In Ecclesiastes we read, one generation passes away
and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth
forever.
If you want verification of that truth, friend,
go visit a cemetery today, take a walk
among the graves, read the inscriptions, and you'll
soon see that death visits both the young
and the old.
Life is short.
You only get one go-round in life.
You can squander your allotted time in accumulating
the things of this world.
You can squander it through worldliness and selfishness
and sin and completely miss your real purpose
in life.
Or you can submit to God and let
him give you a purpose in life.
God is looking for the person who will
step out in faith and go out on
a limb for him.
Anything worthwhile costs something.
To become emperor, Caesar had to cross his
Rubicon.
Napoleon had to march into Moravia to win
his greatest battle at Austerlitz.
When the church is dead to her reputation
and facing her greatest persecution, then she thrives
in power and influence.
But when the church enters the mode of
self-preservation, self-reliance, then she's nothing more
than an impotent, powerless institution that's a laughingstock
to the world.
In Exodus chapter 2, we read the words
of God, And Moses was content to dwell
with the man, and he gave Moses Zipporah
his daughter.
Moses was content with the ordinary.
Moses had an ordinary life, and that was
fine by him.
Moses felt secure in that little household, keeping
the flock of Jethro.
Moses was content to live on the backside
of the desert where no trouble or turmoil
could find him.
But then, one fantastic day, while he was
leading the flock, he had an incredible encounter
with a holy God that so burned into
his soul, so transformed his life, he never
was the same man again.
But before God could use Moses, Moses had
to come to the end of himself.
I like the quote of F.J. Hegel
concerning Moses.
For forty years, on the lonely slopes of
Midian, the fiery Moses has schooled.
There were graves, if I may so speak,
scattered all over the mountainside, where hope after
hope was buried until at last self went
down in utter annihilation.
Just look at what God did with Moses,
friend, and stand amazed.
D.L. Moody was a successful shoe salesman
in Chicago, earning a ton of money, doing
what he could for God on the side,
until he heard a minister say to him,
the world has yet to see what God
can do with the man wholly consecrated to
him.
Those words burned into Moody's soul, and he
walked away, muttering a prayer under his breath,
Great God, make me that man.
And God answered that prayer, and Moody did
more for God than all of us put
together.
Moody walked away from a promising business career
to be God's man.
Just take a look at what a sovereign
God can do with a man once that
man has an encounter of God.
I've been a student of revival for four
decades, and it fascinates me, friends, how God
can take a simple man and use him
in powerful revivals that shake entire communities.
When I look at what God did with
Duncan Campbell in the Scottish Hebrides during the
Lewis Revival of 1949 to 1952, I stand
amazed.
I once asked a Scottish minister who knew
Duncan Campbell well to describe him to me
in one sentence.
After some reflection, this man said, Duncan Campbell
was an ordinary man who had had an
extraordinary experience of God.
And I'm telling you, friends, as I'm standing
here today, that in itself is an incredible
statement.
I know it personally in my own life,
an extraordinary experience of God.
I was a successful businessman doing what I
could for God on the side, but all
I really cared about was making money.
Then I attended a institute on expository preaching
where the preacher was Dr. Stephen F.
Oldford.
He was a frail old man in his
80s, but he lived his life under the
anointing of the spirit of God.
And when he preached that day, something happened
to me.
I saw in crystal clear light the futility
of living a life selfishly for me.
All of a sudden, I had no taste
for business anymore.
All I wanted was God and more of
God and to be used of God.
After that, I pursued a deeper knowledge of
God and a better understanding of my own
rotten heart.
And through the anointed preaching of Stephen Oldford
that week, my life was turned upside down.
I got a taste of the supernatural and
I caught a glimpse of eternity.
Dr. Oldford finished his sermon with a little
poem from C.T. Studd.
Only one life will soon be passed.
Only what's done for Christ will last.
Those words burned into my soul.
And since that time, my life has never,
ever been the same.
God has allowed me to experience revival, write
19 books on the subject of revival.
I've preached over 2,000 revival sermons that
have gone into every nation through my ministry
on Sermon Audio.
But that week, that time, God got such
a hold under me, under the preaching of
Stephen Oldford, I went home and I wrote
something in the flyleaf of my Bible.
I'm holding that Bible now in my hands.
And I'll read you here what I wrote
to God that day.
What is my life that I should keep
it selfishly for me?
I choose to lose it so completely and
have it found in thee.
Through the years, God has made that little
prayer come true.
I've lost everything materially in this world.
I lost my business.
I lost my wealth.
I lost my homes.
I lost my wife.
I lost my reputation.
I lost my health.
My words, I choose to lose it so
completely, became a reality.
Everything was stripped away.
Jesus told his disciples, therefore, doth my father
love me because I laid down my life
that I might take it up again.
No man take it away from me.
I lay it down of myself.
Christ went willingly to the cross to die
for my sins.
The cross caused the father his only begotten
son.
The cross caused Christ his very blood.
What cause counts and what counts costs.
When Christ transforms a life, then that life
will never, ever be the same.
Who is willing to go out on a
limb for God and to trust him?
Who is willing to go out on the
false dredge for God, no matter the sacrifice?
Who is willing to believe in a big
God who can do big things and stand
on his promises and fight the devil tooth
and nail, come hell or high water?
Who, listening to this message, is willing to
be so nailed up on a cross and
dead to the world so an almighty God
can take that person and do wonders through
them?
Oh, great God, Christ can transform a life
into an instrument that only God can use
for his great glory.
Who has the faith to trust God and
not man?
Who wants to leave the safety of the
boat, to step out on the turbulent water
and live a supernatural life for Christ in
eternity?
Who here today, at this hour, wants to
pray with desperation to be used of God
from this day forth?
Who here will cry out with the passionate
cry of a John Wesley who said, give
me 100 men who fear nothing but God
and hate nothing but sin, and I will
shake the gates of hell.
Where is the one here who wants to
go shake the gates of hell for a
bloodstained Christ and a hell bound, who here
will lay his or her life down for
others so they can find the Christ, the
Savior, who here will embrace the burning words
of that little poem to be a reality
in the life?
Only one life will soon be passed.
Only what's done for Christ will last.
Let me pray for us now, friends.
Oh, great God in heaven, I come to
you now and I ask for your ear
on behalf of your people, by the shed
blood of that dear son, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus
of Nazareth, who sits at your right hand
this very instant, who will come again to
judge the living and the dead.
He'll split heaven wide open.
All things are in his hands, in his
hands are the nail prints from my dirty,
rotten sins.
Oh, great God on high, oh, ancient of
days, I beg you to get a hold
of someone here.
Show your mercy.
Get a hold of someone who's been desiring
more of you and let your showers of
blessings fall upon them.
Place someone within the sound of my voice
into a vibrant, hell-shaken ministry for you.
The hour is late.
The times are growing darker and Christ Jesus
will soon appear.
Send workers, Lord, into your harvest field to
reach the lost and perishing.
Get a hold of someone, Lord.
Give them a glimpse of you in eternity.
Transform a life, I pray in the strong
name of Jesus.
Amen.