Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Okay.
Let’s bow together in a word of prayer.
Lord, we are so glad to be found among those who are washed by the precious blood of the Lamb, all of us who have received Your great mercy and love poured out in measureless quantity. Lord, You have saved us, and You have plunged us by the Holy Spirit into our Lord Jesus.
Oh Lord, You have such great desire for us. Lord, You are the risen and exalted One, the Holy and Anointed One. As members of Your body, we claim tonight that anointing that belongs to You. Lord, we are in You, so it belongs to us for Your purpose and Your good pleasure.
Lord, speak to us tonight. We want to hear from You, Lord. We want to have our eyes opened. We want to behold You.
Lord, we ask that Your Spirit will be very active here tonight, moving in each one of us and among all of us, doing the work that only You can do. Lord, we will give You all the glory if You will do that.
Lord, open my mouth; open our ears. Lord, make us hearers, those who apprehend and are apprehended by Your word. Oh Lord, You love us so much, and we trust You with the trust of faith. We thank You in Jesus’ name.
I think tonight, first, I’ll tell you what I’m going to tell you. Then I’ll tell you. Then maybe, at the end, if there’s time, I’ll tell you what I told you.
This is a youth conference, and I’m honored to be here. For me, it is a greater honor to speak to you than to speak to anybody. If they asked me to come to Buckingham Palace and speak to the Queen, I’d have chosen to be here. I’m really honored to be here. This is big stuff for me.
This is a youth conference, and you’re young people. Most of the people here tonight are what John calls, in his epistle, little children in the Lord. That’s not a bad thing; that’s a good thing, because everybody begins as a little child in the Lord.
Not all little children are the same. Some are in their mother’s arms; some are in a playpen, able to pull up and look over the bars. Others are toddling around. Other little children are in preschool; others are in first grade; some are in fourth grade; some have just left sixth grade. Little children are in different stages, but they are all little children.
No one looks at a twelve-year-old and says, “Now here’s some mature person.” They’re not supposed to be. We are little children, for the most part, in this room, in the Lord.
But the Lord’s desire and plan is for this people here tonight to transition: to become those who are moving from the place of being little children into the place of being young men.
Now, when I say “young men,” sisters, it’s not a gender thing; it’s a maturity thing. So this is brothers and sisters, all of us, going from being little children into young men.
The Lord wants to do this. He intends to do it. He is knocking on the door of your heart. If you hear Him knocking, and you get up and answer that door and open up and let Him in, He will sup with you, and you with Him, in wonderful fellowship.
No one will come into young manhood—will become a young man in the Lord—who has not presented his body, his whole being, a living sacrifice to the Lord; who has not done this act of worship, this acceptable, reasonable, rational act of worship.
Now, if it suits you to be forever a little child in the Lord, then by all means, keep yourself for yourself. But if you want to grow and come into the maturity of what the Lord has for you next, then you need to make this commitment.
It is not just a one-time commitment. Everyone needs to make a transaction with the Lord. Kenny and I were talking the other night, and I said, “You know, some years ago, you, Kenny, just made a deal with the Lord: ‘Lord, I’m Yours. Lord, I’m all Yours, and all I am is Yours, and all I have is Yours, and all I’ll ever be is Yours. Lord, You call the shots. I don’t want to be the potentate, the ruler of my own life, anymore. Lord, You can have me.’”
Now, he made that deal, and he has spent his life from that day until this continuing to make that a reality. But it needs to be fundamentally and foundationally made from the beginning. Then, the rest of your life, you will be continuing.
When you wake up one morning and say, “I’m taking my life back,” you’ll go to the Lord and give it back. But there has to be a time when you say, “Lord, not I, but You.”
That’s the one thing. You’re never going to go into young manhood unless you do that. I think you want to. Sonny mentioned that the Lord has been speaking, moving, and drawing, and you want this for yourself.
The other thing is that no one is going to be a young man unless he, having given himself to the Lord, also takes up this matter of warfare. I’m sorry—you have to.
The Lord has a desire that all those who come after Him would present themselves to Him completely, that He would be their sovereign in everything, and also that they would learn warfare, which is intercession.
This is what the Lord is going to do in your lives in days and years to come. But there needs to be this foundational transaction.
Everyone in this room, just about, has issues. You can’t help but have issues. When you say, “Everything,” you may come to the Lord with a big table and say, “Lord, I’m putting all this stuff on the table. It’s all on the table, but there are a couple of things that just don’t need to go on the table right now.” This is not uncommon. You’re a human being.
