You had love like a river in your soul. There have been a hundred women who got up here tonight and gone out to go after that nursery. I'm not joking. We sing words, and God is sick on his stomach. I had to take a boat now; everybody's spirit filled. We'd have hundreds of hands held up.

Brother, I'll tell you one sign of being spirit-filled. You got your heart full of love, and it's a sacrificial kind of love that when somebody calls to help them out in something like the nursery, we haven't got practical religion. We got religion can shout amen in church, but not pin a diaper on and help somebody out with 15 children.

I'll tell you something, this crowd needs reviving. And most of you just said amen needed too. Why can't men keep the nursery? You got your heart full of love? I'm not just talking to the women. What's wrong? They already proved children listen to men better than they do women. I'm serious, folks. Listen, we need to get down to business.

We could have had a revival in here. You don't need more preaching tonight after what we just had. We should be crawling on our knees before God Almighty. Listen, there are just two conditions God takes to operate. One is honesty, and the other is 100%. And we need to start out with honesty.

There's no bud, there's no blossom, there's no fruit. God have mercy on us. I know that's not a nice way for a visiting preacher to start out, but I'll tell you something. You want me to get up here and tell you 15 jokes tonight, and have you kicking in the aisles, and when you leave here, you'll be the same?

The turning point in my life came when I looked at my life and said, "You're a rotten phony." No fruit, not even any blossom. And I couldn't hardly be sure of a body. What about your life? I'm going to get honest tonight, deacon, preacher.

Praise God, before the service, the preacher met me in my motel. He said, "I'm about to quit. I'm fed up. I want to take the keys and lock the door and leave and get out." I said, "Praise God. You're where God can begin to work."

That's where God begins to work, when we get honest. Anybody can come to church and sing, I got love like a river and joy like... Most of you sing, I got joy like a river. God knows it's a dirty lie and you know it's a dirty lie.

You think God honestly appreciates that sort of stuff when he looks down from heaven? I'll tell you something, there is more repugnancy to God in singing than any other time about I surrender all and ask somebody to go to the nursery.

The preacher should have, if there were 150 spirit-filled people in this congregation tonight, every one of them should have gone out and got out and said, "Hey, I'm going to take the place of some of those teenagers that need to be in this service tonight." God's blessed me and filled me. I'm not just here to get, I'm here to give.

If you're mad, I hope you are. You know what's wrong with us? You know what's wrong with religion today? It's just one thing. We're all selfish. Selfish. We're thinking about "I." The big "I." What's in it for me? What have I got to get out of it?

Now, I know a lot of you need to be in here tonight. That's quite obvious. What about those of you that say, "I've got it?" Oh, praise the Lord. Hallelujah. You know how to praise the Lord in a nice little Bible study, and you know how to shout and pray.

What about pinning diapers on? When they need it, out there. You know what it's like to handle 15 kids? Some of you can't even handle the three.

We'll know we've had revival when instead of begging people to work, we'll have to turn them away. When nominating committees will be screening committees saying, "Hey, we'll keep your name in case we need it to teach teenagers." We've got 20 more.

We'll have revival when that happens. We need to get our religion down to pinning diapers and washing dishes. We've got somewhere then. You men don't think I'm leaving you out tonight, brother, either. You just think that there's no reason why you couldn't go to the nursery.

You know why God made you? Have you ever stopped to ask yourself why God made you?

Let me ask you a question tonight. Don't you realize the most important thing about anything is its purpose? A pencil that won't write, I don't care if it costs $500, it's no good. And a car that won't drive, I don't care if it costs $10,000, it's no good.

And a man and a woman that isn't doing what God made them to do... What God made them to do, as far as God is concerned, is no good for his purpose. You know what a sinner is? A sinner is not a bad person. A sinner is a nice, cultured, Tennessee businessman, or businesswoman, or mother, or teenager, dressed up nicely, who isn't doing what God made him to do because the word "sinner" means to miss the mark.

Let me ask you a question. I want you to visualize me now. Can you visualize an intelligent God making man without a purpose? Suppose you'd been up in heaven. Suppose you'd been up in heaven when God had the blueprints on his drawing board and somebody said, "What's that?" And they said, "It's man." That's what he told the angels.

And the angels said, "What are you going to do with him?"

