Good morning, everyone.
Thank you very much.
By the way, I'd like to say I
also thought that you did a great job
last night.
I wish teenagers in Britain were taught to
sing like that.
They're not.
We don't have Christian choirs and music.
But we do have quite a lot of
singing groups.
And that's what I would call them.
Plus guitars, etc., and all the work.
And, as a matter of fact, where I
come from, you've probably never heard of it.
It's northwest England, near the Lakeshore Street, a
little place called Caponry.
We have a Bible school there, about 170
kids.
And we hire a motorway, a restaurant.
You know these restaurants that you have on
freeways in this country and in the States?
There's a restaurant on both sides of the
road and a bridge over it.
Well, that's what we do.
And we take one of these restaurants about
three times a year and take the whole
place.
And we have about 800 teenagers that are
in the evening, teenage and young twenties.
And we have a tremendous opportunity of reaching
crowds of folks of the gospel.
Are you going on tour this summer, by
the way?
You are?
Good.
Well, couldn't you possibly extend that a little
bit and come right over there?
All expenses paid by you, of course.
And we would just love to have you
and sing.
That would be a tremendous blessing.
Those meetings go on from about 7.30
till about 11 each night.
And I tell you, teenagers are on the
edge of their seats listening.
It's great.
It would be wonderful to have you, if
ever you could come.
Perhaps some of you are going to come
to Caponry one day.
And some of you may have been or
may have heard it.
Well now, for better or worse, you've got
stuck with me for a couple of mornings.
Can't think why, but there we are.
And so you'll soon know that all the
good speakers don't come from England.
But however, I'm glad to be with you.
I don't think I'm going to take too
long.
I trust not.
And I just want to ask you to
do one very difficult thing.
Very difficult.
And that is to forget the clichés, to
forget your definitions, and to forget your background
a moment and ask yourself with me, what
really is a Christian?
I mean, what's it all about?
What does it mean?
Just forget every definition you've heard and let's
look at what the Bible says.
Now how many times do you think, I
wonder if you'd like to guess, how many
times do you think in the Bible the
word Christian appears?
Could anybody have a snack at that?
How many?
One?
Two?
Three?
Well, now we should keep going at it
for a long time.
Well, you can stop right now because you've
hit it.
Bit of good luck.
It's three times.
Isn't it really amazing?
I once asked a crowd of kids that
question, and somebody said 500.
Of course that was a shot in the
dark.
But it's only three, and I think from
those three occasions you really get an amazing
record of what it really means to be
a Christian.
So I want you to just look at
them a second with me this morning, that's
all, and define our terms, really.
And then when I come, the Lord willing,
on Friday, we want to talk to you
about what's involved in being a Christian.
But these definitions, here they are.
The first one is in the 26th chapter
of Acts, and it's verse 28.
Here is Paul, who has been giving his
testimony to King Agrippa and Thestis, a governor,
and then he's interrupted and accused of having
got religious mania, and then he faces Agrippa
and says, I'm just quoting from the Living
Bible, King Agrippa knows about these things, I
speak frankly, for I am sure these events
are all familiar to him, for they were
not done in a corner.
King Agrippa, do you believe a prophet?
But I know you do.
Agrippa interrupted him, With trivial proofs like these,
you expect me to become a Christian?
The authorized version puts it this way, Almost
thou persuadest me to be a Christian?
Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian?
As a matter of fact, I think you
get this obviously from the Living Bible, you
really don't know whether Agrippa was being sarcastic,
or whether he meant it.
Whether he was saying, it wouldn't take much
more to make me a Christian, or whether
he was saying, as the Living Bible suggests,
with such trivial proofs, you think you could
make me, the great Agrippa, a Christian?
Just a moment.
Almost persuaded, whether he was real, or whether
he was being funny, I don't know.
But, almost always means failure.
So here was a man who was almost
a Christian.
And that means failure.
It's terrifically possible, in many things in life,
to be almost there, but not quite.
