1 00:00:00,140 --> 00:00:02,420 If I don't have the same cheerful countenance 2 00:00:02,420 --> 00:00:06,080 as Derek, it's because we're cut out of 3 00:00:06,080 --> 00:00:07,420 different bolts of cloth. 4 00:00:08,420 --> 00:00:11,340 He comes leaping like a roe, always delighting 5 00:00:11,340 --> 00:00:13,260 in the microphone, and I come like a 6 00:00:13,260 --> 00:00:13,560 snail. 7 00:00:15,100 --> 00:00:17,940 For me it's always an agony, always with 8 00:00:17,940 --> 00:00:21,940 deep sighs and groans, and wishing that the 9 00:00:21,940 --> 00:00:23,580 floor would open and swallow me and that 10 00:00:23,580 --> 00:00:25,060 there's some other place that I could be, 11 00:00:26,300 --> 00:00:27,520 especially tonight. 12 00:00:29,780 --> 00:00:33,500 Not because of the offering, but because of 13 00:00:33,500 --> 00:00:36,180 the thing that's on my heart, because I 14 00:00:36,180 --> 00:00:40,220 already have a reputation for being the bull 15 00:00:40,220 --> 00:00:43,020 in the spiritual china shop and taking things 16 00:00:43,020 --> 00:00:46,380 by the horns and being indelicate and lacking 17 00:00:46,380 --> 00:00:51,600 tact and causing furor and storms and all 18 00:00:51,600 --> 00:00:52,360 that kind of stuff. 19 00:00:54,920 --> 00:00:56,420 You're not helping me repent. 20 00:00:58,900 --> 00:01:00,000 It was true. 21 00:01:03,970 --> 00:01:05,750 I want to speak in the spirit of 22 00:01:05,750 --> 00:01:08,790 the three dominant prayers that have been breathed 23 00:01:08,790 --> 00:01:09,810 for this Convocation. 24 00:01:10,570 --> 00:01:12,630 If Larry will remind us all, one was 25 00:01:12,630 --> 00:01:16,010 for a freedom in the spirit, the second 26 00:01:16,010 --> 00:01:18,690 was for a spirit of restoration, and the 27 00:01:18,690 --> 00:01:25,280 third, dealing with self-complacency. 28 00:01:26,280 --> 00:01:28,420 Well, what is in my heart, my touch, 29 00:01:28,520 --> 00:01:29,320 all three bases. 30 00:01:29,320 --> 00:01:33,680 The kind of thing that usually falls to 31 00:01:33,680 --> 00:01:36,280 me to do is not to deliver fixed 32 00:01:36,280 --> 00:01:44,170 set pieces, but more and more it's an 33 00:01:44,170 --> 00:01:45,890 event that I'm involved in rather than a 34 00:01:45,890 --> 00:01:46,250 message. 35 00:01:47,690 --> 00:01:49,170 And what's on my heart has been born 36 00:01:49,170 --> 00:01:52,130 not out of study of a word or 37 00:01:52,130 --> 00:01:55,130 a theme, so much as the event of 38 00:01:55,130 --> 00:02:00,310 recent days pertaining to the very serious decision 39 00:02:00,310 --> 00:02:02,810 by a body of responsible men to cast 40 00:02:02,810 --> 00:02:05,270 another brother out of fellowship to excommunicate him. 41 00:02:05,830 --> 00:02:07,770 The actual verse that was employed in the 42 00:02:07,770 --> 00:02:11,770 letter that was sent was to give him 43 00:02:11,770 --> 00:02:13,490 over to the devil for the destruction of 44 00:02:13,490 --> 00:02:15,470 his flesh that his spirit might be saved. 45 00:02:17,780 --> 00:02:19,400 That was the first time that I have 46 00:02:19,400 --> 00:02:22,880 ever been involved in any dealing of that 47 00:02:22,880 --> 00:02:25,100 kind, anything as profound and as total and 48 00:02:25,100 --> 00:02:27,060 as serious and as earnest as that. 49 00:02:28,100 --> 00:02:29,840 I was not there in the eight hours 50 00:02:29,840 --> 00:02:32,020 of discussion that preceded that decision, but had 51 00:02:32,020 --> 00:02:34,260 I been there, I would have assented completely 52 00:02:34,260 --> 00:02:35,660 with that decision and felt that it was 53 00:02:35,660 --> 00:02:36,120 necessary. 54 00:02:37,500 --> 00:02:41,060 And then, as you've already been informed, the 55 00:02:41,060 --> 00:02:43,540 brother who was involved presented himself here with 56 00:02:43,540 --> 00:02:45,880 the statement that he was going to attend 57 00:02:45,880 --> 00:02:48,840 these convocations, that we had asked him privately 58 00:02:48,840 --> 00:02:51,160 to refrain from coming. 59 00:02:52,960 --> 00:02:55,400 And then we faced him yesterday, and he 60 00:02:55,400 --> 00:02:56,040 came nevertheless. 61 00:02:56,320 --> 00:02:59,540 But this morning, in a meeting of the 62 00:02:59,540 --> 00:03:02,660 elders and responsible brothers, he expressed a note 63 00:03:02,660 --> 00:03:08,040 of repentance, asked apology, and spoke of a 64 00:03:08,040 --> 00:03:09,000 dream that he had had. 65 00:03:10,380 --> 00:03:12,200 And I think that the general consensus was 66 00:03:12,200 --> 00:03:14,540 to take this at its face value and 67 00:03:14,540 --> 00:03:17,760 believe that it's sincere and authentic and a 68 00:03:17,760 --> 00:03:19,280 step in the right direction for the restoration 69 00:03:19,280 --> 00:03:19,920 of a brother. 70 00:03:21,200 --> 00:03:24,080 And I also hope and pray that indeed 71 00:03:24,080 --> 00:03:24,900 it is authentic. 72 00:03:25,980 --> 00:03:27,940 But it's the word authentic that is in 73 00:03:27,940 --> 00:03:30,080 my heart tonight, and all through the day. 74 00:03:31,080 --> 00:03:33,480 Maybe I've not yet sufficiently recovered from our 75 00:03:33,480 --> 00:03:35,340 experience of only a week or so ago 76 00:03:35,340 --> 00:03:39,020 in Winnipeg, where, by the Lord's providence, I 77 00:03:39,020 --> 00:03:40,740 was a speaker at Jesus 79. 78 00:03:41,840 --> 00:03:44,240 I had one earlier such experience, I think 79 00:03:44,240 --> 00:03:46,820 in 1973 or 1974, the first of these 80 00:03:46,820 --> 00:03:49,080 Jesus rallies, and that was enough. 81 00:03:49,160 --> 00:03:50,920 I vowed then, never again, I would never 82 00:03:50,920 --> 00:03:54,600 again be part of this carnival outdoor atmosphere 83 00:03:54,600 --> 00:03:56,940 of women in their halters and shorts and 84 00:03:56,940 --> 00:03:59,340 cracking of gum and the stuffing of your 85 00:03:59,340 --> 00:04:02,540 face with potato chips while you're hearing what 86 00:04:02,540 --> 00:04:04,880 ostensibly purports to be serious words of God 87 00:04:04,880 --> 00:04:07,420 from the platform, and the whole atmosphere just 88 00:04:07,420 --> 00:04:08,360 chilled my soul. 89 00:04:10,480 --> 00:04:14,500 But when this invitation came for Winnipeg, despite 90 00:04:14,500 --> 00:04:17,060 my determination, I felt that it was God, 91 00:04:17,620 --> 00:04:18,480 and I went. 92 00:04:18,800 --> 00:04:20,519 I wasn't supposed to be a speaker at 93 00:04:20,519 --> 00:04:23,360 the general sessions, but as is the format 94 00:04:23,360 --> 00:04:25,900 that is now increasingly becoming popular in these 95 00:04:25,900 --> 00:04:29,460 big charismatic shindigs, there's a large general assembly 96 00:04:29,460 --> 00:04:31,660 at night, but then the morning sessions are 97 00:04:31,660 --> 00:04:34,740 given over to the denominational and non-denominational 98 00:04:34,740 --> 00:04:37,400 charismatic groups, and I was invited to be 99 00:04:37,400 --> 00:04:40,180 the speaker at the Baptist charismatic group, so 100 00:04:40,180 --> 00:04:41,200 how could I refuse? 101 00:04:41,620 --> 00:04:43,540 So novel an invitation as that. 102 00:04:46,130 --> 00:04:48,050 And indeed, those speakings were blessed. 103 00:04:50,230 --> 00:04:51,790 Well, it fell to me to sit on 104 00:04:51,790 --> 00:04:56,050 the platform on the night of the big 105 00:04:56,050 --> 00:05:00,830 general meeting where an internationally known speaker was 106 00:05:00,830 --> 00:05:05,750 the message bearer for that night, and unlike 107 00:05:05,750 --> 00:05:07,290 all the others that entered into the general 108 00:05:07,290 --> 00:05:09,370 merriment, I sat there like a glum lump. 109 00:05:10,270 --> 00:05:13,470 I was completely out of it, hurting, actually, 110 00:05:13,610 --> 00:05:16,150 stunned and mortified at some of the statements 111 00:05:16,150 --> 00:05:19,050 that I was hearing made, and the whole 112 00:05:19,050 --> 00:05:20,990 happy atmosphere in which these statements were being 113 00:05:20,990 --> 00:05:23,670 received was a general sense of hokiness. 114 00:05:23,810 --> 00:05:26,490 I don't know of another word like it. 115 00:05:27,130 --> 00:05:28,870 I don't know how the English language has 116 00:05:28,870 --> 00:05:31,650 gone on this long without an adjective like 117 00:05:31,650 --> 00:05:34,850 that, a sense of artificiality, of things synthetic 118 00:05:34,850 --> 00:05:37,270 and feigned, of having the appearance of things 119 00:05:37,270 --> 00:05:40,750 real but being somehow false, although it employed 120 00:05:40,750 --> 00:05:44,830 real words, really meaningful terms, phrases out of 121 00:05:44,830 --> 00:05:47,030 scripture, references to the unity of the body. 122 00:05:48,050 --> 00:05:49,470 I don't know what your reaction would have 123 00:05:49,470 --> 00:05:50,590 been had you been in my place and 124 00:05:50,590 --> 00:05:52,670 you had heard the speaker saying that he 125 00:05:52,670 --> 00:05:55,290 had taken to task a Pentecostal minister at 126 00:05:55,290 --> 00:05:58,070 a previous Jesus rally who spoke on the 127 00:05:58,070 --> 00:06:02,890 issue of sin and repentance, and he castigated 128 00:06:02,890 --> 00:06:04,730 this man because he felt that such kinds 129 00:06:04,730 --> 00:06:06,630 of speaking would interfere with the spirit of 130 00:06:06,630 --> 00:06:06,890 unity. 131 00:06:09,040 --> 00:06:11,660 Another statement was that let's forgive the Catholics 132 00:06:11,660 --> 00:06:17,160 for unity's sake and that there's no point 133 00:06:17,160 --> 00:06:20,000 in pressing past issues in that kind of 134 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:20,760 spirit and sense. 