Obey God and Leave the Consequences to Him - Charles Stanley

a packed house is a testimony to the value of the faithful exposition of Scripture for a lifetime for you who are students don't ever forget don't ever forget the power of the word taught year after year Sunday after Sunday it affected all of our lives who are sitting here today for those who are not here in the youthful expression just tell them that they are this still I learned that from my kids so just say you missed it okay you're out it such a privilege to have dr. Charles Stanley back on our campus we have had him here periodically I still remember one of the spiritual life sessions in which he spent a week with us teaching us about prayer but he's been a a minister at the First Baptist Church of Atlanta for years he's the founder of in touch ministries located in Atlanta Georgia his heart's desire is to get the gospel to as many people as possible as quickly as possible as clearly as possible as irresistible as possible through the power of the Holy Spirit to the glory of God not a bad life mission because of this goal his teachings are transmitted widely and as effectively as possible if you go on his website all of the vehicles and all of the media that he has used you know in contemporary abilities to reach around the world his broadcasts the radio and television broadcasts are seen on more than 2800 stations around the world on the internet and intouch.org comes through in touch messenger lab his inspiring messages are also published in two award-winning publications the intouch devotional and the In Touch magazine and also he's authored just well over sixty books one of the fun things as a president of Dallas seminary in talking with my Southern Baptist friends is dr. Stanley sent both of his kids to Dallas seminary and Andy's wife as a student and now Matt is going to be entering his grandson is going to be entering our program and Rebecca is here today one of my first years of teaching she was a student I came just after Andy left and while Rebecca was still here and so it was a privilege to see her and greet her again today and I apologized to her for those early days when I'm sure I heaped it much more assignments than I should have in those early days dr. Stanley thank you for your ministry over the years thank you for the blessing that you have been to world let's thank you especially for your support of Dallas Theological Seminary by your life by your recommendations there's been scholarship and established in his name for our students here so would you join me in welcoming and honoring dr. Charles Stanley [Applause] [Music] [Applause] well thank you very much I'm delighted to be here and the truth is I graduated in southwestern and I have always encouraged people to come to Dallas well he was able why didn't you go to Dallas I didn't have any money and I could go to southwestern just about nothing and I would drive by once in a while and thank gosh but at least my family is here and I'm very very grateful well I've been a pastor for 68 years I've been in time in that First Baptist for Milt almost 50 I'm 86 I love every minute of it there are alternatives to be gone so what I want to do is to give you a little glimpse of the most basic powerful principle you'll ever learn in ministry did you get that you quote me on it and if you leave here and you don't believe it you can see me at the door and I'll send you to the president I want to read a very familiar passage of scripture from proverbs chapter 3 trust in the Lord with all your heart lean not to your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path and then listen to this do not be wise in your own eyes that'll get you in trouble well the way I learned that principle was I had the Venna pastor in North Carolina the very small village church and then in Ohio and in Miami Florida Bartel Florida and then I came the First Baptist against my will I did not want to come because that meant I was to come as an associate pastor I didn't like the pastor he was still logically away I left fellow of the fence and there was nothing about the church it would attract me to Atlanta Georgia but here's how y'all operates oftentimes sometimes he'll give us a little signal of what he's going to do without telling us what it is and I remember vividly I was up in Virginia preaching a revival and I got really go to bed that night night they couldn't sleep so this being the pray and ask the Lord to speak to my heart and that happened about three nights in a row and then on the next night I got down to pray and I just felt like where's God what is this all about and on this big screen I'm in this little motel room was big screen left and come on up top right-hand corner in big bold black letters September the what I've only been in Bartow less than two years so I knew God I was saying something to me so I thought about a little bit next night our priest came home the next night Monday morning I got and had a telephone call and there was from a friend of mine who was on the puppet committee of the First Baptist Church of Atlanta and he started telling me about how they needed a pastor and so forth and all I said Philip I'm not filled but Felix I'm not I have no interest in that whatsoever so when we hung up I broke out crying for no reason at all just weeping and so six months later after them sending our puppet committee down to see me six times I didn't want to go I didn't like anything about it I was going to