Welcome to From the Pulpit in Classic Sermons.
Each week we bring you a different message
from some of history's greatest speakers in the
faith, and powerful sermons from modern preachers too.
This week we have George Burwer with part
one of his message, Discipline.
Being a disciple, we think about discipline.
I remember when I used to work in
a camp out in Colorado, and every time
I would mention or someone else would mention
self-discipline, I would hear groans.
Nobody likes self-discipline.
And I'm becoming convinced that it's completely contrary
to our human nature.
We just don't like to be disciplined.
We just don't like to do what we're
told.
We just don't like to pick up paper.
We don't like to clean up things.
It just goes against us.
We just want to go as we feel.
If we feel good, we'll do something.
If we don't feel good, we won't do
it.
We like to be controlled just by our
emotions and our feelings.
But discipline is just the opposite.
Discipline is simply doing what's right, whether we
feel like it or not.
A disciple is one who is trained or
taught.
And after I read that definition, I begin
to wonder, am I a disciple?
Am I very well trained?
Am I very well taught?
Maybe we should say we're in the process
of becoming disciples of Jesus Christ.
We are in the process of learning.
We are in the process of learning what
it is to have not just self-control,
but spirit control.
Because it's not by might or by power,
but by my spirit, sayeth the Lord.
And certainly discipline is way above us.
It's above me.
And probably I'm going to speak to myself
more than anyone else this morning.
And if it hits you, well, praise God.
Join the crowd.
It's learning, isn't it?
It's learning what God has for us.
And we learn in so many different ways.
We learn from the Word of God.
God teaches us.
And He expects us not only to learn
it in the mind, but to apply it
to the heart and life and to live
it.
Otherwise, it's just knowledge, which profits little.
We learn by experience.
We say experience is the best teacher, or
it's a hard teacher.
It is for me.
But I tell you, it's a convincing teacher.
Experience.
And I believe that God teaches us by
one another, too.
As the Spirit of God brings us in
contact with different people.
And I remember many times in my own
life how perhaps God was beginning to speak
to my heart along a certain area.
And just in the next few days, I
would meet someone else that perhaps was thinking
along the same lines.
And God would just kind of double and
treble the lesson that He was trying to
teach me.
And so we learn from one another.
In fact, I'm not sure just how much
I would know this morning if it hadn't
been for other people who had taught me.
Some of us, you know, are a lot
more privileged than others.
Some of us have had Christian training right
from the cradle upward.
Some of us have had parents, and I'm
speaking for myself, who pray daily and who
want just God's best for your life.
Some of us have had more training.
We've had more opportunities to learn of Jesus
Christ.
And therefore, I believe our responsibility is far
greater than one who has had little.
But we learn from others.
And oh, what a joyous thing this is
that we can have Christian fellowship where we
can learn from one another.
And so we need to take every way
in which God teaches us and learn all
we can from it and apply it.
I'd like to be as practical as possible
this morning.
I'd like to just take discipline in various
realms of our lives.
I'd like to look into the Scripture and
see what the Scripture says about it and
mention some of the principles.
And then if at all possible, I'd like
to apply this to our everyday living, that
we might truly be a disciplined one, a
real disciple of Jesus Christ.
The first area that hits me is discipline
in thought, because this is the whole basis,
our thought life.
And I was amazed as I began to
look at Scripture.
First, I was going to look at all
the Scriptures on thought and on imagination and
on discipline.
And I started to look one look at
the concordance, and I gave up.
And I said, well, Lord, just leave me
to some that will be a blessing.
I'll never get through all these.
It'll take me a couple weeks.
The Scripture is full of talking about the
mind, the heart, the soul, remembrance, not forgetting,
thoughts, imaginations, desires, meditation, all these words which
describe some aspect of our thinking.
And I feel that this is basic, because
if our thoughts are disciplined, our actions will
be disciplined.
Our words will be disciplined.
Perhaps we say, well, we speak without thinking.
But somewhere in the past, you have thought
what you've said.
And so it's discipline in the thought that
affects the rest of our lives.
Sometimes there's an unpleasant picture given of the
thought life in Scripture.
I think of a passage in Genesis chapter
6, verse 5.
And the Lord saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth, and that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil continually.
This is the natural man.
This is the usual course, that the imagination
of our thoughts and of our hearts is
evil continually.
This is the way we go.
This is the whole pull of our nature,
is down, is to be thinking that which
we know is wrong, is to be thinking
that which we know is evil and is
displeasing to God.
But then God steps in, and He renews
the mind.
