How long ago I
went to visit a city and it's a
very strange place.
The streets are dark, just two or three
feet wide in places.
And it's better not to look anyway up,
because although the houses are built very, very
close together, strange things drip out of the
windows.
And when I first went, there was only
one toilet for the 50,000 people.
Everything else went into the open stairs.
But I was walking down there some time
ago and I trapped a couple of drug
pushers down a street.
And normally they managed to get away from
me.
And this time I backed them into a
shear.
And so I said to them, because we
found this is the quickest way of preaching
the Gospel, can I pray for you?
And so they said, well, a bit embarrassed
really, but all right.
So I said, well, you don't have to
do any praying.
I'm going to pray in Jesus' name.
And so they shut their eyes.
I said to them, please open your hands,
because he's going to give you things.
And I prayed for them both.
And I saw the Holy Spirit come upon
them both.
He's very indiscriminate.
And he came down on them both.
And one of them began to cry.
And the other one said, Oh, God, that
was so, oh, that was so bad.
I feel very loose.
I don't know why they very often say
this.
I feel very loose.
Old ladies say it too when they get
prayed for, because it seems to be that
God heals them in their chests.
Where they've been constricted.
This is the most normal reply after praying
for people.
I feel loose.
I feel set free.
And he said, I never would have guessed.
I never would have guessed.
I'd heard that he loved other people.
But I never would have guessed he would
come to me.
He knew that it was unfair.
Because he knew he was pushing drugs.
You see, they understand grace.
And I said, Well, would you like to
follow Jesus?
You know, he is the Son of God.
And one of them said, If he's the
true God, who else?
They often reply like that.
So I prayed again for them.
And then I went up to a little
house.
Up the staircase.
And up the staircase, you have to go
one by one.
I went into a little room there, which
is divided up into bed spaces.
Just one room.
And they've got sort of cardboard partitions inside.
And there was a couple that lived there.
One was a butcher.
And he lived with an old prostitute.
She must have been 65 or so.
And still working.
Because there's nothing you're going to retire on
when you can't work anymore.
And she took heroin.
So you could see the needle marks in
the back of her hands.
And he had very bad asthma.
And I went into their house.
And I was with a friend who used
to be a very famous triad fighter.
And they recognized him.
And they said, Oh, hi, A-Ping.
And I said to them, Can I pray
for you?
And they said, Would you?
You know, nearly everyone in the world will
let you pray for them.
Most people feel that it's kind of flattery.
You know, if you ask if you can
pray for them, try.
And so they looked awfully pleased that we'd
pray for them.
And I said, Oh, I'm going to pray
for you in Jesus' name.
And they looked even more pleased.
Because they'd heard that when people got prayed
for in Jesus' name, they got healed and
set free.
So I prayed for them.
And the man's asthma got healed.
And every time we prayed for him, his
breathing got completely clear.
And he said, I'd heard, I'd heard that
he did this for other people.
But I never guessed he would come to
me.
Now, it's that easy to preach the gospel.
It's no more difficult than that.
If it were, Jesus would never have entrusted
the task to you and me.
And I don't know how he could dare.
I often think what a nerve Jesus had
to leave the world at the time he
did.
In the hands of his disciples.
I mean, a really rotten bunch.
He trained them Wimber style.
They'd done the stuff.
They'd been with him.
And they let him down when he died.
They fled.
And yet he dared to leave the world
to them.
Because he trusted his father.
And because he promised that they were not
to do the job alone.
But they were to do this job with
the Holy Spirit.
To keep him company.
And that's what the Lord's been saying to
us tonight.
I think he said rather clearly, Go.
That's what I'm supposed to be doing.
That's what you're supposed to be doing.
And it doesn't seem to be optional.
Well, would you long for a time when
you could walk into the streets and see
people healed?
Would you long for the time when you
could squash 60 people into a small room
like we do and wait?
And we rarely wait longer than 5 minutes
before seeing people come to Jesus.
Would you long for a time?
Do you long for revival?
Well, we heard a little bit about this
yesterday.
Or does it just happen?
Is it that it's a special time of
God that these things are happening in Hong
Kong?
Could it and should it happen in Essex
here?
Well, we heard yesterday that various men of
God have been praying for this.
And some have prophesied that it would be
so.
In England, maybe even Essex.
Is it going to happen anyway?
I believe some of you went to Phil's
talk this afternoon.
Does it in any way depend on me?
And I want to answer a little bit
this evening how I believe that for some
reason we have a part to play.
Now, if anybody asks me why these things
have happened in Hong Kong, I would immediately
say, straight away, with no hesitation, it's God's
business.
We don't see miracles because we've been faithful.
No, we have not.
We don't see miracles because we've suddenly learned
a secret of how to get revival.
I don't know those secrets.
I feel that, for me, I've been there
just 20, nearly 23 years now, I feel
actually I was planted, that's all.
I was just put in a set-up
job.
The whole thing was fixed.
And...
For me, it's been the greatest privilege of
my whole life to be somewhere in God's
set-up.
I believe that completely.
The whole thing was His idea.
He's sovereign and He's done it not because
of me but despite me.
And in His mercy, He's let me be
somewhere in it.
But...
He gave me that privilege.
And the privilege was of choosing to obey
or not.
I believe God wanted to do it anyway.
But in His mercy, He let me be
in it.
And so, this evening, He's offered the same
privilege to all of us here.
And He said, go.
And He said, don't worry because I'm going
to go with you.
And He said, don't worry.
I'll never leave you.
I'm going to empower you.
But I want to tell you something about
this privilege of preaching the gospel.
