It is good to be at home with you, brothers and sisters in Richmond, and to worship together with you this morning.
As we were worshipping, the Lord was really speaking in my heart. You know, our hearts are hard. We do not know how hard they really are, but only the love of God can melt our hard hearts. Thank the Lord, His love is real.
The only way we can respond to Him in worship is because His love is so great, so powerful. He has conquered us with His love. So thank the Lord.
You remember we were here in September. You remember that weekend? On that last day, Brother Fountain shared his testimony, and we were all very helped by it.
Afterwards, Mac approached me and said, “Next time when you come back to Richmond, maybe we will have the opportunity to hear your testimony.”
So I was waiting before the Lord: What should I share? I thought I would share a little bit of my testimony—the testimony of the goodness of the Lord: how real He is, how faithful He is, how loving He is, and how true He is to Himself.
I will share a little bit of the Lord’s goodness, and then perhaps toward the end I will share with you the burden I have received from the Lord in recent months, so that you can pray with me that the Lord’s purpose will be fully realized and that He can get all that He desires to get out of our generation.
Now, I am glad Brother Kaung is sitting here, because he knows a great deal about me and my family. In fact, I knew Brother Kaung when he was a little boy in China. Do you believe that? He came to my hometown. He knew my grandmother, my parents, and my aunts. So we have a long, ancient history together.
Some of the sisters heard that I would be sharing my testimony, and my wife said to them, “He is not all that exciting.” Well, I said, “Wait and see. But do not you dare go to sleep.”
You know that China is a pagan country. I was born in China, in a pagan country. I always thought I was brought up in a Christian home, but actually my father was not saved until he was thirty-three years old. That was when I was about five or six years old, so do not figure how old I am now.
It was amazing how my father was saved. He was not looking for the Lord, but the Lord was looking for him. Now, is that not true with most of our testimonies? We are not looking for Him, but He is always out there looking for us.
In the early 1930s, there was a very renowned Chinese evangelist, Dr. John Sung. Some of you may have read his biography. There is a short biography of three spiritual giants in China: Watchman Nee, John Sung, and Wang Ming-tao.
Dr. John Sung was most powerful in evangelism. He came to this country to study chemistry at Ohio State University, and the Lord laid hold of him. He was wonderfully saved.
He had a burden to go back to China to evangelize China for the Lord. In those days, the only way he knew to prepare himself was to attend theological school and be trained and qualified for that work.
I was told that he went to Union Theological Seminary in New York to study theology. That was at the height of modernism in this country, in the 1920s. They questioned everything about the Lord Jesus—His virgin birth and His divinity.
But John Sung was such a saint that he believed every word in this Book. So he always had real controversy with some of the professors. What the professors lectured and what he read in the Bible simply did not go together.
If you read his biography, the professors and officials at Union Theological Seminary labeled him a psychotic. They said he was mentally unsound and sent him to a mental institution. He became very sick.
I will not go into it further, but he recovered his health and went back to China. On his way back to China, as the boat was departing, he threw his Ph.D. diploma into the Pacific Ocean. He had finished with the earthly things.
Then he went to evangelize, and he became highly used by the Lord in China. Many, many were saved through his ministry.
He came to my hometown to hold an evangelistic campaign. Dr. John Sung was a very temperamental person. His Mandarin was not the proper Mandarin, and it was difficult for people to understand what he was saying. Wherever he went, he needed someone to translate his ministry into the local dialect.
The local believers introduced several people whom they hoped would qualify to translate for him, but Dr. John Sung was not satisfied with them. I heard that he could be very temperamental, even on the stage while preaching. If he was dissatisfied with the brother translating for him, he would ask him to sit down and get somebody else.
The local saints who sponsored the evangelistic campaign became very uneasy. Where could they find a suitable person to translate for Dr. John Sung? Then my father’s name came up before the committee.
