It's good to be with you, and thank you, Brother Jim. And I'm glad Jack's going to be here. He's my best friend. In fact, he recently joined our church, so he's moved to Florida, which I think was a very wise move.

I really believe I've come to you burdened. I'm not sure I could have said that last night at this time, but I can say it now, and I'll explain it in a few minutes. But before I do, I want to tell you a story. Did you hear about the fellow that killed and ate a spotted owl? This fellow killed and ate a spotted owl, and they caught him.

And they took him up to court, and the judge was an environmentalist. And he was hopping mad. And he told the guy, "I'm going to stick it to you." I'm going to give you the largest sentence I can possibly give you for this atrocious act. But he said, "I want you to tell me, why did you do it? Why did you do it?"

The fellow said, well, judge, my wife and children didn't have any food, and we didn't have any money. And the only thing I could see was this spotted owl. We shot it and ate it.

Well, he touched the judge's heart, and the judge said, well, due to those circumstances, I'm going to give you a suspended sentence. But he said, "I want to ask you a question before I give you the sentence. What does a spotted owl taste like?"

So the fellow thought a minute, and he said, well, judge, halfway in between a California condor and an American bald eagle.

The church I know and have been a part of, I'm in my 43rd year as a pastor. And the church I know is just as about as stupid. We have a definition for insanity at our church that I want to give to you. Insanity.

And I'm going to ask you to put it up. I'm going to be using this as we go along. This is what insanity is. Would you read it out loud, please?

Now, just read. I'm going to say, what is insanity? And you can read the definition. What is insanity?

Now, let me say this, and I say it kindly. If I have any spiritual insight at all, the church is in worse shape today than it was 43 years ago. And we keep doing the same thing.

Listen, I was in a southern city last week with 500,000 people at a conference, and the man in charge of the conference told me he had mailed out brochures to 450 pastors in that city.

I mean, you're going to have a church in every corner. The church today is watching a flood tide of evil sweep over us.

Listen, when I started the ministry, drinking and gambling were the only things that preachers preached against. And maybe cigarettes.

Listen, I sat down a couple of years ago and made a list of the things we're talking about. Listen, the things we are talking about today did not have names 40 years ago.

And the church is still using the same tactics. Oh, we've put a little color into it. We've changed a few little things, but there hadn't been any serious remodeling.

Last night, as I was going to bed, I realized there was some stuff I couldn't find, really, notes. That's a preacher's tools to bring to this service. Couldn't find them anywhere.

I got up and looked onto some other beds and other bedrooms in the house. And I got up this morning, and that was the thing of my mind. I've got to find those things. Didn't have a lot of time.

I had to preach this morning to a group of preachers at quarter to nine to 9:30, and I had to leave my church at 9:30 to catch up on some other appointments.

So I got on the church about quarter to seven and looked everywhere and couldn't find these things. And you'll be seeing I use transparencies. These were a lot of new transparencies that were just fixed up and with a lot of color.

And I began to get agitated in my spirit. And I called my wife up twice. And the second time she started to say something to me, and I said, "I don't want to hear any preaching." Bam. And I slammed the phone down.

She was saying something like this directly from God. Maybe the Lord doesn't want you to use that stuff.

I went out to the car to see if I'd left some of that stuff in the trunk. I went in the car, and as I was walking back in, the father said two things to me.

He said, first of all, he said, "You weren't very nice to your wife, were you?" I'm not pleased with that. He didn't have to tell me anything else.

I knew I was going to have to get on the phone call right away and apologize.

And then the second thing he said to me is this: Have you ever lost anything that I didn't help you find?

And I had to say no, because I've had lots of experience. I could just stand here all night and tell, you know, God would tell us where things were.

A few years ago, I lost a $500 check, and God told me, it's a longer story than this. He said it's in the Dempster Dumpster at the back of the church.

And then he told me this: Don't go look for it. Now, our Dempster Dumpster is six by six by six. We have 350 kids in a school that dump junk in there every day. I mean, their food and everything.

And he said, don't go. And look for it till the janitor comes because your check fell into a waste paper basket, and the janitor will know where he emptied that waste paper basket.

Well, the janitor remembered exactly where he'd emptied, in what side of the dumpster he'd emptied that waste paper basket, and in about five minutes with a pitchfork, we came up with a little check for $500 that big.

So, you know, I've had just lots of experience with finding things. You know what happened?

And see, in the meantime, God had said to me: And I don't want to get into all the details. You remember when you were at Ridgecrest about 20 years ago, back over there in the dining room, one of those rooms, and you had about 50 youth workers, and you preached some sermons back there?

I said, "I want you to preach those again this week." I said, that's what I want you to do. Just as clear as stuff.

Well, I went to call my wife and apologize. And honestly, this happened.

Listen, I looked all over my office for them. I've looked everywhere in my office. I have a little room called Miami. That's where I go pray. So the secretary can tell people when they're looking for me, the preacher's in Miami.

I looked out there, been through everything, you know.

Listen, as I was on the phone calling my wife, the Lord showed me those things. I mean, I saw them with my naked eye. I'm absolutely sure you must have blinded me to them before because they wanted to get my attention about this meeting.

Now, I want to tell you something about Pentecost. Pentecost did not come, those 3,000 that God fell on at Pentecost, did not come on a bunch of sightseers or shoppers in the city of Jerusalem.

You know what it came on? It came on a bunch of sincere seekers that had come from all over the earth to worship God the best way they knew how.

And I think most of, as I look around in here tonight, most of you are like me. We belong to the Caleb generation.

I don't know who gave that prophecy tonight, but I was really encouraged by that.

I hope some of the Caleb generation is going to get into the promised land that I believe we're going to get into. I really believe and hope that we're going to get into that promised land.

And I believe that you people are here.

Very sincerely, you've given up time. Meetings like this are special. It's not just the regular Sunday crowd flowing in and out. You've taken time, you're paying money, and you're making an effort to get here.

So please don't miss what I believe the Spirit's going to be saying to you this week.

Now, I'm going to do something that, and I want you to hear me. I want to tell you that I believe that the church in America needs a refocus.