It kills you.
And I wish that tonight, everything I could
share would be only miracles.
I wish everything that I could share would
be as simple as how to go out
and pray for those in the streets in
the name of Jesus and see His Spirit
come upon them.
See them healed and set free.
I wish it were that simple.
But I'm sorry if you want to experience
that.
If you want to be part of what
I believe God is offering this country.
I'm afraid there's only one way.
And it'll kill you.
Have you ever listened to somebody challenging you
and replied I couldn't do that.
I could never do that.
It would kill me.
It's meant to.
So the message that we have tonight is
this.
If you would preach the gospel in the
power of the resurrection you must know death.
You must know death in your own life
that you may see life in others.
I want to read you from Hebrews 11.
Hebrews 11, 32.
And what more shall I say?
I do not have time to tell you
about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and
the prophets who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered
justice and gained what was promised.
So we have a list here of men
who gained what was promised and a following
list of many who gained for others what
was promised but died themselves in the gaining.
How much part did those men play in
God's purpose and how much was it a
set up?
We could look at Samuel's life so if
you have bibles turn to 1 Samuel because
I want to have a quick look at
his life to understand the part that we
play in God's purpose.
Here we are in 1 Samuel 1 and
we read about a lady called Hannah verse
6 Because the Lord had closed her womb
her rival kept provoking her in order to
irritate her an unhappy woman.
In verse 10 She wept much and prayed
to the Lord well she took it to
the right place and she made a vow
saying, O Lord God Almighty if you'll only
look upon your servant's misery and remember me
and not forget your servant but give her
a son then I'll give him to the
Lord for all the days of his life.
So here is Samuel born as the result
of a vow and Eli the priest hearing
the woman said in verse 17 Go in
peace and may the God of Israel grant
you what you've asked of him and she
went away and her face was no longer
downcast verse 20 in the course of time
she conceived and gave birth to a son
and she named him Samuel verse 20 5
She brought the boy to Eli and said
to him, Surely as you live my Lord,
I'm the woman who stood here beside you,
praying to the Lord I prayed for this
child and the Lord has granted me what
I asked of him It's a pretty set
up job so far Here's a boy Samuel
who was born obviously by the design of
the Lord and in answer to prayer he's
dedicated even before his birth and so in
his very early childhood he grows up ministering
to the Lord chapter 2 verse 11 The
boy ministered before the Lord under Eli the
priest but we learn in verse 12 that
Eli's sons were wicked, they had no regard
for the Lord and their sin was very
great in the Lord's sight, verse 17 for
they were treating the Lord's offering with contempt
So we learn that Samuel was born at
a time when men needed the move of
God in their land for those who should
have been ministering to the Lord and ministering
the Lord's heart and word to them were
treating offerings with contempt and living unholy lives
verse 18 but Samuel was ministering before the
Lord a boy wearing a linen ephod and
then we hear that Eli's sons in verse
22 were doing terrible things and Eli spoke
to them and knew how they slept with
the women who served at the entrance to
the tent of meeting and he said to
them why do you do such things I
hear from all the people about these wicked
deeds of yours know my sons it's not
a good report that I hear spreading amongst
the Lord's people if a man sins against
another man God may mediate for him but
if a man sins against the Lord who
will intercede for him his sons however did
not listen to their father's rebuke for it
was the Lord's will to put them to
death and the boy Samuel continued to grow
in stature and in favor with the Lord
and with men have you got it yet
you see Samuel is awfully like Jesus very
similar very similar he continued to grow in
stature and in favor with the Lord and
with men so here he is a man
whom God has chosen for a purpose because
the land of Israel is filled with unholiness
and wickedness and the priests of God are
living sinful lives so Samuel's in place and
he's being trained even before he knows it
and I want to read quite a lot
of chapter 3 chapter 3 the boy Samuel
ministered before the Lord under Eli in those
days the word of the Lord was rare
there were not many visions so it seems
that for a long time there had been
silence Eli had been a priest but he
had not observed what his sons were doing
he had not called them to order and
they had not feared the Lord and the
land was in a mess it could be
fairly similar to our own countries except I
believe that there may be many more people
sent by God such as Samuel in answer
to prayers of their mothers or the saints
who have been praying down the ages for
this country I'll dedicate my son Lord send
your servants to this country because there's wickedness
there's unholiness there's bad living even from amongst
the people of God Lord in your mercy
send servants into this land that it might
be cleaned up and the people can enjoy
your favour so Samuel's in place so Jesus
was in place sent by his father into
the world to rescue the world from sin
because God in his mercy didn't want anyone
to perish and although the priests of God
in Jesus' time were busy with the wrong
things sadly they were not busy with the
hearts of men they were not busy with
mercy they were not busy with the love
of God they were busy with law they
were busy with judgement they were busy with
things that condemned other men so God in
his mercy sent a saviour and now he
sends you and me with the same message
of freedom of holiness of righteousness of forgiveness
of God's heart for his people I was
five I think when I decided to be
a missionary and I didn't know what they
were but we had a proper one came
to our Sunday school and she was wearing
a bun and I can remember her she
looked down at us and I've got a
twin sister and we were sitting on our
