One letter I got today.
This is just today.
Of course, it's good to have something fresh,
isn't it?
And I was just reading this letter.
It's from a girl who's been living in
depression, living in discouragement, living in defeat.
Came into our conference, heard the message on
the rest in Christ, stood to her feet
and was completely delivered and brought in a
whole new dimension in her Christian experience of
victory and joy and reality.
The letters I have received like this down
through the years.
Got another letter today, just today.
Fellow within a year will be in Afghanistan.
He's finally got his finalist teacher's degree after
so many years.
He was on OM in 1963.
He's been going through university in this training
and that training I haven't heard from in
four years.
And he wrote me, he said, George, I
hope in one more year I'll be in
Afghanistan.
He said the greatest month of my life
was my summer on OM in 1963.
And he said, you know, I was in
a prayer meeting where you spoke in 1961
that I first heard there was such a
place in the world as Afghanistan.
Lord willing, I'll be there in a year.
Going through Kabul just a week ago, young
girl came up to me and she said,
you know, my husband and I are here
in Afghanistan now in literacy work.
She said it was at an OM conference.
She said, I've never been on OM.
It was at an OM conference that I
first received a vision for the Muslim world.
And those of us who are in this
work have no conception of the worldwide influence
the Spirit of God is making through this
testimony that has been raised up.
I've been shocked even as I've seen such
things as my little superficial literature manual go
into its second, third edition.
And letters sometimes come from all over the
world.
And I have had invitations for OM to
begin immediately in more than 15 nations.
And we could immediately start work and have
men directors.
If we work like other groups and just
took a director without a several years of
training and making sure he was a revolutionist,
we just took a director, we could open
work immediately in 15, 20, 25 nations just
like that.
We won't do it because we have this
conviction that what we do must be done
right.
It must be done on the basis of
the Word of God with revolutionary men who
are convinced about these principles and living these
principles to some degree.
And it might remind us to go back
and realize that Hudson Taylor was one of
the most criticized men of his day.
William Carey was considered a complete nut and
extremely criticized by the organized church.
C.T. Stott, of course, was bombarded from
every side.
George Miller were they considered complete religious fanatic.
You name a man of God, he was
blasted, criticized, and attacked viciously by many people
in his day.
And we need to get worrying in OM
when we're not criticized.
That's when we get worrying.
And let us press on, believing, trusting, and
praying.
Tonight I want us to turn to the
book of Nehemiah.
In the book of Nehemiah, we have this
terrific job of Nehemiah leading a company of
people to go back and restore the walls
of Jerusalem.
This means something, especially to me, as I've
just come from Israel some weeks ago, and
was walking around, took quite a hike selling
Arabic books in Jerusalem, walking around by the
walls and visiting a few places, not sightseeing,
but getting some work done.
And here we have this tremendous story of
Nehemiah building the walls of Jerusalem.
Now, despite our message about Christ, our desire
to enter into the rest, our teaching about
love, about brokenness, about all these things, despite
all that, we've got a job to do.
Now, this is where so many groups have
failed to bridge the gap.
You get the groups over here that have
got the good teaching, and you've got the
groups over here that are doing the work.
And this group over here that's got the
deep teaching and the deep messages and the
good conferences, they're criticizing this group because they're
doing all work in the flesh.
Everywhere I've found this.
Everywhere.
And this group over here, they're criticizing this
group because they're all theory and they're spiritual
pacifists.
And, well, we always have a lot of
names for the opposite camps, don't we?
Now, it seems to me that there should
be no gap between the spiritual message concerning
Christ, concerning the rest, concerning victory, concerning abundance,
concerning reality, concerning love, and the job, the
job that we've got to do.
And I know one dear brother in the
United States.
He's in the literature pushing business, and he's
very highly criticized.
And sometimes he's done things that really bothered
me, and some of his publicity has almost
knocked me out sometimes.
And yet I praise God.
Praise God for him.
Because he's doing something.
He's doing something.
And I'm convinced that the man of God
must be a doer of the Word.
