2 Corinthians chapter 6.
We're going to just read in English.
We would like you to follow in your
own language, verses 1 through verse 10.
And we'll read it then, and I'll read
it in English.
I hope you have the Dutch Bible with
you to follow it.
From 2 Corinthians 6, verses 1 to 10.
This is a very authoritative, powerful passage of
Scripture.
And I believe one of the greatest needs
in OM at this time is to allow
the Word of God to have a greater
authority in our lives.
So when we read something, we take that
very seriously.
We're not willing to pass over any Scripture
and think, oh, that's not relevant.
Probably at least 20 major truths jump right
out of this one passage.
So let us just read verses 1 through
10.
We then, as workers together with Him, beseech
you also that you receive not the grace
of God in vain.
For He says, I have heard thee in
a time accepted, and in the day of
salvation have I helped thee.
Behold, now is the accepted time.
Behold, now is the day of salvation.
Giving no offense.
That's one of our goals.
Giving no offense in anything that the ministry
be not blamed.
But in all things, commending ourselves as the
ministers of God in much patience, in afflictions,
in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments,
in torments, in labors, in watchings, in fastings,
by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by
kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by love unfeigned
or genuine, by the word of truth, by
the power of God, by the armor of
righteousness on the right hand and on the
left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report
and good report, as deceivers and yet true,
as unknown and yet well-known, as dying
and behold we live, as chastened and not
killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor
yet making many rich, as having nothing and
yet possessing all things.
Let's pray.
Lord, this is your word.
We have come, not for the philosophy of
man, but for divine truth from your inspired
word.
Lord, we are limited in time, what we
can do right now.
But speak to us.
Cause us not to be hearers of the
word only, but doers.
We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
I'm sure some of you arrived at this
conference perhaps a little tired, perhaps a little
empty, spiritually.
I, of course, can understand if you also
go away a little tired.
But I can't understand if you go away
empty.
God has brought us ministry from many different
men and women, not only here in the
main meetings, but in the seminars and smaller
groups.
Let us go away, those who are leaving
tonight, in a great sense of thanksgiving for
what God has done in these days.
It is so easy to take God's benefits
to us for granted.
Just the privilege of being in this beautiful
place.
Compare that with 4,000 Vietnam refugees who
have been living on a little island off
the coast of Hong Kong.
It's a terrible place.
No one has lived there for years.
It used to be a leper colony years
ago.
But with so many Vietnam refugees and the
complexity of that, they put some 4,000
there in the past months, maybe longer.
There's no water, there's no electricity, there's nothing
hardly there.
And a cholera epidemic has now broken out
among these people and they're dying.
So the Hong Kong government has decided to,
in the next few days, evacuate all these
people into Hong Kong.
And now the government of Hong Kong has
decided to evacuate them all and to bring
them back to their country.
Another important news report is that they expect
in the coming days that many thousands of
East Germans will return to West Germany via
Austria.
Maybe 20,000 will be coming, maybe more.
You can imagine some of the hardships, the
hardships these different refugees and escapees are suffering
across the world.
I recently subscribed to a magazine called Refugees.
It's all about refugees all over the world.
And as I was just reading that magazine
this week, it was just overwhelming.
I have to put it down.
And I guess it's one of the reasons
I often have difficulty with operation mobilization and
sometimes with myself.
And I guess it's one of the reasons
I often have difficulty with operation mobilization and
sometimes with myself.
So often people come to you and complain
about this and complain about that.
And of course people have to express themselves,
we learn that too.
If people don't say what they're dealing with,
we can't change it and we can't improve
it, and we would like to.
But still we can, if we express what
we're experiencing, do it with a grateful heart.
Even Alice O.M. only gives you a
stomach ache.
Maybe some of the visitors who are here
have had some hard days.
A.W. Tozer explained how dangerous it
is to be cynical within the municipality of
De Heer.
I have read almost all of them, some
of them twice.
