Excerpt from accession 01-35. Sermon by Vance Havner
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Transcript of this excerpt
Note: Comments in brackets [] are added by the transcriber.
HAVNER: Now I know what you're saying tonight. You're saying, "I
wish I could have lived in those days when Jesus came." In fact, we
have a dear song in our songbooks and it's alright far as it goes
[clears throat]. "I think, when I read that sweet story of old, when
Jesus was here among men, how He called little children as lambs to
His fold. I should like to have been with Him then." ["I Think,
When I Read That Sweet Story" - children's hymn] Well, that's
alright, but may I remind you tonight, if you are sitting back there
saying, "Wouldn't it have been wonderful to be somewhere when Jesus
was there," may I remind you that He's here now?
UNKNOWN MALE CONGREGANT: I hear you.
HAVNER: Do you believe that? If I could get one church full of
folks that actually believed that verse, "Where two or three are
gathered in My name, I am there," [Matthew 18:20] I don't know when
we'd get out of here tonight.
COUPLE OF CONGREGANTS: Amen.
HAVNER: But we don't believe it. We've heard it too much.
Now some fellow across the ocean that hasn't heard it why that'd keep
him awake. Puts us to sleep. We've heard it too much. Evan Roberts
of the Welsh revival, my how God used him. But it got so the people
waited for him to come because they didn't think you could have a
revival until Evan Roberts was there. So one night he came and a
great crowd was there and he walked out on the platform and said,
"How many of you believe that where two or three gathered, the Lord
is there?" "Amen." "Well," he said, "do you believe that He is
here tonight?" "Amen." "Well," he said, "then you don't need me,"
and he put on his hat and coat and left. [congregation laughs] That
was a dramatic way of driving this truth home. I quit a long time
ago saying, "Lord be with us," in meeting. I...I hear somebody
nearly every time say, "Lord be with us." Now, I think I know what
they mean. I think they mean, "Make us aware of Thy presence and
conscious of Thy presence." But He's here. He's right here tonight.
And the thing that I hope you noticed about these folks I mentioned
is that nearly every one of them was desperate. Now, we don't have
many people today in holy desperation to get through to God. They
get desperate and get drunk and take drugs and kill themselves and
everything else. All the way through the Bible, Jacob at Jabbok,
Moses at the Red Sea, Gideon, David and Goliath, the lepers in the
gate of Samaria, [?], the Syro-Phoenician, the woman and the judge
in the parable, and the man that had no bread at midnight for his
guests, every one of them desperate. But there was one chap who
stood head and shoulders above all those folks who missed his
blessing while they got theirs. He was the rich, young ruler.
The trouble with that boy was he was not desperate. He could take
it or leave it. And as long as you can take it or leave it, you'll
walk off and leave it every time. He looked like he meant business,
but he didn't....
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