Sermons

Sermons

This is a sermon from a few months ago given at Spring Harvest in Skegness. My given title was ‘Living in the Light and Living as Light’

Ephesians 5:8-13 ‘For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.’ 

(Skip to 8 mins 46 seconds for the start of the talk. With thanks to Spring Harvest for the video)

Below are some of the stories and quotes I shared:

Christian Fuhrer, pastor of Nikolaikirche in Leipzig, East Germany, committed to pray for peace. Loads of youth showed up to join him. By 1989, there were huge meetings, but sometimes half the congregation was the State Security Police, sent to monitor what was going on. On October 7, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was due to celebrate its 40th anniversary. President Gorbachev, the author of the movement for openness and Perestroika, attended from the Soviet Union. Naturally, the government did not want the occasion to be used for any kind of public expression of discontent. But in Leipzig, for ten long hours police battered and bullied defenceless demonstrators who made no attempt to fight back. Many were taken away in police vehicles.

In this heightened atmosphere, just two days later, Monday 9th October, the peace prayers were to be held. The government warned protesters that any further demonstrations would not be tolerated. All day long, the police and military tried to intimidate them with a hideous show of force. Schools and shops in the city were shut down. Roadblocks were built. The police had guns loaded with live ammunition. Soldiers with tanks were mobilized and surrounded the central area. Extra beds and blood plasma had been assembled in the Leipzig hospitals. Rumors from many reliable sources circulated that the government intended to use the “Chinese Solution” and repeat the massacre of Tienanmen Square in Beijing.

To neutralize and perhaps disrupt the prayer meeting, 1000 party members and Stasi arrived at the church early. Six hundred of them filled the nave by 2 p.m. But as Führer said: “They had a job to perform. What had not been considered was the fact that these people were exposed to the word, the gospel and its impact! I was always glad the Stasi agents heard the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount every Monday. Where else would they hear these?”

So the stage was set, the actors assembled for the climactic Monday prayer service. Huge numbers came out to pray, not only at the Nikolai Church but at other churches throughout the city, which had joined the peace prayers. During the service, the atmosphere and the prayers were serenely calm. As he prepared to send the people out into the streets, Pastor Führer made a final plea to the congregation to refrain from any form of violence or provocation. The Sermon on the Mount was again read aloud.

As the doors opened for the worshipers to depart, something unforgettable happened…

The 2000 people leaving the sanctuary were welcomed by tens of thousands waiting outside with candles in their hands. That night an estimated 70,000 people marched around the main city streets. Though the police and the military were everywhere, Pastor Führer said: “Our fear was not as big as our faith … Two hands are needed to carry a candle and to protect it from extinguishing. So you cannot carry stones or clubs at the same time.”

It was later reported that Horst Sindemann, a serving member of the Central Committee of the GDR, summed up both the extensive preparations of the authorities as well as their inability to know how to respond to the events of that evening: “We had planned for everything. We were prepared for everything. But not for candles and prayers.” A month later the Berlin Wall was breached, and the whole Communist edifice crumbled away.

From our passage: v11,13 ‘Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them… But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light’. 

Similar scenes occurred just over a thousand miles away in Romania, where things were heating up, and candles being used there as well. Lead by the incredibly brave Pastor of the Hungarian Reformed Church called pastor Laszlo Tokes, loads of youth were coming to faith, and church membership swelled to 5000.

Authorities stationed police officers in front of the church on Sundays, cradling machine guns. They hired thugs to attack Pastor Tokes. They confiscated his ration book so he couldn’t buy food or fuel. Finally, in December 1989, they decided to send him into exile. But when police arrived to hustle Pastor Tokes away, they were stopped cold. Around the entrance of the church stood a wall of humanity. Members of other churches – Baptist, Pentecostal, Orthodox, Catholic, and others – had joined together to protest.

Though police tried to disperse the crowd, the people held their post all day and into the night. Then, just after midnight, a 19-year-old Baptist student named Daniel Gavra pulled out a packet of candles. He lit one and passed it to his neighbour.

The crowd stayed all through the day – and the next night. Finally police broke through. They bashed in the church door, bloodied Pastor Tokes’ face, and then paraded him and his wife through the crowd and out into the night. But that was not the end. The people streamed to the city square and began a full-scale demonstration against the Communist government. Again Daniel passed out his candles. This was more than the government could tolerate. They brought in troops and ordered them to open fire on the crowd. Hundreds were killed. Young Daniel felt a searing pain as his leg was blown off. But the people of Timisoara stood bravely against the barrage of bullets.

And by their example they inspired the entire population of Romania. Within days the nation had risen up and the bloody dictator Ceausescu was gone.

For the first time in half a century, Romanians celebrated Christmas in freedom.

Daniel celebrated in the hospital, where he was learning to walk with crutches. His pastor came to offer sympathy, but Daniel wasn’t looking for sympathy. “Pastor, I don’t mind so much the loss of a leg,” he said. “After all, it was I who lit the first candle.”

On Friday, December 22nd, Rev. Peter Dugulescu was on a balcony overlooking the city’s opera square when official word came of the overthrow of Ceausescu… the people started to shout, enthusiastically: “God exists!” “There is a God.”

Dugulescu said, “With some 150,000 people in the square, I asked the crowd that in these great, historic and critical moments we should pray together the prayer, ‘Our Father, Who Art in Heaven’. Without being asked to do it, all of them knelt down, facing the cathedral I prayed in the microphone, and they repeated after me.”

Daniel’s candle that lit up an entire country, but it cost him his leg.

Letting your light shine is costly. There will be casualties. But what a line! “Pastor, I don’t mind so much the loss of a leg,” he said. “After all, it was I who lit the first candle.”

You can light that first candle down your street. A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle. 

Saint Telemachus, a fourth-century monk who lived in a monastery, felt God calling him to Rome.  He couldn’t figure out why God would want him in Rome, but he felt the pressure to go.  Putting his possessions in a little satchel, he threw the bag over his shoulder and started out over the dusty, westward roads to Rome. When he got to Rome, people were running about the city in great confusion. He had arrived on a day when the gladiators were going to fight both other gladiators and animals in the amphitheater. Everyone was heading to the amphitheater to watch the entertainment. So Telemachus thought this must be why God had called him to Rome. 

