You will notice when we sing this hymn we will sing together “Help me”. Paul wrote, “having received help from God, I continue unto this day”, and the success of this convention is according to the help we get from God. I have noticed in the hymns, the many different hymns, we read these words, “help me”. It is not the help that comes from the platform that will help us to be victors this year but it is the help that comes from God and He is ready and willing to help us.
We should never come to convention with a cloak of mourning because of our failures because of our mistakes because of things that we have done that displeased the Lord because we are coming into the presence of a forgiving God. Neither should we ever come to convention with a cloak of arrogance because we have had wonderful victories. That kind of a spirit is an abomination to the Lord. All of us are here today because God has helped us and His spirit has led us. He desires to supply our needs again today so that we will have strength to live and to walk tomorrow in His presence. What you and I feed on today is going to affect our walk tomorrow. We need to be careful what we are feeding on, we need to be feeding on the things that make us strong so that our walk can be affected tomorrow, so that we will have the strength to be with the overcomers.
We were hearing this morning that the promises are to the overcomers, not to those who are overcome, and God wants to help us that we can become overcomers. I know of a boy that was drafted into the army. He went very much against his own will and he was in the medics, and he was not happy at all to be there, but they were giving them training. He said it occurred to him, I am learning something here that might save my life and might enable me to save the life of someone else and it caused him to apply himself. We need to be attentive at this convention because what we learn here will enable us to have something that will save our own life and also enable us to save the life of someone else. At a convention one time a brother said there was one thing better than living a life so that we might be able to go to heaven and have God’s well done, and that is being able to take someone else with us, because of having lived right and being a right example, and speaking a word in season to someone that is weary. That was something that touched my heart deeply when I was thinking of the work.
Isiah 50 – “He hath given me the tongue of the learned that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary…”. I thought of those who were like ourselves, we had never heard, never knew, that there was such a thing like the Truth. My Father was a deacon in the Baptist Church. As a young man I used to think if there was nothing to live for than this life offers then there is nothing much to live for, and I felt if God could use me to speak a word to someone, I would be willing to give all of my life for all of my life, and that desire still burns within my heart. But it never occurred to me, because I was professing only two years when I went into the work, that God’s saints got weary and that God’s servants got weary. But I have learned that they do get weary. And it means so much when you meet someone who gives you a boost when your hands are hanging low and your knees are feeble. We heard this morning about how our hands could be useful and God wants willing hands, and our knees which speaks of our walk which could get feeble. I have been thankful for those amongst my fellow workers and my brethren, that have given me a hand when I have been weary. God desires that we will have something in our lives to help another.
There are things that should be found in every convention there should first of all be a restoration or renewing. We read in the Bible about being restored. It tells us about there being times of restoration and times of refreshing. We are thankful that God has provided these things in this path of life. Times of restoration when we can be renewed and encouraged. Sometimes we need to have our joy restored, because the Lord of Lords is our strength. A person could lose their joy, and if we lose our joy it is hard to serve. When Paul was writing to the Philippian church he was not writing under very favourable conditions, but he never said one thing about the bed or food that he was having. But 14 times in that letter he spoke about the joy and the rejoicing and those are the things that he never lost and it is something that we need to hold on to – don’t lose the joy that came into your hearts, and God needs to help us so that these things could be restored. Our faith needs to be restored. Jesus had to say to some of the best men that ever lived “Oh ye of little faith”. May the Lord restore our faith to us again. David in Psalm 51 said, “renew a right spirit within me and restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation” He didn’t want a wrong spirit to be controlling him. He was not blaming anyone else, but he said unto the Lord, renew unto me a right spirit. That is something the Lord desires to help us to have, and the Lord desires also to restore our strength so that we could be like the eagle that is able to soar above all the difficulties.
The inward man can be restored. That is something we need to have; the inward man is restored day by day. 2 Corinthians Chp. 4-16. “For though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day”. Though the outward man is dying, the inward man is restored day by day. We could still retain our youth. That is something you like to see in people that even if they are growing old, they have the spirit of the youth, the desire is still the same as was in the beginning. The Lord desires to help us to keep those things preserved that are in our lives and the Lord desires to keep us restored just like a battery, sometimes it gets down so low you have to get it restored. The battery looks just the very same but it has been restored and it has a better kick than it ever had before. We like to see people that are like that, being restored to help them to keep on going. That is something the Lord desires to help us in.
