2 Corinthians 5, verses 14 and 15.
For the love of Christ constraineth us, because
we thus judge that if one died for
all, then we're all dead.
That he died for all that they which
live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but
unto him which died for them and rose
again.
Two or three weeks ago I was reading
a book by a man named James Stewart,
and I came across a paragraph in that
book that was worth the price of the
whole book, and I'm going to read it
to you tonight.
He said, Once any man has looked into
Christ's eyes and felt the magnetism of his
way of life, he's never going to be
satisfied with the secular ideals and standards that
may have seemed adequate before Christ came.
Christ has spoiled him for anything else.
The old standards of values have become cinders,
ashes, dust.
Thank God for that.
I'm going to read it again, because it's
so good.
Once any man has looked into Christ's eyes
and felt the magnetism of his way of
life, he's never going to be content with
the secular ideals and standards that may have
seemed adequate before Christ came.
Christ has spoiled him for anything else.
The old standards of values have become cinders,
ashes, dust.
Thank God for that.
In the evangelical world, we hear a lot
about victorious living.
We hear a lot about total commitment, about
absolute surrender, about consecration.
The Spirit fills life.
Sometimes I think it all gets very complicated,
and tonight I would like to just try
to uncomplicate the Christian life for you.
Perhaps I should say the ideal Christian life,
because that's really what I'm thinking of.
Where does the ideal Christian life begin?
I would like to suggest to you tonight
that it begins with a crisis experience, such
as James Stewart has just described.
It begins with a crisis experience, such as
Troy sang in the solo tonight.
Not what I wish to be.
Not where I wish to go.
Who am I to choose my way?
The Lord shall choose for me.
His better far I know.
How does this happen to a person?
What is it that brings a person to
the point where he's ready to get down
before the Lord and really say that from
the heart?
Well, in a sense, he's seen a vision.
The poet said, I have seen a vision,
and for self I cannot live.
Life is worse than worthless, unless all I
give.
I must confess to you, those four little
simple lines have meant a lot to me
in my life.
I have seen a vision, and for self
I cannot live.
Life is worse than worthless, unless all I
give.
There comes a time when a man's secular
ideals and standards become cinders, ashes, and dust.
It's a great revelation in life when we
reach the point that we don't know what's
best for us in life.
I look back in my early life, and
I had it all planned out.
I thought I knew what was best.
The trouble was, I didn't know some of
the wonderful options the Lord had.
And His way is really best.
The man sees a vision.
His secular ideals and standards become cinders, ashes,
and dust.
He realizes the Lord knows best.
And then he turns his life over to
the Lord.
He's already done it for salvation.
Now he does it for service.
I suppose both of those things should happen
at the time of conversion, but they don't
for many of us.
We might as well be honest.
We might as well be realistic.
We trust Christ for the eternal salvation of
our souls, but we hold on to the
reins of our life.
But there comes a time, and really it's
a work of the Holy Spirit of God,
just as much as conversion.
I really believe that.
It's just as much a work of the
Holy Spirit of God when Bill McDonald or
anybody else comes to that place when he
says, it's the only reasonable, sensible, sane, rational
thing I can do.
And that's what Paul says in Romans 12,
verses 1 and 2, which is your reasonable
service.
There's nothing more reasonable.
If he died for me, the least I
can do is live for him.
There's something quite inconsistent about trusting the Lord
Jesus for the eternal salvation of my soul
and not being willing to trust him to
control my life down here.
It's not quite sincere, is it?
We can do that.
We can trust him to save us eternally,
but we don't dare let go and trust
him to manage our lives down here.
And yet, the mercies of God demand it.
I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies
of God that ye present, your bodies a
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is
your reasonable service.
But the mercies of God, it's inconsistent with
his love to us that we should love
him so little, better not the love of
all, better to be cold than to be
lukewarm.
