Dr. John Goetsch: Revival—Almost Missed

take your Bible tonight let's go to the Gospel of John in chapter 4 John chapter 4 this chapter contains primarily one story that many of us in this room are quite familiar with and I'm kind of counting on the fact that you are if you have recently been saved and and perhaps you've never read this chapter before I hope that tonight you will learn some things from the Word of God about what's taking place here in the life of Jesus Christ but many of you are very familiar with Jesus encounter with the woman at the well and we often do not focus on the latter result of that meeting what took place after his encounter with this woman because the revival that takes place here is a revival of one that spread to a revival of many and so we want to look at that tonight and as our text let's start in verse 39 John chapter four and verse 39 and many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the sane of the woman which testified he told me all things that ever I did so when the Samaritans were come unto Him they besought him that he would tarry with them and he abode there two days and many more believed because of his own word and said unto the woman now we believe not because of thy same for we have heard him ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ the Saviour of the world now friends revival can be a very fragile thing and what I mean by that statement is not to indicate that God is fragile or that God is fickle or that God changes his mind about whether he wants to grant revival or not but revival is very fragile because you and I can mess it up real quick you and I can get in the way of what God wants to do very easily we can quench the Spirit of God we can grieve the spirit of God and I know that in all of our hearts this week God has done some work but we must be very careful at this point because God just as easily as he can come and work in us by our action or by our lack of action we can quickly quench that spirit of God and I hope that we're at the point now in this week where we are very sensitive to God that were that that we've gotten to this quiet place where we can hear him and be sensitive to those impulses of the Holy Spirit in our heart because if we begin to turn a deaf ear to any of those God can begin to withdraw his hand of power and anointing of revival revival can be very fickle years ago I was preaching a week of teen camp at the bill rice ranch and there were about 1,500 teenagers there and the uniqueness of that particular camp was that there weren't a lot of churches there but the churches that were there had very large youth groups some of them had 200 some had 150 large youth groups it just seemed like all the big churches with large youth groups came that week and so we didn't have you know 50 or 60 churches with five or six kids but rather there were probably 10 or 12 churches there with these large groups of young people and that the bill rice ranch the week is is structured in such a way that churches compete against each other in various ways athletic events choirs saying and have you know competition and so on with music and piano and all these things so in some ways it almost works against you because these youth groups can kind of almost get to where they're their rivals and so when you you come into the service they've been beating each other up on a football field all day and now we want them to come together in unity and hear the work of God and they're looking across the way at somebody that they just you know we got beat by those guys and so that's kind of what was happening in the week and while these were good kids they were from great churches good youth groups obviously large youth groups strong youth groups strong youth pastors but we hadn't seen God really break through their hearts they were so focused on the competition they were focused on you know our youth group is gonna gonna win it volleyball or we're gonna win the choir competition wherever they were so focused on that that God was having a hard time breaking through and we got to Friday night and Friday night at the bill rice ranch is unique in that everybody leaves after the service many churches travel a large distance and so most of the churches leave Friday night at the service and drive all night back to their destination and because of the size of these particular youth groups many of them had chartered buses and had professional drivers that we're gonna drive them all night back to Michigan or back to New England or wherever they'd come from and so the service is designed to where you have this awards ceremony and they give out all the trophies of those that have won the various competitions and then you have a little break and then you go into the final service and when that service is over nobody's allowed to go back to their cab and nobody's allowed to go use a restroom nobody's allowed to change their clothes they're dismissed by youth groups to their bus buses are already packed ready to go so that we don't waste a lot of time there just get everybody out and on there terney and if they have to use the restroom there's a gas station down the road that's this way they do it not in four years like that so the service on Friday night is a little bit time-sensitive in other words everybody knows that we're leaving and the buses are ready the professional drivers are sitting in the buses the buses are running ready to go and so now you don't have the service and the preaching and there's a little bit