Good morning, good to come back to Philadelphia
when it's not snowing.
I didn't believe it could be so warm
so I made sure I carry my jacket.
It's always a special joy for me to
be back here.
One of the reasons is I love Pastor
Joe and in many ways this fellowship kind
of we feel very close to and another
reason I like to come here is because
there's a special restaurant Pastor Joe takes me
to every time I come here.
It's a cheap place by the way.
But, you know, you are a family to
us.
I mean that.
And I spend just over 300,000 air
miles a year traveling, speaking throughout many nations.
And there are a handful of people that
I have come to know that I love
and commit myself to them and work with
them and Pastor Joe, your senior pastor, happened
to be one of those people.
And sometimes I wonder why on earth he
wanted me to come and speak because I
listen to him and, you know, in my
44 years of serving Christ, I have come
to believe there are lots and lots of
brilliant scholars, speakers, teachers, and Christian leaders, but
unfortunately we don't have very many that know
the Lord intimately and there are ministries, an
overflow of who they are.
And I'm grateful for, you know, your shepherd
here that know the Lord.
And if you allow the Lord to change
you and become like him as he follow
the Lord, I think the scripture is very
obvious.
Paul said to his followers, follow me as
I follow the Lord.
And so it is a very special thing
to have leaders that you can imitate.
You know, sometimes following Christ can be very
abstract and elusive and kind of can't handle
that, but in flesh and blood you see
people.
And I'm challenged every time I come here
and know the Lord is working here.
And again, I'm aware of the new work
the Lord is doing here among you in
terms of seeking him and knowing him.
And, you know, I remember one year, this
is many years ago, I traveled throughout this
country speaking the whole year, almost constantly.
And by the end of the year I
was fairly disillusioned, kind of very discouraged.
And I said to the Lord, I don't
want to do it.
The reason was I would be speaking to
a thousand people or whatever, and the service
over, the next thing I found myself often
was taken to the, you know, fellowship hall,
they call it, and they have cake and
cookies and ice cream.
That's not bad.
But the shallowness, the chitchat and the carelessness,
it just bothered me so much because I
cried my eyes out for the lost world
and here it didn't even touch them.
And, by the way, at the end of
the year that book came out, Wrote Reality,
still remains a very significant book.
By the way, all our materials you can
pay for whatever donation.
If you don't have the money you can
steal them also.
Yeah, everything.
It's true.
John Beers, one of our senior leaders, my
colleague, is there.
So, I mean, really, it would be a
blessing for you.
But, you know, it was during that year,
you know, I said, Lord, what am I
supposed to do now?
I thought you told me to do all
this and nothing seems to work, and I
am discouraged.
You know, prayer becomes so meaningful when you
have a conversation and you ask him something,
then he talks to you.
I mean, try this out.
I live on the telephone almost 24 hours,
except a few hours I turn it off.
And I developed this habit, which is really
cool.
It's a California word.
Well, I'm listening to people talking to me,
you know, from somewhere in the world, and
all of a sudden this tape goes off
in my head, you know, on the other
side, and I say, Lord, this is what
I'm hearing, what do you want me to
say?
And the most weird thing is that sometimes
I'm responding to people as they're talking to
me, things that I never imagined nor has
anything to do with what they're asking me.
And after many months or a year, they
will say, you know, it's a weird thing.
You said something that has nothing to do
with anything I asked, but I thought you
were crazy.
But now I know it was the Lord
doing this, and it's absolutely amazing.
This morning a young man came to me.
He looked like a football player, by the
way.
I mean, I met a few of them
last night.
They're big guys.
Anyway, so he was saying, you know, he
said, I just want to say something to
you.
And I listened.
He said two, three years ago somewhere he
heard me speak, and after the meeting he
came up to me or something, and I
looked at him.
I don't know what I said to him,
maybe a couple of sentences, he said.
He was living with a huge amount of
crisis in life, and that was a turning
point in his life.
I don't even remember what it was.
And what happens is that when you are
talking to your son, your daughter, or your
neighbor, or in the marketplace, driving on the
freeway, whatever else, if you just maintain the
conversation with the Lord, you know, Lord, what
do you want me to do?
