What a privilege to be with you again after many years. I forgave you for your mistake. I really thought you were perfect until that happened.
I have always prepared much for a series of ministry, and that has been quite the case this time because I could not settle on what the Lord wanted me to share. I knew the purpose, or the theme, of the conference. That has been one of my themes for years, but I could not settle—could not come to rest—on what I should share.
The last couple of days, as we have been with brothers and fellowshipping, it seemed like the Lord indicated that I should share my testimony with you. I have always hesitated because I believe we do not preach ourselves, but Christ. Yet I remember how often Paul brought his personal experience into all that he shared.
So, this afternoon, I am going to give you a lesson that dates back forty years. We shared it in many places in the early years of our ministry, and that was true when we came the first time to Richmond.
Just a little background: I would not share this except that our brother last night alluded to it. The Lord said, “Go ahead.” The first time we came, we were meeting in the Millers’ garage. Anybody in those days meeting in the village garage? Very few.
But it was a very wonderful, precious time of fellowship, and I especially enjoyed the ladies whom God had been gathering together in prayer and burden. When we finished, I believe Llewellyn said, “We really need to have a church, a living expression of the Lord here.”
I looked around and saw mostly ladies, a few children, and younger brothers. I said, “Lord, if You gather some brothers together, some older men, You can build a church here.”
She called me back a year later, I think it was. Did we go to Roslyn that year? That is the first years of Roslyn. That goes back thirty years. I bring you up to date because some of you do not know the very beginnings.
But I remember, as I left that first time, I think it was Ray and several of the ladies who said, “Who else could share something along the line of God’s purpose and all that this involves?” I said, “Well, there is another brother who could do much better than I. Why do you not call Stephen Kaung?”
And God has wrought much through our brother. So here we are this afternoon.
What I want to share with you now is a basic lesson that goes back many years. I want to share it because there are young people here, and there are folk here, who probably can be helped. The reason I put it this way is because once it was a message and a teaching lesson; now it has become my experience. It is my testimony of what God has done through these years.
I would like us to turn this afternoon to the book of Genesis. The other three brothers are going to be speaking from the New Testament, and I feel that Genesis gives us the Old Testament picture of what God was doing so far as purpose is concerned. Genesis 12.
Once again, we call upon the Lord. You may bow your heads, please.
Father, what a privilege this afternoon to open Your Word. We claim that the Holy Spirit will make application through our hearts. We are confident that we are gathered to that end. We believe You to do it, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
I have realized through the years that God not only has purpose in view in everything that He does, but there are principles that govern and bring the purpose into being.
There is much being said today along the line of purpose. Some of the recent books—one of them speaks of being purpose-driven. I mention that because I want to speak of purpose in a little different sense.
I believe that when God works out purpose, it is a fulfilling thing that only He can accomplish. In our purpose-driven stage today, people want meaning and value and purpose. Everybody is speaking of it, and there are some very large churches for whom this theme is very real: purpose-driven. Books have been written.
But I have come through these years to discover, as God has crowded me back—and this, I trust, will unfold this afternoon and maybe tomorrow—that there is a Person behind all of it.
I like to say that this universe is Person-centred, and it is principle-governed, but it is purpose-fulfilling.
I would like this afternoon to share with you some governing principles that God has brought into my own life. As I see them operating in the life of Abraham, we are going to realize how God sovereignly works to fulfil His purpose in Abraham.
Let us begin reading, shall we, in Genesis 12.
The Lord said to Abram,
“Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred,
and from thy father’s house, unto the land that I will show thee:
and I will make of thee a great nation,
and I will bless thee, and make thy name great;
and be thou a blessing:
and I will bless them that bless thee,
and him that curseth thee will I curse:
and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”So Abram went, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him.
And Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered,
and the souls that they had gotten in Haran;
and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan;
and into the land of Canaan they came.
I am personally convinced that God, who is the great Blesser, is looking for lives through whom He can bless, that we might be a blessing.
And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Shechem,
unto the oak of Moreh.
And the Canaanite was then in the land.And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said,
“Unto thy seed will I give this land.”
And there builded he an altar unto the Lord, Who appeared unto him.And he removed from thence unto the mountain on the east of Beth-el,
and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Ai on the east:
and there he builded an altar unto the Lord,
and called upon the name of the Lord.And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South.