But you have to understand that God is a good God. The path that He has desired for you to walk on cannot be improved upon. I know you have dreams and schemes and desires and things that you would like to do and accomplish and be. I promise you, if you give yourself completely to Him, and whatever He says goes, when you get to the end of your life, if you got a raw deal, come and I’ll pay you a million dollars.
You’ll probably have to find me in glory, because I’ll probably be gone before you will. But I’m telling you, this is the truth: the Lord desires you to transition from being a little child into being a young man.
The proper Christian life, the normal Christian life, does not have worship as a component of it. The Christian life is worship. True worship is a life laid down.
I love my wife. We’ve been married for about thirty-five years, and I think I love her now more than I did when we first got married. I loved her a lot then, but I love her more now.
But I know myself a little bit, and I know that there is a possibility of this occurring. I tell you I love my wife, and the Lord says, “Husbands, love your wives, and lay down your life for her.” This is a real commitment.
Maybe my wife says, “Oh, John, can you come and help me hang this picture?” And I say, “Honey, I’d love to help you, but I’m watching the news right now. You know it’s important. I like to stay abreast of things. Love you. I love you, I love you, I love you.”
Then a little later she says, “Oh, John, I need something at the store. Can you just run over there and get me something?” And I say, “Oh honey, you know the game’s on. It’s in the last quarter. But boy, I love you. Do I love you! I can’t wait till it’s your birthday. I’m going to get you something special. I love you so much.”
This people honoreth Me with their lips;
But their heart is far from Me.
But in vain do they worship Me.
I love our songs, and we have to keep singing them and get more of them. Some of the songs you sing that we don’t sing, I’m hoping we will steal everything we can, bring it back, and enrich ourselves with these songs. Some of them say such wonderful things.
But I worry more and more as older I get. I don’t want to be a liar. I don’t want to be singing one thing tonight with you and be somebody else. I really want my life to line up with what I’m singing, so that I’ll be worshiping the Lord in spirit and in truth.
Turn to Revelation 4. Why should you make this transaction? I can’t talk you into doing this. This is the Holy Spirit’s work. But let me give you two reasons why you should do this, and do it now—not waffle, but make a decision.
Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God, the Almighty,
Who was and Who is and Who is to come.
Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God,
To receive the glory and the honor and the power:
For Thou didst create all things,
And because of Thy will they were, and were created.
—Revelation 4:8-11
You, at least, any created thing, ought to give yourself to Him as being worthy to own you because you are an existent being, because He created you. As Creator, He has the right to everything.
He made you. “Lord, I exist, and I breathe, and sometimes I think, and Lord, it’s at Your good pleasure.” For that reason, He is enough. He is the Creator. Here I am, something I did not make myself.
Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
—Psalm 95:6
He made us. As Creator, He is worthy.
The twenty-four elders each have a crown, speaking of authority. But in the presence of Him—no way. They throw those crowns at His feet. “Lord, You are the King. Lord, You are worthy of everything.”
The first reason is that He created you. How dare you hold something from Him? You should give yourself to the Lord because He created you.
But look in Revelation 5. This is that same scene before the throne. The cry went out: “Who is worthy to open the book and break its seals?” They looked in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and they could find nobody worthy. John began to weep.
Someone said, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion that is of the tribe of Judah hath overcome, and He is worthy to open the book.” Then John looked, and it was a Lamb.
Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to open the seals thereof:
For Thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with Thy blood
Men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation,
And madest them to be unto our God a kingdom and priests;
And they reign upon the earth.
—Revelation 5:9-10
This Creator, who created you and gave you life and breath and existence on the earth, not only did that, but when you were fallen and helpless and without hope, He emptied Himself of all His regalia and equality with the Father. He became a man and partook of the creation perfectly on your behalf, so that He could qualify as One to die for you and for me.
You should give Him yourself not only because He created you, but because He bought you. Not only did He create you—He owned you even then—but after He created you, He came and bought you with a price that cost Him everything.
What would you hold back from Him? What fond dream or scheme or thing? “Oh no, I’d better not do this; the Lord might— I’m going to have this. I’ve already set out a course for my life.”
That course, compared to reigning with Him forever? No one who does not come into young manhood is going to reign with Christ. If you demand to stay a little child, you can. The Lord will not force you to give yourself to Him. But how He longs for it.
