I wonder if you have thought about what it means when Peter says that you are a chosen generation. That has with it, on the one hand, tremendous blessing and, on the other hand, tremendous opportunity. A chosen generation.
I have a burden. I do not know if I can quite convey it tonight, but I am going to try as I share. There is a groundswell, it seems, by the Spirit—not by myself, I hope. I believe that the Lord is burdening His body, His saints, and this generation that you are, particularly in regard to witness.
This would indicate that there is, on the horizon, a time of harvest. It also means that there is need for those who go to the Lord of the harvest and pray for His harvest to happen.
The Lord finds a unique people who are able to express Him in an original way, and that is what gathers a generation. You have heard Jim share, and I have shared: we both, in one sense, came out of what happened in the 1960s and 1970s, when the Lord came down and spoke to many young people—high-school and college-age, especially college-age—about the reality of Jesus.
There was a climate in the atmosphere of churchianity which was largely ignored by young people. But when the gospel of Jesus was placed in this new outpouring of love, there was a tremendous ingathering. The effects of that ingathering are still being seen even to this day.
Now the Lord is, I think, on the verge of another such move, where your generation of young people will be won and harvested. But the problem is always this: although the church goes on in continuity—that is to say, the old and the young are together in fellowship, and the young learn from the old—there is a method of evangelism and witness that can only be discovered by you.
The methods used in the 1930s, the 1940s, the 1950s, or the 1970s all held certain things in common, but they were actually unique in their own way. If the Lord is to do a work in your generation, there has to be a unique relating of that gospel—not a worldly gospel.
In the days of the Jesus movement, which Jim has been mentioning and I have mentioned at times, the gospel was pure and strong. It was not particularly adulterated or watered down. It may not have been fully understood, but it was the real gospel, and the effect was quite amazing.
You know the real gospel. But to be that generation that really broadcasts that gospel, for some of you it means, as one example, that your young people’s church or group has to die as a Chinese organization. It has to be Christian.
The ingathering that the Lord may be about to do is going to be so much wider than that. I am personally convinced that the Lord has indeed immigrated many Chinese who have known the Lord in a deep and rich way to Canada and the United States for such a time as this. They have something to give in the aspect of the gospel.
The songs we have been singing this week—the worship songs up on the board—are not songs that would attract non-Christians. This is not your gospel method. There has to be something original, both in song and in message, in the way and the approach.
It takes some people going to the Lord of the harvest, knocking on the door, and saying, “O Lord, save this generation.” That is where you come in. My trust is that something will arrest you in these days, and that this will be one of the great fruits of them.
We have been talking about very practical things—really, redeeming the time. As Jim warned, we could just come up with a list: “Here is how you redeem the time: this, this, this, this.” But there are spiritual principles behind this matter.
The first principle we considered was that you need to wake up and realize what time it is. Some people, adults and young people alike, still live in some kind of cocoon and think that things are not so bad.
It has always been the last days since Jesus went to heaven and poured out His Spirit. Peter said, “In the last days,” and we know we are in the last days. But it is time for us to wake up and realize what time it is. It is time for us to look at our watch—not merely this watch, but the watch of kingdom time—and see that the Lord wants to gather in your generation afresh.
A person in my generation cannot reach your generation. You reach your generation.
We have this amazing opportunity to redeem the time. Perhaps tonight is an opportunity for you to sense God knocking on your door in regard to all these things.
In the world, we know that we are supposed to seize the day. We know we must work hard in order to gain success. Every scholar who wants to get ahead studies and studies, and some of you are very good at that. You are seizing the day while you are in school by studying well, and there is nothing wrong with that.
Others are athletes who know they must discipline themselves if they are going to win the prize. Their opportunity to win is a matter of discipline. Only one person ends up winning, but a whole bunch of people discipline themselves.
Musicians have to practice and practice and practice and practice. They are not going to be sloppy if they are going to do a good job, excel, and have opportunities for concerts. We understand this in regard to the world.
But Paul says something I would like us to get hold of. He says that, by the grace of God, we need to seize the opportunities in this evil day. Just as you naturally see the opportunity to study or rehearse, if you are a musician, or whatever it is you do in a natural way, did you know that spiritually you also need to lay hold of opportunities?
Paul was an example of one who redeemed the time, and he tells Timothy exactly this in 2 Timothy 2.
Therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
And the things which thou hast heard from me among many witnesses,
the same commit thou to faithful men,
who shall be able to teach others also.
Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
When you look at “be strong” in the Greek, it really says, “Strengthen yourself”; it is in the reflexive tense. Strengthen yourself in the grace. You have grace, but you need to strengthen yourself in it. You have grace, but now you need to exercise grace’s muscles. You need to begin to lay hold of things.
Paul says, “Follow my example.” Suffering hardship takes the grace of God. But you will find that if you are willing to stand as a testimony for the Lord and suffer hardship, the grace of God is there. We have to be strengthened in it.
Timothy, do not be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord, but stand and suffer for the sake of the gospel. Do you understand? When you stand for the gospel, there is a certain amount of suffering, but there is a greater amount of grace for those willing to stand. We need to lay hold of these things.
Then Paul gives examples: suffer hardship as a good soldier. A soldier has to lay hold of a lot of hardship. He has to lie outside sometimes. He does not always have a nice cot, tent, or bed. He has to eat some kind of crummy food sometimes. There is a lot of hardship involved.