They approached my father and said, “Maybe you would be the person who could translate for Dr. John Sung.” My father agreed. At that time, however, my father was not saved.
He became Dr. John Sung’s translator, and somehow he got along with him very well. Dr. John Sung liked the way my father translated for him, so he kept him through the whole gospel campaign.
It was then that my father was saved, at the age of thirty-three, through translating for Dr. John Sung.
My father was saved first, but not my mother. My mother was very skeptical. A few of my father’s old schoolmates were also saved, but my mother continued to resist the gospel. She was simply not receptive.
A friend of my father, very wisely—the Lord gave him that wisdom—said that my mother was like the old Jericho, with walls up to the sky. It was not easy to conquer her. The only way was to take the approach Joshua took.
This brother was a very gentle and quiet brother. He knew that talking to my mother and trying to convince her would not do any good. So he would come to our home, sit down, smile, stay for perhaps half an hour, say goodbye, and leave.
He did it seven times. At the end of the seventh visit, my mother was conquered by the Lord—she was saved. This brother simply kept coming to our home and smiling. He did not say a word. Seven times, and my mother was saved.
A few years after my father was saved, he came in touch with Watchman Nee’s ministry. The Lord opened up to him something he had never known or experienced before. He saw something new, something far more, and in his heart he had a longing to know the Lord in this way.
At that time, my father was teaching. For those who know the history of the work in China, the early believers who were in fellowship with the local assemblies and who bore the testimony of the local church, as Watchman Nee initiated, were meeting simply in homes, unto the Lord.
They met in the name of the Lord Jesus, called one another brothers and sisters, and had no labels. This was completely strange to organized Christianity.
My father was inclined to follow the Lord in this way, and he suffered much rejection. Even when I was small, I noticed some of the persecution we went through. We were labeled and called names. People avoided us because they thought we were dangerous.
Those early days were very costly. The misunderstanding, persecution, and rejection did not come from the world; they came from fellow believers—from Christians.
Even when I was small, I witnessed some mighty miracles. The sick were healed, and people possessed with demons were delivered. I believe my salvation did not come all at once, because I witnessed the power of God in life.
Later, my father sensed that the Lord was calling him into ministry. He was teaching in a school at the time, and it was a very difficult period. The school imposed a condition on him: if he continued to associate with Watchman Nee, he would have to resign from the school.
My father told the Lord that he had no choice. So he resigned from his post and served the Lord in our hometown for several years before he went to the Philippines.
Those early workers in China lived a life of faith. They trusted the Lord for all their needs. You have to remember that China was a very poor country. Even the saints in those days had very little to give to the Lord.
I still remember some of the financial difficulties my parents went through. When my father was teaching, he had a steady income and had a few hobbies. He had a good camera and a few other possessions. But when he stepped out to serve the Lord, I gradually noticed things disappearing from our home.
He had to sell things to a pawnshop in exchange for money, so that we could put food on the table. Gradually, the few things we had at home disappeared.
But in those things, there was such joy and such fulfillment in my parents’ lives that we had never experienced before.
My mother told me that when they stepped out, Luke 12 became very real. At that time, there were five children in the family, and the Lord took care of us all.
I remember wintertime. We had no heavy coats to wear to school. My father was quite handy, so he would take his suit jackets and make coats for us children, so that we would have something to put on.
Of course, we did not appreciate it very much. All the others had such nice things to wear, while we wore these hand-me-downs from our parents. The coat might have looked all right, but when it came to the pockets, it looked terrible. It was not fashionable.
Yet, in a way, the Lord allowed our family to go through this. As I look back, I can see the beautiful hand of the Lord.
In 1937, my father was called to go to the Philippines to help with the work there. In 1940, the family migrated to the Philippines. Right after we arrived, World War II broke out.
The Americans in the islands were defeated within a matter of thirty days. The Japanese swept through the Philippine Islands, and we came under Japanese occupation for three and a half years. Those were difficult days.
