Turn with me to the Word of God,
the Gospel of Luke, and Chapter 6.
Found the place?
Luke, Chapter 6.
It used to be possible to ask a
congregation to read the Bible together, audibly.
But if you ask them to do that
now, you'd think we're all speaking in tongues,
because there's so many different versions and paraphrases.
I won't tell you the version from which
I'm reading, maybe you'll recognize it.
Luke, Chapter 6 and verse 12.
Luke 6 and verse 12.
In these days he went out into the
hills to pray, and all night he continued
in prayer to God.
And when it was day, he called his
disciples and chose from them twelve whom he
named apostles.
Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his
brother, and James and John, and Philip, and
Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the
son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called
the Zealot, and Judas the son of James,
and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
Verse 20.
And he lifted up his eyes on his
disciples and said, Blessed are you poor, for
yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you that hunger, now for you
shall be satisfied.
Blessed are you that weep, now for you
shall laugh.
Blessed are you when men hate you, and
when they exclude you and revile you, and
cast out your name as evil on account
of the Son of Man.
Rejoice in that day and leap for joy,
for behold your reward is great in heaven.
For so their fathers did to the prophets.
But woe to you that are rich, for
you have received your consolation.
Woe to you that are full now, for
you shall hunger.
Woe to you that laugh now, for you
shall mourn and weep.
Woe to you when all men speak well
of you, for so their fathers did to
the prophets.
But I say to you that here love
your enemies.
Do good to those who hate you.
Bless those who curse you.
Pray for those who abuse you.
To him who strikes you on the cheek,
offer the other also.
And from him who takes away your cloak,
do not withhold your coat as well.
Give to everyone who begs from you.
And of him who takes away your goods,
do not ask them again.
And as you wish that men would do
to you, do so to them.
If you love those who love you, what
credit is that to you?
For even sinners love those who love them.
And if you do good to those who
do good to you, what credit is that
to you?
For even sinners do the same.
And if you lend to those from whom
you hope to receive, what credit is that
to you?
Even sinners lend to sinners to receive as
much again.
But love your enemies, and do good, and
lend, expecting nothing in return.
And your reward will be great, and you
will be sons of the Most High.
For he is kind to the ungrateful and
the selfish.
Be merciful even as your Father is merciful.
Now just let us look to the Lord
of the Word a moment.
Can I ask you to echo in your
heart the prayer which I offer on your
behalf and my own.
Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth.
Speak just now some message to meet my
need, which thou only dost know.
Speak now through thy Holy Word and make
me see some wonderful truth thou hast to
show to me.
For Jesus' sake, Amen.
I had a deep conviction as I listened
today and throughout this conference, that the time
maybe has come for us to have a
practical meditation upon the kind of person that
God wants in the ministry.
By ministry I mean mission field of course.
Everyone here is either a missionary or a
mission field.
I don't need to remind you of that
fact.
You don't become a missionary because you get
a visa and go to South America.
You're a missionary where you are.
What kind of man does God want in
his service today?
What kind of fellow, what kind of girl
is he looking for?
That in these days in which the situations
everywhere worldwide are so intensely critical, that man,
that girl may be able to stand their
ground, because their faith is rooted in Christ
himself.
Too many people get into the ministry without
asking that question.
What sort of person does Jesus want?
You notice in this portion that I read
to you, how carefully and prayerfully he made
the joint.
He went up into a mountain alone, isolated,
away from the crowd, and he prayed all
night to God.
And then he came down and chose his
disciples.
Therefore though I may, it seemed to be
boring in to young people, I suggest to
you tonight, today that this is a subject
which concerns every one of us.
The type of person that God wants me
to be.
The one thing I dread in old age,
that I should serve him in terms of
a commission that's gone stale.
Lord save me from a relationship with you
that's dried up.
Keep me fresh and keep me vital.
Keep me in the firing line right to
the very end.
Now what sort of a person is God
looking for, if he's going to be that?
Let me suggest to you, it will be
very practical, and I trust the Holy Spirit
may, may, may wing, wing his way right
into our hearts about this subject.
First and foremost, you must be a called
person.
Verse 10 of this chapter says, Jesus, sorry
verse 13, and when it was day, he
called his disciples.
Let me ask you, students, why, why on
earth did you come to Prairie Bible Institute?