But Paul says, “It is yours to take.” You need to take the opportunity if you are going to be a soldier. It is a place in your lap; you need to take it. You need to be a soldier wanting to please the General—Jesus.
You are also as an athlete. If anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules. We need that kind of self-discipline. Studying the Bible involves self-discipline; it does not come automatically. There is grace there for you to do it, but you have to lay hold of that discipline.
In the same way, Paul says the hard-working farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops. “Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding.”
Brothers and sisters, do you understand? Grace is not something passive. Grace is not something you receive alone. Grace is an enablement in your life to lay hold of the opportunities for godliness that present themselves, even in this evil day.
Last time, we said in a very general way that even when we are saved—even when you are saved at a young age—some things have been lost. Some things the enemy has robbed from us, such as the image of God and living for God’s purpose. These things have been lost and now have to be brought back.
Part of redeeming the time is this remedial buying back, by the power of the redemption of Christ, of the things that were stolen. Our minds, souls, and bodies were stolen as slaves of sin. Our created purpose as chosen and holy sons was robbed by Satan way back in the garden.
We lost our right, as it were, to be sons. Now that we are redeemed and should be sons, we have to be recovered in holiness according to this purpose. Our selfishness and alienation from others prevented us from being a kingdom of priests.
The biggest problem in the church is that people cannot get along with one another because of sinful alienation and selfishness. That has to be recovered. We are a kingdom of priests in position, and God will redeem us into the reality of that.
We could not be God’s people and His possession because of our ungodliness. How the Father wants sons for His Son! But our ungodliness prevents that.
We have no idea how intimate the Lord wants to be with us. We are so fragmented and so self-condemned. We have no idea how much He loves us, but He is going to recover these things. These things are recovered by redemption—the finished work in Christ Jesus.
All these things that we preach about in the gospel are true. We have been restored from ruin by His precious blood. He has brought us back from sin and slavery. He has shown the light of Jesus into our minds and hearts and renewed our understanding. He delivered us from sin. He gave us new life and a new purpose. He made us holy and righteous. All these things come as a result of His redemption.
No doubt God has done His perfect work. Here is the question: now, by grace, we need to lay hold of every opportunity we have to live and serve in His presence. This is a process we now need to lay hold of.
Take these opportunities. I am so glad that you came this week. I know for some of you it is tough. You are probably going right home and immediately going to school. Other things await your return. But you came here. God bless you for coming. You laid hold of this time, and I pray it will be profitable for you.
This is not a time of great outward exercise, but a time for inward reflection upon what the Lord is trying to do in our lives.
Where do we start seizing opportunities? We talked about the three daily avenues where we have opportunities all the time.
The first is assembly life, where we fellowship with one another, serve, and worship together. These are opportunities. Thank God for those of you who take the opportunity to pray, ask for a song, and be part of what is going on. Some of you, I am sure, are teaching little children in Sunday gatherings and doing all kinds of things. This is a very important exercise that goes on in our lives.
In Queens, where I live and fellowship, we have a prayer meeting on Tuesday night. Many times, there are more English-speaking young people there than adults. We have the Chinese-speaking group over here and the English-speaking group over here, and sometimes there are more young people than adults. That is a great thing.
On Tuesday night, fifty or sixty people come, and it is great to see those young people right in there, learning how to pray kingdom prayers. It is a wonderful exercise.
We also have opportunities to serve brothers and sisters—many opportunities. We need to take hold of those. We need to care for one another. Even this week, even in these days, I hope you are caring for one another. Do not just leave things alone; share with one another your own experience in life.
We also need to see the opportunity to witness to outsiders. This is what Colossians 4:5 says:
Walk in wisdom toward them that are without,
redeeming the time.
Then Paul goes on to say how we need to share the gospel with salt and seasoning. It is a very interesting, practical understanding of what it means to share with the outsider. But we need to seize those opportunities.
You are in the time right now to take those opportunities—while you are in school, while you are meeting so many people.
Why have we not done these things? Because the buying-back power comes to us as we take up our cross daily. There is an interesting interplay between the cross and the Holy Spirit.
When I was first a Christian, I did not even know what this work of the cross was. I knew Jesus died on the cross, but I had no idea of the work of the cross, what it meant for the reduction of self, and all of this kind of thing. But I found out about the Holy Spirit early.
When I was saved, some people started praying for me. They said, “Hey, you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.” I said, “Oh yeah, sounds cool.” I went to one of those meetings where they were all praying, and they prayed for me to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
I did not really sense too much because I was a little too self-conscious, I guess. But after that evening meeting, I determined that I was going to find out what it meant to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I had only been a Christian about six months at that time.
I got alone and started seeking God, reading the Scriptures and a couple of books on the matter. I suppose I went through a couple of weeks of really searching and seeking.
Now, we talk about the Holy Spirit, and I am always afraid of the songs we sing and the words we say. When somebody is getting ready to speak, we say, “Okay, God, anoint by the Holy Spirit,” and, “God, fill us all with the Holy Spirit.” We are always using these words, but do we really know what we are saying?
Let me put it a little differently: have you ever been shaken by the Holy Spirit? Something very real has shaken you.
This is one way God really touches your life. We see even in the book of Acts that the initial impact of the Christian life was a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. But the power of the cross is also the buying-back power. As we come and lay ourselves down, and our sense of ineffectiveness, at the cross, we find His life and His power coming through.
