Let us look to the Lord together for this evening.
Father, we do want to commit this time to You—not just our time, but above all, we desire to come in our hearts to You, that You may speak to us and enable us to hear Your voice. Remove from us all that is not of You.
Lord, we do pray that You would clear the air and give us an open heaven tonight. Lord, make this weekend a truly spiritual, inward meeting of our hearts with Your heart.
Thank You that You have sovereignly brought us to this place. We believe You have a purpose You desire to accomplish, and corporately we say to You, Lord, accomplish it—for Your glory, unto Your praise, and for the building up of Your church, Your testimony on this earth.
Thank You, Lord. We praise You. Do reign and rule over this meeting tonight. We acknowledge You as our Lord, as our King, and together we submit to You. Thank You, Lord, in Your precious name.
It is so good to be here with you, young brothers and sisters. When I received news from Richmond that the registration for this weekend was constantly increasing, I just could not believe it. First I heard about eighty, and I think altogether we have hundreds of brothers and sisters from outside the Richmond area.
When I looked at the list and saw ten groups with about fifteen to sixteen in each group, the thought came to me: is this Timbrook, part two? Almost like Kenbrook, but in a different location. We are very thankful.
The purpose for this weekend was shared a little when we were together in November for the Richmond conference planning session. On that last day, a few brothers were eating lunch together and sharing: how are we going to use this time this weekend for the Lord?
As we were sharing our hearts together, I think it was Brother John Blanchard who said, “We need to have a time like the psalmist.” When you read the Psalms, you come across a small word: Selah.
Just stop for a moment. Pause. Reflect.
Brothers and sisters, the life that we have in this country, the lifestyle we have in this world, gives us no time to have Selah anymore. We are so occupied with things that are unnecessary—passing away, perishing, fleeting. Nothing is eternal.
Partly, we need to redeem the time, take time out, and reflect before the Lord. We will learn greatly from the Lord and from each other if we will quiet our hearts and reflect and fellowship.
So this evening, tomorrow, and part of the Lord’s Day, it is simply a time for us to enjoy that Selah together: to quiet our hearts, to be reflective before Him, and to allow the Holy Spirit to move freely in our hearts—teaching us, adjusting us, and showing us more of Himself.
Above all, may He set us free from the things we occupy ourselves with that we think are so necessary. In fact, there is only one thing that is necessary: as the Lord said to Mary, to sit at His feet and listen to His word. That is one thing we are very much lacking.
So this weekend is a time of sitting quietly before the Lord and having a time of reflection. This word, Selah, means that you pause and meditate.
Meditation is a lost art. Somehow, we are like machinery—we just keep going. People cannot sit down and rest anymore.
But that is not the Christian life. The Christian life begins with rest. Christian life, basically, is a life of rest, a life of peace. When we are at peace with God, we are at rest.
So Selah means that we pause, reflect, consider, and reconsider—even the things we have heard before. As we consider and reconsider, those things sink deep into our hearts and become real to us.
One reason many believers are living a very superficial spiritual life is that we are not still. We do not meditate. We do not allow what we hear, or what we have heard, to sink deeper into us, become light to us, and become experience to us.
I hope and pray that this weekend the Lord will touch our hearts, show us something of Himself, and give us time to meditate and reflect together.
As I was waiting before the Lord, the Epistle of Peter came to mind. Peter wrote to the saints scattered throughout the ancient Roman world, and he called them foreigners and pilgrims. They were living in the world, but they were not of the world. They were very conscious of that.
Peter wrote his two epistles to encourage them in how to live a separated life. Christian life, basically, is a separated life.
This life is foreign to us. The divine life that we possess when we put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is altogether new to us. It was something that had never been seen on this earth until the Lord Jesus came and showed us what life was all about.
He showed that life, and He showed how to live that life.
Let us turn to 2 Peter, chapter 1. There is one word that has been before me during the last few weeks as I was meditating before the Lord. This word is mentioned three times in Peter’s second epistle.
Would you turn to 2 Peter 1? It is a very simple word, but it is a very important word. I hope you young people will go back and read this epistle and see how this word is used in the context of what Peter was trying to share with believers in those days.
The first mention of this word is found in 2 Peter 1:5:
Yea, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply virtue; and in your virtue knowledge.
The word is diligence: “giving all diligence.”