of pressure too to end at a certain time well we hadn't seen a break yet we hadn't seen God really bust this thing open there were needs there there were kids that were not saved there were kids that were away from God there were kids that needed to get right and here we now were at this last service with kind of a pressure cooker of time and I was scheduled to preach and that afternoon I just couldn't get peace about what I was to preach and so I took a walk up to what's called Memorial Park it's a it's a it's a burial ground it's where dr. John our rice is buried it's where bill rice is buried Joby rice is very Paul Levine is buried there Cathy Rights is buried there now so I walked up there it kind of overlooks the campground and I went up there that afternoon I said Lauren I don't I don't know what you want me to preach tonight normally the last night you're trying to motivate kind of send them home you know hey let's win your town to Christ you know something motivational maybe a called a full-time ministry something like that to end the week and we weren't ready for those kinds of sermons and I am up there and I'm praying and the Lord said preach on hell I said Lord you can't preach on hell on Friday night that's the Monday night sermon you know I was thought you don't end a week on something negative and you start negative and work toward the positive you know preach on the second coming of Christ or you know something positive the Lord said no no I'll preach on hell I said lord I don't want to preach on hell and I'm up there walking around the grave of John our rice arguing with God that's kind of an ironic situation and for about two hours I'm up there arguing with God trying to figure out how I could talk him into letting me preach on something positive and the Lord kept saying preach on hell I didn't want to it went against everything that I felt was right to do but I knew what God was saying to my spirit and I remember finally submitting and going down there and into that service and preaching a message on hell and outside I could hear those busses I was sensing the the time element of it and I felt the pressure of you know youth pastors and and people in the audience saying you know make sure you're done on time know the camp and all the workers you know having to get all these kids out of here and and and and I'm sensing all that and the pressure of that and yet knowing that God wanted us to do business and I knew as I preach that God was doing some unique things I gave the invitation and young people began to come by the scores they came to be saved to get right when they'd get right with God they'd go back and get right with another person and it was one of those invitations where you'd sing a verse and people would come you'd sing another verse people come sing another verse people come and pretty soon about 15 minutes have gone by and again I'm look the clock and on the schedule we're supposed to be done I mean the bus drivers who are being paid by the hour are ready to roll and it's time to go but God wasn't finished so we went another 15 minutes young people continue to come and another 15 minutes now we were an hour into the invitation young people still coming at this point I was I was getting nervous and I I turned to dr. bill rice the third and I said do you want me to stop and he said don't you dare that invitation that night lasted for an hour and a half we finally said to the young people after an hour and a half young people this will be the last stanza sometimes we say if no one comes this will be the last times that we said this will be the last answer we will sing no more this is the last invitation verse if everybody comes when this is it we sang one more verse ten ten teenagers were saved on the last verse now I share that only to say revival is very fragile and I think back to being up on that mountain looking down at that camp wanting to do what I wanted to do and what if I had what if I had decided to to say god I I don't care what you want me to preach I'm gonna preach something positive I want them to like me when they leave and I want the bus drivers to be happy and and I don't want to stir up the card here tonight revival can be very fragile and I warn us tonight that all that God is doing can quickly and abruptly end if we're not careful at this point we're looking at a passage of Scripture where a great revival takes place but I'm going to tell you this revival in John chapter 4 was almost missed it hung in the balance a whole city was ready to be saved and it almost never happened I wonder will we miss the revival that God had planned for our life for our family for our church because at this point we're not careful there are three components I believe in this passage about this revival that was nearly missed I want you to see first of all the enemies of ministry the enemies of ministry now whenever God is about to do something miraculous you can be sure that Satan is working his maliciousness this always mark it down if God's doing something that devil is trying to counteract it and so whenever you're moving forward for God there's going to be some friction there's going to be resistance and we see it here in the form of some enemies of ministry first we see some religious politics going on here go back all the way to the start of the chapter verse number 1 when therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John though Jesus himself baptized not but his disciples the interstate what's happening here Jesus knew that