Thou that dwellest in the gardens,
The companions hearken for thy voice:
Cause me to hear it.
—Song of Solomon 8:13
Pursue Him. He is longing for you to say, “Lord, we need to have a talk. Come into this quiet place. How can I, in the light of You being my Creator and my Redeemer and my Lover—the One who came to seek and to save that which was lost, lost me by name—how can I withhold anything from You?”
He withheld not even His Son from us. Would you withhold yourself from Him? Oh, that you would give Him yourself just to be His house slave. Yet if you do that, in the end He will say, “Come up here and sit with Me on My throne. Reign with Me forever in My kingdom.”
As soon as you say, “Lord, You’re my Master,” and give Him yourself, He says, “Friend, friend.”
When Abraham took that long trek with his son and said, “You stay here with the lad, and I and the lad will go yonder; and we will worship,” he was going to sacrifice the most precious thing he had, that he would ever have.
After that, he gained the title: the friend of God.
Moses came close. The Bible says God spoke to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend. But Abraham, in the Scripture, is called the friend of God.
Ye are My friends, if ye do the things which I command you.
—John 15:14
I was talking to a young man one time, just a little child in the Lord, and I said that. He said, “I thought the Lord is always our friend.” I said, “Oh no, dear friend. He is always our Friend. He is talking about you being His friend.”
Oh, He wants intimacy with you. But He is a great, awesome God, and He demands everything. Once you give Him that, we have no idea of the intimacy that we can enjoy with this One who seems to be unknowable.
What is the alternative? Turn to 2 Thessalonians 2.
You remember last time we spoke, I took you to Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. We looked at those Scriptures that tell us who the devil is, where he came from, how he got to be who he is, what his nature is, and what he infected fallen man with.
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.
—Isaiah 14:14
This is what we are as fallen people. Ultimately, let me tell you where civilization is shortly going.
Let no man beguile you in any wise: for it will not be, except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition,
He that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God.
—2 Thessalonians 2:3-4
What will happen in that day when this antichrist comes, takes his place, takes authority, and begins to demand that every created being, especially humans, worship him?
The devil came to the Lord Jesus and said, “All the kingdoms of this world—this is my domain. It has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I will. I’ll give it to You if You will fall down and worship me.”
How this one desires worship. “I will exalt myself. I will ascend. I will be like the Most High.” What he told Eve was, “You certainly shall not die. You will be like God.”
We have been in this fix ever since, until our Redeemer came and found us and sought us. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. Without requiring anything of you, He saved you.
You cried out, “Save me, Lord.” As simple as Peter when he was going down after walking on the water: “Lord, save me.” The Lord reached out, grabbed him, and pulled him into the boat. Just that prayer: “Lord Jesus, save me.”
He saved you, and He did not say, “Well, I will if I’ve got a little list here—My qualifications.” No, He did not do that. He just did it. It was free, the free gift of God.
We talked the other night about the ten lepers. They cried out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” He said, “Go and show yourselves unto the priests.” While they were going, they were cleansed.
One of them—one out of ten—turned around and came back, praising the Lord with a loud voice. He fell at His feet and worshiped Him. The Lord said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?”
Unless you are one of the other nine—unless you take this salvation, this Redeemer, this Savior, who gave Himself and paid His own precious blood for your redemption, saved you from hell, and say, “Thank You very much. Now, if it’s okay, I’d like to get on with my life. I’ll check in with You on Sundays and Wednesdays”—the only rational thing is what Paul says.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.
—Romans 12:1
Make this transaction. A living sacrifice. It is reasonable, and it is acceptable.
The Lord overcame the devil, not only on the Mount of Temptation, but in every place. Even when the enemy tried to come through His disciples, He said, “Get thee behind Me, Satan.” When James and John wanted to call down fire upon the Samaritan village, He said, “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.”
Every day, every way, every moment, He was abiding in His Father, obeying His Father, and being ruled under His Father’s authority.
So this transaction that I am asking you to make, and this warfare that I am asking you to take up, is not something you have to invent. It is something already created by the Lord Jesus in His life on earth.
He has overcome the enemy, overcome everything, ascended, been enthroned and glorified, and given this Spirit to you. As Sonny said, not only do you have this Spirit, but you have the faith of the Son of God.
It is not as though you have nothing to work with. You have been washed in the blood. You have this Spirit. You have a death the Lord accomplished on Calvary, where you were crucified with Him.