If I may take just a page out
of the Diary of Memory, it goes back
a year or two ago, when I used
to play rugby football.
I would be playing it yet, but I
want to go to heaven, but I'm not
homesick, and that would finish it.
But I recall an incident which really shook
me.
Rugby football, we call it.
I expect you know a little bit about
what it is.
It's a bit different from American football.
But I'm not here to give a lecture
on that, but I merely want to describe
this incident.
I was playing for one of our states
in England, one of our counties, that is
the equivalent of a state, I suppose, here.
And we were playing in the final game
of the season to decide which would be
the champion state, county, in that year.
And this was the final championship match, and
everything was, of course, very exciting and thrilling,
and we trained hard for it and so
on.
It was actually two counties.
One was Northumberland, and the other was Yorkshire.
That was tested geography.
They're both in the north of England.
Northumberland, you couldn't get further north than that
unless you go right over into Scotland, and
Yorkshire's just a bit further south.
But when you get a Northumberland team playing
against Yorkshire, my word, the first slide, and
there's no quarter asked or expected.
There were about 30,000 people at that
game because a lot of everything depended upon
the outcome of it as to who won,
as to who was champion county.
It was being played in Yorkshire at the
town of City of Hope.
Two minutes from the end of the game,
Yorkshire were leading us by what we call
a drop goal to nil.
That was then four points to nothing.
And we were being pushed right back on
our goal line.
If this language sounds a bit strange, it
doesn't really matter.
But the ball came out of our forward
line, the scrum, and the halfback got hold
of it and threw it across to one
of our three quarterbacks.
And he cut right down the middle.
And he got through, and just as he
was getting about halfway, he passed out to
his, what we call wing three quarter, who
raced down the touch line, and the opposing
fullback tried to cut him off and just
tackled him at the corner flag.
But he made the touchdown and scored what
we call a try.
That meant Yorkshire four, Northumberland three.
Now, in rugby union football, that try has
to be converted.
A different kind of experience, of course, to
a Christian diversion, but it has to be
converted.
And that is done by taking the ball
back at right angles from the place it
was touched down, 25 yards, and then kicking
it between the upright posts over the horizontal
bar.
And if you're successful in that, you add
two more points, and if you don't, of
course, you don't get anything.
I was terribly sorry for the fellow who
had to take that kick, because obviously, victory
or defeat depended on it.
Sorry for him more especially, because it happened
to me.
And 25 yards back, I put that ball
down.
It was right away over here at the
very edge of the field, really, where the
touchdown had been scored, and the goal post
right across here, and the angle seemed very
narrow, and it was an awful long way.
And I put that ball down and aimed
it very carefully at the centre of the
post, and then walked back six yards, and
stood and watched it carefully.
And I tell you, you could hear a
pin drop.
30,000 people, 60,000 eyes.
All I could hear at that moment was
my heart beating.
And I thought, well, I can't stand here
any longer.
Then I was shuddered.
So I went forward and gave the thing
a terrific route, and it soared, it was
a pretty good kick, it soared straight between
those posts.
And I heard the crowd roar, he's got
it, it's a goal.
But you know, just as it came down,
it veered slightly off course, and hit one
of those upright posts, and came down on
the wrong side.
Thank you for your sympathy, I appreciate that.
It's about 30 years late.
That evening, as we were returning by our
special reserved train to Newcastle and Northumberland, Askrum
Hart, that's what he's called, who was, for
reasons I wouldn't like to go into here,
was usually very talkative on a Saturday evening.
That night, he never stopped talking.
And presently, he looked across at me, and
he said to me, I'm putting this in
evangelical language, he said to me, why didn't
you miss the rotten thing altogether?
Why didn't you kick it among the crowd,
in the grandstand?
Anything, anything, why didn't you fall on your
back?
Anything, rather than miss it by half an
inch.
Almost meant failure.
Oh, it was so near.
But it wasn't.
And it didn't matter whether I'd missed it
by an inch, or by a mile.
The result was just the same, defeat.
