I feel like a wheelbarrow at an automobile
show.
I don't know how much of you are
being serious and how much of you are
pulling your legs and all that.
But I feel so unnecessary following a message
like we heard this morning and the expository
teaching of the Lord.
There's no substitute for that.
We may go about it in different ways,
different methods and so on, but that's the
answer.
People need to hear the Word of God.
It was tremendous.
Thank you so much, Chuck.
I think I'd like you to sing a
chorus with me, but probably I don't quite
know the tune.
I think it's in the key of H,
I don't know.
It's really a tremendous chorus.
Jesus Christ is alive today.
I know, I know it's true.
Sovereign of the universe, I pay him homage
due.
Seated there at God's right hand, I am
with him in a promised land.
Jesus lives and reigns in me, that's how
I know it's true.
Do you think we dare?
How many of you know it?
I don't know what I'd do either.
Come on, should we just have it?
Jesus Christ is alive today.
I know, I know it's true.
Sovereign of the universe, I pay him homage
due.
Seated there at God's right hand, I am
with him in a promised land.
Jesus lives and reigns in me, that's how
I know it's true.
The first time I was ever in Calvary
Chapel was when you had it in a
tent early in the seventies, I think.
And I came one Saturday evening with John
and sat in the back row.
And all my seventeen hairs stood right on
end.
With sheer excitement and thrill as I heard
young people praising God, singing, worshipping.
And then afterwards, lighting lamps and going out
and sitting in groups and studying the word
of God.
It was the most thrilling experience I'd ever
known.
And I've never forgotten it.
There's a group in Britain who came originally
from Church of the Redeemer in Houston, Texas.
And they're known as the Fisherfolk.
And they brought over some lovely music.
And it's in a book called Sounds of
Living Water and Fresh Sounds.
Any of you ever heard of them?
No.
Well, it's very similar to what you've all
been singing.
It's music sung to scripture.
And this is one of those choruses from
that book, Jesus Christ is Alive Today.
Would you try and sing it?
If you sit silent, I'll stop.
Because I never sing solo.
Right?
Come on then, everybody.
Jesus Christ is alive today.
I know, I know it's true.
Sovereign of the universe.
I pray he will call me into truth.
No, no, no.
That's wrong.
We are in trouble.
I think we'll forget it.
Come on, we'll try.
Could you bear to listen a minute?
We'll try and get it right.
Jesus Christ is alive today.
I know, no, that's wrong as well.
Thank you, God, for sending Jesus.
Thank you, Jesus, that he came.
Holy Spirit, won't you teach me more about
his lovely name?
Thank you, God, for sending Jesus.
Thank you, Jesus, that you came.
Holy Spirit, won't you teach me more about
his lovely name?
Again.
Thank you, God, for sending Jesus.
Thank you, Jesus, that you came.
Holy Spirit, won't you teach me more about
his lovely name?
He is Lord.
He is risen from the dead, and he
is Lord, right?
He is Lord.
He is risen from the dead, and he
is Lord.
Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord.
He's my Lord.
On your feet.
He's my Lord.
He is risen from the dead, and he
is my Lord.
Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord.
And all God's people said, Amen.
Please be seated.
We'll sing together later.
Jesus Christ is alive today.
I'm determined to get it over somehow.
I'll get my wife to come and sing
to you.
And we'll have a little rehearsal of it.
Now, a brief prayer together.
A moment's quiet.
Let's sing and accompany it.
Thank you, God, for sending Jesus.
Thank you, Jesus, that you came.
Holy Spirit, won't you teach me more about
his lovely name?
Lord, we submit ourselves to you now, and
we trust that the Holy Spirit may just
do that, teach us more about our lovely
Lord, and grant today that every one of
us may move a step further forward in
the will of God, that through these days
together there may be a difference about us,
and other people may sense that we have
been and have met with you.
We ask it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
I have felt it right in these few
sessions we have together to share some thoughts
with you about the ministry.
And we thought together last evening about the
preparation for the ministry and things that must
happen to us if the gospel is to
get through us to others in real power.
And this morning I thought to take quite
a different theme, really, something very practical, down
-to-earth.
The kind of person that Jesus needs today
in the ministry, the preacher himself, as this
is mainly a conference for ministers and their
wives, there are things that I think we
need to share together and to say to
each other in the presence of the Lord,
which we wouldn't normally do with our congregation.