135 00:06:22,500 --> 00:06:24,460 And there were prophecies that came that night 136 00:06:24,460 --> 00:06:26,280 from a certain assemblage of men who were 137 00:06:26,280 --> 00:06:30,040 called the word unit, Catholic charismatic men who 138 00:06:30,040 --> 00:06:32,340 ostensibly have a gift in prophecy and who 139 00:06:32,340 --> 00:06:34,960 write them out on yellow legal pads and 140 00:06:34,960 --> 00:06:37,860 give them over to an overseer who then 141 00:06:37,860 --> 00:06:39,460 calls them to the microphone at the appropriate 142 00:06:39,460 --> 00:06:40,480 moment to speak to them. 143 00:06:42,220 --> 00:06:45,200 I'm just describing my impression, a terrible sense 144 00:06:45,200 --> 00:06:47,960 of unreality, all the more because it was 145 00:06:47,960 --> 00:06:50,680 couched in things that are very real. 146 00:06:51,280 --> 00:06:52,200 You understand what I'm saying? 147 00:06:53,920 --> 00:06:55,240 Well, by the end of the night, my 148 00:06:55,240 --> 00:06:57,100 spirit was such that I couldn't wait to 149 00:06:57,100 --> 00:06:59,740 leave the platform, but unfortunately I was assigned 150 00:06:59,740 --> 00:07:01,940 to bring the benediction at the conclusion of 151 00:07:01,940 --> 00:07:05,060 the night, and I somehow felt that I 152 00:07:05,060 --> 00:07:06,960 should not be involved in anything that took 153 00:07:06,960 --> 00:07:07,560 place that night. 154 00:07:07,600 --> 00:07:09,480 I should not lend myself to anything that 155 00:07:09,480 --> 00:07:10,620 took place and be part of it. 156 00:07:11,380 --> 00:07:13,240 And so I went over and tugged the 157 00:07:13,240 --> 00:07:15,140 sleeve of the man who was presiding at 158 00:07:15,140 --> 00:07:16,720 the platform and I asked to be excused 159 00:07:16,720 --> 00:07:19,600 from the obligation of bringing the prayer of 160 00:07:19,600 --> 00:07:20,060 benediction. 161 00:07:21,640 --> 00:07:23,220 I said, let someone else do it or 162 00:07:23,220 --> 00:07:25,860 end in some other way, but instead he 163 00:07:25,860 --> 00:07:26,740 called my name. 164 00:07:27,840 --> 00:07:29,080 And so I came to the microphone in 165 00:07:29,080 --> 00:07:31,860 that terrible agony and frustration that some of 166 00:07:31,860 --> 00:07:35,760 you might know, and all that I could 167 00:07:35,760 --> 00:07:37,520 do was to ask them to stand up 168 00:07:37,520 --> 00:07:39,400 and take off their sun bonnets and visors 169 00:07:39,400 --> 00:07:43,180 and come to a posture of respect before 170 00:07:43,180 --> 00:07:46,220 God and to sing with me the Lord's 171 00:07:46,220 --> 00:07:46,900 Prayer. 172 00:07:48,200 --> 00:07:49,420 And that's the way the night ended. 173 00:07:50,440 --> 00:07:52,440 The Lord sort of bailed me out without 174 00:07:52,440 --> 00:07:55,320 further embarrassing implication and involvement. 175 00:07:55,780 --> 00:07:59,000 But as I was leaving the platform, a 176 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:00,920 lave man who was in charge of arranging 177 00:08:00,920 --> 00:08:02,920 for these sessions asked if I would be 178 00:08:02,920 --> 00:08:05,140 available for the general session the following morning. 179 00:08:06,080 --> 00:08:08,300 And at first I abruptly said, no, I 180 00:08:08,300 --> 00:08:09,580 want to say I'll have nothing to do 181 00:08:09,580 --> 00:08:10,400 with this at all. 182 00:08:11,060 --> 00:08:13,080 But then I said, only if God gives 183 00:08:13,080 --> 00:08:14,200 me something specific. 184 00:08:15,500 --> 00:08:17,320 And so we went where we were staying 185 00:08:17,320 --> 00:08:19,680 that night, my spirit still bruised and still 186 00:08:19,680 --> 00:08:22,840 pondering that night and our response to it. 187 00:08:23,480 --> 00:08:24,840 Those that were in the car with me 188 00:08:24,840 --> 00:08:26,520 had reacted in a like manner. 189 00:08:28,060 --> 00:08:29,420 The young lady at whose home we were 190 00:08:29,420 --> 00:08:31,260 staying said that she thought that the raucous 191 00:08:31,260 --> 00:08:33,980 noise of that night was something akin to 192 00:08:33,980 --> 00:08:35,760 the noise that Moses must have heard coming 193 00:08:35,760 --> 00:08:37,200 down the mount with the tablets of the 194 00:08:37,200 --> 00:08:37,419 law. 195 00:08:40,080 --> 00:08:42,860 And that statement stuck in my craw. 196 00:08:42,860 --> 00:08:44,740 It embedded itself in my spirit. 197 00:08:44,860 --> 00:08:46,700 And I woke the next morning still thinking 198 00:08:46,700 --> 00:08:47,120 of it. 199 00:08:48,340 --> 00:08:51,140 And we drove to this open park where 200 00:08:51,140 --> 00:08:53,100 this rally was being conducted, where I had 201 00:08:53,100 --> 00:08:54,780 to be the morning speaker at this Baptist 202 00:08:54,780 --> 00:08:59,660 section and discussing with my colleagues whether I 203 00:08:59,660 --> 00:09:01,720 ought not indeed take advantage of the invitation 204 00:09:01,720 --> 00:09:04,760 that was given me and speak a word 205 00:09:04,760 --> 00:09:07,420 distinct and different than other than the kinds 206 00:09:07,420 --> 00:09:08,460 of things they had been hearing. 207 00:09:09,340 --> 00:09:13,160 And we prayed together because I didn't want 208 00:09:13,160 --> 00:09:15,180 again to fall into that role of bringing 209 00:09:15,180 --> 00:09:16,140 that kind of word. 210 00:09:18,740 --> 00:09:20,220 And so without making any haste to get 211 00:09:20,220 --> 00:09:21,700 there, in fact hoping that we would be 212 00:09:21,700 --> 00:09:24,360 too late, we parked the car and walked 213 00:09:24,360 --> 00:09:25,980 to the platform where the public meeting was 214 00:09:25,980 --> 00:09:28,760 taking place at the very moment when it 215 00:09:28,760 --> 00:09:30,360 was time for the speaker to be announced. 216 00:09:30,840 --> 00:09:33,040 They had already assigned another speaker in my 217 00:09:33,040 --> 00:09:33,460 absence. 218 00:09:34,040 --> 00:09:35,500 But when the man saw me come up 219 00:09:35,500 --> 00:09:37,500 the steps of the platform, he immediately called 220 00:09:37,500 --> 00:09:39,260 to me and they rushed me right to 221 00:09:39,260 --> 00:09:39,760 the microphone. 222 00:09:42,350 --> 00:09:47,430 And so I began in the spirit of 223 00:09:47,430 --> 00:09:48,450 please pray for me. 224 00:09:48,730 --> 00:09:50,690 There must be something grievously wrong with me 225 00:09:51,270 --> 00:09:53,590 that prevents me from entering in to the 226 00:09:53,590 --> 00:09:55,950 spirit of general merriment that prevailed last night. 227 00:09:57,030 --> 00:09:58,510 That I could not sit there through the 228 00:09:58,510 --> 00:10:00,990 night and listen to the statements and rejoice 229 00:10:00,990 --> 00:10:01,550 for them. 230 00:10:03,090 --> 00:10:04,730 And that as a matter of fact I 231 00:10:04,730 --> 00:10:07,630 shared the impression of this one that I 232 00:10:07,630 --> 00:10:10,110 described to you and read from the scriptures 233 00:10:10,110 --> 00:10:12,710 in Exodus of Moses coming down the mount 234 00:10:12,710 --> 00:10:13,890 with the tablets of the Lord to hear 235 00:10:13,890 --> 00:10:16,090 the noise which was not the noise of 236 00:10:16,090 --> 00:10:17,670 battle nor the noise of victory but the 237 00:10:17,670 --> 00:10:18,410 noise of singing. 238 00:10:19,070 --> 00:10:21,370 And I said I have the impression also 239 00:10:21,370 --> 00:10:23,190 that it was this kind of noise that 240 00:10:23,190 --> 00:10:24,470 characterized last night. 241 00:10:25,370 --> 00:10:27,070 And it has much to do with that 242 00:10:27,070 --> 00:10:30,030 earlier event in men and women impatient to 243 00:10:30,030 --> 00:10:31,770 wait for God to come down the mount 244 00:10:31,770 --> 00:10:32,670 with the real thing. 245 00:10:33,510 --> 00:10:37,730 And therefore simulating something like it but not 246 00:10:37,730 --> 00:10:38,050 it. 247 00:10:38,350 --> 00:10:41,150 A golden calf of a substitute kind and 248 00:10:41,150 --> 00:10:43,190 dancing and prancing about it. 249 00:10:44,210 --> 00:10:46,790 Imagine how these words were going forth. 250 00:10:47,490 --> 00:10:48,890 And even as I had been walking up 251 00:10:48,890 --> 00:10:50,830 to the platform that morning I heard one 252 00:10:50,830 --> 00:10:53,790 of the so-called prophecies in which the 253 00:10:53,790 --> 00:10:55,450 speaker was saying I the Lord have been 254 00:10:55,450 --> 00:10:56,970 with you through this weekend I've given you 255 00:10:56,970 --> 00:10:59,850 my spirit and I'm going to do this 256 00:10:59,850 --> 00:11:01,250 and I'm going to do that and for 257 00:11:01,250 --> 00:11:03,030 me it was as leaden as anything could 258 00:11:03,030 --> 00:11:04,690 be without life. 259 00:11:05,070 --> 00:11:08,170 And I said my condition is even so 260 00:11:08,170 --> 00:11:10,410 bad I don't even witness to these prophecies. 