"Others" - Rev. Ken Gurley

I um, if you would permit me tonight, the success of the children, youth in the adult camp this week is not necessarily what's happened during the week, but it is, as Brother Brewer mentioned, what will happen next week, and the next week, and the next week, and the next week. And if you would allow me, I want to cast some vision here on this last night, and to cast vision forward. And I, I'm going to have to borrow two of my three mentors in ministry. I lost my pastor, my primary mentor, this year. We buried Brother Kilgore, and, um, what a dear man he was to me, what an example to me. And then one of my other mentors in ministry, I want to borrow him as well tonight. That he's gone on to his reward. And if you would allow me, I want to share with you a story.

It was not long ago that I awakened from sleep around 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. I went into the den, and I just began, I grabbed my Bible and started praying because I had dreamed something that disturbed me greatly, not in a negative way, but it provoked my spirit, and it did something to my spirit. And I asked God, "What was it all about?" Because in my dream, in my dream, one of my mentors in ministry, the late E.L. Holly, who was Texas District Superintendent, who I worked with closely for six years, he was preaching in my dream. And I kept hearing him say one word over and over in my dream, and it was that word that awakened me from the dream. I couldn't wait for for sunrise.

And when the sun finally rose, I called the man who was my presbyter many, many years, and I still call him my presbyter now. And I called him and I said, "I need, I knew he would get up early, and I said, 'I need you to help me. Tell me, what do you ever remember Brother Holly preaching?'" And I told him about the message in my dream. He said, "Oh, Brother Gurley, yes, he preached that message. In fact, I remember the day that he preached that message. You may not remember, but you were late getting to the service that day because your father-in-law had you take care of something back at the home church. But when you came in, the spirit of the Lord was strong, and I remember you being moved by the presence of the Lord and coming down to the altar and crying out to God. You didn't even hear the message, but you were there that day." After he finished preaching, preaching that message that I was dreaming, a memory, a memory of a message.

And here's the word that I heard my mentor say over and over again. And the great Heroes of Faith, Hebrews chapter 11, it says these words toward the end: "Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might attain a better resurrection." In verse 36, "And others." And it was in my dream that I kept hearing Brother Holly say, "Others, others, others, others, others." That this thing is not about me, that this thing is not about my comfort, my preferences, and my desires. That this thing is about others, others, others, others. I feel the Holy Ghost in this room right now. Thank you, singers. Thank you, worshippers. Thank you, prayer warriors, uh, for bringing us to this place right now. God, I want you to brand in our spirit right now that word, God. God, I want you to remind us again and again and again, uh, Lord, that this thing is about you, and it's about others. Lord, uh, I'm asking you, God, to bless us tonight, everyone under the sound of my voice. God, I'm asking you, oh Lord, to move in this place. God, uh, we need your presence. God, uh, we need your power. Lord, for there are people in this building tonight that you will call tonight. Uh, there are people in this room tonight, God, uh, that you are going to raise up as ambassadors, Lord, to cultures, uh, both near and afar. God, uh, there are people in this room tonight, right now, God, uh, that are going to teach Bible studies, uh, that are going to reach to their neighbors, uh, that are going to reach to the downtrodden. God, I'm asking you, Lord, uh, give us an ear to hear, uh, what the Spirit is saying to the church. And I give you praise and I give you glory. And someone say, "In Jesus name." God bless you and may be seated.

The secret of a successful life, it's not found merely in having a winsome, winning personality. It's not found in attending the right schools, or even in perseverance. Because if you lean your ladder up against the wrong building, it doesn't matter how high you climb, you'll never get to the place you were meant to be. You've got to lean your ladder in the right place. And what is that right place? Paul said, "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." The great churches don't exist for themselves. They exist for others. Someone said that the church is the only institution that exists for the purpose of its non-members. That it's not for us inside of these walls that we exist, uh, but it's for everybody that's not in this building, uh, right now. Great churches don't exist for themselves. Great people don't build their lives around the totem pole of "I, me, mine, and myself," but they extend their vision toward others. That each of you, like Simon Peter, have a shadow of influence, uh, that can heal people you do not even know. I pray that as the sun begins to set on these last days of time, that your shadow grows longer and longer and longer and longer, and falls on more and more people.