Why did you decide to go into training?
Why?
Why not be a lawyer, a farmer, a
teacher, a secretary, a nurse, a doctor?
Was it because some friends suggested it to
you?
Was it because you had, or you think
you had, the gift of speech?
Or maybe because you thought being in the,
in the mission field anywhere would be a
satisfying sort of life?
Or because people you admire have succeeded in
it?
Or because, God forbid, because you failed in
other things, and you thought the ministry of
one kind to another would be easier?
None of these reasons are adequate.
The only justification for you and I being
where we are right now, at this moment,
on this day of April 1973, is because
we are called there.
God has put us there, because how am
I to know that?
The answer to that question is not all
together easy.
God spoke to Moses out of a bush.
He spoke to Balaam through the mouth of
an ass.
And to pardon me saying so, he's used
many an ass since.
God spoke to Gideon by a fleece.
But I can't wait for that kind of
thing neither can you, before I know I'm
called of God.
I believe a call comes by a sense
of inner conviction, of divine urgency, from which
there's no escape.
Let me just ask you to glance with
me a moment at Acts chapter 16.
Here's the gospel getting into Europe, in verse
6.
They went through the region of Phrygia and
Galatia, having been forbidden, notice this, forbidden by
the Holy Spirit to speak the word in
Asia.
And when they had come opposite Mysia, they
attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit
of Jesus did not allow them.
A good paraphrase I read once put that
this way.
The Holy Spirit put his foot down and
said no.
So passing by Mysia, the same paraphrase puts
it this way, plodding through Mysia.
I like that.
They came down to Troy and a vision
appeared to Paul in the night.
A man of Macedonia was standing beseeching him
and saying, come over to Macedonia and help
us.
And when he had seen the vision, immediately
we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that
God had called us to preach the gospel
to them.
Concluding, assuredly gathering.
You see guidance came by closed doors, not
open ones.
God shut one door after another.
And by hindering, God led.
By putting blocks in the way, God guided.
Often God shuts the door of apparent opportunity
to reveal his true way.
I'm very skeptical of people who say, you
know, everything was so beautiful, every door opened
wide and I just could walk right in.
Watch it, watch it, the devil can open
many a door to leave you right out
of God's will.
I find when every door in life is
tight shut, slammed in my face, there's a
kink open of light and I press through
to discover God's will.
God's got to see that I'm determined to
follow him, wherever he may lead me.
And that sense of divine urgency, I cannot
reason against it, I cannot silence his voice.
I know in my heart a deep sense
of conviction.
Putting two and two together, assuredly gathering by
doors he shut and by a little kink
of light left open, that this is the
will of God.
Now I can test myself on that, very
practical test.
Let me ask you one of several questions
about this.
And may the Holy Spirit just probe into
our heart.
Tell me, tell me, is there evidence of
fruit from your testimony now?
I don't mean have you had money conversion,
that's not success.
But can you accumulate evidence that God's hand
is upon your life in blessing?
I mean, do you love Jesus more than
you used to?
Let me test you.
In my church in London some years ago,
there was a choir over here and a
girl sat in the front row, soprano.
And one Sunday morning, I came into church
and during the opening hymn, I did what
most preachers do, I imagine, look around to
see who was there, or who wasn't there.
And I found an empty space in the
front row of the choir.
And I thought to myself, where's Audrey this
morning, I wonder.
And I looked around the church, and there
she was right over here, with her boyfriend.
And I said to myself, that's interesting.
The next Sunday morning, I didn't trouble to
look there, I looked straight there, there she
was.
And this time they were holding hands.
And I thought to myself, that's very interesting.
And you know, when the service was over,
and I pronounced the benediction, they shot out
of the door.
And about 20 minutes later, I caught them
up and went past them in my little
car, and they were lost to the world,
with a sheer joy of being together.
Previously, they'd hung around and talked to their
friends, but now they didn't.
The sheer delight to be in each other's
company, was an intimate sign that they were
in love.
You love Jesus?
How long have you been with him today,
alone?
How long is it since you spent 30
minutes alone on your knees with God?
A week?
A month?
A year?
Never.
Don't come and tell me you love him.
An evidence of the call of God to
the ministry of any kind, is that you
increasingly love the Lord, and you love people.
A compassion, a passion in your heart.