Almost not persuaded me to be a Christian.
I'm so happy to be at TBI.
So happy that you're here.
Think of my own family, my own daughters,
and what it would mean if, in England,
we had a school like this.
We don't.
We don't have a Christian school.
But, may I say, you are in a
great peril.
I mean, some of you come from Christian
homes.
That's wonderful.
Great.
But it's tremendously dangerous.
Because you can cruise along on a sort
of second-hand faith, which you've been taught
since you were in the cradle, and you've
been growing up with it, and you've sort
of getting used to it, and you know
the answers.
Nothing that any speaker could come and say
would be anything new to you.
You know it.
You know exactly what it's expected to say.
You know if it wasn't sound, you'd detect
it, and you'd be critical of them, and
all that.
You know all the answers of all that
you're supposed to know, because you've been taught
that.
Listen.
You can think this through, and you may
not agree with me, but I'll tell you
this.
You never really believe a truth until you've
doubted it.
Yes, that's it.
You never really believe a truth until you've
doubted it.
Until in your mind you've raised a question.
You've thought it through, you've prayed it through,
and you've come to a personal conviction concerning
it.
Then you've come from Christian homes, and you've
been brought up in a Christian school, and
you've been brought up in a sort of
cotton-wool situation, and you're almost persuaded.
You know the truth, intellectually, with your mind,
you agree with it, but somehow you never,
never really become a Christian.
You all know the very familiar story of
that man in London walking over a tightrope
over Niagara, and as he was about to
do it, a small teenage boy looking in
the crowd in the front row and gazing
at him, London stopped and said, Do you
believe I can walk on this tightrope over
Niagara?
Sure, I do, sir.
Do you believe I could carry you on
my back on this tightrope over Niagara?
Sure, I do.
Well, he said, Come on, man, jump on
my back.
Let's go.
And that boy fled for his life.
Keep that in your mind a second.
He says, Come with me to a very
weird sort of village that I've been in.
It's in Kentucky.
It's a little place called Viper.
Strange name, Viper.
And there's a little grocer's store.
There's not much else there.
And one day that grocer was down in
his cellar.
He'd gone down a very sort of rickety
ladder, went down to the bottom, removed the
ladder, and he was in semi-darkness looking
at his stock of goods.
And his boy upstairs came to the trapdoor
entrance and looked in and said, Daddy.
And his father came to the bottom of
the ladder and looked up, and there he
was way up at the top.
He said, Yes, son, what is it?
He said, Daddy, I want to come to
you.
So he held out his arms and said,
All right, son, jump.
Oh, but, Daddy, I can't see you.
No, son, I can see you.
Jump.
And the boy jumped.
And fell right into the arms of his
father.
Now, see, Blondin's boy believed in Blondin, believed
in all the facts about Blondin, but he
didn't commit himself to Blondin.
That grocer's boy believed all the facts about
his father, believed in his father, and committed
himself to his father.
What makes you a Christian is commitment.
Faith, F-A-I-T-H.
Forsaking all, I take Him.
It's a step into the dark, onto a
rock, and that rock is Christ.
And the terrible thing is, I can go
to a Christian school, I can come from
a Christian home and a Christian background, know
all the facts and be brought up in
a sort of and never make that commitment.
Dangerous.
Stinks.
Anybody here almost a Christian?
Now, let me look at the second example
here.
It's in Acts chapter 11 and verse 26.
At Antioch, the disciples were first called Christians,
were told.
You see, that name was given to them,
it was sort of sarcasm, a sarcastic, jeering
sneer.
They were so different, I don't mean peculiar,
just different, they were so different that they
hadn't any word in their vocabulary for Antioch
which would describe these folks.
And so they invented a new name, and
they called them Christians, and the word means
belonging to Christ.
There was something about them that could only
be explained by the fact that they belonged
to a risen Lord.
And I would call these people obvious Christians.
I mean, anywhere they went, anywhere, in any
circumstances, any company, in any situation, they gave
themselves away as belonging to Jesus.
