It's a wonderful joy to be with you
again.
I've been looking forward to coming back since
I was here last year.
I can't help but look at all the
faces that we've known through the years and
do some reminiscing.
Would you allow me for a moment to
thank you for praying?
One of the things that has come to
my attention so much the last couple of
days, for about 10 years, I was very
privileged to minister at various times with Brother
T.
Austin Sparks.
Just the thought of him brings a real
fond remembrance of the hours we've spent together.
He taught me many things that I'm just
discovering the real value of them.
As I look back through the years, I
recognize how little I grasped of what he
was saying.
Our wives would be visiting in the kitchen
and he would sit in our living room
when he came to Indianapolis and he would
say, now, Brother Fromke, in order that we
don't dissipate the day, let us bow and
pray for an open heaven.
That was not too meaningful to me.
I expected he was saying, Lord, give us
some revelation and some insight.
But you know, through the years, I've come
to appreciate in a new way what an
open heaven really is.
God Himself comes to minister and to speak
to make Himself very real.
He also had one more thing that he
kept saying to me that has grown in
importance.
He would say, the anointing is everything.
The anointing is everything.
I'm learning, I think, a little of what
that means.
But the thing that has been so significant
to me the last couple of days since
we've come is a principle he said one
day.
I believe we were in Switzerland together.
He said, you know, I was off in
an aisle away in ministry far from London
on a road.
And he said, I suddenly was gripped with
an awful fever, and I believe it was
a sickness of some kind.
And he said, there was almost a whore
of darkness that came upon me alone.
Here I was away from the body.
And he said, for the very first time
in my life, I learned to stand in
the prayer, in the value of the good
of the prayer of all the saints.
He said, I knew the time they would
be praying back in London for me.
And he said, I somehow entered into the
value of that and claimed their prayer in
behalf of that situation.
And he said, within an hour, within an
hour, the darkness, the heaviness lifted.
And he said, my temperature changed.
He said, I believe God touched me.
I heard him say that on a couple
occasions as we were fellowshipping.
And it left a real impression in my
heart because since that time, and that's many,
many years ago, I've had opportunity to cry
out, oh God, I need the value of
the prayer.
I need to stand into the good of
the prayers of all the saints.
And this has been one of those weeks.
We came with great anticipation only to discover
we've had a bronchial condition and have been
washed out and really in bed quite a
bit of the time.
I have had to just say, oh God,
help me to know how to stand into
the good of the value of the prayers
of all of you.
And I want to report to you tonight
your prayer works.
Can you say amen to that?
God has, in a very real way, demonstrated
to me the fact that He has a
family that are concerned.
So I've looked forward to coming, and then
I get here and question whether I would
be able to do much sharing.
But we're starting out by the grace of
God to share with you the theme that's
been given to me.
Actually, I guess I chose it.
I have to confess.
You see, one of the three subjects, serving
the Lord, serving the house, and serving one
another.
And I understood that Brother Ed had chosen
or been given.
I'm not sure which.
And then I looked at serving the house,
and I said, how in the world could
I speak for three hours on serving the
house?
And I said, but I know somebody who
can.
How many of you?
Dane and I have been together quite a
little ever since we first met out on
Long Island.
What is it, 40 years ago?
Pretty close to it.
And Bradenton in California.
Been in Brazil together.
And who knows where.
Anyway, I have discovered that Moses isn't so
slow of a tongue as I thought.
So here we are tonight.
My particular burden is to share with you
serving one another.
I am convinced that God usually has a
picture of the natural first, and then He
gives us the spiritual.
And I just thought tonight I'd like to
take you back to a little parable in
the Old Testament.
If you'll turn to the book of Judges,
please.
I'd like for you to see one of
the parables back there that's always intrigued me.
The book of Judges.
Here is a very lovely lesson.
It has to do with how God in
creation, in nature, has a lesson to teach
us.
In chapter 9, beginning to read with verse
8, it says, "'As the trees
went forth on a time to anoint a
king over them, and they said unto the
olive tree, rain thou over us.'" Look at
me a moment, please.
Don't peek ahead.
How many of you think you know what
the olive tree is going to say?
You didn't peek, did you?
I think the olive tree might have said,
well, I'm glad you found me.