261 00:11:13,050 --> 00:11:15,410 And I wonder indeed that if my condition 262 00:11:15,410 --> 00:11:18,530 is not some kind of idiosyncratic thing I'm 263 00:11:18,530 --> 00:11:21,270 some kind of dyspeptic character who always seems 264 00:11:21,270 --> 00:11:23,730 to find the negative thing but if it 265 00:11:23,730 --> 00:11:26,930 somehow is an expression of the heartbeat of 266 00:11:26,930 --> 00:11:29,770 God we might well ask whether functions and 267 00:11:29,770 --> 00:11:31,690 events like this are some kind of massive 268 00:11:31,690 --> 00:11:35,390 deception in which we have been inducted unwarily 269 00:11:35,390 --> 00:11:37,850 and because the phrases have been so rich 270 00:11:37,850 --> 00:11:40,550 and so suggestive and because our hearts have 271 00:11:40,550 --> 00:11:43,050 panted after true unity in the body of 272 00:11:43,050 --> 00:11:45,150 Christ and because we've been impressed with the 273 00:11:45,150 --> 00:11:47,150 three or four thousand who gather out of 274 00:11:47,150 --> 00:11:49,430 Catholic and Protestant ranks that we have been 275 00:11:49,430 --> 00:11:51,990 willing quickly to call this that unity when 276 00:11:51,990 --> 00:11:52,970 in fact it is not. 277 00:11:54,170 --> 00:11:56,110 And if we can begin to explore that 278 00:11:56,110 --> 00:11:58,870 maybe we need to ask also about the 279 00:11:58,870 --> 00:12:01,750 validity of the whole charismatic phenomenon and whether 280 00:12:01,750 --> 00:12:03,950 we actually have an authentic baptism in the 281 00:12:03,950 --> 00:12:06,430 Holy Spirit and indeed whether we have ever 282 00:12:06,430 --> 00:12:09,010 actually been born again of the Spirit or 283 00:12:09,010 --> 00:12:10,830 from beginning to end we have been inducted 284 00:12:10,830 --> 00:12:13,850 in one of the most colossal jobs that 285 00:12:13,850 --> 00:12:15,870 has ever been perpetrated in the religious world 286 00:12:15,870 --> 00:12:16,670 in all history. 287 00:12:18,430 --> 00:12:20,090 Those were the kinds of questions that I 288 00:12:20,090 --> 00:12:23,370 raised and then I invited as many as 289 00:12:23,370 --> 00:12:24,850 would to come to the session where I 290 00:12:24,850 --> 00:12:26,630 would be speaking immediately at the conclusion of 291 00:12:26,630 --> 00:12:28,370 that morning session where I was to speak 292 00:12:28,370 --> 00:12:29,350 on the Spirit of Truth. 293 00:12:33,840 --> 00:12:35,900 There was a cry that was expressed by 294 00:12:35,900 --> 00:12:38,520 one of the elders in the gathering of 295 00:12:38,520 --> 00:12:40,500 the elders that preceded this convocation here. 296 00:12:41,400 --> 00:12:43,940 We sat there awkwardly as such men will 297 00:12:43,940 --> 00:12:45,740 in the first meetings when you come together 298 00:12:45,740 --> 00:12:49,780 nobody wanting to break the silence nobody wanting 299 00:12:49,780 --> 00:12:51,600 to violate against the Spirit of God and 300 00:12:51,600 --> 00:12:56,300 introduce some carnal element but this brother, bless 301 00:12:56,300 --> 00:12:58,740 him, had the courage to express the cry 302 00:12:58,740 --> 00:13:00,400 of his heart which I believe is also 303 00:13:00,400 --> 00:13:01,660 the cry of God's heart. 304 00:13:02,060 --> 00:13:03,740 It was a cry for authenticity. 305 00:13:04,660 --> 00:13:06,340 It was the cry of one who was 306 00:13:06,340 --> 00:13:09,940 increasingly conscious of something plastic a film coming 307 00:13:09,940 --> 00:13:12,100 over the religious world. 308 00:13:12,880 --> 00:13:14,240 It was a man who had not broken 309 00:13:14,240 --> 00:13:17,220 through that film and whose heart was desiring 310 00:13:17,220 --> 00:13:20,280 that which is real with God and with 311 00:13:20,280 --> 00:13:20,620 men. 312 00:13:22,420 --> 00:13:26,140 It's also my own heart's cry and this 313 00:13:26,140 --> 00:13:29,040 afternoon as I spent the entire afternoon pondering 314 00:13:29,040 --> 00:13:30,600 before the Lord the events of this morning 315 00:13:30,600 --> 00:13:33,600 a man making the statement of confession the 316 00:13:33,600 --> 00:13:36,000 desire on the parts of those men who 317 00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:38,440 were in the room so anxious for reconciliation 318 00:13:38,440 --> 00:13:40,840 to receive such a word as being authentically 319 00:13:40,840 --> 00:13:44,340 that of repentance no one knowing for sure 320 00:13:44,340 --> 00:13:50,580 whether indeed it was or not and not 321 00:13:50,580 --> 00:13:52,280 wanting to be the victims of well-meaning 322 00:13:52,280 --> 00:13:55,520 intention knowing that we have responsibility and can 323 00:13:55,520 --> 00:13:56,620 I just say a word about that that 324 00:13:56,620 --> 00:13:58,920 the responsibility goes far beyond the issue of 325 00:13:58,920 --> 00:14:00,020 the individual involved. 326 00:14:01,560 --> 00:14:04,600 Can I say that it touches the whole 327 00:14:04,600 --> 00:14:06,740 issue of the validity of the church of 328 00:14:06,740 --> 00:14:08,080 Jesus Christ in the earth. 329 00:14:09,880 --> 00:14:11,920 It touches the whole issue of the government 330 00:14:11,920 --> 00:14:14,480 of God whether it's a mock or a 331 00:14:14,480 --> 00:14:14,900 truth. 332 00:14:15,460 --> 00:14:17,340 It touches the whole issue of whether indeed 333 00:14:17,340 --> 00:14:19,160 there's going to be in the earth an 334 00:14:19,160 --> 00:14:22,300 actual kingdom of heaven that can be recognized 335 00:14:22,300 --> 00:14:24,700 and discerned not only by those who make 336 00:14:24,700 --> 00:14:26,560 it up but by the world who presses 337 00:14:26,560 --> 00:14:28,200 their nose to the window to look in 338 00:14:28,200 --> 00:14:31,560 and to behold the enormous phenomenon of people 339 00:14:31,560 --> 00:14:33,620 living in the truth and in love. 340 00:14:36,090 --> 00:14:39,070 It touches all these issues when serious and 341 00:14:39,070 --> 00:14:44,770 responsible men will come to a determination to 342 00:14:44,770 --> 00:14:46,550 cast and give a man over to the 343 00:14:46,550 --> 00:14:48,030 devil for the destruction of his flesh. 344 00:14:48,150 --> 00:14:49,610 I would say that this is an ultimate 345 00:14:49,610 --> 00:14:53,790 judgment not to be done in pique or 346 00:14:53,790 --> 00:15:01,770 irritation or because it dismisses a... 347 00:15:01,770 --> 00:15:05,250 an irritating problem and well they were right 348 00:15:05,250 --> 00:15:06,990 in taking eight hours to come to such 349 00:15:06,990 --> 00:15:07,510 a conclusion. 350 00:15:08,270 --> 00:15:09,790 In fact, if you would know the tens 351 00:15:09,790 --> 00:15:13,050 and the hundreds of hours that preceded discussion 352 00:15:13,050 --> 00:15:15,790 and involvement with that same individual you would 353 00:15:15,790 --> 00:15:17,570 know that the whole thing was very soberly 354 00:15:17,570 --> 00:15:19,590 considered from beginning to the end. 355 00:15:20,390 --> 00:15:24,110 A whole fellowship had been devastated its members 356 00:15:24,110 --> 00:15:25,930 dispersed to the winds it was a brave 357 00:15:26,470 --> 00:15:28,990 work that seemed to us to be going 358 00:15:28,990 --> 00:15:30,830 down the drain there was injury and damage 359 00:15:30,830 --> 00:15:33,610 and bruising the issues were not light. 360 00:15:34,250 --> 00:15:36,010 There was the issue for the individual himself 361 00:15:36,010 --> 00:15:38,630 his own restoration there was the issue of 362 00:15:38,630 --> 00:15:40,470 the preservation of that expression of the body 363 00:15:40,470 --> 00:15:42,630 of Christ and beyond that there were the 364 00:15:42,630 --> 00:15:45,130 larger and the eternal issues of the validity 365 00:15:45,130 --> 00:15:48,090 of God's word of the seriousness of God's 366 00:15:48,090 --> 00:15:50,410 men covenanting together to come to such a 367 00:15:50,410 --> 00:15:53,050 statement of agreement and the necessity to see 368 00:15:53,050 --> 00:15:55,150 it through to its ultimate conclusion. 369 00:15:58,650 --> 00:16:00,110 And so I pondered these things as I 370 00:16:00,110 --> 00:16:02,550 left this morning service all the more because 371 00:16:02,550 --> 00:16:04,730 of the references to suffering to the cross 372 00:16:04,730 --> 00:16:06,890 to atonement of the things that have been 373 00:16:06,890 --> 00:16:10,070 paid for in excruciation in blood and agony 374 00:16:10,650 --> 00:16:12,990 lest we find ourselves trampling on the blood 375 00:16:12,990 --> 00:16:16,070 of the Son of God ourselves guilty of 376 00:16:16,070 --> 00:16:18,870 some kind of plastic cheapy counterfeit kind of 377 00:16:18,870 --> 00:16:21,630 charismatica when the cry of God is for 378 00:16:21,630 --> 00:16:22,870 authenticity in the earth. 