Now let me ask you this.
If you are a Christian, what sort of
a Christian are you?
I mean, if you're not almost a Christian.
If you really are, then, what sort of
a Christian are you?
Do you give your faith away?
How long would it take if ever you're
among unconverted people?
I don't know what this is.
Do you know, in one of those things
we have in that restaurant, do you know
some people were asked if they could bring
their if they could bring their unconverted friends,
and they said, unconverted friends, we haven't any.
What a, what a tragedy.
We haven't any.
Brought up in a little circle, never getting
out among people who are unfaithful, just sheltered
in a little group, and they haven't any
unconverted friends.
What a sad thing.
Tell me, do your unconverted friends know that
you belong to Jesus?
Do you give your faith away?
You can't be neutral when you're around.
You'll pardon the word of testimony, but you
see, I would never, humanly speaking, have been
a Christian, if it hadn't been that I
met, in the course of training to be
an accountant, that I met, hadn't met, an
obvious Christian.
Oh, as a kid I used to go
to church, because I had to.
I went to a school in Britain, where
there's a cathedral, and we attended that twice
a Sunday, but it just meant an opportunity
for me to have a sleep.
And for most of us too, we were
born stiff with the whole procedure.
But you know, when I left school, I
went to an accountant's office in Newcastle, to
train to be what you call a chartered
accountant, CPA in the States.
And I'd been there two years, with about
60 other fellows who were also training, and
there was one of them who was absolutely
different from everybody else.
It would be very difficult for me to
describe him, but we used to call him
a sort of religious maniac.
You see, the thing about him was, he
was horribly consistent.
Office hours, nine till five, well he got
there about quarter to, and stayed till half
past nine.
At eleven o'clock, when we wanted to
go round the corner, there was something a
bit stronger than coffee, but he would never
go.
And when we wanted two hours for lunch,
he would only take three-quarters of an
hour.
And then we stopped at four for a
cup of tea, of course, and then we
wanted to go home and play golf or
something.
And no, he stayed till half past five.
He made us mad.
And when we all got round in little
groups, telling stories that were a bit questionable,
we couldn't do it when he was around.
Not that he stopped us, but they were
out of place in his company.
We knew it.
At eleven o'clock, when we wanted to
go round the corner, there was something a
bit stronger than coffee, but he would never
go.
And when we wanted two hours for lunch,
he would only take three-quarters of an
hour.
And then we stopped at four for a
cup of tea, of course, and then we
wanted to go home and play golf or
something.
And no, he stayed till half past five.
He made us mad.
And when we all got round in little
groups, telling stories that were a bit questionable,
we couldn't do it when he was around.
Not that he stopped us, but they were
out of place in his company.
We knew it.
So we were really hopping mad with him.
And one day, the senior partner of that
firm said to me, I want you to
go and audit a firm's books in a
place that— Oh, now, how can I—well, I'll
locate this by saying to you, right across
the top of England, there is the Roman
Wall, the ancient boundary of the Roman Empire,
built in A.D. 70.
And it's still there, a bit of it
remaining.
And there was a village just by that
Roman Wall, miles from anywhere, and in it
there was a factory which made paint.
And it was stuck up there because it
smelt of all the pollution.
And we had to go there, and there
was one little pub, you see, which had
a one-bedroom for guests.
And he said, you'll have to go there
and work there for three weeks to do
the job, and you'll have to stay in
that pub.
There's nowhere else you can stay.
And you're going to go with—and he mentioned
the name of this queen religious maniac.
And I was to live in this fellow's
company for three weeks, day and night.
Hoof!
The day before we went away, about a
dozen of us fellows in the office, we
got round, drinking beer in Newcastle, and I
vowed that in less than a week I'd
knock religion out.
Now, you know, when English people get mean,
oh, boy, we are mean.
We are mean, we really are.
And I thought, well, what an opportunity.
So I went there, you know, determined that
this was going to happen.
And the first night, there were two little
beds in that room.