I'd sure like to be king.
Well, let's read and see what the olive
tree responds.
Verse 9, "'But the olive tree said unto
them, should I leave my fatness, wherewith by
me they honor God and man, and go
to be promoted over the trees?' Something interesting.
The olive tree is finding fulfillment in fulfilling
the purpose, and there's contentment.
So the convention goes on.
Verse 10, "'Then the tree said to the
fig tree, come thou and rain over us.'"
Look at me.
You're not peeking.
What do you think the fig tree is
going to say?
Some of you know the story, don't you?
Well, let's see what the fig tree says.
"'And the fig tree said unto them, should
I forsake my sweetness and my good fruit
and go to be promoted over the trees?
Then said the trees unto the vine, come
thou and rain over us.
And the vine said unto them, should I
leave my wine, which cheereth God and man,
and go to be promoted over the trees?'
All three of these have a contentedness in
fulfilling their purpose.
And I think God is saying in this
little parable back here in the Old Testament,
oh, if I could bring some of my
people to understand that fulfillment and fulfilling purpose
brings contentment, everything else leaves man with great
emptiness.
You see, if I understand from the very
beginning, God who created all of us is
the great caller.
He's been calling.
Brother Cong has been speaking about the human
spirit.
The human spirit is reaching out for something
to fill the emptiness within.
And I believe it's God who does the
first calling to man.
We might think we're calling to Him, but
the psalmist said, deep calleth unto deep.
I believe it's God Himself calling to the
human spirit.
The Spirit of God calling to our spirit.
There's an empty room.
There's a place that He wants to come
and to dwell, to occupy.
He made it for Himself.
Somebody said, it's like a God-shaped vacuum.
Only God will fit there.
So the calling of God to our spirit.
And He has made man with this longing
for fulfillment, to reach purpose and meaning and
value.
This is why I believe the human spirit
is crying out and calling out.
It says, in another place, God has placed
eternity in their hearts.
This is His way of saying, I've made
man for something much more than just this,
for life and eternity.
Eternity in their hearts.
So there's a responsiveness within man that calls
back and says, oh God, why am I
here?
How can I fulfill purpose?
How can the calling that You have be
accomplished through my life?
The trees do it naturally.
It's built into the fabric of the way
they function.
Of course, these trees don't.
You understand.
It's His natural way of saying, first the
natural picture.
Then we get a hold of the spiritual.
Now, when I read a little further in
that verse, "'Deep calleth unto deep,' one of
the translations says, "'at the call of the
fountainhead.' And I sensed, oh God, You are
the fountainhead, the source, the beginning of everything.
The fountainhead calling out.
And our response is back to You.
I'm believing tonight that God has been bringing
some people together these days.
And in the midst of our calling out,
oh God, what do You want in my
life?
How can I fulfill the purpose for which
You brought me here?
God is saying, I have a unique gifting
and calling for each one of us.
That's my burden tonight as we look into
this little portion.
The gifting and the calling of God in
order that we might better be able to
serve one another."
So, I thought I'd just take you back
to the book of Romans for a little
bit.
I thought it was so appropriate today as
our brother, Kong, was moving through 5 and
6, dealing with all of the saving work
of the soul and all that God is
doing, and getting us to the place finally
where there's going to be the presentation of
our body to Him as a living sacrifice.
So, we come into chapter 12 now.
And we're introduced to service.
All the preparations from Romans 1 on through
11 until we get to chapter 12.
There we have service presented to us.
We are not only going to serve the
Lord and the house, but discover how we
can better serve one another in the daily
ministrations.
Now, there's some things that have always intrigued
me in this portion.
Chapter 12, we'll begin reading, please.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies
of God, that you present your bodies a
living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto Him, which is
your reasonable, your intelligent service.
And be not conformed to this world, but
be ye transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that ye may prove what is that
good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.
For I say through the grace given unto
me to every man that is among you,
not to think of himself more highly than
he ought to think, but to think soberly,
according as God hath dealt to every man
the measure of faith.
For as we have many members in one
body, and all the members have not the
same office, so we being many are one
body in Christ, and every one members one
of another.
And here's the particular verses I want us
to look at now.