And so the mind is a great potential
for good or evil.
And let's face it, we're all faced with
it, aren't we?
We have it every day.
Satan comes in with temptations to think evil.
It may be just plain immoral thoughts.
It may be bitterness.
It may be jealousy.
It may be discouragement.
It may be self-pity.
My problems are bigger than everybody else here.
Surely God knows this.
The other people can't have the problems I
do.
And so we feed on it, and we
feed on it, and we feel sorry for
ourselves.
And then we want to tell everybody about
our problems so they'll sympathize.
And, my, you are going through a rough
time.
You know how it does our hearts good
when we hear about people praying for us
because they know we have a lot of
problems.
And we just know that, see, we're getting
more and more attention.
Self-pity.
This is the thought life.
And the disciplined thought life says, cut it
out.
Tempted to think about our problems and to
think we have the worst?
Cut it out and think of what Christ
went through for us.
Think about what other people are really going
through.
And consider them before ourselves.
Discipline in the thought life.
Another passage, perhaps, that we could mention as
the remedy to this evil thought is 2
Corinthians 10, verse 5.
Perhaps we could start with verse 3.
For though we walk in the flesh, we
do not war according to the flesh.
For the weapons of our warfare are not
of the flesh, but mighty before God to
the casting down of strongholds.
Casting down imaginations and every high thing that
is exalted against the knowledge of God and
bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience
of Christ.
This, it seems to me, is the remedy.
Instead of evil thoughts, bringing every thought into
captivity to Christ.
Because if the thought is controlled by Christ,
it can't be evil.
And if the thought of jealousy comes up,
if it's brought in captivity to Christ, then
it goes away.
It has to.
Because Christ and evil don't mix.
And Jesus Christ and a rotten mind don't
mix.
They can't.
And so, Paul says, bring every thought into
the obedience of Christ.
Thinking the way he would have us think.
It's so easy to have a worldly mind.
Or perhaps not worldly in the usual fundamental
sense, but worldly because it's just the human
way of looking at things.
We don't look at things by faith, we
look at them by sight, don't we?
That's worldly.
We look at things, what are other people
going to say?
Instead of what will God think about it?
I find it so easy just to begin
regarding all my work just in a very
human way.
Instead of, well now, how does God want
this done?
But you see, if it's human in a
sense, it's actually worldly.
It's not of God, it's not of the
Spirit, therefore it must be fleshly.
It's of the whole human nature.
And so we need to cast down every
imagination.
And this is where I feel discipline comes
in.
It's an act of the will that says
no!
And it tears it out.
And it comes to Jesus Christ for cleansing.
And for purifying.
And that He might control our thoughts.
He says, casting down the imaginations.
It's not so bad if they just start
to come.
But it's that, keep thinking about them, that's
what hurts.
That's where the sin comes in.
Just the first thought, we're all tempted, aren't
we?
But it's the second and third and fourth
and fifth.
For several days, perhaps, or even for several
moments, this is where the sin comes in.
Even the root of anger that comes up.
It may, the temptation may come to be
angry.
But if you feed on it, it becomes
bitterness, it becomes hatred.
And that's the same as being a murderer.
And that's where the sin comes in.
And so the very first sign of it,
it needs to be cast down.
Every imagination, that which exalts itself against God.
And it can be anything.
It can be a job.
It can be eating.
It can be sport.
It doesn't matter what it is, but it
can begin to take too much place from
God.
And we need to cast down every imagination,
everything that exalts itself against God.
And of course, this is the basic sin,
isn't it?
Lucifer, I want to be like the Most
High God.
He was cast out of heaven.
All these kind of imaginations are from Satan.
And even as Satan was cast out of
heaven, so they need to be cast out
of our minds.
In the power of the Spirit of God.
Isaiah 26.3, we have a great promise
of peace.
Thou will keep him in perfect peace.
Note the condition.
Whose mind is stayed on thee, because he
trusteth in thee.
And this is the condition.
Unless the mind is stayed on the Lord
Jesus Christ, it is not at peace.
It's being tossed to and fro.
Conflicts, doubts, all kinds of temptations.
But if it's stayed on Christ, it's just
another way of saying, looking unto Jesus.
Which causes a person to run a race
that is steadfast.
And to run it with endurance.
And to lay aside every weight and every
sin.
Stay your mind on Jesus Christ.
Look unto Jesus.
This is what we need to do with
our minds.
Discipline.
Disciplining our thoughts to be stayed on Him.
I think meditation comes in here.
