God uses willing individuals to accomplish His work on earth, requiring them to first know Jesus Christ as Savior and to have a singular purpose of serving God. To be used by God, one must remove hindrances, yield to His will, and cultivate a daily communion with Him through prayer and Bible study. This leads to a vital message for the lost, a belief in God's power to perform miracles, and a life lived in the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The sermon concludes by emphasizing the necessity of a passion for souls, a willingness to work, courage, trust in God with one's finances, and the discipline of caring for one's body as the temple of the Holy Spirit.
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To say that I have enjoyed being here for the last six days would be an understatement. I've enjoyed everything. Food, fellowships, cool nights, all four meals a day. That's right. If you don't get it down there in the lounge, you get it in somebody's house, so it's four. told Brother Willie a moment ago, I think I've gained two pounds. I have two prayer requests.
I'd like to leave with you. As most of you know, my sweet wife, Dottie, who's been with me here three times, was unable to come because she'll be having a major operation either the first Monday in April or the second Monday in April. She was checking the hospital on Sunday, and the operation will be Monday morning. Now, she and the nurse in the doctor's office set to date as the twelfth of April, but she didn't know that I was supposed to be in Virginia the following week, so I've written that I see if they can move it up a week. Otherwise, if it continues to be the twelfth of April, I'll have to cancel the meetings that I have in Virginia for April nineteen to twenty-three or something like that.
So I would appreciate your prayer. The doctor says that she doesn't anticipate any complications, but it will be a major operation, and she'll be in the hospital from ten to twelve days, and then she'll be out of circulation for two weeks after she gets home. So the boys and I will be taking some chores and turning to chores, I'm sure. And I do want to invite your people to stop by and see us when you're on your way back up to the cold, frozen north. Our temperature is almost as mild as it is here. Frankly, I like it. I like North Florida, a lot better than South Florida.
I wouldn't give you this part of Florida for all of South Florida. I like to have seasons and change it. And if I had to hear the sister amen even. We are only seven, a little over seven hours away from here. that I'd be just a good stopping place for the night when you're on your way back up. It doesn't take me quite that long, but I'm the kind. I get in the car. I don't stop. I just drive. And some people can't do that. But we'd love to have you drop in. You come by train. We'll meet you at the train. You come by bus. We'll meet you at the bus.
And to come by car, we'll answer the phone when you call. Now, the other prayer request is... something that I feel that if enough people get to praying about it, the Lord's going to do something about it. Eight and a half years ago, the Lord very definitely let us open a Christian bookstore. Now, if I had done what the Christian Bookteller Association said do, I would have never done it. They said, don't open a bookstore unless you've got ten thousand dollars capital to start with and put an inventory. Well, I didn't have a thousand dollars, much less ten dollars. But I knew the Lord said open a store and there was a tremendous need in Columbia. and so it was just peanuts. We started.
But you can't sell merchandise if you don't have it. And the churches and the Christians kept asking for this kind of clown draft and this and this and this. Well, the only way to get it was to borrow money. So we borrowed a considerable amount of money. The store is grown. We have two full-time ladies that actually run the store. But frankly, now that the store is going and it's on its feet, I would like very much for the Lord to send someone in who has a burden for Christian literature ministry who would continue to operate it if we have. And frankly, I'd like very much to sell it to us. And it doesn't take a great deal of my time now because these two full-time ladies actually run the store and I just kind of stand in the background and I'm kind of the general manager.
And I would be willing to keep my eyes on it for whoever bought it, if someone could buy it. someone with some of the Lord's money who has a burden for that type ministry, it'd be a real nice situation for them, especially if they're an assembly fellowship, because we'd love to have you in Bethany Chapel. We should pray also for Bethany. One thing I know we're going to have at Bethany for too long, we're going to get us an organ. I've really enjoyed that organ, and we have fruitful people that already have been talking about it. We've got a wonderful young lady with good Yankee blood in them that can play the organs. Some of you know us, Pat Ivers and Dale, and so we're going to get us an organ, and it won't be too long.