You'd allow me tonight. I want to start with the criticism made of Jesus in the midst of his crucifixion. The unbelieving mob hurled one accusation after another against him, and he opened not his mouth. They spit on him, they mocked him, they scorned him. He opened not his mouth. But in the midst of their insults, they almost swerved into the truth. They said this: "He saved others; but himself he cannot save." Matthew says that it was so prevalent that even the two thieves hanging beside Jesus were hurling the same insults at him. "He saved others." That part is right. "Himself he cannot save." He could have saved himself. He could have called 12 legions of angels and destroyed the experiment of this cosmos as we know it. He could have ended the story of redemption right then and there, but he chose not to do it. The proper words are this: uh, "He saved others, but himself he refused," or "he would not save." But I want to tell you, the enemy was right, uh, with that first clause, uh, that God is passionate, uh, about, uh, others. This thing is for whosoever will. It's not just for you, and it's not just for your children, uh, but it's for everybody, uh, on planet Earth. "He saved others."

The Denver Blue Angels jet saberjet team, which was the forerunner of the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds, that did those masterful aerial aeronautics, uh, they, they, they performed before the amazed crowd many years ago. And Captain Johnny Ferrier's plane malfunctioned, and it began to spiral out of control. And to his horror, Johnny's jet was headed right toward the stands where the people, the spectators, were sitting. His Colonel commanded him three times to bail out. Each time, Ferrier acknowledged the command by, uh, clicking his stick and sending a puff of smoke, but he continued to try to steer the plane away from the crowd. The people on the ground saw the out-of-control plane screaming toward them, but the crowd, as the crowd watched in amazement, at the last moment, the plane suddenly was diverted and crashed a few hundred yards away, killing the pilot and leaving a large crater in the empty space. It was in an interview with an elderly spectator who tearfully said, "The plane was headed straight for us. I saw the pilot's determined face, and at the last moment, I saw the pilot heave with all of his might against the cockpit of the cabin and swerve the plane, uh, in a different direction." And in deep humility, that man cried out, "That man, he died for all of us."

It was a few days after the tragic accident that Johnny's widow was given his personal effects that he placed in a locker before his final flight. And in his billfold, uh, in his billfold, she pulled out the billfold, and this, the press was there, and they said, "Why did he do it? Why didn't he bail out?" She opened up his billfold and she found a folded piece of yellowed paper, uh, and the words were written, uh, when he was a teenager and had attended a youth camp in the summer. And they simply said two words: "I'm third." When the press asked her, "What does that mean?" he, she said, "When he went to the camp that year, a preacher got up and preached, uh, that God comes first, others come second, and you are third." And he wrote that down as a teenager and he lived his life about it.

If you want to know what an abundant life, uh, and a profitable life is, uh, in the Lord Jesus Christ, it's when you get your priorities, uh, in right and say, "Others must come, uh, before me." Great lives are committed to two great things. They're found in the Gospel of Matthew. First is the great commandment to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And second, it's found at the end of Matthew, the Great Commission: to love others. To love God and to love others. Jesus lived the greatest life of them all. Do you remember that verse of scripture early on in his ministry where it said, "He must needs go through Samaria"? Why? He had a rendezvous with a woman who had given up on life. She was a social outcast. But Jesus knew something that everybody else did not know, that that social outcast was the key to a revival in Samaria. Jesus was focused on others. He didn't say it's an option. He said it's a commandment. "He must needs go, uh, through, uh, Samaria." God spends little time with people, uh, who are not passionate about others. You can jump or you want to, you can dance or you want to, you can memorize the Bible all you want to, you can recite our doctrines all you want to, but until the day, uh, that you learn to reach out for other people, uh, you've not become a friend of God.

