I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.

That's ridiculous.

It's facetious.

It's silly.

God says, I'm going to give man a choice.

And I want him to choose to love me and to follow me and to be

honest with me.

Because that's where revival starts.

But most people would rather live without revival and just keep

going like they are.

It's not too bad.

It's not great, but could be worse.

We convince ourselves of that.

Listen to me.

We convince ourselves nobody's perfect.

So, okay, I got a few hangups and I got a few sins.

So does everybody else.

Let's just go.

Let's just have a good time at the revival.

Let's enjoy Brother McCracken.

Let's maybe talk about a few things that we could improve on.

But we're not going there.

We're not going there.

Now, you wouldn't say that.

In fact, right now you're probably not even thinking that.

Oh, no, I want to know the truth.

But the fact of the matter is we don't want to unlock all the doors.

Did you know, I believe God wants us to have a little heaven

on earth.

We're going to go to a little heaven.

There's going to always be sin here until God gets through with

everything.

But I think God wanted Us to have a little bit of a taste of heaven

on earth.

Do you have that?

Do you have it in your home?

Do your kids feel like, hey, this is almost like heaven?

I'm just asking.

Wasted years.

Revival means change now in the book of Ezekiel.

And fasten your seatbelt because it couldn't be any more vivid

and more clear than in Ezekiel, chapter eight.

Now, you may be here, Let me say this, you may be here.

And you don't need revival.

You need regeneration.

You need to be saved.

It's about tear you up because you're trying to live like a Christian,

but you're not a Christian, and nobody knows that but you.

And you keep trying to dismiss it.

You don't want to talk about it.

And there's no way I'm going to go through all that again.

And so isn't that a shocking truth?

And you talk about a sad thing.

To think that people would go to church, open a Bible, fill out

an offering card, and enjoy a Sunday school class and then die

and go to hell.

Because they never were really saved.

They went along with the crowd, they followed the crowd, they

got on the bus and they're pretty much.

It's okay that they're not really positively sure how they got

saved.

And I've told you this before, you may not remember the place or

the time or the people that were there, but you can't be saved

and not remember how you got saved.

I talked to a man just last week, said, oh, I've always been

saved.

I said, really?

Yeah, I was born saved.

I said, well, you ever read John chapter 3, where Jesus said,

John 3 · chapter mention

you must be born again?

I'm just throwing that out there because so many people are

so miserable because they're in the land of in between.

They got one foot in the world and one foot in the church, and they

want to be a good Christian, but they're not really sold out and

they're not really totally committed.

Salvation is a heart matter.

It's a heart matter.

And what you live in your heart, Do you have some stuff that

God wants you to throw away?

Maybe some bitterness or unforgiveness or anger?

Maybe an addiction of some kind, something you put before God?

Maybe in your thought life there's a stubbornness about something

you can't let go of a friend who hurt you, someone who lied to

you, someone who disappointed you, and you can't let go of it.

And so you stuff it with your other stuff.

And nobody knows but God.

Are you living two lives?

Are you starting to Realize that you don't have the power you

thought Christians should have.

You don't have peace.

You're living in fear.

You don't really have any joy.

You can laugh a little bit, but you don't have joy.

You've lost.

You don't have a burden for souls.

Oh, yeah, you want to send missionaries and you want to invite

people and you want everybody to go to heaven, but you don't have

a burden.

You've taken that burden and stuffed it.

You know, I heard this a long time ago.

There's five lives that we're all.

If we be honest, sometimes there are five different lives we

live.

There's the life, of course, that you know about you.

Nobody else knows everything about your life, but not even your

wife or your husband.

There's your life you the live you that you live with.

But then there's the life your family knows you by.

A lot of people are different in their home and family than they

are when they're by themselves alone, out on a business trip or

something.

You want to find out about mom and dad, you talk to the kids.

They're pretty honest.

And then there's the life that your church knows you by.

Sometimes that's a different life.

We live a little different at church.

In fact, when we get out of the car and walk toward the door,

we're already trying to get into the church mode.