Then, too, the work is growing there. We're being encouraged. We have a lot of visitors coming in, and we're seeing some souls saved, and we are praying about building a youth building directly behind the chapel. And we'd like to get started on that, not in the far distant future, and we would appreciate your prayers for the Lord's I try to be in Columbia at least two or three Sundays out of every month. I try not to be away more than one or ever two Sundays in a month. And we get down to Charleston occasionally. We try to give special help to the small little assemblies. They don't have much gifts. I don't see any need of a man going to Minnesota in an assembly that already has plenty of gifts.
But if it's a little small, struggling assembly, just getting started and they need encouragement, that's where we'd like to go. And there are fourteen assemblies within three hours' drive of our home. And so there's plenty of opportunities to minister the word. And then occasionally we'll hop on a jet and we'll be in New York for a weekend in Chicago. In fact, I'll be in New York at Yonkers the last week in the month of May. If there are any of you people that live in the greater New York area, perhaps we could see you. We'll be there a Sunday and Sunday and perhaps one or two of the week nights in between. But that will be just the second time I've been in Yonkers in the last twenty years, so I'm kind of overdue to go back there.
So this tonight's water? Who's in charge of that department? That's good water. Well, that's not his gift, I don't believe it. His gift must be whisked in a hospital, but that's good water. It's wet. And it tastes better when you've had fish than it does when you've had roast beef. Now, I don't know how many of you people have a good memory or not. Some people have reminded me that the Lord has blessed me with a good memory, and that is true.
I thank God for that memory every day, because it's very, very helpful when you're in the pool kitchen. it would be interesting to know perhaps one half of the illustrations which I have used this week. I did not know that I would give them when I walked into the pulpit, but the Holy Spirit brought them to my remembrance as I was standing before you. The message I'm going to give you tonight, I think one of the reasons that it might have blessed Brother Willie's heart in Bristol, England in when the Lord gave it to me. In fact, it was in Worcester, England that the Lord gave me this message.
And at the top of my notes, I have Worcester, England, in nineteen forty-eight. And so I would like to share with you tonight actually more or less a compilation of what we've been talking about since last Sunday morning. something that we've said in every message will be in this message tonight. Now let's be practical. You know, there are superstars and there are stars and they're just plain Indians. There are certain characteristics and certain attributes and certain abilities that an athlete has to have, for example, in order to excel.
For example, a man with poor eyesight would never make it to the major leagues. He's got to have a keen eye. He's got to be quick. And if he ever hits three hundred, he's going to have to have to have a good set of wrists. Because your reflex action has got to be quick and you got to get those wrists flexed and get that bad in the right place to hit the ball. The same is true of a mechanic, of an engineer, of a businessman. There are certain characteristics and attributes and natural abilities which you must have to succeed.
Now you see, God is the one who wrote these laws and these principles. Now there are a lot of people, Christians, and they go through life, and they never really excel. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about in order to excel, you've got to be nationally famous as a preacher or a teacher. No, I'm not talking about that, because there are people who excel for the Lord, but they excel for the Lord in teaching a class of junior in a Sunday school. But they are good. and they do a thorough job and lives are changed and transformed and molded because here is somebody that's in touch with the Lord and the Lord is using them.
Did you know that in the world tonight there are far, far, far more people who've never heard the name of Jesus than they were when Jesus Christ gave the Great Commission? Why, certainly. Millions more. And that, in spite of the fact that we have jets, and we have televisions, and we have radios, and we have this modern, fast, rapid friction pressure. The story is told And I borrowed this illustration, I believe, from Stephen Olford.
I think I heard him give this illustration in New York City. In Wales there was a terrible train wreck, and numbers and numbers of people were dying. Many, many were injured and bleeding and suffering. And there were a number of nurses on the train, and they were doing what they could to alleviate the suffering. And presently a nurse came upon a doctor that she recognized, a famous doctor from London, and he was just seated there, wringing his hands on a piece of luggage.