How do we seize these opportunities? Do we just start looking for them? We have to be ready for opportunities to come as we take up our cross daily.
We all know this familiar Scripture:
If any man would come after Me,
let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
For whosoever would save his life shall lose it:
and whosoever shall lose his life for My sake,
he shall find it.
Nothing more quickly causes people to be afraid of losing their life than witnessing, because you are on the line. People tend to want to hang on to their appearance of being like everybody else.
Here we are, Christians, living with love for the Lord, studying the Bible, and doing all kinds of things that non-Christians do not do—but we do not like to admit it. That is self-preservation.
Unless we are willing to go to the cross and lay that down, we never really experience the life and grace involved in serving and witness.
When we talk about coming to the cross, I want to mention three things. They all tie together in this matter of being a witness.
The first thing we do is sacrifice ourselves to God every day. Do you do that?
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your spiritual service.
We say, “Lord, here I am. I am presenting myself to You.”
It is amazing what happens when you present yourself to God. The Bible implies in Romans 6 that when you present yourself to something, it takes you and uses you. In your former life, you used to present yourself to unrighteousness, and it enslaved you in sin. But now you present yourself as members of righteousness unto God, and God uses you for the purposes of righteousness.
This whole matter of presenting yourself is not just an empty formality. When you truly present yourself to God, He takes you. He empowers you for that day to live this life of opportunity.
God has prepared opportunities for you, but the question is: are you prepared for them? Imagine God in His wisdom. He has so many plans for you. David says, “Lord, Your thoughts toward me are so many.” He has prepared good works for you to do even today, but were you prepared?
This is where being a living sacrifice is so important. If you are ready, available, and presented to Him, then He can use you.
The second thing is this matter of knowing the Holy Spirit in reality. I always feel I have to be careful what I say because many different Christians have many different views on this. Really, it is not a matter of semantics to me at all, but of truly knowing the Holy Spirit in your experience.
There is a power that He grants us in our lives. This is amazing. It is not necessarily a power that you feel, but it is an enablement that you know.
Many times, I have felt weak and powerless, but I have been given an opportunity and obeyed in that opportunity. I was amazed by the power of God that came through me, even while I felt weak. How is that possible?
We are looking for something that makes us feel strong. But because we know the power of the cross, we know that sometimes we go somewhere and feel very weak, yet we obey God and He comes through in power.
Both daily sacrifice and knowing the Holy Spirit are matters of yielding and obedience. Oh, listen, brothers and sisters. I pray that you would really know the Holy Spirit—know Him in power.
I remember the night when the Holy Spirit came down on me. There I was, six months old as a Christian. I was weeping, crying, and shaken. I really had an experience with the Holy Spirit.
I cannot say that everybody will have the exact same experience, because God works sovereignly in your life. But I am telling you: you know when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. It is not something you just say; it is something you know. It starts to shape your life.
The problem in our day was that we were receiving the Holy Spirit with power, but we did not know the work of the cross. So a lot of things went screwy. Gifts of the Spirit can cause division unless the cross is upon those who have the Holy Spirit.
We did not know that, so we were always getting into trouble over gifts, rivalries, and all kinds of things, just like the church at Corinth. But that does not take away the legitimacy of that power. It is very powerful.
Look at Barnabas in Acts 11:24:
For he was a good man,
and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.
This means he was obedient, and he was full of the Holy Spirit. What a wonderful combination.
The third thing in knowing the cross is that we commit ourselves to be faithful as a testimony—a walking and speaking testimony.
Some people say you need to live your life, but they never say anything about their testimony. Then there are people who speak the testimony, but their lives do not show it. No, the Lord wants us to be a walking and speaking testimony.
Here is Peter’s exhortation: be ready. Before you head out the door to school or work, sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, and be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence.
But sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord:
being ready always to give answer to every man
that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you,
yet with gentleness and fear.
This is not talking about being a Jesus freak and jumping all over people.
When you go among your friends at school, there ought to be something about the hope and joy in your life that makes them ask, “How come you can be so happy? We are going to have a test this morning.”
You can say, “Well, easy. I studied, I committed it to the Lord, and I am just trusting Him to do the best I can.” They see a difference in your life, but you need to speak up. You need to be ready.
When you are all into yourself and worried about the zit under your lip, then somebody asks, “How come you are acting that way?” If you are not ready, you do not share the reason for the hope within you. You just blew an opportunity. You should always be ready to speak up for the Lord.
There is a reason, a hope, a rest, and a peace. In Manhattan, I meet a lot of anxious people. Since September 11, many people have gone squirrely. They are neurotic with fear, anxiety, guilt, and all kinds of things that I do not feel.
Sometimes they want to know, “Hey, what is the story with you and your wife? What are you doing here in Manhattan anyway?” It gives me a great opportunity to share.
I do not beat them over the head like a board-game fisherman because they are going to hell. You do not have to say that. Obviously, something in you is attractive to them, and they want to know what it is. People who are searching and seeking will feel themselves attracted to your testimony. Some people may feel repelled, but that is another story.
We need to be ready as a testimony, and secondly, we need to speak up. What does Paul tell Timothy?
Fight the good fight of the faith,
lay hold on the life eternal,
whereunto thou wast called,
and didst confess the good confession
in the sight of many witnesses.
