It might be my voice will go up and down today. I had a cold, and the saints have been praying for me, and I appreciate that. I do feel good, but I still have problems here. So we will see the Lord’s grace and mercy this morning as we share.
Could we begin with a word of prayer?
Lord, we are grateful that we still have the liberty to come and gather in Your name. Lord, we have the opportunity to freely come of our own hearts around Your table, and to see the Lamb who was crucified on our behalf. Lord, we are grateful.
Lord Jesus, all that is necessary for us to be Your sons and to be in the kingdom has been done. All that work has been done by our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh Lord, we do thank You for that precious blood shed on Calvary for our sins.
We thank You, Lord, for that precious blood, by which the enemy can no longer have a stand on which he can say, “I accuse you.” Because, Lord, to accuse us, he now has to accuse You. Lord, we worship Thee this morning. You have done a great and mighty work.
And now, Lord, I just pray as we come together this morning, by Your Spirit, we will be able to touch the passion of Your heart. Lord Jesus, not just to learn things this morning—to learn doctrines or teachings—but to really touch the passion of Your heart. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, good morning. Once again—and it has been a while since I have spoken—you may remember I was in the book of Revelation, and you might as well turn there.
The messages that I gave before had to do with the King of kings and the Lord of lords, as we see in this first chapter of the Apocalypse—the unveiling, the revelation. And it is a revelation. It is a consummating revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ: His heart, His work, His purpose, and where He sums up all things that will move us from this age, which we now refer to as the age of grace, into the kingdom age.
What we saw was the King of kings with all of His wisdom, with that white hair, and those discerning eyes of fire, as He could peer into and pierce the souls of men and understand what was in their hearts. He sees into our hearts. He sees our motivations. He understands us so well because He has this discerning eye.
We saw the tongue of fire, able to divide soul from spirit, able to consume, brothers and sisters, what is not of the Lord Jesus Christ in His people, and in particular, His church.
We saw His feet: brass—judgment. He is looking, looking at His church, and He is judging.
Not with a spirit of condemnation, but with the spirit that He wants to convict His own, that they might repent and be restored fully to His heart, to Himself, and to His purpose.
And we find in this book of Revelation—well, let me read a few Scriptures now. Revelation 1:12-16:
And I turned to see the voice that spake with me.
And having turned I saw seven golden candlesticks;
And in the midst of the candlesticks one like unto a son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle.
And His head and His hair were white as white wool, white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire;
And His feet like unto burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace; and His voice as the voice of many waters.
And He had in His right hand seven stars: and out of His mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword: and His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.
And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as one dead. And He laid His right hand upon me.
We see John the apostle. He is an old man at this time—older than I am at this point—and he has this revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ as the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
We know John to be the one who is always spoken of as being so close to our Lord, leaning on our Lord Jesus. He was such a close personal associate of our Lord and loved the Lord so much. But here, when he sees the Lord as the King of kings, it says he falls down. He cannot stand up. He is too weakened. He cannot stand before this One.
Brothers and sisters, it says he fell down; even his breath seemed to leave him, and he thought he was going to die. That is what he saw.
Now, I do not know how much we have seen of the Lord in that context, but He is King of kings and Lord of lords. He wants us to know He is the Lamb.
So we know a lot about the Lamb, do we not? Every Sunday we are talking about the Lamb’s sacrifice on our behalf. But, brothers and sisters, it is so key to our life to know Him as King—King, Lord of lords, with full authority and full power over your life—and to submit yourself under His mighty hand, the hand of the King.
Let us also read Revelation 3:22. This is at the very end, as He has spoken to the seven churches. He speaks to each one, and now He says this at the end of all seven addresses to the churches. This is the very last thing as He speaks to His church:
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
Now let us go to Ezra, to the Old Testament. Ezra 1:1-5.
Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,
Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord, the God of heaven, hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and He hath charged me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Whosoever there is among you of all His people, his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord, the God of Israel (He is God), which is in Jerusalem.
And whosoever is left, in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, besides the freewill-offering for the house of God which is in Jerusalem.
Then rose up the heads of fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, even all they whose spirit God had stirred to go up to build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem.