And then there's the life your friends know you by.

But the most important is the life that God knows you by.

In Ezekiel, chapter number eight.

You didn't think I'd ever get there, did you?

Verse number one.

It came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the

fifth day of the month as I sat in mine house.

So Ezekiel is at home.

He's sitting in his house.

And the elders of Judah sat before me.

I don't know if this was a fellowship meeting.

I don't know what kind of what was going on, but things are getting

ready to happen.

And it says, when he was sitting there, look at verse one.

That the hand of the Lord fell there upon me.

Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire.

From the appearance of his loins, even downward fire, and from

his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the

color of amber.

Now watch this.

He put forth the form of an hand and took me by a lock of mine

head.

Isn't that something?

God has a sense of humor.

He picked him up by the hair of his head, snatched him up, and

the Spirit lifted Me up between the earth and the heaven

and brought me in the visions of God, to Jerusalem, to the door

of the inner gate that looketh toward the north.

Where was the seat?

The seat of the image of jealousy which provoketh to jealousy.

Now, what in the world does all that mean?

Well, the seat is the control center.

You've heard of the county seat, the place where the courthouse

is and all the things going around.

And the Bible says in our heart that the heart is the control

center of our life.

It's where we.

It's really intellect, emotion and will.

That's what your heart is made of.

Three things.

Intellect, knowledge, emotion, feeling and will.

Is the choice you have to make choices in your heart.

Does that make sense?

The will?

A lot of people have the intellect of the gospel.

They understand the gospel.

And a lot of people feel and have felt.

And you felt, when you got under the conviction, you felt that

you needed to be saved.

But a lot of people don't want to surrender their will, intellect.

Fine.

Yeah, I agree.

Check, check, check.

Jesus died, rose again, buried, coming back.

Check, check, check.

And they've had those times they felt the presence of God.

Oh yeah, I was there.

It really happened.

But the will that's in the heart, that's where you choose in

the will.

As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.

And the Bible tells us that God is a jealous God.

He doesn't want to share his love for you and your love for him

with anybody else.

And I don't think there's a married couple here today that say

that wouldn't bother me if my husband loves somebody besides me

or to share or whatever, or wife to a husband.

I mean, that's kind of ridiculous.

But God says, well, I love you too much to stand in line with the

world and wait for you to have some time for me.

God says, I bought you because I wanted to buy you and I love you

and I paid for it with a dear price.

In your mind, you belong to me.

Jealousy.

Think about that.

The touch of God now and behold, verse 4.

The glory of the God of Israel was there at the door according to

the visions that I saw in the plain.

Then said he unto me, son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way

toward the north.

So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north.

And behold, northward at the gate of the altar.

This image of jealousy in the entry.

An image.

It was a portrayal.

I'll show you in a moment of the imagination.

The hidden things.

They were living a double life.

And Here, as they got closer and closer, they're beginning to

see this.

And God is very jealous.

And he said furthermore unto me, son of man, seest thou what they

do, even the great abominations that the house of Israel

committeth here?

That I should go far off from my sanctuary.

Stop right there.

There is nothing more devastating and more fearful than

for God to say, I'm out of here.

Whether it be in your marriage or in your home or in your church

or in your country, where God says, I'm done.

Has God ever done that before?

Oh, yes, he has.

That I should go far over my sanctuary but turn thee yet again,

Ezekiel, you haven't seen anything yet.

And thou shalt see greater abominations.

You go, oh, man.

Abominations.

Come on, give me a break.

I make mistakes.

Yeah, that's part of our problem, ladies and gentlemen.

We minimize our sin.

We hate somebody.

And Jesus said, you're a murderer.

We lust after someone that's not our husband or wife.

And Jesus said, you've committed adultery.

Didn't get one.

Amen on that one.

But that's what Jesus said.

I didn't say that.

I'm just quoting Jesus.

Thou shalt see greater abominations.

Now watch this.

He brought me to the door of the court, and when I looked, behold,

here it is, a hole in the wall.

Then said he unto me, son of man, dig now in the wall.