And so I felt we should take some
time this morning to consider some of these
subjects.
What sort of person does Jesus want today?
I think it's so important that we should
decide that and know that, because too many
of us get into the ministry without really
ever having faced it.
I think it would be good if you
would open your New Testament at Luke, chapter
6.
Luke, chapter 6, verse
12.
One of those days, Jesus went out into
the hills to pray and spent the night
praying to God.
When morning came, he called his disciples to
him and chose twelve of them, whom he
also designated apostles.
Simon, whom he named Peter, his brother Andrew,
James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, the
son of Alphaeus, Simon, who was called the
Zealot, Judas, son of James, and Judas Iscariot,
who became a traitor.
He went down with them and stood on
a level place.
I think the most important thing is that
to be sure, when I'm in the ministry,
that I'm in a task to which God
has called me.
I'm not there by my own choice.
I know that God has called me to
it.
Jesus went into the hills to pray and
spent the night praying to God.
When morning came, he called his disciples to
him and chose twelve.
He called them to him.
Why is it that you're not an attorney
or a doctor or a nurse or a
farmer?
Why did you go into the pastures?
Was it because of the suggestion of somebody
else that you had the gift of speech
perhaps?
Or because you felt it would be a
satisfying career?
Or maybe you admired somebody else who'd succeeded
in it?
Or because, perish the thought, you'd failed in
everything else and you thought perhaps the ministry
would be a little easier?
Of course, none of those reasons are adequate.
The only qualification for any of us for
being where we are is that you have
been called of God.
And that means you'll be very slow to
resign when you're called of God.
But how do you know that?
That's the question.
How are you sure?
Well, that's not simple to answer.
God called Moses out of a bush.
He spoke to Balaam out of the mouth
of an ass.
As you may say so, he's used many
an ass since.
Using that in the authorised version, of course.
He spoke to Gideon through a priest.
Well, I and you, we can't wait for
that sort of thing.
A call of God has got to be
sensed by conviction.
You see an example of it in Acts
chapter 16, as the gospel first of all
came to Europe, Acts 16.
And there, in verse 5, 6 rather, Paul
and his companions travelled through the region of
Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the
Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the
province of Asia.
When they came to the border of Mysia,
they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit
of Jesus would not allow them to.
So they passed by Mysia and went down
to Troy.
During the night, Paul had a vision, the
man of Macedonia, standing and begging him, come
over to Macedonia and help us.
And after Paul had seen the vision, we
got ready at once to leave for Macedonia,
concluding that God had called us to preach
the gospel to them.
How did they know that?
They didn't discover it by open doors, they
found it by closed doors.
I'm not sceptical in my old age, I
hope, but I'm suspicious of some who come
to me and say, you know, doors open
so marvellously.
Every door opened.
It must be right.
The devil is very good at opening doors.
The gospel came to Europe through closed doors.
You notice, verse 6, we travelled through the
region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept,
or prevented, by the Holy Spirit from preaching
the word in the province of Asia.
Paul, a great missionary, always wanted to go
to a place that was the centre of
population.
He longed to go to Ephesus, but Ephesus
wasn't ready for him, and he wasn't ready
for it.
And the door was shut.
When they came to the border of Mysia,
they tried to enter Bathynia, but the Spirit
of Jesus wouldn't allow them to.
As one paraphrase puts it, the Spirit of
Jesus put down his foot and said no.
I wouldn't know how he did that.
So they passed by Mysia, or, literally, correctly,
they plodded through Mysia.
They just kept on plodding along.
And in the course of plodding along, God
having shut one door after another, they got
the clue.
They were to preach the gospel in Macedonia,
in Europe.
Now, you know, there are some simple tests
that I may put to my own life
as to whether or not I'm sure that
God has called me.
I want to give them to you.
I've asked you to put them down and
think of them and pray over them.
First, is there evidence of fruit from your
testimony?
I mean, can you accumulate evidence that God
has his hand on you in your life,
in blessing?
I don't mean by that.
Have you been successful in getting results?
Do you find your love for the Lord
Jesus growing?
Your burden for the lost increasing?
Your compassion for people?
Your love for the Lord and his word?
Is there that kind of evidence of fruit
from your testimony?