Have you ever heard the expression "us four and no more"? Have you ever heard that? I, I never knew where that came from. I heard it on my line. It came from a poem, a humorous poem that goes like this: "Lord bless me and my wife, my son John and his wife, us four and no more." A childless couple prayed, "Lord, bless us too, and that will do." An old bachelor prayed, "Lord, bless only me, because that's as far as I can see." The saddest thing is to have an apostolic with sight and no vision, that you can't see the people around you that are hurting. God is passionate about other people, and he's looking for people. He's inviting people. He's inviting the Atlantic District, young and old, in this building tonight, to share in his passion about others. God is looking for people that he can share his passion with. Abraham was called a friend of God, and Abraham was passionate about the souls of Sodom. He could have said, "Well, they deserve what they're getting. They live a despicable lifestyle. Those people deserve the judgments of God." But we find the father, the father of faith, uh, interceding with God for the souls, uh, of Sodom. When God told Moses his plan to destroy Israel, Moses began to plead for the souls of Israel. God's word tells us the fate of those who don't obey the gospel, and that knowledge alone should motivate us, uh, to reach the lost, uh, as never before. We need the spirit of a John Knox that'll say, "Give me Scotland or I die." Oh, somebody put your hands together right now. I'm preaching to you right now that God is going to stir up people in this building right now to be so honored. We need the spirit of an Evan Roberts, a young man praying for Wales, who was awakened each and every morning at 1:00 and got some other young men and women together, and they started prayer meetings, and they said, "Bend us, oh Lord. Bend us, not our will, but Your will." That was a generation that saw things happen.

It's at least once, and sometimes twice a year, that I take a trip in Manhattan. I, I get on the subway that will take me down to the Fulton Street subway station in the Wall Street area of Manhattan. I walk down Fulton Street toward the Seaport, and I get to Williams Street, I make a left, and then I make a right on a small side street called Ann. I walk about 50 feet, and there I stop and I say these words: "Right here, right here is where it started." That nearly two centuries ago, a tailor named Jeremiah Laniel gave up his business to start reaching the people on the streets of New York City. He was given the use of an abandoned church basement. He invited people to church services, they wouldn't come. He fell on his face and said, "God, what must I do to reach Wall Street?" When he arose, he felt impressed to spend all of his money on some small tracts inviting businessmen and stockbrokers and bankers, uh, to a noon prayer meeting every Monday through Friday. The first day, five people came. The next day, 50 people came. By the end of the month, a thousand people came. Noon prayer meetings began to spring up all over North America, ushering in what has been called the Second Great Awakening. I stand there on Ann Street and say, "God, surely there's a Jeremiah in our world today? Surely there is someone that nobody else knows that will mark a spot and say, 'I'm going to reach, uh, the others of this place, uh, no matter what anybody else does.'" We need a passion like Jim Elliot, who was murdered by a band of Indians in South America, who said, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." And after he died, his wife returned to preach to those same, uh, Indians. We need the spirit of a David Brainerd, who ministered to the American Indians, uh, despite his tuberculosis. He once told a fellow preacher, Jonathan Edwards, "I don't go to heaven, uh, to be advanced, but to give honor to God. It is no matter where I shall be stationed in heaven, whether I have a high seat or a low seat, because my heaven is to please God and to glorify Him, and to give all to Him and be devoted to His glory." What pleases others?

I'm telling you, there is something in my spirit today that I can't get away from: others, outside your comfort zone. I was young when my parents grew very concerned. They were concerned about my brothers and my sister knowing this apostolic message. And we left a very small church where things were very ritualistic. It had to be the same way every time, seem the same thing every time, same testimonies every service. They got concerned that we were going to drift away from God. They began to make a trip across the Houston Ship Channel, which was no easy feat back then, and they took us to Life Tabernacle on 2950 Broadway. And there we came under the spell of a James and an Imogene Kilgore. As a young boy, I watched a church that was less concerned about themselves and more concerned about others, and it rocked my world. I had never seen anything like that before. When I, when I was old enough and I could drive and I could make the trip myself or I could bum a ride to the church, it was every Friday night that we would be in downtown Houston in the most horrible place of the city because Brother Kilgore would tell us, "You are not fit to stand on a platform until you've learned to preach from a park bench. And if you can't preach on the streets, you don't need to be in a sanctuary."