I do not know about you, but through the years I have always loved the way God hides meaning in certain words. It is the glory of God to hide. It is God’s way of hiding things, and man searches them out only when God reveals.
Very early, because my heart was fixed to fulfil the purpose of God, I need to say that I have had two fathers: a physical father, a very wonderful, godly man; but I also had a spiritual father.
From the age of fourteen on, he nurtured me and was very careful in pointing certain things out to me. He was always saying, “Purpose above all else.”
I remember he would look at a chair, for example, and say, “What is the most important thing about the chair?” I would ponder, and I would say, “Well, the fact that it is soft.” That is for the benefit of some of you with two-hour speakers—the fact that it is soft.
“No. The fact that it is metal? No. The most important thing about anything is its purpose.” From fourteen years on, that was drilled into my thinking: purpose above all else.
All I knew was that God had a purpose for me. Of course, being very centred in myself, I related everything to God’s purpose for me. When I thought of purpose, it was God’s purpose for me.
It was many years—some years, at least—before He began to enlarge my vision, and I began to see that God had a purpose for Himself, in Himself. As was alluded to this morning, that purpose in Himself is an all-governing thing, but it comes out of Who God chiefly is.
This whole picture of Who determines how and what He is eventually going to accomplish. What would please God—the One Whom we need to get acquainted with?
I believe this is why Paul starts out by saying, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Ephesians begins, “God and Father.”
So it became very wonderful to me to realize that while God is Creator, Ruler, Provider, and Protector—there are many characteristics and qualities in God’s Person—He is first and foremost, above all else, a Father.
What would a Father want? What would satisfy a Father? If He is primarily a Creator, He could be satisfied with the new heavens, the new earth, and all that He could make. If He is a Ruler, He could be satisfied with one great universe fully under His control and will.
But if God, before and above and beyond all else, is a Father, the thing that will satisfy a Father’s heart is what Paul goes on to speak of in Ephesians: the family in heaven and earth.
That is why my eyes began to be opened to the fact that in Abraham, God gives us a picture—an earthly pattern. In the first eleven chapters of Genesis we have Adam and Noah, both fathers; but now God selects a man who is going to be the beginning of a new humanity, a whole new thing that God is going to reveal.
So Abraham becomes a pattern man. That is why we are turning to him this afternoon.
As a father, I believe that Abraham will one day have a vast family that numbers as the stars of the sky and the sand of the seashore. That is the picture God gives us through Abraham.
As we move on to look into the life of Abraham and the way God is going to fulfil that purpose, there are some governing principles.
I look back over sixty years in ministry. I started when I was eighteen. Now you know how old I am—sixty years.
I believe there are at least three seasons that I have gone through. My first season, I was purpose-centred. Very obviously, everything I saw was related either to me or to God’s purpose that would unfold. I was purpose-centred, and I thank God for that season.
But there came a time when I began to realize that the purposes God was going to work out had to be accomplished through certain ways—certain principles that govern how this is going to be done.
If you are purpose-driven, and the goal is to fulfil some purpose or objective, almost any method or means will begin to do. I could give you religious groups today who are ruthless, because the goal is all-important and any means is considered necessary to justify it.
While being purpose-centred is not exactly right, I went through another season in which I was principle-centred. The whole of my outlook and everything was finding the ways, knowing how God was going to do it.
I thank God because principles are very important and significant. But in the last ten years, God has been crowding me back to the One Who designed and governs all principles and has planned the purpose.
That is sort of broad-stroke shadowing; it will come out as we go along. But I want to talk to you this afternoon about some governing principles.
Here we see one, first of all, in the life of Abram. This was a wonderful insight when I saw it one day: God was saying that Abraham, brought to a certain place, built an altar.
In this Old Testament setting, the altar is responding to the One Who is worthy, because worship is discovering worthiness. God spoke to Abram, and he saw the worthiness, and he began to give himself.
Abraham gives the whole burnt offering; he gives himself. Many people do not realize that from Adam to Moses it was the burnt offering, the whole burnt offering. It was only after Moses came on the scene that they went to all the other offerings.
The whole religious world is primarily involved in these other offerings today. But when God deals first of all with Abram, he gives himself totally to God. So we have a picture of this man whom God has laid hold of.
It is interesting how God hides the fact that Abram builds an altar between Bethel and Ai. All of you know that Bethel means “the house of God.”
But when I discovered what Ai meant, it was a real unveiling to me. It means, actually, a heap of ruins.