Anything in you that rises up and says, “I can’t do it. I won’t do it,” you can say, “You’re dead, and my life is hidden with Christ in God. I’m going to do the rational and acceptable thing.”
In the fullness of time, He took you by His Spirit and baptized you into Christ. It is not just words: we are in Him.
Jesus Christ is our Lord Jesus, who overcame as our Savior, who went to the cross. But now He is not as He was. He has been glorified, and everyone who has believed in Him over these centuries has been baptized into Him.
The new man: the Head, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God the Son, and all those who belong to Him—His body.
The Lord overcame the devil and defeated him. So people say, “Well, if that’s the case, why is he still in business?”
The whole world lies in the power of the evil one, and the devil deceives the whole world. Why, if the Lord overcame him, did He not vanquish him?
The reason is because the Lord was never interested only in seeking and saving that which was lost. That was the first step. The Father is interested in something else: seeking those who worship Him in spirit and truth.
This second group, those who worship Him in spirit and truth, comes out of the first group, all those who have been saved. But to worship in spirit and truth, you have to make this transaction. Otherwise, you are saying one thing on Sunday and living another thing on Tuesday. There is no reality, no truth to this.
The Lord was interested not merely in bringing many children to glory, but in bringing many sons to glory.
For it became Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
—Hebrews 2:10
Now, that is not males again. This has to do with maturity: not babes, not children, but grown-up sons. Sonship.
These are people who have made this transaction, given themselves to the Lord, taken up warfare and intercession for His kingdom, and whose life is typified by, “Lord, Your will be done.”
Not, “Lord, Your will be done” through gritted teeth, but, “Oh Lord, Your lovely will. Lord, Your perfect will. What could be better than the will of God?” The will of God is perfect. There is nothing to be discussed about.
For whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
—Romans 8:29
Mature brethren, many sons to glory—this is the Lord’s desire. He has a way for us to be matured, tempered, and tested.
The Lord gave the earth to man. Everything He does on the earth, He does through the prayers of His people.
The Head is in the heavens, but the feet are on the earth. We may not be much, but we are at least the feet, and we are on the earth now. We are the part of the Lord’s body on the earth at the present time.
A whole host of witnesses has gone before us, run the race, kept the faith, fought the good fight, endured, and entered their rest. But we are on the earth now, and it is our turn.
The Lord is looking for those to whom He can begin to reveal His will and His mind, so that we can stand on the earth and say, “In the name of Jesus.” It will not be taking His name in vain because we have the mind of the Lord Jesus.
You remember the story of Moses on the mountain and Joshua and the troops in the valley fighting Amalek. Moses lifted his hands to the Lord, and Israel prevailed. When his hands grew heavy, Amalek prevailed. Aaron and Hur came and held up his hands, and corporately Israel prevailed.
The Lord gives His mind and His will. To whom is He going to give this mind? To little children who say, “Lord, there are certain things I’m reserving for myself, but You’ll understand”? These are not trustworthy people.
The Lord says, “You are My friends, if you do what I command you.” He shares His intimate thoughts with His friends who have given themselves to Him completely. He says, even before the day when we go to glory, “Rule with Me. Reign with Me.”
I’ll tell you a little story. About twenty-five years ago, we were gathering in Memphis. We had Sunday gatherings, Bible studies, brothers’ meetings, lots of fellowship, but we did not have a prayer meeting. We did not have a time set apart only for prayer.
Some of us got a burden that we should have such a time. We said, “The saints should come together on a certain night and pray.” Everybody agreed. So we fixed a place and a time.
I remember that first night. We were in a big group at that time, and there were a lot of saints there. I think we were prayed out in about five minutes. Then we were waiting.
It is a good thing to wait on the Lord, but waiting is often difficult. When you are waiting, your mind begins to wander. Five minutes seems like half an hour, and half an hour seems like two hours.
The first prayer meeting was not a great success. We said wonderful things to the Lord: “Now Lord, we want to pray Your prayers.” Then we waited. Maybe we had one little burden, but most of it was silence.
We came back the next week. It was a little smaller group. The following week, there were a few less people there, because it was not fun. It was weary.
When it got down to about five people, a lot of people said, “Obviously, the Lord isn’t with this. Why should we do something that is not prevailing?”
But the Lord had really given us a burden. One of those who had a burden said, “Let us just continue to be here and drink mugs full of Sahara sand on Wednesday night, and have a dry time that wasn’t fun or seemingly glorious.”
