It is a tremendous privilege for me to
be here with you and today do something
that I rarely ever do.
There is a great need, especially for young
ministers, to realize that the promises of the
New Testament are for today.
And that God works in a magnificent and
powerful way to those who, by his grace,
believe him.
When I was converted to the University of
Texas at the age of 21, a man
came up to me, as I have said
many times, and put several books in my
hand.
One of those books was the autobiography of
George Mueller, and I was absolutely astounded at
that little volume.
And I read it and reread it and
reread it, and I thought it was the
most marvelous thing.
But at the same time, I thought it
was a simple thing.
I thought it was reasonable.
It seemed to me to be reasonable.
And I want to share some testimonies this
hour regarding that and then talk about some
promises that we should press into.
But there's always a danger in doing this,
of being lifted up with pride and such.
But I feel that there's a need to
hear that our God is a living God.
And some of you young men who are
so keen and so interested in being theologically
sound need to understand, you can reduce God
down to a proposition and its intellectual death.
And God will raise up a man and
use him whose theology and knowledge is not
as pristine as yours.
If his heart is there and he's believing
God.
And so I started off in the way
that I knew of George Mueller doing it.
As you know, he was quite a he
was quite a rascal before he was converted.
He was a horrible young man.
The only thing I've ever beat George Mueller
at is sin.
I was horrible.
Beyond all description, horrible.
Terrible.
The worst of sinners.
Self-centered.
Wicked.
Egotistical.
Vain.
Horrible.
I hurt people.
And I didn't care.
A liar.
The greatest liar you could have ever known.
You would have founded me.
I lied just for the fun of lying.
And then I was converted.
The undergraduate library of the University of Texas.
And I received these books and I read
Mueller.
And it seemed to agree with what I
had, the little I had read in the
Bible.
And I began to think, well, I'll practice
this.
And I know I made a lot of
youthful things in the name of the Lord
that I did.
That was probably just raw zeal.
I remember that we had a big citywide
campaign that was coming up.
And I felt like the Lord had laid
on my heart to give away the money
I had for that summer's meals.
To give away all that money to that
particular endeavor.
And to trust God.
And what happened was, for some reason, my
friends were working as waiters.
And a lady just heard that I was,
that ran the business, heard that I was
living with these boys.
And that I hadn't found work yet.
And she sent a meal home every day
for three months.
Well, there was one day she didn't because
my friend left it on the table.
May God be his judge.
But for three months, every day, a meal.
And a meal unlike I could have purchased
with my own funds.
And then began to just live and seek
to do that.
To make the needs known to God alone.
And then to go off to Peru after
seminary.
Went out through just a small local church.
A dear group of brethren in Illinois who
have always been a support and a help
to me.
Waldo Baptist Church.
And went out to Peru.
And the missionaries used to, the Peruvian pastors
used to laugh whenever I would preach at
their churches.
They'd take up an offering because they said
I was the only missionary that was actually
poorer than they were.
But God met every need all the time.
And as God began to work in the
ministry, I began to see indigenous missionaries.
Men that lived on $75 a month and
had started 15, 20 churches.
Men of whom the world is not worthy.
Many of them uneducated, unshaven, mountain men.
And that God just gloriously was using in
his power.
And I felt that the Lord wanted us
to start a mission that would biblically help
support the indigenous church.
Without interfering with the work that God was
doing, but rather promote it.
Not to make them dependent, but to stand
alongside with them as a brother.
And so we began heart crying.
And I began to think immediately, you know,
I had very little funds for myself.
But along the way, God had been training
me to believe him.
I remember my third year in Peru and
we had outgrown the little building we were
in.
The church that we had started.
And there was this place that they wanted
$750 a month to rent it.
That's a fortune in Peru.
But we were working with children who were
out on the street because of the war
and had no place to take them when
they were sick.
And our church had no place to go
and there was no.
So I went and I looked at this
place and I thought, well, that's twice really
the support of what I was receiving.
And so I gathered together these missionaries who
I knew were very godly.
And I had them all go with me
to look at the building.
And I was sure that they would all
say that it's nonsense.
And every one of them that walked in
that building said this just seems like the
place that God would have you to be.
So I borrowed a pair of dress pants
from a Peruvian friend of mine, went and
met with the lawyers.
And then I had a day in which
I had to have a certain amount of
money and and and I didn't have it.
And the night before this missionary who I
know is from he's from Georgia, he's back
here now.
He had very little money himself.
He said he and his family were in
their nightly prayer meeting and God had laid
it on all their hearts to give the
money that he was saving up for a
roof to give it all to me.
And it was the exact amount needed to
pay the guarantee.
So I went in and I signed the
papers and I paid the guarantee and then
I walked out.
And in the reality of what I had
done, I'd signed my name and to something
that costed more than, well, twice the monthly
support.
And that month, God tripled our support without
any man ever knowing it.