And there's nothing that makes me sick than
all these people who shuttle in and out
of the deeper life conventions year after year
and never win a soul to Christ, never
plant a church, never turn anyone upside down,
never make an impact for our wonderful Savior.
I don't understand it.
How people can listen to messages and read
the books and go through the lip service
and not accomplish anything is beyond me.
And I admit, I admit, sometimes a breaking
of bread service in Great Britain is the
most discouraging thing I can ever go through.
Really.
And I walk in the light when I
fellowship with the assemblies of whom I'm closely
knit in many ways.
I tell them.
Now, not everybody can do that, but I
believe God has done something in my life
and given me the authority to speak.
And I'm not saying anything here behind the
back of any brethren, but I believe if
we gather together and break bread and worship
Jesus and sing all these fantastic hymns, brethren,
the most deep hymns and the most Christ
-centered hymns, if we do all that, if
we don't come out world revolutionists, if we
don't come out witnessing, we have performed a
death march.
We have performed the worst variety of death
march.
And we are closer to Phariseeism than anyone
would ever dare be.
And it scares me.
I tell you it scares me.
I'm convinced that worshiping the Lord, breaking bread,
gathering around His Word is going to make
revolutionary, on fire, zealous, apostolic, spirit-filled, broken,
loving, dynamic, going, all-out men.
And if it doesn't, something is wrong.
Something is wrong.
And this is what we have in Nehemiah.
Nehemiah was a spiritual man.
A spiritual man.
We find in verse 4, look, just a
little softer on the French.
It's coming back in this area.
I just love French.
It's my favorite language.
Someday I'm going to speak it.
Thanks to Spanish.
And it came to pass, when I heard
these words, that I sat down and wept
and mourned certain days and fasted and prayed
before the God of Heaven.
I tell you, when I read those words,
this was a man of God.
Nehemiah was a mighty man of God.
He knew the inner chamber.
He knew God.
He knew worship.
He knew this revolution that we're trying to
teach and to present.
And he lived before Calvary.
And this is another whole message, but I'm
convinced that if our lives aren't more, more
real, more sold out, more committed than men
who lived before the cross, that we're in
bad shape.
We're in bad shape.
And here we see this man, Nehemiah.
And it brings something to mind that Mike
Wiltshire brought out to us in India, God
was speaking to him about, that there's not
enough contrition in 20th century Christianity.
There is definitely, in the Bible, a place
for contrition.
The whole emphasis in the Gospels is on
the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is not something you come to with
sort of a light heart.
And when we come to worship, when we
come to contemplate our Lord, there is a
place for contrition.
There is a place for godly sorrow.
There is a place for tears.
There is a place for brokenness and for
an awe of God.
So lacking in our 20th century, activistic, light
hearted, abundant type of Christianity.
May God teach us something of this.
So Nehemiah wept and he mourned certain days
and fasted and prayed before the God of
heaven.
And this speaks deeply to my own heart.
I want to read some of these verses
in the amplified version.
Nehemiah 1.4 reads here, When I heard
this, I sat down and wept and mourned
for days and fasted and prayed constantly before
the God of heaven.
He was a man of God.
He was a man of death.
He was a man who had been with
God in the holy place.
He knew reality.
Then we read verse 5.
And said, I beseech thee, O God.
Here is Nehemiah's prayer.
First thing we practically get in the book
of Nehemiah is Nehemiah's prayer.
And he said, I beseech thee, O Lord,
God of heaven, the great and terrible God.
There is worship.
Worship is going on.
Worship is when we exalt God and adore
God and praise God, not for what He's
done, not for what He's given, but for
who He is.
That's worship.
There's a difference between worship and praise, difference,
of course, between worship and thanksgiving and worship
and intercession.
Worship is when we come to God because
He's God.
Who He is.
What He is.
And we see Nehemiah worshiping.
God of heaven, the great, the terrible God,
that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that
love Him and observe His commandments.
Let thine ear now be attentive and thine
eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer
of thy servant, which I pray before thee
now day and night.
Did he believe in nights of prayer?
No, he didn't.
