Hello, this is Brother Denny.
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Let's bow our heads for prayer.
Dear Holy Father, we come before You this
morning.
Lord, You're the King of kings and You're
the Lord of lords.
Father, we count it an honor to come
to stand in awe at Your beauty.
Father, to be able to sing the songs
together.
Lord, to be able to take Your word,
Father, and study it together.
Father, to spend time in prayer speaking with
You as our personal friend.
Father, we count it a blessing.
And Lord, I pray that You would take
my life, Father, this moment and sanctify it
completely in the blood of Christ.
Father, I want to share nothing this morning
that is not straight from off of Your
heart.
Lord, I pray that You would set my
lips on fire this morning, that You would
alight the word inside the hearts of Your
people.
Father, I pray that both the young and
the old would understand this morning.
Lord, my heart burns with a passion.
And Father, I pray that You would help
me be able to put the passion that
You have placed within my heart, Father, into
human words.
Lord, I beg You this morning, Father, to
feed Your people.
God, we don't want to go away from
this service the same.
Lord, we want our eyes set more clearly
upon You.
Father, we want to understand You in a
better way.
Father, we want to live our lives more
dedicated to You by the end of this
service.
And Father, You know there are many young
people here today.
And God, I pray that You would set
their hearts on fire.
Lord, there is such incredible potential sitting here
this morning.
Father, potential to win the world for Christ.
And Father, I pray that You would plant
Your visions in their heart this morning.
God, and send them across this globe.
Lord, making Your name great among the nations.
Father, You're a good God.
And we thank You for answering prayers in
Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
It's been a long time since I had
the opportunity to share with so many people
at one time.
My family and I have just returned from
making a trip across the United States.
Actually, we went as far as Colorado and
back again.
And we had probably about nine or ten
speaking engagements.
And so, God's message is burning on my
heart.
From being able to share with God's people.
And I am praying today that God is
going to help me to be able to
take the burning fire within my own heart
and break it down into simple words that
you will all be able to understand.
I long for God's people to catch a
vision of God's heart.
When Brother Emmanuel or Brother Aaron called me
and asked if I would be willing to
share, I went to God in prayer about
it.
As to what He would have for me
to share with His people this morning.
And as Brother Emmanuel told you, my family
and I have been missionaries in Ghana, West
Africa.
We were there for six years.
We had the joy of leading many people
to Christ to watch God build His church
there.
And my heart is filled with a passion
to see the world won for Christ.
The more I get to know God, the
longer I walk with Him, the deeper that
passion goes.
And it is my heart to be able
to give you a glimpse this morning.
And even deeper than a glimpse, to also
set your hearts on fire.
To give you a clear vision of what
God's heart would be for your own personal
lives.
And this morning, if I was to put
a title to my message, I would call
it a cry for fervent, meaningful reality.
It is a cry this morning for fervent,
meaningful reality.
I long to see a whole church that
is set on fire for God.
And I know there are many churches represented
here this morning.
And it is my prayer that as you
young people go home from Bible school, that
your hearts would be set on fire and
not just for one week.
I'm talking a fire that burns in your
heart day after day, month after month, year
after year.
Something that does not just go out when
you return home.
And I remember being a student sitting in
your place not long ago.
And it was always the concern of every
young person.
When we would come to Bible school, fearing
that when we would go back home, that
we would lose the fire that God had
ignited inside of our hearts.
And I want to tell you, there is
no reason it has to go out.
This week, if your heart is at a
dry place, this should just be the beginning
of a fire that should continue for the
rest of your lifetime.
It is not something that should die out
and be resurrected every time you come to
Bible school.
And so the message I would like to
share with you today, it is a cry
coming from my heart today for a fervent,
meaningful reality in your Christian life.
It is not just for the young people,
it is for the men here, it is
for the women.
It is for those of you that are
parents, training young children.
God has such a desire to have His
name made great in this land.
After Brother Aaron had asked me to be
able to share, I was delighted for the
opportunity.
And as I said, I was praying that
God would give me a message for His
people.
And one of the stops that my family
and I took, I was very, very blessed
to spend time with them.
They were a radical group of Christians.
And I love being with radical Christians.
I am one myself and I just enjoy
being with a whole group of them.
And we had spent a sweet time in
fellowship together.
As we sang the praises of God, our
hearts were lifted up unitedly together in worship.
And then I was given opportunity to share
what God had done in Ghana, West Africa.
And after the service closed, there was an
opportunity given for all of those that were
there to go out on the streets and
preach the gospel.
All of us had just experienced a tremendous
sweetness of spending time together with God.
And out of that came a passionate desire
to go out and share it with others.
And the city where we were located at
that time, it is a college town.
And the streets were filled with college young
people.
And so we knew that they were going
to be out.
It was Friday evening.
And we knew that the streets would be
filled with them.
And so after the majority of the people
had left the meeting, we got back down
on our knees together again and spent time
for another 20 or 30 minutes singing praises
to God, again drawing our hearts heavenward.
And as our singing came to a close,
we began to spend time in fervent prayer
before going out on the streets and sharing
the gospel.
And after our hearts were totally enveloped with
the love of God, we saw the majesty
of God.
We set out to go and share it
with those college students.
And we set up our position right outside
the bars.
And I've never seen bars that were so
busy in my entire life before.
There were literally thousands of young people out
there.
Hundreds of them coming in at a time
and others going out.
And so it provided us with ministry opportunity
from probably around midnight until 3 o'clock
in the morning.
They were there.
And we continued preaching the gospel with them.
And it just grieved my heart as I
listened to these young people speak and to
realize where they actually stand.
I've worked in Ghana for a long time,
but to come back and see the reality
of where our people are really at, it
just impressed the burden so much deeper upon
my heart.
They were a mad group of young people
racing their way to the hellfire.
But one thing I was very blessed as
we began to share with those young people.