He walked into the amphitheater. He sat down among the 80,000 people who cheered as the gladiators came out proclaiming, “Hail Caesar! We die to the glory of Caesar.” The little monk thought to himself, here we are, four centuries after Christ, in a civilised nation, and people are killing one another for the entertainment of the crowd.  This isn’t Christian! Telemachus got up out of his seat, ran down the steps, climbed over the wall, walked out to the centre of the amphitheater, and stood between two large gladiators.  Putting his hands up, he cried out, “In the name of Christ, stop!”  The crowd laughed and jeered. One of the gladiators slapped Telemachus in the stomach with his sword and sent him spinning off into the dust.

Telemachus got up and again stood between the two huge gladiators.  He repeated, “In the name of Christ, stop.”  This time the crowd chanted “Run him through!”  One of the gladiators took his sword and ran it through Telemachus’s stomach.  He fell into the dust and the sand turned red as blood ran out of him.  One last time, Telemachus weakly cried out, “In the name of Christ, stop.”  

He died on the amphitheater floor. The crowd grew silent, and within minutes they emptied out of the amphitheater. History records that, thanks to Saint Telemachus, this was the last gladiatorial contest in the history of the Roman Empire.

Verse 11 of our passage says ‘Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.’ Saint Telemachus changed the course of history. So can you. God loves to use one person to make a big difference in the world – and God wants to use you.

William Booth’s last speech to Salvation Army: “While women weep, as they do now, I’ll fight. While little children go hungry, as they do now, I’ll fight. While men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I’ll fight. While there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I’ll fight – I’ll fight to the very end!”

Philippians 2:14-16:  ‘Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.’ 

Paul urges us to “Hold firmly to the word of life!”

What could that mean for you? A young lady working in a factory in Lancashire complained to her vicar: “I cannot stick it out any longer. I am the only Christian in the factory where I work. I get nothing but taunts and sneers. It is more than I can stand. I am going to resign.” 

“Will you tell me,” asked the vicar, “where lights are placed?” “What has that to do with it?” the young Christian asked him rather bluntly. “Never mind,” the minister replied. “Answer my question: Where are lights placed?” “I suppose in dark places,” she replied. “Yes, and that is why you have been put in that factory where there is such spiritual darkness and where there is no other Christian to shine for the Lord.”

The young lady realized for the first time the opportunity that was hers. She felt she could not fail God by allowing her light to go out. She went back to the factory with renewed determination to let her light shine in that dark corner. Before long, she was the means of leading nine other girls to the Light.

You can’t blame the dark for being dark, you have to blame the light for not shining on it. Where is God calling you to shine? What might it look like?

Professor Joad, who was converted from atheism to Christ said, “Trying to find happiness from this world is like trying to light up a dark room by lighting a succession of matches. You strike one, it flickers for a moment, and then it goes out. But when you find Jesus Christ, it’s as though the whole room is suddenly flooded with light.”

In Patricia St John’s ‘Treasures of the Snow’, Annette talking to Grandmother: “If you hated someone, you couldn’t ask Jesus to come into your life, could you?” “If you hate someone, it just shows how badly you need to ask Him to come in. The darker the room, the more it needs the light to come in.” “But I couldn’t stop hating Lucien.” “No, you’re quite right. None of us can stop ourselves thinking wrong thoughts, and it isn’t much good trying. But Annette, when you come down in the morning and find this room dark with the shutters down, do you say to yourself, I must chase away the darkness and the shadows first, and then I will open the shutters and let in the sun? Do you waste time trying to get rid of the dark?” “Of course not!” “Then how do you get rid of the dark?” “I pull back the shutters, of course, and then the light just comes in!” “But what happens to the dark?” “I don’t know; it just goes when the light comes!” “That is exactly what happens when you ask Jesus to come in. He is love, and when love comes in, hatred and selfishness and unkindness will give way to it, just as the darkness gives way when you let in the sunshine. But to try to chase it out alone would be like trying to chase the shadows out of a dark room. It would be a waste of time.”  

Martin Luther King Jr said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

Yancey: “It seems to me Christians are too busy trying to stuff up the cracks and correct those imperfections. It’s all right to try to fix our defects, but if it keeps us away from grace, it’s not good. Light only gets in through the cracks.” Come as you are tonight, He will shine through you. 

Early 20th century missionaries became known as ‘one-way missionaries’ because they packed all their earthly belongings into coffins and purchased one-way tickets when they departed for the mission field. They knew they’d never return. A.W.Milne felt called to a tribe of headhunters in the New Hebrides (Vanuatu in South Pacific). All the other missionaries to this tribe had been martyred, but that didn’t keep Milne from going. He lived among the tribe for 35 years and never returned home.

When the tribe buried him, they wrote the following epitaph on his tombstone: “when he came there was no light. When he left there was no darkness.” That could be what they say about you in your halls of residence, in the office, classroom, on the team, without the cannibalism! What a privilege! 

Living in the light and living as light. George Bernard Shaw: “Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I’ve got ahold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”

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There is a Thomas the Tank Engine cartoon that pictures Thomas on his side, having fallen off the train tracks. He is shouting, ‘I’m free! I’m free at last. I’ve fallen off the rails and I’m free!’ Of course, the reality is that Thomas is far more ‘free’ when his wheels are on the rails and he is operating in line with how he has been created to function.’

I preached this sermon at All Saints Weston Sunday evening on the back of a massive sucker punch on my return from Burundi Thursday, and the combination of physical weariness from the sponsored cycle ride and the bad news I was greeted with probably contributed to my tearfulness in it. But what comfort is those verses, and what a challenge and commission as well!

Isaiah 61:1-4 “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, 3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion — to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. 4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.”

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View from a stage, we see the back of a preacher raises his hands on a stage in front of hundreds of Burundians also raising their hands with eyes closed

As I look around, I think it’s fair to say we lack gospel confidence in this country. For what it’s worth, I want you to know that yesterday, more people came to faith in Jesus than any other day in the history of humanity. The kingdom of God is advancing!

So, last month I’m preaching in the bush in Burundi to about 3000 people, and we’re very clear in the appeal, only come forward if it’s your first time to choose to follow Jesus… and that night, 224 people responded. That’s one outreach in the middle of nowhere. I pray for the Palau Association. They were in Uruguay this week, and they have seen several thousand people come to Jesus at multiple outreaches. Folks, Kingdom fruit is exploding across the world!