baby seats and she pointed at each one
of us and said and could God want
you on the mission field and I can
remember thinking well the answer to that question
can't be no I wasn't very happy about
it but I thought you couldn't reply negative
you know I'm sure God wanted everyone on
the mission field whatever the mission field was
and I didn't know what it was it
looked like a rugby pitch in my mind
so after that I used to go around
telling people I'm going to be a missionary
and except as I grew up I learnt
this wasn't too smart because people expected you
to behave better than other people if you're
going to be a missionary so I thought
this was very unfair and kept quiet and
I learnt that in England you know speaking
about God's like underwear it's close
to you and it's personal so so I
had this knowledge about God and the fact
that he called me all the way through
my childhood and I was very much not
looking forward to meeting God because I had
this picture of him in heaven with a
large book and in which all my sins
were it looked like the school register and
I knew I'd got a lot of tics
in the book and I was not looking
forward to having to explain about the tics
because we sang a very unfortunate chorus at
our Sunday school which went God has blotted
them out if you know the old CSSM
ones it was in there and it went
God's blotted them out I'm happy and glad
and free God has blotted them out let's
turn to Isaiah and see chapter I can't
remember the chapter 44 22 and 3 you
were brought up proper he's blotted them out
so now I can shout that means me
well unfortunately when I sang that chorus we
were still using blotting paper at school and
I didn't know that blotting out meant that
he'd wiped them away and I had a
picture of God in heaven with a large
piece of blotting paper blotting my sins in
so I couldn't see why we should rejoice
at that and not at all I was
looking forward to seeing him to explaining why
my tics were longer than someone else's and
I was always about to do the last
you know God this will be the last
one I ever do but my my list
just got longer so there I was called
by God knowing I was sentenced as I
thought to the mission field and not recognizing
Jesus one night Eli whose eyes were becoming
so weak that he could barely see was
lying down in his usual place the lamp
of God had not yet gone out and
Samuel was lying down in the temple of
the Lord where the ark of God was
and then the Lord called Samuel Samuel answered
here I am and he ran to Eli
and said here I am you called me
but Eli said I didn't call go back
and lie down so he went back and
lay down and again the Lord called Samuel
Samuel got up and went to Eli and
said here I am you called me my
son Eli said I didn't call go back
and lie down now Samuel did not yet
know the Lord the word of the Lord
had not yet been revealed to him he
had served him he was ministering before him
since he was a baby but he didn't
yet know him the Lord called Samuel a
third time and Samuel got up and went
to Eli and said here I am you
called me and then Eli got the point
he realized that the Lord was calling the
boy and so Eli told Samuel go and
lie down and if he calls you say
speak Lord for your servant is listening so
Samuel went and lay down in his place
I can't tell you how many times the
Lord called me and I heard wrong I
went off to the wrong place and it
was not until I was half way through
my college training in London that I realized
who was calling it was quite a surprise
I remember I was on a train going
back from a party one night and I
must have looked very dreary I used to
go to terrible parties and my school friends
saw me on the plane and they nudged
one another and said to one another oh
Jackie you really need Jesus mercifully they didn't
say that to me they said oh look
every week in London you know we have
these wonderful coffee parties and this is terribly
good looking cure it and so I said
when and went I always say that I
went to meet nice men and in his
mercy I met Jesus and my motives were
all wrong but the desire of my heart
was right and so I never mind people
coming to Jesus for the wrong reasons you
know he's absolutely indiscriminate you know he hooks
them in for all kinds of reasons and
then they meet him it's lovely you know
just like that crowd of neighbors that ran
back with a Samaritan woman after she said
come and meet a man who told me
all I ever did you know and she'd
done a lot that lady so they all
came and they said to Jesus we believed
because we heard what the woman said but
now we've seen you we believe for ourselves
so it doesn't matter what your motives are
God gets you anyway if the desire of
your heart is for him so I found
myself in these Bible studies in London and
I was surprised by Jesus it really was
a surprise first of all I was extremely
upset because they read a verse there you
know from the Bible which I'd read before
in fact Billy Graham was around in those
days and he used to write it up
quite a lot and it went I am
the way and the truth and the life
no one comes to the father but by
me well I was very upset to find
that in the Bible because I thought the
Baptists made it up and they used to
put it outside on a on a thing
called wayside pulpit you know when I was
running down to the station so I was
very upset to find that Jesus said I
am the way and the life and the
truth because if he said it I was
going to have to make up my mind
about it I mean it was either true
or it wasn't and if he isn't the
only way to the father he's a liar
so I said to him Jesus I don't
like this much because I was brought up
to be very broad minded and I think
this is very narrow but I can see
I'm going to have to accept this because
I don't think you're telling lies and that
was a terrible prayer to make what a
way to get into heaven but it was
the way in I was at least honest
and then I realized that it wasn't a
narrow way at all it was the most
generous and wide invitation that anyone's ever made
you may all come into the kingdom of
heaven you may all have life you may
all have forgiveness and it's through my son
Jesus he's the way so it was a
surprise for me knowing Jesus much as I
think it must have been a surprise for
Samuel when he ran to Eli all those