As they began to approach the bar, their
comment was, Oh no, there are those people
again.
And that simply showed me one thing, is
that church was doing what God had called
them to do.
They were being a light in that community.
And when those college students knew they were
going to enter the bar, they were going
to fight their way in there.
They were met by five young people that
were wild with excitement.
And as they approached the bar, someone was
bound to sit, grab them and say, let
me tell you about Jesus.
Don't enter that bar.
You're not going to find fulfillment there.
Let me tell you about Jesus.
And the cry went up from those people,
Oh no, here these people are again.
And I was so blessed.
By the time I went home at three
o'clock, my heart was so full.
To God, please do it.
Please light that fire in the hearts of
young people, in the hearts of fathers, in
the hearts of mothers all over our country.
But I want you to know, it didn't
just come out of an obligation to go
out and witness.
It came out of a heart that was
standing in awe before a holy God.
And as that fire burned in our hearts,
the desire came to go out and share
the beauty of Jesus Christ with others.
And that's where the heart cry is coming
from my message this morning.
It is my prayer that God would so
set your hearts on fire, that we would
be a radical group.
That everywhere we go, when the ungodly are
making preparation to live in sin, they are
met by another Christian that says, Stop, don't
go in there.
Don't do what you are planning on doing.
It's not going to bring fulfillment.
Let me tell you about Jesus.
It grieves my heart to watch the Christian
world keep their mouth shut while the world
continues to live in wickedness and no one
confronts them.
No one brings them to the reality of
the sin that they're living in.
And then the world keeps their mouth shut
and the world makes their mad dash to
hell.
And it's my heart's desire this morning that
God would send out of this place this
morning fathers and mothers and youth and in
the future young children.
You're young children now, but I pray in
the future that God will set your hearts
on fire and that you will realize that
there are millions of people around this globe
who are not glorifying God.
God's name is not being glorified.
His name is not being worshipped that it
should.
And that you would realize that that reality
would grip your heart and as you stand
in awe at the majesty of God and
His love fills your heart that you would
go out and meet those people and share
the love of Christ with them.
I'm going to turn to the book of
Mark.
The verse I'm going to read you is
a very familiar verse.
Starting in verse 28, so we can get
the context of the verse here.
It says, And one of the scribes came
having heard them reasoning together and perceiving that
he had answered them well asked them, Which
is the first commandment of all?
And Jesus answered him, The first of all
commandments is, This
is the first commandment.
And the second is like, namely this, There
is none other commandment greater than these.
And this is where you will find fervent
meaningful reality in your Christian life summed up
in the two greatest commandments that God has
ever given.
Number one is loving God with all your
heart.
And I want you to realize this love
that is being talked about here is not
something that you do every Sunday.
This is something that consumes your being every
moment of the day.
And it says, And
it
says after that, And
it's summed up in those two verses.
Life finds its fervent meaningful reality in loving
God with all of your heart.
And what I'm going to share with you
today is not to condemn a single person.
It is to encourage you in your Christian
lives.
I want to watch you grow.
I want to see people getting converted all
over the local area here.
For those of you that are from Lancaster
County, I want to see people getting converted
from whatever church group you're from.
And I want you to know it wasn't
just the men that went out that night
when we went out witnessing.
There was a young lady that went out
with us and she was on fire for
God.
When we were in prayer, I've seldom heard
a woman pray with such authority.
And she went out along with us with
the same burning passion inside her heart to
win those people for Christ.
It's not something that just the men were
concerned about.
The women were also very burdened about the
loss.
And God wants you sisters to catch a
clear vision for it.
And it grieves me to watch young people
getting hung up on these small issues.
And you may deal with them in Bible
school this weekend.
God may put His finger on areas in
your Christian life.
And we'll talk about treasures here in a
little bit.
But God wants you to deal with those
areas in your Christian life so that you
can love God with all your heart, with
all your soul, with all your strength and
with all your mind.
Every part of your body is consumed with
a passionate love for God.
Brother Emmanuel said he didn't know if I
was going to speak on missions or not.
And the heart cry that is going to
come this morning is the very basis for
missions.
If you don't get these points straight, you'll
never make it as a missionary.
You could go and be a missionary and
fulfill your obligation.
But God cannot work through a life that
has not come and stood in awe at
the majesty of God.
He cannot work.
It is as you stand in awe at
the majesty of God and your worship ascends
to Him that the reality, that the reasons
for missions exist.
And so yes, I may speak to you
briefly about missions this morning.
I want to encourage you that direction, but
it starts at home.
It starts, number one, with your walk with
God.
And number two, it starts with your effective
testimony or your testimony among the people where
you live.
If you can't open up your mouth and
stand in the way of the heathen and
preach the gospel to them here, you'll never
do it across seas.
It's not that some special miracle happens when
you enter an airplane and suddenly you're a
missionary.
It happens at home.
And what I'm begging for today is for
a reconsideration of the direction you're going if
you are not experiencing God's fullest blessing in
your life and become a passionate, gain a
passionate relationship with the God of Heaven so
that in the future God can turn your
sights all around the globe and send you
around the globe so that He can make
His name great.
But unless God becomes great in your Christian
life, you'll never see Him as a great
God.
I mean, unless He is a great God
in your Christian life, you'll never be able
to help others see that He's a great
God.
He's a prayer-answering God.
And I'll just give you one little testimony.
When I was out in Colorado, I was
at the park with my daughter, my children.
And while my children were playing, there was
a woman who came down and sat beside
me.
And we began to speak.
And soon our conversation was steered towards the
spiritual.
And she said to me, as we were
speaking, she said, I hear you have an
accent.
She said, why do you speak the way
you do?
And I told her, well, I'm still working
on my speech since I have been back
from Ghana, West Africa.
I said, I was a missionary.
And that immediately sparked her attention.