Now, what does the church in America focus on? Now, you just think with me, it focuses on services like this.

The American church believes that the big services on Sunday are going to be the answer. So they build magnificent auditoriums.

You go and check the budget of your church and you'll find that most of the budget of your church is involved with what goes on for one hour on Sunday. Just go and check it and see if that's not true.

Now, I'm not saying there's not a place for this, but I'm telling you it is not the primary focus, and I want to tell you something.

You can't make disciples from a pulpit.

I'm telling you, you cannot disciple people from a pulpit.

Now, the first place I want to redirect you tonight is the exact opposite extreme of the public service with all that goes on, which is the private closet where you meet with God alone.

I want to direct you there, to the private closet, where you meet alone with God. Jesus said, "Or the scripture says, Sit thou at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool."

We ought to learn by now that we are not going to clean up the mess in America. We have lost every battle that we have fought in the 43 years.

We haven't stopped anything.

All the attempts against abortion, I think it just came out in the paper today.

Hey, there's something else they're legalizing that's going to make it hard for those that are against abortion.

Hey, we are not going to whip evil this way. We're insane. No, just leave it up there. We're insane for keeping on doing the same thing.

Some of you are old enough to remember when you had anti-licker, anti-gambling campaigns.

Now we don't even bother to fight those anymore.

We lost, and we have given up the fight.

So we're doing the same thing over and over and over again. Sort of like fighting Tar Baby.

We're not winning.

And it's crazy to keep on using our energies, our monies, our resources in the same way.

Now, I say this kindly, and you can take it for what you want.

I noticed a while ago a prayer meeting was announced.

And it was announced for a little room back here. Because that's the place prayer now has in the church.

Jesus said, "My house shall be called a house of prayer."

Listen, you be honest.

And you have to say that the church has become not a house of prayer, it's become a house of preaching.

99% of you go to the church where you're going now because of the preaching. That's why you go.

The guaranteed way in my 42 years in the ministry to get a small crowd is to have a genuine prayer meeting.

Now, I don't mean the kind of thing you have on Wednesday night that you call prayer meeting and have another preaching service.

I guarantee you, if you call a prayer meeting, less people will show up than for any other kind of meeting you can call in a church. I'm just telling you.

You know, we might just look across the street to the Korean church where they tell me thousands of people get up at 4 o'clock every morning and pray.

Can you imagine that every morning?

Some churches in Korea have had thousands of people every morning for 20 years.

How do you think I would go over here? I mean, just asking.

The greatest emphasis in the Bible on any subject is on the subject of prayer. There are more commands, more examples, more promises, more prayers than on any other one subject in the Bible.

Now, the thing that I would say to you, and I want to get to, I'm coming to the reason why.

Number one, point you back to the closet and point you back to these two things as over against this thing.

Now listen. I'm proposing another strategy for the church.

Now I'm going to give you the rationale for it in just a minute.

I'm proposing that our concentration be on our individual relationships with God and that in our individual relationships with God we concentrate on doing more listening than we're doing talking.

I'll tell you why most of you don't pray, and I know you don't pray, and if you're honest, you will.

Oh, I don't mean you don't say the blessing at the table, but hey, you don't spend any meaningful time in prayer, and I'll show you the results of that in just a few minutes, but I'll tell you why.

One-way conversations are very dull, especially when you're shopping lists of God.

Now, we've got a little saying at our church. We've got a little saying at our church.

It goes like this, and I want you to repeat it.

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

Okay, would you say that?

Now somebody tell me, what is that?

What is that?

Okay, what's the main thing that a pen does?

Now when your pen doesn't write, some of you are taking notes. Now let me ask you something.

You come in here tonight to take notes and you took out a pen.

You expected it to write.

Now some of you have got pens that cost $50 and some of you have got pens that cost 50 cents.

But your concern right now is not what the pen cost.

Your concern is that the pen is doing what the pen was made to do.

Now, have you noticed that everything has a main thing?

The main thing of a pew is to sit.

The main thing of a watch is to tell time.

There was a fellow in my church this morning. He has a watch.

Reminds me of most Christians.

He can find the scores of the football games.

The weather, he's from Seattle.

It doesn't work in Florida.

He was in Seattle.

Listen, it has about 15 things that it does.

And when somebody calls him up, it lets them know what number is calling him.

I'm really honestly serious about this.

He can press this thing and the Seattle Seahawks, that's their score.

Press another one, that's the temperature.

Now, I'm going to tell you something.

If that thing doesn't tell time, no matter what else it does, it's a failure. An absolute failure.

I want to ask you something.

When God created us,

What did he want us to do?

The guy that designed the pen wanted it to write.

Now, you might dress up a pen and make it really look good.

That's a secondary purpose.

You might dress up a watch and make it be worth $10,000, but still the main purpose is the details time.

We need to get back to the basics.

And I want to show you why things are not working.

Because somebody came to Jesus one time and said, "What's the main thing?"

They really did. They came to Jesus and said, hey, what's the greatest commandment?

And here is Jesus' answer.

Would you put up the next one for us?

I'd like you to read it.

No, not that one, not that one, the next one.

I made a mistake.

Okay, good. I made a literal mistake.

We'll put that up in just a minute.

Okay, would you read this out loud, please?

Now.

If you joined a Presbyterian church,

You'd learn a catechism,

And many of you know this,

Westminster catechism.

And the first question in the Westminster catechism,

What's the chief end and duty of man?

It's another way of saying, what's the main thing somebody does?

And here's the answer that the Presbyterians give,

Which is real solid.

They put it into practice.

I mean, they could be the denomination in America as far as God's concerned.

But let me ask you something.

There's the answer up there.

What is the chief end and duty of man?

That's kind of weak.

Let's try it again.

What is the chief end and duty of man?

Look, I've come up here with a burden in my heart.

Now, if I came up here with a message,

I'd just preach and get and go back to my room.

I don't mind repeating everything three times, okay?

I really don't.

Okay, what is the chief end and duty of man?

Now, the word love,

You need to understand this,

Has lost its meaning in America because we use it for everything.