The second mention is in verse 10, and this is the verse we will focus on this evening:
Wherefore, brethren, give the more diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never stumble.
There is one more mention in chapter 3, which I will not touch tonight. But I want to draw your attention to 2 Peter 1:10: “Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure; for if you do these things, you will never stumble.”
This word diligence comes across differently in different translations. Some versions say, “Work hard.” Others say, “Make every effort,” or, “Try very hard.” This word diligence is not for lazy people.
Paul is encouraging the saints: make every effort. Be even more diligent. Give all diligence. Work hard. Make every effort. Why? Because this is vital.
Peter says that if you diligently make your calling and election sure, there is a promise: “If you do these things, you will never stumble.”
Possibly one reason we stumble is because we are not diligent to make sure that we are called and chosen. That is our problem. We are not sure who we are.
When the wind blows this way, you are tossed that way. When the wind blows another way, you are tossed that way. Unstable. Not sure. Not sure.
Peter challenges the believer: give all diligence to make sure of the calling that you have received and why you were chosen.
Our calling is general, to everybody. But when it comes to election and choosing, it is very individualized. It is how you respond to that call that determines whether you are chosen.
God calls you. He chooses you. He knows what He is doing. But when you hear the call, you may make a response while still being unsure—not very sure of what that call really involves, or what you are really chosen unto.
Because we are not sure, we stumble. The problem with many Christians is that we are not sure of that calling—what we are chosen to—and so we stumble.
During our time together in November, there was a feeling that young people needed to come together during these winter months. In the summer, we have many conferences. Many of you came to the Richmond Family Conference in June, and later went to Lebanon for the young people’s conference at Kenbrook.
In the summer you are spiritually high. You feel good. You fellowship with other young people. You feel wonderful. Then you all go back to your schools, and there comes the decline—stumbling, failing, falling.
So the brothers felt there should be a time for us to get through these winter weeks, through this winter weekend, when it is very cold outside, and to come together to be fed spiritually.
This calling and choosing is basically a calling to life. We are called to possess His life—to have life, and to have it more abundantly.
It is not merely teaching. It is life to live, life to express, life to experience. We are called to life, and we are chosen to live that life and express that life. That is our calling.
We can have a wrong conception of calling and choosing. We think we are called to do something for the Lord. That is a wrong conception.
All service, gifts, and ministry come from that life. Sometimes I feel that we share with young people prematurely about gifting and ministry without first giving them the basis of what that life is all about.
Then, when they go back and try to serve, they rely greatly upon their natural energy, and there is much frustration and disappointment. But life is basic.
I hope that all of us in this room are possessors of that life. That is foundational.
This life is basically a separated life, because you cannot add it to the natural life. It is apart from what we have down here. It is divine life; it is God’s life.
When you live that life, people find it very strange because they have never witnessed anything like it. No wonder we are strangers and pilgrims. We are strangers to the people of the world because we live a separated life: that life is operating in us, living in us, and living through us.
This weekend, we are here away from the world. Thank God for that—but physically. Are we separated inwardly?
It is not an external thing. It is an inward thing. External separation can be put on, but when there is inward separation, that is real.
This evening I will share briefly about what this life is like. Because we have this life, my brothers and sisters, we can walk in the light as He Himself is in the light. Then we can have fellowship one with another. That is why we are here this weekend: fellowship.
Because we have this life, we can fellowship in the light. God is light, and in His light we see light.
To be guided by the Lord, first you must be found in His light. To see light, you must have that life. Only that life can live in that light.
If we come to that light with our natural life, that light will kill us; that light will judge us. God is light, and God is holy.
This weekend we have fellowship, and when we fellowship there is a great deal of adjustment. Fellowship is a life adjusting to the Lord. I wonder whether you are prepared to be adjusted.
Some people say that when you are older, you are more set in your ways and it is harder to make adjustments. But I am not so sure anymore. Young people can be very set in their ways too. Once a habit is formed, it is difficult to make an adjustment, whether you are young or old.
If we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, that life enables us to walk in the light and to fellowship with one another. Therefore, on our part, there is a great need for adjustment.
Brothers and sisters, are we prepared for spiritual adjustment? That is fellowship. When that light comes, it exposes that which is not of Him and that which is not pleasing to Him.