What am I supposed to say?
Lord, do you want me to buy this
or not to buy this?
You know, the sale sign will be so
huge, temptation will be so significant.
You know, $50 thing now is only $5.
But the question is not $5 or 5
cents or $100.
It is, Lord, what do you want me
to do?
If you keep developing that habit, you know,
revival, renewal, godliness is not once in a
while incident or event.
It is a perpetual thing.
Many, many years ago, 30 years ago, when
the Lord dealt with me so severely about
being his, I found myself asking for permission
to get a haircut.
This is really true.
I mean, I don't do that anymore.
Please understand that.
And I found myself, you know, really needing
a haircut.
And I said, Lord, what am I supposed
to do?
And one incident, it's only one.
I waited and waited.
My hair was growing longer, especially those days,
you know, I had really short hair.
Now since I'm losing a lot, I'm keeping
it longer.
And so Pastor Joe and I decided we
are going to grow long hair, which is
a model for you to follow.
Anyway, so, and I kept praying.
And one day the Lord said, all right,
now you should get your haircut.
And I went to this place.
I was driving along.
I've never been there before.
And I sat on this chair and this
guy started doing, and I said, well, this
weird thing.
And I've never been to this place.
And the Lord seems to tell me to
be here.
And I start talking to him about the
Lord.
The amazing thing was that for amazing reason,
that was appointed time for that man to
give his life to Christ.
It's the most amazing thing.
And I wish it happened all the time
with me, Don.
And so the reason I'm saying that to
you is that as you are pursuing the
Lord is unusual compared to many, many churches
here.
I would encourage you to develop that habit.
And this started with me many, many years
ago, and I'm still learning.
And I remember saying, Lord, this is a
really a bummer.
I don't want to travel like this.
And I'm really discouraged.
And then the Lord spoke to me.
Something quite interesting.
He said, you know what?
You are speaking to 500 people or 10
,000 people or 3,000 people, whatever places
you go to, please understand.
He said, I have my sheep among them
and my sheep will hear my voice.
I'm sending you for those few that know
me and they will know I am the
one that send you.
That was so refreshing.
It was so transforming that my life has
never been the same again.
So when I'm speaking to a very large
crowd, usually I go back and remind myself
what the Lord said.
But coming to a place like this, it
is not, Lord, I got 2,000 people
here.
There are five people know you.
But knowing what God is doing here, I'm
terribly excited, encouraged by the fact that there
is a sense of renewal and God dealing
with you.
And it's going to spread throughout the nation.
The real answer to whatever we are dealing
with is not political muscles and money and
power.
It is people of God praying and standing
in the gap, which I believe is happening
here.
And by the way, this is a way
of reminding you, you know, television news, radio
and magazines all should become for us as
followers of Christ information for prayer.
For example, Pakistan, I do not know if
you are tracking within just in the last
one month of the flooding taking place in
Pakistan.
And I was in Bombay Airport just a
week and a half ago on the way
to Germany and talking to our regional leader.
He was saying and I said, what is
happening now in Pakistan?
Because he was just there trying to figure
out what to do with the flooding situation.
And then he said, well, you know, so
far, eighteen hundred people lost their lives.
And then, you know, he normally talks very
fast, but he didn't.
There's a pause.
I could hear he was emotionally breaking down.
And then he said the sad thing is
millions of children are left helpless.
And then he said the low laying land
people are suffering so much.
He cannot even imagine this.
Seventy percent of the entire country crops completely
been destroyed.
And then the madness to bomb exploded just
a week after that.
I mean, you think about a country like
that.
How do we look at this nation's not
from the perspective of politics and what is
going on?
We say, Lord, you died for these people
and they are dying without you.
Break my heart.
Oh, God, that I may pray I may
know what to do.
And then as he guides us, we do
whatever we can.
See, living for the Lord is not a
life of dichotomy.
It is not a divided life like you
go and work for some, you know, IBM
or bank.
You know, you do the work for them.
Then you go away.
No, you know, it's quite interesting.
You know, my two children, Danny and Sarah,
they both are serving the Lord.