Great day in a person's life when this
experience takes place, when for the first time
in his life he gets down on his
knees and says, Lord Jesus, anywhere, anytime, anything.
I'd like to share with you some illustrations
of that.
Years ago at Moody Bible Institute, there was
a girl, and she had this experience in
her dormitory room, and she wrote this in
her Bible.
Her name was Betty Scott.
She said, I
give myself, my life, my all, utterly to
thee, to be thine forever.
I hand over to thy keeping all of
my friendships, my love.
All the people whom I love are to
take second place in my heart.
Fill me and seal me with thy Holy
Spirit.
Work out thy whole will in my life
at any cost, now and forever.
For to me to live is Christ and
to die is gain.
Betty Scott had that crisis experience in her
dormitory room, Moody Bible Institute.
She went out from the Institute, married John
Stamm.
You can read the story of how God
accepted that sacrifice in the book called The
Triumph of John and Betty Stamm.
And I want to tell you something.
Betty Scott Stamm would never have made history
for God if she hadn't had that crisis
experience in her life.
William Borden of the famous Borden dairy family,
probably heir to millions if he had wanted
it, attended Yale, I think it was 1909.
And he had this experience and he wrote
this, Lord Jesus, I take hands off as
far as my life is concerned.
I put thee on the throne in my
heart.
Change, cleanse, use me as thou shalt choose.
I take the full power of thy Holy
Spirit.
I thank thee.
And William Borden went out and made history
for God.
You read about it in the book Borden
of Yale.
And more people have gone to the mission
field through that book than if Borden had
lived to be a hundred.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, he
had that experience.
He said in that day when I surrendered
myself to my Savior, I gave him my
body, my soul, my spirit.
I gave him all I had and all
I ever would have for time and for
eternity.
I gave him all my talents, my powers,
my faculties, my eyes, my ears, my limbs,
my emotions, my judgment, my whole manhood, and
all that could come from it.
And A.T. Pearson said years later of
all the mind that God gave him, he
made the very most.
What happens when a person has this experience?
A lot of people think in terms of
emotion.
They think, oh, the bells will ring, the
lights will go on, they'll get nervous shivers
in their system.
It may be that.
It may not be that at all.
It may be just a quiet assurance of
having done what was the right thing to
do.
There's a sense at a time like that
of giving up what a person has ceased
to love.
Poor is our sacrifice whose eyes are lighted
from above.
We offer what we cannot keep, what we
have ceased to love.
But I want to tell you when anybody
does come and present his life to the
Lord Jesus like that, he's offering what he
couldn't keep anyway and what he has ceased
to love.
Jim Elliott said it well, didn't he?
He said he is no fool who gives
what he cannot keep to gain what he
cannot lose.
There's a sense of losing one's life for
Christ's sake and the gospel.
And that's good because he said he that
loveth his life shall lose it, but he
that loseth his life for my sake and
the gospel shall find it.
It's funny.
People are different.
Some people are afraid if they'll do this
that the next day God will call them
to the mission field and all they can
think of is scorpions, snakes, and spiders.
It's true.
The reason a lot of people don't present
themselves to the Lord in a forever sacrifice
is they're afraid he'll call them to the
mission field.
Well, he may.
So it's the greatest thing that could happen.
He may not.
I was in Ireland recently in January at
the World Focus Conference and there was another
speaker there named David Shepherd.
And he said that after he had been
saved two weeks, he wondered at the slowness
of omnipotence.
Here he was, saved two weeks, and he
wasn't in Africa.
He wanted to go.
It was really beautiful.
He said, I couldn't understand the slowness of
omnipotence that I wasn't out in Africa since
I was already saved for two weeks.
So that's what the Lord has to put
up with.
Some of us who are afraid to go
and some of us who can't get there
fast enough.
Well, the ideal Christian life, I really believe
it begins there.
Of course, it begins with conversion, doesn't it?
When we come and trust Christ for salvation.