Having then gifts differing according to the grace
that is given to us, whether prophecy, let
us prophesy, according to the proportion of faith,
or serving a ministry, let us wait on
our ministering, or he that teaches on teaching,
or he that exhorts on exhortation, he that
giveth, let him do it with simplicity, he
that ruleth with diligence, and he that showeth
mercy with cheerfulness.
Now I'm quite aware of the fact that
in years gone by, there was quite an
emphasis on the gifts.
And I've moved beyond that, but it seems
like the Lord keeps to bring me back
to the fact that there are some very
interesting lessons that we can learn from the
way the Lord gifts individuals.
I like to think of us as a
tree that God is going to make a
fruitful tree, and that in many ways, every
tree has a particular root life, very distinct.
Many individuals who have studied and have taught
on this have suggested that these seven particular
gifts that are mentioned here are motivation gifts.
They are the unique gifting that an individual
has in order that he can fulfill his
calling, the thing that God has for him.
For example, I think there are individuals who
have a definite gift to speak, the prophetic
gift.
The words flow out.
If this would be their taproot then, we
would say that individual gifted to the body
to be able to minister, to speak.
You look a little further in that portion
and you see it says, according to the
gifts differing, let us prophesy according to proportion
of faith or serving or ministering.
There are individuals who I believe are uniquely
endowed with the ability to see the needs
of others.
They're always there serving.
I look back in our ministry and fellowship
throughout Indiana at the variety of individuals God
brings into an assembly.
We particularly have one brother and his wife
who are, I believe, so uniquely gifted in
serving in their ministry that we don't know
what to do when they're gone, especially to
Cuba.
Then there are those who learn the ability
or the gifting to teach, the ability to
take concepts, to develop the very concern that
God's people will be well-principled, understand the
things of the Lord.
What I want us to see tonight is
this.
Through the years, the emphasis has been everybody
needs a main taproot.
And I believe that we will serve out
of that main taproot and everything we will
do will have its focus there.
But I've come to recognize that probably if
God is going to develop us as well
-rounded individuals, in some ways we need to
have some side roots to balance our life
out.
Let's just say tonight you discover that you
are a teacher by gifting, the desire to
see principles.
And this is the way you function.
In one sense, God wants to balance us
as individuals and I think He says, well,
we'll just teach you a little bit of
mercy too.
And we'll teach you how to organize.
We'll teach you how to serve.
We'll teach you how to give.
We'll teach you how to exhort or encourage.
What's the next last one there?
There are seven different and I think that
in some ways we can see the need
for balancing out our life.
How do you believe everybody ought to be
a little merciful?
Even though that might not be the taproot
by which I look back and my dear
mother, watching her through the years, the little
town we grew up in, I think about
half the people died in her arms.
Mother had a ministry of mercy.
Always, always showing mercy.
Probably that's why my brother became a doctor.
I think he inherited some of it and
his three sons are doctors.
Anyway, there is what we call the side
balancing factors.
If you have developed a taproot in your
life and you're able to do this, we
thank God that He is enabling us by
the grace that's given to function.
Now, I need to fill in this last
10 minutes.
So what is the one I missed there?
Mercy, giving, serving.
We'll get it here in a moment.
The prophet.
Thank you for your patience.
Can you see that back there at all?
Okay.
So we're asking tonight then that God will
help us to begin to recognize that if
there is going to be a real functioning
in our life, the thing that we do
the easiest.
I think there are people who would like
to take on certain taproots, but it's not
the easy thing.
It's not the way that God gifts them
and the grace is there.
And I thought, well, let's just take a
little testing tonight and see how many of
us can figure out our own response.
How we would react in a given situation.
Let's see if this will show up.
Here are seven individuals who are seated at
a table and they represent the seven different
giftings that we have just mentioned.
Young lady comes in with a platter.
Dessert falls off.
And immediately you have seven different responses.
The prophet is pretty apt to say, that's
what happens when you're not careful.
I see some prophets already out there.
Some wives are getting pointed to, I mean,
some husbands.
Are you there?
Okay, well, you know who you fit.
Anyway, here's the server who says, oh, let
me help you clean it up.
The desire to fulfill a real need.
Now the teacher says, the reason that it
fell is that it was too heavy on
one side.