The Americans, wherever they went, brought their supplies with them. But the Japanese in World War II obtained their supplies locally. The local people were deprived of everything. Food was scarce, clothing was scarce, and everyone was afraid.
But imagine how the Lord took care of us in those days. At the end of the war, the Allied troops were gaining ground in the Pacific. We were all excited and waiting, hoping that the GIs would return and set us free.
During the occupation, the Lord did something tremendous. When the Japanese came in, they formed a military government to control the affairs of the nation and established a religious department.
They wanted to organize all the Protestant churches into an alliance under the Japanese Ministry of Religion. If a church joined, it was permitted to meet openly. But it had to place a picture of Emperor Hirohito in its meeting room and report to the Ministry of Religion what was preached each Sunday.
They approached my father and the local assembly and asked them to join this religious alliance. Some brothers were inclined to do so because it would avoid many problems. But my father resisted. He said, “No compromise. There are things with which we cannot compromise—with the world or with the system.”
Thank the Lord, the Japanese official in charge of the religious department was understanding. Even though we refused to join the alliance, he still allowed us to meet. It was truly a miracle. The Lord alone can do His work, and He alone can maintain His testimony.
During the occupation, a Chinese man was serving as a spy for Allied headquarters. The Japanese knew he was on the island, and he was constantly being hunted. He had to move from place to place every few months to avoid capture, and he lived in fear.
The Lord saved him, and he became very close to my father. Finally, he moved behind our house. Every evening, he and my father would pray together. He had a short-wave radio transmitter through which he sent messages to Allied headquarters, and he lived in constant fear of being captured.
Many Filipino and Chinese brothers worked under him, always watching the activities of the Japanese. One day, one of these brothers was at Manila Harbor and saw that the Japanese naval force was anchored in Manila Bay.
The report came back to this brother, and he immediately cabled General MacArthur’s headquarters in Australia. The next day, hundreds of Allied planes came to the bay and sank those ships in one day.
When General MacArthur returned and liberated the Philippines, he called this brother to his headquarters and conferred upon him a Medal of Honor in recognition of his contribution to the Allied Pacific operations.
After liberation, the Lord gave me a desire to come to the United States to study. I spoke to my father and said, “I have a desire to go to the United States to study. What do you think?”
He said, “No way.” His heart said yes, but his head said no, because he had no way to guarantee the finances. He wanted to help, but financially he was incapable.
He told me, “If the Lord wants you to go, the Lord has to perform a miracle. Unless the Lord performs a miracle, there is no way you can go.”
So, in a simple way, I prayed, “Lord, if it is Your will, open the way. If not, shut the door.”
One Sunday, there was an envelope in the offering box at the back. It contained 800 pesos, and written on the envelope were the words, “For Joseph’s transport to the United States.”
In 1948, 800 pesos was equivalent to 400 U.S. dollars. That was big money in those days. When the envelope was given to my father, he came to me and said, “You can now proceed to go.” The Lord had opened the way.
At that time, one brother was an ambassador in the Chinese embassy, and another brother was his secretary. They were both in fellowship with us. When I told them that the Lord was opening the way for me to study in the United States, they said, “Do not worry. We will get you a passport.”
The ambassador provided me with a passport. The secretary said that if someone from the embassy accompanied me to the U.S. consul, it would make the process easier. You can see how the Lord’s hand was upon the whole matter.
He went with me to the U.S. embassy. As we stood at the counter, an official came out and recognized Brother Tai. He said, “Mr. Tai, come to my office. Is there anything I can do for you?” Brother Tai said, “I have this young man here with me. He wants to get a visa.” The official said, “Oh, come this way. You will have it.”
The Lord was opening things for me. So, in 1948, I left home for the first time.
Before you go, you are very excited. You are going to a new country, with adventure ahead of you and all the excitement. But when the time comes to leave, you have mixed feelings.