Again, are you clear that your message is
adequate?
If you've any doubt about that, you're defeated
before you begin.
I mean, have you absolute confidence in the
word of God?
I love to read in Acts chapter 13,
verse 44.
On the next Sabbath, almost the whole city
gathered to hear the word of the Lord.
That makes my mouth water to think about
it.
When the Jews saw the crowds that were
filled with jealousy, talked abusively against what Paul
was saying, then Paul and Barnabas answered them
boldly, that we had to speak the word
of God to you.
Verse 48.
When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad
and honored the word of the Lord.
And all were appointed to eternal life believed.
Verse 49.
The word of the Lord spread throughout the
whole region.
The chapter ends by saying, the disciples were
filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
Nobody was neutral.
Some were filled with joy.
A crowd was filled with jealousy.
You couldn't be neutral under the sound of
the message, but all the time it was
the word of the Lord, the word of
the Lord, the word of the Lord, the
word of the Lord.
The word of God had taken fire in
those men.
As we heard this morning, it was coming
through them, coming through them, like a fire
burning in their hearts.
Is the message that you preach adequate?
It's amazing the difference in preachers.
I acknowledge it, confess it.
In early days when I was not in
the ministry, but in business as what you
call in this country a certified public accountant
in London, backsliding terribly right away from God.
I used to find myself constrained somehow to
attend a church in central London on Sunday
evenings.
It was the Central Hall Westminster, the headquarters
of Methodist denomination.
I was right away from God at the
time.
But I used to sit on the back
row of this balcony of this church.
It was packed in those days.
Three thousand people in there.
I was in the back row.
If you went now, you would find about
150 altogether in the place in the hands
of liberal theology.
The preacher there, I shall never forget him.
He wore a long black fox coat.
He had long hippie hair.
Nothing new about that.
And he was so short-sighted that he
read every word he said.
Every word.
Just went like this.
And you would have heard a pin drop.
And every five or ten minutes, he went
on for over an hour, every five or
ten minutes, he would look up.
And when he looked up, you saw the
glory on his face.
And I would say to myself in my
wretched back-sitting condition, that man's got what
I need.
Is your message adequate?
I'm not asking if you're marvelous at homiletics.
And sermon preparation.
But I'm asking, have you got the glory?
And is there something about your ministry that's
attractive?
Not in your style.
Not in yourself.
The Lord is there.
Are you clear that your message is adequate?
Is the word of God burning like a
fire in your heart?
Then again, what's your attitude toward sin?
Is it total warfare against it?
Or are there points of compromise in your
life?
You see, your attitude toward sin will decide
your attitude toward repentance and salvation.
Shallow views of sin lead to shallow views
of salvation.
What's your attitude toward sin?
One of our great preachers in Britain, a
generation or two ago, was F.B. Meyer.
You may have known the name and have
read some of his marvelous Bible studies, especially
on Bible characters.
He was asked on one occasion to speak
at the Catholic Convention.
And the letter came to him, and immediately
he read it.
He said to himself, I can't go there.
Because there was something in his life that
was utterly wrong.
And yet he said, I would love to
go.
And he gave his testimony at the Catholic
Convention, because he went.
But before he went, when he had this
letter, still debating and wrestling with the problem,
he went up into what we call the
Lake District in Britain, near Keswick.
And he found a night when the moon
was shining brightly, stars all around, not a
cloud in the sky.
It's like that once in 365 nights.
And he stuck to that night.
And he wrestled with God all night.
And at Keswick, when he gave his message,
he gave this testimony and said, I said
to the Lord that night, Lord, you've had
every key to my life except one.
Lord, I cannot go on fighting any longer.
Take the last key.
And then he said, and people told me
afterwards, years later, his face just shone.
He said, Do you know what the Lord
did?
He never took the key.
But he took the door out.
And ever since then, the light and the
knowledge of the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ has shone into my
heart.
And he said that from the Keswick platform.
Do you know that that night, many, many
house parties, which I held at Keswick, mainly
missionary house parties and missionary societies, lights were
on all night with people praying and repenting.
Do you know that the post office in
Keswick ran out of post lorders?
People buying them the next morning to pay
their debts.
And that one year real revival hit Keswick.
I say this to my own heart and
to you.
Revival always begins at the top.
And I've seen it, I was going to
say threatened.