Seeking to discover the principles of balance.
Are you there?
The exhorter says, next time, let's serve the
dessert with the meal.
Correct the future.
The giver says, I'll be happy to buy
a new dessert.
Desire to give to a tangible need.
Mercy says, oh, don't feel badly.
It could have happened to anyone.
Relieving the embarrassment.
And guess what the organizer says?
Jim, would you get the mop?
Sue, please help pick it up.
Mary, help me fix another dessert.
Well, how many of you, let's just stop
for a moment, have a little fun.
How many of you think you know what
your response would be?
Anybody, you know, you don't have to tell
me.
Just do you think you know what you
are?
I think if we know ourselves at all,
we begin to recognize the immediacy of how
we would respond to the situation.
And we need to encourage one another.
If that be true, to recognize then, this
is my tap root.
But just in case you need some balance,
you need mercy, you need all of the
side roots to keep you really in a
balanced way.
So we're saying tonight that God has a
wonderful way of balancing out service in the
church.
I discovered years ago from a friend of
mine in Yakima, he said, and I've never
gotten away from it, that people generally fall
into one of three categories.
People like to work with ideas.
Some people like to work with things or
their hands.
And some people like to work with people.
And I've observed that through the years.
Some find it very easy to work with
people.
Some like to work with ideas and concepts.
Some like to work with their hands.
He had three sons, this brother who was
sharing this with me.
And would you believe they fit into one
of those three?
I watched him one day, he gave a
job deliberately to the three boys down in
the basement, something to do.
And he said, within an hour, now you
go down and you'll see what's happening.
The fellow who worked with people had convinced
the other two.
The one had the concepts and the other
guy was doing the work.
I saw that with my eyes.
I said, I thought, oh God, this is
really true.
Now, you say, why did you do this,
Lord?
In order that there can be a diversifying
so that we get the broader scope of
things.
The trouble is, so many of us pick
something we'd like to do and sometimes it's
not according to our gifting.
We don't do it easy.
We try to pour people into, well, let's
take another.
I think I've got one more transparency here
that we'll just see how you do with
this one.
Well, someone moves into the hospital and
John's in bed, sick.
The server says, here is a little gift
I brought in your mail.
I fed your dog, I watered your plants
and washed your dishes.
Mercy says, I can't begin to tell you
how I felt when I learned you were
sick.
I really prayed you would feel much better
today.
The organizer says, don't worry about a thing.
I've assigned your job to four others in
the office and they're doing very well.
That's comforting, isn't it?
Makes you want to get out right away.
The prophet says, what is God trying to
say to you through this illness?
Perhaps there is some sin you haven't confessed
yet.
Let's just take a look.
How many prophets do we have?
I got a fella down here who's pointing
to his wife all the time.
She's a real prophet, I guess.
Anyway, the teacher says, I did some research
on your illness and I believe I can
explain what's happening.
Consider this principle.
The giver says, do you have insurance to
cover this kind of sickness?
If not, I can help.
The exhorter says, how can we use what
you're learning to help others in the future
to avoid this sickness?
Would you consider?
Now, I'm not just wanting for us to
have fun tonight, but I am convinced that
God has a way of building into the
very fabric of things so that we don't,
you know, run over one another, that the
fellowship of people will find their place.
And I thank God for this because, you
know, I'd rather teach you than anything else.
But I'm not very organized, as you'll see
before we get through.
But I'm working on it, knowing I need
some side roots.
And so the principle we're after tonight is
this.
God, in his wonderful way, imposes some things
into our life.
He has a way from the very beginning
of building in to us.
One of the things that's amazed me through
the years is to discover what I like
to call the according to, the
according to principle.
That'll be meaningful now.
I want you to turn to the book
of Ephesians for a moment.
We need to just get a little glimpse
of how God designs and how he works
from the beginning.
In Ephesians chapter one.
Oh, let's begin reading with verse three, shall
we?
Chapter one.
Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
According as he has chosen us in him,
before the foundation of the world, that we
should be holy without blame before him in
love.
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself.
Here's the first one.
According to the good pleasure of his will.
Jump down just a bit to verse nine,
verse seven.
In whom we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of his grace, wherein he hath abounded.