He believed in days and nights of prayer.
Day and night, praying before God for the
children of Israel, thy servants, and confess the
sins of the children of Israel, which we
have sinned against thee.
Both I and my Father's house have sinned.
Oh, I tell you, confession of sin, what
a vital part.
And then he confesses the sin.
Now, it's terrific.
Nehemiah wasn't a priest.
He wasn't a full-time man.
Hadn't been to Bible school.
He wasn't ordained.
What was his job?
He was in politics.
And he was working for the king.
And it says, verse 11, that he was
the king's cupbearer.
The king's cupbearer.
And so we find this man with a
secular occupation having this deep, realistic life reality.
And it just runs through his prayer that
you have recorded there in the first chapter.
Then we turn over a page to chapter
2.
Again in verse 4.
1.4 and 2.4 both have this
thing of prayer.
We have him again praying to God.
And then we have him going back to
view the ruined walls.
And we see his command.
I've got to cut this brief, so just
forgive me if I jump over some things.
We'll jump to verse 18.
And we see his command to the people
after he looked over all the walls.
And that's a terrific thing.
I hope you study this book.
It's a terrific book.
And we see him in verse 18.
Then I told them of the hand of
my God, which was good upon me, as
also the king's words that he had spoken
unto me, which came in answer to prayer.
In answer to prayer, God touched the king's
heart.
And in our day, too, in answer to
prayer, God can touch the king's heart, whether
it be the king of Afghanistan or the
big boys in Moscow or the big boys
in Peking.
Through prayer, God can touch those men.
And through prayer, God could touch those men.
And we get a letter next week from
the top men in Peking and say, look,
we understand this Operation Mobilization that you've got
lorry drivers and we want 25 lorry drivers
immediately in Peking to drive some lorries up
to the Russian border.
Anyway, maybe someday you won't laugh at that.
And they said, let us rise up and
build.
So they strengthened their hands for this good
work.
Now, everything is fine in the evangelical church
as long as the entertainment is forthcoming.
And bring in a good gospel film, crowd
will come.
Bring in a good speaker, crowd will come.
Serve cups of tea at intermission, crowd will
come.
Well, there's so many crowd-gathering gimmicks from
mass advertising to...
I mean, you name it, and we've got
it to get people into the church.
Send out a bunch of girls with tracts
in their hands and they'll bring them in
too.
Get all kinds of methods to get people
into the church.
And you can get people to meetings eventually
if you get a good speaker.
But you just start putting up the signs
that have any mention of work and you
watch the congregation disappear.
And absolute...
When it comes to accomplishing any work, any
work, not just evangelism, even be it paint
the church.
One brother wrote me recently a letter of
the message God put on his heart to
try to encourage his assembly to do some
practical work.
I was stunned as I read that letter.
I couldn't believe it, that people could be
so neglectful of the Lord's property.
And yet all over England today, it's a
disgrace.
You've got the two extremes.
You've got America spending millions of dollars to
make the most plush, lush, extravagant, air-conditioned,
mobile, everything you can think of.
And then you have...
Most of it, of course, is not done
by the people in the church.
It's done by hired people.
Big construction companies.
Men are making millions in church construction in
America today.
And one of the big reasons for church
attendance in America is strictly monetary.
Business contacts, just like the Lodge.
You've got key men.
And your key salesmen books, on success, they
tell you how to do it.
You become a moose.
They have the moose organization in America now.
Become a moose, and you become an elk.
They have the elk organization.
And you become a lion.
That's now international.
Lions in India, lions in Germany, lions all
over the world.
It's ridiculous, but it's true.
And you join all these organizations for contacts,
business contacts.
And these books will tell you, and don't
forget the church.
One of the key centers for getting business
contacts in America today, the church.
You meet big businessmen.
And religion now, in America, is part of
the, you know, it's part of the clothe.
And it stinks.
It stinks with God.
May God just give us such a hate
for this.
And all that our government is trying to
do with religion, they're trying to use religion.
These men in the government aren't sold out
to Jesus Christ.