Then it was as though the Lord personally gave me an arraignment and said, “When you finish the course of your life, you will either have built with Me a house of God, or in all your work you will just have a heap of stones—a heap of ruins.”
I saw in my mind’s eye a lovely house, with all its stones fitting in their place. Then I saw this heap of stones over here. Suddenly, He said, “These could be born-again stones. These could be living stones. These could be My children, but they have never been built into a house.”
It was like a thundering thing to my own heart: “Oh, God, You put Abraham in this place between Bethel and Ai. He built his altar.”
It was as though the Lord was saying, because Ai was on the east, when the sun would awaken in the morning Abram would look up and hear God’s word to him: “Do not let your life end with a heap of ruins.”
But by the time the sun had made its turn to the west, he could look back and say, “Thank God, I have lived for Bethel.”
That may not be meaningful to you. I preached this for a long time before I began to realize that this purpose being fulfilled through Abram—the father of the faithful—is that one day, because He is a Father, God will have a vast family, that house which represents His purpose being fulfilled.
I have vowed again and again, as I look back upon these years, “Oh, God, do not let me come to the end of life, maybe successful in the eyes of people, but have nothing but a heap of ruins because I have not been building with You.”
I thank God that while that was forty years ago, I look down through these years now and realize again and again that He keeps coming back and saying, “Are you building with Me, or are you building something else?”
Then I began to make another discovery. Not only does God give us the picture of Abraham either fulfilling God’s purpose or ending up with a heap of ruins, but He gave me the picture of the altar and the tent.
The altar represents our total dedication—giving yourself wholly to Him. It is interesting: when God is dealing with Abram, He is not speaking of sins and all these things. The critical issue in Abram’s life was, would he give himself to the One Who was worthy?
All these other things are inclusive; they are taken care of in the whole burnt offering. I used to wonder about the Apostle Paul. Paul is the New Testament pattern of which Abraham is the Old Testament pattern.
I saw in Paul that on that Damascus road, Paul does not start by talking about the sins and things he has done. His first word is, “Who art Thou, Lord?” Who art Thou, this Voice that has come? Who art Thou, Lord?
When he discovers, “I am Jesus,” he says, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” All the things we have done—all the sins—are inclusive when one comes to the whole burnt offering, giving oneself totally to Him.
So the altar represents this dedication. The tent represents where you live, or the dwelling that makes it possible.
Oh, I wish I could spend an hour on the tent and the altar, because I have been through so many situations where I see individuals getting the tent and the altar confused.
A young couple came and said, “We have found the most delightful place. It is about one hundred and fifty years old. We are going to take every piece down and sand it, get it all fixed.”
My father’s heart looked at them, and I said, “If you are not careful, that tent will become your altar.” I watched them for seven or eight years. They took care of that lovely place. Nothing was wrong with the house, except that the tent became their altar.
The day they finally came and said, “Why did we not listen? We wasted all these hundreds of hours and put our family through all this mess while we were fixing up the tent. Now we are going to sell it.” Do you know anybody like that?
It is very easy to confuse the tent and the altar. I find every now and then some church group that allows its tent to become its altar. There is nothing wrong with an adequate place to meet. Thank God.
I believe, as Basilio Schlink has said, when God builds the body right, He will put the skin around it. But He will do it.
So I am pleading with us this afternoon to recognize that the altar has its place. It is the dedication to fulfil the thrust, the purpose, the thing that God wants; and the tent goes along with it.
I think my wife would have said, “Yes, it has been pretty breezy sometimes,” right? But she never complained.
I must move on. So we have the altar and the tent. Every one of us needs this basic altar this afternoon.
It is interesting how these altars were built through the Old Testament: stones that had never been hewn, supposed to represent something old and rugged, like the cross. A prophet one day, in the midst of great dissension in Israel, put up twelve stones, saying, “Not ten and two, but twelve.”
The altar of our life is the issue. Thank God, I am on your ladies’ side this afternoon. The tent is all right, ladies. You are the homemaker. God wants you to have, I believe, a lovely tent that expresses yourself and the glory of God. But do not let your tent become your altar.
I have gone on that too long. Anyway, let us read, shall we? Are you still with me?
So Abram has finally gone into the land where God promised him. We read in Genesis 12:10:
And there was a famine in the land:
and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there;
for the famine was sore in the land.And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt,
that he said unto Sarai his wife,
“Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon:
and it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee,
that they shall say, ‘This is his wife’:
and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive.”