And never once did we miss.
And so God began to train.
I remember one time praying for two weeks
for Bibles, Bibles, Bibles, Bibles.
And a man came back from the States,
a missionary by the name of Johnson, his
last name Johnson.
And he goes, you're Paul Washer.
And I said, yes, he calls me on
the phone.
He said, do you know anybody in Kansas
City?
And I said, no, I don't know anyone
in Kansas City.
And he said, well, someone in Kansas City
walked up to me and gave me a
thousand dollars and said to give it to
Paul Washer for Bibles.
And so God, God is real.
But you see, one of the great problems,
one of the great problems is that unless
you cut yourself off from the arm of
the flesh, you'll never see God work.
Unless you cut yourself off from the arm
of the flesh, you'll never see God work.
And so God began to train and and
so we began to support missionaries.
I remember laying awake at night in my
bed thinking, how on earth am I going
to get one hundred and fifty dollars required
this month to help this indigenous pastor missionary
that we're supporting?
And God never once failed.
And it's been many, many years now of
doing this.
And there's only been every with George Mueller
every month or every year.
So he he would give a report from
his journal.
And I never felt the freedom to do
that until about two years ago when when
the Lord one day I walked in the
office and I felt just so impressed of
the Lord.
Get out your notebook and begin to write,
because what you write that I want you
to let other people know about.
And so I'm going to read from the
journal that's over about two months, period.
The last few months have been the leanest
of our ministry.
Since June, we have lived every day from
hand to mouth several times.
Darren, John and I have not received our
salaries.
In spite of this hardship, all the men
and women in the field have received their
support without exception.
And we in the United States have never
lacked food or sufficient funds to pay our
bills.
Praise God for his faithfulness.
And now sit here in my office.
It's nine a.m. and I begin to
write the account of our struggles and the
faithfulness of God.
It is mid month and none of our
workers have been paid.
Darren, John and I have passed another week
without receiving our salaries.
Seven hundred dollars came in this weekend.
Also, I received one hundred and fifty dollars
for preaching in a conference in Lexington, Kentucky.
I will preach to a mission of Mexican
immigrants this afternoon.
I usually receive fifty dollars from them.
I am encouraged this morning by a promise
in second King seven.
November 21st on Wednesday, the 19th, three thousand
three hundred and seventeen dollars was deposited.
After paying certain bills that were due, we
remained with two thousand six hundred and thirty
eight dollars.
On Thursday we received twelve hundred and forty
seven dollars.
Today we received three hundred and fifty in
the mail.
Thirteen hundred that came through an anonymous donor
who left the money in my truck.
And a hundred dollars was given by a
staff worker.
This leaves us with a total of five
thousand six hundred and thirty five dollars.
We will not pay the U.S. staff
this week since not a single missionary on
the field is yet to be paid.
Never has there been such lack in the
mission.
November 24th, I came into the office this
morning and Darren informed me that there were
certain expenses totaling one thousand nine hundred ninety
four dollars that were paid last week, but
had not been recorded.
Therefore, we begin the day with three thousand
six hundred and forty dollars instead of five
thousand six hundred and thirty five.
This was a great discouragement, but we have
regained our composure and look to God once
again.
This is Gideon's call.
This army is too large.
All human possibility has to be destroyed so
that the victory will be ascribed to God
alone.
God has taken away from us even the
little strength we thought we had.
We have nothing to hope in but him.
We have seven days before the end of
the month and not a single missionary has
been paid.
Mission giving usually goes down in December because
of the Christmas holidays.
We have no reason to hope at all
in the flesh.
God alone can save us.
On Saturday, the twenty second five hundred and
twenty four dollars came through the mail.
I also found the check for fifty dollars
in my Spanish Bible that came from preaching
in the Mexican mission in Mayfield, Kentucky, three
weeks ago.
Self-pity, resentment and grumbling are all crouched
at the door and their desire is to
have us.
I pray that God might give us grace
to overcome.
I am looking forward to deliverance.
We'll call a prayer meeting in a few
minutes.
We grew.
We drew great strength from our morning prayers,
but but gathered together at lunch for the
same.
By his good spirit, we were encouraged to
trust the Lord.
I felt peace that this would not be
our end, but that God would be our
helper in the final hour.
Our greatest desire is for God to make
a name for himself through our inability.
Before 15, I went to the mailbox and
was excited to find it full of envelopes.
I soon discovered that only one was for
heart cry.
It was from a donor who I did
not recognize.
I opened the envelope expecting a donation of
twenty five or thirty dollars.
But to my surprise, it was a check
for three thousand.
I let out an audible shout for joy
while still in the churchyard.
I met with Darren and John for prayers
of thanksgiving to our God who's helped us
this day.
The first thing tomorrow morning we will set
about paying the missionaries from Peru.
It matters little to us that we still
lack funds to pay missionaries in 14 countries.