Why was that our experience? Do you think when some people came and said, “Lord, we are making a commitment to You. We are going to get together and pray. Lord, we want You to teach us to pray, and we want You to meld us together so that we can pray as one man,” that the Lord simply said, “Whoopee! Finally, some people seek My face. Give them a double portion”?
It did not happen that way. Quite often, when you make a commitment to the Lord and want something that He really wants, He does not make it easy to get it. He will even test your heart.
If you make this transaction with the Lord, you may think, “Oh man, now the Lord is going to really bless my life.” No, it may be uphill to school both ways, uphill to school and uphill home. In other words, it may be more difficult. The enemy will test what you have done.
Remember, I said that as a Christian, you are at the epicenter, at ground zero, in the battle of the ages. This battle is all about who will be worshiped.
The devil cannot do anything about the firstborn Son getting the victory, because He already has it. But the devil knows that the Lord wants to bring many sons to glory. What better way than to keep these little children little children? Whatever you do, do not let them grow up. Deceive them. Distract them. Keep them occupied. Be heavy on them—whatever.
Sometimes the Lord puts a hedge around us, like when Satan said to the Lord about Job, “Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not Thou made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath?” Satan said, “Let me get through that hedge, and I’ll show You that a man will curse You to Your face.”
Job went through all this, and he did not even know why he was going through it. He did not know what we know about the conversation that was held when the sons of God came and Satan was among them.
This warfare began, and Satan did all that he could to cause this man to lose his integrity. By the grace of God, he held on. Sometimes this warfare is like that.
If you want to consider yourself excused from warfare, I will tell you a way to certain failure in the Christian life.
And it came to pass, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab.
—2 Samuel 11:1
The greatest king of them all said, in effect, “Consider me excused from the warfare. I have come pretty far. I’ll take my rest.” The greatest disaster of David’s life befell him when he excused himself from that which kings do—their vocation.
There is another way to bring certain failure to a Christian life: “My Lord is going to be a long time in coming.”
Paul said at the end of his life:
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith:
Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give to me at that day; and not to me only, but also to all them that have loved His appearing.
—2 Timothy 4:7-8
Do you know what you do when you love His appearing? You yearn for it. You look for it. You hope for it. You pray for it. And you listen.
The Lord said in Luke 12, “Be like men whose master has gone away to a wedding feast, and he is going to come back. You do not know when he is coming.” Be dressed in readiness, girded about, dressed for action, with your lamps lit, waiting.
One purpose is to go down and open to your Master as soon as He comes. You might say, “Doesn’t He have a key to His own house?” No. It is part of their job to open up for Him.
The Lord said to Peter, “I am giving you the keys of the kingdom.” Later Peter said, “Looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God.” This is prayer. This is intercession, saints.
Little children are not worried about that. They have not given the Lord their whole being. They have all sorts of irons in all sorts of fires, and they are just glad to be saved. But one out of ten—or whatever number the Lord knows—will turn back and come to His feet.
Somehow, by His grace and mercy, they will find a way to live a life at His feet. Such as these will come to the throne with Him one day.
The warfare, the testing, the trying—it is not necessarily joyful. But James says:
Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into manifold temptations;
Knowing that the proving of your faith worketh patience.
—James 1:2-3
Trials will come. Tests will come. You know why? Because the Lord is not One who says, “These are My sons, and since I’m omniscient, I know that if they were ever tested, they would come through with flying colors. I’ll just put them in a capsule where nobody can get to them.” That is no glory for the Lord.
We live in creation. We are beings of time and place, and in time and place we will be tested to show forth that which He has accomplished in us.
I am not an ascetic, and I hope I am not asking any of you to be ascetics. I do not think you should get rid of anything that you do not intend to replace with Jesus Christ—jettison anything in your life that you are not interested in replacing with more of Christ.
This whole matter of warfare is an interesting thing. Look at Judges 3.
Now these are the nations which the Lord left, to prove Israel by them, even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan;
Only that the generations of the children of Israel might know, to teach them war, at the least such as before knew nothing thereof.
—Judges 3:1-2
And they were left, to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken unto the commandments of the Lord, which He commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.
—Judges 3:4
On the one hand, through their own behavior, they did not expel all the peoples from the land. But also the Lord had purpose in it, because He wanted the people, through their generations, to learn warfare.