I moved the bed to the other—opposite side
of the room, to be as far away
as possible.
And then when we went to bed, about
eleven o'clock, this fellow knelt down to
pray.
I didn't quite know what to do at
that point.
Oh, so I thought to myself, I'd better
do the same.
So I knelt down, too.
Do you know how long he was there?
I timed him.
I was watching through the window.
Do you know how long he stayed there?
I'll tell you.
Fifty-two minutes.
Yeah, exactly, that's what I thought.
Fifty—and a floor like this.
No carpet, no rug.
I had every ache it's possible to have.
Oh, all over I moved from, but I
wasn't going to give in.
And at the end of fifty-two minutes,
he stopped and got up.
I stayed down an extra minute, and that
impressed him, I hope.
And then I got into bed.
And I thought, well, I've made a pretty
good show of that.
And then the lights went out, and I
heard footsteps coming across the floor.
And he sat down on the edge of
my bed and he said, Where's that?
There you are.
He said, Do you ever think about anything
seriously?
I'm afraid I was known as a sort
of, you know, sort of fellow who whips
it all up.
And I said, What do you mean?
And then he said, Do you want to
be saved?
That's the diplomatic approach.
You read about it in the six easy
lessons on soul winning.
I let him have it, everything I could.
I'm not in the salvation army.
I'm not so bad as most people.
I don't live too rational.
I can always use an argument.
And then he just let me get it
all out of my system.
He said to me, right about here, he
said, Do you know anything of victory over
sin in your life?
I was so glad it was dark because
I went as red as anything, and I
said no.
He said, Do you want to?
I said, I'd give anything in the world
to.
And for 20 minutes he told me the
story of Jesus.
I suppose I must have heard it before,
but it never read me.
The story of a cross, of an empty
cross, of an empty tomb, of a risen
ascended Lord, and there's a coming of his
Holy Spirit to indwell my life, to keep
me every day, and to strengthen me.
In 20 minutes he led me to know
Christ, and I was born again.
Well, can you imagine the reception I got
when I went back to the office?
I mean, I was going to knock sense
into this fellow.
He'd knocked sanity into me.
And, you know, I was also frightened, terrified,
dead scared of him, to be identified with
him among all that crowd.
And I didn't make much of a show,
but they did seem to detect there was
something peculiar about me too.
But you know, I went every week with
this fellow to a Bible study at a
brethren hall.
I had a good beginning.
And six months I went there, and you
know, there were business people who were ministering
the Word, and I would hear them expound
the Scripture, and verses like this hit me
every now and again.
No man can serve two masters.
Either he will love the one and hate
the other, or hold to the one and
serve the other.
You can't serve God and marriage.
Now, if any man loves father or mother
more than me, he's not worthy of me.
Whosoever shall save his life, loses.
Whosoever will lose his life for my sake
and the Gospels will save it.
If any man would come after me, let
him deny himself, take up his cross and
follow me.
And indeed, it didn't need somebody with a
Ph.D. degree to tell me that the
kind of life that I was living and
that kind of life were totally opposite.
I mean, then I only lived for rubber
football, dance, show, girlfriend, etc., etc.
And so I had a battle on my
hands.
And I fought that battle mentally for a
while.
And then I said to my friends, Well,
you know, I've been thinking this business through.
And this kind of religion is too costly
for me.
You can't keep it.
And he said to me, Okay, that's your
decision.
But he said, You'll never be happy till
you're right with God.
I said, Don't be so ridiculous.
I've been happy for 21 years.
Why on earth not now?
Easier?
Well, all right.
I qualified as a seat, as a Chancellor
Council.
Went down to London, got a good job.
Plenty of money.
Wasn't married.
Those two things are connected very often.
And I just had a great time.
And you know, for about five years, five
years, Oh my, I don't like even thinking
of it.
I just whipped it up.
Dances, shows, girlfriend, drink.
I'm amazed that somebody isn't jumping out of
your seat at me and saying, Hi, you
can't be a Christian just like that, can't
you?