And for the sin of cynicism, Tozer recommended
developing the practice of thanksgiving.
And if we come to our great worship
and praise sessions here, and then a half
hour after leaving here we're moaning or complaining
about something, it's an indication that something is
wrong.
And this is one of my great prayers,
that as we go, either this weekend or
next weekend, it will be in gratitude, thanksgiving,
for what God has done this summer, this
past year, and even during these days.
With that as a background, I want to
basically speak on verse 10 in this passage.
Gordon MacDonald was with us for our leaders
conference, and the Holy Spirit used him and
his wife Gail in a powerful way.
And the Holy Spirit used him and his
wife Gail in a powerful way.
And many of his books are also available.
And it was on this passage that I
was preaching in Madison, Wisconsin some years ago,
when I first met Gordon MacDonald as he
was sitting in the meeting.
This was before the public information concerning his
difficulties and problems.
It's when I speak on this particular verse
that I can often express what's on my
heart in a very, very deep way, that
I don't seldom do.
It's an interesting verse, it's not very popular
in some circles today.
With our great emphasis on praise, we seldom
hear a message on sorrow.
One of our close friends from Denmark, who
was with us one year ago in this
building celebrating his 60th birthday, just died a
few days ago of a heart attack.
One of our close friends from Denmark, who
was with us one year ago in this
building celebrating his 60th birthday, just died a
few days ago of a heart attack.
And a few of us left the conference
to attend his funeral this weekend.
We began our leaders' conference with news that
Randy Smith, Clint Smith's son at 14 years
of age, was killed in Egypt on his
skateboard.
I've not heard many messages on sorrow.
But I remember being at the funeral of
a close friend.
And a godly Anglican minister stood up and
spoke on the subject of sorrow.
The Bible says that Jesus Christ was a
man of sorrow.
What does this verse say?
The verse is speaking about a man of
God, a woman of God, this chapter.
And of course it's very, very strong.
How we are to prove ourselves.
Look at verse 4.
Patience.
How are you doing in that area of
your life?
If any of you have a struggle in
that area, maybe you ought to write to
me, because that's probably in my top ten
problems.
I believe it's one of the greatest needs
in the work of God.
And I've noticed that most of the people
that God has put in key places of
leadership in our little fellowship are people that
know reality in the area of patience.
One of them, I'll tell you, is Peter
Maiden.
And he's got to work day by day
with me, and that can test anybody's patience.
And you may have this plan and that
plan for this year, and this OM conference.
You're going to do this, and you're going
to go here.
You're going to do this, and you're going
to go there.
And you're going to win this group for
Christ, and you're going to start a new
community in Boonga Boonga Land.
And God looks at you, and He says
to you, I'm going to put some new
recruits on your team that are going to
test your patience right to your toenail.
When I was a young Christian living in
Mexico, in those early days, I was amazed
at the emphasis in the word of God
on the subject of patience.
Now, I'm in trouble because I'm starting to
expound the whole chapter, and I just want
to expound verse 10.
I'll be here till morning.
But I wanted you to at least look
at what builds up to verse 10.
And if you could study this on your
own, I think you would discover it one
of the real laser beams of Holy Scripture.
It just gets stronger and stronger and stronger
as we go through the chapter.
And then it gets to verse 10, as
sorrowful.
This is a description of a faithful man
or woman of God.
This is a description of a minister of
the Lord, referring back to verse 3.
Look for a moment at Romans chapter 9
and verse 2.
Isn't it amazing, you go to churches these
days, and the people don't even have a
Bible.
They don't even bring a Bible to church.
Sometimes we get ministers that preach and never
refer to a single verse in the Bible.
No wonder some people are suggesting that we
incorporate Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam into our Christian
faith.
If we throw the Bible to one side,
then anything may end up taking its place.
The Apostle Paul is speaking here in Romans
chapter 9.
And he says that I have great heaviness
and continual sorrow in my heart.
In verse 2, I have great heaviness and
continual sorrow in my heart.