Was I doing the right thing? I did not know anybody in this country. I did not know what the future held for me or what lay ahead. But the way was open, and there was no turning back. I went.
I got onto that boat, and it took me over three weeks to cross the Pacific. Brothers and sisters, those three weeks were the longest days of my life.
There were hundreds of people on that passenger ship, but I was the loneliest person on that trip. Many students wanted to be friends with me, but inside I was very lonely. I was homesick.
On many occasions, that loneliness was so overpowering that I could hardly control my tears. When you are in that situation, you wonder whether you made the right choice.
It was at that very moment, in the loneliest period of my life, that I experienced the sweet presence of the Lord.
On many occasions, my tears were beyond control, and I cried out to the Lord, “If You are real, make my heart rejoice.” And He did.
I came into this new country, and everything was new to me. I came to study, but the Lord had a different purpose. He had a higher purpose.
After I arrived in 1948, I went through a period of real doubts and questions. I thank the Lord for that period, because in the Philippines I had been under the covering of the fellowship and was protected. Now I was uncovered.
I began to compare the way we lived in the Philippines and the way some workers in China lived with the religious system in this country and the way ministers here lived.
I had a real problem. Who was right, and who was wrong? Some ordained pastors had positions guaranteed for life, income guaranteed for life, and a secure life. My parents lived by faith. They did not know where the next thing would come from.
Who was right? Which way was right? Were my parents and those who served the Lord all foolish? I questioned. I questioned the way. I questioned and questioned and questioned. Were we wrong? Was I simply following something that was not real?
In time, the Lord gradually made these things real to me. God’s ways are for God. Man’s ways are never for God. Man’s way can never fulfill God’s purpose, but God’s way is for God’s purpose and for God’s glory.
In 1952, through Brother Kaung, I was introduced to some saints in the Midwest, in Minnesota. Gradually, I discovered that what the saints went through in China was the same as what those in this country went through when they wanted to embrace the Lord’s way.
I had thought there were two ways, but I discovered that there is only one way. Those who really want the Lord’s way find that it is the narrow way. This way is never approved by man.
In fact, the flesh will go against it. But it is the real way—the way unto purpose and the way of life.
We met some saints in the Midwest. One was Sister Betty, who had been a missionary in Africa for many years. During one of her trips across the Atlantic, someone told her about the Honor Oak fellowship, and she went there.
That visit with T. Austin-Sparks transformed her whole ministry and her whole life. She came home, resigned from the mission, and went back by faith. She was completely misunderstood by her relatives. They thought she was crazy.
We also met the widow of Brother Milton Linn. He had been a very renowned Swedish Baptist minister, a conference speaker, and a very influential person in Minnesota. Somehow, he got hold of the magazine A Witness and a Testimony, and one of the articles touched him.
It revolutionized his whole conception of ministry. He felt that he had to go across the Atlantic to meet T. Austin-Sparks in person and have fellowship with him. So he went.
After fellowship with Brother Sparks, he came back and resigned from his Baptist convention. I was told that in their official newspaper or magazine, they labeled him mentally deranged.
They pleaded with him: “How can you resign? What will happen to your wife? What will happen to your children’s education? What will happen to your future?” But he said, “I have seen something that you cannot change me from.” And he resigned.
I was told that he was a very lonely person. Among all the Christians in the Midwest, he stood almost alone in those days because he had seen something.
Minnesota is very cold in the winter. At times they had no food at all, and someone moved by the Lord would bring bread to their home to get them through the day. In winter, when they had no coal for heating, someone would bring a bushel of coal so that they could use it.
What they went through was actually what the brothers and sisters in China went through. It is the way of the cross. It is the way of life laid down.
I want to impress upon you, my brothers and sisters, that the way we are in now is easy to us because, as we look back, there were those who laid down their lives for us.
This way was never easy. The Lord Himself laid down His life. Along the way, many, many have laid down their lives. That is why we are where we are today.