379 00:16:24,030 --> 00:16:25,350 Would you believe it that I took down 380 00:16:25,350 --> 00:16:27,310 a dictionary and looked up the word plastic 381 00:16:27,310 --> 00:16:30,830 in that the word has been spoken so 382 00:16:30,830 --> 00:16:31,730 often in these days? 383 00:16:34,030 --> 00:16:35,710 Here are some of the meanings given in 384 00:16:35,710 --> 00:16:37,530 the dictionary soft enough to be molded yet 385 00:16:37,530 --> 00:16:40,610 capable of hardening into the desired fixed form 386 00:16:41,510 --> 00:16:47,110 easily bent twisted or manipulated easily let an 387 00:16:47,110 --> 00:16:52,170 influence lack of will and real character easily 388 00:16:52,170 --> 00:16:56,970 modified to suit needs conditions or uses subject 389 00:16:56,970 --> 00:17:00,530 to precious I'll tell you that a plastic 390 00:17:00,530 --> 00:17:04,930 world is devoutly to be avoided but a 391 00:17:04,930 --> 00:17:08,569 plastic kingdom is a tragedy of such proportions 392 00:17:08,569 --> 00:17:12,859 that I could break down and weep for 393 00:17:12,859 --> 00:17:17,230 the kingdom of God to be plastic subject 394 00:17:17,230 --> 00:17:19,849 to precious and influences to accommodate and suit 395 00:17:19,849 --> 00:17:22,810 the needs and moments of men is something 396 00:17:22,810 --> 00:17:26,109 that cannot be considered I looked up the 397 00:17:26,109 --> 00:17:29,790 word pseudo because I have a sense that 398 00:17:29,790 --> 00:17:31,930 we need to be alerted for the kinds 399 00:17:31,930 --> 00:17:34,390 of end-time deception the spirit of antichrist 400 00:17:34,390 --> 00:17:36,950 which is already so rife you know where 401 00:17:36,950 --> 00:17:40,230 it says in 2 Thessalonians that these things 402 00:17:40,230 --> 00:17:41,570 shall not be till there be a great 403 00:17:41,570 --> 00:17:46,390 falling away the Amplified gives an amplification which 404 00:17:46,390 --> 00:17:48,110 reads this way let no one deceive or 405 00:17:48,110 --> 00:17:49,870 beguile you in any way for that day 406 00:17:49,870 --> 00:17:53,470 will not come except the apostasy comes first 407 00:17:53,470 --> 00:17:57,010 that is unless the predicted great falling away 408 00:17:57,010 --> 00:18:01,250 of those who have professed to be Christians 409 00:18:01,250 --> 00:18:06,940 has come and the man of lawlessness is 410 00:18:06,940 --> 00:18:08,980 revealed who is the son of doom of 411 00:18:08,980 --> 00:18:12,960 perdition that's a little amplification that the King 412 00:18:12,960 --> 00:18:17,080 James and other renderings do not give the 413 00:18:17,080 --> 00:18:19,720 falling away of those who have professed to 414 00:18:19,720 --> 00:18:22,480 be Christians I think there's a lot of 415 00:18:22,480 --> 00:18:25,860 profession without actuality and in fact I have 416 00:18:25,860 --> 00:18:28,380 invited and encouraged Derek to come up after 417 00:18:28,380 --> 00:18:30,060 me tonight if there shall be sufficient time 418 00:18:30,060 --> 00:18:32,720 and I don't know how long my remarks 419 00:18:32,720 --> 00:18:34,840 will take to speak on a subject that 420 00:18:34,840 --> 00:18:37,940 God has given him about the true being 421 00:18:37,940 --> 00:18:43,220 born again of the spirit of God so 422 00:18:43,220 --> 00:18:44,760 we're very much concerned with the things that 423 00:18:44,760 --> 00:18:48,400 are plastic the things that are pseudo false 424 00:18:48,400 --> 00:18:52,500 artificial synthetic imitative counterfeit the things that are 425 00:18:52,500 --> 00:18:55,380 spurious the things that are false I even 426 00:18:55,380 --> 00:18:58,120 looked up the word sham which says feigned 427 00:18:58,120 --> 00:19:02,340 pretended a trick that deludes a hoax imitation 428 00:19:02,340 --> 00:19:06,740 or counterfeit purporting to be genuine to act 429 00:19:06,740 --> 00:19:09,500 intentionally so as to give a false impression 430 00:19:10,640 --> 00:19:13,820 was this statement this morning of a brother 431 00:19:13,820 --> 00:19:17,700 a true expression of repentance or was it 432 00:19:17,700 --> 00:19:20,600 a sham was it feigned or pretended was 433 00:19:20,600 --> 00:19:22,260 it a trick that deludes was it a 434 00:19:22,260 --> 00:19:25,140 hoax an imitation or a counterfeit I'll tell 435 00:19:25,140 --> 00:19:26,500 you that the answer to that question goes 436 00:19:26,500 --> 00:19:29,260 far beyond this morning far beyond the individual 437 00:19:29,880 --> 00:19:32,040 far beyond the men who are making such 438 00:19:32,040 --> 00:19:35,420 reckonings it affects the whole corpus of God 439 00:19:35,420 --> 00:19:37,980 it affects the whole body of Christ everywhere 440 00:19:37,980 --> 00:19:40,740 in the earth and I am absolutely convinced 441 00:19:40,740 --> 00:19:43,260 determined you cannot shake me from this that 442 00:19:43,260 --> 00:19:44,800 what we will do with regard to this 443 00:19:44,800 --> 00:19:48,100 issue shall affect the body of Christ throughout 444 00:19:48,100 --> 00:19:50,260 this entire nation and in the earth and 445 00:19:50,260 --> 00:19:52,120 it doesn't matter whether anyone else in any 446 00:19:52,120 --> 00:19:53,980 other expression of the body knows of this 447 00:19:53,980 --> 00:19:56,560 particular incident or not they will be the 448 00:19:56,560 --> 00:20:00,280 recipients of our ability by the spirit of 449 00:20:00,280 --> 00:20:02,560 God to discern the things that are authentic 450 00:20:02,560 --> 00:20:05,120 or the things that are sham they will 451 00:20:05,120 --> 00:20:07,760 be either the victims or the beneficiaries of 452 00:20:07,760 --> 00:20:09,680 an issue of truth that was seen to 453 00:20:09,680 --> 00:20:12,120 its ultimate conclusion or that was allowed to 454 00:20:12,120 --> 00:20:15,440 slip by because of a disposition in men 455 00:20:15,440 --> 00:20:17,880 to reconcile the nitty gritty thing after all 456 00:20:17,880 --> 00:20:19,780 it's an irritation and a nuisance and how 457 00:20:19,780 --> 00:20:21,320 long will this go on listen the guy 458 00:20:21,320 --> 00:20:23,420 sounds like he's repentant why not take it 459 00:20:23,420 --> 00:20:25,040 at his face value give him an opportunity 460 00:20:25,040 --> 00:20:27,600 to demonstrate it and let bygones be bygones 461 00:20:30,260 --> 00:20:35,570 I even looked up the word real not 462 00:20:35,570 --> 00:20:43,370 artificial nor fraudulent illusory or apparent genuine occurring 463 00:20:43,370 --> 00:20:50,540 in fact necessarily existent true if you don't 464 00:20:50,540 --> 00:20:52,460 have to wipe the saliva off your chin 465 00:20:52,460 --> 00:20:55,420 after hearing those words something is amiss with 466 00:20:55,420 --> 00:21:01,120 you don't these things excite something in your 467 00:21:01,120 --> 00:21:05,220 salivary glands my God are we so destitute 468 00:21:05,220 --> 00:21:08,040 and so numb that we don't occur in 469 00:21:08,040 --> 00:21:11,260 fact the very heart the knit the fiber 470 00:21:11,260 --> 00:21:14,740 the texture of the kingdom which is reality 471 00:21:15,460 --> 00:21:17,780 don't we understand that the world is freaking 472 00:21:17,780 --> 00:21:19,660 out and dying for the want of it 473 00:21:19,660 --> 00:21:21,700 don't we understand that there are men who 474 00:21:21,700 --> 00:21:26,140 are going berserk and absolutely beside themselves because 475 00:21:26,140 --> 00:21:28,100 of the meaninglessness of the universe that they 476 00:21:28,100 --> 00:21:32,180 occupy looking for some novelty some cheapy some 477 00:21:32,180 --> 00:21:35,160 diversion to take them through the length of 478 00:21:35,160 --> 00:21:37,300 their hours because they have not glimpsed anywhere 479 00:21:37,300 --> 00:21:40,240 that there is an alternative that is available 480 00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:43,120 to them called the kingdom of God the 481 00:21:43,120 --> 00:21:45,340 kingdom of reality it simply has not yet 482 00:21:45,340 --> 00:21:48,860 surfaced nor been demonstrated by God's people dear 483 00:21:48,860 --> 00:21:51,020 children if we need to be anything foremost 484 00:21:51,020 --> 00:21:57,480 it is to be eminently real eminently loving 485 00:22:00,320 --> 00:22:04,180 eminently living in the truth speaking the truth 486 00:22:04,180 --> 00:22:07,540 walking in the truth doing the truth being 487 00:22:07,540 --> 00:22:11,260 true it's much more than just being correct 488 00:22:11,260 --> 00:22:14,800 or scriptural or doctrinally sound it's something that 489 00:22:14,800 --> 00:22:17,920 is suffused right in the marrow and the 490 00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:21,180 knit and the maw of your makeup it's 491 00:22:21,180 --> 00:22:22,760 in your eyes in your speech in the 492 00:22:22,760 --> 00:22:24,500 inflection of your voice in your posture in 493 00:22:24,500 --> 00:22:31,260 your walk in your talk not artificial or 494 00:22:31,260 --> 00:22:35,280 fraudulent or illusory or apparent but genuine occurring 495 00:22:35,280 --> 00:22:40,060 in fact a true saint true conversion true 496 00:22:40,060 --> 00:22:42,980 baptism in the Holy Spirit true utterance in 497 00:22:42,980 --> 00:22:46,960 tongues true interpretation true prophecy a true word 498 00:22:46,960 --> 00:22:52,230 of God I was sitting in Aud Bibi's 499 00:22:52,230 --> 00:22:53,330 living room the other night and I just 500 00:22:53,330 --> 00:22:54,890 my hand fell to the ground and I 501 00:22:54,890 --> 00:22:56,990 the carpet and I picked up some publication 502 00:22:56,990 --> 00:22:59,350 that he'd received in the mail and I 503 00:22:59,350 --> 00:23:00,990 looked at the article because it said something 504 00:23:00,990 --> 00:23:04,410 about that dearth of the word of God 505 00:23:04,410 --> 00:23:06,430 that would come in the end times men 506 00:23:06,430 --> 00:23:08,170 would be running to and fro to find 507 00:23:08,170 --> 00:23:11,730 and to hear a true word and he 508 00:23:11,730 --> 00:23:13,610 went on to speak about the oil crisis 509 00:23:13,610 --> 00:23:16,330 always the interesting parallel between what is happening 510 00:23:16,330 --> 00:23:17,750 in the natural world and what is happening 511 00:23:17,750 --> 00:23:21,890 in the spiritual world the extreme crisis for 512 00:23:21,890 --> 00:23:25,950 oil but nowhere near as extreme as the 513 00:23:25,950 --> 00:23:28,750 crisis that is in the kingdom for the 514 00:23:28,750 --> 00:23:34,640 holy anointing oil of God I don't know 515 00:23:34,640 --> 00:23:37,980 about you but I'm starving for a real 516 00:23:37,980 --> 00:23:45,480 word I want to hear an anointed word 517 00:23:45,480 --> 00:23:48,620 out of the heart of God I want 518 00:23:48,620 --> 00:23:51,660 a word that's incisive and penetrating that illuminates 519 00:23:51,660 --> 00:23:59,170 and lays bare real words real gifts real 520 00:23:59,170 --> 00:24:02,830 saints because there is real