God has helped us today and given us
hope to trust in him.
We deposited November 25th.
We deposited six thousand eight hundred and fifty
seven dollars in our account today, which gave
us a total of seven thousand four hundred
ninety seven.
We wired the support to the missionaries in
Peru, paid our phone bills and have a
remainder of one hundred and eighty dollars.
Even though we do not have the necessary
funds to finish out the month, we saw
the need to take on two or three
more missionaries in Peru and help some of
our veteran missionaries with their very special needs.
Much time has passed since we last took
on new missionaries in Peru.
But in our hour of greatest need, God
leads us to believe him for more missionaries.
God always seems to ask more from us
when we have less to give so that
his great supply and loving kindness might be
revealed.
Twice today we met for prayer.
We are waiting for the mail, which usually
arrives around three thirty.
At the moment, we have one hundred and
eighty dollars and six days remaining to provide
support for the rest of our missionaries in
14 countries.
I just received the mail in the mailbox.
There was not one letter for heart cry.
We must continue to wait for God's deliverance.
We will pray when Darren returns from sending
the money to Peru.
We have nothing but his presence, but it
is enough.
November 26, today, the heart cry staff is
going to celebrate Thanksgiving together and we have
much to be thankful for.
This morning, Darren, John and I gathered for
prayer.
It was one of the best times of
prayer that we have ever had.
I felt led that God would send someone
to us before the mail arrived who would
give a gift to the mission.
At midday, a brother from Kentucky came to
the office and gave us fifteen dollars.
It was a great confirmation to all of
us that God had heard our prayers and
that he was with us.
At one thirty, we met again for a
time of prayer.
I felt a great impression that God was
asking someone somewhere to do something, and whether
out of fear or lack of faith they
were struggling, was submitting to the Lord.
After a time of prayer, the burden was
lifted.
At two forty five, Darren brought me the
mail.
Praise the Lord, we received an additional one
thousand three hundred ninety five dollars.
It was enough to pay the missionaries in
Siberia, Ukraine and India.
After wiring the money, we finished the day
with forty dollars and forty four cents.
There were four days left in the month
of November.
The staff will miss another paycheck this week,
but we have food and our bills are
paid like the oil in the widow's jar.
God has stretched our resources and kept the
destroyer at bay.
We will meet again at three p.m.
for prayer.
Darren just came in and asked if we
could send thirty extra dollars to the missionary
in Siberia.
This will help him buy more firewood to
keep his family warm.
I agreed.
We now have ten dollars and forty four
cents in our account.
Praise the Lord, what a privilege he's granted
us.
Yesterday was Thanksgiving and the mail was not
delivered.
Today I knew that we would receive two
days worth of mail and support.
I was hoping that there would be more
support because of this.
We received one hundred and seventy five dollars.
We now have one hundred and eighty five
dollars in hand.
We need 60 times this amount just to
pay our men in the field for this
month.
We have two more days.
We must take guard against doubt, despair and
self-pity.
Tomorrow is another day.
We'll look to God.
November twenty nine.
Two hundred and twenty dollars arrived in the
mail today.
We now have a total of five hundred
four hundred and five dollars.
Tomorrow is Sunday and there will be no
mail.
Monday is the first of December.
Most of the missionaries have not been paid
and the staff has only been paid twice
during the entire month.
We are in dire straits.
We have made our need known to no
one.
We wait upon the Lord.
Our greatest interest is his glory.
I cannot see how our fall would bring
encouragement to the saints, but I do see
how it would justify the carnal.
They will say that we were foolish and
proud to have believed that a ministry could
prosper without making its needs known to anyone
but God.
Many young believers have been encouraged to trust
God because of his dealings with us.
It would have been better to have never
started than to be the cause of their
unbelief.
God, we deserve to fail, but please do
not let us fail.
Your glory is at stake.
Oh, God, please get a name for yourself.
I preached to the Mexican mission this morning,
November 30th, but once again, they forgot to
give the promised support of gas money.
I was informed this evening that someone gave
one hundred and fifty dollars to the mission
in the morning service.
We now have five hundred and fifty five
dollars.
Tomorrow is the first of December and we
have yet to pay most of the men
for November.
This has happened only a few times in
the history of our mission and never when
the amount needed was so great.
I can hardly bear to ask the staff
to go another week without their salaries.
I know that they will do it willingly,
even joyfully.
We are in the greatest need since our
beginning.
We will wait upon the Lord and see
what tomorrow will bring.
We have no reason to hope in the
flesh.
If help comes, it will come from the
Lord.
I spoke with my pastor today, knows all
our troubles and would cut off his right
arm to help us.
He knows that the Lord has pressed upon
us the prohibition to make our needs known
even to our own church.
I know that every person in our church
would come to our aid if they knew
there was such a problem.