What are you building him for? They're the blueprints laid out on heaven's table. And God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. And God says to the angel, "He's designed after me."

And the angel says, "What are you going to use him for?" What's he going to do?

What's his purpose? If you came to my garage and I were building something and you said, "What are you building?" I said, "I don't know." And you said, "What are you going to use it for?" And I said, "I don't know."

You'd think I was crazy and I would be. You know why God made you? If you don't know why God made you, how can you be doing it?

And the biggest lie of hell is that we were made or saved to serve. We were not saved to serve. God doesn't need us to serve Him. What in the world would He want most of us in heaven for?

If your concept of salvation is to get to heaven after they put you out yonder, out here, you're probably not saved.

Brandler Beasley was right. We've reduced salvation slowly down until no longer it's a ticket to heaven. We live like we want to here. I'll tell you something. We're in for a big surprise.

Why would God want us? I'll tell you something. By and large, God's moved on.

You think God needs America? He doesn't need America. You know, some of my friends just came back from Korea. Do you know that churches in Korea have 10,000 people in them?

In old Hague and Korea have 10,000 people. Do you know there's some churches in Korea that have been having prayer meetings every morning for 30 years at 5 o'clock with 1,000 people there? And they pray.

They don't have an American prayer meeting, which is another preaching service.

Can you imagine that?

Now, if you were God, and you were... Let me ask you a question. If you were God up in heaven, and you had the chance of choosing a loincloth African who lived in a mud hut, who was pleasing you over against a sophisticated Chattanooga, Tennessee businessman or businesswoman or mother or teenager, dressed up nicely...

Which one would you choose?

Well, I'll tell you which one God's choosing. You want to know where God's moving? Go to places like Korea, Africa, South America.

Do you know they already have a church in South America that can see 25,000 people and they're building another one?

Are you pleasing God? That's all that Jesus wanted to do. He said, "What can I do to please you?" Do this. He did it. Don't do this.

Listen. We do not please God with our service. We please God with our obedience.

You think God needs money? What in the world could he do with $4,848 when he owns the cattle in a thousand hills?

You think that's really important to God? You think Monday morning they carried those statistics in heaven's paper?

You really believe that?

I'll tell you what was carried in heaven's paper Monday morning.

500 people in Africa decided to give their life to pleasing me.

That's what heaven's newspaper cares about. And the angels said, "Hooray, people!"

And they don't care whether they're in a loincloth or in a $500 suit.

They're just doing what the Father made them to do.

I'll bet you anything the nominating committee at the synagogue in Nazareth pressured Jesus every year into doing something.

I bet they accused him of all kinds of things, shirking his duty. But you know something? He was living for one thing.

And one thing alone, to please the Father.

What's your living for?

Do you get up in the morning saying, "What can I do to please the Father?" What can I do to please the Son? What can I do to please the Holy Ghost?

I tell you, most of our religion today is selfish. You can read it in our tracts.

Everything is good. Get saved and have the good life. Get saved and get happy. Get filled and get peace.

It's always something for us, nothing for God.

Have you ever thought that there might be something in it for God?

I mean, after all, He's running the show, and it's what it's all about.

He's what it's all about.

Listen, all of our religion, just about, is self-centered. What's in it for me? Get spirit-filled so you can get happy.

Get spirit-filled so you can get power.

The reason we get saved and spirit-filled is so we can please the Father primarily.

Let me tell you where power first shows up.

It first shows up in Christian character.

It's power to be what?

God-pleasers.

Do you, by chance, remember what the first commandment, according to Jesus' interpretation, is?

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God. With all thy mind and with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength.

I want to ask you something.

If that's the most important commandment, what did he make us to do?

To love him.

That's what he made us to do, to love him.

Let me ask you something.

And that's what pleasing him is.

Do you love him?

Do you please him?

I mean, do you really love him?

Do you love him?

I'm not asking you if you love his work. And I'm not asking you if you love his gifts.

And I'm not asking you if you love anything about him. I'm asking you, do you love him?

Most people I know don't even know him.

And I didn't for years.

I knew all the religious phrases, but I didn't know anything about him.

You want me to tell you how to know whether you love him or not?

You want me to give you the best and most simplest proof in the world?

I can tell you right now to tell you how much you love him.