I like to remember also what Samuel said to the people, (1 Samuel 11-14) “Let us go unto Gilgal and renew the kingdom there” They went up to restore the mountain and they wanted to put the King more firmly on the throne. Good if we will get off the throne and let the Lord be on the throne of our lives, and guide our lives. The Lord desires also to instruct us and that is something that is very important. Paul wrote to Timothy that (2 Timothy 3-6) All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for correction, for instruction, in righteousness”. The instruction was that the man of God could be made more and more what he should be. God desires to instruct us that we could receive instruction. Instruction is an avenue to perfection. Instruction is something we need in ourselves, to be instructed so that we could continue to be instructed. In Mexico where I have been labouring, I saw a sign and a verse that said, “Advise us of our mistakes so that we can serve you better”. Every time I go there, I see that before me. I read that verse so many different times and even when I kneel down to pray, that verse comes to me. I tell the Lord to tell me of my mistakes so that I am able to serve him better and be more to him than I have ever been before.
Correction is very important. Correction we must always remember is not punishment. Our course needs to be corrected because it is easy to get off course. When the astronauts went off to the moon, every little while their course had to be corrected, because, if they got off course, just a little, just a millimeter, they would miss their goal. Just for a little while their connection with the earth was broken and they knew that if that connection is not restored again, we will never go back, we will never reach the goal and it will be death. That is something that we need to have continuously before us. We don’t want to let anything cause that connection to be severed. There is a thin wire, for the lights in this place, if that wire is cut off, there will be no light. We need to keep that line of communication open so that we can be a light for Him. In the beginning God said, “Let there be light”. That was the first thing He created, the light of His own Son. God in Heaven has a treasure, and that is His own beloved Son, that was the light that accompanied God as he made the world, and it was the very same light that Paul saw when he was on his journey to Damascus. God in Heaven has a treasure in this world, and they are His own people. He desires that they will keep their light burning and we want to hold up this Truth high, this light that Jesus brought into the world.
Just as in the war the orders were “Don’t let the flag ever touch the ground”, and that is what we would like with all our hearts to hold up, what Jesus lifted up, don’t bring it down, not one centimeter. Correction is the avenue to perfection because as time goes on, it keeps perfecting. There is a whole lot of difference between the old model Ford and the new ones, they are perfecting it. We are thankful that the Lord is able to perfect us in the way of perfection. We are not a perfect people, but God desires to perfect us, and I am very glad that we don’t have to be perfect to go to Heaven, but we do have to be right with God, we have to be right with our brothers and sisters, and we have to be right with those on the outside. But if we keep right with God and right with one another and have a good testimony with those outside, we will be able to go on and God will be able to perfect our lives. Sometimes we see people, they build a basement and they think they will build a house on it, but they just keep living in the basement all the time. The Lord wants us to keep building for eternity. That is something the Lord desires to see more in our lives.
Then there is the confirmation, to be re-assured of the things that we are assured of. I remember a man, he listened to the truth, he believed it, and he opened his home and was the elder of the church. We were at a convention two years afterwards, and this was a good convention, but there was something there also that went down to the root of things. We went home with that brother that night. We sat around the table; nobody was saying very much. Then this man spoke, he said, “there is not a doubt but that truth has come to Mexico”. It was not that he didn’t know before, but he was reassured. I was looking at that verse we have in job where it says, there is a path and that path is a path that God has marked. A path that God has marked Himself. We are thankful that God has made this path clear to help us.
There should also be balm in every convention; Jeremiah asks us the question “Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there”. We are thankful that we have a physician that knows, and has a remedy for anything and everything, and God desires to help us so that we can go to this great physician. We often times receive bumps that wound us, but we are thankful that there is balm in Israel There is a lot of difference between the bump and balm. We are thankful that when we get bumps there is also the balm. I remember I was riding with a brother in a car, there was a young man waving his hand. The traffic was going past, and this brother said, “that boy is in trouble, maybe we can give him some help”. So, we stopped and asked, and the boy said, “would you give me a push, my battery is down”. So, we gave him a push and in no time the motor was running and he was off. Many times, we come to convention and we get a boost. We Sometimes don’t get the opportunity to say thank you to the one that gave us a boost, but we go and get a boost, and we are thankful.