conversion born out 521 00:24:02,830 --> 00:24:07,290 of real repentance and real godly sorrow nothing 522 00:24:07,290 --> 00:24:12,710 feigned nothing illusory nothing deceptive nothing imagined nothing 523 00:24:12,710 --> 00:24:19,360 counterfeit nothing substitute real I hope I'm not 524 00:24:19,360 --> 00:24:22,500 presuming against God if I say tonight all 525 00:24:22,500 --> 00:24:27,740 unreality is sin that the very God who 526 00:24:27,740 --> 00:24:32,000 is true and his anointing which is true 527 00:24:34,020 --> 00:24:36,380 anything that is inimical and opposed to that 528 00:24:36,380 --> 00:24:40,260 God that is hokey and feigned and makeshift 529 00:24:40,840 --> 00:24:43,480 that is a collaboration or a dealing or 530 00:24:43,480 --> 00:24:47,080 devious or wrought by men or imitated or 531 00:24:47,080 --> 00:24:52,260 simulated is sin and it has its corrosive 532 00:24:52,260 --> 00:24:55,800 and its deadly effect not only in eternity 533 00:24:55,800 --> 00:24:58,240 but in the here and the now all 534 00:24:58,240 --> 00:25:02,420 nature and creation is groaning for true sons 535 00:25:03,180 --> 00:25:07,380 for true fellowship and I would say that 536 00:25:07,380 --> 00:25:11,000 part half of the the friction between Charles 537 00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:13,780 and myself and our fellowships over the years 538 00:25:13,780 --> 00:25:15,440 that have sometimes surfaced in the course of 539 00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:18,560 these summer convocations has been this cry for 540 00:25:18,560 --> 00:25:22,120 authenticity this sense hey, aren't you guys a 541 00:25:22,120 --> 00:25:26,780 little too playful aren't you perhaps dangerously at 542 00:25:26,780 --> 00:25:29,340 the doorstep of some new kind of gamesmanship 543 00:25:31,060 --> 00:25:34,860 however attractive and however much it employs apostolic 544 00:25:34,860 --> 00:25:40,160 vocabulary watch it far better we don't know 545 00:25:40,160 --> 00:25:43,340 the words but have the corresponding fact than 546 00:25:43,340 --> 00:25:45,280 we should deal in the words and have 547 00:25:45,280 --> 00:25:48,680 only a pseudo effect of what it is 548 00:25:48,680 --> 00:25:54,780 that we're so desperately seeking apostolic reality truth, 549 00:25:55,040 --> 00:26:00,000 glory all unreality is sin it's the sidestepping 550 00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:03,120 of the cross the avoidance of pain and 551 00:26:03,120 --> 00:26:05,900 suffering it is through much affliction that we 552 00:26:05,900 --> 00:26:08,020 enter the kingdom of God you know what 553 00:26:08,020 --> 00:26:10,080 the temptation is to say okay brother, sure 554 00:26:10,680 --> 00:26:12,800 you had a dream and you're saying repentant 555 00:26:12,800 --> 00:26:17,550 words this morning why not let's forget this 556 00:26:17,550 --> 00:26:21,650 terrible issue this division this strain this conflict 557 00:26:21,650 --> 00:26:23,850 at our doorstep that continues to surface we 558 00:26:23,850 --> 00:26:24,930 don't seem to be able to reconcile it 559 00:26:25,730 --> 00:26:28,850 it'll be a relief to receive your words 560 00:26:28,850 --> 00:26:35,460 as being sincere and I somehow sense that 561 00:26:36,840 --> 00:26:38,680 and I'm not saying that the words are 562 00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:41,480 not sincere but I'm only saying that God 563 00:26:41,480 --> 00:26:43,260 has triggered something in my heart that goes 564 00:26:43,260 --> 00:26:45,600 beyond the episode of these days to raise 565 00:26:45,600 --> 00:26:47,980 the larger questions of authenticity before the body 566 00:26:47,980 --> 00:26:51,840 of Christ are we willing for authenticity's sake 567 00:26:51,840 --> 00:26:54,520 and for truth's sake not to take shortcuts 568 00:26:56,320 --> 00:26:58,580 not to grasp at the first straw that 569 00:26:58,580 --> 00:27:02,040 floats that seems to present the possibility of 570 00:27:02,040 --> 00:27:04,960 resolution and an end of conflict are we 571 00:27:04,960 --> 00:27:07,460 willing to see an issue pressed to its 572 00:27:07,460 --> 00:27:10,520 uttermost because if we not if we are 573 00:27:10,520 --> 00:27:14,100 not we may see men bend but we 574 00:27:14,100 --> 00:27:21,200 are not going to see them break and 575 00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:23,780 you may be content with bending but I'm 576 00:27:23,780 --> 00:27:28,680 not I want to hear snap crackle pop 577 00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:33,120 I want to see something crunch right at 578 00:27:33,120 --> 00:27:36,320 the foundation of that citadel of rebellion and 579 00:27:36,320 --> 00:27:40,520 self-will and independency of spirit and insubordination 580 00:27:40,520 --> 00:27:43,380 and raucousness and resentment and hatred and bitterness 581 00:27:43,380 --> 00:27:48,870 I want a breaking not a bending a 582 00:27:48,870 --> 00:27:51,250 little dent which will soon enough pop out 583 00:27:51,250 --> 00:27:56,170 again at the slightest provocation and I'm convinced 584 00:27:56,170 --> 00:27:59,310 that's the issue of the cross and Charles 585 00:27:59,310 --> 00:28:01,530 brought up this morning with the references to 586 00:28:01,530 --> 00:28:04,670 suffering are we willing to enter into those 587 00:28:04,670 --> 00:28:07,110 sufferings and share in those sufferings that we 588 00:28:07,110 --> 00:28:13,030 might also experience his glory humanly we desire 589 00:28:13,030 --> 00:28:16,630 shortcuts unwilling to suffer the tension of seeing 590 00:28:16,630 --> 00:28:20,110 an issue through to its true resolution in 591 00:28:20,110 --> 00:28:23,330 God see I'm struggling some issues of my 592 00:28:23,330 --> 00:28:27,110 own isn't it interesting ironic that I should 593 00:28:27,110 --> 00:28:29,810 be preoccupied with such subjects as bridal love 594 00:28:32,210 --> 00:28:39,510 when I'm not a Derek Gitchin somber what 595 00:28:39,510 --> 00:28:41,010 can I say God has given me the 596 00:28:41,010 --> 00:28:42,570 theme but he has not yet given me 597 00:28:42,570 --> 00:28:45,650 the corresponding reality and one of my own 598 00:28:45,650 --> 00:28:49,030 tensions is not to jump the gun and 599 00:28:49,030 --> 00:28:50,990 to simulate something of my own that has 600 00:28:50,990 --> 00:28:55,770 the appearance of love and is not I 601 00:28:55,770 --> 00:28:59,030 want that which cometh down from above however 602 00:28:59,030 --> 00:29:01,810 long I've got to bear the terrible agony 603 00:29:01,810 --> 00:29:06,610 and the reputation of lovelessness I don't want 604 00:29:06,610 --> 00:29:09,790 a saccharine counterfeit a slap on the back 605 00:29:09,790 --> 00:29:11,090 and a bear hug and a twiddle of 606 00:29:11,090 --> 00:29:13,610 the cheek and some adept phrase that makes 607 00:29:13,610 --> 00:29:15,150 me seem like one of the boys who's 608 00:29:15,150 --> 00:29:19,840 really interested in you when I'm not I 609 00:29:19,840 --> 00:29:22,440 want the burden from God for you as 610 00:29:22,440 --> 00:29:23,860 I want the burden of God for you 611 00:29:23,860 --> 00:29:28,220 for Israel and again not some sentimental thing 612 00:29:28,220 --> 00:29:30,860 that will as easily burst the moment that 613 00:29:30,860 --> 00:29:34,600 you're denied your petrol at the pump cry 614 00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:38,940 for authenticity in God's people for if we 615 00:29:38,940 --> 00:29:42,220 have it not how shall the world know 616 00:29:42,220 --> 00:29:44,680 and see that there's a God who is 617 00:29:44,680 --> 00:29:48,600 true and a kingdom that is true are 618 00:29:48,600 --> 00:29:50,300 you willing to suffer the tension of seeing 619 00:29:50,300 --> 00:29:53,220 an issue through to its true resolution in 620 00:29:53,220 --> 00:29:56,020 God a precious saint I know in California 621 00:29:56,020 --> 00:29:58,460 a profound woman of God said she had 622 00:29:58,460 --> 00:30:02,940 more hope for my marriage than any number 623 00:30:02,940 --> 00:30:05,100 of Christian marriages that she has known that 624 00:30:05,100 --> 00:30:09,200 have started so beautifully and auspiciously when ours 625 00:30:09,200 --> 00:30:12,220 has started almost from the beginning in wretchedness 626 00:30:12,220 --> 00:30:14,820 and problems and difficulties of adjustment beyond speaking 627 00:30:14,820 --> 00:30:17,540 I said how do you say that look 628 00:30:17,540 --> 00:30:19,900 at the history look at the pockmarked history 629 00:30:19,900 --> 00:30:23,880 of this relationship she said that's why she 630 00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:25,940 said I don't man over to the devil 631 00:30:25,940 --> 00:30:27,760 for the destruction of his flesh is to 632 00:30:27,760 --> 00:30:32,180 be lightly disregarded and left that or to 633 00:30:32,180 --> 00:30:37,020 be count demanded or sidestepped by some kind 634 00:30:37,020 --> 00:30:38,880 of devious strategy if that were the case 635 00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:43,020 it's the stake of the issue of truth 636 00:30:43,020 --> 00:30:45,680 and the reality of God in God's people 637 00:30:49,640 --> 00:30:51,540 it's the stake in the issue of the 638 00:30:51,540 --> 00:30:53,980 corruption of deceit and sham as the very 639 00:30:53,980 --> 00:30:56,540 leaven of deception which can permeate and corrupt 640 00:30:56,540 --> 00:30:59,720 the entire lump you just let one phony 641 00:30:59,720 --> 