It happens that in this country, we’re seemingly on the back foot. But we don’t need to be. I am not – and I hope neither are you – ashamed of the gospel!

This sermon was preached at Living Rock church near Leicester a while back as part of their sermon series on the first Epistle to the Corinthians. My passage was 1 Corinthians 2:1-5, and I spoke about ‘the Fragility of the Messenger but the Power of the Message’.

Watch or take a listen here:

A few quotes/anecdotes:

Tony Lambert observed the extraordinary growth of the church in China through seasons of intense persecution, and came to the following conclusion: “The reason for the growth of the church in China and for the outbreak of genuine spiritual revival in many areas is inextricably linked to the whole theology of the cross… the stark message of the Chinese church is that God used suffering and the preaching of a crucified Christ to pour out revival and build his church. Are we in the West still willing to hear? The Chinese church has walked the way of the cross. The lives and deaths of the martyrs of the 1950s and 1960s have borne rich fruit.”

If you’re a good preacher, be careful, or particularly talented in whatever field, you don’t want to get in the way of the gospel, you want to be a servant of the gospel. A good preacher can obscure Jesus by their preaching, either in the presentation or the message. Like the little girl who used to attend a church with a big preacher with an even bigger personality. One Sunday, when a smaller man was guest speaking she could finally see the stained-glass window of Jesus behind the pulpit said, “Where’s the man who usually stands there so we can’t see Jesus?”

Moody’s encounter with the Holy Spirit in New York transformed his ministry. After one service, two old ladies called Mrs Sarah Cooke and Mrs Hawkhurst approached him and told him, “You are good, but you haven’t got it… we have been praying for you… you need power!” Moody, an already well-respected minister, was surprised. “I need power?” asked Moody. “Why, I thought I had power!” The ladies poured out their hearts that he might receive the anointing of the Holy Ghost and soon there grew a great hunger in his soul. “I felt I did not want to live any longer if I had not this power for service.” There began a period of six months’ pleading with God for more. Then God visited him as he walked down Wall Street in New York; he was never the same again. Although his sermons and doctrine had not changed, his effectiveness in winning thousands to Christ was evidence of this new power.” The same sermons that previously might see 5 now saw 50 come to the Lord, endued with power…

This man was born in a gypsy tent, of humble origins, and yet ended up being invited to the White House by two presidents. Rodney ‘Gypsy’ Smith came into the world in 1860 in Epping Forest, just outside London. Forty five times he crossed the Atlantic to preach the gospel to millions of people on both sides. His passion was almost unparalleled, and there was great fruit in what he did. What was his secret? Private prayer. His praying was even more powerful than his preaching. A delegation once came to him to enquire how they might experience personal and mass revival as he had. They wanted to be used the way Gypsy was. Without hesitating, he said: “Go home. Lock yourself in your room. Kneel down in the middle of the floor, and with a piece of chalk draw a circle round yourself. There, on your knees, pray fervently and brokenly that God would start a revival within that chalk circle.”

One young Zimbabwean man wrote the following before he was martyred: “I’m part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have the Holy Spirit’s power. The die has been cast. I’ve stepped over the line. The decision has been made – I’m a disciple of his. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still… I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the enemy, pander at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity… I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go till he comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, and work till he stops me. And, when he comes for his own, he will have no problem recognizing me… my banner will be clear!”

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Last Sunday, I preached at Emmanuel Croydon to finish off their Ephesians series with chapter 6 and the Armour of God. I entitled it ‘Battle Stations!’

Do take a listen here:

Ephesians 6 – Recorded 26th November 2023

And below are a few juicy quotes:

John Piper: “Probably the number one reason why prayer malfunctions in the hands of believers is that we try to turn a wartime walkie-talkie into a domestic intercom. Until you know that life is war, you cannot know what prayer is for… But what have millions of Christians done? We have stopped believing that we are in a war. No urgency, no watching, no vigilance. No strategic planning. Just easy peace and prosperity. And what did we do with the walkie-talkie? We tried to rig it up as an intercom in our houses – not to call in fire power for conflict with a mortal enemy, but to ask for more comforts in the den… Most people show by their priorities and casual approaches to spiritual things that they believe we’re in peace, not in wartime… In wartime we’re on the alert. We’re armed. We’re vigilant. In wartime we spend money differently, because there are more strategic ways to maximise our resources. The war effort touches everybody. We all cut back. The luxury liner becomes a troop carrier… Who considers that the casualties of this war don’t merely lose an arm or an eye or an earthly life, but lose everything, even their own soul, and enter a hell of everlasting torment?”

John Eldridge: “We are at war, and the bloody battle is over our hearts. I am astounded how few Christians see this, how little they protect their hearts. We act as though we live in a sleepy little town during peacetime. We don’t. We live in the spiritual equivalent of Bosnia or Beirut. Act like it. Watch over your heart. Don’t let just anything in; don’t let it go just anywhere. What’s this going to do to my heart? is a question that I ask in every situation.”

R. A. Torrey: “We’re too busy to pray, and so we’re too busy to have power. We have a great deal of activity but we accomplish little; many services but few conversions; much machinery but few results.” 

John Stott: “What we need is not more learning, not more eloquence, not more persuasion, not more organization, but more power from the Holy Spirit.” 

Smith Wigglesworth gave this challenge to Christians: “Live ready. If you have to get ready when the opportunity comes your way, you’ll be too late. Opportunity doesn’t wait, not even while you pray. You must not have to get ready, you must live ready at all times… Be filled with the Spirit; that is, be soaked with the Spirit. Be so soaked that every thread in the fabric of your life will have received the requisite rule of the Spirit – then when you are misused and squeezed to the wall, all that will ooze out of you will be the nature of Christ.”

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WARNING: This blog contains two prayers which could radically alter your life. If you’d rather things stay as they are, then please stop here.

This is the fourth talk in the ‘Hot Pursuit’ series, delivered at Lee Abbey in August.

You can listen here:

Pursuing His Power – Lee Abbey 2023

Some notes/quotes/illustrations from the talk:

Some years ago a young man looking for work approached a foreman of a logging crew and asked him for a job.  “It depends,” replied the foreman “lets see you take this one down”.