Verse nine.
Having made known unto us the mystery of
his will, according to his good pleasure, which
he hath purposed in himself.
I would just like to call to your
attention now so that every time you read
this from now on, you'll get a hold
of what I call the according to principle.
God does everything according to, according to, according
to.
I think the best way I can explain
that is to say that way back in
his father heart, in eternity, there is a
picture of all that he wants to work
out and accomplish in his eternal purpose.
The problem we run into is individuals have
a tendency all the time to have a
reference point or a touchstone, a reckoning base
in God, and they start with some aspect
of God's nature or character.
For example, there are those who start with
God's sovereignty or you can't spell right in
tongues.
The touchstone that they begin with is the
touchstone of God is sovereign.
We all believe that.
There's another touchstone or reference point that people
will start with, and it's the moral nature
of God.
And out of this moral nature, we have
the freedom, the choice that God gives to
man.
So we have two things that are in
constant warfare.
I call it the conflict of the ages.
One is what we call control, and the
other is what we call freedom.
Totally a part of God's program.
And yet, when you start with that and
you begin to make it as your main
touchstone for beginning, you'll discover something.
The whole concept of things is that if
man is free to choose to do anything
he wants and you push it so far,
pretty soon, you can have man as the
master of his own fate.
Man determines what he's going to do.
He is the one who makes all the
choices.
You have, on the other hand, those who
say, oh, but God is the sovereign God
in the universe.
He's under control, and what will be will
be.
Now, you pursue either of these as your
point of reference, and eventually, you're going to
run into some difficulty.
Freedom always brings us, man comes to what
we call humanism of the day.
Man in control, everything centers around man.
Man totally in dominion.
You have the opposite extreme up here, it's
what we will call bringing us finally to
fatalism.
Now, the reason I'm emphasizing this tonight is
simply because when it says in the book
of Deuteronomy, your rock is not our rock.
Your God concept is not our God concept.
I am finding, and you've discovered it already,
and just merely alerting you to the fact
that the great majority of the religious world
has a reference point in something that God
does, something of His function, of His nature
and character, but they've somehow missed what we
call the Pauline vision of who God is
chiefly, before, above, and beyond all else that
He is.
This is why, as we read a little
bit ago, I like to say that God,
God is a father from the beginning.
He's a father.
He didn't do anything to become a father.
He's been a father by nature and heart.
And you follow through and you'll discover that
the only way you can really reconcile the
conflict of the ages that keeps going on
is to start with the proper touchstone, the
proper reference point.
It gives you meaning then to everything that
God does.
For example, when you look out at the
conflict that's raging today, there's two basic streams
in the universe right now.
There's the whole system that says Allah is
the sovereign and submission is everything that matters.
And they look down at the Western, they
look at all the rest and they say
that's Satan.
They do not understand God.
So we've got two complete different streams taking
place tonight.
We live in this area here and probably
humanism has been reigning pretty much right here.
Two are in mortal conflict.
For years, I struggled with the fact that
was I really a Calvinist?
Was I really an Armenian?
I grew up hanging on to God to
keep saved.
It was the most wonderful day when the
grace of God came to my life and
I saw, oh God, oh God, I'm not
hanging on to you, you're holding on to
me.
That which I have committed and you're the
one who does the holding.
And for the first time in my life,
I came to rest.
I saw the grace of God.
I saw what he was doing.
And so I moved from trying to hang
on to really recognizing the wonderful privilege of
his grace.
But I've discovered through the years that if
you start with some touchstone or something in
God that's other than his person himself, who
he chiefly is, you're going to end up
with a difficulty.
This is why we've said it before.
I said it last year, repeat again.
I believe that the central theme of the
book, the central theme of the universe is
the father, his son and sons, we call
it sonship, and the family that's eventually going
to be like, conformed to the image of
the Lord Jesus.
Now this began to bring some real rest
and confidence because I read one day, one
of the reformers had said, God could cast
a million infants, a span long into hell
without blinking an eye.
And I said, it's not the God I
know.
That's a God, that's a God who has
raw sovereignty, but there is no divine nature
back of it.
And so trying to say to us tonight,
the conflict that's raging all over is between
two mainstreams.