We do not need to go into all that. I want you to get another principle involved here. As surely as your face is set, your altar is built, and your focus is to fulfil purpose, you are going to face what I call some expectation-refocusing.
It is either shattering or refocusing. What do you mean?
I can hear Abram saying, “God, I am so glad You called me out of Ur and out of all that was involved there. I am so glad You brought me into this wonderful place. But I just got here, and now there is a terrible famine.”
All the reasonings of our heart rise up: “God, this thing You are going to fulfil, this purpose You are going to work out—and now I am in the midst of famine.”
I have to be open and honest with you. Just as surely as the focus of your life is to fulfil purpose, you are going to run into obstacles and these things that make you say, “God, I did not expect this. Famine.”
We go back into natural reasonings to figure out how we can get out of this, because you cannot let—well, you know the story.
If I were really honest with you this afternoon, I would have to say that these expectations have shattered. These things have come as I look back over forty years, even longer, and realize, “Oh, God, I did not expect this. I thought You were going to help me, and now You are hindering me.”
It was not long after we had revival sweep through an area. God had been working on the West Coast in a conference. I may never forget it.
On Monday we closed the conference. About fifteen of us stood in a circle, praying and committing ourselves to the Lord—missionaries and servants. We went out from that place in Yakima, and twenty minutes later, on the four-lane highway, my car was hit by a drunken driver making a getaway in a stolen car.
I awakened five days later in the hospital. I do not want to go into the details of it, just simply to say there came a sudden adjustment to all my expectations. God was working. God was blessing everywhere I went.
Now the enemy came and whispered, “God is not so good, is He?”
Except that I have known a principle through the years, and it is this. Oswald Chambers says, “The root of all sin is the suspicion that God is not good.”
You ought to write that someplace in your Bible: The root of all sin is the suspicion that God is not good.
You get back and say, “Well, I know, Lord, there is the goodness and severity.” But the enemy shifts all of this.
I am ashamed to tell you, in the last thirty or forty years, how many times I have almost been offended. Almost offended.
Of course, I know enough theology, and I know all that—you know, God is good. But, to be quite honest with you, my mind would say, “I am not offended,” but my spirit pouted.
Anybody else have that besides me?
Folk can tell very quickly when you have all the vocabulary right, but you have a pouting spirit. I got to the place where I said, “Okay, God, this is Your purpose. You are going to fulfil it. Go ahead. I will watch You.” Pouting.
It is not easy to tell you. I am ashamed of it, but I have to be honest because I somehow think that probably nobody goes beyond this. You get into the land, and it is famine.
How many ever hit a famine after you really thought you were on the way for God? You went down to Egypt—back to the world—and neglected your altar.
When you read the story here, you will see the foolishness. Of course, Abraham is a very fragile vessel. He is concerned about his life. You know what he does: he tells a half-lie.
Seriously, that is what they are. We never tell a blatant lie; they are always half-lies. Sarah was his sister as well as his wife. Are you following? We have such a way of convincing ourselves.
Anyway, let us read that. I am not getting very far this afternoon, but here we are. Let us pick it up in Genesis 13.
And Abram went up out of Egypt,
he, and his wife, and all that he had,
and Lot with him, into the South.
And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.And he went on his journeys from the South even to Beth-el,
unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning,
between Beth-el and Ai;
unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first:
and there Abram called on the name of the Lord.
Very wonderful. When God deals with us and gets our eyes open again, and we quit our little pouting time and are ready to come back, He brings us back into the land—back to the altar, the place between Ai and Bethel.
You study that on your own and consider what is really involved. But there is another governing principle here that is going to make possible Abraham fulfilling God’s purpose.
Do we need to make some change? Is that better? Thank you. Always adjustment.
Life is full of it, folks. If you have not discovered that already, you will. Lots of adjustment. But God.
So we have the purpose represented in that place of the altar; shattered expectations; having to go down to Egypt—or at least leaving.
I do not believe Abraham needed to go down to Egypt. I think if he had looked up and said, “God, You brought me here to this place. This famine is Your problem, not mine. I am not going to move because You have brought me here, and I am expecting You to provide wherever I am.”
Can you say amen to that? “God, I refuse to get into my natural reasonings and try to figure out how we are going to help.”
Here is the refocusing of expectations, because we all expect it is going to be easy all the way. We discover there are obstacles.