It is pertinent, Bibles and often very beautiful,
to have a heart full of sorrow.
There is a place for sorrow in the
life of a Christian.
We need to understand that.
With those that weep, and we should rejoice
with those that rejoice.
I know that in my own life, God
has taught me something of godly sorrow over
these many years.
I find so easily, if someone is weeping
in the midst of a crisis, that I
immediately start weeping with them.
Should I be ashamed of that as a
weakness?
What kind of a man am I, weeping
at the drop of a weep?
I remember going to the funeral of a
little boy of 11 years of age.
I didn't even know the little boy.
But I knew his father, I knew his
mother.
During the funeral, I was managing, you know
how we are, to hold my emotions together.
But when I stepped out of the funeral
parlor, and I saw the mother and father
standing there, and I had to try to
greet them, of course, I just broke into
weeping.
I've gone through many struggles with my fellow
Christians, and with Christianity in general.
I'm sure that some of you may be
like me.
You find you don't easily fit into any
one particular church or group.
And that's not necessarily
a virtue.
But I have such a longing to see
people who are real, to see people who
are willing to take the whole counsel of
God.
And it's so hard to find.
You find some churches that are very somber,
very sad.
You find churches that are very serious.
And then all the people look very serious,
and very somber and sad.
Well, I think there is a difference between
people who look somber and people who have
a heartache.
And so often today we have the results
of a superficial knowledge of the Word of
God.
So people have part of the truth.
From that church or group, we may go
to another one where they're always praising the
Lord, they're always bubbling all over, and whenever
you talk there's a big grin.
And from that church you can go to
another church where they're always praising the Lord,
and they're always laughing, and they're always smiling.
Sometimes you wonder if they hear the message
that you're preaching.
When I first went to Mexico, I was
preaching in Spanish.
That may have been the problem.
I was in a little church and people
were just praising the Lord.
Glory to God!
Praise the Lord!
Whatever I'd say, praise the Lord!
Of course, it was getting me, you know,
excited.
And I said something like, thousands are going
to hell without Christ!
Praise the Lord!
If they had really been listening, there should
have been perhaps a sob, a cry, something
other than praise the Lord.
We saw brilliantly in the message of Tony
Sargent something of the sorrow of our Savior
in Gethsemane.
Have you ever made a list of things
that cause you to be sorrowful?
And do you sort of feel ashamed of
that?
Well, I mean, I need to be more
positive.
Here I am with a list of things
that make me sorrowful.
Some church groups are actually teaching that we
should never say anything negative whatsoever, no matter
what.
People are telling us that if we create
negative vibrations, these negative vibrations will spread and
other people will become negative, so we must
not do it in the first place.
In fact, one church said, really, it's unnecessary
to mention things like the word sin.
It has negative overtones.
Sin.
People get very depressed.
You shouldn't use that word.
There's an avalanche of books along this line.
They all talk about personality improvement.
They all tell us how we can be
fulfilled and happy every day.
Happy, hop-hop.
I tell you, if you've got a brain,
all of that is going to make you
sorrowful.
Jesus was sorrowful.
Paul was sorrowful.
All the prophets were sorrowful.
And it is completely legitimate for you to
have some sorrow in your heart.
As I make my list, maybe I could
just share a few things.
I grieve and sorrow almost every day over
things that are happening in this world.
And that actually helps me face the world.
It helps me to live in the world.
What is going on in the Lebanon right
now, and the bombing increased again today, is
a point of sorrow.
The situation in Colombia with the drug lords
going on this week, it brings sorrow to
our heart.
The situation in South Africa brings sorrow to
our hearts.
I've been getting more involved in visiting prisoners
in recent months.
And when I was visiting Wandsworth prison some
weeks ago, and sat there among all these
prisoners talking to my friend, I was almost
overwhelmed with sorrow.
We have 50,000 in prison in Great
Britain, almost the largest prison population of Europe.
If I go back to my native country
of America, there are 500,000 in prison.