I found that memorizing Scripture is a great
way of keeping the mind disciplined.
And I have to confess that in recent
weeks, I haven't been doing so much memorizing
of Scripture.
In all how we need to discipline ourselves
to memorize.
Even if it is hard to memorize.
I remember Krista Fisher, when we worked back
at 30 Middleton Road.
She sat at the typewriter and above her
typewriter, she'd put a new Scripture text every
day.
Or maybe one or two or three of
them.
And every spare moment she had, she'd look
up and she'd be reading and meditating on
that verse until she memorized it.
But usually we get a spare moment and
we just kind of let it slide idly
by.
While we're waiting at the bus stop for
a bus.
Maybe nobody else is there so you can't
talk to anybody, you can't give out a
tract.
But then to pull out a New Testament
and memorize a word of Scripture.
To fill our minds, to occupy our minds
with that which is good.
It's not enough just to have a clean
mind that's still empty.
Because if you clean out the mind and
it's empty, then pretty soon all sorts of
other things will come in and you'll have
seven devils instead of one.
It's got to be filled up with that
which is truth, with that which is good,
with that which is pure.
Whatsoever things are pure, lovely, of good report,
honest, think on these things.
And if it doesn't measure up to that
standard that Paul laid down in Philippians 4,
don't think on these things.
Meditate, and it's a discipline.
It's a discipline because I find that my
mind just likes to do nothing.
I don't like to think, I don't like
to plan.
I get going for a while and then
about the middle of the day when I
get sleepy and tired, I don't want to
think of what I should say in the
next letter.
I just don't like to.
It's lazy.
And it's a discipline to say, think.
Or maybe in that time pray and ask
God to discipline you to think.
But in the idle moment to let the
mind, the thoughts wander.
You know another thing that's come to me
is being very sentimental.
I think this is what homesickness is.
Sometimes I go for four years without seeing
my parents and every once in a while
I get a hankering for my old life
out in West Africa.
Especially when it's a cold winter and I
thought of the 90 degree weather out there.
And the beautiful sunshine and getting that nicely
baked feeling when you get out in the
sun.
And so my mind begins to wander and
I just go back to boyhood days and
I think of, I didn't have any problems
then hardly.
And I just get carried away.
And yet how foolish it is, it's unrealistic,
I can't go back there.
It doesn't do me a bit of good.
About five or ten or maybe minutes later
or maybe an hour later I come back
to reality and have to face up to
it all again.
And it's just a waste of time, isn't
it?
To have all these little fluffy airy feelings
about the past.
Or wanting to be somewhere where we aren't.
Or sometimes I'm thinking here in England, well
I wonder what it would be like to
be slugging it out with those there in
the Muslim world.
What it would be like just to be
with some of those brothers.
And I begin to think of some brother
and oh I have a great love and
I just love to be with them in
fellowship again.
And it's good to have that bond of
unity.
But sometimes it becomes just vain imagination.
And it's a waste of time.
Instead of seeing things as God does.
And oh how we need to discipline our
minds so they just don't wander all over
the place.
Doing nothing, going nowhere.
I'd rather that we might discipline our thoughts.
And discipline our whole lives towards one purpose.
To know the Lord Jesus Christ and to
do His will.
Of course we could talk about worry too.
Good passage is Matthew six.
In case you've never read it before.
I think it'd be good to read it
again anyway.
Because worry is in the mind, isn't it?
It may affect the body.
It may affect how you feel.
But worry is all in the mind.
And most of the time worry isn't even,
it's not even reality.
You're worrying about something that's in the future
that you're not sure how it's going to
turn out.
And it doesn't, it doesn't help a bit.
It doesn't do one thing for you.
As we've heard before.
But let's remind ourselves what the Lord Jesus
Christ said.
Verse twenty-five.
Read twenty-four.
Neither do they reap, nor gather into barns.
And your heavenly Father feedeth them.
Are not ye of much more value than
they?
And which of you by being anxious can
add one cubit unto the measure of his
life?
I suppose all you fellows were like me.
And one time or another you were shorter
than everybody else.
Well I still am.
But I used to, my brother's about five,
six inches taller than I am.
And every couple weeks when we measured against
the bedroom wall of my mother.
I was here and his mark was up
here.
Always above me.
And I wanted to be tall like my
brother.
But all the thinking about it didn't do
a bit of good.
And even exercise, I don't think that helped
any either.
It just, it just doesn't help.
It doesn't do anything.
And why are you anxious concerning Raymond?
You know I found the real problem.