these people were focusing on okay a whole man Jesus has more followers than John the Baptist I bet John's upset about that hey did you notice that Jesus is baptizing more people than John well Jesus is baptizing his disciples are but as you note and all of a sudden there's this religious politicking going on religious politics is rooted in jealous comparisons and the Bible very clearly warns us about this in second Corinthians 10 and verse 12 we dare not make ourselves of that number or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise again folks be careful compare your life compare what's going on in your life to the standard that God has be careful to even tonight to say well I'm having revival what's wrong with you well I don't know what's going on in that group but we're having a revival but be careful revival is very fragile and when we start looking around and we start comparing this and comparing that we'll look at our church look at the crowds we had be careful this religious politicking grieves the heart of God it quenches the Spirit of God and we see not only religious politics but we see reconciled priorities now if you've never read this passage before don't worry we're gonna catch you up to speed but allow me for the sake of time to move quickly through the story this first time through but look at verse number 8 for his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat now here's Jesus is in this place called citecar and there's a great revival about to take place jesus knows that that's why he came he knew there was an opportunity for ministry there not only to one woman but to an entire city and that's why he needed to go through this town but the disciples were oblivious to all that and they had reconciled their priorities they were hungry they needed something to eat now there's nothing wrong with food but nothing wrong with eating but we must be very careful that God always has the preeminence in our life in all things he should have the preeminence see if we're not careful we reconcile our priorities as being important and while we're reconciling all the things that we think are important on our to-do list we miss revival we miss the miraculous that God's going to do and all the time we're justifying our priorities because we've lost sight of his in Luke chapter 17 verse 26 jesus says as it was in the days of Noah so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man okay so Noah's day was a wicked time God God was was up to here with their wickedness God had repented that even made man because of their wickedness and God said I'm gonna destroy this world with water and he commanded Noah to build an ark and for 120 years Noah not only built an arch but he preached righteousness he called on the people to repent of course they laughed him to scorn wanted nothing to do with the message and Jesus says okay the times in Noah's day are gonna be very similar to the time before I come back as it wasn't these of Noah social also the days of the Son of Man so what did he say about those days he said the next verse they did eat they drank they married wives they were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all then in verse 28 he makes another gives another illustration he says and as it was likewise in the days of lot okay now we're talking about Sodom and Gomorrah another very wicked time period and God's God's fed up with it God's going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and now he says just like it wasn't these inoa like in the days of not just before I destroy them that's the way it's gonna be before I come back and he says likewise also as it was the days of lot they did eat they drank they bought they sold they builded they planted but the same day that lot went out of Sodom it rained down fire and brimstone and destroyed them all now think about what he said he said just as it was in the days of Noah just as wasn't these a lot so it's gonna be before I come back so what were the characteristics of that day that we need to be on guard about well they were eating they were drinking they were getting married they were giving away their children marriage they were buying they were selling they were sowing they were reaping is there anything wrong with any of those things is there anything sinful about eating anything sinful about drinking the right kind of beverage there anything sinful about getting married is there anything sinful about giving away your kids in marriage anything sinful about building or planting or so we in a reaping oh those are the regular things of life but those regular things had become reconciled priorities and they forgot all about God we can sit here tonight as a group of god-fearing people and say well bless God I'm not like the people in Noah's day I'm not like the people in Sodom today oh yes we are because what he pointed out about those days was that they were doing the normal regular things on their to-do list and those things had become their priority for living that's what consumed their time that's what consumed their thoughts that's what consumed their energy and they were neglecting what God wanted to do in their life and if we're not careful this meeting ends tonight and all of a sudden we go back to the same old same ol I got to go to work tomorrow I got to put food on the table I got to get the kids through school I got to prepare for a wedding I got to get this done I got to get that done and if we're not careful and there's nothing wrong with any of that if we're not