And when my daughter was to get married,
her name is Sarah.
Of course, you know, we basically from Indian
background, we kind of help our children to
find their spouse if they can.
And we kind of don't worry about doing
that here.
It's a nice thing to do.
But so a lot of proposals came and,
you know, she she's a daddy.
I do not want to live in the
United States.
She was born and raised here and had
her education here.
I just want to live here in India
and serve God.
And so and so we kept looking for
someone that would do that.
So finally, this young man came and I
start talking to him and I'm the dad,
you know, get my permission.
And so I asked him, so, Danny, that's
his name.
So what is what is this all about?
Please tell me about your life.
And he said, you know, I'm a medical
doctor.
I said, I know for sure you are
a medical doctor, but I'm trying to figure
out what your life is about.
He said, well, when I was studying, the
Lord called me to serve him.
And my call is to serve Jesus.
And that's my life, everything in it.
But one day he told me to go
and study medicine and become a doctor.
And so I'm listening what he's going to
say next.
Then he said this amazing phrase.
He said, my call is to be his
and serve him.
But my vocation is being a medical doctor.
I said, you are it.
And they're married and have a little boy
and they're serving the Lord on the mission
field.
I'm I'm so excited.
You see, you may be a teacher, a
medical doctor or engineer or, you know, housewife,
whatever profession you have.
Remember, blood was the price he paid to
purchase you and you are not your own.
There's no such thing.
Your money, your time, your relationship, your future,
your plans.
You can't do that anymore.
You can, but you will not experience the
fullness of life that Christ promised.
Out of his innermost being, rivers of living
water will flow.
Hold on to your life.
You will end up losing it.
And I encourage you not as, you know,
someone who came here to be an evangelist,
preach a big message and get to stand
up and do this and that.
But just someone who is, you know, in
this journey, pilgrimage with you.
I encourage you to think about that.
And, you know, the 9-11 situation yesterday,
you know what happened.
And I'm sure a lot of we've been
praying and the burning Koran thing and all
that was another crisis.
And, you know, these are opportunities over a
billion Muslims living in our generation.
And we should be praying for Turkey, for
Iraq and Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and Indonesia.
Seek out information to pray specifically and ask
the Lord to lay a burden on your
heart for some country.
You know, for at least 30 years, I've
been praying consistently for Bhutan, a small country
with 600,000 people.
It was a crime to become a Christian
for which you lose your citizenship.
And we prayed and prayed along with I'm
sure millions of people all over the world
prayed for Bhutan, a Buddhist nation.
But you know what happened just a couple
of years ago?
They decided to go secular.
First time in history we were able to
have a Bible school started in Bhutan to
train Bhutani brothers to do evangelism church planting
in the country.
Nevertheless, there are persecution right now.
We have one of our pastors actually in
prison.
He'd been there for five years, accused of
forceful conversion and all those things.
And you can go to our website and
learn about these things and be, you know,
praying for that.
Appreciate your your willingness to be part of
what God is doing.
Well, those words I told you are basically
my introduction.
He thought I was preaching.
No, you're mistaken.
I want to read this one Bible verse
to you again.
I mean, this is a conversation.
I don't have big agendas here.
Galatians chapter two, verse 20.
Very significant verse.
I'm sure you heard so much teaching on
this.
You know, Paul was someone who actually was
very much human.
You know, you know, as I said earlier,
you know, you know, the little song I
heard long ago, you know, Lord, I want
to be a Christian in my heart.
And we all sing all kind of things
like that.
But how do we live it out?
That is a fundamental question.
And I think one of the reason I
am so impacted by Paul's life, because he
was a normal human being, just like any
of us.
You know, it was the tradition says he
was hardly, you know, four feet, you know,
four and a half feet tall and bald
headed.
And, you know, a hooked nose and far
from being a movie star, unlike the fellows
I met last night.
And he people said they accused him of
his speech being contemptible.
He couldn't talk right.
And yet, as he walked among men, you
know, remember the story in the book of
Acts, these bunch of boys trying to cast
out demons and the demons said, we know
Paul and we know Jesus, but who are
you?