Now we come to another obstacle situation. You remember, when Abram came, he brought his nephew Lot along with him for company, I expect. It was not long before they got into the land and discovered that because Abram and Lot each had great numbers of herds and flocks, the land was not able to bear them together.
So we have a wonderful principle that comes now. We read it in Genesis 13:5:
And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents.
And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together:
for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together.And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram’s cattle
and the herdmen of Lot’s cattle:
and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelt then in the land.And Abram said unto Lot,
“Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee,
and between my herdmen and thy herdmen;
for we are brethren.
Is not the whole land before thee?
Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me:
if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right;
or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.”
What a lovely spirit in Abraham—willing to let Lot make the choice of what would be best. I think Lot looked over all the fertile grassland. He saw what was best for him, and he chose.
And Lot lifted up his eyes,
and beheld all the Plain of the Jordan,
that it was well watered everywhere,
before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah,
like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt,
as thou goest unto Zoar.So Lot chose him all the Plain of the Jordan;
and Lot journeyed east:
and they separated themselves the one from the other.Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan,
and Lot dwelt in the cities of the Plain,
and moved his tent as far as Sodom.
Now the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners against the Lord exceedingly.
You get a principle here, and I feel that it is all-governing in the life of any individual who is really going to press on with God into the fullness of purpose.
We have heard many messages on this thing we call the separating work of God: separation. It is a very wonderful thing because God separates Abraham first out of Chaldea—separation from the world—but He separates him unto Himself.
You see, God’s separation always has two aspects: the from and the unto. Separated from the world unto Himself.
Abraham and his father went to a place called Haran and stayed there many years. While he was there, his father died.
I thought it was very interesting to discover that the name Haran means “halfway.” He left the world and went halfway to Canaan. He stayed there for many years, but it was necessary in some ways because his father could not move on into the full inheritance.
Incidentally, his father’s name was Terah, which means delay. Halfway, and then delay. I do not know—maybe it does not say anything to you—but I have seen lots of people go halfway and delay. Anybody else?
Haran: halfway. Terah: delay. Well, you can picture it anyway.
He had not only to be removed from the world unto God, but from kindred, in order that he might get into the land.
Now we are going to see another separation in the life of Abram—a from and an unto. This time, his nephew Lot.
I think Lot represents another whole picture of individuals that is sometimes very difficult for us to recognize. Lot—just Lot, it speaks of. Yet Lot has never had a circumcision; he has never had a real dealing in his life. He is looking out for Lot all the time. That is why he chose the best.
Lot represents believers with a limited or narrow vision. This separation is very difficult. It is a separation from various things.
This time Lot is separated from Abram. The moment Lot and Abram separate, God lifts Abram up and says, “Now look.” We will read it in a moment. Look north, east, south, and west—all four directions.
It would seem as though Abram had given the best away. You cannot ever give anything away. God just lifts you to a higher view and says, “I want you to see all I am giving you.”
North, east, south, west—all four directions. His focus is for the purpose and the thing that God wanted. So Lot represents another separation.
Now we need to be very careful at this point, because I believe that the Scripture has many pictures of separation, but never division.
Almost thirty years ago, when I first saw this little picture of division, it was as though the Lord said, “Remember Abraham’s magnanimous spirit. Lot, you choose whatever you want.”
Lot does. He moves away. He pitches his tent toward Sodom. He did not move there immediately, just toward it; but little by little, he finally ended up inside it.
You know, he was no doubt a capable, just man. Even Sodom was so hard up for good men, they made him one of the elders at the gate. The world is pretty hard up, but be careful of the position the world gives you.
It is interesting that when you set your heart on what everybody else wants, the world is going to crowd for the same thing. There were kings in this whole area who looked upon this wonderful land that Lot had moved into, and they swept in.
You can read the story. They swept in, and in the process of the battle Lot and his family were taken captive.
You read that one of Lot’s friends or captives slipped away and came to Uncle Abram and said, “You know what has happened to Lot? He has been taken captive.”
Now you get an opportunity to see Abram’s spirit. I think I could have said, “Yes, he made a bad choice. Teach him a lesson, Lord.” Anybody else? I mean, a real good lesson, Lord. He will never do it again.
But that is not Abram. His spirit—his spirit. There may have been separation, but not division.
I kind of feel like he said, “Lot, I think you are going to need me down the road. Let me give you my phone number, so when some difficulty comes, I will be there.”