Oh, yes, you can.
How do you know you're a Christian?
I'll tell you.
Because I was downright miserable.
I used to do all that, but I
loved it.
Then, after I'd been converted and born again,
and knew the Lord, and yet wasn't prepared
to follow him, I tried it again.
And I'll tell you, when you try and
get the best out of both worlds, you
get nothing out of either.
And I was downright dogged miserable.
Miserable.
That fellow came down to see me in
London, took me out to lunch.
And we went out to lunch together.
Didn't talk to him about Jesus.
Didn't talk to him about the Lord or
salvation.
Then, just as we went away, he shook
hands with me and said, Well, it's been
awfully good to see you again.
But don't forget, will you, it's possible to
have a saved soul and a wasted life.
Saved soul, wasted life.
That was a crack.
It penetrated my armor.
That night, I remember, it was a Friday.
Me and I had to go up to
Newcastle on the night train to play football
the next day.
And every kick of the wheels on the
railway line, saved soul, wasted life.
All through the night.
I never slept a wink.
Next afternoon, turning out, running on that field,
every step I took, saved soul, wasted life.
Saved soul, wasted life.
That night, I went to the team dance,
and would you believe it, the orchestra were
playing exactly the same tune.
They jazzed it up.
Saved soul, wasted life.
And the next morning, waking up, wondering where
on earth I'd been.
Saved soul, wasted life.
Couldn't take it any longer.
And the Spirit of God had come upon
me with such conviction that he broke me
down.
I said, Lord Jesus, for six years, six
years, I have had you, but you've never
had me.
And from that day, he came right onto
the throne.
See, I've taken time to tell you that
because of this.
It was impossible to be neutral in the
presence of an obvious figure.
A fellow who gave his faith away.
Not a minister, not a preacher, a businessman.
Say, it may be, it may be that
somebody here listening to me this morning is
doing exactly what I was doing during those
six years.
You're trying to get the best out of
both lands.
You know, you're whipping it up.
At least when you can get out of
school.
And you're rearing to go when you can
just be yourself and whip it up.
And on the other hand, there's a nag,
nag, nag in your conscience.
He that savors his life shall lose it.
He that loses his life for my sake
and the gospel shall save it.
And that voice gets louder and louder or
quieter and quieter.
Whether you obey or disobey.
I wonder, I wonder which way the verdict's
going.
I wonder.
Each of you are going to come to
a point when you reach the end of
your rope and you come to a decision.
Are you an obvious person?
Not a phony.
A person who's simply attending church and seeing
and so on.
But is there something about your life that
savors on smacks of integrity?
Just one more thing and I'll finish very
quickly now.
The third reference is in 1 Peter chapter
3, verse 17, where he says, If any
man suffer as a Christian, let him not
be ashamed on this behalf.
Suffer as a Christian.
That doesn't sound too promising.
Do you suffer as a Christian?
Yes you do, but in a different way
from other people.
There's an added dimension to suffering.
It's not physical suffering only, but it's an
added dimension.
I'll illustrate to explain what I mean.
Just before coming over to this country this
time, well a month or two ago, I
was having a few days off.
I was up in Scotland, a lovely country.
And I was walking one day along the
side of what the Scottish people call a
loch, or a lake, with an estuary out
into the ocean.
And I was walking along this road and
I saw in this lake a man up
to his shoulders in water.
And he was fishing.
Letting out a long line and pulling it
in and letting it out and pulling it
in.
And as he pulled it in, it bent
nearly double and shook like anything.
I knew he must have a fish on
the end of it.
And I watched him.
I don't know a thing about fishing, not
a thing.
But he let it out, he pulled it
in.
And it went on for about half an
hour until I got a bit tired of
it all.
And I said, excuse me sir, but what
are you doing to that fish?
And without looking around at me, but keeping
on doing this, he said, I'm drowning it.
Drowning a fish?
I thought, what sort of a fool does
he think I am?
And then he paused for a moment and
he said, I am.
You don't need to look like that.