And then they they got out of the
man, obviously, and possess these boys and they
ran away naked.
That's quite interesting.
Heaven recognized Paul and demons trembled at his
presence.
And Paul said, you know, I know that
isn't me.
There's no good thing.
I start from zero.
It's not that Paul had huge amount of
money or education and good look.
No, but I think the secret of Paul's
life, a perpetual light, a candle that never
went out to the end of his journey.
I think one of the key and the
secret you find in Galatians chapter two, verse
20, where he says, I am crucified with
Christ.
You know that very, very significant verse.
I have been crucified with Christ and I
no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
The life I live in the body, I
live by faith in the son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me.
Early in my life, some individuals that impacted
my life, one was watch money, his writings
and Roy Harrison.
The book Calvary Road be filled now.
Then, you know, some of the old Puritan
writers.
But Stanley Jones, Dr. Stanley Jones, happened to
be one of those people that really had
some influence on my life.
He was a philosopher, a thinker, a brilliant
scholar, and one of the greatest missionary statesman
that we ever heard about in 20th century.
And he was a missionary in India.
And he won tens of thousands of intellectuals,
upper caste Brahmins to the Lord through his
ability to communicate the gospel.
And I heard him talk about his experience
on one of the tapes is dead and
gone, by the way, with the Lord now.
And he talked about how engaged he was
in the work of God, you know, like
a man who would not stop 24 hours
busy, busy, busy, busy.
The need is so much opportunity, unlimited possibilities
ever expanding.
And he was going on and on and
on in the work of God.
But he had to mental breakdown.
Totally devastated.
And one day.
As he was recovering.
In Lucknow, India, he was sitting in a
small church.
And there was a prayer meeting going on.
And he says.
Look like the Lord.
Came to me and address me.
So.
Dr. Jones.
Are you ready to turn all your life
to me or you want to hang on
to it?
And mess it up again.
And Stanley Jones says.
Well, I felt like it was a good
bargain.
I didn't want to.
Miss it.
And he instantly said, Lord, here I am.
It's no more my life that I want
to live.
It's no more the work that I am
after.
It's no more my reputation.
No more the great need and possibilities that
I need to address.
I'm yours.
Here I am.
And.
Dr. Stanley Jones testifies.
That was the moment.
His life was completely transformed.
From despair, worry, and care.
And anxiety about everything.
In the life of a child of God.
Sometimes, somewhere.
And in your life.
There must come a time.
A realization.
That we do not have in ourselves.
What it takes.
Let me repeat.
You have to come to the place.
You may have already.
That you do not have in yourself.
What it takes.
For what?
To say not to sin.
Not to reputation.
And honor from other people.
From the longing to be recognized and understood.
And to have all the security measures all
in place.
That you do not worry about anything.
All the suspense and unknowns are removed.
That everything is normal.
That your dreams about the future of well
-being.
And your children and family.
And whatever else.
There's no answer.
Really.
No matter what you do.
There's nothing within yourself in your world.
You have control over it.
But if you let it go.
You'll be surprised.
One of the neatest thing the Lord dealt
with my heart many, many years ago.
As I entered into this experience.
The Lord gave me an image.
Of dry leaves being carried away by the
wind.
He said, you don't have to fight over
it.
Just let it be.
And my brothers and sisters.
Do you know that dead people don't have
to die?
You're saying, wow, what a profound statement.
And I think this is true.
The most peaceful, restful, relaxing life in the
whole world.
Is when you are dead.
Rest in peace.
What I mean by that.
You know Paul's statement.
I am dead.
Crucified with Christ.
But the paradox is this.
But I'm living.
I'm alive.
Life is mine.
And life not somehow hooked up on machines.
And barely breathing and alive.
No, it's exciting and absolutely fantastic.
Because it's no more mine.
But His life in me.
And through me.
But here's a problem.
In the measure in which you and I.
We are holding on to our life.
In the same measure.
We will lose or will not experience His
life.
And this is fundamentally the problem.
We constantly try to live Christian life.
Thinking that it is our life.
Christian life is not your life.
It is His life.
Your advocacy.
Your inadequacy.
Your lack or your having this or that.