A word that has as many varied uses as the word love in America does,

Has lost its meaning.

Let me give you some examples.

Some of you use it for apples.

Some o

Here is the cleaned-up version of the sermon transcription:

If you use it for pornography, we use it for almost everything. And so it's lost its meaning. But the word "enjoy" hasn't. The word "enjoy" hasn't lost its meaning.

I would like to take a test tonight, but I don't want it to cause too much war, so we won't try to ask the person you came with what they enjoy the most. See, we all have a way of knowing the right answers and fooling ourselves. We know, listen, we've got it all up here. Everybody can pass the test here.

But hey, God is interested in the test being passed in life. Now, let me tell you what I've noticed about people who enjoy things. Number one, they do it as often as they can. Number two, when they're doing it, the time goes by real fast.

Now, let me help you understand this. Enjoying God is not enjoying church. Enjoying church is enjoying church. And listen to me carefully. Enjoying God is not enjoying the Bible. Enjoying the Bible is enjoying the Bible.

You see, this book was written to lead us to God. And if we quit memorizing this book and decoupage it and preach on it and start practicing it, we'd love God. Enjoying God isn't enjoying the saints. Enjoying God's enjoying God.

Look, I could enjoy my wife's cooking. I could enjoy the book she wrote. I could enjoy the way she keeps the house and hate her guts. Now, when you enjoy a person, you want to be with that person.

Now, I want you to look at some of the songs we sang tonight. I want to ask you something. Did you sing the truth or was it just blabber to God? See, last Sunday was my wife's birthday and I took her out. And I told her how much I loved her, I wrote her a card.

I made it all up myself about the kind of person she was. Now, if that hadn't been backed up by what I've been doing all week long, for weeks and weeks and weeks, it'd have been absolute nonsense to her. If she knew I had a girlfriend down the street that I was spending 10 hours a week with and giving her one hour a week, she'd probably have thrown the food in my face.

If she wouldn't have, she should have. Now, put up those songs that we sang a while ago. And I want to ask you something. Did you really meet them? Times of refreshing here in your present. No greater blessing than being with you.

Now, let me ask you something. If that's true, this last week, you'd have spent a lot of your free time with him. It's kind of quiet. Look, look, I want to tell you something. Today is the first day in the rest of our lives.

I am not trying to make you feel bad for bad sake. I believe we're in a crisis hour in America, in the church. I really do. And I tell you something, I don't want to keep doing the same thing.

Listen, I've worked hard for 42 years. I'm a hard worker. And basically I know how to get along with people. And I've followed everything that's come down the turnpike. Signs and wonders, praise and worship.

And listen, I tell you, when one wears out, something else comes. Now, all of these things are okay in their place, but they're not the answer. God's the answer. Now, no greater blessing than being with you.

Look, God couldn't be any more available than he is. You don't have to drive to Ridgecrest to meet God. You don't even have to leave your house to meet God. In fact, if you really believe what the scripture teaches, God's everywhere you go.

I like somebody who said, you want to run into God, you can always meet him at the corner of the two streets called here and now. That's where God lives. On the corner of here and now.

Now, look. Everybody that knows anything about God at all knows he's looking at our hearts. Now, we all were belting that out tonight. God's not only looked at your hearts, he's looked at your behavior for the past three months. Does your behavior for the past three months validate what you sang to him tonight?

No greater blessing than being with you and no greater joy than being with you. You sang that tonight. I mean, we sang it tonight. Not you, we sang it.

Hey, I want you to know something. It is an abomination to God. Just like it'd be to you if somebody told you. If your husband said, oh, you're the greatest joy in my life and he saw you about 30 minutes a week while he was playing golf with the boys or pool with somebody else.

Hey, it'd be a joke. Put up the next song. I just want to show you the things that you were singing. Let me ask you something. Does your heart plant for God like the deer plants for the water brook?

Listen, you know what I do when I come to a lot of these songs? I'd say, God, I can't sing that. I don't mean it. But I'd like to mean it.

You alone are my heart's desire. And I long to worship. You know what worship is? You know what the Greek word for worship is?

It's kiss. Worship is nothing more than lovemaking. That's what worship is.

Do we really mean that? You alone are my strength and shield. To you alone does my spirit yield. You alone are my heart's desire. I long to worship you.

I could hear God screaming out, if you really long to worship me, why don't you come do it? I've been waiting for it.

Now, I'm going to show you in a few minutes that when the love of God goes down, religious activity goes up.

Now, hear me. Hear me. Listen. When the love of God goes down, religious people compensate with more activity, not less activity. You will find religious people more active than they have ever been before.

Now, we need to understand, is the next one about love? Put up the next one for me.

No, not the next hymn. My next transparency. Okay, good. Put that up now.

Now, this is what I want to spend all of my time doing. She'll shove it up in just a minute.

Now, I want you to hear me. This is the burden God has given me for this meeting, and I want to show it to you.

Now, have you ever noticed when people love everything else comes easily? Listen, have you ever?

Listen, I'll guarantee you this. You get a church full of people that love God, you'll never ever have trouble with the offerings again.

You don't have to beg people to give. Hey, lovers give. I tell you, the big mistake lovers make in giving is they overgive.

Lovers always praise. If they don't know what to say, they go buy a card that says it better than them.

Hey, lovers are full of hope. Listen, have you ever seen people in an altar that didn't believe they could make it no matter what anybody else said?

When you're full of love, you're full of hope. You know you can make it no matter what.

Faith. See, faith must grow out of love. You trust people that you love. You don't trust people you don't love.

Everything we want people to do, everything to buy, obedience comes out of love. Jesus said, if you love me, you will obey me.

Obedience is easy to somebody who loves another person because they trust that person.

Now, I want you to hold that. And I want to define love, but then I want to move off of love because the emphasis in the Bible isn't in love.

I want to show you where it is. Put up the next one for me.

Yes. Here is the difference between lust and love. And Americans don't know the difference between lust and love.

Now, when I say lust, I'm not talking about sexual love. I'm talking about the 10th commandment, coveting. It can be another man's wife. It can be another man's goods.