Recently, I listened to a message on T. Austin-Sparks’ life and ministry. Few of us know what it cost our brother to walk this way and to have this tremendous ministry that we have been privileged to receive.
When he began to preach the cross and the church, the whole of England turned against him—not the secular world, but the religious world.
On one occasion, the Baptist Convention in England wanted to hold a “Year of the Baptist,” reaching out to the unsaved, converting them, and bringing them into the Baptist Convention. They asked T. Austin-Sparks to take part in this venture.
Brother Sparks and a few others who shared the vision with him wrote back, “If you want to convert sinners, we are one hundred percent for it. But if you want to make more Baptists, we do not feel we can do it.”
Within a week, a letter came from the headquarters asking him to vacate his place. He moved out within a week, not knowing where to go. In England, books were written against him.
Those who had stood with him on the same platform in earlier times wanted nothing to do with him. Brothers and sisters, if we are in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus, we must be willing to go through what He went through.
There is no other way. It is a way of rejection, a way of persecution, and a way of being despised. The world will never approve us.
But, friends, when the world disapproves, if God approves, that is what matters. Whatever we do, whatever we are, are we man-pleasers or God-pleasers?
If we want to be pleasing to our living God and live according to His purpose, it is a costly way. But it is worth it. It is worth it.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, when I began to have some appetite for the deeper things of the Lord, I began to read a few of T. Austin-Sparks’ books.
I was told there was a Christian bookstore in Minnesota that carried some of Brother Sparks’ books. The owner was very selective, and what he considered controversial, he would not touch.
He had a few of Brother Sparks’ books, but if you wanted them, you had to ask him quietly. Then he would take you to the back room, open a drawer, and show you his collection. He was afraid of his clientele.
That was the attitude toward our brother’s ministry. People were afraid of it because they thought it was too controversial and would get Christians into trouble.
Thank God for Brother Stephen Kaung. He was the one who boldly introduced T. Austin-Sparks’ books to the American brothers and sisters. The Lord gave him a burden to bring Brother Sparks across the Atlantic to this country.
Brother Kaung had a burden to invite T. Austin-Sparks and Stephen Kaung to hold special meetings so that saints in this country—those who wanted the Lord—would have the opportunity to hear the perfecting ministry of God’s Word.
Brother Kaung told me that when he approached Christian conference grounds and asked permission to use their facilities, they would ask, “Who are your speakers?”
The moment he mentioned T. Austin-Sparks and Stephen Kaung, because of their connection with the fellowship, the door was shut.
Brothers and sisters, the world is against what the Lord wants. But the religious world also stands in the way of what the Lord wants.
We need to be delivered from the world, but we also need to be delivered completely from the religious system. In some ways, it is easier to be delivered from the world. It is much harder to be set free from the religious system.
It is a costly way, but it is a way of glory, because we touch something that God wants.
The reason I am with you in New Jersey is that I keep reminding my brothers and sisters: Why do we gather? For what reason do we meet?
We do not gather for our own purpose. We gather for another reason: for the Lord to get what He is after. If the Lord is not getting what He is after in our meetings, then our gathering is in vain.
Lastly, I have a burden that I want to share with you. In two weeks, Ella and I will be leaving for the Far East. We will be in the Philippines for about three weeks, and we need your prayers.
The burden on the hearts of many who love the Lord is this: if the Lord delays His coming—and we hope He will not delay, but if He does—are we preparing the next generation for Him to go on?
Do we have a next generation that has the reality to take up the cross? Do we have a next generation that really catches something of God’s purpose? That responsibility is upon us. We cannot escape it.
That responsibility has become heavier and heavier in my heart. So I want to share a few thoughts from the books of Chronicles.
You know that the first nine chapters of 1 Chronicles are heavy reading because they contain genealogies. I have to confess that for many years, when I came to the genealogies in 1 Chronicles, I had to struggle and grind my teeth to get through them.
