A Burning Heart

The following message is from Min. Leonard Ravenhill.  May you each be blessed with a heart burning for the Lord in listening to this sermon.

•  The prophet by the very nature of his calling is a tragic figure.  He has a fierce loyalty to God and a burning heart of compassion for the lost world.
• Holiness is the most needed thing in the church today.
• Jesus undid all that Adam did.  He is the last Adam!
• All that people know in the churches now is that they have had their sins forgiven, but they have been submitting to inward sin for years.  That is not the message of salvation.  Forgiveness is not salvation!
• They preach to sinners in their sin, "You know the Lord loves you just as you are?"  Well, then, why change?  Yet the Psalms says that God is angry with the wicked every day.
• Religious people like to say, "God loves you, but hates your sin."  That is bunk.  God hates you for committing the sin.  Is God going to take your sins at the judgment and judge them, but leave you alone?  The Scripture says that the man who has failed God, he will suffer loss, not his sins.
• Jesus came to save us now from sin. A man living in defeat to sin cannot tell another how to be saved.  We must be saved from lust, fear, doubt, pride, etc.  Christianity is not a sinning religion, but a victorious one.
• The problem with most preaching is that people preaching never really sees or knows God.  Where there is no vision, the people perish.  Every preacher ought to read Acts 26:16-18 on his knees every night.
• The salvation of America does not depend on the White House, but on God's House; and before God does anything, He will clean up the church.  Judgment must begin at the house of God.  
• The most awesome task in the world is to be a man who stands between a living God and a dying people.  We need some Hellfire preachers.
• Yes, Jesus whipped the people in the temple, but a few verses back He wept over them first.
• God doesn't owe you a single thing.  The reason you are a spiritual dwarf is because you won't eat His word, you won't wait on Him, you won't hear His voice, and you won't obey Him.  The secret of revival is obedience!  But you cannot obey what you don't know.
• How can you have a dead church meeting if Jesus is a Living God?  You cannot, unless Jesus is not there.
• God's business is to make us holy.  If you have the Holy Spirit, you will live a holy life and nobody in Earth or Hell will offend you.  Once you get a clean heart, it will not mean a hill of beans who likes you or who doesn't (Psalm 119:165).  The only reason we get offended is because there is some of Satan's character in us, some pride or bitterness.
• Before God promises to pour out His Spirit on all flesh in Joel, He calls upon the people to cry out and mourn for the condition of the people (Joel 1:5-2:18).
• Entertainment is the Devil's substitute for joy.  The King in America is called Sports and his wife is called Entertainment.
• Praise is the gateway to worship.  Worship is the gateway adoration.  Adoration is what you do when you are prostrate on the floor.
• You will get more people to your church with a chicken supper than with prayer.  This shows the pitiful condition of the church.
• The church is mumbling on about the goodness of God, but refusing to acknowledge that there is severity in God as well (Romans 11:22).  
• Moses had been with an angry God and as a result, he became angry.  You get like the people you live with.  You live in the presence of God and you will become like Him.  Another problem of the church is that God's people are not in line with His heart; they do not share His anger over the condition of the people. 
• The church has lost the fire of God.  Our God is an all-consuming fire.  Where did Moses get his life revolutionized? At a burning bush.  Ezekiel said the fire burns him.  Jeremiah said there was a fire burning in him.  Jesus will baptize you with Holy Ghost fire!  
• The early church came out into the world without money, without prestige...only POWER.  Rejected by men on every level - including orthodox religion - but were accepted by God.  They went out anointed by the Holy Ghost and turned the world upside down. 
• The Devil isn't short of captains in his army to do the most vile & wicked things, so what is wrong with the church?  We need the fire of God.