It's an easy little test.

It's true about lovers in Florida and Tennessee and Africa and New Zealand and Australia and South America.

There's one thing I've found out to be true about lovers any place.

They get together alone as often as possible.

Is that the way it is in Chattanooga?

You got a teenager in love? Don't they want to be together alone?

Isn't that the way?

Come on, is that the way lovers are?

How come you don't spend more time with him alone?

I know when you love him, I'll tell you how you'll know him.

You crave time alone with him.

I wonder if the truth were told in here this morning.

How many of you spent much time alone with him?

How many of you said, "Oh, I won't read the newspaper this morning because I got to get alone with him?"

Listen, the best proof of whether you love him or not is not how many times you run down to the church.

In fact, let me tell you something. If some of you get to loving him, you're going to run to the church less.

And I'll explain that to you in just a minute.

Listen.

The best proof of whether you love him or not is in whether you like to spend time with him alone.

You ever seen lovers have any problems spending 15 minutes talking that doesn't go like that?

Oh, it couldn't possibly be an hour gone by. We just sat down.

When you love him, that's how fast prayer time and Bible study time will go.

That's the test.

You've got his love letter.

And you've got the Watts line of prayer.

You just pick it up and talk with him.

My boy wrote me the other days in college in Kentucky. He got married last Saturday.

He said, "Dad, he said, 'I think it's going to be cheaper to get married than it is to make the long distance calls.'"

And I agreed because I'm paying the bills.

You know what love does?

Made him pick up that call and make them long, long distance calls.

You know what I mean?

You love him.

I know a lot of you don't. You go to church and you do his works.

But you don't know what it is.

You're a stranger to him.

When last?

Here is the cleaned-up sermon transcription with proper punctuation, capitalization, and natural paragraphs:

To you. If religion doesn't leak out into our lives and into our communities, it doesn't make any sense. We can come to church and sing about love and devotion, but if we're not living it out, what's the point? Can we have a few volunteers for the nursery?

Now I know some of you don't like this because I'm getting down to something that's right on the spot, and you all sat there tonight. You'd like me to preach against someone in Atlanta, wouldn't you? And you'd all say amen. But if you're not living out your faith, it's not genuine.

If you'd love the truth, you'd want to know the truth about yourself and you'd be glad for anybody to tell you. I don't get mad at the doctor when he tells me I've got a sore somewhere. I say thank you. I really appreciate it. Now what should I do about it? I won't get all upset at my doctor when he tells me the truth.

Hey, preacher, we've got to put you in the hospital. You've got a little cancer. I say, you rotten, good fellow, aren't you? You think you are? I say, Doc, I'm so glad I came to you. I'm so glad. I'm so glad you found it out.

Now, Doc, what should I do about it? If you love him, you spend time with him. If you love him, you're going to love his other children. I'd say we'd have a Holy Ghost revival in the church without one sermon if we'd just get to loving each other in our churches.

You need not go outside your own church. You don't talk about people badly that you love. Of course, you know, we've learned the sophisticated way of doing this. I shouldn't tell you about Mrs. Jones, but of course you can pray about her and then go ahead and gossip. God, the damnable lie of religion.

You know what I mean? I'm glad it's quiet in here tonight. It means it's getting through. We'd love each other. I'll tell you something. Listen to me. Listen to me. You want to know why the lost world doesn't come to our churches? They don't find any love there.

Backbiting, criticism, cutting. We'd love his other children if we loved him because that's pleasing to him. And when you love somebody, you want to please them. You see, when I love my wife, she says, give me some time alone. When I love my wife, I love her sisters that came to see me last weekend.

And my wife's so pleased when I treat her family right. She's just tickled to death. And I tell you, if I want to please her, I just treat her mama right, which is my mother-in-law, and treat her sisters right. That's just another way of pleasing her and loving her.

She says, when you love my family, it's loving me. And I want you to know something. You please him when you love his family. Let me just tell you something else. When you love him, he's going to shake your priorities all out of joint and put them in right.

When I started loving him, I quit going to church as much. Did you know that? I really did. When I started loving him, I started finding time to spend time with him. Do you know the most important time in your life when you go to bed so you can get up early and spend some time with him?

I go to bed early at night. Why? Because I need sleep. Why? So my first priority is to spend time with him. I can get up and spend time with him.