I never caught the spiritual significance of that long list of genealogies until recently. Why are they so important? Why did God put them in the Bible? Nine long chapters, with all those names. If you can pronounce them, I will give you a Ph.D.
There are a few spiritual principles here. This has to do with what was in David’s heart. David was a man of God, and he sought out what God wanted: a house, a resting place for God.
David did not want only Solomon to build it; he wanted the generations to come to make sure they possessed the land and passed it on to their sons.
Why was the land important? Because there was a city. Why was the city important? Because there was a dwelling place for God. That is where we gather, worship, and serve. If that is not God’s purpose, all is ruined, all is empty, and all is of no value.
Of course, David saw more than that. He saw the coming Messiah, the seed of David. He saw the coming kingdom of Christ.
I feel that we are very short-sighted spiritually. We think of our own generation. Perhaps, if we have more foresight, we think of the next generation. But we do not see the end that God is after.
David not only saw his own generation and the generation that followed; he saw the very end—the Messiah and His kingdom. He saw what God would get in the end, and he took God’s side.
In the books of Chronicles, even though David was a great failure in some ways, there is little mention of those things. In Chronicles, God is presented in the most positive way because He is getting what He is after.
But, brothers and sisters, we have a problem, because we are so consumed with our families and with the condition of our country.
God is patient. He can take a lot, and He can endure a lot. But that does not mean He approves what is wrong. He never approves sin, stain, or irregularity in spiritual principles.
He is patient so that we may repent. His patience does not mean that He approves, permits, or accepts what is wrong.
As parents, and as brothers and sisters locally, we must be patient with one another, knowing our flesh. But spiritually, in principle, anything that is not of the Lord, we must take God’s side concerning.
It is a very delicate matter. Where there is sin, we must say no. On the other hand, love is patient.
Somehow, our young generation can receive mixed signals. When we are patient and loving, they may think they are receiving approval.
Can we, in love and patience, disapprove what God has not approved, while still showing them the patience of God for their recovery?
At the end of 2 Chronicles, there is that fearful phrase: “There was no remedy.” The nation came to that point and was carried into captivity. The Lord endured all He could, but eventually there was no further remedy.
There is a limit to God’s patience. We must take this seriously.
The genealogies contain several important matters. We notice that some names that should have been in the genealogy were not there, and there were others included who might not have been expected to be there.
G. H. Pember said that those included in the genealogy had two things: faith in the Lord and obedience. Faith and obedience.
Why are genealogies so important? Because the land was promised to Abraham and to his seed. Only the seed of Abraham had the right to enter into the promise.
The second thing is that once they entered the land, they needed genealogies for the dividing of the land among the tribes, so that they would know who inherited each portion.
Another important purpose was to prevent them from mixing with the nations around them, so that the line would remain pure for the coming Messiah.
It also had to do with worship and service. The Levites, the priests, and the gatekeepers all had their places, and they could trace their genealogies, particularly when they returned from captivity.
When they came back from captivity, they had to trace their genealogies to make sure that those who had a part in worship and the restored testimony were listed in the genealogy.
My thought is this: for those of us who are older now and are the Lord’s children, we hope we are listed in that genealogy. We are the seed of faith, the seed of Abraham. We can come into our rightful inheritance and possess it.
But what about our next generation? Do we have any guarantee that their names will be listed in that genealogy and that they will come into the good of that inheritance?
Let us turn to 1 Chronicles 28. These are the last words of David to Israel, to the nation of Israel, and also to his son Solomon.
In 1 Chronicles 28:8, David says:
Now therefore, in the sight of all Israel, the assembly of the Lord, and in the audience of our God, observe and seek out all the commandments of the Lord your God; that ye may possess this good land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children after you for ever.
What the Lord has given to us is not merely for us. What the Lord has given us should not stop with us. We are channels.