be an associate pastor where the pastor I had no respect for whatsoever but I knew God told me to go so I learned a lot in that process of how God works and how he operates and so finally the Lord straightened out my heart about it all and I went I was so popular they gave me an office with a desk but never gave me the keys to open the door I'd been there a few months and so seven men or on this committee and they saw ran everything so I was attending the committee and they returned to make a decision about something and they kept him hall on the roundabout and he couldn't make a decision so I just as an associate pass there was no no authority and no reputation I said well why don't we just pray about this there were three attorneys one judge in two other guys miss committee and that quick response was leave God out of this this is business well I knew that war was coming so I was there about two years before this all happened before what I'm gonna tell you happened and then they set out to get rid of me because I realize that this whole idea of being obedient to God was foreign to them they ran everything all the time and so I saw what was coming and what was coming was they were going to do their best to fire me and so I went away for a little while two other days and just asked the Lord speak to my heart I do whatever he said there I'd be happy from the tyranny of Italy to be gone and he didn't say that I learned the greatest lesson I've ever learned in the ministry to make this the bottom line of every decision not almost bottom bottom line of our decision obey God leave all the consequences Sam that sounds simple but it end up in a big church fight and I'm sitting over in the corner in the shadows nobody knew I was in there and they talked about me for three solid hours interesting thing is not one single person said a negative word about me I'm certain though I'm thinking well if I want to get rid of him yeah up there and so but somehow a god shut their mouths so I became the past and I've been the past ever since about fifty years of course they had to leave well they did have to leave in fact I'll tell you the church literally they had a party we had a big part to celebrate in that departure now enough of all that except to say I learned the greatest lesson I've ever learned in the ministry obey God leave all the consequences to him that takes two things primarily a lot of courage and lot of faith in some situations more so than not so when you think about your life and you think about your future I would ask you this what will be the bottom line for you as you serve the Lord you're gonna have conflict you don't have any conflict more than likely not doing anything you'll have a conflict you'll have people who will love you dearly and people who can't stand you and people can't thinking you're out they'll come from all different directions so you have to decide how you're gonna respond you can compromise with this group and that group in this group and you think if you do you will go through your ministry compromising other people when it's all over you wonder what you did and if you could have done better and what did you allow these things happen so I would ask you this more not that that I expect an answer but if you to consider what will be the bottom line what will be the decision you make in your life that overrides everything else a decision that you willing to base your whole future on not today Bolivia today engine changing it till tomorrow but what what will be the principle that governs your life now you don't leave this place knowing Greek and Hebrew and history and all those things but the issue is what about you you have a lot of this but what about what your heart is are you committed to Jesus Christ enough to BOV him that when they said you you cannot be passed to this church you cannot teach this you cannot do that unless you do the following things which you know are not right for what would the answer be and I remember this you're young you got a long time to live you don't have to live with whatever that principle is what will it take to buy your I could tell you all the things they promised me if I leave quietly in the night of the business meeting they sent a seminary professor and an attorney to my study to tell me that I would never be able to be a pastor in the Southern Baptist Convention if I didn't resign that night well I think any resident Southern Baptist Convention I just happened to be one but I had no real loyalty I said well thank you very much well I ended up being the president of the Southern Baptist Convention with the largest attendance ever in its history of 55,000 people right here in Dallas Texas four to six thousand of whom were messengers and so on I could go the bottom line is this what's going to determine the direction of your ministry the depth of your ministry what's going to determine what you accomplish in life it isn't education although that's very important it isn't a lot of things that people want to tell you is so very important the important thing is this what would you make your ultimate deciding factor in all your decisions that you can live with with yourself get on your knees and talk to God and know that between the two of you there's nothing but clarity because you're gonna have to live with yourself and I think that a lot of pastors who do not have the courage to stand for their conviction they say well suppose I lose my church that's not the only church