And so she began questioning my Christian life,
my walk with God.
And as I began to share with her,
she said, have you ever seen God perform
any miracles in Ghana?
I said, I've seen God perform many miracles
in Ghana.
And I began to share with her just
briefly of some of the things that I
saw God do, miracles that I saw God
work out in Ghana.
And her next question to me is, she
said, I want you to pray for me.
And she said that she had just found
out she was pregnant.
And she had lost some babies before.
And she said, I believe that your God
is able to answer prayers.
Will you pray for me?
All that did is I began to speak
with her and share about what God was
doing in Ghana.
And her heart rose in faith and said,
if God will answer your prayers for those
heathen people, God can answer the prayer for
my life too.
And so I was excited to be able
to take the opportunity to pray for her.
And God wants us to make His name
great all over this place, around the globe.
First where you're living now and then around
the globe.
And God is looking for men and women
that love God with all of their heart,
with all their soul, with all their strength
and with all their mind.
And out of that, the second commandment just
comes naturally.
To love your neighbor as yourself.
Because when you love God with all your
heart, you have no desire for anything else.
He has so completely satisfied your heart, music
is not a big issue to you anymore.
Cars are not an issue.
Sports are not an issue.
Entertainment, I mean, it just loses its power.
Because God has become such an incredible delight
to your life.
That is where all of your meaning is
found.
You would rather be on the streets sharing
the gospel with Jesus Christ than you would
being entertained somewhere else.
A life of meaning comes first from being
born again.
And I trust that all of you that
have come here for Bible school are born
again.
If you're not, I pray by the time
you leave this place.
And I hope it happens in the beginning
of the week and not the end.
But I pray that if you're not born
again, if your heart has never been right
before God and you know whether you've been
born again or not.
But if your heart has never been right
before God, I pray that today or in
the very near future you're going to repent
of your sin and find that sweetness.
And in Romans chapter 12, Paul when he
was speaking to the Romans, he said, I
beseech you, I beg you by the mercies
of God that you present your body a
living sacrifice.
And that after you have given your life
to God, it is a place of total
consecration.
That God, I am totally given, as we
sung in that song today, my hands are
yours, my feet are yours, my mouth is
yours.
You send me wherever you want, I will
open my mouth and share the gospel with
everyone I meet.
Your life needs to be offered to God
as a living sacrifice.
And like we read in those verses, Christ
must be the center.
He must be the passionate.
Your love for Him must come from a
passion from your heart.
And out of that is going to flow
the desire to win the heathen for Christ.
As I watch the church, I've traveled to
many different church groups and there are some
that I can see are on fire for
God.
And there are others, that it became clear
very quickly, their hearts are caught up.
They are caught up with many things.
It can be business, it can be a
lot of other little things.
But God wants to be loved with all
of your heart.
He wants you to enjoy Him above anything
else.
He wants to be the most beautiful thing
to you.
And as you find sweetness in God, His
word will be so alive to you.
When you pray, He will answer your prayers.
When you witness, you will find the Holy
Spirit working through your life.
And God has a passion to be worshipped.
And we talk about missions.
I spoke to some of the youth earlier
about this, right after Samuel and Kate's wedding.
But the only reason that missions has the
existence is because worship doesn't.
That's the only reason we have to travel
around the world.
It's the only reason why we go in
to have city ministries.
It's the only reason we go to the
places where people hang out and share the
love of God with them.
It's because worship does not exist.
The revelation of nature is not getting through
to the people.
And God says He has ordained the foolishness
of preaching to win the world to Christ.
That's where it lies.
Tract distribution is great.
Spending time on your knees for the heathen
is great.
But it is never a substitute for opening
up your mouth and speaking directly into the
heart of a man or woman and tell
them you are on your way to the
hellfire and you need to repent.
I want to watch you be radical Christians,
not just continuing to keep your mouth shut.
The world here needs to be afraid of
you.
And more times than not, the Christians are
afraid of the world.
When the world is around, they keep their
mouth shut.
Satan has no fear of you.
He knows that when you get inside the
places of the world, you will keep your
mouth shut.
And they have absolutely no fear.
But God wants your life to be so
on fire that the world fears to be
around you.
And as those students had that sense of
dread as they approached the bar, when they
saw those youth standing there, that is the
sense of dread that all the heathen around
you should have when they see you approaching.
Your life needs to be a vibrant testimony.
But it comes from spending time in fellowship
with God.
In John, Jesus said that if you abide
in the vine, that is the way your
life is going to bear much fruit.
And there are a lot of Christians out
there that are concerned that their life is
not producing the kind of fruit they are
after.
And they try to develop some scrawny looking
fruit.
But Jesus said, if you abide in me,
you have sweet fellowship with me, you are
connected to the vine.
Jesus said, you won't have to try to
produce fruit.
It will come in such abundance.
It will come as a natural result of
being connected to the vine.
And as you worship God, in Isaiah chapter
58, let's just turn there briefly.
Isaiah chapter 58, it's a chapter concerning fasting.
And I just want to take a note
in the chapter of what God promises to
those that have their hearts right with Him.
It's dealing with the issue of fasting.
If we start in verse 8, God said
that if your life is right with God,
then your life shall break forth as a
morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily.
And thy righteousness shall go before thee, and
the glory of the Lord shall be thy
reward.
And I want you to notice what God
said He's going to do when you pray.
He says, then thou shalt call, and the
Lord shall answer.
Thou shalt cry, and He shall say, Here
I am.
And out of this passionate worship that we
were talking about this morning, and like I
said, I was so glad that God let
me enter into it with that church group
for just that evening, because it cleared my
vision so much for what I wanted to
share this morning.
As we spend time alone with God, we
watch God answer prayers.
We went out onto the streets and began
to share.
If your heart is right with God, and
remember worship, the essence of worship is not
action.