The young man stepped forward, and skillfully felled a great tree. The foreman was impressed and explained, “you can start on Monday!”.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday rolled by. Thursday afternoon the foreman approached the young man and said, “You can pick up your paycheck on the way out today”.  

Startled, the young man asked, “I thought you paid on Fridays.”, “Normally we do”, answered the foreman, “but we are letting you go today because you have fallen behind. Our daily charts show that you have dropped from first place on Monday to last place on Wednesday”.  “But I’m a hard worker”, the young man objected, “I arrive first, leave last, and I’ve even worked through my coffee breaks!” The foreman sensing the boy’s integrity, thought for a minute and then asked, “Have you been sharpening your axe?”, the young man replied, “Well, no, Sir.  I have been working too hard to take the time.” 

Application: How about you? Too busy to sharpen your axe?  Prayer is the hone that gives you the sharp edge.  Without prayer, the more work you do the duller you will get.  We need to take time to stay sharp as we go about the work of Christ’s kingdom!

“We’re too busy to pray, and so we’re too busy to have power. We have a great deal of activity, but we accomplish little; many services but few conversions; much machinery but few results.” (R. A. Torrey)

Recognised as one of Britain’s greatest ever preachers, Spurgeon once wrote, “Give me twelve men, importunate men, lovers of souls, who fear nothing but sin and love nothing but God, and I’ll shake London from end to end.” The power of a surrendered life is immense, because those who have laid their all on the altar are pure vessels for the ministering of God’s Spirit into any given situation. I no longer just possess a faith, but more than that, my faith possesses me.

Walter Lewis Wilson was an American doctor born towards the end of the nineteenth century. He was a faithful Christian who often hosted visiting missionaries to his church. One visitor from France didn’t mince words, asking him, “Who is the Holy Spirit to you?” Wilson’s answer was doctrinally correct, “One of the Persons of the Godhead… Teacher, Guide, Third Person of the Trinity.” But it was an empty and rehearsed response. His friend pushed him harder, challenging him, “You haven’t answered my question.” Wilson opened up with real candour, “He’s nothing to me. I have no contact with him and could get along without him.” 

The following year, Wilson listened to a sermon at church from Romans 12 on the challenge to offer his body as a living sacrifice. The preacher called out from the pulpit, “Have you noticed that this verse doesn’t tell us to Whom we should give our bodies? It’s not the Lord Jesus. He has his own body. It’s not the Father. He remains on his throne. Another has come to earth without a body. God gives you the indescribable honour of presenting your bodies to the Holy Spirit, to be his dwelling place on earth.”

Wilson was struck to the core and rushed home to seek the Lord. He fell on his face and pleaded with the Lord, “My Lord, I’ve treated you like a servant. When I wanted you, I called for you. Now I give you this body from my head to my feet. I give you my hands, my limbs, my eyes and lips, my brain. You may send this body to Africa, or lay it on a bed with cancer. It’s your body from this moment on.”

The next morning, Wilson was working in his office when two ladies arrived, trying to sell him advertising. He immediately led them to Christ. The previous night’s surrender had enabled him to access new power from on high. From that day onwards, his life entered a new dimension of evangelistic fruitfulness. He went on to pioneer a church plant, a mission organisation, and a Bible College, as well as becoming a best-selling author.

Do you want to be entrusted with that same power from the Holy Spirit? Well, who is the Holy Spirit to you? Like the early Wilson, can you get along perfectly well without him? Or are you truly willing to offer him your body as a living sacrifice, without conditions or caveats? There’s so much more power that I want to plug into for God’s glory. But will I trust him for every aspect of my life? Will I “consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3v8)? These are big, big questions.

Here’s inviting you to total surrender. If you’re ready for it, then how about taking a few minutes and reflecting on John Wesley’s ‘Covenant Prayer’, and then making it your own:


“I am no longer my own, but yours.

Put me to what you will,
Rank me with whoever you will.

Put me to suffering.

Let me be employed for you,
Or laid aside for you.

Exalted for you, or brought low for you.

Let me be full
Let me be empty.
Let me have all things,
Let me have nothing!

And now, O Father,
You are mine and I am yours.  So be it.  

And the covenant I am making on earth,
Let it be ratified in heaven.  Amen.”

To do that we’re given the power of the Holy Spirit. So we call on him to turn the world upside down, starting with you and me. We embrace whatever and however he chooses to operate, even if it’s not how we would have envisaged it. Catherine Fox wrote, “The Biblical images to describe the work of the Spirit – fire, mighty rushing wind, flood etc – are exactly the sorts of things we pay to insure ourselves against.” It’s perhaps a daunting prospect, as we accept his leadership and authority over our lives. But William Temple warned us that “if we invoke the Holy Spirit, we must be ready for the glorious pain of being caught by his power (and taken) out of our petty orbit into the eternal purposes of the Almighty.”

Annie Dillard in Teaching a Stone to Talk, describes the church: “On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or as I suspect, does no-one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning.

It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offence, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return.” 

Moody’s encounter with the Holy Spirit in New York transformed his ministry. After one service, two old ladies called Mrs Sarah Cooke and Mrs Hawkhurst approached him and told him, “You are good, but you haven’t got it… we have been praying for you… you need power!” Moody, an already well-respected minister, was unimpressed. “I need power?” asked Moody. “Why, I thought I had power!” The ladies poured out their hearts that he might receive the anointing of the Holy Ghost and soon there grew a great hunger in his soul. “I felt I did not want to live any longer if I had not this power for service.” There began a period of six months’ pleading with God for more. Then God visited him as he walked down Wall Street in New York; he was never the same again. Although his sermons and doctrine had not changed, his effectiveness in winning thousands to Christ was evidence of this new power. 

Foster writes, “In our day heaven and earth are on tiptoe waiting for the emerging of a Spirit-led, Spirit-intoxicated, Spirit-empowered people. All of creation watches expectantly for the springing up of a disciplined, freely gathered, martyr people who know in this life the life and power of the kingdom of God. It has happened before. It can happen again… Such a people will not emerge until there is among us a deeper, more profound experience of an Emmanuel of the Spirit – God with us, a knowledge that in the power of the Spirit Jesus has come to guide his people himself, an experience of his leading that is as definite and as immediate as the cloud by day and fire by night.”