I preached my first message, Acts 2:38. It was so pitiful. I told one of you about it the other night. It was so pitiful. I was so scared half to death. And even though my peers were encouraging me on, I was butchering it. I was doing terrible. About that time, a drunk threw down a fifth of whiskey and said, "Oh, you don't know what you're doing." Got up on the park bench beside me and said, "Then Peter said unto them," and he preached alongside me. My first message was hijacked by a drunk. Saturday mornings, we had to go knock doors in the Port Houston area where many illegal immigrants had come into the city of Houston. We couldn't speak their language, but we would invite the children to come to our Port Houston Mission. And on Sunday mornings, we would go pick them up, and we would take them to church. It got to the place that we would pick up anywhere from 1500 to 2,000 children every Sunday morning. And can I tell you, and then after I picked them up, I had to teach them, and I couldn't even speak their language. So we acted out stories. Oh, Brother Gurley, I've got a ministry. Not unless you can do kids' church, you don't. Not unless you can get down and pretend that you're Balaam's donkey, or you can pretend you're Jonah that's been thrown up by a whale, you don't really have a ministry because all you do is care about yourself and you're not caring about the people. Oh, that was Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon, our pastor heard we were playing football at the Bible College on Sunday afternoon. I, I think he was jealous. He called us into his office one Sunday night. He looked at us and said, "Boys, have you been playing football this afternoon?" "Yes, sir." "You know this is the Lord's Day?" "Yes, sir." "Do you think the Lord would be pleased if you're playing football on Sunday?" "No, sir." He said, "Well, here's what you boys are going to do. You're going to take some of those buses and vans over to the park in Houston where the hippies are hanging out smoking dope. We don't have enough hippies in our church." And you're going to bring me some hippies to preach to. You want to fire up your preacher? You want to fire him up? Give him somebody to preach to that he's never preached to before.

It was a trial and error. Brother Brewer and I would not recommend anybody do what we did. But finally, we happened upon the solution. We had Brother Kilgore teach us a few chords on the guitar. We would get our acoustic guitars, go out into the hill in the amphitheater where thousands of people were doing drugs. Now, you would think that a pastor would say, "Boys, you stay away from that area. You don't get anywhere near those people. You, you better watch out for those people." But I had a pastor that was confident of the spirit that was inside of us, that "greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world." That the God that's on the inside of you right now. We would get out there. It was really miraculous. The first time we did it, we'd sit down on the hillside, we'd strum a few chords, and hear them. They come. Those drug addicts were drawn to the music. They would come, and they would just be sitting there smoking pot around us, passing joints to one another as we played a few chords. They didn't know. We didn't know anything more about the guitar than that. But sometime when we had a good crowd, we would stop, and I'd look at them, or one of the other guys would look at them, and here was our sermon: "Are you ready? Are you ready?" Ready? Here's what you preached to drug addicts: "Do you want to get high? Follow me." Just start strumming the guitar, going back across the hillside. Feel like the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Here they come, and they're telling everybody else, "We're going to go get high. We're going to get high. We're going to get high." Uh, we'd have somebody standing at the buses just routing them in to the buses. Uh, we'd bring them to church. They'd walk down the front aisle. They would sit cross-legged on the floor, in the altar. But do you know that a half dozen of them are pastors right now that we brought in? Do you know that those children we brought in there are many, uh, in the ministry today? I'm trying to tell you that it's all about others. Oh, put your hands together and praise Him right now.