And she said, twice, tell me, doctor, why in the world aren't you doing something to help alleviate this suffering? He said, oh, I would, young lady, if I only had some instruments. Somebody says, why doesn't God do more? Why isn't more of being accomplished? I'll tell you why. The same answer that doctor gave the young lady. He would, but he must have instruments. You see, God has chosen to use human instrumentality to get his work done on this earth.
And you and I must be willing to become clays in His hands to be used of God. And so here we go. Here's the list. Number one. Now, these are not given in order of what I consider to be their importance, except the first one. The first one is absolutely a must, and it must be first. To be used of God, you must know experimentally the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. You must be willing to say with Paul, I know in whom I believed and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.
God's Holy Spirit does not flow through unbelievers to be a blessing to others. he deigns to use those who are indwell by his Holy Spirit. And so we must be perfectly and absolutely sure that we know him in the pardon and forgiveness of our sins if we're going to be used of God. Number two, and I'm not going to have much time to spend on many of these because I have a number of them to give you. Number two, He must be able and willing to say with the Apostle Paul in Philippians three thirteen, this one thing I do, one purpose, one aim, one goal, and that aim and that goal and that purpose is to be God's man or God's woman.
Now, it's all right to be a former on electrician or shoe cobbler or butcher or baker or engineer or journalist or school teacher. But your main purpose and your consumer desire in life should be to be God's man or God's woman wherever you are. When I think of this point, I think of a man like my friend and brother whose man heaven, Phil McCullough. For quite a number of years, he was in the management position of a large bakery.
But Phil McCullough's aim and purpose and goal in life was not managing a bakery. It was being God's businessman. That's what he was. Oh, I'll tell you, beloved, when a Christian gets a hold of the truth that I'm talking about, it'll transform him. I remember one, I wish I didn't have a clock. I remember one weekend in Atlanta, Georgia. In fact, it was the weekend that Bill Graham started his first broadcast. I took a hundred and eighty-six people over there from Columbia. had the privilege of riding with the governor and his wife in their limousine. And it was a very, very wonderful, enjoyable occasion.
And one young lady, about twenty-five years of age, found the Lord that weekend, not at the crusade, in a hotel room after she got back. She went back and she had a job at Southern Bell and she got active in this and active in this and she got active in the Christian Venice Professional Women's Council and the Lord worked in a hard life and she won souls to Christ and led people that she interviewed at Southern Bell to Christ and the first thing she knew she was going off to to become a missionary with the Christian Venice Professional Women's Council. And so the ladies that she knew in the council got together and had a little shower bar and gave her a nice set of luggage, and they said, Oh, we think it's so wonderful that so-and-so is going off into full-time work for the Lord.
And this young lady stood up with tears in her eyes and said, Oh, dear friends, I love you, and I thank you for this. But I want you to know something. I've been full-time ever since the Lord saved me. Now, I'm not talking about not giving eight hours for eight hours. I'm not talking about not giving your employer what you ought to give your employer. But I'm talking about the main consuming passion and desire and burden and concern and purpose in your life is to serve the living God. William Carey that his main benefit in life was the wind sold, he only cobbled shoes to pay expenses.
Number three. Now we've touched on this before, but how important it is. Do you expect God to use you, beloved brother or sister? You're going to have to be willing to lay aside every weight and every sin which thus so easily beset you, and run with patience the race that is set before you. Hebrews, twelve, one and two. I don't know how many of you people have ever been engaged in tracts or not. I remember the first time I met Jack Worcester was at a conference in North Carolina called Ben Lippitt, owned by the Bible College.
And Jack Wharton had Norman Clayton with him, and Thomas Thiel, Sr., and Gil Goddard. At that time he was the world champion indoor mower. And Gildard, who of course was still in training. And so they announced that if any of you young men would like to run with Gildard tomorrow, let him get a little exercise, be out here spending such a time. And you know what I did? I ran with Gil Dawes for five seconds, and then I followed him. He ate his dust. And you know what I observed?