The Persians were in power. Today Persia is Iran, and they were in power over all that kingdom, over all the Middle East. They had conquered the Babylonians.
And Cyrus says—listen to this; it is so amazing—“The Lord, the God of heaven, hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and He hath charged me to build Him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.”
Then rose up the chief fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had stirred. In the King James, it says “raised,” but it is the same word for “stirred”—those whose spirit God had stirred to go up and build the house of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem.
Now, in this book of Revelation, as we are introduced to the King of kings and the Lord of lords, I think it is extremely important to note that in this opening scene, where our brother focuses on this King of kings and Lord of lords, we find Him standing in the midst of the churches.
He is not standing way off like a god in heaven looking down. It says He is in the midst of the churches.
I would propose to you, as we look at this book of Revelation, this unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ, that here He introduces us to the passion of His heart—the real passion that is on His heart. He is in the midst of these churches, and He is looking.
He is looking, brothers and sisters, for His bride, who will serve with Him in the kingdom age and eternity to come. In a sense, I guess we could call her His queen, the one to be His queen.
And you know, just anyone cannot be a queen. You have to be of the proper bloodline. You have to be of the proper character and nature.
As a matter of fact, we find from the Word of God that the character and nature the Lord is looking for in these seven churches is His character and His nature—one like unto Himself, one that He can say, just as Adam was able to say, “Bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.”
He is looking at His churches, His future bride, and He is really saying, “She is not ready. She is not ready yet. There are issues. There are things to do.”
But He stirs her up with His judgment and His word to her. He is trying to stir the heart of His church. He wants her to overcome all the things that are trying to keep her from becoming the bride that He so desperately looks for and has given His life for.
He calls them. He calls out to those that have an ear to hear. He calls out and says, “Overcome.” There is a lack of love. There is a lack of first love—first love, where I am first in your heart.
That is the first challenge, and I think the key challenge, to all that He says in the seven churches: first love.
Brothers and sisters, it is so easy. If any of us is honest with ourselves, we would have to say, “Lord, where is that first love in my heart?” Oh, how He is looking for a first love. He challenges His bride. He says, “You have got to come back to first love. You need to love Me like I love you.”
He looks at false teachings and says, “This cannot endure.” False teaching is like leaven in the bread; it leavens the whole loaf. He encourages her to search His Word and to overcome false teachings.
He looks down and says, “I need reality. You think you are alive, but you are dead. Strengthen the things that remain.”
In other words, He says, “You have all the professions right. You have the doctrines right.” This is the church as we know the Protestant church today. He says, “You have got the doctrines. You have got all these things. You take pride in all of your teachings and trying to have them correct. But you are missing the point.”
“My relationship with you is all about life. It is all about a living relationship. Overcome this death that has come into your life, that has stolen away and made you hard. Overcome.”
He challenges them to overcome the influence of the world in their lives. As you look in there, you will see that the world has come into the ways of the church instead of God’s ways. He says, “You have got to separate yourselves. You cannot be worldly and be My bride.”
He challenges her, in that last church—the church of Laodicea—to overcome her lethargy and her self-satisfaction.
“You have become self-satisfied in your Christian life. You are no longer pursuing My heart. You are no longer pursuing My passion. Yes, you are pursuing My blessings, but not the passion of My heart.” Self-satisfaction—He calls her to overcome, calls her to rise up, to come together, to build His house, brothers and sisters.
It is so interesting, and our brother Kenny shared this point, that in every church He ends with, “He that hath an ear to hear.” I think it is a sad note, because all should hear.
But our Lord Jesus knows that all will not hear. Still, He challenges them: “He that hath an ear to hear.”
In other words, is your heart stirred by the things that I have shown you? Is your heart stirred by the things that I have spoken to you? Has it stirred your heart enough that you are now willing to come back, to overcome all of these things, all of these issues, and to come back to Me and be My bride?
Has your heart been stirred? We have heard many messages recently. I shared on the King of kings, and then we started sharing on the church, and that is what Revelation 2 and 3 are about.
But has the Lord been able to stir our hearts to really come back to Him and to His passion? Let me say it once more: the Lord has a passion.