Anyway, word got back to Abraham, and what does he do? He arms his own household, and he goes out against these mighty kings of the valley. Because God is with him, he wins over these kings.
I said, “It had to be God.” But God has something of purpose He is going to fulfil. I am so glad that when God is involved in something, little or small is not the issue. God is going to make a way through.
So we read the story of how Lot was taken captive, and now Abram goes out and rescues him. We pick it up in Genesis 14, beginning with verse 13.
And there came one that had escaped,
and told Abram the Hebrew:
now he dwelt by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite,
brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner;
and these were confederate with Abram.And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive,
he led forth his trained men, born in his house,
three hundred and eighteen,
and pursued as far as Dan.And he divided himself against them by night,
he and his servants, and smote them,
and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.
And he brought back all the goods,
and also brought again his brother Lot and his goods,
and the women also, and the people.
Then you read down in Genesis 14:21. He meets the king of Sodom where the battle had been taking place.
And the king of Sodom said unto Abram,
“Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself.”And Abram said to the king of Sodom,
“I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, God Most High,
Possessor of heaven and earth,
that I will not take a thread nor a shoe-latchet
nor aught that is thine,
lest thou shouldest say, ‘I have made Abram rich’:
save only that which the young men have eaten,
and the portion of the men which went with me,
Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre;
let them take their portion.”
When I saw this gradually unfold, I realized here was another governing principle in the life of Abram. It would have to be in any life that is going to fulfil purpose.
Not only are expectations refocused, and separations come—not division, because Abram’s spirit remained right even though Lot had left, and Abram was willing to go down—but now we come to this final principle: surrendering, or yielding, my rights.
Yielding my rights. Look at it for a moment. Abram had won the battle. There is always plunder—the rights that come to the one who wins the battle. Abram had won the battle, and he had a right to take the booty, the plunder, from having won the battle.
In fact, the king comes and says, “You can take all the booty from the battle. All I want is my own people.” It is a right that Abram can take.
Yet Abram looks at the king and says, “I have got a covenant agreement, something settled with God. I will never make myself rich. I will not take my rights, lest anyone ever say, ‘I have made Abram rich.’”
I would like to go on for a long time on this, because I do believe God is in the blessing business. He wants to bless—not to make us objects alone, but to make us channels of blessing, that there might be a flow through our life.
I do not fit into the modern prosperity message, but I cannot help it if God blesses.
I mean, if you do not seek for yourself, if you refuse to claim your rights, if you yield up and say, “God, if there is any way in which You are going to pour through my life, that is Your job. That is Your business.”
There is a lovely little principle that I had not seen for a long time, until I discovered that Abraham gives up his own rights, but not the rights of Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre.
Here were these three herdsmen with their men. They went out; they had certain rights. So he says, “I will not accept my rights, but let them have their rights.”
I saw in this what so often takes place in a family when a father comes and says, “I think the whole family will fast today.”
The wise mother will probably look at the father and say, “It is okay for you, Abe, but Sarah says the children and I are going to give up our own rights. You cannot give them up for us.” Are you there?
This is a peculiar picture of consecration. I have tried to crowd people so often into, “You know, I give up, and you are going to be included.”
I remember the first time my wife, who understood this, said, “You can give it up, but our son and I will do it on our own timing.”
Consecration is an individual issue. I would like to do it for a lot of people, but each one gets to give up his own rights. I mean, you can say amen to that.
Thank You, Lord. You are the One Who allows us to yield up, to give our own rights.
Simply saying in all of this now, when God is moving in a life and He is going to bring about purposes and fulfil them, somehow I feel that if my eyes are really truly fixed—not just on purpose, but back on the Person Who governs, the One Who made all the principles—we will get into that tomorrow.
Let me just say this afternoon: it is very interesting how every principle in Scripture has what we call the right-hand and the left-hand side—always two aspects.
For example, the right-hand principle of initiative: God takes the initiative. God is sovereign. God is going to work out His purposes. But at the same time, God wants man to respond, and He waits for our response.
These two are always wings of the same bird. They are principles. They are the right-hand and left-hand issues that are always involved.
I look back all through these years and discover how many times people get hold of either the right or the left as though that were all there was. No, they both fit together.
Years ago, when I began to make this discovery, I found that every place I went in central Indiana among our fellowships, the elders were hung up, invariably, on some things. I fellowshipped with them a little bit, and some of the brothers would say, “We have got a principle,” and they would give me a real good, solid principle.