I've seen it almost break out at student
body level in colleges and being quenched by
the faculties as to emotional.
I've seen it almost break out at the
local church.
But the pastor and the deacons and the
elders or whatever you, executive committee, squashed it.
Revival begins with leadership.
And my dear people, I don't know when
it was, if ever, I've had the privilege
of speaking to such a potential congregation as
this.
That this could sweep through the western coast
if we mean business with him.
What's your attitude towards him?
What's your attitude toward people?
You're going to spend your lives with people,
all kinds of people.
And your reaction toward them will very largely
decide success or failure in years to come.
You remember, jot down in your notes, don't
trouble to read just now, but 1 Kings
chapter 3 where Solomon comes to the throne
out of true succession.
And the Lord gave him a blank check
on heaven and came to him in a
dream and said, Solomon, ask what I shall
give you.
Solomon's answer to that was quite fascinating.
He reminded the Lord that the greatness of
his father had been due to his relationship
with God.
And then he said to him, Lord, I'm
only a little child.
He was about, I suppose, getting out of
his teenage then.
I don't think he was ever quite so
great as when he said that.
I'm only a little child.
And among this people, your great people, Lord,
Lord, give me a heart that understands, a
heart that cares.
And Solomon heard that, and the Lord heard
that prayer and promised him that as he
went on with God, he would live to
a ripe old age.
He never did, because he blew it.
But when he was only a youngster, he
learned the secret.
Handling people.
The country of Scotland has a very interesting
national emblem.
It is a thistle.
It's a very prickly plant.
And there it is.
And around that thistle there is written in
Latin, Namo me impuni lacestit.
Nobody touches me with impunity.
Yet a Scotsman heckles up and you've got
something on your hands.
That's why Scottish troops always went in first
to fight in World War II.
How do I handle people?
Especially awkward people.
It's a lovely thing to pray, Lord, make
me humble.
But when the Lord answers prayer and gives
us the medicine, it would be so much
nicer if he used nice people to make
me humble.
But he doesn't.
And therefore how am I handling today?
How are you handling awkward people?
Can you be trusted with leadership?
He who would be great among you must
be the servant of all, said the Lord
Jesus.
I told you I was going to be
honest.
When I was pastor at Moody Church in
Chicago, I had preached for, well,
the first six months I had preached on
Joshua.
You've read the book.
I've never read it, but I have preached
it.
And I have to admit why I preached
on that book.
It was the only book in the Bible
that I could find that Dr. Ironside had
never preached on.
So I went for that one.
And then I preached for a year on
the Sermon on the Mount.
And immediately was accused by many people who
were extremely dispensational that I was bringing the
church under law and not under dress.
Of course I didn't agree with that.
I was simply, I believed, teaching them the
kind of life that is impossible to us,
but natural to the Holy Spirit once we're
released in us.
That's the Sermon on the Mount, I think,
isn't it?
And then there began the ribbing.
And then began remarkable number of people who
absented themselves.
And one dear man, bless him, came into
my office, or vestry, whatever, about two minutes
to eleven every Sunday morning, just poked his
head through the door and said, Hey, hopeless
pastor, church is half empty again today.
And then went out.
But a matter of a minute later, he
was followed by another man who came right
into his study, right to my desk, put
his arm round my shoulder and said, Wonderful
pastor, the church is half full today.
Which of those two men would you find
it easier to love?
I mean, they were both saying the same
thing.
One was of use to ribbing me, and
the other was of use to encouragement.
My response to that man was exactly contrary
to what I preached to everybody else.
I had preached pray for those who despitefully
use you.
But my response to him was to say,
at least in my mind, we can't have
any blessing here with people like that around.
Why doesn't he find his way to another
fundamental church in Chicago, there are plenty of
them, he'd be happy there.
So I thought, well, the only thing he'd
do is to write a letter.
After all, the Lord doesn't write him a
letter, I'll do it on his behalf.
So, I wrote a letter.
And I'm ashamed of that letter.
It absolutely hit hard.
I said, it'd be much better for you
to leave and get to another place and
leave her alone.
We'll never have blessing in Moody Church as
long as you're around.
I left that letter open on my study
desk, and my wife saw it.
And she said, don't you think it'd be
a good idea, she didn't say honey, we
don't use that word, unfortunately, we use the
word darling, don't you think it'd be a
good idea, darling, if we had prayer together
about it before it went?
