Then the word of the Lord came to
me, saying, Before I formed you in the
womb, I knew you.
Before you were born, I sanctified you, and
I ordained you as a prophet to the
nations.
Then said I, Our Lord God, behold, I
cannot speak, for I am a youth.
But the Lord said to me, Do not
say, I am a youth, for you shall
go to all to whom I send you,
and whatever I command you, you shall speak.
And then Psalm 139,
verse 4, Sorry,
that's verse 13.
For you have formed my inward parts, you
have covered me in my mother's womb.
You have covered me, or woven me.
This is a marvelous thing, which we find
here.
The
Lord
said
to me, Do not say, I am a
youth, for you shall go to all to
whom I send you, and whatever I command
you, you shall speak.
A few weeks back, I pointed out to
you, and at the ministers' conference I said,
that it has been shown statistically that if
just one Christian wins one other person as
a disciple of the Lord in one year,
and then the next year another person, and
so on, and that disciple wins one other,
and it continues, in 33 years the gospel
will conquer the whole world.
The whole year spent on just one soul,
it seems so vain, or so little.
It seems like such
a
long time spent on one person, how will
one stand before the Lord without even one
soul you've won?
Last Sunday I wasn't here, I was at
a funeral, at the funeral of an Ngozi,
or chief.
And so, it's
been two or three weeks back that I
said this statistic, now is there a person
you have won to the Lord?
I speak this
purposely, because
so many people come into services, and they
hear and receive rich seed, which they go
out with, but I don't know where it
disappears to, whether the birds of the heavens
come and devour it, where has it gone
to?
The truth is, if the Lord Jesus has
entered into your heart, the first thing will
be that you go out to win other
souls.
You know, before I became a Christian, I
had no concern for black people.
But when the Lord Jesus came into my
heart, the very first instinct I had was
to go to our black people, to let
them experience what I've experienced.
Fifty-two years ago.
When the Lord Jesus came into my heart,
the first instinct I had was to go
to our black people, to let them experience
what I've experienced.
When the Lord Jesus came into my heart,
the first instinct I had was to go
to our black people, to let them experience
what I've experienced.
And so I took my German Bible, and
I would read a verse, and then read
it in a Zulu Bible, and I'd go
and take that to the huts of the
people living out in the hills.
And I would go into these huts with
the smoke, which I was not used to.
I'd have to really go down, as I
shared the gospel of the Lord Jesus, because
of a passion to win them to the
Lord.
That was fifty-two years ago that I
first began to do it.
If you do not have a passion for
souls, I say your Jesus is dead.
And when you get home, you go and
tell the Lord that He is dead.
The preacher said that He is dead, because
He has no passion for souls.
We grew up with guns on farms.
I remember once taking five bullets with me,
and I went and shot some birds.
I came back with ten birds.
With one bullet, I was able to kill
two at a time.
We were marksmen, and it wasn't common for
us to miss.
And I went out with
my gun and my Bible, went to some
huts, and I remember that first man who
I won to the Lord.
I came home so brimming with joy.
I said to them at home, just guess
what happened today?
They said, you must have shot a certain
creature.
A rittbuck.
I said, no.
I said something much greater.
I said, there is a man whom I
have led to Jesus.
And that was a greater joy than shooting.
And by the way, shooting, we would go
hunting, but we would never use it to
shoot at people.
Those are just criminals, and they should not
have a weapon.
They are as violent as this girl who
ran over her boyfriend.
Don't have your affairs.
Have your affairs.
Try and get what you want, and you'll
get even more than you want.
It's far...
Far better to walk with the Lord Jesus
and let him show you your marriage partner.
Even your enemy, you should have a passion
to bring that person to the Lord.
But if there is hatred towards that person,
then your Jesus is dead in you.
If you've still got enemies, people you don't
like, people that you don't treat as your
own, let me tell you, your Jesus is
dead.
It's a different person.
A different one to the one I serve.
And I don't want to have anything to
do with him.
That Jesus won us was so that we
would live for him, and he would use
us to win others.
Now here in Jeremiah, and in the psalm,
we find this marvelous truth.
The Lord says, Before I formed you in
your mother's womb, I knew you.
The Bible says, Even before he created heaven
and earth, he had already seen you.
And had called you by his name.
And he says here, I formed you, in
fact, I weaved you in the womb of
your mother.
God has woven each one of us with
a particular plan for you and for me.
He decided the exact time when you would
be born.
That wasn't chosen by us.
No male can say that he decided that
he would be a boy, or a girl,
that she would be born as a girl.
You can't decide those things.
His highness was not made by himself, not
formed by himself, but was knitted, woven by
the Lord, saying at a certain time, you
will be king there in Swaziland.