Nothing to do with any of those things.
The Lord is seeking for us to come
to the place.
Where we recognize all that we do in
our strength.
Actually is a waste of life.
And it's important that we depend on Him.
You know, God promised Abraham a son.
You know that.
And his complaint was, Lord I obeyed you
and left my home.
My surroundings and my wealth and the whole
thing now.
My agony said, you know, I don't have
a son.
I don't have anyone to follow me.
And the Lord said, I'll give you a
son.
I'll give you children.
But the problem was waiting and waiting and
waiting.
Nothing happens.
And I think he and his wife had
quite a few discussions like we all do.
You know, every night when I go to
bed.
You know, because all during the day I'm
talking to other people.
And at night my wife and I, we
talk about some things.
And she didn't talk to too many people
during the day.
I talked to the whole world.
And sometimes I snore.
And she said, you are sleeping.
I said, did I go to sleep?
Stay awake.
I want to talk to you.
Some of you wives, you understand that.
And I did not know how it would
happen.
I was only imagining.
And I think Sarah said to Abraham, Abraham,
can I talk to you about this situation?
God, suppose I told you this.
I'm getting old.
And there's no chance.
But Abraham, I had an idea.
What?
Did God say my name when he talked
to you?
What do you mean?
Didn't he say, I will give you a
son, Abraham?
He didn't use my name.
Yeah, that's true.
Yeah, Abraham, you know what?
I think we need to help God.
You know, God makes promises and we have
to do our part.
And, you know, what do you mean?
Well, you know, this servant of ours, she's
healthy and young.
And why don't you get a child through
her?
And that's it.
So, you know, God is in some real
crisis right now.
We need to do something to, you know,
fix this problem.
And, of course, you know, they get Ishmael,
you know, the whole story.
And then you read Abraham coming back to
God and saying, God, I pray that you
bless my son.
And paraphrasing it, God's response, Abraham, you can
pray a million years.
I cannot bless the fruit, the product of
the flesh.
He must wait.
And finally, now he's 100 years old.
And his wife is very old.
Romans 4 says, he looked at his body
and recognized it is dead.
He can go to any hospital, any doctor
all over the world.
Even the best in America say, what's wrong
with you?
You're an old, dead frog.
And then God says, Abraham, yes, God, I
want you to be circumcised.
Can you say it again?
And so he goes through that ceremony.
Then Sarah, this old woman, becomes pregnant.
And a child is born.
Only in the book of Philippians we read
this mystery explained.
Paul says, and we are the true circumcision,
those who place no confidence in the flesh.
So God waited and waited until Abraham recognizes
that there's nothing left in him.
Broken and emptied for God to fulfill his
plan.
Please listen to me, my brothers and sisters.
In my brief journey with the Lord, something
that constantly calls me back to him.
With repentance, tears, and brokenness.
It is, I go through what he calls
a dress rehearsal once in a while.
Before I was married, I remember it was
in Germany.
We had a day or two before rehearsal,
you know.
March down, sit down, this and all.
If you want to get married in Germany,
please let me know.
It's not easy.
But I go to dress rehearsal once in
a while.
Things like, all of a sudden the Lord
came.
The trumpet sound, and I'm taken up.
And I meet him.
Then I stand before him.
I look around, I couldn't find my wife.
I couldn't find my priest.
I couldn't find my pastor.
I couldn't find my brothers.
There's nobody there.
I'm just with him.
And then this conversation with him.
And he talks to me about my life
on earth, the way I spend my life.
Friends and music and things I did.
There's no one to plead for me.
I'm just with him.
And I go through this reliving kind of
the past.
And it makes me not to become so
introspective and condemning myself and feel so ugly
and all those things.
It helped me to think, you know, this
is dumb.
Why am I looking for people to understand
me?
Why am I looking for people to say
wonderful things about me and all these things?
Why am I secretly hoping people will, you
know, do this or that, whatever?
You know, it just frees me so much
just to be alone with him, even when
I am with 100,000 people.
And you see, my brothers and sisters, if
you are walking with the Lord, everything makes
sense when you look at the present from
eternal perspective.