Preacher asked me tonight that I was talking to. How do you spend time with him? I said, just go to bed in time. You say, well, you're a preacher. You don't have to work like we do.

Let me tell you something. I work twice as much as most of you work. But I want you to know something. And I want to tell you what I do in my church. I have my devotions before my men go to work.

I have my devotions on Sunday morning from 5:30 to 7:30. This is not sermon preparation. This is my time alone with him where I can get with him and he can talk with me. And he can say, you've got a sore there, let's get rid of it. And he can put his arms around me and love me and give me his promises.

Sunday morning, 5:30 to 7:30. Monday morning, 6:30 to 8:30. Tuesday morning, 4:30 to 5:30, 7 to 8, because I have a class of men in between.

Wednesday morning. 6:30 to 8:30. Thursday morning, 6:30 to 8:30. Friday morning, 4 to 5:30. Then a class from 5:30 to 7 who were seeking the Lord with me.

I didn't used to do this. I used to do it just enough to put down my training union record. Why? I didn't love him. But you know, it was easier to take a glimpse than to have to face the folks with 30%.

But now I love him. I can honestly say the greatest times I appreciate these men's sermons, but I tell you something, there ain't no body better than the Holy Ghost.

And when I get alone with the Holy Spirit and his word that he wrote, I tell you something, he wrote it, he can teach it, and he knows me better than anyone and the rest of them.

And I tell you, he's my lover. And he just loves me with the word, and then he helps me pray. I just have the best old time.

I'm going to tell you how else you love him about priorities. You put your family second. You know where I used to put my family way down the line? My life and my family's life, my whole being was about to disintegrate as a preacher.

You know why? Because I was serving God and I was not loving him and pleasing him and giving him my all. I wasn't doing this.

And when I changed my priorities and said, God, why did you put me here? And he said, I put you here to please me and that's what I want you to do.

And I said, how can I please you? He said, I'll tell you. And that's what he's been doing ever since.

Let me break it down practically. I want to make it practical. I want to show you that God has at last showed me where real religion is.

I was down at the church one Monday morning about four weeks ago having my devotions early in the morning. My wife came down and said, hey. Joe just called from Orlando and wants you to fly to Memphis this afternoon to spend time with Adrian Rogers.

Now, Joe and Adrian are my best friends that I have in this world. They're my bosom buddies. She said you'll have to catch the plane at 10:30 in Orlando, which is an hour away.

Now, I was going to speak to the Mississippi Baptist Convention on Tuesday, so I was going to go to Memphis anyway, but Adrian had called you and said, why don't you come up and spend the night, and let's spend some time together, because we all used to be together in seminary, and then we pastor together, we love each other like brothers, we do anything for each other like brothers.

And you know something, I told my wife, I said, well, let's find out what's pleasing to him. So I picked up the watch line and said, Father, what you want me to do?

And he said, you made a commitment for noon today. And I said, what was it? He said, you promised your four-year-old that you'd play handball with him.

I said, that's true, I remember that. And he said, play handball with him. You ever played handball with a four-year-old? No pleasure to me.

I'm going to tell you something. Listen to me carefully. Listen. Going to Memphis would have been entirely selfish.

And that day when I got out there to play handball with my little boy instead of going to Memphis, heaven looked down and smiled.

And I didn't hear it, but I know it was there. You're doing well, son. Keep it up.

I tell you a lot of times I miss you.

Let me ask you something. Are you pleasing him? Is your life a pleasure to him?

I'm not asking how much you go to church or what you do. Are you pleasing him? If you please him, you'll spend time with him. Alone.

When you fall in love, it just shakes all the life on a joint, doesn't it? It really does. It turns it upside down. You make all kind of commitments.

And you love his brethren. Now let me tell you how to find them, okay?

I'm preaching two sermons in one tonight because God's really burdened my heart tonight. He stirred my heart when this brother spoke.

Listen, God made us to please him. Are you pleasing him? Or do you have to do like I did at around 38 years of age?

Look God in the face and say, God, I've been a preacher and I've lived and I've pleased myself for things I've done. Lord, I haven't lived to please you. I've never thought about what you were up to and what you wanted.

I got all of this for me. I can hardly think a thing.