in the world God listen God knows how to put you where he wants you regardless of what anybody says and it's not that you're being obnoxious tell me what other than obedience to God is God pleased with only obedience so while you sitting in class and studying all these subjects that are so very important I would simply ask you this question are you thinking the better where you're going to serve God you don't know where that's gonna be it could be in many different places but the issue is what will be the underlying deciding determining fact about how you make decisions in your ministry don't ever forget that that will determine whether you are going to be happy in the service of the Lord whether you accomplish anything and not worthwhile and whether you're fruitful or not and there are many people serving the Lord who are unhappy and you're gonna meet people who are not gonna like that you're gonna meet people who would just love you to death but the issue is not any of that the issue is what what's the determining factor about how you make decisions and that's what you all remembered I hope it's amazing how God knows before you make a decision about something before he even brings it up he'll let something happen in your life that sort of gets you ready for it now think about how many times that's happened in my life and I remember one occasion I was flying to Atlanta and it was a snowstorm and it's piloted in this in this particular ministry it said we'd drop you off in Atlanta I said okay thank you very much and we're in the conversation he was sitting across from me just the two of us in the plane and he was talking about his ministry and how big it was and it was all over everywhere no question about it and and he was an excellent preacher and he said Charles if you're gonna grow the ministry you got to ask for money you know if you don't ask him on it you know your ministry is not girl when he said that I can still remember where he was sitting in what I felt it's just like God shot an arrow straight to my heart and so I thanked him for telling me that and then one day I was down praying and asking the Lord to give us direction about what we were to doing purchasing a building and spending the minister and so forth and I've been praying all week asking God to give me direction about it because at that time we just had one little small building and there about ten of us on the staff at that time and just asking God show me show me what to do what do you want me to do and we didn't have any money much and so I kept praying and asking the Lord laid on my heart and this happened to be the week before Easter and at eleven o'clock on Saturday night I had no message guys shut me down and I did what any pastor but do I flip they're all my older sermons I preached on Easter see if I could get some affirmation some confirmation down on one of them this song at 11:30 I gave up I said okay yeah what are you saying to me he said you must never spend one moment of time on television asking for money never under no condition so I said okay well I didn't have much choice it was a Saturday night and tomorrow's Easter but I meant what I said okay Lord and God God will come to you in certain times in your life to say things very clearly if you'll listen but just a little short hop down how about prayer won't cut it sometimes you just need to stay there until you know that God has said something that sounds like God not some compromise and easy way out of something so I said all right and we've never asked for a penny and I won't begin to tell you where we are all over the world and all the things that have happened and all the buildings and so forth we've never asked for one single penny but God had to get me to the place that I was willing even if the minister didn't go very far I was willing never to ask for money so remember this sometimes from the biggest blessing God has in store for you the most difficult requirement maybe what you hear can't ask for money not not in any way Anytime Anywhere can do it and so it's so easy to be persuaded but people who look successful and who are successful but the question is what can you live with that's a question you have to answer what can I live with cannot live with this decision of asking for money when God has said not doing and anybody would have told you there's no way for you to manage them without asking money and that was especially during the times and the felons who were the most popular at the time they were just raking in the dough as they would say God said to me another cent can't say a word did you know that not long after that stations began to open up I had nothing to do with it in fact I don't even know how to do most of what's happened I didn't touch my CEO was sitting on the front row over here he has been my asset all along and that he and I both came from a Pentecostal background I don't know what that means except except one point one thing about all the Pentecostals I grew up with they knew how to talk to God out loud that's why I learned and so here's what I want you to see when things look impossible to you and you're right with God and you're talking to him you can expect God than there's something that you can't figure out never be able to figure out and it's amazing how he sends people into our life at the very time we need him when I was going through the toughest time at First Baptist and they were gonna have this meeting and throw me out this one old lady by the name