00:31:03,360 confession get through you give a brother the 642 00:31:03,360 --> 00:31:05,340 benefit of the doubt because you're too lazy 643 00:31:05,340 --> 00:31:08,940 or unwilling to suffer the truer resolution and 644 00:31:08,940 --> 00:31:10,780 you allow to come into the lump a 645 00:31:10,780 --> 00:31:13,600 leaven that will surely corrupt it and bring 646 00:31:13,600 --> 00:31:17,280 upon you the very spirit of deception which 647 00:31:17,280 --> 00:31:22,200 has affected him it's the issue of judgment 648 00:31:22,200 --> 00:31:25,820 in the church and the judgments of God 649 00:31:25,820 --> 00:31:27,860 being exercised through the church and in the 650 00:31:27,860 --> 00:31:31,840 world you wanna know something dear children for 651 00:31:31,840 --> 00:31:34,680 all of the hullabaloo about revival and this 652 00:31:34,680 --> 00:31:36,960 great happy charismatic thing and the hundreds of 653 00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:39,860 thousands that have been swept in my own 654 00:31:39,860 --> 00:31:42,680 opinion is that the church of Jesus Christ 655 00:31:42,680 --> 00:31:47,720 has never been in lower repute it's authority 656 00:31:47,720 --> 00:31:53,020 more questioned it's character more assailed the dignity 657 00:31:53,020 --> 00:31:55,620 and the honor of God more traduced the 658 00:31:55,620 --> 00:31:57,960 name of Jesus more blasphemed than it is 659 00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:02,700 in this present hour I'm broken over the 660 00:32:02,700 --> 00:32:06,940 condition of the church because we have not 661 00:32:06,940 --> 00:32:10,840 been jealous over the issues of truth because 662 00:32:10,840 --> 00:32:13,320 we have chosen easier ways because we don't 663 00:32:13,320 --> 00:32:18,920 have a disposition for tension and suffering God 664 00:32:18,920 --> 00:32:21,280 has called the church to be a judge 665 00:32:22,460 --> 00:32:27,860 and a government an exemplar and an influence 666 00:32:27,860 --> 00:32:30,620 in society and in nations and in the 667 00:32:30,620 --> 00:32:34,340 world instead we are a backwater a hiss 668 00:32:34,340 --> 00:32:39,120 and a proverb a Sunday addendum providing the 669 00:32:39,120 --> 00:32:41,160 ministers to invoke the sessions of congress with 670 00:32:41,160 --> 00:32:43,820 prayer and the various other sanctifying things that 671 00:32:43,820 --> 00:32:47,520 society will give us tax deduction for but 672 00:32:47,520 --> 00:32:50,700 not the powerful alternative of another kind of 673 00:32:50,700 --> 00:32:53,380 kingdom that lives in the totality of God's 674 00:32:53,380 --> 00:32:56,620 truth and righteousness and love we ought to 675 00:32:56,620 --> 00:32:58,560 be sobered by the fact that Christianity has 676 00:32:58,560 --> 00:33:01,100 lost its witness and credibility in the very 677 00:33:01,100 --> 00:33:04,840 areas of the world which spawned them the 678 00:33:04,840 --> 00:33:06,480 church at Ephesus in Turkey have you been 679 00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:07,240 to Turkey lately? 680 00:33:07,920 --> 00:33:11,820 I have I've been to Ephesus and some 681 00:33:11,820 --> 00:33:15,420 of the other vestiges and the archaeological ruins 682 00:33:15,420 --> 00:33:17,240 of what was once the glory of an 683 00:33:17,240 --> 00:33:21,820 apostolic church Muslim land from beginning to end 684 00:33:22,380 --> 00:33:24,280 and what do you say about this Muslim 685 00:33:24,280 --> 00:33:27,700 resurgence which flaunts in the face of God's 686 00:33:27,700 --> 00:33:30,960 people a gauntlet that we can't even answer 687 00:33:31,660 --> 00:33:33,760 have you had my experience of standing in 688 00:33:33,760 --> 00:33:36,600 the church at Bethany outside of Jerusalem and 689 00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:38,280 trying to speak a word on the resurrection 690 00:33:38,280 --> 00:33:40,980 of Lazarus when out over the wall next 691 00:33:40,980 --> 00:33:44,680 door comes the wailing of the electronic megaphone 692 00:33:44,680 --> 00:33:46,860 of the call to prayer in the minaret 693 00:33:46,860 --> 00:33:49,680 of the Muslim mosque that drowns out your 694 00:33:49,680 --> 00:33:54,680 words and the spirit of it was intimidating 695 00:33:55,800 --> 00:33:58,860 it wasn't a happenstance it was a malicious 696 00:33:58,860 --> 00:34:02,860 gleeful delight of Islam in silencing the voice 697 00:34:02,860 --> 00:34:06,820 of God through his service don't you ever 698 00:34:06,820 --> 00:34:08,000 pick up a magazine do you know what's 699 00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:11,219 happening in the world there's a Muslim resurgence 700 00:34:11,219 --> 00:34:13,920 in the earth and a little handful of 701 00:34:13,920 --> 00:34:16,360 believers that are in Muslim lands are going 702 00:34:16,360 --> 00:34:19,880 to catch it you pray for us that 703 00:34:19,880 --> 00:34:22,380 the Lord will seal the trip to Egypt 704 00:34:22,900 --> 00:34:24,900 next spring where we've been invited to bring 705 00:34:24,900 --> 00:34:27,500 a five day conference where the Egyptian saints 706 00:34:27,500 --> 00:34:32,239 will face reproach and persecution suffering and martyrdom 707 00:34:34,560 --> 00:34:36,679 how do you think that this Muslim Islam 708 00:34:36,679 --> 00:34:39,500 resurgence has taken place where was God sleeping 709 00:34:40,420 --> 00:34:43,020 or is it God's own statement and judgment 710 00:34:43,020 --> 00:34:45,600 against a sleeping church that he has allowed 711 00:34:45,600 --> 00:34:48,699 this phenomenon to taunt us and to cheapen 712 00:34:48,699 --> 00:34:50,800 us and to disparage us in the world 713 00:34:52,900 --> 00:34:55,040 in the very places where the church was 714 00:34:55,040 --> 00:35:00,100 born there the Muslim resurgence flares up in 715 00:35:00,100 --> 00:35:02,360 Greece the condition of the church is pitiful 716 00:35:02,360 --> 00:35:04,860 beyond all speaking the land of the great 717 00:35:04,860 --> 00:35:10,200 church of Ephesus and Thessalonica 400 Pentecostal believers 718 00:35:10,200 --> 00:35:13,200 in all Athens and everyone divided against the 719 00:35:13,200 --> 00:35:17,260 other you can't believe the pitiful condition of 720 00:35:17,260 --> 00:35:21,320 Pentecost in Greece 4,000 Pentecostal in all 721 00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:23,780 Yugoslavia in a land that is 50% 722 00:35:23,780 --> 00:35:28,700 Muslim the church has lost its witness and 723 00:35:28,700 --> 00:35:30,400 credibility in the very areas of the world 724 00:35:30,400 --> 00:35:34,320 which spawned them societies and nations once acknowledging 725 00:35:34,320 --> 00:35:37,100 the sovereignty of Christ had become totally secularized 726 00:35:37,560 --> 00:35:42,180 even hostile to Christian witness was the process 727 00:35:42,180 --> 00:35:44,380 of that decline and diminution different from what 728 00:35:44,380 --> 00:35:47,080 it is today how much of the responsibility 729 00:35:47,080 --> 00:35:48,860 for it was due to the failure of 730 00:35:48,860 --> 00:35:52,200 men to earnestly contend for the faith which 731 00:35:52,200 --> 00:35:55,100 was once delivered unto the saints and I 732 00:35:55,100 --> 00:35:57,280 have a sneaky feeling that doesn't mean the 733 00:35:57,280 --> 00:36:00,700 doctrines the tenets of the faith it means 734 00:36:00,700 --> 00:36:05,520 the faith the utterness toward God the jealousy 735 00:36:05,520 --> 00:36:07,820 for the righteousness of God for the truth 736 00:36:07,820 --> 00:36:11,700 and the purity of his body we need 737 00:36:11,700 --> 00:36:17,430 to contend for that faith how much is 738 00:36:17,430 --> 00:36:20,730 it the same issue now we need to 739 00:36:20,730 --> 00:36:22,550 watch lest we find ourselves among the many 740 00:36:22,550 --> 00:36:24,410 that will have a form of religion but 741 00:36:24,410 --> 00:36:27,510 deny the power thereof the stakes are enormous 742 00:36:27,510 --> 00:36:30,390 it goes far beyond an individual far beyond 743 00:36:30,390 --> 00:36:32,410 the decision of a body of men who 744 00:36:32,410 --> 00:36:35,270 have responsibility in northern Minnesota it touches a 745 00:36:35,270 --> 00:36:39,770 kingdom it will have eternal reverberations it has 746 00:36:39,770 --> 00:36:41,130 to do with whether there shall actually be 747 00:36:41,130 --> 00:36:43,810 in the earth a kingdom that has its 748 00:36:43,810 --> 00:36:46,190 origin in heaven and shows forth heavenly things 749 00:36:46,190 --> 00:36:50,270 to a despairing mankind a church that will 750 00:36:50,270 --> 00:36:52,390 not be a backwater but will be a 751 00:36:52,390 --> 00:36:54,930 leader not the tail but the head that 752 00:36:54,930 --> 00:36:56,630 will set the tone for society and for 753 00:36:56,630 --> 00:36:59,310 civilization and will show men what truth verity 754 00:36:59,310 --> 00:37:05,170 integrity righteousness true love unfeigned is and it 755 00:37:05,170 --> 00:37:07,370 has to do with issues like this now 756 00:37:09,290 --> 00:37:11,790 the government of God and the integrity of 757 00:37:11,790 --> 00:37:14,270 God himself the kingdom of God as an 758 00:37:14,270 --> 00:37:17,070 actuality in the earth an alternative to a 759 00:37:17,070 --> 00:37:20,210 plastic age to a bankruptcy of the spirit 760 00:37:20,210 --> 00:37:22,470 in which there is no oil an answer 761 00:37:22,470 --> 00:37:28,490 to the cry for authenticity final statement I'm 762 00:37:28,490 --> 00:37:31,990 reading today a