times and then Eli realized no it's the
Lord calling you and what does the Lord
say each time he says Samuel Samuel and
the reason that I've chosen this story today
is that I am absolutely certain that there
are 4 or 5 people here that God's
been calling and he's calling you by name
and I don't mind about the other people
here I'm just speaking for you and he's
saying your name now I get into a
flap every time I'm going to talk to
God well not every time but quite often
you know I still haven't quite got over
the idea that he's angry with me you
know and I'm always getting into a lather
and every time I get into a lather
and I come before God he always says
to me Jackie calm down just calm down
Jackie it's alright I know why I'm expecting
him to tell me off I'm expecting him
to give me loads of instructions about what
I'm to do next and he always says
calm down always saying calm down to me
you think I've got the message just calm
down Jackie Jackie you know what he said
to to Mary in the garden when she'd
lost him when she lost his body and
in distress she started speaking to the gardener
said they've taken his body away and he
said to her Mary and as he said
her name she recognised who he was it's
that simple and there are some here now
and you've got a list of things to
say sorry for or a list of excuses
or you're waiting for a list of instructions
actually all he's going to say to you
is Jill Bernard Andrew Jocelyn
I think those are your names actually because
he cares about you that's how we begin
that's how we begin our service there's no
way any of us can preach the gospel
whether we're called at five or before birth
or even like Jesus sent by his father
there's no way that we can do that
until we practice our relationship with him it's
very interesting one of the first things that
most of the men say when they come
into the walled city one of the very
first things I've never quite understood why they
say it because nobody's taught them but they
come into the walled city they're still on
heroin someone introduces them to Jesus they pray
they receive Jesus they pray in tongues they've
got very little understanding about what's going on
and the first thing they'll then start to
say is I was chosen I got chosen
and they'll start prophesying they'll say it was
no accident it was no accident you came
here tonight it was not your design it
was the plan of God for you were
chosen they've got wonderful theology they then go
out and tell their friends you can get
chosen too very good so you see God
does have a plan and in his mercy
we play a part he gives us the
privilege and we answer the privilege when we
hear him calling our name it's you and
it's you and it's you oh yes everybody's
supposed to go out and preach the gospel
oh yes Jesus died for everyone but actually
it's different and it's you so today I
want to get down to the ones because
I get terribly muddled at missionary conferences I've
been to a few and I have to
confess I get more and more muddled the
more I go to because you see I
simply don't understand numbers I can't conceive I
don't understand graphs and percentages and nations and
things I don't understand I don't understand them
at all but I have begun to understand
my Lord's love for me and all I
can do is try and share that with
one other see I think that's preaching the
gospel very simple he died for me and
I have the privilege of telling one other
person he died for you too so here's
Samuel recognizing the voice of the Lord speak
for your servant is listening ah but it's
not so nice what he's going to say
not about Samuel but about the state of
the land because the Lord says to Samuel
in verse 11 see I'm about to do
something in Israel that will make the ears
of everyone who hears it tingle at that
time I will carry out against Eli everything
I spoke against his family from beginning to
end for I told him that I would
judge his family forever because of the sin
he knew about his sons made themselves contemptible
and he failed to restrain them therefore I
swore to the house of Eli the guilt
of Eli's house will never be atoned for
by sacrifice or offering now this is a
bit much I mean here's the first time
Samuel gets to talk to God and he's
got this loaded message so he lay down
till morning and then he opened the doors
of the house of the Lord he was
afraid to tell Eli the vision no wonder
but Eli called him and said Samuel my
son and Samuel answered here I am what
was it he said to you Eli asked
don't hide it from me may God deal
with you be it ever so severely if
you hide from me anything he told you
so Samuel told him everything hiding nothing from
him and then Eli said he is the
Lord let him do what is good in
his eyes so what poor Samuel was asked
to do as soon as he knew the
Lord was what I would call to die
oh God couldn't you have given me a
nice you'll be blessed prophecy I mean you
know something sort of like most people start
with like I love you my children you
know oh do I have to start out
with one like this I mean this is
really not nice and he's got to tell
their dad he's the priest of the Lord
Samuel's only an apprentice and he has to
tell the priest of the Lord that God
has given this message about his sons and
that they're going to be judged and that
sacrifice will not atone for what they've done
for they've taken the things of God lightly
I mean what a way to start I
think Samuel began by having to die last
night one of the words that we had
was take up your cross every day and
die Samuel was afraid of dying he
was afraid of what would happen the first
time he shares words from God they're of
that nature but he obeyed he hid nothing
and therefore God blessed him and a revival
was to come to that land when I
was in Canada a few weeks ago people
were praying about revival much as you have
been and God gave someone a picture they've
been getting quite a lot of pictures about
waves I don't know if you've had any
yet but there was a picture of this
wave that was going to come and it
was a wave of revival and nobody was
quite sure when it was coming but it
was going to be an enormous sweeping wave
of the power of God now who in
their right senses wants to pray for that
you want revival?
you want revival in Essex?