And he doesn't send somebody to do it. You know, I have an old beat-up Bible here. And I thought, oh, I'd like a nice leather-bound one like this to preach.

And then I went out and looked at the price. Said, no, I've got too many Bibles now. I can't afford it.

And you know what he did? There's an old missionary that comes to our church. She was up north last summer.

The Lord said, buy the preacher that Bible.

She came back and said, Preacher, I don't know why, but the Lord told me to get you a Bible.

It was the very Bible I'd have picked up. He just gave it to me.

I can tell you 50 things that happened. I'll tell you something that I really always wanted to happen in my preaching.

I always wanted for the power of God to come down in the service in such a way that before I got through preaching, somebody would want to get saved.

A month ago, I was preaching. The sermon I'm going to preach after this one.

And I was just preaching away, and God was there.

Now tell you what, it wasn't my sermon, and I told him I heard Ron Dunn preach it, and I just told him, I said, God told me to preach what I heard this guy preach, and I was preaching.

And you know what happened? In the very back of our church, a woman got up.

Now her, we live in a little two-bit town right at the north gate to Cape Kenny. They only got 30,000 people.

Everybody knows everybody else's business.

And the woman got up in the back, and I thought I'd recognize her.

Her husband owns the Ford place in town, you know, and they'd be well known.

And she started down that aisle. I just kept preaching.

I didn't know what she was coming for.

When she got to the front, I said, what do you want?

Listen, the television cameras were on.

I said, I think they were on. I'm sure we'd televise our Sunday morning service or tape it and then pass it.

I said, what do you want?

She said, I'm a captive and I want to be free.

But you don't care what people think. You'll find God.

I was in captivity for years in a growing successful church by denominational standards, but I was a rank thinking failure in the eyes of Almighty God.

Absolutely no used to it. And I knew it.

Captivity to lust and resentment and bitterness. Captivity to weakness. I couldn't function.

And I took the first step. I admitted it.

I think I told you last night I wrote God a letter.

I remember it very distinctly.

I wrote God a letter that went like this:

Dear God, I believe in you and I believe in the Lord Jesus.

But if there isn't any more to this than what I found, I'm quitting at the end of a year.

And I closed that letter up. I didn't tell my wife. I didn't take a soul.

And I pushed that envelope in my desk drawer.

And I meant it with all my heart that there wasn't any more to the religion that I knew.

The religion of meetings. The religion of talk. The religion of a doctrine that didn't work out in life, talking about a piece I didn't have, singing about a love I knew nothing about.

If there wasn't any more to it, I was getting out.

I wanted reality.

And beloved, if you want reality, you can get it. For God's sake, give up on the form and get reality.

God let me stay there because he wants to get your attention.

Now here's the answer:

Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me.

And I will listen to you and you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.

And I will be found by you, declares the Lord.

Now listen to this.

And I will restore your fortune and will gather you from all the nations and from the places where I've driven you, declares the Lord.

And I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you in exile. That was his land.

I want you to know you're looking at a man tonight that God has restored his fortune.

You're looking at a man tonight that's made every mistake in the book and ought to be in hell.

You're looking at a man whose family ought to be scattered everywhere.

A miserable failure of a father.

You're looking at a man tonight that God has restored the fortunes of my family.

My daughter is working in a church in Texas as an educational worker, my 21-year-old daughter, in the youth work.

My son is graduating from Asbury College next week. I wish you could have seen his wedding.

It brought glory to God.

I've never been in a more Christian wedding in my life when they gave glory to Almighty God.

And my son says, my son who was in jail four years ago, I saw him standing in jail in filthy dungarees.

He was living with a bunch of boys and drugs.

His mother and I with long, dirty, stringy hair.

He says, I'm trying to go to the mission field for a year to find out what God wants me to do.

God's restored the fortunes of this family.

I want to testify, but I won't tell you how.

I want you to know he's a great God.

I want you to know he is.

I told him last night, I'll just tell you again, my wife had a nervous breakdown with shock treatments and the whole show.

And anybody in our church can tell you today she's the wisest woman of God in our church.

And I know my church that there isn't a more spiritually mature person in our church.

I'm not bragging. I just want you to know he's the God of all grace and mercy.

But there's a condition. You've got to seek him, not his gift, not his power, not his work.