At the same time, that light shows us a way out: the Lord Jesus. We can have fellowship, His light can be in us and lead us, and we can walk in a way pleasing to Him. Then that fellowship can be maintained.
So fellowship involves a great deal of adjusting. This weekend, I pray that through the sharing of the brothers, we will be willing to make any adjustment the Lord requires of us. That is how we get to know Him. That is how we learn Him.
We adjust to Him; He does not adjust to us. He is unchanging. All the changing required is on our part.
As we fellowship and pray this evening and tomorrow, we need to come before the Lord and allow the Word to challenge and adjust us. That is fellowship. That is how we get to know Him.
Our life before the Lord is a life that is flexible, so that He can adjust us and change us into His likeness. Do not be set in your ways.
Every time we come to a conference like this, the Lord seeks to set us free from old concepts, old ways of thinking, and old habits. The Lord can do a new thing with all of us—young ones as well as older ones. We all need adjustment.
That life in us enables us to live in the light. But when that light comes, we adjust more to Him. We decrease, and He increases. It is a constant thing that we need to experience every day.
The second thing about this life is that it is unearthly. When we believe in the Lord Jesus, we come out of darkness into His light. We are lifted out of the earthly and taken into the heavenly, where Christ is.
Colossians 3 tells us that we are to seek the things that are above, where Christ is. Therefore, we must set our minds on things above and be mindful of the things above.
This life enables us to live in the light, but it also gives us the ability to be occupied with the things above, not the things below.
Think about it, my young brothers and sisters. How much of your time is occupied with things of the world—things that are passing, things that have no eternal value?
How much of our time is really occupied with things of value—spiritual things? If you live by that divine life, eternal life, God’s gift through Jesus Christ dwelling in us by the Holy Spirit, you can walk in the light. Thank God for that.
But we are also given the ability to mind the things above, thinking about things that are real and of real value to the Lord—things of eternal value that will last forever, not merely temporal things that are passing by.
In Genesis, the first day of creation involved a separation of light and darkness. When God comes in, there is separation. We are out of darkness and brought into light.
On the second day there was also separation: the waters below the firmament and the waters above the firmament. So we become a heavenly people. We are not earthly people anymore.
Genesis is a book about God’s will and God’s purpose. His purpose is to have light and to have life.
The separation of the waters above and below speaks of this: we are above; we are not below. He has taken us out of the world into Himself. We are now in His kingdom, where Christ is.
Paul says that we should be mindful of the things above, not the things of the world. Yet there is a problem. In Genesis 1, God said of the first day, “It was good.” But concerning the second day, there is no mention that it was good.
Satan is the prince of the air. Yes, we are above, but he is the prince of the air, and he will do all he can to bring us down to the things that are earthly. Therefore, the pull is always there.
This pull is not something you feel only when you are young; older people feel it too. It is always there. Therefore, we have to fight. We have to be diligent, making sure that our calling and our life are up there, and that we stay there.
We must not be pulled down by Satan or by the attraction of this earth. It takes hard work to know where you belong, to stay there, and not to compromise. It is hard work. It is not easy.
Temptation can sometimes be overwhelming, but we have to resist. Before you can resist, you must know your position. Because you are in Christ in the heavenlies, and Satan cannot touch Christ, therefore he cannot touch you—provided you know you are in Him.
So make every effort to make sure of your choosing in Christ. Abide in Him. Stay there. Do not come out of Him. Then you will have that assurance. Through His life, you can overcome.
Another characteristic of this life is that it is life out of death. This life can enjoy light and fellowship. Thank God for that. This life enables us to mind the things that are really important and of real value. Thank God for that.
But this life is also life out of death. Of course, this world is death. Everywhere you go, you can sense that sin is there.
If you are not a Christian, you are not so aware of the evil that is out there. But once you become a Christian, that awareness becomes sharper and sharper.
In the Lord’s Prayer we pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Only as Christians do we know the evil that is out there, and our prayer is that the Lord will deliver us from the evil that surrounds us.
Unfortunately, Satan is very cunning. He can appear as an angel of light. He knows how to camouflage himself. He is very good at packaging his goods. Inside a wonderful package, there is poison.
I always remind the saints where we fellowship that, in these last days, the Lord needs to renew in us a consciousness of what evil is really like, so that we know how to resist it and how to avoid it.