This whole thing gets down to faith. How do you lay hold of opportunities? You have the obedience of faith. You obey.
Jesus stood before Pontius Pilate, and Pontius Pilate was suddenly insecure because Jesus knew Who He was. He said to Pilate, “I know why I was born, and I know why I came into this world.” He had the testimony of His kingly deportment, and immediately Pontius Pilate could see that this Man was superior to him.
Paul is saying to Timothy, “You need to lay hold of that life that laid hold of you, and make a good confession when people ask you about your life.” You are a child of the King. You are a redeemed son. You are on the road to meeting God. Make a good testimony. Speak up.
Third, in this matter of testimony, you need to let your character and life shine in good works. I think we have really fallen down on this, if I may be honest with you.
Our lives are to be the light of the world, a city set on a hill. Our fellowship group, our young people’s group, needs to be a light to the people around us. There need to be good works that glorify the Father in heaven.
One thing I will share tomorrow morning about what is going on in Russia is that they just help people. They are always helping people, at great cost to themselves. But people see their good works, and they get saved.
They do not live an insular life. They are deeply involved with the community and with helping individuals.
Let me share one more thing about walking and speaking testimony from Psalm 51, this wonderful prayer of David:
Create in me a clean heart, O God;
And renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Thy presence;
And take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation;
And uphold me with a willing spirit.
Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways;
And sinners shall be converted unto Thee.
You cannot be an effective witness with unresolved stuff and without being on the altar.
I have held I do not know how many seminars on witnessing, but I have found this to be a true principle of testimony: the person who is prepared and willing finds opportunities to witness. The person who is not prepared and unwilling, strangely enough, says, “Hmm, that is funny. I never get to talk to any non-Christian about Jesus.”
Why? Because if you are willing to be a testimony for the Lord, He will move you through your day in such a way as to give you opportunities. He knows what He is doing, but He needs a willing witness.
I used to do a radio show with two minutes every morning, Monday through Friday. It was called Winsome Wisdom for the Willing Witness. They were little two-minute episodes on how we should witness. Anyway, that is another story.
All three of these things are ways to take up our cross daily: offer our bodies, be filled with the Spirit, and stand as a testimony. Our lives become fruitful, and time is redeemed in that wonderful way.
Now I want to look at Jacob’s life again. I am sorry that Jim shared about it in the morning, because here it is again. You are going to hear another sharing about Jacob for a while.
Why are we getting to Jacob? We are talking about walking worthy and redeeming the time, and here was a time-waster if you ever met one: Jacob. But there is a reason we want to talk about Jacob. It has to do with redeeming the time.
How do you rate yourself? The complete testimony of God and man is, “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Which one are you? Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob?
Are you Abraham, a man of God who leaves the world, steps out by faith, and does everything by faith? Are you Isaac, brought up by the man of faith? Or are you Jacob—a thieving rascal, a two-timer, schizophrenic, leading a double life, grabbing everything from your brother and sister? You are trouble.
Ah, there is some response. Looks like we might have some Jacobs here.
The problem with Jacob was that his father was prejudiced toward Esau. Even though God said that the older would serve the younger, Isaac wanted to give the blessing to Esau because he simply liked Esau better. It bothered Jacob.
Jacob ran away, fell in love with Rachel, and ended up having to marry Leah. Yet Jacob, who was treated prejudicially by his father, became prejudicial toward his wives. What we know from experience is that Leah was the better mother. Leah brought Judah and the Levites into the world. Leah was much more productive and fruitful. She was the one to be preferred.
But this is the problem with men: they are always looking for something else instead of looking for spiritual qualities. Jacob may have thought Rachel was more beautiful, but after all the children were born and all the years had passed, he should have treated Leah better. He should have loved Leah for who she was, because she was more a woman of God than Rachel ever was.
They both had their features and everything like that, but Jacob carried on the same prejudice that his father had. I thought that was pretty nasty.
The patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—have lessons for us in redeeming the time. Their lives were all called a sojourn. In other words, they had a chronos of time, and it was a lot of time. These men lived a long time.
We see moments and opportunities in their lives. Did they take the opportunities when they came? What changed when they took them? You and I also live in a sojourn. We will move, change jobs, and do all kinds of things. Looking at our lives in the long run, what do we learn about redeeming the time?
Here is the first thing we learn from the patriarchs: when you look at their lives as a whole, it is obvious that the most important thing was the opportunities they had to get to know God as they obeyed.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all had things to do, things to obey, things to do for God, and even jobs to do. But that is not the deal of life. The opportunities provide opportunities for us to get to know God. Through opportunities, we get to know the Lord. That is why it is so important to take them.
Inside every opportunity, there is a lesson, a truth, and a reality of the Lord. I like what our brother Jim said about this matter: in His light we see light. When you are walking in obedience to the light, you are actually in fellowship, getting to know God, the Light.
Do not think opportunities are merely ways in which you get to serve. No, they are opportunities to get to know God.
As Abraham walked through his life, he met God in new ways. He met Him as El Shaddai, as El Elyon, as Jehovah-jireh, and as Jehovah El Olam. He kept meeting new faces of God as he went through his life, and so will you.
You and I know Jesus only a little bit. But as we take opportunities to walk with Him, we come to know Him so much more.
We see three different symbols in the lives of the patriarchs. For Abraham, it was altars. Wherever he went, he built an altar. He put a sacrifice on it and worshiped his God.