And this is where we refuse to engage,
to do anything with our personal agendas.
You give your money, not thinking that somehow
somebody will come to know about it.
You don't give this or that, thinking that,
you know, this is going to be a
great way to do something great for God.
But you look at every opportunity, get to
serve, knowing that, you know, like Mother Teresa
said, you know, this English newspaper reporter came
to Kolkata, you know, wanting to see Mother
Teresa and her work.
And he hunted her down and found her
actually cleaning the wounds of a leper, all
pus and blood, everything oozing out.
And she was cleaning it, you know, kneeling
down before him.
So this reporter standing beside her said, Mother,
and she looked up, I couldn't do this
for...
Then he mentioned some huge amount of money,
100,000 pounds or something like that.
And of course, you know, Mother Teresa's face,
if you know, the reporter said, she looked
up and said, I won't do it for
a million.
And then she said, you know, this happened
to be Jesus.
I am cleaning the wounds of Jesus.
I am loving him.
I am caring for him.
See, everything changes when you realize it's not
for you you are doing it, not for
anybody else you are doing it, you are
doing it for him.
And Paul's life was one that he constantly
recognized that his life cannot revolve around himself.
This is the reason why Jesus said so
well.
You know, the scripture in John's Gospel chapter
12, verse 24, unless the seed falls into
the ground and dies, it remains as it
is.
If it dies, it brings forth much, much,
much fruit.
And I think the measure in which you
and I can learn to die to ourselves,
in the same measure, we shall experience this
life.
You know, there's a false thinking, that is,
if you know all the Bible, you study
all the theology and know all the answers,
go to this seminar, that seminar, how to
be a good husband, how to be a
good wife, how to raise family.
You know, I'm in Christian bookstores are filled
with how to books, how to do these
things.
Nothing wrong with that, it's okay, I'm not
against all that.
But you know, knowing will never make you
become unless you are willing to embrace the
cross.
Spirituality is not just information, Bible is given
to us, definitely for us to learn and
understand the life of Christ, but remember Christ
is the one who said, I do nothing
of my own, I choose nothing for myself,
I do not seek anything for myself, I
do not want the king and the ruler,
I am not here for anything for myself,
to the extent, he said, I only do
what my father tells me to do.
Remember when Lazarus was sick, you know what
the statement was made to him?
Jesus, yeah, what?
Lazarus, the one you love, is sick.
There is no mention, Jesus, please come, would
you please come and lay your hand on
him and heal him, Lord, please hurry, he's
getting late.
No, nothing, you know why?
Because that was a family where Jesus found
himself at home.
He loved Lazarus, he loved Martha, he loved
Mary, that was precious.
No one need to tell him, he must
rush and do something for Lazarus, that was
understood, they believed the moment Christ hears Lazarus
is sick, he will rush.
But the problem, he hears and he says
to the disciples, what to do, I'm paraphrasing
it by the way, I can't go, my
time is not yet come.
See, it's one thing to care for the
orphans and widows and the poor people in
Dhaka, Bangladesh, or Africa, or India, but it's
another thing to care for your own little
daughter, your son, your wife, your husband, your
dad, your mom.
The intimacy, the emotion, the grabbing of your
heart, the pulling, that is instant, so subjective.
That was so with Christ.
He, I believe, as a man living on
earth, so desperately wanted to rush and go
to Lazarus, because nothing, nothing else than that
he would want.
He loves him.
But at the same time, he must have
asked, Father, you just heard what I heard,
what you want me to do?
And the father said, son, I heard, I
know, I don't want you to go.
We don't have any more than that here,
but let me add my imagination here, that's
not scripture here, but I just am a
little human being trying to figure this out.
Did Jesus, as a man, because I'm like
that, say, Father, just this time, I know
there are many times he told me to
do this and don't do this, and you
had me walk, you know, 50 kilometers, just
to talk to one woman and, you know,
help her, and then walk back, but a
few times he said, wait, and this time,
son, don't.
And he waits.
And now he's dead, buried, and he's stinking.
And then he comes marching.
And, you know, in John's Gospel, chapter 11,
the scene is very painful.