And the Euro choir, which is here before
us, each single member of that choir was
chosen and woven by God, knitted in a
particular way, every attribute, even their height, was
chosen, decided by the Lord.
Formed your nose and your ears, your lips,
your skin, your feet.
All.
And above that, your mind, your brains.
Each one, to each one he gave talents.
And to one he gave this, and to
one he decided this for them.
Why?
So that you would enter into his plan,
which is unique for your life.
You who try and imitate someone else.
You attempt and try.
A certain black man in America tried to
behave and be like a white man.
Is there one that you can think of?
No.
Is there any black man here who doesn't
know him?
Even the whites know him.
Even his somewhat flattened nose, he had He
had it, he had his nose modified somewhat
to sharpen it a little bit.
The problem is that his His
modified nose keeps on troubling him, it peels
off, it comes apart, and the plastic surgeons
need to repair it again and again.
Now I'm not telling you a fairy tale.
It is really like that.
And even if I don't say his name,
you know him.
Don't trouble yourself.
If God has made you a Swazi or
a Zulu or an Indian or a white,
whatever, that's how God made you, with full
intention.
Don't try and make yourself to be like
them.
You'll find a white person tanning in the
sun, trying to get as dark as possible,
so that he looks like a tramp that's
been wandering on the road, and he looks
like he's so dark, he's a colored.
Let's be thankful and satisfied for what we
are.
With what we are.
The white wants to be brown.
The brown wants to be white, and nobody
seems satisfied with the way God has made
him.
And we dye our hair.
The one with white hair makes it dark,
and the one with dark hair makes it
blonde, etc.
And a person simply is not satisfied and
content with the way God has made him.
People without homes.
Wanting homes.
Those with homes not wanting homes.
We found in Switzerland a group of young
rich people who have homes, who had left
their homes and are sleeping on the roofs
in a very poor area where people are
homeless.
And they would inhabit homes that were dilapidated
and where there were no people.
And they would go into these broken down
homes, and they would be like spooks.
And oh, how many spooks there are around.
And you'll find some men will try and
change their form and will go to the
surgeon to enhance their memory glands to be
like a girl, a woman.
Some men even want to give birth to
children.
Because if a man has the first and
the woman the second, there will be no
third.
That's what they want.
I don't know whether God will ever allow
such a thing to happen.
But if it does, I hope that they
suffer from birth pains like never before, like
it is unknown.
And that they will skrk vaka through it.
Why do we say such fairytales, such strange
things, weird things?
Because people have become weird.
People together.
If you are not satisfied with what you
are, and you do not live for the
Lord who made you, you will be like
a fish out of water.
And where do fish out of water go?
Into the frying pan.
But let me say, Woe to you if
the Lord has molded you and created you
for something in particular and you are not
found in that.
Your future will
be bad in hell.
Remember that hell was not created for humans,
it was created for the devil and his
angels.
But if you so identify with the devil,
then you will go where you want to
go.
So be satisfied with what you are.
Be content with what you are.
The one who is unmarried is craving to
get married.
But you should be satisfied with the way
God has made you.
And one who is married, but you will
find a married person who is praying, Lord,
get rid of my spouse.
Or a woman who says, oh, if only
my husband would die.
She has.
For she already has eyes for other men.
Get out of that which is wrong.
Stop with this type of thinking and enter
into the plan of God for your life.
Maybe you decide on your own, I'm going
to be a doctor.
But it could be that you die of
AIDS even at university from AIDS.
You die before you finish your studies.
If it's the plan of God that you
should be a doctor or a professor, that's
wonderful.
But if not, that will be heavy upon
you.
So realize who you are and what the
Lord has called you to and say, Lord,
thank you.
There's a plan which you have made for
me.
If your feet are size 9 or size
12 or size 4, then be satisfied with
what you've got.
Don't try and get surgery to modify you
for a different size to make it bigger
or smaller.
Say, Lord, I'm thankful for the way you
have weaved me, woven me.
I've got an English lady's foot, size 2.
I remember around about 1950, 51 or so,
a lady came in to the shop there
and said, I have an English lady's foot,
size 2 only.
If the Lord has given you size 2,
then use your size 2.
Don't try and imitate someone else.
If you're imitating other people, who's going to
be you?
Let me illustrate with five people.
Let's take Peter in the Bible.
Peter was always forward in his doing things,
always the first.
Direct, bold and to the point and consequent.
Sometimes he was wrong.
Sometimes right.
That's the way God made him to be.
On the day of Pentecost, Peter
stood up and the others stood up with
him.
Why?
That was his position.
That was what he was.
He didn't have to try and imitate John.
No, he was who he was.
Jesus released Jesus to work in you, that
he would bring other souls to himself.