He said, “O God, I am here in the land of Canaan. I have no land of my own, but I offer my worship up to You.” What a wonderful testimony. He gave his life as a living sacrifice, really, for the rest of his life. He never had a place; he only had his altar. Yet to God, those altars were so precious.
That is our attitude as we live in this life: we lay our lives on the altar as a living sacrifice before God. It is so precious to God when we do that as we walk through this world.
Isaac’s testimony was of wells. I forget exactly how many wells he dug according to the Genesis account—perhaps ten. He was digging for the Holy Spirit. As Abraham represents a living sacrifice, Isaac represents finding the Holy Spirit: searching for the Holy Spirit, digging deep, and obtaining the water of life.
He had to dig. He had to lay hold of these things and dig down in there.
At first, he dug his father’s wells and got water from them. But, as has been said around here, a person comes to the point of saying, “This is not real to me.”
There is a moment in every person’s life when you can say that. But I think you need to move past it in faith and say, “Wait a minute. God really is real to me. He really is.”
I remember one time of great doubt in my own life. I was doubting everything, and the Lord spoke to me and said, “Okay, what do you believe? Do you believe you got saved?”
I remembered when I got saved. It was a big moment. He said, “Well, start with that, and I will give you more faith from there.” There is a reality in your relationship to God, so do not deny it.
The Lord wants you to dig wells for yourself, not just wallowing around in somebody else’s well. Every time Isaac tried to dig around and found one of Abraham’s wells, the enemy came along, threw dirt in, and said, “No, this is our well. You cannot stay here.” Then he had to go somewhere else, and they said, “No, you cannot get there either.”
Finally, he dug his own well, and it was living water. He could stay there.
Do you know the Holy Spirit yourself—not your ma’s or pa’s Holy Spirit? Do you know the Holy Spirit? Are you digging the well? It is so important in that testimony for you to have the Holy Spirit.
Jacob’s testimony was a pillar. He took a stone—the stone he slept on when God spoke to him—poured oil on it, and made it a pillar. A pillar is a testimony. It stands up.
Jacob’s life became a testimony. When he first met God, he was on the run. He put up that first pillar at Bethel, poured oil on it, and then immediately left for twenty years and got involved in other things. But the Lord brought him back and recovered his testimony.
When you go to Bethel in Israel, it is like a hill of slate rock that looks like a stairway. Some Bible scholars think Jacob was halfway up this sort of step-ladder of slate plateaus. During the night, he had this dream of a ladder that continued above him and went into heaven. Angels were going down and up, and down and up.
The Scriptures say in Genesis 28 that God spoke to him from the top of the ladder:
Behold, I am with thee,
and will keep thee whithersoever thou goest,
and will bring thee again into this land;
for I will not leave thee,
until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.
That was Jacob’s first meeting with God. I would say that is a pretty good deal: “I am with you, I will keep you wherever you go, I will bring you back to this land, and I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you.”
When Jacob woke from his sleep—the first thing that happens to a Christian is, “Wake up, O sleeper; God is here”—he said:
Surely the Lord is in this place;
and I knew it not.
Some of you Christians right here: God is in this place, and you do not even know it. When you wake up, you say, “Wow, He is in this place. I did not even know it.”
Jacob built his pillar and put oil on top of it. He was afraid, but he rose up early in the morning, took the stone that he had put under his head, set it up as a pillar, poured oil on it, and called the name of the place Bethel—the house of God. Previously, the place had been called Luz.
Jacob made a vow. That is part of the whole matter of the pillar: before the oil is poured on it, you make a vow. “I stand right here under the open heaven. I stand for the testimony that God wants to make His house here on this earth and through me.” What a great testimony.
Then Jacob spent twenty years ignoring the testimony. Jacob, what are you doing? Well, he married two wives and two maids and had a bunch of kids. Is that really a waste of time?
What should have been a blessing was not a blessing at all. He stole Isaac’s blessing, but I guess the blessing did not work out because he was not very blessed. He complained about the whole deal.
It is tough when you have competitive wives saying, “Come into my tent,” and, “That is no fair. You give Leah all your attention,” and, “I cannot have any kids.” Jacob went through these marriages and had handmaids on the side. It may sound like an ideal life, men, but it was torture. Believe me, brothers, I speak a word of faith to you: one wife is sufficient. It is more than we can handle. Take my word for it.
Then Jacob decided to go into the sheep business. He had his strange idea about striped sticks and speckled sheep. Jacob never did well in genetics anyway; he did not realize it does not happen that way. But God got a kick out of it.
Jacob ended up with all the spotted and striped sheep, and they ended up being healthier and better than the pure sheep. It was just God’s joke because Jacob was so foolish. God blessed him again, and he got a million sheep.
Of course, he did not enjoy that very much because Laban, his father-in-law, got mad about it. He got into all kinds of trouble with his father-in-law. Laban had cheated and swindled him for twenty years.
Was that a waste of time? What do you think?
I think Jacob was learning some lessons. This was a long sojourn.
To be fair to Jacob, when Abraham went into Hagar and Ishmael was born, God did not speak to Abraham for perhaps thirteen or eighteen years. That was a lot of wasted time too.
Isaac, after he married that wonderful Rebekah, spent twenty years with no children because he left Canaan and lived in the land of the Philistines. He wasted twenty years of his life.