Today we sang songs, you're listening to me
share with you today.
We spent some time together in prayer, but
I want you to remember the essence of
worship is not action.
It is not going through form.
It is an issue of affection.
Isn't it right?
It is the thing that is the affection,
the treasure of your life is what you
worship.
And there are a lot of Christians that
are confused about it.
They say, I worship God.
They worship God, as they say, through action.
But action is not the essence of worship.
Affection is the issue.
And I cannot tell where your affections lie
this morning, but God wants you on your
knees.
If God is not the center source of
your life, the greatest delight of your life,
He wants you on your knees, so that
you can worship Him in spirit and in
truth.
And it is out of that place of
worship, that the passion for evangelism comes.
It is just a natural overflow.
And I'm going to read some verses out
of Acts chapter 4 after a little bit.
But as the disciples were carrying out their
ministry, they said, we couldn't help but speak
the words of God.
Jeremiah, I believe it was, that after he
was facing a lot of difficulty with his
ministry, he said that he had purpose in
his heart, he was going to shut his
mouth.
And he said it was as fire within
his bones.
He couldn't keep his mouth shut.
It just came out as a result of
walking with God.
And you won't have to try to drum
up a message to share with other people.
When you meet the world, your heart is
going to cry out as Jeremiah's heart cried
out in tears, as he watched his people
living in sin.
Your heart must also cry out and beg
God to deliver them.
Because Jesus said, that was my mission.
I came to set the captive free.
I came to take away that heavy burden.
And God is looking for the church to
open up their mouth and to be bold.
To be radical and get out there and
share the gospel with the world, so that
His Holy Spirit can do His work and
bring them to Christ.
But as long as the church keeps its
mouth shut, everything will continue going as it
has for many, many years.
And so, as you worship God, your heart
will number one have fellowship with God in
prayer.
It will be sweet.
It is not something you have to try
to do.
It will be a sweet fellowship with God,
and His word will be alive to you.
You will not find it difficult to spend
time alone with God.
And when you sing, your heart is going
to be drawn in worship to God.
It is not going to be going through
the mere action of singing.
Because God is the passion of your life.
When you sing, and your heart will just
rise in affection to Him.
Your heart will be drawn away to the
presence of God, as you sing.
And it is out of that life, if
you are looking to ever be a missionary,
it is out of that life that missionaries
come.
You can try to go without it, but
it will not work.
Your life will lack meaning, and your ministry
will lack effectiveness.
You will never help people see what you
yourself have never experienced or seen.
And my prayer this morning is that God
will help you to see it.
You may not see it.
I am hoping you will see it as
I share with you this morning.
But if you cannot, I pray that when
you get along with God in prayer, and
His Holy Spirit has time to work in
your heart.
That He will open up your eyes, and
you will see the majesty of God in
a way you have never known it before.
That He will come, become a big God
to you.
And as God became a big God to
that woman that I was speaking to at
the park, as I shared what God was
doing.
That is what needs to happen in your
own Christian life.
He needs to become a big, beautiful, majestic
God to you.
And you have a passion to live your
life completely for Him.
But it boils down to where your treasure
lies.
God wants to be your treasure.
And I cannot tell where your treasure lies.
There are some telltale signs that Scripture gives
us if you want to figure it out.
Number one, God says, Out of the abundance
of the heart the mouth speaketh.
Right?
If you want to know where a person's
heart is, you listen to what they like
to speak about.
Where I went to school, it wasn't difficult
to tell.
We like to talk about sports.
It's what we often talked about.
Where I went to church before, they liked
to talk about cars.
It's where their heart was.
I have met others that hunting is their
passion.
And not that there are things wrong with
these things by themselves when they are a
servant, but when they become a passion, when
they become an affection to the heart, they
become wrong.
And God says, Out of the abundance of
the heart the mouth speaketh.
And if you want to know where your
heart is, just pay attention to what you
speak about for a little bit of time
and it will tell you where your heart
is.
Another telltale sign that God clearly speaks about
concerning affections is the issue of money.
Where your treasure is, is where your heart
is going to be.
And most people put their money where their
treasure is.
If your heart is after hunting, you are
going to put your money there.
If your heart is after sports, you will
put your money there.
If your heart is after cars, you will
invest your money there.
You will put your money, and many people
struggle with money being their treasure.
And if you want to find out a
real telltale sign of where your heart truly
is, you look at where you put your
money.
Where you invest it.
If God is your passion and you realize
that you are living in a little dot
called time.
And you are desiring your whole life to
be invested in what is called eternity.
Everything that you do is in light of
eternity.
If you were to die today, you don't
want to be caught investing your life in
that little dot called time.
You want to be pouring out your life
for the things that last for an eternity.
That, it will show you where your treasure
is.
You will think about the things where your
treasure is.
There is a little saying that says, You
are not what you think you are, but
what you think you are.
Isn't that right?
You are not what you think you are,
but what you think you are.
If you want to know who you are,
look at what you think about.
What does your mind naturally gravitate to in
its free time?
You are not what you think you are,
but what you think you are.
And God wants you to take a look
at your affections.
And I don't want this message to be
a condemnation to you.
I want it to be an encouragement to
you.
If your affections are not right today, go
and get them right.
And let God be the passion of your
life.
And as He becomes the passion of your
life, you will find yourself wishing you had
never enjoyed those things of the past.
You will find God sweeter than anything you
have ever experienced.
And there are many Christians that wrestle, and
they wrestle with letting go.
They stand and they look at that land
of blessing and they say, The cost is
so high, I'm afraid what God is going
to ask.
You're a fool.
You are hanging on to some treasure that
is going to blow up when the world
comes to an end.
And leaving what you could be investing for
in an eternity.
And my desire this morning is to draw
your attention to the things of God.
And God is an eternal God.