And let me say this. You can lust God because what lusting is, is seeking to use another person's resources to meet my need.

Now, one of the great discoveries I've made is that God does not have a 911 number. He is not an emergency unit.

You know what loving is? Have you ever noticed?

I'll tell you how to know. And you younger people out here, if somebody tells you they're in love with you, I'll tell you how you can test it.

Are they more interested in giving to me what I need and want than getting from me what they need and want?

That is the best test.

And let me tell you something. If somebody tells you they love you and tells you something like, if you love me, I love you. And if you love me, you'd go to bed with me or something like that.

They're lying. They're lusting you.

Listen, love, let me tell you how to distinguish it so you won't make a mistake and get married, some of you younger people.

Hey, when somebody tells you they love you, if they back that up with meeting your needs from their resources and giving you what they know you want, then you'll know that person loves you.

But if their idea of love is to get something from you, they only lust you. And when you get married, they'll lust you like an orange.

And when they're squeezed out of you and got all they can get, they'll throw you away.

With the two or three children, then you got it for the rest of your life.

Now, would you put that last one back up? And I want to get my Bibles up because this is where we're going to spend our time tonight.

Now, hear me. What I want to do tonight for the rest of my time, whatever that is, I want to show you that the emphasis on the Bible is a knowing God.

And then the next two services that I have, I want to show you how to seek for God.

But I want you to see, the Bible says this. Now, let me explain to you what it means by knowing God.

The word in the Old Testament for know is a Hebrew word called yada, Y-A-D-A. And in the New Testament, it is ginosko. And in both the Old and New Testament, it is used for sexual intercourse.

It is an intimate, personal relationship with another person.

The only way that you can get to know a person in the biblical sense of the word know is to interact with them.

Now take Mr. Clinton or Mr. Bush or anyone. Let's just take Mr. Clinton because he's present.

I don't know Mr. Clinton. Now, I've heard lots about him. Some people say he has a halo and some people say he has horns. But see, I don't know for sure.

I heard Christians say about certain presidents in the past, what wonderful Christians they were, then they really pulled the plug.

The reason they said they were good Christians, they invited them to the White House and patted them on the back politically. I think.

At least that's what the evidence shows.

And we Christians are stupid enough to think that Washington makes a difference to God.

I want to tell you something. God is not troubled about the Supreme Court. He's not troubled about the Congress.

He's not, listen, all those things are a drop in the bucket to him. What God's troubled about is his church.

And I'll tell you something, God's not wringing his hands about the political system. That can come down in a morning.

Somebody said, when the first cosmonaut went up, he looked around and said, I've been up here, there is no God. But somehow God didn't disappear.

So one day God said, there is no more communism. Look what happened. Nobody in the world believed it could happen like it. Everybody was shocked.

Listen, all we need is one word from God and take care of things.

But God's, have you ever noticed in the Old Testament, God said he'd use the heathen to beat the hell out of his people?

I mean, I'm literally, when they didn't do right. Listen, God's process has always been, Moab is my wash pot.

You know who Moab was? Moab were wicked people who lived next door to Israel.

And God said, hey, I'm going to use the wicked folks who live next door to wash you up.

Listen, just read the Bible. We might get the idea that God is trying to talk to the church.

And get our attention in the church.

Now, when you know God, you'll automatically love him.

Have you ever said to somebody, if you knew so and so, you'd love them?

Well, the Bible says this, and I'm telling you that, and everybody that knows God says, if you ever really get to know God.

See, we live in a cause and effect world. The effect is loving and enjoying God and all these other things.

The cause is knowing God.

Now, what I'd like to do tonight is to show you the biblical emphasis on knowing God.

That's what I'd like to do tonight. Show you the biblical emphasis on knowing God.

Do you remember that famous passage of scripture that almost everybody has decoupage or memorized or something?

It goes like this: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths.

The word yada is that word acknowledge. What it's really saying.

In all your ways be intimately acquainted with him.

And he will direct your paths.

It's not just saying, hey, I know Jesus, and he'll direct my paths. It's being intimately acquainted with him.

Now, I'd like you to follow me through the Bible, so if you will take your Bibles, and let's start in Isaiah, and we're going to just do, I want the Holy Spirit to show you from the Scriptures, from the importance of knowing God.

Now, you understand that most of the Old Testament was not written, listen, to the pagans, it was written to Israel. Do you understand that?

I asked you a question. Do you understand that most of the Old Testament were the prophets trying to correct God's people? It was not talking about the wicked Babylonians.

Every now and then they're mentioned, but not near as much.

Now, start in Isaiah chapter 1 with me, and we're just going to do a quick flip through the Bible.

Notice what Isaiah's text is. Verse 2 and 3.

Listen, O heaven, and hear, O earth, for the Lord speaks.

Sons I have reared and brought up, but they have revolted against me.

An ox, now look, an ox, nosy toner, and a donkey, its master's manger.

But Israel, that's the people of God, do not know. My people do not understand. Do not understand what and know what.

They don't understand and know me.

Now, if you'll go on further in chapter 1, this is what God's saying.

Well, let's turn and look at it, because I think it's important we look at it. I have to turn over the page. You might have to turn over the page.

Verse 10. God's talking to his people.

Well, let's start in verse 11. What are your multiplied sacrifices to me?

Listen, these people were giving heavily. They were giving heavily.

Multiplied sacrifices to me.

He said, what are your multiplied sacrifices to me? I've had enough.

Of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle.

I take no place.

Listen, these were the ordained sacrifices that God had ordained. But I tell you what had happened.

The people were going through the rituals without the heart and God said, I'm sick of it.

See, they had stepped up their religious activity. They had stepped up their giving. They had stepped up their church building.

Verse 12, when you come to appear before me, who requires of you this trampling of my courts?

Bring your worthless offerings no longer.

Incense is an abomination to me.

New moons and Sabbath, the calling of assemblies.

I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly.

I hate, God's talking about religious services. I hate, God says, your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts.

They've become a burden to me. I'm weary of bearing them.

So, listen, here's the result.

When you spread out your hands in prayer, I'll hide my eyes from you.