If anybody could be accused of wasting time, it would seem to be God. Why waste time on critters? Why not choose obedient, good people? He has to wait around twenty years for somebody to say, “You know what? I think I should do what God said.”
God had said, “I will meet you at Bethel.” After twenty years, Jacob said, “God told me I should go back.” It only took him twenty years to come up with that.
Was God wasting time? Let me put it this way: is God wasting time with you? How long has He been waiting for you?
If there is anything that proves love, it is long-suffering. God said about Jacob, even when he was Jacob, “I love Jacob. Man, I love Jacob.”
Here was the deal: “Jacob, I know your strong will, so go ahead and do whatever you want. While you are doing it, I am going to be with you. I will bless you. I will take care of you.” That is just love.
Why would God love Jacob? There was another guy living in the same area named Fred. Why did God not go after Fred? Fred was not such a shyster. He was not like Jacob. Why did He choose Jacob?
Jacob wanted the blessing in the worst way ever since he was a kid. He heard his mother and father talking about the blessing of Abraham. He heard the stories of how God had promised the land and everything. Jacob wanted it. Esau did not care at all.
That is why the Bible says God hated Esau. Jacob understood the inheritance, God’s will, and a family for God. Esau said, “Forget that,” and married Hittite women and women from Ishmael’s family. Rebekah and Isaac hated that.
God loved Jacob, but Jacob wanted the blessings with a self-driven life. He could not help it. He stole blessings even when he did not have to steal them.
Sometimes we Christians think we have to steal the blessing because some of you here tonight do not really think God loves you. You think you have been bad.
Do you think Jacob thought God loved him? He was terrified of God. He reckoned maybe God was almost as strong as Jacob. He was terrified of anybody as strong as he was.
Yet God kept His promise: “I will keep you and be with you wherever you go.”
What was God doing in all that wasted time? What is He doing with your life and mine? Why does He invest so much? What is really going on?
We find out after twenty years, when Jacob finally starts coming back. God and Jacob meet again at the Jabbok River. After twenty years of Jacob doing his own thing, they wrestle.
The Jabbok is the boundary of Canaan. God wrestled Jacob and knocked him down so he could not cross the river. Jacob had sent all his family ahead. First he sent Leah and her children, just in case Esau came and killed them. Then, behind more gifts and presents, he sent Rachel and her child.
Jacob was very calculating. He prayed a calculating prayer to God, then started to wade across the river himself. Everybody was already on the other side, and God tackled him and knocked him to the ground.
They started wrestling. It went on all night. They fought and struggled. Jacob had actually been wrestling with God for twenty years, because when somebody lives out of self-confidence, God puts roadblocks in the way. God causes problems. But somebody with as much self-confidence as Jacob had keeps struggling.
The struggle was fierce. It lasted all night. But finally, God lost.
God said, “Let Me go. Let Me go.” Jacob finally said the words God had longed for him to say for twenty years or more:
I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me.
Oh man, God had been waiting for that. He had told Jacob He was going to bless him, but Jacob had said, “Thank You very much. I can bless myself.”
Now Jacob was hanging on to God and would not let Him go. God only had to touch Jacob’s hip, and he went limp and lame. The only thing Jacob could do was hold on with his arms with all his might.
Here was this fifty-year-old man holding on to the leg of the Angel with all his might. He knew it was God. He was hanging on. That was all he had left. He asked God for a blessing, and God said, “Okay, I will give you a blessing.”
How wonderful God’s love is. God is just waiting to become the God of you. Do you know that? He is waiting to become the God of Dana, the God of James, the God of—fill in your name.
He has to wrestle you, and then let you win, just so He can be your God. He said, “Jacob, you are no longer Jacob. You are Israel, a prince, because you have prevailed with God.”
What a joke. God could have twisted Jacob’s head off and walked away. But that is the point: God is not wanting to twist anybody’s head off.
God wants you and me to lay hold of Him. It is the hardest thing to do. God says, “I love you. I died for you. I give you everything you want.” We say, “Fine, thank You very much,” and go do our own thing.
Somehow, He has to get back around to a wrestling match with you so that you can gain Him. He does not have that much to gain by gaining us, but He wants you to gain Him. He wants you to fight Him until you say, “Okay, I give up. I give up. I will take it.”
Oh, God loves so much.
The rest of Jacob’s days were lived under the gate of heaven. His name was changed to Israel. He had to limp the rest of his life; he was dependent upon God. But he saw what God was after.
What did he become? Oh, what a beautiful testimony. Ladies and gentlemen, the grabber finally grabbed the right thing.
Jacob had been trying to grab everything: the blessing, the birthright, the wife, the children, Esau. Then he grabbed the right thing. He grabbed God.
Now, listen. I do not know how to say this any clearer. I would have to shout it or something, and that would scare you because some of you have fallen asleep. Now listen: God wants more Jacobs.
If I see any problem among you young people, who are so precious, it is that I do not know why you are so passive. God loves Jacobs. He wants somebody to lay hold of Him. He wants somebody to wrestle.
As I talked about the Holy Spirit, you can just say, “La, la, la, la, yeah, I have the Holy Spirit. One night I was praying, we were singing some songs, and I felt some chill bumps.”
God wants somebody to say, “I want to lay hold of the Holy Spirit. I want to know what that means. Even if I have a gift, that is not enough. I want to have Him. I want to know Him. I want to wrestle with Him. I want to get hold of Him.”