Exodus 33, Moses had experiences in his life, heart breaking experiences, but he was a man that loved the people. They often broke his heart, but he still loved them. At one time even the Lord was disgusted and said, I will do away with the whole bunch of them, and He said, I will give you a name. Moses said, forget about my name remember your name and these people. Moses was going up into that mountain for 40 days and God gave to him two tables of stone, written on both sides and he came down after being up there for 40 days. Joshua was by his side. Joshua was the man God was preparing. We are thankful that God is preparing young men and women who will take the place of the older ones as God takes them out of this scene. I am thankful that God is raising up young men in Mexico who are developing into pillars, who will carry on the work just as well when we are taken from this scene. “Ages have not dimmed the record of the souls who’ did their best…. and we have their simple message though they’ve entered into rest”. We have all those who have laboured amongst us. As I think of those in Australia who used to come to our convention, when I was just a young man, like Tom Turner, Willie Hughes. They meant a lot to us. They talked the very same thing, and ages have not dimmed the record of these souls that did their best, toiling praying, and we have their simple message though they have entered into rest. God is preparing Joshua here and when the time came, he was there. When they came down from the mountain it tells, they didn’t hear a cry of victory. Moses threw the tables down and they were broken. The Lord prepared the first tables, and now He said you do it, you prepare them now. I am thankful the Lord is able to duplicate. Jesus’ life was broken, but He is able to take lives today, and He will be writing the very same things for us as we continue to walk with Him.
Chp.33, It appealed to me very much as I tried to think about coming to this convention. It tells us here, that these men they came, to a cross road. Every one of us, there is not a single person here but there will be a time when we will come to a cross road, and we will hardly know what choice to make. Moses did the right thing, he didn’t lean to his own judgment, he asked the Lord, (Exodus Chp. 33 verse 13-16) “Show me now thy way that I may know thee…and he said, my presence shall go with thee.„”. That was the thing that meant more to him. Verse 16 – “Wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated I and Thy people, from all the people that are upon the earth”. God makes us different a people, not different in dress to make ourselves an oddity, but different in our way of life, a different people in our way of worship. He makes us different from all the other people upon the face of the earth and they take notice of that.
When the earthquake came to Mexico a year ago now; Mexico State, the largest city in the world, with 16 million people – they were building that City for over 450 years and in less than 4 minutes, all their labour was brought to the ground, right in the centre of the State, 2000 buildings went down and thousands of people were killed. There was a miracle, one of the friends was up on top of a building when it went down. He was with someone else there too, he was covered with rubble but he saw a ray of light and he helped the other lady out too. Everybody wondered if that man would be dead or alive. Just as soon as it was possible, we went to all the homes of the saints and found them safe. When we went to the home of this man, he had just arrived with only a few scratches. He had a daughter 16 years old, Sarah. The children in school used to call her “grandma Sarah” because she was so different from the rest. But when the quake came, Sarah was just as calm as she could be and the other little children all gathered around her and they asked her, “aren’t you afraid”, she said, “no, because I trust in a God that will never fail “. Another young man, a good boy, a pillar, he was a school teacher and he said, to the children, to gather around him, they said to him, “aren’t you scared?”. He said, “no”. They all gathered around him. We are glad there is youth amongst us that are a blessing in the place that they are. We are thankful that in the midst of all that there was not one of the friends that lost their lives. In the earthquake in San Salvador, we are happy to say that not one of the saints was hurt. The Lord wants us to build and build for eternity. “He who builds beneath the sky builds too low”. God wants us to be a people separated from all the people.