He had on his skimpest, flimsy, little old pair of shorts I've ever seen. And his shoes didn't weigh, I bet they didn't weigh six ounces. And he had on a little teeny lightweight t-shirt. And I bet if you'd put them all on a scale, they wouldn't have weighed one pound. You know why? That weight'll just set you. There's a lot of Christians that can give all the answers. They can use the right cliches. They can use the right phrases. They can smile nicely and greet you and be nice and sweet and all like that. But they never have really gotten down to grips for God and been used of God simply because they haven't been willing to lay aside the weights and their lives that were keeping them from being at full steam for God.
They said, Well, look, with you, how can I know what's my hindrance and what's my weight? Very simple. You really want to know, I'll tell you. ask God. Get on your knees and ask the Lord, and mean this, and then be willing to forsake it, confess it. By the way, while you're doing that, believe God to give you the victory. He'll do it.
In my notes here, I've got a number of things listed that might be possible hindrances, but we just can't go into them. But you don't need to know any way because the Lord's going to tell you if you want him to. Number four, you want the Lord to use you? You're going to be willing to yield your plans your desires, your ambitions, your will to the will of God. Romans six thirteen.
Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness under sin, but yield yourselves under God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members, that's your body, as instruments of righteousness unto God." And then Paul says a little further in that book, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Now, beloved, In the light of Calvary, in the light of what He has done for us, how can we do less? Used to be a little chorus, still is, but we used to sing it a lot. After all, He's done for me. After all, He's done for me. How can I do less than give Him my very best and live for Him completely After all, he's done for me. Oh, beloved, listen, when you look at Calvary, is any cost too great. Listen to this.
Why did they nail him to Calvary's tree? Why? Tell me why. Was he there? Jesus, the help of the healer of a friend, why? Tell me why was he there? Why should he love me? a sinner undone. Why tell me why should he care? I do not merit the love he has shown. Why tell me why should he care? Why should I linger afar from his love? Why tell me why should I fear? Somehow I know I should venture and prove. Why tell me why should I fear? All my iniquities on him were laid.
He nailed them all to the tree. Jesus, the debt of my sin, fully paid. He paid the ransom for me. Now this thing of surrender, beloved brothers and sisters, is something that people can talk about very glibly and very lightly. But when it comes to surrendering your ways and your plans and your future to the Lord, that's another matter. You know, a lot of Christians are like a little boy whose mother told him to sit down. He didn't want to sit down. She said, Johnny, I said, sit down. He didn't want to sit down. I said, sit down.
Well, finally, she just put her hand on her head and pushed him down. She held him down, and he said, Mama, on the outside, I may be sitting down, but on the inside, I'm still standing up. And a lot of Christians are like that. They sing, Oh, how I love Jesus, and I surrender all. And where He leads me, I'll follow. But then they go their own merry way. Beloved, a Christian will never fully experience the real joy of what Christ intends for you to experience unto you completely.
leave all of your plans and your ambitions and your desires at the cross. And say, Lord Jesus, I have no plans, no desires of my own. All I want is your will. Now, granted, I think most everyone here tonight would probably pray about what kind of words they were going into. They were going to choose a vocation. I think most everybody here tonight would pray about whether or not they were going to buy a home. I think most everybody would pray about where they're going to move. But you know, beloved, I'm not talking about just these major things. I think that the Lord Jesus deserves and we commit every little decision to him.
Young people especially, Lord, where do you want me to go to school? Now, I believe that the Lord leads many young Christian young people to go to a place like Amalia, or Moody, or Barrington, or Houghton, or Caleb, or Columbia Bible College, or South Eastern, or some other fine school like this. But I also believe that the Lord leads some young people to go to a heathen state university. And so because of the fact that the Lord leads different people in different ways, I think that we should remember that the Lord has to make the decision for us.
Now, our problem is to counsel with them and help them to discern the Lord's will. I even pray about where I'm going to sit on a plane. You said, and that, brother, see, isn't that getting kind of naive? No, it isn't. I remember once when I came over to Birmingham on a plane. I have found a way, by the way, that takes a little responsibility off of me. Whenever possible, I go to the plane early, and I sit by the window.