Oh, I said, I'd love that.
I never thought that, how wonderful that you
want to share with me.
Yes, certainly, by no means do.
I've prayed a lot about it, of course,
but you come and pray with me, and
let's get on our knees right away and
kneel and pray.
Thank you so much.
And we did.
And then I said, would you pray first?
And she did.
I've never forgot the next 15 minutes.
When she prayed not a word about the
man, but when she prayed for her husband.
And my heart broke.
I had to see that man and apologize
to him.
He was never a lot different, not quite
so aggressive.
But when we left Moody Church about three
or four years later, we came back a
year afterwards, and the first person to meet
us on the doorstep at Moody Church was
this individual.
And he went up to my wife and
hugged her.
When he finished with her, he came up
to me, he put his arms around me,
and he said, Pastor, how we miss you.
See, we're all made in the same mold.
Some of us are moldier than others.
But listen, my friend, if you imagine in
any situation that you're the boss, and you're
to blame, your throne will soon begin to
collapse.
Other people will lose respect for you.
You'll find people like that man in almost
every situation.
And your first instinct is to crush them.
And you can probably do it.
Especially as most likely they're in the minority.
Far better to win them than lose them.
Better work with them than against them.
It was never the Lord's way to crush.
Never.
A little spiritual attention and a lot of
Holy Spirit love works miracles.
Pray for those who despitefully use you.
Luke 6, 28.
What's your attitude to people of other races
and other colors?
Superior.
Paul said, 2 Corinthians 5, 16, Henceforth I
know no man after the flesh.
We've had a tremendous time in Britain, as
I told you, with Mission England.
But you know, well, I live in the
town of Birmingham.
Not Birmingham, Alabama, but Birmingham.
There are about 2 to 3 million people
there.
You know, there are no less than 160
mosques in Birmingham alone.
You could go about a mile from where
we live.
You'd never see a white person.
They're all Pakistani, Indian, Caribbean.
In 10 years' time, if the church doesn't
experience revival and do something about it in
Rome, we're going to have exactly the same
situation.
We're expected to be paragons of virtue.
But I am suggesting that we're expected to
be consistent.
And that which touches other people is when
they feel they have in their ministers someone
they can trust.
There is no more telling advertisement for the
Gospel than a life which is purely good.
And the greatest dangers which beset every one
of us in the ministry are money and
sex.
And only by the grace of God can
we be beyond reproach.
A number of times I have sat alongside
a colleague, especially one I think of now,
who said, I learned the sin which has
ruined my ministry when I was seven years
old.
I used to do a lot of open
air preaching, especially just after the war in
Southampton, England, down by the docks.
I remember one day all the workers were
gathered round sitting eating their lunch.
And I was trying to preach the Gospel
to them.
And suddenly the crowd sort of broke and
a gang of them came up to me
and they started shouting and I said, just
hold it for ten minutes.
This is my meeting.
And they held it.
Ten minutes went by and they all rushed
at me.
My few helpers disappeared and I was left
with a speaker and I guess not of
course as up to date and modern but
it was there.
And I couldn't turn it off.
And the following conversation went loud and clear
through the air.
That man looked at me and he said,
you're a dirty coward.
And I said, what do you mean?
He said, you don't know what to teach
them.
You've no idea.
I said, what would you say to them
if you were standing behind that mic?
I would tell them there are a lot
of sinners going to hell and they can
only be saved by the blood of Jesus.
Oh, who told you that?
Oh, he said, I've been in your game.
I've worn my collar round your way.
We wore a dog collar in those days.
And he said, there's nothing in it.
I said to him, sir, excuse me, you
call me a coward?
You've been in this game as you call
it and you quit.
I'm in the game and I'm still in
it.
Who's the coward?
You or me?
And he swore at me and spat at
me and lunged at me with both his
fists and went for me.
I'm so glad I was trained in the
art of playing football.
I knew exactly how to handle that situation
and be sure I got the better of
it.
And I went for him round the ankles
and knocked him right over my head and
he fell with a crash on the ground
and I heard the crowd gasp.
And he got up he was sober then
and I said to him, now you go
back home you're the man who needs to
be saved by the blood of Jesus.