Tozer penned the following last century. It’s meaty. The consequences of such praying, when heartfelt, are quite simply earth-shaking. Families, communities, regions and nations have been and still can be changed by people who’ve surrendered their right to themselves and have been willing to give their all for the glory of Jesus Christ. Maybe check that you’re willing to pray it wholeheartedly, and take time to grapple with the implications that each line will have for your relationships, career, family and future…

Here goes:

“I come to you today, O Lord, 
To give up my rights, 
To lay down my life,

To offer my future,

To give my devotion, my skills, my energies.

I shall not waste time

Deploring my weaknesses

Nor my unfittedness for the work.

I acknowledge your choice with my life

To make your Christ attractive and intelligible

To those around me.

I come to you for spiritual preparation.

Put your hand upon me,

Anoint me with the oil of the One with Good News. 

Save me from compromise,

Heal my soul from small ambitions,

Deliver me from the itch to always be right,

Save me from wasting time.

I accept hard work, I ask for no easy place,

Help me not to judge others who walk a smoother path.

Show me those things that diminish spiritual power in a soul.

I now consecrate my days to you,

Make your will more precious than anybody or anything.

Fill me with your power

And when at the end of life’s journey I see you face to face

May I hear those undeserving words

“Well done you good and faithful servant”.

I ask this not for myself

But for the glory of the name of your Son.”

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This is the third talk in the ‘Hot Pursuit’ series, delivered at Lee Abbey in August.

Pursuing His Purpose – Lee Abbey 2023

This is the story of one of my heroes: Robert Jermaine Thomas (1839-1866) from Kingsley Armstrong’s book:

After Robert Thomas found the Lord, he began preaching at age 15. He went to train at New College, London; met Caroline Godfrey, got engaged, married, ordained and sailed to China the same year. In 1863 Robert said goodbye to his homeland. He was twenty-four when he travelled with his new wife on a ship from Gravesend to Shanghai, a four-month voyage. 

On the journey, Caroline got pregnant, but within five months of their arrival in Shanghai, she died from a miscarriage. They had not known of her pregnancy and he had gone off to another city to seek better accommodation for them. He wanted the best for his new bride and tried to make things good for her so what a blow to him to get such heart-shattering news.

In one letter home, he writes: “My heart is well-nigh broken. I must seek somewhere a complete change. All that could be done for a sufferer was done for my dear wife… I trust to give myself more completely than ever to the noble work on which I have just entered, but at present I feel weighed down by deep grief.”

Can you imagine how his parents must have felt? They were devastated back home in Wales when they got the letter from Robert telling them that their daughter-in-law was dead and also their first grandchild. What grief! Can you imagine what everyone would have said: A young family – what a waste! She died before they even accomplished anything in China.

But was that the whole story?

In Robert’s grief he had two very close friends and comforters, Joseph Edkins of the London Missionary Society and Alexander Williamson of the Scottish National Bible Society. Williamson introduced Thomas to two Catholic Koreans who were eager to read Bibles but did not yet possess any, and Thomas was touched by God to try and help them. He committed himself to getting hold of Bibles for the Korean people even though he was warned of how dangerous that would be.

He talked with the Scottish Bible Society to take Chinese-print Bibles to Korea. Eventually, Robert took two missionary journeys along the west coast of Korea. This was such a dangerous mission as ten thousand Korean Catholics had already been killed and it was well known that the Korean authorities would not welcome any Christian visitors.

He then made contact with an American ship called the General Sherman. It was shrouded in mystery, as the mission was so difficult. It is not known whether it was a merchant vessel or what the purpose of the expedition was. However, Thomas’ purpose was clear; get the Bibles to the Koreans. Some have suggested that he agreed to be the Captain’s interpreter to fulfil his mission.

As they approached the land of Korea, they received many official warnings to turn back. However, they continued despite the opposition. On 3rd September 1866, the authorities in Korea commanded that the General Sherman be attacked and destroyed. They sailed several burning boats toward the Sherman and set it on fire. The crew jumped overboard and waiting for them on the shore were their executioners; not one survived.

Robert Jemaine Thomas stood on the burning deck and opening his cases flung his Bibles to the soldiers and villagers waiting on the shore shouting “Jesus!”  Finally, Robert himself caught on fire and jumped overboard. 

As he swam to shore he begged the awaiting soldier to take a Bible from him. The soldier killed him. He was 27 years old.

When news eventually got home to Wales, his family was once again devastated. It was bad news when his wife died. Now, the second time, tragedy again. This time he had not even completed his mission. They had known of his desire to share the Word of God but he had kept this mission secret. What did he think he was doing! What a tragic waste of a life that could have been so useful to God.

I wonder what story they would have told to Jesus on meeting him in heaven. Would they have told him of the tragic waste of their family’s life, of their son who nearly made it as a missionary but failed?

But was that the whole story?

What about when Robert faces Jesus in Eternity. I can imagine him falling at the feet of Jesus, crying, “I am so sorry; I have failed!” His story would have been as the ‘almost made it’ missionary.

But that is not the end of the story.

Let us go back to the shores of North Korea.  Some of those watching did not destroy the Bibles as print was so precious and took them home, some even using the pages as wallpaper.  Some then started reading the pages. And here on the walls of their houses they began to read about a Saviour who died for them and would forgive them for everything they had done wrong. Even though Thomas was gone, the story was continuing.

About 50 years later a huge revival broke out in Pyongyang, Korea. In 1904 ten thousand became Christians; in 1906, thirty thousand became Christians; in 1907, fifty thousand more. 

And then beautifully in 1907 as the Holy Spirit moved in Pyongyang at a revival meeting, an old man, Choon Kwon Park, came forward repenting that it was he, who in his youth as a soldier, had beheaded missionary Robert Jermaine Thomas. He had also read the book given to him by the man he had killed and through it found the Saviour.

That 1907 Revival was part of something amazing that the Lord was doing in the world at the beginning of the 20th Century. It started in Wales in 1904, went into India through Welsh missionaries in 1905, then on to Asuza Street in the USA in 1906. From Korea, the revival went into parts of China.