In Ephesians, He says He died for the church. We know He died for us as individuals; it begins there. But His purpose is for His church.
All of you—and we have talked about it; John talked about it—are living stones built together. If we are not built together, it does not satisfy His heart. That is not where His passion is. His passion is for a bride, and that means the building together and the joining together of the joints as His body.
So have we been stirred in our hearts? Or are we still pretty satisfied?
Brothers and sisters, I do thank God that in Revelation 12 we see that some did overcome. Some hearts were stirred. Because in Revelation 12 we see the man-child being raptured to the throne.
It is not all of the Christians. At one point later on, all will be raptured, but not to the throne; rather, to the cloud in the sky. But here they are raptured to the throne.
They are not the complete bride, but they represent the complete bride. They represent what God’s heart is after, the passion of His heart. He calls them up, and they are lifted to His throne. In so doing, they actually become the ones who introduce the King to the world.
So we are grateful that we know God is faithful, and He will, brothers and sisters, have those who overcome. He will have those who have an ear. He will have those whose hearts are stirred. Thank the Lord.
But the question, which I have already asked you, is this: Is our heart stirred? That is what matters. Do we really have an ear to hear, or is it passing through from one ear to the other?
Are we willing to return to Him, to build His house, to be a part of that bride, to be a joint of supply? You know what that really means? People say, “Yeah, I know what my joints are,” and things like that.
When He says to be a joint of supply, that really means bringing life into the assembly. Are you bringing His life into the assembly? A joint of supply.
I would like to share a little history out of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, because I think, brothers and sisters, it is such a picture of where we are today.
I know Jim is a history teacher. When I was in high school, and even more so in college, I did not like history at all. I will tell you why: because to me history was just memorizing names and dates. That is all it meant to me—just memorizing names and dates. Honestly, I was not very good at memorization.
I loved math because if you learned the basic principles, you could build on it and keep building on it. You go from addition to multiplication and division, on to algebra and calculus, but it is all based on a few simple mathematical principles. One plus one equals two.
Actually, I did okay in math, believe it or not. But history was not my thing. I just did not get it. I did not see much need for it.
Well, brothers and sisters, I am now almost seventy, and I sure wish I had learned a lot more history. For you young people, I hope you do.
It is really true: when we look at history, we learn a lot from history—or let me put it a better way, we can learn a lot from history. That is why the Lord has given us this book: the history of the nation of Israel and the history of His church. He wants us to look at it, learn from it, and apply what He shows in history to our own lives personally.
There is a saying something like this: if you do not know history, then you will repeat the history of the past. You will not learn from it and be able to adjust and move on; you just keep going back through the cycle of failure.
I believe there is a lot to that. So I would encourage you: learn your history. Learn your history, particularly this history that we see in this book.
The Old Testament is a history, but it is more than that. In the New Testament, we learn the principles, the rules. I wish I had a good example for that. Well, yes, I have a good example.
The Old Testament type would be if you went up here, got on the roof, and jumped off, you would fall down to the ground—and hopefully not break anything. The reason for that is gravity.
What is the formula for gravity? Thirty-two feet per second squared. That is the force of gravity. Well, that is like the New Testament, having that formula to work with.
But the experience is really what matters. Today we are sitting in these seats because of gravity. We know that if we sit in the seat, we are not going to float away—from experience, from history. Okay? I hope you got the point. History is important.
Well, Israel—about 2,600 years ago, in 536 BC—the Spirit of God moved upon the nation of Israel.
They were in captivity. The Babylonian Empire had taken them over, captured them, and destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. Their testimony was gone before the world, and they were in captivity.
Then finally the Persians conquered Babylon, and we see King Cyrus. The Lord stirred their hearts. You can see what is on the Lord’s heart even back then, right? “Whosoever is willing to go back to Jerusalem and build a house for God.”
It is interesting. They had been in captivity for seventy years.
Years before, Jeremiah the prophet—Ezra refers to Jeremiah in the Scripture I read, Ezra 1:1-5—had told them that they were going into captivity because of their unfaithfulness.
“You are no longer interested in what I am interested in. You just do sinful things. You do what you want to do. You no longer have a concern for Me, My house, and My purpose.”