Not what he can do for you to up the attendance on the board or to make your Sunday school class look good.

You've got to seek him because he's God and he made you for himself.

Most of us, listen, beloved, if we're honest, we're manipulating God. We want something from him.

And he'll not cause it that we pick out and sweep and then put him back up when we're through with him.

He'll not be used to enlarge Sunday school attendance, to get people down aisles.

He'll not be used to get us out of a financial jam after we lose our jobs or make mistakes.

He'll not be used. He's God. We're the ones that ought to be used because he's God.

When I was after my wife, when I courted her, I gave her gifts.

And let me say this, don't even seek his word.

Listen, this should just lead you to him.

The Pharisees knew this book from cover to cover. He said, don't you know they speak of me?

When I wrote my life love letters and when I bought a present in college and sent them to her, you know what I was saying to her? Come. Come to the giver of the gifts. Come to the writer of the letters.

Come to the source of it all.

What do you think I'd have done if she'd stopped with the gifts and played with them and said, I like them and didn't come to me?

What would you think if she'd taken the letters and memorized them and she didn't have time to come to me because she was memorizing my love letters?

What in the world do you think I would have done?

Everything I did to her was saying to her, come, come, come, I want you so I can commit myself to you.

There were enticements. Come, come.

Listen, a lot of us have stopped with his enticements.

He's given us gifts and we've become proud and self-righteous.

I believe in all the spiritual gifts. I believe in anything the Bible says, but I tell you something.

Don't stop short at the gifts. Come to the giver. He's got all of them and a million more.

You've got to seek him. Seek him alone.

Don't seek the blessing. Seek the blesser.

Don't seek even

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

Victory. Seek the victor. Then you'll have victory in everything that you do. Seek him because he's God. And listen to me. Let me give you a warning. Don't seek his hand. Seek his face.

For years, I sought God's hand. I want you to do something for me. Hey, come on. Come on. Come on. Do it. Of course, I was nice to him before because I knew that's the way you're supposed to be. Hey, I like you. Now, would you please bring my errant boy back home?

You know what God did to bring my boy back home? I used to tell God this: "Oh, God, when he was away living with all them druggies and stuff like that, I used to tell him, 'Oh, God, just do anything to bring him back home except put him in jail.'"

One day when I shut up long enough to listen to him, he said, "Why don't you want him in jail?" And I said, "Well, you know, it hurt his life." He said, "Come on, tell me the truth. Why don't you want him in jail?"

And I said, well, Lord, you know this little town here with this little two-bit newspaper? We got the biggest church in town. You know what they'll be saying about me?

He said, now you're getting to the truth. You're more concerned about yourself than you are your son. I said, Lord, put him in jail. He took me at my word and did.

Seek him. Listen, listen. He's got everything. You know what the Bible calls him? The A and the Z. And everything in between. Seek him. Listen.

I want to tell you a story from the Bible. We're almost through, okay? There was a woman in the Bible who was kind to a prophet. She built him a little chamber. And the prophet used to stay there, built him a motel room on the side of her house so whenever he came by he could stay there.

And one day the prophet said to his servants, "You know, we'd like to do something for this woman. She's been so good to us." And they went to the woman and said, "What can we do for you?"

She said, "I don't need anything." Now that's a very unusual person, isn't it? The only person who doesn't need anything is a person who has the Lord because he's got everything.

And so the servant said, "You know, Master, she doesn't have a baby." So the prophet said, "Honey, you're going to have a baby a year from now." She had a baby. The baby grew up one day, and he was out in the field with his daddy.

Now this is in 2 Kings. Anybody can read it knows the Bible. Out in the field with his daddy, and he got sick. And when the baby came in, the baby died. And the mother took the baby up and put it in the prophet's bed, and she said to her servant, "Hey, saddle up the donkey quickly. We're going to go get the prophet."

Now listen to this very carefully because here is the whole point of what I want to say tonight.

It can be summed up in this: And the prophet saw the woman coming way off there and he said to his servant, "His servant, go see her." And so the servant went to see her. And you know something? The lady wasn't satisfied with the servant. She said, I got to get to the master.

And she got to the master and the master said, "I tell you what we'll do. I'll send the servant back with my staff. And he can lay it in the baby's face."