These blaspheming, cocktail, whining, drunken men, who lead
many of our government circles.
And you go to Washington, D.C., there's
more tea leaf readers and witch doctors than
there are in some back jungle areas of
India.
It's the truth.
And it's true of all of our governments.
That doesn't mean we shouldn't pray.
That doesn't mean we shouldn't be loyal.
Doesn't mean we shouldn't be patriotic.
But let's open our eyes.
None of our governments are following God.
Our governments are following their bellies.
Our governments are following the ways of the
world.
And we need to have our eyes open.
We need to have our eyes open.
And this whole thing has crept across Christianity,
and we've been bred in it and brought
up in it.
And no wonder it's almost beyond understanding.
But when it comes to working for Christ,
that's different.
You announce to your congregation there in England,
after the breaking of bread.
Come to the breaking of bread because it's
a habit.
And people get a guilty conscience when they
don't come, and it's just like Romanism.
It's the exact same as Romanism.
They get a guilty conscience in the Roman
church, they don't take communion.
And they get a guilty conscience in some
churches, they aren't there at breaking of bread.
Even if they sleep, they never pray, they
never really worship, they never really minister, but
at least they get their guilty conscience taken
away.
It's a religious ritual.
It's deadly.
But after the breaking of bread, you get
up, or any church service, and say now,
on Saturday morning, we're going to come, and
we're going to divide into work squads, and
we're going to cut the lawn, we're going
to paint the church, we're going to clean
the basement.
Lo and behold, you come on Saturday morning,
you see the multitude.
Oh, great.
I've seen this so much.
If you get a few faithful ones who've
been doing the same job all over the
years, the same guys who somehow have a
soft spot in their heart, and who love
the Lord, and they come and mow the
lawn and paint the church, and they've already
got more things to do than they can,
and it's just everywhere.
People don't want to work.
The same people sit in church and sing,
All for Jesus, all for Jesus, all my
being's ransom power.
Now, what do the angels do when they
hear that?
They run for the other end of heaven
just to get out of Salmon, because it's
just pure mockery.
It's just pure hypocrisy.
And this dichotomy, this abominable dichotomy, this abominable
divorce between what we say we are, what
we sing we are, what we pray we
are, and what we actually are must be
bridged.
And I would say that's one of the
main reasons God has raised up this little
group of nobodies.
This has to be bridged so that when
the pastor or the elder gets up and
says on Saturday morning we're going to paint
the church, why, he's got more volunteers and
he has to say to some, well, look,
Sam and Joe, we really can't use you.
You guys better go out and give out
tracts.
Why, if that happened in a church, the
pastor would finish.
He'd have to carry him away on a
stretcher.
It's true.
We know it's true and our pastors know
it's true.
And more pastors are seeking psychiatric treatment than
we can ever imagine.
And they're cracking up all over the place
because their congregations are driving them mad.
Because they preach and preach and preach and
preach and encourage and encourage and counsel and
counsel and visit and visit and visit.
And all they get is a lot of
people who basically want a religious serum.
It's true.
Not so with the people of God under
the leadership of Nehemiah.
Would you pray that God would make us
a Nehemiah band?
That God would make us the kind of
men, the kind of women that we see
here in this chapter?
Here's their testimony.
Verse 18, Let us rise up and build.
So they strengthen their hands for this good
work.
Some people are fine on OM until we
give them their first bundle of books.
And then, other callings.
This isn't my ministry.
It's not that it isn't their ministry.
It's that they don't like to work.
They don't like to work.
And some of us know that we have
a natural, a natural repellent to work, to
hard work.
Why do you think it's so hard to
get mechanics?
We know that mechanic work is one of
the toughest jobs in this work.
You shouldn't allow the mechanics to have self
-pity because that's not going to help them
any.
But it is a hard job.
We're sitting over here in the conference, spiritual
messages, blessings, discussion groups, getting our questions answered.
And they're over there, grease and dirt, getting
told if they do something wrong.
It's hard.
Now, a man will do that for 20
quid a week.
He'll work his brains out.