And there is only but one thing that
you can invest your time in, that you
can invest your money in, that you can
think about that is going to last for
an eternity, and that is the souls of
men.
There is nothing else inside this world that
God has given us that we are going
to be able to take with us into
eternity.
But God has commanded us to be faithful
witnesses.
Not all people have the gift of evangelism.
But every person who is seated here today
who has been born again has a testimony.
And God has called all of us to
be faithful testimonies wherever we go.
And so that means no matter who you
meet, if you are born again and you
are walking with God, you have a testimony
and you say, Let me share Jesus with
you.
And you share what He has been doing
in your life and you make God's name
great.
But it grieves my heart to watch the
church caught up in money.
If you study the scriptures, Jesus gives one
severe warning after another about laying up treasures.
He says when you lay up treasures, you
set yourself up for incredible temptation.
And so many times we like to take
our culture and then interpret scriptures.
Way too often.
I wish we could take our culture and
lay it aside and study scriptures point blank
concerning this area of riches and then apply
it to our culture and see how it
would change our lives.
There are many people that sit on a
lot of wealth, investing in something that is
going to perish in a little bit of
time when God says don't do it.
You are setting yourself up for trouble.
God says invest your time, your money into
things that last for an eternity and not
something that perishes when Jesus comes back.
You will never take it with you.
And I beg you this morning, I was
listening to one of Zac Poonen's tapes on
the way and he said that Christians get
really confused.
He said if you ever study the scripture
concerning riches, he said in heaven where is
the gold?
It's on the streets.
It's under your feet.
That's where it belongs.
And he said so many Christians get confused
and put it on their head.
They like to wear it.
They like to keep it with them.
And God said it belongs on the streets.
It makes a wonderful servant but it makes
a cruel master.
It will take away your time to spend
with your family.
It will take away your time to stand
out on the streets and warn the wicked
of the direction that they are going.
It will rob you of everything that's dear
to you.
And God said don't collect wealth on the
earth.
He said it is dangerous.
And I was amazed as I was studying
just the life of Christ.
How many times he warns about this.
How many times he spoke parables about the
issue of wealth and what happens to people
who allow it to capture their hearts.
And so I cannot make the decision for
you what you are going to do with
your finances.
But I encourage you to be radical with
it.
I dare you if I dare is right
to go home and make drastic changes with
the way if you are living your life
for self and investing your wealth, collecting wealth,
accumulating wealth on the earth to go home
and make some radical changes.
And show God that He is the treasure
of your life.
Because there are a lot of people that
can say God is the most important thing
to me.
I love Him more than anything else.
But you think God believes it when He
watches you piling wealth after wealth here on
the earth.
Do you think that speaks to His life
and says, Yes, you are the most important
thing.
You won't fool God with it.
He sees right through it.
You can say with your mouth that He
is the most important thing.
But does your life prove it to Him?
Does it prove it to the world that
God is the most important thing to you?
Or are your values the same as what
the world's values are?
And you sit back and relax in your
comfortable seats and collect wealth when God has
given such severe warnings about collecting at your
own earth.
I leave it with you, between you and
God.
But I warn you, it will create a
coldness in your Christian life like few other
things will.
It turns your hearts and mind to things
that it never should.
God wants a clear display of where your
treasure really lies.
And if we turn to Matthew chapter 19,
I'll read the account to you of that
rich young man.
It's a very familiar story.
Matthew chapter 19.
And this was one of the accounts concerning
wealth that Jesus dealt with.
In verse 17 it says, And He said
unto him, Why callest thou Me good?
There is none good but one, that is
God.
But if thou wilt enter into life, keep
the commandments.
He saith unto him, Which?
Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
And thou shalt not bear false witness.
Honour thy father and mother, and thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself.
The young man said unto him, All these
things have I kept from my youth up.
What lack I yet?
Jesus said unto him, And I want you
to notice, Jesus goes right to the treasure.
And that's how God does it.
If you're going to follow Him, He goes
straight to those treasure issues and puts His
finger on it.
Jesus said to him, If you want to
be perfect, If you want to be perfect
in your Christian life, He said, Go and
sell what you have and give to the
poor.
That was an incredible test of this man
to see where his treasure truly lay.
And we measure the worth of a treasure
by what we will gladly give up in
order to have it.
Isn't that right?
We measure the worth of a treasure by
what we will gladly give up in order
to have it.
And Jesus was testing that young man to
see where his treasure lay.
He wanted to see whether he was willing
to give up everything to follow Jesus.
And what does it say?
Jesus told him, If you give to the
poor, which is loving your neighbour as yourself,
thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come
and follow me.
It says, But when the young man heard
that saying, he went away sorrowful.
And I wonder how many of you would
go away sorrowful if Jesus gave you that
command.
He went to the hardest shoe with him.
And the young man went away sorrowful because
it says he had great possession.
Then Jesus said unto His disciples, Verily I
say unto you that a rich man shall
hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.
How strong does Jesus have to get before
it sounds a warning concerning riches?
Jesus said, Verily I say unto you that
a rich man will hardly make it into
the kingdom of heaven.
And yet the Christians are playing with money
over and over and over again.
They are accumulating wealth over and over again.
And God has given such strict warning concerning
finances and being rich.
And yet we continue to joke around with
it.
I'll warn you, it will deaden your Christian
life and make you so ineffective that Satan
will have nothing to fear about you.
It says, And again I say unto you,
It is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than for
a rich man to enter the kingdom of
God.
And when His disciples heard it, they were
exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved?
And Jesus beheld them and said unto them,
With men this is impossible, but with God
all things are possible.
And so my plea this morning is to
re-evaluate where your treasure actually lies.
And if God is not the source of
delight in your life, if He is not
the most ultimate treasure, there is something majorly
wrong.
And it's why the world has nothing to
fear when we walk down the streets.
I mean, if we were to walk through
the fair and effort when the effort of
fair was there, the world should be saying,
No, there those people come again.