And I was so interested in that situation
that I thought I'd just look into it
a bit because after all that sort of
thing doesn't happen every day of your life.
And I checked up on him do you
know what I found?
He had been for twenty years a missionary
in India in an evangelical missionary society.
And his wife had said to him I
can't stay out here I've got to go
home and take the children for education.
He said to her I can't stand it
without you.
And she said well I'm sorry for the
children's sake I've got to go.
He said please don't.
He said I must.
She said I must.
And so she went.
Six months later another woman had closed a
missionary station a man out of the ministry
and years later drunk I said to him
my dear brothers and sisters I'm not condemning
him but for the grace of God there
go I.
But somewhere somewhere along the line the whole
principle of the cross had been forgotten.
And one of the devil's great great tactics
had got him down.
Remember won't you?
The greatest factor of evangelism in your life
is the holy life.
A man of God has to be a
choice man.
And that inevitably means he needs to have
a choice wife.
So sad to see the number of people
who are in the ministry.
But one or other partner of the partnership
is not really called to it at all.
Simply going along with it.
There's no sense of calling.
In the choice of the wife it needs
to be someone of the same heart.
Fellowship.
You know what that word fellowship means?
It's really a word which had a secular
use.
It means Siamese twins.
Who share the same life.
Who share the same love.
Who are absolutely one.
My wife is not my better half she's
my better seven eighths.
And she knows.
I just couldn't go on without her.
God's great gift to me.
How I praise him for it.
But you know I have a very strong
will power.
And she has a very strong will power.
And we have some arguments very strong arguments
and disagreements.
But I can say to you in the
presence of the Lord and in her presence
too we had our golden wedding this year.
Fifty years.
In all those years we've never had one
day.
Not one day.
When the day has ended and we're out
of fellowship.
And we haven't been able to share what
Jesus has done for us.
My brethren whatever you do never neglect the
family altar.
In every arena of battle there's got to
be an altar of worship.
I write to you, speak to you not
as one who has already attained.
Oh no.
I'm right alongside you.
And I told you last evening or sometime
yesterday how desperately I fail to maintain that
family worship often.
Through business at the church and so on.
But marriage is never a competitor to the
Christian life.
It's the greatest help to it.
As the two of you are one in
Jesus.
It may be that the altar of the
Lord in your home needs repairing.
It may be, I don't know.
It may be that family prayers have been
neglected and thrown out.
Maybe.
I spoke at a conference in Birmingham, Alabama
some years ago.
And I stayed with a lovely family.
A man and his wife and three teenagers.
In about three o'clock or four o
'clock in the afternoon the teenagers came home
from school.
They roared in.
And they all made a dive for the
fridge.
And they got a Coke or something like
it and dashed into the television room and
were never seen or heard again.
There was absolutely, as I could see it,
not a scrap of relationships between parents and
children.
Soon after that there was another home.
And this one was way down in Cornwall,
in England.
I got there late at night and travelled
a long way back home.
And I went to bed.
And an alarm bell went about half past
six.
And I heard the scurry of feet dashing
down the stairs.
Many of them thought I'd better join in.
And I went down too.
And found myself in a table tennis room.
Around a table tennis table.
The only table big enough to accommodate the
family.
I only stayed there one night, but as
I remember I think there were either ten
or eleven children.
Varying between the age of twenty-four and
four.
I squeezed in between number ten and eleven.
And sat down.
And father was at the head of the
table.
And he began reading the Scripture.
He read a chapter from the Bible.
And he gave every one of these children
a missionary poem to pray.
And then we all turned round, knelt at
our chairs and prayed.
By the time it came to my turn
I felt so emotionally involved it was difficult.
Do you know that every one of those
children knew all about the missionary poem they
were praying?
Well they were.
Their need.
They spent about, oh, at least half an
hour, more than that, over that time of
prayer.
I've never forgotten it.
That man was a doctor.
A surgeon.
And at eight-thirty that morning he had
crisis surgery.
He could easily have neglected family prayer.
But he didn't.
He kept that in his priorities.
I trust the Lord will help you to
do the same.
Family worship.
That's so much I would wish to share.
We have two children.
One in her forties.
The other in her thirties.
Both of them are Christian.
Lovely Christian.
The older one has been on the mission
field for eighteen years in Central Africa Republic
with the African mission.
She herself has a family of three.