But it goes on and then we come
to that place in our lives when all
of our secular ideals and standards go out
the window and we say, Lord Jesus, here
I am.
Use me the way you want to use
me.
Is that the end?
No, that's only the beginning.
You say, what is there after that?
I want to make it as simple as
possible.
That crisis experience is then followed by a
daily process.
You mean, what do you mean by that?
Well, I mean that it isn't enough just
to do that once.
I come and I lay my body on
the altar of sacrifice for the Lord on
February 17th.
February 18th, I look and the wretched thing
has crawled off the altar.
And I have to come tomorrow morning.
I have to come every day of my
life and say, Lord Jesus, I rededicate my
life to you for the next 24 hour
period.
And I do that.
Can you do that?
That's not too hard, is it?
I said, I want to uncomplicate the Christian
life.
I think this is it.
This is it.
This is where the rubber meets the road.
Get down on your knees.
At the beginning of the day.
And say, Lord Jesus, I turn my life
over to you for the next 24 hour
period.
Live your life through me.
I want your will for my life this
day.
Not a week.
A day.
Live in day-tight compartment.
Right?
Somebody said, life by the inch is a
cinch.
Life by the yard is hard.
God doesn't reveal the blueprint for a month
ahead.
Just live today.
And I think God wants us to do
that.
I think he wants me to come every
morning of life and just turn my life
over to him.
Rededicate myself to him for that day.
I think the poet said it very well
when she wrote, I want my life so
cleared of self that my dear Lord may
come and set up his own furnishings and
make my heart his home.
And since I know what this requires, each
morning while it's still, I slip into that
secret room and leave with him my will.
He always takes it graciously, presenting me with
his.
I'm ready then to meet the day and
any task there is.
And this is how my Lord controls my
interest, my ill.
Because we meet at break of day for
an exchange of will.
Get it?
Can you do that?
You should do that.
Do that tomorrow morning.
Say, Lord Jesus, here I am.
I come and give you my will for
today and I take your will for my
life.
I say sometimes I think we complicate it
too much with some of our theological language.
Talking about absolute surrender and total commitment and
all that.
Is that all there is to it?
No, that's not all there is to it.
It's taken for granted that I'm going to
spend time in the Word of God each
day.
It's taken for granted that I'm going to
read the Word of God and study the
Word of God and memorize the Word of
God and obey the Word of God.
It's taken for granted that I'm going to
spend time in prayer every day.
It's how I'm going to keep close to
the Lord.
But then having done that, I go forth
and carry on my work, whatever the work
may be.
And any honorable work can be done to
the glory of God.
A person can be just as much in
the will of God doing janitorial work in
a building as he can be up here
at this pulpit.
And I believe that after I come into
His presence and accept His will for that
day and give Him my will for that
day, I go forth and I do whatever
my hand finds to do.
Any honorable work.
Honorable work.
I like that little motto that Mrs. Billy
Graham has over her sink.
It says, Divine service is conducted here three
times daily.
She's got it.
Can you wash dishes to the glory of
God?
Of course you can.
Divine service is conducted here three times daily.
Now, people think, Oh, that's wonderful.
Everything will be a mountaintop experience if I
do this.
Everything will be moonlight and roses.
Everything will be Gloria in excelsis.
Everything will be cloud number nine.
No, no.
Probably going to be routine, mundane, hard work.
Probably.
That's the way my life has been.
It's wonderful.
I love it.
But I don't want to create the impression
here that if you do this that there
won't be any problems and that everything will
glow.
Not necessarily.
Most of my life has been hard work.
Oftentimes lonely hours done to the glory of
God.
Routine.
I often think of the Lord Jesus in
Nazareth, in the carpenter shop till he was
30.
Making yolks.
Not very glamorous, was it?
Somebody has beautifully said that if Jesus, if
there had been a son, he was there
for those and he could have said to
the father, Father, a world perishing and here
I am making yolks.
It's all part of the will of God
for him, wasn't it?