I even know that several people throughout the
country and they would gladly meet our every
need with one donation.
But the purpose of our mission is depend
on the Lord alone.
He is our patron.
If he wants this mission to continue, he
is faithful and able to let his people
know.
If he does not help us, then we
should not be helped.
Although we recognize that God has had his
hand upon us, we know that he does
not need us.
If the HeartCry Missionary Society perishes tomorrow, it
will not hinder God's great work on the
earth.
December 1st, when I arrived this morning, Darren
told me that someone had given $100 in
the Sunday evening service.
We now have $655.
I was thinking again about how the mission
where I preached on Sundays had failed to
provide the promised gas money for the last
three weeks.
There are wonderful believers and would do all
in their power to help me.
It seems that the Lord has made them
forget.
He is drying up every well dug by
human hands that he alone may be our
only fountain.
I feel like Hagar.
She and her boy were sent away because
he was not the child of the covenant.
When the water that she was carrying was
gone, she laid her boy under a bush
and sat a bow shot away because she
could not bear to watch him die.
I do not feel God's presence.
I feel like I have been sent into
the desert as one who is not a
child of the promise.
All our resources are spent.
I want to lay the mission down and
run away, for I cannot bear to see
it die.
Satan tempts me to anger and grumbling, but
who am I to speak a word against
the Lord?
I have not been worthy of even the
least of all his mercies.
He has shown me throughout the years, even
if he slays me, even if he abandons
me to hell, even then he would be
worthy of praise.
He has already done more for me than
I could ever deserve in a thousand lifetimes
of service.
I will trust in him regardless of the
outcome.
I know these things.
God is good, wise and powerful, and our
circumstances are not the result of some defect
in God.
This trial is ordained with perfect wisdom by
an absolutely sovereign God who has promised to
do us good for the sake of Christ.
He works all things together for our good.
Even this, the story of Hagar and Ishmael,
ends in a great salvation wrought by God.
If he opened a fountain in the desert
for an idolatrous pagan whose child would grow
up to be a persecutor of God's people,
will he not help us, his children?
Although there are many daily tasks to be
accomplished today, the priority of our heart will
be to pray and wait upon the Lord.
I went to the mailbox this afternoon and
found an envelope containing two hundred and eighty
seven dollars.
This brings our total to nine hundred and
forty two.
December two.
Today was a good day.
Our families came to church to take pictures
for December issue of HeartCry magazine.
We were filled with joy to watch our
children and to play with them.
How the Lord has blessed us.
I went to the mailbox today and found
envelopes containing six hundred and twelve dollars.
I had hoped to send support to more
men today, but it was not God's will.
We met this afternoon to pray and to
discuss what the Lord would have us to
do.
We know that we are able always to
trust him, but we do not know what
he would have us to do.
Since John is not a U.S. citizen,
he must continue to be supported by the
mission.
Darren and I have the possibility of looking
for work elsewhere.
We determined to wait upon the Lord to
the end of the week.
If funds do not come, then we will
look for work.
We prayed.
John was the last to pray at the
end of his prayer.
He asked the Lord to open Gabby's womb
that she might conceive.
He no sooner closed his prayer with a
man than Gabby came into the door with
tears in her eyes and announced that the
doctor said she was pregnant.
What a tremendous blessing.
The news could not have come at a
better time for two reasons.
First, it showed us that God answers prayer.
Secondly, John's financial resources are almost depleted, and
yet his financial needs will be greater than
ever.
What an opportunity for God to get a
name for himself.
This morning, Charo called December 3rd, my wife,
about the medical bills for the birth of
our son Evan.
To our astonishment, they were all paid by
someone who wished to remain anonymous.
We had told no one of our bills.
We do not have the faintest idea who
God used to bless us.
It is a great encouragement for all of
us at the mission.
God is able to tell others of our
needs.
I went to the mailbox today and was
blessed by the Lord's kindness.
The donations totaled $2,500, and we now
have $3,100 for the missionaries.
One dear family that sponsored us for years
with $1,000 a month sent $2,000
for November and December.
This is not the first time that the
Lord has directed them to give when it
was most needed.
Another blessing came from the Mexican mission that
had not given any gas money for three
weeks.
They sent $150, which was given to the
mission at 5 p.m. Darren left to
make a deposit.
We were able, by God's good grace, to
mail support to Benin, Ghana, and Nigeria.
I received a letter today from Ernesto Zacarias.
He sent photos of the construction of our
new church in Villa Salvador.
It was truly a blessing to see all
the people gathered inside the new building.
A few months ago, we gave our last
$1,000 so that the construction could continue.
It might have seemed foolish to many, but
seeing the people gathered in that simple building
in order to hear the gospel is reward
enough.
December 5th, this morning, I went to the
doctor for blood work.
It seems I'm going to have to have
more operations.
We were greatly blessed today.