How do people affect you?
How do crowds affect you?
The Lord Jesus, when he saw a multitude,
had compassion on the crowd.
That word is a medical term.
It suggests an inward pain, an inward agony.
Oh he concerned, he felt the agony of
people who were without Christ.
Is there a growing concern in your heart
for people?
Let me ask you another question.
Are you quite clear that the message of
the gospel is adequate for today?
I mean, are you certain of it?
If you've any doubt in your answer, you're
defeated before you begin.
Sometime in your Bible reading, I've no time
now, look and read through Acts chapter 13.
In the last few verses, over and over
again, the word of God, the word of
God, the word of God, the word of
God.
Four times in about 12 verses, there it
is that the early church was, was on
fire.
It had caught fire, and it burnt in
their hearts, the word of God.
There was no uncertainty about the adequacy of
the message.
Remember Jeremiah, who through suffering, decided he would
keep quiet, wouldn't speak again.
And he said, the word was like a
fire in my bone.
I could not keep quiet.
Are you sure that the word of God
is adequate for today?
Again, what's your attitude towards sin?
Is it total warfare against it, or are
there shady areas of compromise?
Your attitude towards sin will govern your attitude
toward repentance, and to regeneration, and redemption.
Shallow views of sin will mean shallow views
of salvation.
What's your attitude towards sin?
Have you declared total uncompromising war against it?
Have you taken a hundred percent side with
God against sin, or 90 percent?
Let me ask you something else.
What's your attitude toward people?
You're going to spend your life with people,
so do I.
We all do.
And our reactions to people will largely make
or break us.
Remember Solomon's prayer in 1 Kings chapter 3,
when he had a dream, the Lord said,
you must put what I shall give you.
That's a blank check on the bank of
heaven.
Solomon said, as he reminded the Lord that
his father David had become a great man
through the mercy of God.
He said, Lord, I'm just a little child,
and I know not how to go out
or how to come in.
He lived to be in some ways a
great man, but he was never greater than
when he said, I'm a little child.
Just a little child.
I don't know how to go out and
how to come in, and I'm in the
midst of this great people.
You are people.
Lord, give me a heart that understands, a
heart that cares, a heart that loves.
What's your attitude toward people?
Are you easily hurt?
Are you easily resentful?
I must be careful here, uh, Mr. Randall,
but you know as well as I do
that the country of Scotland has a very
interesting national motto, and the motto is a
thistle, prickly, prickly thistle, and surrounding it are
these words written in Latin, nemo me impune
lecate.
Nobody touches me with impunity.
Thank the Lord for Scotland.
That's why Scottish troops in World War I
and II went into battle first.
Before you get a Scotsman heckles up, you've
got something on your hands, but listen, that's
a trait not confined to Scotsmen, it's with
us all.
Am I easily hurt?
Touchy.
Nobody touches me with impunity.
I'll give back as good as I get.
How do I react to people?
What's my attitude to my fellow worker?
Can I be trusted with leadership?
Mark 10 45, even the Son of Man
has come not to be ministered unto, but
to minister, and to give his life for
ransom for many.
My friend, if you imagine, if you and
I imagine that we're the brains of the
boss around here, or around there, wherever we
are, our throne will soon totter, other people
lose their confidence in us, and what about
our reactions to a people, to a people
who oppose us, to difficult people?
Perhaps you haven't gotten in your church.
If so, I'm the first candidate for membership,
because I've never struck a church, or a
fellowship, or a mission field, or a mission
station, in which there are no difficult people.
Remember when I was at Moody Church, one
time I'm a minister there, one of our
pillars of the church used to come in
every Sunday morning at one minute to eleven,
to the room from which I went to
the pulpit, and said to me, just looked
round the door, and he said, hopeless pastor,
church is half empty today, he went out.
That does something to a minister right in
here.
Fortunately another man come in, about half a
minute later, and said pastor, he came right
into the room, put his arms round my
shoulder, and he said pastor, it's wonderful, churches
are full today.
Both of them were saying exactly the same
thing.
I mean the place seated four thousand, two
thousand was a bad, wasn't a bad congregation,
but out of every empty seat when I
got to the pulpit, the little devil used
to jump and sneer at me.
I didn't need this fellow to come along
and tell me that.
Listen friend, which of those two men was
it easier for me to love?