Then at the age of 30, God said,
alright, come forth now.
In three and a half years, he became
the redeemer, the savior of the world.
God knows what he's about.
God trains, always runs on schedule.
Always do.
All we have to do is our part.
Turn over control to him and he'll take
care of the rest.
I like to emphasize this.
Do the work that your hands find to
do.
Somebody says, kill yourself with work, then pray
yourself alive again.
That's it.
Kill yourself with work, then pray yourself alive
again.
You say, what next?
Well, and I think this is important.
Maybe it's one of the most important things
that I'm going to say tonight.
First of all, you have that crisis experience
where the first time in your life, you
say it from your heart, you turn your
life over to the Lord for whatever he
has.
Morning by morning, you rededicate your life.
You come to him for an exchange of
wills.
You go forth and do whatever work you
find to do, whatever your regular work is.
You kill yourself with work and pray yourself
alive again.
Then, and I think this is beautiful, then
you accept whatever happens during the day as
being the will of God for you.
This has been so helpful to me.
You set a flat tire out on the
interstate.
Yes, a flat tire out on the interstate.
Look, I committed my life to the Lord
at the beginning of the day.
I accept what comes during the day as
part of his will for me.
Well, how can a flat tire be part
of his will?
Because there might be somebody that needs to
hear the gospel that will hear it as
a result of that flat tire.
Some very extraordinary things happen in life.
And at the time, it might be hard
to see that it's the will of God.
But I believe it is.
By faith, I accept what happens during, not
my own stupidity.
I don't accept that.
Not my own sin.
I'm not talking about that.
But whatever comes into my life during that
day, I accept it as part of the
will of God for my life.
You say, do you ever get discouraged?
Well, let me just put it this way.
I go along and sometimes it seems very
routine.
Sometimes it seems very humdrum.
Sometimes it seems very predictable.
And you think, I think I'll give up.
And just then, when you think that, the
minute you think that, the Lord knows just
how to drop a little handful of purpose.
He does.
I found this too in life.
He knows how to drop a little encouragement
into your way.
You think, oh, I think I'll go along
a little longer.
That's the way it works.
And yet having said that, let me tell
you that if you live this life, God
will give you indications along the way that
you are walking in His will.
There'll be little signposts along the way that'll
say, well, you're really walking in the center
of my will.
You say, what do you mean?
Well, there's a sense in which the gears
of life will mesh.
Some days, you know, they don't.
When I'm walking in my own will, they
don't mesh.
But it's a wonderful thing to see the
gears of life meshing.
It's a wonderful thing to see things happening
in life that wouldn't happen according to the
laws of chance or probability.
Will those things happen in your life?
You say, I'm still in touch with the
Lord.
It's a wonderful thing to see your service
sparkling with the supernatural.
And you do when you live this life.
Your service sparkles with the supernatural.
It's not that you become conceited.
It's that you stand back and say, it's
the Lord.
Had to be the Lord.
Couldn't have been me.
Not only that, there'll be a sense in
which you'll realize you're radioactive with the Holy
Spirit of God.
Radioactive with the Holy Spirit of God.
And you'll know that God is working in
and through you.
I'm going to tell the full story that
I didn't tell this morning because of lack
of time.
But some years ago, a young fellow who
had been overseas with OM came to visit
me in my apartment in Oak Park, Illinois.
And he discussed a very difficult problem with
me.
His name was Greg Livingston.
And I said to him, Greg, you're leaving
here and you're going to another city in
the Midwest and there's an elder in that
city who ought to know what you told
me today.
And I'm going to give you his name
and address and when you go to that
city, you go and talk to that elder.
And then it was then that I said
to Greg, Greg, what makes you tick anyway?
I said, here you are, you have your
graduate degree from Wheaton and you go and
you throw your life away overseas with a
bunch of nobodies.
What makes you tick anyway?
And he knew I was just trying to
draw him out.