What is interesting, and why Jeremiah had such problems and trouble from the people—you remember, he was the weeping prophet—is that he had been warning the people what was going to happen, and they would not listen.
But when he gets to this point in history, he does not even say, “Repent.” He says, “Look, you are going into captivity. You need to submit yourselves under the mighty hand of God until He decides to release you.”
He was actually encouraging them not to fight. “Do not fight it. This is the hand of God, the hand of discipline. Do not fight it. Submit yourselves.”
Of course, they thought he was a traitor. But you see, God had gotten to the point in His relationship with the nation of Israel that He said, “Okay, they are not going to repent, so I am going to put them in captivity. Finally, in captivity, I will be able to change them.”
And He did. They had been worshipers of idols; they had gone back to idol worship. But after the Babylonian captivity, the nation of Israel never turned back to idols again. He put them right in the middle of the idol-making place.
He said, “When you get your fill of idols, I am going to release you.” But this was done by the loving hand of God. He let them go into captivity. We need to know that.
But now, through King Cyrus, He is stirring their hearts.
Daniel—remember Daniel? He was a teenager when the Babylonians came and took them, and they took him back to Babylon. He actually ended up in the king’s court, if you remember the story of Daniel.
He read this prophecy, and it was about two years before the seventy years was up. Daniel went into travailing prayer for the nation, and you can read some of Daniel’s prayer for the nation of Israel in the book of Daniel.
He began to pray, “Lord, You have determined seventy years. Lord Jesus, I pray that You will bring Your people to the place where You can release them, where this captivity can be over as You have promised. Lord, this is Your promise. This is what You have said. Lord Jesus, I am standing with You.”
“I know we have sinned. We have sinned as a nation. Lord, I am a part of that. Lord Jesus, I ask forgiveness for me and the nation.”
And the Lord responded. He found His intercessor. That is another message. He found His intercessor—it was Daniel. Daniel prayed, and so we see King Cyrus giving this declaration.
Now, he was a Gentile king. He was not Jewish; he was Gentile—the king of Persia. He defeated Babylon, all of the Middle East, and some of Europe.
How was the Lord able to touch King Cyrus’s heart? He had to stir his heart.
Interestingly enough, 260 years before this point in history, Isaiah had given a prophecy. Isaiah 44:28-45:3:
That saith of Cyrus, He is My shepherd, and shall perform all My pleasure, even saying of Jerusalem, She shall be built; and of the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.
Thus saith the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him, and to loose the loins of kings; to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut:
I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the doors of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron;
And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I am the Lord, who call thee by thy name, even the God of Israel.
This is 260 years before Cyrus became king.
Daniel was still in the court of the king at this point. He was an old man, and yet he still had access to the king. The Word does not say this, but most likely it was Daniel who took this prophecy to the king.
He may have said, “King Cyrus, you think you conquered all these nations, but you need to know that 260 years ago, through a prophet in Israel, you were named by name in His book. Cyrus—right here is your name.”
“You were able to do this because God was with you, because God led you. You were put into power because God did it.”
Thank the Lord, He was able to stir Cyrus’s heart with His Word. This Word of God had an effect on Cyrus. I hope it has an effect on us.
He touched Cyrus’s heart, and Cyrus says, “Praise God. The God of Israel has given me all of this, and now I need to do something for Him. I see He is talking about His house in Jerusalem, and I need to be sure that His house is built.”
So he issues the proclamation: all who are willing to go back to Jerusalem to build the house of God, he would support them—all with a willing heart, all whose hearts were stirred by the Spirit of God.
Brothers and sisters, 42,000 returned. Actually, it was a little more than 42,000, but 42,000 are listed in the book of Ezra.
Now, I just want to remind you of a little more history. Hundreds of years before, when God brought His people out of bondage in Egypt—they had been under Egyptian bondage for four hundred years—God brought them out across the Red Sea.
God did not just bring them out; He had a purpose, and He shared this with them. He says, “I am going to lead you to a place where I can put My name.”
A place. You see what God is after: a place where He can put His name. It is His house—a place where He can put His name, where all the nations will recognize, “I am God.”