When I used to have a lot of
clothes.
It took me five or ten minutes in
the morning trying to make up my mind
which shirt to put on.
It's so much simpler when you just have
one or two changes.
It simplifies life.
It's bad here in England but it's even
worse in the States.
I remember working in the camp and for
one week.
I remember a girl coming that had twenty
blouses for one week.
She changed three times a day.
Of course she was catering to the fellows
but.
Think of it.
The decisions that would have to be made
to change twenty times in one week.
And decisions are what's hard to make.
Well, Raymond.
Consider the lilies of the field.
How they grow, they toil not, neither do
they spin.
Yet I say unto you that even Solomon
in all his glory was not arrayed like
one of these.
But if God does so clothe the grass
of the field.
Which today is and tomorrow is cast in
the oven.
Shall he not much more clothe you, O
ye of little faith?
An anxiety about dress and what we're going
to wear is not a faith.
And if it's not a faith, it's sin.
Now we've been told we're to be neat.
But one can be neat without spending half
the day trying to get a wardrobe together.
Some people just when they go to pack.
It takes them a week to get prepared.
Even some of the girls here.
I'm used to just telling them, well, you're
going for this weekend.
But they want to know in advance by
two or three days.
So they can plan what they have to
be ironed and what has to be washed
and so forth.
In some ways this is good.
But it shows how occupied we get with
what we wear.
And how much time we can spend just
on ordinary living.
Which should be the minimum.
And of course we could say the same
for food.
Now, I enjoy good food.
But I don't see that it makes much
difference if the radish is whore or if
it's peeled in a nice little tulip type
thing.
And yet I know some ladies that will
spend hours.
I've been in their homes.
They spend hours preparing a meal that's go
down in a half hour.
And that's it.
Well, we need to be realistic, don't we?
About our time.
And about just plain ordinary living.
Thirty-one.
Be not therefore anxious saying what shall we
eat or what shall we drink.
Or wherewithal shall we be clothed.
We serve tea and coffee and you have
to make up your mind whether it's going
to be tea or coffee you're going to
drink.
For me, I just like plain old cold
water.
But most people don't go for that quite
so much.
I'm still trying to convince the Britishers that
cold water is good for them.
But they're having a hard time.
They like their tea and coffee or something
else.
For after all these things do the Gentiles
seek.
For your Heavenly Father knoweth.
Well, that came in, didn't it?
For your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have
need of all these things.
And so what does it matter if I
can't get my cold water?
I'll drink whatever's available.
But seek ye first his kingdom and his
righteousness and all these things shall be added
unto you.
Now this is a promise from the word
of God.
That if we seek him first, the food,
our raiment, whatever we really need will be
added unto us.
And if we don't rest on that then
we're just disregarding what he said.
Don't worry.
Be anxious for nothing.
And I tell you sometimes there are things
that humanly speaking there's something to be anxious
about.
But God tells us be anxious for nothing.
And I found that most of the time
we're worried about something that's coming in the
future and we're not sure how it's going
to come out.
We don't worry too much about the past,
it's already happened.
And the present, well we're actually in that.
But it's something in the future.
And many times there's something that's come up
in my life and I know that it's
going to be hard to do it.
Maybe it's a situation and I know that
I have to tell that person to do
something that I know they aren't going to
like.
And this is difficult.
And I can begin to worry, well just
how are they going to react?
Will I lose their friendship?
But God says don't worry about it.
Because you can't change it anyway.
And we're always worrying about something that we
can have no influence over really.
And usually when we get to it it's
not nearly as bad.
For instance when I think of chopping my
finger off I don't like the thought of
it.
And I could worry about it if I
knew that five minutes from now I was
going to have to take a hatchet and
chop my finger off.
I would get disturbed.
And sometimes when I think of martyrdom I
think of different ways people torture you.
I can get bothered by it.
And think what if I had to go
through this certain physical torture.
But then when the moment comes and you
do chop your finger off it's just over
like that.
And then you go about getting it repaired.
But it's usually not nearly as bad as
your mind imagines, there's that word again, imagination,
imagines it to be.
Usually the real thing is not nearly so
bad as the real thing.
Of course sometimes we can imagine something that's
going to be very wonderful too.
And we can get so wrapped up in
how wonderful something's going to be and then
when we get there it falls flat.
Maybe that's happened to you at this conference.
Maybe your hopes were so built up that
God was going to take one or two
people and they were going to give such
wonderful messages that you just had to get
blessed.
And therefore you depended on some great speaker
coming along and you've been disappointed.