I am speaking to myself—as a parent and as a grandparent. Brothers and sisters, do we have something of real value that we can pass on to our children, so that they can possess that land, remain in that land, build God’s house, and bring in His kingdom, if the Lord delays His coming?
David had such foresight: observe, seek, and keep, that you may possess the land and bequeath it to your children forever. He was a man of God.
Then, in 1 Chronicles 28:11, David gave his son Solomon the plan. And in verse 19, David said:
All this, said David, have I been made to understand in writing from the hand of the Lord, even all the works of this pattern.
Brothers and sisters, you see the difference between what Moses saw on the mountain and what David saw here. Moses saw the pattern objectively. But David said, in effect, “What I saw, the Lord wrote in my heart.”
Do we have a plan? Is the plan merely waiting at home? If we only see and hear something, it will disappear very quickly. But if we allow the Lord to write it in our hearts, it remains there forever.
When we fail, when we come short, or when we get away from the Lord, it is still there. My fear is that the younger generation hears much but sees little. That will not last.
We have to give them an example. We have to show them something that the Lord has written with His finger in our hearts—something that we can pass on.
David not only instructed Solomon and Israel; he prayed for them. We can all instruct people, but we often fail miserably to pray for them.
We all recognize the need of the next generation, but do we really pray? Not merely pray for them, but intercede before God that God may get them for Himself.
Brother Sparks said this very well: we pray, but we are always interceding on people’s behalf. How many of us are priestly in true ministry, touching something of the heart of God and interceding on behalf of what God wants?
In 1 Chronicles 29:16-18, David prayed:
O Lord our God, all this store that we have prepared to build Thee a house for Thy holy name cometh of Thy hand, and is all Thine own.
I know also, my God, that Thou triest the heart, and hast pleasure in uprightness.
As for me, in the uprightness of my heart I have willingly offered all these things; and now have I seen with joy Thy people, which are present here, offer willingly unto Thee.
O Lord, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of Thy people, and prepare their heart unto Thee.
That is true intercessory prayer. What is at issue is a matter of the heart. If the heart is not there, nothing is there.
David’s life-passion was God’s dwelling place—God’s house in the midst of His people. He had experienced that. When God’s dwelling place is no longer central in the national life, everything is ruined. There is no blessing and no glory.
It is a heart matter. David prayed, “Preserve forever the intention of the heart of Thy people, and prepare their heart unto Thee.”
Then David prayed for his son:
And give unto Solomon my son a perfect heart, to keep Thy commandments, Thy testimonies, and Thy statutes, and to do all these things, and to build the palace, for which I have made provision.
A perfect heart is a pure heart. A pure heart is an undivided heart.
Brothers and sisters, we need to remind ourselves: when we gather, what are we doing here? Do we hear messages? Yes. Do we receive blessings? Yes. But the issue is the building of God’s house.
That is why He has blessed us with so much. It is for His house. Are we gathering all His blessings unto His house, for His children, and for His life?
If the Lord delays His coming, brothers and sisters, may we have something to pass on to the next generation—not merely what we have seen or heard, but something written by the Lord’s finger in our hearts.
Yes, we need to speak to our young people. But I think the most important thing is that they come to see God’s purpose. The root matter is seeing what God wants.
Let us pray that the Lord will capture their hearts for Himself. We are often problem-oriented, dealing with the surface, while God wants to deal with the heart.
David’s heart was wholly for one thing: God’s dwelling place. He wanted to see that thing continue and extend to the next generation.
So may the Lord make us faithful. We may fail, but He can never fail. As long as our hearts are aligned with the plan of His Father, He knows how to carry it through.
Father, we thank You for this time together. What we share is so weak, so often merely human words. Lord, we ask Your Holy Spirit to work and to speak, to honor and to touch something deep in our hearts.
Cause our hearts to respond to You wholeheartedly. Lord, do what You want. Get all that You can get. Get what You are after.
Unto You be all the glory and all the praise. In Christ’s name, amen.