And then I asked the Lord to send the one he wants me to talk to to fit my mind. I take the responsibility off of me, but you can't always do this. So I went to this plane in Atlanta. And apparently the plane that we would close the rise to Birmingham on is broken down to something because this plane had been setting out in the sun all day long in July. And I think it had just turned the air condition on five seconds before we got in. And I took next to the last seat. And then a young soldier war came rushing in at the last minute. And man, I could tell everything must have gone wrong for him the last month. Man, he just was in a bad humor.
And I'll admit it was hot in there. Man, it was hot. We were up in the air and level it off before we began to get cool. And I said, man, This is one hot swing. He said, it's the hottest one I've ever been in. He said, ah, everything's gone wrong. I said, well, what is it, mate? What is it, Joe? He said, so the playwright's been made. What is it, Joe? He said, well, he said, here I am going to Camp Polk, Louisiana. I don't have to be there for three days, and here I am on this plane. He said, I had plenty of time to go see my family in Tampa and something crazy. I won't tell you what he said. Got my orders mixed up. I said, well, I know one thing.
As hard as this plane is, I don't believe I could stand hell. And I'm glad I'm going to heaven. I said, where are you going? He was on his way to Vietnam, by the way. He said, I don't know, sir. I said, wouldn't you like to know Earl, Earl Swilly was his name. Wouldn't you like to know Earl... Where are you going to go when you die?" She said, Yes, sir, I would. And you know the rest of the story. I had the joy of pointing that young soldier aboard a Christ.
And as we came into Birmingham, the land, he said, Mr. Q, I know why they put me on this plane there. I said, I do, too. That wasn't an accident. That was not an accident. That was the permissive will of God. Oh, beloved, what a difference it makes when you happen to be in the right place at the right time. And this comes only when you've yielded everything to the Lord. Another thing, we mentioned this this morning. If you want to be used to the Lord, you need to learn how to daily commune with God in prayer.
Don't you ever let the devil talk you into believing that you are too busy to pray. If it was important for the Lord Jesus Christ, as recorded in a number of places in the Gospels, to get up early in the morning and depart under a solitary place and pray, and he was the Son of God, how much more important is it that we spend time communing with our God? In Isaiah fifty-nine, sixteen, here's a verse that Dawson Troutman called to my attention in Switzerland. I wondered that there was no intercessor, and we've been talking a lot about that this week, but, beloved, before you can be an intercessor, you first of all must spend time getting your own heart and mind right with the Lord.
And then it is that you can pray for others and for the needs around about you. You're going to have to learn how to pray for wisdom, strength, cleansing, power, pray for God's servants, pray for lost friends. One of the greatest enemies of a consistent regular prayer time is a busy schedule, as I have already suggested. I was in Chicago. This happened to be in nineteen forty-eight. And I was speaking at the CBMC Victory Center Noon Devotions down in Duluth. And back in those days it was broadcast. And I was bringing a gospel message each day over the air and to the men there in the center.
And there's a young lady there who was a graduate of a Christian college and a graduate of a Bible Institute. And she was playing the organ every day. And I just finished my message and I was on my way out to meet a friend in Oak Park. We were going to fly in a little plane. She said, Mr. Hughes, could I see you? I said, well, actually, in forty-five minutes I'm due in Oak Park, and it'll take me about that long to get there, but she said, well, I must talk to you, Mr. Pugh. I said, all right. And I motioned the brother Major, who some of you know, and he went and called Jackie Barkley and told him I'd be late. And we sat down up front. I said, now, young lady, of course I knew a name.
I called her by name. I said, what seems to be your problem? She said, Mr. Pugh. I'm a Christian, yes. And from the look on her face, I thought she was going to unwind for me some morbid story of terrible immorality. She looked like she was ready to just go. She said, listen to you, I'm a Christian, I'm a graduate of this college, and I'm a graduate of this Bible Institute, and I've known the Lord since I was twelve years of age, and so forth. I know I'm saved. Mr. Pugh for a month now, I just, I've not been happy.