The Lord said to Moses, I know thee by name. The Lord knows us by name. Just as Zacchaeus when he climbed up that tree, he had a lot of obstacles but he overcame all the obstacles. He could have blamed the Lord and said, the Lord made me so small, but Jesus called him by name, Zacchaeus. The Lord knows everyone of us by name. The Lord told Moses I know thee by name, Moses said, “I beseech Thee, show me now Thy glory”. He asked for two things, he asked that he would “show him His way”, and show him His glory. They were the two things Moses asked for. The Lord said, ” there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon the rock”. There is no safer place for you and me to be in than upon the rock. It will enable us to see things as God sees them, God looks for those who will see things as He sees them. It tells us that He looked for a man after His own heart. God is looking for homes that are according to His own heart. There is a place by me. When you are standing close to a person, it is a whole lot easier to hear his voice. The Lord wants to put us on the rock and it will also enable us to see things as he sees them. Sometimes people say. I don’t see it like that.
We read about David, (Psalm 40-12) “I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit” He did just one thing and the Lord did seven things. First of all the Lord inclined unto him, He heard his cry, and he brought him up out of the horrible pit. God found every one of us in some kind of a pit, some people were found in a pit of pleasure, some in a pit of confusion, some people in a religious pit, and he says, “in the miry clay”, getting nowhere, just bogged down. He says he brought me up and put my feet on the rock. We read about the time when the Lord gave to Jacob, a vision of the ladder, and he had a stone for a pillow. It is a good stone to have. The Lord as our headstone. The Lord was able to show to him a ladder that reached to Heaven, and the angles of God ascending and descending, unnoticed, unseen, but they are doing their job.
Down in Chile, a place we went to a good number of years ago, a volcano erupted and it did so much damage. One of the homes was where one of the saints was living. He made a living by raising sheep and a little corn field, and he also had some beehives. Miraculously, he saw the waters come to his little farm and they parted and left his little farm there safe and sound. I can’t believe anything else but the angel of the Lord stood there and the waters could go no further. We are thankful that the angel of the Lord stands and is a help. The angels work in our favour in such a way that we don’t know how to appreciate it, and what they mean to us as we are walking in this pathway of God. “There will be a place by me upon the rock. In Chp.34 he says, “Be ready in the morning” and “No man shall come up with thee…”. The Lord passed by before “. We are thankful for this mercy and this Truth of God. It says, that Truth is unto the clouds, but mercy is unto the Heavens”. We are thankful that the mercy of God has been able to help us. We are thankful for the Truth. “The Truth of God so precious I value more each day”. I tell you folk I am thankful for the mercy of God that has kept us, and helped us, and led us and dealt so kindly with us in our failures and that same merciful God is by our side today.
Sunday Morning – Hymn 297
Clarence Anderson
Since coming to this convention I have been very conscious that there has been a merciful God, and there have been merciful listeners and there have been merciful servants. These are the three things that are so important and most of all I feel that we need to lay to heart as the servants of God – to be merciful. I have noticed that, when Paul wrote to Timothy and Titus, and two of his co-workers, he wrote to them saying grace, mercy and peace be unto you, but when he wrote to the saints like to the Philippians, Ephesians and others, he says ‘grace and peace’ and as we deliver this message of God we need to be merciful, to deliver these things with mercy, considering one another, and we are thankful that this truth came to us in mercy. A merciful God and merciful servants that deliver the message of God in the spirit of kindness. We can pay back a debt of gold, but we are forever in debt to one who is kind. I feel that I owe so much to those who have brought the message of hope and life and they brought it in such a Godly way that I could not deny it. I am thankful that this way of truth is still the same.
I was glad that yesterday I could have the privilege of standing on the shore and watching the baptism as one by one they entered into the water, that brought back good memories that refreshed my soul. I remember a little baptism we had in Mexico. We were gathered at the waters edge and a brother came to me, he said ‘would it be alright when I am being baptised if I have my keys in my pocket?’. I said ‘ I suppose they wont rust!’ He said that is what I am thinking about if I have my keys in my pocket; I can’t baptise my home, I cant baptise my car, but if when I am baptised I have my keys in my pocket, every time I put the key into the door of my home I can purpose that nothing can pass the door of this home that displeases God; and every time I put the key into the car this car will go no place that will dishonour God. I said ‘yes baptise the keys” Good if we could try to keep these things before us, that baptism not only means that we take this step but purpose in our hearts that everything that we own is used for the honour of God, to please Him and do His bidding.