It was true. It was right. I listened. The other would say, “But here is a principle too.” I listened. They were right.
One had the right hand; the other had the left hand. One had the initiative; the other had the response. All of life, so far as the principles of God are concerned, always has the two sides.
You will read in the new book of a visit I made to Albuquerque, New Mexico, many years ago. It was a lovely Bible church. They had just built a new building.
I had not been there three or four days when I discovered that the elders, the leaders, were in a stalemate, to put it in a simple way.
Here was one group who said, “We have got this lovely new building. We need to have more outreach, more evangelism, to fill it.” The other group in the church were saying, “Oh, we need to really establish the ones we have, so that the new ones who come in will not be just like them. They need to have real change, deeper life wrought in them.”
As I listened, I realized they had brought me as a teacher to help establish and deal with the cross in the lives of these people. But I looked at them and thought, “There is a real stalemate here, because both are right.”
So we called a Sunday afternoon meeting to pray and fellowship. Seven men sat on this side of the aisle; seven men sat on that side of the aisle. This side was the group who believed this, and that side was the group who believed that.
As I was praying, I thought, “Lord, how am I going to explain to them that they are both right, and yet wrong in the spirit?”
I remembered having read Watchman Nee, where he talked about certain groups who were catchers and others who were menders.
I explained to them, “You who are evangelistic, you who want outreach, are catchers. Thank God for catchers; they are absolutely necessary. You over on this side, who want to establish and bring them into maturity, are the menders.”
They all agreed. What do you do when you have two groups in the church that are both right, but cannot get along?
Well, that happens in every church. I will not say that; I have been around a little bit. The catchers and the menders—what do you do?
That afternoon, as we prayed, it took about two hours, because the issue is always getting both groups to come before the Lord.
I heard them begin to pray, “God, what do You really want? I am not going to push my agenda. I know I am right, but God…”
“I am not going to push my side. What do You really want, Lord? What do You really want?”
Well, the Lord is faithful. When He can get us separated from our own agenda, our own plans, and our own ways—“Lord, what do You want?”—He whispers in the ear.
I was trying to help them with the fact of the catchers and the menders. It is interesting how often you have in a church both those who are catchers and menders.
I think sometimes catchers and menders marry because they need one another. I married a catcher first. When God brought need into my life, she was a going-out kind of catcher. It was never hard for her to talk to people.
But I am the mending style. I do not ever catch many, but I can sure mend them. Are you following me?
That is true of a lot of churches. They are very good at catching, but everything goes out the back door. They have a flow-through.
Then there are the menders who never catch anybody, but they keep them if they do get them.
What I am trying to say this afternoon is that when you really get down to the principles of God’s working, both things—the right and the left—are there. The struggle we have is that we insist on our way.
That afternoon, I will never forget it. Finally, after a couple of hours, the men were saying, “Okay, God, what do You really want? What do You really want?”
One of the catchers stood and said, “Since Brother Frankie is here, let us back up and go on with some mending. Let us establish those we have so that the new people who come in will not be just like the ones we have. We need a real change.”
I saw in that—and I have seen it again and again, even in central Indiana these years—how many times we get in a stalemate.
My problem was, for years, I was principle-centred. I thought, “If I just get the right principle, I can force it through.” I moved away from being purpose-centred to become principle-centred.
But as soon as you become principle-centred, your whole life is centred in, “This is the way to do it.” You always have to press back: “Oh, God, You are the One Who made the principles. You are the One Who designed both catchers and menders. You are the One.”
One more illustration, and I will close.
A number of years ago, I was back in the Finger Lakes area in a summer conference. There were three speakers. One of them, by quite coincidence, turned out to be the president of a large Catholic university.
He was a man who knew God. I do not know how he could stay where he was, but he knew God, and I recognized it. I was eager to get better acquainted.
One afternoon there was no meeting. He said, “Vern, I have got my sailboat along. Let us go out for a little sailboating.” I was eager to be with him because I sensed a man who was way beyond average.
As we were moving along, I was kind of priming myself. It seemed like he was someone you could give a picture to, and he could quickly grasp it.
I turned to him and said, “In your university, you have all these colleges, and I know how colleges are vying for their own positions. What do you do when you have two groups that are each right?”
They know they are right—the right- or left-hand side. They are both right in principle. What do you do?