I've been miserable. Yes? Well, what seems to be your trouble? Well, the main thing is, Mr. Pugh, I can't put my finger on it. I don't know really what it is, but I'm just not happy. I'm miserable. And I knew she was very active. He said, now I play for this church. on Sunday and I play in this youth rally on Sunday night and I play for this broadcast every noontime and I pray for the hymn sing up at Moody and I play here and I play here and I play here and I thought I knew what it was but I wanted the Lord to come I said all right let's pray and we slipped our knees and I began to pray I said no Lord you know what the problem is from this young lady's life I do not but I pray that she'd reveal it to us and she began to sob as though her heart would break And I knew the Lord had already spoken to him.
So I closed my prayer and I said, All right. Do you know what it is? She says, Yes, Mr. Feud. I know what it is. She said, Mr. Feud, I've been so busy working for God that it's been months and months since I really spend any time with God. I've been working for him. I've been playing the organ and the piano and meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting. but I've gotten so busy working for him in serving God that I haven't spent time with God. And my soul is finished. She said, enough to see you, I'm a back flyer. And there are a lot of Christians just like that.
Activity, activity, activity. But if you don't take in from the Lord and commune with the Lord and feed upon his words and spend time in prayer, Same thing can happen to you, and yet you can be busy and going and going and going and going. So coupled with this need for daily communion with the Lord in prayer is, of course, the study of the Word of God. Now, beloved, I believe in Emmaus Bible School. I believe in Columbia Bible College. I believe in Moody Bible Institute. I believe in every fine Bible school and college you can think of. I praise the Lord for every one of us.
But that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a Christian irrespective of whether you have the best elders to minister in the world or irrespective of whether you have the best Bible teachers in the world. I'm talking about Christians, as I said this morning, who need to dig into the Word and get meat out of the Word for themselves. By the way, an art that I think a lot of us have lost is the art of memorizing the Scriptures. I don't believe a man will ever be effective ministering the Word of God unless he commits a lot of Scripture to memory.
And I don't believe that you'll ever be an effective Sunday school teacher until you've committed a lot of Scripture to memory. And so if you spend time in communion with the Lord every day, and if you spend time as a student of the Word every day, the next point that I have here will kind of be natural. You know what it is? You'll have a vital living message for a lost, perishing world. If you spend time with the Lord in prayer and you spend time with a word in the book, the result, the end result and total will be that you will have a message for a world that you know is lost.
Because if you get into the book, and you spend time with the Lord, he'll give you his heart, and his heart is that the world is lost. I'm having to leave out a lot of scriptures here, but they're here. If any of you would like to copy them down, I'd be glad to give them to you later. Number eight. Now this next requirement is one that a lot of people talk about, but they have trouble sometimes putting it into practice. They must learn how to believe God. They must be men and women of prayer, not only prayer and Bible study, with a vital living message, but they must be men and women that believe God can do what He said He will do.
The Word of God says, He could do no mighty work among them. Why? Because of unbelief. thousands and thousands and thousands of the Israelites perished short of the promised land. You know what? Unbelief. And there are a lot of Christians today that have never gotten beyond first base spiritually because they just couldn't believe God could perform miracles. Now, beloved, let me tell you, it's best I know how. You see, the Lord is just as anxious in performing a miracle for you. as he ever was for Martin Luther or George Mueller or William Carey or Adnan Aram Judson or Adam Clark or John Wesley or Elijah?
The Lord God of Elijah still lives. If you have never read the life of George Mueller, you ought to get that book back there and read it before you go to sleep, I get unconviction every time I read. He was on his way into Quebec on a ship. And it so happened that the captain of the ship was a cruiser, and there was a terrible fallout, so much so that they had to cut the speed of the ship down to a fact like nothing. And he had a very close engagement.
And he told the captain, he said, Captain, I've been preaching for fifty-five years. And I've never missed an appointment yet. Would you mind if we go down in your state room and pray about the fog being lifted? Oh, sure, Mr. Mueller, come on. So they got down now. Mr. Mueller laid his hands on the captain's shoulder because I'll pray first. And in very simple language, he said, By the way, I'll tell you something. The great of a man, the simpler, the prayer. I never shall forget the day I had the privilege of this and Dr. Howard and Kelly in Baltimore. And before he called the taxi and put me in that taxi to go out to get the train to go down to Annapolis to sing with a Georgia Glee Club, he put his hand on my head and he said, Shockley, I'd like to pray for you.