He'll work his knuckles off for 20 pounds
a week.
But for Jesus Christ, boy, that's another story,
isn't it?
That's another story.
And it's a miracle of God that we
have mechanics in this work.
Miracle of God.
Because these fellows are working for nothing.
They're working for Jesus.
And it's not easy.
It's not easy.
Well, there's the testimony.
So they strengthened their hands for this good
work.
Now, they had plenty of enemies.
You know, old Sam Ballett and Tobiah, viciously
attacking, mocking, laughing.
And you know what they said, verse 3
of chapter 4.
They said, even that which they build, if
a fox go up, he shall even break
down their stone wall.
In other words, they were saying that this
wall, they're going to do such a terrible
job, if a little animal walks on it,
it's all going to fall down.
Just mocking.
This didn't bother these people.
Nehemiah, what does he do in verse 4?
Does he start to attack Tobiah?
Does he start to attack Sam Ballett?
After all this mocking, the whole first three
verses of chapter 4, what does he do?
Who can tell me, what does he do?
Answer.
He prays.
And that's what we've got to do tonight.
As we see the job that has to
be done, we look at every map, Spain,
France, Austria, Europe, Yugoslavia, Turkey, India, the whole
world.
And the enemy's mocking.
The enemy's mocking.
Laughing.
Oh, look at these guys, they're going to
go to India and evangelize.
Rubbish, rubbish, rubbish.
Look at these guys talking about Afghanistan, talking
about China.
Why, the first problem we throw at them,
the first few people who die in their
ranks, the first few difficulties, first few leaders
who really backslide good, they'll all run away,
they'll all collapse, the world will fall down.
It's what the enemy's saying.
What do we got to do?
We've got to do as Nehemiah did.
He immediately got down on his knees.
Hear, O our God, for we are despised.
And turn their reproach upon their own head
and give them for a prey in the
land of captivity.
And cover not their iniquity.
And he prayed on and on.
Verse 6, so build we the wall.
And all the wall was joined together unto
the half thereof.
For the people had a mind to work.
You put that one in your notebook.
The people had a mind to work.
To work.
Not just to pray.
Not just to have their conference.
Not just to worship God.
They had a mind to work.
To build.
To accomplish something.
And in so many places today, Christians, even
sometimes on the mission field, have been content
with existing.
Content with being called a Christian worker.
Content with just being there and not building,
not building.
Accomplishing the impossible.
Then there were times of difficulty.
And there were times of opposition.
And they slowed down for a while.
But then we read in verse 15, We
return all of us to the wall, every
one unto his work.
And they went on.
And we read way over in chapter 6,
verse 16, And it came to pass that
when all our enemies heard thereof, and all
the heathen that were about us saw these
things, they were much cast down in their
own eyes, for they perceived that this work
was wrought of God.
Did they finish?
Did they finish the job that God gave
them?
They did.
And I think, I think we see the
secret in chapter 4, verse 20.
In what place thereof, or therefore ye hear
the sound of the trumpet, resort ye thither
unto us, our God shall fight for us.
That's the secret.
Our God shall fight for us.
This week, you've heard about a wall to
be built, a work to be done, a
world to be won.
You've heard the qualifications of leadership, the problems
of leadership.
You've heard some of the obstacles.
You've had some of your questions answered.
You've been told some of the things that
you're going to have to do.
And some of you are at the point
where you think, well, I can't do it.
It's impossible.
This kind of life, this compassion, this faith.
I'm no George Burwood.
I'm no Greg Livingston.
I'm no Dale Rotherham.
I'm just a little old ordinary me.
And I've hardly won any souls to Christ,
and I've got my doubts about just about
everything, and I've got domestic problems and financial
problems, and I can't lay hold of funds,
and most people don't think I'm very much,
and no one's complimented me for anything in
the past six months, maybe six years.
This whole thing is impossible.
This is beyond me.
I don't even know how I got in
this conference.
And there's the message right there.
Our God shall fight for us.
And this is the Old Testament picture of
the New Testament reality of the great, outstanding
truth.