careful we could go right past the revival that God wants to Dinn and then we see some ruling presuppositions go down to verse 27 and upon this came his disciples and marvelled that he talked to the woman yet no man said what seekest hour why talkest thou with her when the disciples came back with their hamburgers which were there on their priority list when they got back they marveled that he was talking to this woman now why well because we learn in this passage that the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans Samaritans were a low class of people in the Jews eyes in fact the Jews would often call a Samaritan a dog which was a very derogatory term in Bible days to call somebody a dog was about as low a term as you could use to degrade somebody so the Jews of the Samaritans due to a variety of reasons they just didn't mix and so when these disciples came back and they saw Jesus talking to this woman this Samaritan and of course they were soon to find out what kind of a woman she was what is he doing now you see what's happening here some presuppositions some stereotypes the disciples are thinking I don't even know how why we came here this is some area for crying out loud I don't know why we came to this place nothing had happened here what's he talking to her for this revival was almost missed because people had in their mind revival can't happen here this kind of person can't get saved are you with me listen if we're not careful we get we get to sort of lump and categories together and saying well you know I'm not gonna witness to that guy he he doesn't deserve vbc I don't care about those people in that country we need revival here well that little church over there I don't think revival could go there hey listen I got a great I got a huge task ahead of me these next couple days because next week I'm preaching a revival for a church that maybe will have 50 people in evening services now I could easily say to myself I don't need to pray as hard as I did this week there's only 50 people that'd be a huge mistake you see I can convince myself well revival will come to Lancaster I mean look at this place how about those people next week don't they deserve my best don't they deserve my focus my attention my prayers and if we're not careful well I just work a bus route oh well I just teach second graders and cactus kids I mean what's that whoa whoa whoa let me be the very group God wants to touch with revival be very careful this thing's fragile and the Spirit of God can easily be grieved by our stereotyping Leviticus says in chapter 19 and verse 15 he shall do no unrighteousness in judgment thou shalt not respect the person of the poor nor honor the person of the mighty but in righteousness shall to judge thy brother Paul told Timothy that thou observe these things without preferring one before another doing nothing by partiality so I asked us tonight who are we ignoring who are we ostracizing who are we saying well children listen to me who are you leaving out of your group teenagers who are you saying well they're not part of the part of our group we can look around this are trying well I just you know I'm glad they're here but you know I'm not gonna try to miss her then be careful we see also a ruinous procrastination look at verse 31 in the meanwhile his disciples prayed him saying master eat we got you hamburger but he said unto them I have meat to eat that you know not of therefore said the disciples one to another if any man brought him ought to eat who got here back before we did Jesus say to them my meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work say not ye there are yet four months and then cometh harvest behold I send you lift up your eyes and look on the fields for they are white already into harvest they were standing in a harvest field but didn't even see it and they were saying you know we're on our way to revival somewhere we had to come through this place Jesus a know it lift up your eyes and the revivals right here and so oftentimes we can think well you know revivals somewhere down the road listen God is a present tense God friend if you're not saved he wants you to be saved today God never one time in the Bible says get saved soon he never says get saved tomorrow he says today is the day of salvation now is the accepted time today if you'll hear his voice harden not your heart come now let us reason together saith the Lord remember now that creator in the days they use God is a present tense God the devil is the author of procrastination which oftentimes hinders revival listen Christian friend if God told you to do something this week and you haven't done it you're already late if it's right to do it's right to do today if it's worth doing it's worth doing now Jesus I must work the works of him that sent me while it's day four the night cometh when no man can work whatsoever thy hand finds to do do it with I might for there's no work nor device nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest redeeming the time why because the days are evil we can sit here tonight say well let's wait for a better day to have a revival no the fact that the day is evil is cause enough to redeem the time so we see the enemies of ministry now let's go back and contrast that with the example of the Messiah in contrast to the disciples who got caught up in all of this resistance we see Christ in the story and and we see that he has a compelling cause in verse number three he left Judea and departed again into Galilee and he must needs go