Because if we're going to receive a real
blessing it's got to be God who gives
it to us.
He uses men, yes.
But it's amazing what kind of men he
does use.
Don't worry.
I guess we'd save ourselves a lot of
anxiety, we'd save ourselves perhaps some ulcers.
We'd relieve the situation in our mental institutions,
a lot of other places if we could
learn this lesson not to worry.
I sometimes find myself doing it.
I praise God I have some friends that
they can come along and they see if
I'm worrying or not.
And they say, are you worried?
Get back to reality.
And it's good, it's good to have brothers
and sisters that are honest enough with you
and they tell you when something's wrong with
you.
And know how we need to do this,
to exhort one another.
Because God says don't worry about something, that
doesn't mean you're not to ever think about
it.
Because in the same breath that Jesus would
say don't worry, don't be anxious about these
things.
He also tells us to take care.
And he says I put you in remembrance
of these things.
For instance over in 1 Timothy 4.15.
After exhorting Timothy along certain lines to let
no man despise his youth but rather be
an example.
And to be a learner and to really
give heed to reading and exhortation.
Notice he says in verse 15, be diligent.
You can't be diligent without thinking.
Be diligent in these things.
Give thyself wholly to them that thy progress
may be manifest unto all.
And in other places we read about study
or be diligent to show yourself approved unto
God.
And give all diligence to add to your
faith, virtue, brotherly kindness, love.
And so the scripture talks about actually giving
thought to something.
And many times we are reminded to remember
something.
Remember now thy creator in the days of
thy youth.
And Peter mentions in his first epistle I
believe.
I put you in remembrance of these things.
I remind you of them.
And so over and over again we have
the same things stated.
In the Old Testament we were commanded to
love God with all our heart, soul, strength
and mind.
And our neighbors ourselves.
It's recorded another three or four times in
scripture.
To remind us.
And we are to remember.
We are not to worry about something.
But we are to remember the things that
God has taught us.
And we are to give thought to something.
Not in a worrying sense.
But thinking with God.
Depending on him to give us wisdom.
If we lack wisdom, ask of God in
faith.
And he will give it.
Perhaps I could give this illustration.
I don't want you to worry about dirty
plates left all over the campground.
But it would certainly be nice if you
would remember them.
To take them where they are to be
washed.
Don't worry about it.
But just remember it.
And then get on with the more important
things.
Don't worry about if the line is getting
too long.
Outside the washroom.
Or outside the dining hall.
But remember.
To redeem the time while you are there
in line.
And use it to really fellowship with one
another.
And to make the time profitable.
And of course to be sensible and don't
all crowd into the doorway.
So that all the lines get muddled up.
Don't worry but remember.
The things God wants to teach us.
And has taught us.
One more thought along this matter of the
mind.
In Romans 12, 1 and 2.
We read about the presenting of our bodies.
A living sacrifice.
But he goes on in the second verse.
To mention another aspect.
And he says.
And be not fashioned according to this world.
But be ye transformed by the renewing of
your mind.
And this is what we need.
We need our minds renewed.
We need our whole attitude toward life renewed.
We need our thinking renewed.
And Ephesians 4 tells the same thing.
That we should be renewed in the spirit
of our mind.
And this is the answer to it all.
This is the answer to a disciplined mind.
Get a new one.
Instead of ours.
Get the Lord Jesus Christ mind.
Instead of I, Christ.
Renewed in our mind.
I remember when I was in Montana.
I keep mentioning different places.
You probably know that I traveled around a
little bit.
The Lord keeps shifting me here and there.
But when I was out in Montana a
couple of summers.
The Lord taught me this lesson about the
thought.
And how basic it is.
If you sow a thought.
You reap an action.
And if you sow an action.
You reap a habit.
If you sow a habit.
You reap a life.
If you sow a life.
You reap an eternity.
And it starts with a thought.
And unless God comes in and arrests that
whole order.
He can't stop it at the habit.
He can't even stop it at the life
and change the life.
We praise God that he can stop it
anywhere.
Except in eternity.
And then it's too late.
But remember it starts with a thought.
Another area that's very important.
And very closely linked together with this.
Is the tongue.
James chapter 3.
Discipline of the tongue.
Americans seem to have a great desire to
talk a lot.
I find it easy to talk.
If I'm not careful I get carried away.
You know how we need to be disciplined
in what we say.
It's not wrong to talk a lot.
But it is wrong to talk a lot
about nothing.
For in many things we all stumble.
It's true enough.