And when I had digged in the wall, behold, a door.

So here's a wall.

He starts digging.

And then inside the wall that you couldn't see from the outside,

now he sees a door.

And he said unto me, go in.

Go in the door, and behold the wicked abominations that they do

here.

So I went in and I saw.

I went in and saw, and behold every form of creeping things and

abominable beasts and all the idols of the house of Israel portrayed

upon the wa.

Roundabout.

You go, well, at least that's not me.

No, but you could have some other things written on the inside

of the wall that nobody sees.

A little list, some secret things.

See, ladies and gentlemen, all the Bible may not be written to us,

but it's all written for us.

And when we read these things in the Old Testament, which are pictures

for the principles in the New Testament, where it says that God

looketh on the inward, man looketh on the outward, but God looketh

on the inward, and he desires truth in the inward parts.

And there will never be revival until we turn ourself inside

out, until we dig in the wall and see the door and open the door,

but we draw back, we go, please, I don't want to go there.

I'll admit I'm not perfect.

I've got some problems.

Let's go.

And that's exactly why we don't see some of the old revivals

that they used to have years ago, because we're so distracted

now and we've gotten so comfortable with our sin and our

attitudes and all the things that we do and we explain it away

and we say, well, it's not as bad as so and so and this and that.

We go on and on and never even stop.

It's amazing how we can justify.

Portrayed.

And there stood before them, verse 11, 70 men of the ancients

of the house of Israel, the old men.

And in the midst of them stood Jazaniah, the son of Shaphan, with

every man his censer in his hand.

And a thick cloud of incense went up.

So there's this room and they're worshiping another God.

And God said from the very beginning the ten commandments, Thou

shall have no other God before me.

And they outwardly would always say, thou art God, thou art

God, you're God beside thee.

There's none other.

But hidden in their heart, there was some things that they were

worshiping different gods.

Now, I don't think I have to tell you today that we have gods

today that are not statutes or pictures, but they're things that

have a great influence in our life and that take us away from God.

You see, it's not so much whether it's bad or good.

Does it draw us closer to God or does it make us further away from

God?

Nothing wrong with sports, but for some people, that's a God.

Nothing wrong with cars, but for some people, that's a God.

Nothing wrong with money.

Money's not evil.

The love of money is the root of all evil.

But God didn't say money's not bad.

But most people would do anything for a little bit more money.

And there's never enough.

And we could go on and on and on.

Then said he unto me, verse 12, Son of man, hast thou seen what

the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark?

Every man in the chambers of his imagery, that means the rooms

of his imagination, this little hole in the wall.

And you go in and there's a door.

And you open the door and you crawl through, and then you stand

up and you start looking around all these images.

For they say, the Lord seeth us not the Lord hath forsaken the

earth.

He said unto me, turn thee yet again.

Is there any end here?

Thou shalt see greater abominations that they do.

Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house,

which was toward the north.

And behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.

That's another God.

The women.

Then said he unto me, hast thou seen this, O Son of man?

Turn thee yet again.

Thou shalt see greater abominations than these.

And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house.

And behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch

and the altar, were about five and 20 men with their backs toward

the temple of the Lord.

They had turned around from God's house, and their faces are

toward the east, and they worshiped the sun.

And again, ladies and gentlemen, please receive the word

of God.

Nobody in here worships the sun.

So we go, whew.

Yeah, but there could there be some other things that we put before

God?

The truth shall set you free.

God's not wanting you to be miserable.

God's not wanting to make you do anything.

God wants to be number one in your life because you are number

one to God.

God doesn't do anything without realizing how it's going

to affect you, because you're his pride and joy bought with his

blood.

You belong to God if you're saved.

Then he said, hast thou seen this, O Son of man?

Look at verse 17.

Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the

abominations which they commit here?

They filled the land with violence and have returned to provoke

me to anger.

Now we're almost through.

But, I mean, I don't think anybody here can misunderstand this.

We can dismiss it, but we don't really have to.

We don't want to really have to go there.