Can I tell you where the revival is in your town? I will say this with 100% accuracy. Are you ready? It's in your Samaria. Wherever your Samaria is, who are the untouchables? Who are the outcasts? Who are the people that other churches are ignoring? You go there and you show kindness to them, and the God who is passionate about every Samaritan, uh, is going to give you the revival, uh, that you have longed for in your city. It's beyond your comfort zone. It's beyond your ethnicity. It's beyond your language. It's others. Uh, in a village that need, uh, the help of God. My pastor taught me that godly people focus on others, not themselves. They don't escape to the high Himalayas. They don't clo themselves away in monasteries. They don't hide from daily life in people. But to be godly means to do what God would do, and that is to impart love to those that he loves. He loves others so very, very much. I'm so pumped. I got two events on my calendar that I am so thrilled about. One of them happens this next week. Oh, I am thrilled about it. I am starting a Bible study with 20 gypsy [Applause] families, and I am so thrilled about it. I, I, I just want some more gypsies in my church. Oh, I would love to see more people, uh, of different languages and ethnicities, uh, in the church that I [Applause] pastor.

And then the second event on my calendar is my, my wife and I have a burden for the 10/40 area of the world, where the bulk of the population of the world live. That's India, China, and Burma, and Bangladesh, and Pakistan. And that's usually when we do missions trips, that's where we go. And we go and try to connect the dots of apostolic doctrine. Oh, it's just so beautiful when it happens, folks. It's so beautiful. We were on a trip recently. My wife was teaching the women, one of my young men was teaching the children, another one of the young pastors in our church was teaching the youth. I was preaching in the main tent, and one of my associates was teaching the ministers upstairs. And it was, I don't, I can't even describe the joy of what happened. Every one of us was speaking, but at the same moment, the Holy Ghost fell on the children, and the Holy Ghost fell on the youth, and the Holy Ghost fell on the ladies, and the Holy Ghost fell on the people under the tent, and up on the fourth floor of that compound, 70 pastors, uh, began to speak with tongues for the first time in their lives. Oh, there was nobody there to cheer, but I feel like two nail-scarred hands were clapping and saying, "I died for these people. I want these people." And do you know, ever since we started going over there, you know what God has done in our local church? I now have Burmese in my church. I now have Bangladeshis in my church. I, I have numerous families of Indian descent in my church. It's just something that if you will cast your bread upon the water, after many days, after many days, I don't know how long, and I can't tell you exactly when, but if you were all New Brunswick, you have cast your bread, uh, upon the waters, uh, all around the world. Can I tell you, uh, that after many days, uh, there's a blessing floating down the street, uh, towards you, that God is going to reach you?

So the second event on my calendar is, we're getting ready to have our Asian meeting out in the western part of my city, the most multicultural area in the United States. And we're getting ready to plant a church of Asians in the western part of our city. I'm getting ready to go over to the house. Everyone's going to be cooking their dishes and bringing their food. And when it's all said and done, I did, I prayed every one of them through to the baptism of the Holy Ghost. I baptized every one of them in the name of Jesus Christ. And that is the nucleus for a brand new church that is getting ready to be started. Folks, it's for whosoever will. If you fall in love with others, you know the parable that bothers me that Jesus told? It's not so much the rich man in hell. The one that bothers me the absolute most is the Good Samaritan. Because when the man fell among thieves on the Jericho Road, the preoccupied and the self-consumed priest and Levite walked by on the other side. They saw him, but they didn't see him. That scares me half to death. Apostolics, is that we can see, but we have no vision? That we don't see souls anymore? We just see people that are in our way. Oh, oh, we sing that song, "Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord, that I may see." God, open my eyes. Paul said to the Philippians, "I'm sending Timothy because nobody else shares my concern for others like he does." Those who care are in the minority, and the majority are distracted and preoccupied and self-absorbed and self-involved. They just don't see. But Jesus looked at his disciples and said, "Lift your eyes and behold the harvest." Would you lift your eyes and behold the harvest around you right now? I'm telling you, the smallest package in the world is a person wrapped up in themselves. They can't look beyond themselves to see the hungry and the lost all around them. A dying Dr. Lyman Beecher, the last Puritan in America, he, on his deathbed, he was asked, "You know a great deal. Would you please tell us, what is the greatest of all things?" That dying Puritan preacher said, "It's not theology, and it's not controversy, but it is to save souls." And I hear God calling. "I need more laborers in the vineyard. The night comes when no man can work." At the sixth, the ninth, and eleventh hour, the Master went into town looking for more workers. Why? Because there's more harvest in the field. And we need people to heed the call because there's others that have yet to be reached with this glorious gospel. Oh, oh, maybe I'm preaching to myself, and maybe I'm not preaching to anybody in this building, uh, but we need a change in focus, uh, off of Facebook and off of Twitter, and off of Instagram, and we need to lift our eyes up to our Samaria and say, "There is my revival. Those are the ones that God cares about."