How do we reckon with the fact that
God is a father who exercises control?
How much?
All the control that a father needs to
exercise.
I used to say it this way, the
only safe sovereignty is paternal sovereignty.
Let me run that by again.
The only safe sovereignty is paternal sovereignty.
It's the father's heart limiting control.
How much does he control?
All that a father knows is needed.
The only safe morality limited is a paternal
morality.
That is God extends just so much liberty,
so much freedom.
Not total to the moral universe.
So we're saying tonight that the according to
principle now is that God does everything according
to the secret desire, the hidden purpose, the
something in his own heart way back in
the beginning.
What was it that our father desired?
What was it that he from the very
beginning planned to have?
Well, I believe that if I understand something
of his father heart, he didn't wanna sit
in the universe and enjoy just to have
it all to himself because we come to
another principle we're wanting to get at and
this will sort of round things out tonight.
It's what I like to call the ultimate,
the ultimate glory of God.
Now, let me take you back for a
little bit before we unfold all this.
Let me take you back to one day
in Switzerland.
We were at AC Switzerland.
Never forget Brother Sparks walking out before about
maybe 200 people, French on one side, English
speaking the middle, German on the other side,
double translation, everything.
And I remember looking over that group and
saying, what is glory?
What is glory?
Give me a definition of glory.
Well, my heart was responding and I was,
you know, glad that I didn't have to
respond because I knew he was going to.
But he waited for four or five minutes.
He said, I'm not gonna tell you until
you think it through.
And I thought of all the stupendous, colossal,
enormous, I get all the, when things finally
come to the culmination of fulfillment.
What is glory?
He did finally tell us.
He said this, glory is best described by
one word, satisfaction.
You know, I thought I can improve on
that.
I didn't tell him that, but I've been
thinking about it ever since, satisfaction.
And you know, when you begin to consider
the fact that God in the very beginning,
with all the universe around, all that he
could have done, all that he could, there's
something of an ultimate glory that God is
going to bring about.
And I think the key to it is
this little word, mutual satisfaction.
You see, you can't really enjoy something alone.
I was 34 years of age before I
was married the first time.
And every time I would travel, I went
across the country, a hundred trips, drove back
and forth those early years.
I got to Boulder Dam.
I got to various places.
I said, I can't enjoy this.
My mother needs to see this.
We were very close.
There was something within me that said, if
she could just see this, I would enjoy
it.
We would enjoy it together.
There's what I call the mutuality of enjoyment.
And I did, I took her in many
places, Canada, all the places we could.
It was something of the satisfaction that comes
in mutuality.
Then I got married and many of you
knew Anita, loved her.
And we had a wonderful time for 44
years till the Lord decided he would pluck
the flower and take her home.
But I went through the same thing.
I could not enjoy this alone.
I needed to have her see it too.
Anybody in the wavelength with me?
How do you really enjoy something alone?
Imagine God sitting off in heaven, Father, all
alone.
The nature and the character of who and
what he is requires that there be somebody
to enjoy it with.
Then I discovered once again, after 44 years,
empty seat inside of my car.
I said, oh God, I can't enjoy these
things alone.
Enjoyment has a mutuality about it.
It requires others participating with you in it.
That being true, I said, Lord, I really
plan to finish the race alone, but sure
nice to have somebody in that empty seat
next to me.
And God began to work in my heart.
You know, the whole body of Christ began
to pray about that time because I got
calls from all over.
This is the family room tonight.
Being very, very open with you.
Are you following me?
We're brothers.
We have been together, some of us, for
47 years or longer.
And this thing of mutuality, and I began
to say, oh Lord, I know the principle.
He that has a wife has a lot
more distractions.
That's what Paul says in Corinthians.
And my heart has been gung ho to
finish the race 100% with no distractions.
But one of my dear friends who lost
his wife kept phoning me and saying, it's
not good for a man to live alone.
Did you ever read that in Genesis?
So I was in the conflict between two
principles.
Not good for a man to live alone.
He that has, oh, I won't go into
the other.
Anyway.
What do you do?
I kept saying to Jack, some of you
might know Jack Taylor, my close friend, kept
saying, Jack, it's all right for you.
You lost your wife a couple of years
ago.