I don't need to answer that question.
My reactions to the first man were entirely
negative, entirely unspiritual.
Lord get him out of here, send him
to some other fundamental church where he can
do his thing, but please Lord get rid
of him.
We can't expect blessing in our church when
people like that are around.
So the only answer is to write him
a blistering letter, which I proceeded to do.
And the letter, I tell you, it blistered.
But I left it open on my study
desk, and my wife saw it.
I um, yeah, I um, no I don't
want to be saying too much, but I,
I'm a man who has every cause to
thank God that I have a wife, who
many and many a time has saved me
in moments like this.
And she said to me, darling, before that
letter goes, don't you think it would be
well if you and I prayed together about
it?
So I said, sure.
And there and then we knelt down and
prayed, and something happened.
That letter was never sent.
I discovered personally in the depths of my
heart a truth that I had preached for
years to other people.
You can't pray for someone against whom you
hold resentment.
And if you have a resentment against some
other person, you cannot pray for them.
Either your resentment dies out, or your prayer
life is shattered.
And as we knelt together, and wept together,
the Lord broke me.
And I found myself, don't ask me why,
I found myself loving this man.
I never liked him.
I don't like him.
Never have liked him.
But there's all the difference in the world
between liking and loving.
Jesus said, love your enemies.
Do good to them which despitefully you.
You see my friend, listen, I don't receive
God's forgiveness in a cup.
To hold it to myself, I receive it
in the pipeline to pass it through.
That love might get through my heart to
like the people I don't like.
That man didn't change a great deal.
But the Lord has done something in my
heart.
Matter of fact, the first time we went
back to Moody church, when we left it
about a year later, who should meet us
both on the doorstep but this man.
And you know, he came up to my
wife, he hugged her and he kissed her.
I didn't mind that.
And then when he, when he'd finished with
her, he turned to me and hugged me
and said, oh pastor we do miss you.
I felt like saying, what a pity you
didn't say that a few years ago.
Then I didn't.
See what I'm getting at.
A test of a call is, has God
made you love someone you don't like?
Mission fields, mission stations, everywhere are simply shattered
by lack of this one thing.
Of course it's the application of the cross
in our lives.
Let me ask you another question.
What's your attitude to people of other races?
Superior?
May I say this?
Perhaps, um, in this company.
Before you go into any Christian work, or
if you're in it now, I trust that
God delivers you from the most awful thing
that has been everywhere in the mission field,
and that is the superiority of the white
race.
The imagined superiority of the white race.
Get rid of it friend.
It just isn't true.
And if I could take you, and some
of these missionaries could take you to countries
like Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, you'd know
it.
What's your attitude to people of other colors,
other races?
Has God knocked out of you forever the
sense that you are better than they are?
Henceforth I know no man according to the
flesh, second Corinthians 5 16.
I won't allow my likes and dislikes to
be governed by man's color, background, or race.
By the grace of God I love everybody.
You know, you know, I was introduced in
Zaheer, the country of Zaheer, Congo some little
time ago.
I went into a pilgrim tribe, a pygmy
tribe, a pygmy tribe, and I met the
chief.
And he shook hands with me.
I could just reach him down here, and
he just reached up to me.
And the missionary who was interpreting said, my
that's wonderful.
I said, what do you mean it's wonderful?
He said, you both said exactly the same
thing.
What did we say?
Good morning brother.
Brother?
Huh, well he was three feet, I'm six
feet two.
He was black, I was white.
He had his birthday suit on, I had
a suit of clothes on.
I cannot imagine two individuals less like each
other than we were.
But brother, see both of us in love
by the Holy Ghost, both of us sharing
the life of Jesus.
Therefore brothers, that is the church.
See, both of us in love by the
Holy Ghost, both of us sharing the life
of Jesus.
Therefore brothers, that is the church.
And if we really believed it and acted
upon it, I say to you we wouldn't
treat each other as we do.
Fight, indulge in the luxury of a civil
war because we don't believe in the program
of eschatology.
The only one who gets a laugh out
of it is the devil.
The church united, sharing together the life of
Jesus.
And everyone within that group who so loved
him and are born of his spirit or
englobed by his spirit, I may disagree with
him about the program of our love's return.
But I'm not going to quarrel with him.