It was about five years ago, on a Mother's Day service, I, I was preaching, and midway through the service, I watched a young man stagger into the building. He was higher than a kite. You probably think everybody in Houston's on drugs the way I'm talking. He staggered into the building, and as a child, he had been in our Sunday school. But horrible things had happened in his family. But it was his mom's day, and Mom was going to church, and he wanted to be there for her. He obviously had made a promise, and even in the impaired condition that he was in, he obeyed that promise and he came and sat beside his mom at the rear of the church. He sat there five minutes, and I was preaching, and oh, you never know the seeds of the kingdom that were sown in children that at the scent of water, they can begin to take root, and a new shot begins to form. As I was preaching, I looked up and I saw that young man get up from the back pew and stagger down the center aisle and collapse at the front. I don't know what you have in church, I'm sure it's similar, but I thank God I'm in a church when something like that happens. There will be seven or eight young men kneeling right beside him, praying for him. I just kept preaching, and, uh, he, he just laid there, pupils dilated. The next Sunday morning, he staggered into the building again. Midway through my message, he staggered down the center aisle again. People got around him and started praying with him. This went on for five weeks until on the sixth week, he waited until the altar call, and this time he did not stagger, but he was the first one in the altar. He did not fall on his face. He came and he came and stood right about here, and he lifted up his hands, and he lifted up his face, and the Holy Ghost filled him. I, I'm telling you, uh, it was an amazing experience with God. I'm sure there were people in the building, they're always there, who'll say, "We'll give it a little time and see if he sticks. He's not going to make it." But let me tell you, the Holy Ghost is more powerful than meth and cocaine and alcohol, than lust and greed and the pride of life. After two weeks, he kept coming. He kept responding to the Holy Ghost. Two weeks, he came up to me and said, "Pastor, I'm back." I said, "I know you are." He said, "Pastor, I want to be used of God." Now, maybe in a prior life, I would say something like this: "Well, what we need you to do is go through an extensive discipleship course. We have five years of lessons. We need to pour inside of you. When you graduate from high school, you'll need to go to Bible College and sit there for a few years, and then maybe at some point in time, God will call you, and then he can use you." But where I'm at now, knowing that I'm racing the Rapture, I looked at him and said, "Do you have $2?" He said, "No." I said, "I can't help you then." And I've also learned, you don't give anything away. If somebody doesn't pay for it, they don't appreciate it. He said, "$2?" Huh? I said, "$2." I said, "I can't help you unless you come up with $2." He ran back to his mom, got $2 out of her purse, I think he asked her, and, uh, came back, handed me the $2, and I said, "Come with me." Now, I want to tell you, I was kinder than what my pastor was when he looked at me one day and said, "Come with me." When I told him I wanted to be used of God, he went, and I followed him. And my mind was going wild. There's no telling where we're going. I'm probably going to the inner sanctum where all heaven comes down and Gabriel delivers messages. He took me down a hallway I'd never been before. We stepped up to a door that I'd never seen before. He pulled out his keys and unlocked the door, opened the door, pulled out a broom, and said, "The porches are filthy. Go sweep them." And that was my job for five years: was sweeping the porches around the church. But personally, I think if you're too big for that, then you're too big for God to use you. I could camp on that, but I got to move on. I said, "Come on, son, follow me." I took him out of the sanctuary, went through the lobby, was waving at people, walked up to the bookstore, went in the bookstore, slammed $2 on the counter, and said, "Give him a Bible study." And the person who manned the bookstore had been doing it for so many years, he knew exactly what I was doing. He reached up like he was picking up gold, grabbed one of those one-hour Bible studies, and I stepped back and let him do his thing. And he looked at that young man and said, "Son, Pastor doesn't allow people to buy these Bible studies unless he has confidence in you. You better get a hold of this Bible study and you better memorize this Bible study." And I'm just saying, "Yes, amen, amen, amen, amen. Yes, amen. Yes, amen. Preach it, preach it, preach it, preach it." Uh, he handed in the Bible study like it was the crown jewels, and the boy received it like that. The next Sunday, he looked at me and he said, "I studied it." I said, "Okay." The next Sunday, he came up to me and said, "Okay, Pastor, I'm ready." I said, "Have you studied it?" "Yes." He said, "I memorized it." I said, "Well, go teach it. What are you waiting on?" The next Sunday, he came to church, his shoulders were down like this. I thought, "Oh, I got to come for the boy." And I went over and I said, "Listen, it's okay. You know, sometimes you strike out. Sometimes you just..." He said, "I just feel like such a failure." I said, "Yeah, I, I know. Sometimes you can't get Bible studies." He said, "No, Brother Gurley, that's not it. He said, 'I only was able to teach 13 Bible studies this week.'" And he said, "I'm ashamed." So, like a good pastor, I looked at him and said, "Well, I'm ashamed of you too, son. You can do better than that." The next Sunday, he came in, his shoulders were back, and they should have been back, because when he came in, he was not alone. But coming behind him was the messiest looking group of people. He filled two rows of people that day that he had taught a Bible study to that week. We begin to pray them through. We began to baptize. Do you know since that day, he has never taught less than 30 Bible studies a week, and today he's a pastor of a great and effective, powerful congregation, because the tell you get lost in others, God can use you. Musicians, come. I'm almost [Applause] through.