I have been reading in Matthew, some of the first chapters have appealed to me very much. We read first all about Joseph, he was a just man. The birth of Jesus was a miracle birth and the birth of John the Baptist was a miracle birth and we remember others. Isaac was a miracle birth. Abraham and Sarah thought it would be impossible. Samuel was a miracle birth. Sampson was a miracle birth and can you think of another miracle birth? I would say a miracle birth that is most important to me was the day that I was born into the family of God. It is a miracle birth that any of us today have been born into the family of God and made part of this family of God. God desires a family, not an organisation, not a religion. God desires a family and the only possible way to enter the family is by a new birth. The world today is full of religion and they are multiplying and it leaves people confused. Jesus says I have come to give you life. It is life that the Lord desires to give us.
In this 1st ch. it tells us about Joseph v.19- We was a just man’ Joseph was a just man and he didn’t act on first impulses. His first impulse was to put her away. While he thought on this thing, God appeared to him in a dream When I read in the Bible about a dream it is something that we all can be partakers of. When a person is dreaming they are alone in a quiet place and thoughts come into a person’s mind and it is then that the Lord is able to make clear what we ought to do. While he thought of these things he didn’t act on impulse.
You remember the time that David went to Nathan and talked to him of that desire in his heart that he wanted to build a house for God. Nathan listened to him and he said ‘ that is perfectly good. It is a Godly mark, you can go ahead.’ But it tells us that night an angel appeared to him, he was doing just exactly what every servant of God does before going to sleep, we think about the need and ask God’s mind, His will and His purpose; and the Lord told him it is not for David to build but it is for his son Solomon’. Nathan was man enough, the next day he went to David and he told him ‘Well, I thought of these things and in the night the Lord appeared and He made clear to me that it is not for you to build, it is for your son”. David could very easily have been provoked and said ‘How do you expect me to have any confidence in you? One day you tell me something and the next day you tell me something else’. But David accepted it in the right spirit and he said ‘I will do everything to let the one that God chooses build’. Sometimes we like to do things but it is not in the will of God. We can think if I cannot do it, I am just going to sit and pout. How good if we can feel, I will strengthen the hands of the one the Lord chooses to do things. I have felt very glad in my heart that a man like Joseph, a man that was Godly, he took the Lord’s advice – ‘ That which will be born of her is of God: ‘Help her, stand by her, and be loyal to her and Joseph was all that.
There were wise men that came from the east, came seeking Jesus. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem – they were vise men because they were seeking Jesus. We are wise in the eyes of the Lord when we consciously seek to find Jesus and to serve him and to worship him. As a result of their going, they were led by a star. A star that men cannot control and the servants of God are reflecting the light of the Son and they are not controlled by man, they are controlled by God. That star led them, they turned back and went away first of all and thought it cannot be. The star apparently waited till they came and they followed it and found Him in the home. That is where we find the Lord today in a home where God’s honour dwells and where God is dwelling. We read about another wise man in Ch. 7 A wise man digs deed that is the kind of a person that God will call wise, that builds on a solid rock. We are building day by day a temple that man cannot see, and it is good when we dig deep.
One building in Mexico stood 44 stories high and it was not moved by the earthquake. They built according to specifications and for 3 years they were driving, piles, one after another, night and day, until they reached solid rock. Then that building was put on rocks and when the earthquake came, the architect of that building stayed in his office and that building never moved, it swayed, but it did not move, not a crack in it, it was built on the solid rock. Three years night and day, driving piles one after another, on top of each other, until they reached solid rock. A lot of time was spent laying a foundation and wherever this gospel is preached a lot of time is spent laying a foundation. We are thankful for God’s servants that came to this country. Came to our country and came to every part, they laid a solid foundation, a foundation that can never be moved and we are thankful for that. God called them wise men.
There were wise virgins, wise virgins because they had oil in their lamps. Virgins refers to the church. Five were wise and 5 were foolish and they were all together, they all had their lamps but some of them were just unwilling There were certain reservations – I am not just willing for all of what the servants say, they are just expecting a bit too much. But those that had the oil in their vessels there were no reservations. It says that the call came at midnight, the end of one day and the beginning of a new day. They that were ready had the oil in their vessels. Everything in order, everything in shape. Others said, lend us your oil, but they could not lend it. They were willing for anything then, no matter what it cost, they were willing now and they tried, but the door was shut. I tell you folks, it pays to be willing and to have everything ready.