Well, 42,000 did respond. When they had come out of Egypt, in the beginning it was the same thing. They had to go forty years in the desert. Finally, before they went into the land, God had to deal with them.
Eventually, because of their unfaithfulness, the Babylonian Empire took them over and destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. There was no more temple. Then the Persian Empire came in by the hand of God and conquered the Babylonian Empire.
You see how God’s providence works. Most likely Daniel showed Cyrus the Word of God, showed him that he was not the one who had done all these things, but actually it was the hand of God on him. And he responded. Thank God he responded.
“The God of Israel has done this, and I want to build that house.” So we see that is where we are now in the history this morning.
Why was it so important, brothers and sisters, that that house be built?
It is because it represented God. It represented His testimony. But God had allowed it to be destroyed because the people’s hearts were no longer in line with His testimony, His character, and His nature. They had forsaken Him.
So finally He had to forsake the house of His testimony and allow it to be destroyed. But here we see God moving, stirring people’s hearts to bring them back.
Approximately one million Jews were in the land at the time. Honestly, I got it off the internet, all right? But that was the best resource I had. I do not know for sure, but I did find some estimates that there were around one million Jews in captivity.
Forty-two thousand chose to return. Forty-two thousand. What is that percentage-wise, 42,000 out of a million? About 4.2 percent.
Around four percent of God’s people responded.
And you know what is so interesting? If you read the book of Ezra—and I know a few here have, because they heard I was going to be sharing out of that book—in that second chapter, the Lord lists all the heads of the families and the number in each family that returned.
In other words, the Lord took note of these ones, and He put it in the book. He wanted to recognize those who had a heart to return to Jerusalem, to build His house, and to have a testimony of the Lord on this earth.
He noted them. He put them in His book. He spends two chapters on them. When you are just reading through it, you may say, “Well, what is all this about?” What it is about is that God wants to honor them. They had responded to His heart’s passion, and He wanted to recognize that.
These are the ones after His heart, and He wanted us to know that. So He records their names in the book.
What really caught me when I read Ezra was that Scripture: “Those whose spirit God had stirred to return.” Those whom God was able to stir.
Only a small portion of the people were actually stirred. Now I am going to ask the question again: Is God able to stir your heart with what is on His heart?
I think that is the question. I just said, “Lord, boy, I need You to stir my heart. I have heard all these messages, and I have heard many, many of these thoughts before. Where is my heart, Lord? Where is my heart?”
I think we need to ask, “Lord, I need my heart stirred—not just to be a good Christian, but stirred to be after Your heart, to be doing the things that please Your heart.”
The message went out to all, but only a few responded. Why?
I think some probably responded this way: “It is not my burden. It is just not. I am not touched by that. It is not my burden.”
“You know, I have got a good life. I have struggles, and I go to the Lord when I have struggles. I go to the Lord when I have needs, and He is faithful. I thank Him. But this thing of building, going back to Jerusalem, building the house—it is just not my burden.”
I think some might have thought, “Well, I do not have the burden. What has happened is God has burdened those He wanted to go back. Not all of us were supposed to go back, so He just burdened a few.”
Brothers and sisters, that is just not true.
If we are not burdened for the Lord’s burden, there is an issue. That is what has been gripping me. If we are not burdened for the Lord’s burden, there is an issue in our life.
All were called. They were called with free will; they did not all have to go. I think a few probably said, “You know, He did not tell me I had to go back. He did not tell me I had to go and build a house.”
So only a few chose to go back.
I think there is another reason behind that too. When they were taken into captivity, brothers and sisters, it was not like they were turned into slaves as they had been in Egypt.
They were actually allowed to have their own houses, to build their own houses, to have businesses there in the land, and they were given freedom of religion. Whoever they wanted to worship was okay.
Now, God had told them, “The place where I want to put My name is Jerusalem, and I want My house there.”
Before they went into captivity, the Lord had shared with them: “You need to offer sacrifices to My name.” That blood sacrifice, He said, could only be done in My house. It had to be done in Jerusalem, in My house.
The house was gone. They were in captivity. They could not return to Jerusalem. They were still God’s people, so they devised the plan of what we know today as synagogues.