of mrs. Saul's she was 70 years of age she kept calling me and saying pass so she had divorce I want you to eat lunch of me well I talked about of it for as long as I could find I said okay I'm going so I went to this home and she said that's when we had lunch together she said I want you to go with me up to my room I said oh Jesus what is this [Laughter] but I'll tell you something that day up to that point in my life I heard the greatest sermon I'd ever heard so I went to mother to her room we didn't sit down she said I would I want to show you something I said all right she walked out to the wall and she pointed this picture in the wall a Daniel and the Lions then and Daniel had his hands behind him and he was looking out the window and all these lines of the mouths over and so forth are all around him better the verum you've probably seen that photo a picture she said one thing to me she said son what I want you to remember is this dinner latere Daniel doesn't have his eyes on the Lions but on God absolutely just snored me I walked away thinking lord thank you that you didn't listen to me and keep on arguing about you want to say this lady she preached the message in the night that they voted to call me his pastor she was the person real quiet little ol short lady she's gonna sit him so I make a motion that we called like the Senators pastor but first of all as she took me to the lines then it was an awesome lesson for me but you see you got to go back to where we said in the beginning you you have to decide how you gonna operate and and the time for you to decide that's before you leave this school you've got great professors they can teach all the theology and all the rest but you have to make a decision how you gonna live out your ministry and the best time to do that it's fall you don't have the pressure on you well do you have time to spend time with God while you're studying Lord when I'm studying Hebrew I'm studying church history speak to my heart give me give me something in my life some underlying principle some governing principle that from now when I get in the middle of them and it's raining the Heat's on and things are not going my way that I won't hesitate and I won't compromise I don't know how you live with yourself in the ministry it's a compromiser I don't know how you get up to preach if you've not been true to God I don't know how you can lead other people to Christ and tell them how awesome it is to serve God or to be obedient to him if you're not doing it but I can tell you you're gonna get tested you know I don't think I want to be tested then you want mount tell hill of beans you're gonna be tested you're gonna be tried you're gonna be argued with you're gonna be threatened and somebody says well that's not very enticing for the ministry well I got two examples for you Jesus and Paul you believe what they say well that that's what you can you you can lick volitans it's gonna be that way now for a long time you may be loved by everybody I'm just saying you remember this if you can make your bottom-line principle I'm going to obey God and leave all the consequences to him here's what you have you have Almighty God the Holy Spirit Jesus and all the power of Almighty God at your disposal if you're trusting is it easy to trusted no and sometimes you've been the heat of the battle and you think when their Lord if I if I made the right decision and the Spirit of God would confirm it in one way or the other but you're doing the right thing you're being obedient to God I think about many of my friends who probably would not agree with me and they have their ministers and they're doing what God wants them to do but I wouldn't change anything about what John's done in my life for the simple reason I felt very insecure when it came to being a secure insecure I was very insecure in fact as I look back I think that more insecure I was a better it was because it drove me to his knees my knees god I can't do this how am I gonna do that what are you gonna do and the wonderful thing about God you don't have to worry about him showing up late he's going to always be on time he's gonna give you exactly what you need no matter what's going on he'll be there when you need him but the time for you to decide this it's not after you've been the pastor a long time it took me a while but now while you sitting in class and one day you may be sitting in great class and you don't understand anything especially Hebrew excuse me you may not understand much and all of a sudden God says to you something that you know in your heart that you never to compromise the gospel you're studying you're going to be here three or four years study how to study the Word of God had to present the Word of God how to defend the Word of God well what about how to live it out everyday trusting him for whatever needs to be done in your life and I think about I think about people who will do their best it with all sincerity to persuade you to do something that you know spiritual is not right and this it's difficult especially when you're sitting in a church and you have a committee and you have a nice house and you drive a nice car your family is happy and all of a sudden you've got opposition and you know that all your security I could suddenly leave remember this your security is not in anybody's money anybody's authority anybody's power your security is in Jesus and Jesus alone that's the only place you have security so therefore you can stand anything