The Lord provided $2,770 through the mail,
and someone gave John $20, which he gave
to the mission.
Our total is $3,146.
Darren was able to send the support to
Zambia.
We closed the day with $1,700.
We lack nearly $4,700 to pay the
missionaries in Romania.
Darren, John, and I will not be paid
again this week, but the Lord has seen
our need.
A dear family in the church sent groceries
to the office today and gave each of
us a Walmart card to buy more groceries.
In the end, we will have more supplies
in our home than if we had been
paid our salaries.
God never has given us a reason to
doubt his character or his promises.
I have been young and now I am
old, yet I have not seen the righteous
forsaken or his descendants begging for bread.
What grace!
He declares the wicked righteous by the blood
of his dear son.
He prepares good deeds for them by his
sovereign will.
He empowers them by his spirit and then
he rewards them for what they have done
as if they had done it.
What grace!
What marvelous grace!
In such grace we will wait upon him.
I would rather be a beggar in the
courts of God than to sit in the
seats of the mighty in the greatest halls
of this present age.
I would be the weakest of all his
children that I might see greater portions of
his grace.
I would be the most incompetent that I
might see greater measures of his strength.
I would be the most helpless that his
strong arms might carry me.
I would be the most destitute that his
right hand might feed me.
At noon, Darren paid $33 worth of bills.
He also discovered that a check for $150
that we received yesterday was not signed and
must be returned.
We lack $4,000.
December 8th, $655 came in over the weekend
and $1,500 came in the mail today.
After paying bills, we have $3,000.
December 9th, only two checks came in today.
One for $50 and the other for $4
,000.
Praise God!
That gives us a total of $8,700.
After paying Romania in several bills that were
due, we were left with $644.
The support for November has been paid.
We received a total of $3,000 today.
December 10th, December 11th, we received $1,462.
December 12th, today $745 was divided up among
the staff to pay all our due bills.
No donation came in today.
But we were also notified that $1,000
more was in the bank than what we
thought.
We end the day with $5,000.
December 15th, $340 came in and I received
$200, $250 for preaching two services in New
Hampshire.
This morning, Darren made a deposit.
December 16th, $1,900 came in today through
the mail.
Today we paid for the printing of our
magazine as well as missionaries.
December 18th, $325 came in yesterday through the
mail and $358 today.
Today again, $1,200 was divided up among
the staff to pay more bills.
December 19th, $300 came in today through the
mail.
We made a deposit of $983.
In the afternoon, an anonymous donor sent us
$180.
December 21st, there was $1,200 worth of
donations in Saturday's mail.
December 22nd, $1,525 came in the mail
today.
December 23rd, yesterday an additional $110 was sent
to my house and $1,236 came in
the mail.
December 28th, $13,311 came in today.
We paid everyone for the month of December
and have $6,000 in surplus.
You can trust God.
Don't you hear me?
You don't have to go into debt.
You can trust God.
If God has called you to do something,
why run to men?
Why tell them?
Why raise support from them?
Why speak great things about yourself so that
they might give?
If God has called you, He will provide
every one of your needs according to His
riches in glory.
And if, as we hear these evangelists on
television, if you don't support our ministry, we're
going down.
Then go down!
If God's in it, He will hold you
up.
I want to speak for a moment about
Matthew 7.
It says, Ask, verse 7, ask and it
will be given to you.
Seek and you will find.
Knock and it will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives.
And he who seeks, finds.
And to him who knocks, it will be
opened.
So many young people and so many older
people come to me discouraged about this verse.
It just doesn't work.
I pray and I ask and God doesn't
answer.
Surely, this can't mean what it says.
And then all the theologians come and say,
Well, of course, it means exactly what it
says, but only in regard to God's will.
And of course, we know God doesn't will
anything for anybody nowadays.
This is a promise.
And it is true.
You must understand the context, but it is
true.
This promise is not for those who seek
to promote, advance or preserve self.
This promise is not for those who seek
to promote or advance or even preserve.
You understand what I mean by that?
God, if you can get glory for yourself,
that I'd be destroyed.
It is not about self-preservation.
It is not about the promotion of self.
This promise is for those who seek God's
glory and God's will above all other things.
This promise is for those who recognize their
utter weakness to attain such a heavenly ambition.
And this promise is those who, by faith,
lay hold of the promises of God and
persevere until God comes down.
The promises belong to those with the right
passion.
Let me give you a few verses.
Matthew 6 9.
Pray then in this way.
Our father who is in heaven, hallowed be
thy name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done.
You see all these silly little things being
said about prosperity today.
God wants to prosper you and he wants
to give you a Mercedes and a nice
home.
God wants you to go out there and
name it and claim it and blab it
and grab it and get it all for
yourself.
Let me tell you how it really works.
Everything in our life as a Christian is
within the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of
God's dear son.
The mentality of those who pray correctly is
this.