We want to cover the hole back up and be a good Christian.

The hole in the wall.

Hmm.

Therefore, verse 18 will I also deal in fury.

Mine eyes shall not spare, neither will I have pity.

And though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will

I not hear them.

We go on through that chapter.

And God told Ezekiel to go through and put a mark to mark them.

Interesting, because we know about the mark of the beast.

And those that don't have the mark of the beast will not be able

to buy or sell during the tribulation period.

Seven years.

But look in chapter nine before we go.

In the Book of Ezekiel, chapter nine, Verse four.

And the Lord said unto him, go through the midst of the city, through

the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of

the men that what, sigh and that cry for all the abominations.

He said, I want you to mark those that are sighing and crying

for revival, those that are sick in their stomach of what they've

seen and what they realize, and they want revival more than anything

else.

Sighing and crying.

Would that describe you sighing?

When you think about revival, you go, will we ever have a real

revival?

Do you ever find yourself crying for revival?

Crying for the church, crying for God to do the unexplainable here

at Heritage, in spite of everything that's happened.

Are you at that point yet of crying and sighing for revival?

I'm just asking.

He said, set a mark.

He said he was going to slay those that didn't have the mark.

Wow.

The Bible says, a broken and contrite heart, O Lord, thou wilt

not despise a broken and a contrite heart.

Not concrete, contrite, broken.

Now, we're going to close with this, but I want you to help me out,

and I want you to listen carefully.

Hopefully this will put it in perspective of something that happened

thousands of years ago, but yet it's relevant today in 2026.

I want you to close your eyes right now, just like you're praying.

Just bow your head down and close your eyes.

Now, I want you to imagine an elevator.

We've all been in elevators.

They're very quiet.

They have buttons that you push up and down enter your mind.

Now you're getting into an elevator.

The door closes, and you feel the little bump, the little jerk

as the elevator begins to descend, not ascend.

It's going down.

You can feel it.

It's going down, down.

Now think about it.

Use your imagination.

It stops kind of abruptly and the door begins to open.

And you're beginning to realize you have just descended in

an elevator down inside your heart.

I know it's kind of strange, but just use your imagination.

The door opens and you're inside your heart, and it seems maybe

a little bit of a blast of cold air.

You thought your heart was warm, on fire for God, like it used

to be, but all of a sudden, it seems cold.

It's one of the first signs things are wrong when your heart

gets cold.

And then you lift up your head and you look and all you can see

is boxes and junk and stuff that you've accumulated over the

years and cobwebs.

You just.

You can't believe how much stuff is in your heart.

You don't even remember how it all got there.

Well, you put it there.

Everything that's down in your heart.

God didn't put it there.

The devil didn't put it there.

You put it there.

And you're planning to deal with it later, but later turns into

years.

You still go to church.

You still say your blessing before you eat dinner.

You manage to read some scripture now and then.

But there's so much stuff in here.

Are you with me?

You're still there in your imagination.

Now, let me ask you a startling question.

Where is Christ?

He said, he shall be in us.

He'll never leave us nor forsake us.

Where is He?

He's there because you can hear his voice.

Although it's very faint, you can tell that it's way in the back

of that heart.

It's back there behind a bunch of stuff.

And you can.

You can hear his voice.

It's not loud, but you can hear it.

And you start making your way toward that voice.

And you're having to move this and move that and move this and move

that, and trying to make a little path back there like they

did in this hole in the wall.

And you're seeing things you hadn't even thought about in a while,

things you've gotten used to.

That really is not good.

And you come to Christ, and he looks at you and says, what took

you so long?

I've been waiting.

And you can't even answer him.

You begin to break down and weep because it took you a while

to get there.

And you realize he's been covered up.

He won't leave.

He'll never leave you.

It'll feel like he's left you, but he won't ever leave you.

And now the Lord says, what do you want to do?

What do you want to do?

Do you want revival?

You want me to help you clean up this mess and get rid of a bunch

of stuff and put me back on the throne of your heart instead

of you and start over again.