through Samaria this was not the convenient route this was not the shortest distance to where they were going but there was a needy soul there there was a needy City there he had a compelling cause by the way it wasn't convenient or comfortable for Jesus Christ to leave heaven and come to this earth and die on a cross for your soul and it's not always going to be convenient it's not always always going to be comfortable for us to have revival or for us to be used by God as a vessel of Honor but we got to keep in mind the cause now notice as he recognizes Jesus does his need to be in this place he strikes up a very cultivating conversation with this woman look at verse number five then cometh he to the city of Samaria which is called Sychar near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to son Joseph now Jacob's Well was there and Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey sat thus on the well and it was about the sixth hour becometh the woman of Samaria to draw water jesus saith unto her give me to drink first disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat then if the woman of Samaria unto him how is it that thou being a Jew ask us drink of me which I'm a woman of Samaria for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans jesus answered and said unto her if thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee give me to drink that I would have asked of him and he would have given thee living water the woman said to him sir thou has nothing to draw with the well is deep for once thou then hast thou that living water art thou greater than our Father Jacob who gave us this well and drank thereof himself and his children and his cattle jesus answered and said unto her whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life the woman say to him Sir give me this water I thirst not neither come hither to draw you see the cultivating conversation of our Savior here what uh what uh what a template does our conversation have purpose or do we just talk there's nothing wrong with talking about the State of the Union no they're always talking about the Super Bowl but is it just that or are we wise enough like Jesus to take some normal conversation and turn it toward the Savior tomorrow it works oh he says hey who do you thinks gonna win the Super Bowl I don't know don't really have a dog in the fight I don't know Phil he looks pretty good New England gotta like experience there probably figure out a way to cheat I don't know guy says well I think it'll be New England well I maybe you'll be right hope you'll be happy if it is you know one day all of us gonna win or lose what yeah yeah I mean one day you're gonna die again win or lose I mean do you have a purpose where are you going with your conversations you talk about the Super Bowl till twenty days after it's over if you want to and accomplish absolutely nothing there's nothing wrong with talking about the Super Bowl there's nothing wrong about it with drinking water or drawing water out of a well but you see what Jesus did it wasn't just talk with Jesus there was a conversation that led this lady to God let your conversation I know that's our it's our verse from the beginning of Lancaster Baptist Church Philippians 1:27 let's your conversation and we've been told and reminded that the word conversation means our manner of life but it includes our conversation our speech he says let your conversation be as it become with the gospel of Christ so as we talk to people at work as we talked to people standing waiting for a bus as we talk to people about the weather whatever are we trying as Jesus did are we praying holy spirit give me an opportunity to talk to them about Christ that may not be where we start that's not where Jesus started but he led her in this conversation and because he did there was a churning conviction look at verse 16 jesus saith unto her call thy husband and come hither the woman answered and said I have no husband jesus said unto her thou is well said I have no husband the house had five husbands and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband in that said Estelle truly the woman saith him sir I perceive that that word profit well all of a sudden this conversation is not about water is it she's coming under some conviction of the Holy Spirit of God see when our salt is uncontaminated it will sting the of sinful man and God will take our words like salt as they are seasoned with that salt and bring them to the heart of a person now our job is not simply to bring them under conviction notice what Jesus does next he he gives her a call to Christ in verse 20 our fathers worshiped in this mountain she said and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship Jesus saying her woman believe me the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the father ye worship you know not what we know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews but the hour cometh and now is when true worshipers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth for the father seeketh such to worship Him God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth the woman saith in him I know that Messiah cometh which is called Christ when he has come he'll tell us all things Jesus say that her either speaking of thee am he he doesn't just lead her to be convicted about her sinful life he brings her to the solution he brings her to himself see friends we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord when Pete would Philip had a chance to preach