And he prayed about five soon. And I knew I'd been in the presence of a mighty man of God. Mr. Mueller said, All right, Captain, I'll pray first. And then he told the Lord, he said, Now, Lord, you know, I've been preaching your word fifty-five years, and I've never missed a preaching appointment because of a bad schedule or weather. He said, I believe you made this appointment for me in Quebec, and I believe you want me to be there. And I pray in the name of Jesus and for His glory that you move the farm, and I thank you for doing it. In Jesus' name, amen. He said, Captain, you don't need to pray.
He said, first of all, you don't believe God will remove the fog. Secondly, open this window. The fog's gone. And it was. They pulled right on out of the fog, and on their way they went. Full steam ahead to the destination. Why, here's the man that got up one morning when the people that worked for him in the orphanage said, Mr. Mueller, we don't have any food for breakfast. He said, send the children in the dining hall. It'll be there when they get there. And it was there. Oh, listen, when it comes to believing God, you've got to be what the world would call a fool because God's able to do it. And one reason more people don't see God perform miracles is because they don't believe God can perform a miracle for them.
They think that he just performed miracles back for Paul. It was one of my great privileges and joy to be in use for Christ back in the early days, back when we didn't have any better sense than to rent soldiers' field and tell them we're going to fill it, and the Lord filled it. And they called us crazy. They called us fanatics. They called us everything. And then they stood back with their mouths open when they saw what God was willing to do for a bunch of young men that were on fire for Jesus. I must share this with you.
I remember back when the Lord laid it upon my heart to go over to Europe, to preach the word, and to attend this convention of interlocity in Switzerland where I was to be a counselor and to minister some in England and Great Britain and other places. I figured out about how much it would take to go and allow for Dottie and Guild and so forth and allow to live a little fund to your commissionaries and so forth. And to be quite frank, it was fourteen hundred dollars and fifty percent. That's how much I figured it would take. Now this was in nineteen forty-eight, not nineteen seventy-one. And the day before we were to leave, I still needed fifteen dollars if I got that amount.
And I remember I preached in the East Orange, New Jersey Assembly that night. And Bill Kerry was with me, and he drove me back and put me on the Queen Mary. And I still needed fifteen dollars. He said, Oh, by the way, chocolate, here's a letter. It came three days ago. And I meant to give it to you, and I forgot to give it to you. And it was from Seattle, Washington, from somebody I hardly remembered. And after he put me on the ship and I said goodbye to him, open the letter. And what do you suppose it was? That's right. a check for fifteen dollars. And I went over to France and Switzerland and Belgium and Holland and Luxembourg and Erie and Wales and England and Scotland and Ireland and preached the gospel.
Came back to New York, paid the travel agent for a little money I owed him, bought me a ticket to Columbia and when I got off the plane in Columbia I had fifty cents. See, the Lord knew how much I needed. He supplied. God just loves to perform miracles for ordinary people just like you and me. But we've got to believe that He'll do it. All right, now we've got to close the next one. He must work in the anointing of the Spirit of God.
Now, I don't care what you call it. You can call it being baptized. You can call it being filled. You can call it being led. You can call it being endured with power. I don't care what you call Blackberry Jam in the jaw, what the label is, as long as it's Blackberry Jam, that's what it is. But what I'm talking about is being led of the Spirit of God. This is absolutely essential. I told you a couple of nights ago about the young man who led the singing in this rally in Grand Rapids. and of how the Lord led him to do just the right thing at the right time to prepare for the message. Ephesians five, eighteen. Now, if the other things that we've said are true, the next one will be true in your life.
I believe you will have a God-given passion and a love for souls. Beloved, brothers and sisters, you will be a colossal failure. If you go out to witness for Christ unless you love the people that you witness, and they'll know it. If you go out because you feel motivated that it's your duty and your responsibility to talk to somebody about the Lord, don't do it.