Lord, if only you just came sooner.
And I'm just heartbreaking.
To the extent the man, Christ, you see
him brokenhearted.
Then he says, this will glorify my father.
It's not me.
It's not his name.
That's all about it.
And so Lazarus is now raised from the
dead.
You see, even doing the right thing, in
the way we want to do it, we
miss his plan.
Now, when I say these kind of things
to you, I'm aware, you know, these all
can be kind of abstract.
How do you handle all this?
You know what?
Other people like your pastor and brothers and
sisters can advise you, the word of God
tells you, and there's a lot of books
available, everything, but may I now personalize this
for you, like you and I just talking?
Would you please develop a habit, slowly, day
by day, to talk to the Lord and
listen to him?
And at the same time, learn to say
no to yourself.
You are out there, you know, shopping, some
ladies call it window shopping.
And the window shopping goes into buying shopping.
And you come home and say, Oh, honey,
dear, those are American phrases.
You wouldn't believe it.
That last week, this thing was costing $50.
Now we mark down to $5.
And the poor guy knows this is a
waste of time and everything, so he just
says, All right, no problem.
And vice versa.
Oh, honey, you just believe I was looking
for this car, I just found the best
price in the whole world.
And the wife knows, he's like a kid
wanting a toy.
But you see, but deep down, you know,
this is not the way life should be.
Why crowd your life with more and more
and more stuff that takes so much time
from being with him?
So many books we read that has no
meaning to develop our spirit and knowing him.
So much music we listen to, to keep
us occupied from worrying to death.
But that's not the answer.
Learning to say no to things of the
world, to others and whatever else, has to
be part of dying to self.
And I pray that the Lord will give
you understanding.
No one can dictate to you and make
you do this and that.
My own life journey, I have come to
find out that the best thing in life
is to love him and then do what
he tells to do, and there is joy.
Otherwise, it is legalism.
You go back under the old covenant.
It is a real, real difficult thing to
live with.
Well, I need to conclude.
The Lord is working here and in your
life.
Please, please don't expect overnight miracles that changes
you into an angel.
No.
It's a long, drawn-out journey.
The light the Lord is giving you, you
obey and he'll give you more grace.
And the pain you embrace by saying no
to flesh, no to whatever he had to
say no to, will be compensated a million
times more with a joy unspeakable and full
of glory, and you'll be glad.
And someday, the Lord gives me the time,
I like to write a book on this
life journey of mine when I died a
thousand deaths to reputation and things through which
the Lord allowed me to understand him better.
And I pray this will be our joy.
And people tell me often, you have to
slow down, you have to take a break,
and all these different things.
By the way, by the grace of God,
I'm in good health to the extent I
was at the gym the other day and
the guy who helped me with the training,
and he asked me how old I was.
I said, I'm 60.
He said, what?
You look 40.
I think, you know, he make me do
all these things and I tell you, I
hate you.
Because he just, just five more.
And I think he was, you know, to
make me feel good by telling me how
young I looked.
Really not.
But what I'm saying to you, stay focused.
Stay focused.
And it's worth this journey.
Let me conclude, just about two minutes.
A dear friend of mine, he sent me
this poem titled, The Faithful Servant.
It touched me so deep when I first
read it.
I want to read this for you.
He held the lamp of truth that day
so low that none could miss the way
and yet so high to bring in sight
that pitch of air, the world's great light.
That gazing up, the lamp between, the hand
that held it scarce was seen.
He blew the trumpet soft and clear that
trembling sinners need not fear and then with
the louder nods and bold to raise the
walls of Satan's hold.
The trumpet coming thus between, the hand that
held it scarce was seen.
The last answer.
But when the captain says, well done, thou
good and faithful servant, come.
Lay down that pitcher and the lamp.
Lay down the trumpet, leave the camp.
The weary hands will then be seen collapsed
in those pierced ones, nothing between.
That is the day I look for.
Meanwhile, may the Lord give us all the
grace to walk with him by faith and
know him better and say on a daily
basis, it's not about me, I'm dead.
It's about him who lives in and through
this earthen vessel.
May the Lord speak to us.
Amen.