It was pretty simple. According to their rules, if there were ten men who had enough time on their hands, they could get together and form a synagogue. So they did.
They had synagogues for carpenters. They had synagogues for all the different trades. All the best friends got together, had their synagogue, and everybody had a synagogue that pleased them. That way, it was great because they only had to meet with the people they liked or who had similar interests.
Now, I am being a little facetious, but it is really true. That is what happened. Most of the trades had their own synagogue when the Lord Jesus was on earth.
Their thought was this: “We are still God’s people, so we still need to do something.” They developed this system of synagogues, and they could worship as they pleased in the synagogue.
They probably read whatever part of the Torah they had. They probably read some of that, had fellowship, and talked about the exploits of Israel in the past. But the heart was gone.
The sacrifice could not be done there, and the heart was gone. You take away the sacrifice of Christ, and Christianity is empty.
That is what the liberals have been doing for years. They take the sacrifice out. “God, a loving God, could never do that to His Son.” They take the sacrifice out.
It was not too long ago that I remember a lady preached, and she said, “You know, God would never do that. And besides, we do not want to preach the cross because it will offend people, and they will not come.”
You see, they take the heart out. Well, the heart was gone. The heart of worship was really gone. But they had the synagogues, and once that happened, brothers and sisters, their consciences were eased. They were appeased.
Basically, the real issue was that they were self-satisfied. They were satisfied there. They could have their families, their houses, their businesses, worship God as they pleased, and they were satisfied.
There was another issue: who wants to leave our house, our business, and go back to a destroyed Jerusalem?
Go back to farming, whatever they were doing, and at the same time clean up the rubble and try to build a house for God. Now that is asking a lot.
It was a great price, brothers and sisters. They had to pay a great price to be willing to go back, give up everything—their homes, their businesses—and take their families back to a desolate place, try to farm enough to have food to live on, and at the same time take time to build the house of God.
It was a great sacrifice. But these 42,000 went back with that very purpose. That was their purpose: to go back and build a house for God.
The reason I believe most did not return, the reason their hearts could not really be stirred, is because they were self-satisfied. Self-satisfaction had taken their heart.
The things that were really on God’s heart were not what was on their heart. God’s heart was His testimony, His house in Jerusalem. That was His heart.
But what was on their heart primarily was themselves. I do not say that condemningly, because we are all guilty. I would be condemning myself.
Now, I have a lot to say. Maybe I should just stop for today right here and say this much.
When we began years ago, it was glorious, brothers. There is no doubt about it.
I remember Kenny and I going for the first time to hear our brother Stephen. He spoke on the birth of the church, which was just an absolute paradigm shift for me.
It was a whole different shift because I had always thought of the church—I was in it, I taught, I was a Sunday school teacher—I always thought the church was a missionary society, and this was its purpose.
Not only that, but it was basically an organization of pastors and elders. The pastor got paid, and the elders did not, but they were supposed to oversee the business of things.
Honestly, I have to say this is part of my own testimony: God stirred my heart.
We were having real struggles in that little Baptist church I was in over some things. The good thing for me was that it caused me to question, “Lord, is this Your church?”
Not that all churches do not have problems; do not get me wrong. But I began to say, “Lord, I am missing something. Something is not settled in my heart.”
This was the question: What is the church? That was my question. The Lord brought that question into my heart: What is the church?
Is it indeed just a missionary organization where we come together, sing some songs, hear a gospel message, and give our money? Lord, something is missing.
I knew there was something much greater in Your heart. I did not know what it was.
Then we went that night to hear Stephen. My dear brother Kenny had been saved, I guess, about a year at that point—maybe two.
About seven months. Kenny came saved from the Pentecostals; I was a hard-shell Baptist. If you know a hard-shell Baptist, it is all doctrine.
I saw the life of the Lord in my brother Kenny. I said, “Lord, I have been taught all my life that these things that I know are real in my brother are wrong, and I do not see it. Something is happening, Lord. What are You doing? What is Your church?”
Kenny and I got to fellowshipping every day at lunch because we worked together. It was glorious, a glorious time. We fellowshipped. I brought The Normal Christian Life and a few other books I had by Watchman Nee.