You cannot become a young man unless you learn warfare. You have to present your body as a living sacrifice to the Lord, live there on the altar, and learn warfare.
Turn to 1 John 2.
I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.
I write unto you, fathers, because ye know Him who is from the beginning.
I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the evil one.
—1 John 2:12-13
I have written unto you, little children, because ye know the Father.
I have written unto you, fathers, because ye know Him who is from the beginning.
I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the evil one.
—1 John 2:13-14
The little children have a precious and blessed place in the house. They know now that they have a Father who loves them, and that their sins have been washed away and forgiven.
Children are precious, lovable, adorable—but they are for growing up. Nothing is more detestable than a thirty-year-old child, someone who has never developed and is now thirty years old and still a child.
The Lord is calling you, drawing you, into young manhood.
“I am writing to you, young men, because the word of God is strong in you. You have overcome the evil one.” This does not happen in a day. This is a transition, a process, but it has to begin.
It begins with an initial giving of yourself completely to Him. Then He will teach you warfare. It is not exactly that you are out in a field someplace by yourself. You have brothers and sisters, and older brothers and sisters, who have taken up this warfare.
When you give yourself completely to the Lord, and the thing most precious to you is, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done,” suddenly the prayer meeting becomes a real happening place.
By the way, our prayer meetings went from five people to the Lord beginning to pour out blessing, more blessing, and teaching us how to pray. My friend in Memphis said, “We don’t pray real good, but we pray a lot.” He said, “It doesn’t matter, because the Lord hears us.”
The Lord visited us twenty-five years ago, and we are still learning how to pray. Quite often we come to Him and say, “Now Lord, here we are. Will You teach us to pray tonight?” We are serious. It is not just words.
We are learners. We are all disciples—learners from the Lord Jesus. By His grace, He will bring us into this.
When John says, “I write unto you, fathers, because ye know Him who is from the beginning,” he is speaking of the Lord Jesus, who has been from the beginning. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
There is an intimacy between friends—between the Lord Jesus and those who say, “Lord, I will obey You.” He says, “You are My friends if you do what I tell you to do.” There is an intimacy that little children just do not know.
Before you become a father, you have to become a young man. It is time for growing up.
Turn to Hebrews 12. I want to fix something in your mind: a correlation. Think of Hebrews 12:28 and Romans 12:1 together.
Romans 12:1 says, “I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to offer your body a living sacrifice to God, holy, acceptable, which is your reasonable, rational, spiritual service or worship.”
Hebrews says:
Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace, whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God, with reverence and awe:
For our God is a consuming fire.
—Hebrews 12:28-29
This is the kingdom our Lord has won for us, and He is allowing us to have some little part to do with its bringing in.
About fifteen years ago, maybe more, a few of us in Memphis had a burden concerning Islam.
Islam is a religion that began in the 600s, maybe 622 or so. It took a whole portion of the world. We are all familiar with it today, especially since 9/11. A whole portion of the world is almost under lock and key through Islam.
There are places where the gospel is not allowed to go. If you go to Saudi Arabia and they catch you preaching the gospel or trying to proselytize a Muslim, you may be put to death.
For almost fourteen hundred years, this entity has existed. It is a counterfeit. In its so-called holy book, there are parts that are drawn from the Bible and references to things that are true. But it says, “There is no god but God, and Muhammad is his prophet.”
We say there is no God but the living God, and the Lord Jesus is His Son. Someone says, “Oh, they pray to the same God, just a different thing.” No, they do not, because they define him. They say, “Muhammad is his prophet.”
Some fifteen or more years ago, some of us had a burden to begin praying. It was actually a double burden. We meet every Thursday morning at six o’clock at my house.
We pray for the salvation of Israel and her protection until the Lord brings that about. We pray for the fall of this mighty entity called Islam, and for the release of the captives of Islam into the glorious salvation of the living God.
I have shared that with a few people before, and people look at you like, “Yeah, right.” Well, excuse me—I have to go to prayer meeting.
This religion, Islam, is not something that just accidentally happened. It was founded and is maintained by spiritual forces of darkness, who rule over it, keep its captives captive, and in their arrogance and pride feel that they are unassailable.
Saints, it had a beginning. It will have an end. There is no reason why a billion people in the world should not be released to the glorious gospel. Generation after generation, one after another, has been lost, living and dying in darkness and deception.
Apparently, there are about six of us who gather. Others among us have this burden but cannot always be there. That is fine. We do lots of things at different times. You have to pick your places.