There was one sailor and he was made captain of a ship for a certain company and they enquired of him are you able to take care of that ship and have it in good shape so that when the tempest comes and the winds blow, will you be able to keep it? The man answered when the wind blows, I can lay down and sleep. It was because everything was battened down, everything was taken care of. Everything is safe, everything is secured. A sailor once said ‘there were boats made of wood, but there were men made of steel. Now there are boats made of steel, but there are just men of wood, not able to stand much. The Lord wants solid men. We heard a good deal about men yesterday and I enjoyed it. The Lord likes to see those that are men. I know a good friend of mine, he said, ‘in my home I wear the pants, but my wife tells me which ones to put on!’ There are these three things in which the Lord will call us a wise and understanding people, ones that are seeking him to know him, love him and to do his bidding and that is what the Lord would like us to do.
In chapts 5,6,7 I notice 17 times it speaks about your father’. We have learnt to value a father and we are thankful that we can go to one who is our father and he has an interest in everyone of his children. I was brought up in a home I valued my father, but he was stern, he was a stern man, he had an iron hand, but it was covered with velvet. I tried to move that hand a few times, but I could not do it. I am thankful that I had a father like that. I am thankful to my father and mother for the place I have today. One time I was going to school I was only about 7 yrs. and when I go to school all the children had some pennies and they could buy a sucker, so I asked dad if I could have a penny to buy sucker. He said we don’t have pennies to buy suckers, we have pennies only to buy bread. My mother had some pennies in a jar on a shelf and I just thought I would climb up and see if there was some there, and I took some, and took it to school and bought a sucker. It was good – stolen meat is sweet! I kept doing this until all the pennies were gone and the next day there was just 5 cents and I took it out anyway and went off to school and I bought 5, to share with my companions and after that I let a couple of days go by because my conscience was bothering me and I crawled up there again and there was 10 cents. I looked atit and took it and put it back and took it again and that day I bought 10 cents worth. But my conscience was bothering me. I came home from school and there was trouble. Mum said ‘dad wants to talk to you’. So, I went up and greeted him and he said, ‘yes, I have got something to talk to you about’. He said ‘son have you been taking money from your mother’s little jar up there?’ I was tempted to say no, but I had learnt that would go far worse for me and I said ‘yes, I have’. Dad took out a strap and gave me such a thrashing that I can still feel it. He said son, I’m not whipping you because I don’t love you, but it is because I love you’. I felt, if that was love, I didn’t want it! Perhaps I would have gone further to see whether my neighbours had any pennies and gone on and on from there.
When the truth came when I was 17 years I was confused. My father was a baptist and my mother was a Methodist. They were two different doctrines. I prayed ‘God if you have a way in the world, a way that is like the Bible teaches, I would be willing to walk in it with all my heart’. We should never be discouraged that when our prayers are delayed, that means they are refused. God does not answer right away. Time went on, I finished school and worked in a lumber yard, things were going well and I kind of forgot about religion because I was making money. As I came home from work one day I drove past a tent that said ‘Gospel meetings beginning Wednesday night’. I told mother and dad about it. He said, that is strange, there was nothing announced in the church. He said we will go and see what they have to say. My mother and father were both blind. They used to go out together. They had an extra sense. I said ‘Dad you go to everything, you go to the Pentecostals, you go to the Adventists’. He said ‘Yes, we want to see whether we can find something better’. When they came back, they said these people they were different to everything. I asked him what kind of meetings they had there and he said ‘Why don’t you go to listen’. But I did not, until he told me we are not going to the Baptist church, we are going to a home. But he said you haven’t heard anything, so you go back to where you belong. I had a friend and I asked him if he knew these preachers. That was back in 1922.