Oh, God loves that. How many Jacobs can He find here tonight?
If we are all so passive and afraid—“No, God, I know You are powerful. I just want to stay away. Can I be like an Isaac?”—then nothing happens. God loves Jacob. Why? Because he grabbed Him.
God wants us in this generation to grab hold of Him. The most original thing happens when you grab hold of God.
When Jacob grabbed hold of God, God became the God of Jacob as well as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Throughout the Psalms and testimonies of Israel, they often said, “Our God is the God of Jacob”—the God Whom you grab, and Who grabs you.
This is God’s love. This is what God is up to. This is what these opportunities are all about.
By the end of the story, God made everything redemptive: lessons learned, years wasted, having been cheated, his wives, and all those children. They became the twelve tribes of Israel. God knew what He was doing.
God used it all redemptively. He had such a redemptive purpose. We have to wrestle our way through this whole process.
Jacob became the beloved of God. God was happy to say, “I love Jacob.” Here was this man walking along, holding onto his staff and limping. He used to be so strong.
I always wonder why God does not like stronger people—strong people, nice-looking people, healthy-looking people, and everything like that. God has chosen not the best, not the smartest, not the best-looking. God chooses us, and He seems to delight to do it.
Jacob became the beloved of God. Jacob fulfilled his purpose. If you can be a Jacob, I say praise God. If you wrestle with God, I say praise God. If you have warts like Jacob, I say praise God. Because if you wrestle, then you will serve God’s purpose in this generation.
The God of Abraham does not work now. The God of Jacob is the One Who wants to be testified to. He wants that pillar testimony standing up. You are the ones who have to wrestle your way into it.
I am telling you, God cannot do it if you are going to be passive. If you are going to hear messages on witnessing and just go away and be passive about it, it is not going to work.
But if you lay hold of the Lord of the harvest and start to find out what He wants, God can do something amazing. God is looking for Jacobs.
Here is the lesson: if you seize opportunities, God will seize you.
Do you want to be laid hold of by God in a greater and fuller way? Dear brothers and sisters, we sing about how much we love God and how much we want God. Well, here is your opportunity. It is as simple as this: obey. Obey. Take grace. Know the Holy Spirit. Offer your life as a sacrifice.
Every opportunity you take, He takes a little bit more of you.
You and I are involved in body life. We are involved in helping individuals and all of this on a sort of individual plane. But what is God really after?
He wants to raise up some people who can serve a larger purpose. He has a larger plan than merely individuals or a whole quantity of individual Christians doing individual good works. There are larger corporate issues that the Lord is trying to address in these last days of recovery.
But He needs people who have been captured and laid hold of by God. Is that you?
Some of you are very young and may not completely understand what I am talking about. To you I simply say: obey the Lord. Take the opportunities you have.
Not only take the times when you learn about Him, hear the Bible, worship, and sing songs about Him, but serve Him. Again, I challenge you in this matter of witnessing: you learn so much about the Lord.
In the early days when I started to witness, I am thankful that I did not witness alone. I always went with teams. It is always much better when you have other people at your side.
Sometimes we confronted things that were way over our heads. We felt our impotence, and it drove us to the Lord. We would ask, “Lord, fill us with Your Holy Spirit. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit.” That gave us new power.
Then we would go and serve, see our impotence again, and come back asking Him for more. We needed more discernment. We did not know what to do.
I will give you one example. One night in the early days, I was in New York City. There was a brother there, quite a famous evangelist, who was spending the summer doing outdoor gospel work in Manhattan at Times Square.
I went there on a number of occasions and joined them to learn and work with him. I brought another ten or fifteen people. We would get into teams and go around witnessing.
We waited until the Broadway shows got out at about 10:30 at night. Then we had our gospel meeting in what was called Duffy Square, where they now have the ticket booths. We sat down on the ground, played guitar, and started singing songs. People came around from the Broadway theaters asking, “What is going on here?”
One brother stood up to begin speaking. It was not the main brother, but somebody else. About three minutes into his little message—he only spoke about six minutes—a woman stood up and calmed him down.
She spoke with such strength and started opposing everything he was saying. He was not using a microphone or anything, and she was so powerful that it stopped the meeting.
The brother said, “Brothers and sisters, let us just pray.” We were in a circle, and we started praying. That meeting was over, but every ten minutes we did another meeting.
Some brave Christians went over and tried to talk to her, but she was obviously demon-possessed, with infernal wisdom and power. God gives you a wake-up call.
I was curious to hear what she was saying, because I was on the inside. I went around the crowd—there were about a hundred people there—and about fifteen people were gathered around her. They were trying to say, “Do you not know that Jesus died for your sins?” But she was powerful. Oh my, she was a witch.
I went around behind her because I wanted to hear what she was saying. Now, you have to understand, I was twenty-five years old—a young guy. I walked around behind her and listened. She turned around, pointed at me, and said, “What are you doing, man of God?”
I almost hit the ground. She scared the life out of me. I did not know what to do, so all I did was stare at her. She stopped talking, and I walked away.
I got back in my car and went home at about 2:30 in the morning. This was from 10:30 until 2:30. As I was driving home, I was still shaken.
The Lord said to me, “If you are going to witness in this world, if you do not have the power of the Holy Spirit, the world has greater power than you.” That was a wake-up call.