He said, I am.
And he had his rod in one hand
and the other hand he held out.
He said, I have a salmon on that
line.
And it's that big.
I never saw it, but knowing fishermen, I
would come into about that.
But I didn't see the thing, so I
don't know.
He said, it's a seawater salmon.
And he said, I'm playing with it.
I'm playing with it.
I'm letting it out, pulling it in, letting
it out.
If I pulled it right in now, it
would snap mine and get out, and go
out to sea.
He said, I'm pulling it in, playing with
it, playing with it.
And when I get it tired out, what
I'm going to do is to turn its
head downstream and water will get in its
gills and it will drown.
I thought, that's a tall story.
So I went on my way to a
little village there and I saw a shop
with some books and there was a book
on fishing that I thought, well now, I
haven't lived in Scotland five years and I
think I'm not going to spend money on
that.
I found the public library where I got
a look at the same book free.
So I had a good look at it
and I found exactly the truth.
He wasn't telling me a lie.
These salmon at that particular time in the
year come in from the ocean against the
tide for spawning, and they come in in
masses in the spawning season.
And that man had got in a live
salmon who was coming against the tide and
he caught it on the hook and he
was turning it out, wearing it out until
it was so tired it couldn't take any
more.
And then he turned his head downstream and,
say folks, any fool can swim with the
stream.
Any fool can swim with the stream.
But it took a man, a girl with
all the power of God in his life
to swim against the stream today.
If any man suffer as a Christian let
him not be ashamed.
I don't mean to say that a Christian
is negative.
But I do mean to say he's taking
positive action and has declared total warfare against
sin.
And that means he's going against the current.
Thank the Lord he doesn't have to fight
the battle alone.
For it's not by might nor by power
but by my Spirit.
Thank the Lord.
Now that's all I wanted to say to
you this morning from sharing with you.
But listen.
What sort of a Christian are you?
All man?
Obviously?
Or shall I put it, an all-out
Christian who's declared war, total war.
And you're swimming against the current.
Only you can answer that question but you
know, don't you?
You know.
There's no dodging it.
You know whether you're a phony, whether you're
here at prairie and you're just putting on
a show or whether God has really met
you and said, and you're swimming against the
current and you're enjoying the luxury of the
sufficiency of the grace of God.
Can you just allow me just one little
story to sum it all up?
I was in Johannesburg a bit ago and
I met there a man who's a member
of the South African government.
And he told me that he'd bought, he'd
bought just a couple of years previously a
Rolls-Royce car.
Now we in England are conceited enough to
believe that Rolls-Royces are the best cars
in the world.
Of course, that's open to question but they're
certainly the most expensive.
And this fellow was so, so thrilled with
the performance of this car that he went
to the agent in Jo'burg and said
to him, what's the horsepower of this vehicle?
And the man said, sorry, I can't tell
you.
Rolls-Royce never let us know.
Well, he said, find out.
Well, he was an important customer.
So the agent sent a two-page telegram
to London.
Rolls-Royce, 1971 model, V8 engine.
Cubic capacity, so much.
Brake horsepower, so much.
From zero to a hundred miles an hour
in so many seconds.
And went through all the specification of the
engine, which presumably Rolls-Royce knew because they
manufactured it.
And after two pages of telegram he put
at the end, please advise by return cable
exact horsepower of vehicle.
He got the answer in just about an
hour and a half.
One word, adequate.
So, typically English, snooty.
Listen, I have only one right to stand
here and talk to you folks.
Shall I tell you why?
I have found for 40 years of my
life that Jesus Christ is adequate.
And you don't need any more than that.
Adequate in suffering, adequate in temptation, adequate when
the rug's been pulled out from under you,
adequate in every situation.
That's the Savior I know.
And I wouldn't exchange him for anything, anything,
anything or anyone you can give in all
the world.
You could take from my life, my home,
my wife, my family, but you could never
take Jesus.
Oh, it's so wonderful to know him.
I trust all of you do, too.
Let's pray together.