Going back to Thomas crying at the feet of Jesus begging forgiveness for his failed story; I can imagine Jesus stepping back and asking him to see the true story. To look and see the millions of Korean Christians who had come to faith through his sacrifice. I can imagine Robert’s parents having a similar experience when Jesus would also show them the fruit of their sacrifice.

That was not the end of the story; Jesus had not finished writing yet.

Robert Jermaine Thomas was never that well known in the UK, but there is still a chapel in his home town Llanover, South Wales:  Many Koreans have visited to give thanks to God for sending him to Korea.  His life was extinguished at the age of twenty-seven, but even today, his memory still lives in the hearts of the Korean people. 

Robert Jermaine Thomas did not write the whole story himself but he certainly was obedient and faithful in allowing God to write over his life.  Remember today, that God is writing your story and, though you may never have the privilege of reading the last chapter, one day you will see the end of it.

Some more notes/quotes/illustrations from the talk:

1648 Shorter Westminster Catechism, over 100 questions, first one was

Q: What is the chief end of man?
A: Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

Gil Bailie: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

“Teresa of Avila, a sixteenth-century Spanish mystic, wrote, “Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ’s compassion is to look out to the world; yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good; yours are the hands with which God is to bless people now.” 

I love Bob Sieple’s line too: “If we know something is wrong, we are accountable for that knowledge. We are accountable for what we know. If we can do something about it, we are also responsible. Accountable knowledge allows for pity. Mercy demands responsible action.” 

Graham Cyster shared a painful story about a personal experience decades ago when he was struggling against apartheid as a young South African Christian. One night, he was smuggled into an underground Communist cell of young people fighting apartheid. “Tell us about the gospel of Jesus Christ,” they asked, half hoping for an alternative to the violent communist strategy they were embracing.

Graham gave a clear, powerful presentation of the gospel, showing how personal faith in Christ wonderfully transforms persons and creates one new body of believers where there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, rich nor poor, black nor white. The youth were fascinated. One seventeen-year-old exclaimed, “That is wonderful! Show me where I can see that happening.” Graham’s face fell as he sadly responded that he could not think of anywhere South African Christians were truly living out the message of the gospel. “Then the whole thing is a piece of sh—,” the youth angrily retorted. Within a month he left the country to join the armed struggle against apartheid—and eventually gave his life for his beliefs.

The young man was right. If Christians do not live what they preach, the whole thing is a farce. “Western Christianity has largely failed since the middle of the twentieth century,” Barna concludes, “because Jesus’ modern-day disciples do not act like Jesus.” This scandalous behaviour mocks Christ, undermines evangelism, and destroys Christian credibility.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “We are not simply to bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice; we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself. . . . Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”

Muhammad Ali was a great boxer, but perhaps he was an even greater exponent of pride. Once on a plane, an air stewardess said to him, “Sir, please fasten your seatbelt.” He replied: “Superman don’t need no seatbelt.” Quick as a flash, she shot back, “Superman don’t need no airplane, now fasten your seatbelt!”

‘I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.’ Søren Kierkegaard

“The Christian Gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. It undermines both swaggering and snivelling. I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone. I do not think more of myself nor less of myself. Instead, I think of myself less.” Timothy Keller

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This is the second talk in the ‘Hot Pursuit’ series, delivered at Lee Abbey in August.

Pursuing His Presence
Pursuing His Peace
Pursuing His Purpose
Pursuing His Power

You can listen here:

Pursuing His Peace – Lee Abbey 2023

Some notes/quotes/illustrations from the talk:

Isaiah 26:3 “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.”

What is Shalom? Completeness, soundness, welfare, peace. At ease, favour, health, peaceful, prosperity, safety, secure, security, rest, trust in relationships, wellness, well-being. 

  1. Acknowledge your fear
  2. Become aware of his presence 
  3. Claim his promises

“The beginning of fear is the end of faith; the beginning of true faith is the end fear. Fear or anxiety never strengthens you for tomorrow – it only weakens you for today.”

“We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face … we must do that which we think we cannot.” Eleanor Roosevelt

Henri Nouwen: “Look at the many ‘if’ questions we raise: What am I going to do if I do not find a spouse, a house, a job, a friend, a benefactor? What am I going to do if they fire me, if I get sick, if an accident happens, if I lose my friends, if my marriage does not work out, if a war breaks out? What if tomorrow the weather is bad, the buses are on strike, or an earthquake happens? What if someone steals my money, breaks into my house, rapes my daughter, or kills me?” But if we let such questions guide our lives, we end up taking out a second mortgage in the house of fear.

Fear of other people’s opinions: “We would worry less about what people think about us is we realized how seldom they do.” Whose opinions matter? The Audience of One. Brennan Manning: “Freedom in Christ produces a healthy independence from peer pressure, people-pleasing, and the bondage of human respect. The tyranny of public opinion can manipulate our lives. What will the neighbours think? What will my friends think? What will people think? The expectations of others can exert a subtle but controlling pressure on our behaviour.” “When I was eight, the impostor, or false self, was born as a defense against pain. The impostor within whispered, ‘Brennan, don’t ever be your real self anymore because nobody likes you as you are. Invent a new self that everybody will admire and nobody will know.’” 

“The cost of non-discipleship is far greater…than the price to walk with Jesus. Non-discipleship costs abiding peace… love.. faith.. hope… power to do what is right and withstand the forces of evil… it costs exactly that abundance of life Jesus said He came to bring.” (Dallas Willard)

Thomas Green suggests this prayer: “Lord let me be just as disturbed about this situation (or this person’s behaviour) as you are – no more and no less. If you are angry let me be angry too, but if you are not disturbed let me share your peace.” He continues: “It is amazing and quite humbling how often my disturbance simply dissolves once I say that prayer and really mean it.”

Oswald Chambers: “When you really see Jesus, I defy you to doubt Him. When He says ‘Let not your hearts be troubled,’ if you see Him I defy you to trouble your mind, it is a moral impossibility to doubt when He is there. Every time you get into personal contact with Jesus, His words are real. “My peace I give you,” it is a peace all over from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet, an irrepressible confidence. ‘Your life is hid with Christ in God,’ and the imperturbable peace of Jesus Christ is imparted to you.” 