magazine about Christianity in Greece 763 00:37:33,710 --> 00:37:36,110 this Greek spokesman writes if you were to 764 00:37:36,110 --> 00:37:40,530 take away lay efforts the initiative of certain 765 00:37:40,530 --> 00:37:42,350 labors in the gospel it is questionable whether 766 00:37:42,350 --> 00:37:44,210 the church as an organized body could raise 767 00:37:44,210 --> 00:37:48,210 up an army of warriors as an offspring 768 00:37:48,210 --> 00:37:50,990 of her spiritual stature and of her historical 769 00:37:50,990 --> 00:37:54,750 splendor the result of this situation is glances 770 00:37:54,750 --> 00:37:57,870 of pity at her expense an extreme fomenting 771 00:37:57,870 --> 00:38:01,670 of religious pride merchandising in religious things and 772 00:38:01,670 --> 00:38:05,490 an inability to take a saving initiative and 773 00:38:05,490 --> 00:38:08,030 to shake the ground of satan at its 774 00:38:08,030 --> 00:38:10,890 foundations and to inflame the hearts of believers 775 00:38:11,930 --> 00:38:16,870 an inability to take Take a saving initiative 776 00:38:16,870 --> 00:38:21,470 in the world, a backwater, no influence, nothing 777 00:38:21,470 --> 00:38:24,070 really to be regarded, a bunch of hokey 778 00:38:24,070 --> 00:38:27,650 pietists at best, a little charismatic hand clappers, 779 00:38:28,510 --> 00:38:31,450 little choruses that are innocuous, charismatic clinics that 780 00:38:31,450 --> 00:38:32,150 affect nothing. 781 00:38:33,090 --> 00:38:35,390 Where is that ponderous presence of God on 782 00:38:35,390 --> 00:38:38,010 the earth, that force, that voice of judgment, 783 00:38:38,530 --> 00:38:40,570 that clarity that teaches men how to live 784 00:38:40,570 --> 00:38:42,390 and shows what truth is? 785 00:38:43,570 --> 00:38:47,190 To take a saving initiative and to shake 786 00:38:47,190 --> 00:38:48,250 the ground of Satan. 787 00:38:50,410 --> 00:38:52,470 Paul I know and Jesus I know, but 788 00:38:52,470 --> 00:38:57,770 the body of Christ in La Porte, Cass 789 00:38:57,770 --> 00:39:01,450 Lake, Bemidji, who? 790 00:39:03,290 --> 00:39:04,650 Spokane, Washington, who? 791 00:39:05,850 --> 00:39:08,270 It's going to take an utterness toward God. 792 00:39:10,710 --> 00:39:13,730 If the church is to have a saving 793 00:39:13,730 --> 00:39:17,770 influence, to shake the ground of Satan at 794 00:39:17,770 --> 00:39:20,190 its foundation and to inflame the hearts of 795 00:39:20,190 --> 00:39:20,530 believers. 796 00:39:21,850 --> 00:39:23,190 Will you pray for me for the church? 797 00:39:24,630 --> 00:39:26,230 Will you understand why it is that we 798 00:39:26,230 --> 00:39:27,990 have been trembling over the responsibility of these 799 00:39:27,990 --> 00:39:28,310 days? 800 00:39:29,330 --> 00:39:31,050 Why it is we're not so quick to 801 00:39:31,050 --> 00:39:36,810 grasp at what seems to be the olive 802 00:39:36,810 --> 00:39:41,130 leaf of peace, the sense of things plastic, 803 00:39:41,870 --> 00:39:44,490 things famed, things hokey, things counterfeit. 804 00:39:45,330 --> 00:39:47,350 Hail, hail the gangs all here, Jesus 79, 805 00:39:48,270 --> 00:39:49,550 hokey things over the nation. 806 00:39:50,230 --> 00:39:53,430 Great cavalcades, thousands of souls in their halters, 807 00:39:54,030 --> 00:39:55,990 cracking gum and stuffing their face with potato 808 00:39:55,990 --> 00:39:59,090 chips listening to pontifical addresses about let's forgive 809 00:39:59,090 --> 00:40:01,890 the Catholic Church without the necessity for repentance 810 00:40:01,890 --> 00:40:04,190 of the blood of martyrs that has flown 811 00:40:04,190 --> 00:40:05,910 incessantly for 2,000 years. 812 00:40:07,370 --> 00:40:09,270 Well, some hotshot speaker may have the privilege 813 00:40:09,270 --> 00:40:10,710 of forgiving them, but it's not my prerogative 814 00:40:10,710 --> 00:40:13,790 and especially without any evidence of true repentance. 815 00:40:14,210 --> 00:40:14,970 Where's their breaking? 816 00:40:15,490 --> 00:40:17,710 Where's their acknowledgement of what they have wreaked 817 00:40:17,710 --> 00:40:20,110 on the Hutterites and the Mennonites and the 818 00:40:20,110 --> 00:40:22,290 Anabaptists and the brave men and women who 819 00:40:22,290 --> 00:40:23,670 were tied back to back and thrown into 820 00:40:23,670 --> 00:40:25,530 streams to drown or were burned at the 821 00:40:25,530 --> 00:40:28,350 stake or cut into pieces and flogged to 822 00:40:28,350 --> 00:40:28,610 death? 823 00:40:29,290 --> 00:40:31,890 I'm not so quick to pronounce a cheapie. 824 00:40:32,270 --> 00:40:34,250 I'm waiting to see the authentic signs of 825 00:40:34,250 --> 00:40:37,890 brokenness, acknowledgement of true sin, that there might 826 00:40:37,890 --> 00:40:41,690 be true restoration, true reconciliation, true fellowship at 827 00:40:41,690 --> 00:40:42,970 the cross of Christ Jesus. 828 00:40:43,890 --> 00:40:44,890 Shall we pray for truth? 829 00:40:56,960 --> 00:41:03,400 Precious God and head of the church, you 830 00:41:03,400 --> 00:41:06,160 who gave your life's blood for your eternal 831 00:41:06,160 --> 00:41:09,260 masterpiece, the church of Jesus Christ, that it 832 00:41:09,260 --> 00:41:10,860 might be a glory unto thy name. 833 00:41:12,220 --> 00:41:14,440 Lord, will you break our hearts, mighty God? 834 00:41:14,960 --> 00:41:17,340 Would to God I could experience the relief 835 00:41:17,340 --> 00:41:18,040 of tears. 836 00:41:18,300 --> 00:41:20,420 Let this lump, mighty God, that is in 837 00:41:20,420 --> 00:41:22,060 my chest break. 838 00:41:23,200 --> 00:41:25,740 Let there be a groaning and a crying 839 00:41:25,740 --> 00:41:29,380 and a writhing for the lamentable condition of 840 00:41:29,380 --> 00:41:31,040 the church that bears your name in the 841 00:41:31,040 --> 00:41:34,080 earth, that is a reproach to your holy 842 00:41:34,080 --> 00:41:39,380 name, that is smiled at by knowledgeable men 843 00:41:39,380 --> 00:41:42,460 and reporters and slicksters about the born-again 844 00:41:42,460 --> 00:41:45,860 football players, the born-againers and all of 845 00:41:45,860 --> 00:41:49,260 the cheapie phrases that touch holy things and 846 00:41:49,260 --> 00:41:50,000 defile them. 847 00:41:51,840 --> 00:41:54,000 Precious God, will you restore to us a 848 00:41:54,000 --> 00:41:55,780 sense of reverence for you? 849 00:41:57,260 --> 00:41:59,560 Will you restore to the church the fear 850 00:41:59,560 --> 00:42:00,940 and the awe of God? 851 00:42:01,960 --> 00:42:04,340 We're willing, precious God, to see your glory 852 00:42:04,340 --> 00:42:07,300 and power restored to the point that if 853 00:42:07,300 --> 00:42:09,840 it means some of us being carried out 854 00:42:09,840 --> 00:42:11,040 feet first, we're willing. 855 00:42:14,200 --> 00:42:16,760 Let the church be an awesome entity in 856 00:42:16,760 --> 00:42:20,520 the earth where men are exercising by the 857 00:42:20,520 --> 00:42:22,760 power of your spirit true government and true 858 00:42:22,760 --> 00:42:25,380 authority, that their words shall not be smirked 859 00:42:25,380 --> 00:42:28,540 at or laughed at or dismissed, but that 860 00:42:28,540 --> 00:42:30,660 men would receive them with the appropriate tremblings 861 00:42:30,660 --> 00:42:33,700 they deserve, that they might be broken and 862 00:42:33,700 --> 00:42:34,560 not just bent. 863 00:42:36,880 --> 00:42:38,160 Lord, if there are any of us here 864 00:42:38,160 --> 00:42:42,160 tonight who are bent but not broken, we 865 00:42:42,160 --> 00:42:43,020 ask your mercy. 866 00:42:44,520 --> 00:42:47,100 See us as the pathetic victims we are 867 00:42:47,100 --> 00:42:48,300 of a cheapie age. 868 00:42:49,420 --> 00:42:50,880 Easy come, easy go. 869 00:42:51,680 --> 00:42:53,260 Easy decisions for Jesus. 870 00:42:54,000 --> 00:42:55,500 Why don't you accept him already? 871 00:42:56,540 --> 00:43:00,200 Nobody had ever required of us a repentance 872 00:43:00,200 --> 00:43:01,600 that we might believe. 873 00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:06,220 How many of us are continuing to struggle, 874 00:43:06,480 --> 00:43:08,860 Lord, with stubborn problems and habits and difficulties 875 00:43:08,860 --> 00:43:12,600 that will not go away because we can't 876 00:43:12,600 --> 00:43:16,600 stand the suffering and the humiliation of confessing 877 00:43:16,600 --> 00:43:17,280 them to another? 878 00:43:17,920 --> 00:43:20,060 We've been living in the spirit of false 879 00:43:20,060 --> 00:43:23,560 confession and we're struggling with the same stubborn 880 00:43:23,560 --> 00:43:25,200 problems that will not go. 881 00:43:27,220 --> 00:43:28,780 Mighty God, will you help us? 882 00:43:29,500 --> 00:43:31,280 Will you break us for the church's sake? 883 00:43:32,580 --> 00:43:34,460 Will you purge us, precious God, of all 884 00:43:34,460 --> 00:43:38,970 the plastic things, all that sugary stuff and 885 00:43:38,970 --> 00:43:44,170 marshmallow stuff, of sham-fabricated affection and love 886 00:43:44,170 --> 00:43:46,350 which is only human and passing and qualified 887 00:43:47,610 --> 00:43:48,970 and has to do with whether we're in 888 00:43:48,970 --> 00:43:49,830 a good mood or not. 889 00:43:50,670 --> 00:43:52,090 Will you get that truth out of us, 890 00:43:52,190 --> 00:43:53,630 Lord God, which people are so quick to 891 00:43:53,630 --> 00:43:57,090 accept and give us a disposition even to 892 00:43:57,090 --> 00:43:59,690 suffer, lovelessness, while we wait for that which 893 00:43:59,690 --> 00:44:01,110 is authentic to fill our hearts? 