And when we see how these people are
treated, we see the problems in our courts,
we see the problems in our prison systems,
surely this creates legitimate sorrow in our hearts.
I am not saying we should dwell on
these things all day long.
I don't believe that's God's will.
And we'll see that he has called us
to a life of joy.
Even in this passage it says sorrowful, yet
always rejoicing.
What seems to be a contradiction turns out
to be a paradox.
What seems to be a contradiction turns out
to be a paradox.
Things that make me sad are things that
happen in Operation Mobilization.
I guess one of the problems characters like
me have is that we've been in this
work a long time, with me over 30
years, and the work and you and your
own personality gets a little bit, you know,
mixed up.
And one of the things that enables me
to press on is that I know how
to, by faith, totally step back completely from
Operation Mobilization.
And stand before God alone.
Not together with my brothers and sisters, not
together with my fellowship, but to stand before
God alone with his word and allow him
to speak to me in that position, in
that way.
But it is sorrowful, some of the things
that happen in this dear fellowship.
Some of the disunity that gets in.
Some of the gossip that takes place.
Some of the judgmentalism and the mouthing off
that takes place.
And I think even through the great event
of Love Europe, there is a place for
sorrow.
The things that were wrong this summer.
The things that were ugly and sinful at
Offenburg.
And on some of our teams.
We don't dwell on it.
But it sobers us up.
And it keeps us from boasting.
And I pray that my long-term OMer,
that you are beware.
You are very, very careful about making anything
that sounds like a boast concerning the ministry
that God has given us.
And when we talk about our ministry, and
when we talk about Love Europe, or we
talk about our great ship ministry, let us
be honest in sharing not only the positive
things and the wonderful things, but carefully and
discerningly some of the weaknesses and some of
the failures and some of the sins.
And I believe people would appreciate our honesty
and our reality.
OM has become more famous in the past
couple of years.
Through the losing of the ship.
And then this last year, we were privileged
to have two men in prison.
We were so proud, boy.
Book of Acts, Christianity.
Pray for our men in prison.
All over the world, this news went.
Even the Christian papers who never hardly say
boobop about OM had features about prisoners for
Christ.
Now these brothers are out.
How many of us are still really concerned
for Nepal?
For Nepalese who, when they get in prison
and jail, don't get out so easily.
And also the fact that some who have
been found guilty immediately leave the country, because
they don't want to go in prison at
all.
I have a sense that it's very difficult
to get a balanced view of almost anything.
Maybe I need more faith.
I think the cause of great sorrow, the
greatest sorrow we face as Christians, is the
thought of people going out into eternity without
Jesus Christ.
How can we believe that men are lost
and going to hell, and somehow continue to
pop along like some kind of Disney World
wind-up film?
A serious-minded person was observing some OM
people in Bromley not so long ago.
And he said that everything that was discussed,
everything that came to the table, was superficially
spiritual by nature.
It seemed as if they had just finished
high school and were not yet fully grown
-up.
I'm not against humor, you know that.
And we're going to come to the other
part of the verse.
But I do believe that some of us
should do our best Maybe some of us
need to learn to weep again.
I know you can't force yourself, and this
is linked with our temperaments, but at least
you can have a weeping heart.
And many times in my lack of compassion,
in my lack of reality, I have to
simply, as an act of the will, say,
God, I can't feel that situation, but by
faith, I identify with those suffering people in
that refugee camp right now.
I identify with them, and I will not
listen to the lies of Satan that tell
me otherwise.
I think we are sorrowful over the things
we see on government level.
I think we are sorrowful when we see
so much money wasted on the things of
this world.
When tens of millions go without food, without
clothing, without homes, and we, in our society,
seem to waste so much.
It's interesting that when Jesus Christ challenged the
rich young ruler, he went away sorrowful because
he had much.
How we need a fresh vision of what
it is to be hilarious givers and sacrificers
for the kingdom of God and for other
people.
And lastly, we're sorrowful, I am sorrowful when
I see often the state of the church.