Christ in us.
The hope of glory.
Christ in us.
The all-sufficient Savior.
If you turn over the book of Colossians,
we're not going to have time to cover
it like I want to.
You read just some of the verses.
That should just lift us right up out
of any discouragement, any feeling of impossibility, any
feeling that this is beyond you.
The coming year is way over you.
Your leadership position is beyond you.
The problems are beyond you.
The challenge of the disciplined life has just
about knocked your knees together.
The challenge of faith has just about caused
you to wonder if you have any faith
at all.
And your hope tonight, your hope tonight is
Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, the all
-sufficient Savior, who all through history specialized in
weaklings, specialized in people who said they couldn't
do it, like Moses the murderer, David the
adulterer, Samson the lustful one, and all kinds
of other weaklings and neurotics, and people with
emotional problems and physical problems and domestic problems.
And this is the message that we need
more than anything else.
Jesus Christ, he's sufficient for all these things.
He's sufficient for the walls that lie ahead
of us.
He will fight for us.
He's our captain, the captain of our salvation.
You go through the gospel of John, he's
the light of the world, he's the bread
of life, he's the door, he's the way,
he's the truth, he's the resurrection, he's the
light, he's the shepherd, he's everything.
Are you living in the light of that?
Are you really tonight living in the light
of that?
Jesus Christ, you're everything.
You're all in all, like it says in
Colossians, chapter two, verse nine, for in him
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
Look at 119, and not holding the head
from which all the body by joints and
bands having nourishment, ministered, and knit together increasing
with the increase of God.
Verse ten, and he are complete in him,
which is the head of all principality and
power.
Chapter three, verse eleven, but Christ is all
in all.
Do you believe that?
Do you believe that tonight?
This is the message of O.M. No,
this is the message of the New Testament.
Christ is the foundation.
Christ is the wall.
Christ is the covenant.
Christ is the center.
Christ is all in all.
He's everything.
And we must in our lives come to
this place where we realize that Jesus Christ
is all we need.
And you'll discover that your experience on O
.M. might be one basic work on the
part of God.
Until finally you say, Jesus is enough.
Jesus is enough.
I came to this experience many years ago
and had to reaffirm it many times.
I have to realize it daily.
Christ.
Christ is my all.
I am complete in Him.
This is the only reason I have been
able to stay in this work as far
as I can see.
The pressure becomes overwhelming.
Even now if I let myself begin to
worry, if I let myself start moving in
the flesh, immediately I go down.
Immediately I get drained.
I feel almost something going out of me.
The various problems that are on my mind,
or I can allow to be on my
mind.
There's letters on my desk I haven't even
read yet.
And sometimes I think, well, what if there's
some serious thing in the letter?
Or so many things.
Different personality problems and I don't want to
even go into it.
But it doesn't affect me.
It doesn't affect me because Jesus is all.
He's all.
He's all in all.
He's all in all in all in all
in all.
What's the difference?
If this doesn't come to pass, if this
person disappoints you, if that person fails you,
if this job you make a mess out
of, if this project doesn't get fulfilled, it
doesn't matter because Jesus is still there.
Jesus is the same.
I love that little chorus.
Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same.
All will change.
All ends with a win.
Jesus is the same.
Where's your foundation?
Where is your faith?
Where is your trust?
Where is your anchor?
Is it in OS?
Be careful.
It won't hold.
Where is your foundation?
Have you really come in to that place
of rest?
You've all heard me preach on it.
I've given invitations.
I've counseled people.
The letters I receive are marvelous.
Of people who have, through simple faith, that's
all it takes, just like being saved, proud
of self-effort and introspection and self-seeking
and self-centeredness and fleshly activity and have
come into a whole other dimension in their
Christian life.
Rest.
There is a rest promised to the people
of God.
Hebrews 4.
Read it for yourself.
There's a rest.
As a leader, you can't possibly fulfill your
ministry if you haven't entered into that rest.
You can't do it.
You'll end up a nervous breakdown.
Absolutely.
The pressure will overcome you.
The problems will overcome you.