now I love this passage because he says trust in the Lord with all your heart not some of it all of your heart don't lean on your own understanding which is what we're prone to do we can reason ourselves out of any most in a difficult situation don't land on your own understanding watch this in all your ways acknowledge him obey him and leave the consequences to him if you if you will think about that think about your life think about your future when you're when you have lived at your future when you have lived at your ministry what do you want to know about yourself don't you want to know that you gave it your best don't you want to know that when times were tough you are obedient to God don't you want to know that when everything was against you you trusted him and you want I remember when with the Southern Baptist Convention was here and it was it was just war I mean cursing I mean it was it was just warfare and so they had a big meeting of all the state papers of all the Baptist and so forth and they want to interview me so there was about I guess this is somewhere thereabouts plus a lot of other people and they were giving me a hard time and so the election was coming and they told me why couldn't win they said all of us are against you and we're the ones who do all the writing and the president saw that seminaries were all against me fact everybody I'd seen was and I'm sitting there and I remember I made myself a three by five cards I wrote on the side of it pause and said it in front of me don't ask me anything quickly so they were giving me a hard time of that why couldn't I wasn't qualified I'd been a Pentecostal and it's not spoken in tongues I'd done that not by the way accused me of all these things and then when they finish they said you can't win I said no what do you mean I can't win I can't lose they broke out laughing because it looked like it was 50/50 at the time was somewhere thereabouts I said I can't lose well they jeered and they laughed and they criticized me and so forth now and they said what do you mean you can't lose I said if I win I win if I lose I still win because my goal is to be obedient to God not to be the person that something that was convention they went up silence dead silence and finally they made a few remarks and they walked away and of course I won I'm simply saying this you can't lose obey God you said what does that mean you can't hurt no be rejected yes have difficulty yes people make remarks about you they're not yes well look at the possible look is Jesus anybody who lives for Jesus Christ and obeys him is gonna suffer something but the one thing you don't want to do is end up your life at that someone think Oh God these two little words if either if I'd have done this I knew better if I if I if I if I if I thought you don't want that in your life you may make mistakes you may not get where you want to get in life or wherever that is but if you obey God leave all the consequences to him one thing for sure you will have experienced the very best that God has in mind for you so you just have to decide if that's what you want or not that sounds real simple but I challenge you before you go to sleep tonight you can get in the bed but before you go to sleep tonight now you're gonna only go to very quickly before you go to bed tonight you ask your Lord show me where show me where I am in my thinking about you my loyalty my devotion to you and I want to challenge you to start praying for God to so work in your heart that you can come to the place where you can say I'm going to obey God leave all the consequences Sam not in some things but in every aspect of your life I'll tell you what happened you'll be free because sovereign God of the universe lives within you he has the power to do anything and everything through you more than you could ever expect so when you surrender yourself to him and you're gonna get tested and tried but here's what happened you have a big test you'll come through and you say thank you Jesus thank you for being faithful loyal and devoted to me two things will begin to happen in your life it will change your life where it needs to be changed it will solidify there are a foundation of everything you've learned when once you can come to that place to say God not in my will but your will we hear that all the time but what about this I'm going to obey you leave all the consequences to you if you'll think about what you're studying and what you're saying you believe you cannot fail if you obey God leave all the consequences am Amen well my time is up and I'm sorry but I just want to leave that one truth with you so I don't want you to ever forget it obey God leave all the consequences to him so let's say it together ready obey yeah you said Amen father we thank you and love you for your grace and kindness and wonderment oldest Lord thank you thank you thinking that you never fail us we failed you you forgive us we trust you and sometimes follow them in doubts we thank you that you never failed your children I pray that you'll write indelibly upon the hearts and the minds of all these students to obey you leave all the consequences to you and know in their hearts you will have the best for them in Jesus name Amen well thank you very much you

Channel: Dallas Theological Seminary

Views: 65,833

Rating: 4.8935461 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: kLuUvTyE8i8

Length: 36min 2sec (2162 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 09 2018