And yesterday, I got a phone call from that young man's father that had so messed up his world. And he called me. He said, "Brother Gurley, it's me. I'm so sorry for ruining my family the way I did. But he said, 'I'm coming back, Pastor.'" He said, "My son reached me when nobody else could reach me. I can't explain it, but when you get lost in what God is passionate about, that God is going to give back to you those who are near and dear to your heart." Oh, I feel the Holy Ghost right now. "Here am I, Lord." Abraham heard the call and responded. Isaac heard that call and said, "Here am I." Jacob heard that call in Genesis 31 and said, "Here am I." In Genesis 37, Joseph heard the call and said, "Here am I." Four generations forming golden links on the chain of faith, each saying, "Here am I." And there is a call going out in our world today.

Vincent Van Gogh ran away from church, his father's church, when he was a young man. Van Gogh's paintings grew very, very dark, and he's got farther and farther from God. But somewhere in the midst of his career, he started going back to church. And a new color entered into his paintings. The canvases were covered with a new color. His most famous painting, "Starry Night," shows swirls of yellow all in the night sky, swirls of light that you could trace Van Gogh coming back to God when the color of light appeared on his canvases again. But his most colorful painting was the one he painted right before he died, the painting of the resurrection of Lazarus. And you see Mary and Martha outside of the tomb, and you see the sun depicting the Lord shining in all of its strength, and you see, you see Lazarus coming out of the tomb. And Van Gogh painted his own face on Lazarus' body, that he was coming out of darkness into light.