But if you go out there because you love the Lord and because you love the one you're going to because the Lord loves them, then the Lord can bless you. And I wish I had time to elaborate on this. But it's very, very important that you have a love for the people that you're going to with the gospel. The next thing is, you must be a person who doesn't mind words. Now, if I were talking to teenagers and college-age students, I'd spend quite a bit of time right here telling them how important it is to learn how to discipline their minds and to learn how to study and to learn how to apply themselves. Because it's three times as easy to learn when you're young as it is when you get older.
You can memorize Scripture at age six, seven, eight, nine, ten, about ten times as fast as you can when you're twenty years of age. You're going to have to be one who doesn't mind words. Another one is, you're going to have to be courageous. You're going to have to be a person that's not afraid, that is willing, if necessary, to bear persecution. Be courageous. Second Timothy three twelve, yea, in all that live God in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. There are two others and we're sinning. Another thing Christian needs to learn to do if he's going to be used to the Lord is he needs to learn to trust the Lord with his funds.
He's going to need to learn to trust the Lord with his funds and to give a proportionate share back to the Lord that the Lord has given to them. My observation has been that Christians who are stingy sometimes have a hard time financially. I've forgotten who said it. Doesn't matter who said it. It could have been Argyll Eternal.
I don't know. But he said that he had always found that God shoveled was bigger than his show. And he'll never be your debtor. And this last one is very important in the day and age in which we live. The person who God uses must learn how to discipline and to take care of his body. You see, beloved, God doesn't give us but one body on this earth. And I have a dear friend right now that's not much older than I am.
But I dare say he will never be able to work much more. Because you see, when he was a young man back before he was saved, he dissipated his body. And he didn't take care of it. And he was careless with it. And he abused his body with alcohol and drugs and cigarettes. That's right. And today he's in a hospital. And I would not be surprised if he'd never leave that hospital. Because you see, God doesn't give us but one body. So I think that Christians should be very careful about getting the proper amount of exercise and that's eating the proper food and getting the proper amount of rest.
Well, I've heard Christians brag about how long they could work without stocking. and how long they could drive without taking a break. God wants us to honor Him. Because you see, beloved, this body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. He indwells this body and it doesn't belong to us. It belongs to Him. And if a person abuses his or her body and they depart this life early, we say, oh, well, it's too bad.
Well, it's too bad in more than one reason, one purpose, one cause, because God could have used them longer if they had been here. But God can use us only when we're here, living. So how do we do on the test? Call them out. Here they are. Number one, he must know experimentally the Lord Jesus Christ. He must have one purpose in life. He must remove every hindrance. He must be completely yielded to God's will. He must learn to daily commune with the Lord in prayer. He must be a student of God's words. He must have a vital living message for the world that's lost.
He must be a Christian who's learned to believe God. He must work in the anointing of God's Spirit. He must have a God-given passion and love of souls. He must be a person who doesn't mind rolling up in sleeves and going to work. He must be courageous, not afraid of what lies ahead, willing to endure persecution if need be. He must be one who has learned to trust God with his means. And last but not least, he must be one who has learned to discipline and to take care of of God's body. Shall we pray? Our Father, we know that the standards that you have set are very high.
And we know that the flesh resist these high standards But we pray now that we may be so yielded to you that if you have spoken to our hearts about any of these areas in our lives where we have been deficient, that you'd help us by your grace to be willing to make up those places where we have been deficient, to meet your standards. Now, Father, in the light of Calvary, how can we refuse to do anything less than say, here I am, Lord Jesus, my family, my home, the automobile, my body, everything that I have belongs to you.
Use it when, how, and where you see fit. We pray especially, Lord, for these people here tonight. Some of them consider themselves kind of in the sunset years of their lives. And yet, Father, we know that in many places in the world, you are greatly using people that are retired, even on some mission fields, Lord. And, Father, we believe there's a place that's a notch for every believer. And we pray that every one of us tonight may say, Lord, I want to be where you want me to be.
Help us not to be content just to idle our time away, but help us to be usefully active in your work. In Jesus' name, amen.