Yes, even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen.

Tell me what kind of prayer life you have or what kind of prayer life the church has.

Listen, every church I've ever been to, the devil's invading the church, stealing our children. We pray, pray, pray, and nothing happens.

I mean, that's just one thing.

There's division everywhere. I bet if we could stand up in here at night, three quarters of you have been in a church split.

Where's God?

And then God's saying to us, I'm sick.

Now, I know there are exceptions. I'm saying, God's saying, I'm sick of the whole stinking mess.

He said, you guys don't know me. You see, when you know a person, look, some of you got married. Some of you have been divorced. You thought when you stood at the altar, you knew that guy, and a few months later, you woke up to find out you didn't know him at all.

That's what I'm talking about knowing. You didn't know him until you got to living with him. And when you got to living with him, you said, I have made a mistake, girls or gals, whoever it is.

But when you stood at the altar, you said, I really know this guy. You didn't know him at all.

Or I really know this gal. You didn't know her at all.

You see, you really don't know a person until you live with them. And some people are better than they were before. But as the proof shows out, lots of people are much worse than they were before.

Now, do you know God? Where did you get your knowledge of God from? Did you get it from hanging around with God or did you get hanging around with some church?

Listen, listen. If your mother believed God like peanut butter, she's going to take you to a church that preaches God like peanut butter.

And you're going to, all your life, if you're going to try to serve God, you're going to give him peanut butter, and you've never stopped to ask God, do you like peanut butter?

I'm just using an illustration along this line.

Now, turn with me to Jeremiah, chapter 9. And maybe this would be a good way to test preachers. Let me put it this way, to test mature Christians.

Jeremiah chapter 9. What do people

Here is the cleaned-up version of the sermon transcription:

Aid, if there's anything you can brag about, brag about that you have an intimate relationship with me. Is that what that scripture says? Okay, turn with me, if you will, to Daniel chapter 11. We're just going to hit the Old Testament briefly. Then I'm going to show you that it's really reinforced in the New Testament.

Daniel chapter 12, I think it is, 11. A lot of people believe this is talking about the Antichrist. I don't know for sure who it's talking about, but that's not what I want to show you. Verse 32, talking about some deceptive devil. By smooth words, he will turn them to godliness, those who act wickedly towards the covenant.

But listen. But the people who... Come on, who what? Their God will display strength and take action. People who know their God. Now, I haven't got time tonight, and I'm going to end up with an illustration from Hosea. But if you've got time, let's just look at a few things.

Hosea's whole complaint all the way through the book is you guys don't know God. Turn with me to the book of Hosea, and let's just look at a few scriptures quickly. Chapter 4, verse 1. Listen to the word, O the Lord, O people of God, for the Lord has a case against the inhabitants of the land.

There is no faithfulness or kindness or knowledge of God in the land. Verse 6, my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge because you have rejected knowledge. Now, and it goes on in other places. Look, verse 12, a spirit of harlotry has led them astray and they have played the harlot departing from their God.

I want to ask you tonight, I'm going to end up on this because I believe that the church, has played the harlot departing from God. And God's heart's broken. But I want to end with really good news in this regard. Now, I'm not going to take the time to read all the way through the book of Hosea, so let's go to the New Testament.

And let's start out in Matthew chapter 7. Remember what no is? Of course you know about God. But do you know God? Do you know what God really likes?

See, all that religion is is pleasing God. That's what it's all about. But you can't please him if you really don't know him.

Now, look in Matthew chapter 7, verse 21. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven.

Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons and perform many wonderful miracles?

Listen, all these are worthy activities. He said, and see, God's not going to deny that they did this, but look what he says to these people.

Then will I declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work lawlessness.

Listen. He said, I never knew you. These are Sunday school teachers. These are miracle workers. These are demon deliverers.

He said, I'm sorry, I didn't know you. Now, obviously, God knows everybody. So he's not saying, I didn't know about you. He's saying, I did not have an intimate, personal experience with you.

Now I want you to turn with me to John chapter 17, in which the only definition for eternal life is given in the Bible.

John chapter 17 and verse 3. And this is eternal life, that they may walk down the aisle and make a decision.

No, this is eternal life, that they may know thee, the only true God, Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

You know what eternal life is? It is an intimate, personal relationship with God. It's not a ticket you hand in glory. It is an intimate, personal relationship with God.

Okay, go with me now to 2 Corinthians. This might interest you. We are living in a day about a lot of inner healing and a lot of strongholds and all that kind of stuff.

And I agree with you, but I want you to see what strongholds do.

2 Corinthians 10, verse 4. For the weapons of our wherefore are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the pulling down of strongholds, destroying speculations, and every lofty thing that is raised up against what?

You see, all of the devil's attack at us is to keep us from knowing God.

By the way, I don't know why the Holy Spirit just brought it to mind, but I wanted to share it with you. I read an eight-page letter that Jim Baker had written since I've last been here.

And you know what the punchline of this letter was? My God. He told how he'd love Jesus. But the punchline of his letter was this. I built a place for fellowship and forgot to fellowship.

He said, my downfall came. I was building a place for fellowship. He talked about how hard he worked and everything he did. He worked and worked and worked and he forgot to fellowship.

And he said, that's the mistake I made. I'm just quoting him. I thought it's one of the most powerful sentences I've ever heard.

I was building a place for fellowship and forgot to fellowship.

Let's turn to Ephesians chapter 1. We're going to go to the big three under Jesus. Paul, Peter, and John. Okay? You'd agree they're the big three, wouldn't you?

I mean, hey, in the New Testament, you know, if they had superstars, which I don't believe they had, but anyway, let's look at the big three.

Ephesians chapter 1. Before I do this, I want to tell you something. A few months ago, I stood on a Catholic balcony, a Catholic retreat center.

When I looked one way, I looked at Bethlehem. When I looked the other way, I looked at Jerusalem.

Now, you have to understand the predicament I'm in. I can retire. I'm old enough to retire, and I've been pastoring for 43 years, 42 and a half years.

As I stood on that balcony, I asked myself this question. This was the place where it all began. This is where Pentecost erupted.