894 00:44:03,130 --> 00:44:04,130 Have a real people. 895 00:44:07,630 --> 00:44:10,130 Have glory in your name, precious God. 896 00:44:10,710 --> 00:44:12,050 Have a true church. 897 00:44:13,270 --> 00:44:15,350 Be the influence in the earth again that 898 00:44:15,350 --> 00:44:15,850 you ought. 899 00:44:16,430 --> 00:44:18,970 Take back the territory that has been ceded 900 00:44:18,970 --> 00:44:20,150 and yielded to Islam. 901 00:44:21,850 --> 00:44:24,090 Let there be a vibrant church of Jesus 902 00:44:24,090 --> 00:44:26,610 Christ again in Greece and in Turkey and 903 00:44:26,610 --> 00:44:27,150 in Jerusalem. 904 00:44:28,750 --> 00:44:31,070 Bring your people to true repentance and true 905 00:44:31,070 --> 00:44:31,530 return. 906 00:44:32,430 --> 00:44:34,570 We'll thank you and praise you, precious God, 907 00:44:35,230 --> 00:44:37,010 for the love that pursues us and will 908 00:44:37,010 --> 00:44:39,490 not let us go, for thy kingdom and 909 00:44:39,490 --> 00:44:40,390 for thy name's sake. 910 00:46:30,520 --> 00:46:30,780 Amen. 911 00:48:54,270 --> 00:48:58,970 I have a concern on my heart, and 912 00:48:58,970 --> 00:49:02,550 I don't know how to validly express it, 913 00:49:02,670 --> 00:49:08,010 but my concern is that we don't try 914 00:49:08,010 --> 00:49:15,510 to, even in our sincerity, sing away the 915 00:49:15,510 --> 00:49:20,190 tension of this moment, but that whatever God 916 00:49:20,190 --> 00:49:23,350 wants to do, that we allow him to 917 00:49:23,350 --> 00:49:29,130 do that, and that we take time, if 918 00:49:29,130 --> 00:49:32,110 necessary, to wait on the Lord in silence, 919 00:49:32,210 --> 00:49:35,390 or we dismiss the meeting, or whatever the 920 00:49:35,390 --> 00:49:36,310 Lord would have us do. 921 00:49:49,870 --> 00:49:50,430 Amen. 922 00:49:53,180 --> 00:49:55,780 It's not my custom to come before such 923 00:49:55,780 --> 00:49:58,740 a large group, but I have a small 924 00:49:58,740 --> 00:49:59,420 word for you. 925 00:50:02,790 --> 00:50:07,250 I spent last night with a brother whose 926 00:50:07,250 --> 00:50:11,390 heart is torn over the same situation, and 927 00:50:11,390 --> 00:50:13,090 it's more towards the repentance of the body 928 00:50:13,090 --> 00:50:15,930 of Christ than one man. 929 00:50:17,090 --> 00:50:19,850 The issue at which has been cast before 930 00:50:19,850 --> 00:50:23,430 you, I hope you dare not take it 931 00:50:23,430 --> 00:50:31,870 lightly, because my father's tears cry for your 932 00:50:31,870 --> 00:50:34,490 heart, and they fall upon my soul. 933 00:50:41,200 --> 00:50:45,300 I want your heart, and I'll settle for 934 00:50:45,300 --> 00:50:46,080 nothing less. 935 00:50:48,600 --> 00:50:50,920 Dare you to stand in my presence and 936 00:50:50,920 --> 00:50:52,660 throw this in my face, and I shall 937 00:50:52,660 --> 00:50:53,460 consume you. 938 00:50:58,420 --> 00:51:04,220 Truly this world shall see my wrath, and 939 00:51:04,220 --> 00:51:08,320 they shall see the glory of my saints 940 00:51:08,320 --> 00:51:14,700 revealed in the hearts of those that dare 941 00:51:14,700 --> 00:51:15,280 love me. 942 00:51:19,080 --> 00:51:27,210 Even so, come Lord Jesus, and I know 943 00:51:27,210 --> 00:51:29,310 there are those hearts here that are not 944 00:51:29,310 --> 00:51:30,250 yielded. 945 00:51:31,130 --> 00:51:37,520 You're not playing a game, and I truly 946 00:51:37,520 --> 00:51:41,340 can feel those tears, and it's just like 947 00:51:41,340 --> 00:51:43,980 drops of steel when they hit my heart, 948 00:51:44,740 --> 00:51:48,280 and he weeps, and he receives the repentance 949 00:51:48,280 --> 00:51:52,400 of those that are repentant, but he desires 950 00:51:52,400 --> 00:51:54,700 all of you, every single one of you. 951 00:51:55,200 --> 00:52:01,270 There's a place, and if I could spend 952 00:52:01,270 --> 00:52:02,750 tonight too, if it would do any good, 953 00:52:02,830 --> 00:52:06,890 I'd do that too, just with him, but 954 00:52:06,890 --> 00:52:08,650 only do what he calls, and that's what 955 00:52:08,650 --> 00:52:10,930 you must do, only what he calls you 956 00:52:10,930 --> 00:52:11,470 to do. 957 00:52:12,230 --> 00:52:13,810 If it means give your life, you give 958 00:52:13,810 --> 00:52:21,080 it, because you love him, and it's not 959 00:52:21,080 --> 00:52:24,460 a game, and it's not a play. 960 00:52:26,340 --> 00:52:28,780 We desire to see life come forth, because 961 00:52:28,780 --> 00:52:30,440 we can touch a brother and heal him, 962 00:52:32,520 --> 00:52:37,620 and indeed we shall, but cry with my 963 00:52:37,620 --> 00:52:41,920 father and with I, and yield yourself to 964 00:52:41,920 --> 00:52:49,570 the beckon of his spirit, and I know 965 00:52:49,570 --> 00:52:52,510 these issues have not been a short time 966 00:52:52,510 --> 00:52:56,210 in coming, and it's not easy to see 967 00:52:56,210 --> 00:52:59,290 them birthed in your own life, or in 968 00:52:59,290 --> 00:52:59,930 your brother's. 969 00:53:03,470 --> 00:53:05,710 Like Brother Gitchum here, I know him very 970 00:53:05,710 --> 00:53:09,530 little, but I have died for that man 971 00:53:09,530 --> 00:53:18,270 this year, and it's not easy to see 972 00:53:18,270 --> 00:53:21,490 someone so frivolously dance before God, and kick 973 00:53:21,490 --> 00:53:28,720 it in his face as dust, and God 974 00:53:28,720 --> 00:53:30,940 has chosen that man, and blessed him, and 975 00:53:30,940 --> 00:53:35,960 sent him partway around the world to bless 976 00:53:35,960 --> 00:53:37,940 us with the love that the world has 977 00:53:37,940 --> 00:53:43,990 so long waited to see, and that knot 978 00:53:43,990 --> 00:53:46,870 that twists within you is not there because 979 00:53:46,870 --> 00:53:55,010 of indigestion, it's your father, and he wants 980 00:53:55,010 --> 00:53:59,410 your insides, and if you are called, he's 981 00:53:59,410 --> 00:54:03,030 going to get them, because he, nor I, 982 00:54:03,490 --> 00:54:05,930 nor anyone else called to this ministry will 983 00:54:05,930 --> 00:54:06,590 let you go. 984 00:54:10,030 --> 00:54:13,050 And for that we are committed, and for 985 00:54:13,050 --> 00:54:13,910 that we shall die. 986 00:54:16,270 --> 00:54:17,150 God bless you. 987 00:54:27,470 --> 00:54:29,370 Charles and I are just whispering together about 988 00:54:29,370 --> 00:54:33,070 should we dismiss or not, and so I 989 00:54:33,070 --> 00:54:36,450 was instructing him what he should say, he 990 00:54:36,450 --> 00:54:39,830 said, you dismiss them, and I was saying, 991 00:54:40,050 --> 00:54:44,290 let them go soberly, and not to leave 992 00:54:44,290 --> 00:54:47,450 bent, but to invite God to press, to 993 00:54:47,450 --> 00:54:50,870 increase the pressure unto breaking, and if they 994 00:54:50,870 --> 00:54:53,790 have nothing to repent for in themselves, let 995 00:54:53,790 --> 00:54:55,770 them repent for the condition of the church, 996 00:54:56,690 --> 00:54:59,370 break and weep for the church, be broken 997 00:54:59,370 --> 00:55:02,930 for the condition of the church, don't let 998 00:55:02,930 --> 00:55:04,550 it be a dull pressure that will in 999 00:55:04,550 --> 00:55:08,130 time subside, but invite the Lord to press 1000 00:55:08,130 --> 00:55:10,890 unto breaking, don't bend, don't be satisfied with 1001 00:55:10,890 --> 00:55:11,770 merely being bent. 1002 00:55:15,360 --> 00:55:18,400 So Lord, we just ask you to seal 1003 00:55:18,400 --> 00:55:20,360 what was the work of your spirit tonight, 1004 00:55:21,100 --> 00:55:23,280 whatever the human admixture, Lord, we ask you 1005 00:55:23,280 --> 00:55:25,620 to make that null and void, dissipate it 1006 00:55:25,620 --> 00:55:28,600 out of our memory and consciousness, but let 1007 00:55:28,600 --> 00:55:30,220 that which came out of your own pure 1008 00:55:30,220 --> 00:55:34,620 heart continue there to work, mighty God, to 1009 00:55:34,620 --> 00:55:38,080 vibrate, to penetrate, Lord, to work a real 1010 00:55:38,080 --> 00:55:42,400 work, gracious God, to break us, have a 1011 00:55:42,400 --> 00:55:44,680 supple-yielded people, mighty God, who live in 1012 00:55:44,680 --> 00:55:48,740 the shadow of the cross, not a phony, 1013 00:55:48,960 --> 00:55:52,000 pious people, but those who are sinners saved 1014 00:55:52,000 --> 00:55:55,360 by grace daily, who can hear the confessions 1015 00:55:55,360 --> 00:55:57,960 of a brother, for they themselves live beneath 1016 00:55:57,960 --> 00:55:59,940 the shadow of the same cross. 1017 00:56:00,940 --> 00:56:03,640 Thank you, Lord, for this love of which 1018 00:56:03,640 --> 00:56:04,820 we're conscious tonight. 1019 00:56:06,200 --> 00:56:10,600 Seal us in this particular speaking, strive with 1020 00:56:10,600 --> 00:56:12,400 us through the night hours and in these 1021 00:56:12,400 --> 00:56:14,960 days to come, and let your word have 1022 00:56:14,960 --> 00:56:17,920 all of the effect and intent that was 1023 00:56:17,920 --> 00:56:18,840 in your heart to perform. 1024 00:56:19,500 --> 00:56:21,200 We bless your holy name and thank you 1025 00:56:21,200 --> 00:56:23,040 for such a love as this, a real 1026 00:56:23,040 --> 00:56:26,660 God, not playing with kids, but speaking to 1027 00:56:26,660 --> 00:56:28,500 us as true sons and daughters. 1028 00:56:29,420 --> 00:56:30,100 Bless your name. 1029 00:56:30,440 --> 00:56:31,720 Dismiss us with your blessing. 1030 00:56:32,400 --> 00:56:33,700 In Yeshua's name we pray. 1031 00:56:34,080 --> 00:56:34,420 Amen.