in the city of Samaria he preached Christ unto them when he had the opportunity to go down and speak to one man the Ethiopian eunuch he began at the same scriptures and preached unto him Jesus why because it's not about us it's not about our church it's about Jesus Christ now finally tonight notice as a result of these two things working side-by-side and I said at the beginning when God's work in the devil is working and we see the enemies of ministry we see the example of the Messiah but now notice the explosion of the miraculous when we forget about ourselves and we begin to focus on Christ and revival takes place in our life God begins to work a marvelous way not only in our life but in the life of those who our life touches and we see here an abandoned reputation look at verse 28 the woman then left her waterpot and went her way into the city and saith of the man why had she come to the well well she came to get water she brought her water pot just like she did every day came at the sixth hour that wasn't the hour that most women came to draw water that's the hour she came because she had a very poor reputation in town she know that she would be accused of many things if she came early in the morning with the other women so she came later in the day with her water pot just as she had done day after day after day to try to meet the needs of her own heart but now she found Christ and when she did she abandoned the water pot she left it behind you see that water pot represented a life of the past when you come to Christ from the person comes to Christ you don't need the water pot anymore sin is no longer attractive to you the lifestyle of the world is no longer needed Christ becomes our all and in all the thirst that was never quenched by the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is now quenched in the person of Jesus Christ all my life long I had panted for a drink from some cool spring that I hoped would quench the burning of the thirst I felt within feeding on the husks around me till my strength was almost gone logged my soul for something better only still to hunger on poor I was and sought for rich to something that would satisfy but the dust I gathered round me only mocked my soul said cry well of water ever springing bread of life so rich and free untold well that never faileth my redeemer is to me hallelujah I have found him who my soul so long had craved Jesus satisfies my longings through his blood I now I'm saved oh listen when you come to Christ you don't need the water pot you don't need the husks you don't need the hog pen of the fire country anymore you leave that all behind because Christ your completed him with Jesus Christ in your life you don't need the water pot of the world you don't need the water part of a pot of sin you don't need the water pot of the past life you have Christ and we see an announced Redeemer in verse 29 she she she came there and said come see a man which told me all things that ever I did is not this the Christ she went back to that City she said to the man you've got to come and see you've got to come and meet this man listen when God overtakes a life you can't keep quiet about that it's amazing in the Bible how many times Jesus would do a miracle on somebody and say now tell no man and everyone I'm told somebody I mean the very God said don't tell anybody and they went told everybody why you can't keep that inside I was blind now I can see I was lost now I'm found I had to go get again water every day but now I have everlasting water we cannot but Speak the things which we have both seen and heard and now we see this advanced revival in verse number 30 the Bible says then they went out of the city and came unto Him these men they hear the testimony of this woman and they come out of the city and they come to Jesus and then to our text in verse 39 and many of the Samaritans of the city believed on him for the saint of the woman which testified he told me all things that ever I did listen your testimony can count at work tomorrow your witness for Jesus Christ that tracked you pass to somebody this weekend that door that you knock on it can make a difference in somebody's life this woman went back a changed her she went back without her waterpot she went back with Christ in her heart and she began to talk about him and what God had done and God used her to reach people but I love what it says next in verse 40 when the Samaritans were come unto Him they besought him that he would tarry with them and that any abode with him two days and many more believed because of his own word and son of the woman now we believe not because of thy saying for we have heard him ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ the Saviour of the world oh at first they were curious about her what happened to you where's your water pot but her testimony made them curious about him and boy that ought to be our goal that our life would not make people just curious about Lancaster Baptist Church or just curious about hey come here in evangelist or come see our church but hey come and see Jesus come and hear about the one that can change your life you see when we get quiet when we get still God will speak and when he speaks and we submit we begin to see as we go to the Word of God in search what God wants us to know and as we get into the Word of God we begin to discover things that are not pleasing to the Lord and we need to purge we need to separate when we get to that point of being a vessel that's uncontaminated now we can serve