The predominant atmosphere of Israel is hate. I mean, you can feel it everywhere. The Jews don't love the Christians. And they certainly don't love the Arabs.

I thought, what went wrong? As I stood there, I believe God directed my thoughts to the Ephesian church.

You know, the Ephesian church, God said this to this. You guys are doing a lot of work and you have all the right doctrine, but I have this against you.

He said, if you don't get back to your first love, I am going to remove your candlestick.

Listen, Leonard Ravenhill used to say, he said, I'm not worried about America leaving God. I'm worried about God leaving America.

The only church that the Lord threatened to move the candlestick from was the Ephesian church.

And he said, if you don't get back to your first love,

Now, tell me something. Jack Taylor did this at our church last Sunday. I think it'd be good to do right here.

Tell me some things about first love. Come on. Come on. Shout out one. Exciting. Have you ever seen anybody with first love that wasn't excited?

Okay, give me another word about first love. Joyous. Excited. Yes. Give me another word. Okay, give me a few more.

Come on. Get my transparency out and put it up in first love for me right here.

I want to show you some things that are true about first love. Anybody that has first love?

Okay, good. Look, have you ever noticed first love is entire? I mean, this boy will give everything he has to the girl. It's exclusive. He puts everything out of his life. Every other girl is out of his life.

Not only girls. His family sometimes. He doesn't have time for them because he has time for that girl. It's extravagant. First love is extravagant.

First love is enthusiastic. And listen, everybody in first love believes it will never, ever, ever, ever end.

You ever tell you the secret to marriage? Very simple. Keep doing after marriage what you did before.

I mean, that's all there is to it. Now that you got him or got her, that is in the end, it's just the beginning.

Listen, love is alive. It has to be kept alive.

Okay, look, something went wrong with the Ephesian church. Do you realize?

That there have been no churches, no gospel in some of these churches in the Revelation for over a thousand years. The candlesticks gone.

But look what he said to the Ephesians church in chapter 1. Verse 17. Verse 16. 17. I do not cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation.

In what? Come on. Not in church growth.

In the knowledge of him. He's saying, folks, I'm praying for you that you'll get to know him.

And then he lists some things about him. He said, I want you to get to know him.

Now, if you don't believe this is important to the Apostle Paul, turn to Philippians chapter 3 with me, please.

Now, in Philippians chapter 3, the old fellow is near the end of his run. He's in jail.

He's not only in the last lap. He's in the last few yards of the last lap.

Listen, when you're in the last few yards of the last lap and you have a chance to look back across your life, you sum it up.

I want you to see what he said as he looked back across his life and ministry in Philippians chapter 3. Start in verse 7. Whatever things were gained to me, those things I have counted loss for the sake of Christ.

More than that. I count all things to be lost in the view of the surpassing value of what?

Come on. He said, I count everything else.

And you remember one place he says, and the King James said, count them a dung.

You've seen what a co-patty is.

Listen, he said, all the church planting have done, all the book writing have done is like a co-patty compared with knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

He's coming to the end of his life and he's seeing what is important. Knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, is important.

Now, let's just look at a couple other scriptures. Oh, no, by the way, you'll love this one. Turn to Hebrews before we get it.

I want to show you that your new covenant right is to know him. If you don't know him, it's because you don't want to know him.

Now, in Hebrews chapter 8, excuse me, Hebrews chapter 8.

If I were to ask you tonight, what is the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament, could you tell me?

Let me tell you one of the differences. In the Old Testament, only the big shots got to see God.

See, listen, when you go to church on Sunday to hear what God has to say through the big shot, you're an Old Testament person.

You don't even know the New Testament.

Listen, this is what would happen in the Old Testament. Old brother Isaiah going to have a talk with God and come out and say, thus saith the Lord.

The big shots alone got to see God. That was the Old Testament. Nobody else. Big shot Moses. Big shot high priest. No little shots ever got near God.

They had to take it secondhand from the big shots.

Now, look in Hebrews chapter 8. And in the first part, starting in verse 8, he's talking about the old covenant is gone.

Look in verse 10. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I'll put my laws in their mind.

In the Old Testament, he put it in rocks.

Listen, don't tell me it's hard to find God's will if he said he'd put the laws in our mind. All we have to do is to have an open mind to him.

And he said, I'll tell you what I want you to do. Write in your mind.

And then look at the next part of that. And I will write them upon your hearts.

You know the difference between your heart and your mind? Your mind is your know-so. Your heart is your want-to.

God said, I'll not only tell you what to do, I'll make you want to do it.

When I hear people, oh, it's so hard to do the will of God. Hey, they haven't encountered God.

But look at the next one. I love this. And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen and everyone his brother saying, know the Lord, for they shall what?

Come on. All know me.

That's part of the new covenant. All of us have got to know him from the least until the greatest.

Little Sister Smith out here, listen, you know God as well as Billy Grimm or Oral Roberts.

You know, I tell you, it really happened. It was a wonderful time in my life when I used to go to prayer and I came knocking on God's door.

I used to think God opened the door and said, oh, I'm sort of disappointed. I was hoping it was Oral of Billy.

You know what I came to discover? God's as glad to see me as he is Oral of Billy.

And I tell you something, you're not a New Testament Christian in reality, and I don't mean you're not saved, but you don't understand the riches of it until you understand God's glad to see you as he is any other person in the world because, hey, the privilege of New Testament, the covenant of the New Testament is that they shall all know me, everybody shall know me.

Now let's just look at a couple other scriptures. I want to show you that's your covenant right. Okay, I'll turn to 2 Peter chapter 3.

Oh no, oh no, no, no, no, no. I've got it.

2 Peter chapter 1 first. I forgot about that one.

Listen, these are the vets, the veterans. These are the pros telling us what they have found out.

Look in verse 2 and 3. Grace and peace be multiplied to you. Where are they going to be multiplied to you?

In the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our Lord, you are going to get grace and peace in proportion to your intimate relationship with him.

Look in verse 3. Oh, I like this one. Seeing that his divine power has granted to us, listen, his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence.