One of them is at Texas A&M
in Houston.
The other is at John Brown University in
Arkansas.
And the third one is in Kenya at
school.
In January of this year our elder daughter's
husband was killed on the mission field.
He was repairing a truck.
A job he'd done often before.
And he was right under it.
And the jacks collapsed.
And immediately he was crushed to death.
The amazing thing about it was that his
blood turned completely black.
With a sheer force.
Many funerals held the following day the Africans,
hundreds of them walked past this coffin.
And they said to him they said in
Zanzi language of course.
He was born here.
He was because his parents started the ministry
there.
He lived here all his life except for
a few years when he was here to
receive training.
He died here.
And now he's with someone else.
He's a Zanzi.
Was a testimony to the church.
And our daughter went back to Nairobi.
And came to the States here a month
or two ago.
Back to Britain.
And today right now she's on her way
back to Africa.
We are proud of the grace of God
in her life.
As she goes back to the place.
And why is she going?
Because God has called her there.
And she knows it.
We would appreciate your prayers for her.
Let me however just say one thing more
to you.
The Christian, the preacher, the man in the
pulpit, the Christian leader, yes, he'll be distinguished
by his family life.
And the closest of the families are not
immune from testing as we heard from Chuck
this morning.
We don't understand.
But we know the Lord and love him
and trust him for it.
But the Christian leader will be muted by
an absence of gossip in his church.
He will never use his people in conversation
as a frustration.
I remember my time in Moody Church we
were preparing for Billy Graham coming to Chicago.
And personally I was 100% behind it,
but a lot of people didn't seem to
like the idea.
For various reasons, they didn't like the idea
of him having Roman Catholics on the platform.
And they thought we were compromising.
I think with the utmost respect they were
wrong, because Billy felt that they might get
converted.
And he might be one of them.
But in that time we were having quite
a time.
Tongues, the greatest enemy in the church is
tongues.
I don't mean the gift of tongues, but
I mean gossip.
And I remember that one night at our
Bible study on a Wednesday evening I put
in inverted letters T-H-I-N-K
think.
And I said to the dear people we're
going to form a mutual encouragement fellowship in
this church and everybody who's prepared to assent
to these letters is entitled to join it.
T, is it true?
H, will it help?
I, is it inspiring?
N, is it necessary?
K, is it kind?
If not I'll shut my stupid mouth.
Do you know that had an electrifying effect.
I just commend it to you.
Let's stop the gossip.
Is it true?
Will it help?
Is it inspiring?
Is it necessary?
Is it kind?
And my other thing about that is you're
to be a choice man.
You'll be shown in your worship at home
and your family your absence of gossip and
in your handling of money.
I believe that every minister especially should be
someone who shopkeepers would simply love to be
multiplied.
Because they always pay promptly.
And never run into debt.
Your handling of money should be an example.
Now finally, brethren it is now four minutes
to twelve.
The Christian leader must not only be called
not only be a choice man but he
ought to be a chaste man.
I hasten to say you spell that word
C-H-A-S-T-E A chaste
man.
And I've fallen of course to the traps
of finding three points beginning with the same
letter.
I could say a disciplined man because we
face immense dangers and we need strength against
them.
And one of the main dangers I have
found in my ministry and I gave you
a clue to it yesterday was putting work
before worship activity before communion.
A prayerless pastor can be a successful failure.
Visitation can be pious loping.
And he needs to guard above everything else
his personal communion with God.
Brothers and sisters you and I have heard
in these couple of days already things said
by people here and in my mind I've
said to myself he can only say that
because he's been building up a secret history
with God for like
the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter
9 I do not run
like a man running aimlessly I do not
fight like a man shadow boxing.
No I beat my body and make it
my slave so that after I have preached
to others I myself will be disqualified from
the prize.
Paul wasn't of course as you know afraid
of losing his salvation but he was afraid
of being put out of service being cast
aside and this is where the
battle is really fought in every one of
our lives.
If I only really prayed when I felt
like praying I wouldn't pray very often.
Many times I've had to force myself to
pray.
Begun by feeling so cold so depressed so
lacking in Christian joy and it seemed to
me that the devil was doing everything he
could to keep me off my knees.
How often a quiet time can be skimped.
