My message today is entitled, What Stephen Oldford
Taught Me.
There were some very important lessons I learned
from knowing Dr. Oldford.
Stephen Oldford was my homiletical mentor, colleague, and
friend.
He taught me how to preach.
I was in the first graduating class of
his school of preaching.
We wrote a book together on preaching on
his homiletical mentor, Graham Scroggie, and I even
still serve on the Board of Oldford Ministries
today.
Upon reflecting on his life and ministry, I
want to share with us today what I
learned from Dr. Oldford.
I don't think you can spend much time
with a great prophet of God without some
spiritual importation taking place.
That occurred with Elijah and Elisha, and I
can say my own life is better for
having known Dr. Stephen F.
Oldford.
I want to list several areas where Stephen
Oldford impacted my life and those lessons I'd
like to share with you today.
Number one, he taught me the importance of
having a daily quiet time.
This is critical.
Dr. Oldford used to say, a man was
only as tall in the pulpit as he
was long on his knees before God and
prayer.
He wrote a little booklet, which I still
have, entitled, Manna in the Morning, and it
is a Christian classic on the necessity of
having and maintaining a daily tryst with God.
Dr. Oldford used to say that he learned
through research that the average pastor only spent
ten minutes a day in prayer, and he
thought that was shameful.
Dr. Oldford was, first and foremost, a man
of prayer, and he taught me the vital
necessity of spending quality time with God.
That was the number one influence of his
life poured into mine, and that was teaching
me how to have an effective, vital, daily,
and regular quiet time with our Lord.
The reason I maintain a daily quiet time
today is because of Stephen Oldford.
Number two, he taught me sermon construction by
teaching me Graham Scroggie's Golden Hammer.
Scroggie was Stephen Oldford's homiletical mentor when he
was a student in London.
The Golden Hammer is as follows in regard
to sermon preparation.
Read the passage in question over and over
again.
Research the passage in question, observing three principles.
Number one, the historic principle.
Number two, the contextual principle.
And thirdly, the grammatical principle.
And this is where the beauty and dynamic
of the Golden Hammer comes in.
You then relate the passage in question and
activate the Golden Hammer through these next three
questions that need to be asked and answered.
Number one, what is the dominating theme?
Number two, what are the integrating thoughts?
And number three, what is the motivating thrust?
The motivating thrust is the doctrine or challenge
of a sermon.
So I sat at the feet of my
homiletical mentor, Stephen Oldford, as he had sat
at the feet of his homiletical mentor, Graham
Scroggie.
The third lesson I learned from Stephen Oldford
was to pursue a life of holiness.
Dr. Oldford's hero was Robert Murray McChain.
And on the wall of Dr. Oldford's study
was a framed quote of McChain.
And it was, Lord, make me as holy
as a saved sinner can be.
That was Dr. Oldford's pursuit, a pursuit of
holiness.
And I feel this is the missing ingredient
in many preachers today.
I recall Manly Beasley relating the following incident
in the life of Stephen Oldford.
Dr. Oldford was scheduled to preach at a
church in the Dallas area.
And a seminary student was to go to
the airport and pick him up.
The seminary student asked the pastor of the
church if he had a photograph of Stephen
Oldford so he would be able to recognize
him when he got off the plane.
The pastor replied, no need for that.
Just go to the airport terminal and wait
for the passengers to emerge.
When you see a man that looks like
he has God all over him, that is
Stephen Oldford.
Well, the seminary student went to the airport
and as Dr. Oldford emerged in the crowd,
the student knew instantly he was the man
of God.
The importance of a life of holiness is
what Stephen Oldford demonstrated to me.
I know I've fallen in some ditches in
my time and I've made imperfect tracks along
the narrow way.
But bless God, I'm still on the way.
Holiness must be a pursuit aggressively sought.
I remember Dr. Oldford explaining to me one
day in a study how he lived a
life of victory always under the Lordship of
Jesus Christ.
And if even any thought entered his mind
that was displeasing to God, Dr. Oldford would
stop what he was doing and say, nail
it Lord, nail it.
I like that.
The fourth thing Stephen Oldford taught me was
the absolute necessity of having an anointed ministry
of the Holy Spirit.
That to even try to preach without the
anointing was futile.
I recall meeting with Dr. Oldford in his
study one day and he said to me,
give me some time brother to regather myself.
I must regather myself.
I just got through preaching and virtue has
left me.
My mind went to the passage in the
Gospels of the woman with the issue of
blood and how she touched the hem of
Jesus' garment.
And she turned and said, who touched me?
For I feel virtue has left me.
That was Stephen Oldford.
He was a man anointed by the Spirit
of God.
And he knew full well that one must
tarry until one was endued with power from
on high.
In the Gospel of Luke in chapter 316
it reads, John answered saying unto them all,
I indeed baptize you with water, but one
mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose
shoes I am not worthy to unloose.
He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost
and with fire.
This speaks of two baptisms, one of water
and one of fire.
The Holy Spirit, I can sit and listen
to a man preach and within five minutes
I can tell you if he has the
anointing of God on him or not.
This was one of the most important aspects
of ministry that Stephen Oldford taught me.
Never enter a pulpit without the anointing of
God upon you.
And to do that you must maintain a
close walk with God and live a holy
life unto Him.
The saddest day in the Church in America
to me was when seminaries began to teach
their students how to preach but not how
to get the anointing.
I vividly recall sitting in a preaching class
taught by a prominent professor of preaching and
I could tell that the student next to
me was upset.
When class was over the student approached the
preaching professor and said, You taught us today
how to project our voice and be professionals
in the pulpit but when I study the
ministry of Jonathan Edwards I see he had
the power of the Holy Spirit upon him.
When he preached the seminary professor answered the
student by saying, You sir are no Jonathan
Edwards.
But I believe that seminary student knew a
whole lot more about preaching than that stuffed
shirt of a professor.
That's why so many of our pulpits in
the land lack power.
They have no anointing from above.
Stephen Oford taught me better.
The next thing I learned from Dr. Oford
was that he lived for others.
There was a wooden plaque on his desk
and it had one word carved into it,
others.
He lived for eternity and others.
His favorite saying was that as CT stood,
Only one life shall soon be passed.
Only what's done for Christ will last.
I recall when I was a student at
his preaching institute that he was to meet
with a few of us for some casual
table talk on ministry.
Well, he turned the corner and the floor
had just been polished.
As soon as he turned the corner he
slipped and his feet went up in the
air and he crashed to the ground.
He was 84 at the time.
I helped him up and we sat down
at the dining room table.
He kept rubbing his wrist but he refused
to leave and go see about it.
He just kept talking to us and ministering
to us for an hour and a half.
The whole time he continued to rub his
painful wrist.
He put others in front of him when
it came to ministry.
That should shame the rest of us.
We have it turned the other way around.
The last thing I learned from Stephen Oford
that I wish to share with you today
is the fact that he was a man
of revival.
He longed to see revival in his day.
He studied it, wrote wisely upon it and
prayed for it continually.
I can vividly recall the times of prayer
he and I had as we prayed for
God to breathe once again His Holy Spirit
of revival into the church and land.
Stephen Oford took my first book that I
wrote on revival and edited it for me
and gave it its title, Reality of Revival.
He even wrote the foreword.
He was a man first and foremost of
revival and he taught me to be one
as well.
I hope these attributes and lessons from the
life and ministry of Dr. Stephen F.
Oford have helped you as they have helped
me to be a better and more effective
laborer in the kingdom of Christ.
May God bless you.