It says, hey, it happens through the true knowledge of him.

Peter's saying, see, I want to show you, he starts out and says, the secret is in knowing him.

Now go to the last verse of chapter 3. I think it's the last verse. Let me get my glasses on. Oh, yes. Work hard, Christians. People are going to hell. That isn't what he says.

Take the next course in church growth. No, he says, grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Now turn to 1 John chapter 4 and verse 7 and 8. We sing this, but a lot of times we don't even know what we're singing.

You know, we just sing words.

Now look at this one. You have all sung this sometime if you've been in any kind of modern day church. Look in verse 7. Beloved, let us love one another. How are we going to do this? Love is from God. And everyone who loves God is what?

Come on, two things.

Born of God and knows God.

Now, let's look at the next one, verse 8. The one that does not love does not know God, for God is love.

Okay, put the diagram back up for me right now tonight, please.

Yeah, thank you.

Now, I hope that you see that the secret of this whole thing is in knowing him. All the way through the Bible.

In Deuteronomy 6, it talks about loving him with all of our mind and heart and soul and strength.

Hey, you've got to know him before you can love him.

Let me tell you how I fell in love with my wife.

And then let me tell you something that happened to us about five years ago and what we did about it.

In college, a girl came to me one time and said to me, you ought to date my roommate.

Well, you know how suspicious you get of them kind of things, you know. When somebody's trying to get a date for a roommate, you begin to think, oh, boy. I don't know why I did it, but I did it.

I dated a roommate. And I began to get to know her. And I got to know her more.

And more she opened her heart to me out my heart to her to some degree and then I decided I want to be attached to her I'd give up every other woman if I could have every other woman in the world I'd gladly give it up it wasn't a pain oh god i got to give up all these things to follow her

Listen I didn't even think of giving up anything everything else in the world giving up to get her was nonsense why because I loved her

But I didn't just walk out one day and say, I'm going to love Johnny Lord. You don't just love somebody. You get to know that somebody.

And you either love them or don't love them. If they're lovely, you get to love them.

When I gaze into your holiness. We sang tonight.

Put that one up for me.

Ah, here's where it is. Look at it. Listen.

I want you to see. That was the third one you sang. Boy, you were singing heavy stuff tonight.

I tell you, the Lord couldn't have set it up better for me. I mean, I couldn't have asked in the pillow.

Look at that. See, look. It's when I look into your holiness, the wholeness of God, when I gaze into your loveliness, when all things that surround become shadows in the light of you. Is that your experience? Is God so bright everything else is a shadow?

Then I worship you, I worship you.

You see, God wants all of us. That's when it takes place. And that's when God gets happy. And that's when he doesn't have to say, I'm sick of your songs and I'm sick of your offerings. He'll say, I love them because they're coming from a heart that loves

Here is the cleaned-up version of the sermon transcription:

Al deep in what-knows-where. Now, Hercules went to work with his shovel. And he'd dig a hole here and get some done. Then he'd turn over here and get some done over here. But while he was doing it over here, that hole not only got filled up, it got deeper. The horses, the cows, were doing it faster than he could work. Isn't this a picture of the church? We've been trying to shovel manure. Come on! Come on. We've been trying to shovel manure. We're going to get rid of pornography. We're going to march up and down in front of this and that and the other. We're going to get rid of abortion. We're going to get rid of liquor. We quit trying to do that. That's accepted. We done lost that battle and surrendered. And we've been shoveling manure.

Listen, I've been with manure shovelers for 42 years. And it's deeper than it's ever been. Are we going to keep shoveling manure? It's a waste of time. Now, there are two alternatives. One is to throw the shovel and give up, and a lot of people have done that. But I want to tell you what Hercules did, because that's the secret. He looked around, and he found rivers running north of the stable. He said, "I'm going to use all of my energies to dig towards that river." So instead of fooling with the manure, he dug towards the river. And when he hit the river, the river rushed into the stables and cleaned out what the stables could never have done otherwise.

Every one of us has a river deep running inside of us of the love of God. But we're not digging in that direction. We're digging manure. We're not digging a channel to the love. Listen, you know what a church ought to be? A whole bunch of little streams of the love of God joining together in a mighty river. But we're all out here shoveling manure.

Listen, I've got news for you. You can't even shovel the manure out of your own life. Some of you have been trying to change for years. No, I'm not preaching sermons now. I'm preaching out of experience. I'm a professional manure digger. I want to tell you the last story. It's a true story.

There was a young farmer who loved God. He had a vineyard. He'd work his vineyard and he'd praise God. And one afternoon while he was sitting down, just praising God, God spoke to him and said, "I want you to be one of my prophets." And he was surprised, but he learned something that all of us have to learn, and we'll only learn it in love, and it's called instant obedience.

You can only give instant obedience to somebody you really love who loves you. Otherwise, you're going to be hesitating to find out whether it pays off. So he said, "Yes, sir." Now, I think this is the way the second scene happened.

He was down at the grocery store buying groceries one day and he smelled the air. It was perfume. And he looked around and there was the most gorgeous looking doll he had ever seen in his life. In fact, you know what her name meant? It meant completeness. That meant all of her measurements were right. And God said, "Go take her to be your wife." So he did. He caught it and won her.

Well, guess what happened? They had three kids. And then something happened. Goma had never had a heart change. And so Goma went back to plying her trade. She came home one day and told Jose, "I'm through. I'm through." And she went out here and had a lot of other lovers.

Sometime later, Jose was back down at the grocery store buying groceries. And he heard a noise down at the end of the street. And he turned around and looked. And the minute he looked, he spun away from it because it was a scene he hated. They were auctioning off slaves. Did you know that early in American history, if you got in debt, they auctioned you off and sold you and paid you debt? Well, that's what they were doing down the end of the street.

It was a law in Israel. He hated it, as every person of God would. But as he turned away, there was something about the scene that caught his attention. He turned back around and looked. And they were auctioning off Goma. With a broken heart, he turned away. And as he turned away, God said to him, "Hosea, go down there and buy her back."