God, if you can get glory for yourself
and you can advance your kingdom through prospering
me in any measure, in any way, then
so be it.
But dear God, if your kingdom will advance
and your name will be glorified through me
being ground to powder, then so be it.
This is not a prayer for you.
It is a prayer for him.
It's asking about him and asking about the
advancement of his kingdom.
It's another passage that says.
Matthew 6 21 through 24.
For where your treasure is, there is your
heart will be also the eye is the
lamp of the body.
So then if your eye is clear, your
whole body will be full of light.
But if your eye is bad, your whole
body will be full of darkness.
If then the light that is in you
is darkness.
How great is that darkness?
No one can serve two masters for either.
He will hate the one and love the
other or he will be devoted to one
and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and wealth.
You cannot serve God and anything else.
The problem is with the eye because the
eye reveals the passion of the heart, the
treasure of the heart.
I don't need to read your heart.
I only need to look at your eye.
To what is your eye gazing?
What is the goal of your life?
And I want you to know something that
even the greatest goals of life can be
nothing more than idolatry.
Nothing more than idolatry.
Ministry is one of the greatest idols in
Christianity.
Becoming a success in ministry is a putrid,
horrid, abominable idol.
To become a big person, an important person,
one who speaks at a conference.
The Charismatics, they have their heroes.
They're guys who can shake out their coat
and make people fall down.
Southern Baptists, they have their heroes.
You're a success in the ministry.
How?
Because you've got the biggest number of people
and the biggest budget and the most baptisms.
And then the reformed guys, they have their
heroes.
They all have really big heads with really
big brains that know a lot of things.
Everyone seems to be trying to be a
hero or to get into the inner circle.
The eye is focused on one thing.
I loved Whitfield.
No movement began with Whitfield, because when he
was dying, he said, let me die and
let my name die with me.
Just Christ.
What are you got to judge your motives?
You've got to look at those motives and
ask yourself, why are you doing this?
Most men study the Bible to get a
good sermon and get a good sermon so
that they can get an open door.
Study the Bible and know God.
You pray that God's kingdom might be advanced.
Some of you young men, you've been praying,
oh, God, use me.
God, use me.
What you ought to be praying is, oh,
God, use my roommate.
Let me carry his bags all the days
of my life.
God will give anything to those who ask
him.
If their heart is set on this view.
Matthew six thirty three.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness
and all these things will be added to
you.
Go on to first Corinthians.
Whatever you do, whether the most menial task
of eating and drinking, do it all for
the glory of God.
And the whole idea is this.
The full thrust of your life is to
be only one thing, that God be glorified,
that the kingdom of Christ advance once you
step into that realm.
If your heart is truly there to seek
first only the kingdom, then anything you ask
with that passion and that direction, he will
give it to you.
Anything that is necessary for the name of
God to be glorified, anything that is necessary
for the kingdom of God to advance is
yours.
Absolutely everything and anything.
The promise belongs to those with the right
passion.
And the promise belongs to the weak.
The promise belongs to the weak young men.
You will heartily agree that you can do
nothing of yourself.
You don't know at all what that means.
It's going to take so many decades of
all your strength being destroyed.
You have no idea what it means.
Even those of us who are older and
even those who have been in the ministry
longer than I've been alive.
It's a process of learning.
What does God do?
God does such a work of destruction in
our lives.
He says, I will cleanse you and Ezekiel
in the new covenant.
I will cleanse you from all your filthiness
and all your idols.
He will break apart all those cisterns that
you make that can't hold water.
He will smash them and smash them and
smash them until you're left utterly destitute of
everything.
But God, that is, of course, if you're
God's man, if you're not God's man.
He'll give you the desires of your heart.
And that's the most terrifying thing you could
ever imagine.
The Pharisees, they wanted to receive glory from
men.
Jesus said that God gave them their reward
in full.
And then they went to hell.
The most terrifying thing, young man, is that
God will give you the desires of your
heart.
Desire big ministry, popularity among people, all men
speak well of you.
God will give it to you, but it
won't be blessing.
It'll be judgment ending in condemnation.
You must be weak.
The life of Peter is such an example
of this.
Lord, though all men betray you, though all
men deny you, that all men turn their
back on you.
I will die with you.
It was so necessary for that cock to
crow.
It was so necessary for Peter to fail.
If that had not occurred, I don't believe
he could have ever been filled with the
Holy Spirit.
He had to realize, I am a betrayer.
I am nothing.
Some men will say yes, but they'll still
hold on to this.
They'll say, yes, I am weak and I
can do nothing without him.
But they still hold on to this idea.
I have enough piety to be used of
God.
You do not.
It is even forsaking whatever known piety you
think you have.
And realize that God works because God has
ordained to work.
And to take the weakest of men to
do the greatest of things.
Your problem is not that you don't know
enough.
Your problem is not that you're not gifted
enough.