Peter was also uneducated.
But he had Jesus.
Jesus But
the Jerusalem council marveled when they acknowledged that
he was uneducated, yet spoke with such authority
and wisdom.
And they recognized he had been with Jesus.
Paul Paul was an intellectual.
He had studied under the professorship of Gamaliel,
of the best professors in the world.
He was gifted intellectually.
Academically, he was very gifted.
He was studied in the art of logic
and debate.
And he was able to debate with those
who rejected the scriptures.
He was able to show theologically, from the
scriptures, that Jesus is the Christ.
God also used his mind, his intellect.
But astonishingly, Paul,
as academic and intellectual as he was, was
not sent to the intellectuals, but to the
humble people.
The uneducated.
Peter Not a theologian.
God sent him to the theologians.
Do you see how God came to this?
God does things that are opposite to our
minds.
That's how he formed and molded Peter and
used him.
And he won souls.
Paul, he molded and he formed and he
used him in that unique way.
That blind man who had been sitting, hearing
that Jesus was coming by, cried out, saying,
Son of David, have mercy on me.
And after being healed, the Pharisees and the
scribes said, Who healed you?
Who made you to see?
And they even challenged his parents and said,
Who's to blame for healing his eyes?
John 9.24, you'll read that.
And coming to him, the second time, they
interrogated him yet again about who had healed
him.
And he said, What?
Do you also want to be disciples of
Jesus?
As you can see, I was blind, but
now I can see.
He wasn't a scribe.
He knew one thing, I was blind and
now I see.
That was his testimony.
And through that, he testified and won people.
A certain lady, which I knew very well,
said, whom I knew very well.
And she would often say, as she was
with us boys, she would say, Oh, if
only I was a boy.
But no, she was made to be like
that.
That is her calling.
If I were a boy, I wouldn't have
been born.
It's utter foolishness.
If you like to be something else, be
what you are, but fit for the Master's
use.
You might say, You might say, I'm not
a preacher.
I'm not an evangelist.
I'm not a minister.
Well, be what you are.
Like this blind man who was healed.
He gave his testimony and the Lord used
it mightily.
The Samaritan woman left her pots of water
right there.
Running to her town, she called out to
the people and said, Come and see the
man.
See if he's not the Christ.
He who has told me everything I've ever
done.
That's all she knew.
She had five men.
And one didn't even belong to her.
Belonged to another woman.
Women can be naughty.
But men are not excluded.
She ran to them.
Come, he told.
Look at him.
Whether he isn't the Christ.
He told me everything that I have done.
What a marvelous weapon in God's hands.
How she won people.
Maybe you'll be judged by her one day.
She ran to them.
She called out to the people and said,
Come and see the man.
That's all she knew.
How easy it is to testify.
You just tell them what Jesus has done
to you.
She ran to them.
Whether he isn't the Christ.
He who has told me everything I've ever
done.
Maybe you'll be judged by her one day.
What a marvelous weapon in God's hands.
How easy it is to testify.
You just tell them what Jesus has done
to you.
Maybe you'll be judged by her one day.
That's all she knew.
It should be easy for you to win
someone else.
You should be busy with winning souls.
And that's why I emphasize this point.
Should you not, you are a rotten egg.
And it will have a terrific smell one
day when the egg breaks.
Now I've illustrated with a few.
Because God made them and wove them so
that they would be perfectly formed uniquely to
fit his plan.
We read also in the Bible that Jesus
went to the shore of a certain sea.
At Gennesaret.
And there he found a tax collector.
Now I don't know whether he had gotten
to the boat to cross the sea.
Maybe he was a tax collector at the
sea.
Where the people went over to the other
side of the sea.
Maybe there was a ferry.
Like in the olden days, Tugela Ferry.
And then when you came there, he charged
you money to go across the river near
the sea.
Now.
He had been with Luke.
And this man was a tax collector.
His being called Levi.
In the gospels of Mark and Luke, he
is called Levi.
Levi.
One of his names was Matthew.
Matthew means gift of God.
Some theologians speculate that perhaps he received that
very name from Jesus.
But that could be.
As you also might have more than one
name.
As I have my name Erlo and Stegan.
Maybe his surname was Levi.
Could be that his name was Matthew.
His name was Matthew.
He had a wonderful name meaning gift of
God.
Do you know that the tax collectors in
the time of our Lord were despised people.
They were hated and looked down upon.
They were in government service.
In the state service of Rome.
And the Jews despised them.
Many of them were corrupt.
If there was two rand.
If there was one rand tax.
They would take two and pocket one rand
for themselves.
As you can see.
As you can see in state offices today.
You don't get anything right unless you pass
a bribe or something under the table.
Now this was a Levite.
That signified that he was of the tribe.