One day he'll know I'm right, but I
won't discuss it with him now.
I'll leave it till we get to heaven.
There are all sorts of disagreements about lots
of things, but we'll stand on this ground
of our fellowship in Jesus Christ our Lord
because we're members of his body.
One more question.
What is your attitude to rich people?
Would you lower your standards to win their
favor?
May I remind you that fine houses, fine
clothes, big bank accounts do not soften God's
demand for repentance.
Of course I shouldn't discriminate against them, but
I should never keep in the gospel to
win their favor.
Would you, would you apply some of those
questions to your present situation now?
And check the list.
Ask your call.
You must be a call man.
Then I would say this, in Christian work,
in Christian service, whatever you call it, missionary
work, anything, ministry, you must be a choice
man.
Jesus said, Matthew 22, 14, many are called
but few are chosen, or choice as the
word is.
Remember that incident cited in the second Kings
chapter 4 and verse 9, where the Shunammite
woman said to her husband concerning Elisha, whom
they'd fed in their home for some time,
as he walked by the window, behold, I
see a holy man of God continually passes
by, a holy man of God continually.
Brethren and sisters, I find that being in
the ministry is like swimming in a goldfish
bowl.
Everybody's watching, all you do all the time.
It's like living in a new house that's
open for inspection.
And a minister, if he's going to do
anything, or any servant of the Lord in
the mission field, he'll open his house all
the time to people.
Hasn't any private life.
And then they'll come in all sorts of
hours when you don't want them, but they'll
come in.
And let me tell you, there's none of
us who are exempt from the temptation of
evil and sin.
The experience of temptation and battle is necessary
to overcome, to grow in grace.
And a pastor, a minister, a preacher, an
evangelist, a missionary, isn't somehow mysteriously exempt from
this principle, just because they're in full-time
service.
There can be no yawning gap between precepts
and principles.
Do you remember how Paul simply hammered this
home?
You who say, Romans 2 21, you who
say you shall not steal, do you steal?
You who say you shall not commit adultery,
do you commit adultery?
The name of our God is blasphemed among
the Gentiles because of you.
My beloved friend, an outward profession of faith
must be backed by an inward practice of
holiness.
Of course I'm not, we're not expected to
be paragons of virtue, but we are expected
to be consistent.
That which touches other people is the feeling
they have that when they meet you and
they meet me, they meet someone who is
what he's supposed to be, that he's real,
he isn't a phony.
There is no more telling advertisement to the
gospel, for the gospel, than a life which
is transparently good by the grace of God.
Let's therefore be honest with God today, deal
with the shabby corners in our lives, and
remember that the greatest factor for witness to
Jesus is personal holiness of life.
And if I may say so, the two
greatest dangers which face anyone in full-time
service are money and sex.
And Satan will be on your track with
both of these all the time.
And by the grace of God, I must
be beyond reproach.
I don't like telling you this, but I'm
just, feel I should.
I was taking an open air service in
Southampton in England some years ago.
About three thousand men who were building pits,
and they're having lunch, sitting on the grass.
I was using a loudspeaker and I was
getting very badly heckled by one section of
the crowd.
So I said, be quiet for a few
minutes till I finished, then come and talk
to me.
Turned up the volume.
The end of the meeting, after 10 minutes,
one section of the crowd rushed at me.
My few helpers disappeared.
And I couldn't reach the loud speaking equipment
and turn it off, but the following conversation
went right over the whole lot.
And one man who wasn't drunk, but he'd
been drinking.
He was about 50 years of age.
Came up to me and he said, you're
a dirty coward.
I said, I beg your pardon.
He said, you're a dirty coward.
I said, what do you mean?
Oh, he said, cut it out.
You're no use.
You don't know what to tell them.
I said, supposing you were behind this, Mike,
what would you tell them?
I would tell them, he said, that there
are a lot of sinners going to hell
and they can only be saved by the
blood of Jesus.
I said, who told you that?
Oh, he said, cut it out.
Cut it out.
I've been in your game and there's nothing
in it.
It's a washout.
I said, excuse me, sir.
You said I was a coward and you've
been in this game and you call it,
and you've quit.
And I'm in this game and I'm still
in it.
Who's the coward?
You or me?
And then he lost his temper.
And he took both his fists, spat at
me and aimed a blow at my, at
my head.
