A Call to Anguish: a bravehearted thot by David Wilkerson

Our Christian culture is so distracted, so enamored with the world, so self-focused that we’ve lost (at a some level) the heart of Christ.

In this powerful short sermon nugget, David Wilkerson talks about a call to anguish—our need to share God’s heart.

In what could be considered the greatest Bravehearted Thot so far produced by the team at Bravehearted Christian, this “thot” gives a clear call to return back to the heart of God.

Listen to and Download the Episode

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Episode 26 Overview

In this episode, you will hear a powerful reminder from a sermon of yesteryear on our need to have the heart of God.

Show Notes / Additional Resources

Additional Resources:

• Listen to other Bravehearted Thots and Short Films
• Listen to the entire sermon “A Call to Anguish” by David Wilkerson on the Bravehearted Voices Podcast

Transcript of the Bravehearted Thot:

David Wilkerson: A Call to Anguish

And I look at the whole religious scene today and all I see are inventions and ministries of man and flesh.  Its mostly powerless.  It has no impact on the world.  And I see more of the world coming into the church and impacting the church rather than the church impacting the world.  I see the music taking over the house of God.  I see entertainment taking over the house of God.  Obsess with entertainment in God’s house, a hatred of correction and a hatred of reproof, nobody wants to hear it anymore. 

Whatever happened to anguish in the house of God?  Whatever happened to anguish in the ministry?  Its a word you don’t hear in this pampered age.  You don’t hear it.  Anguish means extreme pain and distress.  The emotions so stirred that it becomes painful.  Acute deeply felt inner pain because of conditions about you, in you or around you.  Anguish.  Deep pain.  Deep sorrow.  Agony of God’s heart.  We’ve held onto our religious rhetoric and our revival talk but we’ve become so passive.  All true passion is born out of anguish.  All true passion for Christ comes out of a baptism of anguish.  You search the Scripture, and you’ll find that when God determined to recover a ruined situation, He would share His own anguish, for what God saw happening to His church and to His people.  And He would find a praying man and He would take that man and literally baptize Him in anguish.  You find it in the book of Nehemiah.  Jerusalem is in ruins.  How is God going to deal with this?  How is God going to restore the ruin?  Folks, look at me… Nehemiah was not a preacher, he was a career man.  This was a praying man.  And God found a man who would not just have a flash of emotion, not just some great sudden burst of concern and then let it die.  He said “No.  I broke down and I wept and I morned and I fasted.  Then I began to pray night and day.”  Why didn’t these other men, why didn’t they have an answer?  Why didn’t God use them in restoration?  Why didn’t they have a word?  Because there was no sign of anguish!  No weeping!  Not a word of prayer!  It’s all ruin! 

Does it matter to you today… does it matter to you at all that God’s spiritual Jerusalem, the church, is now married to the world?  That there is such a coldness sweeping the land?  Closer than that… does it matter about the Jerusalem that is in our own hearts?  The sign of ruin that is slowly draining spiritual power and passion.  Blind to lukewarmness, blind to the mixture that is creeping in.  That’s all the devil wants to do is get the fight out of you.  And kill it.  So you won’t labor in prayer anymore.  You won’t weep before God anymore.  You can sit and watch television and your family go to hell. 

Let me ask you… is what I just said convicted you at all?  There is a great difference between anguish and concern.  Concern is something that begins to interest you, you take an interest in a project or a cause or a concern or a need.  Let me tell you something, I’ve learned over all my years, of 50 years of preaching… if it is not born in anguish, if it is not born of the Holy Spirit.  Where what you saw and heard of the ruin that drove you to your knees, took you down into a baptism of anguish where you began to pray and seek God – I know now.  Oh my God do I know it.  Until I am in agony.  Until I have been anguished over it.  And all our projects, all our ministries, everything we do… where are the Sunday School teachers that weep over kids they know are not hearing and going to hell?  You see, a true prayer life begins at the place of anguish.  You see, if you set your heart to pray, God’s going to come and start sharing His heart with you.  Your heart begins to cry out, Oh God Your Name is being blasphemed.  Holy Spirit is being mocked.  The enemy is out trying to destroy the testimony of the Lord’s faithfulness and something has to be done. 

There is going to be no renewal, no revival, no awakening, until we are willing to let Him once again break us.  Folks, it is getting late, and its getting serious.  Please don’t tell me, don’t tell me you’re concerned… when you’re spending hours in front of internet or television.  Come on. 

Lord, some need to get to this altar and confess… I am not what I was, I am not where I am suppose to be.  God I don’t have your heart or your burden, I’ve wanted it easy.  I just wanted to be happy.  But Lord, true joy comes, true joy comes out of anguish.  There is nothing of the flesh will give you joy.  I don’t care how much money, I don’t care what kind of new house, there is absolutely nothing physical that can give you joy.  It is only what is accomplished by the Holy Spirit when you obey Him and take on His heart.  And build the walls around your family… build the walls around your own heart.  Make you strong and impregnable against the enemy.  God that’s what we desire.

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About NRJohnson & the Deeper Christian Podcast

NRJohnson (Nathan Johnson) is a Christian who has an overwhelming passion for Jesus, the Gospel, and Studying God’s Word. He is a writer, teacher, and communicator who helps other believers understand and apply the Bible as they grow and mature in their faith—desiring that they gain greater intimacy with Christ, experience the victorious Christian life, and transform the world through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Read more about him here.

The Deeper Christian Podcast is the podcast to help you study God’s Word, know Jesus intimately, and discover how you can build your life around Jesus Christ. This weekly audio program, hosted by NRJohnson, dives into Scripture and encourages Christians to keep their focus upon Jesus Christ—equipping believers in how to study the Bible and know God’s Word, grow in their spiritual lives, and change the world. Main discussion topics center around practical advice on Christian living, Bible study, prayer, the Gospel, freedom from sin, evangelism and how to share your faith, the Christian disciplines, and the lives and messages from the Christian heroes from yesteryear such as A.W. Tozer, Charles Spurgeon, Major Ian Thomas, Oswald Chambers, Hudson Taylor, Amy Carmichael, Corrie Ten Boom, C.T. Studd, George Müller, Andrew Murray, Leonard Ravenhill, E.M. Bounds, and others. Learn more about the deeper Christian life.