Your problem is you're too strong.
You're just too strong.
Also, the promise belongs to those who lay
hold of the promises of God.
Lay hold of the promises of God.
Grab a hold of them and do not
let them go until God does exactly what
he's promised.
Matthew 11, 12.
From the days of John the Baptist until
now.
The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and violent
men take it by force.
Listen to this.
The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and violent
men take it by force.
Now, in light of Luke 16, 16, it
seems best to interpret this passage to mean
this.
The kingdom presses ahead relentlessly and only the
relentless press their way into it.
The men that are used of God.
If I could only have two words to
describe them.
The women that are used of God.
If I could only have two words to
describe them.
They are the passionate, weak.
They are the violently desperate.
They're not the type of men who say,
yes, with this John Wayne, I'll do it
mentality.
I'll press in there until I get in
there.
No, they are men that come to reality
of such weakness and such desperation.
Like a starving man without food.
They know they must do everything within their
means to press into that.
Because there's no other place for salvation.
There's no other place of hope.
There's no other deliverance just there.
And they're desperate because of their weakness.
They're violent because of their need.
They have no other place to go.
I want to read to you for some
theologians in the past.
Some beautiful things that researched.
First of all, John Calvin writes.
The meaning, therefore, is a vast assembly of
men is now collected as if men were
rushing violently forward to seize the kingdom of
God.
For aroused by the voice of one man,
John the Baptist, they come together in crowds
and receive not only with eagerness, but with
fervent impulsiveness, the grace which is offered to
them.
Let us also learn from these words.
What is the true nature in operation of
faith?
It leads men not only to give cold
and indifferent assent when God speaks, but to
cherish warm affection toward him and to rush
forward as if it were with a violent
struggle.
How many of you believe God?
How many of you are desperate enough and
believe God enough and want enough to enter
in with a desperate struggle to grab a
hold and wrestle with God as Jacob wrestled
with God and came out limping and broken?
The problem in the church today is not
too much passion.
Problem is, we don't have any, at least
about the right things.
John Gill writes that this text refers, first
of all, to publicans and harlots and Gentile
sinners who might be thought to be a
sort of intruders into the kingdom.
I love that here you have this circle
of people.
They're total outcasts than they ought to be.
They're total outcasts for them to even come
close to anything that mentioned God.
People would look at them and say, you
don't have part with this.
You don't belong here.
Look at who you are.
But in their desperation and their need, when
one door of grace flies open, they run
at it like wild men.
And they don't care if everyone else says
you don't belong here.
Their desperate need of salvation causes them to
run to God and hope and to grab
a hold of him.
He goes on and he says, secondly, to
persons powerfully wrought upon under the ministry of
the gospel who were under violent apprehensions of
wrath and vengeance for their lost and undone
state and conditioned by nature.
People had been who had been awakened to
what they were before a holy God who
were who were in fear of the wrath
of God, full of apprehension and dread.
And see again, one window of grace thrown
open and they fight with all their might
to make it through there.
He goes on and he says in three
to those who were violently in love with
Christ and eagerly desirous of salvation by him
and communion with him and had their affection
set upon the things of another world.
These having the gospel preached to them greedily
catched at it and embraced it.
They were maddened, people emboldened and maddened with
love.
Who realized that absolutely everything in this world
is a sickening, stupid vanity, and the only
thing that matters is the kingdom of Christ
and doing the will of God and entering
in.
Matthew Henry writes, they who will have an
interest in the great salvation are carried out
toward it with strong desires, will have it
upon any terms and not think them hard,
nor quit their hold without a blessing.
What an amazing statement.
They won't complain.
They won't think it hard.
They won't.
They won't be murmuring about the time they'll
lay hold of a promise of God and
they will not let go of it until
it's fulfilled.
The kingdom of heaven was never intended to
indulge the ease of triflers, but to be
the rest of them that labor.
It is a blessed sight, oh, that we
could see a greater number, not with angry
contention, thrusting others out of the kingdom of
heaven, but with a holy contention, thrusting themselves
into it.
Finally, John Trapp says men are resolved to
have it.
Whatever pains or perils they pass through as
God's Israel violently invaded and overran the promised
land, so do his elect lay hold on
the promised inheritance.
This true treasure hitherto hidden is now discovered
and exposed to all that have a mind
to it, though God would have his servants
content with the least of his mercies, yet
not satisfied with the greatest things in the
world for their portion since they are born
to better.
What does he mean?
If you are a child of God, you
have been given a new nature, you have
been recreated in the image of God and
true righteousness and holiness.
Nothing that this world could ever throw at
you ought to be able to take away
your joy.
And nothing this world could ever promise you
ought to be able to give you joy.
Why you are of a higher nature.
You were created for the heavenlies, for the
things of God.
Nothing on this earth will ever please you.
And what should that cause you to do?