And you know what the woman told him? She said, "I am not going anywhere without you." And the servant went and took the staff and put it in the dead baby's face.

And you know what happened? Nothing. But the woman said to the prophet, "I'm not going home without you."

Now let me tell you something. A lot of you go home with the prophet's servant. You come and you stop at the prophet's servant. Manly Beasley is the prophet's servant. Jim Hilton is the prophet's servant. They can't do one thing for your dead son or your dead situation.

Not one stinking thing. And I can't. And if you'll be wise, you'll press on beyond us to the prophet.

And I'll tell you something. Don't ask. Settle with the prophet with going home with one of his servants, that's the staff, or one of his little formulas. You don't go home without the master because he alone can solve the situation that exists in your life or in your home or in your church.

And I'll tell you something. You seek the Lord and find him and stay with him and tell him you're not going anywhere without him. It doesn't make any difference. If the boy stays dead, he'll stay dead. You're not going anywhere without him because without him you can do nothing.

Seek him. But there's one condition in seeking. Listen to me carefully and we're through. You've got to seek him with all your heart. You know what that means? You can't take a ten cent bet on God and get God.

Let me explain to you what I did one day. I went to the cleaners one day and I owed the cleaner five dollars and a quarter. And this is what the cleaner said to me: "Ah, she was a girl behind the counter. She said, 'I'll tell you what, I'll take the five dollars and trust you for the quarter.'"

I said, that's nice. I'm really glad to find somebody to trust me. And I said, since you're willing to trust me for the quarter, trust me for the five dollars and the quarter.

And you know what she said? I couldn't do that. Now listen to me carefully. She didn't trust me for the quarter. She was taking a quarter's chance on me. I look good for a quarter, but I didn't look good for five and a quarter.

Now listen to me. Don't laugh now. Because most of you in here tonight are taking a quarter better than God, but he doesn't look good for the whole.

And I'll tell you something, you don't believe God till you believe him for everything you have. You can't bet a quarter's worth than God. Some of you bet a Sunday morning and a Sunday evening and Wednesday evening religion than God. But you haven't sought him with all of your heart where you've said, Lord, everything, I don't care, sink or swim, live or die, here goes, you are nothing.

I say what you have to be like. You have to be like a gambler who owes $10,000 and has $100 left. And there's one number he can bet it on and the odds are 100 to 1. If he loses, he lost everything. If he wins, he'll win everything.

That's what it is to seek the Lord with all your heart when you bet everything on him. Let me ask you something. If you really believe that Jesus Christ is Lord of glory, why would you want anything less? And why would you need anything more?

Okay, here it is in withdrawal. You mean business when you come to him and you'll say yes. Before he ever asks the question. When you can say, yes, Lord, you're seeking God with all your heart.

Yes to what? Anything he'll ask, because he's Lord. You see what I mean? You with me?

If he's Lord, you can say yes before he asks the question, because you know what the answer is going to be after he asks the question, if he's Lord, right?

You know, Lord's not a name, it's a title. Get that? The Lord is not a name, it's a title. And it's a title that says, he's boss and he's in charge.

And if he's in charge and you believe it, you'll say yes before he ever says what he wants to ask you. Thus saith the Lord to this crowd tonight. Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool. Where in the world do you think you can build a house for me? And where is the place that I may rest?

For my hand made all of these things, and thus all these things came into being. But to this one will I look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at my word, the God for which no house can be built to hold himself.

The man and the woman who has a humble, contrite, broken spirit and trembles at his word, he says to him, "Will I look? Will you seek me tonight?"

Not to get me to do something for you. Seek me tonight. Seek my face so that I can smile when you please me.

Will you seek me with all of your heart for the rest of your life that you might please me when you do?

He says this, "I will be found by you." You can't find God, but I'll tell you something, when you seek him with all your heart, you'll be found by him.

Let's pray. Honesty. Something's missing in my life. I don't know tonight whether it's the bud or the blossom or the fruit, but you're going to get honest with God tonight.

And if you will get honest with God tonight, and say, "Something's missing in my life," and you're willing to tell God that tonight. I want you to indicate it to God. Something bad's missing in my life tonight, God. I want you just to hold your hand up as an indication to God that you mean business, that something's missing in your life.