That's another wonderful thing about revival, is you can start over.

You can start over fresh and clean.

New, clean, white sheet of paper.

But you've got to make that decision, ladies and gentlemen.

God is not gonna do it for you.

You have to decide.

Now, I know not everyone heard me this morning, but maybe some did.

And I want you to stand with your heads bowed and eyes closed.

If you would stand quietly.

We're gonna have a verse of invitation.

And you say, well, I Can't.

There's no way I can go up there now.

After that sermon.

Everybody will know I got problems.

Well, you do have a problem, if that's your problem.

And I'm asking you to consider drawing nigh to God.

And he'll draw nigh to you.

I'm asking you to come and pray and say, lord, search me and

try me and know me and see if there be any wicked way in me.

Send revival.

My family needs revival.

My children need revival.

My church needs revival.

I need revival.

On my job, I need revival.

When I'm sleeping at night.

Call unto me and I'll answer thee, God said, and show thee great

and mighty things which thou knowest not.

The verse of invitation that we're going to sing Search me, O

God, and know my heart today.

Would you be willing to step out?

We may have revival next week.

We may not.

The Lord may come this week.

You may.

I may not be here next week.

You may not be here next week.

We only have today.

The revival could start this morning instead of next week.

Wouldn't that be something?

Have revival right now, this morning.

Are you willing to open the door?

Are you hesitant?

Are you more worried about people than you are God?

You say, well, I don't know what to say.

Then just come anew and say, lord, I don't know what to say.

God understands when we try to pray and we don't know what to pray.

Draw nigh to God or he'll draw nigh to Thee.

There's no sin he can't forget Forgive.

There's no need he can't supply.

There's no storm that he cannot calm.

No problem that he cannot solve.

It's in your hands.

It's your move.

Maybe you need Christ as your savior.

You know all about him, but you don't know him.

While the piano's playing softly, that'll be all the singing.

You may look this way.

Are you a little nervous about revival?

You think it might upset things, upset your schedule, upset

your priorities?

You got life kind of like where you want it and you're comfortable

with it.

I think sometimes we are a little nervous about saying, okay,

God, anything, anywhere, anytime you say it, I'm ready.

I think that scares some of us.

But God says, if you just knew.

If you only knew what I could do in your life and change your life

and the rest of your life could be the best of your life so

far.

The next few weeks, months, years, could be the greatest, gladdest,

happiest of your whole life thus far.

It just depends on how much you let God in to your life.

I think I've told you this before, but my father was a champion

checker player at the naval air station.

And every day, I mean, he played every day of his life, as

far as I know.

I mean, as a.

As a navy man.

And so he'd want to play me, play checkers with me.

And I. I didn't really want to play him.

And then he'd set me up.

You ever been set up?

He set me up and I got big eyes.

I thought, I'm going to win.

And I moved.

And then he went boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

He won.

So he did it again.

You know what I said?

We started the second game and he moved.

And then he said, now it's your move.

And I said, I'm not moving.

And he did what you did.

He kind of laughed.

You can't play the game if you don't move.

Well, if I move, you'll win, so I'm not moving, so you can't win.

And that's exactly what I did.

I didn't move.

I forfeited the game.

I just didn't move.

And sometimes we treat God like that.

You say, well, I'm not going to move.

And God's already been moving.

He's moving in your life.

Things happening in your life are not coincidence or accident.

God's trying to get your attention and God.

But here's the good part.

And I'll shut up.

I promise.

God wants you to win.

He wants to crown you.

You remember checkers?

You get crowns and you can move anywhere you want.

That's what God wants for you.

He don't want to beat you.

He wants you to win.

He takes pleasure in the prosperity of his servants.

You glad you came today?

Say amen.

Well, I hope you're not saying I'm glad that's over with, but we

need it.

I needed it.

And that's why I have Shelly and I.

About once a week we have a little projects of cleaning out something.

And that's the way I am in my heart.

I want to keep it clean.

I don't want it to be build up for a month or a year.

Nothing between my soul and my savior.

Amen.