I was very grateful that I'd been trained
in the art of rugby football and tackling.
I knew how to bring that man to
be down, to be sure he got the
worst of it.
And I got him by the ankles and
pushed him on the ground.
I fell down too, but I got on
top of him and the crowd roared, oh!
And we got up and I said, Jim,
now my friend, you get back to your
work.
You are the one who needs to be
saved by the blood of Jesus.
Do you know, I was so interested, because
after all that sort of thing doesn't happen
to you in life every day, that I
checked up on the history of that man.
Do you know what I found?
He'd been a missionary in India for 25
years, 25 years.
And at one stage his wife said to
him, I've got to go home.
I've got to have the kids educated in
Britain.
They can't stand it here.
I've got to go home.
And he said, no, no, you can't do
that.
Don't leave me alone.
I can't take it without you.
No, she said, I've got to go.
And she went.
In six months time, another woman, a ruined
home, a mission station closed.
And years later, drunk at Southampton.
I'm not standing here in judgment on that
brother.
I shall meet him one day in heaven
if he's saved.
I don't know anything about it.
Nothing about the circumstances and God only knows
what was happened to me personally in similar
circumstances.
But I tell you that because I'm saying
this, that if you are going into full
-time missionary work of any kind, you are
going to be a first class target for
hell.
And only Jesus is stronger than Satan and
sin.
And Satan to Jesus must bow.
You and I have to be by God's
grace.
And a man reveals his choiceness in all
sorts of ordinary ways.
I'll tell you how one way, his choice
of a wife.
He will always choose a girl with the
same goals, the same desire, the same ambition,
the same love for the Lord, the same
sense of divine urgency upon a heart.
And he'll turn his back upon every other
flirtation.
Choice man, you'll know him by the way
he conducts family worship.
This will be his priority until his dying
day.
He will never allow Christian work to interfere
with a family altar.
Do you know I was down in Devon
in England a bit ago.
I was staying with a doctor.
Well he came one night, the night before,
arrived late.
After a long journey went straight to bed,
dead tired.
Next morning seven o'clock a bell rang,
alarm bell.
I heard a scurrying of feet.
I thought I'd better join in the rush.
So I went downstairs and I found myself
in a room with scads of kids.
I don't know how many.
I never got to count them.
I was only there one day.
There were at least 10, may have been
12.
And they all were sitting around a tennis
table, table.
The only table large enough to accommodate the
whole family.
And daddy was at one end and mommy
was at the other.
These kids, when in feed me was, they
all had funny sort of electric looking sort
of roller things in their hair.
And some were dressed and partially dressed and
some were unshaven, partly shaven, various stages of
this.
But they're all there.
And daddy read a chapter from the Word
of God, a whole chapter.
Then he gave every one of those children
from age, I understand, from 4 to 24,
a missionary through them to pray.
And we knelt down against our chair.
And when it came to my turn to
pray, I tell you my friend, I found
it desperately hard.
For I'd got emotionally involved in the situation.
Even that little kid of four knew exactly
where the missionary she'd been asked to pray
for lived, what she was doing, what her
need was.
Why the whole proceedings took at least 30
minutes.
That man was a practicing doctor.
In half an hour he had his first
surgery of the day.
Easy to drop all that prayer for the
pressure of business and getting on the rat
race and making money.
But he didn't.
He kept his priorities right.
That doesn't guarantee a family growing up to
love the Lord, but it helps a man
who is a choice man.
You'll find him, you'll find him in a
home.
I know that it takes God's grace and
power to preach the gospel.
But I'm telling you my friend, with all
my heart, and I do not say this
to be dramatic, with all my heart I
tell him, Lord, far more than that, Lord
make me a father, a husband, like Jesus
would have me to be.
You'll find a choice man by his toilet
and dress.
The girl will understand that beauty is not
applied from the drugstore, but imparted from within.
And in their dress there'll be, I wish,
I mustn't get off on this, but I
wish we could start a Christian fashion.
Passion for Christ.
Not way out, either way, or way up,
but, but a fashion that would honor Jesus.
And a choice man, you'd know him by,
I'll tell you, most of all, perhaps, by
his lack of gossip.
He's never, never passing on at second or
third hand something he's heard about somebody else.
The, the, the line stops when it comes
to him.