The complexities of life will overcome you.
And you won't be able to endure it.
You enter into that rest, starry rock, Christ,
as it says here, in Him dwells all
the fullness of the Godhead.
And if in Christ is all the fullness
of the Godhead and Christ is in you,
how can you add to that?
A lot of people going around trying to
add to the finished work of Jesus Christ.
Very difficult, seems to me.
Very difficult indeed.
Christ is all in all.
Christ within whom dwells all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily.
Now Christ in you.
Are you living in the light of that
as a leader?
Are you living in the light of that?
As a follower, wherever you might be.
Each day, when you begin your day, do
you realize, Lord, the work's yours.
Think of all those letters you've got to
write.
Go out book selling.
Oh my, am I going to go all
morning on the door?
Lord, it's cold.
There you are in Vienna.
So cold.
Oh, I've got to go out on the
door.
I can't do it, Lord.
You know, sometimes every day one of my
prayers is, I can't do it, Lord, but
you can.
And I close with this, with these thoughts.
You can't lead a team.
You can't.
Christ can.
You can't keep a prayer meeting stimulated.
Christ can.
You can't build that unity.
Christ can.
You can't make those team members happy.
Christ can.
You can't keep track of all those organizational
details.
Christ can.
You can't win solos.
Christ can.
You can't pray a prayer that will bring
glory and praise to God.
Christ can.
And everything that you feel or believe that
you can do, Christ can.
And the answer, in your life, in my
life, is Christ.
All sufficient, all loving, highly lifted up, and
yet, personally indwelling, Jesus Christ.
You say, well, I've heard this before.
I've heard about the rest.
I've heard about Christ being in me.
Heard about Christ doing it.
Allowing Christ to do it.
Realizing I'm crucified with Christ.
I've heard this great truth before.
But nothing comes.
But I ask this question.
Did you ever believe, in your heart, something
would happen?
Did you ever, by simple faith, enter into
this rest, give up your own way, fall
into the ground and die, and say, Christ,
You are my all.
I believe it.
How are you saved?
Through spiritual gymnastics?
Through tears?
Through running up and down with a Bible
in your hand?
How are you saved?
Through tarrying?
Through extensive prayer?
Through going on a campaign?
No.
Through attending a concert?
Through reading a manual?
No, of course not.
Ridiculous to say.
You were saved by simple faith, weren't you?
All of you were saved, were saved by
simple faith, in the finished work of Jesus
Christ.
And how do you enter into victorious life?
How do you know the reality of the
rest of Hebrews 4, and cease from your
own works, which are such a hindrance, and
are ruining your life, and depressing you, and
discouraging you?
Simple.
I can't do it for you.
Tonight, even without an invitation, because I'm not
going to give one tonight.
You, by simple faith, can enter into this
rest, and cease from your own works, and
by faith, you say, Lord, from now on,
you are my everything.
Not Jesus plus Christian service, Jesus plus that
particular boy, Jesus plus that particular girl, Jesus
plus O.M., Jesus plus a particular country,
Jesus plus being a secretary, Jesus plus being
a mechanic, Jesus plus being a leader, Jesus
plus doing this, or going here, or accomplishing
this.
No, no, no, a thousand times no.
Just Jesus.
Jesus Christ is all you need.
He is all sufficient.
And if you try to get that joy,
and that reality, out of Christian service, out
of running here and there, out of going
to India, out of giving out drugs, out
of preaching, out of fighting, out of mechanic
work, you'll be discouraged, and depressed, and beaten
down, like many I know have been.
You come to this place, in which Jesus
is your all.
No matter what happens during the day, He's
supplied all of your needs.
No matter what anybody said, no matter what
fear has come upon you, no matter what
difficulty, what trial, what emergency, what breakdown in
man or machinery, you're content, you're rested.
You go to sleep like a little baby,
because Jesus Christ is all you need.
He's all you want.
Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Tonight, take by faith the key, and turn
the door and say, Christ in me.
Christ in me.
Only way to effective leadership.
The only way to effective Christianity.
Let us pray.