I am absolutely committed to the local church.
OM is committed to the local church.
We cannot harshly judge a local church because
we know our own sins.
We know our own failures as a movement
and as people.
What foolishness to stand in harsh judgment upon
any local congregation.
But as our own sins as a movement
break our hearts, so the sins in the
body of Christ also cause sorrow and weeping.
The lack of love among God's people.
The lack of prayer and reality in prayer
and prayer meetings among God's people.
The lack of evangelism and an evangelistic zeal
and book of acts reality among God's people.
How can you see this and not have
it break your heart?
Have we become accustomed to lukewarmness so that
when we meet it, it no longer affects
us?
Many, many times I have wrestled with whether
I should leave OM.
Because in one way, I would have more
freedom to preach that which roars upon my
heart if I were out of OM than
if I am in OM.
Because there is a part of this burden
on my heart which I must confess is
offensive to the average evangelical in the average
church.
I was preaching at Columbia Bible College maybe
two years ago and I really opened my
heart about what is there concerning materialism in
America.
And when I got done speaking and I
talked to myself, I don't know if any
of you talk to yourself I said, Verwer,
you've done it again, you're a jerk.
And after I gave that message I felt
it was too strong, it was too hard.
Then I found out they had recorded it
and were going to broadcast it over the
radio in South Carolina.
And I, maybe I made a mistake.
I contacted the radio people and I said,
please, whatever you do, don't play that message
over the radio.
I have this fear that I'm going to
get OM in big trouble.
I was pouring my heart out in a
huge, one of the biggest churches in America.
It was prayer meeting night.
The church has 7,000 on Sunday morning.
Few hundred came to the prayer meeting and
all the OMers were there.
And I really let it all out.
But one or two things I said were
a little bit, you know, a little bit
borderline, off the wall.
The enemy's clever, he likes to get you
just, you know, even one or two sentences
and he'll try to spoil the whole message
through that one sentence.
But God uses us in our weakness.
50% of that audience stood up to
repent and claim revival in their own lives.
But the next day, the OM leader took
me aside.
And he said, you know, some of the
leaders in the church are offended.
And he said, I think you ought to
apologize.
My favorite thing.
It's at moments like that that my engines
begin to roar and I think of leaving
OM in the smoke.
The only problem, he was right.
There were some things that were not rooted
and grounded enough in love in what I
had shared.
When I get to heaven, I may discover
I played the fool as the next night
I got up and gave a great discourse
on the need for spiritual balance in all
things.
I gave a message the next night on
the need for spiritual balance.
Those messages are always so much more comfortable.
People come up to me and say, oh
my, you're so balanced.
Oh, really?
My conviction is that there's the right kind
of balance and there's the wrong kind of
balance.
A wrong kind of balance is a lot
of wishy-washy playing down of the truth,
a lot of oozy, snoozy, greasy, weesy compromise.
Well, you all understood that, I assume.
That's the wrong kind of balance you just
described.
But biblical balance are powerful messages on both
sides that bring forth powerful men and women
of God.
Well, we better look at that next part
of the verse.
This is really wild, yet always rejoicing.
How can this be?
Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.
In our human way of thinking, we would
think, well, I'm sorrowful half the time and
I'm rejoicing the other half, right?
As a human being, you immediately think, well,
I'm sorrowful half the time and I'm rejoicing
the other half.
No, wrong.
We can know legitimate sorrow, and yet we
can be rejoicing in our hearts in the
midst, even of that sorrow.
What are some things that cause us to
rejoice?
Just quickly.
What are the biggest?
God has an ultimate plan.
Someday all sorrow will be wiped away.
The Bible speaks of a new heaven and
a new earth and a lot of other
mysterious, glorious things that I'm still studying.
But it's our knowledge of God, the God
of creation, the God of ultimate destiny.
And the realization that He has an ultimate
purpose and ultimate control.
That brings deep, deep rejoicing in our soul
in the midst of great sorrow.