now we can serve you say but I'm just a new Christian I I don't know what I could do number of years ago I was preaching at a camp with another preacher I did not know before that we could camp his name was Robert Jordan he was a former military man he had made a career out of the Navy and he was still kind of a rough guy his speech was was even in the pulpit a little little crass little edgy he's a tough guy I mean when he'd roll up his sleeves he had tattoos I mean and he was a big guy rough even when he'd pray even when he prayed he was rough but he gave his testimony one night me Robert Jordan was in the Navy he had never heard the gospel he was on a ship in fact he was and I don't know rank in the Navy I don't know the rank in any armed services so forgive me for whatever I call him but he was the head of the ship I don't know if that means Admiral or whatever but he was he was in charge of this ship 800 men he ran the ship and they came into a port and a Christian witnessed him on the street took him to a service and he Robert Jordan trusted Christ as Savior now prior to that he couldn't say two words without customer he was tough he was rough he managed those men and and led those men through strength through rough language that was just the way he was but he got saved and he went back on that ship later that night they were gonna they were gonna leave port the next morning for a for a six-month tour and he got on that ship his life had been radically changed by the power of the gospel all he knows is that I'm saved that's all he knows there's no chance for him to go to church and hear some more there's no chance for him to get in a discipleship program he's saved that's it he's thankfully saved but he doesn't know what to do beyond this but God that night began to break his heart for those eight hundred men on his boat and in his quarters that night he said God these men need what I just got they need a Savior I don't know how to tell him all I know is what you did for me I'm not a preacher I want these men to have what I have I don't know what to do as he prayed and poured out his heart to God they're in his quarters God God reminded them how he got saved that night he heard the Bible he heard truth and it cut through that outer exterior that military Prasanna that tough-guy mo the Word of God had pierced thus under his heart and he said that's it the next morning he called those eight hundred men up on the deck of that boat they had already left port he called everybody up on that deck he had him sit down and he said gentlemen you're looking at a new man I got saved last night they're all looking at him like was that me he said I asked Jesus Christ into my life he said you need to do that I don't know how to tell you know how to do that I have no idea what you need to do but I do know that I heard the Bible preached and the Bible showed me how to get saved so I'm going to read you the Bible and he opened the Bible if somebody gave him after he got saved to matthew chapter 1 he said now you listen I'm going to read Matthew chapter 1 now if you've ever read Matthew chapter 1 that's probably not a good place to start I mean the first few verses are the genealogy of Christ there's names that Toby England can't pronounce and he stood up there and he tried to read Matthew chapter 1 of these guys now remember this guy can't say two words without taking God's name in vain the night before now he's trying to pronounce the jeanna genealogy of Christ he read Matthew chapter 1 he said fellas I have no idea what I just read all I know is I got Jesus and you need Jesus and I know that I was a sinner and you're a center and if you'll tell God you're a sinner and ask him to save you he will if you want to do that come on up here and you know that by the read a chapter a day for that six month to her to those men and by the time they came into port 90% of those men a trusted Christ as he stood in that camp and told those teenagers his testimony he said the last time I checked 400 of those men that were on my boat for that six-month tour are now in the ministry as preachers I'm gonna tell you friends revivals fragile but when we get quiet and we get submissive and we start searching this book and we start separating from what we know is wrong and we say God I don't know what I'm doing but I'll serve you I'll just do what I know the Spirit of God makes up the difference friends you think this woman when she got saved knew much about the Bible she didn't know much about the Bible all she knew is she met Jesus and Jesus changed her life and you know what this Saturday you can go tell somebody I met Jesus say but I didn't take the soul-winning class well take it but go out this Saturday tell somebody what he did for you you might be amazed at how God could use you we're at the point of service we're at the point now of yielding ourselves to him to place ourselves at his disposal to use however he wants and when we do that revival doesn't just stay in US but revival goes to the whole town and to the whole world and all may it begin right here revived John Goetsch John gets you be quiet you submit you search you separate you serve watch what I can do

Channel: Lancaster Baptist Church

Views: 2,654

Rating: 4.9259257 out of 5

Keywords: lancaster baptist church, lancaster baptist, baptist church, paul, chappell, paul chappell, pastor paul chappell, Dr. John Goetsch, revival, serve

Id: P5vb9OCYG9s

Length: 51min 29sec (3089 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 31 2018