And that's when he said this, Mr. McDonald,
I see that it's very hard to live
a life of faith in the United States.
You have to put yourself in a position
where you have to trust God, where if
God fails you, you're sunk.
And if you do that, there'll be a
power in your life and when you touch
other lives, something will happen for God.
Well, Greg went on to this other city
in the Midwest and then he went out
to Los Angeles and he had two weeks
of meetings in Los Angeles.
And when he was out there, I got
a letter from him and he said, Brother
McDonald, he said, I went to that Midwestern
city, he said, time just got away from
me.
He said, I had conferences, I had appointments,
he said, I had meetings and I didn't
have a chance to go to see that
elder.
He said, God knows I was willing and
God knows I'm still willing.
But he said, I didn't have a chance
to go to see him.
And then Greg got on a Greyhound bus
to drive back, to go back to Midland
Park, New Jersey.
And when he got on that bus in
Los Angeles, it was fairly empty, but you
know, the bus stops along the way and
takes on more and more passengers.
And the bus started to fill up until
they got to Riverside.
And when they got to Riverside, there was
one empty seat on the bus, the seat
beside Greg Livingston.
So he bowed his head and said, Lord
Jesus, lead on some young person that I
can speak to you, speak to for you.
And he lifted up his arm and an
older man was getting on board.
And the older man came and of course
sat right next to him.
And Greg said, Lord, young or old, I
have my duty to do you.
So he began to speak to the man
about the Lord.
And the man said to him, well that's
a funny thing, you should speak to me
about the Lord.
He said, I happen to be a born
again Christian.
Greg said, yes you are.
He said, my name is Greg Livingston.
The man said, my name is, he gave
the name of that elder from the Midwest
Assembly.
You believe that?
It happened.
How did that ever happen?
Well that man has, that man and his
wife have a daughter married in Phoenix, Arizona.
And they wanted to visit her.
So they got a drive away car in
the Midwest.
And they drove to Phoenix.
He dropped off his wife, but he had
to deliver the car in Riverside, California.
So he drove on from Phoenix alone to
Riverside, dropped off the car, delivered the car
in Riverside, got on a Greyhound bus to
come back to Phoenix and sat beside Greg
Livingston.
Now, when you think of the number of
Greyhound buses in the United States, the number
of stops they make, the number of seats
on the bus, the number of days in
the year and hours of the day, wasn't
it a coincidence that that man sat next
to Greg Livingston?
Mr. McDonald, I see it very hard to
live a life of faith in the United
States.
You have to put yourself in a position
where you have to trust God, where if
God fails you, you're sunk.
And if you do that, there will be
a power in your life.
And when you touch other lives, something will
happen for God.
God will arrange the seats on a Greyhound
bus for you.
That's what I mean about your service sparkling
with the supernatural, about your service being radioactive
with the Holy Spirit of God.
The wonderful thing is I talked about it
to Greg Livingston a little while ago.
I asked permission to use it in the
book and he couldn't even remember it.
It didn't make him conceited at all.
He couldn't even remember it.
But that elder remembered it.
He said to me three months later, he
said, Bill, nothing in my Christian life has
ever spoken to me as loudly as that,
that God is interested enough in us that
he would bring us together on a Greyhound
bus.
He said those miles to Phoenix, Arizona were
absolutely marvelous as we talked about the things
of the Lord.
You say, what next?
What next?
The plan of your life will emerge step
by step, day by day.
And if the time comes when there's a
crisis, when there's a crossroads and you have
to make a decision, the Lord will never
let you down to show you exactly what
he wants you to do.
Think about that.
Come to the Lord at the beginning of
the day.
Turn over your life to him for that
day.
Anybody can do this.
It's just a matter of the will.
Exchange your will.
Give him your will.
Take his will.
Go about your daily task.
Accept whatever happens.
That's the spirit-filled life.
Accept whatever happens that day as being part
of God's will for you.