That is the deep root that keeps me
going day by day.
Secondly, we're always rejoicing because of what Jesus
Christ has done on the cross.
I know that is very basic, but I
believe there's a time, as we say in
this little manual, that we need to go
back to those basics.
And there may be someone here tonight that's
being bounced about in your Christian life in
chaos and confusion because you're not experiencing the
reality of that cross in your daily walk
with God.
One of the
reasons we so urge God's people to read
these powerful sermons in print, Calvary Road.
Thirdly, we rejoice.
Each church is experiencing degrees of revival.
Some of you come from those kind of
churches.
And that's such an encouragement in your life.
Don't presume.
Keep praying.
Keep encouraging those people.
Because whenever there's a church that's ablaze for
God, Satan will have a strategy to put
that fire out.
Because whenever there's a church that's ablaze for
God, Satan will have a strategy to put
that fire out.
There seem to be all kinds of different
types of Christians when it comes to being
involved with a local church.
Some believers seem to have an ability to
persevere in the refrigerator.
These are what I call Arctic Christians.
They're God's Eskimos.
They can go in the coldest church.
The place is so dead.
No one ever moves unless they have to
go to the toilet.
And I have a very good friend who
goes to a church like that.
And they also reject him.
Because he's become involved with Operation Mobilization, which
is a mongrel movement with people of different
denominations.
For 25 years, this dear Eskimo sits among
those people Sunday morning.
And they break bread, and by the time
it gets to your mouth, it's frozen solid.
I'm amazed by his faith.
There are other people.
They cannot handle that.
They will die in that environment of frostbite.
And I can relate.
I can understand.
They want to get where there are other
hot coals, so that even if they're a
little bit cool, they get next to somebody
hot for God, they burst into flame.
We've all seen it.
Well, I don't want to labour the point.
There are many good, hot, on-fire churches
across the world, and they are on the
increase.
And one of our greatest churches in the
world, the Church of Christ, is a church
in the Netherlands, and his goal is to
see more of that kind of church among
Hindus and among Muslims.
And that vision should grip us day and
night.
And as we read the reports of what
God has done this summer, and we think
of new churches being born at this very
moment, it causes us to rejoice.
So there's three major reasons right there why
we're always rejoicing.
But the fourth is perhaps just as important.
We are rejoicing because God has given us
as a gift the spirit of joy.
We are rejoicing because God has given us
as a gift the spirit of joy.
I am convinced that there are days when
there is no logical reason to think about
why I am rejoicing.
But when I look at the Word of
God, the fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, and all the other fruit of the
Holy Spirit.
Oh, if I had an extra hour, you
know what I would speak of?
Be ye filled with the Holy Spirit.
That's the key.
Not just, you know, a few years ago
when you were at a special summer camp
and you got spiritually zapped.
That's wonderful.
Praise the Lord.
But daily.
Daily yielding your members to righteousness.
Daily, whatever terminology you may use, being filled
with the Holy Spirit.
Daily dealing with any sin that can grieve
the Spirit and therefore kill that joy that's
wanting to burst forth in your life.
I was just a young preacher speaking in
the YMCA.
And you learn a lot when you give
people a chance to ask questions.
I wish we had more question and answer
sessions.
That was a big thing in the old
days.
I don't know what's happened to that.
And the man asked me this question.
He was very liberal in his religious thinking.
And it hit me very hard.
How, he said, can you believe in hell
and still be happy knowing that your friends
and neighbors and loved ones are going into
hell?
How can you be happy?
And especially if we have a commitment to
be unselfish.
Because if we look at happiness objectively, there
is an element of selfishness that so easily
combines with happiness.
And as you go to bed tonight, how
concerned will you really be about how other
people feel tonight?
And I thank God that he knows that
learning to be unselfish is a lifetime battle.
We never arrive.
And I have seen people who have never
arrived.
And I have seen my own unselfishness in
such frightening ways.
And yet I see how normal that is
as a human being.