no no well I don't know what you
discussed when you went to the seminar about
revival was it this morning or this afternoon
but surely he dissuaded you, surely surely we
don't want revival surely not you see the
problem about a wave of revival is there's
two things that can happen with that wave
one is you can ride it and the
other is you'll get crushed by it that's
it you get killed by it or you
ride it now you want revival so what
was going to happen here as a result
of Samuel's obedience to the Lord was that
holiness would be restored to the nation but
the sons of Eli died for when revival
comes there will not be room for unholiness
amongst the people of God and those of
us who've been coasting by will be crushed
when this person had the picture of the
wave they had a picture also of a
man watching someone on a surfboard and he
thought oh wonderful oh wish I could surf
like that oh wonderful oh wish I could
surf like that so all he did was
to sit on the shore and wish he
could surf like that such a big wave
he didn't think he could manage that and
the Lord said to him yes you can
why not start with the little waves I'll
give you a little board you can get
on the little waves in the shallow end
practice surfing so that when the wave comes
the big one you'll be able to ride
it and there are many of us here
and we say oh Lord move oh Lord
we want to break through no no but
we can't mean it for we'd be crushed
be careful what we ask I'll tell you
what we can do for the wave's surely
gonna come we can practice with our surfboards
we can practice riding the waves that's going
with the Holy Spirit okay and this is
what I long for in the people of
God it's what we see very very rarely
anywhere in the world it's what we look
for in our helpers it's what we look
for in our workers we find very few
we look for men and women of God
who will work for him in spiritual ways
and in practical ways we look for men
and women of God who will pray for
miracles and we look for men and women
of God who will give everything that they've
got you don't need to pray for a
miracle you see if you haven't given everything
that you've got they would never have been
able to feed 5,000 if one boy
hadn't given his fish sandwiches never but he
gave all that he had and that was
why it was multiplied you see we'll never
be part of the revival if we haven't
learned to part with everything of course what
I'm talking about is dying so we can
practice dying I want to read you a
few scriptures about dying preaching the gospel means
taking of our cross Luke 9 it says
if anyone would follow me he must deny
himself take up his cross daily and follow
me well we all know about that don't
we I mean the day we come to
know Jesus we say thank you for dying
on the cross for me and for some
of us that's the last time we died
but he says take up your cross daily
now I want to give some practical examples
of taking up one's cross because I think
it's central to preaching the gospel taking up
one's cross very simply means I die to
my way of doing things and I choose
to do things the way of my father
see Jesus practiced dying before he died on
the cross that's what it says so in
Hebrews 5 7 to 9 during the days
of Jesus' life on earth he offered up
prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears
to the one who could save him from
death and he was hurt because of his
reverent submission I like that he was hurt
by his father because of his reverent submission
but he still had to die although he
was a son and in the story we've
got to so far as Samuel's were sons
were invited to die although he was a
son he learned obedience from what he suffered
and once made perfect he became the source
of eternal salvation for all who obey him
how did Jesus practice dying he practiced listening
to his father and he practiced having his
own plans overruled that's why I like St.
Mark's Gospel you keep looking through St. Mark's
Gospel you see that on Jesus' day off
I mean he got it awfully well planned
I don't know if he got a final
fax or not but he sure got a
date with the father all marked out and
he got to the other side of the
lake and there's a crowd of people and
he said I'm sorry I've got a date
with the father well no he didn't he
ministered to the crowd amazing amazing it was
always happening to him he was on his
way one place there were people there in
need and he didn't say sorry I plan
to go up the mountain and talk to
father he healed the sick he touched all
those who came and when his disciples said
oh come on one night with the telly
at least get rid of the kids he
said no don't stop them for if such
is the kingdom of heaven don't prevent them
from coming he didn't take his comfort or
his day off or even his prearranged time
with the father no he laid down his
life for the sake of those that he
was sent into the world to minister to
and I believe that very few of us
have begun to learn how to do that
we even in the church sadly we've been
taught the opposite we have a lot of
what passes for Christian teaching it's not Christian
at all it's very sensible but it's not
Christian Christian teaching is sell everything that you
have and give to the poor Christian teaching
is lend to those who ask you I
know it's not sensible Christian teaching is if
you've got a coat and a cloak give
one away don't expect it back Christian teaching
is you give up all your rights happily
until death that's Christian we don't hear much
of that we hear the opposite we hear
guard your day off you need it you
poor servant of God rubbish don't need to
guard your day off at all need to
guard your relationship with the Lord he knows
you need time off he's very good at
religion Jesus had a nap in the boat
he sure got it many of us are
too inflexible we have got our rights as
Christians as a son of God I deserve
this it's my right to have this even
some places they teach it's my right to
have the best car or the best house
or the best garden or the best school
for my children all this stuff, I don't
see that's in scripture it's not my right
at all I lay down all my rights
if in God's mercy I get any of
those things they're presents, they're not rights then
I enjoy them because I don't insist on
having them they're just things that come my
way and God's very generous he's always sending
things they're not my rights at all if
anyone had rights, Jesus did and he laid
them down that's what it says in Philippians
that lovely lovely chapter, I'll read you some
of Philippians 2 your attitude should be the
same as Christ Jesus who being in the
very nature God, did not consider equality with
God something to be grasped but made himself
nothing taking the very nature of a servant
and being made in human likeness being found
in appearance as a man, he humbled himself
and became obedient to death even death upon
a cross therefore God exalted him to the
highest place he had all the rights of
a son of God he had a comfortable
chair by dad he had all the animals
to play with in heaven and he gave
them up and chose in obedience to his
father to come to a rotten, smoky, smoke
filled world which cursed him I mean who'd
swap heaven for here and he did so
voluntarily and practiced doing so daily and practiced
humbling himself and doing without the rights which
were surely his that we might live if
anyone would come after me he must deny
himself and take up his cross daily and
follow me I don't know of anything in
this world that will preach the gospel quicker
and I hear it so rarely if you
want revival practice dying because I'll tell you
something the non-Christian world has been waiting
to see this and if we don't know
how Christians are supposed to be behaving the
world sure does they do do you know
what I heard once not long ago I
won't tell you which country they were actually