We cannot go out there and witness casually, thinking everything is cool. There is an enemy out there who wants to stop the witness of Jesus, and we need to go in the power of the Holy Spirit.
That experience drew me back to the Lord. I got down on my knees. Two nights later, I went back in, and I was prayed up and ready to go when I returned to the city. You realize your impotence in these things and ask the Lord to give you greater strength and help you.
Before we end this meeting, I want to draw an opportunity out of you. You have been listening, and that is very good, but I wonder where you are at.
Some of you perhaps have never put your life on the altar for the Lord in consecration. Many of you have. But I wonder whether you have stood up to be a testimony and a witness to the outsider. That is my burden.
I want us to pray. I am going to ask some of you to stand up, but I will try to clarify in a minute what is going on. Just sit right there for now. I do not mean for all of you to stand up. Everybody, turn to the Lord now. Look into His face.
Lord, we come to You and give You thanks for every opportunity that we have to seize—to take hold of that eternal life to which we have been called and to respond to You in living and real ways.
I thank You for my dear brethren. Some of them have been coming for years. They know what it is like to place their lives on the altar. They are serious about it. Praise God. They know what it is like to be touched by the Holy Spirit. How wonderful that is.
But Lord, we want to be those who are apprehended by You, wrestled by You, and claimed by You. We need to take these experiences onto a wider plane.
Lord, I pray for those who have been a bit under the bushel in their testimony. Raise up some who are willing to stand on their college campus, in high school, and on their job. In the way that suits You, may they be willing to give a reason for the hope that is within them in a much more open and trusting way.
Lord, gain something for Yourself. We do not want to be those who merely listen and never take an opportunity. I pray that You will gain glory for Yourself even this evening.
First of all, I know there are probably some here who are Christians, but you are walking in the shadows. We have talked about getting into the light. You need to come back to the Lord fully in the light, cast off the works of darkness, be cleansed by His precious blood, and place yourself again on the altar as a living sacrifice.
Opportunities do not come if you are not His available instruments.
If you are one of those people, and you want to get back on the altar, in the light of the Lord, and walk in that light, then I would like you to stand up right now so we can pray for you. Do that so we can help you.
If you are daily there on the altar, I do not want you standing up. I am talking about you who know that you need to do this and get cleared and back up. As young people, we have all kinds of problems with sin that lay us low and trip us up.
Lord, You see the hearts of these people who are standing up here. Many of them love You. They have been raised in the church. They are Christians, but for some reason they feel they have slipped off the altar and are not living sacrifices.
They have gotten into a gray area, or there is something that needs to be cast off. I pray, by Your precious blood, that they can repent, cast off the works of darkness, and really be in the light.
Wake them up, Lord, in the light, that they may be a living sacrifice pleasing to You. May they begin to discover Your will as opportunities come their way.
Maybe it was fear that drove them off. Maybe it was doubt. Maybe it was confusion. Maybe it was their friends. Lord, whatever it is, do a work in their lives as they place their lives back on the altar now.
Lord, take their heart right now—that heart deep within them—and enable them to express their love for You in an unhindered fashion, not condemned by sin, but knowing that You are ready to forgive when we come and confess our sins to You.
Thank You for these dear brothers and sisters. You know their hearts. You know the ones who are sincere. We pray that as a result of this sacrifice, there would be life among them, opportunities seized, and therefore lives seized by You. Take hold of these precious ones, we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Please sit down.
There is one more group we want to claim tonight in doing business with God: those who feel the conviction that their witness needs to take another step.
They need to lay hold of the martyr Lord—the faithful Witness. They need to share, like Timothy, the good confession they have made before brothers and sisters, also in the world.
My dear brother, my dear sister, nothing is more precious than being a witness and even suffering for the Lord—for sharing the reason for the hope that is within you, and for finding opportunity at school, work, or wherever you are to speak up for the Lord.
If you feel you want to get out from under the bushel and stand up, pray that the Holy Spirit would empower you. As the Scriptures say:
Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you:
and ye shall be My witnesses.
As Peter says in Acts 5, God gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey.
If you want to stand up and be a testimony for the Lord in a public way as you go back to your world, and you want the Holy Spirit to empower you in a real witness that can shake your generation, may it be. I want to ask you to stand.
If you stand up right now, you are standing up to be an open witness.
Lord, before everybody here tonight, dear brothers and sisters, as they stand up, we pray again. You know the sincerity of their hearts.
Lord, we all want to be everything for You. But this is more than wanting. This is laying hold of opportunities. This is the obedience of faith. This is the nudging of the Holy Spirit. This is the taking of opportunities.
O Lord, we pray that the gospel would go forth here in Canada and in the United States, in the various assemblies represented here. We know so much. We have been blessed in so many ways. Oh, make us witnesses.
Open our mouths, Lord, when we speak and testify. Fill our mouths with wisdom. Help us really touch the hearts of those people we know around us who need Your help and salvation.
Lord, help us see the times as they really are, and help us be all that You want us to be in conduct toward the outsider. Thank You for my dear brothers and sisters.
O Lord, touch them again by Your Holy Spirit. Give them that boldness to witness. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
You may be seated.
I also want to say thank you for letting me be here again this year, and for the precious lives that you convey, for the worship that you do, and for going through all these seminars and workshops.
You have heard hours and hours of teaching. It is really quite amazing that you are able to do that. I am not sure the adults could take that much. But anyway, I appreciate it, and it is good to be with you again this year.