Because they know they're going to be rebuked
for their life of playing.
When you walk down the streets by a
bar and there are people on their way
to go and live their life up in
foolishness and drunkenness, their heart should say, No,
there come those Christians again.
But I fear that so many times they
do it in perfect ease and God's people
keep their mouth shut.
And people continue to go to the hell
fire.
And I'm talking about our communities right now.
And I could preach to you a long
time about the world, about Africa, about India,
about China, to the millions that are dying
there that have never heard the name of
Jesus once.
All because the church is so focused on
investing their money into that little dot called
time and forgetting that God exists in eternity.
And that God has a passion for his
people to live their lives for eternity.
And I believe if God's people became radical
Christians across our country, the world would be
evangelized in a very short time.
But God's people are dead.
They are sleepy.
They are being lazy.
And the very things that God says will
cause temptations in your life, we soak ourselves
with it.
We enjoy it.
And so this morning it is a pleading
with you.
It is a cry coming from my heart
for a re-evaluation.
God wants to be worshipped and he wants
his name to be made great.
And unless your heart is right before him,
it will not happen.
And so young people, you have the opportunity
this week to have your heart set on
fire for the rest of your life.
Fathers and mothers here, you have the same
opportunity.
There is no reason for a Christian life
that goes up and down and up and
down.
God wants your life to continually be going
up.
And you know what, when you get out
there and you face the world, there is
something about the mockery, the shame that goes
with it that just causes your Christian life
to prosper.
I mean, those college students mocked us.
I mean, it was shocking to me.
I haven't been out in the city streets
to witness since I've been back from Ghana.
And in Ghana, witnessing is very easy.
Not everyone comes to Christ, but witnessing is
very easy.
And to watch the scorn and the mockery
come from those people, it was incredible.
But on the flip side of that coin,
I was also very blessed.
Many of the students would come back and
say to us, We don't understand why you
are the way you are.
We don't agree with what you're saying, but
there's something different about you.
There's something that makes us feel good when
we're with you.
And that's the way it should be.
The sweetness of God's love should flow from
your life in such incredible ways that though
you speak words to them that pierce to
the heart, they should be able to sense
the love of God so flowing through your
life that though it hurts what you say,
they still want to come back and be
with you.
And so I encourage you, be a radical
Christian.
And when I say radical, because normal Christians
have so changed its definition that we can
hardly no longer call it normal Christianity.
It has to become a radical Christianity.
God wants it to be normal, but it's
a shame, but it's not normal.
And I want to encourage you fathers concerning
this issue of treasures.
Your children are watching you.
And where you invest your treasure, your children
will follow in your footsteps.
If you sit on money while you're here,
your children are going to sit on money.
If you live extravagantly, your children will follow
in your footsteps.
If you live your life with a passion
for the lost, it's what your children are
going to talk about.
When they get together, it's what they imitate.
I love watching my children imitate going out
and preaching the word.
I love watching, I mean, my daughter the
other day was saying, someday God's going to
send her out.
She doesn't know when it's going to happen
and where she's going to go, but God's
going to send her out.
I love that, because I want God to
send her out.
I want her to have a passion to
be able to fulfill God's will for her
life and not to just become an ordinary
Christian.
Your children watch your life, and they will
learn from you.
There's not some special miracle that happens by
bringing them to church to make them turn
out differently than what you've turned out.
You need to re-evaluate your life, to
live your life with a passion for the
things that matter for eternity, and your children
will follow in your footsteps.
They will love it as you love it.
But if you love other things, your children
will also love other things.
I know several fathers that their passion is
football, and their little boys, their passion is
football.
I know some fathers who are farmers, and
they love farming, and their boys' passion is
tractors.
They love it.
And not that there's anything wrong with boys
playing with tractors, but I'm talking about it's
what their fathers talk about all the time.
And it soon shows up.
And so not only are you putting your
own Christian life in jeopardy by having wrong
treasures, you are putting your children in danger
of making the same mistakes that you have
made by continuing to live your life for
that little dot called time, rather than investing
it in eternity.
And so I challenge you to go home
and re-evaluate.
Your children are watching you.
In Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10, if you
want to turn there, Ephesians chapter 6 verse
10, I want to warn you and remind
you that we are in a battlefield.
This is not a joke.
This is not an option of what I'm
talking to you about today.
Radical Christianity is not for just a couple
of people that are sitting here.
It is for every one of you.
And this is a battlefield.
Belief always produces action.
Every time.
And if you believe you're in a war,
you're going to act like you're in a
war.
If hell is a reality to you, you're
going to live your life like hell is
a reality to you.
If heaven is a sweet reality to you,
you're going to live your life like it.
But if it's not a reality to you
and you don't realize you're in a warfare,
it will also show.
Belief also always produces action.
We know that Noah believed God because he
built the earth.
Not because he said he would, but because
he did it.
Isn't that true?
We know that Abraham believed God because when
he was told to offer up Isaac, he
did it.
It is because belief produced action that we
know that they had faith.
And belief will always produce action.
And so I question, where do your beliefs
lie?
Is hell and heaven a reality to you?
And if it's not, I encourage you to
study the scriptures and to beg God until
it becomes one.
We're in a war.
In Ephesians chapter 6 it says, Mark
it well.
If you're a radical Christian, you're going to
be under fire.
Satan is going to fear you.
He's going to tremble when you pray.
And you are going to become one of
his greatest enemies.
And so mark it well.
God says, put on the whole armor of
God.
Why?
So that you may be able to stand
against the wiles of the devil.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of
the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places.
Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of
God, that ye may be able to withstand
in the evil day, having done all to
stand.
Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with
truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness,
and your feet shod with the preparation of
peace.
And above all, taking the shield of faith,
wherewith ye shall be able to quench all
the fiery darts of the wicked.