Because we see so much of it, we get used to it and lose that consciousness. Then the danger is that we compromise. There is real danger.
Because we belong to the Lord, Satan particularly directs his enticements toward us. The people of the world do not need to be enticed; they are already in his hand, in his grasp. But we are his targets.
Therefore, in the Lord’s Prayer, He teaches us to pray every day: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil that is out there.” Evil is everywhere.
But in the midst of that, the Lord is a way for us—a life out.
I am sure many of you young people have experienced in your schools and situations what seemed to be an impossible circumstance. Yet somehow, in the end, you got through. That is His life.
On the third day, the land appeared. It speaks of resurrection, and from that land came fruitfulness: trees, fruit-producing trees. This is resurrection life.
This life is a resurrection life that death cannot touch and sin cannot touch. The Lord wants us to experience that.
This life is not just for older people. This life is for every believer. Every one of us needs to experience it and possess it.
On this third day, the Lord said that it was good twice, because His life was expressed and there was fruitfulness—something that satisfied His heart. Life reproducing life; light reproducing light.
This weekend is for this purpose. Through our time together and through our fellowship, we ask the Lord to enlighten us. Of course, are you prepared for that? When He shines His light upon us, we need to make adjustment.
There may be things we think are acceptable to do, but when light comes, we know that they are not right and not pleasing to Him. Are we prepared to make the adjustment?
We want to know Him and follow Him and be in business with Him. Are we prepared? When His light comes, it always convicts us because we are still in the flesh. But His light comes not simply to convict us; it comes to restore us.
Do not be afraid. That is how we get to know Him. The life within us minds the things above, and that is why we are here this weekend. Through our fellowship, we may all discover what to go after.
Some of you came to the conference where I shared the first session, and I mentioned that we need to have that aggressive spirit: “I want it.”
We lack that. We are too passive. We wait for something to happen. But Peter says, “Be diligent. Work hard. Make every effort to make sure that what you have is real.”
So we are here to discover what is real: the things that are above, the things that will last forever. We are here to help each other discover that. We know something, but there is so much more that we need to know.
That is what this weekend is for: fellowship. When we go back to our different localities and schools, we should have a definite goal for our living, a different direction for being a Christian.
Peter says that we can make sure of our calling.
Above all, this world is full of death. Everywhere you turn, there is corruption, sin, and the flesh. Yet in the midst of that, there is that life that overcomes.
I am not saying that we are perfect. But somehow, in this sinful, corrupt creation, light comes through, and we know it is not us; it is Him. That we can experience.
We pray and hope that this weekend will truly bless us. I hope you all came prepared. I know there are about fourteen from Houston. They drove for two days, stopping overnight somewhere, just to be here for this weekend.
Two days from Houston for one weekend—that is effort. Those who came a long way, that is diligence. That is working hard to get here.
Toronto came as well—fifteen hours straight through to come to this weekend. What makes us make such an effort? Why do you make such an effort just to come for one day tomorrow?
Are there not more interesting places to go? You could go skiing, go to Chinese restaurants—aren’t there better things to do than come here?
No, because it is here that we fellowship in the light. There is no place like it—to be in the light, in fellowship. It is a wonderful place to be.
We have the light, and we are going to share that light together. All these earthly things are dying, but we can touch the heavenly. We touch Him. That is why we are here. It is worth it—coming from Houston, coming from Toronto, coming from Memphis.
This journey—your pilgrim journey—is a walk. Whether you fly or come by bus, spiritually it is a walk. We need something; that is why we are here. None of us can make it alone, but together, by His grace, we will make it.
That is why we are here. Thank the Lord. I am so thankful. When I reflect on the past few conferences—Kenbrook, Toronto, Canada—my heart overflows with joy.
In this evil generation, in these last days, God is getting hold of hearts for Himself. Thank God for that. It is His work, and praise the Lord.
The Lord bless you. Tomorrow your host families will serve you a good breakfast, and tomorrow is a big day—a big day.
Before I sit down, tomorrow we will have a time with the brothers for questions and answers. They will share a little, and then we will open for questions.
Pray for yourselves, but ask questions that will be helpful to all the young brothers and sisters. Do not be selfish and ask only for yourself. Whatever you ask, make sure it will be beneficial to all the young brothers and sisters, including me.
All right.