Oh, we were having a terrible time at
Moody Church once about this, and it all
arose as, are you, are you not for
Billy Graham, absurd nonsense, as if that was
the basis of anybody's fellowship or unity.
Are you against or for him?
Well, I was absolutely for him.
And, you know, there was all sorts of
things going around about Moody Church in the
hands of a liberal pastor, you see, etc.,
all this.
Oh yes.
So I tell you what I did.
I got a blackboard, great big board, up
beside our platform, and I wrote in it,
T-H-I-N-K.
Think.
Letters perpendicular.
T-H-I-N-K.
And I asked everybody to join a mutual
encouragement fellowship.
And the condition of joining it was that
they were able to subscribe to this word,
T-H-I-N-K.
What's it mean?
Before I speak, I'll think.
Is it true?
Will it help?
Is it inspiring?
Is it necessary?
Is it kind?
If not, I'll shut my stupid mouth.
Think!
Before I talk about a colleague, before I
talk about a friend, before I talk about
anybody.
Is it true?
Will it help?
Is it inspiring?
Is it necessary?
Is it kind?
A choice, man.
He's the end of the road to gossip.
Now, one last word.
Finally, brethren.
Though I remind you that when Paul wrote
to the church in Philippi, when he got
to the beginning of the third chapter, halfway
through, he said, finally brethren.
And then became the father of all men
who indicate when they say that they've got
the second wind.
But I won't be doing that.
I'll be promising if I go on a
minute, minute more than four, you can all
walk out.
But look, listen.
I must get this home to you.
A man, a man who is in Christian
service, any Christian who's going to be used
of God, has to be a chaste man.
I hasten to emphasize that that word is
spelt C-H-A-S-T-E.
Excuse me.
You're very quick today.
You're not asleep.
That's good.
A chaste man.
That means a disciplined man.
You and I are facing danger on the
road and we need strengthening against them.
And the dangers that a Christian in full
-time service has to face, is the danger
of laziness, self-indulgence, intemperance.
It's far more easy to be disciplined when
you're in business, than we're in Christian life,
Christian work.
I know that because I've been in both.
In an office, you have certain hours and
that's it.
And they're made for you.
But a Christian who's in Christian work, he's
got the work with him from the day
he, from the moment he wakes up, till
the moment he goes to bed at night.
Indeed, long afterward.
It's with him all the time.
And, and, and, if he doesn't discipline his
life, he's lost.
And the secret of this is communion with
God.
In every arena of battle, there must be
an altar of worship.
Oh, how often I've had to drive myself
to pray, because I put love
for the Lord's work, before love for the
Lord himself.
I can recall days when to go into
my study and see neglected prayer lists was
painful.
That's the testing point, when you're on the
mission field, or when you're in the ministry,
or when you're in any Christian service.
I tell you, if you win there, win
the battle, and you maintain, you maintain the
altar of worship, then heaven opens upon you
and bless.
If you're defeated there, life becomes a dreary
round of drudgery.
God's judgment on a prayerless life.
No use waiting for a sense of urge
to pray.
Pray when you don't feel like it.
There's no short cut to attracting sainthood.
And that means communion with God, and it
means care of my body.
You remember these words, verses in 1 Corinthians
chapter 9?
I'm giving it in Philip's rendering.
I am no shadow boxer.
I do not beat the air.
I buffet my body.
I deal it blow upon blow, lest, lest
I should reclaim the rules to other people,
and then find I'm disqualified.
That's Paul.
Not afraid of losing his salvation, but afraid
of being put on one side as useless.
Far too busy for God to use, far
too big, far too important, made a big
name for himself.
Oh, oh.
And God has to put him aside.
When I used to play rugby, football, and
before the season started, I'd get up for
a month, every day for a month, hop
at five, run round a suburb of London
for an hour, 10 miles.
When I'd finish my job, come back in
a running track in London, 10 miles more,
20 miles a day, five miles, five days
a week.
When I'd run, I'd do an hour skipping.
When I'd finished that, I went back to
my apartment where I lived.
I wasn't married at the time.
And I changed into football clothes.
We don't wear armor plate in Britain.
Just a little jersey and little shorts.
And I went and put my shoulder against
the brick corner of the wall and pushed.
And I put the other shoulder against the
other corner and pushed for that.