And take the helmet of salvation, and the
sword of the Spirit, which is the word
of God.
That is your offensive tool.
The rest is defensive, to protect you from
the enemy.
Your sword, the word of God, is what
He has given you for fighting with.
It says, Praying always with all prayer and
supplication of the Spirit, and watching thereunto with
all perseverance and supplication for all saints.
And so, I want heaven and hell to
become a reality to you.
They are issues of eternity.
The souls that you meet day after day,
are going to spend an eternity in one
place or the other.
And it largely depends if you are going
to open up your mouth, and rebuke them
for the way they are going.
It needs to be abrasive to them.
Number one, like I said earlier, you must,
the love of God must flow from your
life.
But your words need to speak clearly, that
there is no question mark left in their
mind.
Otherwise, they will have no reason to fear
you.
And so remember, we are in a battle,
and we need to live like it.
It's not time to be sitting down and
relaxing, and just enjoying the sweet fellowship of
church life.
It's time to get active.
It's time to get out, and to attack
the enemy forces now.
People are dying now.
People are running to the hell fire now.
And it's time to get busy now.
It's not something that you can do once
you get older.
If you've been a born again Christian, you
have a responsibility.
It should be a delight to you.
But you have a responsibility to go out
there, and stand as a road block on
the way to hell, as these people are
making their mad dash.
God wants your love, the love of Christ,
to so flow from your life, that the
people have a strong desire for it.
I was asked by one young man, that
was in school at this university.
He said to me, he told me, it
seems that you have found meaning in life.
And I told him, you are exactly right.
You are exactly right.
And he said, I don't know what to
do.
He said, it's what I'm searching for.
He said, I've been very confused, and I've
been amazed at how many of them are
so confused, by Christianity that is so watered
down, that they don't know what direction to
go anymore.
But he said that, his word was, he
said, I envy you.
He said, I'm searching for that meaning.
And I showed him so clearly, from scripture,
what he needs to do.
And now it is left up with him
to make that choice.
But they are searching.
There are many of them, and the students
especially, they are there to learn.
And though they can argue upside and down,
there are many of them that are ready
to learn, if you are willing to open
up your mouth, and share Christ with them.
So remember, it's a battlefield, and it's time
to fight now, and to keep on fighting.
When you get to heaven, you can rest.
But while you are alive, you need to
be in battle.
And as this takes place, God said that,
there is going to just be natural fruit,
that comes from your Christian life.
As you abide in the vine, you find
that sweet place of worship, you go out
and preach the gospel to the ungodly.
Natural fruit is going to come.
You will find genuine love flowing from your
life, just like you've never had it before.
You will find yourself so full of exceeding
joy, you won't know what to do with
it.
It just comes as a natural fruit, of
being radical for Christ.
But the churches are so filled with people,
that are willing to sit back and relax.
And that is where my heart cry was
coming this morning.
A cry for fervent meaningful reality.
People that care.
People that see things from God's perspective.
People that treasure God, and the things that
God treasures, above everything else.
God wants to fill your life with His
Holy Spirit.
And Joel, let me turn to those verses
and read it to you.
So I can get the verse correct.
Talking about pouring out your spirit, God promised
in the book of Joel, that He was
going to do it.
In chapter 2 verse 28, it says, and
it shall come to pass.
I'm sorry, let me back up to verse
27.
It says, and ye shall know that I
am in the midst of Israel, and that
I am the Lord your God, and none
else.
And my people shall never be ashamed.
And it shall come to pass afterward, that
I will pour out my spirit upon all
flesh.
And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.
Your old men shall dream dreams, and your
young men shall see visions.
It says, and also upon thy servants, and
upon thy handmaids, in those days will I
pour out my spirit.
And that is what we need so desperately.
There are many Christians that pray, God send
your Holy Spirit, fill me with your Holy
Spirit.
And if you look at the life of
Christ, when He was baptized, He was filled
with God's Holy Spirit.
And who can tell me what happened after
Jesus' baptism?
He went to be tempted.
And that is so often what happens when
we ask for God's Holy Spirit.
He says, you want God's Holy Spirit?
Fine, I'll fill you.
And then He takes you and gives you
temptation.
And did Jesus pass those temptations or did
He fail?
He passed them.
And when Jesus came down from the mountain,
does anyone know what it says?
He came in the power of the Spirit.
And I believe that Jesus, when Jesus was
baptized, He was filled with the Spirit.
And when He was tested, He passed those
tests.
And after He passed those tests, like He
said, it says that He came down in
the power of the Spirit.
And there are many people that get confused.
They ask for God's Holy Spirit to fill
them.
And God answers their prayer and He sends
the testing.
And they fail.
And then the people sit back and say,
why is the Christian life so difficult?
I'm being tempted so many times.
And I don't have the power in my
Christian life.
My friend, you need to pass the test.
God so much.
He said that He wants to give His
Holy Spirit to you much more than you
even want to have it.
He wants to have His power flow through
your life so that the world can be
one for Christ.
But you need to pass the test that
He brings into your Christian life.
And so when they come, don't be discouraged
and don't be surprised that they're coming.
They will come if you want to be
filled with His Holy Spirit.
And as you pass those tests, may your
testimony also be that I also am now
experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit filled
life.
God longs for it to be that way.
And you can also mark it well that
if you're going to be a radical Christian,
you will very likely experience a lot of
flack from your Christian friends.
They won't understand.
So many times persecution comes from Christian people.
It's amazing the way it happens.
There's something about everybody liking to be the
same.
And if everyone lives their Christian lives the
same, everyone can live happily.
But when there's a couple radical Christians inside
a church group and they are living their
lives completely for God, it makes the other
ones feel uncomfortable.
When they're sitting on top of their wealth,
it hurts because they look and the other
man is living his life for eternity.
And it begins to cause friction.