Now, Hosea wasn't a preacher who preached his message. It was a preacher who lived his message. You see, what had happened to Israel is that they had gone whoring from God. Read the book of Hosea. It uses this word, harlotry, harlotry, harlotry, over and over again.

God said, "Go down there and bye-bye." Now, you know, it doesn't take long to auction off anything. So instant obedience is important. Hosea walks down there, and he bids for it. According to the book of Hosea, he bids 15 shekels, which is a very high price for the slave.

Now, the Bible doesn't say this happened, but it had to happen. You see, God said, "Hosea, go down there and take her back home and love her again, make her your wife." You can't force love, folks. That's why God doesn't build any fences. He draws lines, but anybody can cross them. God's boundaries are not impregnable walls. They're just warnings.

Don't eat that tree. Don't cross that line. You see, what God wants is love, and he can't force love. Love is a choice. And I guarantee you this happened. I can see. Hosea said, "Goma, you're free." I paid your price. I want you to put your hand in my hand and go back home and let's learn to love each other again and have a home.

She's got a decision to make. And she puts her hand in his hand and goes back home. And they have a new relationship. You know what God was saying to Israel? Israel, you've been whoring from me. You've committed harlotry. I love you. Would you go back home with me? And fall in love again.

That was the message of Hosea to the people of Israel. And they changed the name of the kids. The home was so changed, they changed the name of the kids.

I want to ask you something. Have you gone a whoring from God? Oh, I know that most of you are too old to have an affair. But I think. But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about sexual affair with another man or woman. I'm talking about an affair with business. An affair with the church.

Do you know that you can... That's what Jim Baker said. I was having an affair with the things of God and miss God. That's what he was saying. I want to ask you tonight. Do you love God and really enjoy God? Or is God a sideline because you have fallen in love with golf or fishing or shopping or housekeeping or children rearing?

Or teaching Sunday school. Or building a great church. Most preachers, I'll guarantee, I've been one and I've done it. I'm so ashamed. My God was ministry. My God wasn't God. I was using God to have ministry. I wanted to have a good ministry.

I should have put it that way. But what I really wanted God for, not was just God for himself. I wanted God so I could have a good ministry. So I could have a successful church. I was an idolater and an adulterer. You know what James said? You adulterers and adulteresses, don't you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

I'll tell you how to know where you are. This is the best test. What do you do with most of your free time is where your heart is. Let me just say it again.

Look, you can fool your pastor and you can fool some of your friends. You probably can't fool your partner and your family. Your kids know that's why so many kids leave the church. They know their parents don't practice what they preach because they live there with them.

But tell you something, you can't fool God. Can you say, God, I don't love you. I might have used to, but I've gone a whoring after something else. God, there's something I enjoy better than you.

Look, I'll give you the simple proof. Most of you in here, I'm absolutely sure and hesitate to spend more time with television than you do with God. And God lives right inside of you and have him anytime you want.

See, if we enjoyed God, like we were singing, hey, I'm not preaching against television. Do you understand that? I'm not preaching against these things. I'm preaching for something. For him.

In his letter to the Ephesians, he said, "Repent or I'm going to move your lampstand." That's what he said to the church. Get back to your first love. That exciting, exclusive, wonderful love. Get back there.

A few years ago, my wife and I found out we were getting apart about five years ago. The fires in here had cooled down. Tell you why. Two mothers had come to live with us in their 80s who didn't like each other. And at the same time, we had in the house an 18-year-old son on drugs.

My wife was occupied with these two mothers, taking care of them. That's why she isn't here at this conference. One of them has died. My mother's died. Her mother's still with us. She takes constant care. And she's shared around.

And that's why my wife's not here. She wanted to come, but she couldn't come. Her mother has to be fed. And her mother can't walk without my wife walking right behind her. And she has one of those walkers.

But look, let me tell you what we came to the conclusion one day. Our... Love was going down, not because I was committing adultery or she was, just because of one word, neglect of spending time together.

And my wife and I got together and we decided this. You can't have a home, a real home, unless the primary thing in the home is the husband and wife loving each other. It doesn't make any difference about the mothers. They're not first. The son and drugs is not first. Our relationship is first.

And we've got to do what we have to do to get that thing back and warm again. So we did what we had to do. One difficult. Just spent time together and talked and communed.

And it's raging in my heart as much as it's ever raged. My love for my wife.

But it can go down. Now here's where I think we ought to start this conference. God was saying to Israel through Hosea, "I'm glad to take you back." Will you come back? I think God's saying that to all of us.

Now here's what I'd like to do. Everything, all change starts with repentance. And repentance is this. God, I have been wrong. You are right. And by your grace, I'm going to turn around and head that way.

That's how it is. Now look, if you have been guilty, of spiritual adultery, which is nothing more than not making God your first love and your warm love, and you're willing to repent of it tonight, I want you just to stand up where you are.

Now, don't stand up unless you mean it. Don't stand up because anybody else stands up. For God's sake, don't do that.

Now, look, a few years ago, I had to tell God, "God, I don't love you, but I'd really like to love you." I didn't love God. I was using God for ministry.

It isn't something that's going to happen in a day. Just keep standing. We're almost through. It isn't something that's going to happen in a day or a week. But I'll guarantee you this. The things I'm going to share with you are very simple about how to seek God.

When you seek God, that love is good. You see, the main thing is that God wants us to love him, not serve him.

And listen, have you ever noticed when you love somebody, you want to do the things that please them? When we love God, we'll do all the things that will naturally please him. And it'll be spontaneous and easy.

Now, let me just say this to you. You know what God's doing right now? He got up out of his seat in heaven and he's running down the road putting his arms around you.

I mean, that's what God's doing right now. That's what he did with the prodigal son.

Hey, listen. He's saying to you, "I'm so glad you're coming back home." Because home is a love relationship with him. That's what home is to him.

And so today, tonight, is the first day in the rest of your life. And I'll guarantee you. I'm just going to be taken from the Bible. If you'll follow the instructions of this book, for six months to a year, you'll be radically in love with him.

And the chief thing about you, will be your love for Jesus. And it will show up in a hundred other ways.

So, I want to declare tonight on the basis of God.