“You made us for yourself, and our hearts find no peace until they find their rest in you.” Augustine

Two painters each painted a picture to illustrate his conception of rest. The first chose for his scene a still, lone lake among the far-off mountains. The second threw on his canvas a thundering waterfall, with a fragile birch tree bending over the foam; and at the fork of the branch, almost wet with the cataract’s spray, sat a robin on its nest. The first was only stagnation; the last was rest.

Erwin McManus: “Peace does not come when you finally have control of your life; it comes when you no longer need control of your life.”

Going through a hard time or a crisis? In the Chinese picture-letter alphabet, the symbol for crisis is a combination of two characters – one meaning ‘danger’ and the other ‘opportunity’. We can look at it either way.

Fearful of the future: “Future plans are uncertain, but we all know that there is first God’s plan to be lived, and we can safely leave everything to Him, ‘carefully careless’ of it all.”

There was a Christian man called H.G.Spafford in Chicago. Successful lawyer, married man with four precious daughters, become very wealthy.  One summer, Mrs Spafford and daughters were to go to Europe and do a grand tour of the cities, art galleries etc.  Alas, in mid-Atlantic ship collided with another one and sank quickly.  Mrs Spafford was picked up, reached Fr, sent a cable home: ‘All lost! I alone remain. What shall I do?’  But that was not all – there had been a sudden bank crash in Chicago, and Mr Spafford had lost all his wealth.  Gone from being a very wealthy man to a very poor one instantaneously.  So, what did he do? Did he say, ‘I must not give up. I must call on my reserves of courage and be a man’? No, that is stoicism, and this man was a Christian, not a stoic. He sat down and wrote these words:

‘When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul!

That is what the gospel does.

BlogSermons

This series of sermons was delivered at Lee Abbey in August under the title ‘Hot Pursuit’. I’ll release them over the next few weeks in turn.

Pursuing His Presence
Pursuing His Peace
Pursuing His Purpose
Pursuing His Power

What are you pursuing?

In greyhound racing, the dogs are trained to chase after a mechanical rabbit, which is controlled by a man in the press box. He keeps the rabbit just in front of the dogs so that they keep chasing it as fast as they can. During one race at a Florida track, as the dogs hurtled after the rabbit, there was an electrical short circuit in the system. The rabbit came to a halt, exploded, and its few remains lay there in flames attached to the wire. This totally confused the dogs. Two of them broke several ribs as they careered into a wall. One began chasing his tail. Others howled at the spectators in the stand; and the rest just stopped running, lay down on the track and rested.

Not one of them finished the race.

So many people are chasing an illusion – a mechanical rabbit of some sort – which they think is real. It seems to provide a sense of purpose, a goal to strive for, a reason to live. Sometimes it takes the wake-up call of our mechanical rabbit going up in smoke to recognize we were chasing after the wrong thing all that time. Many of our friends continue in their frenzied pursuit of their own illusion of choice. May we model to them another way.

So that’s what this series is about, and we start with pursuing His presence. Take a listen:

Pursuing His Presence – Lee Abbey 2023
  1. His presence is constant, whether we realise it or not
  2. His presence is critical, whether we realise it or not
  3. His presence is comforting, whether we realise it or not
  4. His presence is certain, whether we realise it or not

A few highlight stories/quotes from the talk:

In the mid 1990s, I paid my first ever visit to the famous London church, Holy Trinity Brompton, for their winter carol service, which was held in the dark with atmospheric candles lending great intimacy and ambience. The Holy Spirit was doing extraordinary things apparently, and even the secular press was reporting on it. Not one prone to manifestations of the Spirit, I went there nevertheless open to the Lord doing whatever he might choose to do in me. I hadn’t been there long when I felt a warm glow on the back of my head. I kept my eyes shut and continued worshipping. But the warmth of the glow was undeniable – in fact it increased, and I thought I could feel a gentle pitter-patter all over my back. “God, what’s happening?” It got hotter and hotter. “God! If this is you, have your way in my life. Oh, I love you. I surrender all. Make me holy, and more useful, I’ll do anything, go anywhere for you!” After about a minute of such praying, the heat became unbearable – it was positively burning me. I opened my eyes and looked up, and there three feet above me was a chandelier gushing forth wax from a
weeping candle!!!

C.S. Lewis talked of how sometimes people experience extraordinary times of intimacy and closeness to God. “But He never allows this state of affairs to last long. Sooner or later He withdraws, if not in fact, at least from their conscious experience, all those supports and incentives. He leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs – to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish. It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be.”

Abraham Kuyper, a Dutch theologian of a century ago: “There is not one square inch in all of God’s creation that Jesus does not cry out, ‘Mine!’” Indeed, God is omnipresent. “There is no neutral ground in the universe: every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan.” C.S.Lewis

Psalm 139:7-10 “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”

Dallas Willard was once asked by a young man: “How should I use my 15minute quiet time?” After his characteristic long pause, he responded, “I believe God is rather unconcerned with your 15-minute quiet time. He is far more concerned with how you choose to spend the other 23 hours and 45 minutes of your day.” He went on to offer this wildly winsome invitation, “You must arrange your days so that you are experiencing deep contentment, joy, and confidence in your every day life with God.”

John Paton was a missionary in the New Hebrides (modern day Vanuatu) with his wife. Well, months before, they found themselves surrounded by cannibals who wanted to kill and eat them. They bolted their doors and dropped to their knees and prayed through the night for God’s protection, whilst listening to the screams outside and expecting to be killed at any moment. But morning came, sun rose, and the cannibals left. A year later the tribe’s chief was saved. They discussed that horrible night, and the chief asked: “Who were all those men with you?” “There was just my family, nobody else.” Chief argues back: “There were hundreds of tall men in shining garments with drawn swords circling about your house, so we could not attack you.”

American guy called Sean Litten was heading up IJM’s work in Thailand. He found out about a girl called Elizabeth who was only 13 and had been forced into prostitution. Caseworkers carried out dangerous undercover investigations and once they had gathered enough evidence presented it to the police and persuaded them to carry out a raid to free her from the brothel. Sean took part in the raid and found Elizabeth locked in a dormitory that looked more like a dark cave. When Elizabeth realised Sean was coming to rescue her and not drag her out to be abused by another client, she said to him,“I knew you’d come. I knew you’d come.” Well that was a surprise. How had she known? What also surprised Sean was to see strange writing on the back wall behind her. It didn’t look like the local language and the form it took made him think it could have been from the bible. He flashed a torch on it. It was from Psalm 27. It read “The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear?” Sean was flabbergasted. This little 13 year old girl was a Christian and even in the midst of the truly appalling circumstances she had found herself in, she was nonetheless putting her trust in her Lord and Saviour. It turned out that Elizabeth from a Christian family. Elizabeth and her family had been praying and praying for nearly a year that God would free her.