He said I have listened to them and they are doing things exactly as the Bible teaches, they go two by two, they don’t take collection, they do exactly like Jesus did, they are sticking to the book. He was already enrolled to be a Baptist preacher. He said I know one thing, you couldn’t be a Baptist and be one of them. We went out and I will never forget that meeting. We were told in that meeting that in the tent we were trying to make you see the difference between man’s way and God’s way, but here we are meeting together to have fellowship. We are going to have a time of prayer and we don’t want to hear pharisee prayer, but prayers that come from the heart. My father was a deacon in the baptist church but I tell you that morning I heard my father pray and his prayer was different, he didn’t pray a Pharisee prayer. I heard my mother pray, she thanked God for the truth and she prayed for me. I got down on my knees, my mother and father didn’t know I was there then. After the meeting I went up to dad and took hold of his hand. He said, ‘what are you doing here?’ I said ‘I came to see what you are doing’. He said ‘don’t do it just because mother and I are doing it’.
My friend and I went back to the Baptist church and the preacher was awful dry and we grabbed our caps and went back to the tent and 3 weeks later we both decided. I remember talking about going in the work. Never had the thought entered my mind that I will be a preacher. God revealed to me about going into the work. This put something in my heart ‘If I could be used to help one soul to get to heaven, it would make life worth living. I told dad ‘If I go in this work, I won’t be able to help you’. Dad said ‘don’t worry about mother and I, God will stand by us’. I talked to my brother but he said ‘if you go in the work I will stay home and look after mother and father and then I will go in the work too’. But mother and father didn’t cooperate, they didn’t die! My brother married a good girl and they have done well. They have 3 children and all of them are professing. One of my brother’s boys went into the harvest field and he labours with us in Mexico. We are thankful that the Lord still works and we are thankful for those that are workers with us.
Our father which art in heaven… Thy kingdom come’ That is something I feel with all my heart that we are praying for and should continue to pray for. The last prayer that we have in the New Testament – come, Lord Jesus, come. We are thankful that the power of God is what helps us. There are four powers that contribute to our salvation. First the power of God unto salvation. But it took more than that. I listened to great gospel servants when I was in the Baptist church, but I never saw any example. This gospel came by the power of example – those that were doing what they were saying and there is a power of prayer. I am thankful for those that prayed for me when I was not able to pray. And the other is the power of love. Matt 10 ‘He gave them power against unclean spirits.’ We have the first list of workers that was ever made and they are two by two. It tells us how he sent them – ‘Go not in the way of the Gentiles…. go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel’ These are things that the power of the gospel can do, it helps us to have healing.
It tells us in Mark 3 that the power of the Lord was there to heal and we are thankful that as we look at him that as we see Jesus there is healing, and there is willingness. The Lord desires to heal us so that we can walk. The Lord healed that man and there is cleansing, people are raised from the onus of sin to walk in newness of life and to cast out devils. Freely you have received’, freely give: Don’t make any provision for the future, the Lord will take care of that. A worthy workman, a worthy servant a worthy home and a worthy person. Enquire who worthy and abide there and …’ that is what the Lord is still looking for. ‘Behold I send you forth as sheep among wolves. There is no hope that a sheep can defend himself, the only hope that a sheep has is that it has a shepherd that will care for it, because it cannot protect itself. ‘Be wise as serpents, as harmless as a dove’ A serpent can keep alive only by keeping hid, camouflaged, people don’t even know. Sometimes they paint a picture of a snake coming down a tree and speaking to Eve, if I know a woman, she would go as fast as she could go if she sees a snake, but he came down as an angel from heaven. To keep simple – a dove when he makes the nest you can count the eggs at the bottom, not like the sparrow. The sparrow is like the false prophets. It is a poor horse that cannot carry his own harness.
vs 41 – He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophets reward, sod he that receiveth a righteous man In the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.’ I remember I was pretty well discouraged with the Baptist church, father professed, I went to the elder, he was new in the way, I went up to his home and talked with him and he gave me a warm greeting and he said ‘I would not trade what I have in the Lord for the best farm in Iowa’. We talked over the things of God and I went home and thanked God for a righteous man. We would like when we go to the homes of our brothers and sisters to leave something that would feed their souls and they can feel I have received a servant’s reward. He that giveth a cup of cold water… ‘It means to give a drink of water that comes from the well of life. David poured out the water from the well of Bethlehem. I am thankful for those who have given us a cup of cold water to encourage us in the way of truth.