preaching this they said you can pray for
a I don't know what kind of car,
let's say a Mercedes you can pray and
you can name what kind of thing you
need this house and this garden and this
and this this and God will give them
to you because you're a son of God
and then your neighbors will see how blessed
you are and they'll become Christians now that's
the opposite to the gospel, absolutely the opposite
to the gospel they'll become Christians because they're
jealous of your car let me tell you
about a man that I met and this
man this man was the gang leader of
the walled city he was head of a
gang called the 14K and he controlled several
thousand what's called silo, younger brothers in the
gang and he watched me for years and
years and years and the first time we
went out to tea he said he said
I've watched you and he said lots of
people come and he said they strut around
on platforms with guitars they sing about the
love of Jesus he said fine, give me
a plane ticket and I'll do that he
said he said doesn't touch us he said
they go away they've got our photographs in
their book us poor underprivileged people and he
said they're there and we're here so what
you may think this is cynical but it's
true you see he wasn't touched by the
visiting preachers because they didn't stay they didn't
care about him he felt so he said
we watched you and he said we didn't
care if you were giving out rice judo
needlework or hymn singing he said we just
want to know if you care about us
and they weren't listening to what I was
saying, thank God you know people don't not
much reason why they should but they are
watching and he said when you've been here
four years we thought you meant what you
said imagine he was watching all the time
and when they beat up my place and
when they broke all the windows and all
the chairs my reaction was well if they
do that to my place I'm going to
close it and then they'll be sorry that
was my reaction and he said to his
people you have to go back and they
said we can't she'll never forgive us and
he said you go back because she's a
Christian she has to you see he knew
how Christians were supposed to behave and he
said I've seen so many people changed by
Jesus I cannot not believe in Jesus but
he said I can't be a Christian because
he said I've watched you he said none
of you seem to have very much money
and you have quite poor jobs and he
said I don't think I could afford to
be a Christian he said if you could
offer me he mentioned the sum of $20
,000 a month he said I'd be a
Christian well thank God I hadn't heard of
that doctrine then so I said no no
no guarantees the only guarantee is that if
you seek the Lord first he'll give you
everything you need but we're not making bargains
with God he promised he'll look after you
and he'll look after the people you look
after years later he landed up in prison
and I went to see him I'd missed
his trial but I'd managed to get to
see him just a week before he was
sentenced and I only had two minutes with
him gave him a Bible and said pray
and came back then he was sentenced to
four and a half years prison for having
a large amount of opium I went down
to see him in the cells and the
prison officer said do you wish to see
him privately and I said yes because we
want to pray he said I'll give you
five minutes so this gang leader came in
I said we've only got five minutes I
said we're not going to talk we're going
to pray and he began to pray as
I've heard few people pray and he said
Jesus I'm just ready now I want to
give up my whole gang I want to
give up my whole life I renounce it
all and he began to weep when I
got out my handkerchief we got through a
whole packet then he began to speak in
tongues and then he began to prophesy and
then he began to share with me how
lovely Jesus was and he called out to
him and he got off opium painlessly in
prison he got through withdrawal just through saying
Jesus name himself and he gave up all
his power in the gang for no guarantee
of anything except the promise of forgiveness and
eternal life he came into the kingdom of
God knowing that in man's terms he may
be poor but knowing that in God's terms
he would reap eternal life and be richer
than any man you can think of I
do believe we've been taught wrong about riches
we've misunderstood perhaps what they are for we
as children of God have been promised that
we will be made rich in every way
in heart in spirit and in physical ways
so that we can give it all away
so why not start practicing why not I
suppose one of the best revivals there ever
was must have been fairly near the beginning
of the church I mean that was a
pretty good percentage really if you multiply how
quickly it went up in those first few
weeks and then those first few months and
then those first few years but you saw
of course what they did as soon as
they came to the Lord they gave everything
away they started sharing everything with each other
they must have thought Jesus was coming back
or something but they didn't seem to need
to hang on to things it was a
natural result of knowing Jesus and I believe
that it should be and I believe that
every single one of us when we come
to know Jesus knows it I believe it's
planted into us and I think someone else
has taught us differently not the Lord, not
the Holy Spirit but I believe you see
it's completely natural to any man as soon
as he knows Jesus to want to share
with the poor I believe it's a natural
outcome of knowing Jesus and I dare to
say and I'll go on more about this
tomorrow that if we don't we probably don't
know Jesus I dare to say that because
I believe it's planted into the heart of
man with his salvation is a longing to
give that away to the poor to give
away the love of Jesus to give away
our material possessions, to give away all that
we had to hold on so that those
who have less will be blessed I believe
it's entirely natural and somewhere people have trained
us out of it maybe it's what we
expected when we first became Christians and nobody
ever preached about it they preached all kinds
of other things and we sort of laid
it by but I bet it's in you,
almost sure because you see it's in non
-Christians they know that's how Christians are supposed
to be behaving so they watch, why do
you think Mother Teresa's message reaches so many
people she is behaving as people expect Christians
to behave and so few do I mean
we actually, most of us do the opposite
of the gospel, don't we exactly the opposite
and we say in order to go and
preach the gospel in that country for three
months, I've got to put all this by
in the bank so I'll have something to
live on when I come back and people
say to me, it's all very well, you
can preach the gospel you're single, well silly
I mean why not everyone else it's a
universal commission isn't it, doesn't say go and
preach the gospel except those with family responsibilities
or mortgages or jobs tied into pensions no
we may all have the privilege of parting
with all like Jesus just a few examples
of dying we have to die to our
own comforts culture comforts die to the things
that we think are our minimum survival props
and it's very interesting to see people coming
to Hong Kong and many people arrive and
they say well, as long as I can
have my glass of orange juice in the
morning I can survive I used to think
it had to be toast and marmalade because
we eat a very nasty kind of breakfast
in Hong Kong it's not my idea of
breakfast at all but we have to die
you may have to die right now in
your church to more simple things, say washing
your hair on Tuesday nights if there's someone
who needs to know about Jesus you may
have to die to your right to a
room to yourself do you know all the
people here from Hong Kong they've been brought
up in one room for a whole family
where do you think they have their quiet
times?