You're 10 years younger, but you know, I
think it's a matter of wisdom.
And so I, you just pray, but I've
not any intentions.
And one day he phoned and he said,
I need to tell you a story.
Now it's time for a story, isn't it
tonight?
I've been, you know, up to this point.
He said, this is the story of Mary
and James.
James lost his wife and he was so
lonely and he would walk through the park.
And one day he noticed a lady sitting
on the bench and he walked up and
he said, would you mind if I sit
here and visit with you a little bit?
And Mary responded.
She said, no, James, I think that you
told me your name.
Sit down, let's visit.
And in a matter of three or four
minutes, Mary and James really had conversation going.
Mary's husband had died just a few years
before and James had lost his wife.
And they discovered that they were both Baptists.
And James says, I'm a Baptist.
And Mary said, I'm a Baptist, but I'm
a born again Baptist.
James said, born again, well, I can do
better.
I'm a separated born again Baptist.
And James said, well, to be very honest
with you, I'm a spirit filled, separated, born
again Baptist.
And Mary said, so am I.
I mean, you talk about two people finding
wavelength in a matter of 15 minutes.
It was as though God had been bringing
them together.
Well, Jack's telling me this story on the
phone now, you remember.
And he said, James really got to the
point where he was so encouraged.
He got his handkerchief out, spread it down
in front of Mary and he knelt and
he said, Mary, I need to ask you
two questions.
Mary, I really believe God has brought us
together.
I'm so sure of it.
Will you marry me?
And Mary says, well, you know, we've only
known one another 15 minutes, but I think
maybe it is God's will.
And she said, yes, James, I will.
What's your second question?
And he said, would you help me up?
Mary said, James, I'm waiting for somebody to
help me up.
Well, it was the process of weeks and
months that sort of went on like that.
And my week, I will say it that
way.
My heart was beginning to be drawn and
concerned.
And so I thought, well, Lord, if the
body's praying and all my friends are praying,
maybe there's a Mary someplace for James.
But I really need more assurance than that.
And one day I got a call from
Richmond and there was a name you would
recognize.
Well, it was Max who it was.
Max's words were something like, Vern, are you
sitting down?
I said, yes, I am, Max.
What are you gonna tell me?
And he said, did you know Brother Kong
was married?
Now we're having fun tonight.
Are you following me?
And I thought, oh God, if somebody I
honor, and we don't get into all that.
Anyway, the essence of what I'm saying is
this tonight.
Satisfaction has to have in it mutuality.
God has built it in the fabric of
the universe.
The desire to serve, the desire to give,
the desire to be part of.
And when I recognized what Brother Sparks was
saying and it came back in a whole
new way.
Oh God, glory is the satisfaction of God.
But God as a father could not be
satisfied alone.
I suppose he could have enjoyed his son
in eternity, but he decided he'd like many
more sons just like him.
Fact is, this is why he speaks of
the whole vast family that are all going
to be conformed to the image of the
pattern man, the Lord Jesus.
That's why I really believe that the central
theme of the universe is fatherhood, sonship, and
the final consummation of a family that are
going to enjoy him forever.
And then one day I began to discover
why the old divines, when they were dealing
with the Westminster Confession, they said the chief
end of man is to, you know it,
tell me.
The chief end of man is to glorify
God.
And I thought, oh, that's really true.
The chief end of man is to glorify
God.
And then the little phrase, and enjoy him
forever.
And you may have discovered sweeping the country
now is a real new emphasis on the
fact that probably they should have said the
chief end is to glorify God by enjoying
him forever.
If you read John Piper, you'll get interested
in what I'm saying.
Anyway, here we have this whole principle then
of God building a universe for a family
with whom he can have mutual enjoyment and
satisfaction.
And when our brother Ed Miller yesterday was
saying, the God who enjoys our giving is
the God also who enjoys giving back to
us.
I said, oh God, that's the mutuality principle.
You see, so much of my life has
been an enduring instead of an enjoy.
And I have to tell you tonight, God
has done a whole new circumcising work in
my heart.
It's all right to enjoy.
Is there a place to endure as good
soldiers?
Oh yes, there is.
But there's the enjoying, and I've come in
a whole new way to understand enjoying the
Lord, enjoying, enjoying his presence.