If any stumbleth not in word.
The same is a perfect man.
Able to bridle the whole body also.
Now if we put the horses bridles into
their mouths.
That they may obey us.
We turn about their whole body also.
Behold the ships also though they are so
great.
And are driven by rough winds.
Are yet turned about by a very small
rudder.
Whither the impulse of the steersman willeth.
So the tongue also is a little member.
Behold how much wood is kindled by how
small a fire.
And the tongue is a fire.
The world of iniquity among our members is
the tongue.
Which defileth the whole body.
And setteth on fire the wheel of nature.
And is set on fire by hell.
For every kind of beast and birds or
creeping things.
And things in the sea is tame.
And hath been tamed by mankind.
But the tongue can no man tame.
It is a restless evil.
It is full of deadly poison.
Therewith bless we the Lord and Father.
And therewith curse we men.
Who are made after the likeness of God.
Out of the same mouth cometh forth blessing
and cursing.
My brethren these things ought not so to
be.
Yes the unregenerate man may curse God.
But not many of us would dare to
curse God really.
But instead would just talk behind everybody else's
back.
And just run him into the ground.
And yet from the same tongue we praise
God one moment.
And we tear a fellow brother down.
Behind his back.
Now if you tear him down to his
face it's a different thing.
If you're saying to his face.
Perhaps pointing out something you feel is wrong
in his life.
That's scriptural.
That's done in the spirit of love.
To exhort one another.
But when you say something behind their back.
That you wouldn't say to his face.
Or at least you wouldn't say unless you
absolutely forced to.
Then it's wrong.
The tongue.
It's bad enough to complain inwardly isn't it?
It's bad enough to.
To murmur and complain.
Within ourselves so that nobody else knows about
it.
But if you start.
Voicing your complaints.
Then it influences someone else and they voice
their complaints.
And that's joined together with your complaints.
And they get greater.
And your complaints are far worse by the
time you finish discussing them.
Than they were to start with.
And this works in a crowd.
Because we influence one another.
And this is what happens usually in a
mob.
When some mob action has started off.
One person says go get them.
And off they are to lynch somebody.
But just one person saying that.
It stirs everybody else up.
If he had said that just to one
other person sitting down in their living room.
They would have laughed it off.
But in a crowd you see.
It influences them.
And perhaps you're standing over there by the
dining hall.
And you may make just one little word
about the food.
Maybe it isn't quite as good as you
expected.
Or what you would like.
But this will influence someone else.
And they say.
Boy that's right I hadn't thought about that.
Those beans are a little burnt after all.
What have we been eating?
Beans?
Tomatoes?
And so we.
Our complaints.
Add to each others.
And they get worse.
That's why if we have a complaint.
Voice it to God.
And not to one another.
Or if it is something that can be
corrected.
Voice it to the person in charge.
And then if he doesn't take it.
Then perhaps you can voice it to everybody.
But how easy it is.
Just to talk behind a person's back.
And I find this.
Sometimes we're thinking about people who have applied.
This of course applies to some of you.
And we receive their applications.
And we're looking at them.
And to be quite honest.
I look through them with a soul.
Well more than one purpose.
But one of the purposes.
Is to try and find anything.
That kind of flashes a red light.
And I want to know more about that
person.
Now maybe all of you are really.
You really mean business.
People can write in and they want to
apply.
And well it's hard telling what their background's
been.
And we need to find this out.
Because all we have is one little sheet
of paper.
With a few questions at the first part.
And a little testimony on the back.
Have you ever tried to figure out what
a person's like from that much?
It's pretty difficult.
But I find that perhaps we see the
picture there.
Now sometimes the picture doesn't always glorify the
person.
Or perhaps we see something else.
And I can find myself beginning to talk
about someone else.
Well look at this.
I kind of question about that.
And pretty soon we're so talking about what
we think might be wrong.
That we overlook the whole other part.
And instead of taking that and writing to
the person.
And trying to get it straightened out.
We can just talk about it.
Or we can talk about one another.
And in running the camp here I've found
myself.
I've got to think of well where would
these people fit in the best?
Because I must evaluate the kind of work
they're doing.
And where I feel by God's grace they
could be used the most.
But I can find I'm tempted to talk
about their failures.
And their weak points.
And end up where they don't have any
strong points.
And I don't know where to use them.
You've been listening to From the Pulpit in
Classic Sermons Series.
This week you heard George Verwer with Part
1 of his message Discipline.
Tune in next week to hear Part 2
on From the Pulpit in Classic Sermons.