He smiled and said, “I understand that perfectly. That is why they have a president, and they come to me. I have to make the choice.”
The principle always goes back to some person.
Then he made a statement that I question he would want publicized, but he said, “You know, the Catholic Church—we have these contingencies, we have all these struggles that go on, because all of life is built around two things, two principles that seem to be in collision. There needs to be a choice. Usually it is a matter of timing.”
Finally, he looked at me and said, “You know, that is the reason we have a pope. Warring factions and segments—somebody needs to make a choice.”
I smiled back and said, “Well, I understand what you are saying. You caught it quickly. I am sure glad I have got another Pope—direct access to Him. He is the One Who makes the decision.”
Does anybody understand what I am trying to say this afternoon?
All of life. When we went through that last election in Florida, it was such a tangle. I saw the Secretary of State and all these ones. They each came in with their own standpoint, and they were right from their standpoint.
It did not take any wisdom for me to say, “It is going to have to end up in the Supreme Court”—not only in Florida, but in the United States. And it did.
In the Supreme Court, there was one who made the final choice.
What I am leaving you with this afternoon is this: this universe is not principle-centred, nor rather purpose-centred. I also appreciate how Brother Khang was saying this morning that God’s ways will fulfil His purpose. When man attempts to bring it about in his own strength, it is purpose-driven.
We are not purpose-driven. For years, I was principle-centred, always trying to get hold of principles. Thank God, I believe principles are important. They govern.
But I know there is only One you can go to Who understands the principles that He made, and it is usually a matter of timing.
That Catholic president that afternoon said, “Ever hear of first this, then this? Sequence. First this, then this.” And that satisfied me.
I have come to realize that the further along we go with the Lord, the more He crowds me back to Himself. You see, it is not in seeking wisdom or understanding, but in knowing Him.
All God’s approach to us is to crowd us back to constantly be centred, focused: “Oh, God, I have tried all these things. I am wrecked on You.”
I have to say to you this afternoon, I look at the seasons of my life. Thank God, I was there for a long time. I believe purpose-fulfilling is the by-product that is going to come when principles are properly governing.
But I so thank God that in these last ten years, He has shut me up in a new way until I have had to cry out again and again, “Oh, God, only You know.”
I would just submit to each of you brothers and sisters this afternoon: sooner or later, God gets all of us to that place where all the wisdom and principles we have require His making the decision.
Do I have an amen from anybody?
So many things you cannot understand. There is no way you can understand them. I do not know what you are going through, but my plea this afternoon is: do not be offended. Do not let your spirit get wrong.
Earlier this morning, as I was praying, I thought even of Paul and Barnabas, who teamed and worked together for such a moment of God’s fulfilment. Then Paul said, “We cannot take John Mark.” He was washed out. Barnabas wanted to. They separated.
Now I am going to make a statement that might surprise you, but I believe Barnabas was more right than Paul.
But the good news is that God works His purpose around anyway. How many have ever made a wrong decision? God says, “I am going to do it. I am doing My purpose.”
Because a little bit later on, John Mark is brought back. Any John Marks here who washed out besides me? There is good news.
God loves to take those who are in weak moments, and He says to you this afternoon, “I am going to work out My purpose,” even when Paul makes a mistake. I will not say that—that is beside the point.
The issue is that we are looking back to Who? God. Sooner or later, He crowds us to Himself until all we can say is, “I am wrecked on You. You are all I have, but You are all I need.”
Father, what I cannot say this afternoon, I pray You will share. You will speak to my brothers and sisters.
We want to be a people who are so occupied with Your lovely Self, so totally engulfed in, just centred on You, that You can speak to us which principle, and the timing.
We believe You will fulfil the purpose You have, just as surely as Abram waits for that family that will number the stars of the sky and the sand of the seashore, because he is a father like our heavenly Father.
We believe You are going to bring to birth, You are going to accomplish, You are going to fulfil the Bethel. I thank You for this.
Encourage some heart this afternoon. Do not let anyone leave even yet with a pouting spirit, some hidden bitterness, bewilderment, or questioning. I have been so guilty of it so many times.
But God is faithful, and I thank You. Encourage hearts to believe that John Mark can be a success for God. He can work around the blunders of some of His servants, because He is the fulfilling God.
We will give You the praise, the honour, and the glory. We ask it in Jesus’ name. And everybody said, “Amen.”