And when we consider now, as we round
out our concern tonight, that the theme that's
developing in the universe is God is before,
above, and beyond all else, a person.
And we come to his personhood.
We come, as we said last year, to
deal with what I call principles.
And then we have what we call purpose
fulfilling.
It is a person-centered universe who is
using principles.
It's a principle-governed universe, but it is
purpose fulfilling.
One of the struggles we have is when
people get a hold of a principle.
Is sovereignty true?
Sure.
Is morality true?
But don't let that be your reference point.
Don't let anything, God is love.
Yes, God is holy.
God is, you can name all the various
touchstones or reference points that people use.
I've appreciated the folk here because I believe
from the beginning, our emphasis has been God
is a father.
Fatherhood, sonship, the family that he's bringing about.
And this helps us to realize then that
if it's a person-centered universe, it's the
Father we exalt in his ultimacy.
It's the person of the Lord Jesus who
is central in the Father's whole plan and
purpose.
And the Holy Spirit is more than just
someone who works.
There's the honoring of his person.
I've been so keenly aware the last few
days.
And I just need to say, if there's
anything that I believe that's gripped my own
heart, it's the sense of the presence of
the person of the Holy Spirit, the person
of the Lord Jesus, the person of the
Father.
We sat this afternoon as Brother Khan got
through.
There was a holy hush, not imposed.
It was there.
Why?
Dr. Tozer used to say, the emphasis is
on the work of the Holy Spirit, not
on the person honoring him.
And I've been trying these last few months
to say, oh God, teach me how to
really honor the person of the Holy Spirit.
Who is here in his own way to
exalt and to honor and lift up the
Lord Jesus.
And in exalting and lifting him up, you
come and get occupied with the Lord Jesus.
And he said, oh, by the way, have
you seen my father?
It's interesting.
People often come to me and say, I
don't know whether I'm giving too much emphasis
to the Spirit or to the Son or
to the Father.
Because when I go to the Spirit, the
Holy Spirit says, behold the loveliness of the
Lord Jesus.
I go to the Son and he says,
by the way, have you seen my father?
I'm a window.
I want you to be occupied with him.
I go to the Father and he says,
behold my lovely Son.
I call that the divine runaround.
No problem in heaven.
Why?
Each for the other.
The person of the Father and his ultimacy.
The centrality of the Son in his rightful
place of preeminence.
The availability, the sensibility of the Holy Spirit
working well.
We do have tomorrow, don't we?
I just needed to say to you tonight
now, there's the according to principle.
We'll get at it.
You can read it.
Hope when you see over and over again,
according to.
He says in Romans, according to his purpose,
we are called according to his purpose.
Everything that God does is according to.
It has its roots back in person.
The fulfilling through principles.
We've said before, the principles of attention that
are always there.
The conflict that's going on.
And there's only one way you can ever
recognize the final fulfillment, the natural or the
mutual satisfaction that God is going to bring
about when one day ultimate glory is realized.
The Father is satisfied.
The Son is satisfied.
The Holy Spirit has a dwelling place.
And we're all beholding.
Father, we bow this evening to acknowledge we
are gripped by the fact that you long
to share yourself with us.
Through the Lord Jesus, through the ministry of
the Holy Spirit, we are so privileged tonight.
And I look out over my friends, many
of them with their own gifting, their own
unique calling.
And it is our desire that as we
learn to serve one another, the whole mutuality
principle will be flowing.
We will discover that the satisfaction that we
receive in sharing, in giving, in exhorting, whatever
our particular part might be, the mutuality of
it brings a deep inner joy.
Oh Lord, what I'm not able to explain
tonight, I pray you will impart.
Make very real to us the fact that
we are in a tremendous thing that you're
doing today.
So much bigger than we could have ever
realized.
The conflict of the ages is upon us.
We refuse to give place to mere principles
that are in conflict.
We make our reference point your own father
heart tonight.
And all that you plan to do in
and through the Lord Jesus, and all that
you're going to eventually accomplish in a family
in whom there will be mutual delight in
joy one another throughout all eternity.
Seal this to our hearts tonight.
And we'll give you the thanks and the
praise and the honor that you're worthy of.
And everybody said.