not on the loo because they haven't got
a loo for their family either now I
have to read my letters on the loo
sometimes because I get so little peace but
unfortunately in our place we've only got plastic
curtains so I get caught sometimes you have
to die I mean die that's dying who
wants to get caught on the loo reading
their letters it's the only peaceful place I
can find and even that's not peaceful yes
that's what St Paul said, I die everyday
brothers he said I mean that yeah we
die to the things that we think are
our minimum props for survival we die to
our right to Tuesdays off we die to
our right to a quiet time by ourselves
do you know I had to share a
bedroom for 20 years and I hate sharing
a bedroom I'm not interested in what girls
talk about with girls and I don't like
it but I thank God that I had
someone in my room for 20 years you
know why?
it was a means of continual grace I
mean it I really mean it everyday I
said God oh God I hate this you
know even when I got flu I wanted
to be by myself I have to die
to that right you see most people I
know can never have the luxury even of
lying in bed in a room where nobody's
looking at them die to things like that
I died to my right to wear night
clothes for years I went to sleep with
my clothes on because policemen were always knocking
on the door at night or gangsters one
man rang me up once and said I
think I've killed my wife and I dare
not look will you please come so I
had to scoot across town in the middle
of the night well after a while you
give up wearing a night dress I mean
you like to be found looking alright so
I used to go to bed at night
in clothes I used to wash and then
put on clothes you know it's really nice
going back to England or some other place
and I can have the luxury of lying
in a room by myself in a night
dress that's great you see that's a blessing
I bet you don't think about things like
that you probably take it for granted but
for me it's a gift laying down our
lives means laying down those things which we
may have thought were our rights or necessary
for our survival because you see it's dying
and we need to die and there are
many many poor in Essex I suppose you've
got eyes to see and the frustrating thing
that we find when we go around the
world is this when we're in Germany they
bring the poor people to us when I've
just been to Canada what did they do?
they brought the poor people to us they
brought the street sleepers they brought the drug
addicts they brought them to us why should
we be able to help?
we're only visitors why?
because we're practiced you see because we're practiced
at giving up our lives they think we
know what to do with them and the
people that live in those places don't because
they haven't started practicing so they hand all
those people to us we haven't got homes
to put them in we haven't got time
to stay and pray through with them we're
not going to be here next week to
go and visit them when they sleep under
the bridge but you can if you give
up your Tuesday and your Wednesday and your
Thursday and your Friday practice dying because in
dying you win the world Samuel's first job
as a servant of the Lord was dying
and then we're back in 1 Samuel 3
verse 19 the Lord was with Samuel as
he grew up and let none of his
words fall to the ground and all Israel
from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was
attested as a prophet of the Lord and
the Lord continued to appear at Shiloh and
there he revealed himself to Samuel through his
word and Samuel's word came to all Israel
and so we've been taught to preach the
gospel to the ends of the earth Samuel's
word came to all Israel because he was
faithful in doing what must have been very
unpleasant he died to his own embarrassment to
his own will he was obedient to the
will of the Father even as Jesus was
obedient until death and the Lord said well
done I'll be with you and he was
recognized and attested as a prophet of the
word of the Lord and the Lord revealed
himself through his word and I believe that
if we practice dying if we actually start
practicing doing what the gospels say about sharing
our lives and dying for the sake of
those who don't yet know life then I
think our preaching will go out to the
ends of the earth I don't think there's
a quicker way I don't think having bigger
and bigger meetings like this will do it
because you see I don't think the poor
are going to listen to them I don't
think the poor will come if you go
to where they are you feed them, you
open up your house you pray for those
who are demonized and you see them set
free you visit the uncomfortable old women and
the fratchy grandpas and you minister to those
who are uncomfortable and unlovely and you do
so again and again whether they accept Christ
or not if you do this the world
will be one because they're watching this is
the quickest way I know of preaching the
gospel die and the word will be preached
now there is a word which is going
around the world and it's called Kairos and
I heard about this word when I was
in the States and somebody had decided that
now was a Kairos or apparently coming up
to a Kairos it's a Greek word which
means it is the time they say apparently
travel conditions political conditions, geographical conditions spiritual
conditions have all come together now to make
this a time ripe for revival restoration in
gathering I'm sure you know all about this
they said the time is approaching what they
did not say when they mentioned this Kairos
and mentioned that at the same time Paul
had preached during a Kairos and had won
more men than any other man to Christ
through his preaching, what they did not say
about his Kairos and the present approaching Kairos
is this the reason that Paul won more
men than any other was because he died
daily he got shipwrecked, he got imprisoned he
got beaten and if you were to look
at his back you'd see why he won
men to Christ it was because he did
not love his own life he laid it
down until death do you know that there
are more people today all over the world
dying for Christ daily than any other time
in history now do you understand Essex why
Africa and South America and China are so
rich in revival right now it's because people
are dying daily and they love to preach
the gospel they do not care for their
own lives and we have the privilege too
we can practice dying by getting on the
surfboard or we can be swept away by
the wave when it comes for it will
come and the result of not practicing the
result of not preaching the word by our
death and by our life is sin and
if you look at Jesus' treatment of men
and women he's so generous to sinners adulterers
go your way, you're forgiven go in peace
and sin no more I don't condemn you
all kinds of sins that we think are
the worst he forgives but who does he
have strong words for those in the church
that said I'll be there and did not
care for the people of God, he said
you'll never get to taste my banquet those
who didn't use the talents they were given
he said you're to go out to darkness
and those who did not minister to the