I recall days when to go into my
study was painful for I would see neglected
prayer lists If I win the battle there,
it's the testing point of my ministry If
I win it there Heaven opens in blessing
It's amazing Oh I wish I hope that
you'll be able to open up yourself to
me and tell me how you went through
Love to hear you speak of this but
I can only say it's been amazing when
I've gone to battle with a heart as
cold as death as lifeless and feeling utterly
oppressed by the enemy as I've gone to
him in prayer and cried to him from
the depths he's opened heaven to me and
the Lord has come down in refreshing and
renewal bless his name otherwise
if I lose that battle life becomes just
a dreary road there are no shortcuts to
attaining sainthood and Christian maturity anyway I happened
to read recently in the word of God
reading 1st Chronicles chapter 4 where in verse
23 we're told that a company of people
do and try but do not leave they
lived among hedges and ditches and there they
dwelt with the king for his work and
that shone a thrust of shone a thrust
of light into my heart do I dwell
with the king for his work or do
I dwell with the work for the king
if I dwell with the work for the
king I'm simply shut up to my own
limited resources whether I dwell with the king
for the work I'm living with the sufficiency
of Jesus every day therefore my friend let
me say to you just this what's your
body take care of it Romans 12 1
and 2 proceed you therefore by the mercy
of God you present your body as a
living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God which is
your reasonable service and to be very practical
that means don't eat too much get regular
exercise learn to say no to social requests
I find that very difficult learn to say
no to social requests a great friend of
mine in Chicago days was A.
W.
Tozer couldn't tell you how much he's meant
to me his books are worth reading especially
that book In Pursuit of God tremendous he
would call me on the phone one day
said to me now since you've come to
the church I know you're going to have
a difficult time and very dispensational but he
said if you would like to come and
have prayer with me I would love to
have it with you oh I said I'd
love to thank you so much when and
where oh he said on the south shore
of Lake Michigan at any time in the
morning between April and October any time in
the morning between 5 and 8 well that's
a bit early not only was it a
bit early but it was about 20 miles
away I didn't go too often oh can
I ever forget when I did seeing A.
W.
Tozer lying literally flat on his face on
the sand with an open Bible three hours
and once or twice I shared with him
I often heard him preach Monday by Wednesday
radio in his church occasionally at other meetings
and that word came through him with blasting
authority and I in my heart knew why
after probably one of the largest churches in
Chicago for about 30 years but a man
after God's own heart brother may I say
to you you must get the needed sleep
I don't know how much you need but
I tell you what you also must get
and that's blanket victory get out from under
them get into your shower get clothed and
in your right mind and get along with
the book there's no substitute no substitute at
all for a chaste man a disciplined man
I used to play rugby football I wouldn't
take time to explain that game to you
but we don't wear any armor plate we
just have a jersey and shorts do you
know that when I was young of course
if I was you know I wouldn't mind
playing it now except that I am longing
to go to heaven but I don't think
I'm homesick at the moment and that might
take me off then, I'm sure it would
but you know I was up every morning
5.30 and I run for 10 miles
round the suburb of London every morning 5
days a week then I would go in
the evening to a running track, do 10
miles more 20 miles a day, hard at
it all the time then get home to
my apartment put on my jersey and shorts
and get to a corner of a brick
wall and push with this shoulder, hard and
then push with the other shoulder against another
corner until I had two shoulders like concrete
nobody was watching me except my landlady who
thought I was nuts but I had two
shoulders that I tell you, if anybody tackled
me, they wouldn't want to tackle me again
they were like concrete so don't attempt to
start this if you're over 30 but until
you're 30, well that's alright but I did
that for a nursery crown of as I
love rugga how much am I prepared to
discipline my body for Jesus?
He won't do it for me I can
have as much of God as I want
and I will get no more and no
less but as I long for him with
all my heart and seek first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness and long to
know him and the power of his resurrection
oh my tomorrow I'll see to it that
day by day there's victory of a laziness,
intemperance slackness and all that I hope I
haven't been tough but I've just opened my
heart and shared with you, that's all the
Lord bless you and K.O.K.D
keep on keeping the devil hard every day
applause applause applause thank
you God for sending Jesus laughter thank you
God for sending Jesus thank you Jesus that
you came holy spirit won't you teach me
more about his lovely name and all God's
people and amen 10 minutes past 12, goodbye
God bless you