Oh, that you would stand with us, and that we would stand with you in the same thing. I am telling you, those powers and principalities one day—probably one day soon—will come down.
“You guys must be real prayer warriors.” No. We serve this very great God. In the fullness of time, He will answer our little prayers. He will do it.
It had a beginning. It will have an end. In a window of time, multitudes of Islamic people who are in deception will come to the Lord.
We pray, “Lord, prepare workers. Lord, prepare the ones who are being saved there now. Lord, send more people into that area. Lord, get ready.”
We call upon the Lord to pull those powers and principalities out. We ask the Lord to smash those holy places—Mecca and Medina.
There is a place on the Temple Mount called the Dome of the Rock. If you look up, it says around the top of it three times, “God is not a father, and He has no son.” What kind of blasphemy is that to exist where the Lord said He would cause His name to dwell, the place where He put His testimony?
There are lots of burdens I do not have. I have not been praying a lot for China or Ukraine, but somebody has been. The Lord has His people here and there. I am a little guy; I can handle just a few things because I am growing up and I cannot see and walk.
But as we come into this warfare, the Lord is going to give you burdens, give assemblies burdens, and give other people burdens. People are going to take up that burden and come to the Lord again and again and again, continually interceding for His will.
Do not get tired or dissuaded because it has not been done yet. It will be in the fullness of time. He will answer those prayers.
In that day, it is not like we are all going to wear badges: “I prayed Islam down.” It is basically giving all the glory to Him and being amazed that we had some little part that He gave us.
There is warfare to be done out there for the will of God—not merely something we think ought to be the will of God. We must learn to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches, learn to be praying people and interceding people.
This is what young men do: the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. Oh, that one day perhaps we would even become fathers.
He is worthy. The Lord is worthy.
For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.
—2 Chronicles 16:9
The Lord is yet seeking. Remember, He came seeking to save that which was lost. Such a people the Father seeks to be His worshipers—those who worship in spirit and truth.
Whose heart is completely His? I am not going to stand up here and claim that for myself. But this one thing I do, and you ought to do: forgetting everything that lies behind, every failure I have had, and reaching forward to that which lies ahead.
There are two ways that you can increase your love for the Lord, according to the Bible.
The Lord said concerning the woman who came to Him that the one who has been forgiven much loves much. A lot of you young people have lived pretty upstanding lives and do not have a tale to tell about tattoo parlors, nights on the street, cocaine, heroin, and all of that.
You do not have to have done all that stuff to be forgiven much. You know what you have to do to be forgiven much? You just have to be a son of Adam.
I will make myself like the Most High.
That is in you, and you have been forgiven that. You have been cleansed of that. Whatever was the potential that Adolf Hitler was, was in you. But God had mercy upon you and rescued you. You have been forgiven so much.
If you go to the Lord and say, “Lord, will You increase my understanding of all that I have been forgiven?” and begin to search through the Scriptures, He will begin to show it to you. Then you will love Him.
“Oh Lord, You have forgiven me of this. Lord, You have forgiven me of this. Oh Lord, I did not even know I was this way, and You have forgiven me of that.” He who has been forgiven much loves much.
The other way is this:
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
—Matthew 6:24
You may say, “How about if I hold to one and despise the other? I’ll serve both of them, and I’ll love the Lord and despise the world.” No, it never works. It never goes that way. If you try to serve two masters, it will be the Lord that you end up despising.
This brings us back to giving yourself to Him completely. If you do, you will find your love for the Lord Jesus increasing.
If you say, “Lord, I am turning my back on the world—all its baubles, all its enticements, all the things it says I could have been,” people will say, “Why this waste? Look at this life. You could have been somebody.”
“I’m sorry. I am a member of another kingdom.”
Why this waste? In that day, when we all stand before the Lord Jesus, the whole creation will know the answer to that question: “Why this waste?”
Finally, I would like to ask you what I asked you at the very beginning yesterday: What do you seek?
Maybe you know a little bit more now what is really in your heart, what the Lord is drawing you to, and what you seek.
It has got to be Him: the person of the Lord Jesus, the One who loves you to the uttermost, who gave His life for you, and who would be so pleased and delighted if you said, “Lord, I want my actions, my life, to match these wonderful songs that we sing.”
“I’m Yours. Take me, Lord. Your will is my will; Your people, my people.”
Amen.
If anybody wants to pray anything, we should pray it.