The priesthood tribe.
Now we can ask the question.
Matthew what happened to you?
How were you so degraded?
How can you be in the service of
the Roman Empire?
A businessman.
And you from the priestly priesthood.
But you see Matthew.
Levi.
Indicates that Matthew.
Sprang from a priestly line.
But where do we find him?
With the tax collectors.
The publicans.
Lost all self respect.
He had become a nothing.
Abashah.
Some young people are born of Christian parents.
But today they have lost everything.
They are nothing.
They are like Matthew.
Maybe you are a daughter of Christian parents.
And now you are smoking.
You are wearing worldly clothing.
You are having love affairs.
And we say to you.
What happened to you Matthew?
You have a wife.
You have a son.
You have a daughter.
You have a son.
You have a daughter.
You have a son.
Maybe born of a preacher.
But now you are into lies.
You are deceiving others.
And we have to say to you Matthew.
This is not your position.
This is not your calling.
We are actually shocked.
That a Levite.
Could be found in such business.
And you call yourself a Levite as well.
More than a Levite.
You say you are a child of God.
You are a Christian.
And where are you to be found?
But amazingly.
Jesus came.
Jesus arrives.
Jesus the evangelist.
And he says.
Matthew.
Matthew follow me.
Matthew simply.
Matthew simply got up.
And did what he was told.
And he followed Jesus.
Leaving his business and his trade behind.
What an astonishing man.
He had been a sinner.
Had been one with the tax collectors.
Had been a wealthy man.
Had been a judge.
Some people.
Poor people.
seem to think that being poor is a
merit system for getting into heaven and by
that they automatically will find entrance into heaven
no poor people can be full of thieving
lies and deceit you might find a rich
man as difficult as the Lord said as
it is to get into heaven who is
in heaven like this Matthew who had been
rich you might be poor financially but when
it comes to evil you are wealthy
this
man this Matthew who was called gift of
God was found inside paganism and not in
the things of God but amazingly
when
Jesus call came Matthew simply stood up and
left all and followed him he didn't say
well let me first arrange a manager for
my business no he left all and followed
Christ this Matthew
is
a hero of heroes and no wonder that
the first gospel the first book in the
New Testament is Matthew's this
Levi this Matthew left all to follow Christ
we know nothing of his friends and their
whereabouts we know nothing is recorded of them
but this Matthew he followed Jesus Jesus called
him and leaving all he followed Jesus why
said the Johnny then what did he do
what did he do he held a great
feast which Luke records as a great feast
Luke says a great feast when Matthew speaks
about himself he said he just made a
meal go to my tail um I a
pala and gay akin dabba what he begu
who wasn't Jay he didn't post about himself
but dr.
Luke records that Matthew held a huge feast
for everyone it was as they would have
been the old friends other tax collectors unbelieving
people so that they would get to know
Jesus you can read the story in Luke
5 29 when I found Ella who you're
in what got Luka 5 he first got
29 he had money he could prepare the
best banquet why in a Miley what was
a good tea along you see it daily
early cool most probably he wasn't just a
small tax collector and he called all his
friends he wanted them to be at the
feast I think so but oh fuck get
the leaf gizmo Benzene it is very specially
go bang is funny but bumble new trees
he wanted all his friends to be there
as well his best friends he seemed to
be a man of means and he wanted
them to know Jesus and
the
and the scribes they were very upset they
said why does this Jesus of they said
to the disciples why does this Lord of
yours this Jesus allow the plebs and these
sinners these publicans to be here Jesus
answered them simply said well the healthy people
don't need a doctor only the sick need
a healer how marvelous wherever a person is
found by Christ he sets himself to find
others if
you are found by Christ you'll set it
as your goal to find others as well
if not it is difficult we were
molded we were woven knitted by God
one
was made to be a black another made
to be a white another made to be
a colored another person made to be an
Indian molded knitted by God never complain and
say all pity me that I'm like this
since
you were made as you are by the
Lord purposefully with his intent in mind therefore
be what you are what the Lord made
you to be working for him winning others
go out and testify of the Lord Jesus
bring the far bring those who far off
near
maybe
if the Lord keeps us before next Sunday
you will have won a person that you
can come to a service with someone propagate
the gospel do you hear you women your
wives and your husbands young people children school
children haven't you won anybody at school we
know are you spiritually barren what will you
say to God when you meet with him
he molded you he knitted you he made
you to be what you are in this
present generation so shine for him be a
lamp for him
I've
illustrated with five different people and you've seen
for yourself how uniquely God worked in each
situation it was different now
to Jeremiah God said I knew you before
you were born and before you were molded
I am and knitted I chose you what
again Jeremy what he give me say that
not that I look good to my own
profit