It was not long ago I asked my wife and daughters if they would take yellow ribbon and cut up thousands of pieces of yellow ribbon. That night, I began to walk through the congregation throwing pieces of yellow ribbon into the audience. I said, "This represents hope. This represents your lost loved ones. Would you get a hold of a little hope? And would you cling to some hope? Would someone in here begin to cry out on the name of the Lord and intercede?" I said, "I believe in the next 30 days, we're about to see a revival of backsliders." My dad-in-law sits right here in our church, faithful pastor, man of God, 85 years of age, arthritic knees. I watched him as he dove and got down on the floor and began to pick up little pieces of yellow ribbon. Later, I went up to him and said, "Elder, what, what, what are you doing?" He said, "I want my family saved. I want my family saved." Do you know it was one week later that his niece, who had received the Holy Ghost in our church when she was 5 years of age, that had been away from God for 35 years, out of the blue, she walked in the door, came down to the front, and lifted her hands, and she's not missed a Sunday service since then. That day, here's what I'm feeling. Here's what I'm feeling: that God is longing to use every one of you in this building to reach others. That there's someone within your sphere of influence that if you could get a little hold of a little hope and say, "God, you're going to use me." In that 30 days, we had 100 people pray back through to an experience with God. I believe they're out there. I believe, uh, I believe they're in your town. They're in your city. They're up and down your street. I believe they're out there. They're just waiting for somebody to turn the light up and say, "There's some hope here for you."

The Holy Ghost is calling in this building tonight. I stand here on behalf of the mentors who taught me and cared about me and trained me to tell you that there are people in this building right now that before this summer is over, you could win 20 souls to God. Oh, I feel the Holy Ghost in this room. I sat on a platform in a camp meeting not long ago when the preacher was up preaching, and he was an hour into his message, and I was tired and hungry. When suddenly he shook his shoulders and said, "Oh, oh, he said, 'I feel impressed to tell somebody in this building that you are about to experience a 100-soul [Music] Revival.'" I don't know what you do when you hear things like that, but I jumped up on top of my pew and shouted, "It's me!" [Applause] Then I realized, not only was I the only one that was shouting, but I was the only one standing on a pew with his hands in the air, screaming. I fell to my face. I got home from camp, told my church what their idiot pastor had done. About that time, one of the elders on my board stood up and said, "It's going to [Music] happen." One month later, on a Friday night, 39 people received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. On a Saturday night, 17 received the Holy Ghost. On Sunday morning, 51 received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. On Sunday night, 39 more received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Be it unto you according to your [Applause] [Music] faith. Here's what the Holy Ghost is telling me right now in this [Music] building. Or just stay, just be seated just a moment. I need to see the reaction. I'm like Brother O'Donnell. I want to see the reaction. Here, are you ready? There are churches represented in this building that before December 31st gets here, should the Lord tarry, you will have seen a 100-soul [Music] [Applause] [Music] Revival. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] And let me repeat what I said a moment ago. There are individuals in this room that before the summer is over, you can have won 20 people to the [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] Lord. What I'm about to ask you to do is nearly fundamentally and practically impossible. Possible, but I feel this in the Holy Ghost right now. I need some friends of revival in this building right now. Pastors, I need your help. Pastors, I need you to spread out all over this building right now. If your pastor is in this building tonight, go to him right now and get around him right now and let him pray for you, because you are the answer. You are the answer. If you're here tonight from your church, but for whatever reason your minister is not able to be here, then find somebody else from your church and get with them right now. Go to them right now. Find them. Find them. Spread out all over this building. [Music] Oh, oh, I hear the sound. If you're in this building and you don't belong to any church, I wish you would adopt yourself into a church family, just right now. Go find them right now. Adopt yourself into a church family. Nobody standing alone right now. We need to bind together in the Holy Ghost and say, "We are going to be used of [Music] God. We are going to be used of [Music] God." He, red, yellow, black, and white, they're all precious in His [Music] sight. Holy Ghost fire! Holy Ghost fire! Holy Ghost fire! If you can't get near your pastor, get around some other saints right now, and let's get in one mind and one accord in this house right now. [Music] Salvation! He conquered the grave! You've been called to reach out! The grave! You've been called to reach out! He can move the mountain! My God is mighty to save! He is mighty to save! Forever! [Applause] [Music] Jesus!