And how I must have a sensible, biblical
way to work on that.
I sleep very well.
I have high energy way until quite late
often.
Once I feel it really going, unless I
got something special to do, like a prayer
meeting.
I just go down very fast and one
thing, that's all I want to do then.
Sleep.
And from right here, standing behind this pulpit,
if I got into that mood.
And I think I can prove this.
I could be from here to the bus
on the other side of the field, unclothed,
in bed and asleep, probably 7.6 minutes.
In fact, after the night of prayer, it's
just simpler and I've actually done it, just
to drop in the meeting and sleep under
the chair.
And yet I can be doing that.
And barely conscious of the fact that my
wife is in a special difficult situation.
It takes her usually an hour to get
to sleep.
She does not like to be jabbed by
me when she's in that process of trying
to sleep.
But I must confess that sometimes my behavior
has demonstrated that in fact, I don't care.
So you can pray more for me.
And I will pray especially for you.
Some of you feel you're really starting to
get sanctified.
You've been into Watchman Nee and Tozer and
you're really beginning to be a true disciple
of Jesus Christ.
Some of you feel you're really starting to
get sanctified.
You've been into Watchman Nee and Tozer and
you're really beginning to be a true disciple
of Jesus Christ.
And I can almost guarantee you that the
moment you get married, you're going to have
the shock of your life.
You're going to discover aspects of your self
-life you didn't even know they existed.
Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.
How can we rejoice in a world like
this?
Many of the most brilliant men in our
world have died bitter, lost, negative cynics.
How can we go on rejoicing?
The reality of God living in us.
It is a mystery.
We cannot understand all of this.
We cannot understand ourselves completely or our wives
or our loved ones.
And Tozer recommended that for many of us
it would be good if we got a
little more relaxed about ourselves.
Study what you can.
Learn what you can.
Obey as much as possible.
Receive all you can from God.
Then leave the rest with Him.
And learn to live in a world full
of mystery.
I believe some of you are really wrestling
with the doctrine of hell.
And you're going to wrestle more when you
get back to Istanbul and back to Delhi
and back to the Muslim world.
I believe we can be full with the
Holy Spirit and yet fully human.
We will constantly want to study and learn
more of God and of God's Word and
of God's ways.
But we will also rejoice in the midst
of the mystery.
Take that passage of scripture.
Take that verse.
It can be a therapy to you.
It can set you free from anxiety and
bondage.
It can help you function at weddings.
It can help you function at funerals.
It can help you function when you're accepted
and you're loved and you're appreciated.
It can help you function when you're rejected
and misunderstood and forgotten.
It can help you function when everyone accepts
you and loves you, but also when you
feel rejected and alone.
And when we develop that kind of double
biblical balance, biblical sorrow, biblical joy, we will
be a non-stoppable combination for God.
Let us pray.
Lord, I just thank you for that verse.
I thank you that I don't have to
defend my sorrow and my broken heart.
I thank you I don't have to pretend
to be Mr. Happy 24 hours a day.
I thank you, God, I don't have to
pretend whether I'm preaching or talking to one
person in the woods.
I thank you that I don't have to
pretend whether I'm preaching or talking to one
person in the woods.
You have not called us to be actors.
You have called us to be spirit-filled,
yet very human beings.
And we thank you that we can weep.
And we thank you that we can be
happy.
And one day we will understand it all.
But in this world we will still look
into a mirror full of riddles.
Lord, you know the special sorrow of some
of us here tonight.
Even as these days we say goodbye to
one another.
Some of us will never see one another
again in this world.
Like Alison Price who arrived at Gatwick with
all the joy of being delivered from those
rocks on Lagos.
And her parents were there with all of
the joy of that reunion.
Only a few months later to have her
snatched as she was run over and killed
on her bicycle.
Father, in the depth of our soul we
can express, we can feel that we are
sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.
Lord, in the deepest of our hearts we
know that we can weep and at the
same time be happy.
In the name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.