Hard for about half an hour, with my
legs straight out behind me.
It was hard work and my shoulders screamed
with pain.
And my landlady thought I was completely nuts.
I didn't care what she thought.
I was determined that I turned out 100
% fit.
When I played a game of rugger, I
said to myself, when a fellow tackles me,
he won't want to do it again.
He hits two lumps of concrete.
I tell you, it was hard work.
I did it for an earthly crown to
try and play for England, which I never
achieved.
What am I doing for a heavenly crown?
Lazy, self-indulgent, slack.
I'm losing the battle all the time, if
I'm like that.
Why do you, and I never, by the
way, I never need alarm clocks in the
morning.
I just tell the Lord I want to,
want to wake up at a certain time.
He's always waking me on time, usually a
bit before.
But it doesn't get me up.
I have to do that.
And the greatest need in all our lives,
constantly all through life, is blanket victory.
Getting up from underneath, getting in the shower,
getting washed, getting on my knees, and really
waiting upon the Lord.
Discipline, sheer rugged discipline.
Did you read this in Time magazine?
There you go.
Written by a pastor in the magazine Christianity
Today.
His prescription for the organizational minister, who's become
active, an activist, you know, fling him into
his office, tear his office signs from the
door, a nail on the sign, study, take
him off the mailing list, lock him up
with his books, get him all kinds of
books, and his typewriter, and his Bible, force
him to be the one man in our
suffragette community who knows about God.
Set a time clock on him that will
imprison him with thought and writing about God
for 40 hours a week.
Shut his mouth from spouting remarks.
Stop his tongue always tripping lightly over everything
non-essential.
Bend his knees in the Lonesome Valley.
Fire him from the PTA.
Cancel his country club membership.
Rip out his telephone.
Burn his ecclesiastical success sheet.
Refuse his glad hand.
Put water in the gas tank of his
community buggy, and compel him to be a
preacher of the word.
That's what it takes.
My friend, you laymen in churches say, you
put a discount on the prophet.
You want a promoter in your pulpit.
You can't have both.
You'll have a man who preaches with unction,
with power, with liberty, with fullness, with utterance
from heaven, clothed as due from God, and
he'd preach with the power of heaven behind
him.
But you don't like it because he disturbs
you.
The average church has a motto outside, please
do not disturb.
Christians don't want to be disturbed.
We want to come on, playing church and
having a nice little funny time on Sunday,
never getting anywhere except being Orthodox.
And you put your premium on, say, the
promoter, the man who'll promote a big program.
Oh, in God's name, I call upon you,
young folks, older ones, getting out to the
field and into the ministry and into the
work of the Lord.
God wants anywhere, everywhere, everywhere these days, a
man who know him.
And I remember that a man who knew
God in Old Testament times was a man
to whom God spoke face to face as
a man speaks with his friend.
What matters but that?
If you're going to address a Sunday school,
if you're going to preach to thousands, if
you're going to preach to a little handful
of nationals somewhere, everybody deserves to have a
man in the leadership who talks to God
face to face as a man talks to
his friend.
And I suppose, I tell you, I was
backsliding at 25 years of age, right through
till I was 29.
What a mess.
Turned my back upon Christ, but I went
every Sunday night into Westminster Central Hall, London,
the headquarters of the 3000s.
I just squeezed into that row and sat
there, and in the pulpit, there was a
man with a frock coat, long frock coat,
central collar, and he had hippie hair, nothing
new in that, hippie hair, reaching right down
to his shoulders, silver hair.
He was so short-sighted, do you know,
that he had to lean over his nose
and read them like this.
And all you saw was his hair as
he read his notes, that the congregation listened
to him spellbound and waited for every few
moments he would lift up his face, and
it glowed with the glory of Christ.
There was I, a poor, back-slidden, wretched
Christian, and I would say to him, oh
Lord Jesus, that man has got what I
want.
I don't just want the doctrine he's preached,
I don't want to hear that, and I
know that that's right, but, but Lord, give
me, give me, if I have anything, give
me the glory, the royalty, the life, the
power, heaven itself in my soul.
And if that was necessary 30 years ago,
I tell you, it's a thousand times more
so tonight.
God wants a cold man, choice man, a
chase man.
By his grace and power, may you, and
even now, even so late, may I become
just that.
Let's pray.