And so if you start getting persecution from
some of your Christian friends, don't let it
come as a surprise to you.
If you get a lot of persecution from
the world, don't let it be a surprise
to you.
God said expect it.
He said all that live godly in Christ
Jesus, not some but all, who live godly
in Christ Jesus are going to suffer persecution.
You can expect it.
And God said if it comes, value it
and use it as bread in your Christian
life.
You can either use it, allow it to
defeat you or it can take you higher.
The world is going to hate you.
It's a guarantee.
Your values are so different.
The things that you stand for are so
different.
The world is going to hate you.
But let them hate you.
As they see the sweetness of Jesus Christ
flowing through your life and as you speak
strongly into their life about repenting of their
sin, God's Holy Spirit can do His work
and turn the light on.
And this is what missions is all about.
You can take home what I shared with
you and put it to practice right in
the town where you're living.
You can put it to practice wherever God
has you right now.
And I pray that as you continue to
stand in all before God and as you
are a faithful witness to the people that
He has put you in, that He is
going to turn your focus to the ungodly
people who have never had a chance.
It's exciting to preach the gospel to college
students.
It's even more incredible to share Christ with
a person who's never heard about the saving
grace of Jesus Christ in their life before.
And to watch them get gloriously converted.
It will change your life.
And so I pray that God will send
young people, will send families out of this
place, people who have chosen to be radical.
And I don't want this message to just
die out and go, as we say in
Africa, to fly in one ear.
They talk about flying in one ear and
flying out the other side.
I don't want it to be something that
you think about just for a week and
then it's gone.
I want it to be something that's going
to change your life.
That when I meet you 20 years from
now, that your life is continuing to grow
deeper and deeper in the love of Christ.
That you continue to stand strong.
That you are a faithful witness and standing
in the way of those that are making
their mad dash to the hellfire.
God cares about them.
He has a passion to win them.
He wants to make His name great among
those people.
But unless the church opens up their mouth,
it will never happen.
In Romans, chapter 10, in closing, it says,
verse 13, it says, It says, Do you
believe that?
It says, Can
you call on someone in whom you do
not believe?
I've often given the illustration when I was
speaking in Ghana.
We worked with a lot of people who
had snake bites.
We were known far and wide for God
answering our prayers concerning the issue of snake
bites.
And the message got spread far and wide
within a 60 mile radius of the village
where we were living.
We were known to be able to pray
for those snake bites and God would answer
prayer.
It was just one of the many miracles
that we watched God work as we were
there.
And it says, If they didn't hear about
us, how would they know where to come?
If they haven't heard about Jesus and His
saving power, how are they going to believe?
It says, If they haven't heard of them,
how can they even believe in Him?
If you don't tell them, how can they
believe?
It says, It comes right back to us
again.
Right back to us.
How are they going to hear unless you
tell them?
And then the next verse says, I don't
know how much clearer of a command you
need.
He said, The issue is not whether you
should go or not.
The question is where you should go.
And as you are living in the community
where you are, your go is very obvious.
And as you continue to seek God's will
for your life, I pray that He's going
to send you to some of the most
needy places of the world.
Where people are longing to hear the gospel.
And be able to make God's name great
in that place too.
But it all depends on you.
It depends on the decisions that you make
concerning the treasures in your life.
I cannot make that decision.
I cannot make you be radical.
If I could, I would.
But I can't.
I can only pray that God will take
these feeble human words and set them on
fire in the hearts of His people.
So that it will bring change that will
last for an eternity.
God needs you desperately.
He needs you to make His name great.
He wants to be worshipped.
But without you it will never happen.
And I want you to remember that we
measure the value of a treasure.
By what we will gladly give up in
order to have it.
And so I urge you today.
Find your greatest source of delight in Jesus
Christ.
And allow Him to be your treasure.
I pray that God will richly bless you
and give you direction in your Christian lives.
I pray that He will help you fathers
to make choices for your family that will
encourage your children to invest in eternity.
It will set the church on fire.
If the whole church is walking in the
sweetness of God's love, is experiencing God's richest
blessing in their life.
It will set the church on fire.
As you go out and you share Christ
with a lost and dying world.
And I hope and pray that I will
hear of revival fires breaking out all across
the United States as you Bible students go
home.
There is no reason it shouldn't happen.
God wants to set your hearts on fire.
And win the world for Christ.
So thank you for your time and I
pray that God will richly bless you as
you find a fervent meaningful reality in your
Christian life.
I was just thinking about myself.
What if that's what I want?
Then what is the first step?
If that's what I want, I will have
to begin to go that direction.
If that's what I want, I must begin
to take steps.
Amen?
I wonder what the steps are for you.
Well, okay.
I'll be more faithful in giving my tithe.
And I'll try to make sure I give
a tithe.
Or maybe I should just double my tithe.
Maybe that would be enough.
Is that right?
That's not what God is asking this morning.
God is asking for everything.
Everything.
And what He really wants is a willing
heart that says, Yes Lord, just show me
the way.
That's what He's asking for.
And that first step needs to be, we
need to be able to say, Yes Lord,
I'm willing.
And the next step, I believe, is to
begin.
You see, this is not a superficial life.
This life is to be a reality.
And in order for our Christian life to
be reality, we must take steps of reality.
If He is speaking to us about our
wealth, we need to just obey.
And to be radical, you'll be misunderstood by
your friends, your Christian brothers and friends.
You might, maybe God is asking you to
sell your possessions.
And to give them away.
Well, but we'd like for you to keep
some, just in case you have a need
of some kind, right?
But the important thing is that you hear
from God what He wants you to do.
And the steps He wants you to take.
But if you're going to reach that goal,
where you're going to live in the reality
of the Christian life, you must begin to
take steps as God leads you.
You must.
Or, you'll come back next year and you'll
hear another good sermon.
And it will just kind of go by
again.