God has come, He is here, His presence is always with us. The promise of Scripture is that God is always present with us. Nothing changes that fact; it is only our awareness that changes. God’s promise to Jacob was, “Look, I am with you …” (Gen. 28:15). Jacob’s reply? “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it” (v. 16, emphasis added). John Piper surely was right when he said, “God is always doing 10,000 things in your life, and you may be aware of three of them.” Believer, don’t allow the darkness of the night or the presence of the storm cause you to doubt whether God is present and working in your life. Indeed, the storms of life do not deny His presence but provide opportunity to prove His presence.

A little girl had just finished witnessing to a small group of friends. Joyfully she told of God’s saving grace and how His love had touched her heart. With assurance, she appropriately concluded her testimony by quoting these comforting words of Jesus recorded in John’s gospel: “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand” (John 10:28,29). Just then a joshing, doubting friend piped up with the question, “But Maggie, suppose you slip through His fingers?” Quick as a flash, she replied, “Never, never! You see, I’m one of the fingers!” Maggie may not have been well versed in the language of theology, but a biblical principal had been lodged in her heart; namely, that “we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones” (Eph. 5:30). She knew that she had been joined inseparably to Jesus and that she belonged to Him.

This man was born in a gypsy tent, of humble origins, and yet ended up being invited to the White House by two presidents. Rodney ‘Gypsy’ Smith came into the world in 1860 in Epping Forest, just outside London. Forty-five times he crossed the Atlantic to preach the gospel to millions of people on both sides. His passion was almost unparalleled, and there was great fruit in what he did. What was his secret? Private prayer. His praying was even more powerful than his preaching. A delegation once came to him to enquire how they might experience personal and mass revival as he had. They wanted to be used the way Gypsy was. Without hesitating, he said: “Go home. Lock yourself in your room. Kneel down in the middle of the floor, and with a piece of chalk draw a circle round yourself. There, on your knees, pray fervently and brokenly that God would start a revival within that chalk circle.”

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This sermon was from my recent trip to Charleston, South Carolina, delivered at the Cathedral Church downtown.

Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”(John 11:25-26)
I tell the story of my friend Providence, who died in 2012, but is still alive today! Try to get your head around that one – you can read her amazing story here.

Here are a couple of quotes from the talk:

Shortly before Moody graduated to glory, he said: “Someday you will read in the papers that D.L.Moody is dead. Don’t you believe it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now; I shall have gone up higher, that is all! I was born of the flesh in 1837; I was born of the Spirit in 1856. That which is born of the flesh may die, but that which is born of the Spirit will live forever!”

John Patton (1824–1907) was a Scot from Dumfriesshire. He had travelled to the New Hebrides (a group of Islands in the south-west Pacific) determined to tell the tribal people about faith in Jesus. The islanders were cannibals. Nobody trusted anybody else. His life was in constant danger. 

He wanted to translate John’s Gospel into their language, but he discovered that there was no word in their language for ‘faith’, ‘belief’ or ‘trust’ because such concepts were alien to a culture which lauded deceit, dishonesty and trickery. 

Eventually, he found the word he was looking for: one day, when his assistant came in, Patton raised both feet off the floor, sat back in his chair and asked:

“What am I doing now?”

In reply, the servant used a word that means ‘to lean your whole weight upon’. 

This became the expression that Patton used. Faith is leaning our whole weight upon Jesus and what he has done for us on the cross. 

Are you leaning your full weight on the Lord, or hedging your bets?!

BlogSermons

This talk was given at my local church, St Andrew’s Community Church, as part of their sermon series on 1 Samuel. Below are a few quotes and notes from it for your perusal:

Samuel Chadwick: ‘It is a wonder what God can do with a broken heart, if He gets all the pieces.’

“Until we give God our heart, we give him nothing at all.” J.C.Ryle

Dmitri was a Russian factory worker imprisoned after the house church he pastored grew to 150 people. He was sent 1,000 miles away to a hardened criminal facility full of 1,500 prisoners. As far as he knew he was the only believer.

Every morning he would get up, face the east, raise his hands, and sing songs of praise to God. As he sang the other prisoners would bang their cups along their cell bars, curse him, and throw their food and human waste at him. All he had to do to be released was sign a piece of paper recanting his faith in Jesus.

For 17 years he refused to sign, but after they convinced him they had killed his wife and had custody of his sons he agreed so sign the paper the next morning. That night his family sensed something was wrong and started praying for Dmitri. Dmitri said the Holy Spirit opened his ears so he could hear his family praying. He knew his wife was still alive, and they were all together! He refused to sign the document.

Several weeks later the guards decided to execute him. As they were dragging him out of his cell to his execution, the prisoners stood up, faced the east, raised their hands, and sang “O God Give Me Strength!” The fear of God came upon those guards, and they were terrified. They asked Dmitri, “who are you?” He looked them right in the eyes and said “I am a son of the living God and His name is Jesus Christ.”

He was released shortly after. Eventually, his son became the chaplain of that prison.

You see, we march to the beat of a different drum. This is not our home. As Peter wrote, we are ‘aliens and strangers’. Worldly kings or regimes have different allegiances. It will be costly.

“You can endure a lot of suffering when your heart is set on a purpose, but if your heart is set on comfort – or if you have a wayward heart – you cannot endure any suffering at all.” David Wilkerson

This was my parting quote and challenge, which got cut off by the recording, unfortunately:

“To belong to God is to belong to His heart. If we respond to the call of Jesus to leave everything and follow Him, then there is a voice within us crying out. ‘Fight for the heart of your King!’ Yet Christianity over the past two thousand years has moved from a tribe of renegades to a religion of conformists. Those who choose to follow Jesus become participants in an insurrection. To claim we believe is simply not enough. The call of Jesus is one that demands action” (Erwin Raphael McManus, The Barbarian Way).