It should cause you to rush forward like
a madman.
Young men, listen to me.
I have seen so many young men and
they are so pretty and so proper.
They dot every I and cross every T
and they speak well and they they're not
a never a bull in a china shop.
They never make a mistake.
They're quaint and clean and pretty and easy
and not dangerous at all.
And then I see a young man come
along.
He's like a bull in a china shop.
He's raving madman, a lunatic.
Someone ought to lock him in jail for
three years so he doesn't hurt anybody.
But there's a passion there.
There's a fire there.
Not content.
I don't want morality.
I don't want to just look nice.
I don't want to be churchy.
I don't want to be religious.
And most of all, I never want to
be civilized.
I want God and I'll have him or
I'll die.
Show me your glory.
Moses wasn't a dumb man.
He knew what that meant.
It's almost as though Moses was saying, I
know it will kill me.
Just give me one glimpse and let me
die.
We say, just give me one glimpse and
let me alone.
It's pressing in.
And I want to finish by saying one
other thing that is so extremely important.
Do you have any idea how many promises
are in the Bible for you?
I would dare say.
Now you do understand, don't you?
That if it is a promise in the
Bible, it is the will of God.
Hope you understand that.
Do you have any idea how many promises
for godliness there are?
Do you have any idea how many promises
where God says, I will let you see
me?
I will let you know me if you
seek me.
I would not a wagering man, but I'd
bet everything I have that there are more
promises.
There are more promises in the Bible with
regard to you growing in grace and overcoming
sin and being used of God and trampling
on serpents and every other sort of thing.
There are enough promises there that if a
man were to pray only over those promises,
24 hours a day, he would have to
live 10,000 lifetimes to win them, to
avail himself of them.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
Take all the promises of God, all of
them that you find.
Old Testament, New Testament, write them down.
The ones that talk about godliness and God
being with you and God helping you and
God strengthening the weak and God showing himself
to men and God doing mighty things.
And you get down and you wrestle with
them all the days of your life.
And if you ask about those promises, you
will receive.
If you seek those promises, you will find.
And if you knock on the door of
those promises, it'll be open to you.
But the problem is we want other things
than the promises.
We want a comfortable life.
We want to be able to minister.
We want all sorts of things.
God has other plans, higher plans, greater plans
to make you conform to the image of
his son.
And then to use you as a treasure,
as a focal point, as an illustration of
just how good he is.
To take you throughout all of eternity and
lavish upon you greater and greater demonstrations of
his goodness.
He has such plans for you.
You have such meager, pitiful plans for yourself.
Young men, find those promises.
Get down on your knees until you've availed
yourself of them.
Take them one at a time.
Wrestle with them.
Cry out to God.
God, you said if I seek you, I'll
find you.
You said that.
I seek you.
And persevere, wrestle with a holy boldness.
Such timid men.
And how easy we forget, those of us
who know.
About three weeks ago, I'd been wrestling with
something for many, many years.
Just not seeming to make much progress in
that area of my life.
Then one night, about one in the morning,
woke up.
And you know what?
Older men, listen to me.
You really don't need to learn anything else.
What you need to do is remember what
you've forgotten.
And it was like, get up.
And go out.
And struggle.
And scream.
And cry out to the Lord until he
gives you victory over this thing.
Next morning, a young man that I wanted
to help, he said, Brother Paul, you're looking
kind of bad this morning.
You didn't get much sleep last night.
And I said, in the words of Keith
Green, One sleepless night of anguished prayer, I
triumphed over sin.
One battle in God's holy war, he promised
me to win.
There's so many things that pick at you.
Like those Canaanites in the land.
Drive them out.
Take God's promises and drive them out.
Brother Paul, I have this one sin I
can't overcome.
Then fast and pray.
And drive it out.
Grab a hold of grace.
Avail yourself of promises.
Be sick of the thing.
The problem is, at first you're sick of
the thing.
And then you begin to be able to
live with the thing.
And then the thing becomes a part of
your life.
Young men, warriors and radical Christians aren't those
who listen to contemporary music and wear t
-shirts with verses on the back.
And it's not necessarily those who hit the
streets going door to door.
You give me one man who'll take the
promises of God and fight through them on
his knees in the darkness when no one
else is around.
And everything else will fall in place.
There is nothing, there is absolutely nothing in
your life that cannot be overcome through wrestling
in prayer and believing and availing yourself of
the promises of God.
Let's pray.
Father, I come before you and ask you,
Lord, you are a good God.
You are a very good God.
And you have given us mighty promises.
And you've given us your spirit.
Oh, Lord, help us to take possession of
the land.
To drive out those Canaanite sins and idols.
Take possession of the land.
To fight the good fight of faith.
To lay hold of that for which we
have been laid hold of.
To be conformed to the image of Christ.
And never be content but with a holy
ambition to pursue your glory.
In Jesus' name, amen.