Be willing to endure.
Be willing to be patient and to wait.
And the whole plan of your life will
emerge step by step.
That's the way God does it.
When I was in the Navy, and I'm
really going back a long time now, but
when I was in the Navy, they had
a terrible problem up in Alaska.
A lot of our planes would take off
from a field and they'd get up airborne
and then the fog would come in and
just suck in the field.
And the fog came to stay.
And that poor pilot would be up there
surfing around trying to land.
He couldn't land.
And you know what they had to do?
They had to fly around until their gasoline
was gone, until their fuel was gone, and
then just radio in goodbye and crash.
That happened a lot.
And so the Navy had to work on
that and they did work on it.
And by the 1970s, they had devised a
system where they could bring in a plane,
like on an aircraft carrier, bring in a
plane on an aircraft carrier.
Imagine.
From the control tower, they would tell the
pilot how to line up, you know, with
the carrier.
And they would tell him to come down
at a certain angle.
And you know what?
They'd tell him then, take your hands off
the control.
They'd turn it over to the computer.
And the ship would be lurching, you know,
and moving like this and this way.
And the computer would move the plane in
sync with the movement of the carrier so
that at the moment of touchdown, if the
carrier was this way, the plane would be
that way too.
But the key was, when the man in
the control tower said, take your hands off
the control, the only time they ever had
crashes was when the pilot didn't take his
hands off the control.
And I think that's what the Lord is
saying to us, isn't he?
Saying, take your hands off the control.
Let me run your life.
I can do a better job of it
than you can do.
I believe that.
Years ago when they were building one of
the great bridges in New York, the architect
was severely injured right at the very outset.
And during most of the time when the
bridge was a building, the architect was in
the hospital.
But by the time the bridge was completed
and the day of dedication had come, he
was well enough and they were able to
put him in a stretcher and they took
him out and put him along the bank
of the river there so he could see.
And he brought his blueprints along and he
unrolled the blueprints and he looked at the
bridge and he said, it's just exactly according
to plan.
I think the day is going to come
when you and I are going to stand
before the Lord and he's going to unroll
the blueprint.
Here's the blueprint and here's the way your
life and my life work.
Wouldn't it be nice if he could say,
it's just according to plan.
That's what he wants.
And we can do it.
We can do it.
Just by this uncomplicated method of turning our
lives over to him.
Accepting whatever comes in our lives and renewing
that vow day by day.
We're going to bow our heads and after
we pray, Troy is going to come and
lead us in a closing hymn.
But as we bow our heads, I'm going
to suggest a little prayer that maybe says
what we said tonight.
And if you feel you can, you make
this prayer your own.
The way you make it your own, you
can express it by saying, Amen at the
end.
So we pray, Lord Jesus, I have already
turned my life over to you for salvation.
Now I turn it over to you for
service.
I give up all my own plans and
ambitions and accept your will for my life.
This means anywhere, anytime, anything.
I give you my soul, my life, my
all.
You have bled and died for me.
Henceforth, I will live for thee, O Christ.
Thy bleeding hands and feet, thy sacrifice for
me.
Each wound, each tear demands my life, a
sacrifice for me.
How can I do less than give thee
my best and live for you completely after
all you've done for me?
Father, we just commend this simple message to
you.
We pray that we might make it real
in our lives.
We pray, Lord, that each one of us,
day by day, might come before you and
make a complete rededication of our lives to
you and see you working out that wonderful
will, good, acceptable, and perfect will in our
lives.
We ask it in Jesus' name and for
his glory.
Amen.
Thank you, Hembrooks, and turn with me to
number 385, please.
Number 385, the third verse.
Oh, we never can know what the Lord
will bestow of the blessings for which we
have prayed till our body and soul He
doth fully control and our all on the
altar is laid.
Who can tell all the love He will
send from above and how happy our hearts
will be made of the fellowship sweet we
will share at His feet when our all
on the altar is laid.