God will see. Just hold your hand up as a sign of honesty to him. Just take it back down after you hold it up. We're going to wait a few more minutes. Is something missing? Tell God tonight that you know something's missing.

Just take it back down after you hold it up. Just stick it out. I'm not counting noses or records tonight. I just want God to know. If something's missing in your life and you want to tell God, up in the balcony, in the choir, just hold up your hand.

That's right. Don't be ashamed. You will have to be desperate like that woman who walked down the aisle.

Now listen to me here. Just take your hands down. Thank you.

Now tonight, I'm not going to ask anybody to come down this aisle, but I am going to ask for a demonstration that you say, "Lord, I..."

Tonight, I'm going to seek you for your pleasure, not for mine. And I'm going to seek you, Lord. I'm going to stand up tonight, and I'm going to call you, Lord.

When I stand tonight, I'm going to ask you to stand, just certain of you now. And when I stand tonight, I'll be saved. You are the Lord of all, and I am going to seek you primarily.

With all my heart. The best I know at this moment.

Now listen. Only those who held your hand up tonight. You are on it.

Now the second condition is this: that God really buys is that you will seek him with all your heart and seek him for who he is and he's Lord.

And I'm going to ask you tonight, now let me make it clear because I'm not going to ask anybody to come down this aisle. This is a record for God Almighty to keep and for you to know that you've made a commitment to him tonight. You've been honest. You said, "I have a need."

Now, if you are willing tonight, and I want you to listen very carefully,

To make Jesus your Lord, whether you have ever done it before or whether you've never done it before.

But you're saying tonight, "I believe that Jesus is Lord, that God did make him Lord and I'm going to make him my Lord tonight."

And I'm going to seek him, not his gifts, not his works, not his power. Lord, I'm going to seek you to please you.

That's going to be my direction of life from this minute onwards. If, with your help, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to seek you.

Now, if you'll do that tonight, let every head bow and every eye closed, if you would.

Thank you. Now, if you... No, I don't want your hands held up. I want you to stand up. Only those who held their hand up tonight. Only those of you who held their hand up.

Okay, I'm going to pray for us together now.

Lord, there are some honest people here tonight who said there's something missing. You know their hearts. And you know what's missing. And only you can meet what's missing. Only you can give the bud and bring it into a blossom.

And only you can bring the blossom into a fruit.

Now, Lord, some of us in here tonight have stood and said, we need help.

And then we have also stood to say that we recognize that you are Lord. So we are saying that we'll say yes now to anything that you have said for us to do in the future.

And Lord, we want you. We don't, if you give us gifts, we'll thank you for them and use them for your glory. If you give us blessings, we'll thank you for them because we know they come from the blesser.

But Lord, we don't want your gifts primarily. We don't want your blessings. We don't want your victories.

We want you. We want you.

The source of every victory, every blessing, every gift. And we want you not to use you to get something for ourselves, to bring our children back to you.

We want you not to get us a new job. We want you not to get us out of the jam we're in.

We want you that we might please you and serve you with all of our hearts.

Now Lord, I've made this tonight as my prayer too. I do want you that I might please you and these people too tonight.

And now, my dear people that are standing tonight, just keep your heads bowed. I'd like to pronounce the blessing of the Lord upon you.

For everyone tonight who has been honest and surrendered in totality to Jesus Christ as Lord, I bless you tonight in the name of the Lord.

And I bless you tonight with his wisdom and his strength, but most of all, with his very presence.

And as you seek him, you shall find him. Because you seek him with all your heart.

Please be seated. Folks, let me just say this in closing. I don't know any of you that stood. Of course, I saw a few right down here in the front row, but I know this.

He said, if we seek him with all of our hearts, he said, "I will be found by you."

And I want to tell you something. You'll never be satisfied till you're found by him.

And life's greatest pleasure, will be in pleasing him.

And the Christian life is an amazing simplicity. You only have to ask one question and everything.

What pleases you?

And sometimes you'll be playing paddle ball with a four-year-old. Sometimes you'll be taking your wife out to supper. Sometimes you'll be washing dishes for her.

You see, our God is amazingly simple and practical.

And I'll tell you something. He'll look down from heaven.

And I want to tell you something. In just a few years, I won't be out there and you won't be out there.

And the only thing that's going to make any difference then is did we please him. Right?