hungry or the naked or those in prison
or those in hospital he sent them to
eternal fire and he said I never knew
you this is terribly strong isn't it, I
don't want to bring up this whole subject
but I have to say that it's clear
from scripture that for those of us who
know what to do and do not do
it there's no excuse it's sin and Jesus
deals very sternly with those of us who
know what to do and don't do it
I mean eternal fire out of darkness and
no taste at the eternal banquet, that's pretty
plain terrible isn't it and most of us
don't move because we're lazy but I've got
hope if you feel convicted of laziness because
I'm naturally lazy truly there is an answer
to laziness and it's a lovely word it's
actually it's a magic word it's called God's
energy and he gives it to lazy people
very nice so Paul says to this end
I labor struggling with all his energy which
so powerfully works in me, we can we
can if we will and we have to
do it because it's no good coming up
and getting prayed for and then going back
and sitting down it doesn't work it's going
out in the name of the Lord to
do the things he's told us to do
preaching the gospel to the poor visiting the
sick visiting those in prison casting out demons
opening up our homes giving away our coats
all of that stuff if we do it,
we get anointed as we go and that
was another of the words of the Lord
that we had tonight if we do those
things we get the anointing as we go
to this end I labor struggling with all
his energy nobody can do it in their
own strength not possible but it is possible
when in obedience to his command we go
for he gives us miraculous energy through his
Holy Spirit so we decide and we decide
as Philippians 2 goes on it is God
who works in you to will and to
act according to his good purpose so we
may decide I need to do the works
of God not to prove that I am
worthy, no I need to out of gratitude
in obedience to the Father yes I am
afraid like Samuel was, even Jesus was you
know before he died he struggled real hard
in case there was another way and then
finally not my way but yours and then
he had to go away and make the
decision all over again, three times yeah the
deciding is the agony but the doing is
in his grace with his strength, the doing
is not the hard bit the deciding is
but when we decide he will honor that
by giving his energy, his anointing and his
grace otherwise he would never have asked us
to do it in the first place so
there is a set up there is the
nation of Israel waiting for a servant like
Samuel who was picked but he had to
come to know the Lord for himself he
had to go through embarrassment and we'll see
in the next few days that he's got
to die a bit more it's not just
the once and then as he died as
he in obedience did the will of God
the word went out to all Israel and
that's what I'm inviting all of us to
take part in tonight, so will you stand
and they worshipped the Lord now they haven't
seen a single victory yet but they had
heard the voice of God and so they
worshipped by faith I remember once on an
occasion I had a phone call on a
Saturday night with a dear friend of mine,
we were friends in Germany and he rang
me up and he was looking on the
phone and he said Norm, Norm, he said
please please pray, I said what's that, he
said my little, he called me he said
my children, I wish for that but I
don't know and my wife went to answer
the phone and she came back into the
room with tears streaming down her face and
a big grin from the Holy Spirit receive
the power of the Holy Spirit to do
this and in the name of Jesus I
impart to you what I know of dying
and ask in God's mercy that he would
impart Jesus' heart to me and to you
even more abundantly it's
your privilege it's what you always expected to
so answer this call blindly now
as we're praying for those who have come
forward there are some people who came here
tonight even you may have been in the
service of the Lord and I called out
four names earlier and the Lord is calling
you to himself by name those of you
who haven't yet known the Lord to have
a relationship with him in your hearts just
answer him now and say Lord speak for
your servant is listening thank
Jesus for dying for you on the cross
tell him you'd love to serve him tell
him you do want to be his child
you're glad he's chosen you bless you those
of you who just made that decision and
I think as well as the four or
five there's probably twelve of you here who's
done that we'd like you to make yourself
known to one of the people with yellow
badges on immediately after this you can come
forward in a minute if you like find
someone with a yellow badge and say I
heard the Lord calling me today make yourself
known to them and they'll help you to
know how to go on knowing Jesus better
now we'd like some people to come down
and pray with these people who are down
here and we have some sick people to
pray for go on receiving if you've come
forward because the Holy Spirit is going to
go on working this in you and as
you stand here pray for a specific way
to start it may be very small it
may be a spare bedroom or your extra
set of knives and forks or whatever whatever
it is ask the Lord to show you
how to start parting with your life and
your rights it may be as small as
that but he'll give you that specific way
now there are some of you out there
you haven't come forward and we'd like to
pray for somebody who's got a pain sharp
pain on the left hand side of your
chest could you put your hand up if
that's you who's got the sharp pain left
hand side of your chest over there we've
got two keep your hand up until someone
comes to pray for you and someone who
has a pain right now in your abdomen
can someone go pray with this sister here
yeah she's got her hand up and somebody
has a pain right now above your right
eye it's round about your eyebrow it's between
your eyebrow and your temple who's that ok
ok can you see her Andy, do you
want to go pray with her somebody who's
got an itchy skin condition I don't know
if it's an allergy ok do you want
to come forward somebody can mark that brother
coming down here and pray with him where's
the lady good ok why don't the people
round about just go over towards us stretch
out your hand and bless her with healing
and someone who has a problem with your
right hip ok ok the girl in the
white t-shirt blonde hair can you turn
around and pray for the lady behind you
keep your hand up right hip so you
three in front of her turn around ask
the Holy Spirit to come and watch God
touch her ok it's alright to open your
eyes when you're praying for people so you
can see what God's doing and bless because
he does the healing ok bless you Lord
what you're doing and we invite you to
continue and if nobody's praying with you don't
worry Holy Spirit's ministering thank you Father thank
you Father thank you Jesus thank you Holy
Spirit in your mercy don't stop this work
in our hearts in your mercy don't stop
this work in our lives in your mercy
don't stop this work in your church in
your mercy don't stop this in Essex bless
you Lord Francesca you