I will never forget how astonished Kenny was at what the Lord showed him. Finally, Kenny, I think, was the one who heard that there was this Chinese brother who would come to Richmond occasionally, to Lou Ellen Miller’s, once a month.
I have told this before, but it was so funny. I said—and it was a joke—“Kenny, do you think this guy knew Watchman Nee?” Well, he did. It was amazing. He actually knew him. I said, “Wow.”
But I did not know that when we first went. In the Baptist church I was in, we did not ever study the book of Acts.
The book of Acts, we thought, left when the last apostle died. It was no longer relevant. I believed that. “You do not need to read the book—all of it.”
Anyway, we went to hear Stephen. I remember that night, that very first message in the book of Acts: the birth of the church.
I really saw something. I said, “Lord, Your church is real. It is organic. It is living. It is joints of supply. Lord, amazing—Your church is a living thing. It is a part of You. You have taken on a new body, Lord.”
It was amazing to me. We never stopped going, of course.
Eventually, after a couple of years of being together and praying together, we felt like the Lord said, “We need to stand as a testimony for the Lord on this earth.”
We began to really build the house of God. Well, a lot has happened through the years.
But the point I want to make is this: I am so thankful that, by the grace of God, He was able to stir my heart with that question, “What is the church?”
I am so grateful that He decided to show me the church by hooking me up with Kenneth, because that is where I experienced so much of church life—in my fellowship with my brother.
It has been a marvelous forty years—more than forty now. Forty-five? I do not know. A long time. But God stirred my heart.
Now, brothers and sisters, I want to continue this message. You will see that numerous other times in the building of the house of God, in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah—you might want to read them—God had to go back and stir their hearts once again.
But I think what I want to end with is this: Brothers and sisters, is the Lord stirring your heart? I think that is critical.
I think when the Lord is unable to stir our hearts with His burden, there is a problem. If you really get down to it—and it does not have to be the total answer all the time—self-satisfaction is a big one.
Other times we can be overwhelmed just with life, with this issue or that issue, and we get away from the Lord. Once we are away from the Lord, we are certainly not going to be fulfilling His heart’s desire.
I would just like to encourage us all to say, “Lord, I need You to stir my heart, not with what Jerry has said, but with what is on Your heart.”
I am not talking about emotions. It could involve our emotions; it usually does, and that is okay. But I am not just talking about an emotional stirring here.
I am talking about a stirring deep in your spirit and in your heart that says, “Lord, I want to see Your house built. Lord, I am willing to pay the cost.”
“Yes, I have got to have my business and my family. I have got to take care of all of them. But I cannot stop taking care of Your house either. I need to be a joint of supply, bringing life into the assembly, bringing life to my brothers and sisters in fellowship.”
Think about it. We had the Lord’s table today. Was the Lord able to use you, to stir your heart to bring life, to be a joint of supply during that time? Were you livingly at the Lord’s table?
That is why I am glad we have started giving out these Scriptures at least a day before, so we can prepare our hearts better. But, of course, we need to be prepared all week long.
I guess that is what is on my heart: can our hearts be stirred? If we sense that they are not stirred, Lord, You can do it.
He did it to King Cyrus. I think Daniel showed him the Word of God. There is nothing that can stir your heart more than what is in this Book.
So may the Lord be merciful to us. I will finish up next time with this, but we will see that God had to stir their hearts many times, not just once. I am thankful that God is willing to do that for us.
Lord, we just come back today. We have been touching on the passion of Your heart for a long time now, and Lord, is it going to make a difference, though? I think that is the question.
Lord, I just pray that You will stir our hearts; that, Lord, where things may still be unclear to us, You will bring clarity.
Lord, I know that for me, when it came, it was like a meteor that blew up over Russia. It was just an explosion.
But I also know, Lord, that it does not work that way for everybody. Sometimes it is line upon line, precept upon precept.
Lord, do Your work in our hearts and in our midst. We want to be found at the end of this age with a passion for what You have a passion for.
Lord, I remember Your words: “The zeal of My Father’s house hath eaten Me up.”
Amen.